Pressing Puzzles

If you've had the opportunity to read any of my blogs, you might have noticed that there were many times in my life that I would thrust myself into the role of the leader. It's been peppered all through out my different postings, from scouting to teaching. I guess the question would have to be 'Why am I greatly drawn to a leadership position when I try to avoid people and conflict?!!!! Arrrrrrr!' Very frustrating! It doesn't seem to make any sense. I guess I could think of it like an 'arm chair quarterback', I would gripe about how things should be; but I actually want to do something about it. It seems like I feel compelled to step up and do the job, rather than simply complain. In its simplest form, I'm the leader of the house...or at least that is what my wife wants me to think. She does a lot of backdoor deals that I tend to be unaware of. When there is life or limb on the line, I'm usually the one who makes the final decision...storms, emerge...

Other than superheroes, the one thing that has stuck with me my entire life has been Science Fiction. You've probably noticed me making different references to many different Sci-Fi shows in my previous blogs. The earliest thing I can remember that first captivated my love of science fiction has to be Doctor Who. It was one of the first shows I got to see on television...aside from Star Trek (original). Tom Baker was the actor who played the title role at the time and he was so quirky and funny, I naturally got sucked in. I guess in many ways, I could identify with the Doctor because he seemed to be a lot like me. (The Doctor with Asperger's? That might explain a lot!) Growing up, I would join in on fan clubs from America and Canada; then every once in a while, I'd get to go to a convention. I have to tip my cap to Doctor Who because it was that series that got me reading books. I was never a big fan of all-print books, but when I found out that they had printed Dr. Who ...

"You are what you eat." Does this statement define who you are? A few might say so, but I think it goes a lot deeper than that. I've been writing these blogs for a while now and I would assume one would label me as having Autism, so I guess you could call me Autistic. However, you also know me as a father, a husband, a son, a brother, an uncle, and not too far off...granddad. So...what am I? A Christian? A teacher? A writer? A heterosexual? A lover? A fighter? It seems like we've gotten into this habit of labeling everything. Even some of these labels have turned into fads. Anyone still remember the 'Hippies'? It's frustrating when society takes a way of life for some people and blows it up into fad. Makes me wonder if they'll try to turn autism into a fad! It's a just cause, I mean, I didn't get this from a vaccination needle or from a mere choice, but I was born with it. Now that I think about it, I guess deep down me having the label of a...

Again, another topic to which I'm wondering why I didn't get to earlier considering how much I enjoy it. Right now my biggest obsession is Fantasy Sports (Football, Baseball, Hockey, and Basketball). I love playing it, but NOT for money; two reasons: 1. I don't feel like possibly losing money. 2. Because my wife would kill me. Even though I'm in my forties now, I still yearn for the day to play around with a soccer ball or a tennis ball, golf ball...you get the idea. Growing up, the big sports person in my family wasn't my dad...it was mom. She would watch sports many times and we even got to go to major sporting events like Royals games (Baseball) or Kings Games (When the KC Kings basketball team was still in town.) [sad face]. One of the biggest thrills for me was being able to go to game 7 of the World Series in 1985. (Yes, the Royals won the Series that year...and yes again; we USED to be a great team.) The two main sports I played were soccer and baseball. M...

I will say in some cases I do have a fear of failure. It's not constantly on my mind, but it does play a role in my thought processes. When I was growing up, I would always try my best at many different things, but in the end I would fail more times than I succeed. It didn't matter if it was sports, video games, tests in school, and of course...girls; I was a failure. As I've stated in previous blog pieces, every time I failed, I would always wonder what was wrong with me. Granted, my having Asperger's had little to do with certain events or competition because that was strictly physical, rather than social settings or mental tests. Thinking I fail all the time is a little silly because I didn't fail all the time. If I failed, I wouldn't have a college degree, a wife and a family so in many ways I did succeed. I guess we all have a tendency to look at only what we didn't do versus what we were able to accomplish. In sports, most of my teams either won or ...

I'm sure the first question on your mind is 'How can I have Asperger's Syndrome and love being on stage or in front of a camera'? Strangely, I wonder that myself! I'm not an actively out-going person. I like doing activities with others, but I'm not looking for a party every Friday night. There's just something about the theatre that almost seems magical. I really got hooked when I was in middle school. My parents enrolled me and my brother in an acting workshop at our local community college; from then on, I really liked acting. I didn't really get a chance to act until I got to high school because my middle school didn't have drama classes. I was fortunate to be casted in the fall play my freshman year. The play was called "A Flea in Her Ear" and I had a great time. The older members of the cast were really good to me. (By the way, my wife was dating one of the seniors in our cast at the time.) In my 2nd year I was a bartender in "D...

I realize autism is symbolized by a puzzles piece and I've noticed that some people have taken some offense to that, but this doesn't deal directly with that topic. This is a straight observation on puzzles and how they affect me and the twins. With the new age of electronic devices, it has changed to way we do pretty much everything! In this case I want to focus on puzzles because there are lots of computer game companies that are betting on us to buy their own special puzzle game, whether it is on the iPad, iTouch or smart phone. I will say that I do own an iTouch and yes, I do love it! Unfortunately, I can get sucked into several good puzzle games. So far the top ones I love to play are Chuzzle, Bejeweled, Tiki Totems and of course...Angry Birds. To be honest, I also will go 'old school' and play Solitaire, Mahjong, Sudoku and even Tetris because they still have a place in my heart. Sometimes the simpler games I would rather play because they are quick and easier ...