Category: Gaming

Danni

Fishtail Bracelets

Blizzard, Danni, Gaming, Hearthstone, Loom Bands, M.E., NaBloPoMo, Physical Disability, Real Life

I’ve currently got a problem where I can’t sleep at night. Since that’s when other people sleep and most things happen during the day, that’s an issue. I’m hoping that I’ll soon get over the anxiety and paranoia that’s stopping me sleeping then.

Carer arrived this morning 50 minutes late, as the carer who was meant to be coming phoned in sick, and I was about to get stuff done when her perfume hit me. Since she was still standing in my doorway it must have been extremely strong as I was struggling to breathe without her coming close. I asked her to leave (no strong perfumes is on my care plan and door) and it took over half an hour for the smell to dissipate. Not what I was wanting. I was hoping to wake up for the evening carer, but they came in so quietly that Johan didn’t even realise they’d been until he heard her putting the keys back into the keysafe. I had set an alarm but it didn’t go off for some reason, so I’ll try again tomorrow. The one time I wanted to be woken up it didn’t happen 😛 (I don’t blame the carer for that.)

Spoke to Sammie this evening and she beat me in the Tavern Brawl in Hearthstone. She’s definitely getting better at the game- making better decisions and understanding what to do more. I took a break to watch Doctor Who then we talked after while she was playing Minecraft and I was working on a loom band bracelet. Speaking to her cheers me up loads 😀

My setup for making a loom band bracelet. Trabasack with loom, hook and bands sorted (plus spares as I didn't know if I'd need any more).
My setup for making a loom band bracelet. Trabasack with loom, hook and bands sorted (plus spares as I didn’t know if I’d need any more).

 

I’ve managed to make two loom band bracelets in the last couple of days, both reversible and based off fishtail patterns. The first is called a reversible slipfish, and I made it with glitter jelly bands from my massive box of loom bands (it has 15,000 bands in that should keep me going for a bit). I first tried it a couple of days ago but made a mistake that was really noticeable and too far down to really repair, and I wasn’t happy with the way the colours had gone so while I couldn’t sleep last night I decided to start again. The design makes my hands sore and crampy quite quickly so I have to take a break every couple of minutes, but I managed to finish it tonight while talking to Sammie. I really like the design and I want to experiment with different ways of creating it to see what happens when I’m more confident. The only problem I really had was the glitter from the bands getting everywhere, so my bed Trabasack and top are now covered in glitter 🙂 The YouTube video tutorial is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTFCGpmHvEs.

The second is called the 5 pin funky fish, and I decided to use multicoloured bands for that one. As I made it using a monster loom it was a lot easier on my hands so I could go longer before needing breaks, and I managed to complete it in a couple of hours. I like how there’s two fishtails on one side and three on the other. The tutorial video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBEjpMut7Yw. I’m getting better at making them though I still have an issue with bands twisting and sometimes making mistakes, though that’s also giving me lots of practice in how to go back and fix them. I think I might be able to consider loom knitting as not needing to hold everything up and being able to put it down whenever is what’s making this possible for me, along with only needing to concentrate on what one hand is doing (and I alternate them to try and cope with cramping).

One side of the reversible bracelets. The SlipFish is on the left, the 5 Pin Funky Fish is on the right.
One side of the reversible bracelets. The SlipFish is on the left, the 5 Pin Funky Fish is on the right.
The other side of the reversible bracelets.
The other side of the reversible bracelets.

I’m hoping tomorrow to maybe be able to go out, or at least get into my chair. I’m also going to try really hard to be awake for the evening carer as I need my hair washing desperately. The next time I get into Gateshead or Newcastle when places are open I’m hoping to go to a barbers to get all my hair shaved off, but until then I’ll just need to figure out what to do with it.

I’m also looking for dystopian young adult fiction where romance isn’t one of the central themes. This is harder than it should be. Why does it always have to involve love interests, and often a love triangle? There’s more important things to be doing! Silly books. I noticed as a kid that most pop songs were about love or romance in some way, and didn’t like it. Even now I get irritated by many songs are like that. Come up with other topics please?

Before I come off puter tonight I’m hoping to catch up on some more of the Blizzcon panels I missed, and work out what bracelet to make next. This is addicting 🙂

Danni

Mood Whiplash

Danni, Gaming, M.E., NaBloPoMo, Physical Disability, Real Life

Has been a weird day. My original plan was to have the morning carer make me bacon and eggs, sleep until the evening carer, have my hair washed then go on my puter to speak to Sammie. It didn’t go to plan.

The carer this morning just never showed up. It was very windy so every time I heard a noise I was on edge just in case it was the key safe. Johan stayed until 10.30am then had to leave for his day service, so he gave me some fruit as I was hungry and he didn’t have time to cook me anything. I stayed awake until 12.30am and though someone knocked on the door around 11.30am, I don’t know who it was and if it was a carer they’re meant to use the key safe as I’m not able to let them in.

