Welcome to Ron’s Rants…
This is me – Ron – I may look grumpy, but I’m not really. Honest. I must get a new photo, though!
The photo above, is the view north from Catbells summit, across the tip of Derwentwater to the Skiddaw range, in the Lake District, a regular Easter venue for me, way back when, at the start of the main camping/hillwalking/backpacking season. Almost invariably it would be bitterly cold and, quite often, snowing – all part of the fun… Yes, that is snow you can see on the peak almost directly above my pic and a tad to the right..
NOTE: In the archives, you may see some apparently random letters in the posts, near the left-hand margin. These are formatting aids – the only way to get double or triple spacing is to insert a letter – one for each line – and change the colour to white, so it doesn’t show, as there’s no other easy way around the default single spacing. For some mysterious reason, they DO show in some archive summaries, and I’ve no idea why. They don’t show in the posts, though (if they do, please post a comment and tell me – it means I’ve missed them!). Note – if you copy and paste a post into a Plain Text email, this formatting will be visible; all other formatting except spacing will be lost. The alternative, if you don’t want to use HTML (but see my remarks about this in Comments), is to use RTF -Rich Text – emails.
I’m an ME survivor (so far anyway), 24 years and counting. I’m – at the time of writing – pretty housebound. This restricts me to mostly sedentary pastimes – reading, blogging here, occasionally sloping off to the pub, my website here, and cooking when I can, which isn’t often.
I also have severe COPD, the precursors of which – asthma and bronchiectasis – resulted from simultaneous whooping cough and measles at age 2, either one of which was capable of trashing my lungs. Together, I was seriously, and almost inevitably, screwed,
When I’m able to get out, my primary interests are birding and photography (digital), and beer, of course, as they fit my current abilities. There used to be others, like camping and fishing, but for now they’re out of reach. At present, most things are on hold, as I can no longer drive, and I’m trying – without too much success – to adjust to life without a car.
I used to write a magazine column, about computer matters, for people with ME (CFS if you’re American), but now I put all my effort into my blog and website. I also operate an email advice service for people with ME and computer problems. I’ve been running this for five years and have only been stumped once. Thanks, Steph!
My experience with ME will, obviously, feature here from time to time (the more so now – August 2008 – as I’ve quit the blog on my website, see below, to concentrate all my efforts here; don’t worry, anything that would have been posted there will appear here, no-one will miss out on anything), as will items of interest to people with ME (I hate the acronym PWME – Person/People with ME – by the way – it’s ugly and looks as if it might be a Welsh epithet!), and items relating to my hobbies or which have simply sparked my interest. I won’t be using the term CFS (except in the form ME/CFS, for the convenience of non-British readers), as it’s criminally misused by the UK medical profession.
I have severe Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), too, with emphysema, which slows me down rather a lot, and in 1983 I was struck by lightning, leaving me with Central Nervous System damage, and a mess of physical problems. Basically, it fried my feet and trashed most of my joints. I think that it provided the trigger for my ME, and it may also be responsible for the rapid spread of osteo arthritis the last few years.
I had a blog, on my own website, Ron’s Realm, here which is in its fifth year. It’s proven pretty popular but I felt it was time to reach out to a wider audience. I’d also appreciate feedback, which I haven’t been getting in the original format. That blog was being neglected a little, too, I’m afraid, simply because blogging here is so much easier than firing up Dreamweaver and then uploading the results, and because I have neither the energy or the material to keep two blogs going. Eventually, I decided to pension off my original blog and concentrate on this one. The numbers show that not every visitor to Ron’s Realm is clicking through to here, despite putting a link on pretty much every page, so if anything comes up that I feel warrants it, I’ll create a new web page at Ron’s Realm, as well as posting it here.
If you’re at all curious, and want to find out more about me, there’s a biographical page here that will tell you more than you ever wanted to know.
And yes, I do know I can be opinionated – that’s a given!
Update, January 28: This blog, in its current incarnation, has existed since mid April 2008 (earlier posts are from a previous version), and, from a standing start, with 3 hits, or fewer, a day for April, I’m now getting over 3,000 hits a month. That’s 10 times what I was getting on my old website-based blog, which really does justify my decision to focus all my efforts here.
