Category: NaBloPoMo

Danni

NaBloPoMo, Annika, Windows 8 and Stuff

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

I’m attempting NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) again this year. That means I’m going to try and post something everyday this month. Now, because I’m not very well I’ve decided that I’m going to try and get slightly ahead- I have a few draft posts that I’m going to try and finish so if I’m having a bad day I can just post that. I’m also undergoing Project Upgrade Annika. Annika is the name of my laptop 🙂 After realising that it was going to take a while for me to find a replacement (and there are always other things that require the money first) I’ve decided to try and make my current one work better. So far I’ve upgraded her from Windows Vista to Windows 8, and increased her RAM from 2.5GB to 4GB. Changing the operating made a massive difference to start with- she ran a lot faster and programs that she used to struggle with or be unable to run (such as World of Warcraft) now run more like they’re meant to. I’ve not really seen the benefit of the RAM increase yet as it was only done yesterday and I’ve only been using it a couple of hours for web based stuff, but it should help when I play games and things as 1GB is allocated to the graphics card now.

Windows 8 is interesting. I’m trying the Metro interface (yes, I know it’s not called that now but it is to me) and on a single screen laptop, it actually doesn’t work that badly. I have Start 8 if I need it as I bought Object Desktop for Fences and WindowBlinds and Deskscapes for my desktop, but I’m doing okay at the moment. I have noticed a bug where if I swap between the Chrome app and the desktop app, Chrome crashes when I switch back, but as I can restore the tabs it’s not a major issue and until it’s fixed I’ll just make sure anything I’m editing is saved.

Danni as a Penguin Fairy PrincessFor Halloween I dressed up as a Penguin Fairy Princess. I wore my penguin onesie, my purple tutu, and Penguin wore his matching tutu. I considered getting wings but I couldn’t figure out how to wear them in the wheelchair. Penelope borrowed Erica’s dress as she wanted to get dressed up too. I was very happy 🙂

We only got one trick or treater, so now I have a bucket of chocolates to eat (with Johan to help). This isn’t going to be a big hardship, as they’re all chocolates I like. I’m trying to convince Johan to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas as it’s an awesome film, but he’s being stubborn and saying no.

I have discovered I can manage watching Star Trek: Voyager! It helps that I’ve seen it all before so I know what happens and it’s easier to follow. Johan doesn’t want to watch it as he’s scared he’ll get obsessed, as he’s watched clips on YouTube and seen why I like it so much. This makes me very happy.

My DLA form is getting there. I hope to get it all completed and sent off next week. Johan has some typing up to do and I’ve got some supporting evidence to copy and send, but hopefully if they read the form I should be okay. I’m going to pay to send it special delivery so they can’t claim they’ve not received it, and will make sure I keep copies on my computer (I’m going to be typing all the answers anyway but will have it all together). I found my first DLA form on my computer the other day- I think the older form was actually a bit easier, as they had a separate category for falls and blackouts, and a lot of the boxes were more flexible.

Johan had his flu jab yesterday. He got diazepam off the doctor in advance, and managed it without too much panicking from what he told me. I was asleep as I slept 15 1/2 hours yesterday- longer than I was expecting but I really needed it. He fell asleep when he got home, but when he woke up again he didn’t have any anxiety and felt up to going to the local pizza shop for our tea (he didn’t trust himself to cook). It seemed to have worn off when he went to sleep again this morning, but he was happy and that made me happy 🙂

I’m still spending as much time on my computer in World of Warcraft. I do dailies and I’m trying to make some money on the auction house with my tailoring. As I don’t have the high level enchants yet I’m not putting them up yet, but I’m also keeping an eye on cooking materials and food so I can make some gold with them. At the moment I’m saving my Ironpaw tokens to get a cooking bell, which means I’ll get my own cookery student. That will be fun 🙂 As I have the Tillers at Exalted now and everyone is my best friend, I have 16 farm plots, which I’m mostly using for Motes of Harmony at the moment to make Imperial Silk for my tailoring.

