NHBPM - Crippie Kills A Walker

Yo! 

Yeah, I'm totally looking forward to tonight's blog prompt, so I'll just jump into it...

Write a TV episode of your favorite show that features someone with your condition. What do you want people to know?

This is a no brainer (pun intended)... tonight I'm gonna put another cripple in "The Walking Dead". If you don't watch the show at all you can scroll down to the bottom of the post where I'll discuss other non-zombie related things. 

Alrighty, I'm gonna put my new cripple character in this season's Prison/Woodbury arc and name 'em Crippie because I feel like it. Crippie is a resident of Woodbury. She has MHE, walks with a cane, and no one believes strong enough to unleash a can of whoop ass on a walker. Crippie keeps a very low profile, all the while becoming ever more aware that the governor is out of his damn mind. Over time she gains the governor's trust, becoming privy to more and more information. Now cut to tomorrow's episode where the governor has several members of Rick's group hostage. Crippie decides to take action and release the hostages. First, she finds Merle Machete hand as he is torturing one of the members of the group. He laughs her off at first but there is something that no one knows about Crippie... her cane is a sword cane. With one swoop she cuts off his other hand (karma's a bitch Merle) and rescue's the first member of the group. Then, they go and find the governor who is "interrogating" the other member of the group. She places her sword back in her cane. Crippie limps in the room, claiming that there is an emergency. While the governor is caught off guard she whips out her sword again and proceeds to kick the governor's ass. Once both of the members are safe they run like the dickens outta Woodbury. While in the woods they meet up with Rick's group as they were coming to rescue the members. We then exact our revenge on Woodbury for torturing people. One of many epic battles ensues and Crippie proceeds to kick major ass. Considering that most of the secondary characters die fairly quickly on the show me thinks Crippie would probably have some form of hero's death scene. The other cripple on the show, One-Legged Hershel would find Crippie's sword cane and continue on the legacy of being a bad-ass cripple.

There ya have it, that should lead us back to an epic battle for the prison and an ultimate showdown between Rick & the governor. Moral of the story? Don't underestimate the cripple... we will mess you up. 

NON ZOMBIE-RELATED CONTENT - I have a question for y'all. Since my surgery two months ago my scar has become rather annoying. It's starting to keloid and I feel like there's a lot of scar tissue in general. This area (my lower back) moves around a lot and that skin has to stretch, and my scar is simply not cooperating. It hurts and I occasionally get sharp stinging pains from it. Have any of you guys experienced anything similar? Anyone have any tips or tricks to ease the situation? Lotions? Vitamin E? Anything? 

Crippie's Tippie - if you want to prepare for a zombie apocalypse, there are many weapons that can be disguised as canes. Mainly swords and tasers. 

Just Keep Swimming

Greetings,

First off, thank you so much for the well wishes I've received over the past few days. They really meant the world to me and the piggies. Not gonna lie, the past couple of days have very hard for Crippie. My piggies are huge source of happiness and comfort for me, so to see one of them slip away while there is nothing I can do about it is devastating.
While it is very challenging, I'm doing my best to apply my "this to shall pass" mantra to this situation. I know as time goes on it will hurt less and less. This is just another hurtle Crippie has to find a way of jumping over. In the meantime though Crippie is distracting herself by taking care of my remaining piggies (who all say "HELLO... WE ARE REALLY CUTE"), watching TV, and watching stupid videos on YouTube.

With all the sadness revolving around Emma's death, there is a silver lining... her sister and cagemate Nellie. Nellie and Emma had been together for their entire lives. Naturally when Emma passed I was worried about how Nellie would handle it. Usually guinea pigs can sense the loss of their friend and fall into a depression, when they fall into a depression they stop eating and drinking, when they stop eating and drinking they get sick, and when they get sick they run a fair chance of dying. Nellie is not your usual guinea pig, she is very happy and very clueless. She's been prancing around the cage saying "I DON'T HAVE TO SHARE MY HAY WITH ANYONE! THIS IS FRIGGIN AWESOME!" So thankful that I don't have a depressed piggie on my hands. Speaking of Nellie, she said (and this a direct quote) "Mommy can you show your wonderful readers how cute I am... pleaaaassssseeeee"
How could anyone say no to that face!

