Batman,
Don't buy into the idea that there is some wonderful, shining "norm" that everyone should be measured against. Your skills and talents have their own value, without comparing them to any one else. No matter how it might feel on some days, you do bring something to this world that no one else can, your perspective. I started visiting this board because my son is a 3 yr. old Aspie, and I want to learn from the people with the real experience of what Asperger's is all about. Remember, we're doing something great here by valuing the spectrum. That means we value the WHOLE RANGE of people, not just the people who don't ever need a dictionary or who can actually understand Einstein's theories. If we did that, we'd be just as limited as the NT culture that sees folks on the spectrum as less than "normal."
You're a part of this, a part of us all, and we need your opinions, feelings and experiences, too.
Rant for 26/10/07 - So, which one's the Blockhead?
A few days ago, while reading a Big Issue magazine, I came across an obscure reference to a song by Ian Dury and the Blockheads called "Spasticus Autisticus". After a little research, an intriguing tale emerged...
The song was written during the International Year of Disabled Persons. After a conversation with an autistic man (who also contributed most of the song lyrics), Ian penned the song as a parody of the pity culture surrounding this event. In his own words (from
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/stories/s114185.htm):
I wrote this because partly it's the Year of the Disabled and partly because last year I met some people at a concert who were severely disabled - very, very spastic men - and I had a long talk with him and he's got an Honours Degree in English from Cambridge University and yet nobody could understand what he said. And in fact he told me that he was treated as if he was an idiot all the time by the people that he'd met and that his massive frustration was just communicating with ordinary people and being an ordinary person. He was a very brainy person but that didn't help his normal life at all.
The title of the song is intended to be a reference to Sparticus. The lyrics are a very tongue-in-cheek reference to the image the public has of disabled people. For example:
So place your hard-earned peanuts in my tin
And thank the Creator you're not in the state I'm in
So long have I been languished on the shelf
I must give all proceedings to myself
Unfortunately, the song was widely seen as offensive to disabled people, and was banned by the BBC, among others - despite having been actually written by an autistic person.
If the people involved had paid a little more attention to what the song was actually about, it could have led to a much greater realisation of autistic creativity. It makes me wonder - how many forms of autistic self-expression have been squashed due to this sort of over-protectiveness? It seems to be almost common practice to ignore or deny what an autistic person says, if the receiving party dislikes the message they're getting.
I'm dedicating today, or what's left of it, to the memory of Ian Dury, who tried and failed to give the public a wake-up call. And there's only one way to do it. Turn the volume up loud, and click below...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4NiFnDhrrA
i'd like to point out that it was unbanned once it was dicovered that it wasn't being offensive or so i have heard
Of course, both these problems would be eliminated if we switched over to a dictatorship ruled by me. I shall have to suggest it...
hubby suggests this often (for himself) but no one has taken him up on it. Wonder why?
There must be a fight to the death to decide on who rightfully takes the dictatorship. 
... Or it could be shared, but there's really not much fun in sharing.
No, fights to the death are much more exciting I think.
I would like peoples thoughts on autistic communities and towns: i am currently writing a document on the subject,and i want other peoples ideas and quotes
well,i am not only discussing the exlusively autistic models (ie:Infinity Island) but also just converting a single street or area ( a la erkolos),the Aut run town,and any other theories anyone else wants to lob at me :p
Actually, I don't know if the way I write really has anything to do with Synesthesia. Writing is not really difficult for me. For short stories, I keep writing in my mind and the first few sentences of the story just kinda flow into my mind. From there it's just a matter of just going with the flow. I do get comments on my stories about the strong character voice and oddly enough, people can see morals in the stories where I didn't really intend a moral. I get a feel for the character really quickly and just go with it. That is also probably tied up in me recognizing 'a voice' in other's writings.
Actually, I thought hearing a voice in your head was common... But maybe other people always hear the voice in their head and aren't selective like me. For instance, if the piece doesn't flow properly, I can't hear the voice and then I really can't connect to any emotion in it and find it hard to concentrate.
I don't know precisely what this means, but a lot of words and frequently used phrases seem to have their own personality for me. I have an entire list of words in my head that, quite frankly, are simply "ugly." Hence I hate using them, or reading them. I do think there is some sort of odd sensory component, partly behind this.
Anyone else know what this is?
Assigning personalities to words and phrases would definitely be a form of Synesthesia.
