Aspies For Freedom

But of course! The more rants, the merrier...

Nope, not as such - it just looks like there's going to be a lot of replies.

If I get a lot of replies to any of my rants, I'll probably give them their own thread too...

That's good to hear - It's still a shame that it had to be BBC banned at all...

Rant for 30/10/07 - Zakkies guide to office conversation

There's two kinds of existing communication forms - socialising & conversation.

Conversation is the exchange of actual information. It can include instructions, information on a topic of interest, jokes, honest discussions about emotions, and anything else where the information contained is actually the entire content.

Socialising is the exchange of very small, "light" amounts of information that is exchanged for the purposes of subtly transmitting an entirely separate set of information. It includes small talk (in which the purpose is to reaffirm relationship statuses, infer emotional states, and remind others that the included people are part of the same "tribe"), power games (in which the purpose is to define a pecking order), and jokoids (A term I stole from "The Comic Toolbox by John Vorhaus - it means something that looks and sounds like a joke, and has all the same qualities as a joke, with the exception that it contains nothing funny - an indication that it is being used for another purpose. Generally it will be used as a power game, or to convey information that would otherwise be considered insulting. For instance, I often get the jokoid "Keep the noise down" at work when I'm not saying anything. This is a way of them conveying the information "Concentrating on your work rather than engaging in small talk makes us nervous". For some reason many people consider a jokey statement as less offensive than a blunt statement, rather than more offensive).

Generally, socialising is an unpleasant activity for spectrumites. Unfortunately, not socialising enough makes NT's uncomfortable. As socialising is used to reaffirm relationship status, emotional state and pecking orders, not socialising can cause the following problems - Relationship status can be read as "This person currently dislikes or is annoyed by us", emotional status can be read as "This person is depressed or angry", and the pecking order rank can be read as "This person, by default, is on the bottom". The other problem that arises is that by not socialising, you are usually not trusted enough for people to engage you in actual conversation.

As socialising is entirely foreign to me, a technique I've used is to memorize one good social conversation for each situation, and just keep reusing it. As socialising doesn't actually contain much information, no-one really seems to notice, and these particular conversations seem to read as "all systems go, carry on".

Here's my "just walked in to the office" conversation - where the goal is to perform an "acceptable" amount of socialising, then withdraw without consequences. It can be adapted to many different situations.

When you first walk in the door, someone will usually say "hi" or "hello". Rather than saying the same in return, give an obscure variation. I usually try "yello", "hoy hoy", "heya", or "greetings". This gives the illusion of a spontaneous and friendly greeting, rather than an obligatory one.

The next one is "How are you?". Any "happy" answer to this is acceptable, as long as it's at least 3 syllables - anything less sounds "curt", and puts you under suspicion of not

Rant for 30/10/07 - Zakkies guide to office conversation

Oops! Pressed "post" too early - here's the rest:

The next one is "How are you?". Any "happy" answer to this is acceptable, as long as it's at least 3 syllables - anything less sounds "curt", and puts you under suspicion of not enjoying the conversation. Also, "thanks", as in "not bad, thanks", doesn't count as a syllable, as it's a formal rather than a casual term.

From here on, there's too many options to be entirely comprehensive, so I'll just offer a few possibilities.

Firstly, agree with anything anyone says about the weather. People are apathetic about politics, religion and philosophy, but they'll fight to the death over whether or not it's "too hot" or "too cold".

Secondly, if someone uses a jokoid that's meant as small talk rather than a power-game, the best responses are ones that have no content, but contain the emotional message "I understand and am amused by whatever you just said." These include things like "It's a bit like that", or "Well..." (followed by a grin).

Thirdly, if someone asks what you did on the weekend and you don't actually have anything to go into, a good response is "a lot of sleeping in". People always identify with it, for some reason.

Fourth, if you need to delay while thinking of an answer, have a few "stalling" phrases in stock - Things like "It's sort of like...", or "what's that word...". These phrases imply an "acceptable" reason for pausing to think - i.e. trying to think of a particular scenario or word.

There you go, and over to you - Do you find memorized conversations useful, or do you have other techniques? And if you do use standard conversations, what sort of tricks do you have?

I agree completely. *grins*

But seriously, it has gotten extremely muggy very quickly here - the joys of storm season...