My health and/or benefits-related posts are by far the most popular, but there’s lots more than that here so, if that’s what brought you here, and even if it’s not, stick around and have a rummage in the archives – you might be pleasantly surprised…
Do check out my website, too, as I can post stuff there, that might be thought contentious, that I can’t post here.
sorry – don’t think you have the link on this blogpage but i wanted to say thank you for making me and a small band of others not feel alone when we say DON’T FOLLOW OR THINK ABOUT TOUCHING THE GP plan for the supposed cure for FM or ME. sadly my science brain was not working the day i bought the book but luckily i had the sense to discuss it with my consultant and own doctor who both said Don’t touch it – drinking petrol would be better for you ! mmm nice wouldn’t fancy drinking petrol, but hey ho you try anything once and hope it doesn’t kill.
there is a reason you have to buy those pills on the internet – it’s because it is not licensed here in it’s pure form!
thanks again
Note for other readers – Sophie’s comment relates to the Guaifenesin Protocol pages on my website. As she says, there’s no way to post comments on the website (there used to be but it was unused for a couple of years, so I dumped it), so all the material has just been posted in this blog, in 3 parts, so comments are now possible – abusive comments, as always, won’t see the light of day, so please don’t bother.
Part 1 is at http://ronsrants.wordpress.com/2008/11/14/the-guaifenesin-protocol-part-1-of-3/
If you’re thinking of trying the GP – don’t. For me it triggered an agonising ME/CFS relapse that, almost 2 years later, I’ve still not entirely recovered from. I can’t stress this too strongly – it’s dangerous. Almost as bad, it’s expensive and has been proven to be no better than a placebo (see part 3).
Love the blog
Sammy – what can I say? You have excellent taste
Hello Ranting Ron,
I remember you from the MEA magazine. Ah, the MEA Board of Trustees – don’t you just love ‘em
(
There is much to love about WordPress.
But I also find the lack of control for line spacing in the editor frustrating, as using br tags or self closing br tags are stripped out by the html editor when the text is saved and so the desired spacing is not fixed.
This is what I do and it works for me using Firefox or IE6.
For unjustified text composed straight into the html editor, or pasted in as plain text, or composed in RT editor, then switched to display the text in html
I add
(&)nbsp;
without the brackets, for each additional line space required.
It works for me in templates Andreas09, Black Letterhead and Mistylook.
I have two undeveloped sites which I use for testing here:
http://twentysixsoldiersoflead.wordpress.com/
and here (this one is set for template Mistylook)
http://twentysixleadsoldiers.wordpress.com/
and both are currently displaying a post using one, two, three and four line spacing.
When the text is saved, the html editor will strip out the
(&)nbsp;
code as it does br tags. However, unlike br tags, the inter line space should remain fixed when the post is published. If you subsequently edit the post, you may need to add the code back in again.
If you’re quick, as the text is being saved, you may spot the code being changed momentarily to a br self closing tag, which is then stripped out by the editor. But the memory of the initial tag, is somehow retained and the spacing remains fixed. (I don’t have the coding tech knowledge to know why this should be.)
Using a single white character to fix a line space is probably the simplest option but not an option for those of us using Andreas09 which has a pale grey background to the text. I’ve not yet established the hexadecimal code for the background colour for Andreas09 but in any case, it would be more of a fiddle to specify a non standard or named colour than adding or pasting in a bit of spacing code.
If you’ve already cracked this, then apologies, but your readers may find this of interest. There have been a few threads in the WP Forum discussing this very issue. Let me know if it works for you.
Hi,
That reminds me – About needs an update…
Thanks for that, but for those of us for whom HTML might as well be Chinese, a white letter is a reasonably elegant solution. As long as, as you say, the background is white. Looking at Andreas09, the text area shows as white on my screen, so I snipped a portion out (with Gadwin Printscreen), and pasted it into Word – and it is just very slightly not white. I wonder why? The colour is so subtle I doubt it would reduce screen glare appreciably, which makes its not actually being white a tad pointless. Or maybe that’s just me…
Yes, the background for the posting area on Andreas09 isn’t all that far off white. Though on my own screen, the contrast is about equal to that of the white of the Reply box I’m currently typing into compared to the pale blue that surrounds this Reply box.
