Repairing the world, one carer at a time

Techy talk: I have put some of the IB backpay towards a dual-core processor (second-hand), new heatsink and fan and a new PSU for my desktop. I must be getting better at computer maintenance, as this is the first time I've taken a computer apart and put it back together and it's worked on the first go without any tweakings. I'm quite impressed by this, as replacing the PSU involved taking every cable out and unscrewing the motherboard, and I also had to move the DVD drive as the new power cable was shorter and only just reaches between the DVD drive and the hard drive. It's all very lovely, and the new low noise cooler fan is exactly that. The sound of nothing coming from my computer is quite fantastic. What I need now is some more storage space, but that can wait a bit as it's not an immediate necessity. What does need to be done in the not-too-distant future is getting a new hard drive for my old laptop, as the current one is faulty and I'm pretty sure that's all that's wrong with it. The new laptop's power cable is also getting a bit tempermental, though I think that's just because it's become loose from being pulled in and out and could be fixed with a pair of pliers. Once I've found my pliers I'll let you know.

Money and benefits talk: I'm trying to help my friend and housemate sort out her money - as a 2009 graduate she is having some difficulty with the jobs market (she has a degree in Forensic Science, which is quite firmly in the 'proper subject' category, but there's precious little in the way of jobs round here at the moment unless you're a teacher, nurse or care assistant in possession of NVQs/a car she doesn't have), and thus rather than go on the dole I suggested she claim Carer's Allowance for me, as my partner can't claim Carer's Allowance as he's a full-time student, so I figure at least one of my carers should get paid for caring for me, and Carer's Allowance is slightly higher than age 18-24 JSA. We also think if she gets Carer's Allowance she should be able to get Income Support as well, which makes applying for Housing Benefit simpler.

I also think it would be possible to get her lower rate mobility on DLA, due to the fact that she has severe dyspraxia which makes her impervious to subtle distinctions such as that between left and right, and that between the horizontal and vertical positioning of the human body. This is why we work well together when outside; I make sure she doesn't get lost or fall over, she makes sure I don't get panicky or run over, and we both get back home in one piece. We could possibly argue for lower rate care as well, due to the number of cuts and burns on her arms acquired from cooking, ironing and general life (she's not a self-harmer, they are all daftness-inflicted).

None of these are a lot of money, but all put together they should be enough for her to live on until she gets a job, which she is actively looking for but at the moment they're just aren't any, not for someone with a degree instead of an NVQ in arse-wiping. As I've said before, I have made it my mission in life to ensure all disabled people and carers claim every penny they can get from the government that screws them over. Don't give me any of this bollocks about stealing the money of hard-working taxpayers; everyone pays taxes in some form and, for many claimants, DLA is a strange merry-go-round whereby the government takes money from their wages in the form of income tax and then gives some, all or even more back in the form of DLA. Carers deserve every single penny of the pittance they get, and a lot more; young carers should also be being paid retroactively for all the work they did before they could claim Carer's Allowance, and if it's not being handed to them in leather-bound pounds on a solid gold plate (as it should) then they should do their best to get whatever they can now. The government which claims to support disabled people - I don't believe it has actually ever claimed to support carers - has failed them miserably and we should be hitting them where it hurts most: their wallets.

Thought for the day: I read quite a lot, even if all the reading I do isn't in dead tree format. It's a common misconception that a student on a computer is doing nothing but Facebook, MSN and the occasional essay, which is certainly not true in my case. I have a lot of PDF books, which is helpful with my huge monitor as I can zoom in and make the text easier to read. My vision, like my physical hearing, is actually fine; the problem with both lies in my brain, which refuses to process both visual and auditory input properly. With reading, my eyes have a tendancy to jump around the page so I end up reading things out of order, and this is especially common with small text as I read very fast anyway so in magazines I end up skipping over entire paragraphs and everything gets very disjointed. Zooming in allows me to concentrate better and thus take in more of what I read, and provides more whitespace. I like whitespace, it keeps things in order and doesn't distract me.

Using a combination of audio and text (like I do with subtitles on TV) also helps, as if both inputs are used together they back each other up and I'm more likely to get a comprehensible output from my brain. It's a downfall of having a dirty mind and a weird brain that if I misread a word it tends to end up as something rude, which can be very incongruous and distracting. I do have a soft spot for the old dead tree format though, as the quite impressive collection of books in my house shows. We have discovered that two bookcases is nowhere near enough to house all the books the three of us in the new house own; five would be a better estimate, and we need at least one tall one to put books in which are A4-sized or larger. This doesn't include sheet music, or video games and DVDs, just fiction and non-fiction books. At some point I will count the number of books in the house, and probably conclude that the reason people are reading less nowadays is because all the books are here!