ADHD Dyslexia Dyspraxia Info

93. Apergers Syndrome and the Autism Spectrum

2010-05-13T06:27:00.000-07:00

I guess Anthony prompted me to write a new blog post. I've not been keeping it up to date because I have lots of blogs now and most of the others are making money, so I've been concentrating on them.

One bit of news is that although I was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome and High Functioning Autism at the same time I was diagnosed with ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia, I did not really take the Apergers seriously because I didn't believe I was autistic.

Another common misconception!

Not only do I have aspergers and autism, but we all know someone (or several people - I know lots) who also have it. The vast majority of people with Austism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have not been diagnosed. In fact if they have been diagnosed with anything, it is often depression or bi-polar disorder.

I suspect a lot of people with behavioural problems are somewhere on the Autism Spectrum, and I also believe a higher percentage of celebrities have it, as they feel they need to prove themselves more after finding communication so challenging. There's no shortage of 'odd' celebrities. (I can say 'odd' as an oddity myself).

As this blog is entitled ADHD Dyslexia Dyspraxia Info, it makes sense to have a separate blog for Aspergers and Autism, for keyword and search purposes.

So that's the update: I have Aspergers and High Functioning Autism.

I don't think anyone has ever thought of me as 'high functioning' in my life. But then, it is compared to Low Functioning Autism.

92. Is That My Child? - ADHD book

2007-11-21T07:07:00.000-08:00

The book ‘Is That My Child?’ by Dr Robin Pauc is helping me stick to a healthy diet, but I am abysmally slow at reading it. I’m only up to Chapter 3 after heaven knows how long – over a year I think.

He says in Chapter 3 that the labels given to conditions are really only the symptoms, and that instead of calling it ADHD, ADD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, tourettes or OCD, he calls them all Developmental Delay Syndrome. DDS encompasses several or all the symptoms that children (and adults) have, but of course I still have to use the traditional terms, because that’s what people will be searching for in search engines.

91. 30 Day Challenge Day 47

2007-09-16T12:18:00.000-07:00

Today I went back to watch some of the early 30DC videos, as I forgot where to get all the Firefox addons since I had to reinstall Windows.

I also downloaded some stand alone organizer software so that I can cram as much work as possible into every day. Why I didn’t have this before, I don’t know.

It alerts me with a pop up and a sound of my choice, so I can’t forget to do stuff. It’s called Total Organizer and has a forum if I need it.

I’ve got the free version for now, but the pro version is only $20 so no doubt I’ll upgrade eventually, but it will do for now. If you don’t have anything like this already, give it a try because if I can use it, then it’s safe to say anyone can.

And I have found out that my Digg account has been reactivated, so I spent some time digging news stories and videos of interest, that were not to products of any kind. I’ll tread very carefully with Digg from now on. I did some more social bookmarking with other sites for my blogs.

Disappointed to find my main blog’s home page not even in the top 100. Gave up looking in the end. But some of my individual posts are around, although one has been penalised by Indian Pad for breaking irrelevancy rules. I thought the description was quite accurate myself. And two people voted for it, but I don’t know who they are! They don’t seem like Pauline and Asbjorn.

I need to do some serious social posting without overdoing it. I reckon asking some of my non Internet Marketing friends to do a bit of bookmarking won’t do any harm.

Also finally downloaded my printer software. Spent all morning looking for the drivers online, unsuccessfully, then I remembered I had the CDs in a large card envelope with all the manuals and Quick Guides inside, that I’ve kept for the past two years – um, right next to the printer.

I could do with an index similar to that in a library, that tells me where every single thing is in my flat, because I’m clearly incapable of thinking of the most obvious place!

90. Minor Setback

2007-09-13T04:13:00.000-07:00

I’m horrified that I’ve not been able to do any productive Internet Marketing work for over two weeks. After the clean installation of Windows, my PC is almost back to how it was, but not quite. I still have to download all the Firefox plug-ins again, and I might have to use Open Office, instead of MS Office, as I have a further 24 threats to MS Office, that no-one is able to sort out for me.

I also took two weeks off work for the last part of August and had all that trouble with my PC. It’s not as bad, however, as taking two weeks off work then becoming ill, as has happened to my friends.

I went into the Apple shop in Cardiff last week, to buy those spongey things for my ipod’s earpieces (the only thing I can afford from that shop!) but I came out wanting an iMac. I can dream. The sooner I get back to work, the better.

I had to hire a car and drive four hours to a funeral last week, so I had to cancel two photography jobs, and do them this week. I also didn’t sleep at all the night before. I think it was because I was scared to death of scratching the hire car, and them taking the £200 excess off my Visa card, making me go over my limit.

Sadly, I’m not like most people when it comes to sleep. I can’t just sleep more the next night to catch up. It often takes a good two weeks to get my body clock back to normal. But I’m hoping I’ve done it in one week this time.

Despite the lack of production, I really could not have done any more work than I’ve been doing, so I’ve still earned all four of my stars every day. I am today however, revising my daily routine to include time to review how well I’m sticking to my IM plan. I have been doing it once a week, but I think I need a more rigorous shake-up, as I need to be working faster. It may not work, but it’s worth a try.

The funeral I went to was Mike Blacktopp's. I’m glad Mike is no longer suffering with Motor Neurone Disease. He could no longer speak or move for the last six months of his life. But he was very inspirational. Before his death he managed to raise over two and a half thousand pounds for MND, the Motor Neurone Disease Association. You can watch the official video of Mike’s charity skydive, Here.

89. Thirty Day Challenge - Day 32!

2007-09-01T14:34:00.000-07:00

Ok, that’s it. I’m gonna carry on numbering the days until I complete the 30 Day Challenge. It took Asbjorn 88 days to get his first sale in 2005, but he did it in the end. And so will I!

It will take as long as it takes, but I ain’t giving up. So the title of this post may look ridiculous, but I don’t care.

Spent the morning visiting the local computer shops getting advice, after my PC has become corrupted. I’d love to build myself the meanest, baddest PC possible for as little cost as poss, but that may be slightly too adventurous just yet. I’ll make my first ten bucks through the 30DC first, before I commit to learning how to do that.

For now, I need to totally reformat my existing hard drive. Gaurav at Microsoft has promised to ring me back on Monday to talk me through it. He was prepared to stay on the phone way past his home time, but in India they don’t get paid overtime, so I wasn’t having that!

Reformatting means I’ll probably lose a lot of software, but it’s my own fault, for not backing up the installation files. Only this week did I learn about that. I’ve been deleting those files as soon as I’ve installed the software in many cases. Dipstick!

The good news is that several of my program files will have the installation files included, so I’ve copied all of them onto the external hard drive, in the hope that most of them will work on the new Operating System.

The other good thing is that a lot of my software was free online – no NOT dodgy pirate stuff, I don’t get involved with those, but reputable sites, I can go to again. And all the programs I’ve paid for, I either have the CDs or the emailed receipts, so I should be able to download them again. Never delete your emails with receipts on, people! And if they’re for your business, always print them out, of course.

I even managed to do some 30DC work as well. Not much, but I finally put my tracking link in place of my affiliate link on my two main sites, and they appear to be working beautifully. Seen that tutorial video three times now – twice before I did the task myself, and once simultaneously. Wow, a six syllable word on a Saturday night!

88. 30DC put on hold

2007-08-31T02:37:00.000-07:00

My hard disc seems to be corrupt, so I can't do a complete copy of it. For several days I have not been able to right click on my temp files to get rid of them, or delete them in any other way. What happens is, Windows Explorer either freezes, or just instantly shuts down.

Now it has got even worse. I cannot delete, copy, rename or do anything else with any other file or folder!

The only way I can copy a file is to left click on it, and click 'copy this file' on the left, then it gives me a box for the destination.

Also, whenver I go into any boxes like System box within Control Panel, the whole PC just freezes.

I've been on the phone to Microsoft for four hours on Wed and six hours on Thurs, and he's phoning me back again today. I've tried two offline complete scans, and four online scans.

He wants to make a new username, transfer everything across, then delete the old username (with corrupt files). I have transferred some files myself and tried to use Windows Explorer in the new user account, but it still won't work.

So I'm not confident that his plan will work. He's been a tech for years and has never come across this problem. My PC won't even let me do a System Restore - at all!

So I just want to get everything I need to put on a new computer, via my external hard drive, but I’m not sure that’s possible. I already looked at iTunes in my new user account, and three years worth of songs are gone. I don't know how to get to keep them. Most were paid for and downloaded, and I don't have them on CD.

I’ll just be spending the morning trying to salvage what files and folders I can before the MS tech rings me back.

To cap it all, I was still only on Day 23 of the 30DC before all this happened. I'm still able to watch some videos, but my system is so unreliable, I can't do much work at all.

Still earning all four stars, every day, as I've been doing ewverything I can. Non of this disaster has come about through laziness!

I guess I tempted fate by saying on Tuesday that I love my life - that'll teach me!

87. Thirty Day Challenge Day 28

2007-08-28T21:39:00.000-07:00

Here’s something I only just found out. When looking down the list of StumbleUpon’s list of categories for websites, I noticed that one of them was ‘learning disorder’ – not ‘learning disability’, or ‘learning difficulty’ – so they obviously use a different term for it in the Sates. And I’ve never used ‘learning disorder’ as a tab for this blog. Learning, learning all the time. I love my life.

I was still behind on the 30DC, and manged to add Google Analytics to my main niche blog. It took a while finding the video, then finding a forum post that amended the instruction from a Tumblr blog to the blogger blogs, then I had to sign up with Google Analytics, and then put the code into the special box within my blog. so I had to have all these windows open at the same time, whilst I slowly but surely managed to do what turned out to be a one minute job. It just took slightly longer to learn it that’s all!

Had our weekly team Skype call, but Asbjorn couldn’t make it this week. Got Pauline set up with Google chat. My blog is now number 60 in Google, down form 45 yesterday. Hope it moves up or I’ll never get any traffic.

Spent way too long answering emails, and on the phone to Microsoft again, trying to sort out a malware alert.

86. Thirty Day Challenge Day 27

2007-08-27T15:09:00.000-07:00

Did nothing but bookmarked my sites and my two team mates’ sites. I can’t believe how long it took, and I only stumbled them, put them all through Onlywire, and Netscaped a few of them, but it made a difference. Pauline reported that she had got indexed in only two hours! She’s number 17 in Google for her phrase.

So I checked my phrase, and my blogger blog is number 45 in Google for my phrase, so I sent an email asking for more love!

Wrote more short articles to blog about, but I’m so far behind. I didn’t even have time to look at today’s stuff. I plan to get up very early tomorrow.

85. Thirty Day Challenge Day 26

2007-08-26T14:46:00.000-07:00

Feeling a bit foolish, as I went and asked about cloaking links on the forum, and if I wasn’t behind on the 30DC I’d know that using the tracking tool in the dasboard would do that exact job. I did watch the corresponding video, but as I hadn’t done the task myself, I forgot about it. Duh. I’m not safe to be let loose on the forums!

Spent all day getting wise about the various bookmarking sites listed in Social Poster. It’d be silly to just go and vote for your own sites on all these sites without undestanding what they specialise in. For example, Sk-rt.com is just for women’s topics, PlugIM is just for internet marketing topics, and Kick.ie is just about Irish sites, so it’d be pointless voting for my niche sites in the last two at least.

And another site was clearly owned by an internet marketer who had a very bad attitude, and sounds to me as though it was a male with a female name! So it paid off to spend some time doing this research.

Added more posts to both my blogs and social bookmarked them. Hopefully I can catch up tomorrow and sort those affiliate links out. I’m still not giving up on the possibility of winning the 30 day Challenge.

84. Thirty Day Challenge Days 23, 24 and 25

2007-08-25T16:28:00.000-07:00

I’ve had terrible trouble the last few days. Firstly I have a migraine for two days, then yesterday I just had to do something about my PC running so painfully slow. It was literally taking over 2 minutes for links to open, and I was typing whole sentences before the first word even appeared on screen. So editing stuff was a nightmare.

It only happened online, not in a Word doc or anything. So I tried all sorts to speed it up. I can no longer watch videos in iTunes whilst I’ve got any browser open. They just keep stopping and starting. So this defeats the object of watching a video, and pausing it whilst I carry out the instruction.

I’ve already uninstalled lots of programs I no longer use, but I think I’m going to have to just add more RAM. I hope that will sort it out. Couldn’t do any work last night as I was doing a diskcleanup, and defrag all night.

Today I watched all last weeks videos again, and played the podcasts again. I went back and looked at last week’s video on Social Poster, as I’ve fallen badly behind. I’m pleased that I got through half the list of bookmarking sites to sign up with, but as I was curious to see what all the unfamiliar ones did that differed from the others, I got a bit sidetracked. A lot of sites are quite new and even the ‘most popular’ sites listed only have 1 vote – I noticed quite a few familiar names and phrases that looked like the work of fellow chellangers!

I also got hung up on trying to find out how to cloak affiliate links. I’m convinced a certain blog type site other than Tumblr is deleting pages with affiliate links in (judging from the sites I’ve viewed today) but one obvious 30DC page is surviving and has a cloaked link. I’ll have to contact them and find out how they got it.

I was going to buy Jim Edwards’ Affiliate Link Cloaker, but it says it only works for your own domain, not hosted blogs.

83. TDC Days 20 and 21

2007-08-21T18:22:00.000-07:00

Watched yesterday’s 30DC videos and I’m so glad I didn’t bookmark any of my pages, apart from one stumble, because so many people didn’t realise, and they overdid it. That was what drew attention to the owner of Tumblr. He was notified by Digg and other sites that people were abusing the system.

I’ll just keep writing content! I’ve put pages up on various blog platforms. We’ll just have to see if they’re as sensitive as Tumblr.

The really cool thing is that Google indexed one of my pages before it was deleted, and I hadn’t social bookmarked it at all! So all the other things we are being told to do with the post optimization is really working. I wanted to set up Google analytics, but I was too busy setting up the blogs in the first place!

The other cool thing is that I’ve found other platforms that Ed didn’t mention, and I would never have thought of even looking for them, if this hadn’t happened with Tumblr. There are hundreds of other opportunities. I spent ages writing content for one, then found out that the title of the blog wasn’t in the url! Your username is in the url. That’s no good!

So I deleted it all, but I didn’t have to rewrite it all when I took the content elsewhere, so that was good. Every mistake is a lesson learned.

I’m off work for two weeks so I was up all night last night on the computer, til I realised I wss supposed to be somewhere at 11.30am.

Stupid to stay up all night, but I was on a roll!

Today I added more content to my Hubpages and had my Skype call with Asbjorn and Pauline. Asbjorn couldn’t talk, but us girls talked whilst Asbjorn just typed. It worked quite well!

82. 30 Day Challenge Day 19

2007-08-19T15:21:00.000-07:00

Two of my Tumblr pages have been deleted simply because they had ‘How To’ in the title. I put up a short article and some of my own artwork on both pages, but the owner Marco has indiscriminately deleted sites involved with the Thirty Day Challenge. I’m not the slightest bit surprised, as there are so many thousands of people doing it.

But Ed says he’s hoping to talk to them. They have jumped to conclusions that we are all affiliate marketing spammers but we are selling quality information. They haven’t touched my main phrase page, but it doesn’t have a ‘How To’ in it. I have been back though and deleted all the affiliate links though, so they don’t delete it, but I’ll put them back when it’s all blown over.

