Everything Bloggy

aging #1

30/9/2017

So, when I was young I'd think
♡ why doesn't that old lady acknowledge me and wave
♡ why does my mum always want me to appreciate what she's done by telling me about it
♡ why do oldies whinge about the state of the world, the state of young people, where society is headed
♡ when is that old man gonna stop being so slow and get on with crossing the road
♡ when is that old lady ahead of me in the queue going to hurry up and get out of her handbag and pay for her damn groceries

Now I'm getting on, I think
♡ some appreciation, please
♡ are you blind? Hellooooo!
♡ why do they hate me saying "in my day", "when I was young", "back then"
♡ why doesn't the west appreciate the wisdom of the old
♡ why isn't aged eccentricity appreciated more
♡ why not ask us oldies what we'd do in this situation, that circumstance
♡ don't they know I can't see them to wave, without my glasses on?
♡ stop questioning my occasional lack of motivation and accept I'm getting older

Next time #2 we will delve a little further into aging.
(Click on Aging in the list at right (and below on mobile) to read more blogs.)

addicted to mediocrity

29/9/2017

Here is a blog I wrote on Blogger in 2009. Nothing much has changed, in fact I believe it's worse these days.
I have since left Facebook.

2009-12-06T22:26:39.223+10:00

How have our lives changed sharing personal stuff? I just read a blog. The lady had 1045 followers and all of her posts had no more than one or two comments. That gets me wondering. Why are these one thousand and forty-five bloggers following her? Is it all about them - getting their blogs out there but not one scrap of interest in this lady's cooking blog? Hello, love to be your friend. Goodbye, nice knowing you but I'll still pretend I'm around. And do we really know these people? Not a hope in hell.

What is our motivation? People are hoping they'll get noticed. I'm hoping my art gets noticed. This is, after all, an art blog and not about my relationship problems, health issues, my motivation or lack thereof or my frustration trying to be heard and get my "work" noticed.

I'm on facebook. I have 20 friends. But only one or two consistently take an interest and comment. Why don't more of my friends/family pop by, I comment on theirs. It starts to become a comparison. Now years ago, none of these feelings popped up if I didn't receive a letter in the mailbox. Because we all knew it takes effort to get out a pen and paper and you rang if you hadn't heard. And chatted voice to voice. Plus people were busy with Real Life. Now we/I stare at our facebook profiles and whatever else we're created online and wonder where everyone is and what the heck we're doing this for and why. Then if we're considering deleting our fb account we think, oh all this time I've invested and oh dear I'll miss out on those photos my friends/family put up.....forgetting that if we did, they could still email us a pic or send us a link or even send us a link to their fb photos...or HEAVEN FORBID post us a printed photo. Maybe even ring us of their own volition?! Or write us a letter? (total bliss!). Remember those printed photos? Or have you forgotten already?

Addicted to Mediocrity was a book I read in my church-going days. By Francis Schaeffer. Addicted to mediocrity seems to me to be the disease of the century. Once upon a time you were good at something menial or manual and respected. Now every man and his dog can have a go on the internet at whatever they want and put up a poor showing. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of good stuff out there and valid original creativity. But it reminds me of reality tv. So much mediocrity, rubbish, off the cuff garishness, boring talk, rudeness, glaring oafish trash. I'm glad for all the good in my Real Life that keeps me grounded. But I still deal with frustration every day, well nearly every day.

introducing my musician son, JEREMY HUNTER

20/9/2017

https://www.youtube.com/user/jeremyhuntermusic

See the video on my youtube channel: https//www.youtube.com/user/riteasrain

Jeremy Hunter is a songwriter and producer from Brisbane, Australia, who just happens to be my son. This promo video has excerpts of his current weekly podcasts, original songs and covers. It was my idea to promote his channel on youtube and because I love his music. I am the editor of this video.

He has formed bands, performed since teen years, his songs played on radio, discovered by TripleJ Unearthed, travelled to the UK with his music, a full history of musical endeavour.

Many of his songs are melancholy yet beautiful ruminations on love, loss, dreams and death which spring from personal experience. He strives to retain a tenderness in his music whilst exploring emotionally complex territory.

Jeremy both plays and produces entirely on his own, showcasing both his production skills and talents as a multi-instrumentalist. The results are lush layered walls of piano, guitar and harmonies that swell and subside, all the while supporting his ardent vocal style.

Visit:
https://www.youtube.com/user/jeremyhuntermusic
https://soundcloud.com/jeremyhuntermusic
https://www.facebook.com/jeremyhuntermusic
https://jeremyhuntermusic.bandcamp.com/

what do you do...

27/7/2017

...when you have a seriously bad accident that ultimately changes your life, your view of the world (although mine has always been skewed...like my dominant-use arm and hand), your body's ability to ever be as flexible again as it was prior, and changes your opinion of people's relationship with you, your opinion of people ... period?

