Sunday, September 30, 2007

More graphics / image generators

SMILEBOX PHOTO SHARING


Now this could be a fun application… make your own scrapbooks, slideshows, greeting cards, photo albums, invitations, postcards… haven’t checked all of it out yet, but it definitely looks like it has potential… unfortunately you do have to download the program to the hard drive – but if you’re able to then it’s well worth checking out… one of its drawbacks is the time it takes for the pages to load when viewing… there’s always compromise!!!!

WOMEN WARRIORS THROUGH THE AGES

Warrior women
Powered by Smilebox
Click to play Make your own Smilebox

There's a rich herstory of women warriors, rulers, amazons, samurai, pirates, buccaneers, crusaders - women had to fight for their beliefs and survival in their own way in a patriarchal society (and things haven't changed!!) - here's just a small selection of graphics I put together.

Here's a few sites to check out if you're interested in the background herstory of some of these women...

Women Warriors of Japan

Pirates

Amazons

Women in world history

#10 - Playing around with image generators...


Just playing around... I think this could be a useful 'design' tool... I'll have to have more of a look around at image generators and what they can do...






This is one of my favourite pictures – M. C. Escher’s “Reptiles” – must admit it’s enjoyable playing around in your favourite things.


I’m having fun with these image generators - both have different features - set graphics in ComicStrip Generator, but you can change the font and font colour - the ability to use your own graphics in Flickr Toys but no control over font – you can't have everything, but I guess that's what this is about, finding the right tool (toy?) for the job!!!

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Just for something different...

Another passion of mine....
my canine and feline companions.

HERSTORY:

This is my babe Allie… she started out life as a brood bitch in a puppy factory – after 4 years she 'd had so many litters she was too ill to breed from anymore - she was saved by SADS (Save-a-Dog Scheme) and then adopted by me. Then we discovered the girl had a perineal hernia and needed major surgery. But she survived!!!!

She was such a frightened little girl for a long time – the slightest noise sent her seeking ‘security’ under the bed – it took years for her to feel comfortable with people – but she’s 15 now – who would have thought??? Mind you, she is almost deaf, almost blind and has a problem with her weakened bladder (she just can’t hold on very long these days!!) but I have lived a much richer life because of her.
HISTORY:

My boy Shadow was only 4 weeks old when I first ‘met’ him. I was approached by a woman in the supermarket carpark asking if there was a pet shop around. Once I realised that she wanted to get rid of him, well, there’s not much more to say – I was only too happy to ‘take him off her hands’. And I think he was glad too!!!

He is a bit confused as to his name though – it’s evolved into “There-he-is” because you can’t help yourself, whenever you see him, your immediate response is “thereheis”!!!! He’s 5 now, street-smart, and very sassy.

Both created with fd's" Flickr Toys.


ANIMALS ARE FOR LIFE, NOT JUST FOR XMAS

PLEASE DON’T SUPPORT THE PUPPY AND KITTEN FACTORIES BY BUYING FROM PET SHOPS – CHECK OUT THE ANIMAL RESCUE AND SUPPORT SHELTERS – THERE ARE WAY TOO MANY BABES NEEDING ADOPTION.




Wednesday, September 26, 2007

#8 - RSS feeds and readers




Okay, I joined

(and aren't you just so sick and tired of signing up for all of this 'stuff' - one of the apparent drawbacks of this technology!!!)


I tried a few different RSS feed styles – using the Add Page Element within Blogger was very clunky – you had to add an element for each feed… took up a lot of page space.

Found a site, SpringWidgets, where you can create your own ‘customized’ reader… looks much better, contains things within a set area, and allows up to 10 feeds… but it did take a while to play around with different feed addresses… some just wouldn’t work in it… but worthwhile persevering with... and if you check out FaceBook, MySpace, Bebo, the social networking sites are filled with widgets. And everything we're putting on these pages are widgets.


Now onto Online Image Generators!!!

Monday, September 24, 2007

I'm Flickr'd!!!!


THE CHANGING SHAPE OF WOMEN HEROES IN COMICS

I was determined to get a slideshow happening – this was really quickly put together… just a few pictures that show the sexualizing of the female body over the decades.

With such an unrealistic portrayal of women’s bodies throughout the visual media, it’s no wonder women suffer such poor self-image, self-esteem and body hatred is rife.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

# 6 - More Flickr fun or "Flickr'd out"



Another Flickr toy, another post


And a gripe about the applications and the technology. The "trading card" was much easier to "create" than the montages I posted before, but I find both limiting in the amount of changes you can make to the template.


I also find it frustrating that everything you want/need to use has so much advertising attached to it!! And that you have to join this, and join that!!! No just go and do it, but sign up here first!!!


Aside from that, I am finding this blogging business very interesting... am looking forward to the next step in the process.


Created with fd's" Flickr Toys.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Still playing around with Flickr...

