girlofprey (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
girlofprey) wrote2013-09-19 10:08 pm
girlofprey) wrote2013-09-19 10:08 pm
(no subject)
Oh my God, I forgot. I forgot that when you have a cold and then it gets better, it doesn't actually get better, it just moves further down your throat. I spent most of last night not being able to sleep or breathe. Technically I spent most of today not being able to sleep (or breathe) either. Ughhhhh....
I finished most of the Deep Roads main quest on Dragon Age: Origins today. And again, I managed to defeat the Broodmother on my first go without having to turn the difficulty down, and then I did that stupid puzzle in the Anvil Of The Void without dying, without having to turn the difficulty down as well. Technically speaking, doing all the DLC quests first this time and getting all the great items from them probably helped, I know. But figuring out how to utilise my healer character properly, and giving her lyrium potions every now and then probably helped as well.
Most of my actual annoyance with the game today, then, was just from a gameplay standpoint. I find it really weird that they can't seem to keep their mythology and game mechanics straight. Like, Alistair makes a big deal about how lyrium potions are addictive, but you can give your mage about five in as many minutes, with no ill effects. Obviously, having a drug addict on the team might make things harder storyline-wise, but then why put it in the backstory? And as for lyrium ore - I nearly got through the Anvil Of The Void without using a lyrium vein for health at all, but at the last minute, while doing that puzzle, given how irritating and long-winded it is and not wanting to have to do it again, I got Alistair to use one rather than let him die. But they make the point, FREQUENTLY, that lyrium ore is super dangerous, and if a human or elf so much as touched it, they would haemorrhage to death without minutes. So how Alistair got health from it is beyond me. I did actually have some health potions left, but I was trying to save some because I knew the fight with Branka/Caridin was coming up. I wish I'd used one now, because you get more before you go in, and using the lyrium vein really jerked me out of the gameplay quite a lot. In the Fade it makes sense, because lyrium comes from the Fade and you're not physically there. But in a cave? Not so much. Then again, I'm playing as a Ranger this time, and I don't know how I can magic wolves and bears out of the air in a cave deep underground either, so there we go.
ALSO, why didn't Caridin destroy the Anvil himself? Inquiring minds are inquiring.
Part of me wishes I'd taken Shale along, since I had her before the quest this time, but you have to take Oghren, I knew from experience having a healer was sort of a must, and it seems a little weird to fight Darkspawn without the only other Grey Warden on the team. ALSO, how do your non-Grey Warden/dog companions avoid getting tainted throughout the game as well? You raise more questions than you answer, Bioware.
My appeal hearing is next week. A week tomorrow, in fact. I called an ESA assistance charity earlier this week to see if they had any tips for me, and they suggested trying to get medical evidence. I have no idea what medical evidence I can really get, since I hardly ever see my doctor about my OCD, even for a medical note, and my counselling wasn't through the NHS. I have called my counselling service, to see if my old counsellor would write me a letter, only to be told that the receptionist 'didn't know of anyone there by that name' (??), but that someone could write me a letter just generally on behalf of the service. They said that person would call me back on Tuesday, but they didn't, so I called again yesterday, and they told me that that person - the only one who apparently has the authority to write this letter - was training this week, but might be back tomorrow. If they do call tomorrow, I'm not entirely sure what to say. If they're not my counsellor and can't talk to her they won't know about my problems, specifically, and I don't know if she kept notes, she never mentioned it. And the charity people said it would be better if the medical evidence could specifically address the questions they ask in the ESA assessment, and whether I would be able to manage with those problems. Which seems like a complicated thing to have to write with no personal knowledge of me, before next Friday. But there we go. I can't think of anything else to do other than to ask my GP to give a general run-down of OCD. And the doctor on the panel ought to know enough about that.
Partly it's my own fault, I know, for leaving it this late. I guess I thought I'd have more time between getting the court date and having to attend it. But I had months before that, and I left it. The charity people did say that I could ask the Tribunal to adjourn until I had more medical evidence, if I didn't know I was supposed to have it, but they do ask you to get any medical evidence you need in the tribunal papers. And I don't know if I could go to the court next week not knowing whether we were actually going to have the Tribunal, or adjourn it. So I don't know. I don't know how much of an option that is. I guess it depends what response I get from the counselling service and/or my GP, and how long it would take to get evidence from them. The charity people also said that the government keeps changing the parameters for being eligible for benefits, so someone who got them last year might not get them this year. So. There's that.
