Category: Computing

Danni

Dancing Robots

Autism, College, Computing, Danni, Interface, Mental Health, Physical Disability, Real Life

Title relates to today’s Computing lesson- at the start, Simin (our lecturer) showed us a dancing robot (ASIMO). I also discovered that she watched Lost in Space as a child, and she loves Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Geek win.

Otherwise in that lesson, I was there but didn’t really take much in. This is a problem, as I have a test on the processor, machine code and fetch-execute cycles tomorrow. I’m hoping to read the book and gain some understanding tomorrow, as today I couldn’t concentrate, and still feel rotten.

Interface afterwards did not go well. Too much muchness. I asked Johan to pick me up early as I couldn’t concentrate and was just totally fed up. At least I’d finished panicking when he’d arrived. I’ve done nothing since I got home, and I think I’m going to have an early night. I need it.

Danni

October

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

I’ve not blogged properly this month. Bad Danni. Quite a bit has happened, and I hope to get most of it down here.

I’ve been diagnosed with ME. This isn’t a big surprise, as I’ve been ill now for 14 months and my blood tests and things are normal, while my symptoms match. The main symptom for me is muscle and joint pain that isn’t relieved by normal painkillers (ibuprofen and paracetamol), but I’m also exhausted, and often my legs won’t hold me so I can’t walk at all. I have to use the wheelchair all the time when I go out now, which sucks a bit but I guess it’s what it is there for. There have also been a couple of particularly bad days where I’ve had to use it in the flat as well, but luckily that’s not a common thing.

I also have quite a lot of the other symptoms (brain fog, word finding issues, post exercise fatigue that normally causes the leg failure mentioned above) that make life a bit more difficult. The brain fog and stuff makes college interesting, as I have a very poor short and medium term memory (worse than I already had from dyspraxia and stuff) so have to write everything down. It’s not going too badly though, and my Computing test results have been good so far (100% on both of them is good, yes?). I have had to miss a few lessons because of exhaustion, which isn’t great but I’m doing my best to go in.

In Interface, we’re meant to be looking for work experience. Unfortunately, the one I want to do I can’t because it’s upstairs and there is no lift. I’m also a bit worried about work experience in general, because right now I’m simply not well enough to do it. I’m managing college through stubbornness and because it’s familiar, and adding something extra isn’t going to help. I’m also rather ill at the moment (relative to the last year, so since I got ME) and dreading college, not because of the lessons but because I’m not sure how I’m going to stay awake and alert for at least 12 hours a day. This half term I’ve been taking naps during the day, of between 15 minutes and 3 hours. I’m also in a lot of pain, and because of the medication I’m on to keep my brain under control I can’t have any painkillers, so I’m also rather grumpy and grouchy. Realistically, I know I shouldn’t be going to college at all and should be staying home and resting, but I’m determined to get through this year, and so long as I can get dressed (even if I need help) I’m going in.

On Wednesday I went to the Centre for Life with my friend Dean, who was at Interface with me a couple of years ago. We got to see the Doctor Who exhibition, and it was a lot of fun 🙂 It was nice seeing him, as since he lives quite far from me and he’s no longer at college we don’t have that much contact in real life (though we talk online sometimes).

Apart from sleeping (I do a lot of sleeping these days) I’ve been playing a bit of World of Warcraft. Got some of our guildies the Kingslayer title (I already had it from the first time our guild killed Arthas, back in June with the 20% buff), and managed to do some hard modes, including Saurfang, which we managed to 2 shot. I’m not sure if it’s the 4.0.1 changes that made it easier, or just that we had an awesome group, or both, but that was a brilliant moment for our raid. I honestly think that if we get a similar progression group together more often, we could get most of the hard modes in ICC down before Cataclysm comes out. It depends on what the guild wants, though.

As for Cataclysm, I’m really excited for it. I have the collector’s edition preordered from Amazon, which should arrive on the 7th December. I watched the Blizzcon stream which was awesome, and made me wish I could have been there. Maybe in a couple of years 🙂 The login screen and the cinematics are just amazing, and with the changes coming in 4.0.3 I’m really looking forward to it.

I’ve probably missed a lot of stuff, but that goes with the poor memory. Today is Hallowe’en, and so far we’ve had no trick or treaters, though we have got through a bag of Haribo Spooky Mix. Tomorrow is the 1st of November, which is the start of NaBloPoMo. This year, I’m going to try and post every day for the month, and as I liked it last year (on my previous blog) I will be posting a video everyday, on whatever takes my fancy. Hopefully I’ll also type a few words to go along with it.

Also tomorrow is Autistics Speaking Day. I will be blogging about something related to autism and communication, and I may be hosting a guest blog post for the day as well. More information on that tomorrow 🙂

Danni

GroupCamp @ SuperMondays, and Stuff

College, Computing, Danni, Interface, Physical Disability, SuperMondays

On Monday evening, after college, Johan and I went to GroupCamp at SuperMondays. This was the first time we’d been to SuperMondays for months, and it was very enjoyable. The GroupCamp format worked really well, and I went to discussions on the Tyneside Linux User Group (I likes Linux), about automatic learning of RSS feeds and Twitter for filtering purposes (I think), and one that ended up being about pretty much everything (the “kitchen sink”). The great thing about SuperMondays is although I’m not from the same group of people as the others (they’re mostly IT professionals or businessmen (and a couple of women), I’m a college student) I feel quite comfortable in the group, and normally have a good understanding of what they’re talking about.

