August Blogging Challenge Days 1 to 18

Who are you?

I’m a disabled person who loved to do digital art – mostly fractals. I have a passion for helping people when I can and in the ways I can. I’ve spent a lifetime doing just that. I live to make people’s day a little bit better and do several things every day to do just that, even when I’m in terrible pain. That brings me to the fact that I’ve been living in chronic pain for about 28 years now, and at times it’s absolutely terrible.

I’ve done many jobs in my life. Working in a graveyard, selling vacuums and several others. I enjoyed working in an antique style print shop, and most of all I enjoyed working as a cook. That was my longest job.

I watched both my parents die – I was there for them always. For Mom I almost ended up in the hospital taking care of her, and it took a part of me when she passed. She was in a care home for just over a year when she died. It was the hardest thing I have ever done to watch her rot away and lose her mind, then die blind and def. I’ll never get over this, and it will haunt me to my dying day.

To sum it up – I’m a loving and caring person who does not intentionally do any harm to others. I have a great capacity for love. I’m mentally ill and it gets in the way of life a lot. But I’ll always be there for my friends.

Something you overcame.

The trauma of being interfered with by my youth pastor. I was 13 and he tried to “have me”. It messed me up for a long time and made me displace depression with anger for years. But in the end, I worked my way past this horrible happening to become a much better person.

Your bucket list.

Well, the only things on it are to be able to see my online friends, who are like family to me. They are there for me always. I’d love to see them all. But I’ll never have the money or the ability to do so, so it will be on the list until I’m gone.

The only other thing is to see Yellowknife. It’s a city way up north. I’ve wanted to go there for many years. A good friend promised to take me, but he passed away. I’ll never be able to get there – I’ll never have the money and probably my health would not let me anyways.

I’ve never really wanted to do anything else that I have not done. I’ve had a fortunate life in the early years and got to see a lot of things.

Show me your home.

Well, I’m not doing this one. I’m not going to the bother to take photos and so on. Besides, I have a video up on my vlogging channel for it.

Describe morning and night routine.

For the morning – I get up, go to the bathroom and then make a coffee or a tea. I then check my social media and so on. Then I do what need I to do on the computer and go on about the rest of my day.

For the evening, that’s easy. I just go to bed. If I’m dressed for a change, then I get undressed, and off into bed I go.

What do you do most days?

Almost exactly the same thing over and over. Other than what I’ve said – I post a few things on Instagram, and I listen to some music or watch some streaming. I don’t tend to do very much these days. On Thursday I tend to go for coffee most days. That’s normally the only day I get out and about.

Review a book or movie.

Paper Dragons (2021) A Quick Review

This is about a mentally ill man working a dead-end job and trying to get his son to Disney Land with spare change.

He is hounded and attacked on all sides by family and coworkers. When he lashes out, there is no surprise at all. Hell, the promo poster gives it away.

He's been working on a graphic novel with his son for years, and when the mean-spirited coworkers vandalized it, he snapped.

The movie is one long and very slow-paced descent into madness and violence. The only thing is, you're not really sure if it happened or it's in his head.

The acting is not great, and it has the worst job of crying I've seen an actor ever do. The story is sound, but this needs work to flesh it out. As is it's not very good.

IMDB 4.2/10 ME 5/10 - it's only worth watching. A lot of people hated this film, but I don't think they understand it. It could have been a good movie with better writing and acting. The concept is a good one.

Five facts about you.

I live in chronic pain and have for most of my life.

I’ve been locked up on the mental ward for more than one reason.

I’ve been a nudist most of my life, and it started in childhood.

I had 3 ex’s that I lived with for a short time and they all turned out to be abusive and controlling as hell.

I was at the side of both my parents when they died.

A story from your past.

Two friends and myself where on our bikes just after dark and just Noth of the city limits. There was a foundation of a cottage that was there many years ago. We all saw a ghost of a woman in white flowing gown holding a baby.

A rant.

So, there is this absolutely mental person who in my mind has no way to function in society in any meaningful way – and he’s been on my ass on the internet for over 2 decades. No matter where I go, there is crazy boy. You can’t fix stupid and crazy can only be fixed if it wants to be, and it’s obvious be doesn’t know he’s insane. I find myself thinking that people who are obviously this dangerous to others should be forced into some kind of facility for the rest of their days, so they don’t cause decent people problems. I could get rude, but what’s the point here. The fact that western culture just allows severely mentally ill people to walk the streets and do what ever the hell they want to who ever they want to do it to, is a blatant failing to the people this society is set up to help. Instead, they are given a home, food, the internet to be mental on, and all manner of comforts. They don’t punish them, they enable them.

Something you are good at.

Making people’s day a little better. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to do this in my own little way.

Reaction to a recent local news story.

Some new public art pieces were installed at the Moose Jaw tourism center recently. There is a red river cart, and a Moma Bison with her Calf on display now. I love them. They are adorable. It fits the history of the area very well and I’m glad that they were put there.

Review a band.

Well, I’m normally better at this than I’m going to be, but I’ve not slept well in days due to being in terrible pain. But…

Iron Maiden has been going since 1975 and are at this moment in time still going strong. The lead singer also flies their jet. I very much enjoy their music. It can be looked at as a softer kind of metal. They have had some amazing albums and seeing them live a couple of times was so amazing. The vocal ranger of the singer is to say the least impressive for a metal band. The others are very good at what they do. The only drawback I have is that they tend to make a hell of a lot of songs sound rather the same.

I also seem to be the only Maiden fan that did not like Fear of the Dark at all. It’s about the only song of theirs that I did not like at all.

In general, I’d recommend them to anyone who likes metal that is not all that dark and screaming like.

Talk about a trip you took with your family.

We went to Banff National Park when I was 10 (I think). It was amazing. I’ve been to the mountains, but this area is just so over the top beautiful. Where my cousins lived was not even close to the majestic beauty of it all.

It was magical to me to say the least. We were in a cabin and I’m not sure if they still exist. I looked for them online and found nothing. There was a place where you could get feeding for the deer and place it out by a window. The deer would come up and eat it. To a 10-year-old, this was just oh so cool.

It was one of my favorite family trips of all time.

How do you prefer to do the shopping?

Online. I have bad social anxiety, and I literally can’t physically do the shopping anymore. So, I order it in. In the end it’s a noticeable amount more money to spend, but I’m not capable of doing it anymore, so I’m stuck with doing it this way.

Family outing gone wrong.

OK, this one was all on me. So, we were out at a friend of the family’s farm. I was a little kid at the time, and I don’t recall my age, but it was very young. All was going well, and the BBQ was going great and it all tasted so good. Then I saw an ant hill – so I jumped on it. It was red ants, and I was swarmed and bit countless times. I was screaming in pain and freaking the hell out. That ended the good time at the farm to say the least.

An embarrassing moment from the recent past.

This is not doable to me. I’ve not felt embarrassed in many years. In my old age I’ve stopped giving a shit what people think of me to say the least. So, it’s very hard for me to feel that way. The last time I remembered it was probably 20 years ago, and I was on the mental ward. I remember there was an incident, but I don’t recall the details – sorry.

Talk about the music you used to like as a teen.

Well, it started out with stuff like devo, they went kind of wild. I got into Wendy O and all manner of punk bands. Then I got into the metal of the 1980’s and never looked back. I recall watching The Tommy Hunter Show with my family every week. It was country and I enjoyed it as well.