Masks vs Souls & Meta Mishaps (Patreon)

“When you photograph people in color, you photograph what they're wearing. But when you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their souls.”

Do you agree?

I'm a "maybe" on this. I love, love, love the artful contrast of B&W.

But I also love the vibrant energy of color. Your opinion?

Meta Mishaps

I woke up this morning to several texts/emails letting me know that my Facebook, Instagram and other Meta profiles were gone. I checked. This was indeed true.

I have no idea why. In this "new normal" of AI policing, they don't have to give you any reason, and all you get is a button to click to 'dispute', no chance to defend yourself in writing. I just know that I had well over 20,000 organic, real, unbought followers on each platform. This is how I get my bookings for work, shoots, comic cons...it's how I stay in touch with people, push my sites, push my podcast/find guests, and more.

It sucks. Not sure what happens next. Not sure I have the time or energy to start over, and in THIS world, you cannot get those numbers again. They will not let you unless you're currently on TV or pay for it.

Sigh. "What a pleasure." That's what we're taught to do in Kabbalah when something DEEPLY UNSAVORY happens. To avoid reacting. To pause, embrace "the suck" and say "what a pleasure." To recognize that life is happening FOR us, not TO us...and "what can I learn from this? What's my role in this? How can I take accountability for this problem?"

I know I should not have put so much into this one company, and now I know I definitely shouldn't have linked FB and IG together. It's weird how much we rely on social media if we're online creators. And how few corporations control everything. And by "weird", I mean alarming and not cool. This is giving me real pause as to what my options are where I'm not putting everything in someone else's hands. My own site is just static. I don't take subscriptions anymore because the costs were exceeding the profits. The banks jacked the credit card fees to insane rates for sites with nudity Hosting fees and app fees became ridiculous - and none of this was a "thing" before. Even sites like this take 20% across the board, plus fees. Clips4Sale takes 40%. It's pretty wild. Etsy raised all their fees to where it was no longer worth it to sell candles/soaps online - I ended up working for free or going into debt after costs. So, I still make them, but only sell in person. (Just made an amazing olive oil soap that's gardenia, orange blossom & mahogany scented...so good!) :)

That said, this is my FAVORITE site. I love Patreon, I love the vibe, I love the people on here (thank you!!!), and I love that we can be creative and make it into whatever we wish. So, while all of this (above) is unexpected and unpleasant, I am truly grateful for you and appreciate you being here with me!On the silver lining, now I have a little more time without so much social media to focus on more Patreon updates and dms! :) :) :) (And more are coming. Got Part 2 of that Lonely Chef, the 4th installment of my last photo shoot BTS, more wrestling for my grappling fans, and some super hot pix with video to add!)Wish me luck. Xoxo.