Now, I knew pollution is a real problem, we see it all around us. I knew plastic bags (like the types beer and soda cans comes in) takes up to 1000 years to decompose, I knew many sea animals mistake plastic bags for jelly fish and suffocate or starve when digesting it.

I never knew the situation was so bad!!

I wrote a few articles on the subject already, and the research and writing of one such article actually made me cry… It made me want to pack up my life and go help with the manual clean up of beaches and waterways.

I know there are so many other causes out there we could support, causes that seem more important than picking rubbish up; and you know what, if humans were such pigs then there’d be no need to worry about  the 9 million square miles of rubbish floating in the Pacific Ocean. 9 FUCKING MILLION square miles, in the FUCKING PACIFIC OCEAN ONLY! (Its 3 times bigger than the USA, at 3 million square miles.)

This is known as The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, its approximately 6000 linear miles, and its speculated that a bigger garbage patch is floating somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere. Pardon my French. If humans weren’t such FUCKING pigs then animals wouldn’t ingest plastic. It wouldn’t lodge in their windpipes or fill their stomachs, and it wouldn’t kill them slowly, either by suffocation or starvation.

If humans weren’t such FUCKING pigs, we wouldn’t find 800kg of plastic in a dead whale. If humans weren’t such FUCKING pigs, dolphins and seals wouldn’t get caught up in discarded nets and strangle to death. I think I’ve made my point…

Angela, the lovely artist lady I met on fiverr, supports the cause Artists For a Pristine Planet. She undertook the huge mission to paint 100 paintings in 100 days for $100 each and donate a percentage to cleaning up or beaches and waterways. You can find her 100 days challenge here, her facebook page here, and her personal blog here.

And you can do something about it.

You can purchase a painting and contribute to the cause. You can buy recyclable and reusable. You can get rid of garbage in a decent manner instead of dumping it where ever you wish. You can spread the word. Or you can start your own cause. What ever you do, JUST FUCKING DO SOMETHING.

I am going to make 100 necklaces (or other pieces of jewellery) for 100 days. I still have to sort all of the details out. But that’s what I’m gonna do. And I’m still considering do some manual clean up on beaches.

What are YOU gonna do?

My good friend Vicky (aka Lyrica-Lee) always says: Just Write. Whether its good or bad, when faced with writer’s block, JUST WRITE. Good sound advice.

Below you’ll find a list of writing prompts.

Those of you who know me and stalk my various online hideouts will know that this list popped up many many times before.

I think I compiled it in November 2009, yet to this day… Not one single prompt has been completed. NOT ONE. I’m gonna try my very best to finish this list before the end of the year. In fact, I started one already. As I complete them, I’ll Strike them off the list.

Why not join me? If you have a blog or art account or any form of getting your written words on the big bad web, just drop a link in the comment sections. Lets see who can finish the list first!

• A jewel-encrusted box is found in an ancient abandoned temple. Describe the box, what is in the box, and the temple. See where it takes you
• Write down your first three memories. Are your memories vivid enough to construct a scene from? If not, could you fill in the details? Try, even if there are gaping holes in your memory, keep going
• Build a story, starting with this sentence: “As I was leaving the building, I saw a man…”
• Build a story, starting with this sentence: “The event that came to be known as The [insert title here] began/started at xx:xx AM/PM on the afternoon of June 23…”
• Write about fear
• a paragraph describe the setting for a love scene or murder scene.
• go to Seventh Sanctum > (or any other generator) random generator and write about whatever description pops up
• Keep a diary of a fictional character
• Freewrite for five minutes using the phrase, “The rain seemed like it would never stop . . .
• A deserted beach at midnight. The waves are illuminated by a full moon. There is a faint movement at the high-tide mark. A hand emerges, clutching desperately at the wet sand.
• When Sharon opened the door of the closet, she could not see her clothes, but a beautiful forest
• Write a story that includes this sentence: “This pendant is the only way that you can enter the castle.”
• A spaceship crashed on an alien planet, describe the surroundings and creatures
• Police Officer McCarthy finds a dead body. There are no clues except for an elaborate gold key lying beside the body

My apologies for the long long absence! I’ve been hard at work expanding my arty endeavours. I’d love to say that I designed countless jewelry pieces during my offline hours, but sadly that would be a lie. (I made a few though…)

I’ve been reading. Yes, my new book on beading techniques. More than 300 techniques, thats a lot to learn. I’ve been reading Etsy help articles; everything from taking better pictures (they really cant stress that enough…) to top seller advices and tips, to seller blog and blog sites. You name it, I read it. (applying everything I read is a different matter.) I’ve been commenting in a lot of forums to get my name out there. To be seen.

