introducing my new blog

I 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!

news

Hi, 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

 

 

Hello!

Apologies 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…

Howdy 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

“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!

10 Blogging Commandments?

Thought this constituted some good advice. What is it with angry “religious” blogs, anyway? (Speaking as a committed Christian who sees no need for vitriolic attacks on people with different opinions and perspectives – there’s room enough on the Internet for everyone, right?)

http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2008/10/03/church-leaders-draw-up-ten-blogging-commandments/

To my fellow wordpress users…

…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! 🙂

400! Parade of horses.

Pencil on paper, 2009.

It seems somewhat fitting that the 400th illustration in my art folio would be a picture of horses, with a pegasus and unicorn joining the parade. For anyone that has been following my blog for even a short time will attest, I like horses and drawing horses. A lot.

My earliest blogged art folio pieces included mermaids and horses, way back in late 2006. Almost 4 years and 400 pieces later, looks like I’m still drawing horses and mermaids! I am happy to see that I have been able to explore new avenues (selling t-shirts, for example) with my art as I’ve hopefully improved and progressed. It has been fun interacting with other art and horse fans on the various sites, too, such as flickr.com and myspace.com.

This is one of my t-shirt designs that I recently added to redbubble.com. RedBubble’s t-shirt previewer (which I first spotted on the site early February 2010) brings it to life. I think it does, anyway!

Here’s the same illlustration as seen through RedBubble’s t-shirt previewer.

More info on this as a t-shirt at my bubblesite.

The big 400 is coming next!

Wow – 400 posted sketches and images from my art folio! The 400th piece that I will blog is coming next. So, here’s a note to thank my regular readers who have followed me from A Humble Art Folio (where I started the count) to here on The Amalgamation.

In 2010 I will try to  regularly post a new item from my art folio on Wednesday mornings (depending on my schedule). Please consider subscribing to the feed.

Christmas Greetings

Hi, everyone!

Just a quick post to wish my regular readers a happy and safe Christmas season. In Australia, that means being aware of bushfires and not throwing cigarette butts on the roadsides when you’re travelling in rural areas!

I will be taking a bit of a blogging break, probably until early next year. I plan to do less frequent blogging next year, as I will be working on my sociology honours dissertation (eep!). However, the drawings will still be coming and please check out my RedBubble site at http://flokot.redbubble.com.

Thanks!

*

http://www.vic.gov.au/emergencies-safety/fire-prevention/bushfire-management.html

Blog Views – 40,000 and counting!

Screen grab, wordpress dashboard 19 September 2009.

Thanks to everyone who’s visited and read this blog since it started in February 2008 (not to mention the faithful readers who followed me when I changed blogs)! I value your time and your comments. 🙂

Blog Stats

Total views:

40,043

Busiest day:

683 — Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Views today:

35

Totals

Posts:

454

Comments:

516

Categories:

21

Tags:

1,109

Spam

Akismet has protected your site from 2,343 spam comments.

Just a note: we don’t count your own visits to your blog.

Generated 2009-09-19 20:18:54 UTC+10

Thanks to everyone who’s read this blog

 

Screen grab, 24 July 2009.

Since February 2008 The Amalgamation has had 36,557 hits! Thanks to everyone who has visited and extra special thanks to those who take the time to leave comments!

A Blog’s Life

A grab from my blog’s stats month-by-month summary, beginning with its birth in February 2008.

Flags and stuff

Please forgive me… it’s 10.02 pm and I’m very very tired…

It’s been interesting to note that, for some reason, people from the USA are reading this blog more than anyone else. I wonder if that means it’s comprehensible and relevant or if my Aussie ramblings are confusing. Careful, I might start throwing in words like “cobber” “chonks” and “crikey” to boost my Aussie readership.

By Request?

I’m interested in hearing from regular readers (and there must be a few of you because in just over a year I’ve had 30,500 hits on this site). I would like to know if there are any topics on which you would particularly like me to write a blog post. I think it’s a symptom of the fact that I am doing half my usual university study load this semester, and would like to take advantage of the extra time to perhaps write a few short blog posts on up to 5 requested topics.

