Tag Archives: life

I’ll Be Back Again

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I’m currently sitting at my gate in Halifax Robert Stanfield International Airport. It’s been a really, really good trip; great and Âû-some all at once.

Remember I mentioned that friend of my sister’s who has an autistic son? We went over to their place for dinner, before I was dropped off at the airport. And I got so many wonderful hugs – everyone was staring! He was hugely affectionate to me. It was great! (I’m told that usually he’s either willing to engage or goes and shuts himself in his room – something that I always used to do, or want to do – and that he was even more engaged with me than my sister has ever seen him. It was au-some!)

It’s really been a wonderful trip. I got to see my niece and nephews, got to spend time with them, with them and my sister, and with my sister alone. But I’m happy to be heading back home as well. I miss my puddy tat, and my parents. (Yes, Mom and Dad, you’re up there in what I miss. It’s not all the cats. 😉 )

Meeting everyone, spending time with people, and the work we’re doing with CAPP – this trip is definitely going in my favourite memories.

About an hour before the flight’s due to leave. Next post will be from St. John’s, as usual.

‘Later, all!

🙂 tagÂûght

Nova Scotia, How I Love Thee

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So, I’ve been in Nova Scotia for over a week now. I leave in just over 49 hours (from the time I posted this). And I had a wonderful day yesterday. I figured it was time to discuss.

This will be a somewhat long post, talking a bit about my family and a lot about the main/original reason I’m here, which is to do with the Canadian Autism Partnership Project. No details of our discussions – those are confidential – but just how it went, and how the group related to each other, and various bits and pieces.

Read on….

Let’s Talk About: Storybooks! Post #1

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So, here’s the thing. When I was at Social Club this afternoon, our facilitator mentioned that she’d been looking in the ASNL Library for resources – storybooks – to help some parents explain certain things to their children. Unfortunately, she wasn’t too happy with what she found – some she liked the wording but not the illustrations, some she liked the illustrations but not the wording, and some were “yuck”.

Because we’re a pretty creative group, she came up with the idea that maybe we could go ahead and write (and illustrate) some of these missing resources. We all loved the idea. So, one of the first things we have to do is research – and I’m turning to you. Autistic adults – what (of the subjects listed below) would you have wanted to read to help you as a kid? Autistic teens, what about you? Parents, can you ask your kids? Do you have any suggestions for wording? Are there any other subjects you think would be helpful? And if we’re satisfied with what we produce… would you like us to publish them?

Read on for details!

Autism Canada

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So, the website for Autism Canada has just gone live: autismcanada.org. I’ve been poking around, and so far it looks fairly good. I have, however, felt the need to send them a copy of my letter about Light It Up Blue, since that’s one of the National Awareness campaigns they have listed. I have also joined their forum under the username tagÂûght (just waiting for official approval), so anyone else who wants to join is welcome to discuss this blog with me. 🙂

Still poking around, but note that they do have the DSM-5 criteria listed, including the severity criteria (3 levels – I’d say I’m either level 1 or 2 in communication, and level 1 in “restricted” interests, although my sensory issues might push me up to level 2 in that as well).

They also have a directory, called Autism Junction, at autismjunction.ca, which has a wide variety of service providers for autistics, both child and adult. It’s not complete, but is still under construction; there’s a form to fill out for any service providers who aren’t listed already. (I’ve sent an email to two that I know of, advising them of this.)

Going to be seeing if there’s any way that I can include blogs in the list of resources, and let them know about my blog. 🙂

[Edit] Under “About Autism”, they have a good listing of co-morbid diagnoses, and what may indicate one (I’m going to check out the PDF they include for further details). However, the “Evolution of Autism” page is not about how autism can evolve throughout a person’s life, it’s about the recognition of autism since Leo Kanner first identified it. Honestly? I think details about how it can change throughout a person’s life would be more useful. [/end edit]

‘Later, all!