(I’ve also been reading all the Final Notices creditors like to send out when people (me) don’t pay their accounts… So, yeah,  all my online endeavours better be a success!

Its growing, thankfully. I’m $60 richer since signing up at Fiverr. Even though the Fiverr gigs are for, well, a fiver (as in $5) I’ve made some headway off the site. I contacted a potential client on Fiverr with regards to a logo he needs. He was happy enough with my work and we’ve moved negotiations and business off Fiverr, which makes the payment process go so much quicker. Also, its a really good deal. So, THANK YOU FIVERR. On a side note, I signed up at Dealerr aswell, Fiverr’s European rival. All the best will hopefully come from it.

Blog-wise I’ve been expanding too. A new domain has been registered, sadly the site is still empty. Only has a link to my Etsy store. The entire purpose of the new site is to act as my online store. Jewelry, Digital Art, Traditional Art, Hand made stuffs. You name it. Doubt I’ll add my poetry but we’ll see how that goes.

The whole etsy thing made me realize I need a stand alone shop as well. Plus a blog. So this shall solely be the blog from now, but all handmade goodies will be displayed over at The Shackled Muse Studio.

Awesome, right!

Now if you ask me, those are all the good stuff that make life worthwhile! Just to give you an example, the latest blog entry is all about the tango.

This is not merely a form of dance, its a form of art…

As Brandi says: I am absolutely head over heels in love with this dance. I began taking lessons about three months ago and after the first class I knew I had found something that I could and wanted to devote my time and energy to. For the first time (in a long time) I have found something that takes me out of my head, something that requires precision, presence and concentration. The steps and dance are not only beautiful and powerful but almost become a meditation, you almost enter this trance-like state when you’re fully in the moment. My world has changed.

Also, MUSIC!! Followers of this blog will know how much music means to me. Not pop, not Britney Spears. Real Music. Performed by real artists.

Throughout the ages music has been used to express our feelings, our emotions, whether its sorrow or joy. English is not our universal language. Music is. If you agree with me, then take a look at this article!!

THE JOY OF BUTTER

Earlier this lovely evening I had a plan. The plan involved watching the Ghana vs Uruguay match, putting my sick boyfriend to bed and then, right, then put on some Binaural beats to stimulate my creative side while I write countless articles. (Okay, not countless, but at least 6 MyDigitalLife articles for the coming week, 4 for this site, maybe 4 or 5 for Helium and 3 for my other blogger account.)

Don’t look at me in that tone of voice, I discovered that it is possible to write all that in one go. I know your dying to find out how, and I promise I’ll cover that in my next article. Or at the very least, when I attempt to write again…

Anyway, that was plan. So, where did it all go wrong, I hear you ask.

A stupid stupid Music Meme I saw on DeviantArt… (inserted at the end of this entry.) I had my coffee cup ready, I opened LiveWriter, I started playback of the Study Alert Binaural Beat and then (FATAL MISTAKE) while waiting for my browser to open, very slowly, I thought “hey, let me fill out the Meme while I wait.”

And from there everything went downwards…

Each question made me think of 10 other songs I just really had to listen to right at that very moment. And with each song, contemplating the memories and emotions attached to them. Now this is not your average playlist, oh no, its my entire life…

And as much as I’d love to go in detail about every song, band and artist, and just exactly how much they mean to me on too many levels to even comprehend, its just not possible. There are no words to describe it. Even if there were words, there’d be no way to formulate them into sentences and phrases to explain the passion that is Music. However, its safe to say that the artists I listened to include Meat Loaf, Roxette, Alanis Morissette, Pink, Lene Marlin, Majandra Delfino, Lily Allen, Michael Jackson, Metallica, REM, and oh so many many more.

