I am suddenly rather pleased. I just checked the cricket score, expecting to read of the Australian victory, only to find the match was drawn. This is terrific news, as it means we’ve already improved on the last tour of Australia. It means England are saved from the indignity of a five-nil drubbing, which, to be honest, was all I was hoping for. I’m sorry if this sounds negative, and I know the English team are much improved, but, after the fiasco of three years ago, it’s quite a relief.

And I know this has nothing to do with anything I’m supposed to write about on here, like crip-related stuff, but there’s nothing more important in my book than ashes cricket.

If I ever become prime minister, I think one of the first things I’d do is legalise the use of guns, but only for disabled people and only in specific circumstances. I ordinarily oppose the use of violence, but there are times when I have badly wanted a gun, such as last night. We were in a pub, having a quiet beer, when a guy started to talk to us. At first he was okay, but he soon got offensive – very offensive. He started to insult our PA, Marta, trying to tell her how to do her job; he was condescending and rude, and he didn’t understand why he wanted to go away. I became very angry – Marta does her job very well indeed, and I will not have her insulted. At that moment, I whish I had a more effective means of making the guy clear off, like a gun.

I admit this might not be my best idea: letting inebriated wobblies like myself use firearms may be particularly unwise. Yet the fact is, people like me and Lyn seem to get this abuse quite often, ad I’m starting to tire of having to put up with it.

I listened to the first hour of the cricket, hoping to hear an Australian wicket or two fall, when I suddenly thought ”Man, I could kill some VB”. VB, or Victoria bitter, is a local brew down inn Sydney and Brisbane; it’s nothing special, but I missed it last night. It didn’t seem a day since we were there at the last ashes tour, sitting in the sun, singing with the barmy army. We were on the holiday of a lifetime: I had not one but two helicopter rides; we saw Uluru and spent a day on Moreton island. Sitting on the sofa late last night, listening to Jonathon Agnew describe the scene, brought it all back, and I suddenly felt thirsty. Cricket is the only sport I know with such evocative power.

I was watching Michael ‘Pob’ Gove’s announcement on education yesterday, and I was shocked to hear that he plans to remove the emphasis from coursework and put it back on exams at GCSE. I was genuinely taken aback: I know the Tories are stupid, but I didn’t realise they were that stupid. Coursework gives a far more accurate idea of a pupils ability, especially in the arts; it gives you a chance to build arguments properly, rather than hurridly and under pressure. Moreover, it places people like me at a huge disadvantage: if all my qualifications had been exam based, I doubt I would have passed many of them – in exams, one tenses up, tires, and cannot work at your best. Thus this move constitutes a huge step backwards in terms of disability equality.

I can’t believe they are doing this. all the progress made over the last thirteen years is being undone to suit the Tories’ narrow, bigoted view. It is utterly wrong – even callous. They may pretend to be forward thinking and progressive, but you only need to look at Howard Flight’s remarks to see what the Tories really think. They are nothing more than a bunch of arrogant arseholes with no right to be in power, but they think they are somehow superior to the rest of us, and can undo things that ensure equality for the sake of their narrow-minded ideology.

I was going to say something about Australia today. The ashes, of course, begin tomorrow, and I was going to write about our trip there during the last ashes tour of Australia. I was going to write about Uluru and Darling Harbour and rides in helicopters. Yet, as coincidence would have it, I received this link today. Annie Macdonald, one of the leading lights of the disability rights movement and an inspiration to everyone who heard about her, died last week at her home in Australia. I remember reading about her in university after Becca told me about her: she was institutionalised between the age of four and eighteen: because of her CP, she was supposed to have severe learning difficulties, but through sheer will and determination, he managed to show herself and free herself. I suspect, from what I have read, that she would object to this eulogising, yet I fear the disabled community and human-kind itself has lost one of it’s biggest characters. Through her writing and through her being, Anne Macdonald made us ask questions about ourselves no other person could. I deeply regret never contacting and getting to know her.

I just watched something on the news that I am quite disgusted at: a city ‘academy’ in London has rejected an application from a girl with cerebral palsy. The school, which professes to be inclusive in it’s prospectus, claims it cannot cater for the girl because ”the school had narrow corridors, small classrooms, steep disabled ramps, only one disabled toilet and two lifts.” This sounds like a pisspoor excuse to me, and the fact that this is still happening makes me furious. I know that inclusion is not the black and white issue I thought it was, but surely people have a choice about where and how their kids are educated, and that choice shouldn’t be infringed by disability. Anyway, go read.