The downside to SuperMondays is I stayed up past my bedtime (it finishes at around 9pm, we get home around 10pm), and the next morning I couldn’t wake up. This meant I missed my morning lessons at college, and finally got in just after 1pm.

The first thing I did was to sort out my personal emergency evacuation plan, as at the moment I’m having to use my chair a lot at college and I can’t manage stairs. Then we had Problem Solving, where we discovered a big problem- the 1861 Club (formerly the Martec), the student’s club/bar at the college, is going to be closed during the day to extend the evening hours for the Marine students. Most of the students in the college aren’t in on an evening, and use it as a common room/quiet eating place during the day. The Interface students use it quite a bit for dinner, as it’s a lot quieter than the refectory and doesn’t come with the 30 minute queues.

As a class, we are currently trying to protest the closure of the club during the day. We’ve got a petition going, we’ll be talking to people who can help us let the rest of the students know (none of us have been consulted or even told- we found out from Pat, who runs it) and basically letting the college know we’re not happy. This is the first time I’ve been involved in something like this for college, and it’s quite exciting. I’m already one of the class representatives for Interface, and I’m thinking of also getting involved in the student’s union.

In Computing, I think I did okay on the logic gates test we had on Monday. Wednesday our lecturer wasn’t in, so I got the work and did it back in Interface. It was binary and hexadecimal, and none of it was hard, just time consuming. Today we have a test on binary, and I’m not too worried about it. The one thing I am a little worried about is that I’ve not done the homework set on Monday yet, as I’ve been so tired. I will have to do it before I leave for college today.

Danni

2 Weeks

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

I could see it as you turned to stone
Still clearly I can hear you say
don’t, please don’t , give up on me
two weeks and you ran away
I remember don’t lie to me
you couldn’t see that it was not that way
swear I never gave up on you

It’s been two weeks since I started college. It’s going well. I’ve finally got what looks like my full timetable, and if Interface agree, I’ll be in college all day Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and for 90 minutes on a Thursday. Included in the timetable are places to do my homework that I get from my Computing course, so I shouldn’t fall behind on them.

Computing has been good so far. We’re doing binary and logic gates (binary I’d done before, logic gates aren’t difficult), and so far the only trouble I’ve had is copying things down from the board correctly, and missing something from the question. I’m expecting it to get a bit harder as the year goes on, but I’m confident I’ll do okay.

Interface has been fun, but hectic. There are a lot of new students this year, and since I never got to know most of the students from last year I’ve got a lot of new people to get to know. I’ve put myself up for class representative this year, which should be interesting. It has been induction the last two weeks, and so I’ll know better from next week what the lessons are going to be like. I’m not expecting any huge surprises. The first week I only went in Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, but I found that the day off on a Tuesday made it harder to get up on a Wednesday, so I’m going to go in that day as well. Luckily the new timetable shows that there are interesting lessons on a Tuesday, so should be okay.

I’m still extremely tired, and so I’m using the wheelchair to get to and around college. It’s working well, as it means I can focus my energy on my lessons rather than on getting myself around. I’d much rather have the energy to walk, but there’s no point getting upset about something that at the moment I cannot change. On the good side, I’m still pretty happy, which is making everything much easier to cope with, even being in constant pain. I still have my off moments, but they’re bearable now.

Last Sunday I went to the Latin Mass in Gateshead with Vicky. It was interesting, though I couldn’t hear most of it so lost track of what was being said. Then we went to the MetroCentre to look for a swimsuit for Vicky, then for a meal at Wetherspoons. It was nice 🙂

On Wednesday I went bowling with Interface, and it was a lot of fun (plus a few people got a bit of exercise pushing me up the hill :P). After college, Johan and I went to the MetroCentre so I could get a new watch (mine had broken), and we met with Dean (he was at Interface until last year) and went with him. It was great meeting up with Dean, and I finally found a watch (though it is not what I wanted, it tells the time so it’ll do until I can find one that does what I want it to). We went to McDonalds and I had a Mint Chocolate Aero McFlurry, which was yummy 🙂

I’ve been on a diet since Tuesday, aiming to lose some of the weight that I’ve put on since going back on medication. It’s a very simple diet, just changing some of the stuff I eat to more healthy things and trying to keep the calorie intake down. I started monitoring my weight and food 10 days ago, and since then I’ve lost 3lbs. This is good for an initial start, as healthy weight loss is 1-2lbs a week. I’ve noticed that simply keeping track of what I’m eating has meant I’ve been eating less, and we’ve switched from white rice, pasta and bread to wholemeal so it’s meant I’ve been getting less hungry. I’m still eating everything I like (doughnuts, biscuits, chocolate, bananas, chicken), but in slightly smaller portions which is helping. I’m trying not to be overly fussy about it, just letting my weight guide a little how much I eat.

I’ve not been on my computer much the last couple of weeks, barely been in Second Life or World of Warcraft, or on social networking sites. This weekend I’m going to try and catch up a bit, as well as maybe going to Software Freedom Day tomorrow. Also, I have TV shows to catch up with before they all start up again next week.

It’s going to be busy, but I’m enjoying it.