But if I were paying for the CSS upgrade, I probably wouldn’t change the background to white in order to be able to make use of a white character to fix line spacing. One of the reasons being, that when readers C & P text from my site into a Plain Text email to save or forward the content of a posting any white characters inserted in order to fix line spacing would become apparent.
Hmm… Fair point. Not thought about that, as I always use HTML because I want my text to appear as I intended, formatting and all. I don’t want to sound arrogant, but everything I write gets the same degree of attention, from a 50-word email to a 4,000-word post, and formatting matters rather a lot to me.
I know Plain Text has traditionally been seen a more secure medium, but these days, when viruses arrive in the form of attachments or links, more often than not, I think any perceived advantage is pretty minimal. Text isn’t just words on a page; it is, to a degree, visual speech, including a few of its modifiers and stresses (insofar as that’s possible) – Plain Text strips that out, and then it really is only words on a page.
I don’t, I think, over-use, for example, italics for emphasis, but when they are used, there’s a good reason. Anyone viewing one of my posts in Plain Text might get a bit of unwanted formatting in the form of the occasional m (though my need for double-spacing is minimal, and only a few posts are affected), but they’ll also be losing intentional formatting, so what they see has a good chance of being not entirely what I intended.
Rich Text emails, incidentally, retain my double-spacing without showing the m.
Right, I’ll put my soapbox away now
By the way – don’t think I’m having a pop at you, I’m not; I’m also writing for everyone else who’ll read this.
As a graphic designer, formatting is equally important to me, whether we’re talking about websites, blogs or email so I’m not advocating the use of Plain Text for email or the use of minimal formatting.
But when material from my site gets forwarded or reproduced elsewhere, whether on other sites, in emails or on forums or message boards, if it’s been copied into or forwarded as a Plain Text email at some stage (over which I’ve got no control), not only does the formatting get stripped out but any “invisible characters” used as line spacers would also become evident. I cannot rely on others to necessarily spot these and edit them out before they make use of the material, themselves.
My own site publishes formatted content often from documents or notices provided to me or already in the public domain and I try to retain the formatting of source material, as far as possible. Material may also contain extracts from research papers, official documents, reports etc as well as original commentary. So it’s particluarly important for me that odd characters don’t start appearing where they did not appear in the original documents in order to maintain the integrity of the source material – although a few dashes probably would not hurt.
If you know of a site that analyses colour samples to determine hexadecimal code, I would still be interested in establishing the background colour for the Andreas09 template as I’ve not been able to establish this from the source code CSS and I don’t really want to trouble the template’s designer. I can pull up the colour in Inscape but the colour code it gives is not hexadecimal.
I agree, but re your second para, I would hope anyone who copies material from my blog or elsewhere, would have the wit to preserve the formatting. As you say, though, if they don’t, there’s nothing to be done about it, so. . .
Several of my COPD posts have been reproduced (and credited), on US healthcare websites, and those I’ve seen have been fine. Mostly, though, people just post an excerpt and link to the items, which obviates the problem. What people who follow the links will do – well, that way madness lies. . .
Re the colour – why not ask the designer? By the way, I’ve just made an intriguing discovery. I had a look at Andrea09 in Manage Themes, and right-clicking the designer’s name, then clicking Open in new tab, doesn’t take me to his blog/website, as I expected, it puts up my blog in Andreas09, without my actually having to change my theme – and it appears to be fully functional. I’ve tried a few other themes where the designer’s name is shown, and they do the same thing. Looks like a very useful way to try out new themes without actually changing one’s blog at all.
Ron wrote:
“I would hope anyone who copies material from my blog or elsewhere, would have the wit to preserve the formatting. As you say, though, if they don’t, there’s nothing to be done about it, so. . . ”
Quite so, but it’s a particular problem on message boards or e lists that strip out formatting or only accept messages in Plain Text, or where messages are often posted via Plain Text emails.
I’ve just had another look at Inscape (which I downloaded only recently) and the “Pick colours from image” tool gives a #XXXXXX value so I’ve tried this and I have now established the code for the background for Andreas09.
