January 2011, pen and pencil on paper.
This seemed to me to be a fitting image for the end of my art folio on this, The Amalgamation blog.
And we are out of here…
please visit me at my new blog, sunrise over swamps
Archive for the ‘Blogging’ Category
introducing my new blog
July 29, 2011I am moving blogs!
My new blog is sunrise over swamps and will be, I hope, a fresh start and a new creative outlet.
Thank you to the amazing readers of The Amalgamation who have visited me over the years. An extra-special thank you to those who followed me across from my blogger blog, A Humble Art Folio, which I started in 2006.
There will be some more posts to follow on The Amalgamation, but I hope that regular readers will join me at sunrise over swamps.
I hope that sunrise over swamps will provide a clean, easy to read format. I will continue uploading sketches from my art folio but will be ceasing the numbering system I’ve followed that saw me upload approximately 500 images from my sketch books.
There will be a few more art folio additions to The Amalgamation in the next couple of weeks, but after that I will be focusing my attention on the new adventure. My sincere gratitude to those who’ve supported me along the way!
Reblog: NES and the Meaning of Life
July 6, 2011Great blog post. As someone who spent her childhood playing a ye olde NES back in the early 1990s, I love the way the author has drawn out life lessons from the games.
news
July 6, 2011Hi, readers,
as I move into a new and different stage of my life, I am thinking it is time to start afresh.
I will soon be moving my blog as a part of this fresh start. More details will follow sometime in the near future.
I aim to create a cleaner, easier to read, and easier to maintain blog. I will continue to upload items from my sketchbook, and occasionally touch on other relevant topics.
I look forward to starting this new project – especially now with some extra time on my hands!
– fikalo
2010 in review
January 2, 2011The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.
Crunchy numbers
The average container ship can carry about 4,500 containers. This blog was viewed about 23,000 times in 2010. If each view were a shipping container, your blog would have filled about 5 fully loaded ships.
In 2010, there were 74 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 574 posts. There were 99 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 19mb. That’s about 2 pictures per week.
The busiest day of the year was July 2nd with 135 views. The most popular post that day was And, in other news….
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were thekingpin68.blogspot.com, squidoo.com, facebook.com, en.wordpress.com, and search.aol.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for akhal teke, swing set, saurolophus, swingset, and horse art.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
1
And, in other news… June 2010
26 comments
2
287. Swing Set With Evil Ivy September 2008
3
249. Stallion Sketch May 2008
8 comments
4
198. Christmas Inspired – Journey To Bethlehem February 2008
4 comments
5
215. Saurolophus osborni March 2008
Hello!
October 19, 2010Apologies to my regular readers for my recent absence. I have, as usual, been immersed not only in studies but in parenting (e.g., mopping-up after sick children) and, therefore, have not had as much time to write or draw as normal.
In other news, my husband has recently started blogging at Advanced Mattematics. I hope you check out his writings.
Blogging…
September 27, 2010Howdy all, faithful readers and new visitors,
I haven’t been drawing much recently – thanks to an overload of uni work and the unpleasantness that is cold and flu season.
However, I hope to get some new work up here in the coming month.
In the meantime, I’ve been pondering the many various social networking media. I am connected to WordPress, Blogger, Yahoo, Lomography, Blurb, Flickr, RedBubble, YouTube, MySpace and Facebook, to name a few. Perhaps surprisingly, I have resisted the urge to join Twitter.
One thing I like about blogging is that it requires more effort than some of the other similar forms of expression. It requires full and complete sentences. Regular involvement. Thought and consideration.
It also feeds into my other social networking sites, anyway.
In the absence of my artistic efforts, I am likely to start posting more “status update” style items on my blog. All this pent up creativity has to come out somewhere!
Good article on microblogging
September 4, 2010“But there’s an even bigger worry that’s been gnawing on my brain. Blogging, at least the way I’ve been doing it, represents a medium of writing. Microblogging more closely resembles chat, which in turn mimics a telephone conversation. It isn’t meant to be permanent, or more than vaguely memorable. The medium is the message, and the message is disposable.”
Quote from: http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2010/08/22/that-buzz-you-heard-was-google-zapping-your-posts/ (22 August 2010)
For the record, I’m not on Twitter. If you have suffered through my stream of consciousness facebook status updates, you will be aware that the last thing the world needs is me bombarding it with tweets!