I’m even considering doing a post solely on Michael Jackson, and the weight all his songs carry. Even that seems like mission impossible.

Why I am browsing for stock? The Man in the Mirror, (by Michael Jackson) inspired some photomanipulation ideas that I just have to create. If you’re a watcher of my art on DeviantArt, it will be something along the lines of Glimpes of a Broken World.

But this post is at its end now, because Roxette’s Joyride is up next…

The evil evil evil Music Meme that will henceforth be blamed for everything:

One of the earliest songs you remember listening to: Master Jack. by Four Jacks and a Jill. My granma used to listen to it often. My dad listened to Queen and The Moody Blues, so also remember Bohemian Rhapsody and Nights in white satin. My mom played me Rolf Harris when I was still very very young. I think my favourite was Jack the Peg and and I Lost My Mommy. Lol. My mom also listened to BZN. And when I think of “my music” the first song that comes to mind is Zombie by Cranberries. That was the first song I recorded from the radio to a tape, before we had CD’s and TDK’s were all that…

 
Song by the artist you last saw live: Something by Nicolis Louw (No, I’m not a fan… Also, and I’m not proud to admit this, I’ve attended Steve Hofmeyer, Theuns Jordaan and Kurt Darren concerts as well. The curse of growing up in an afrikaans environment. I really really cant stand those guys, especially Kurt Darren and Steve Hofmeyer…)

Song that you currently can’t get out of your head: Soft Kitty (Sheldon in Big Bang Theory’s fave song when he’s sick… lol dont ask… I watch WAAAAAYYYYYYY to much Big Bang Theory….)

 
Song by someone who is dead: Beat it – Michael Jackson. Oh and My Way – Frank Sinatra. OH and Bohemian Rhapsody – Freddy from Queen. Oh and About a Girl – Nirvana. Oh and Bye Bye Baby – Janis Joplin. Oh and… You really don’t want me to continue.

Song you discovered from a film: All the Mona Lisa’s and Mad Hatters. Oh, and from the same movie, Tiny Dancer by Elton John. The movie is Almost Famous. If you’ve never seen it, go get it now. And watch it. And then watch it again. The story, the music, the era. I really really love that movie.

Song you love to sing along to: Currently its Waka Waka by Shakira, but it changes constantly. (oh I also like She Wolf.) I sing along to almost anything. Really. You have to see it to believe it. Some songs are just right up there tho… like Toni Braxton’s Unbreak my Heart, Natalie Imbruglia’s Torn, Sinead o’Conner’s Nothing Compares, John Mayer’s Comfortable,  Whats up, by 4 non blondes, and so on….

Song you totally misunderstood the first time you heard it: Maybe Cherry Lips – Garbage? Oh no wait… If ever you can judge a song by it’s …eh… lyrics, I really really couldn’t stand Disturbed’s Deify first time I heard it. Totally had the wrong the idea… My cousin loved the song, and I though it was blasphemous. It isn’t though.  Disturbed is one of my favourite bands now.

Song that makes you nostalgic: You are not alone – Michael Jackson. and Some silly afrikaans song my grandad used to sing Jan, Die Bielie Van Die Bosveld. Again, a lot of songs, actually. When I hear Tchaikovsky I go all nostalgic because I remember in Grade 3 my Piano teacher introduced us to the world of Tchaikovsky with the 1812 Overture. All be Napoleon and that famous battle. I remember going home and telling my mother about the 1812 and how utterly awesome it was. To my surprise, she opened a box that was always under the LP player table thing, though I never really bothered to go through it. It was an LP collection of all the Old Masters. Beethoven, Mozart, you name it. She put the 1812 Overture on for me, I to this day I still remember that moment. Listening to the dramatic rise and fall of ebony and ivory keys, portraying Napoleon’s battle. I remember the scent of tea (my mommy’s a real tea pot) and I remember exactly what I was wearing and how I was feeling.

