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Wheelie EDSer (U1114809)
Listed below are comments made by Wheelie EDSer (U1114809) between Wednesday, 23rd July 2008 and Sunday, 1st November 2009
You can also view a list of Wheelie EDSer's posts.
Farewell to a brilliant season - and roll on 2010
The coverage has been fantastic. Thursday - archive race highlights. Friday - practise 1 and 2. Saturday - practise and qualifying. Sunday - race... and I catch up on the F1 forum on Monday. So you are giving us five days of enjoyment around each race.
I'm not sure I like the technical advances in F1 - it used to be about drivers and skin of the pants driving, not telemetry and traction control - but I *do* like the technical advances in the ways that coverage is provided.
You have done an absolutely sterling job this year, such a pro. Best blog entry by far was the "talkback" one - more behind the scenes info would be appreciated.
Enjoy the winter but don't leave us bereft of news and info until March please!
Weekly Bonus Question
What is the real competition between Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton?
Pick your classic F1 season finale
I'm glad you've chosen so many races from the same period, so people won't vote for one purely because it was before their time and interesting to see the "old days". Admittedly I'm guilty of that, it's great to reminisce over the 80s and 90s and to see the 70s for the first time).
My vote is for 1981 because it sounds like an interesting layout(!) and I'd love to see how it worked, and also the race sounds exciting too.
Pick your classic Brazilian Grand Prix
I'll go for 1989 please - I was 13 at the time, with a love of Ferrari but as they hadn't been doing too well since I started following F1, I had also been supporting Mansell. Finally the two combined and I could have something to celebrate. I'd love to see it again.
My second choice is 1982 purely because I love reminiscing over the old races, particularly those before the mid-80s as I was too young to remember them. Love seeing how big the cars were and how chaotic the pits seemed.
But 1989 would be my favourite.
Your classic grand prix
1976 for me please - I was approaching my first birthday so although I'm sure it would have been on in our house, I don't remember it! The older races are always fun to watch - to see how things have changed. I'm always struck by how busy the pits were, compared to how precisely they seem to operate now.
Not just a pretty Facebook
Other groups available:
Dwarfism Awareness (an advocacy group which hates the term "midget"),
Representin' the LPA (non-profit organisation),
various groups that want to stop discrimination,
and a group for people with dwarfism to meet each other for friendship / dating.
This is just at a quick glance (as I don't like to waste much time on Facebook!)
In short - it's the Internet. You will find bad if you look for it, and good if you look for that. News at 11.
Growing up at the Deaf Club
Everything you see before you takes place in perfect silence.
I'll be surprised! At my local Deaf club, the children run round screaming and shouting, and some Deaf people laugh and vocalise loudly (though not always coherently).
If it was silent, then that would be bliss, but there are a lot of noises that Deaf people do not seem to be aware of (hearing parents would have asked their kids to be a bit quieter) which meant that as a student of BSL who had gone there for a lesson and to practise communicating, I found it very hard to concentrate!
Not knocking it - it's the Deaf people's space after all - but it certainly wasn't silent!
Disability: an accident waiting to happen?
"I nearly slid under a truck last week. I thought my partner was pushing my chair, she thought I was and I stopped myself from veering into the road just in time."
I have a rule with people pushing me that I take control to cross roads. I'll say something like "got it" or "thank you" to indicate "I'll take over" and "please start pushing me again". Without agreement like that I find it frustrating through to dangerous, but at least my partner and friends have got the hang of the system very quickly.
I agree, crossing the road can be daunting, and drivers aren't always looking out for people in a wheelchair on their own, they are looking higher up. But we can at least help a bit - by always crossing at proper crossings, and waiting for traffic to stop before moving out, and as you said, by increasing visibility at night, by which I mean that my chair carries lights when using my chair in areas without streetlighting. In my wheelchair I only ever use zebra and pelican crossings - although I would jaywalk on crutches, as long as my view was clear.
One of the worst things can be crossing with people who don't know how long you take to get across. They will look for smaller gaps. So I simply cross on my own or wait if I'm not confident, rather than risking rushing and falling.
It's all common sense, isn't it?
