Pressing Puzzles

As you may or may not know that my wife has been through a horrible ordeal that involved her slipping on some wet wax and falling on the cement floor on her elbow. Ever since that time, she has gone through several surgeries and countless hours of physical therapy. Sadly, she has found herself having to take pain medication to help ease her chronic pain. We've tried different methods of helping her out, but many of the treatments just don't seem to work. I have been going through a tiny bit of pain myself since I got a boil under my left arm which blossomed into this massive infection. I just learned that it is a form of staff infection. Jaimee has been trying to squeeze out as much of the infection as she could, but I can tell you that this is incredibly painful. The pain feels like hundreds of wasp’s sting my side all at once. I have had all kinds of pain in different places for different reasons, but I have to admit this is probably one of the worst I can remember.  I c...

I'll never forget Star Trek: The Next Generation when they had a new kind of character called Data. Data was an android and that created a lot of controversy among the crew because there has never been an android officer before. On the show, the crew clearly sees Data as an outcast because he is unlike any other life form they're ever had to deal with. In many cases, the crew gets in to situations where they just don't know how to handle the android. In some ways, crew members have a tendency not to even try to know or understand how Data ticks. Data so desperately tries to understand how humans work; in their emotions, rational thinking and unpredictability. We know that Data was an android, but I often wonder if he were human with autism...would there be any real difference between the two. Of course there are other movies that feature androids, but Star Trek seems to come first to my mind because Data seemed to really strive to try to be human; almost like Pinocchio...

Came in from a rainy Thursday on the avenue Thought I heard you talking softly I turned on the lights, the TV and the radio But still I can't escape the ghost of you What has happened to it all? Crazy, some'd say Where is the life that I recognize? Gone away But I won't cry for yesterday There's an ordinary world somehow I have to find And as I try to make my way To the ordinary world I will learn to survive Passion or coincidence once prompted you to say Pride will tear us both apart Well, now pride's gone out the window Cross the rooftops, run away Left me in the vacuum of my heart What has happened to me? Crazy, some'd say Where is my friend when I need you most? Gone away But I won't cry for yesterday There's an ordinary world somehow I have to find And as I try to make my way To the ordinary world I will learn to survive What has happened to it all? Crazy, some'd say Where is ...

Throughout many of my postings, I have highlighted news stories about people with autism/Asperger's and the plight they had to inure. This one honestly makes me very angry and sad because the end is one that was truly tragic. The story is that of the late Graham Gentles who had Asperger's Syndrome and he had found himself face to face with a traumatic situation all because of his condition. Below is the story from Yahoo news: Three days after Graham Gentles was fired without warning from the Pasadena Target where he worked last July, the 22-year-old committed suicide. Now his mother, Virginia Gentles, is calling for Target to take responsibility for its role in his death. In the wrongful death lawsuit Virginia filed against Target in L.A. she alleges that the company engaged in intentional infliction of emotional distress on her son, who had Asperger’s syndrome, negligence, and false imprisonment as part of a company practice that subjects employees to a “walk of shame” ...

Even though the news has been always the same, the method of which it is delivered has changed a great deal just within the last decade. I remember my oldest daughter being a person who didn't want to miss anything! And I mean a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g! Christmas, Birthdays you name it, she knew it...parties, presents everything. So in a small way, I really empathize with her like catching the news because I feel like if I don't then I might have missed something important. I realize there is a lot of negative feels when it comes to the news, but one usually should expect the 'bad' news. After word of mouth, we decided to put our news to print and for a very long time that is how we got our information. Then the radio came along and the news suddenly came a little faster than a standard newspaper because families would huddle around the radio for news or even entertainment. Movies came along soon after the radio where people could see news clips, but the one invention that r...

As I write this blog, there has been a series of unrest in several communities about violence that has occurred and there seems to be no justice or closure. In previous entries, I've addressed anger, stress, frustration, and conviction; but this goes a little deeper with most of the topics getting swirled together in this mixture. As an adult with Asperger's Syndrome, I'm not a robot and I understand the whole complexities of hate. I have admittedly hated situations, people, and even certain events that I completely disagreed with in the past; but this goes much further than my own little issues. Hatred is a natural, but incredibly dark part of our humanity. The best comparison I can think of is that of a tornado. A tornado is natural and is a part of nature, but we all know how deadly and destructive a tornado can be. Like hatred, a tornado just doesn't pop out of nowhere and starts to destroy things; it begins as a rotating vortex in the upper atmosphere of a thu...

I'm not aiming to sound like a typical "Chicken Soup for the Soul" book, but as the end of this year is upon us; I can't think of any better time to address the one thing most people look for in a New Year...Hope. I've spoken on several topics that directly relate to my Asperger's Syndrome and others that simply are observations in my life, but hope is one of those that will tend to cross over between the two areas and I have addressed in other entries. I have written on topics that generally tend to be sad and negative so for someone like me to talk about something more positive and tying with my Asperger's is a little unusual, but I am a human being and I do like to look at life in a way were victory can be obtained rather than simply falling in defeat. So I guess the first question could be why in the world is a guy with Asperger's writing an entry about hope when most of his stuff is on suffering and death? I think the best answer I can give i...