Please use the comments box to add your (genuine) suggestions. If you are reading this on facebook.com, please follow the provided link to the WordPress Blog and add your comments there.

Suggested topics might include:

– Australian culture.

– Thoroughbred horse pedigrees (maybe there’s a particular horse you’re interested in and want to know a bit about its family). Australian horses preferred.

– Christianity and Apologetics. Have you got any questions about a particular area of apologetics? I may be able to dig up some information for you (as an interested layperson).

– Art! This is primarily an art blog, so I should probably write on art at least once in a while!

– Maybe you have some suggested ideas for my RedBubble Online Store and Gallery, where I sell some of my art designs as t-shirts and art prints.

– Vegetarianism. Do you have any questions about vegetarianism?

– Environmentalism issues.

– Books! I read a lot of books… so I might have some suggested reading ideas for you.

I really hope my readers can help me with this! Be creative.  🙂

Happy New Year + Random Blog Stuff

Hey hey,

well, happy New Year to all my readers! Thanks for hanging around for the last couple of years (first on blogger.com and now, for the past 11 or so months, on wordpress.com).

I thought I’d start this year’s posting efforts with a most exciting* listing of statistics for the Amalgamation (as in, the blog you are reading right now).

*taking a highly subjective definition of “exciting,” I know!

I’d like to say a huge thank you to all of the regular readers whose thoughtful and friendly comments have contributed here!

Total views: 23,140

Busiest day: 683 — Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Posts: 304

Comments: 314

Categories: 18

Tags: 744

Akismet has protected your site from 1,056 spam comments.

The busiest day on this blog was 4 November 08, with the following appearing in the most searched terms that led people here:

melbourne cup 2008 winner    174
melbourne cup 2008 winners    145
melbourne cup 08 winner    12
winner melbourne cup 2008    12
winner of melbourne cup 2008    8
melbourne cup 2008 placings    7
winners of melbourne cup 2008    6
melbourne cup 08 winners    6
winners melbourne cup 2008    5
viewed melbourne cup winner breeding    3
melbourne cup race 2008 winner    3
horse art    3
face art drawing    2
lovers knot (nz)    2
horse stencil    2
khozaam    2
pencil sketches of stallions    2
scenic – thoroughbred racehorse and stal    2
melbourne cup winner 2008 breeding    2
viewed melbourne cup winner    2
2008 winner of melbourne cup    2
winners of the melbourne cup 2008    2
2008 melbourne cup wikipedia    2
winners of the 2008 melbourne cup    2
horse named viewed nz    2

The busiest month so far has been December 2008, with just over 5,000 views.

The most viewed posts are:
218. Pretty And Girly Giraffe 1,194 views
196. Red Horse 843 views
Melbourne Cup 2008 Winner – Viewed 806 views
The Amalgamation Home 682 views
249. Stallion Sketch 648 views
198. Christmas Inspired – Journey To Bethlehem 563 views
236. Self Portrait In Reflective Christmas Decoration 507 views
213. Chestnut Horse 487 views

Top Searches leading people here:
horse art,  australian birds,  arabian horse,  giraffe,  christmas 2008

Most Active Posts at the moment are:
213. Chestnut Horse 16 views
218. Pretty And Girly Giraffe 14 views
209. Crimson Rosella 9 views
236. Self Portrait In Reflective Christmas Decoration 8 views
215. Saurolophus osborni 8 views

Blog of the Day!

I just found out that The Amalgamation was number 91 for WordPress’ top blogs of the day, 5 November 2008, with the post “Melbourne Cup 2008 winner – Viewed“. I’d like to congratulate myself for being one of the few non-USA Presidential Election posts that made it into the list. 😉

On November 4, the Melbourne Cup themed post had 559 views, and on 5 November, 64 views – putting it straight into my top three most viewed blog posts.

Thanks to everyone who’s been visiting, and who leaves constructive and positive comments!

