Here’s the standard bumpf email I received:-

Your StumbleUpon account privileges have been restricted and the account is under review.

Accounts are placed under review for breaching our Terms of Service, which may be found here: http://www.stumbleupon.com/terms.html

The most common cause for account suspension is a contravention of the clauses which forbid the use of personal accounts for the promotion of a business, product or service, and also with regard to the sending of ‘spam’ messages to other members.

If you wish to appeal this suspension, having first reviewed the TOS, then you may contact us here: http://www.stumbleupon.com/feedback.php but be aware that we will only have imposed the suspension if we believe it to be warranted.

This is nonsense – god knows what Stumble think they’re doing, ah well I’m sure it never brought me very much traffic anyway, I rely more on word of mouth and recommendation from t-shirt fans and designers, but still, who the hell do Stumbleupon think they are? The Third Reich of Social Social Bookmarking?

At least they didn’t sent around the SU’s with jackboots and Luger’s to take me away for interrogation. All hail the new oligarchy, the self-appointed emperors of taste and fashion. It makes me sick when massive corporations feel they can play judge and jury on one blog to the next. I’ts not as if I’m trying to sell you penis enlargement pills, or money making chainletter programs, deary me, what has the world come to when some spotty trumped up jerk from a backwater town can slam anyone they wish, no matter how worthy the cause or creative the output. IF they want to know who’s spamming Stumbleupon should take a closer look at their whole organisation – these guys have pages upon pages of useless empty accounts with nothing but money making blogs and dumb ass business drivel that swears on the next link you’ll make a million bucks.

I don’t know if Stumbleupon.com have heard of freedom of expression, or the US constitution, or the European Court of Human Rights, but if I gave a flying toss I’d be teaching them a lesson or two right now. Instead I’ll be British about it and surreptitiously stick two fingers up to yet another faceless bland corporation and get on with life. It’s sunny outside, yes it’s blowing a force 8 gale, but it’s sunny and I really should connect a little more with what really matters, a beer on the beach and throwing pebbles on te shore.

Conclusion, if you want to promote your t-shirts never ever ever bother with Stumbleupon.com, tell your friends and even your enemies, Stumbleupon is a massive waste of time, a pointless exercise in futility run by a bunch of jumped up idiots who cover their ears whenever a sensible argument passes them by.

There’s flash. there’s plush, there’s cool, there’s funny, there’s crazy, and then there’s these guys, their style? Well if you can call it that, a ragtag muddle of crazy artists and designers, their style is so way off the scale I’m all out of adjectives (for once). All I can say is they make me feel sick in a good way, not sick with envy, not sick of the sight of anything in particular, but a strange and rather wonderful home sickness for a life I’ve never had.

If only the friends of my youth had been as together (and untogether) as this demoniacal motley crew I’d have probably started a revolution of some sorts by now, oh to be as reckless and carefree as these loonies.

Sure it looks like a kid drew it, but this kid did it first! I mean if you’re going to target anything on the net for a bit of healthy yet highly cynical rib-tickling then Google has to be high on your list. I can’t stand the way we’re all Googled up to the hilt, at least the spell-checker offers some consolation, it’s obvious Google hasn’t quite made it to status of a verb (quite yet), although I wouldn’t be surprised if The Oxford Dictionary isn’t busy scribbling that one in right now. Google is a bummer, it means funny, witty, interesting, novel lunatics have to compete with clever so-and-so’s who live their lives through the mantra of search engine optimisation. Search and Destroy, if you must, you must.

Tees for Sale is downright nasty! I was going to show one of Das Monick’s prettier tees, but I couldn’t resist this ugly mofo. After all it reminds me of home, which is right here, in a tacky seaside town at the nether end of the UK. It’s dark and miserable out there right now, the beach is most likely swirling under a storm of spume and brine, but I won’t even bother looking out of the window because I’ve seen it all before. God it’s so the end of the Summer, even the tacky little souvenir shops on the promenade have lost all their charm, there’s nothing worse than a British seaside town on the downward slope to Winter. This t-shirt says it all for me, a handmade sign in a dirty old gift shop that you’d never normally bother with, except there’s nothing else to do now, you’re stuck, this is your only choice, this or oblivion. Someone pass me the sleeping pills please.

OMG Keren Richter you are hardcore, yes she is, don’t argue with her. Boxing by Keren Richter. What can I say? Am I getting old? Most probably. Do I like this, I’m not sure. Should it really be a t-shirt, who cares, it’s a work of gratuitous genius. If you’re going to get nasty at least make sure it involves two scantily clad women I say. Then again Keren has deftly managed to reduce the eroticism in this image to a near zero, it’s just jaw dropping isn’t it? I mean, ouch mate, that looks painful. I wouldn’t be surprised if Keren modelled for this one herself, I wouldn’t want to get the wrong side of her after a hard night’s drinking, especially if all I have to protect me are a pair of pants (that’s UK pants by the way, not the American sort.) Wear it if you dare!

Phew! …I’m sure you’re thinking. Yep a nice simple and rather attractive tee by Tiffany Malakooti, there’s probably no deep message here, it just looks great, and besides my girlfriend loves it so I thought I’d better include Feather. I’m loving Tiffany’s surname by the way, I’m thinking of changing mine, it might get me a little more attention for my own artwork instead of these reviews, ah well you can’t have everything. I’ve got a boring name but at least I can spend all day (and night and day) reviewing tees and moaning about the weather eh?

Ah, my student days, when everything that didn’t work, everything split, torn, burnt or broken was inexplicably left to rot in the garden for a year or so. But at least Travis can really doodle – man oh man! Travis Millard’s House is a veritable ode to slobbery, if only more people took his attitude we wouldn’t be living in a credit crunch right now. I remember when people were happy to make do, no matter how bad things got, it was called poverty, and no bank would touch you then.

Even a decade or so ago, if you broke it you fixed it, if you didn’t you had to live with it. I just saw a vid about all the junk the West sends over to China and India; old computers, TV’s, electronics of all kinds. No one seems to know how to fix anything these days, instead we just chuck it out and buy more. But not for long. Soon we’ll all be begging them to send it back, and we’ll pay, it’s all swings and roundabouts I suppose.

Like I said, like all these rather insane artists say – Blood is The New Black – now get your skates on!