Pressing Puzzles

One of my favorite Simon Pegg movie is "The World's End". In the movie, the small town that Simon's character (Gary King) grew up in has been very different since he left. The people in the town have been being replaced with robotic people which Gary's group of lads called...Blanks. The group decided the name for two reasons: 1. To make sure to identify who was human and who wasn't and 2. The fake people in the town had no personality or life in them, just hollow. Right now I feel a little like that. Not only do I feel like I have no life in me but, my mind is completely blank as well. This is a dangerous position to be in. I'm reach out to you, the reading audience, because I have a feeling you have either been thought this phase or are still in this funk. As I write these blog entries, there have been several occasions when I have a really great idea for an entry, but getting it organized and typed on the screen can be one of the most difficult task...

As I'm writing this entry, my Kansas City Royals (baseball team) have won the 2015 World Series for the first time in 30 years! I realize as you read this it may not matter to you because when I look to see who have been reading my posts, many of you are not only from other parts of the U.S., but a lot of you are from all over the world! I can't tell you how humbling that makes me feel. The reason why I wanted to bring this topic to your attention isn't the fact that I was actually at game 7 of the World Series in 1985, or that afterwards we were the jokes of late night shows because we were awful after that, but what the win has done in general for the whole city.   Since I'm seeing this through Asperger eyes, I've noticed a lot of 'small' things that might not mean much, but I believe have a larger impact as I write this. The parade for the team will being on Tuesday November 3, 2015 and schools are actually cancelling classes for the parade. Back in ...

I have, in some form or fashion, addressed this topic on intelligence, but I thought I'd hit this head on. One of the big things that people with Asperger's gets tied with is having a high intelligence. I have to admit that I've had a hard time finding solid evidence on all people with Asperger's having a high intelligence. I guess this a bit of a piggy back to my earlier posting #78 No Talent Required. The difference between these two is I'm going to address the intelligence in general versus the talents from Asperger's (or Savants).  When it comes to the topic of intelligence, I get a similar feeling like in high school when the class decides on 'the most successful' label. I say this because I've always questioned what is successful? In turn I would also ask in the same breath what is intelligent? Testing the intelligence of someone used to seem like either a brainiac, just an average person or an idiot...depending on the score which is reall...

On HBO, there is a special program that comes on most Sundays called "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver". In one of his segments he addressed the very thing I'm going to talk about, but with a slight variation...mental health. John noted that it seems like the topic only comes up where ever there has been a mass shooting because the media has this sense that the shooter had a history of mental illness. Basically, John laid the cards out on the table and challenged law makers to do something to help the mentally challenged and give them the help they really need, not buses, retirement homes or prison! John's not kidding; a report put out by the Treatment Advocacy Center (TAC) found that there are ten times more mentally ill people behind bars than in State hospitals. Being put in prison isn't going to help anybody! The main topic I'm going to address is how the media and politicians throw around the term Asperger's like they want to use it as a label to j...

Way back in my posting #26 Raining Cats and Dogs, I spoke about all the animals we had in the house and how the animals were therapy for the twins. Since they have Asperger's, psychologists feel that people with our condition would be helped if we had an animal for therapeutic reasons. I'm not the biggest fan of animals because I'm usually the one who has to clean up after their messes. I'm not sure how therapeutic that would be for me cleaning after pee or poop 'accidents'. However, this event is one that really deserved a special posting all by itself. If you were able to read the 26th posting, you would know who Sheba was. I'm very sad to report that on September 25th, 2015, Jaimee and I had to make the grueling decision to put Sheba down. Sheba was 16 years old. As an owner, you know these moments are going to come yet you never seemed to be prepared for that time when you have to put the animal to sleep. Jaimee and I have had to put down other anim...

The rumors are true; this is my 100th entry of my blog. It's funny because sometimes when you start something you never know how long things might last; in this case, this blog that I've been writing. The number one hundred seems to be one of those pinnacle moments in anything we might write or celebrate...like age or other things. Since I have Asperger's and I've mentioned on several posting that I'm a numbers guy so 100 to me can mean a lot of different things. Money, for example, only goes as high as 100 in dollars. As much as prices are on everything you would think that our government would introduce a higher bill, but no...100 dollars is the top of the heap. A newly elected President tends to be judged by the first 100 days in office; which started with Franklin Roosevelt. 100 is an even number and if you're at 100% then you are considered complete or at the max. I remember there was a rather interesting game show called “1 versus 100” were one contestant...

