LBnuke

Autiblogger 1.3

2 comments February 16th, 2008 630 views

I have been so busy with work lately that it has been very hard to keep up with non-work websites. Since most of the sites do not need much ongoing maintenance, this has not been a big problem, but Autiblogger has been needing some TLC for a while now. I had to shut down on-site registration a while back due to an insane number of splogs and anyone who wanted a blog had to contact me. Not ideal.

Autiblogger has now been updated to the latest version of WordPress MU! This new version includes security updates and more tools to regulate signups. This means that Autiblogger registration is open again!

I would like to extend a huge thank you to Andrea Rennick for doing the update! It went quite smoothly with a minimum of downtime. She also added some spammer protection above and beyond what the software itself provides. Andrea runs the WPMU Tutorials site.

In other exciting autistic community website news, aspieSocial has passed the 70 member mark and is becoming a nice community with quite a few regulars, interesting discussions, and some great bloggers.

I get very excited about the ever expanding network of autistic community websites. When I first came on the scene 3 years ago, there were just a handful, most notably Wrong Planet, a site started by 16 year old Alex Plank (now 21). Now there are many community sites, and thanks to Kevin Leitch, the Autism Hub, a network of autism related blogs.

I think these sites are very important for educating the general public about autism and especially for helping autistic people to find each other.

Filed under: Autism / Asperger's

Tags: website, wordpress-mu

Aspie Handbook?

1 comment February 8th, 2008 771 views

From Rands In Repose: The Nerd Handbook

Your nerd might come off as not liking people. Small talk. Those first awkward five minutes when two people are forced to interact. Small talk is the bane of the nerd’s existence because small talk is a combination of aspects of the world that your nerd hates. When your nerd is staring at a stranger, all he’s thinking is, “I have no system for understanding this messy person in front of me”.

I know that not all aspies are computer nerds, but if this article were to be more generalized so that computers could be replaced with any special interest/obsession, I think parts of it could function as a an aspie handbook too.

All standard disclaimers about gross generalizations apply.

Filed under: Autism / Asperger's, Geekery

The Importance of Logic

2 comments February 4th, 2008 795 views

Today is the 8 year anniversary of K’s and my first date (Thursday is our 4th wedding anniversary ). Difficult times and all, these have been the best 8 years of my life.

K has changed my life in so many ways and opened my mind and heart to possibilities that I never thought were possible.

Before I met K, I had never wanted to live with anyone other than random friends and strangers. I thought it would drive me insane and even thinking about it put me into an immediate state of panic. For some reason, that did not happen when I thought about living with K, and I have loved every minute of it since the first day she moved into my house in Berkeley (with aforementioned random friends and strangers). I have loved it even more since we have gotten our own house.

A few other things that have changed:

• People that I care about now receive holiday and birthday cards.
• I can be myself at home. For the most part, I am myself wherever I go, but much shyer and constantly aware of trying to appear normal. This means expending tremendous amounts of energy trying to focus on what is going on around me and making sure I don’t do things that make me look ‘weird’ even if they make me feel better, like rocking back and forth or jumping up and down.
• I have done things that I would have never before thought possible like going to Europe and enjoying a surprise party.

There are many more things, but I will not list them all here. I will say that these kinds of things happen because of a kind of trust that I have never had before.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the relationship between truth, logic, and trust.

Over the years, I have learned that logic can be situational. That lesson has saved my sanity more times than I can count.

I do not necessarily need things to fit into my own logical framework, but I do need them to fit into SOME logical framework.

I have a lifelong fascination with World War II that is focused on trying to understand the conditions in the world that allowed the Nazi Party to come to power and exterminate over 10 million people and how the US could nearly wipe two entire cities and their mostly civilian populations off the face of the earth by dropping atomic bombs on them.

I have come to the point where I can understand the desperation that would allow people support the Nazis, and the fear of punishment or death combined with feeling powerless that would stop them from speaking up. I do not think I will ever understand the inhumanity of what the Nazis or US government did to so many innocent people.

This kind of situational logic can make sense of things that would otherwise seem completely illogical. Unfortunately, it can not make sense of everything.

One thing that I have learned from being with K for all these years is that there can be truth without logic. This has been one of the hardest things I have ever learned and it is still very difficult to accept it at times.

