warning this is not a blog about dyslexia lol

Hi blog readers

On September 18th Scotland has an opportunity to vote for her independence. Not to many countries who gained independence can say that.

If we vote no to independence the Westminster government, who ever it is, will want their pound of Scottish flesh for Scotland having the temerity to go for independence.

If we do vote no generations of Scottish people will live to regret it. I am a staunch yes voter but I do fear the vote will go against us.

But I say to everyone out there. Many now independent countries didn't believe they were better together with the UK. America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand Jamaica etc. I am not saying these countries are perfect, didn't have to endure their fair share of trials and tribulations along the way. But they all managed to survive independence and do ok.

So lets be brave Scotland lets all vote yes and be a part of history by becoming the country Scotland and Scottish people have the potential to be. Not the country a Westminster government tell us we should be or give us permission to be.

thanks for taking the time to read my blog

Steve

Just when you thought it was safe to not read my blog lol

Hi blog readers hope you are all well and ready for a great weekend.

A few bits of news great news on this blog.

Due to circumstances beyond my control I am now organising the Unique Dyslexic Get Creative exhibition.

We now have a date for our Unique Dyslexic Get Creative exhibition / party / festival. It going to be on October 29th and the Rothes Halls.

There will be around fifty photos from the workshops including artwork from the workshops on show together with some artwork from people who shared work on our Facebook pages.

We are in the early planning stages here and are planning other possible things to happen on the day. Much more news to follow on this soon.

We are going to be holding another Trash to Treasure workshop in partnership with Furniture Plus and Clarabella Christie.

This will be happening on September 13th and we only have ten spaces on this workshop. As with all our other workshops they are free, lunch will be provided and travel costs can be paid.

Timescales are tight so if you are interested in coming along to this workshop please contact be directly:

e mail: steve.mccue@uniquedyslexic.com

tel:       01592 756 187

You can see examples of what others did on our first Trash to Treasure workshop as well as all the other workshops on this you tube video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRKHaX42I2k

I am not sure if I have already mentioned this but I have just developed a Unique Dyslexic Get Creative phone app which can be downloaded on to your phone from the address below.

 http://uniquedyslexic.appsme.com/app/unique-dyslexic/unique-dyslexic-get-creative

That's all from me for this week folks and ta for taking the time to read my blog.

Steve

The next stages for Unique Dyslexic Get Creative

We have completed the four planned workshop for Unique Dyslexic Get Creative but we are planning to run one more for parents / carers / guardians with children. It would be for young people 14 years old or over together with their parent / guardian / carer etc. Like all the other workshops it would be free to access.

Now I have only had an initial discussion with Furniture Plus regarding this idea but I know they have the funding to run this for us. All we need to do is have enough people interested in coming along to this workshop. If you are please contact me.

It will be another Trash to Treasure event and the idea is for them to un cycle something for the young persons bedroom. I am sorry it cannot be for anyone under 14 years old though. All sorts of legal implications when working with under children 14 so I am told. This would be run sometime in late September early October.

I think there would be places for 10 to 12 participants and the idea is that a parent or guardian etc would work together with the young person. If you have some people who would be interested in doing this we could possibly move forward on this.

We are also planning / seeking funding for next year to move on to the next stage of Unique Dyslexic Get Creative. Part of this is running longer term creative workshops / courses.

We are looking at something that would be run over a six week period on one day per week. This again is for dyslexics or people who think they may be dyslexic or for people who did not do so well at school and are also creative. So, for example, we would run a six week workshop on music or on visual art or photography etc.  

If we were successful in securing the funding for this we could maybe run one of these for any organisation wanting to run one for their clients or group.

As with the workshop we have run this year they would be free to access etc.

By the way here is a link to a video I made about the workshops we ran and about promoting dyslexia. Its basically me talking a little about dyslexia and then a lot of images showcasing the work people at the workshops did.http://sdyslexia.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/video-of-unique-dyslexic-get-creative.html

People can still get involved in Unique Dyslexic Get Creative by joining our Facebook page and group page. We invite anyone who is dyslexic, thinks they are dyslexic or is from any other neuro different community to share what they do creatively on our social media pages. This is open to anyone from beginner artist / writer etc to professional.

We are also in the planning stage of running an exhibition / party / festival of dyslexia as part of Unique Dyslexic Get Creative.

We will be inviting organisations in and around Fife to this. It will be an opportunity for organisations to come along and promote what they do as well.  

