More about my website

So, an update. I have once again updated my website. And learned/ taught myself all kinds of cool shit.

But, the most interesting, and, albeit shitty part of this experience/journey has been how jealous men are, and when they become jealous they lash out. I posted the link to my website on some  photo groups, on good ol' Linkedin, and in those groups I have received a fricking helluva lot of shit "comments" both at Linkedin and on my site, where I am able to delete them, which I have done.

 I finally realized I could have comments flagged on Linkedin.  The comment I flagged was by a man who was not only totally rude and condescending, but I felt like he's been stalking me. He made mention of another art site where I had my website and some photos posted ( I've since, as 2 days ago now, closed that account down, for good, and erased my photos, etc.). And now he has just happened to have found me at Linkedin and took it upon himself to tell me why my site is not good.

People will always exist to stop others, to try and hurt them, put them down, and rear their ugly, jealous heads. Those people are, 9 times out of ten, men. To anyone who wants to differ with me, I'll say that I have only received positive comments and support from women re: my art, and my site.

The negativity, the " I want to teach you what's wrong with your site" etc. kind of crap, is always from men.
In the latest of the shit comments, I received yet another "here's what doesn't work for me.." on Sunday. I haven't decided to respond, ignore or what.What I guess I have to laugh at is that these idiots feel the need to put me and my work down in such time-consuming detail. They have nothing else to do?

I'm tired of that kind of man; the asshole who feels so pathetic he's got to try and take others down with him.

It's not something I expected, to put my website link up on photo forums and to have so much shit said about it; personal attacks. Kinda bullshit especially on a site aimed at linking people together for career advancement and all. It only shows that these peons are only able to say mean things because they can hide behind a computer screen.

My website

 Here is my photography website, with some updates which I'm very proud of, and which took me hours...more than 8 :0
 Have a gander..here's a fun tip, if you go to the About page, music will start and stay on for the remainder of your picture viewing, 



http://micol-kates.wix.com/lanscape-photography


:-)

Bear Cruelty, worldwide

Here's a letter I wrote just now, to a Cherokee Tribal council in Cherokee N.C ,via PETA’S website, asking the council to close their roadside ‘zoos’ that abuse bears. I have added a bit to it here.

Tribal Council,
Bears are sacred to  the Cherokee, and other First Nations Peoples. Chaining up these beautiful, majestic, and incredible animals is an evil. All over the world, so much horrible evil is constantly inflicted on bears. In China holes are bored into living bears' bodies, while they are held in tiny cages and their gall bladders are 'milked' for "medicine" (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2025388/China-Tortured-mother-bear-kills-cub-herself.html) This should make us all think twice about using Traditional Chinese Medicine, which still uses these barbaric practices, in order for humans to attain balance etc.In Russia, bears are "baited" --chained up and attacked by dogs as a sport for onlookers.(I couldn't bring myself to find an article about that. It is a disgusting horror)

 Humanity disgusts me! Men are always the ones responsible for war, cruelty and violence on those who can't defend themselves.

 The  bear pits in question which are attractions for many people, are in fact hell for the bears that are forced to live in them. Bears work on energy lines, similar to bees,  and they always follow the same paths.They need space to move, and roam. Beyond this, the way the bears are being horribly mistreated is disgusting, and needs to stop. The bears that are currently being forced to live in these 'zoos' need to be transferred to loving, healing sanctuaries, now. 

 Here's the link to the PETA petition site, where you can write your own letter to the Tribal Council, too. They are going to decide on Wednesday, March 6th, and will be voting on the 7th.

https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=4663&autologin=true&utm_campaign=0313%20Cherokee%20Bear%20Action%20Alert&utm_source=PETA%20E-Mail&utm_medium=Alert

Prostitution: The Not-So-Silent Killer

“A shivering young Thai woman in a wet T-shirt, sitting in a cage waiting for someone to strike the 'bang me' target on the image of a woman bent over.  Freezing, soaked, alone, disconnected, in an enclosure, to be ogled by men.”(http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/c-prostitution-pop-culture.html)

 According to the website, Prostitution: Research and Education, prostitution is defined as: “… a slave-based system of sexual exploitation” http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/c-prostitution-advocacy.html

An elaboration of the above definition can be felt in the following definition as defined by a group from Minnesota called Breaking Free, Inc

"We define prostitution as systematic sexual violence and oppression against women and girls. This system is institutionalized in the sex industry: stripshows, nude juice bars, massage parlors and saunas, brothels, adult book and video stores, peep shows, live sex shows, sex rings, escort services, mail order brides, streetwalking, and pornography. Each of these forms of prostitution provides men with unlimited sexual access to women and girls based solely on their ability to pay." (from it’s "Philosophy Statement" posted on the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) website (accessed Apr. 20, 2007), stated, http://prostitution.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000116)

When you look up the word "prostitute", not surprisingly, all the main entries are about women, and describe women as  "harlots", "whores", etc. If men are mentioned, terms like whore etc., are never used. In the Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary, two examples are given for the word. Notice how the first example relates to a woman prostituting herself. The second is non-offensive, and is used with a male pronoun.

