Author: absolutwillie

  • I'm in!!!

     I heard from Stellenbosch University – and I’ve been accepted into the PostGraduate Certificate in Education program!

    *happy dance*
    Classes start in February.
    Now to figure out a way to pay for it.
  • the gallery is open!

    I’d like to thank everybody who clicked and requested my gallery opening – it worked y’all!!!

    now everybody can click on through to http://instacanv.as/absolutwillie and have a look at my debut exhibition:

    Pretty Liturgical – textile studies of religious vestments.

     and best of all? you can now legitimately OWN your favorites!! so go on and buy, buy, buy!

    I’ve got tuition to pay for ;0)

  • selling out to school up

    so here’s the deal: I’ve applied to my alma mater (Stellenbosch University) for acceptance into the Postgraduate Certificate in Education program for 2013. it is a full time, residential program which will (finally) make me a “real” teacher in the eyes of the local job market.

    getting certified as a teacher will open the doors to a proper job at home – something which is frustratingly unavailable despite my existing qualifications and international experience.

    here’s the kicker though: it is going to cost me about US$10,000 for the year…

    while I am taking on every freelance opportunity that I can grab hold of, including piece-jobs of manual labor, it is becoming all too clear that I need to investigate additional avenues.

    remembering the popularity of my photography when exhibited in Missouri (when the conditions of my visa prevented me from accepting payment for them), I’ve decided to put my work up for sale again. issues of copyright, production, pricing and international postage are a frightful headache, and I need some way to test the market and see wether this is a worth while venture.

    enter Instacanvas:

    Instacanvas offers me the opportunity to open a gallery, where they handle sales, printing and shipping of purchased artwork. naturally they keep the lion’s share of the money, giving the artist (me) 20% of the money made in sales. I get to retain copyright on all my images, thankfully, making it possible for me to take things further when feasible.

    so I put my name down, and readied my photos.

    what can you do to help? plenty!

    • first of all, by merely clicking and requesting my gallrey opening on Instacanvas, you help move my gallery’s opening to the front of the cue.
    • secondly, once the gallery is open, you could buy my prints! (Remember, I get 20% – so I need BIG sales, and plenty of them!)

    Request my gallery opening

    instacanv.as/absolutwillie

    • OR, if you’re feeling generous, you could send a donation / become a sponsor! (leave a comment and get in contact)
  • "Big Brother's" Cookies (recipe)

    I received the following on e-mail a while back. Seeing as how I received it via chain-mail – and it is therefore already in the public domain – I thought I’d share it here as well.
    After all, I like cookies.
    A very expensive clothing and supermarket outlet (they sell a typical R50 T-shirt for R150), raised the ire of a customer – who continued to share her story:

    My daughter and I had just finished lunch at a W** Cafe in Hyde Park, Johannesburg. Because both of us are such biscuit lovers, we decided to try the ‘W** Cookie’. It was so excellent that I asked if they would give me the recipe. The waitress said with a small frown, ‘I’m afraid not, but you can buy the recipe.’ 

    I asked how much, and she responded; ‘Only two fifty – it’s a great deal’ 

    I agreed to that, and told her to add it to my bill. 

    Thirty days later, I got my Visa statement, and the W** charge was R485. I looked at it again, and I remembered I had only spent R49.95 for two sandwiches and about R120 for a scarf. At the bottom of the statement, it said, ‘Cookie Recipe – R250.00’. That was outrageous!
    I called W** Accounting Department and told them the waitress had said it was ‘two fifty’, which clearly does not mean ‘two hundred and fifty Rands’ by any reasonable interpretation of the phrase. W** refused to budge. They would not refund my money because according to them; ‘What the waitress told you is not our problem. You have already seen the recipe. We absolutely will not refund your money. 

    I explained to the Accounting Department lady the criminal statutes which govern fraud in the state of Gauteng. I threatened to report them to the Better Business Bureau and The Attorney General’s office. I was basically told: Do what you want. Don’t bother thinking of how you can get even, and don’t bother trying to get any of your money back’
    I said, OK, you’ve got my R250, and now I’m going to have R250 worth of fun. I told her that I was going to see to it that every cookie lover in the world with an e-mail account gets a R250 cookie recipe from Neiman-Marcus for free. She replied, ‘I wish you wouldn’t do that.’ I said, ‘Well, perhaps you should have thought of that before you RIPPED ME OFF!’ and slammed down the phone. 

    So here it is! Please pass it on to everyone you can possibly think of. I paid R250 for this, and I don’t want W** to EVER make another cent from this recipe! 

    WOOLIES COOKIES (Recipe may be halved as this makes heaps)
    2 (500 ml) cups butter
    680 g chocolate chips
    4 (1000 ml) cups flour
    2 (500 ml) cups brown sugar
    2 tsp. (10 ml) Bicarbonate of soda
    1 tsp. (5 ml) salt
    2 (500 ml) cups sugar
    500 g Grated Cadbury chocolate
    5 (1250 ml) cups blended oatmeal
    4 eggs
    2 tsp. (10 ml) baking powder
    2 tsp. (10 ml) vanilla
    3 cups (375 ml) chopped nuts (optional) 

    Measure oatmeal, and blend in a blender to a fine powder. Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and bicarbonate of soda. Add chocolate chips, grated Chocolate and nuts. Roll into balls, and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 180 C.
    The above quantities make 112 cookies. 

    Enjoy!

    I guess that’s the difference between winning a battle and losing a war ;0)
  • Peugeot Touch Car by Enache Florin

    Peugeot Touch Car by Enache Florin » Yanko Design

    you guessed it – i want one! perfect for driving in Kaohsiung :0)



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  • So you missed my birthday?

    Here’s how you can make up for under $80

  • Compliments for Strangers

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3_c2Ae0kCI?fs=1]

    Thanks Davey Wavey for putting a smile on more than a few people’s faces with this random act of kindness.