Rant for 31/10/07 - Responsibilities of the Camoflagable

It's occurred to me recently that if I'm serious about the issue of Autistic Rights, as a camouflagable spectrumite, I have a huge responsibility as to the way I live my life - people with the ability to camouflage themselves as NT's (to an extent) have the best chance of breaking down some of the misinformation about autism.

For starters, now that I've achieved some moderate success by NT-world standards (i.e. holding down a steady job, being in a relationship, etc), I have a responsibility to "out" myself - showing those around me that autistic people are real people with real personalities. It's unfortunately easy for people to dismiss visibly different people - as a camoflagable autistic, it is more difficult to be dismissed out of hand.

From here, I have a responsibility to be a paragon of goodness (which is ironic, considering my online name). After I'm outed, any negative behavior will be held against all autistic people, in the sense that they could blame the negative behavior on autism.

In the same vein, I have a responsibility to achieve my own version of success - as any inability to do so could also be held against autism, rather than just me. For instance, if I tell people that I'd love to design a webcomic, and then don't do it, it wouldn't be too long before someone started saying "he wanted to design a webcomic, but was unable to due to his autistic issues".

Another responsibility I have is to nurture and show my uniqueness and general weirdness. If I fail to do this, I will be seen as an autistic person who "got over it", and possibly used as an example against others. For example, someone could say "I know an autistic person, and he seems completely normal - you just mustn't be trying hard enough".

I also have the responsibility to enjoy life and all it has to offer - any less, and autism will be a "tragedy".

In short, if I'm serious about autistic rights, I have the unavoidable burden of aiming to be the best person I can possibly be, in every possible way, all the time. The fate of an entire neurotype depends on it.

But no pressure...

Yay! You'll have to show some pictures of the grand event...

I bet that Batman's happy his word invention has come so far...

I still get the same even though I've been officially DX'd - it comes almost entirely down to looking "normal", rather than having an official status.

It's great that you like the idea, though... *grins*

Rant for 01/11/07 - Crimes against coffee

It seems strange to me that people are so greatly influenced by positively and negatively charged words, regardless of the context in which they're used. The right key word or phrase in the right place can make an bland idea exciting, a harmless behavior sinister, or a disturbing concept agreeable. A brain thus influenced simply locks on to the key word or phrase, tests whether it is positive or negative, then expands the results out to the rest of the content, overruling logic, ethics, and aesthetics.

Nowhere is this form of positive wordplay more noticeable than in the case of curebie organisations. They can talk about reaching out to autistic children, and the public instinct is to respond positively - regardless of how inhuman the treatment being described. A parent can stand up and say they have a right to choose how they raise their child, and the audience will applaud, because "right to choose" is a good thing. If the same person had said that they could do whatever they liked to their child, they would have been booed off the stage - despite the fact that the two statements mean exactly the same thing.

Positive wordplay can be used to justify or sell almost anything. It's the reason people are happy to listen to racist statements when they say "I'm not racist, but". It's the reason that some people actually believe they like the taste of McDonalds food. It's the reason that shops with the "best deals" sell more than the shops that actually sell lower cost goods.

It can be used to justify cruelty, injustice, poverty and war.

And worse than all these things put together, it's the reason it's so hard to find a good cup of coffee.

People like coffee. They know this, so they know that drinking coffee will give them enjoyment. So they go to the nearest coffee shop to buy a coffee, and they know that they enjoy drinking coffee, so when they drink the coffee, they experience enjoyment - not noticing at all if the coffee is weak, over-extracted, syrupy, bitter, or made from dead rats.

This is why coffee places with watered-down or badly made coffee are thriving, while expert barristers are going out of business.

So I implore you - next time you see someone ordering from a dodgy chain-marketed coffee store, march right up to them and say "Peace, love, puppies, give me a hundred dollars, happiness & rainbows".

Maybe eventually they'll learn. If not, you'll at least be able to afford a couple of dozen good cups of coffee.

You raise a good point, in that people's first responsibility is to manage and cope in everyday life. I was a little aware when I wrote this rant that the word "duty" was too strong a word, which is why I wrote the jokey "but no pressure" at the end...

What I'm hoping that people will get out of the rant is that letting people know that the likeable person they talk to every day is autistic will help them understand that it's not such a bad thing, and that once you're "out", it's best to avoid negative behavior.

I agree with you about the "us and them" mentality, and that's not what I meant to advocate here at all - If there is an acceptance of autistic people, it's going to have to involve everyone, after all.