1. She was arrested for prostitution.
2. Writing commercials was a prostitution of his talents.

The Free Dictionary (on-line), defines a prostitute, as:

1. A woman who engages in sexual intercourse for money

2. A man who engages in such activity, esp in homosexual practices

Dictionary.com’s primary definition of a prostitute is:

“A woman who engages in sexual intercourse for money; whore; harlot.”

The “sex industry”, as we have affectionately dubbed everything to do with the coercing, shaming, using, buying, and selling of women’s and girls’ bodies for sex, is not the empowered “sex worker” who chose the industry as a viable option, but a terrified, oftentimes addicted woman who was lured into it at the hands of a predatory man.

In 2012, Israel passed a law making the buying and selling of sex illegal. The shift of focus will now be placed on the “customers”, rather than on the women who have been forced into the position to sell their bodies in order to live. You can read an article on this in the link provided:

The Jerusalem Post, "Government Backs Jail Time for Soliciting Prostitution," February 12, 2012

Scandinavia, has been, and continues to be a world leader, with respect to women’s equality. In Scandinavia, laws have been created to mandate equal-pay for women, to give mothers paid maternity leave, and more recently, criminalize sex for sale. Much like Israel, Scandinavia also puts the blame on the "customers" rather than the prostitutes.

In the 1980s, Scandinavian countries developed, and put into practice what has been termed "The Nordic Model", which emphasizes gender equality, human rights and egalitarianism, among its other progressive actions, and it puts the burden of guilt on the users of prostitution rather then the women.

 

“Beginning with the passage of Sweden's Sex Purchase Act in 1999 and adopted by Sweden, Norway and Iceland, the Nordic model of law decriminalizes prostituted women, but criminalizes pimps and johns. It combines a central goal of gender equity with support for women who wish to leave the sex industry, also known as "exiting services." http://thetyee.ca/News/2012/04/11/Nordic-Prostitution-Laws/

This past year, Iceland continued along the gender-equality path, by banning strip clubs.  Not for nothing, Iceland’s PM Johanna Sigurðardóttir is female, that she’s also openly queer is just a wonderful bonus.  Said Sigurðardóttir, “It is not acceptable that women, or people in general, are a product to be sold.” (http://www.thefrisky.com/2010-03-27/iceland-bans-all-strip-clubs/)

In 2010, after only a year on the job, Sigurðardóttir's government successfully banned strip clubs, the paying for nudity in restaurants, and all other forms of employers profiting from employees' nudity, and prostitution. Sigurðardóttir said "The Nordic countries are leading the way on women's equality, recognizing women as equal citizens rather than commodities for sale."^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B3hanna_Sigur%C3%B0ard%C3%B3ttir - cite_note-salon1-35})

 North America has a lot to learn from Scandinavia. The most recent political action by Iceland, being spearheaded by its Interior Minister, Ögmundur Jónasson, is to have all porn banned from the Internet. Men journalists are not responding well to having violent porn removed, and are saying this is the work of ..."Feminists"!, which is supposed to  somehow disparage the work that is being done. Not for nothing Iceland's Interior Minister is a man.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/14/iceland-porn-ban-internet-banned-children-ogmundur_n_2687665.html

If America were to take even a small page from Iceland's book of progressive, feminist politics, it would need to include banning music that encourages violence towards women, specifically glamorizing the pimp/prostitute ethos that is sadly so prevalent.

To that end, a pathetic excuse for a man rapper has a violent, disgusting song, the title of which is a deeply offensive way to talk about a strip bar, or any other place where women expose their breasts. The song is called Rack City. I have written to TV stations and to the CRTC telling them how offensive, misogynist and pro-prostitution the song is and that I want it banned. If more people wrote to their CRTCs, these types of songs wouldn’t be allowed to spawn, as readily.

The song talks about forcing women into prostitution, forcing women into sex, and, of course, using pejorative language to talk about women, and their bodies. What kind of mainstream rap song would it be if women were seen as people? Here is a sample of the most disturbing lyrics:

 “Tell that bitch hop out, walk the boulevard
I need my money pronto” (http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/tyga/rackcity.html)

Those two lines alone make me feel sad, sick and furious.

When I typed in the maggot’s name that sings the above song, as well as the song’s name, here are a few samplings of what came up:

“A truly artful song that illustrates tyga's true proficiency in the english language.”

(http://urbanthesaur.us/urban-dictionary-rack-city “Tyga's "Rack City" is number two on the Billboard's Hip Hop Chart.”

(www.hopppilgrim.com/2012_03_01_archive.html)

And from the mouth of , hmm, what’s lower than a maggot, a predatory misogynist? Here is a quote about the song in question, from the predators who made it.

