vivdunstan

Unsleeving my cards for the Fellowship of the Ring trick-taking card game. Had sleeved them cos I'll be shuffling these a lot. But my neuro illness hands struggle with them sleeved - too slippy, too bulky. So unsleeved it is. Feels like right step even if backwards!

All the removed sleeves are now back in their packet, beside those I hadn't sleeved onto cards yet. I may yet change my mind. Or might want to use the sleeves for something else. But I'm confident they're better not used here. At least for me.

Very recently I replaced my rapidly dying old Kindle Paperwhite 4 with the latest model. And a few days on I thought I'd post some quick thoughts.

On plus the new one (Kindle Paperwhite 6) is much much more responsive for page turns. This makes a huge difference to me since I read with a gigantic font for disability/neurological illness reasons. So have to turn pages much more than most folk for the same amount of text. In the old model there was a noticeable delay each time. Now it feels almost instant. Which I'm very happy with.

It was also remarkably easy to set up, using my iPod touch (like an iPhone, but without any phoning) to send by Bluetooth my Kindle login details and wifi network. Which sounds a bit risky as I write this, but worked ... And then I just had to tweak the font size, screen layout and brightness to my preferences, and I was done.

On the downside the new Kindle Paperwhite uses a different transfer protocol (MTP) which is not Mac friendly. So if connecting it up via USB there are extra hurdles to get eg a screenshot off. Which I do rarely. But still. It also affects side loading ebooks onto it by cable, though you can also upload them via web and email.

Also the Kindle Paperwhite 6 is a little bit bigger than my previous Kindle Paperwhite 4. It's not too big for me to handle, but felt a little unfamiliar at first.

I really like the plant-based cover I got, the official Amazon version. It's not fully plant-based, but much more so than the standard cover. I picked it partly for that reason, but also because it got better reviews for softness and no sharp edges than the main alternatives.

Big relief I don't have a yellow band at the bottom of my screen. This has been a problem for many latest Paperwhite owners as well as the new Kindle Colorsoft model. I am mightily relieved.

Just caught up with Homer translator Emily Wilson chatting yesterday at the Edinburgh Book Festival. I studied both the Iliad and Odyssey as part of my Open University history/classical studies BA(Hons) degree 1998-2000. A very part time degree, but one that was greatly shortened thanks to credit transfer from my St Andrews BSc(Hons). Which meant I could leapfrog the first year's courses. Though that made it a much harder transition from studying hard science to studying humanities at degree level!

I was using Richmond Lattimore's translations of the Homer poems in my OU degree. I have a vivid memory of one night we'd driven over to Dundee, and Martin was nipping into supermarket Asda, with me waiting in the car. And reading the Iliad, full of hefty anatomical descriptions of battle injuries. And desperately wanting to read out some of them to him when we came back! I haven't read Emily's new translations yet, but hope to, health permitting. I did have her hardback Odyssey book for some time, but struggled too much with it due to my neurological illness. I may yet get the Kindle versions to read, with a gigantic font I need now.

The book festival chat was interesting. Emily was a very good speaker. Though the lady interviewing her talked far, far too long between Emily's bits. At one point Emily was repeatedly struggling to get a word in. And also, very frustratingly for the online audience, the interviewer totally ignored the many questions that had been typed up online to be asked to the speaker.

I posted the quoted text below in a comment on a friend's thread, but I think it's worth reposting here. BBC Children in Need's TV show on Friday night included a 5 minute scene, featuring the Fourteenth Doctor meeting an able bodied Davros at the creation of the Daleks. Many watching like me assumed this was a pre-injury Davros version. Possibly, but in the Doctor Who Unleashed documentary later that night Russell T Davies said this is how Davros will be shown in the programme from now on: not a wheelchair user, and able bodied. This was a deliberate decision to redress problems in the series's representation before, including the evil cripple trope. However the response has been mixed, and not just among ardent Davros fans.

