It Figures ...

hmmm ... a month ago I copied 3 links into a blog post and then saved it as a draft ... now I am not even sure what the 3 links were, and what I was going to say about them! (but I am sure I will remember once I go and look at them ;-)

http://www.theiff.org/oexhibits/oe1.html

ah yes - I found a website for something called "The Institute For Figuring" ... hence the title I gave this blog post ... the link is to an online exhibit, about something called Hyperbolic Space ... which I found quite fascinating (even though some of the maths is way beyond what I learnt at school/etc ... sigh)
I think I found the link to this on a blog or website about crochet (that or I saw it mentioned and went searching) - because the site actually has a section on crocheting this stuff! - click on "crochet models" on the menu on the left ... hyperbolic space is kind of what Escher used for some of his art, and they have worked out that it is also how lettuce grows it's crinkly leaves ... kind of like fractals explain how a fern leaf grows the shape it does ... yeah I know - this all sounds like nonsense ... but it makes sense to my weird mind ;-) ... although I kind of got a bit lost when they explained why they now think our universe might be shaped like a pair of pants!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/12/041219170412.htm

oh - this was another crochet model of a mathematical concept - one I found out about a year or 2 ago ... I think it would drive me nuts trying to crochet something this huge - especially seeing I would already know what it was going to look like when it was finished ;-)


http://thatyarnstore.blogspot.com/

A crochet blog - ah - this was probably where I found the link to that hyperbolic crochet stuff! ... then again ... it may have been one of the things that came up in the search results when I went looking for hyperbolic crochet after reading about it wherever else it was i first read about it ... it's an interesting blog though ...

while I am on the subject of weirdo maths concepts etc - I should find the fractal website I was looking at and put that link here too ... if I can find it ... I downloaded a fun program, called "Winfract" ... which is a windows version of one I used to play with, called "Fractint" (both are/were free to download ;-)

hmmm ... still looking ... but I did find this - http://irfanview.com/ - I think this was on the computer once upon a time back when "the computer" was the one that is probably now sitting in bits in the corners of the house somewhere because it has been replaced with a newer/faster one ... or it may have even been the one that was replaced by the one that this one replaced ... or something like that) - Irfanview a handy little freeware graphic veiwing program, that is also useful to convert graphics files from one format to another (which was what I think I wanted it for last time I found it ;-)

hmmm ... I found a different freeware fractal program than the one I was looking for - http://www.fractovia.org/uberto/ ... I have not downloaded or used it yet (because I only just found it!)

Ah - here is the website I was looking for - http://www.dwponline.com/fractals/ - has a basic explanation of fractals, some pretty pictures, a link to download the winfract program, and a whole pile of info on how to download/install it and a heap of hints for how to use it and what to do with it ... lol ... oh - it also has links to more info on fracals and chaos theory and stuff too ... enough stuff to get someone like me lost for hours ... days even!

btw ... more about that making things website, with the stuff made with Altoids tins ( http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/altoids_and_tin_cases/ ) - I forgot to mention this in the other blog post, but I just had to have a laugh at it - there is even a project on there for how to use an old Ipod shuffle to make a container for your Altoids! ... so you have somewhere to keep them after you have tipped them out of the tin so you can use the tin to make the other projects!
one wonders - if you need to use the tin for something other than keeping the Altoids in, then - unless you are like me and don't like them - why not just EAT the darn things?! ... or if you don't like them - let your partner and/or the kids eat them, or give them to the dog or something ...

I should have spent the time I spent in here this evening doing something else ... like finishing my June and July journal quilts, starting my August one, and writing addresses on the fabric postcards I am supposed to be posting tomorrow (actually I should have posted them earlier this week ... but tomorrow is ok ... and hopefully next week will be ok too - they have to arrive by the end of this month ... but 3 of them only have to go to places here in Canberra, and one to Qld ... so even that one should only take a couple of days to get there ... if they get there at all (that is part of the excercise - to make a fabric postcard, put a stamp on it and post it and hope it survives the trip ... although those who are less adventurous, and/or don't trust Australia Post/etc, have been putting them in envelopes ...)

er ... it is now "too late" ... and I am still up ... oops ... ;-)

I will try and get around to posting a couple of quilt photos sometime soon - the exhibition has now been and gone, and I actually did get my quilts finished in time ... I entered 3 quilts and a bag actually ... but one of the 3 quilts is the January journal quilt that I finished earlier in the year and have already posted a photo of.

btw - I started my own hyperbolic crochet thingy ... and it is also a moebius strip (which is rather weird because as someone else described it "eats itself" as you crochet it!) ... I only did a bit of it, then got busy doing quilts, and now I am busy doing some crochet and other stuff for the TASDA exhibition (although I might enter that, or another better, bit if hyperbolic crochet, if I get time to finish/make it ... and if I can think of a name/etc to relate it to the theme of the exhibition ;-)

goodnight