Member of: Ouch

Posted on 21/10/2011 9:47 AM

Thanks for posting the Indie article, Penthesalie, it's interesting.  I don't agree with all that Terrance Blacker writes, though I agree that what Gervais did was wrong.  I don't think that we live in 'the age of the bully' any more than any other time?  I've not spent a lot of time looking into the history, but my impression is that some types of bullying is on the increase, and some other types are decreasing.  For example, racist, homophobic and anti-semitic bullying is much rarer nowadays, surely?  I think it could be true though, that the opinion that people who are disadvantaged in some way are largely to blame for their situation may be more prevalent than it used to be, but I don't know.

To be fair to Gervais, I don't think he was trying to be fashionably nasty, or to attract publicity.  My impression is that he used the word ignorantly and thoughtlessly rather than maliciously, and he was then idiotic in defence of what he'd done.  I certainly went off him when I saw him tweet about his "haters" and the "PC brigade".  Maybe all the support he got on twitter went to his head and he then reeled off some silly tweets?  Twitter isn't very conducive to thoughtful, measured comment.  Obviously, he should've known better, thought.  He's apologised now, saying that he "never dreamed that idiots still use that word aimed at people with Down's Syndrome. Still find it hard to believe".

Glad people like the blog.  There's loads of free Richard Herring stuff on itunes, if anyone's interested.  If you're into comedy, he did some good interviews with other comedians in his Edinburgh podcasts.

Posted on 20/10/2011 11:26 AM

Anyone here like the comedian Richard Herring?  I thought I'd post a link to his recent blog entry on disability issues.  He's a comedian whom I really rate (I recommend his Hitler Moustache DVD), and he talks about disability in a way that to me seems well-informed, thoughtful and committed.  A new series of Richard Herring's Objective is coming up on Radio 4, and the theme of one of the programs is going to be disability.  He interviews the comedian Francesca Martinez on that one apparently, I'm looking forward to it.

Please be warned, his blog is often rude and features very strong language.  I'm not offended by it at all, but others might be.  Here's an entry on disability generally, and also on Ricky Gervais' recent tweets that feature photos of Gervais pulling faces and using the word 'mong': http://www.richardherring.com/warmingup/?id=3269.  Herring has spent the last few days fielding loads of tweets from Gervais fans who object to Herring's stance, and his latest few blog entries are mainly about this I think (though I've not read them yet).  Hope you enjoy.  I have to really limit the time I spend on the PC because of my EDS, so I listen to his blog via itunes instead of reading them online, 'tis excellent and saves me some joint pain.

Posted on 16/10/2011 11:23 AM

 Thanks very much, Dark Divinity, that website looks interesting, I'd not heard of it.  I did a search for work from home, and nothing suitable came up for me (but if there are any application engineers / marketing static mixers and heat exchangers reading this looking for some work from home, take a look!), but I'll check it some other times to see what comes up.  Maybe other people will find it useful too.

Take care, thanks.

Posted on 14/10/2011 4:14 AM

Thanks for your post, Rachel.  No, I've not tried Access to Work yet, I'll look into it.

Hope you're having a 'better' day today, symptoms-wise.

Bye for now.

Posted on 11/10/2011 4:29 AM

 Thanks, UrbanBlues, I hope that the new job is working out well for you.  Having a support worker all day sounds brilliant.  I don't know if I'd be able to do exactly the kind of thing you're doing, as unpredictable severity of symptoms mean that I'd often not be able to make shifts I'd signed up for, but I'd love to work in a field where I could help people with disabilities.

Bye for now, good luck with the new job.

Posted on 08/10/2011 10:24 AM

Hello,



Hurtyback - thanks for the welcome!



sofie - I hope the advice will be helpful to you too.



Deb - thanks for all that advice.  I've been in touch with the careers
service of the uni from which I graduated, and they said that there's an
informal arrangement with other universities that means graduates can
use the computers in other university careers services, so I'm planning
to give that a go.  I've started an online careers program (prospects
planner?) that I registered for at uni to see what I come up with there,
and it's good that can be done from home.  I wonder if it'd be worth
getting in touch with a Student Disability Advisor from my old uni., to
see if they've any advice, though I graduated about six or so years ago,
so I don't know if they'll be able to help.  I'm too old for
Connextions, and I'm a bit wary of seeing a government funded careers
advisor, in case anything I say is taken as meaning that I'm more able
to work than I am, and that then affecting benefits...  Maybe I'm being
paranoid there!



I'm thinking about going into some sort of freelance writing work (maybe
journalism, maybe not), or taking a Masters or PhD and going into
academic research.  These things do build on what I did before my
symptoms kicked in, but I'd need a lot of work to get there.  With the
academia, as my field would be Arts and/or Humanities, I'm concerned
that there might not be any realistic prospect of me being paid to do
research, without doing the teaching and student supervision that
institutions normally require, as I don't think I'd be well enough to do
that.  Anyway, something to talk to a careers advisor about, maybe.  If
anyone has any advice or experience of writing or academic work, I'd be
very interested to hear it.



Sorry for the rambling!  Thanks, bye for now

Posted on 07/10/2011 6:25 AM

I'm new to the forum.  I was wondering if anyone has any advice on (a) good organisation(s) to contact for careers advice.  I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome-Hypermobility type.  I've been unable to work for a long time, and now want to look into job/career options.  I'm not at the stage yet that I'd be able to work, but I think I'd be looking for work that you could do from home, and that was as flexible as possible.  It would have to be part-time.  And it would ideally not be an uninteresting compromise of a job that I have to make do with because I'm disabled...  I thought that other disabilities might also have similar job requirements, so I was wondering if anyone could recognise someone to contact?  I thought I'd give CAB a ring as a first port of call.

Thanks very much.