“It's very beneficial to so many young women across the country," "The strip clubs are stress relief. Welcome to Rack City!"(http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677474/tyga-wale-fabolous-rack-city-music-video.jhtml)

“Nobody really wants to be sold,” a woman in a Nevada legal brothel explained to me. Even if you know that simple fact -- that prostitution is an abusive institution for any human -- maybe you still think it can be made not so bad. Maybe you think that if prostitution happens under a roof, it is better than outside on the street.”(http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/how_prostitution_works/000219.html)

 “Another T-shirt depicted a woman bound, with a red ball stuffed in her mouth and the slogan 'Silence is golden'. "I look at that and see fun!" said the cheery saleswoman.    (http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/advocacy/000301.html)

There is no difference in the harmful, hate-filled, sad, violent imagery of the song rack city then there is in a restaurant like Hooter’s, using misogyny coupled with “acceptable” prostitution, or the woman who is being forced to “walk the boulevard”.

It’s up to each one of us to do something more than simply turn the channel when an offensive song comes on.

Write to the CRTC, and tell them you are disgusted by songs that encourage misogyny and prostitution.

Contact, and get involved in a project with The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women.

http://www.catwinternational.org/

Here’s another site by a sex worker turned activist

http://staceyswimme.wordpress.com/for-sex-workers/

My New Etsy Shop!

Ok, a while in the making, and it's still early days, I only opened yesterday, but all the same I've opened my shop. There was a lot to learn , and undoubtedly heaps more to learn, but it's been a cool process of figuring things out.



http://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtnWhimsy

Two great Quotes and a Cute Word!

Here are two quotes, and a cute word that I’ve just recently found.

 The first quote is from a novel called Hallowe’en Party, by Agatha Christie. The quote is from a character called Mrs. Butler: she is talking about children!

“They acquire puppy fat and look like well-fattened pigs sometimes.”

The second quote is from the programme, Rosemary and Thyme; two professional gardeners who also help solve crimes, but there’s nothing Miss Marple-esque or dithering about them.

This quote is from an episode called Agua Cadaver. Rosemary and Laura have gone to Spain to work on the garden of a married, ex-boyfriend of Rosemary’s who still likes her, and has asked her to go and live with him in Spain.

Says Rosemary, to Laura’s question about whether or not she will shack up with him: “He’s got a wife, and I’ve got a life.”

I love that quote. As I say, these are not your dithering female sleuths, at all.

And finally, a cute word, which I hadn’t met before, and found in a story called The A.B.C. Murders, again by the doyenne of the cozy murder genre, Ms. Christie.

Here’s the word, "snuggery”, and even better, here’s the quote to give it context.

A man named Mr. Barnard is inviting detectives, and police into his and his wife’s “minute bungalow.”

They introduce themselves to him, and then he says  to the group, “Come into the snuggery…”

If the word was at all unclear, the narrator, Captain Hastings, gives clarity to it by saying: “..we were ensconced in the livingroom..”, but it’s so much cuter to say snuggery, rather than living room with mean little adjectives in front.

All about Ravioli

So I had a yen, the other day, to make ravioli. It's not too, hard, but I don't have a pasta machine or anything, so it was very "labour intensive", as it were.

First step, make the dough, (flour, water, olive oil, eggs, salt)

Knead dough. Then roll it into a ball, and wrap it in wax paper, or cling film,  and leave it in the fridge for an hour.

In the meantime, get working on your stuffing. Mine was caramelized red onions, with dried porcini mushrooms, that I had let soak in boiling water, along with some spinach, cranberry goat’s cheese, and crushed whole hazelnuts. I also added fresh lime juice. In a word: yum!

Then, for me, until I found a youtube video of chef Mario Battali on Martha Stewart, making ravioli, I was really having a difficult time figuring out how to stuff/ tuck everything in. My first batch looked like a cross between wontons, and little monster explosions. My ensuing batches looked better, thanks to ol’ Mario who had a pretty nifty trick for getting the top layer and bottom layer of dough to stick together.

First, he laid out his two sheets of dough, and instead of slabbing on his filling, as I had done first, he just put down a few wee dollops , then added the top sheet, and made partitions with his hand. Then he started to stick the dough together, with his fingers. Then, this is the cool part, he took a cookie cutter, and just pushed it into the top sheet of dough, over his covered dollop of filling, and worked it through until he had a totally contained, round raviolo!

Easy!

After that, here are the rest of the steps:

1)   Place a few ravioli, like 5-6, depending on how big, or little you make them, in a pot of boiling water. Let them cook for a few minutes.

2)   Then, strain then, I forgot to drain them with cold water, and put them in a container and add your sauce.

3)   Buon' appetito!

The raw ravioli. Notice the scary little one on the right,my first batch, before Mario.

The boiling of the ravioli.

Almost done; all cooked, dressed and undressed ravioli co-mingling.

A fancy close-up!

Yum!