Notices by Matt Gray (mattgrayyes@chaos.social)

Mostly just sharing to highlight / represent invisible disabilities.

I have Long COVID / Chronic Fatigue /
Post-Exertional Malaise

If I had to work a 40 hour week to afford to live then I’d have no room to accommodate it never mind recover.

And thats how most people with this kind of thing have to deal with it, especially with the govt making disability assistance harder to get, & barely/not recognising disabilities like this!

Obviously I can't ignore the fact that l'm able to manage it so well because of my privilege.

I'm financially stable, have a relatively good safety blanket, and my online work and freelance schedule are flexible enough to work around it all.

It'd be very easy to see my timeline and think im healthy & everything’s amazing all the time.

When I'm fine I seem "normal" but that's because l've done a load of work managing my energy budget, leaving early, adding multiple rest days into my calendar, & having very slow months during bad periods

Beware a month of travel and pushing past your exertion limit may chronic your fatigue more than normal.
It's like a month of Post-Exertional Melaise has been stored up & dumped on me the last two weeks.
It's no surprise, I did this to myself, but that doesn't make it any more pleasant when it hits.

This isn’t an advert for duo btw. It really went down the pan recently.

But the combo of having learned some things and being able to look up words via Google translate, and guessing some grammar means I can speak in a shop/restaurant!
I don’t necessarily understand any response but still. lol.

@heluecht
I’m only fluent in English. But I’m quite good at picking up languages. Especially thanks to having translation on my phone.

French (GCSE 20+ years ago but I can speak/understand a small amount)
German (tiny basics, eg a simple shop transaction)
Japanese (tiny basics, shop transaction, but can’t understand many answers. I can read hiragana slowly and katakana badly)
Arabic (I can read the alphabet but the only words I really know are food)

Here’s one thing I’m finding fun about Japan:
I’m so used to speaking a local language where they get frustrated and switch to English.
I’ve learned a tiny amount of Japanese via duolingo and it’s just started unlocking itself from my memory.
It feels like magic, esp. as English isn’t as common here

We’re back with another set of Reverse Trivia episodes! In this, the first of four, I make what is possibly the most niche joke I’ve ever done!

If you’ve not watched before, it’s a comedy panel show quiz thing that really doesn’t take itself seriously!

https://youtu.be/D9vt8gOg3xE

The European Space Agency invited me to their mission control centre in Germany to find out what it takes to be a Satellite Operations Engineer working on their new Earth observation satellite, BIOMASS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0i1Xz-xiYSU

I like my showers like I like my sunsets

Hello this is the hype train for my soon-to-be-released video.

Do you have a ticket? They’re free!

🚂 Choo Choo!

Imagine what it would be like if we had more Technical Difficulties Reverse Trivia being released on our YouTube channel in just over an hour.

https://youtube.com/@techdif

Getting into the spirit of 1st December shopping by listening this

And if you have no idea what I’m on about, this post by @ErinInTheMorn is a good description.

https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/the-button-test-how-a-button-press

Imagine there’s a button that when pressed would immediately change your body from what you have now, to that of a goose. You can only press the button once. When pressed everyone will have known you in this new form the whole time, so there’s no social impact at all.

Would you press that button?

If so you may be transgander 🪿

On the off chance my opinion helps:

Vote Kamala

Actually go out and do it.

If in doubt, lobotomise an alpaca

Haunting the streets of London, but make it ✨sparkly✨

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9HY8gzOV0Y

Episode two of Reverse Trivia is out, in which we return to the past!

https://youtu.be/GhZ7q7CBTAI?si=5TUKC_L_l7BvoSjV

@tomscott @garybrannan