Category: Physical Disability

Danni

The End of NaBloPoMo

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

This is my 30th daily blog post for November, which means I’ve successfully completed NaBloPoMo. Some blog posts were pretty short, just a YouTube video and a few words, and others have been a bit longer. This month started with Autistics Speaking Day, and finished with me being housebound because of the snow. In between were lots of posts about college (especially missing it quite a lot because of illness and snow). I cut down my hours at college near the beginning of the month, sorted out a problem with support on a Wednesday, and overdid it a lot, meaning I was firmly in a boom and bust cycle of ME. I played a lot of World of Warcraft, was discharged from the mental health service, got sucked into TV Tropes for over a week, bought a new hoody (that has been worn more days than not), and spent most of the month in severe, chronic pain that my painkillers don’t come close to touching.

I also met a couple of the stars from one of my favourite shows from my childhood, caught (and mostly got over) a cold, took part in a big launch event for an online film, played Quasar Laser in my wheelchair, and rewatched season 1 of Dollhouse. My mood dipped a bit for a few days while I struggled to cope with a worsening in pain, but has mostly improved now, possibly with the enforced rest the snow has given me.

Overall, a rather mixed month. Today again I was stuck indoors due to the snow, but tomorrow is the Christmas meal and cinema trip with my tutor group, which I will be going to even if I need to get a taxi to go there. I will be attempting to go to college in the morning, but will need to see based on what the weather is, what the buses are doing and what the roads and pavements are like near here. We do have a plan that involves pulling my wheelchair backwards in the snow, as the bigger wheels should mean it works better.

I shall try to keep blogging daily, or near daily, but I won’t put myself under the pressure I did this month. At least there won’t be any more panicked blog posts just before midnight because I’d forgotten earlier in the day 🙂

Danni

Snow and the Equality Act

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

Snow breaks the Equality Act 2010 (which mostly replaced the Disability Discrimination Act 1995). It does not treat all people equally, and is in fact biased towards those without physical disabilities. Instead of being nice and easy to move in, it is sticky and thick, which makes it difficult or impossible to move in. If you have balance problems, dyspraxia or similar, then Snow makes you more likely to fall over and injure yourself. If you require mobility aids such as walking sticks, walking frames or crutches, Snow is slippy, prevents the walking aids from getting a grip, or gets caught on them, making walking very difficult. If you require a wheelchair to get around, snow gets caught in the wheels and traps the chair, making it impossible to move. Abled bodied people, though inconvenienced, are able to move in Snow, and are also able to enjoy the more pleasant aspects easier, including making snowmen and having snowball fights.

The first step in combating this problem should be to send Snow a warning, and make some suggestions. These include giving a lot more warning when it decides it wants to come play, avoiding roads and pavements, spreading a bit more evenly across the country so we don’t have a situation like now where some parts have none and others have too much, and being less slippy and sticky. If Snow does not heed this warning, it should be shut down altogether, or expelled from the country.

(Note about today’s post- it is a joke. I am annoyed because I couldn’t get out to college today, as my wheelchair got stuck in the snow. I am aware that weather cannot be held to any human laws, and I also know that this post isn’t very well written (I blame pain). Instead of being in college, I spent most of the day playing World of Warcraft. At least that was fun :)).

Danni

World go Boom

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

Today the world of Azeroth was torn apart when Deathwing decided he was going to burst out and destroy things. I would be playing in World of Warcraft, but I got upset by something some people in my guild did and so I’m avoiding it, in case I accidently insult or upset anyone.

Computing this morning was… well, I’m not sure, as I was half asleep. I can vaguely recall writing some words for a test, but that’s about it. I’m sure we were taught stuff, but I now have no recollection of the lesson. For Enrichment, we went to Quasar Laser, and it was a lot of fun. I came fifth overall- not bad considering I was being pushed by Louise (she was excellent at it) and was the easiest target in the game. I did “kill” a lot of people though, and once deactivated the other team’s base. We won, by a lot (over 600 points).

Came home via the MetroCentre. Johan bought some new boots and some wellies, as his shoes are falling to pieces. It was snowing today, and his feet got soaked. I have ordered a wheelchair leg cosy as I do not want to try this winter without something to keep my legs warm, and it’s waterproof as well.

I overdid it today. The Quasar Laser took an awful lot out of me, and I’m really glad I don’t have a lesson until tomorrow evening. My homework will have to wait, as my head went boom while we were in the MetroCentre and it hasn’t recovered yet. I am also in a lot of pain, as I moved too much. When I’m in pain I get rather grumpy and irritable. I also still have a cold, which is better than it was last week but is still making me feel lousy. I just wish painkillers that worked had been invented by now.

Danni

Tomorrow Never Comes

College, Computers, Danni, Physical Disability, Real Life

Yesterday I promised words. Problem is I didn’t know then that I’d be feeling like a skyscraper had fallen on top of me. Yay colds! So instead of going to college (things to work on- feeling guilty when I don’t go in) I stayed at home and rested. In bed now on the laptop so I can type this.

On that note, Annika (my laptop) is very ill. Vista (yes, I know, but she came with it) doesn’t boot at all, and the DVD drive doesn’t work so I can’t repair it. Oh, and there’s a highly reproducible fault where if it’s past the POST check and you press the DVD drive in, it switches off (happens both in Vista and Linux). Also, the charger is now unreliable and has to be in the exact right position or it doesn’t charge. Tomorrow I will be asking Johan to call the repair people to see if they can sort it out. I do pay for it, so I may as well.

I will see how I am tomorrow before deciding on college. If anything like today, it’s not going to happen. Sleep now, though.

Danni

There’s a zombie on your lawn

College, Computing, Danni, Physical Disability, Real Life

Braaains…

Another bad day, especially pain-wise. Currently my options are 1) bribe my doctor to give me some painkillers that maybe work, preferably without killing me or 2) become an alcoholic, since that’s the only thing I can currently get that works.

Had Computing today. I finally gave the presentation on storage devices (it’s really hard to present when you’re in lots of pain, half asleep and can’t really remember what it is you’re meant to be talking about, but I muddled through it). Then we had 20 minutes to research and create a presentation on an output device (laser printer for me). I panicked. There is simply no way I can research how something works, translate it into Danni-ish, retranslate it into something that’s understandable by other humans, and sort out the presentation in 20 minutes. I struggled last lesson with the 40 minutes for an input device. Of course, it didn’t help that I already wasn’t coping because I was exhausted and in more pain than is normal even for me at the moment.

Told Simin I’m not going to be in on Monday, as I’m travelling back from Birmingham at the time of my lesson. She wanted to know why, I fumbled a reason that vaguely relates to the actual reason (my thoughts and speech were very jumbled at this point, though I’m hoping it wasn’t too noticeable).

Johan picked me up, and I demanded to go to the MetroCentre as I was hungry. Probably not the best idea, but I did find a purple bag (I’ve been after one for months, and it was only £5) and got curry at the Wetherspoons curry night thingy. Also got vodka at Wetherspoons, which helped with the pain and not-copingness a bit.

Time for bed. Luckily no college tomorrow, so sorting stuff out before I go away for the weekend. I’ll explain more about that tomorrow.