Category: College

Danni

Pain Hurts

College, Computing, Danni, Interface, Physical Disability, Real Life

Good news: I have a plan for Wednesdays at Interface. I’ve also dropped a couple of lessons to try and make things a bit easier. I also didn’t fail today’s test (though the proper one is on Monday).

Today has been a day of total exhaustion- falling asleep for a few minutes several times an hour, even nodding off once in my Computing class for a couple of minutes. At the same time, I’m really agitated and using up energy I don’t have moving. Tomorrow is Bonfire Night, so I need to find my earplugs so I can go to the organised display nearby. It’ll be the first time I’ve been to something like that in my wheelchair, so should be interesting. Other than that, I have revision for the test on Monday and lots of emails and letters to write. Pretty boring, really.

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

Cooking with Microwaves

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

It’s not patch day, but I know them all too well 😛

Today I was in Interface all day, and I spent most of it not able to really concentrate, but that was okay as nothing was that difficult. In Tutorial we decided what we are going to do as a tutor group for Christmas, then researching places and prices and things. During study time, I started my work experience as ICT Support for Interface (turns out I’d agreed to this before half term, and had just forgotten). I managed to fix a problem, and worked out what another needed, and then half-heartedly did some research into printers and laptops until it was lunchtime. I was really tired and couldn’t concentrate at all, so I probably should have rested, but I didn’t. Instead I walked around a lot more than I should have, and kept my mind on hard tasks. Humm. For lunch my friend Scott took me to the Martec (okay, it’s the 1861 club now, but it’ll always be the Martec to me) and I got cheese on toast, a muffin and a can of Monster (I needed the caffeine). I didn’t rest during lunch either, instead spent the time chatting and reading.

After lunch, our lesson was meant to be Communication, but it ended up being a cookery lesson. Interface doesn’t exactly have much in the way of cooking facilities, but we managed to make shepherds pie using just a microwave and a kettle. I’ve had some of the mince part of it (vegetarian mince) and it was quite nice. Johan has a family-sized shepherds pie to eat in the kitchen, but he didn’t want any of it tonight.

The last lesson was Independence, where we were doing budgeting (again). Apart from my amusement that the benefit amounts in one of the scenarios were way off (the scenario had a family of four on Income Support being able to spend nearly £800 a month on food and household items alone… never mind everything else) it was a pretty easy lesson, because basic budgeting I’m pretty good at already. We got to finish early as we’d all finished our work and as Doreen the lecturer put it, it was getting dark 😛

On the way home I got soaked, along with getting shepherds pie on my jeans. I need to figure out a better way of carrying things. Overall today I’ve done far too much (both physically and mentally) and I’m slightly worried about the repercussions of this. I’m already rather ill and doing too much isn’t going to help.

Since I got home I haven’t done much, just pottered on the internet, and had a bath. Now it’s time to bed, and I guess I’ll blog tomorrow. I just hope I can get up in time for my 9am Computing lesson.

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 🙂