Me Before You; Popular Defence Arguments

"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth."

Marcus Aurelius

Here I am talking about Me Before You once again. I'm sure if you're sick of hearing about it now! I hadn't planned on writing this post but after getting into a debate on the Trailblazer's Facebook group I decided I'd like to do a follow up post on some of the points raised there and from other places on the internet. These aren't all the points but just some that I've seen made again and again. An interesting factor to these points is the fact they all came from others within the disabled community. It's important remember not all of us will view the book or the film the same. Art is subjective and up for interpretation. The fact still remains that this is how a lot of us have viewed it and authors and film makers have a duty of care to make sure they try and see how their work may be interpreted from all angles and when that fails them they need to come up with a better answer than it's not the intended message or that we don't understand what they are trying to say. I'd like to say since my first post I have read the book and my feelings have remained much the same. If you missed my original post you can find it here. Now on with today's post.

Warning: This post includes book and film spoilers!

Operation Independence Update #2

"Nature never said to me: Do not be poor; still less did she say: Be rich; her cry to me was always: Be independent." 

Nicolas Chamfort

So guys, I started doodling a little picture to go along with this post but I got bored halfway through and scrapped it. So imagine there is a little drawing of a house with a cat in one window, a dog in another and Home Sweet Home written above it. Got that visual in your head? Good. Let's continue.

Me Before You; Why It's Not Okay

"Just live well. Just LIVE."

...unless you're disabled.

*Since posting I have read the book and stand by my points. 

If you follow me on Twitter you may have seen my Tweets about the book turned film, Me Before You. Originally I was going to hold off on writing this post until I'd watched the film and then write a Bloo's Review on it. However, the more I see the trailer, people gushing about the book and anticipating going to see it in the cinema the harder it's been to bite my tongue. Which is evident by my ranting on Twitter. I also realised I don't want to review the book or the film. The writing or acting doesn't matter to me. Nor does the cinematography. What I want to talk about is how this film portrays disability and the impact this kind of representation in the media has on my community. You may question the credibility of this post because I'm writing it before seeing the film or reading the book but it's a risk I'm willing to take in a bid to make people think twice paying to see this film and as such supporting it.

Spoilers ahead and talk of assisted suicide.

YouTube Spotlight | Erin's Animals

"Animals have never betrayed me. They are an easy prey, as I have been throughout my career. So we feel the same. I love them."

Brigitte Bardot

Welcome to the second instalment of my YouTube Spotlight series where I give a little shout out to my favourite YouTube channels. Sadly the first channel I featured has been terminated so there's little point linking back to it. Hopefully that doesn't happen to this channel too as it's a great font of knowledge when it comes to certain pets, particularly hamsters. The channel I'm talking about is Erin's Animals. 

Mental Health & Disability

"People presume my disability has to do with being an amputee, but that's not the case; our insecurities are our disabilities, and I struggle with those as does everyone."

Aimee Mullins

It is Mental Health Awareness Week and as such I figured this was the perfect time to write this post I've been planning for a while. I've struggled - for lack of a better word - with mental health issues since I hit puberty. (Cue the Emo years.) I hate to use the word 'struggle' the same way I hate when it's said I 'suffer' from muscular dystrophy but the reality is it has been a struggle. I would go as far as to say that my bouts of depression, anxiety and particularly my crippling social anxiety have been far more debilitating than my physical disability has ever been. In most cases I'm able to take my progressive physical disability in my stride and adapt to the changes my body has gone through throughout the years but every day I have to work to overcome different anxieties and less often, depression. Yet people will constantly assume that my mental health issues are attributed to my physical disability. That I have these issues because I'm disabled and if my disability were to disappear tomorrow then my mental health issues would disappear along with it.

Making Changes

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."

Seneca

I hadn't actually planned on writing a post about this but I figured I probably should, rather than just writing it on Twitter like I already have. I've decided to discontinue the My Week In Words series for the foreseeable future. I've been thinking about it for a while and even mentioned it in a couple of posts but considering I've been writing the series for over a year I was reluctant to drop it without putting a lot of thought into it first. When I originally started writing it back at the beginning of 2015 I was trying to bring a little order to my blog. I was writing My Week In Words at the beginning of the week and then posting two other posts during the week. At first it went well but eventually I felt like the posts were becoming repetitive. I hoped they'd motivate me to do more so I'd have things to write about and while that was true to a point, I'm just not capable of doing enough to make writing about every day interesting. While I tried to make them as interesting as I could - while doing very little - I was finding them extremely boring to write. Recently I've been spending so much time trying to gear myself up to write them that I end up not posting anything else. Writing has started to feel like a chore and a weight on my shoulders. Something I never want it to feel like as it's one of my biggest passions. So I'm hoping that canning the series will mean I'll feel more motivated and enthusiastic about blogging again as I'll be working on the things I want to be writing rather than putting those things off because have a My Week In Words post to write first. I think this will also ease the load now that I also have my toy blog to run as I've been putting it on the back burner too. So this is a fair well to My Week In Words. It was nice knowing you. ❤

My Week In Words | #19 2016

"Voting is the expression of our commitment to ourselves, one another, this country and this world."

Sharon Salzberg

Welcome to this week's instalment of My Week In Words. This week I broke my spending ban, voted and checked out my parent's new apartment. Oh and let's not forget played a whole bunch of Star Stable. All in all it was a pretty good week. This post covers from Sunday 1st to Saturday 7th of May. Enjoy!

Pets 'n' Stuff | Happy Birthday Princess Ethel

"In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this."

Terry Pratchett

This week was Effy's approximate birthday. Meaning I don't actually know the real date but it's my best guess considering the date I got her and how old I was told she was. I don't think I've written the full story behind me getting her before so I thought since it's her seventh birthday that she deserved a little post of her own. Unlike Edwin I didn't buy her anything. I know that sounds awful but she doesn't really play with toys and I have a whole giant box of Dreamies - something she'd kill for - she's still making her way through. So that's why she's not getting a birthday haul post. Instead I decided to dedicate a post to her story and some things about what makes Effy Effy.

My Week In Words | #18 2016

"Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities."

Dr. Seuss

Welcome to this edition of My Week In Words. I'm not going to lie, I could have literally just written 'Played Star Stable all week' and that really would have encapsulated the majority of what I spent my time doing this week. Still, I wrote it all out in my usual long winded way. This post covers from Sunday 24th to Saturday 30th of April. Enjoy!