Painting by Keywords

I was pointed in the direction of net.art generator by Dan, a tutor at uni, and spent ages on it last night creating images from keywords. The idea is that you stipulate keywords, net.art generator searches google images for matches and collages those images into a new image.

I restricted myself to 'firebox', 'dance' and 'theatre' and was quite pleased that the majority of images included were my own (my meta tagging must be pretty accurate). Some of them are really interesting and some are awful but that's part of the fun. It seemed to me like painting by numbers but with even less skill involved but I'm sure it won't be long before someone convinces a gallery to exhibit this as their work.

The Demon Barber who's Devilishly Barbaric

I went to see Sweeney Todd yesterday with my brother and it was amazing. Really smooth musical numbers, amazing visuals and soooooo much blood. Plus, of course, the delectable Mr Depp. That Helena bird wasn't too bad either.

Worryingly though my brother bears a passing resemblance to the aforementioned Johnny D, especially his hands...

The Big Clear Out

After being moaned at by my friends, boyfriend and parents about the amount of clothes and stuff I have I've decided to take the bull by the horns and get rid of a whole load of it. I keep my clothes in great condition so I'm only getting rid of things that I don't wear anymore either because it doesn't fit me or I've just gone off the style of it.

I don't really have time to put it all on ebay but I don't want to just give it away either (look, I'm skint ok!) so I'm looking for an alternative... what other options do I have to earn some cash out of my old clothes? Does anyone know of any vintage shops that buy not-that-vintage clothing? Would anyone recommend a car boot sale? Does anyone fancy doing my ebay dirty work for me? Or are there other options?

A few skirts and some dresses

And Another Thing!

I'm sick to the back teeth of fat being on telly. After a long day at work and uni I quite like to veg out in front of no brain, dumbed down, easy on the eye tv and it's not happening at the moment. Every time I turn around there's super size, morbidly obese, high bmi, chip eating, thigh chaffing oafs with a full programme all for themselves warning other people about the dangers of turning into them and I've had enough.

Everyone, and I mean everyone, knows when they are eating healthily and when they aren't. No excuses. Stop shoving reconstituted crap into your gub, do some exercise, get off my telly and let me enjoy my well deserved little veg out in peace.

Thank you.

Since last time...

It suddenly dawned on me today that I'd started a wee item in the sidebar about my day to day activities and not updated it for a week. So since last time I've been going to Death Disco, partying until the next day at John's, recovering all day, learning fancy DVD stuff, getting feedback from my PG Cert assessment, teaching dance, driving in the snow, watching dance films and planning lots of projects for the year ahead.

So you see, I have been busy.

The Results Are In...

And they're good. Very Good.

I finally picked up my PG Cert results today and I've done not too badly at all. I've managed to get a B2 which comes under the bracket of 'Very Good', an A would be 'Excellent' but I'm happy with being 'Very Good'. My mum, however, had a different reaction. Upon hearing my good news, her first question was, "so what do you have to do to improve on that?".

Typical.

Funniest TV moment of 2008

Yes, I know we're only 10 days in and I'm sure there will be other amusing things for our televisual entertainment but this made me laugh out loud for a long time and I'm still giggling as I write this.

Picture the scene Amanda Lamb is trying to find England striker Jermain Defoe and his 22 year old, model fiancee, Charlotte Mears, a holiday home in Mallorca for less than £2million. She succeeds in finding them a 5 bedroom property that Charlotte loves with all furniture included for only £1.8m. Charlotte puts in an offer for £1.6m which the owners decline. The show ends with Charlotte humming and hawing over the extra £100,000 the owners have asked for.

Cue voiceover man.

"Since the end of filming Charlotte and Jermain have split up. Aww"

Fan-flipping-tastic! That voiceover man deserves an oscar or an MBE or something worthy of his wonderfully profound, insightful commentary.

Love it.

Back to Business!

I've been off work and uni since the 10th Dec so it's safe to say I'm bored of being off and I'm ready to go back. Uni doesn't start until the week of the 14th but luckily for me (and you) Blaze classes start back next week. Choose from Contemporary - great for core strength, Street - killer ass and Tap - amazing legs.

Get the year off to a good start by joining a dance class, you'll get fit, meet new people and avoid the rubbish on telly at least one night a week!

Contemporary - Tuesdays 7pm-8pm from 08.01.08
A relaxed class where you can work on your body from the inside out, using your core muscles, and have an invigorating introduction to contemporary dance and the style of FireBox Dance Theatre. Suitable for beginners and intermediates.

Street - Wednesdays 7pm-8pm from 09.01.08
High energy and high impact. Incorporates elements of poppin' and breakin' as well as a few moves just for fun. This class is suitable for everyone so come along and get your freak on.

Tap - Wednesdays 8pm-9pm from 09.01.08
Sort your shuffles from your ripples and your beats from your taps, this is an intermediate class aimed to develop rhythmic tapping and combinations.

Each class costs £30 for a block of 5 weeks. You can save yourself £5 by booking any 2 classes, book all 3 and save a tenner. Bargain!

Also, for complete beginners there will be a one-off start up Tap class to cover the basics before joining the main class. See Blaze for more info.

Well, what are you waiting for?

After a start like that...

I don't know if I'll be able to keep up this year. We started the night having a few civilised drinks in Sarah's flat before getting into the Subby in good time for the bells, drink in hand with our spot on the dancefloor well and truly secured. We pretty much stayed there until 5am only nipping upstairs to the Classic Grand for a pitstop or a boogie to some disco music with my old/new GBF (old because I've known him since I was 3, new because I haven't seen him since we left school although he has been looking around London for me - yes, people still think I moved to London! I didn't.).

After a quick freshen up in Sarah's (you have no idea how grateful I was for a quick wash after a very sweaty night dancing) we headed back to John's where the delightful host plyed us with more drinks as well as several cups of tea before packing us off home for the best sleep of my life.

For the record, I did have the confidence to wear my sparkly pants and spent the night getting my bum spanked (mostly by girls!) then giggled as an elderly Asian man dropped his pizza while staring at my legs.

Heeheehee!