I was speaking to a friend online the other night. He said he had stopped reading my blog because I’d become predictable. I think this is certainly a valid point: I do tend to go over the same ground again and again. I guess I try to give readers an idea of what life is like for a twentysomething guy with CP, settling down and building a family in the infant years of a new millennium. This is why I sometimes write diary-type entries. But I think the guy I was talking to was referring to my political blogs, and my attacks on the government. Here he definitely has a point: I am a student of film and writing, not politics. I am no political pundit, and I certainly don’t fully understand the economic situation. My entries on politics may well be becoming repetitive and tiresome because of this. yet politics is something I am very angry about, and, as evidenced here, I’m not the only one. Many people, especially those with disabilities, are very worried about the government; for the first time in centuries, there is a faint whiff of revolution in the air. I’m not the only one who sees this government as illegitimate, and the Lib-Dems as traitors. I therefore think I’ll continue to blog as I have been, attacking the Tories, trying to show things from my perspective, but I will try to write on a wider variety of topics from now on.

Tonight is children in need night; a night where we are all supposed to give to help the poor innocent children. I still don’t quite know what to make of charity. On the one hand, I know it can be a good thing, based on selflessness and compassion. Yet charity traps those they claim to help into a cycle of dependence – they become slaves to the organisations which help them. It’s scary how swiftly the urge to help becomes the urge to dominate. This is why I prefer state organised forms of welfare, bit with the Tories in power, I suspect those who need a helping hand are trapped into dependence for the time being.

We were just at Charlton house, having a leisurely cup of coffee. Lyn was telling us how, at the turn of the millennium, she could see the dome from where she then lived so she watched the fireworks there first-hand. It made me think of how different my life was back then, and how radically things have changed over the last ten years. In 2000, I was still at school – a quiet, out-of-the-way special school with very low expectations of it’s students. I suppose my expectations were equally low: after school, I expected to start at Macclesfield college and stay there for a long time, commuting every day between my comfortable life with my parents and a comfortable life at college. University was a pipe-dream, but I was still kind of scared of thee prospect of ever leaving home, so I intended to put it off for as long as possible. After all, I thought, who would look after me? The idea of ever finding a person to love me was frankly ludicrous.

Looking back, I was young and immature. I’ve grown so much over the last decade, or at least I think I have. University taught me so much: in a way I grew up there, for it gave me so many experiences, and I met so many friends there that it revolutionised my whole being. It turned me from a young, home-loving child to a young man, eager to try new things, meet new people. I am no longer afraid of life away from home, or, rather, I have found a new home, and a new family, safe in the knowledge that the one I left up north will always be there for me. The last decade gave me so much in terms of life experiences and friends. Who would have thought, as I watched the fireworks on television that night ten years ago, that the woman I would fall in love so deeply with was watching them from her bedroom window.

I was struck by something I heard on a bbc4 programme about Aristotle last night: science is an endless conversation. This is no doubt true, I thought, but art is, among other things, the means by which we have that conversation. I’d evenn go oe step further than aristotle by saying that every field, not just science, is a conversation All forms of communication are on some level, artistic: even the precise, stripped down unadorned form of writing found in scientific papers. (my physicist brother, Mark, may be alarmed to find that he, too, is an artist, but he makes artistic decisions each time he composes a sentence). Even in writing these words, I am making a piece of art, contributing to the never-ending conversation about the world around us.

All art contributes to that conversation. I find writing the most direct and specific, which is of course why it is usually the art form used to explain and communicate complex ideas. But I see all arts as capable of enhancing and clarifying the world around us. Film or photography, for example, have the ability to shed light on the world particularly sharply. Even the programme on Aristotle contributed to the conversation

But it got me thinking again about those who can’t contribute, who can’t communicate – what of their voices? I think I can make my thoughts known quite well, and enjoy doing so, on various subjects, on my blog. Lyn can express herself artistically through her music and paintings. Yet as a disabled person, I find myself regularly preoccupied by the fact there are those who are unable to express themselves. Often, if you are unable to make your thoughts known, you are seen as a lesser person. I have this fascination with film and it’s relationship with language; I think it stems from my fascination with communication. Most people, I guess, take communication for granted, but even what I am doing now, in typing these rather disorganised words, is a very valuable skill. Those who do not possess it, for whatever reason, are seen as non-people. The ability to make one’s voice herd seems central to society: it’s as though, if you are unable to contribute to the great human conversation, as I once wrote here, then you are not fully a person. Being a VOCA user makes one realise how central the ability to express oneself, in whatever way, is to human society.