Carrying on to other issues... who saw the Golden Globes last night? It was a fantastic night for cripples! Peter Dinklage won for his completely brilliant work in "Game of Thrones" (don't get me started on the whole Dwarf Tossing thing...). Let's not forget George Clooney stealing Brad Pitt's cane. When canes start becoming this years "it" accessory, let it be known that I started it first. I will say, I was hoping Brad Pitt would've had a bad ass pimp cane. Kinda disappointed that he went for solid black, a major fashion don't IMO.

Crippie's Tippie- Remember that loss is a really craptacular part of life, everyone has to deal with it, and thus you are not alone.

Nellie's Tippie- NOT NOW MOMMY... I'M EATING ALL THE HAY! 

NHBPM- Crippie Ignores The Prompt

Hi Y'all

As the title suggests, Crippie is being a rebel and not following today's prompt... mainly because it's not very good. It was... Open a book. Point to a page. Free write for 10-15 minutes on that word or passage. Post without editing if you can!

Yeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh nnnnooooooooooooo

Oh well, I'm still doing the post a day thing so I don't see this as failing. Moving on I'd figure I'd answer a question that I've been asked several times "Do you have a Cripple-dar or Cripple-sensor? Essentially they are asking if I can spot a person with a disability and can I figure out why they are disabled. My "cripple-dar" is pretty strong when it comes to visibly crippled people. I can pick up on certain limps, movements, mannerisms, physical characteristics, etc and I can usually figure out what's wrong with them. I think of this as a sixth sense if you will 

"I SEE CRIPPLED PEOPLE". Why can I do this? Probably because I've watched one too many discovery health specials.

Crippie's Tippie- Try to find a more interesting and or useful sixth sense, being able to see cripples is not particularly useful.

P.S. Did you like my cane tutorial? Would you like a custom cane of your own? Well, you can check out Crippie's STORE where I sell canes I have made or check out my BOOK, where I discuss making canes.

This post was written as part of NHBPM – 30 health posts in 30 days: http://bit.ly/vU0g9J 

NHBPM- Crippie Makes A Shiny Pimp Cane

Ohai,

I hope everyone had a lovely Nigel Tufnel day. Mine went pretty well. The anti-stigma conference was very fun. It was good so see so many people who were able to understand each others issues. Babysitting also went well, I lost a bet to an 11 year old... but what can you do.

Moving on today's NHBPM prompt is most entertaining... Teach a class. What’s something that you’re uniquely great at and could teach a class on? Write the tutorial in a blog post. Bonus points for images, links to resources, and video.


Today Crippie will be teaching you guys how to pimp out your cane and make it shiny. You need the following items...
1- A Cane
2- Rhinestones- flat backed, the smaller the better
3- Glue- I prefer PVA Glue, but gorilla glue or some other freakishly strong glue works too

STEP ONE- GET YO SUPPLIES

STEP TWO- PUT A LITTLE GLUE ON A LITTLE PART OF THE CANE FOO'

STEP THREE- PUT A RHINESTONE ON THAT BITCH

STEP FOUR- REPEAT OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN FOO'. Make a few lines of rhinestone and let them dry (the glue will dry completely clear)

And eventually you will have something like this..

Crippie's Tippie- I used two different sized rhinestones to accommodate for the fact that they don't fit perfectly around the cane. 

This post was written as part of NHBPM – 30 health posts in 30 days: http://bit.ly/vU0g9J 

Happiness at the Fortune (and Misfortune) of Others

Oh hai!

I had a very interesting day today. First of all, I SOLD MY FIRST CANE! It's really cute actually, a lady that I met at my school for a few minutes bought one for her mother. Now her mother is gonna be stylin' in a bright purple cane with a rainbow pattern I designed! For all the other crippies out there with "normal" canes, go to my new site "Raising Cane" where I sell canes that actually look good!

