Category Archives: From the Author

!FACEBOOK TRUMPED ME!

I WAS DEACTIVATED FOR VIOLATING FACEBOOK TERMS.

Yes, this old D.J. has fallen from the cloud. DE-platformed just like that other silenced D.J. Trump.

You see, in mid-August 2021 the N.S.W. Police Minister David Elliot warned “people should not physically attend anti lock-down / vaccine protest rallies…” and instead suggested “…express your protest passively and safely to the media or online.”

In response I made a YouTube video titled ‘Passive Protest.’

Upon sharing on Facebook within 48 hours my book no longer had a face. My video had not a skerrick of hate, abuse or misinformation. In fact, content included actual video grabs of N.S.W. Premiere Gladys Berejiklian and Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant substantiating the very stats I presented.

I was strong and dark humored with my opinion. But why should Gladdy and Kezza’s daily statistical information (overload) be exempt from scrutiny in this topic of such contention where public health in the overall socioeconomic picture is lost in their equations. Mental health and peoples livelihood are critically at stake!

But hey, so much for my right to ‘passive protest’ in a law biding way! So much for debate in our democracy!! So much for free speech!!!

Judge for yourself, you can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/fdiYShhNEjU

Now my Facebook is reduced to a name and a lifeless cameo silhouette. EVERYTHING IS LOST. Not one post, word, comment, photo, contact, message, or even an emoji remains. All GONE, after 14 years loyal customer presence hanging out in the FB cloud with my friends, family, strangers (some becoming friends), and vast connections networking with the local to global community.

I’m still awaiting confirmation that my appeal even got through, let alone if reinstatement will happen, as its virtually impossible to get anywhere past the Artificial Intelligence ‘NON’HELP Centre. Here, are endless detours, roundabouts and dead-ends specifically designed to ensure there is no human contact. All, basically designed to ensure nobody penetrates their cyber-base-headquarters.

And so, dazed and confused in the procedural rigmarole of this MEGA MONSTER CLOUD, I wasted at least another day of my life (non)-communicating with no-one. Talk about Ghosting!

Even I, who believes himself to be a tough trooper, now had to deal with the confrontations of my own mental health and emotional being. In an instant, a significant segment of my life history sadly vanished into thin air without a trace like some ‘Missing Virtual Person’.

The initial shock, confusion (and panic) of this new reality has sent me on a profound journey unfathomable to explain. Begging so many questions:

Did this BEHEMOTH CLOUD weigh heavy on me? Clouds, no matter how pretty or alluring, hold tonnes of water-vapour, and when inside we essential are immersed in fog. And, with no warning the cloud broke and suddenly I found myself having to grow wings to fly above its weighty limitations, expectations, obligations (addiction???)

Was I following a daily routine worshipping a variety of screen-size gods from the clouds? Was I under the spell (cult-control?) of ‘a cyber religion’ dominating me to follow the prevailing daily weather patterns produced by the cloud? Hey, when long-term daily weather is taken into account (like say 14 years) weather can be modelled as ‘a climate’. A ‘social-media warming’ crisis?

Is this an opportunity to permanently escape the clutches of the monster? Can I look into a cyber-life from now on with a cloudless clear sky view, breathing new crisp fresh air?

Am I glimpsing on the horizon a return to a simpler, more natural way of life? Is that even possible today in an atmosphere already saturated with A.I., techno dependent mass-information overload, that seems (is) inescapable and necessary to just operate and exist?

Can I choose to independently manoeuvre myself through or around the cloud? I caution myself to remain aware of its essential use, that I don’t perhaps throw out valuable collected rainwater, nor overthrow the worthwhile in deciding what portions to keep or throw away. As regardless, ‘it’ does serve valuable functions for modern humanity.

But I have much irritation and indeed anger with our (over)-A.I. Governed world as we submit and allow ‘it’ to decide and over-rule us (we as humans) becoming ‘its’ servant and not ‘its’ master!

Worse still, would be a human hack, hacking out my tongue to silence my voice. Perhaps for example, someone finding my differing opinion intolerable and being reported to the unconscionable A.I. At the mercy of ‘its’ DE-Activation button passing ‘its’ judgement, incapable of ‘it’ understanding human conversation, explanation and open debate.

This would present the saddest and darkest storm cloud of all; hiding behind the arrogance (and dangerous) control of a giant social media entity that has become a law unto themselves.

Not sorry if I offend, but our society today is more than ever divided and polarized, and ESSENTIALLY more than ever, demands our RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH!!!

MY FIRST AUTHORED BOOK

Well, co-authored to be correct.

For over a year, with limited resources, I was part of the dedicated volunteer ‘Surfing Lennox Crew’ applying our best efforts to assist the Lennox Head Heritage Committee produce a 104 page book Surfing Lennox: From Then to Now.

The  book chronicles 70 years surfing around the town of Lennox Head and takes you on a wild ride following the evolution of the town from a once sleepy fishing hamlet, to when the first lone surfers tentatively entered the water, to the seemingly unstoppable crowds attracted today to the iconic world renowned surf location.

