RAWRzilla

Hi.

 

My name's Kristina.

 

I'm 14 years old, and I'm from Liverpool.

 

I have Aspergers Syndrome, an Autistic Spectrum Disorder.

 

I am Asthmatic.

 

I have Eczema.

 

I am short sighted.

 

I am extremely allergic to house dust mites.

 

I get hayfever.

 

I suffer from chest and stomach migraines.

 

I am currently on a few different kinds of medication.

 

My Sister is Dyslexic, Dyspraxic, and has Irlens Syndrome.

 

My Mum is also Dyslexic, and suffers with severe Psoriatic Arthritis and Sciatica, among other things. She also has Irlens Syndrome. She occasionally uses an electric wheelchair. She is a manager working in Supported accomodation and Ex Co-Chairperson of the Merseyside Coalition for Inclusive Living [MCIL].

 

My Nan is Dyslexic with Irlens Syndrome, and before he passed away, my Grandad suffered with severe Asthma and Heart conditions.

 

My best friend is a Dyslexic girl with Irlens Syndrome, ADHD, Autism, and many other so-called "Disabilities".

 

Laurence Clark is one of my favourite comedians, as well as a family friend, and I was lucky enough to get to see the Preview of the show he is currently touring with "12% Evil", which he finished writing the night before we saw it. (It's excellent, by the way!) I am also an avid fan of the DADA fest, and went to see the Nasty Girls' Production "A Nasty Night Out" last year. It was INCREDIBLE. I think the best part of these kind of shows has to be the people that aren't sure weather or not to laugh! They think it's funny, but at the same time. they think "We can't laugh at them! They're disabled!" Thankfully, they tend to get used to it (or it'd be a pretty big bummer for your average disabled Comedian).

 

As you may have guessed, I was brought up surronded by disability, and fo me it is definately just one of those things that are very much the "Norm".

 

Hence, as you may also have guessed, I have a very different viewpoint on it than most people.

 

Going through the section on Disability in this forum has left me nothing short of aghast, because with regards to the way people refer to disabled people, particularly people with conditions similar to my own, I have lead very much a sheltered life.

 

Quite frankly, I am EXTREMELY shocked at the way people refer to - and appear to actually VIEW - the Disabled community.

 

"Developmentally Delayed Children"

 

"Do you believe people should receive free gov. benefits?"

 

"I have had the honor to actually interact with them and understand them"

 

"All people who are disabled, my sympathy and prayers are with you"

 

"Worst thing that could ever happen to anyone. I too believe they are sent down by god as a sign.

 

My prayers are with all the Disabled children. It sometimes makes you cry thinking about their future."

 

"mental retardation."

 

"Its so sad people have to put up with this."

 

"Autism is a part of a spectrum of special education."

 

"early intervertion."

 

"this illness."

 

"whoever works with children like that is awesome."

 

The above are all quotes taken from this forum. I am not saying that any of the above quotes are deliberately written with intention to discriminate. Nor am I writing this in an attempt to accuse or attack the people who said these things. I posted these to show my shock at how uneducated the general public seems to be on the topic of disability (in my opinion). Some of the posters are people speaking from personal experience of being, knowing, or working with a disabled person.

 

I am posting this in an attempt to say that regardless of what you think you already know or have experienced...

 

Disability is not necessarily a BAD thing. (Despite the unfortunate name.)

 

People with disabilities are not "special" they are no more difficult to work with than your average person, they are not "retarded" - an extremely disablist word which has wormed it's way into modern culture, and is currently used en masse by millions of people who simply are not aware of it's background.

 

Next time any of you are about to use the word "retard" or a word containing it, or the words "spazz" or "mong" for that matter, think of them in likeness to the "N" word in relation to the Black community and then... Don't say it!

 

Disability is not a scourge, some deadly disease or illness that must be squashed, or something with which you should feel compelled to intervene. In many cases, it has shown to be very enabling, with members of the Disabled community going above and beyond what any "normal" person would be considered to be realistically capable of.

 

Most disabled people do not want sympathy for the way they are, and many embrace themselves and their medical condition, whatever it may be, and get on with their lives. They don't see it as something to put up with, and it's often no different to communicate with a disabled person as it is with any member of the so-called "non-disabled" community.