Tumblr have shot themselves in the foot by deleting all the 30DC sites and directing traffic (who want all this niche info) to Tumblr’s home page.

Google won’t like that and could penalize Tumblr for sending honest searchers to a dud page with no info.

As I’ve put a lot of hard work into this, I bought a domain name and plan to host it myself. This may be a premature move – but even after the 30DC I could do with my own site on the subject. And at least I’ll have somewhere more permanent to direct readers of my Ezine article.

The point of the 30 Day Challenge though is to earn $10 in 30 days, by spending no money, but never mind.

Many people are setting up Blogger blogs instead. I’m sure Google who owns Blogger aren’t going to be that bothered as long as they contain good quality info. And with Adsense on there, they should be laughing.

81. 30 Day Challenge Day 18

2007-08-18T14:42:00.000-07:00

Re-watched Thursday’s 30DCIII videos and watched yesterday’s videos about social bookmarking and ezine articles. Noticed Rob Somerville’s Tumblr blog has his link to the ‘money page’ in a separate link post, rather than in the posts. The separate links don’t look spammy at all. I’ll have to do that,

Spent the rest of the day finishing and perfecting my ezine article. I know I’ll never make any money if I spend most of the day writing an article, but it was quite long, and I wanted to make sure it was quality stuff, and that it gets verified for publication.

Maybe I won’t be so fastidious after writing a few hundred articles, but to be honest, I do hope mine are a lot better than some of the crap on these article sites. Even some that have perfect grammar make it clear that the person is not really an expert in the subject, and as a reader I wouldn’t want to believe anything that isn’t referenced properly.

Didn’t have time to sign up with Ezine and submit my article. I’m planning on having an early night tonight so I can get a record amount of work done tomorrow.

80. 30DCIII Day 17

2007-08-17T13:21:00.000-07:00

I created a Clickbank hoplink and put the link into some of my posts on my tumblr page. I am only putting my affiliate link into every other post, as I think it will look too spammy if it is in every single post. I am also putting links to other sites too, offering free quality information, so I think visitors will be pleased.

Ed said we should ask ourselves will our visitors be happy or annoyed with our content, and as I’ve given them what they are looking for for free, I think they’ll be happy. I’m just hoping they will buy the product too, but no-one’s forcing them.

I watched Ed’s video this morning and he said lots of people on the forum are getting indexed in Google in only a few hours, so I checked my phrase, and I’m nowhere! But then, these other peole are probably a day ahead of me, and been social bookmarking like mad.

After work, I spent every minute writing more short articles and a larger one for Ezine Articles, but that’s not finished yet. Then I signed up with more social bookmarking sites, so I can ‘give love’ to my sites, and ask friends to do the same.

It’s possible that this method of getting ranked by search engines may not last long, especially if spammers are going to abuse it, but there’ll be some other method by then.

Sadly, I kept getting distracted on a lot of the social bookmarking sites, because I kept finding sites that were related to my niches, so I naturally wanted to check them out.

Still haven’t looked at today’s work, and may have to re-watch some videos from the last few days, to make sure I haven’t missed any part of the process. Still haven’t signed up as an Amazon affiliate, which I should have done years ago!

I’m hoping I can get lots of work done over the weekend, as I think it’s product creation next week, and that will involve technical stuff, so I must catch up for that.

I’ve found several other sites and tumblr blogs on different topics, whilst social bookmarking that are following the format of the Thirty Day Challenge, and one I found had an affiliate link that went to a sales page, but the affiliate name was not on the order page, so I found the owner on Facebook and let him know, or he won’t be getting his commissions.

79. Thirty Day Challenge Day 16

2007-08-16T14:28:00.000-07:00

I’d finished all my short articles before I even left the house this morning! Jeez, why didn’t I listen to Ed when he told us about feeds last year? It took me about 30 minutes to write five articles from content that I’d got through a feed from Google news containing my keywords. And there are tons of news items I didn’t even touch, and I didn’t use any of the blog feeds, so there’s plenty of content to choose from in the future!

So after work, I had plenty of time to catch up with yesterday’s and today’s Thirty Day Challenge Day video tutorials.

Later I set up a Tumblr page on one of my niches, and added a brand new article I’d written from scratch. There’s also a picture of mine and a video of someone else’s. I’m pleased with how it looks.

Today Dan showed us how to make a Wordpress blog. I need to learn this, as I’ve only ever had Blogger blogs before, but Wordpress is supposed to be more flexible when it’s hosted on its own domain name.

So although I’ll still carry on blogging about The 30 Day Challenge here, I’ll have my Wordpress blog as well, that will be hosted on the 30DCIII site.

And as Dan showed us how to insert YouTube videos into our blogs, I plan to put one in, but I haven’t made any YouTube videos other the ones of Mike Blacktopp’s skydive. I’ll make more when I’ve made my $10.

I also downloaded a Firefox plugin that Caro recommended called Cooliris that lets you preview a site just by hovering your mouse over the link then moving slightly to the right to a Cooliris icon. I think it will prove a massive time saver, and already, I have been using it loads today. It’s at http://www.cooliris.com Thanks Caro!

Tried to finished 30DC work at 9.30pm, but actually it was 10.30 (now) so I have time to post to all my blogs, write my personal diary, walk and stretch and be in bed before midniight. That’s the only way I’ll be able to stop these headaches. I’ve been staying up way too late. And it affects my work the next day.

Only just realised I’ve misspelt Dyslexic in all my tabs since the 30DC started (I’ve been copying and pasting them form a Word doc). I’ll amend it when I get chance, but if anyone searching for it has managed to miss out the ‘s’ too (and I am aware of the irony), then they’ll find me no problem!

78. 30 Day Challenge Day 15

2007-08-15T14:10:00.000-07:00

It dawned on me today that on Ed’s 30 Day Challenge videos, he can always get his RSS feeds at the click of a button (the little orange square in the url bar). And that’s why it only takes him seconds to find content for blog posts and articles.

I got really hung up on RSS feeds last year, and subsequently have been manually going round places to get content for my existing blogs.

Today the penny finally dropped as to just how important these feeds are as they save so much time. So I didn’t look at any of today’s training material. If I’m to write the rest of my short articles in record time to catch up, I need to do things properly.

So I tried to sort out getting all the relevant feeds into Bloglines, so that I too can find content quickly.

Unfortunately, the very first site I looked at had a problem with it’s RSS icon, but I didn’t know that. I thought it was me that was doing it wrong. So after a panic gmail text chat with Asbjorn (what would I do without him?) he told me where to find an alternative feed for that site.

I then spent ages trying to work out how to organise my feeds and folders in Bloglines, but then it clicked.

Once I worked out how to do it, I found that sometimes, it wouldn’t work first time, but it would work the second time. On one, it took five attempts, and I did exactly the same thing each time, but I stuck with it, as I knew it had worked before.

Once I was confident that I could do it properly, you couldn’t stop me building feeds to get content for my existing blogs. Now I’m dead chuffed I finally got it.

This afternoon, I was panicking that I was falling behind, and wouldn’t be able to finish my short articles on time, but I’m not worried now, as I now think it will be easy for me to catch up.

It’s slightly annoying that Bloglines keeps changing the order of my folders, seemingly for no reason, but it’s not a big problem.

Quickly had time just to check what work I’d missed on the 30DCIII Training page, and there’s only one video for today.

77. 30 Day Challenge Day 14

2007-08-14T16:22:00.000-07:00

Watched today’s videos and found we had another 6 articles to write; three short pieces of content for each of our two niches. I actually had ten to write because I had only written two yesterday.

And I knew I had to get them all done, because once I get behind, I always have difficulty catching up.

It wasn’t a problem, when I went at my own pace and stayed focussed. Usually I’d panic if I’m even a little bit behind, but I can only concentrate at one thing at a time, so I did. I didn’t log into to the forum or my email account. I just wrote my pieces of content. Ed did his short article in 9 minutes. I did mine in 30 minutes, but I'm OCD about changing every single sentence, so there isn't duplicate content. Maybe my articles are too long. I didn't get them all finished.

I kept the pdf of Ed’s open to keep referring back to, as my memory’s like a sieve. This reminded me of which steps to take to get all the info together.

Also included in the videos were how to find affliate products, not to build a business out of affilaite marketing, but to test whether people in those markets are prepared to spend money.

Ed compared it to the TV idol series where you get paid to test what people want, rather than throw money away trying to find out. So he showed us Clickbank affiliate products, then showed us how to sign for Amazon and although they give measly rates of commission and we’re never gonna get rich selling Amazon products, they are a brilliant way of testing markets as they have so many products, and such a huge customer base.

I’m sure I signed up with them last year, and I know I have a Clickbank account, but stupidly, I never used them.

Had our weekly Skype call with Asbjorn and Pauline, and we lost Asbjorn after a while, but he was very helpful and guided me and Pauline through setting up Squidoo lenses. We won’t be covering thses in the 30DCIII.

76. The 30 Day Challenge Day 13

2007-08-13T17:29:00.000-07:00

Spent all day collecting more information on my niches. I found loads of affiliate products that not only mean there’s money to be made from this niche, but I can be an affiliate for those products as well as create my own products.

Watched Ed’s latest video on the 30DCIII and he showed us how his new Mac can record the mac version of a powerpoint presentation, with his voice over it, so he can make videos without having to appear in them. That’s good news for people like me who have the perfect face for audio!

With my drawing niches I was going to do drawing tutorials with a webcam attached to a baseball hat, so no-one would see my face anyway. Hatcam! But this sounds cool as well. Asbjorn showed me how wordtracker just got a whole lot better with Google Trends.

75. The Thirty Day Challenge Day 12

2007-08-12T19:19:00.000-07:00

It's 3.25am and I've been working for 16 hours collecting info, articles and checking out the competition on my niche.

74. 30DC Day 11

2007-08-12T19:18:00.001-07:00

Saturday August 11th

Worked hard to find some more niches and I did find lots of different phrases for one large niche, which already has Web 2.0 strategies in place, but not for the subniches and phrases. I didn’t want to get into trouble so I checked on the forum to see if it was ok to go ahead. And two people including Lisa who is an Immediate Edge student (the system used in The 30 Day Challenge) gave me the go ahead.

Which I thought was great news and I got my calculator out to work out how rich I’m gonna be, when it dawned on me that this MAY be stuff that kids want to learn. And if that’s the case, then there won’t be any money in this niche.

There are tons of free info sites on the subject, but very few info products. There are lots of physical books, but again, they could be being bought as gifts for kids.

As the numbers are a lot less than my main niche, I decided to create hub pages for this, but not fill them with content just yet. Just have them there to deter other IMers from using the niche.

73. The 30 Day Challenge Day 10

2007-08-12T09:45:00.000-07:00

Friday August 10th (ignore what it says up there!)

Had to make loads of phone calls, but listened to today’s podcast and watched all the videos on the 30 Day Challenge. I did understand the bit Ed thought some people would find difficult, because I’ve heard of Squidoo and Hubpages.

The SEO tool that we all have as a Firefox add-on has been demonstrated to full effect.

Checked out the forum, so I knew I wasn’t missing anything important. Caro posted giving us a list of Web 2.0 sites we need to be checking out niches for. Asbjorn chatted with me on gmail, and showed me how the SEO tool helped with his niche. He’s found a great one with no SEO at all!

Started researching my niche so I can write articles on it, and create hubpages. I also need to be thinking what sort of product I want. As Pauline my team mate has experience in my niche, I have asked her if she would provide her voice for an interview. She is also American, and my niche only applies in the US so it wouldn’t hold much weight if I provided the voice on an audio product! I’m very pleased that Pauline has agreed.

72. 30DC Day 9

2007-08-09T18:04:00.000-07:00

Listened to the podcast this morning and Ed said there was an amazing time saving tool by someone called Garrett, and I spent a long time trying to find it, but couldn't. Tonight they tell us we'll get it soon.

Photographed cars all day.

Today got much better on the Thirty Day Challenge! Yesterday I was throwing out phrases I though weren’t working, but I wasn’t paying attention when I was told to not just look at the graph in google Trends, which only shows above 200 a day, but to also look at the bar underneath that represents all searches in English.

Even the ones that don’t register on the graph can still be on the bar, and I found three extra viable phrases.

And I’ve narrowed that down to two as Ed told us to in today’s podcast. And even though I want to pursue both of them, I think it will be foolish to do both during the 30DC. The reason is, the top one indicates that it brings in over 450 searches a day and the second one brings in 85.

As I’ve gone and looked at lots of sites on the subject of my top niche, I am buzzing with ideas of how I can make the best site I can.

I’ve made an excel sheet with all my findings, and I’ve put the good phrases in green for Go!

I’ve got other phrases for the same niche, and therefore product, but the searches per day are much lower, so I’ll have them as back-ups for later. It’ll still be worth adding those figures to the top ones, so I can increase visitors, and get more sales, without building more product websites.

It’s 2am again and I still haven’t been for my evening walk, or done my stretches.

71. Thirty Day Challenge Days 7 and 8

2007-08-08T14:20:00.001-07:00

Ed promised us ground breaking stuff in terms of Market Research on the Thirty Day Challenge, and yesterday and today, he did deliver!

Yesterday there were videos on how to use the free Wordtracker tool effectively in collecting data about any niche. Then we were shown how to do proper searches in Google to determine how many other sites use the same phrase. The objective is to be number one in google for a particular phrase, which we will learn how to achieve over the next two weeks. And because we are being shown the correct way to do market research, we will know what we need to do, to create at least one sale per day. I think I’m right in saying that 100 visitors will bring one sale a day on average, providing you provide good content on your site.

Today we were shown how to confirm Wordtracker’s numbers using Google Trends.

Because Ed’s 30DCIII and ‘Immediate Edge’ partner Dan Raine has a site that he knows brings in approximately 500 visitors every day, they are able to use Google Trends to do a comparison between Dan’s phrase and any potential niche phrase. If the graph for your own niche phrase is higher than Dan’s phrase, then you know you will get more than 500 visitors a day. Or if it’s half as high, you can safely assume you’ll get around 250 visitors.

Up to now, internet marketers have used Overture and Wordtracker and other tools to guess how many visitors any key phrase will get, but they are only estimates. Never before has anyone been able to know for sure. Thousands of people have built entire websites, populated it with tons of content for a niche they are told gets traffic, but then found out to their cost that there is no traffic.

Now we know how to take the guesswork out of it. So there is no excuse for creating products for markets that don’t exist. There is a lot of other criteria too for obtaining the perfect niche and key phrase, far too detailed to go into here, but when I saw how easy it was, I was quite relieved. Now Ed says this is the hardest part. And it’s all downhill from now on. I hope so!

I’m pleased to have found a niche and phrase that meets the criteria. In fact the graph indicates that I too will get around 500 visitors a day if I’m in top position on Google. I want a back-up though, so I’m continuing the market research until I find more viable phrases.

Today has produced a flurry of activity on the forums, with people asking questions about their own findings, without divulging their niches of course, for obvious reasons.

Some people say they have found 20 phrases that meet the criteria. They must be doing something I don’t know about then, because I’ve been hard at it for two days, constantly checking hundreds of phrases, and only found one that has under 25,000 competing sites, and more than 200 searches a day.

Actually 100 searches a day could be profitable, but Google Trends doesn’t show up searches that are that few, so there’s no way of confirming the numbers.