Since I didn’t get to sleep until 12.30pm, I didn’t wake up until 7pm, missing the evening carer (who did come, and was a nice one who is going to ask the agency why carers aren’t showing up). Once painkillers had kicked in and things I went on puter to talk to Sammie and Johan made me bacon and eggs. The food was nommy (they were duck eggs for a treat) and Sammie has had a really good day so that cheered me up really well. She told me she was glad that I’m autistic as she thinks it’s better for her, as she’s grown up knowing about it and her best friend is also autistic. I thought that was really sweet 🙂

After both downloading the Hearthstone patch we managed a quick game of the tavern brawl before she had to go to bed. She’s asked me to tell her the backstory of Nefarian and Ragnaros so I need to revise that before I next speak to her (I kinda know it from playing World of Warcraft but it’s been a while since I’ve been in Blackrock so it’s a bit fuzzy). I had a lucky win, as I was Raggy and my hero power hit Nef’s face. If it had missed Sammie probably would have won 😛

I was on a big high from talking to Sammie and planning to talk to her again tomorrow, when I saw the news about the attacks in Paris. I have a friend visiting there and he’s okay, but I really hope it ends soon. I hate it when bad things happen and I hope those behind it are brought to justice. For now I just want everyone to stay safe, and I’ll keep praying.

Danni

A Cup of Tea Solves All Problems

Autism, Computers, Danni, Gaming, M.E., NaBloPoMo, Physical Disability, Real Life, World of Warcraft

Well, maybe not but it does make me feel better.

I had the worst care call with this agency so far this morning. The care worker scheduled to come for my call phoned in sick, and as they’re understaffed the supervisor on call came to do my call. She was incredibly loud, and worse than that had her phone ringtone set really high so every time it went off I felt really ill. And it went off several times. I was hoping to have my teeth brushed and was considering asking for breakfast, but the phone going off so many times so loud right next to me meant I lost speech and panicked completely, so Johan had to ask her to leave. Due to the panic attack I ended up sleeping most of the day. I understand she needed to be contactable but after the first couple of times of me showing obvious signs of distress (hands covering ears, face scrunched up, curling up into a ball) I would have thought she’d have at least turned it down, but nope. And she’s meant to be one of the more senior members of staff.

This evening’s call was much better. A new care worker, but she actually read the sign on my door and was quiet. Johan helped explain what to do as I still couldn’t speak and was still rather anxious, but she listened and did what was needed. We’ve asked her to tell the agency we like her so we want her more often. She was surprised at how many different people I’ve had coming for my calls (apparently you’re not meant to get more than three different care workers a week- I’m getting at least 7) so understood why I wasn’t coping. She’s also going to ask for a rota for me as even just knowing who’s coming and when will be easier.

I’ve spent most of the evening playing games on my tablet and reading What If? by Randell Monroe. I’d bought the book for Sammie last year and she was really surprised when I told her last week that I’d not read it yet, so I bought the Kindle version for me. I’ve read the blog but it’s nice to have them all together, and I’ve seen a couple of questions I’d not read before. My laughing at the book made Johan interested, so now he’s reading it as well on his iPad. I had cheesy chips for tea which I’d been craving for a while.

Johan made me a cup of tea this evening! I’m not 100% sure, but I think it’s the first time he’s ever made me one. He’s made me hot chocolate a couple of times before, but he’s scared of normal kettles so it was a special thing. He’s not as scared of the new one cup kettle though so hopefully I’ll be able to have tea more often. Unfortunately the milk we had was bitty (the use by date was tomorrow so we thought it’d be okay) so he had to use the UHT milk I keep in for porridge but even with that it was lovely and made me feel better 🙂

I’ve got loads of Blizzcon panels and eSports to catch up with, but I’m taking a break today as I’m not feeling up to it after this morning. Hopefully I’ll get through them the next few days. I’m glad I saw the World of Warcraft Q&A yesterday, as they were the best questions asked so far, and Red Shirt Guy was first again! Finding out they’re just letting us switch specs whenever we like rather than having to choose two out of three (or four if you’re a druid) made me really happy. Johan and I both want to play more Heroes of the Storm when I’m up to it as it’s loads of fun.

I’ve got nothing particularly planned this coming week other than the CFS team coming out on Thursday. It’ll be the first time I’ve seen them since I got the hoist so it’ll be good to see if they can help me plan how I’m going to get out of bed more without risking going backwards. It would be easier though if I wasn’t so anxious from the care agency though as it takes so much energy I’d rather be using on things like getting up more or being on my computer. If it carries on much longer I might have to ask about going on direct payments now the council is able to manage them for me (which wasn’t available the last time I tried it). Hopefully there’s an agency in the area that can meet my needs as I just need consistency, communication and a bit of understanding of how things affect me.

Danni

Blizzcon!

Danni, Diablo 3, Gaming, M.E., NaBloPoMo, Physical Disability, Real Life, World of Warcraft

I am super tired thanks to bad sleep and trying to watch Blizzcon, but I am happy 🙂

Played some Hearthstone earlier for the Co-op Tavern Brawl which was awesome (luckily Sammie is understanding when I have very little concentration). Also watched Doctor Who with Esther which was good. Osgood! 😀 Also had pizza and scone and time with Johan.

Favourite announcement from Blizzcon so far is the new transmog system for WoW. I knew that Loremaster would come in useful for something 😛 They’ve even managed to convince Johan to keep his subscription when just yesterday he said he was taking a break and maybe giving it up 😛

I’ve not really seen much Diablo 3 or Starcraft stuff yet. I may have pre-ordered Overwatch as having watched Hafu and Trump playing on the beta I know I’m likely to enjoy it if well enough. I’ll probably buy the new Hearthstone adventure once I’ve completed Blackrock Mountain (I got as far as the mage challenge I think and just spent hours playing that). I already love Heroes of the Storm so I’ll be trying to spread the Cho’Gall virus with Johan 😀

I’ve got tons of stuff to catch up on but the vods are available for 2 weeks. Might take me that long to recover 😉