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

 

 

News

Originally posted at http://www.redbubble.com/people/flokot/journal/7315455-june-2011-updates

Monday 13 June 2011

My life has been pretty hectic in recent months. However, approximately two weeks ago I managed to get a major monkey off my back (so to speak). The release from the burden of study has been incredible. Juggling parenting, my honours degree studies, and volunteer work has been incredibly exhausting. Along the way I effectively lost my social life, which for an extremely sociable sociology student equates to a living hell! It also meant no time to engage in creative pursuits.

The last fortnight has been an incredible and healing time: a chance to read some novels, write and draw. To catch up with old friends. To have visitors for the first time in maybe one or two years. To travel to the beach (yes, it is a very cold winter here but I love the wild solitude of the wintry Victorian beaches where the wind blows in from the Antarctic). To enjoy some live music, something I have not done in years. To take the time out to watch the clouds roll by, to watch the ladybird (beetle!) crawling along a blade of grass when I hung out the laundry to dry today, and to refresh myself spiritually.

As a result, I hope to soon upload some new writings and drawings to redbubble. I want to thank the customers over the last few months who bought stickers, gift cards and t-shirts. Every sale is greatly appreciated.

I’m not sure what the months to come will hold. I look forward to graduating, soon. And after that, who knows what might happen?

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!

Australian Election: Resources for Christian Voters

Here’s a few links (all accessed 30 July 2010) on the upcoming Australian Federal election. Some Christian ministries have spent a lot of time and effort in trying to “demystify” the different positions of some of the political parties and it is well worth looking at their materials. As far as I can tell, none of these ministries promotes one particular party over the other, seeking to provide a straightforward comparison of the parties’ positions on issues that may be meaningful to Christian voters.

http://www.christianvalues.org.au/check_list.html

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2010/07/29/christians-and-the-election/

http://australianchristianlobby.org.au/make-it-count/

Hi all!

Hello 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 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

Landcare Awards

Here’s a random bit of Aussie information for you.

As I write this, voting is open for the Victorian LandCare Heroes Awards – with a people’s choice category. I have just jumped onto the site to vote for some people who own a property formerly owned by members of my family – the work these people have done to the land is astounding.

LandCare is an Australian land management system, in which volunteers seek to use sustainable and environmentally friendly land management practices where possible. Australians from many walks of life can be involved, many of whom are farmers and Indigenous Australians.

I encourage you to go and check out the nominees for the awards at http://vic.landcareheroes.com/nominees/victorian-landcare-awards-nominees, and consider voting for your favourite!

More information on what LandCare* can be found at http://www.landcareonline.com/.

*I am not personally involved in LandCare. Some of my extended family members are, and it’s amazing to see what they have done with their land. I was able to study LandCare during a unit on rural Australian sociology back in 2008, as part of my university studies;and was impressed with the way it fosters community development and participation, as well as encouraging farmers to develop sustainable practices.

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.  🙂

Saving Melbourne’s Water

http://www.theage.com.au/national/melburnians-urged-to-cut-water-use-20081124-6f46.html

It may come as a surprise to some people, but hosing down one’s driveway is NOT a necessity!

More info on water & environment in Australia (especially Victoria):

http://www.landcareonline.com.au/

http://www.watermarkaustralia.org.au/

http://www.vic.gov.au/environment-water/water.html

All links accessed 26 November 2008.

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!

Polygamy

Some information on this disturbing and illegal (in Australia) phenomenon. Women are not cattle to be herded together and farmed off to selfish men. We do not exist to serve the needs of promiscuous men. A monogamous marriage offers the best opportunity for two individuals to grow together in genuine respect and intimacy.

Some information on polygamy can be found at:

ACL (Australia specific) articles on polygamy:
http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=22569
http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=22535

“Does the Bible clearly teach monogamy?”
http://creationontheweb.com/content/view/3356/

“Why did King Solomon have so many wives?”
http://christiananswers.net/q-eden/rfsm-solomon.html

Excerpt from “The Best thing that ever happened to women”:
http://www.probe.org/faith-and-culture/culture/

Another effect of the salt and light of Christianity was its impact on the common practice of polygamy, which demeans women. Many men, including biblical heroes, have had multiple wives, but Jesus made clear this was never God’s intention. Whenever he spoke about marriage, it was always in the context of monogamy. He said, “The two [not three or four] will become one flesh.” As Christianity spread, God’s intention of monogamous marriages became the norm.

“Polygamy in the Bible”
http://www.gotquestions.org/polygamy.html

Here’s a recent (25 June) article from the Age (a major Australian newspaper) on the issue:

http://www.theage.com.au/national/minister-warns-muslim-polygamists-20080625-2wki.html

(All articles accessed 26 June 2008.)