Blah blah blah blah blah. I'm so tired. And so ill. :(
At least if I don't get ESA awarded to me next week, I have enough money in the bank and in an ISA to be able to cope for a few weeks while I decide what to do next, and what I want to do. I don't really want to have to go back at Jobseeker's. Particularly not if they really are making some people be slave labour. But I might have to.
I finished most of the Deep Roads main quest on Dragon Age: Origins today. And again, I managed to defeat the Broodmother on my first go without having to turn the difficulty down, and then I did that stupid puzzle in the Anvil Of The Void without dying, without having to turn the difficulty down as well. Technically speaking, doing all the DLC quests first this time and getting all the great items from them probably helped, I know. But figuring out how to utilise my healer character properly, and giving her lyrium potions every now and then probably helped as well.
Most of my actual annoyance with the game today, then, was just from a gameplay standpoint. I find it really weird that they can't seem to keep their mythology and game mechanics straight. Like, Alistair makes a big deal about how lyrium potions are addictive, but you can give your mage about five in as many minutes, with no ill effects. Obviously, having a drug addict on the team might make things harder storyline-wise, but then why put it in the backstory? And as for lyrium ore - I nearly got through the Anvil Of The Void without using a lyrium vein for health at all, but at the last minute, while doing that puzzle, given how irritating and long-winded it is and not wanting to have to do it again, I got Alistair to use one rather than let him die. But they make the point, FREQUENTLY, that lyrium ore is super dangerous, and if a human or elf so much as touched it, they would haemorrhage to death without minutes. So how Alistair got health from it is beyond me. I did actually have some health potions left, but I was trying to save some because I knew the fight with Branka/Caridin was coming up. I wish I'd used one now, because you get more before you go in, and using the lyrium vein really jerked me out of the gameplay quite a lot. In the Fade it makes sense, because lyrium comes from the Fade and you're not physically there. But in a cave? Not so much. Then again, I'm playing as a Ranger this time, and I don't know how I can magic wolves and bears out of the air in a cave deep underground either, so there we go.
ALSO, why didn't Caridin destroy the Anvil himself? Inquiring minds are inquiring.
Part of me wishes I'd taken Shale along, since I had her before the quest this time, but you have to take Oghren, I knew from experience having a healer was sort of a must, and it seems a little weird to fight Darkspawn without the only other Grey Warden on the team. ALSO, how do your non-Grey Warden/dog companions avoid getting tainted throughout the game as well? You raise more questions than you answer, Bioware.
My appeal hearing is next week. A week tomorrow, in fact. I called an ESA assistance charity earlier this week to see if they had any tips for me, and they suggested trying to get medical evidence. I have no idea what medical evidence I can really get, since I hardly ever see my doctor about my OCD, even for a medical note, and my counselling wasn't through the NHS. I have called my counselling service, to see if my old counsellor would write me a letter, only to be told that the receptionist 'didn't know of anyone there by that name' (??), but that someone could write me a letter just generally on behalf of the service. They said that person would call me back on Tuesday, but they didn't, so I called again yesterday, and they told me that that person - the only one who apparently has the authority to write this letter - was training this week, but might be back tomorrow. If they do call tomorrow, I'm not entirely sure what to say. If they're not my counsellor and can't talk to her they won't know about my problems, specifically, and I don't know if she kept notes, she never mentioned it. And the charity people said it would be better if the medical evidence could specifically address the questions they ask in the ESA assessment, and whether I would be able to manage with those problems. Which seems like a complicated thing to have to write with no personal knowledge of me, before next Friday. But there we go. I can't think of anything else to do other than to ask my GP to give a general run-down of OCD. And the doctor on the panel ought to know enough about that.
Partly it's my own fault, I know, for leaving it this late. I guess I thought I'd have more time between getting the court date and having to attend it. But I had months before that, and I left it. The charity people did say that I could ask the Tribunal to adjourn until I had more medical evidence, if I didn't know I was supposed to have it, but they do ask you to get any medical evidence you need in the tribunal papers. And I don't know if I could go to the court next week not knowing whether we were actually going to have the Tribunal, or adjourn it. So I don't know. I don't know how much of an option that is. I guess it depends what response I get from the counselling service and/or my GP, and how long it would take to get evidence from them. The charity people also said that the government keeps changing the parameters for being eligible for benefits, so someone who got them last year might not get them this year. So. There's that.
Blah blah blah blah blah. I'm so tired. And so ill. :(
At least if I don't get ESA awarded to me next week, I have enough money in the bank and in an ISA to be able to cope for a few weeks while I decide what to do next, and what I want to do. I don't really want to have to go back at Jobseeker's. Particularly not if they really are making some people be slave labour. But I might have to.