70. 30 Day Challenge Day 6

2007-08-06T13:08:00.000-07:00

Did a quick shoot today of a tile store – it was beautiful to shoot because the roof had lots of skylights in, so there was plenty of natural light. Also the flurescent tubes were daylight balanced, instead of green – brilliant! The owner says ‘How else can the customer tell what colour the tiles are?’ My kinda guy!

Ordered my food shopping online, but didn’t buy fruit and veg because they always send poor quality stuff, and I’ve got a great new greengrocer across the road. Had to tell a few Film Club friends that I can’t make it tomorrow. My social life is on hold until I’ve made my $10 on the Thirty Day Challenge! Browsed and posted on the 30DCIII forum.

Made some posts on my Team’s Facebook Group, as I’ve been keeping a note of interesting IM sites. Later I wanted to send my team mates presents, and in Facebook, presents are tiny cartoon graphics, and they want ONE DOLLAR for each of them! So I sent my team mates links to sites I thought they’d like instead, which was much more info for free! But what a brilliant marketing idea – get millions of buddies worldwide to send teeny pics to each other and charge them a dollar a time for them! Amazing.

Watched today’s videos. They’re on YouTube now. Wish I could get iTunes to work properly. It’s not downloading them all. I wonder if I’ve got the wrong RSS url. Followed along with each of my niches, and got some interesting results.

Looking forward to learning the ‘blow your socks off’ advice Ed is going to give us tomorrow and Wednesday.

69. More ADHD symptoms

2007-08-06T03:41:00.000-07:00

Still taking an age to read ‘Is That My Child?’ by Dr Robin Pauc. I’m just reading it when I can’t sleep, because I get on better with audio books, as I’m such a slow reader.

I’m still near the beginning and I got to the part where it says that kids with dyslexia and dyspraxia are sensititve to light, and that they also have difficulty holding a pen to write. It’s uncanny, as I see myself on every page.

I always have to wear sunglasses even when it’s cloudy, and the more tired I am, the worse my sensitivity to light is. And it wasn’t until I was twelve that I started to hold a pen properly, when a teacher taught me how to. Before then, I used to hold it as in the photo. And pressing down hard when writing is also characteristic of dyspraxia. I still do that!

The more I learn about the condition(s), the more I am convinced that I am a text book case. When I was diagnosed, they only touched the surface. To read on some websites that there are people who believe dyslexia is a myth, is quite astonishing, when people like Dr Pauc, and Wynford Dore have put years of study into the condition, and proved time and time again the definitive patterns that these kids follow. The non believers are simply ignorant.

68. Thirty Day Challenge Day 5

2007-08-05T14:44:00.001-07:00

Only one of yesterday's 30 Day Challenge videos went into iTunes, and I had to watch the other one on the Google videos site, and that hurt my eyes as Google videos always reduce the quality, so it was difficult to read the small text on Ed’s screen within the video. I still watched the whole thing. But whenever I come across little things like that, I remember my goal, and think “is this stopping me from completing the 30DCIII?” And if the answer’s no, then I don’t worry.

It was a glorious day, so I got great landscape photos for my photography site. I'm totally digital now, but previously, all the best landscape images I had were prints that needed to be scanned. And we're talking hundreds!

Later I did what Ed showed us by going to Wordtracker and copying and pasting all the results for my chosen niches, so we can use them later for further market and keyword research.

I can’t help thinking I should be doing more work than I am, like setting up an aweber account, as I reckon we’ll have so much to do in the next few weeks, it may all get on top of me. No, I’ll wait til Ed suggests it – I’ll just make sure I put the hours in. Those doubts creeping in again…

One thing I can do now though is upgrade my hosting account, as at the moment I can only host one domain, and hopefully I’ll want to host several soon. I’ll do that tomorrow.

Browsed other 30DCIII blogs by participants and some video blogs. Also made my Sunday phone calls to family and friends.

67. My Photography Site

2007-08-05T14:39:00.000-07:00

I can’t believe I have failed to mention my Photography website on this blog. It only took TWO years to get off the ground! Well, I bought the domain three years ago, but have only got round to building it recently. Asbjorn helped me with the FTP – I had a major FTP phobia, which was just silly.

It’s quite outrageous that the only other sites I have are Blogger blogs, so I don’t buy hosting for them. But this is my first actual website that I pay hosting for. That’s shocking considering I’m supposed to have been learning internet marketing for three years.

Anyway it’s finally up - woohoo! - at www.AmpersandPhotography.co.uk I think (hope) my photography site demonstrates how clever I am (at photography, not web design), whereas this blog demonstrates how daft I am! Better not let my clients see this blog!

66. TDCIII Day 4

2007-08-04T17:00:00.000-07:00

I’m still only getting Day 3’s material on the Thirty Day Challenge, but that’s ok. I listened to the podcast then watched the video, after I went back over Day 2’s videos following along, going to Google groups and Ebay hotlists. I couldn’t find any pet owner groups, and that surprised me. I made sure I did a thorough search. I’m just interested because I want someone to take over my dog blog, as I don’t have time. I figure paying an enthusiast will be better than paying someone on elance or rentacoder. But I don’t need a group on Google to find someone.

After watching Ed’s technorati video, and following along, I found a site written by a Stumble Upon expert who reckons your Adsense account will be banned if you stumble your own sites, and get too many people to stumble them in a short period of time. It seems this happens because Google just think you’re commiting click fraud, as your ads are clicked on a lot more than they previously were. I guess that’s not a problem for me at the moment, but something to consider.

Only went out to buy fruit from the new shop over the road. I was working away all day, and thinking of more and more ideas. Hope it doesn’t take me long to find a suitable killer niche. Loads of people are following me on Twitter – haven’t a clue who they are! And I keep forgetting to update it, and I shouldn’t, because you can use the url address bar – it’s so easy!

Forgot to ring people to tell them when my 40th do is. And it needs to be soon, or there’ll only be about four people turn up!

65. 30 Day Challenge Day 3

2007-08-03T15:54:00.000-07:00

Checked my emails this morning, and Lisa confirmed on Facebook that it was her in the photo, and she added a comment, so she mustn't mind me using it. She reminded me that she won the trip to the Aston Martin racing day with Yanik Silver.

Had to meet a new client and check out his stock. This took most of the day, so I just watched two of yesterday’s videos again on the 30DC. I kept pausing them and did exactly what Ed did, just to satisfy myself that I could. Last year Caro told me that she watched the videos twice, then did the task herself, and went back to the videos as and when she needed to. That seems to work for me too.

And Ed has highlighted the cursor so it’s easy to follow along. I kept having to force myself to not go off and look at more niches, as more ideas came to me. I just wrote the ideas down and plan to check them out tomorrow.

Didn’t look at today’s stuff, as the UK only got them quite late anyway, as they were released lunchtime in the US. So I’ll go to town on them tomorrow. I think a lot of the month I’ll be a day behind, as I can usually get more work done in the mornings, but that won’t be a problem.

BTW, I’m changing the formats of the titles so they’re different versions of the phrase 30 Day Challenge on purpose, so that whatever people type in, they have a chance of finding me. I typed in ‘30DCIII blog’ the other day, and mine was the only one that showed up!

64. 30DC Day 2

2007-08-02T15:58:00.000-07:00

Had lots of photos to edit. Found that I recognised one of the participants in the challenge, from one of my seminar photos. So I uploaded it to Facebook and asked her to confirm if it was her or not.

My 30 Day Challenge team mates responded to my discussion on my Facebook group post. Pauline’s not well, so we may get together next week, but it’ll be more beneficial by then as we will have started properly by then.

Ed asked us to think of seven markets, no more no less. So all I had to do was consult my book of ideas, where I have over 200 of them. But they were ideas for products, so I was able to edit them down to about 10 broad markets, and within those, 65 more targeted markets.

Slightly more than seven then. So I picked my seven favourite ones, that I think would be interesting to do. And then I can go back to my bigger list as and when I need to.

I spent all day at the computer, and missed my morning walk. (So I had an extra long walk tonight, then watched more of the videos whilst stretching.

63. Thirty Day Challenge Day 1

2007-08-01T15:36:00.000-07:00

Took the day off and browsed the forum whilst waiting for the Thirty Day Challenge to begin. Followed a link on one post to info about Facebook. Spent a couple of hours looking at FAQs and Facebook tutorials. Was particularly interested to learn that you can advertise and sell directly from Facebook.

Watched more participants’ videos and video blogs about the 30DCIII. Some are really clever.

Still managed to fit in some photo editing before lunch. Then I found the Stumble Upon Getting Started Guide, so I read that even though I had set out to create a Facebook group for our Team on the 30DC.

The first thing I saw on the TDC blog for today was the TDC toolbar, which I downloaded for Firefox. Later I downloaded Day 1’s video, as it didn’t automatically download in iTunes for some reason, then I listened to the Podcast.

Was reassured when I heard Ed say he was going to go slowly! From what he was saying, it sounds like we will be making AV products and using video instead of a sales letter. Hope I can grasp all the technical stuff.

As I’m 40 in the first week in October, THAT’s what Plan B will be: To make $10 online whilst still in my 30s! But we’ll cross that bridge…

Later I watched Pauline’s YouTube videos about the model railway, and had to keep disciplined not to go watching lots of others by folks I don’t know.

This evening Facebook was driving me nuts, but I persevered and went back over Dan’s video about it, then was finally able to create a group, and send my team mates a message. Also uploaded some photos on there.

62. 30DCIII Diary

2007-07-31T13:04:00.000-07:00

On today's Thirty Day Challenge material, I had to watch Ed’s ‘Leverage’ video three times this morning, and still struggled to fully understand it. He does everything very fast, but he’s demonstrating how quickly you can do stuff. He also said that he was taking a lot longer to do all this, as he was having to explain it – so normally he’d be even faster!

But again, he was explaining an easy way to do something, so I shouldn’t get to dispondent yet. It may click into place later. I took eleven years to learn to drive, then after passing my driving test, I spent the following 12 months becoming a relaxed driver. So I’m expecting this will all come with practice.

Actually one of the things he showed us turned out to be a tool only Mac users could get anyway.

Web 2.0 seems to be mentioned a lot, and I still wasn't exactly sure what it meant, so I Googled it. I have now come to the conclusion that it means web based applications in general, and the viral possibilities that social networking sites can provide. When I first heard it, I thought it was an actual product.

Went to shoot a derelict hotel that’s going to be demolished, and had to wear a hard hat. Although I think there’s less to damage in my head than in my camera!

61. 30DCIII Pre-Season Catchup

2007-07-30T14:38:00.001-07:00

Listened to both Ed’s podcasts this morning whilst exercising, then having breakfast.

I was shooting all day today and was prepared for an evening of downloading the photos, followed by tons more 30 Day Challenge Prep work, but I got a lovely surprise when I watched three of the four remaining videos, and found I had done all the stuff that was included!

I haven’t yet set up fancy stuff on my forum settings but now I know where they are, I can do that later. I did try to add an avatar this moring, but despite it being under 80 pixels and under 100kb, it still wouldn’t accept it. The I asked the question I always ask when I have a job to do. How important is this in getting me to my goal? It is probably not a good idea to frighten other Thirty Day Challengers with my ugly mug anyway.

Added a few more friends on Facebook, and accepted invites from other 30DCers. The thing I’m really excited about is, I only have one more video to watch, and I’m up to date with all the pre-season stuff, but my evening walk and stretches are way overdue, and I’m shattered, so I’m signing off now.

60. 30DC Diary

2007-07-29T14:52:00.000-07:00

Another thing I am doing in relation to any products I make in the 30DCIII is using a pseudonym; a pen name. This will be the same for Twitter messages and blogs, for now.

It was suggested we do this on last year’s Thirty Day Challenge, so that if and when we come to sell the site, we can sell the whole lot, lock stock and barrel.

Today after I spent most of the day photographing classic cars (and it was sunny, thank heavens), I installed Session Manager, Fleck, Firebug, Search Status, SEO for Firefox and Twitterbar – all more Firefox add-ons, and I signed up with Bloglines.

Watched more of Ed’s videos, and took ages sorting out a problem with iTunes, but Asbjorn helped me on Skype, saving me a lot of time.

Then I logged into twitter and decided to follow some people I know who were doing the 30 Day Challenge, forgetting that I’m logged in under my pseudonym, and they won’t know who the hell I am. Never mind.

Discovered I’m already signed up with Facebook under my real name, so added some friends on that too.

59. Coloured Reward Stickers

2007-07-29T05:36:00.000-07:00

I mentioned this a few months ago, and it's a great way to monitor whether you're on track or not.

I have star shaped stickers (to subliminally improve my self esteem!) that I put on a wall mounted calendar just for the stickers. So I can instantly see how good or naughty I've been.

Red = getting all my work done, and at least 90% of everything on my daily To Do list.

Yellow = keeping organized records, my diary and carrying out weekly tasks - a different one each day (usually household chores).

Green = keeping an organized kitchen daily and sticking to my healthy ADHD friendly diet, so I'll optimise my brain function and quality of sleep.

Blue = sticking to my exercise routine. That is to walk a minimum of twice a day for 20 minutes, followed by 20 minute stretches. This is great for keeping alert, preventing headaches and stiffness. And the stretches that follow include plenty of abdominal crunches which is a natural appetite suppressant and also improve metabolism.

I also award myself a second yellow star (they only come in four colours!) for getting to sleep before midnight. So obviously I have to wait til the next day to award that one.

The idea is to get a week of five stars every day, then I get a Gold star at the weekend and give myself a treat - NOT ice cream! A cinema trip maybe, but not whilst the Thirty Day Challenge is on.

Sadly I've yet to have a week of five stars, mainly because I'm such a poor sleeper, and even when I'm in bed for 11pm, I can still be awake at 4am. This is due to my mind still buzzing - part of my cyclothymic highs (especially when I have important work to do). That is why exercise is so important.

The thing is, all of these areas of improvement help each other, so it's paramount I get as many of the stars as possible. The only one out of my control really, is the second yellow 'sleep' one.

I often get three or four stickers, but only had all five twice since May when I first started them.

58. Learning The Faith

2007-07-29T05:01:00.000-07:00

Asbjorn emailed me late last night to tell me that 35% of his traffic comes from Twitter (well he typed titter, but I know what he meant and am far too mature - yeah right! - to make a joke about that).

But as a pragmatist, I would be happier knowing the ins and outs of HOW this happens before I plunge in.

He then said "Anyway, never mind, do as you like, which you always do anyway ;-)"

Oops, yes I'm very naughty. Usually because I think I know best. I need to learn to trust people know better than me. To be honest, having to figure out most things in life on my own has made me have little faith in others, so it's gonna be a hard habit to break, but it's all part of growing. I should trust Ed and Asbjorn as they are living proof that the system works.

It's much easier to be in this learning situation from the confines of my flat than in a classroom. I always end up get frustrated and upset when I don't understand something, and of course if you have people around you, you can quickly fall out with them. If there's no-one around you, you are blessed with TIME to compose yourself and calm down.

I'm praying I can manage to do the 30DCIII this year, but if I don't I'm determined to try my hardest. And this year I have vowed to carry on with it until I have made a success of it, and not give up like previous years.

57. Twitter ot Twit

2007-07-28T08:04:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna be using this blog as a diary during the Thirty Day Challenge, so it may include some unrelated stuff too, as real life is going on simultaneously.

