Well, I got hacked!!!
I was happily working away trying to get a couple of figurines painted, trying busily to get them finished for a show when my phone started binging. A while later, having, in my distracted state, given the hacker all the information they needed, I was frantically trying to access my account while the hacker was sending adverts for Bitcoin to all my contacts.
Some of my lovely friends emailed me warning of the dangers of investing in bitcoin, others suggesting that unless I had a really good investment to offer them it looked like I’d been hacked. Page was reported and I was left in the cold world of communication without social media and messenger.
The figurines turned out good though!
‘Travelling on”
‘Treetail’
It made me aware of just how much time I was spending mindlessly scrolling whenever I had a spare moment and how reliant I was on social media for communication and self-promotion of my art. We are very vulnerable to the whims of social media companies!
Well, that was only the start of the saga……
I had no luck reinstating the accounts, decided to cut my losses and start all over again. With some help I made a new Facebook account, new Facebook page and Instagram. Spent some time convincing doubtful friends and family that yes, this one is legit, the real me, was hard at work building up the art pages again, when……..
Facebook decided my new page was impersonating my old page and shut me out of all my accounts again! I have spent many hours wallowing in the unhelpful help pages, doing video selfies, frustratingly going around in circles.
In my efforts to outwit Facebook I now seem to have created three profiles, which both makes me appear dodgy and which I cannot access. My new Instagram is also inaccessible, but randomly, my old Instagram account was given back.
Wow!!! how to make a mess and then make it even bigger!
Silver Linings
Well, after some hair pulling, then a good amount of time spent sulking, I thought ‘stuff you Facebook… what about YouTube?” (Apparently, I can’t survive without some sort of social arty interaction) I started a YouTube channel and started playing around with video.
Video led on to a lot of learning! I downloaded iMovie for editing and spent a lot of time on handy YouTube finding out how to use the app and how to move videos from here to there and back again. I learnt until my brain hurt and then learnt some more!
There is always a silver lining when something goes sideways, sometimes it’s hard to see when I’m in the middle of it and feelings are ranging from mildly irked to severely agitated. Even with some of life’s bigger challenges when I’ve been completely devastated, there is another side, in which case the silver lining can merely be that I’ve become stronger and learnt something about myself and the world.
Unfortunately, sometimes it takes months, even years to find that silver lining with life’s bigger challenges and I’ve taken to sometimes whining to the universe that maybe I didn’t want to be a stronger person or learn about the world, maybe I was happy in my delusions.
Anyway, after my first attempts, I discovered Stop motion animation, downloaded the app, figured out how to use it and got completely sidetracked playing with my wee critters and the magic of making them appear to move.
Its funny how one thing can lead on to another! I found it a great way to learn about editing, having fun is one of the best ways to learn!
YouTube shorts are a great way to become familiar with the platform and editing. Not too scary either because only my hands are in some of the videos. Ultimately, I want to focus on inspiring and educational arty content, and I’ll need to speak in front of the camera, which brings up a whole lot of insecurities.
I have been practicing, making and deleting really crappy, awkward videos in my efforts to become more natural when speaking to a camera. I figure if I do it enough it’ll get better……we’ll see.
How many hours was the magic formula to become an expert at something? Haha, hope I haven’t left my run too late; I need to fit in some awesome art too!