Look out for your invitations to this sometime soon. I am having a meeting with the person who is helping us to organise this today. We are looking at sometime in October 2014 for this.

We may be seeking corporate sponsorship for this so if there is any organisation out there wanting to get involved in this way please contact me. But we have enough funding to do this without this anyway. 

If you want to chat more about this or organise a meeting my number is 01592 756 187. If you have group meetings I am happy to come to one of them. This I am happy to do for free.

I can also provide dyslexia awareness / staff training session for staff. But there would be costs associated with this I am afraid.

Video of Unique Dyslexic Get Creative workshops

Hi blog readers hope you are all well

Today I put together a little video of the Unique Dyslexic Get Creative workshops with a little introduction from me chatting a little about being dyslexic and the social model of dyslexia


https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=799346826776234

Hope you enjoy it

Steve

Report on the Unique Dyslexic Get Creative music workshop

Hi blog readers hope you are all well and everything is going groovy.

Well have to report the music workshop on Monday 18th August went very well. The venue The Cupar Youth Café was excellent.

I have to give a big thanks to Linsey Neilson who runs the café, to Brogan, Steph and Katie who volunteered their time to help move all the equipment into the venue for Mark Small Productions and who also got involved with the workshop.

A big thanks to Mark and Jack for sharing their experience and very expensive equipment to run the workshop. Finally a big thanks to Lecia for the great lunch.

From left to right its Steph, who had a great singing voice, Linsey, Katie another great singer and acoustic guitarist and Brogan who is a bass player.

Got a wide range of participants aged from 15 to over 50 all of which, apart from one, was dyslexic. Have to say I was very nervous about this workshop because I really had no real idea what was going to be happening.

As usual we have a little get to know each other session and also chatted about experiences of being dyslexic. We got some pretty candid remarks from some about the negative experiences they had as dyslexics in school.

I cant remember all the techy names for the equipment and software but what we basically had to play with was two music studios to play with. One to record live sounds and the other to make electronic music on a computer.

The participants were split up into two groups and made music. I went with the live group which included Brogan, Steph and Katie as well as Cathryn and Moira. Cathryn and Moira sung a duet together and gelled really well. It took a little bit of time for the others to show us what they could do. Steph and Katie showed us some great vocal.

Here is something Katie performed for with her acoustic guitar:

https://soundcloud.com/raelthing/hallelujah

I have some video of Moira and Cathryn singing which I will add later. While we were doing this the other group made ringtones for themselves.

I did a little interview with Brogan and Steph about what they were doing with the Cupar Youth Café. This was all done off the cuff so to speak so all of us were pretty nervous.

The Cupar Youth Café obviously does a great job for the young people in and around Cupar and needs to be supported. We need to support and encourage young people because they are the future of Scotland.

Here are some photos from the workshop:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got a lot of very positive feed back including@

Happy :-)
Relaxed and happy
:)
I have enjoyed the experience and learned a lot
I really enjoyed it
I feel more educated on the technical side of music
Inspired, tired and full
Musical
Great to have the chance to see how music can be made
Liberated, more confident

All participants gave the workshop a 5 out of 5 for enjoyment.

So all in all another great workshop. This was going to be the last Unique Dyslexic Get Creative for this year. But we will be running one last one in partnership with Furniture Plus in the near future.

Plus we are starting to plan for an exhibition and party to celebrate and promote the work of all the participants who came to the workshops as well as work from artists and writers etc who have shared their work on our social media. Hopefully there will be some surprises in there as well. This is going to take place sometime in October.

Anyway that's enough from me. I will be making an audio version of the blog later this week. Many thanks for taking the time to read my blog. It is very much appreciated.

well howdy there pardners time for a new bloggy from me

Hi hi blog readers hope you are all well and enjoying your weekend.

Monday sees what was going to be the last in the series of free art focussed workshops being run as part of Unique Dyslexic Get Creative which is a Dyslexia Pathways Community Interest Company project.

I think most of my blog readers with workshop is all about creating, recording and editing music. Music written by participants of the workshop. Participants don't need to play any instruments and can make music using samples on a computer.

Its for anyone who is dyslexic, thinks they may be dyslexic or who did not do so well at school and is creative.

This workshop is being run by Mark Small Productions and here is a link to his Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/markasmall?fref=ts

We still have a couple places to fill so if anyone wants to come along just drop me an e mail @

steve.mccue@uniquedyslexic.com

We will now be running an additional workshop in partnership with Furniture Plus here in Fife. If will be another Trash to Treasure workshop. It will be for parents / guardians / carers and their children 14 years old or over. So if anyone is interested and lives in Fife or surrounding areas send me an e-mail.

