Author: Danni

The Purple Penguin! 31 year old autistic geek, living in bed with severe ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis). Likes gaming, purple and penguins.
Danni

A Quick Recap

Autism, Danni, Gaming, Mental Health, Oceanside Elementary, Physical Disability, Real Life, Second Life, World of Warcraft

I was going to write long posts about some of the below, but they’re not getting done so I’ll do a quick post with everything in.

I got married on 13th August to Johan. It was quiet and nice.

We went on our honeymoon to Durham for a couple of nights. It was quiet and nice.

I got enrolled at South Tyneside College to do AS Computing and Interface stuff. This was not quiet and nice (the enrolling process), as it involved arguments over funding, worrying about not being let onto the course, and similar. Luckily, my key worker Louise can work miracles, and it’s pretty much all sorted now. She argued to get me onto the course, to get the funding, she enrolled me so I didn’t have to travel to college for that, she’s sorting out my support, and she made me laugh lots while sorting things out today. Louise, thank you.

I start college on Monday. I’m in three times a week, probably Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. The days suit me, especially since Wednesday is morning and Thursday is afternoon/evening (4.45pm-6.15pm). It means I can do Enrichment with Interface, which is bowling on Wednesday 😀

I’m genuinely happy, and have been for several months. It’s been over a decade since I was last as happy as this for as long 😀 I’m still crazy anxious though, and some days I can’t walk I’m that exhausted, but I’m adapting. Johan’s going to get muscles from pushing me 😛

I’m playing in Second Life again. Danni Ohara is at school at Oceanside Elementary. It’s fun. She’s also on trial with an adoptive family, who are brilliant and I like a lot 🙂

I’m not really playing WoW much at the moment, but will be doing so again soon, once I’m settled at college. I’m still looking forward to Cataclysm, and have decided to buy an online Blizzcon ticket 🙂

I play a lot of Audiosurf. It fits with my lack of concentration at the moment 🙂 I also play a lot of Facebook games 😛

Danni

Swim for Mencap

Important Stuff, Real Life

I will be blogging about normal stuff soon, but first a public service announcement.

My good friend Vicky is planning on swimming across Windermere to raise money for Mencap’s Getting it Right campaign. She’s mad, but this is a very important cause so I encourage you to donate at http://www.justgiving.com/gettingitright. As I am not feeling wordy here’s some stolen stuff about why you should give.

As a result of receiving unequal healthcare, people with a learning disability are dying when their lives could be saved.

The Death by indifference campaign began after six people with a learning disability died in NHS care. Their families were not getting answers about why their loved ones had died, or why they were treated so badly because they had a learning disability. They approached Mencap for help.

As a result of Death by indifference an independent inquiry was carried out, which makes strong recommendations for change to give people with a learning disability equal healthcare. The Health Ombudsman also reported on the six cases.

Mencap wanted a judicial review to challenge some of the ombudsman’s findings, but this was denied in the High Court in December 2009. However Mencap was granted a judicial review in the Court of Appeal on a narrower point of law in July 2010.

In her findings from the six Death by indifference cases, the ombudsman did not find ‘service failure’ when reasonable adjustments were not made as required by the Disability Discrimination Act. She still found that the doctors acted within a range of reasonable practice.

However, Mencap believes the ombudsman should have concluded there had been service failure.

The judicial review is based on a narrow but important point of law, so even if we win the judicial review the six original Death by Indifference cases will not be affected. However, it would have significant implications for the ombudsman when she makes decisions on future cases, involving healthcare professionals making reasonable adjustments to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act.

(From Mencap – Death by indifference).

Also, some links to find out more:
Going Against The Flow (Vicky’s swimming blog).
Mencap – Getting it Right (Mencap’s campaign page)
Just Giving Page (because you can never have too many donate links).

Danni

A New Start

Real Life

Hello, and welcome to Dannilion.com!

I have decided to start a new blog, and since I already have this domain, and the nickname Dannilion, I thought this would be a good place for it. Previously I only had 3 posts, so removing them wasn’t too big a problem.

My previous blog is now read only, at http://dannimatzk.co.uk.

So, why the big change? The main reason is that yesterday (Friday 13th August 2010), I got married to my beloved husband, John Brennand. As I disliked my surname, I have decided to take his, and that means I am no longer Danni Matzk. Instead I am Danni Brennand. This meant the URL of my previous blog was inaccurate. Also, in honour of my new name and new marital status, I thought it would be a good idea to start a fresh blog.

So, for people who are new here, who am I? My name’s Danni. I’m 24 years old, and I live in North East England with my husband, in a flat next to a pub (so it gets pretty noisy). I am autistic (Asperger’s Syndrome) so I’ll occasionally blog about autism. I have mental health problems so I’ll also be blogging about how that affects me. I’m a student currently attempting to go back to college in September (after having to leave last November due to a relapse in my mental illness). I also am currently physically disabled (hopefully temporarily), and am a part time wheelchair user, so disability issues in general will be talked about. Due to the combination of the above, I require a lot of help, which my husband has provided over the last year (he’s my full time carer).

Apart from my real life stuff, I am an avid gamer, and enjoy World of Warcraft especially. I will be blogging about WoW and games in general, as that’s what I spend most of my time doing 🙂 I also spend a lot of time on social networking sites (Facebook, Plurk, Twitter) and talking in IRC and using various instant messengers. I will have a page with the details of how to contact me. I don’t mind too much being cyber-stalked, so long as it’s not intrusive 🙂

I can’t think of much else to say now, but thanks for reading my blog 🙂