I heard earlier that the banks are considering cutting their bonuses from 7 to four billion quid. This made me feel sick: it was the financial sector fat-cats who got us into this mess in the first plaice – it was because of the stupidity and greed of such people that we are now in a recession, and the public sector has to be cut so drastically. Of course, the people in that sector claim that they deserve such bonuses, but I don’t see how they contribute to society in any way. They just move money around, investing in stocks and shares which rise and fall arbitrarily. I may be being stupid, but how does that system contribute in any way to humanity? It does not teach our children; it does not expand our knowledge; it does not help people care for their selves. All it does is arbitrarily create wealth. Why the fuck do we need it, then? These ‘economists are greed-merchants, who, through the flaws in the system they created and sustain, have screwed us all over. Why should they get any bonuses? The bastards should all be in jail.

Lyn made a blog entry today. Quite frankly, I find her words shocking and haunting. I could say more, especially about her amazing talent for drawing which I only found out about today, but I think I’ll klet her speak for herself. go here

I know I am not supposed simply to ‘Plug’ things I’ve seen on tv on* here, but today I’ll make an exception. I think everyone should watch ‘David Attenborough’s first Life’ – it is a magnificent, fascinating programme about how life on earth began. I’m something of an Attenborough fan; he has amassed an immense body of work cataloguing life on this planet. Each one of his series is a gem in itself, but when viewed as a whole, his contribution both to television and the nation’s understanding of science astounds me. This latest programme just adds a final masterstroke to that body of work. I entreat you all to go watch.

Charlie just popped by with her mum for a bit of a flying visit. She didn’t stay long – we just had time for a natter over brunch. She brought teacakes with her, and it was good to catch up on what the joneses are up to. Charlie is still teaching, but hopes soon to go freelance so she can tour more with her band; Hugh, her brother, has apparently turned his hand to inventing musical instruments, and the two younger joneses are growing up fast. They had to go all too soon. I would have liked to take them for a walk around the village, but they had to go. Nevertheless, it feels good to know I have such good friends – uni feels an age ago already, but I think the experiences and friends I gained there will last a lifetime.

This maybe somewhat controversial, but I cannot say I condemn what happened yesterday at Millbank. While I do not liike seeing anyone get hurt, part of me whishes those students had raized the Tory party offices to the ground. That is, after all, what they deserve. They’re imposing cuts on us all, making us suffer for crimes we did nt commit just so they can keep taxes low. As far as I’m concerned, what happened at that student protest yesterday was a fair and proportionate response to the coalitions cuts, and the tories have only theirselves to blame. I expect – and indeed hope – to see many such actions in the near future. Maybe then the government will see it doesn’t have the people’s backing, and move aside for someone more intellegent.

I am still fretting about the subject I took up yesterday. It might not seem very relevant here, but if something with the philosophies of the tea party movement gets established here, as Farage seems to intend, then I think it cause for great concern. As I noted yesterday, I think the party itself is composed mainly of moderate but disenfranchised people, but is being hijacked by those on the far right. Indeed, yesterday I came across footage of Christopher Monkton, still calling himself Lord Monkton although he lost his hereditary peerage in 99, railing against global warming. He was trying to use the movement to spread his own ultra-conservative agenda. He was also singing the praises of Fox News. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t worry what such a lunatic spouts, but Monkton is also UKIPs second in command.

How is it that such insane people are gaining power on both sides of the Atlantic? If he has views in line with fox, presumably he would do away with the BBC and the NHS, two of the things which define Britain as Britain. In other words, there is nothing British about values such as his, so why are people like him gaining sway. This is important, because if they are, it threatens my way of life, as presumably like the republicans he would have people like me dependent on charity rather than the state. In short, I would be a beggar. I find his views repugnant, and the fact that people actually listen to the crap he spouts baffling. He is not even a climatologist, and clearly does not have a clue what he’s talking about. I think that such people really should be made to shut up before they do real damage. The first thing to do, apart from demonstrating global warming is real once and for all, is to expose such people for the foolish bigots they are and to outline the dangers in heeding them. That’s what I attempted to do today.