 

The vast majority of disabled people live very fulfilling lives, regardless of whatever people think is "wrong" with them. Being disabled or Autistic is certainly not the worst thing that could ever happen to someone.

 

The disability is often never the problem. It is the reaction of those around you to that disability that can cause emotional and physical damage.

 

I hope I did not cause offence to anyone here in this message, or come off as though criticizing your remarks or opinions, and I really hope that after reading this topic you no longer see disability as necessarily a bad thing - I hope even more that you never saw it as a bad thing anyway!

 

I guess that's it from me, and I'm always open to anyone else's opinion on the Public's view of disabled people, and if anyone disagrees with me or wants to say anything about my opinion or anything I've said, get back to me and I'll be sure to reply.

I know this is going to seem kind of harsh...But can you repost that a little better spelt and punctuated?Because I'm seriously having difficulty reading it in any comprehendable manner =S

Weird is more of a perspective. I guess its weird, but not the weirdest in the world. There are many weird things, however, some are bizzare, and some are set up to amaze you. Anyways, as far as weirdest in the world, that definatly could be NEAR the top, but definatly n ot the top. There are a lot of weirdos in our world, and a lot of strange unexplanable things, just like the huge giant squid/shark dinosaur they found in japan a couple years ago. All weird, also h ow we know more about the space, and everything else then what happens in those way way way down deep trenches and drop offs of the world.

Ohh yeah I heard that.

There's some big debate on how everyone said that space was the "final frontier" and now they want to change it.

Did you know that up to over 3/4 of the worlds animals exist in the Amazon rainforest as undiscovered species?

I'd definately be up for it.Sounds like fun.

I have read Eragon and Eldest and I actually did like them as books. But when you look at the big scheme of things, it might just be kind of coinidental. In the book cover it says, "His (Paloni's) abbiding love of fantasy inspired him," or something like that. Then I think about it and I think he just took the plot line of Star Wars (not literally, but it is apearent), then placed it in a Lord of the Rings world. He kind of even forgot to change his two main character's names... Eragon and Arya.. kinda suspicous.
But all in all, they are good reads and a nice addition to any fantasy collection. And about number 3, I hopes he surprises me...

How exactly does the plotline relate to Star Wars?

Also, where are the names Eragon and Arya used in any of the Star Wars films?

As both a die hard Star Wars and Paolini fan I fail to see your point.

Plus, Arya does take a large part but is not a main character.

The books rotate around three main characters, Eragon, Saphira, and Brom.

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It is widely believed in many online Eragon fansites and forums that the next book will in fact be entitled Empire.

Personally, I found the film to be an extreme dissappointment, largely due to them missing out three quarters of the first book and filling it in with the majority of the important parts of the second book (like the above spoiler).

Many of my favourite parts from Eragon weren't included - some of them running plotlines.

I believe they did to the Eragon film what they did to the latest instalment of the Harry Potter films - butchered it.

I absolutely cannot wait for the new book and anticipate it's release eagerly, which I believe is sometime next month, or if not, November.

It's very sad for me that the Inheritance trilogy has to come to an end, but you know what they say, all good things do!

Personally, I try to block out all memories of the ATROCITY that Fox attempted to call a film of the book.

Have heard of Pendragon but haven't actually read it, thinking about it though.

And elrohir, after reading your post i'm very interested in reading World of Time! If I get it I'll be sure to tell you what I think!

I think there are definately some weirder things.I read (in my children's Encyclopaedia haha) that there was a man hit by a cab on a street in america the cab driver and passenger were fine, but the man was killed. Ten years later, that man's sun was killed in a car accident. He had been crossing the street his father died on when struck down by a cab, but not just any cab. The same cab that hit his father ten years ago, and even weirder, the cab was being driven by the cab driver's son, carrying the son of the passenger that was in the cab when the man's father was killed ten years previous.Now as far as coincidences go, that's pretty weird!