For anyone who needs it, it is #fafcff
WP introduced the facility for previewing your site in a new template a few months ago, without the need to effect the change, but I’m not sure whether these previews are fully functional – will have a poke around in Manage Themes.
There are one or two tweaks I’d like to make to Andreas09 but whether I’m ready to take the plunge into CSS, I’m not sure – might end up screwing the whole thing up.
@ “Quite so, but it’s a particular problem on message boards”
Indeed – I understand the problem – I just think it’s fruitless fretting over what we can’t control.
@ “WP introduced the facility for previewing your site in a new template a few months ago, ”
Hmm, must have missed that in the whole raft of changes that accomplished very little. This, at least, is useful.
Led here by a stressful search for solace and calm!
You’re bookmarked now, Ron, and I’m looking forward to casting an eye over your website and the rest of your blog asap.
I hope your illnesses are allowing you to have a reasonably ‘good’ day.
Hi Rosie,
Just got back online after a 5-week absence. Lots of stuff written while I’ve been offline, which I’ll be posting over the next couple of days. Hope you enjoy it.
Ron.
ron is it true they dont give dla for severe anxiety
Hi Barbara,
Just like any physical condition, mental illness depends on the degree of disability for DLA. That’s the sole criterion, no matter what ails you. So, my advice would be to apply – or reapply, looking at your next comment. My advice, as always, is not to fill in the form if you feel you need to expand on your answers. I write “See attached” in the answer box, and type up the answer comprehensively on a separate sheet, or sheets, of A4. Just be sure to put the question number against each answer and put your name and NI number at the top of each sheet. Much easier these days than the first time I did it, with a typewriter.
You can also download an application form to complete on your computer, which means you can tinker with it as much as you like, to get it absolutely right. You’ll find it about two-thirds of the way down this page http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/FinancialSupport/DG_10011925
By the way, I do know, personally, people who are mentally ill with conditions which include severe anxiety, who have successfully claimed both mobility and care DLA, so it can be done. In much the same way – this may be of use to others, if not you – mental health problems can even get you a travel pass, because they can be just as much a disability as physical problems, albeit in a different way.
ron can you tell me if i have been turned down by a tribunal and reapply 15 months after will thay still have my records on file
To be honest, Barbara, I don’t know, but maybe not – keeping failed claims on file means a hell of a lot of paper, and a lot of expense if they microfilm them. Even if they do, every application is supposed to be assessed on its own merits. Still, it’s hard not to be a just a tad paranoid. I think, on the whole, they do play by the rules, though.
When I applied for DLA I was turned down the first time but, the next year, I was awarded it for life (well, it was actually Mobility Allowance then). So the fact that you’ve already been turned down shouldn’t matter.
By the way, are there any mental health groups in your area who could advise your about your claim, and how to maximise your chances, or a national support group, even? If not, it’s worth talking to a benefits advice group, who are almost certain to have something useful to offer, and maybe an advocacy service if you feel you need help (benefits advice and advocacy are generally free services).
Rob,
Hi I love your grumpy picture. I recently found your blog and wanted to reach out. I’m the blog coordinator for EverydayHealth.com. We’re currently recruiting patients and experts to write a weekly blog post about bipolar disorder and I thought you might be interested.
Everyday Health has over 25 million monthly unique visitors to their website, and there is a lot of potential exposure and traffic to come from blogging with the market leader in online health information. It’s also an excellent platform to promote awareness about bipolar disorder and any non-profits or other related entities.
Let me know if this is something that you’re interested in and might like to talk more about.
Thanks!
Lee McAlilly
Thanks, Lee, but what I know about bipolar disorder you can engrave on the head of a pin – and still leave room for the Lord’s Prayer!