If there is anyone I loathe more in British politics than David CaMoron and thee Tories it is Nigel Farage and UKIP. I may joke about the Tories being closet racists and xenophobes, but that’s only me trying to be provocative. UKIP, on the other hand, really are racists and xenophobes – they just don’t admit it, even to themselves. The fact is, as all sensible people realise, Britain must be part of the European Union – most of our trade is with the EU. Being part of a wider European community makes sense, and the protests of people like Farage, however sensibly and reasonably they might like to frame them, amount to little more than the ravings of a lunatic.

Amusingly, though, Farage has claimed the American teaparty movement as kindred spirits. As anyone reading this will probably know, the teapaarty movement are even more right-wing than republicans, and advocate small state individualism. They call themselves libertarians. It’s supposed to be a grass-roots movement, but I suspect that is an illusion – I suspect the whole thing is a construct generated by the right and their allies in the media, plying those worst hit by the crunch with platitudes and slogans about ‘taking back our country’, but more on that soon. Such philosophies have always struck me as very short-sighted, as while they sound like they advocate freedom and tolerance, in reality they generate freedom for some and servitude for the many. Those with the ability and resources cease power while others are left to starve. I firmly believe we need a large state as both a safety-net and a mechanism which guarantees fairness and equality for all. Everyone has a right to free healthcare and a decent free education; everything else simply ensures inequality and suffering. Thus it is very telling that Farage would ally himself to the teaparty movement: both pretend their politics are reasonable, fair and adult when in fact they are self-centred, narrow-minded and frankly stupid.

It has been quite a hectic couple of days. On Friday, we had a meeting about finances with a lady from social services. I don’t want to go into detail here, but it was rather stressful for all involved, especially Lyn. Fortunately, luck had it that dad was here at the same time, so he an Paula were able to give us some back-up. Dad had only come to drop off my other chair, as defiant needed to be taken for a service, so I rather sprang it upon him. Nevertheless, dad was superb.

My brother Luke was equally superb yesterday. My copy of Word hadn’t been working all week; we tried to fix it but nothing we did seemed to work. So we dragged Luke all the way here from up near Muswell hill. When he got here, he popped my computer on and found it working perfectly. I felt pretty awful, but it was great to see him and my machine needed a look at anyway. It’s now functioning well, and I can spell-check my blog entries again!

Yet best of all I got to see my brother, whom I hadn’t seen since Christmas – perhaps I should get my computer to go wrong more often. As I keep saying, life with Lyn is awesome, and I am more independant than ever, but it feels great to know I still have a family like mine behind me.

I should probably update you all on the status of my foor. I was out of my wheelchair in time for tea yesterday, as by then it was feeling much better. I think I just needed to rest it, which would imply that it was twisted rather than broken. Wednesday night I was really contemplating having to take a trip to A and E, a prospect which I did not relish, so I’m glad it turned out okay. Mind you, I think having Cp gives you a higher pain threshold: to a certain extent, you have so many bumps and twists that you can take more paiin than usual. On the other hand, that could be just me, so I’d be interested to speak to other CP-ers on the subject.

I suppose I am, as mum usedd to put it, ‘in the wars’. I was coming home yesterday from Woolich, zooming along, when I heard a noise behind me. I turned around, and realising it was just a gate banging in the wind, I turned back. It was then I felt a severe – and I mean severe – pain in my left foot. I’d trapped my foot against a metall box. At first I thought it would just ease, so I iggnored the pain, but it got worse over the evening.

This morning, it was slightly better, but it still hurt to walk on it. One of the advantages of beng a cripple is having a wheelchair at ones disposal, so I’ve been using it. When at home, I like to be ambulent – I prefer to walk about the house; yet it’s odd to reflect that I am, for the first time, descovering what life is like for those with no walking ability at all. This is my first day wholly in my chair. It isn’t that bad, actually: reading is probably better from my chair as I could park by the bedroom window and have a quiet, well-lit spot to read. Reaching stuff is more of a poblem, as is picking things up from the floor. On the other hand, I can zoom around the house without using very much energy.

I think, though, that once my foot is better, I’ll go back to walking. There are advantages to being ambulent, and, contentious as it may be to some in the Crip Comunity, I think walking should be encouraged. Of course, as I’m apreaciating today, it isn’t the be-all-and-end-all, and I still agree with a sticker on my friend Katie’s chair which reads ”walking is overrated”, but it is a useful skill to have.