Spent all morning researching Twitter, as Asbjorn says it's good. I believe it saves you time doing certain things, but as those things are stuff I've also yet to learn, I'm a bit flumoxed. I went to a page that seems to have lots of Twitter add-ons, so reading through that lot confused me even more. I guess it only makes sense to Twitter veterans.

I hope it gets you free traffic, and that Ed will explain this in a video on the 30DCIII.

Installed my new compact camera and downloaded all 1GB of the test photos. I WON'T be using the digital zoom after all - just the 6x optical zoom. There was less noise from the recent (drink driving) NASA takeoff than on these so called 40x zoom photos. Really pleased with the macro shots though.

Since I added my new Graphics tablet I've got this annoying little toolbar that shows up on EVERY screen, even when viewing photos on the slideshow! So I had to ask the seller how to get rid of it, as it's driving me nuts.

I also read about Google Notebook and downloaded that, and downloaded Scribefire which helps when blogging, I'm told - another two Firefox Add-ons. I couldn't find SEO for Firefox, and I looked for it for ages. Didn't have time to see if anyone else on the forum had trouble finding it too. I also had to reinstall Stumble Upon, as yesterday Explorer was my default browser, and the toolbar attached itself to that, not Firefox, Today I made Firefox my default browser, so I'm singing from the same hymn sheet - (even if I may be a bit out of tune).

And another thing is I have to watch each of Ed's video a minimum of twice, and some three times. Even though he's taking us through baby steps, as I'm still on unfamiliar territory - and this ALWAYS happens - the information seems too fast for me.

It's bananas because once anything's 'clicked' with me, I'll actually get impatient if I have to go over any of them, and I'll be thinking "yeah yeah, I know this - next!" (like a spoilt brat).

I know I went from one extreme to the other all the time at school too. Teachers seeming way too fast or way too slow depending on how much I understood. So once Twitter 'clicks' I'll be fine, but til then I'm the Twit.

56. Thirty Day Challenge

2007-07-27T12:44:00.000-07:00

I'm doing the 30 Day Challenge again this year. It's a free Internet Marketing course, teaching how to make a dollar online within 30 days, although this year it's how to make $10 within 30 days. It's run online by Ed Dale who sold his niche websites, that he set up from scratch, for $5 million in 2005. Go and sign up!

As with any course or challenge, I suffer badly because of my learning difficulties. Whenever I got stuck I'd have panic attacks and felt total despair. I think a lot of people just thought I was being melodramatic, but when I failed a second time last year I got quite depressed, as so many people were able to keep up.

Then came the 'Google slap' which meant all the stuff already taught, was now turned on its head. If I'd just kept going, I might have been OK. (Actually now, I know that my niche was rubbish to start with). But the main problem was I was getting bogged down with, and taking way too long just signing up for stuff, and registering for new and unfamiliar sites and tools.

I often get OCD and perfectionist about these, and feel I need to know the ins and outs before I have enough confidence to use them on a regular basis.

I always panicked in the past when I was told I need to register with such and such a site, because I've always worried that I don't have time to do the things I do find familiar, let alone the things I don't.

But I should have had faith because Ed tells us all the easiest way to do it, based on his own experiences. And actually signing up with new sites isn't really a big deal. What's the worst that can happen? You bugger up your login and have to start again! I was too over cautious.

Last year, I also got totally hung up on RSS feeds (I just couldn't understand them for ages and bought two very long ebooks on RSS feeds), and tending to the Skype call needs of my team. This year, I'm sticking with two reliable 30 Day Challengers who have lots of patience with me, Pauline Trabert and Asbjorn Riedel.

I'm not going to get distracted by reading every post on the forum (my biggest mistake on the first year 2005)

And as the videos are streaming this year, I don't think you can download them to your PC, which means if I get left behind, I won't be able to catch up in my own time, so I HAVE to keep up!

The great news is that this year, Ed has put a lot of the signing up and downloading stuff into the "pre-season" which has been going on all this week. I guess it's like getting all the ingredients together before starting. Previously, we did all that within the 30 Days, and for me, I had to go through a learning curve with each one.

So far I have downloaded add-ons, signed up to several sites, and updated several pieces of software, and touch wood - I've been fine! Fingers crossed I'll manage to do it this year.

Despite having my PC in pieces this morning, I still managed to watch all Ed's videos so far, sign up on Digg.com, download the 'Stumble Upon' toolbar and register at the site, update iTunes, update Firefox, download del.icio.us and create an account.

I also had to buy the local free ads paper, as when I turned my PC on this morning, it sounded like an engine revving (the reason I took it apart and cleaned both fans) so I'm after a 2nd hand XP laptop because I want a backup PC incase this one blows up in the middle of the 30DC! And I don't want to convert to Windows Vista just yet - not until most software is compatible with it.

Wish me luck!

55. "We Thought You Were Clever!"

2007-07-27T12:07:00.000-07:00

I was discussing my dyspraxia on the phone with my Dad the other day (I was only diagnosed in 2005), and he shreiked "You're not dyspraxic! - Dyspraxia is a muscle wasting disease!"

Eh?

I told him he must have got mixed up and that actually Dyspraxia is poor hand eye co-ordination, to name but one symptom. He then passed me to his wife Carol who was adamant that I was wrong because she has relatives that have been officially diagnosed as having "Severe Dyspraxia" and they have serious difficulty moving.

So I later looked the word up, and found that severe dyspraxia is quite different from the type I have.

In the second paragraph on this site: http://www.daa.colsal.org.uk/ it says

"There are two types of dyspraxia, which are quite different: Developmental dyspraxia and acquired dyspraxia. Developmental dyspraxia is when someone is born with dyspraxia. And acquired dyspraxia can be caused by a stroke or head injury and causes much more severe disabilities. This website is about the former type of dyspraxia, which includes difficulties with co-ordination, spatial awareness, perception, language and short term memory.
Developmental dyspraxia affects between ten to Seven percent of the population and up to thre percent in varying degrees of severity. Many adults remain undiagnosed and can be lost in the mental health, prison and probationary services."

It seems we were all a bit wrong and a bit right! Carol's relatives do have severe dyspraxia, but they have difficulty with motor function, but not muscle wasting.

The reason I had brought the subject up was because I was telling Dad how I remember him spending hours with me every weekend, trying to help me learn to ride a bike. But to no avail. I still had to have stabilisers attached until I was seven.

Whe there was the mixup as to the definition of dyspraxia, I told him my difficulties, and he said he remembers how all my school teachers told my parents I was always staring out of the window.

So I said yes, that's a classic symptom, but he told me that when he asked me why I stared out of the window, I had told him and my mother that I was bored and that I already knew everything that was being taught.

I do remember thinking that a lot, but I also had difficulty concentrating, but as I 'drifted off' at such times, I was unable to record these occurrences. I simply forgot about them. But informing my parents that I 'knew it all' made them think I was clever!

And in some ways, I belive I did excell in some areas that other kids did not, but I still had an awful lot of difficulty that just went unnoticed or confused with laziness, or clumsiness.

Well I feel quite clever today actually because I fixed a high speed USB card into my PC despite the person who built having put a motherboard that didn't quite fit the ports. As they were out by about 5mm, I took off the metal frame around the card, and slotted it into place but to keep it held up securely, I sawed slots in two cut lollypop sticks to hold up the card. The lolly sticks have blue tac at the bottom.

Well, it was either that or buy a new computer, and I plan to upgrade completely next year anyway. And I was quite pleased about one of my other ADHD traits; my OCD for hoarding things! I saved the lolly sticks from my craft classes years ago!

54. ...Four Months Later...!

2007-07-06T14:42:00.000-07:00

Well that didn't work too well did it?

Actually I've invented a coloured star stickers system that I will write about when I get home. And it is the only thing so far that is proving to keep me relatively disciplined, but I still need to improve - lots!

One thing I HAVE managed to do, that has taken over two years for me to complete, is my photography website. Woohoo – it’s finally online! Take a look at www.ampersandphotography.co.uk I’ve got lots of photos and pages I want to add, but for now it passes as a website so I can finally put the url on my new business cards.

53. Backlog

2007-03-28T10:58:00.000-07:00

Now that I’ve committed to keep an Internet Marketing diary, I’ve gone and disappeared for a week. I know, I know – it reminds me of my friend’s blog: ‘How To Get Things Done’, which he set up seven months ago, and has yet to post on it!

I am still in the process of creating an effective timetable, and as I have a considerable backlog of stuff to get out of the way (not including my day job), I will need to incorporate it into the timetable.

I was going to try to get the backlog cleared before starting anything on IM but then I would never start.

The backlogs include scanning thousands of old prints and negatives, selling old equipment on Ebay, Filing; a whole 4 drawer filing cabinet needs seriously updating, and putting in order.

I’ve been blogging away every day on my niches, but until I’m earning any money I can’t afford to outsource the blogging.

Other people just copy and paste stuff into blogs and it takes only seconds, but I write or rewrite every post, and it takes at least half an hour, after I’ve swiped a photo, then found who to credit for it.

It’s Thursday tomorrow, which means Ebay Listing Day. Someone told me to always have 10 day listings starting on Thursdays or Fridays, so I can include two weekends. These have always been most fruitful for me too.

So today I have been photographing my old photo equipment, and a few other goodies ready to put up tomorrow.

52. Accountability

2007-03-21T02:54:00.000-07:00

I’ve recently been slacking in my online work, and can’t seem to stay motivated. But I think I may have the answer. I’ve got another blog on healthy eating, and as well as offering tips and recipes I had the idea of using it as a food diary, so that I have to account for everything I eat every day.

And it’s working!

I’ve only been on it three days, and so far I’ve stuck to this healthy food. I could lie, but that would defeat the object, and since I’ve been doing it, I’ve already noticed that I no longer have food cravings, and low blood sugar, so I’d be stupid to give it up.

Well the amount of work and what type of work I’m doing is not getting documented, so if it works for food, it should work for work!

What I need is a timetable of regular tasks. I made one up, but it had too much stuff on it. I was expecting too much of myself, and nothing got done.

I tried to do six hours Internet Marketing a day, as well as reading, filing, diary, blogging, learning Dreamweaver. It was simply impossible to do everything. All of the books were self help books too, so they were workbooks that required a lot more concentration than a fiction book.

My brain’s ok doing stuff it’s used to but as all learning involves the cerebellum, and mine is under-developed, I struggle a lot with learning new stuff.

As my shrink says, that much concentration for someone like me who cannot focus, is like trying to do a 10 mile run when you’re not fit enough to run round the block. She says the brain is similar; it can be trained to focus, but you have to build it up gradually.

So now I’ll create a more realistic timetable, and that involves only two hours Internet Marketing a day. It’ll be a lot more computer time altogether, but just two hours IM to begin with.

51. Received OptiMINDzation Volume 2

2006-12-08T17:13:00.000-08:00

Received OptiMINDzation Volume 2 just in time to get Volume 3 soon too!

OMG it sounds exactly the same as the 1st one, a monotonous motercycle engine for a whole hour! Do you think I've been HAD?

The thing is, as a pragmatist, I need to have proof it'll really cure my ADHD and improve brain function. The first month, I relied on blind faith, then that didn't work, and I kept using the CD as I should, but when the second one was late, I didn't continue with the first one.

What if they're really the exact same recording - whether or not they work - I'm still being charged $30 EACH for them every month. That's like buying the same CD every month for a year, except you can't dance to this!

To cap it all, I've found unfavourable stuff about Stephen Pierce on a few forums lately. What if he really is a total con artist? Oh well, I'll still keep going for now. Gotta sleep...

.

50. Attention Defecit (Deficit) Video!

2006-12-08T16:48:00.000-08:00

Found this funny video that represents ADD or ADHD. I think just like this guy, except I can't think or talk as fast as he does! So I'm just like that but slower.

So slow in fact that I had to watch the video twice to 'get' it, because I was watching the text on screen and couldn't hear what he was saying.

Right - here goes at my 1st attempt to embed a video from YouTube:

Take One: putting the embed code didn't work

Take Two: Stuff it! Go HERE to watch it!

Wow! Only just discovered Defecit and Deficit are both correct. Not sure if one's US and the other UK - it's 1:11am so I'll look another time, but there you go!

.

49. Still no OptiMINDzation CD Vol 2...

2006-12-03T15:25:00.000-08:00

Eager to improve my brain function, I was waiting patiently for my second OptiMINDzation CD. I should have received it two weeks ago, but have had to contact Stephen's company to let them know I still haven't received it.

They have sent a reply saying they'll send another one with upgraded delivery so I'll get it sooner. Oooh the suspense! I'm curious to know if it will sound exactly the same as the first CD, which is getting on my nerves now. And transferring it to my iPod seems to have added extra sounds. It's weird but you know when a microphone picks up sounds you don't want? (as if something hit the mike) - well, there are loads of those sounds on the ipod, but not on the original CD. It means I can't relax as much, but the iPod's the only way I can listen in bed, as my headphones won't reach my Hi Fi or PC.

I also have to wait til the last or penultimate CD to get the one that's supposed to cure ADHD. I could do with that one first!

48. I told Paul O’Grady He’s Got ADHD!

2006-11-21T08:38:00.000-08:00

I just sent an email to tell Paul I think he has ADHD! How cheeky am I?

He, like me, took ages to learn to drive, and now he says he cannot use an earpiece on live TV. That is what convinced me, because that entailes concentrating on two things at once, and requires a good working memory. Jerry Hall once had the same problem when they made her wear an earpiece, and she was trying to interview someone at the same time.

I said that it was just my humble opinion of course, and I also told him to get Toyah on the show to tell him how she was cured – she’ll sort him out!

I never realised it before, but that explains why Bert is always at the back of the audience telling Paul to hurry up, because they can’t let him know any other way! I think it’s nice that they make that provision for him – it proves how popular he is, but if he can’t use an earpiece, they can’t force him, can they?

But I wish I could see the outtakes of them trying!

www.channel4.com/paulogrady

47. Still No Change with the CD

2006-11-12T14:35:00.000-08:00

Well, my Volume 2 CD is going to arrive any day now, and I'm just keeping the faith here, because I can't honestly see an improved difference at all.

I was ill for a few days, and missed two days' listening to the CD, but seeing as the promo material said it should make a difference after only six days, I didn't think I'd ruin it by missing only two days.

I've listened to the CD twice a day for a minimum of 20 minutes, for nearly a month now - and nothing! In fact I'm even more tired than usual, and have a slight headache, but I've actually been sleeping ok the last week. Could be a mild bug, I suppose.

Stephen did mention a 'nice' headache from using the CDs. Is there such a thing? Any headache is bad news for me, because it stops me from working. I do hope the CDs are not making me sleepy, because then they would be doing the opposite of what I want!

Like I said; I'm keeping the faith.

46. Another Cure For Dyslexia

2006-11-12T14:29:00.000-08:00

I've recently received an email from the Dore Centre promoting the work of Professor David Reynolds of Plymouth university. Read more here.

It looks like the infoirmation highlighted in the Tonight programme form 2002, so I don't think it's new information, but there are still many people who don't know about it. Anyway, don't be fooled by the very young looking professor - I've met him and that photo has got to be at least 10 years old!

45. Still As Daft As I Ever Was!

2006-10-27T13:22:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been over a week now since I started using the OptiMINDzation CD Vol 1, and I've been listening for 20 mins in the morning, and 20-60 minutes every night. And I can honestly say I haven't noticed a difference in brain function. But then, maybe I'm not the best person to judge.