Again on the Unique Dyslexic Get Creative front we will be holding a little exhibition and having a little celebration to mark the end of the first stage of Unique Dyslexic Get Creative. We will be inviting a guest speaker and organisation in and around Fife. I am hoping we have found someone who is very talented and creative to organise this for us.

I have nearly completed a Unique Dyslexic Get Creative info app that will soon be available for free through everyone's fave app store.

We are still looking for a volunteer to help us with updating our Unique Dyslexic Get Creative web site. I think it will take about 6 hours to do. Its a toolkit website so if anyone is interested in doing this for us please contact me.

Here is a link to our website:

http://www.uniquedyslexic.com/

My application for a Scottish Innovation Certificate goes in this month. I am hoping to set up a new accessible social media platform in partnership with Napier University.

I have a few appointments next week including one with Bright Idea Scotland.

Anyway that's enough for this blog to be getting on with.

Take care everyone and ta for taking the time to read my blog.

PS

Am in the middle of writing a new song as well by the way. Here is a link to anyone who is brave enough to give it a listen lol.

https://soundcloud.com/raelthing/accoustic-plus-2wav

Final call for Unique Dyslexic Get Creative music workshop

Unique Dyslexic Get Creative

Dyslexia Pathways CIC

 

Deadline: 17 August 2014 at 22:00

 

Are you dyslexic, think you are dyslexic or just did not do so well at school and don't know why and are creative? Age 16 or over and live in or near Fife? Many dyslexics are also creative individuals. If you would like to find out more about being creative then the Unique Dyslexic Get Creative is for you.

Come along to a free workshop on 18th August 2014 at the Cupar Youth Cafe, Castlehill, Cupar, KY15 4HA. Hours 10am to 4pm. In this workshop you will learn basic music making, editing and recording techniques.

The Cupar Youth Cafe is easily accessible by public transport and local car parking is also available.

Lunch will be provided free of charge. Travel expenses will also be paid. If you have caring responsibilities, some help with the cost of this is available also.

This workshop is about making music, recording and editing techniques. This is suitable for anyone from beginner to expert. Participants are welcome to bring along any musical instruments they play, but you don’t need to have an instrument or experience to take part and have fun in this workshop. Participants will have access to two recording set ups as well as microphones and synthesizers. Music tracks can also be composed and recorded using music sampling software that will enable participants to write a track in a style and genre of their choosing.

Unique Dyslexic Get Creative promotes and celebrates the creativity, in all its forms, of dyslexic and neurodifferent individuals, locally and globally.

We seek to promote the positive social model profile of dyslexia and neurodifference. "Viva le difference"

Location: Angus, Dundee City, East Lothian, Edinburgh City, Falkirk, Fife, Midlothian, Perth and Kinross, Stirling, West Lothian
For further information, please contact steve.mccue@uniquedyslexic.com (Steve McCue), or call 01592 756 187, or visit http://www.uniquedyslexic.com/

The deadline for getting a place on this workshop is Sunday 17 August 2014 at 22:00.

ahhhhh all the fun of the fair on a Friday night?????? NOT!

There I was in bed all comfortable watching a Twilight Zone DVD when I start to realise I could hear a sound coming from the bathroom. So I get myself out of bed to investigate.  What do I find? The hot tap in the bath is running, not enough to turn on the hot water at the boiler. But just enough to be annoying.

Now none of us had a bath tonight so it cant be that one of us has left the tap running. Anyway I try to turn the tap off and all that happens is the water runs even faster and is now a torrent of water coming from the bath tap and a cacophony of noise from the water running through the taps. More to the point the water is running boiling hot. So we have to turn the boiler off.

Next I locate the stop cock under the sink and try to turn that off. Just not strong enough after my heart attack .And yes you guessed the blasted thing was stuck tight and un turn able.

Next stop call a 24 hour plumber who says he will call us back sigh. That was around midnight ago and still waiting for the call back.

Ahh the phone has just rang and he cannot do anything for us until 7am maybe.

We have tried calling every 24hour emergency plumber in the book and no answer from any of them. Have just rang Fife Council and got a big no from them. But they suggested calling the fire brigade and they came within 10 minutes.

The fireman put a pair of pliers to the stop cock and closed it in a couple seconds. Mind you the guy was built like crap house 6ft 5 inches tall at least.