I was just watching newsnight, and it looks like Obama is about to take a kicking. It’s hard not to feel sorry for the guy; it’s also hard not to feel that america is nought but a bunch of morons. Obama attempted to enssuure every american was ensured a decent standard of medical care, among other things, while trying to steer an economy through troubled waters, but according to the pundits, obama is almost universally hated. Problem is, obama is a victim of his times: he was / is a visionary, but the people of america, fed so much right-wing bull from the likes of Fox, don’t seem to undderstand what he is trying to do. He seems to have a more european, state-oriented attitude to things, but because this stands to jeopodize the monopolies certain businesses, like Fox and private medicade companies had over the people, the average americans were fed so much crap about Obama being unamerican.

It really makes me sad, as well as stiking me as ironic, how it was american capitalism got it’as people into so much trouble, yet that same system has such a stranglehold over the people that it dupes them into blaming other ways of thinking for their woes. In a way, they can’t accept that it is their indeviduallism, which they perceive Obama as challenging, which is the root cause of their prroblems. Obama is trying to grow the economy by pumping money into the state, but is accused of being unamerican buy investing too hard. Sorry if I’m not being very coherent tonight, but can america not see it;’s trapped in a way of thinking, and if it doesn’t escape, this soort of thing will happen over and over again. Obama offered solutions caused by the american system by proposing to change that system, buut in doing so Obama was blamed for those very problems. It seems the american status-quo is too rigid, with too much wsway over the mindset of the american people.

I think I’ll change the tone slightly today, having become too ranty and indignant recently, and direct you all here. It seems a transwoman has won the world scrabble championships. Mikki Nicholson, who is 32, says she only started playing the game five years ago, so it’s quite incredible. Maybe you could say it’s another small step forward for transpeople everywhere. Mind you, I think her pink wig might have put her opponent off, giving her an unfair advantage; and since when were ‘duh’ and ‘pee’ real words?

I am f#st developing an intense dislikke for busses. Lyn and I can’t drive, and allthough a few of our PAs can it makes sense to use public transport instead of busses. However, as you can probably tell from the llast two or three blog entries I made, I’ve been having a lot of fun with public transport recently. Yesterday was no exceeption, but the problem this time was prams.

We were going to Greenwich just to do some shopping, so we went to the bus stop. As usual, I got on the first bus and Lyn and Marta got on the one after. My trip was uneventful, but at the other end I waited and waited. Eventually I got a text saying they were having trouble getting on the bus: either the ramp didn’t work or there was a pram in the wheelchair space.

Almost exactly the same thing happened on the way back, except I decided to roll home under my own steam. I really do hate when mums put prams in wheelchair spaces, and then ignore the sign asking them to fold it if the space is needed by a wheelchair user. Poor Lyn must have waited about 45 minutes at the bus stop. In fact I would go as far as banning prams from using that space, or ban them from busses. It really is unfair when you’re cold, wet and hungry and you can’t get home just because some mum refuses to pick up their child and fold the pram.

I am starting to feel jinxed. Yesterday evening Lyn needed to get to an arts centre on tghe other side of london. We set off about four thirty, hoping to catch a boat up the river to westminster, then the tube. It started well enough – the boat was full, but not crowded, and although we were sightly late at westminster, we were okay. Howeever, despite Westminster station being marked as accessable, when our train turned up I couldn’t get on. I was in Defiant, and the step was too high.

Part of why lyn is so wonderful is that she lets me do all kinds of stuff but hardly ever puts herself first. Last nnight was an occasion when we were doing something lyn wanted to do. So for me to prevent us from getting there because of my damn wheelcchair felt aweful. Okay, so I wasn’t to know, but I should have gone in my manual chair so we could cope with such contingencies.

In the ennd we had a good meal on the south bank, then came home. I still feel horrid about last night. Guilty and sad that my girlfriend couldn’t do what she wanted because of me. Most of all, though, I feel pissed off at the tube service for marking a station acessable when it wasn’t.

Yesterday afternoon was stupid; in fact, it was a total wste of time and all I got out of it was an increased disliking for busses. I had learned from facebook that there was supposed to be a protest by ddisabled people against the cuts. I gather most disabled people feel as strongly as I do about the cuts in thhe nations budget aabout to be forced upon us. It was in speaker’s corner, in Hyde park. Not having been to a protest before,I decided to go despite the rain.