I've also been staying up late nearly every night, so probably not the best experimantal conditions. I did listen to the CD on my headphones whilst falling asleep.

On one part of the literature, Stephen Pierce wrote that you should try and concentrate on the pulsing sounds. No chance! That lasted about eight seconds. But he did say earlier that you should be totally relaxed, so those two would be a contradiction for me. I also have been reading and learning stuff, and am still slow as ever, but I ain't giving up yet.

44. OptiMINDzation Volume 1

2006-10-19T06:47:00.000-07:00

Ok, I received the CD yesterday, and listened to it last night and this morning. I, of course, read the literature first that came with it that included advice on the best supplements to take for optimum brain function. I was pleased to discover that I'm already taking five out of the seven supplements recommended. I was then reminded that I hadn't noticed a difference in brain function since I first started taking them them, about a year ago (!) But then I have terrible difficulty sleeping.

I won't take the other two supplements just yet, because if they work, how will I know if the results are due to the supplements, or the CDs?

On to the CD. I put my headphones on as Stephen recommends, and relaxed in my comfy office chair. Immediately the low frequency pulsing sounds started, and I thought the CD was making the CD ROM drive rattle, as I could also hear higher frequency sounds outside the headphones, but when I removed the headphones, I couldn't hear the rattle, so that was part of the recording too.

I became more and more relaxed, and I'm not sure if that was due to my assocociating continious noise with sleep (I have a dehumidifier on at night to drown out ambient noise, as I'm such a light sleeper). I became so relaxed that I had to get my exercise mat and lie down.

Then I found a blanket and after what I thought was half an hour, I sat up and looked at the screen. I was listening via Windows Media Player, and it said two minutes had passed. I'd played the whole hour long CD and it had started again! So I must've fallen asleep. I don't know whether that's a good thing or not in regards to improving brain function, but if it improves my sleep, I'll be happy. But then, improved sleep would definitely improve brain function anyway.

It's still too early to tell whether it worked, but the good news is: I didn't hate it!

43. Brain Entraining

2006-10-07T13:48:00.000-07:00

Stephen Pierce speaking at the World Internet Summit UK 2005 where he won Best Speaker Award.

The other day I received an email from Internet Marketer Tom Hua promoting Stephen Pierce's new product about brain entraining, from www.OptiMINDzation.com . It claimed to rid me of all my symptoms of ADHD by listening to audio CDs that have specially created sounds that scientifically stimulate the brain to work more efficiently.

There was a lot more to it than that, but hey - I have ADHD (!) - that was all I could understand!

There's a different CD every month and each costs $30 + $12 posatge to the UK, so it costs about £22 a month. The sales letter was compelling and seemed to be backed up by lots of scientific references, and it mentioned cerebellar function which I know a bit about. I decided to buy as I trust Stephen (I've photographed him speaking at two seminars) and because of the depth of evidence in the sales letter.

As always with the most reputable internet marketers I can cancel anytime, and get a full refund, so if they do turn out to be complete ballony, I've only lost the postage cost.

Considering I was saving up £2000 for a year's treatment on the Dore Programme, I had to consider this alternative first. And Stephen, if it works on me - it'll work on anyone! I promise I'll be your best testimonial, because I've had no end of learning problems, poor memory and bad communication all my life.

Let's keep our fingers crossed. My first CD should arrive from the US soon.

42. Stephen Fry's Bi Polar TV Documentary

2006-09-28T04:47:00.000-07:00

I watched with intrigue Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive his documentary on Bi Polarity recently on BBC2. I was diagnosed with possible cyclothymia, which is a rapid cycling form of Bi Polar, as I can have every emotion known to man in one day.

I can now add Richard Dreyfuss as a famous person with 'ADD' in his own words on Fry's programme. Dreyfuss has Bi Polar too, and I have long suspected the two can either be connected, or confused with each other. It is reported in many places that Winston Churchill had symptoms of ADHD, and it states here that he was reported to have manic depression. I continue to search for evidence of this, but an awful lot of the people I meet with Bi Polar also have many ADHD symptoms, in my humble opinion.

41. Can Green Tea Improve Your Memory?

2006-09-28T04:09:00.000-07:00

I've been getting lots of emails from Tesco Diets lately (I always have Tesco deliver my groceries after ordering online - it saves so much time).

But today they sent me one that was quite interesting. I'm all for improving my health in as natural a way as possible, so whenever I learn of the benefits of a certain food, I try to include it in my diet (my downfall is cornflakes and muesli which are actually full of sugar).

Tesco say:
"Researchers at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne have released a new study detailing how green and black tea can actually improve your memory. Dr. Ed Okello and his team have located compounds in the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant, which produces green, black and oolong teas, which block the activity of brain chemicals that are associated with memory decline."

Anyway, there are long words involved so I'll let you go and check out the Tesco link for yourself Here.

40. Which came first; Depression or ADHD?

2006-08-05T09:31:00.000-07:00

I found this report about depression that says:

The hippopotamus (!) (hippocampus) in our brains is smaller in people with depression (the part that deals with learning and memory) which would imply depression may come before ADHD, and I thought depression only came about in ADHD people because of the low self esteem and communication problems they have.

I suppose it could be both. Love the bias towards antidepressants in this piece, but how can something that makes you fat, also make you less depressed? - that's my logic anyway.

The disadvantage of a sufferer learning that their brain is different to everyone elses, in my opinion, is that they may be inclined to believe there is nothing they can do to help themselves. I have met so many people with depression who blame their illness for everything, instead of trying to improve their lives. I truly believe I have combatted depression myself without taking any drugs at all, and I plan to write a book about it.

39. What is ADHD?

2006-07-15T01:34:00.000-07:00

This is probably the best account I've found of my own ADHD, whilst I've been 'surfing the net':

Imagine living in a fast-moving kaleidoscope, where sounds, images, and thoughts are constantly shifting. Feeling easily bored, yet helpless to keep your mind on tasks you need to complete.

Distracted by unimportant sights and sounds, your mind drives you from one thought or activity to the next. Perhaps you are so wrapped up in a collage of thoughts and images that you don't notice when someone speaks to you.

For many people, this is what it's like to have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD. They may be unable to sit still, plan ahead, finish tasks, or be fully aware of what's going on around them.

To their family, classmates or coworkers, they seem to exist in a whirlwind of disorganized or frenzied activity. Unexpectedly - on some days and in some situations - they seem fine, often leading others to think the person with ADHD can actually control these behaviors.

As a result, the disorder can affect the person's relationships with others in addition to disrupting their daily life, consuming energy, and diminishing self-esteem.

See the whole article here at:

http://www.nativeremedies.com/focus_for_adhd.shtml

technorati tags:ADHD, ADD, Attention, Deficit, Hyperactivity, Disorder, self, esteem, behaviors, distracted, frenzied, activity, disrupting

Blogged with Flock

38. More To Prove?

2006-07-08T06:56:00.000-07:00

It is well documented that many people who have learning difficulties go on to be very successful. But is their success despite their difficulties? Or is it because of their ADHD?

Could it be that they feel they need to prove themselves more than most people? There’s no bigger incentive in my opinion, to prove people wrong after being told you’re useless at something. I pulled out all the stops to prove someone wrong because they had embarrassed me in front of my classmates.

My history teacher Mrs Harris, told me in front of thirty other kids, that I’d never pass History ‘O’ Level at sixteen, and that I’d be a loser all my life! So I studied hard, and I could just about remember all the information, as long as my memory was jogged by being given the titles of each section. So I had to cheat in my history exam, by having the names of battles of treaties on price stickers on the inside of my hand. I still only scraped through with a C though, because I couldn’t write fast enough. I’m still working on the second part of what she said!

Richard Branson is famously dyslexic, and yet was an entrepeneur at school, selling Christmas trees. Well it beats Geography! As stated in the ‘Tonight’ Programme about The Dore Programme 2002, a UK government report says 70% of all criminals were found to have learning difficulties, so it is possible that sufferers can go one way or the other; great success or complete failure. Well I’ve tried the failure part, and I’m a bit bored with that now. And anyway, I still need to prove Mrs Harris wrong!

37. Some High Achievers With ADHD or LDs

2006-06-23T23:48:00.000-07:00

To Name But a Few:

Ansel Adams - Ann Bancroft (the explorer) - Alexander Graham Bell - Harry Andersen - Hans Christian Anderson - Beethoven - Harry Belafonte - Col. Gregory ‘Pappy’ Boyington - Terry Bradshaw - Richard Branson - George Burns - Andrew Carnegie - Dale Carnegie - Jim Carrey - Lewis Carroll - Prince Charles -
Cher - Agatha Christie - Winston Churchill - Bill Cosby - Tom Cruise - Salvador Dali - Leonardo da Vinci - John Denver - Walt Disney - Kirk Douglas - Thomas Edison - Albert Einstein - Dwight D. Eisenhower - F. Scott Fitzgerald - Malcolm Forbes - Henry Ford - Benjamin Franklin - Robert Frost - Galileo - Danny Glover - Tracey Gold - Whoopi Goldberg - Georg Frideric Handel - Valerie Hardin - Mariette Hartley - Ernest Hemingway - Mariel Hemingway - Milton Hershey - Dustin Hoffman - Bruce Jenner - "Magic" Johnson - Samuel Johnson - Micheal Jordan - John F Kennedy - Robert F Kennedy - Jason Kidd - John Lennon - Carl Lewis - Meriwether Lewis (Lewis & Clark) - Abraham Lincoln - Frank Lloyd Wright - Greg Louganis - Steve McQueen - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Napoleon Bonaparte - Gamal Abdel-nasser - Sir Issac Newton - Nostradamus - Ozzy Osbourne - Louis Pasteur - General George Patton - Pablo Picasso - Edgar Allan Poe - Rachmaninov - John D. Rockefeller - Nelson Rockefeller - Anna Eleanor Roosevelt - Pete Rose - Babe Ruth - Nolan Ryan - Muhammed Anwar al Sadat - George C Scott - George Bernard Shaw - Will Smith - Tom Smothers - Socrates - Suzanne Somers - Steven Spielberg - Sylvester Stallone - Jackie Stewart - James Stewart - Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Nikola Tesla - Henry David Thoreau - Alberto Tomba -Vincent van Gogh - Russell Varian - Jules Verne - Werner von Braun - Lyndsay Wagner - Robin Williams - Woodrow Wilson - Henry Winkler -Virginia Woolf - Stevie Wonder - F. W. Woolworth - Orville Wright - Wilber Wright - William Wrigley Jr. - William Butler Yeats

sources:
http://www.schwablearning.org/articles.asp?r=258

http://borntoexplore.org/famous.htm

http://www.oneaddplace.com/famous.htm

http://www.kpinst.org/famous.html

http://adhdtexas.com/famouspeople.htm

36. Dustin Hoffman

2006-06-23T23:34:00.000-07:00

I keep trying to search for evidence of successful people with ADHD, and there are no shortage of websites, but being the pragmatic so-and-so that I am, I want proof!

Just a list of names is not enough for me, although if I had time I’d read the biographies of all the names listed to find my own evidence. When I was at uni we’d be in trouble if we didn’t reference the source of every fact we included in our essays – and quite right too, so that the reader could see for themselves that we haven’t just made stuff up. But the internet isn’t quite so strict, of course.

It is documented on several websites that Dustin Hoffman had learning difficulties. I love Dustin Hoffman and wanted to find evidence of this, so I asked on a popular message board if any of his fans knew if it were true, and what their source was. I had a range of replies, from people implying that ADHD people were retarded, to posts saying that the ‘facts’ must be true because people who put up webpages MUST do their research! HA!

It was soon clear that I was barking up the wrong tree. I shall obviously have to wait until my screenplay’s up for an academy award, so I can ask him myself.

In the meantime I’ll have to believe them at:
http://www.schwablearning.org/articles.asp?r=258

35. Creative Writing

2006-06-23T05:12:00.000-07:00

Another area where I’m improving is typing – although that’s speed, NOT accuracy! My typing has certainly got faster, but that’s just because I type so often. I’ve actually started my screenplay that I keep threatening to unleash on the world, but I only do one hour a day on it maximum. It’s all I can fit in. I have to stick to an hour even if most of that is thinking time – though I write ideas down all the time.

I was stuck without a pen the other day, so I rang myself up and left the idea as a message! – I often do that with songs I write, as I don’t carry a tape recorder around with me.

I have a friend who’s 80 later this year. When I told her I intend to beat Johnny Depp to an oscar she said “I wish you’d get on with it”. So I am.

Why not put an hour or two a week aside to do what it is you truly want to do? If you did the two hours together it’d just be like doing a nightschool class. You’d probably look forward to it all week.

34. Improved Concentration

2006-06-20T13:30:00.000-07:00

I think my concentration levels are actually improving (I’m drifting off much less – I think that’s because it’s finally sunk in just how much work I have to do). I only noticed this when I had to decipher the information on my phone bill. Are they ever straight forward? I went through it one line at a time, and it made sense! I felt so proud.

I’m not sure whether this is because of all the exercise I’m getting – at least 90 minutes’ walk a day – or because of all the reading I’ve done lately – (I’m reading over six hours a day, learning Internet Marketing and reading ebooks and hard books).

Or could it be because my attitude towards reading has changed?

Previously, I’d have looked at the phone bill, and thought “I can’t understand it” and phoned the phone company up for them to explain it. Ironic eh? Not really – the number has always been free. But not now: I’ve changed from BT to NTL and the customer service number is not free. Aha! The real reason for my new found concentration!

I’ve completely given up TV. I’d throw it out, but I need it for my exercise videos. I don’t think my friends believe me, but Jim Edwards is right to call it the ‘idiot box’ – and it’s such a massive thief of time.

Do yourself a favour – sell your telly! - Stick it on Ebay and teach the kids origami or something. Then write an ebook about it!

You know it makes sense.

33. Staying Focused

2006-05-29T10:56:00.000-07:00

I’m very excited about finally making a start at Internet Marketing. It’s been hard work over the last month to concentrate and not drift off "up in the clouds in a dreamworld" - ('Living On My Own' - Freddie Mercury). The more difficult something is, the more I drift off, and I end up reading the same paragraph 16 times!

I’ve read more ebooks, articles, forums and goodness knows what else lately, I’ve been having to take a nap every afternoon because despite having 20/20 vision, all that reading gives me a headache. It’s either my ADHD brain hurting, or it’s psychological!

Actually, I have a theory about glasses. There was a feature on 'Richard and Judy' last year that talked about how people who wear glasses exercise the muscles in their eyes less than those who don’t, so their eyesight inevitibly gets worse.

I was prescribed reading glasses when I was eight years old, and had to wear these little pink framed NHS glasses whenever I read. But I never did – because whenever I wore them I would suffer immense dizziness after only a few minutes. Later I realised I could wear them if I kept my head, and the book, very still. By that I mean I was not allowed to move my head at all – not even an inch (that is nigh on impossible by the way!), or I would get severe dizziness exactly like travel sickness.

So the result was that I had to read without glasses, and thus force my eyes to focus. Did my eyes deteriorate? No – they improved! Actually, I’m not convinced the prescription was even correct. The optician could have presumed I needed glasses when I simply couldn’t be bothered to focus on the eye test!

