Mirz123

Cross-posted on @mirz333

No, not how long I have been “away” from Deviantart. It is how old my youngest – Hugo – is today. My surprise baby, he was an inspiration for many of my deviations, many deviations created by others, and a character in Relativity.

12 years and a lifetime ago.

I wrote a blog entry celebrating the event over at “The Long Way Through China.” If you want to see my little man today and get nostalgic about the good ol’ days on Deviantart, check it out. In the meantime, I will re-share a picture that was posted here back in the day.

What a cutie.

On another note, as I re-launch my online “career,” I take inspiration from the words of a friend. @@nightshade-keyblade made a comment that he wished he had access to my old emoticons. Well, I had lamented in the past about rebuilding my fan-base and my large gallery. It just seemed too daunting of a task at that time. However, now I am less focused on that and just want to re-post them for the sake of having them back on the web. I have already posted a few here and there, but my goal will be to add more periodically. I do not know if I will ever re-post everything (I literally had 1000s of emotes), but I can make a good college try.

Also, Ravenswood will soon be re-posting over at his account, as well as writing the next entry on my blog. So, if you have missed his wry sense of humor, or simply Jamocha the monkey, you may want to peek in on him.

*** Cross-posted with @mirz333  ***

On July 10, 2024, I had a triple bypass. I should note that my family has a history of heart disease, so while this was seemingly out-of-the-blue, it wasn’t a total surprise. Someone mentioned I was too young to have this happen. However, a week before my surgery, a woman told me her son, who was also 54, dropped dead from a massive heart-attack. So, while it was not planned or expected, I am actually happy that it happened the way it did. Particularly now, while I am on the “young” side and have a better chance to fully recover (say than being in my 60s or 70s).

Of course, with me, nothing can go smoothly and I ended up having complications a couple of weeks after the surgery when my incision split open and I ended up in the ER. Thankfully, my guts weren’t spilling out, but it was ugly and painful and just a mess...like most of my life. Flash forward a few weeks, things are healing now and I am back on-track in my recovery.

Jim is doing okay. Thankfully, while he is still on dialysis, we are hopeful he has some time ahead of him. That time may just be a few years – I think the general consensus says 5 years – but we will take what we can get. That, and there is always the hope for a miracle. Divine intervention or just a good old-fashioned medical advancement, we will take either.

Nevertheless, this whole “episode” was soul-shaking and eye-opening. And perhaps the shot in the arm that we needed. To that end, I have started a blog. I hope it is the beginning of my (for real) return to the online world. I do not plan to abandon Deviantart, and plan to restart my arts in the future, so do keep checking back. However, for the time being, if you want to know what is happening in our world, and are curious about what happened in the past, you can check out this link.

Love you all

(Cross-posted on @mirz333)

Figuratively and Literally.

I had hoped to get back on DA a while ago with my flag project. Of course, life had other ideas. I had to pull-back to deal with what I thought were some minor life issues, but turned out to be serious...and life-changing. There have been more than a few, but the 2 main ones are doozies.

In early January (actually the day after our 30th wedding anniversary), @Ravenswd began struggling with some odd health issues which were perplexing. We were told many things, but the most believable one was that he was "getting old" and had arthritis. As he waited the 6 weeks to get into a doctor to confirm that, he ended up in the hospital with kidney failure (his kidneys were at 5%). Turns out he has an aggressive form of Wegener's Disease. I won't get into more detail; if you want to know more you can look it up. It is better-ish, but it destroyed his kidneys. He is on dialysis now and classified as End Stage Renal.

Oh, and in the middle of all that we lost our health insurance, which we are still struggling to get back. *sigh*

THEN... a few weeks ago I ended up having an episode where I was rushed to the hospital. Turns out I have a genetic heart condition: Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. Again, if you're interested, look it up. After a week in the hospital, I was told I was ok-ish to go, but will soon need surgery to fix a few things.

I once had a dream that I was at a theme park on a disaster ride, complete with bedpans under the seats. That pretty much sums up my life. Needless to say, any creative endeavors that were starting to flower in me have wilted. Ravenswood and I are being practical. We know his time is limited and we are trying to make the best of it. Though with another financial disaster on the horizon, it is tricky. Blah.

Hanging above my desk, I have the "Relativity" poster which was created by @@franciscoetchart. -- 2011 was 13 years and a lifetime ago. So many hopes and dreams. I will not lie and say that I do not spend the majority of my spare time crying. It's hard. I know a miracle can happen, but I have never been lucky in that regard.

Anyhow, I have been hesitant to post because it always seems that I come with bad news rather than happy, but I wanted to let everyone know that my absence isn't because I have forgotten you all. I just don't like to be a downer.

Thank you all for taking the time to read. Again, I cannot guarantee when I will post again, but I will try to check in every blue moon.

(Cross-posted with @@mirz333)

I hate to be reactionary, and since I do not want to accuse anyone who may have been sincere, I will not name-names. However, I was recently approached by someone who stated they wanted me to be their muse and use my @@mirz333 gallery as inspiration for a commission they were working on and would pay me. I said, "sure, but no payment required." However, it did not stop there. This person then seemingly ignored what I had said and stated we were in a "collaboration" and wanted me to accept a check payment for the commission -- wherein I would take my cut, then forward the difference to the artist. They then asked for my bank information and my mailing address. (They were also very insistent when I didn't answer their messages right away.)

As @@ravenswd said, a new spin on an old scam.

A warning, NEVER give out your mailing address to a stranger. And certainly NEVER give out your banking information. There are secure ways to pay and get paid online, through Paypal and other services. I personally have commissioned hundreds of artists over the years and paid money to them (as well as receiving payment for a few commissions I did for others) and rarely had an issue. However, it was always secure transactions and never anything where I had to share personal information.

I should note, I have shared my mailing address with people who became my friends and we exchanged cards and art-gifts. However, never to anyone I hadn't gotten to know first, and certainly not anyone I had just met.

With respect to this artist -- I was worried at first that I would offend the person. I understand the situation may have been legitimate, which is why I was not nasty about it. I explained the situation and why I was doing what I did. However, never take a chance and do something risky for the sake of not-hurting-someone's-feelings.

For anyone who knows me knows that I used to be uber-active on DA and it was due to a scam wherein someone approached me about interest in my fiction series, that I fled the internet for years. The "interest" turned out to be a scam, and the fall-out was so bad I ended up deleting most of my online accounts.  Granted, back then my situation was a bit more complicated, as I was in emotional and financial dire-straits -- dealing with my mother's cancer and losing my house in foreclosure -- and was easy pickings for a scammer. Still, these people target anyone under any circumstances.

So, breaking my semi-sabbatical for this PSA. It's a scary world. Keep safe and protect yourself.

Sharing from my other account:

http://www.deviantart.com/mirz333/art/6WS-978233189

Forced hiatus. Life hits hard, again.

When I return, I have a feeling it will be the same circumstances.

Until then...