Today I also had a rather humorous experience. I was walking to drugstore when I heard some teenagers talking. One of them why trying to sound cool and whilst talking to his friends said something like "MAN SHE WAS CRIPPED UP IN THAT CAR YO". About 3 seconds after he says this I walk by, with my crutch and all and his eyes bug out of his head and he darts his eyes away from me as fast as humanly possible. I found this whole encounter extremely hilarious and I LOL'ed once I was a safe distance away from the newly frightened teenager. Partly because I still have no idea what that kid was talking about, mainly because the kid got caught saying something he knows he shouldn't be saying! I wasn't offended by what he said, but I know people that would be. It's moments like that which fill my heart with joy.

Crippie's Tippie- Be cautious when using potentially offensive words, you never know who can hear you.

Raising Cane: The Exhibit

Salutations!

I had my very first exhibition on Saturday and it really was wonderful. The general consensus amongst the people viewing it was that it needs to become a real business, I'm definitely going look into making that happen. As promised, here are some photos of the final exhibit.

Here is my book (which you can purchase HERE) as well as some postcards and business cards I designed for the show.

The sign changed quite a bit for the actual show, I am a fan of the color.

I decorated my wheelchair and used it as a stand for some kick-ass child's crutches.











The exhibit as a whole... TA-DA!

I really am thrilled with how the whole experience turned out. Now I pose a question to my readers... if I were to make these canes into some form of company do you think they'd be successful?

Crippie's Tippie- Make the best out of your situation. I've turned a painful and lifelong disability into a very successful senior project. There is no point in sitting around and complaining about the bad stuff in your life, get up and try to make something good out of it.

Raising The Canes

Greetings!

Today was my Raising Cane BFA exhibit! Sorry I wasn't able to post progress shots, but chronic fatigue and setting up an installation don't leave much time for blogging. I figured I'd post the progress shots now (better late than never... right?)

Me being happy with the progress.









It's not that I don't trust people... it's that I just don't trust people.














14 FOOT SCAFFOLDING!!! I wasn't able to climb it, but this is when friends and family come in handy.

I am very lucky to have friends and relatives that are willing to conquer their fears of heights for me!

The final product on the end of day one, it ended up changing quite a bit, but still. This was the beginning of my installation.

I will post more pictures of the actually exhibit when I upload them to my computer. Tonight I feel like relaxing and watching stupid things on the internet.

Now, in addition to making the canes, I also wrote a book. The book focused on my reasons behind the project, my experiences with using mobility aids, and how I physically did my project. I have some exciting news... my book is available for purchase (and in PDF form for the eco-concious among us)!!! The book can be obtained HERE.

Crippie's Tippie- BUY MY BOOK... lol just kidding. My real tippie is try not to be ashamed about asking for help. I know it sucks when you can't physically do something, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Let's Raise Some Cane!

Hey!

The next few weeks are going to be very interesting. I graduate from college on 20th *AAAHHHHH*, while I'm actively looking for a job, I still haven't found one yet. While I am very excited about the prospects of graduating I am temporary distracted by something else. As mentioned here, I feel very strongly that mobility aids should look good, so I decided to something about it for my senior project. I decided to decorate approximately 40 mobility aids, turning them into fashion statements rather than signs of disability. I designed patterns, printed them out, and glued them to canes, walkers, etc. On Saturday the 14th I will be participating in my graduating classes BFA exhibit. My canes will be on display in the School of Art+Design at Purchase College from 2pm to 5pm. I invite everyone reading this (who physically can attend) to attend.

For those you cannot go, you can see bits and pieces of my project on my website. I'm very excited about having my very own exhibit. I am slightly nervous about the physical installation. Apparently it involves scaffolding. I tried to prepare for this event by blackmailing (I mean recruiting) people to help me install, but I do want to do as much of this on my own as humanly possible. I will definitely update the blog with progress shots of the exhibit as it comes up.

Crippie's Tippie- Take charge of your situation, even if you can't change what is occurring, make small changes to take some control of it.