In retrospect, I should have stayed home and done some reading. It took three busses and two hours to get there: the 53 went on a detour, meaning I had to take the 12 then the 6. It meant a lot of waiting at bus stops, asking for help, then squeezing on to increasingly crowded busses. To make matters worse, the rain got harder and harder. When I eventually got there, I found the place deserted except for a few men tidying up plackards. My fellow crips had deserted their cause already – I was less thaan impressed.

I turned for home. I was going to retrace my stteps, or try to, so I got on a number six. Thhen I realised it went to Trafalgar square, so I could get the 53 directly. I seem to be getting to know my war around town. I got home about two hours later, after what seemed to be the longest and slowest bus ride in history, wet, irritated and needing a drink.

My keeness to protest has not diminished. Would you believe, at PMQ’s today CaMoron tried to claim that todays better-than-expected figures were their fault, when in fact thhey show that what Labour was doing was prudent, and that cutting now will stop the recovery in it’s infancy. I still believe we need to get rid of this government as soon as possible, or at least stop them implementing their draconian, ideologically-inspired cuts. Thus I think we need to protest, to make our voices heard. However, I think it’s best I stick to blogging to do this – it’s far easier, and much, much drier.

I heard the first serious comparisons being made between the economic situation now and that of the thirties last night. It was on newsnight. I’m not an economist, and I couldn’t understand everything they were saying, but for then to draw that comparrison struck me as worrying. No doubt as osbourn’s cuts begin to bite, we’ll slip back into recession. without money going into the system, how can money come oout of it? The ‘big society’ will prove to be the nonsense anyonee with half a brrain can tell it is, and before you know it the economy wiill drop lower than it haas done in seventty years.

This is very worrying. desparate times bring forth extremwe ideas: in the thirties, of course, it brought about the rise of fascism in europe, and already we’re beginning to see that happening again, albeit not to the same degree. As a member of a minority, I’m starting to worry history might start repeating itself unless the economic situation starts to improve. As the cuts bite, peoople will turn away from democracy and become more extreme. They will point to the coallition as weak aand indecisive, and there is no telling what will happen then.

I know you could probably find it via her blog, a link to which I posted the other day, but I think I need to direct you here. It’s a video of Lyn using her Ipad. I know I don’t say much about it, and nor does L – it’s not really the done thing – but the way Lyn controls her Ipad with her nose is remarkable. As you can see, she uses it for everything from checking facebook to playing Sparkle. She’s even set it up to control the TV. We joke around here is that she should have a contract with Apple, and they should pay her to test their products. We may say this in jest, but you know, that might not be such a bad idea. Anyway, go look.

This is not the blog I was going to write. Today’s entry was supposed to be about anarchism, and how stupid/brilliant it was. I was going to write a description of our trip to the Whitechapel Anarchist bookfair, and my impressions of it. I was looking forward to writing a review of te people I met and the Ideas I encountered. However, it was not to turn out to be thee day I intended: when we got to the train station to go to whitechapel, we descovered that all servicces in that direction were not running. My curiosity about anarchism had to give way to circumstance.

Fortunately, we were at thee o2. Niether lyn nor I wanted to just turn tail and go home, so we decidedb to make a day of it. It’s funny how, when you’re with the person you love, even when things go awry nothing seems that bad – theere was plenty of fun yet to be had. Oddly, I noticed a disproportionate number of little girls in dissney princess outfits in there, no doubt due to the Disney On Ice show in the o2 arena, but according to Lyn, ‘I’m just jealous’. We spent rest of the day browsing the shops in there and walking along the river for a bit. It turned ourt, in the end, to be a great day: we had a superb dinner at a resteraunt, including cocktails, before heading home.

Sometimes the best days are the ones you dont plan.

I’m very pleased to annnounce Lyn has changed her blog. It is now ‘Lyn’s Disability Mac Blog’. She writes ”[My] blog has been reformatted and now is about all things Mac and disability based. As a Mac user with a disability I’ll be looking at the Apple developments and how disabled users can take advantage of the technology.” Apple seem to be putting out some very good Apps right now for people with disabilities. Lyn intends to cover such things. I think it’s well worth a look.

Yesterday evening I made it ten. I was kind of frustrated about missing Generations on sunday thhat I decidsed to go buy a few of the star trek films on DVD. Last night I watched Generations, completing my set of viewings.

To be honest I needed something to take my mind off politics. Ysterday’s budget was a disaster, especially for my felloow disabled people. those on benefits, some of the most vulnerable people in society, will be squeezed the hardest. All ready on Ouch message boards people are already worrying about how they’re going to make ends meet. Mind you, Ouch will now probably be scrapped due to the cuts in the BBC (and if you need anyy more evidence that these cuts are motivated by dogma, look at that!)