🙂 tagÂûght

Let’s Talk About: Scripting

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So, at about 3am this morning when I was trying to go back to sleep (after being woken by the plow backing up in the lot behind our house – why doesn’t St. John’s believe in soundproofing houses?!), I remembered where I meant to take yesterday’s post on brooding. Scripting!

(Note that in this case, I’m really talking about a specific subdivision of scripting: putting together something in your own words, rather than either copying someone else’s – still a valid form of communication – or repeating a set of words and actions over and over, to either deal with something or because it’s a comfortable routine, for whatever reason, or any other reason that one might do that. There are bound to be other reasons out there. :))

Click for more rambling….

Stats and #NaNoWriMo 2014

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I know, it’s been a while. Sorry, guys. I’ve been… a bit preoccupied with stuff, I’m afraid. Life, the Universe, and Everything. But… two things have happened today. First of all, I’m doing NaNoWriMo again this year (of course), and I’ve ended up way ahead of the curve on my word count. 🙂 Check out the details on my Other Blog, at the NaNoWriMo14 tag!

The second thing was that my stats for this site spiked hugely! As in, I’ve got over 1,200 views today!

It seems someone posted a link to one of my posts on Facebook, and I got a ton of visitors. So, whoever you are, thank you very much for that! The more people visit this blog, the more they will hopefully understand and accept about autism, autistics, and people in general. 🙂

Anyway, just wanted to let people know that I’m not dead, that if you want to know what I’m doing this month just pop over to my Other Blog, and to publically thank whoever posted the link on Facebook.

I will likely have a few recommendation posts later this month, because there have been a series of posts on a couple of blogs that I want to bring attention to. But other than that, it’s November, meaning that most of my concentration is given over to NaNoWriMo. *wry smile*

‘Later, all!

🙂 tagAught

Recommendation: Splines Theory by Luna Lindsey

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So, I was taking a look at my stats (yay, people are interested in my analysis of the problems with the SD article!), and I noticed a referring link from www.lunalindsey.com. I went, okay, I haven’t seen this before… so I clicked on the link.

The post is titled: Splines Theory: A Spoons Metaphor for Autism. In it, Ms. Lindsey looks at the spoons metaphor for dealing with energy resources with invisible disabilities, and some issues she has with it, and provides a new metaphor for exploring what’s going on that causes us to have energy drains and difficulty changing routines and such. (And a commenter adds another metaphor, for those who aren’t a comfortable with computer-oriented ones.)

It’s a rather interesting look at things, and resonates with me. Quite a bit. It makes sense – even more sense than the spoons metaphor (which is incorporated into the Splines Theory as a whole). I like it.

So I’m recommending this post. 😉

🙂 tagAught

Let’s Talk About: Modes of Thought – Followup

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This post is a followup to Let’s Talk About: Imagination and Modes of Thought. Partially because while I wasn’t entirely wrong about my “mode of thought”, I wasn’t exactly correct about it either; and partially because there’s a new Tumblr blog out there called “Autistic Thinking” that I recently stumbled across. The aim of the Autistic Thinking blog is to: “[describe] the different and possibly unusual patterns of thought and perception experienced by autistic people of all types. It’s meant to show how diverse we actually are, compared to the simplified ideas other people have of us”, to quote the blog description. And reading it, I got inspired to write this post, because of my recent ruminations about how exactly I do think.

Want to read my thoughts on this? Go on! 🙂

Recommendation: What Is Autism? by Nick Walker

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This is a guest post on the blog Raising Rebel Souls. Nick Walker is autistic, and has come up with a description of autism that matches my own experience and, as I understand it, the experiences of the majority of my fellow autistics, no matter where they might fit on the spectrum. He also removes the pathologizing element from the equation / description, and writes clearly, presenting facts as they are known.

I highly recommend that everyone read this post: Guest Post from Nick Walker: What is Autism?

Or, alternatively, you can also find the details of his part of the post (though not Mom2Rebels’ additional comments) at his own blog, Neurocosmopolitanism, at What Is Autism?

🙂 tagAught