Ask Me Anything

Haven't done one of these in a while so I figured it might be fun to do one now. Plus I just thought of a question I'd love to ask another blogger but for the fact it's off topic to their blog and irrelevant.  That got me thinking that maybe people had things they wanted to ask me but never had...

Ask me whatever you want and I'll answer in an upcoming blog entry (so long as I'm comfortable doing so, although I don't expect that to be a problem).

And seeing as one of my last entries was about going to see the neuro physio I'll save myself from those questions and tell you now.  It went well and the physio seems great.  No real answers but lots to think about and I'm still processing, researching etc.  Hospital transport was, as always, a really great thing but a very long job!

Answers!

Molly asked what inspired me to start blogging?

It's so long ago I'm not sure to be honest! As far as I can remember in February 2000 someone I knew online told me about Diaryland and I thought it was cool and signed up. Updated a few times, got bored and didn't go back. Then 8th November that year I was at uni and I had unlimited internet in my room and nothing to do. Remembered diaryland, signed into my account again, deleted the original entries (which I sort of regret now) and that was it. 7 main blogs (this is my 7th) and many other one off entries and random ideas later my 9th blogoversary will be in November this year.

It was easier to figure out what keeps me blogging. Fact is, I enjoy it. I gives me something to do, makes me write. It's a huge huge outlet for me. It has also allowed me to make some great friends and also keep in better touch with some of my IRL friends too. The biggest thing about blogging for me I think is the ability to share information and experiences. I've always felt that one of my roles in life if you will is to show that being disabled isn't the end of the world and how much more than what people see there is to it. Blogging is probably the best way to do that. It's also why I enjoy taking part in things like Blogging Against Disablism Day and The Disability Blog Carnival so much.

The second question Molly asked was what my favourite film is? Hard to say. I'm not hugely into films and watch them again and again and again. I'm a now and again DVD type of person. Probably the Harry Potter films are my overall favourites. I also like the Sister Act ones and all three of the Thunderbirds ones too (yes, including the not as great 2004 one). Narnia is a favourite in books and I've liked the films too although prefer the books.

Diane said that when she stops writing due to tiredness or pain she has trouble getting going again and remembering where she was and wondered if I had any tips. Firstly, sorry for the crappy rewording of your question, going from memory here. Write or Die is a great resource for making you write and getting those words down. You need to remember to copy and paste into a document and save it when you're done though!

I've also been learning this year about a process called "Free Writing" (I think it also has other names but I don't know them). You set a timer and you just write. It doesn't matter if it isn't what you planned to write you just write it. In that time (I do 10 minutes) you don't go back and edit it and you don't second guess yourself. If you can't think of anything to write then you sit and write about how hard it is to write and ramble on about that until you get over it.

Something else I do is I write what I want. If I've written point (or character) A and need to get to point/character B and don't know how to do it I skip the getting there bit and write the next bit then do the getting there and joining up afterwards.

My sister left loads of questions on here. Which kind of surprised me because, she's my sister, I figured she knew all she wanted or needed to. But they were interesting questions!

If I had to get a pet what would I get? I'd get fish. I am very animal phobic and fish seem low maintenance, fun to watch and something I'm not phobic about.

If I was changing my name, what would I change it to? I don't think I would change my name, it's who I am! And I've said for years that if I ever get married I won't change my surname. But two names I really like are Zoe and Naomi.

If I had one wish what would it be? I probably should wish for a better world, more understand of disability issues. A world like this one. But in reality I think I would wish for children of my own. I would love to hold my own child in my arms (bet that surprised you!)

If I had to eat one food only for a month what would it be? Probably cheating to say one meal, not one food but - jacket potatoes and cheese. Easy and very very yummy and not too bad for you.

I haven't forgotten that Diane also asked about Crip Culture or that Karen asked about what CP treatments I've had or that a while back Jacqui asked for the story of my powerchair. All of those things are topics I'd love to write about but which are long ones and need to be in separate entries. I hope to tackle most of them this week.

Reminder Post - Ask me Anything and Save DLA

Don't forget that I'm having an "ask me anything post" later this week. Questions in comments or via e-mail to writerinawheelchair@googlemail.com So far I have a bunch of questions from my sister, two questions from Molly and two from Karen that I'm not sure how to answer! So more questions are needed for this to be a proper question and answer post. LOL.

Also: I know I've been going on and on about this but please if you haven't already, sign the Save DLA petition and pass those details on to all your contacts. Rumour has it DLA may not be under threat any more just AA (DLA for over 65's) but personally I don't think we should trust that and give up because it's now "just AA".

My original entry on the threat to DLA is here and the petition itself is here.

Coming Soon: Ask me Anything!

I was thinking it might be fun to do a kind of "ask me anything" type post.

I've seen several of those sort of things lately and they always seem like fun.

So for the next few days feel free to leave me questions either here in comments or e-mail them to me at writerinawheelchair@googlemail.com

And more that one question per person is allowed and definitely welcome. I'm hoping lots of people will ask questions and may come out of lurkdom to do so.

A brief off topic note on e-mail: if you have another gmail/googlemail e-mail for me please continue to use that as it's my personal one. If you have any other e-mail please use this new one (writerinawheelchair@googlemail.com) because it's my new secondary e-mail (for the blog etc) as I'm now doing away with my domain. Which means changing to this one is especially important if you have ever or usually use emma@wheelchairprincess.com to e-mail me. Because that one is disappearing!

I love e-mail so please feel fre!