Archive for June, 2011

your dreams will be reduced down to breathing, and you will be grateful

The thing about not-being-a-person is: They will say those people and the price of being a person is to nod and agree that yes, those people aren’t people at all. They will have no idea who they are talking to. You yourself will start to forget, too. They will say a million small things that sow the seeds for violence done against you, and you will smile and let them. You will do math, constantly. How much do I want to be a person today? How much do I want this project to succeed? How much honesty can I afford? How much dishonesty will kill me? What is the cost of coming out? Is there a way to delay, soften, transmute? How long can I survive as half a person? Ever since the world ended ... I don't go out as much. People that I once befriended, just don't bother to stay in touch. Things that used to seem so splendid, don't really matter today. It's just as well the world ended -- it wasn't working anyway. Your dreams will be reduced down to breathing. [Read More]

on 03/5/12 | 2 Comments | Read More

Spotting Psychopaths in the Workplace

One of my favorite books is Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe:  A Novel.  There is a chapter that starts out talking about how a complete stranger is the only person to spot that an a...[Read More]

on 06/30/11 | 20 Comments | Read More

Conflict in the workplace: Introduction to Psychopaths, Sociopaths and Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Psychopath.  Sociopath.  Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD).  Whatever you want to call it, in the workplace, these individuals are poison and prey upon their coworkers as means to get an end ....[Read More]

on 06/30/11 | 3 Comments | Read More

The Eternal Song, Part Ten: Lost

Broken sobs woke Wiilu again, finding their way into dreams of fear and pain that dissolved into the heavy midnight air and left only fragments behind. “The Gods have left us. We are lost.” ...[Read More]

on 06/29/11 | No Comments | Read More

Autism’s Mirror

There was nothing but the roaring sound of rubber spinning on asphalt at a hundred and ten kilometres per hour.  In Perth everyone lives as far away from everyone as they possibly can.  So it was ...[Read More]

on 06/28/11 | 1 Comment | Read More

Can Extroverts Be Beaten at Their Own Game?

Not likely. Extroverts are very, very good at what they do.  Competitive social interaction is what they have a talent for, what they’re passionate about, and what they put all of their time and...[Read More]

on 06/27/11 | No Comments | Read More

Music and the Positive Side of Auditory Processing Disorder

Most of you know my challenges with my auditory processing condition: difficulties filtering sound, fatigue when trying to carry on a conversation with too much ambient noise, words getting jumbled...[Read More]

on 06/24/11 | 2 Comments | Read More

The Eternal Song, Part Nine: Mountain

The stony ground under Riadne’s feet seemed almost as familiar to her as her lost home, although she had marked no path through the stunted trees and thorny bushes. Where the light tread of her lea...[Read More]

on 06/22/11 | No Comments | Read More

The Prof put on the spot - a recent interview with Professor Simon Baron-Cohen about his latest book

Kim Wombles has done a long and interesting email interview with the controversial Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, a professor at Cambridge and a Director of the powerful and prestigious Autism Resear...[Read More]

on 06/21/11 | 7 Comments | Read More

Introvert vs. Extrovert: Mental Health

As an introvert I have been made to feel many times that my ways are unhealthy or that I am even borderline mentally ill.  My values and priorities are so alien to them that they naturally assume ...[Read More]

on 06/20/11 | 2 Comments | Read More

Of Spice, Epicureanism, and Masochism: Confessions of an Aspergian Food Lover

One day this past week, my fiancé and I went to Lotus Grill, a Chinese eatery that is near where I work.  A few weeks back, the owner’s son had given us a Chinese menu, which is a little differe...[Read More]

on 06/17/11 | 5 Comments | Read More

A Strange Encounter

A stranger observed the playground.  The scene was perfectly normal and just a little bit odd at the same time. It was a bit too quiet for a playground filled with so many children.  A nine year o...[Read More]

on 06/16/11 | No Comments | Read More

The Eternal Song, Part Eight: Forest

Overhead the tree rats chittered, hidden by a thick canopy of laurel leaves. Birds chirped and trilled. A light drizzle fell, its soft patter a near-constant background noise that went almost unnoti...[Read More]

on 06/15/11 | No Comments | Read More

Normal? No Thanks.

When we try to push our ASD kids into normal or NT behaviours, what does that mean?  After all there's plenty of NT kids and adults I don't want my children to act like.  Rude, aggressive, selfis...[Read More]

on 06/14/11 | 3 Comments | Read More

The Myth of Introvert Weakness

Weak, shy, sheltered, spineless, head in the clouds, detached from ‘reality.' These are the things extroverts tend to assume about someone who does not immediately compete for attention.  All su...[Read More]

on 06/13/11 | 3 Comments | Read More

Greetings, members of NATO. We are Anonymous.

What follows here is to be read in the light of an earlier entry that looked at conflicts between autistic and corporate culture, An Autistic Ethos: It’s All About Respect.  In that post, it was su...[Read More]

on 06/13/11 | 4 Comments | Read More

Neurodiversity, Grief, and the Normal Minority, Part Two

Leaving behind one’s own normality Having an autistic child means that an able-bodied parent can no longer lay claim to being normal.  I don’t care if that autistic child grows up to win the...[Read More]

on 06/10/11 | 2 Comments | Read More

Neurodiversity, Grief, and the Normal Minority, Part One

“The worlds created by the human imagination are far more coherent and structured than the real social systems in which we live, and the mental constructs by which we make sense of society are only ...[Read More]

on 06/9/11 | No Comments | Read More

The Eternal Song, Part Seven: Shards and Dust

Leaving Wiilu to raise the alarm, Riadne took a short detour to her potter’s shed just outside the village. The long shelves held jars, bowls, and other crockery. She spared them no more than a br...[Read More]

on 06/8/11 | 3 Comments | Read More

Friction of Association and Social Selectivity

According to present tendencies: -The more people in society, the less personal it becomes. -The more mechanical it becomes, the more sophisticated formal rules and red tape required to maintain o...[Read More]

on 06/6/11 | No Comments | Read More

The “Intense World Syndrome” Theory of Autism

In an October, 2007 article, Henry Markram, Tania Rinaldi, and Kamila Markram of the Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, posit a new theory about how ...[Read More]

on 06/3/11 | 7 Comments | Read More

The Eternal Song, Part Six: Warning

The berry bushes on the slope of the valley had produced a good crop this season. Wiilu dropped another big juicy handful into her basket, which was close to overflowing. Because the weather had bee...[Read More]

on 06/1/11 | 6 Comments | Read More