Phew silence is golden. Have to get a plumber in tomorrow morning asap as we have no running water here now. Its not 02.10 am and I am wide awake lol.

tablets, tablets everywhere and all of them to take lol

Well today I have my first session in the gym as part of the recuperation process after my heart attack a few weeks ago.

Sigh this will be fun lol. I have my sounds ready on my I pod, got my shorts and plimmys ready. Eeeep feels like I am back at school again.

When my thyroid went squwiff, hmmm maybe 20 years ago now, it turned me from a 10 stone pretty fit person who walked lots, gigged regularly very active etc. I did a lot of physical geography as part of my degree so I climbed mountains, went pot holing etc.

I turned into a 19 stone person who could not walk to the bus stop. I have a genetically inherited thyroid condition called Hashimotos disease which is rife on my mum's side of the family.

I remember thinking to myself when the docs eventually diagnosed me hmmm trust me to end up with a disease that sounds like some weird Japanese manga video game.

Another thought that sprang to mind was, "ahhh I am finally in touch with my feminine side" lol

Hashimotos basically means my auto immune system is treating my thyroid as an enemy and so is attacking it. Arrrgh life long taking of thyroxin tablets lol.

Then about maybe 10 years ago my autoimmune system stared attacking my pancreas and I went type two diabetic. Ohhhh the joy of it all more tablets lol.

I have been asking for help from the doctors with my weight for years because I knew my weight was the real problem here and how it could impact on my heart.

I did manage to get myself down to 17 stone and got myself back into a reasonably fit state again. But it took a lot of hard work but no matter what I did I could not lose any more weight.  

Of course no where near as fit as I was. Anyway the doctors were no help at all.......One doctor said to me, "well you carry it well", another said, "we cant do miracles.  Another said, hmmmmm well having hashimotos and type two diabetes makes losing weight very difficult.

I was going to go for one of those surgical cutting you tummy in half operation when I lived in London. But then I moved to Fife and that is not offered here. Ohh the doc said I could go to a group of patients having this operation in Dundee but I couldn't have the operation......hmmmm bit pointless that.

Then the event happened that I knew was inevitable I had my heart attack. Now I had gone into hospital the week before with chest pains, had all the tests and they said everything was hunky dory ,that I was experiencing acid indigestion lol.

Then exactly one week later boooom heart attack. The hospital informed me it was a mild heart attack. It was not until a couple of weeks later I discover from my GP that it was right ventricle was 99% blocked. I am very lucky the rest of my heart is fine and all I needed was one stent fitted. But oh joy and rapture what do I get to take? More tablets lol

So now after I have had the heart attack and nearly popped my clogs I get help with my weight sigh.

Anyway I realise its not dyslexia related blog but thanks for reading.



   

A musical doodle from me lol

https://soundcloud.com/raelthing/accoustic-plus-1wav

A new musical doodle from me only half way completed though lol

Report from the Trash to Treasure Workshop :-)))))))

 

Good morning from Glenrothes in Fife where the sun is streaming through the front room, or as some would say lounge, window.

On Saturday 2nd August Unique Dyslexic Get Creative ran the third in our series of creative workshops. This one was called trash to treasure and was all about up cycling old furniture, which in this case was old tables, into fabby new tables.

The mission statement of Furniture Plus :

Helping Furnish the People of Fife.
Furniture Plus will achieve this by:

• Providing low cost, quality goods and furnishings to low income households in Fife, thereby alleviating furniture poverty.

And

• Providing employment and training opportunities to strive to alleviate social exclusion

As with all the other workshops we had a little get to know each other session at the start in which we shared our experiences of dyslexia. I also did a little awareness raising of the social model of dyslexia, challenging the medical model of dyslexia and of the positives of being dyslexic. 

We ran this workshop in partnership with Furniture Plus here in Fife and facilitated by Clarabella Christie who was a brilliant facilitator with a wealth of experience in up cycling.  Below are some picture of the old un re cycled tables.

 

 

 

As you can see all the tables were just boring old tables lol.

Of course the first thing we had to do was to prepare the tables to be up cycled. This involved a lot of elbow grease sanding them all down.

 

 

 

 

 

 
Then began the creative and fun bit actually designing the new look of the tables. There was a lot of materials and paint to choose from and Clara was on hand to support and offer advice on what to do.

Here is a few photos of the finished items which, I think you will agree, certainly look fabby. I think you can see from the smiles on everyone's faces how much they enjoyed the day and what they all achieved.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think everyone went away with ideas for re cycling old furniture in their homes.