Well I have to be bothered focusing now - 'I don't have no time for no monkey business...'

32. Get Anything You Want!

2006-05-05T14:33:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about what I can do to improve my life with the resources I already have, rather than dwell on the things I don't have. This is hugely due to 'The 5 Steps To Getting Anything You Want' by Internet Marketing legend Jim Edwards.

I was both an attendee and the official photographer for Jim's Ebook Workshop two weeks ago, and it was quality stuff. I received the '5 Steps' in the post the other day and I immediately put the audios onto iTunes and listened to them on my ipod whilst on a 4 mile walk.

He says if your life is not how you want it, you are already very good at the system needed for success, because we always focus on what we don't want - so we get more of it!

I've completed the workbook, but it's evident that you need to review it daily, or you lose track of what you want. You're not allowed to say things like 'I want more money' because that creates negative images of not having any money. We should visualise what 'more money' will bring us, like a nice house, holiday or car.

And you can't say 'I'm sick of being fat' because you'll only be able to visualise yourself as a fat person. You think to yourself "I'm slim, confident and full of energy!" - using the present tense is important too as it makes the image more real.

Jim gives examples of how it works for him, but to be honest, I know that when I've managed to think like that myself, I've been successful. I now realise everyone should have a system for probably everything they undertake, but most of us just wander aimlessly through life, expecting everything to just fall into place, and getting annoyed when things don't go our way.

Despite having been at college for a total of 10 years (aaagh!) I've a feeling the most important education of my life is the self taught stuff I'm doing now through books and courses by people who have actually done what they preach, themselves.

31. Other Drug Free Programmes

2006-04-19T12:55:00.000-07:00

I’ve been neglecting my blog, but as I’ve yet to learn how to drive traffic to it, I’m just sat here talking to myself anyway for now! I have been researching, but as I said earlier I do not want to promote sites that sell or advise people to take medication for their difficulties, and there are a lot more that do, than don’t!

I’ve yet to find out if this is a competitor of the Dore Programme, but at Gifted Dyslexic at http://www.lesblind.is/aboutgifted/aboutgifted.cfm they appear to split each condition into segments, and charge £1,800 for a course of treatment for Dyslexia, then another £1,800 for the treatment of Dyscalculia, (the proper name for being rubbish at Maths!)

That’s convenient for them. I’m still on the lookout for a cheaper alternative, but only for now, as I cannot afford the Dore Programme yet.

Another Programme that was featured on GMTV recently is the www.tinsleyhouseclinic.co.uk Dr Robin Pauc’s programme is a lot cheaper, but is it as effective? His site doesn’t boast the testimonials that the Dore Programme does, but they say they can treat adults too. I’ve been advised to buy the book ‘Is That My Child?’ which I’ve ordered from Amazon.

30. Reading Age – Comprehension Age

2006-04-11T11:39:00.000-07:00

At the Dore Presentation, Wynford Dore explained how children could score reasonably well with on their reading age but not so well on their comprehension age.

I asked Mr Dore if he could explain further as I couldn’t write my notes fast enough. He explained more about how the working memory affects the difference between the reading age and the comprehension age:

“It’s often noticed that children with a learning difficulty can score reasonably well with a reading age but far worse with their comprehension age. What we believe is happening is that many of the functions used during the process of reading have not been automatised.

Virtually everyone that goes through the Dore Programme is found to have serious problems with eye tracking, in other words they are unable to smoothly move their eyes across a line of words so that those words go into the brain in a smooth manner.

The fact that the eyes are jumping rather than moving smoothly suggests that that process has not been automatised and is, therefore, probably being controlled in working memory. The fuller working memory is with those things that have not been automatised and, therefore, should not really be there the less space is left for processing.

Thus for someone with a learning difficulty trying to read they may well be using up all their available working memory space just working out what that particular word means. They then move on to the next word and the process starts again.

The problem seems to be that after they have worked out what each individual word means they do not have the working memory capacity to retain that word and the subsequent ones in the sentence.

Thus the lack of working memory capacity will reduce the comprehension ability even though that person has been able to work out what each individual word means. It is, therefore, quite common and explainable that someone can have a good reading age but poor comprehension age.

And, of course, this makes all the difference between wanting to read for pleasure and not.” – Wynford Dore

www.dore.co.uk

29. Working Memory

2006-04-10T10:33:00.000-07:00

I know my working memory is rubbish, because of the examples I gave in my Spelling post, and I cannot play the game ‘Answer the previous question’. If I was asked a series of questions and was required to not answer the first question until after the second question had been asked (and so on), I would fail after only one question – two if I’m lucky.

I also made a hopeless barmaid at college, because if someone wanted more than three drinks, I’d have to ask them again what the first one was.

Most people who don’t have learning disabilities can remember a substantial number of things at once, because they have automatised other tasks. However, people with learning disabilities haven’t automatised other tasks, such as reading, or hearing a sequence of numbers, so they are busy using up their working memory in order to simply process the information they are being given.

This means that there is very little available working memory left. I think of it as like using an overdraft! (something I can relate to!) I was wrong to say I have a ‘small working memory’ yesterday. I actually have the same working memory as most people, but it is being used to process information that should be automatised, so has a smaller available balance!

I once shared reading a book with a classmate, and she was finishing each page long before I was. So I asked her to read aloud at the same speed she was reading in her head, as I thought she was skipping some of the lines. Her response was that she was reading all the words, but at a much faster rate than she could speak (because it was automatised). I thought she was lying! Even now when I read, I imagine saying each word aloud.

See further information on working memory at:

http://www.learnplus.com/guides/learning-sys-memo.html
http://www.brainconnection.com/topics/?main=fa/working-memory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_memory

28. Confidence and Mood Swings

2006-04-09T11:38:00.000-07:00

I have bought loads of books on building confidence, and for the first few days I’ve felt great - then I’ve tried in vain to put them into practice, because I’ve forgotten most of the content. But I think even if I’d remembered, I’d still only be ‘papering over the cracks’ because the root of the problem must be in the fact that I know I have limitations. I now know those limitations are in the cerebellum.

I even bought a book on Nasty People and how to deal with them, as I could never stand up to them effectively, and now I know all the psychology behind why they behave that way (as I did when I was a child), and yet I can’t put it into practice because my working memory is so small, I still can’t speak effectively -the number of times I lose my thread during a conversation.

I’d love to know for sure that when I opened my mouth, something intelligent would come out, and people wouldn’t frown and wonder what I was on about! That I could speak without semi-stuttering, and stay focussed without going off on a tangent, then I’d have so much more confidence. And I believe this would have a snowball effect, because there are so many situations that I avoid at the moment.

And for years I was an unruly child, then an anarchic teenager, then had major mood swings as an adult. I joined a Bi Polar group because I thought I was manic depressive. A psychiatrist even said I might be, but she didn’t force me to take medication, because I wasn’t considered a danger to myself or anyone else.

This is why I related to Toyah so much, because she seemed to have the same problems as me when she was very young. The thing I am most looking forward to when I finally get on the Dore programme is to eliminate the mood swings, as Toyah did. I will have such a fulfilling life, because I’ll be much nicer to know!
www.dore.co.uk

27. Ozzy Osbourne - Paranoid

2006-04-07T14:29:00.000-07:00

Ozzy Osbourne said he had ADHD. Let’s just recap the words to ‘Paranoid’ by Black Sabbath:

"Finished with my woman
'Cause she couldn't help me with my mind
People think I'm insane
Because I am frowning all the time

All day long I think of things
But nothing seems to satisfy
Think I'll lose my mind
If I don't find something to pacify

Can you help me, occupy my brain?
Oh yeah!

I need someone to show me
The things in life that I can't find
I can't see the things that make true Happiness,
I must be blind

Make a joke and I will sigh
And you will laugh and I will cry
Happiness I cannot feel
And love to me is so unreal

And so as you hear these words
Telling you now of my state
I tell you to enjoy life
I wish I could but it's too late"

It’s difficult to know if Ozzy was fully responsible for all the words, as the whole band are credited with all the song writing. But still, I bet Toyah could persuade Ozzy to attend the Dore Centre.
www.dore.co.uk

26. Stories of Inspiration

2006-04-06T13:30:00.000-07:00

Whilst waiting for your free DVD from the Dore Centre, have a look at these pdf files:

http://www.dorecenters.com/files/SundayMail_Aug05.pdf

http://www.dorecenters.com/files/Toyah.pdf

When reading the one about Toyah, I was reminded again of one of the cerebellum exercises that they give you to do on the Dore Programme; walking downstairs whilst blindfolded!

OK, I’m sure it must adhere to all health and safety regulations, and there must be more to it than that, but my initial reaction was, “Well, a cracked skull would probably sort out most cerebellum problems…!”

I can only just manage going forwards with my eyes open!

But hey, Toyah survived didn’t she?
www.dore.co.uk

25. Astronauts' Balance Disorders

2006-04-05T13:38:00.000-07:00

I talked earlier about the balance machines at the Dore Centres, which were developed by NASA to monitor astronauts’ balance progress after returning to earth. Wynford Dore has kindly sent me additional information after speaking at the Dore Presentation in Cardiff on March 21st, about the astronauts’ temporary difficulties.

“I’ve been trying hard to find the old astronauts balance problems link - I haven’t seen them for two or three years and they seem to have been taken off the various websites. One of the references I can remember clearly was a French - Russian mission where they described in detail the co-ordination problems experienced by cosmonauts when they returned to earth. Some of them were writing backwards, some of them had orientation problems, a number of them had travel sickness problems for a while. When we first started doing our research one of our specialists went to America to discuss with the expert that had been working with NASA on the development of the equipment we subsequently obtained. NASA have constantly denied that astronauts have “dyslexic problems”. We know some of the symptoms they suffer temporarily are exactly the same as those that are suffered every day by some people.” – Wynford Dore

Astronaut David Wolf also said in National Geographic that upon his return to earth, balance problems caused him to run into doors.

There is more information on astronauts’ balance disorders at:
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=11919

And general information on balance disorders at:
http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/balance/balance_disorders.asp

www.dore.co.uk

24. Clumsiness

2006-04-03T13:41:00.000-07:00

I have always been clumsy and quite heavy handed, when opening and closing cupboard doors for example, and when I write I press quite hard.

The more tired I am, the worse I am, but I’m not too bad when I go out. I think I subconsciously know to be more careful!

I did some research on Clumsiness and was interested to find that several sources claim that hand/ eye co-ordination exercises help clumsiness. Tennis and Ping Pong are supposed to help quite a lot, and positive and calm imagery, as stated at:
http://www.mothernature.com/Library/Bookshelf/Books/16/42.cfm

It also states that rolling a stick on top of two other sticks, in the shape of an ‘H’ will improve Clumsiness. I wonder if this is because it stimulates the cerebellum? That sounds easy to do, and I always have old wrapping paper tubes lying around (I’m a hoarder!)

(Later) Woohoo! A co-ordination exercise I can do first time! I may have been cheating by using very long tubes with a considerable overlap to stop the top tube from falling off, but I found it easy and quite therapeutic. I made the rule that you can only hold the two parallel tubes and not let the horizontal one fall off the end or touch your hands. I think it’s rather similar to doing a hill start in a car, in relation to the pressure and speed that you allow the top tube to travel.

If I didn’t have more pressing things to do, I could do this all evening! Parents! Save money on expensive toys! Give your kid three tubes and tell them to make an ‘H’!
www.dore.co.uk

23. Dogs With ADHD Part2

2006-04-02T11:42:00.000-07:00

OK, I may have been joking yesterday when I said The Dore Centre plans to include dogs in their Training Centres (my contribution to April Fool’s Day – I’ll cross off ‘comedienne’ shall I, from my Miscellaneous List of Possible Careers?) but it’s not beyond the realms of possibility for dogs to have ADHD, is it? I mean, in theory, anything that possesses a brain could have it.

I did a bit of online research, and found that some sites that mention dogs with ADHD, dwell on the ‘Hyperactivity’ part of ADHD a bit too much (well I guess it’s difficult to test most dogs’ spelling) and I’m having trouble finding any sites at all on ADHD that don’t suggest medication, which I do NOT want to promote.

Talking of spelling, I was tempted yesterday to write that the Dore Centre has facilities for testing dogs’ memory, balance, co-ordination and spelling! But I thought that would make it a bit too obvious. Although I have no doubt that someone could teach a clever dog to spell certain words, with enough buttons, bells and whistles, if that person had a lot of time on their hands!

Maybe it’s not a ludicrous idea to test and try to treat dogs for ADHD. If a good drug free programme is devised, I doubt there’ll be a shortage of customers.

22. Dogs With ADHD

2006-04-01T01:02:00.000-08:00

Of course humans are not the only creatures who can have ADHD and other learning disabilities. Since 2001 dogs too have been tested for the condition. Some findings can be found here at:
http://www.ahherald.com/senior/2005/ss050428_adhd_dogs.htm

I had a chat with Wynford Dore at the Dore Presentation in Cardiff about his involvement with ADHD dogs at Crufts UK earlier this year. Go to:
www.bbc.co.uk/crufts

The Dore Centre at Kenilworth, Warwickshire already has facilities to test dogs on their memory, balance and co-ordination and a Canine Dore Programme is due to be available from September. Mr Dore hopes that by 2009 there will be as many Canine Dore Training Centres worldwide as there are for people.
www.dore.co.uk

21. Spelling and Memory

2006-03-31T06:24:00.000-08:00

I’ve already been to the Dore Centre in Cardiff for an initial assessment, and two members of staff say I’m suitable for the programme, but I’m concerned they may say I’m not suitable when they assess me further because I’m good at spelling and I’m sure I could easily remember loads of animals in a minute. Actually let’s try that:

The girl on The Tonight Programme could think of 22 animals within a minute on her first attempt, and six months later she got 28 animals within a minute.

Wow! It was a lot harder than I thought. I got 25, but I think I said ‘Tiger’ twice. So I’m not that good at all!

I’m deliberately not going to practice that, or when I do get to go on the programme, my results won’t be accurate. Or maybe they can give me a list of something else to think of that makes me think on my feet.

Maybe I’m deluded about spelling as well. I remember I often got high scores at school, but there was no pressure. I’m only good at spelling if I write the word down. Most of the time if a word looks wrong to me, it is wrong. But then if a word looks wrong, wouldn’t that be using the creative part of the brain? And not the cerebellum? I can always cope with diagrams much better than text.

And I always have a real problem when I’ve mistyped something. I go back and because the word is unrecognisable, I don’t know which letters to change, and for some reason I have to close one eye to see it properly (though my sight’s fine).

I always type ‘form’ instead of ‘from’, which is ironic, because I hate forms! Every ‘from’ you see will have been amended from ‘form’!

I’ve watched these spelling contests, and the kids on there are so fast! I’d have to think for a second or two in between each letter. And they say the word at the beginning and at the end really fast – I definitely can’t do that. Whatever happens I’m hopeful that the Dore Programme can sort me out!
www.dore.co.uk

20. My Biggest Ever Goof

2006-03-30T04:48:00.000-08:00

The undercharging camera story (from yesterday’s post) gets worse: When I was a student, I was working in a camera store and it was the last Saturday before Christmas, so the shop was packed with impatient shoppers. To look at their faces petrified me because I hate keeping people waiting, and I couldn’t cope with the stress.

