Part 1.
Home/Intro
The original intention for creating this website was to offer a temporary substitute for the long-smoldering book bLISs, a stirring preparation for its finalization and realization. The book itself is an autobiographical novel in which I give a detailed firsthand account of my strokes and of my conceding and embracing their aftermath: LIS (Locked-in Syndrome).
The website was completed and launched in November 2022. However, the book was finished and published in early 2023. Clicking on this image will take you to the publisher’s page, where you can order the Croatian edition of that book directly. (Translation into English is underway.)
If you want to browse only this intro page, feel free to continue reading it (actually—this entire website)! I repeat—this is not a full-fledged substitute for the book in question, but only its supplement, although some necessary information details are shared between them.
Warning: this content is perfectly viewable on smartphones. However, it contains more extensive texts and more complex video and image attachments, so it is recommended that you use a screen/window with a width of at least 1200px—i.e., a larger tablet or personal computer. (Everything is more transparent and readable, and the menu differs.)
Welcome to webLISs!
(draskoregul.com, ex: RNDA-DRNDA,
Castle Both in Heaven & on Earth)
“You are never given a wish without being given the power to make it true!
You may have to work for it, however…”
R. Bach: Illusions
PART 1.
Intro
Growth
This is a rather refreshed version of my former personal website. (The name was RNDA-DRNDA.) I originally presented LIS (Locked-In Syndrome) in it and my coping with that situation. Later, over time, I gradually added reports about the new life chapters that LIS more or less directly afforded me and strongly marked their performance. All the collected content was somewhat random, but the main themes could be discerned: LIS itself and making art as an example of a possible attitude induced by LIS (at least in my case).
These two stories are now more closely interconnected and extensively retold within a more precisely organized structure. Additionally, the artistic one is backed with a portfolio mainly modeled on the modest attempt of its commercialization on the FAA. Basically, neither is sensational (there are definitely many more difficult/bizarre situations in the world and better-quality pictures). But their mutual interconnection seems to stick out from the average spiritual sluggishness. Therefore, I share it primarily as an illustration of the human capability of self-recomposing.
Of course—this is not an exception; many similar and even more impressive examples exist. But I feel urged:
- to share my own experience that can be directly useful to someone in a concrete similar case,
- to explain to many the background of my activities,
- to intrigue all the web surfers that some search engine or link brings here enough to notice and understand the tendency of everything shown.
Also, when reporting some parts of this story, the Fourth Estate often used half- or distorted information, quite benignly and understandablyDue to the need to convey a difficult-to-explain picture in a (too) short time, inadvertently confusing the interested public. (Honor be paid to persistent exceptions!) For objectivity’s sake, relevant facts marked by the weight of credibility, “honest first-hand information” or “verified second-hand information,” are collected here in one place. (That’s just the factual dimension of this entire story…)
Structure
To salve my conscience, a truncated and simplified autobiography (adapted to this medium) is now organized as a book—by parts, chapters, and sub-chapters.
- A kind of extension of this preface summarizes the inherent message that this entire corner tries to convey and distribute as widely as possible. For this purpose, just enough text was used for it to be singled out in 1a: Mission.
- It is highly recommended that you first read Part 2 (About me). LIS is briefly explained as a medical phenomenon and a suddenly emerging framework for observing and functioning in the world around you.
(This whole part of the background is exciting and exotic. The period that included the first six months spent in hospitals and the subsequent period of getting used to (i.e., establishing) a new normal was flamboyant. Also, the supporting activity of my family in that struggle was vital. All this together made an undertaking that requires (and certainly does deserve) its separate book, which was written indeed and published in Croatia (its translation into English is underway). Here/now, this topic is not a priority, so I will only touch on it in a few details. I want to emphasize that the said undertaking enabled the subsequent superstructure which assembles the basis for the mission of this website!)
Further, some of my LIS-oriented problems are fragmentarily described there. They are mostly not particularly problematic but are nevertheless quite frustrating. And they deviate from the usual human somatic standard, coinciding with some difficulties caused by certain progressive neurological diseasesSlightly more common but still—rare!—e.g., amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or multiple sclerosis (MS). - In Part 3, LIS is also presented as a driving lever—my most prominent keys to unlocking it are described here.
Parts 2 and 3, together with their (sub)chapters, shed a lot of light on the background of the main story. They necessarily feature a little longer texts because they refer to unusual topics relatively unfamiliar to most people, and it is impossible to describe them in two simple sentences… - The last two of the keys mentioned led to the creation of many digital images (photographs/fractal manipulations). They are all compiled and presented in a separate division, Part 4 (Portfolio), thus visually complementing the respective chapters of Part 3. (That topic itself is not a priority here either…)
- The purpose of Part 5 (Contact) and Part 6 (Guestbook) is communication.
(Regardless of the background story and mission, feel free to immediately start viewing the “exhibition,” i.e., the mentioned portfolio!)