The whole thing makes me feel physically sick. these cutts will kill. And, to cap it all, yesterday afteroon the fat cats in the financial sector were all jumping for joy while I was worrying about my benefits. Nothing could piss me off more. the selfishness and narrow-mindedness of the tories and their supporters in the city, who caused this crisis in the first place, appauls me. I know no words that express my contempt and hatred for their actions yesterday; it was no more or less than an act of murder.

This was a double post. it repeated my ‘act of murder’ blog. Instead of you reading it again, I’ll send you here

I’m not sure what happened here. my blog posted my entry today tthree times. I suppose I should use it as an oppertunity to say something further, buut I can only say how very worried I am. I wish there was some way of removing these assholes from power – I really do. Anyway my coffee is going cold.

Late last night, I was talking about politics to my friend James. He also has cerebral palsy, but we seem to take very different political stances. I was trying to explain my political thinking, and why I think as I do, only I don’t think I was succeeding. Perhaps I should explain it here, in a nutshell.

I believe that we are all equal. Not equal in the sense of we all have the same abilities, but we all havee the same potential and worth. At the point that we are born, any baby can go as far as any other. Yet this is not quite the case: some people have advantages others do not; some people are born into rich families, others poor ones; some are girls and some are boys; etc. This makes a difference to one’s potential. It seems a waste to me that a geniious born into a poor family might have his potential unforfilled. I therefore take a left-wing stance: I think the role of the state should be to equalise the chances for everyone, thereby maximizing the potential. If all familes have roughly equal incomes, there would be less waste as everyone would get an equal share of the finite resources we have. After all, why should one child get more than the other, simply due to the circuumstances of his birth?

Having CP, I have just as much value as anyone else, so I feel I should get a more equal share of the resourcees. To become wealthy, you usuallyy need either a swift tounge or steeady hands; I have niether, but that is not my fault. Is it not unfair that I get less money and less of a share of resources simply because I have CP?

My friend was arguing the opposite. Yes, everyone is of equal worth, but society is not and can never be equal. From this it follows that the state should back away, and let the best succeed while others fail. That is just part of human nature. We should not strive for the unachievable task of equuality, but let everyone get on with it. It’s not that he’s totally against state benefits, but I think his point is they’re too liberally awarded. I rather like James, and I think I see where he’s coming from, but something about his logic troubles me.

Star Trek is very cool indeed, but today I have something far more worrying to blog about. According to this article, hate crimes against disabled people are increasing. More and more people are getting beaten and abused, just because they have a dissbility. What makes this even worse is that these crimes are going largely unpunished. Recently, a group of thugs beat a young autistic boy half to death, and got away with iit virtually scott free.

I used to try to disbelieve such things, tellling myself there are other factors invvolved. Thinking oneself part of a hated minority is unhealthy, as it means you see yourself as an outsider, and you get increasingly paranoid. I do not like the idea that people hate ‘us’ for who we are. Yet if the reports are true, disability hate crime is a reality, and is increasing. I find that very worrying indeed: about the reasons for this I can only speculate, but my hunch is that, as the cuts begin to bite, disabled people will be seen as scroungers even more so such crimes will increase.

No longer can this simply be ignored.

Nine out of ten ain’tt bad; I’m quite prouud of myself, in fact. This weekend, I took the oppertunity to watch as many star trek films as I could. As a student off film, and as a Trekker, I felt it my duty. Thanks to FilmFour having a second channel, FilmFour + 1, I was also able to go to the pub for dinner, too, and only miss Generations. Mind you, I regret missing that, as Generations bridges the gap between the originnal six films and the films of the next generation. Alas for my human need for food and fresh air.

I think, however, that what I did this weekend was entirely necessary, as it allowed me to see the ten films as one body of work. Fortunately Iknow generations well enough to ‘fill in the gaps’. Rather than ten separate movies, there are links between them, not only in terms of plot – ie the plot of one leads into the other, such as The Search for Spok leading directly on from The Wrath of Kahn – but thematic links. For example, the symbol of the Whale reoccurs three or four times, not only in and of itself, as in the voyage home, but as a symbol. Kahn quotes Moby-dick extensively, as does Picard. Thus the theme of vengence figures highly: Kahh’s vengence on Kirk, Kirk’s will to avenge his son’s death on the Klingons, Picard’s lust for vengence with the Borg, the Baku’s need to get back at the Son’a, and Shinzon’s lust for vengence on picard and/or the romulans. Thus vengence and the folly of it, it could be argued, is one of the core themes of the series.