Love song: Comfortable – John Mayer and Love Bites by Def Lepard and Kiss Me by Indecent Obsession and Poison by Alice Cooper. (The last three are all unconventional love songs, they have a certain….affect….on me. lmao)

Song that makes you cry: Bright eyes. Sad sad song that. and Objects in The Rearview Mirror by Meatloaf. And Thula Thula Sister by Die Melktert Kommissie. Deurmekaar by Karen Zoid.

Song that makes you laugh: Chocolate Salty Balls, by Chef (its a South Park Song…) Oh, and The Farmer – Bilge Pumps. Its a naughty song!!

There was an old farmer who lived on a rock,
he sat in the meadow just shaking his….
fist at some young boys, down by the creek,
their feet in the water their hands on their….
Marbles and plaything and at half past four,
there came a young lady, she looked like a ……
pretty young creature, she sat on the grass,
she pulled up her dresses and showed them her….
ruffles and laces and white fluffy duck,
she said she was learning a new way to…
bring up her children so they wouldnt spit,
while the boys in the barnyard where shoveling….
refuse and litter from yesterday’s hunt,
while the girl in the meadow was rubbing her….
eyes at the fella down by the dock,
he looked like a guy with a sizeable….
home in the country with a big fence out front,
and if he’d asked nicely she’d show him her….
little pet dog who was subject to fits,
and then she’d let him grab hold of her….
small tender hands with a movement so quick,
and then she’d bend over and suck on his…
soda so sweetly till she finished it,
then pulled down her panties and rubbed on her….
hip that she bruised when she ran down the hall,
coz he tried to force her to lick on his….
candy so tasty made of butterscotch,
and then he’d spread whipped cream all over her….
cookies that she had been baking all night,
if you think this is dirty,
you’re damn fucking right…

Song that makes you want to dance: Really, what type of question is this. LOTS of songs make me wanna move… Stronger by Kanye West, You Know That I’m Sexy by NTrance, You Can Do It by Ice Cube, (and basically anything from the movie Save the Last Dance.) anything by Freshy Ground and Shakira. Really thats not even the favourite ones I cant think of right now. Lol.

Song with food in the title: Real sugar – Roxette (so? i’m a HUGE roxette fan and i’m not ashamed to admit it!) also Life is a lemon and i want my money back by Meatloaf, and Koffie en Nikotien by Ddisselblom. (coffee is a food group all on its own if you ask me….)  Charlie Big Potato by Skunk Anansi oh and also Sally Williams Nougat by Jak De Priester (what? chocolate is food too?)

Song that creeps you out: Wish I had an Angel by nighwish. The song doesnt freak my out, but the dude in the music video does…. freaky scary eyes….

Really good cover song: A whiter shade of pale – annie lennox, atleast I think that is a cover…

Song about waking up or dreaming: The Child Inside – Qcumba zoo. One of my favourite weirdest songs. Good Good Song.

Song you only like because of the title: Elven Path, by Nightwish. Who doesnt like elves?

Song you like from an artist that you otherwise don’t like: Two songs by Britney Spears actually… Womanizer, and I’m not sure what the other one’s title is, I think it Everytime. The one where she commits suicide in the bath?

Song you hate: Anything by Bjork. I really cant think of any other artist I despise as much as Bjork, and I don’t even have a valid reason. She just annoys me. Even more than some sad afrikaans singers like Kurt Darren….

Wildcard: Majandra Delfino of course. The has the voice of an angel, she writers her own songs and she plays them herself too. She might not be well known, but I’m probably her biggest fan. Better known as Maria De Luca from the Roswell TV series about a bunch of alien teenager, (also starring Jason Behr, Michael Fehr, and Katherine Heigl. Yup I’m a big Roswell fan too.) She wrote and sang a lot of songs for the series, but there are some non roswell songs that I like too. She sings happy stuff, yet she also knows about pain, and break ups and scars and blades and blood… All the stuff that fascinate, haunt and inspire me…

This is good if you work with tags. Categories is a completely different matter.