A lady said she wanted a camera for her husband for Christmas for about £100. So I showed her three and she opted for one for £119.00, the Canon Sureshot Telemax, that had its own little box, carrying case, strap, two batteries, two films and two little photo albums all included in a large kit box.

Our computers always added the .00 on the end of the price because all the products were rounded up to a pound. So I keyed the price into the credit card machine the same as I’d keyed into the computer; 119, but it only registered £1.19.

I went off for two weeks for the holidays, completely oblivious. When I came back I was told that the shop had contacted the bank, the bank had rung the customer and left a message on the answerphone. The husband then heard it, so he now knew what he was getting for Christmas.

An angry wife came back to pay the difference. Then Christmas day arrived. The husband, (probably) opens his wife’s present first, because he knows what it is, and wants to photograph the kids opening their presents. He knows he has everything in the kit box to start taking photos immediately.

So he removes the wrapping, opens the kit box, takes out the two little photo albums, the two films, the two batteries, the strap, the carrying case and …an empty box. On Christmas eve, the staff had done a stock-take and found a lonely little Canon Sureshot Telemax sitting on a shelf with no home. The shop gave her the camera and a £10 gift voucher, but she’d been under no obligation to pay the full amount even if the camera had been in its box.

So let’s recap: I charge £1.19 for all those goodies? Even without the camera, it’s still a bargain if you ask me. Who says I’m not talented? When I goof things up, I do a proper job.

19. You Know You Have ADHD When…

2006-03-29T02:58:00.000-08:00

You forget you take sugar in your own tea
You leave your shopping on the bus
You dump your fella and post your own (last) key through his letterbox, instead of his
You mix Jerry Adams up with Jerry Hall in your university interview – but still get in
You charge for postage after weighing your item on Ebay, before you’ve wrapped it up
You turn up a day early for a job interview
You have to pay the taxi fare in postage stamps
You don’t have any right angles on the bathroom cabinet you made in Woodwork
You turn your house upside down looking for the sunglasses that are on your head
You charge a customer £1.19 for a £119.00 camera
You look up a word in a dictionary, get distracted by other words, and forget the word
You become a photographer because most books on the subject are full of pictures
You omit two pints of vegetable stock from your home made vegetable soup
You have to sit on deck on the cross channel ferry, in the rain, watching the horizon
You have to buy a replica of your expensive camera because you lost the charger
You get 240 mph when working out the speed for the 4 minute mile
You’re caught tucking toilet rolls in the door of the fridge – I was being harrassed, OK?
You can’t find your time management book; ‘Getting Things Done’
You write down the patient’s name from a Hand X-ray; ‘RT Scaphoid’
You crash into an empty, parked police car and tell them it was a stupid place to park

18. Why Create This Blog?

2006-03-28T03:35:00.000-08:00

I need to be self employed because of health reasons. I have a bad back, and lots of other pain, which I’m certain is TMS (Tension Myositis Syndrome, an idea pioneered by John E Sarno MD, which I won’t try to explain here. See reviews for his book, 'The Mindbody Prescription' on Amazon, but ignore the one by the person who clearly hasn’t read the book).

Although I’m a photographer I want to work from home more so that I can control my working conditions more easily. I started off wanting to learn web design, after studying modules in Film and Graphic Design on my Photography course, and Web Design on a Post Graduate course.

I found that I knew what looked good, and what didn’t, but I was struggling with the technical aspects. So from web design, I got into internet marketing, though I still have a lot to learn, and I’m struggling with that too. One of the first and easiest steps is to publish a blog, on any subject you want. As I write this I have no comments from readers on any of my posts, but slowly I’m learning how to drive traffic to the site. And when I know what I’m doing I’ll have my own sites with their own domains on other subjects.

At the moment I’m really frustrated that it’s taking me so long to learn it all, but if I hadn’t spent so much time online in the past few months, I wouldn’t have discovered I had ADHD, and whatever other learning difficulties I have; I wouldn’t have found out about Sarno’s work, etc. So I think I’m lucky and very pleased to be on the right road at last.

At first, I thought ‘What will I write every day?’ (you have to post every day to be listed in the search engines, at least until you get lots of people linking to the site) And now you can’t shut me up! I’ve spent all morning writing the next five posts – (or is that the last five?!)

Oh, and for people in the UK, no I don’t stay up all night posting. The times displayed on the blog are EST in the US, so they’re 8 hours behind us.

Once I become interested in something, I become really interested in it! So the Dore Programme is what I want to promote, until I can go on it myself, then I can document my real progress, instead of just being a wannabe! I think it’s because it’s such a new and relatively unknown drug-free treatment, that has had astounding results and could literally change the lives of millions of people – that I feel I have to promote it!

www.dore.co.uk

17. My Song About Frustration

2006-03-27T04:25:00.000-08:00

Having learning difficulties means that even the most mundane days can be stressful. I wrote a song about my personal frustrations in 1988 when I was going through a really bad depression. Of course I thought I was the only person in the world who felt like that.

I saw happy people around me and wondered how they could cope with a normal life, with so many demands made upon them. Family members, friends, colleagues, employers all telling you what to do. I got angry when I saw job vacancies that said, “Must be able to work under pressure”.

‘Why?’ I’d think, ‘Why should anyone have to put up with that kind of stress?’ Pressure doesn’t necessarily mean stress for everyone, but I couldn’t understand this. A normal day was immense pressure for me, as I got so many interactions wrong.

I’ve written lots of songs, since I was twelve, some of which I still like, but the tune to this one is particularly hideous, so you’re not missing much by just seeing the words:

Scream

Everybody
Seems so organized
How can they be
So easily satisfied?

They always say
The right things at the right time
Straight away
They always notice the signs

Where do they go
When they have their off-days?
And how do they know
How to behave?

Where do they find
Happiness? Don’t they have dreams?
And how can they smile
When they want to scream?

16. The Dore Centre on TV

2006-03-26T01:33:00.000-08:00

The Dore Centre (then known as the DDAT Centre) was featured on The Tonight Programme with Trevor McDonald in the UK in 2002.

If you’ve not yet got your free DVD, get it from www.dore.co.uk and on there is a copy of The Tonight Programme.

The research was referred to as a ‘revolutionary breakthrough’ for dyslexia. And that’s all the researchers were trying to do at first. But as I said earlier they found that development of the cerebellar function helped with a lot more problems too. Almost everything we do involves balance or co-ordination.

The programme features Wynford Dore and his daughter Susie, who was a guinea-pig for the treatment. Initially participants are assessed to see what they can and can’t do. They are asked to spell and remember lists, among other things.

They are strapped onto a balance machine, that was developed by NASA, to test their balance disorder. (I know I’ll fall when I get on there!)

We are shown some of the balance and co-ordination exercises that need to be repeated for ten minutes, twice a day. They include throwing and catching beanbags and walking in a circle around a chair, and we are told about how eye tracking is important, as people with dyslexia don’t read easily from left to right; their eyes wander all over the place.

The cameras followed three sufferers of dyslexia over a six month period, and watched them benefit from the programme. I was interested to learn that the (then) ‘Last Government Report’ found that 1 in 5 school children, and 70% of all offenders have a learning difficulty. Wow - That’s an awful lot!

Professor David Reynolds (then of Exeter University) is former Head of the Government’s Numeracy Taskforce.

He studied the effects of 50 dyslexic children and over six months their reading performances improved three times as much as 50 average children. Their writing and spelling also improved.

The programme concluded with the founder, Wynford Dore expressing his next ambition;
“We should not consider denying this type of help from every child and every adult that would benefit from it.”

And two of the children whose spelling, reading and writing improved imensely, express their astonishment at finding the repetition of what seemed to be ‘fun’ exercises, was responsible for their improvement in academic areas.

For years, children have been pumped full of drugs that at the least have stripped them of any personality. This still goes on today, and it is due to total ignorance.

I often wonder what my life would have been like if my family knew I had ADHD and dyspraxia. I guess I have to remain thankful that things happened as they did, as I too could have been one of those poor zombified creatures.

At the presentation last week in Cardiff I met several people who had come to know about the Dore Centre after watching The Tonight Programme. I may be mistaken, but there is a good chance I saw it too. More and more things are falling into place. If I did see it at the time, I would have simply thought that it was a great idea for people with dyslexia – not me!

15. All the Posts on this Blog

2006-03-25T05:12:00.000-08:00

BTW, to view all the posts from one month, on one page, click on the Month in 'Archives', then read from the bottom up!

For some reason, they're not all listed on the right hand side.

14. Daydreaming

2006-03-25T01:08:00.000-08:00

I have always been a daydreamer. When I was five years old my school sent a letter to my Mum to say they would no longer have me at school dinners, because I’d still be sat chewing my food, at the end of the second sitting, when I’d gone in with the children on the first sitting. So I had to go home for lunch.

I got quicker at eating my food, but never stopped daydreaming. I used to hate myself because of it, but one of my ambitions is to write a successful screenplay, and I’ve discovered that all writers need to daydream, or how else would they think of things to write? I’m in the process of trying to allocate periods to be creative, but as yet have been unsuccessful in stopping myself from ‘drifting off’ at inappropriate times, such as when getting ready to go out – hence why I am always late.

Whilst online researching, I’ve found that learning a second language later on in life is widely believed to keep Alzheimer's at bay. Part of this research says that when you are daydreaming, your brain is in its most relaxed state, and doesn’t have enough stimulation, ie; the failure to tax the brain can be the culprit of deterioration; the old ‘If you don’t use it, you lose it’ theory.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=362218&in_page_id=1774 Keep learning to keep your brain young.

So I need to listen up! OK, so I reckon I’m still allowed to daydream as long as it’s not time wasted. For example, whenever I have an idea for a film plot or dialogue, I write it down in my infamous ‘Screenplay’ book. One day, I hope I’ll put them all together and actually write a complete screenplay. But for now they are separate little bite sized chunks of waffle filling three A5 lined notebooks.

Since adulthood I always believed my daydreaming was as a result of the mental abuse I had every day from my mother. I thought it was my way of escaping the psychological trauma of my constant battles with her, and my futile efforts to get her to love me. But could it have been due to ADHD? If concentration is so difficult, then it would make sense that I felt I needed to ‘switch off’.

Or was it because I was always creative? After all, Robert Frost and Frank Lloyd Wright both got into trouble at school for daydreaming. See http://borntoexplore.org/cramond.htm

Stop Daydreaming! - pick up your free DVD at:
www.dore.co.uk

13. Childhood Problems Part2

2006-03-24T11:39:00.000-08:00

When I was a child, whenever someone asked me a question, I would often say ‘Pardon?’ and they would repeat the question. This was an automatic strategy I’d come up with to not only think of an answer, but to give myself time to process what I’d been asked.

My mother knew I wasn’t deaf, but she didn’t realise why I did it. She either assumed it was just a bad habit I’d formed to annoy her, or she realised I was stalling her, but was too impatient to put up with it. She would often shout ‘Repeat what I just said!’ which I always could, parrot-fashion, but still not necessarily having registered what it meant. Then she’d tell me off for pretending to be deaf, and ask me why I did it, but I didn’t know why. This happened an awful lot and the constant reprimanding had a very negative effect on my self esteem.

I was once in trouble with a deputy head teacher for producing sloppy work, and I tried to explain to her that I was slower than the other children because my brain worked differently to theirs. She threw her head back and laughed, saying ‘Nice Try!’ or something similar, because she knew I was intelligent, and couldn’t believe I was slow.

At the time I was flattered that she thought I was intelligent, but very frustrated that she didn’t believe me. She threw my Maths book down on my desk (my worst subject) and said ‘Paula, I wouldn’t have you in my class’. Her conclusion was that I was lazy, and I even started to doubt my own beliefs, and believe that she was right.

Although I remember this incident in detail, similar misunderstandings would happen on a daily basis. I guess I often said and did things that contradicted my intelligence. So people would believe I was deliberately being difficult. I was labelled as a naughty child. So then what happened? Of course I had to live up to my reputation.

12. Childhood Problems

2006-03-23T05:21:00.000-08:00

Though I tried often, I could never do handstands or cartwheels (and still can’t). This along with not being able to ride a bike as quickly as other kids, I’m told is a form of dyspraxia.

I never thought I was dyslexic, as I was always good at spelling and grammar, but have always been incredibly slow. And ask me to fill a form in, and it will take me a long time to read and understand it. Also, I’m hopeless at reading out allowed, and jump ahead of myself reading words the wrong way round. So this is a problem dyslexics have. Often I will read words from the line above or below the line I’m reading and end up making up a sentence of my own! I once knocked on the wrong door because I was looking for 45 Salisbury Rd, and the sign at the end of the street said;

Salisbury Road
leading to
Park Road

For some bizarre reason I read it from the bottom up - as ‘Park Road leading to Salisbury Road’ - and they were four-inch high letters! So I also walked a lot further than I needed to – story of my life!

I never mastered Maths especially Algebra, because they were sums within sums, and I kept forgetting why we started the main sum in the first place. I failed Maths O level at 16, but took it up at nightschool at 23, but only turned up for three lessons. I then took it up when I wanted to teach at 32, and again gave up after a few weeks.

Even now I often read the first few pages of a book then give up. Sometimes I force myself to read a chapter a day, and I’m not allowed to change books until I’ve got to the end. But a chapter a day can mean you spend a whole month reading a book. I’m way too slow at everything.

If you think my writing in this blog seems ok, I do it in Word first, and have to rewrite it at least five times. And thank heavens the software lets you edit afterwards.

11. Dore Presentation Part2

2006-03-23T01:22:00.001-08:00

(I wrote this on Wednesday, but Blogger's server was poorly so I couldn't post)
Can you believe it? Only a day later and the notes I made last night make very little sense. I couldn’t write fast enough and now I can’t seem to remember most of it. I wish I could have recorded the presentation. I’ll try and remember as I go along!

Founder and chairman, Wynford Dore started off by asking members of the audience what the biggest problem they or their children had with learning difficulties. Answers came back such as Low Self Esteem, Frustration, Depression and Mood Swings, followed by clumsiness, poor short-term memory and concentration.

All these were found to be much more devastating than not being able to read or write properly. And yet that is all Mr Dore wanted to do initially. His daughter had attempted suicide and he needed to find a solution to her reading difficulties soon.

But he never thought that the exercises his research team produced would also help in so many other areas. We heard from a young boy, Josh and his Mum, Louise, about how the Dore programme not only improved his school work, but had improved his confidence and co-ordination so much that he was now the third highest in the UK in his age group at Taekwondoo.

And excelling in sport as well as in the classroom is quite typical in many children on the Dore Programme. Josh wasn’t an isolated case. This appears to have been a fortunate ‘side effect’ of people who had the drug free treatment!

Mr Dore also described how the working memory in a person with learning difficilties is so much more diminished than in a normal person. And how affected people are often thought of as lazy, when the opposite is true, because they have to work so much harder just to retain simple information.

He said the bigger the library, the busier the librarian. The more creative you are, the more unorganised information in the brain, the busier the cerebellum, that processes the information.

Later the cost issue came up. Around £2,000 for a years treatment, or £90 per month for two years on installments. He expressed his frustration at his campaigning for free treatment for all school children falling on deaf ears within the government. Everyone he speaks to says ‘we need proof’, but they want to look at this proof on a piece of paper in less than 10 seconds; they’re not prepared to take time visiting the centre or speaking to parents, headmasters and professors who have seen first hand how amazing the results are.