Disabled at 35,000 feet
I have highlighted a similar problem on trains. "Your attention is drawn to the safety cards..." - I've written in and asked why they don't show how the wheelchair user evacuates, they don't even say "we know you are there and someone will come and get you" - at least on the card in the wheelchair bay!
1st May: are you Blogging Against Disablism?
Yes, I am blogging! http://techiebabe.livejournal.com/795260.html
Blogging Against Disablism 2009
Mine's here: http://techiebabe.livejournal.com/795260.html - short, but pointed.
Ouch and about
"A chance to say hi to the Ouch! team and see comedian Laurence Clark!"
Laurence, you don't feel you are being trotted out as a token at all, do you? ;-)
Pancake Day: flip and hope?
My cleaner turned up with pancakes today. That was easy, eh? ;-)
The real green is in our wallets
If you are going to arbitrarily increase the price of petrol and household energy then fine, providing there are concessions for those who cannot manage without. I am disabled and need my car for short trips where others could walk, and longer trips where others could take public transport.
Also, although elderly people get a heating allowance in cold weather, disabled people do not. A colder house can lead to increased pain and/or reduced mobility.
Heating and petrol costs are already quite high enough for those who really need them!
My accessible place, or yours?
Last time I went to somewhere that I could sink into a sofa and watch everyone else dancing... some drunkard stole my crutches. And danced with them. My shouts couldn't be heard over the music. And now I was stuck in the sofa with no way to get up and escape...
Disabled ex-pat an 'economic burden'
Perhaps benefits should be paid by "the country where you most recently paid taxes".
I'm meaning income tax of course, although just living in a country means you pay tax to the government through VAT or equivalent.
So Canada should keep Chris, and be nice about it.
Putting access on the (tube) map
This is something I addressed on Radio 4 last week (listen again: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/items/03/2009_03_fri.shtml )
Basically there IS a guide to the height between the train and the platform - and the gap is prohibitively big in most cases. It doesn't matter if station to platform is step free, if you can't get on the train.
Also, something which is ignored is which trains have spaces for wheelchair users once you are on board. Some lines do, on SOME stock. Otherwise you are stuck in the door, people fall over you and the whole thing is frustrating and painful. I'd like to see that documented.
The third name on the Christmas card
I'm still listed on some of my parents' cards, but mainly those from people who still think of me as "little Flash" and don't realise that I'm now in my thirties. Disability doesn't come into it.
And let's face it, isn't it cheaper for your parents to send cards to those people (and sign it "and Elizabeth") so you can save yours for your real friends, and sign them "Liz and partner"?
Guide dog meets tabby cat
Now that amuses me. Those animals are at my local Guide Dog centre. The same one that has dogs being puppy walked in Waitrose, pulling and sliding all over the place in excitement. I even saw one drinking from a mop bucket. Would-be guide dogs are just normal puppies at the start, and it's a delight to see them exploring the world. How someone managed to train Yoko to be kind to cats I don't know. If only my own dog was as calm around them...
There's no such thing as a free haircut
I know what you mean. And the reason that it's unwelcome is that we want EQUALITY. And if that means you pay £24 for a haircut, so be it!
Ten TV shows blind people don't care about
Additions suggested by my husband: One Man and His Dog ("[whistle] [whistle] Ooh, good drive!"), Vision On ("here's a pic from little Bob. We're not sure which way up it goes, but it has an interesting texture"), anything by Sister Wendy, and Mr Bean.
You're also missing out on Gyles Brandreth's jumpers!
The New Year Honours (disability) list
And presumably her Maj will not be instructed to say "arise" to wheelies and those of short stature, although the real question is whether they will keep Prince Philip from making his usual brand of inappropriate remark...
Version 2.Ouch is nearly here ...
About time, and congrats! Hope the upgrade process goes well on Tuesday.
Inclusive First Aid
When it started I got in touch and said "I'm disabled, I haven't done first aid for ages, I'd like to do it please".
They identified my local centre.
They identified the price list.
I ran away screaming.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
When I was 11, in all seriousness I wanted to be a stripper. When I was 13 I wanted to be an F1 driver. And here I am with a terrible figure and an automatic-only driving licence :D
But surely the right answer to "what do you want to be when you grow up" is "happy"?