tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55182742007-10-16T14:56:16.934+01:00SchizopanicIanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06429685799214202513noreply@blogger.comBlogger53125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518274.post-72160098189782475432007-10-07T15:31:00.000+01:002007-10-07T15:37:09.373+01:00Google.
Still having problems with Google’s front end to blogs. Think I’ve worked it out for this post.
Cognitive function.
I’ve noticed that compared to some people that my thinking isn’t as rigorous as it could be. This has been going on for a good year or so. I’ve been referred to a specialized clinical psychologist. She interviewed me once a week for three weeks and then produced a report Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06429685799214202513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518274.post-89141796626252772422007-05-30T14:18:00.000+01:002007-05-30T14:20:12.049+01:00I've had a bit of trouble updating my blog, now that Google has taken over. We'll see how well this turns out.
Anyway, take a look at the history site of St George's Park, http://www.stgeorgeshistory.org.uk/site/ - it is quite revealingIanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06429685799214202513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518274.post-1169551061915988742007-01-23T11:17:00.000Z2007-01-23T11:17:41.923ZBack in the 1980's I had (an almost workstation class computer) called a Sinclair QL. It could multitask (via an operating system called QDOS, later on superseded by Minerva by QView), network and came with a set of free, bundled business applications (the Psion Xchange) had a vibrant user group (Quanta) which had a regular newsletter, a vast library of software available to Quanta members for Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06429685799214202513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518274.post-1163086418917357652006-11-09T15:29:00.000Z2006-11-09T15:33:38.933ZEmotions.
I didn't realise this until recently but... when you're not too hot emotionally, it can impair your ability to do things and think things through.
Pixies.
I've been put on Risperidone to get over a rough patch. It turns me into a pixie:)Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06429685799214202513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518274.post-1161682492581236882006-10-24T10:32:00.000+01:002006-10-26T10:41:17.696+01:00Literature - the opiate of the intellectual.
When I was 20 and going through relatively minor, undetected, psychotic episodes while working at Grand Metropolitan Brewing (Systems), my coping mechanisms were 1) reading and 2) running Dungeons and Dragons games based in the World Of Greyhawk and 3) computing on a 68008 based computer, the Sinclair QL. At weekends, isolated and hundreds of miles Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06429685799214202513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518274.post-1157449176906777342006-09-05T10:32:00.000+01:002006-09-05T10:39:36.920+01:00A city at war
Schizophrenia is like being a city at war. No matter what hangs in your art galleries, no matter what is debated in your universities, a well aimed bomb (schizophrenia) can bomb you back to the stone age.
Christianity and Science
Some of my friends are scientists, some of them are Christians. Will the two ever reconcile their differences? Taking the science thing further, take a Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06429685799214202513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518274.post-1157016734613323112006-08-31T10:28:00.000+01:002006-08-31T12:34:38.440+01:00Anniversary
I have been discharged from hospital for two years.
Contact project
I started a project at Contact where we take in surplus computer equipment and pass it on to in-patients, out-patients and their carers.
Holiday
Been to Windermere for a short camping break with the outreach team. It was good to go back to old haunts.
Stigma and lazy reporters
If a person "with a mental health Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06429685799214202513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518274.post-1155130792085049672006-08-09T14:38:00.000+01:002006-08-09T14:39:52.110+01:00I'm working hard to avoid DFCFing (Departing From Controlled Flight). People see a thoughtful, rational person but, like when watching a swan glide by, they are unable to see the webbed feet paddling frantically away.Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06429685799214202513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518274.post-1147865648154366452006-05-17T12:31:00.000+01:002006-05-17T12:34:08.166+01:00A couple of weeks ago, the new hospital staged a visiting day - before the patients were transferred - on a Saturday.
The new hospital is a big improvement on the old one, even if I recall correctly it cost about £27m via PFI.
However nice it is, it is still a hospital and I will be working hard to make sure I remain out of the hospital rather than in.Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06429685799214202513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518274.post-1147169457968446852006-05-09T11:09:00.000+01:002006-05-09T11:10:57.976+01:00Thursday 4th May 2006
I am a creative. It took a while – reading books and writing articles – for me to work that out for myself. At school the *only* subject I was any good at was English – at least until Computer Science came along :)
So what now? I'm laying down technical and story telling foundations.
I've been trawling through Morpeth Library's reference section. In it I've discovered aIanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06429685799214202513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518274.post-1137582953241190482006-01-18T11:14:00.000Z2006-01-18T11:15:53.250ZHave split up amicably. Am single again. It was a valuable friendship that ended in friendship. Can't complain about that.Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06429685799214202513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518274.post-1131734527834527352005-11-11T18:39:00.000Z2006-08-09T14:41:38.276+01:00My youngest sister, Katy, 31, apparently committed suicide on Tuesday morning, about 4am. Later on it was discovered she'd taken a small dose of pain killers - and with a lot of vodka, that was all that was required.
Family flowers, everyone else a donation to the PDSAIanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06429685799214202513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518274.post-1130937840004737632005-11-02T13:22:00.000Z2005-11-02T13:28:00.866ZCoping strategies - battle for sanity.