To my fellow wordpress users…
September 2, 2010…please consider checking your Settings > Sharing and adding the “Press This” option. It is a really convenient way for bloggers to share their writing. If my many friends who blog enable this function, I will be able to cross-promote your blogs! 🙂
Christian Apologetics Resources
September 1, 20101 Peter 3:15-16 reads:
But in your hearts set apart Christ as LORD. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
(New International Version, http://www.biblestudytools.com/1-peter/3.html)
Knowing the impact that Christians who follow this instruction have had in my own life, I have sought to follow it as closely as possible. To be able to “give an answer” when I can. Perhaps my reputation for doing this spread a little amongst my fellow churchgoers, because I have found more and more recently that I get asked a lot of questions. Admittedly, my response often resorts to a line that I taught to members of the Bible study groups I used to lead: “I am not sure I can answer your question, but if you really want an answer, I will try to find one.”
Usually, when trying to answer people’s genuine questions*, or at least set them in a helpful direction, I generally refer them to one of several websites. In light of a recent increase in the number of questions I’ve been asked, here follows a list of the websites I have found most useful in helping fellow believers consider possible answers to their faith dilemmas.
* Genuine questions from genuine open-minded seekers, as in, not questions for the sake of being irritating!
I list these with the clear understanding that no apologetics ministry is infallible, and that all statements of faith must be measured against the Word of God (the Bible). I am also a firm believer in academic freedom-of-thought, where all views deserve a reasonable voice in discourse.
If you have any suggested apologetics links, feel free to list them in the comments boxes. Be aware that more than one or two links will probably result in your comments being filtered for moderation / spam!
Creation Ministries International (Australia)
Creation: Frequently Asked Questions (Australia)
Creation Magazine (Australia)
Alien Intrusion (Australia)
Institute for Creation Research
Archaeological Diggings Magazine
Koorong Books – Academic (Australia)
Biblical Hermeneutics (Australia)
Kevin Conner E-Store (Australia)
There are many, many books available on apologetics topics. Some books that I have read and found helpful are:
More than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell and Sean McDowell
The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey
The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel
In Six Days edited by John F. Ashton
The Creation Answers Book by Don Batten et. al.
Jesus Among Other Gods by Ravi Zacharias
Thoughts on Australian politics
July 20, 2010At the risk of inadvertently turning this into a political blog, I want to highlight the important issue of chaplains in Australian schools.
In recent times, chaplains have been made available in many schools to help students work through their issues. I have, as a parent, even employed the services of my children’s school chaplains when one of my kids was struggling with some issues. The chaplains responded quickly and provided excellent standards of counselling and assistance for my child, who subsequently saw a great improvement in social relationships with other children at school.
Some politicians (particularly the left wing, though some of those have supported chaplaincy) have suggested that the widespread religious education programmes in Australian public (Government-operated) schools and chaplaincy should be replaced in favour of non-religious “ethics” classes and psychologists.
While I understand the arguments in favour of this position, I personally believe that the holistic care of a chaplain (not just mental and emotional but also spiritual) and the opportunity for children to learn about the spiritual/ religious foundations of many Australians’ lifestyles are important and significant.
For fellow Australians who are interested in learning more about what chaplaincy is about, and who want to see it continued after the next election, please look at these websites:
National School Chaplaincy Association (with information on contacting your local representative in support of chaplaincy)
Access Ministries – chaplains and religious education teachers
Here are some articles on how chaplains and religious ministers have helped in the aftermath of the Black Saturday crisis, in early 2009 when bushfires claimed the lives of hundreds of Victorians.
“Parishes, chaplains step up to help fire victims”
National Research Findings on Chaplaincy in Australian Schools (Link to a PDF)
Hey hey!
June 18, 2010Well, it’s been a while but with the much needed arrival of mid-year holidays at university, plus mostly recovering from an unpleasant virus, I can say that I will be working on some new posts on this blog and they will hopefully appear soon. Thanks to everyone for your encouraging feedback!
Hi all!
May 31, 2010Hello to my wonderful readers,
just a quick hello. I apologise for my lack of presence here recently. I am currently in the midst of illness, university assignments and the general hectic life that precedes the winter school holidays! I hope to get back here as soon as I write my essays and get back to full health! 🙂
The Amalgamation 