The book covers the breaks of the Lennox National Surfing Reserve (LNSR) stretching from the south between Flat Rock to the Lennox Head-Alstonville Surf Club in the north. It is ten years since the dedication of the LNSR and the book explores all the themes that define National Surfing Reserves: ‘sites of environmental, cultural and historical significance to the Australian surfing culture.’

Behind this backdrop are the people, groups, the characters who were born here, visited, stayed or have come and gone. It is not only the location and environment, but this diverse bunch that together in some way, shape or form, makes Lennox such a special and unique ‘buzzing’ town.

As co-authors’ our contributions combine with materials delivered via donations from the public to make for irreplaceable recollections the local community can now keep as an archival document.  The volume of information and images received was overwhelming and we faced some difficult challenges; many decisions about inclusion were very tough to make.

To include everything and everyone was impossible and there is no claim as definitive, but in turning the history pages of our towns surfing journey the modest size book still covers a great measure of authentic ground. Who knows, perhaps, with more resources the next generation could produce a definitive history and fill a large 300 page hard-cover book.

But right now we do finally have an interesting, stylishly presented book. And all entirely locally produced, edited, designed and printed!

Monies from the sale of the book will go to the not-for-profit Lennox Head Heritage Committee and Lennox National Surfing Reserve Inc.

Surfing Lennox From Then to Now is currently selling at Lennox Post Office,  and local shops, Anchor Chief, The Book Room, Lennox Head Surf and ABC Bookstore Ballina for $49.00 RRP.

From the Author

MY AIM AS AN ARTIST:

To fill your senses with the Uplifting, Beautiful and !Buzz! of LIFE!

My experience in photography has evolved since the 1960’s.

As an artist I  picked up the brushes in the mid-1990’s and painted acrylic watercolours onto ceramic tiles.

Around 2005 I commenced experimenting with the Digital Imaging of my artworks. My methods include taking photos of my original paintings (or working from original photographs) and altering on Photoshop into many different ‘evolved images’. So now many images have become a varied ‘Digital Image Original’ of its own.

Over the years I have found it difficult to part with any of my original creations and rarely sold my painted tiles and usually only parted with them as gifts to a few lucky relatives and friends.

Now via the VILARTTIO website when you discover any treasures to make your own they can be purchased by contacting me.

At present there is no shopping-cart but I look forward to communicating more personally about your order.

My Image Evolution

Many years of evolutionary work have gone into my Artworks.

For 50 years I have worked through the evolution of a variety of mediums, equipment and technology. From a child in the 1960’s, with my ‘plastic toy’ Kodak camera impatiently waiting a month to see the results of my fuzzy Black and White photos, to today’s instant result devices.

As a kid I was also drawn to my father’s hobby as a Super 8 Film Home Movie Fanatic and I would assist him with filming, lighting and post production, splice, cut and editing.

I was most fascinated watching Dad create special effects for his movies as he painstakingly filmed for hours ‘frame by frame’ time-lapse footage of letters and objects moving across a background.

When the movies were finally developed and eventually delivered (Super 8 took 6 weeks!) we would watch the result of these letters somehow appearing to move magically into position across the screen and become actual words, titles and credits!!!

The old days of hobby photography and home movie making were far from economical. To shoot and develop just a 3 minute Super 8 movie in comparison today would costs hundreds of dollars. And that’s Super 8 with no sound!

By the early 80’s as the Super 8 era drew to a close, another good photographer mate had bought one of the first model Panasonic ‘portable’ videotape cameras. After the initial set-up costs the overall long-term process was becoming far more economical. Now we even virtually had instant playback! And so off we went filming our surfing and camping adventures.

However these videotape cameras were quite big and alone weighed a few kilos. PLUS they had to be  plugged into a video-cassette and supported battery source the size of a carry-on luggage suit case. If you were to board an aircraft today with this gear you would already be over the weight limit before you even packed a pair of socks and undies.

I continued shooting with a variety of film stills  and video cameras until eventually in 1999 reaching the digital age when I started my job as a Photographer with the iconic Australian publisher the ‘Trading Post’. While the company constantly updated their digital cameras it wasn’t until 2005 that I had enough faith in the developing technology to purchase my own digital SLR camera.

As an artists I seriously picked up the  brushes in the mid 90’s using watercolours on ceramic tiles. And so now armed with my own digital camera I commenced shooting my artworks. A couple of years later I started experimenting with Digital Imaging the artworks in Photoshop.

In today’s ‘instant’ hi-tech world there is still a lot of time consumed in the editing and development process, resizing and applying different formats for print or downloading to websites & social media etc. PLUS the continued learning curve associated with rapidly changing I.T. and technology in general.

The great thing about today’s technology is with Digital Imaging we can basically vary image sizes, shapes, colours, the print mediums and more to suit any persons individual taste or preferences.

In reality, when we add to this the time spent on the creative processes, then even in today’s world, quality works of art  are still not produced in an ‘instant’ and still take time to master.

SO YES: many years of evolution have formed and fashioned my artworks that you see today.