As far as "I love my autism" type statements, I often use them because it's far less clumsy than saying "I'm really not ashamed of my autism at all" - the same way that if a gay person advocates "pride", it doesn't actually mean they think they're better than heterosexual people. That being said, I actually do think that there's qualities of autism that improve my enjoyment of life, and wherever possible, I like to emphasise them over the negatives.

Rant for 02/11/07 - Do motor skill issues exist?

Usually when I write a rant, I try to do a quirky take on something I believe. This time, I have an interesting theory, but I don't know whether I believe it or not - so, more than ever, I'm hoping for other peoples experiences and thoughts.

One of the key traits of Autism and Aspergers, in theory, is issues with motor skill control. While I realise that this is a real, physical issue for certain autistic people, is it necessarily a trait that all autistic people share on a physical level? Or is the universal "clumsiness" another symptom of not socially osmosing certain skills?

For instance, I was always hopeless at sports. However, I can't tell if it's just a lack of motor skills, or a matter of not being able to learn merely by being around others playing the sport. To put it another way, if someone was to come up to me and describe cricket bat motion techniques and other things of a similar nature, would I have been able to play cricket as well as anyone else?

The main reason I call the motor skills thing into question is that I have certain physical skills that look quite impressive - all of them self-taught. For instance, I have a self-invented routine with what I call a "juggling sword" - really a tacky, vaguely sword-shaped Fijian souvenir. I throw this in the air, spinning, then have it spin across the back of my hand, flip it to my other hand, spin it behind my back, and so on. The point being that when learning something on my own, inventing as I go along, fine motor skills don't seem to be a problem for me.

Generally, the method used to teach physical skills is through example. The person teaching will perform the action, then call on others to imitate it, pointing out where the problems lie, and re-imitating to emphasise the problem.

Perhaps if the training method was changed from observation to description, motor skill problems would disappear.

Of course, as I said at the start, I can't rule out that I'm completely wrong on this one.

What thinketh thee?

It's very strange, that some things are affected, and others aren't... Even with basic skills like walking, though, they have to be picked up from somewhere - I still get told that I run "weirdly", for instance... *grins*

I was pretty good at roller skating, for some reason - some things just seem to "click" more than others.

Brains... Brains!...

Rant for 04/11/07 - Random Acts of Perseveration

I just thought of a great idea to promote the Autistic Rights cause, in a way that showcases autistic abilities rather than disabilities. It would take a bit of work, but it's almost guaranteed to gain a cult following, be mentioned on talk shows everywhere, show autistics in a positive light, cure world hunger, end war, and make cheese taste better than ever before...

Well, maybe not the last three.

Basically, the idea is to set up a website dedicated to random acts of perseveration - holding video footage and documentary style pieces on random complex creations and spectacles. This could include obscure art pieces (e.g. large pictures made from rolled up towels, bakery goods, etc), random creations (e.g. dresses made from woven grass, large rubber band balls), Guerilla art performances (where large groups of people are organised to randomly congregate in public and do something odd - e.g. dress in orange and point at a building), Rube Goldberg inventions (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg_machine), or impressive public spectacles.

I got the idea last night when I was introduced to an impressive take on the "mentos and diet coke fountain" experiment on youtube, using 101 bottles of diet coke, and 523 mentos. Here it be:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKoB0MHVBvM

The video has been seen 3 and a half million times in only a year and 4 months.

To do it properly, we'd need either a team of 4 or 5 people willing to do something every couple of weeks, or a large number of small groups willing to do a project every couple of months - So if I can ever find enough local Aspies to start a Brisbane AFF group, then perseverators are go! Or, if there are enough small groups of people out there willing to do a few projects a year, then I'd be happy to do the same.

The best part of the whole thing is that we could actually use it as a fundraiser through ad hosting, donating the proceeds to AFF. Also, it showcases an actual advantage of Autism and Aspergers.

I've already got my first idea planned out. A while ago, Bella and I did a photo shoot with a friend of ours, using a "woodland creature" costume that involved several woven grass strands. Ever since then, I've wanted to make an entire outfit out of woven grass - complete with hat, boots & long cape... This could be the perfect excuse.

To make it work, I think we'd need 4 or 5 people in Brisbane, or 4 or 5 scattered groups of 2 or more people.

What random acts of perseveration would you enjoy seeing? And is there anyone out there that would be willing to get a couple of people together and give it a go? Better yet, are there any Queenslanders that have a penchant for odd activities?