Things like this happen on every forum I've ever posted in haha.i don't think there's any real way to adress it, you can't FORCE people to read posts, unfortunately.It's a particular problem with alot of RPG forums, where you really do have to read EVERY SINGLE post to make sure it' okay for you to enter, it doesn't work with just reading the first few posts and "skimming" the rest.

As a person who has a form of Autistic Spectrum Disorder known as Aspergers Syndrome.People who have an ASD aren't necessarily extroverts or introverts, and personally I don't see my Autism as a bad thing.I feel extremely blessed to see things from the point of view I have been given, as it has made me who I am today.Also, MB, could you kindly refrain from using words which contain the word "retard" I am aware that it is a word that has recently become a part of American and English culture, but it is also a word with a highly disablist background.I don't agree that people with ASD only get fragments of information. Autism is all about attention to detail, and often we will pick up things that others don't notice.I wasn't aware that Albert Einstein was autistic, however I did know he was Dyslexic, and failed both math and science in school.Ironic, huh? For a physicist at least.

As someone with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder, I would be considered to have an "invisible disability".I have a lot of problems when socializing with people in that I can't understand body language, I have emotional breakdowns on a regular basis, and I get rage attacks.I also suffer with severe asthma and was diagnosed with recurring Stomach and Chest migraine.Sometimes government cheques from social security (for example, DLA in Britain) aren't "wage replacements" they are there to make up for the extra money you have to spend because of your disability, hence why people (such as my mum, who gets DLA for Syriatic Arthropopy (sp?)) can both work and recieve benefits. Hence why the british benefit is called DLA, which stands for Disability Living Allowance.

I resent being called a developmentally delayed child.

Mostly what annoys me about having asthma is when people make stupid comments about it.

 

There's this one lad I know who's favourite phrase lately seems to be "I can't breathe". He seems to think it's hilarious, but thankfully no-one else does and he usually gets yelled at for it, which is quite funny.

 

Sometimes, thinking about it, it's hard for me not to verbally lash out at him.

 

When people haven't experienced asthma for themselves, they can't possibly imagine what going through it feels like.

 

Personally, I am lucky enough not to have a constantaneous difficulty in breathing. I can breathe quite comfortably unless I over-excercise (which doesnt take very much, unfortunately, as I am quite sporty, too.) or I become stressed, or have a stomach migraine (even WORSE because then you're having a stomach migraine and an asthma attack at the same time).

 

Also, second hand smoke causes more cancer than smoking itself so no, it's not their lungs, it's your lungs, and anybody else who they have contact with in day to day life.

 

Can they live with the knowledge that they are slowly killing everyone around them?

 

For the benefit of people reading this who have never experienced an Asthma "attack", I'm going to try to explain a little better, from my experiences.

 

Sometimes an asthma attack occurs slowly, you see it coming, feel the signs, get the chest pains, start to wheeze, it's probably the more painful but less terrifying form of attack, in my opinion. You see it coming, you take your inhaler, sit down, pace yourself for a while, and it gradually starts to pass.

 

Personally, however, and to my dismay, I have more experience of the more abrupt form of asthma. This is something that I wrote a while ago, while I was trying to describe to someone what having an asthma attack triggered in your sleep felt like.

 

Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night, and all you can hear is this squealing, scraping, panicked noise, like a horrific combination of screaming and trying to grate a rock with a cheese grater?

 

And you have no IDEA what is going on around you, you can't see, you can't think, you just have this enormous feeling of pain and horror.

 

When you've lost all control of your motor functions, and you can feel yourself lying there, convulsing, and you don't know why, and nothing makes sense, because you know all this stuff is going on but your mind doesn't process it.

 

When your throaght is grating, as though someone is trying viciously to claw their way out, and you're desperate to know what the noise is and you want more than anything for it to stop.

 

Then the growing sense of dread in your stomach reaches unbearable and you're brought crashing back down to reality. Unable to control your arms or legs, unable to speak, unable to scream you realise with horror that the noise is coming from you, and with a terrifying realization you know what it is.

 

Because your throaght seizes up and your lungs wont work and that horrible squealing grating noise is your body trying desperately to open your airway even a little and DRAG the air inside, and every SINGLE BREATH sends a wave of agony coursing through your ribcage, and for the millionth time you think it's over. This is it. You are going to die here. It's all over, and you TRULY, truly believe you are going to die.