Cheers,
Ron.
ron it is barbara again to claim dissabillity or apply again do i have to have the support of my family doctor i have had severe anxiety for over 7 years and only been to see a councillor at the hospital when it first happened but some one told me it is no good claiming unless i have seen a pyscriotist thank you barbara
Hi Barbara,
These days, it seems you do, and of any consultants you might be seeing. Doctors now seem to be routinely consulted by the DWP. A psychiatrist would be useful but in my experience (my wife was severely mentally ill), shrinks can’t always accomplish as much as people think. If your GP is on your side, that may well be good enough. If you can put off claiming for a while, and get a referral to a psychiatrist (if you can face the idea – not everyone can), then it would probably help (or perhaps your GP can explain if he thinks it might be bad for you).
Whatever, I don’t see why you shouldn’t apply. You might not get it if you do apply, you definitely won’t get it if you don’t.
Ron.
ron how do i send your page to look at to my daughter by e mail it doesent say send to a friend ore mail a friend barbara
Hi Barbara,
Easy – just left-click the address bar – that will hi-light it – then right-click and Copy. Then you can paste it into an email (right-click – Paste). Done.
Any problems with that – get back to me.
Ron.
ron dont think i am mad but where is the address bar barbara
Yep – had a feeling you might say that!
OK, when you’re looking at a website – or a blog – your browser displays the address – the URL – at the top. It’s the bit that starts http://
You cool with copying and pasting?
Ron.
Hi
I just wanted to thank you for your blog about the Lightning Process. I have been pressed by a couple of its proponents to do it – ‘it would definitely help’, they said… In the end I felt like if I didn’t do it then I had only myself to blame for still being ill. So I phoned the local ‘therapist’. She basically said what you said – if I got better with it, then it was down to the wonders of the LP; wheras if I didn’t then it was entirely my own failing. This rang alarm bells to begin with, but she went on to tell me that, after curing my ME, she would then help me ‘tackle my Asperger’s Syndrome’!!!!! So now there’s a cure for autism. WOW! This made me so furious I could barely speak for several hours afterwards.
However, even after that, part of me still felt that I ought to have done the LP. They really were effective in convincing me that it was my own fault I was ill because I was clearly ‘too scared of getting better’. Which apparently was ‘perfectly understandable’ and I wouldn’t be accepted for the course anyway unless I was absolutely determined to stick with it until I got better (i.e. if I didn’t get better, then I must have given up because the LP itself is 100% successful).
Anyway, it really set my mind at ease to read your blog because before that I kept wondering if my skepticism was really just to hide from myself my ‘fear of getting better’. For god’s sake, I don’t know how I could be any MORE determined to get better. If anything, it’s my own downfall because I tend to push myself TOO hard in the attempt.
Well, thank you for sharing your opinions. It was hard for me to be objective, but now I’ve read what you say, it seems so obvious what a sham the LP is, and a very lucrative one, too!! Thanks for helping. (Sorry about all the quote marks but I needed to show the words weren’t my own.)
Hi,
Don’t worry – no problem with quotes. Sadly, it seems that your experience isn’t unusual, and it’s a basic premise of the LP that if you participate and fail to get better, it’s pretty much your own fault! As for curing autism, that’s a hell of a good trick!
That, in my view, should be passed to your local Trading Standards, if you have it in writing. Not much point if it was verbal, it would probably be denied, but a very good case for misrepresentation if in writing. You should be able to find Trading Standards on your council’s website.
You could, if you feel able, probably get it in writing, if you haven’t already, by opening a dialogue via email.
Ron.
Ron:
Can you email me I need to get some help since I’m planning to return back to the UK & need to know what I would qualify for in benefits
Current situation healthwise
I’m 62 living in Canada have severe Ostio in both knees (cant walk more than 25 feet without a sit down & breathless) which they say may/might be fixable, but on top of that have zero hearing left ear and 25% right ear ++++ chronic bronchical Asthma developed from living in the NW England as a child
Hi John,
For some reason your comment wasn’t flagged. Anyway, unless it’s something confidential, I reply in this way as the info may benefit others, too.
In answer to your first question, you don’t actually qualify for anything, nobody does. What you can apply for, though, is something else. What gets you disability benefits is not whatever illness you might have, it’s the degree of disability it/they cause. It’s an important distinction.
First of all, there’s Employment and Support Allowance, which is predicated on a certain minimum of National Insurance contributions see http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/FinancialSupport/esa/index.htm , as is Jobseekers Allowance – see http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/life/benefits/national_insurance_contributions_and_benefits.htm#which_contributions_pay_for_which_benefits For both, without NI contributions, life gets complicated. If all else fails, there’s Income Support.