... but I don't find it's 'toys' very user friendly programmes - maybe that's just me??

THE WITCH-HUNTER'S TOOLS OF TORTURE

Haven't been able to work out if you can include a slideshow in the blog or not, so have done another montage of the tools of torture used against wise women - well, any women actually. You also weren't immune if you were a male sympathiser. More to come on the church's attempted annihilation of women soon.

1. the sorceress, 2. Torture implement and Chastity Belt, Witchcraft and Inquisition Museum, Ronda, 3. Torture, 4. Estica-estica, 5. Matera rack, 6. www.flickr.com/photos/scurzuzu/469230395/, 7. A medieval rack, 8. dungeon, 9. Medieval Torture, 10. Silent screams, 11. Torture chair, 12. Rottenburg Medieval Torture Museum, 13. pointy chair

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Just playing around

Playing around in YouTube and came across this video titled "Women's suffrage movement" - perfect!!!!

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

#5 - Discovering Flickr

Creating this montage took a while to work out, but I finally did it! Yay! Now I've done this I'm hoping the next step in the Flickr toys play-around will make more sense and be easier to get my head around.

Some great images of the suffragist struggle.

My creation


1. suffrage_photo_02, 2. 19th amendment, 3. suffragettes, 4. Women cast their votes, 5. suffragists rally 1920, 6. suffragettes, 7. Notice to Epicene Women, 8. suffragettes, 9. "Votes For Women" [Suffragette in a horse-drawn wagon], 10. In Front of the White House, 11. We Will Overcome, 12. Suffragette Parade, Washington, DC 1913, 13. suffragette14.

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Friday, September 14, 2007

creating the blog...

my venture into the 'blogosphere' started as a work-related training program around web 2.0 technology in 2007... the program lasted 23 weeks where i discovered some of the amazing tools 'out there' and got a good grounding in the basics of blogging...

i'm writing this brief 'introduction' three years down the track...

 my enjoyment in creating and maintaining my blog increased and intensified once i really 'owned' it - when it was no longer a compulsory work task... it's a very stimulating and therapeutic pastime these days... it's an insight into me and my politics and a glimpse into my life - both the pleasure and pain... 


i contemplated deleting all of the earlier 'learning' posts, but decided against that... it was a learning curve for me and someone else might find the information useful... and hey, it's part of my blogging herstory...

so here's how it all began... my first post...
_____________________________________________________________________


Okay, the following has nothing whatsoever to do with libraries or Web 2.0, but as it's the first Post, and creating the blog is all about formatting, fonts, colours etc., a decent body of text was a good way of seeing if that all works, so I hope you find it interesting.


SYMBOLS OF WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE/LIBERATION

WOMEN’S COLOURS
The colours used on this page have specific meaning to women. The colours originated during the Suffrage Movement with the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in the U.K. in 1908.
The colours were said to represent:
white for purity; purple for dignity, self-reverence and self-respect; and green for hope and new life.
The tricolour of the WSPU soon became a visual cue for the women's movement in Australia. Purple, green and white were worn on International Women's Day and were used for other women's movement banners and posters - although when i was active in the movement in the 70s there was no green involved, it was always purple and white (and consequently they're the 2 colours i associate with womyn and womyn's liberation - but i question the purity association!)

The American Suffrage Movement also adopted these colours but replaced the green with gold.

The use of gold began with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony's campaign to help pass a suffrage state referendum in Kansas in 1867. The Kansas state symbol was the sunflower, which was adopted by the pro suffrage forces in the campaign. The sunflower, and the color gold or yellow, was associated with the suffrage cause thereafter. Suffrage supporters used gold pins, ribbons, sashes, and yellow roses to denote their cause.

THE WITCH / WISE WOMAN
“Women have always been healers. They were the unlicensed doctors and anatomists of western history. They were abortionists, nurses and counselors. They were pharmacists, cultivating healing herbs and exchanging the secrets of their uses. They were mid-wives, traveling from home to home and village to village. For centuries women were doctors without degrees, barred from books and lectures, learning from each other, and passing on experience from neighbour to neighbour and mother to daughter. They were called “wise women” by the people, witches or charlatans but the authorities.” .. Witches, midwives & nurses: a history of women healers


THE WOMEN'S SYMBOL

The circle with the cross extending down is the biological female symbol

"The symbol depicting a clenched fist inside the biological female symbol was produced by Robin Morgan for the second Miss America Pageant demonstration, in 1969. It combined the elements of defiance and revolution with that of femaleness. The original version was a dark red on a white background. Initially, Robin Morgan worried over the choice of a red button for this particular demonstration. Ever conscious that major corporations like to co-opt incipient protest movements, she imagined that the cosmetic firm sponsoring the pageant might respond by manufacturing a matching lipstick named "Liberation Red." Therefore, if asked about the button, women were instructed to reply that the color was "Menstrual Red." No one would name a lipstick that" .. Jo Freeman