 

There is nothing more terrifying than that.

 

Yet despite the horrific noise that it's taking your body so much effort to create, simply trying to open your air passage sending mass convulsions all over your body, you know no-one can hear you, but you have to make them.

 

If you don't... the alternative doesn't bear thinking. So you're lying there, feeling helpless, petrifyed thinking each pained breath you take could be your last and you try desperately to regain control of your motor functions, and it's difficult, and it's inaccurate, and it's painful, and it's very primitave, but it's necessary.

 

You end up flinging yourself ungracefully out of your bed and on to the floor, scrabbling desperately around trying to get to your knees, to your feet, and still with the convulsions. But it's not over. The hardest part is walking.

Shakily you half-run-half-fall into the nearest person's bedroom, gasping and flailing, doing everything you can to wake them up, and you desperately need their help because in that kind of situation there's no way for you to help yourself.

 

When they wake, they restrain you, in an attempt to stop you causing further injury, bundle you into a car, and drive to the emergency room, because frankly, it takes too long to wait for an ambulance. You get there and they rush you through, and you still can't breathe and this whole time this horrible feeling of dread and fear is eating away at your insides like an awful parasite.

 

It's too far on for your inhaler to make a difference so you have to have an injection, which they have to hold you down to administer so you dont do yourself any more damage. They give you the needle and they're trying desperately to calm you down.

 

The effect takes a few minutes, but it feels immediate. Breathing becomes easier and your airway slowly starts to force itself open and the relief that floods through you at that moment is your saving grace. The despair and the fear are all gone, replaced by what's probably the best feeling in the entire world.

 

So I'm sorry if sometimes I overreact, if I get scared sometimes, when I can feel a less serious asthma attack coming on, but if you had any idea what that felt like, you would never want to feel that way again. Because it isn't worth all the money in the world. Your security, your hope, your happiness, gone in one horrifying moment. I never want to experience that again, and I live in fear of a repeat of those nights. So if I overreact sometimes, I'm sorry, but I don't care.

That is a description of an attack I had when I was younger, probably my most serious, but to this day I have never gotten over it.

 

I just hope it helps anyone who has never helped that to try and imagine what it feels like for someone.

Hehehehehe.Microsoft competing with Google?Microsoft COMPETING???I think there are very few, even MAJOR search engines out there right now that can compete with google.Let alone a little known (at least, I don't know anyone who's heard of it) M$ Search.

Well, I think you would probably feel alot better if you took a more positive point of view.A lot of the time people have a tendancey to focus on the negative.Try listing some of the good things about your life instead of worrying about the more negative side.Just a quick pick me up really.Hope you start to feel better!

We get our school timetables after our summer holiday. They are meant to be created over the summer, which gives the staff 6 weeks to sort them out. So, why on earth do they never have them ready on our first day? They always send a note out on the first day apologising for the fact they haven't even started the timetable. Then, magically, its done by the second day. If they can do it in 2 days, why can't they do it in 6 weeks?!?

 

And, when I finally received my timetable, it was wrong. Not just little errors, but quite major ones. I have 9 lessons in a subject I don't do, most of the teachers listed are wrong, and most of the rooms are too. For example, I missed a maths lesson today because on my timetable I had that period listed as a free. The rooms are also ridiculous. I have some of my A Level physics lessons out of the science department, some of my chemistry lessons in the maths department and my maths lessons in the modern languages department.

 

Its not just the students getting annoyed, either. Many of the teachers are part time and work the equivalent of 2 days per week. They like to keep their lessons each week to two or three days to avoid travelling too much, but this year's timetable seems to spread their lessons out across the week, and across the day. So, not only do they have to come in each day, but many spend 4 or 5 hours of that time doing nothing at all.

 

Are all schools like this, or is it just mine thats incompetent?

At least your school is CONSISTENTLY late.

 

Our school claims to have ours done, gives some people the right timetable, some people the wrong one, and some people a blank one.

 

And then they refuse to tell you where you're supposed to be, so you have to work it out on your own.