Then there’s the question of nationality. If you’re a Canadian national, your benefits entitlement will be the same as any other immigrant – sorry, don’t know what that is, and any information is buried in reams of racist crap online, nor is there any info on Directgov, the best source of basic benefits info. If you have British nationality your rights are the same as anyone else. Ditto dual nationality, presumably.
Disability Living allowance isn’t based on NI contributions, but my feedback suggests it’s increasingly hard to get, no matter how sound your application is. The mobility component of DLA is based on the ability to walk, there’s lots of other stuff on the form, but that’s the bottom line; the care component is rather more complex. You can download a form here http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/FinancialSupport/DG_10011925
Be aware that you will almost certainly be subjected to a medical examination, in which your medication will play a major part – essentially, if they think your meds aren’t adequate for the degree of disability you claim, bang goes your claim. Personally, I think that’s bollocks, but that’s the way it is. You will also be expected to demonstrate the veracity of your claims vis-a-vis disability. For example, they are very likely to take you for a walk. Saying No, I can’t walk! is a fail. They have to see for themselves. Yep, you’ll suffer, take on for the cause. In addition, doctors, I believe, no longer rely on their own experience – because they mostly haven’t got any – and work to checklists instead.
You can claim DLA as long as you are under 65, but not on your 65th birthday or afterwards. Then it’s Attendance Allowance. If you get DLA before 65 it carries on.
No idea what benefits, if any, your hearing problems might get you (my areas of expertise are COPD and ME/CFS, with a side-line in osteo-arthritis). These guys should be able to help http://www.rnid.org.uk/
Then there’s the question of accommodation. If you have somewhere to live, or can stay with friends or relatives, then that won’t be an immediate problem. If you have/can get accommodation then you can, I believe, apply for Housing Benefit and Council Tax benefit. Apply to your local council. Note that many private-sector landlords won’t accept benefits claimants as tenants.
And that’s about it.
People, please post comments on the blog post appropriate to the subject (there’s a search box top right on the home page).
Posting comments here means most people won’t benefit from either your questions or my replies. So, come on, play the game – I don’t want to have to close down comments here.
Rosie, by the way, who posted the first comment, had no choice as there was no appropriate page for her to comment on.
appreciate the long detailed info
For other posters I was born in merseyside, although I’ve been in Canada for what seems a lifetime (early 20’s) I have kept up the NIC’s and have 27/30 years of contributions & still hold a CUKC (Brit) passport.
Yes, I understand also about the HRT (Hab residency test) to qualify for housing benefits etc.
As fas a NHS is concerned they emailed me back yesterday to confirm “no problem” when I come back to go to a doctors surgery make the application to get on the register, get the physical.
As for DLA etc, apparently there is a six month wait period (need to be 26/52 weeks in the UK to qualify)
Now its go look at the home page & key in the ‘topic’ such as ‘benefits’, surprised what popped up
Thanks again Ron – nice blog you have & keep on trucking (keep as well as you can)
John
Hi Ron – I found you via a search I was performing on Google to try and figure out why my blog traffic suddenly dropped. I’m thinking perhaps I’ve relied too much on search engines (particularly Google)::: there was a time (2005) when if I pinged Technorati I’d grab a boatload of traffic. That vanished around the time they began accepting MySpace pages as blogs. For awhile during 2006 and 7, if someone “Dugg” pn eof my articles I’d get lots of traffic… those days are gone too. I was never good at attracting either subscribers or commenters, although I’ve gone to great lengths to accomodate them. Did you and the other WordPressians ever figure out what caused your blogs’ numbers to drop? Maybe that’s what’s happening to me and other blogspotters right now. I am glad to have run across you and your blog! Thanks for allowing me to vent here!
Dave Lucas
http://twitter.com/davelucas
Hi Dave,
Stats seem to have been stable for a while now, so hopefully we’ve seen the end of the buggeration. What pisses me off, though, is that moans normally get a “looks OK to us” reply! Not helpful.
Ron.