Here is an example:

Truth A: I tell K that I hate surprises and make her promise never to throw me a surprise party. She agrees.

Truth B: After knowing Truth A for years, K throws me a surprise birthday party.

When I think about this, it seems completely illogical. Why would she do something that I specifically asked her never to do?

But nothing is that simple. There are other truths to consider — other variables and frameworks that affect the situation:

Truth C: K loves me and wants me to be happy. She is aware of what is going on in my head and in my heart. She would never do anything to hurt me.

Based on my simple logic, these 3 truths can not coexist and all be true. But they are truths, so they are true. This tells me that I need to look outside of my own logical framework to understand. Understanding things is very important to me.

Variable 1: Internal logic - In a closed system, there can be internal logic. Every person has their own system of internal logic. It is closed in the way that everything affects it and you can not undo things that have already happened. It is open in the way that it is constantly changing as new information is entered into the system.

In the case of this example, Variable 1 is K’s internal logic. This is my interpretation of that logic at work:

Truths:

• Lori does not like surprises and has asked never to have a surprise party.
• Lori has had a very difficult year and has been much more isolated than usual from people.
• Lori is sad and doesn’t understand why people would want to be friends with her because she doesn’t like to be with people very often and is not always so good keeping in touch with them.

K’s Internal Logic (as interpreted by me):

• It is Lori’s 40th birthday and it needs to have a proper celebration.
• Lori has friends that love her just the way she is. There are reasons for this that Lori easily forgets when she is feeling bad.
• I will throw her a surprise 40th birthday party so that she will know that she has friends who care about her. I will do it in the least stressful way possible - Have the party at home. No one yells surprise.
• It will make Lori happy.

In this framework, it is completely logical to throw me a surprise birthday party. Even though it was totally outside of my own logical framework, the party had its intended effect. It made me happy. I had a great time and I was reminded that I have great friends that care about me.

My own completely logical logic would not have led to these conclusions. Sometimes, logic is not completely logical, especially when there are human beings involved. It is things like this that make life very confusing.

Thinking about all of this makes me realize the importance of logic and truth and how it can be especially important to autistic people that have a hard time deciphering hidden information. By hidden, I mean that it is never communicated directly. This missing information can be the difference between understanding and trusting someone, and isolation from people because of not understanding or trusting them.

To a person who takes things literally and is not so good at ‘reading between the lines’, understanding the logical framework of something can be very important. It seems to me like many people automatically understand things based on a shared logical framework that I have never had. It is the framework of human interaction and includes a set of common beliefs that seem illogical to a person who is not operating within this framework. I am not sure if other people have to work so hard to make sense of these things or if making sense of them is even so important to other people.

K is a person who makes sense to me and a person who understands me. That is a rare and beautiful thing and there is not a moment when I do not know how lucky I am.

One more reason why K rules — She just got us tickets to the sold out Grateful Dead show (to support Barack Obama) at the Warfield tonight! She checked online because sometimes they release tickets on the day of the show. Genius! The show was sold out again a few minutes later.

Happy Anniversary, K!

Filed under: Autism / Asperger's, Random

Tags: ramble

aspieSocial

3 comments January 6th, 2008 851 views

***Anouncement!***

There is a new website for adults on the autistic spectrum who want to meet each other just for the sake of socializing. It is called called aspieSocial.com. If this sounds interesting to you, please come and join us!

Social is usually not the first word that comes to mind when thinking about autistic people, but the truth is that many of us have an interest and a desire to be social. It just doesn’t always work out. I am sure there are lots of different reasons for that but there seems to be a few that are common to people on the spectrum.

One of the most common things seems to be that, for some reason, the set of rules that seems obvious to most people for socialization and interaction are either unknown to many of us and/or do not make any sense at all.

When I was younger, I did not know the rules. There was no good reason why I shouldn’t know them. My parents tried crazy hard to teach them to me. My brother learned them with no problem. Other kids at school knew them to the point where harsh punishment would be given to those of us who were clueless.

Over the years, I have learned many of the rules and use them as often as possible. For instance, when you see someone you know, you say hello and ask them how they are doing. The standard answer to this is some form of “Fine. How are you?”. You answer in turn and then talk about the weather or a sports team. Depending on how well you know the person, this can also include what you did for the weekend or will be doing next weekend. People may or may not pay attention to or care about the answers. It does not seem to matter as long as there is no ‘awkward silence’. Any silence at all is awkward. This is called small talk. I believe that in many cases people actually care how each other are doing, but the things that follow the greeting often seem random and pointless. Worst of all, there are many situations in which lying is appropriate and expected.