The daily quests I’m currently doing are The Tillers (quick and easy and fun), The Anglers (easy, fun and I’m only revered with them), The Klaxxi (currently revered and the Enhancements and Augmentations I have are fun) and Golden Lotus (currently honoured but within a couple of days of revered). When I get Golden Lotus to revered I think I’m going to drop Klaxxi and maybe Golden Lotus temporarily so I can concentrate on August Celestials and Shado-Pan. I will be getting all the reputations to exalted at some point, but I want to make sure I don’t overload myself with dailies and burn out. I’ve already got the Cloud Serpents to exalted as well as the Tillers, which makes me happy 🙂

Danni

Autistics Speaking Day: When Other People Don’t Get It

Autism, Danni, Important Stuff, M.E., Mental Health, NaBloPoMo, Physical Disability, Real Life

This is the third year I’ve participated in Autistics Speaking Day. My previous posts are here (2011) and here (2010) and the main website is at http://autisticsspeakingday.blogspot.co.uk/.

Being autistic causes me a lot of difficulties, but most of them aren’t related to being autistic itself; instead, they’re because other people just don’t get it. When I’m verbal (which is now a sometimes thing rather than a normally thing) I normally speak rather fluently and have a large vocabulary, so people assume that I can talk well all the time. They also assume that I’m able to understand things the way they can, and can respond the way they would. When this doesn’t happen (because I’m autistic and have M.E. and my verbal communication is variable) they assume this is because I don’t want to, rather than because I can’t.

I make a point of telling people (or having Johan tell people) who need to know (carers, social workers, doctors, nurses, them sort of people) that I have communication difficulties and that sometimes I may not be able to understand or respond in a typical way. I tell them that this is because I’m autistic and that M.E. complicates it. Some people understand, and know that it means if I’m not responding normally, or need to type, or need to be left alone as I can’t cope that it’s okay, and give me extra time or ask Johan or reword questions. Those people (often carers, and a couple of nurses) are awesome and we likes them very much 🙂 Some others don’t understand initially, but then ask questions and then figure it out. Those people are also awesome, as they’re willing to take the time to learn. Some of those people have told me it’s helped them in other situations, so it’s good for all of us. We likes them very much 🙂

Then there’s the people who for whatever reason, decide they know better. When I have difficulties with communicating (or dealing with sensory stuff, or understanding things) instead of remembering that we’ve told them this can happen, or asking us questions to sort things out, they assume I’m doing it on purpose, or it’s because of psychological reasons and that yelling at me or belittling me will help. Those people we don’t like very much. Some of them have apologised when either Johan or I have been able to explain what happened, but others (often but not always doctors) are certain we’re mistaken and they have it right. They make many problems.

So, what can people do? If you’re told that someone is autistic, or they have communication difficulties (even if only occasionally), believe them. If you don’t understand how you can help them, ask. Autistic people and their carers will often have developed strategies to deal with their difficulties, and will often be able to tell you how best to communicate. If they ask to tell you at another time, or to get back to you, accept that and don’t push it, because a lot of autistic people have anxiety or other issues that mean they might struggle with answering questions spontaneously, and being pushed can make their anxiety or their communication issues worse.

Also, don’t make assumptions on ability based on how they are at any one time. Both Johan and I find that our ability to do things varies from day to day and from hour to hour, and that something we might accomplish with ease at one time may be very difficult or impossible at another time. This is quite normal for autistic people, and doesn’t mean they’ve “regressed” or that they’re not trying hard enough or are lazy or anything like that. That can go for pretty much any activity, including speaking and communicating.

For me personally, I try to communicate verbally when I am able to. If I can’t or it’s a struggle, then I switch to typing (either on my tablet, or on my iPhone). Sometimes it can take me a long time to respond to a question, or I may forget what I’m saying/typing in the middle of it and get very lost. Sometimes I need the person speaking to repeat what they’ve said as I’ve lost track or forgotten. If my M.E, is playing up badly and I can’t cope with light at all (even with sunglasses) then I might not be able to communicate other than by making gestures or possibly spelling words out on Johan’s hand with my finger. There are times when I can’t understand anything that anyone is saying, and I get very confused and scared. If you’re trying to communicate with me, then please accept it might not go well at all times, but I really appreciate it when you try to make it easier for me.

To those of you who make an effort to understand those of us who have difficulties with communicating (or any other task for that matter), thank you.

(I’m having some severe cognitive issues at the moment, caused by the combination of autism and severe M.E, so if there are any mistakes in this blog post please let me know and I’ll correct them. Thank you 🙂 )

Danni

Patch 4.3

Computers, Danni, Gaming, NaBloPoMo, Penguins!, Project 365, World of Warcraft

Today has been a World of Warcraft day. I have spent far too much time sitting at my computer playing that game. The reason for this is today patch 4.3 – Hour of Twilight was released. To people who now have no clue what I’m talking about, this means there’s lots of new stuff to do in the game that there wasn’t yesterday.