This is going to be a special posting because of this article that was published on a website called TheDailyBeast.com. The article was date May 11th, 2009. I wanted to share my thoughts especially since many of my entries deal with their 'findings'. I will subsequently edit many portions of the article for adequate reading length and reaction. Here is the article: A Radical New Autism Theory A groundbreaking study suggests people with autism-spectrum disorders such as Asperger’s do not lack empathy—rather they feel others’ emotions too intensely to cope. [ First of all, I feel insulted by the first three words, this isn't 'groundbreaking'! Researchers and all of us Aspies already knew we have emotions...we're not a bunch of robots!] Henry and Kamila Markram of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, suggests that the fundamental problem in autism-spectrum disorders is not a social deficiency, but rather an hypersensitivity to...

This is going to be one of those autism open observation moments: I was in the grocery store the other day and I had to buy eggs. As I looked them over I noticed that brown eggs were on sale and the white ones were at the regular price so I decided to pick the brown eggs because they were on sale! (Duh!) As simplistic as that sounds, I find it fascinating that generally white eggs tend to sell more than brown ones. I guess there are lots of reasons for this like white seems to be a 'cleaner' color and more ‘normal’ than brown. Whenever we look at pictures of eggs, most of them tend to be white. Let's just say I've never seen brown eggs in a children's book or in a cartoon. To my understanding, other than the color, there is no difference between white and brown eggs! Again, I know this sounds silly, but since I have the mind of an Aspie, these little things that don't really seem much actually are important to me. I guess the colored egg thing seems to get me w...

Way back in an earlier posting, I wrote about music. This posting was music in general and some of the influences I had when it came to music, but I decided that one particular artist needed my full attention on my blog because he is very special to me. I must first preface by saying that I'm not a country music fan. There are very few country artists I can actually say I 'like'. Johnny Cash is one of those very few artists that really can't be placed in a certain musical category. Think about it, Johnny Cash is the only person to be inducted into 4 different music Halls Of Fame: The Song Writers (1977), The Country Music (1980), The Rock-n-Roll (1992) and The Gospel Music (2010)! To me, Johnny is more than just being in four Halls of Fame, it's the message and the music that really reached out to me like it did for millions of other people. I have to echo my sentiments when Justin Timberlake won the MTV award for best video over the video Johnny Cash made from...

Since the main holiday in July is our (USA) Independence Day, this got me thinking about why this is celebrated and are we really honoring what the holiday is supposed to mean? If you ask most people about July 4th, I'm sure most people will say that we're celebrating our freedom here in America, but I honestly tend to question the idea that America is actually 'free'. In the Avenger's movie, Loki describes freedom as "...life's great lie." where he believed that we (Americans) really didn't understand what freedom was supposed to be; to him "we were made to be ruled." If we are 'ruled' properly then we are 'free'. I know that sounds a bit twisted but remember this did come from Loki the god of mischief. Honestly, I've questioned a lot about my self-discovery of Asperger's was freeing for me. I think finally getting an answer to what I'd questioned for many years from my childhood to adulthood is freeing in ...

I want to let you know right away that I'm NOT saying that my Asperger's is a disease nor am I going to try to gross you out, but this is a topic that has come up way too many times in my life very recently. A couple of times this year (2015) I have been getting MRSA or a staph infection. If you’re not sure what this is here is what the Mayo Clinic says: " Staph infections are caused by staphylococcus bacteria, types of germs commonly found on the skin or in the nose of even healthy individuals. Most of the time, these bacteria cause no problems or result in relatively minor skin infections.   But staph infections can turn deadly if the bacteria invade deeper into your body, entering your bloodstream, joints, bones, lungs or heart. A growing number of otherwise healthy people are developing life-threatening staph infections.  Treatment usually involves antibiotics and drainage of the infected area. However, some staph infections no longer respond to common antibiotics. ...