I can not at all understand why this makes any sense. What is the point of talking about nothing just so it is not quiet? Why is quiet bad? If people are going to lie, what is the point of talking at all? If you are expected to not tell the truth if it will make someone uncomfortable, what is the point of having any communication at all? These rules seem to defy logic. I do not think I will ever understand them.

When I first started meeting other autistic people, I discovered that things do not need to be that way. Not everyone understands, follows, or even agrees with these rules. It was a huge revelation for me. It was the first time I was ever with people who are like me in that way. When I went to my first meeting with other autistic people, suddenly the thing that made me feel so different for so long — like I was the only one in the whole world who was missing this critical understanding of how people work — was changed forever. A certain kind of core loneliness was relieved.

I have been very lucky to make some very close friends over the years, but I still am kind of clueless about what to do when I am with people who I like but am not very close to. I find that when I hang out with other people w/asperger’s or other types of autism, it is much easier to socialize. While some of the rules are expected (such as not being mean to people), others are tossed out the window. It is suddenly okay for there to be silence. The conversation seems much more real even though there may be fewer words exchanged.

One night a few weeks ago, me and my friend d (aka zippityd) were out having drinks at a local bar and talking about making a website. She was thinking of making some kind of aspie social or dating site. We decided that one thing missing from the quickly growing online autistic community was a site just for being social, like myspace, but not like myspace. I have wanted to do something like that for a couple of years now. It was my original plan for the aspieland domain name, but at the time the open source solutions I tried were not ready for prime time. Then I got way too busy.

D is very busy too, but there are faster, easier ways to make an online community these days. I suggested we use ning, an online community for making online communities. I had played around with it in its beginning days and then forgot about it. I was reminded again because this years macworld conference is using ning for a macworld community site. I like the way it worked and suggested it to d. A week or so later, she sent me a link to the first draft of aspieSocial. She had opened an account and created the whole thing just like we talked about! I was very impressed and even more excited. This site was going to exist. Thanks d!

We invited a few people and they told a few people and there are now 35 members. If you are interested in something like this or know someone who might be, come visit us at aspieSocial.com!

Filed under: Autism / Asperger's

Tags: aspieSocial, website

if $brain >= $fried ? ramble : $code;

2 comments December 1st, 2007 1,487 views

I am too busy. I suck at being busy. It is my worst thing and it always ends badly. I am not sure how to not be busy. It is a vicious cycle. As soon as I start feeling better, I want to do things. All the things that I can’t do when I am sick. I want to work. I want to play. Sometimes, I even want to see people.

I was sick for so long. First a year of bad meds and then cat scratch fever. I was lucky that the meds thing got straightened out before the CSF, but it is only very recently that I can enjoy it. Suddenly, I find myself feeling great! I still get tired and confused, but that is ok. It is part of how I am. After such a long time of not being able to do things that I wanted to, I feel like it is a race for time to do them now that I am feeling good. I would love to think it will always be like this, but the truth is that it is not and never has been.

The thing is, I think it could be like this most of the time if I didn’t have stress. I know that is impossible, but it would be possible to have much less stress. Only problem with that is I would be stuck not doing anything I want to do again. I am stressed by working. I am stressed by traveling. I am stressed by being around people. My brain gets overloaded and bad things happen. I get sick. The screaming in my head that is kept in the background by the meds gets louder. My brain shuts down. I twitch like crazy. I become miserable and useless.

I have no idea what to do about this. I want to work so badly. I love what I do. It is like being paid for doing puzzles and arts and crafts. When I code, my brain is in a happy place. Everything makes sense. It has to. As an added bonus, I get to take that code and turn it into a (hopefully) beautiful thing to look at. I am not a graphic artist by any means, so even the art part is like a puzzle. I combine graphic art made by actual artists, with photoshop skills and an eye for detail, and create an entirely new thing that never existed before. What’s not to love?