Get your categories right and your site will be more organized. If you have a widget in the sidebar that lists all your categories (and how many posts per category) the better. Now visitors to your site will be able to see which topic of interest you wrote about, and how many posts are filed under that topic/category.

Before you even start writing content for your site, take pen, a paper, a cup of coffee and go somewhere quiet. Now decide what your site is gonna be all about. What are you gonna blog about?

My site, for example, is The Shackled Muse. (that’s me) I don’t blog about a certain niche, I just blog about me being me and my quest for a balanced life. I blog a about the stuff I know and the stuff I still want to know more about.

So, like I said in Part 1 of this guide, my main categories are

• Unshackle Your Life
• Unshackle Your Creativity
• Unshackled Your Budget
• Unshackled Your Mind
• Shackled’s Journal

That already gives you a rough idea how I structure my site and what I plan to write about.

I went one step further and added subcategories to each category. They include, but are not limited to:

Plug-Ins

First, lets take a look at useful plug-ins you need. You can search for them on www.wordpress.org, because there’s such a big variety to choose from

• All-in-one SEO Pack (for your Google Analytics Code. Tracks your site’s analytics)
• Topsy (a retweet button for your posts. Do NOT use the TweetMeMe)
• Comment Luv (Allows users to leave additional links when commenting, for example your twitter and latest post.)
• Sexy Bookmarks (Social Media Sharing tool, so your users you can promote your stuff on StumbleUpon, Digg, Twitter, Reddit, Facebook and a gazillion other stuff you’ve never even heard of…)
• Contact Form (Not THAT important, but useful if you want folk to contact you. You can either put this in your About page, or a side bar widget.)
• Google xml sitemaps (Creates a xml sitemap for Google to index)
• WP stats (all your important stats)
• Feedburner plug-in (directs to your feedburner)
• AdSense Plug-in

Themes

Try not to change your theme every day… (That’s really hard for me, as there’s so many themes out there and its hard to find one and stick with it.) So play around, but once you’ve decided on one, stick to it for a while.

Themes can be downloaded from www.wordpress.org. The more options your theme has, the more you can customize it. (less options, and you’ll need some coding knowledge to make changes)

What I look for in a theme is:

• customizable header/logo (I like to create my own logo’s
• colour options
• Lots of customizable widget.

Main rule: find a simple theme with lots of options, instead of a awesome complicated theme that you cant make any changes, and it just ends up looking like someone else’s site. When searching for suitable themes, first decide on the direction you want to take. Do you want something simplistic? Something artsy and visual?

If you go with the simplistic route, search for “magazine” type of themes. They usually have a clean feel to them, and have good SEO options.

For visual, search words like “Grunge” but keep in mind that your site will load slower on some browsers, and eat data. Colourful or black backgrounds are cool, but lots of people also dont like reading white text on dark backgrounds.

Once you have your plug-ins and theme sorted, its time to set your categories up and work on your content.

Next article, Why categories are important.

Yes, I blog. “Real” blogging. I’m not a problogger, and I’m proud of it. Even when I make a big income from blogging I still don’t want to be known as Problogger. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: they are not bloggers, they’re just marketing strategists giving tips on how to make money from blogging.

The main “titles” (or categories) on my site currently are loosely based around aspects of my life I’m either fairly knowledgeable in, or where I want to improve.

They include:

• Unshackle Your Life
• Unshackle Your Creativity
• Unshackle Your Budget
• Unshackle Your Mind
• Shackled’s Journal
• Shackled’s Poetry

Each category also has subcategories, for example under Unshackle Your Life you’ll find Emotionally, Physically, Financially; under Unshackle Your Creativity you’ll find Painting, Jewelry Design, Poetry; and under Shackled’s Journal you’ll find Dear Diary, Anger Management, and Opinion Pieces. Just to give a few examples.

As I explain in my About Me page, this is my journey to living a more happy, well balanced life. I hope you’ll join me on it.

So you want to blog too?

Again, I’m no expert, and you’ll probably get more detailed guidance on the big web if you try about setting up your own site. Or alternatively, you could sign up at places like Blogger, TypePad, LifeJournal or iBlog and set up an account for your blogging endeavours.