When someone questioned the cost, Wynford Dore said that and if anyone feels that the treatment hasn’t worked, there is a full money back guarantee. No-one has ever needed it though.

Professor David Reynolds told us that he was very cynical to begin with and wanted to see results, whether or not the programme worked. He was not only pleased with the positive results, but very impressed to discover that the results were permanent, and that the children who were furthest behind to begin with, caught up the most. In fact they were performing better than their age peers who had never had learning difficulties.

Aha, there you go – I obviously took in more than I thought - I’ll probably think of more things tomorrow!

All the speakers had plenty of time for everyone with questions at the end, and Trevor Davies, the headmaster from Solihull, was very helpful in tracking down Dr Roy Rutherford to answer my questions.

So the conclusion for me personally was; I need to do the programme as soon as possible! But it’s a Catch 22 situation; I’m trying to make a living with Online Marketing so I can pay for the programme, but I need to do the programme so that I can easily learn Online Marketing!

Thanks to the two mums from Rhwbina, Jane and Kim who kindly gave me a lift home!
www.dore.co.uk

10. Dore Presentation

2006-03-21T15:12:00.000-08:00

Wynford Dore (white shirt) speaking with Presentation attendees

Tonight I went along to the presentaion for adults in Cardiff. My main objectives for the evening were to find out if vertigo could be cured by the Dore Programme, hear the founder, Wynford Dore speak and hear former Dore attendee, rugby star Kenny Logan speak.

The bad news is that no, the Dore Centre cannot cure vertigo - And Kenny wasn’t there. I was also informed by two of the speakers that my cerebellum exercises would need to be more structured in order to work properly. (I needed to be told!)

However, I was very pleased with the information I got. I asked my question about vertigo, and was directed to Dr Roy Rutherford who is based at the main DDAT (UK) Centre in Warwickshire, who said vertigo symptoms may be reduced by the Dore Programme but not cured completely. He also said that vertigo was not a symptom of ADHD, as it is a condition on its own. I was confusing vertigo with ‘balance disorder’ in my earlier post (now amended to Travel Sickness), and they are different. I may just have a balance disorder, which could be treated, so that's good news.

Headmaster, Trevor Davies kicked off the evening by telling us how pupils at his school benefitted from the Dore Programme. Then Wynford Dore, the founder, went into more depth of what his researchers had found.

Professor David Reynolds, Professor of Education at the University of Plymouth also spoke, and all three speakers answered many questions at the end.

Wynford Dore was very helpful, and he didn’t mind me taking his photo. I had several questions asking him to elaborate on certain points from the presentaion and he said he would send me further information.

I’ll type my notes up tomorrow and report some of what was covered during the presentation, and learn how to add a photo!

9. The Difference Between ADD and ADHD

2006-03-16T13:05:00.000-08:00

When I visited the Dore Centre, I was told that they are the same. I had naively thought that ADD applied to adults, and ADHD to children!

ADHD is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and I thought, “There’s no way I’m hyperactive” (because I felt so TIRED all the time!)

When I answered the questions my Dore Centre assessor gave me, he said I had ADHD. So I said I didn’t think I was hyperactive, but we’re not talking about bodies here, are we? We’re talking about minds. The fact that I’d ticked ‘Yes’ to the questions ‘Are you easily distracted?’, ‘Do you talk over people?’ and ‘Are you impatient?’ meant that the hyperactivity bit applies to me too.

I often used to talk over people, but was shouted at for doing it when I was at university, so I’m much more aware now. The reason I did it is clear to me now when I sometimes nearly do it!

It’s because the other person is either speaking slowly and I get impatient and try to finish off their sentences, or it’s because I believe the other person isn’t listening, or hasn’t understood what I’ve said, and I feel that they need me to get them back on the right track. In this case, I’m a lot more polite than I used to be, and wait for an opportune moment to tactfully steer them back, rather than just interrupting. I also listen a lot more now. But I also do still slip up sometimes too!

A much better distinction between ADD and ADHD is available at:http://adhd.com/family/resources/fastfacts/difference.jsp?reqNavId=3.3.3

8. Travel Sickness is a Symptom

2006-03-15T13:30:00.000-08:00

The staff at the Dore Centre say that Travel Sickness is a classic symptom of ADHD and Dyspraxia. Because the cerebellar function is under developed and the messages within the brain take longer, co-ordination and balance are heavily affected.

Travel Sickness, like Vertigo, is an imbalance in the ears that causes dizziness – NOT fear of heights (Thank you for that misconception Mr Hitchcock!) But you wouldn’t want to be up a tall ladder when you’re feeling dizzy now, would you?

The effects of the balance disorder for me are quite devasting when the condition is in full swing. I cannot be in a room with floors that are unlevel. In fact I’ve become a human spirit level, and can tell straight away.

I become so dizzy that the only cure is to lie down and go to sleep – wherever I am! In fact I once had to refloor a whole house with hand made wedges underneath the false floor, because the original floor was not level.

It turned out that one room was only one inch lower than the opposite end, and most people couldn't tell, but I was made exrtremely ill if I had to spend more than an hour in there. So it took me six weeks to do the whole house, because I could only manage two hours at a time, with a sleep in between!

The more common symptom is travel sickness, so I cannot read whilst in transit, as I have to keep my eyes on the road ahead, or on the horizon if it’s a boat. I once had to have two weeks off work due to severe travel sickness because I’d stayed in the lounge below deck on the cross channel ferry from Belgium to England; a one hour journey.

I learned that the Dore Centre can improve cerebellar function, enabling me to think quicker, and in a more logical way! I don’t know if they can rid me of my balance disorder. That would be fantastic though.

On the Tonight programme featured on the free DVD from www.Dore.co.uk they state that one of the balance machines people use at the Dore Centre ‘holds the clue to how the balance disorder might be treated’ and within six weeks most participants’ learning difficulties show improvement. I’m not quite sure whether that means my travel sickness can be eliminated completely, but I’m going to a Dore Centre presentation meeting next week, so I’ll ask them.

7. My Humble Cerebellum Exercises Part4

2006-03-13T13:01:00.000-08:00

Back to juggling. I decided to start at such a basic level, a two year old could probably manage it! I threw a ball up only about six inches with my right hand. Nine times out of ten, I could manage that, but I did it in front of my bed, as I was sick of the 10% of times when I’d have to keep picking the blasted things off the floor.

The percentage was much, much higher with my left hand! In fact again, I was abysmal. And yet, I did improve! Slowly. Because I have ADHD my attention spans are poor at best, so I wanted to jump start things a bit. I did a search for 'How To Juggle' and found several sites with clear instructions. I was now bored with just throwing a ball up six inches, so I tried to juggle two balls. Hopeless, of course. BUT get this: after I’d been hopeless for ten minutes at juggling, I went back to humble throwing – and voila! The balls were actually going where I wanted them to! ??? Go figure!

Like I said before, it seems that when you go away and come back, the improvements are more noticeable. I wonder if the staff at the Dore Centre are familiar with this concept? I have also noticed that I throw in a much more relaxed way, whereas before my arms were working way too hard!

Although I'm learning slowly, if I were to keep up my efforts for ten minutes twice a day for a whole year, as on the Dore Programme, I'm certain that I would see a big difference.
www.Dore.co.uk

6. My Humble Cerebellum Exercises Part3

2006-03-12T10:07:00.000-08:00

Again, despite improving at my own exercises, it seemed to be happening very slowly. I got bored and needed a new exercise. I still kept up with the fingers, but wanted a new exercise as well. So I thought again of the lady who peeled carrots with her feet, and decided to move toes that I formerly couldn’t. This was where I really got excited that I wasn’t beyond help!

I could already move the big toe on my right foot about 9mm away from the second toe, no problem at all. But I could not move the big toe on my left foot at all. I tried for ten minutes at a time every hour one Saturday. All day I willed it to move; nothing.

As soon as I got up the next day, I did it! It moved about 5mm! And it was really weird. It didn’t move at the same time that I willed it to. It moved about a second afterwards, and it moved in a slow, mechanical way – to the right and back, as if it were being operated by remote control!

The other thing I noticed, I could not FEEL it move. It was like I was watching it on film – what’s all that about?!! Even now, there’s little feeling, and it’s not as instantaneous as my right one, but a lot better. I guess I should now try making each toe dance like my fingers can!

Strangely, I’d find that I seemed to show much bigger signs of improvement at the beginning of a new session, than after continuously working hard at it. I maybe improved a small amount within a ten minute session, yet an hour later, the first exercise I attempted was a huge leap in comparison! Maybe when the pressure is off, you do better. I guess that comes down again, to being more relaxed.

5. My Humble Cerebellum Exercises Part2

2006-03-11T13:55:00.000-08:00

As I was so abysmal at juggling, or even throwing a ball ten inches high, I decided to try a totally different task; to move my fingers individually whilst laying my hands palms down on the arms of my chair. Only one finger could move at any one time. I managed only the first, second and last finger on my right hand, and first and last finger on the left.

If I hadn’t seen a documentary on TV once about a mother with no arms feeding her baby and peeling carrots with her feet (on separate occasions of course!) I’d never have believed it was possible to train digits to do something they’re not used to! But remembering that woman spurred me on.

I became really competitive, and whenever I had a spare moment, I’d be trying to move my weakest fingers. Amazingly, after only two hours of trying to move the third finger on my right hand, I did it! All of one whole millimetre!

Within a day I could move all my fingers independently of each other, and the next day I tried moving my third and weakest fingers on both hands so that they moved from side to side, touching the middle and last fingers alternately.

This was really hard to do, but as I could see marginal imrovement each time, it was enough encouragement to continue. I had to consciously keep telling myslef to relax my shoulders, or not to tense up my whole arms! it seemed easier, the more I relaxed.

For your free DVD go to www.Dore.co.uk
Again, I don’t earn any money if you do - I guess I should be an affiliate…!

4. My Humble Cerebellum Exercises Part1

2006-03-10T12:58:00.000-08:00

I wanted to try and emulate the exercises given to attendees of the Dore Programme, but not having done the programme myself, I had to guess what they were! I knew the exercises improved balance and hand / eye co-ordination, through repetition. They also had to be something that the subject was not used to, in order for the cerebellum to be in its full ‘learning mode’.

So I thought juggling would be the perfect trick to learn. I used two promotional foam balls to begin with, and I was the most hopeless anyone could imagine. So I went down to one, and I was still hopeless with my right (writing) hand, and worse with my left.

I was just throwing the ball up to eye level ten times with each hand, and it was like someone else was controlling my hands; the balls were going off to the side every time! I was astounded by how awful I was at it! Demoralised I gave up, but only temporarily.

Go to www.Dore.co.uk and see how it should be done!

By the way, I’m not an affiliate or anything. I’m just a very giving person!

3. The Dore Centre

2006-03-08T08:34:00.000-08:00

How can I do the Dore Centre justice?

Wynford Dore the founder spent millions on research after he realised his own daughter was so depressed with her dyslexia, that she wanted to end her life. He was obviously willing to pay whatever price necessary to make her happy.

He found experts from across the globe to come up with a series of exercises that a sufferer of ADD, ADHD, dyslexia or Dyspraxia could do for ten minutes twice a day to improve cerebellar function (the part of the brain we need for co-ordination and balance and when learning new tasks).

I think I would have been sceptical if they hadn’t been able to provide a testimonial from Toyah Willcox. They had lots of testimonials, but I’ve been a huge fan of Toyah since the early 80s when she was the most colourful punk star in the UK charts.

And I’ve followed her career and TV appearances over the years. In my opinion, she has a great sense of humour, and is very intelligent, which makes me trust her judgement. So when she said on the free DVD that it changed her life, I just had to make an appointment. Toyah couldn’t read a book all in one go without feeling tired before she did the Dore programme. Now she reads with ease, and states that her life has improved 99%.

So why am I harping on about the Dore Centre so much? Why don’t I just join and go through the 12 month programme? Well, it’s a small matter of cost. The programme is not cheap, but then if something improves your life so much, then it’s worth every penny, right?

I have every intention of going on the Dore programme, when I can afford it. But for now I am doing my own co-ordination exercises, and whether I am doing them right, or whether the Dore Centre staff would laugh at the idea, I have noticed a significant improvement in only 48 hours. THAT is what convinces me that this cerebellum lark is no hooey!

Next time, I’ll describe my humble co-ordination exercises. In the meantime, go to their site and get your free DVD! There might be a Dore Centre near you.
www.dore.co.uk

2. Symptoms

2006-03-06T11:48:00.000-08:00

I found out I had ADD when a friend of mine introduced me to a teacher of children with learning difficulties. She knew I had ADD before she told me! She was very diplomatic in that she didn't tell me; she gave me several resources to look at and to ensure I would do, she said she'd ask me what I thought the following week.

Of course I didn't know the significance at all. I just wanted to endear myself to her by becoming interested in a subject she taught! She gave me several books to read and several websites.

I did what was easiest and looked at the websites, then studied the list of symptoms on each. One site claimed that if you had 10 out of 12 symptoms, you almost certainly had ADD or ADHD.

I had all 12. And I had all symptoms on ALL the websites. Here are some:

Disturbed sleep
Inability to concentrate
Impulsive
forgetfulness
poor academic performance
difficulty completing tasks
being easily distracted
anti-social behaviour
mood swings
lack of organizational skills
tendencies to have allergies
interrupts others
impatience
indecisiveness
fidgets
loses things

"ATTENTION DEFECIT DISORDER ROBS MANY YOUNGSTERS OF THEIR CHILDHOOD. UNDIAGNOSED IT CAN LEAD TO A LIFE OF CRIME". Amanda Doherty, Sunday Mirror. February 13, 2000.
(she must have it - she can't spell deficit!)

But my favourite of all:

Being Late all the time - Hooray! "It's not my fault!" (in my best Applemac voice) Wish I could tell all my former teachers and employers that one!

I'm told there is no definitive diagnosis, as other things can cause the same symptoms; head injuries for one. And I wouldn't at all be surprised to learn that I was dropped on my head as a baby! Seriously. I had malnutrition when I was eight months old.

"Anyway, only thick, backwards people have Attention Deficit Disorder, right?" I thought (my ignorance knew no bounds). Maybe the list of high achievers at http://www.adhdrelief.com/famous.html will put that myth to sleep.

Winston Churchill?
Dustin Hoffman?
JFK?
Robin Williams?
Cher?
Albert Einstein?

I suddenly felt I was in good company!

1. Introduction

2006-03-05T13:49:00.000-08:00

Hi there,

I'm Paula and at the age of 38, I find out I have almost certainly had Attention Deficit Disorder all my life.

I also have had all the symptoms of Dyspraxia too, such as terrible hand / eye co-ordination skills; It took me 11 years to learn to drive, and I had stabilisers on my bike until I was seven. Now I know why!

It went undetected for so long because I have always been good at spelling and grammar (although you be the judge!) so I was certain I couldn't possibly have dyslexia, but I'm a slow reader and there is such a thing as Number Dyslexia, which is difficulty with Maths. I am hopeless at Maths.

I have attended the Dore Centre www.dore.co.uk and have been assessed by their friendly and helpful staff, and they too are convinced I am a good candidate for their effective programme.

I'll report more about that soon, but I just want to tell you, that there is help for both children and adults, without resorting to mind numbing drugs. I felt like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders, when I found out I wasn't stupid. And you will too!