 

And those classes that they tell you you're in that you're not supposed to be, they never take you off the register, so you're consistently marked late or absent while sitting in your other class.

 

Not only that, but they just introduced a two-week timetable, and none of the teachers seem to know where they should be.

 

It sucks.

Hmm.It'd make a pretty cool advert, seeing them all in synch, but serverph makes a valid point.One of the key things in tracking stolen cars (and chasing them) is colour.A car that changes colour?You may never see it again!

Vista is just a Mac OS X clone, only it wastes more system resources to do effects that do absolutely nothing but waste processor power when your playing games. I'd hate to see how much power Vista's explorer will eat off my processor, the performance in playing games without it is already fairly dramatic.

I've heard a lot of people saying this and I have to agree.

When they made Vista they put Mac OS X Tiger on a table and told them to copy that.

And to be honest they didn't do so good.

Can't WAIT for Leapord.

Yet another giant leap ahead of M$.

I wonder how long it'll take for the next Windows OS haha.

I think it's a pi?ata.But I can see where you get the firecracker thing from if you look at it properly haha.Happy birthday Google!

` I think it is just a hoax by hackers to distribute their OS. It is improbable that Bill will get a special OS for him and will not sell it to make money. May be it has just some cosmetic features....But to say the least it sounds like a great JOKE.
Do not install install it if your friend is a hacker/salesman.May be he is trying to use your computer for testing his OS. lol

I completely agree.

Also, the problem with fake copies of windows is you have to disable automatic updates, or it freezes your computer.

Happened to a friend of mine.

I was there at the time.

Her dad's face was HILARIOUS xD

Ooh...I would have to say my all time favourite band (atm) would definately be Funeral For A Friend. =DDDReally into The Arctic Monkeys, Mettallica, Motorhead, Cannibul Corpse, Slipknot, My Chem, Taking Back Sunday, 30STM and SOAD, too.Although I have to say I love White Stripes and Strokes.And Kanye West.XD.But yeah, FFAF ALL THE WAY BABY!!!----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------LOL. I completely forgot, RAMMSTEIN>PWN

City : Liverpool

Country : England, UK.

Specialties : Only city in the world to contain two Cathedrals, home of the "Three Graces" The Beatles, and the Second Largest Chinese Arch outside of China, originally one of the worlds most important ports, to be joint European Capital of Culture in 2008. Played a large part in the Triangular Slave Trade. HOME OF THE LAMB BANANA! (Which is REALLY cool.)

Population : At the time of the 2001 census Liverpool's total population was registered at 439,473.

Just in case anyone is interested, London Underground is by two guys from the South of England who call themselves the Amateur Transplants.It's a piece from their debut album, Fitness to Practise.You can listen to quite alot of their stuff online.

"If she was smart she'd be doing something else"? "It's like making fun of disabled people for being disabled"?I don't know if you're aware of how offensive saying something like that could be to a teacher, or to someone with a learning difficulty, but I think you should be aware that if you plan on saying something like that you should be very careful where you say it. First of all, it takes an awful lot of training and qualifications to become a teacher, it's also a VERY well-paid job, therefore making it PRETTY smart to become a teacher.Also, you shouldn't poke fun at people's decisions in life, she chose to be a teacher, you chose not to.And lastly, i'd just like to say that laughing at teacher for not being "as smart as she thought she was" is NOTHING like making fun of someone with a disability.People don't CHOOSE to be disabled, people DO choose to be a teacher.If anyone here is saying things in bad taste, I'm afraid to say it's most definately you.

I actually heard that a Googolplex was the largest named number, but obviously not haha.So, Graham's number then, would be equivalent to 3 to the power of 64?Cool.=D

Ooh, Ripley's Believe it or not!It's a great series, but personlly, I prefer the books they make.I've actually heard a similar story about long lost twins that meet and find out they've been living scarily similar lives. (Husbands share a name, named their kids the same things, and actually died on the same day.).Read it in a childrens Encyclopaedia.I think with stories like these you're inclined not to believe them because it's so unusual and such a massive coincidence it seems extremely unlikely, but then, at the same time, it IS possible...Who knows?