Agio Ergo on Etsy

Agio Ergo is a company based in Greece that produces prints of icons that are glued on basic wood boards that are then coated with a sealer. They sell through Etsy. There are several of these kinds of companies around where, because of the process of printing up the image, gluing it on a basically styled board, and sealing it, they then refer to the product as a "handmade icon".

Agio Ergo stole my original image of St. Charbel Makhlouf and they are making money from it. 

Here is the original image that I painted of St. Charbel. It is not a Byzantine style icon that has been passed down and "copied" countless times.

Agio Ergo lifted it, squeezed the figure slightly more to the vertical axis, and placed it on a different background with different lettering:

 

The thing though that gets me is that the image they display on their page is "watermarked" so that no one can steal the image and use it to make money from.

But Agio Ergo, that's what you guys did. You guys stole my image. You guys literally went to my blog and lifted my original image, without asking my permission, and you guys used it, and are using it, a stolen image, to make money from, and now you guys have it watermarked so that no one can steal it and use it to make money from.

By the way, I haven't sold my painting of St. Charbel. I don't make prints. I haven't made money from the image, but hey, "glad" to help you guys out, Agio Ergo!

I find it hilarious that you guys refer to the "handmade icon" as "blessed". Oh what's that you say? You guys got a priest to bless it you say, eh? He may have pronounced certain words over it, and used holy water or even oil with incense. But does God bless a print of an image that's been stolen without recompense to the one who painted it?

Ah, a question for the theologians! LOL.

Pride is a professional at sermonizing about humility. It will put humility in such an unreachable intellectualized framework as to make it into a gnostic ability.

Especially unchallenged by mere mortals - that's key to observe, for the fanatic will claim to have been challenged and tested in God's fire which puts him above the challenge of mortals.

As long as he gets to do the saying and the framing. One is reminded of a person who will go on and on to someone else about his own faults, and if the other person merely nods assent, he'll get mad and say, "Don't agree with me!"

Pride can take on every kind of manifestation of virtue - or vice - as a cloak. One might say that pride is the worst sin because it can go on the longest. The picture of puffed up arrogance, while certainly being a part of it, is not the near resemblance. You cannot really capture Pride.

It can assume powers to itself in the same stroke that it feigns to abrogate them. It can thump its chest in fierce mea culpas and proclaim itself unworthy and below others; it can rip its garments at the drop of a hat. What pride cannot stand is being on the same level as another person, in the very specific sense of sharing in their mere humanity. It will not enter into matter.

This is one of the reasons for the need to have lay and religious women involved in the formation of priests.

If any organically grown food is worth the extra cost, it is apples. Or if you can find a farm/orchard that grows them using just the dormant sulphur/oil spray that is fine too.

A sincere injunction. Even if you are not into buying organic stuff and don't even go for fruits or vegetables. Make cleanly grown apples a part of your daily diet.

When you eat the apple - at least one a day - make especially sure to eat the seeds - the entire apple core. But make sure you chew the seeds before swallowing them, otherwise they will just pass through your system.

Do not pay attention to the idiotic parrots on the internet who mindlessly blabber about how apple seeds "contain cyanide" - LOL - and therefore should be avoided.

Let's repeat: eat organically grown apples everyday. Eat the seeds in the apple, chewing them well. Tell anyone who says to you "Oh, apple seeds contain cyanide" to eff off.

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Also tell that to people who say, "Oh, figs have worms". People are so stupid. Any fruit that has gone overripe can and may likely have the larva of the fruit fly in it. This is especially true of overripe cherries and blackberries. You will know when a fruit is overripe, past its prime.

In fact, there is a smell the fruit will have that will tell you it has SWD - Spotted Wing Drosophila. And by the way, as an aside, while no one wants to eat the fruit fly larva, ultimately it really is only protein. It will not breed inside you. In other words, it will not "give you worms".

You want to know how this bullshit started with the fig? It's not because they have worms. In fact, they are less likely to have the fruit fly larva than other fruits. You want to know what happened? Some dumb schmoe opened up a spoiled fig that naturally had the fruit fly larva, and what did he see that sparked his imagination? Ever look at the inside of a fresh fig? The whole inside bears a certain resemblance to worms. (Though really to anyone who is more diligent and clear in his imagination the inside of the fig bears a certain fertile representation of sperms making their way to some nucleus.) Thus was born the whole stupid parrot fest about figs containing worms.

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"Oh, you shouldn't plant bee-loving plants where children are going to be playing." LOL. People parrot this ignorant bullshit as though having plants that bees love near where children are going to be playing is the same as putting hives of bees and wasps there. Bees are never more safe to be around as when they are foraging nectar and pollen from blossoms. A single stray bee is more dangerous than an entire host that is busy at work on some flowering plant. And a host of bees busy on some flowering plant does not make for any strays, because they have found flowers, and are therefore occupied.

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"Oh, putting coffee grounds into the soil will turn it acidic" - LOL. "Oh, you shouldn't bury meat or bones with your scraps in the garden" - LOL. "Oh, drinking raw milk will make you sick" - LOL. "Oh, the police in helicopters will descend on your garden if you grow opium poppies" - LOL.

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"Oh, wild pigs are rapidly multiplying in Canada - they're taking over!" - LOL.

I'm all for that. Sounds like lots of free food to me, and delicious food, thanks to Global Warming. If they become that invasive the government can simply say, "Go out and kill. Take and eat."

But I can imagine the Pork Industry wouldn't like that very much. They would spawn a whole lot of official-sounding bullshit on the public about how wild pigs contain cyanide and worms and will eat children and the cops will come and get you and shit.

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"Oh, this plant is seeding itself all over the garden - it's invasive!" - LOL.

Listen, I'm from the Pacific Northwest where the temperate rainforest climate is very conducive for invasive species, both flora and fauna. I know invasive. A plant seeding itself - or even aggressively seeding itself - does not make it invasive, alright? Be happy, and thankful, that you don't have to deal with horsetail, creeping buttercup, Himalayan blackberry, morning glory, Japanese knotweed, et alia - yes.

Be happy. And eat apples and the apple seeds.

Is Game of Thrones any good?

I have my serious doubts.

I have been hounded with two questions for quite some time. One of them is, "When are you going to get a cell phone?"

The other one is, "You haven't watched a single episode of Game of Thrones?!"

"You need to get a cell phone."

"You have to watch Game of Thrones."

And so on.

So I did get a cell phone - not through purchasing, but just by waiting, hand-me-down from family. Now I just need to get a SIM card for it, and use of the cell phone would only be for certain, strict, bare minimum functions.

Of course, getting that SIM card for the phone...LOL.

Why not just stick the SIM card in the wrist and be done with it?

And I did watch an episode of Game of Thrones! Not because I wanted to, but because I was at a family due, some weeks ago, and they were chomping to watch Game of Thrones, so I watched it with them, knowing I would be lost for not having seen anything previous - though I could gather from the one episode what the refrains are throughout the series.

The main thing that struck me while watching it was, "Why are they constantly talking in severe gravel undertones like Christian Bale's Batman? Are they trying to ruin their vocal cords or something? Huh, this is kind of bizarre."

Aside from that, I'm pretty sure the whole series is sort of plodding, second rate solemnity and generic neo-Medievalist storytelling punctuated with Professional Grade, five-star fornication that conveniently produces no babies.

And I saw from the trailer that the series has dragons. From what I could tell, they are all evil dragons.

"What", said I, "You mean there's no good luck dragons in this show? That is most unfortunate."

Such a great film