Month: November 2010

Danni

The End of NaBloPoMo

Autism, College, Computing, Danni, Gaming, Interface, Mental Health, Physical Disability, Prisoner, Real Life, World of Warcraft

This is my 30th daily blog post for November, which means I’ve successfully completed NaBloPoMo. Some blog posts were pretty short, just a YouTube video and a few words, and others have been a bit longer. This month started with Autistics Speaking Day, and finished with me being housebound because of the snow. In between were lots of posts about college (especially missing it quite a lot because of illness and snow). I cut down my hours at college near the beginning of the month, sorted out a problem with support on a Wednesday, and overdid it a lot, meaning I was firmly in a boom and bust cycle of ME. I played a lot of World of Warcraft, was discharged from the mental health service, got sucked into TV Tropes for over a week, bought a new hoody (that has been worn more days than not), and spent most of the month in severe, chronic pain that my painkillers don’t come close to touching.

I also met a couple of the stars from one of my favourite shows from my childhood, caught (and mostly got over) a cold, took part in a big launch event for an online film, played Quasar Laser in my wheelchair, and rewatched season 1 of Dollhouse. My mood dipped a bit for a few days while I struggled to cope with a worsening in pain, but has mostly improved now, possibly with the enforced rest the snow has given me.

Overall, a rather mixed month. Today again I was stuck indoors due to the snow, but tomorrow is the Christmas meal and cinema trip with my tutor group, which I will be going to even if I need to get a taxi to go there. I will be attempting to go to college in the morning, but will need to see based on what the weather is, what the buses are doing and what the roads and pavements are like near here. We do have a plan that involves pulling my wheelchair backwards in the snow, as the bigger wheels should mean it works better.

I shall try to keep blogging daily, or near daily, but I won’t put myself under the pressure I did this month. At least there won’t be any more panicked blog posts just before midnight because I’d forgotten earlier in the day 🙂

Danni

Snow and the Equality Act

College, Danni, Physical Disability, Real Life, World of Warcraft

Snow breaks the Equality Act 2010 (which mostly replaced the Disability Discrimination Act 1995). It does not treat all people equally, and is in fact biased towards those without physical disabilities. Instead of being nice and easy to move in, it is sticky and thick, which makes it difficult or impossible to move in. If you have balance problems, dyspraxia or similar, then Snow makes you more likely to fall over and injure yourself. If you require mobility aids such as walking sticks, walking frames or crutches, Snow is slippy, prevents the walking aids from getting a grip, or gets caught on them, making walking very difficult. If you require a wheelchair to get around, snow gets caught in the wheels and traps the chair, making it impossible to move. Abled bodied people, though inconvenienced, are able to move in Snow, and are also able to enjoy the more pleasant aspects easier, including making snowmen and having snowball fights.

The first step in combating this problem should be to send Snow a warning, and make some suggestions. These include giving a lot more warning when it decides it wants to come play, avoiding roads and pavements, spreading a bit more evenly across the country so we don’t have a situation like now where some parts have none and others have too much, and being less slippy and sticky. If Snow does not heed this warning, it should be shut down altogether, or expelled from the country.

(Note about today’s post- it is a joke. I am annoyed because I couldn’t get out to college today, as my wheelchair got stuck in the snow. I am aware that weather cannot be held to any human laws, and I also know that this post isn’t very well written (I blame pain). Instead of being in college, I spent most of the day playing World of Warcraft. At least that was fun :)).

Danni

Turkey Time

Danni, Real Life, World of Warcraft

Danní of Bloodhoof-US is now level 26. Dannilion of Zangermarsh-US is now level 14. I still can’t trade, use the auction house, send or receive mail, but other stuff still works. Odd. I bought the Burning Crusade for that account to see if it would fix it- it didn’t.

Dannilion is a Blood Elf Priestess I created today to take part in the “It Came From The Blog” event run by Robin Torres of WoW Insider. It was fun, as Robin’s events normally are (I’ve been watching her stream for a while now, and we play Lucky Train together on Facebook).

I have a horrendous headache. Wondering how to get rid of it. Even tempted to take codeine, which would mean I’m up all night with stomach cramps. Hard choice.

Danni

Being the expert at breaking stuff, part 543

Danni, Real Life, World of Warcraft

I’ve managed to break World of Warcraft. Well, my account is broken. I have all the currency restrictions (can’t use the auction house or mail stuff, even to my own characters) but not the communication restrictions (I have a RealID friend and have been talking quite happily in General and Trade chat) of a trial account. Oh, and I have mail that I can’t pick up. I have a full copy of the game (yay $5 sales!) and have added my subscription information, so it should work. I’ve had a GM ticket in since yesterday, and it’s been escalated, but I’m not sure what to do now. It does stop me making gold on the auction house to be able to buy stuff like cooking skill and (when I get to level 20) riding skill. My character is level 19 at the moment, shall be interesting to see if she can go above level 20.

I am still in more pain than I can cope with. This is really bad. It is clouding my thoughts and making it difficult for me to do things. I hope some of it eases off soon, as I want to be able to go to college on Monday. I’m also exhausted, so am going to bed in a minute even though I’ve only been up a few hours. Having ME sucks.