I have had to compensate, readjust, re-evaluate, re-find, accommodate, counterbalance, reconcile, balance, accustom. Super-sensitivity ... I was going to say "doesn't help", but that is what people tell me and I refuse to say that to myself. My sensitivity has given me my gifts and talents. (But) it also makes me, my body, my skin, my senses, my ability to live this life, difficult because of my awareness of life and living, and the thin thread that holds us from dying. We die, we all die, we all die eventually whether it's 10 years away or 2 minutes. Facing actual death which I have done a few times, is life-rattling. And falling does that. Yes, "thankfully you didn't hit your head, break your hip, break a leg". People say that but it negates a further conversation about how rattled I was by the whole experience. I look for depth. Brushing off my experience with an "anyway", which crops up so many times in conversation with friends and family after I have "shared", doesn't cut it.

Anyway ... this isn't about them. This is about finding myself again, finding my music, my art, my gaming love, my use of limb and life. I am on the way there but it takes guts, courage, detachment, love and dare I say it, commitment. A word I learned to hate in my cult days. It is about acceptance, accepting the fact that my fall is another nail, not in the coffin, but in the stack of difficult, harrowing experiences I have been through, mind-boggling, nailed as an extra experience and weight on top of all that's already happened to me. I hear "drama queen", "over-the-top", "yes-but", "be grateful". Too bad, this is my life and my experiences make me compassionate. There are many many many of us on this planet just like me. Many don't speak up, don't need to, don't want to. Silent, because negativity, perceived negativity, isn't looked kindly on in this day and society.

This is my story. Will I ever be grateful for it? No, I doubt it. But it's still my life, my experience. It is me. Is that sufficient? Maybe not. I have to live with it though. No choice. And once again, in spite of depression and PTSD, I paint, I draw, I game, I play, I watch, I read. I have once again found, hauled back, my loves.

What else can you do? After all, I am still alive.

frustratingly weird things about the internet

22/12/2016

■ Companies making groups and competitions on Facebook and Instagram when many people aren't on social media and don't want to be but still want to be involved in the competitions, so they can't join in. Then getting a reply email that a competition isn't available elsewhere eg on the company's website (which isn't hard!). Sites like Hydrocryl, although Colour in Your Life has sought to accommodate.

■ People on YouTube not making their own videos but making compilations from other channels and reuploading them as their own and making money because YouTube recommends them.

■ There is no art category on YouTube. I have asked numerous times because there are millions of us artists needing this category for more specific search.

■ YouTube subscribers (read "teenyboppers") commenting on videos about anything but what's on the video, enamoured with stupid prank videos by channels like Pewdiepie, Markiplier, Jakesepticeye.

broke my arm

28/10/2016

site name update

29/5/2016

Hi to all the millions that read my blog! :D

Today I updated my website from hillies-imagenation to rightasrainstudios. I've been known as "rightasrain" on the interwebs for years and decided it would be a great idea to change the name of my site because hillies-imagenation (the "e" meaning electronic - trying to be a smart-ass!), which I came up with way back in the early Noughties, has dated considerably. Of course people read it as Hillie's Image Nation which was not what I intended. It was supposed to be Hillie's Imagination! Lol some things just don't pan out! Also the hillies-imagenation domain name runs out in a month so it's good to have a bit of spring cleaning.

A month ago I busted my rib and I still have some discomfort eg can't drive or walk for long distances, plus get spasms and some chest pain. Doc has cleared it but still "scary as" at my age. Anyway, ever onward and upward.

I've been doing art journalling and having fun with it. It's more collage with paint, using life situations and attitudes for inspiration. For that, check out my new Art Journalling page.

Best to you all, catch you next time.

it's free if you pay!

7/7/2015

" a free version of the console available to subscribers who pay"....

Laughable. This is so true of so much of what goes on these days! :(

http://www.cnet.com/au/news/bluestacks-new-android-console-is-almost-free-forever/

Lauren Hillenbrandt on CFS

28/6/2015

Lauren Hillenbrandt wrote "Seabiscuit" and it was made into a film.

She talks here of her life with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

On Wikipedia, this really struck me because I've been there done that:

Hillenbrand says, "I'm looking for a way out of here. I can't have it physically, so I'm going to have it intellectually. It was a beautiful thing to ride Seabiscuit in my imagination. And it's just fantastic to be there alongside Louie as he's breaking the NCAA mile record. People at these vigorous moments in their lives - it's my way of living vicariously."

I would answer the same way as Lauren Hillenbrandt:

What would be your advice for people who have been diagnosed with CFS?
Lauren Hillenbrandt:
"It's such an individual journey. But what I would say is, no matter what happens with this illness, I think it is possible to carve out a dignified and productive life. This illness takes everything away from you, and you have to find completely different ways to define what your life will mean to you. But I think it's possible to make a good life. I have been happy in the time that I've been sick. It requires a real redefinition of everything, but I think it is possible to do."

clever idea! used in caravans & more

9/5/2015