Just to clarify, is it that these words actually seem to have a personality, or just that you feel an unexplained negative reaction to them? Because the other possibility is that you've somehow placed these words into the "reactive" part of your brain - the same way that people place swear words, or that extremely literary types place grammatical errors...
Rant for 20/11/07 - Energy Theory - Part 1: The Insane Theoretical Base
Tonight I thought I'd tell you a bit about my religion. And by my religion, I mean literally mine - I've invented it from scratch (mostly - Richard Bach was probably a big influence, as was the "Mage: The Ascension" roleplaying game), and I'm the sole member.
I was originally not going to do this one as a rant, as it sounds as insane as any of the other religions out there do, but I have so many theories related to it (my social interaction theory, simple body language interpretation methods, why people play power games) that it would seem disconnected not to let you know the insane theory that I base it all on.
The whole thing started after an episode of Northern Exposure. One of the characters, Chris, was talking about the nature of solid matter. I can't find the exact quote, but it was something to the effect of this:
"Everything that seems solid around us is mostly nothing, with a small amount of atoms. Then you look at these atoms, and they're mostly space, with sub-atomic particles. Now they're finding that even these sub-atomic particles are made up of mostly space, with quarks and other strange things. The further down we go, the more it seems that the building blocks of everything, is nothing."
This spun me out for weeks. How could everything around us not really be there? Obviously something was there, but at the same time, nothing was.
Over time, I came to the idea that the things that did exist were information, thought, and personality. The physical world was merely an agreed-upon metaphor for interactions between these personalities - for example, if someone was in communication with another person, the physical aspect of that person would appear to be physically near to the other person.
Over time, this agreed-upon physical reality became strong enough that it was able to greatly influence the actuality of interactions. For example, if someones physical body was unable to get within talking distance of another persons physical body due to the agreed-upon physical laws, they would be unable to communicate.
I'd like to remind you all again at this point that this is religion, not science - these things just "seemed right" for me, and I have very little evidence to back them up. No real evidence against them, either - at least none that works for me.
What the whole thing boils down to is that the only thing that exists are different entities. These entities have access to a certain amount of "energy" that allows them to do things, create or alter concepts, communicate, influence others, etc. At one point, many different entities decided to make a physical world to interact in - probably just for the hell of it. Over long periods of time, the amount of energy put into this physical world became enough that the physical laws were able to influence these entities, limiting or enabling many different types of communication, "virtual" tasks, enjoyable activities, etc - and thus we have the physical world.
In short, the physical world is the ultimate in virtual reality.
There you have it, and I hope you found it interesting. The main reason I wanted to put it out there is that I often think of social and personal interaction theories in terms of energy exchanges, and I wanted you all to know what I was basing it off before I started. I was tempted to start off the other theories by saying something like "Imagine a thing called social energy. This energy does the following...", but it just sounded a bit dull.
Here's a quote to get you interested:
GOD DREAMS DIVINELY
Interesting idea, and I might have to have a look, just for curiousities sake.
Interesting though it might be, this theory has very little to do with mine, as I do not believe in God - regardless of what sort of god-energy-complex theory God is described as.
How does one know one's limit is reached? Having said that I doubt that I will ever reach 20 posts a day-takes me a long time to write one actually- not that I don't have lots to say...
Hmm, can we bank our unused posts? Trade or Sell 'em??
That was a well-timed comment. I just hit reply, and got this message:
"I'm sorry, but your daily post limit has been exceeded. Please wait till tommorow to post further or contact your administrator.
The maximum amount of posts you may make in a day is 20"
*grins* If we could buy extra posts, I'd probably go broke...
I don't believe that anyone is perfect & I certainly didn't expect a perfect child since there is no such thing...
I expected to have whatever kind of child I would give birth to. In other words I had no particular expectations.
I also believe ' once a parent- always a parent'. I care for / look out for / look after / support my children & always will, whatever their age.
You're a good parent woman from mars. I think this statement was meant for people who won't accept their children for who they are. To tell you the truth, I was a bit shocked when I read that speech of his. It just doesn't seem right that anybody could say those things to themselves about their child. But I have seen videos of parents who hate their autistic children, so perhaps it is a relevant thing to say.
I am applying your methodology to my newly instigated daily posts to JohnBeastJr's "hatingautism" blog. If anyone is capable of maintaining their cool in the face of grossly offensive provocation, please join me. "For the triumph of evil, all that is necessary is for good aspies to do nothing". Ignoring bullies doesn't stop bullying. [That's NT evil, not Zakkie evil ]