The vent of a hyperactive mind.

 Welcome to the amazing adventures of Autism Man.  1pm Teaching children using Minecraft 3pm After School club 7pm Struggling to stay awake in front of the TV 8pm Feeling physically ill due to tiredness, stomach pain.  9pm In Bed and 9:15 asleep.  2pm Wide awake and worrying about things that happened yesterday and the work to do later today.  (Feel free to skip this next paragraph to [continue] - it's just the thoughts in my head) I'm stressing (*) about the teachers who I let sign in using their personal emails, because I was so rushed I simply had no time to configure them properly. What if they leave? What if they don't sign out? What if they are signed in to iCloud and more specifically 'find my'. What about my Hwb account, working in the other schools, I'm not an IT tech as seen by county, so I won't be able to log into Intune as my account is down as staff in one school only? How can I transfer it to the other two? They'll likely transfer it, if t...

So fear is a big part of Autism. Fear of things Neurotypicals (NT) presumably, take in their stride, and thats really the purpose of this post, but we'll come on to that later. Like many of my pastimes I've become somewhat obsessed with learning more about Autism and how to address my new niggle, helping people understand how comments like; "We're all a little Autistic",  "Everyone is on the spectrum"  "Autism is a western misconception" (yes, I have had this said to me).  are unhelpful, incorrect, unsympathetic and actually unconsciously ignorant. Turns out comments such as these are known in Neurodivergent circles as 'ableist' and are as offensive to many Autistic folk as Racism is to ethnic minorities.  But why?  Well first let's address what Neurotypicals are trying to do. By playing down our differences and dismissing them as inconsequential, one can only assume that by likening them to their own peculiarities, their motives ar...

Electric cars have become something of a hot topic of late. While it's clear to see the increase of them on a daily commute, the question about ownership costs is still very confusing for most. Trying to compare Kilowatts with Miles per gallon is confusing. So what if we make sense of it using pence per mile? We could do that, but measuring things in Miles Per Gallon when we sell our fuel in litres makes it even more complicated, so let me try and clarify, as, unlike most people, I love making this stuff simple.  Firstly, electric cars. They have batteries. The battery capacity is measured in kW, (kilowatts). Some of the best Electric cars on the market now have around 100 kW (conveniently). Most electric cars will travel for 3 miles for every kW of power they use. So a car with a 100kW battery may travel up to 300 miles before it runs out of power. There's not a massive difference in economy, but some of the best may stretch to 4 miles per kilowatt.  Bearing this in mind, (3 ...

Imagine growing up with someone you thought was a circle. Imagine they thought they were a circle too. They went through their whole life squeezing through different sized shaped holes that they thought they ought to fit and found life difficult and confusing, and tough. Then after their fiftieth birthday, they found out they were in fact a triangle.  What would you say to them, would you offer them support, or ask them what help they needed adapting to life as a triangle, or would you tell them that they are still the same old circle you grew up with.  Last week I found out I am on the Autistic/Aspergers spectrum, verbally, my assessor told me, but on the 27th I will get a full statement of what they have found about me and how things I found impossible to deal with as a child, I have learned to tolerate as an adult (haircuts, sand, noise, smells, grass, social situations, delayed processing, shutting myself off to the outside world, saying the wrong things, etc). I have only...

When I was a child I took a long time to start speaking. I had curly blonde hair and my parents called me Harpo. (after the mute Marx Brother).  When I first learned how to write I wrote from the bottom right to the top left.  I hated sand on my hands, so beach visits were a nightmare, any mess on my hands caused distress.  I didn't make friends easily, I struggled with relationships and how to talk to others.  I have nobody I would call a close friend, very few people who I could open up to emotionally.  I preferred things to people or relationships.  As a teen, I struggled to date, I felt ill and queasy in the presence, or at the thought of a relationship.  Between the ages of 14 through to early 30s, I struggled to eat in public, extreme anxiety meant many a meal out would result in being sick. Stress worsened this phenomenon.  Things are either good or they're shit.  My old manager told me I saw the world as 50% black, 50% white and that ...

The art of conversation can be broken down into a number of elements.  knowing when it's your turn to speak. understanding the topic of conversation. building rapport.  knowing when it's time to end.  I worked in retail from quite a young age. As an undiagnosed Aspergers sufferer, thinking back, this might be the perfect environment to start social skills and to advance them to a highly competent level. But there are also drawbacks, which I will explain later.  As a new starter in a checkout role, customers aren't expecting high levels of engagement. Knowing when it's your turn to speak, in a cash transaction is fairly simple. Many years of this and it becomes a skill you can master. Yet, and this is really important, for an Aspergers sufferer, it never comes naturally, it's a learned skill. You speak, I hear (but don't necessarily listen) and then prepare my next sentence. Conversation skills level 1 achieved.  Moving from this role into a sales role requires n...