I had a very busy day and was shattered after it believe me. Not only did I up cycle my own table I was taking photos and film and chatting with everyone there. I also did one dyslexia screening using Quickscan. This showed the person had many of the indicators for dyslexia.

Here is some of the feedback we got:

I had fun, and enjoyed meeting others like myself and sharing with others there

Happy

Inspired

Included, free to express myself

Belonging / idea provoking / included

Happy and not alone with my dyslexia

Happy and more confident

Good banter and love doing anything creative

I got chatting with the people at Furniture Plus as well. They secured some funding to run some free workshops themselves. Looks like they will be running another one for us but for parents / carers and kids 14 years old and over.

The idea is to up cycle something for the children's rooms.

Next workshop August 18th at Cupar Youth Café in Cupar Fife. This one is all about creating, recording and editing music. We still have some spaces available for this workshop if anyone is interested. Its free, lunch, travel expenses and some funding to assist with the cost of any child care  or other caring costs.

Anyway that's me away, hope you enjoyed reading this blog as much as I enjoyed writing it and taking part in the workshop itself.

Been feeling like I am on a rollercoaster this week and other news

I have been a very busy person over the last few weeks. Sometimes I wish I were not so driven with this dyslexia thing sigh. Think I am just tired and need a little rest. I will take a couple days out after the next Unique Dyslexic Get Creative workshop is done and dusted this week end. Monday and Tuesday next week will be my down time.

Wednesday I will design a poster for the music event and then Thursday and Friday, oh joy, I will be visiting the hospital for check ups lol.

I know after my heart attack a few weeks ago I was supposed to take a month away from it all but lol that didn't happen and I was back working the next day. Just too much to do. Anyway I got bored and had to do something to keep me from going to sleep.

This whole Unique thing is done on a voluntary basis by myself and everyone else involved. The whole project has become a bit of a monster though.

The Trash to Treasure workshop is fully booked with 11 participants which is great. I am looking forward to this one myself even though I am not actually getting involved with doing anything in the workshop itself.

I will be giving a little presentation at the beginning on being positive about dyslexia and encouraging the participants to chat about their own ideas about dyslexia and experiences of being dyslexic. Then I will just be offering support, and taking pictures and movies throughout the workshop.  I will be offering free dyslexia screening during the workshop using Quickscan.

I have to get all the paperwork together for this today.

Have to start promoting the final workshop next week which is all about making and recording music. This is being held at the Cupar Youth Café on the 18th August. I am going to put together a little poster for this on Wednesday.

This workshop is an introduction to basic music making, recording and editing techniques. Participants are welcome to bring along any musical instruments they play, but you don’t need to have an instrument or experience to take part and have fun in this workshop. Participants will have access to two recording set ups as well as microphones and synthesizers. Music tracks can also be composed and recorded using music sampling software that will enable participants to write a track in a style and genre of their choosing.

I am looking forward to this workshop a lot, think I will try to put something together musically myself if I have the time.

We will be organising and planning and end of project get together and exhibition for late September. We will have to see how the budget is after all the workshops are completed.

Have just taken on a volunteer admin to help us with our Unique Dyslexic and Dyslexia Pathways social media. Amanda Jane Swindles is not acting as admin for us on a voluntary basis.

We are still looking for someone to support us with our Unique Dyslexic Get Creative website. The website needs updating we need someone with experience to help us to do this.  Its a Toolkit website and free training is part of the package that came with it. I was going to go through the training myself but there are only so many hours in the day. There is some cash available in the budget to pay someone to do this but not a lot lol.

I am planning to start the training later in August but we will see how it goes. 

The future of my organisation is a major concern for me at the moment.

We have a board meeting in August to look at funding for a larger project. If we can get a good bid in it will secure three years income for myself and the business. I think the success of Unique Dyslexic Get Creative will help us in this.

Then there is the Scottish Innovation certificate I am applying for in partnership wit Napier University. If this goes well I can again look for funding to move the project on further.

The basic idea is the development of an accessible social media experience.  I have the ideas and Napier University have the know how to make it happen.

I think this financial year might be tough for Dyslexia Pathways because of the changes the government are making / have made to Disabled Students Allowance.

This might bring with it more business in terms of supporting dyslexic students at university or it could mean less. Its all a bit uncertain and out of my hands to a large extent.

I have now upgraded my Soundcloud account so I can start making audio blogs again.

I know my blogs do go on a bit but there is just so much to write about.