Brief Blogging Holiday

Hi everyone,

just a brief note to let you kow I am on an away-from-blog holiday while I finish up the current uni semester. I’ll be back in the next 2 or 3 weeks. However, there’s plenty to look at here in the meantime. Thanks for dropping by!

Remember to sign up to the RSS feed for blog updates.

Thanks again!

10,000 Visitors!! Thank You!!

Another statistics post.

Thank you very much to all my visitors. In the last 24 hours The Amalgamation reached the 10,000 hits mark!

Christmas Devotionals And Feeds

Coming up soon I’m planning on writing some pre-Christmas, Advent-themed, non-denominational personal devotionals on the message of Christmas in the Bible. If that interests you, stay posted, I expect them to begin around November 24. Make sure you check in regularly, or subscribe to the feed. The feed URL is https://darthmaulmakesmesmile.wordpress.com/feed/. On my browser (I use Firefox) it makes subscribing to a feed really simple. Just click on the little RSS logo box in the bit where the web address goes, it’ll bring up the feed with the most recent posts, and ask you if you want to subscribe. Then it’ll let you know when I update the Blog. My email programme also allows me to subscribe to feeds, which then appear in my email inbox.

*

A big thank you to all who have visited, and especially for the thoughtul, friendly, encouraging and constructive comments that some of you have left.

Roughly a month ago (28 August 08 to be exact), the statistics were:

Top Posts

196. Red Horse, 507 views

The Amalgamation Home, 431 views

218. Pretty And Girly Giraffe, 430 views

Top Searches

horse,  horse art,  Giraffe

Most Active

249. Stallion Sketch, 33 views

218. Pretty And Girly Giraffe, 29 views

Pentecostal Priorities?, 26 views

At last count, there have been 7,097 hits since the blog started in February 2008.

Now, late September, there’s been a big leap.

Here’s the current stats:

Flag Counter tells me that, since I added it maybe 3 or 4 months ago, the countries of origin of blog visitors have been:

USA – 2749 hits

GB – 666 hits (no mark of the beast jokes, please!)

Australia – 559 hits

Canada -338 hits

India – 174 hits

Blog Stats

Total views: 10,090

Busiest day: 164 — Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Views today: 10

Totals

Posts: 231

Comments: 230

Categories: 14

Tags: 632

Spam

Akismet has protected your site from 750 spam comments.

Top Posts

218. Pretty And Girly Giraffe
249. Stallion Sketch
196. Red Horse
213. Chestnut Horse
242. Inspired by Arabian Horse
Funny!
Qualities of a Superhero
Foreign Language Books In Melbourne
202. Sable Antelope

Top 3 Posts

196. Red Horse, 699 views
218. Pretty And Girly Giraffe, 643 views
The Amalgamation Home, 488 views

Top Searches
giraffe,  horse,  horse art

Most Active 3
218. Pretty And Girly Giraffe, 38 views
196. Red Horse, 36 views
249. Stallion Sketch, 30 views

Stats

Just out of interest, I thought I’d share some of the current statistics for this blog…

You have 211 posts, 14 pages, 1 draft, 6 scheduled posts, contained within 14 categories and 571 tags. You have 222 total comments, 222 approved, 0 spam and 0 awaiting moderation.

Top Posts

196. Red Horse, 507 views

The Amalgamation Home, 431 views

218. Pretty And Girly Giraffe, 430 views

Top Searches

horse,  horse art,  Giraffe

Most Active

249. Stallion Sketch, 33 views

218. Pretty And Girly Giraffe, 29 views

Pentecostal Priorities?, 26 views

At last count, there have been 7,097 hits since the blog started in February 2008.

According to Flag Counter, in the last couple of months, 1,659 people from the USA have visited this blog, followed by 437 from Great Britain; 348 from my beloved homeland, Australia; 196 from Canada; and 85 from India. I have also received many visitors from Europe and a couple from Africa. Wow! Hello to all my international readers!

Thanks to everyone who’s been visiting this blog, and thanks to those who’ve left kind and / or thoughtful comments!