Moreover, there are also common reference points that run throughout the films: Romulan ale and it’s supposed illegality and toxicity frequently crops up, as do the subjects of time and age. There is thus a case to be made that these films should be viewed as a series, but not in relation to the Star Trek TV series. They stand apart from television, as principally filmic texts. They are highly cinematic, after all.

They deserve proper filmic analysis. In my research, I focus on the eigth film, First Contact, but perhaps more work needs to be done in examining these ten texts in relation to eachother. This is only a summery, written for my blog, but now I want to do a much dseeper analyysis. My mind is abuzz with questions; I’ve fallen in love with these films all over again, although The Journey home, which I used to love, now strikes me as preachy. Nevertheless, I gained an affinity for Kirk, and now see his death in Generations was meaningless, if poignant: Perhaps now that the eleventh film has reset things, shatner can step back into the role once more and redress that. The possibilities in the star trek universe are endless.

Spending all those hours on the sofa was well worth it. It was like rediscovering something. Most of all, as Kirk said, ‘it was fun’.

Yesterday was probably the geekiest day of my life; it was also one of the coolest. Filmfour are having a Star Trek weekend: they’re showig all ten star trek films (the reboot not having been released on tv yet). The first five aired yesterday, and I watched the lot; from 2pm to 1.25am I was glued to the tv. I know 1, 4 and 5 well, but I’d only seen Wrath of Kahn once or twice, ad I don’t recall ever seing the search for spock. It turned out to be surprisingly good.

The second 5 air today. I dont know whether I’ll do what I did yesterday and plonk myself in front of the tv for 12 hours, or go get some fresh air. I would like to see The Undescovered Country, and I adore First Contact, but I think Lyn would rather like her tv back.

I’m starting to agree with lyn to be hhonest. Yesterday afternoon she started to get irritated at the coverage of the chillian miner rescue. Don’t get me wrong: I still think it’s wonderful that they were all brought out alive, but we live in a media-saaturated world where everything is portrayed cinemataically. Yesterday, we saw the same thing again annd again – the same footage, the same words. Lyn likened it to a soap opera; I guess she’s right. Mind you, this case would be cool to analyse in such terms, given that it ended so happily. Its only a matter of time before the film adaptation comes out!

I cannot be too grumpy today. I’ve just been watching the coverage of the miners being rescued in Chile. At time of writing, eleven have been brought up safe and well to the surface; I can’t help but feel a warm tingle whenever I see another miner arrive at the surface and hug his family.

I’m not so happy with what is going on closer to home. I’ve written before on here about how much I value my time at university: I firmly believe my experiences in higher education brought me out of my shell and made me who I am today. It gave me confidence and firm friendships. Had I not been to uni, I would still be a timid little person living with his parents; I would never have met Steve or charlotte or Ricardio or the rest of them, and I’d have never have met Lyn, as uni gave me the freedom to do so. Thus I am appalled that the government plans to remove the cap on tuition fees. Under labour, anyone who had the ability to desire could go to uni, but now it will be more restricted to your ability to pay. I know of no word which sums up my revulsion at this: it is a move which means a return to education only for the rich. How CaMoron can describe this as ‘fair’ is absolutely disgusting. I can’t help thinking of the many kids who won’t share in the joys I found at university. I’m lucky – not only did I get a degree at uni, but I also got much more in terms of life experiences which, in a way, mean that certificate is worth far more to me than I can possibly put into words. Now, many kids who could have benefited from university as much as I did will be denied that chance due to the Tories’ will to reduce taxes, and I will never forgive them for that.

I just went in to see Lyn in her studio, and found her controlling the mouse of her main Mac computer with her Ipad. The Ipad was blank; Lyn was moving her nose across it and the arrow on her mac was moving. There were no wires involved. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen, and thus needed recording!

My friend Ryan sent me a link to a short film he made earlier. It is an interesting little piece about procrastination, so it struck something of a chord with me. To be honest my one criticism would be his choice of colour and lens – to use monochrome seems so passe these days, but I like both his style and sentiment. Anyway, go take a look. I’m still wondering about a follow-up to spastic ballet and Crash-head, so, now I know I know another film-maker, maybe we could collaborate with Ryan in the future.