The first thing I did was get Danni sorted with some nice gear. I decided that until I get around to farming a proper pretty set of armour, I was going to wear Black Mageweave (I am a tailor so made it myself), which is less pretty and more sexy. Up to now I’ve not seen anyone else wearing it, so that is good.

I then started dumping most of my old gear from my bank into void storage. And got angry because some of the items weren’t allowed in, for vague reasons. Like my Ashen Verdict ring that I kept from Ice Crown Citadel. I managed to dump quite a bit in there though, and that meant I could dump stuff from my bags into my bank, so now I can actually use my bags again. This is good.

After a long rest, I went back on to do the new 5 man dungeons. We got a mostly guild group together, and had a pug mage from a different realm who was awesome and gave me cookies. The new dungeons were a bit challenging but not too hard, and were tons of fun. I did sit up for too long so I could complete them all (we had a few wipes while learning what to do and with me occasionally failing) but it was worth it. The individual dungeons are short enough that if I’m having a good day I should be able to run them, so that’s awesome.

There’s also a new raid, but I’m not geared enough or well enough to try that yet. Maybe when I improve a bit.

Johan went out today to the MetroCentre. Apparently it was packed. This may have had something to do with a strike that was going on, that meant most of the schools were closed, among other places. He didn’t really buy anything that I saw, but did use his mobile phone to buy a McDonalds on the way home, paid for by Google. That was cool, though I want a McDonalds and can’t have one because the bus drivers won’t let Johan carry one on for me 🙁

I am now hungry. I have to wait for Johan to complete a dungeon before he can even start cooking. This means I’ll have to stay up late. I’m not particularly happy about this. At least I can watch Penguins in the meantime.

Danni

A Long Day

Danni, M.E., Mental Health, NaBloPoMo, Physical Disability, Real Life

Today has been an interesting day. I woke up about 6.30am, being properly awake by about 7.3oam. This is becoming normal for me, though I do miss being a night owl a bit. Will be good for Friday morning, though. I had to wake Johan up as he’d put his doctors appointment in the calendar for 8.50am and he takes ages to wake up because of his mirtazapine.

Got Johan up (yay cuddles) and he went to the doctors surgery, where he discovered his appointment was for 9.50am, not 8.50am. This caused him to panic, though I helped him calm down with more cuddles. Sent him out again at 9.40am, then got increasingly anxious and panicky while he was gone, worrying about him :p (I’d recently been going to his appointments with him as he found it easier with me there, but I’m too ill to do that now). He was fine, though had a bit of an anxiety attack. We had more cuddles, and things were okay.

The carer’s association people came in the afternoon, and that went okay. Johan got an email from my social worker in the middle of it which made me angry (the agency have been lying to him). Things are hopefully going to improve as the carer’s association people are going to help Johan with stuff and have told him about a digital photography group he can go to, which would be good for him.

This evening we had Chinese, as I was craving won tons (I had won ton soup and crispy won tons :p). I also managed to go into World of Warcraft for the first time in a few days, which was cool. Our friend Bluesapphire  has been made guild master, which is awesome as she was basically running the guild anyway 🙂 Sammie’s Nintendo 3DS also arrived, and I can confirm it is very pink 🙂

Oh, and today I actually managed to get dressed :p In clean pyjamas now. Little things like that make me happy.

 

Danni

Christmas Shopping

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

This will be a short post as I am super tired and about to sleep.

Today I started my Christmas shopping. I got Sammie a Nintendo 3DS in pink as that’s what she wants. I hope she likes it 🙂 I’ve also started looking at what other presents she wants for both Christmas and her birthday (on Boxing Day). I also was told some of the sweet things she has been saying- one of them made me cry.

I also sent an email to an Amazon seller who wanted more information about an order I’d placed, received my new laptop battery which hopefully will make it run a bit better, and wrote a list of things for the hospital on Friday. I was hoping to get a wash and some clean pyjamas, but that didn’t happen. Maybe tomorrow. I also had lots of cuddles, then discovered that cuddles are exhausting and make me feel ill 🙁

Tomorrow Johan is at the doctors in the morning and the carer’s association people are coming in the afternoon. Hopefully it will be okay.