I’ve been having a bit of a rough time recently – the usual problems with schizophrenia. In particular, I’ve been deploying coping strategies to deal with the problems. I’ve talked to the Outreach Team about this and they are happy with the way I’m coping with things. In particular, while deploying coping strategies it is a bit like being a fireman in a Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06429685799214202513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518274.post-1129313650923945302005-10-14T19:12:00.000+01:002005-10-14T19:14:10.926+01:00Ways of thinking:
There are ways of thinking that we don’t know about. Nothing could be more important or precious than that knowledge, however unborn. The sense of urgency, the spiritual restlessness it engenders, cannot be appeased.
Susan Sontag
People who share with others are seldom hungry.
Haitian
Those of us who are forged in the crucibles of difference know that survival is not an Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06429685799214202513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518274.post-1124100234483070342005-08-15T11:00:00.000+01:002005-08-15T11:03:54.490+01:00Imagination:
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
German-born physicist
Excellence:
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
(Aristotle (384-322BC)
Greek PhilosopherIanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06429685799214202513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518274.post-1123081453144859742005-08-03T16:03:00.000+01:002005-08-09T11:31:10.080+01:00A Godly life is its own rewardIanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06429685799214202513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518274.post-1121782740820308222005-07-19T15:13:00.000+01:002005-07-19T15:19:00.826+01:00My rotary washing line disappeared over the weekend. So I told the police it had been stolen. Well a few hours later they came back with it, apparently someone had left it lying against a wall somewhere. That was really nice of them.
Been working on the computers that Contact has scrounged. We're just about keeping up with demand.Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06429685799214202513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518274.post-1121160200031183762005-07-12T10:20:00.000+01:002005-07-12T10:23:20.036+01:00My poem is sublime because I can rhyme
The low down about my town.
Berwick is big, Berwick is small
It even has an ancient town hall
Berwick has bars
Berwick has cars
But I relocated
Because it's isolated
Ian BIanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06429685799214202513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518274.post-1119034277572514682005-06-17T19:50:00.000+01:002005-06-17T19:51:17.580+01:00I participate in certain leisure activities and have a laminated business card with emergency contact details and coping strategies on it. What has this got to do with schizophrenia? Well, imagine being schizophrenic as being something like living in Japan. There are problems with flooding rivers and buildings falling down in earthquakes. In effect the activities and strategies are similar to Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06429685799214202513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518274.post-1116430027946670042005-05-18T16:19:00.000+01:002005-05-18T16:27:07.953+01:00I've been going through a bit of a trough. I've been sleeping a lot lately and my symptoms (of schizophrenia) have been more pronounced. I've got the latest copy of SuSE Linux 9.3 Professional ready to install but I just can't face it at the moment. In fact I'm having difficulty sorting out my bills and things. Although it's an unpleasant time to be going through, I'm glad that it didn't happen Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06429685799214202513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518274.post-1115218846498357702005-05-04T15:46:00.000+01:002005-05-04T16:00:46.530+01:00I've reached another milestone - attending the
ACCU conference and I didn't have a psychotic episode. There were a few moments where I was thinking "this is not real, I'm hallucinating" but overall things were OK.
Since the last conference I attended, in Spring 2001, there were a few changes. Python had a stream for itself. So did security. And Template Metaprogramming replaced the usual talks Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06429685799214202513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518274.post-1108380060120056932005-02-14T11:17:00.000Z2005-02-14T11:21:00.120ZThings have been a little rough lately. I've become obssessive about checking my gas cooker, fridge, upstairs and downstairs taps, back door and front door whenever I go out. So I've been a little obssessive.
Schizophrenia is like a banshee - it wails and your nerves end up like violin strings. When I go to church, I worry frantically about my house.Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06429685799214202513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518274.post-1107946353434833892005-02-09T10:43:00.000Z2005-02-09T10:52:33.433ZMy concentration is coming in peaks and troughs, I am experiencing voices and visions. Fortunately I have a little bottle of promazine (25mg) which I can fall back on when things get out of hand.
I've sent off for two new books, discounted at the Register bookstore:-
"Linux Kernel Development 2e" by Robert Love, Candace Bos, Jeanne Schumm ISBN 0672327201 which describes the latest (2.6) Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06429685799214202513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518274.post-1105958338188409342005-01-17T10:31:00.000Z2005-01-17T10:38:58.186ZNot only do I have a New Year's Resolution to run a role playing game in the middle of the year, I'm also getting ready for version 2 of Open Office which is a free or open source clone of Microsoft Office.
How will I do this? Well there are no free courses for Open Office but Learn Direct are doing free courses for MS Office and basic computing skills. So I've signed up for PowerPoint (Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06429685799214202513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5518274.post-1105354130417732562005-01-10T10:45:00.000Z2005-01-10T10:48:50.416ZI watched "Jerry Springer - The Opera" on BBC2 over the weekend. There has been quite a fuss about it from Christians so I was a little concerned but I thought that it would be better that I judge for myself.
My final conclusion is that it showcased a lot of talent, even if it did conflict with some of my beliefs.
All in all, Christianity will survive this. My main concern is : How will Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06429685799214202513noreply@blogger.com