The benefits when doing it like this is that most of the hard work is already done for you. That includes themes or skins you can choose from instead of decorating the site yourself. (and learning code and css in the process…) and sites like Blogger has a good ranking on Google already. On the other hand, if you truly want to customize your site, you mind find too many restrictions when using a blogging service like that. So yeah, you could sign up at Blogger.

But here’s how I did it.

The first step was to set up free web hosting and registering a domain. My first web hosting was on a dodgy site and that’s why my original site died. (Lesson 1: BACK YOUR SITE UP!!)

With paid hosting you’ll get a whole bunch of extra benefits, but if you’re just testing the waters and are unsure as to whether you really want to pursue the whole blogging, try free hosting first. Search Free web hosting on Google and see what each site has to offer.

Then pick a name for your site. (I went with GoDaddy and I’m still happy with their service, plus its not all that expensive.)

If you need any help with your site, there are a lot of people willing to help, like Mikezilla who set up a whole shop thingy on Monetize you Life where you can hire his site-related services for reasonable rates.

While your setting that up or getting someone to do it for you, read up about WordPress so that once you’re site is up, you can just install it.

And then watch this space for Part 2 of my Blogging Guidelines.

Originally posted on My Digital Life

As most of you know, I quit my SAPO job for a better job, then lost the better job. The job hunt has been unsuccessful for the past 3 months, so money is scarce and times are tough. I make a few bucks here and there by blogging and writing articles for various sites, while working on the awesomest awesome online shop ever. Still, a strict budget is a number one priority for survival.

A few tips for shopping and cooking on a budget:

Buy in bulk:

When possible, buy in bulk; but always check the price per kilo. Some items are actually cheaper when you buy 2 x 500g containers instead of a 1 x 1kg container. Buy pasta (macaroni), rice, sugar, etc in bigger quantities, like 5kgs.

Oh and spices. Its much better to buy bigger quantities of your favourite herbs and spices than spending a fortune on the smaller 10g and 25g bottles. Especially peppercorns. The smaller the packet the more you pay.

Cook in bulk:

You don’t have to make a big pot of stew or pasta and eat it for two weeks (It does help though) but some planning goes a long way. It takes just as much effort to cook pasta for 8 than people than it will take for cook for 2. Freeze the rest for later during the week.

• Clever cooking also means when you buy a chicken, you bake or roast the breasts, thighs, drumsticks;
• freeze some for later;
• and make soup or stock from the wings, back and skins. Its sounds yucky but it’s really not.

Three meals out of one chicken. Soups, stews and pasta’s are the most inexpensive recipes I have, primarily because you can use inexpensive cuts of meat. Make a nice big pot of those and freeze in serving-sized containers.

Buy Specials:

Take a few minutes before the whole shopping trip starts, to page through the specials catalogue (found in newspapers and till points of supermarkets) to see what’s on special.

Also, No Name Brands wont kill you (I know for the fact that Shoprite’s brand of peanut butter tastes better than Skippy…)

Grow your own produce:

If you can…

Most of us city dwellers don’t have the space for a vegetable patch, Heck I live on the top floor in a block of apartments. There’s not even a patch of grass. However, I’m thinking of getting on of those vertical pot holder thingies so I can grow something… Maybe some herbs too (maybe that’s the just the boredom involved with not having a job, speaking…)

Ek probeer so vreeslik hard
om my siel weg te steek…
diep binne, o so verfoeilik.
Soms, net soms,
is dit vreeslik moeilik.

Jy sien reg deur my
en tog bly jy lief,
vir my; al voel ek soos ‘n klug.
soms, net soms,
wil ek ver weg vlug.

Jy le nou langs my
verdwaal in jou drome land.
Ek kan nie help om te wonder –
soms, net soms –
hoekom vind jy my so besonders?

wat sien jy in my,
wat hou jou aan my sy?
Al bly ek verborge,
Soms, net soms,
verheug ek in my sorge.

ek probeer jou weg druk
maar tog is jy nog hier.
jy het my hart gevang.
Soms, net soms,
maak dit my vreeslik bang…