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)
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!
I found the following message in my WhatsApp inbox, when I woke up this morning:
“Whatsapp is shutting down on 28th jan Message from Jim Balsamic (CEO of Whatsapp) we have had an over usage of user names on whatsapp Messenger. We are requesting all users to forward this message to their entire contact list. If you do not forward this message, we will take it as your account is invalid and it will be deleted within the next 48 hours. Please DO NOT ignore this message or whatsapp will no longer recognise your activation. If you wish to re-activate your account after it has been deleted, a charge of 25.00 will be added to your monthly bill. We are also aware of the issue involving the pictures updates not showing. We are working diligently at fixing this problem and it will be up and running as soon as possible. Thank you for your cooperation from the Whatsapp team”
I thought it sounded fishy, and it wasn’t difficult to look them up and double check. As I had suspected:
“@WhatsApp: it is just a hoax: http://t.co/Go8KLqDi”
As is the case with email, our texting applications are targeted by hoaxers and scammers. It can be tough to keep a level head – but it is quite easy to check things out. Use your twitter or google search capabilities, if you are unsure. As unlikely as it is that Bill Gates is tracking the email in your mailbox, or that some Nigerian Bank executive has millions of dollars with your name on it – chances are equally unlikely that your chat-app usage is being monitored by the Giant Spaghetti Monster in the Sky.
Remember kids: If it smells fishy, it probably is. (Also consider washing your upper lip…)
THE 10 CONDITIONS OF LOVE is a love story – of a woman, a man, a family, a people and a homeland. It is the story of Rebiya Kadeer, China’s nightmare – the woman it accuses of inciting terrorism.
It is also the story of the other Tibet, the Muslim Tibet – the country its people call East Turkestan, but which the Chinese call Xinjiang Province – the other stain on China’s moral character.
It is a big story: a story of the ruthless oppression of 20-million people; of the global politics of energy; of Super Power politicking over the War on Terror; and of the pain of a deeply loving family torn violently apart.
Exiled in the US, Rebiya Kadeer is fighting for the human rights of her people, the Uyghur (pron. wee-ger), China’s oppressed Muslim minority. But Rebiya Kadeer’s campaign condemns her sons to on-going solitary confinement in a Chinese prison. Having done six years solitary herself, she understands the appalling consequences for them of her actions – but she will not relent.
Twice nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, once the richest businessperson in China, Rebiya Kadeer is a remarkable woman who pays daily a terrible price for patriotism.
And it will never be over.
yup – madness of madness: shock! shock! horror! horror!
my blog has been spammed. somehow, somewhere, a terribly clever new bot (deceptecon?) managed to hijack my blog-by-email settings. 2 posts were made without my knowledge – the last one being: “start earning 15 minutes from now”, which automatically loaded another site.
these posts have been deleted and I have disabled blog-by-email.
if you have a blogger or blogspot blog – i suggest you double check your security settings.
sh!t happens.