I was wanting to go to Florida to see my niece Hannah and the rest of my family for a whole year, but couldn’t because of being too sick. Then all of a sudden, I was okay to travel. It is a rare and beautiful thing. There was no way I wasn’t going to Florida. The trip (airplane, etc.) went pretty well thanks to Dramamine and, as always, being with Karen made everything better and more fun. Being in Florida was even okay. I love my family, but I hate Florida. I can’t deal with the hot and humid weather. We completely lucked out with that. Not insanely hot or humid. Last time I was there, I couldn’t even stand to be outside for more than a minute. Got instantly exhausted and dizzy.

It was really great to see my family. Hannah is beyond the legal limits of cute. It was so nice to get to know her better and see her sweet smile. I really loved getting to see her with my brother, sister-in-law, and parents too. They are a family. I am so glad they live so close to each other. Sometimes it is hard living so far away. Sometimes I wish Florida was in Nevada. My cousin Eric was there too. It is always nice to see him and my aunt Wilma and uncle Pat too. Sarah’s (sister-in-law) family was there too. It was nice to see them too. So nice, that we brought her sister Sam back with us. She will be going to acupuncture school in Berkeley starting in January and has been staying with us this past week. She magically found a great place to live in Berkeley on her fist try and will be moving in today.

Bad Apples

Haven’t had enough rambling yet? Then on to the saga of the bad imacs. Me, my dad, and my brother all got new aluminum imacs last month. 2 out of 3 of them were duds. There was a problem with the ATI graphics cards. The whole computer was unstable because of it. Black screens, blue screens, strange graphics, freezing, etc. Windows X 10.5? There has been a firmware update for the graphics cards released that appears to fix the problem for most, if not all, people. Thankfully, my brother’s was fine from the start. Both me and my dad returned our computers and got brand new replacements. All is good now.

The new imac came with Leopard and now that it works, I have been loving it! The screen is huge! Not only is it 24″, but I have been using Spaces, a new feature of Leopard where you can have several “desktops” and easily switch between them. For example I can have photoshop open in one desktop, giving it the entire screen to itself, mail and safari open in another, Firefox and BBedit in another, etc.

Time Machine is totally cool too. I can’t even believe how easy it is to back up. You plug in the external drive and the mac asks if you want to use it for Time Machine. You click ‘yes’. That is it. Your hard drive is being backed up every hour and saving daily, weekly, and monthly backups for as far back in time as the drive will allow. When it gets full, it asks if you would like it to delete the oldest backups to make room. Unbelievable! I will still make daily clones as soon as super duper is Leopard ready, but Time Machine offers a different kind of backup that is easier to use, automatic, and frequent.

Just a few more things to ramble about before I go…

K - I am so very proud of K! She has been saving the world as always. In recognition of her hard work, she has gotten a promotion at work and is now a supervisor, which is the direction she has been wanting to go. Congratulations K! It makes me happy to know that people will have an opportunity to learn from her and benefit from her years of experience.

Warcrack - Shikibee has joined a new guild and is about to ding level 50.

Rehab - I am meeting with someone once a week who will help me research if there are jobs available where I can do contract work from home or with a very flexible schedule. I would really like that. Freelancing is great because I set my own hours and don’t have to answer to anyone except my clients, but I work all the time and barely make any money.

If I did contracted work instead, someone else would be dealing with the clients, setting the prices, and all of the other business related things that I can not do. Even splitting the money with an agency or other company, it is very likely that I would make more money than I do now. I hope something like that could work out. I was hoping that I could keep my current clients and stop taking new freelance jobs if there were contract jobs available instead.

Wordpress 2.3 Update - This one went much more smoothly than the last two. I wish there was a way to manage tags, but from what I understand, the dev team is waiting to find out what people want rather than starting with a ton of features that people may or may not use and then having to change them later. I am looking forward to 2.4 and the new admin changes.

Joomla 1.5 - I am working on a new client site with Joomla 1.5 RC3. It has been very stable and the code is MUCH cleaner than before. I love the new templating system and look forward to its final release and the updated extensions that will follow. If you are planning to integrate any kind of forums into your site, stay with 1.0.x for now.

phpBB3 - Love it! Tons of improvements over phpBB2. Current release is RC8. This update has been a long time in the making. I am hoping that converting from older version will not be total hell.

I have finally run out of things to ramble about for now

Filed under: Autism / Asperger's, Geekery, Mac Stuff, Random, Travel

Tags: family, imac, life, mac, wordpress, work