Here's what I said in a comment earlier today:

Re RTD and Davros the response has been quite mixed on the Gallifrey Base Doctor Who forum. Including from wheelchair users like myself. Yes some have experienced or witnessed bullying inspired by Davros and are concerned by the evil cripple trope. But others found RTD's words in the Doctor Who Unleashed documentary patronising and virtue signalling. One father also wrote about his daughter (11 or 12 years old I think) who is a wheelchair user, and was extremely upset by what RTD said and this change. She had always found Davros a strong character to look up to. And I think it's fair to say that one of the worst offenders in this area in the past has been RTD himself. Which makes his about turn understandable. But doesn't stop it being viewed by some wheelchair users as patronising and unwelcome. So it's complicated.

People have also been giving feedback on RTD's Instagram post, including more parents of now very upset disabled children. And to be honest his responses have often been really rude. My views on this whole issue are definitely "complicated". But it's fair to say that RTD's words and his reactions on Instagram have not exactly endeared him to me this weekend.

(As in a room to go and rest in, British meaning, not the US meaning of a toilet)

Was reminded by a post today on Facebook from a uni friend about the “rest room” in Dundee University’s main Tower building basement, that was an enormous help to me during my postgraduate studies and during the year I was working as a research assistant as well part-time. I was battling my progressive and worsening neurological disease, and it was an enormous help to be able to go into this dedicated room with reclining chairs where I could have a lie down for an hour or so. It’s a little known facility but is especially useful for disabled or long term ill students who don’t otherwise have somewhere quiet to go. I used to always ask at the Tower front desk (usually Muriel!) for the key. But later I got my own key to keep and use. Long since returned.

Too ill to sleep much, not well enough to sit up and work on my laptop. So glued to the bed, but just managed to rewatch the first Tobey Maguire Spidey film. All of it! Enjoyed it, though it’s far too gloomy lit for much of the time. Tobey Maguire is also often overly flat in his delivery. I was pleased to notice a wheelchair user having a fairly prominent repeating role. Surprised at the homophobic joke in there though. Checking I see it’s been cut out of some more recent repeat airings. Willem Dafoe was excellent, though the Green Goblin was a bit too over the top. Oh and nice to see Octavia Spencer in a brief part.

One really lovely thing about my accordion practice this afternoon is my right hand - and specifically my fingers - was cooperating really well. This is the hand that plays the melody on the piano keyboard side of my accordion. When I had a huge cerebral vasculitis relapse in 2004 (effectively a stroke) I was suddenly a lot weaker down my right side, and falling over a lot to that side. I regained a lot of hand/finger control by teaching myself an enormously difficult piano tune over the next 12 months. But many years on I'm still weaker down that side than I'd like. And especially during disease flares/relapses. A year or so ago I was very sad about it, fearing I was losing the ability to play completely. Well things are looking a bit better at the moment! I still have other neurological things to contend with accordion wise, like light headedness, falling asleep mid play (!) and losing my usually automatic bellows control. But honestly it's so much better than it might have been. So I expect I should be able to enjoy playing my accordions for some years to come. Which is just lovely.

Been taking part in an interesting Twitter thread today about the problems faced by non affiliated or barely affiliated academics, essentially independent scholars without university support, including financial. It digressed slightly into different funding arrangements for postgraduates. I remembered how during my Dundee history PhD (2003-2010) many Scotland-wide PhD training events were for a long time only open to funded PhD students. I was initially unfunded for my history PhD, but later won AHRC funding. Even then as a part timer I got no stipend, unlike full timers. My PhD supervisor campaigned with others to get AHRC to provide stipends to part timers. This happened in time for me to benefit before the end of my PhD. As a part timer I was also initially ineligible for the Disabled Students Allowance, which at that time could only go to full timers. Fortunately that changed too. To be fair this is a long time ago, and much has changed. But still.

I could also go off on one about the poor support for me as a computer science PhD student from EPSRC when I fell long term ill. But that’s another story ...

Wow the Open University is 50 years old today! I’ve just blogged about my experiences with it, studying 1998-2000, and how it gave me a second chance after I fell long-term seriously ill as a science PhD student at just 22. Posting here for a feel good story! The Open University is a much venerated UK university, that set out from the start to support part-time distance learning at home, giving people a chance who might otherwise be unable to study at university level.

https://vivsacademicblog.wordpress.com/2019/04/23/celebrating-50-years-of-the-open-university/