glider18's Wonderful World of Autism

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Wonderful thread!

I have a very broad, almost encyclopedic, knowledge of facts.

I have an astounding long-term memory.

I can focus myself very intensely on some problem and solve it.

I see hidden patterns and connections most NTs seem to miss.

I am immune to many of the prejudices common in our society, I treat people as people, not stereotypes.

I can see right through nonsensical taboos and social conventions most others treat as if they were unalterable laws of nature.

Thank you Odin for contributing your positives of autism to this thread. You do indeed sound like you have accepted your gift of autism, unwrapped it, nurtured it, and am letting it enrich your life. It is also great to see that you are researching into the mysteries of autism in the books you are reading---they sound very interesting and worthy of reading. I really enjoying reading Grandin's books. We with autism are definitely a mystery. Welcome to the growing list of those of us with autism who appreciate the gifts it can give to us. I hope to hear from you more on this thread. Feel free to contribute your findings from those books---I am curious about them. I am also curious about the kinds of facts you are encyclopedic on (things you are interested in, or all things?). About the immunity to prejudices---I was just reading a thread on here someplace that talked about that as an AS trait. That is an important and wonderful trait to have---to not be prejudiced.

Hi Batz---quite an interesting and unique piece of writing there. I feel like the English teacher in me has been called to duty. But first, I am glad your scultpures made it through the firing safe---I had wondered about that when you first mentioned doing them some time ago---nothing worse than having them ruined in the kiln. Ok, so this piece of writing---my overall impression is that you are very passionate about the topic due to effective and descriptive word choices in detailing the scene. I am wondering if this might become a selection from the novel you are working on?

So let's start with some basic proofreading things before we analyze the beauty of the descriptiveness of your scene. In the first line, I think you meant to insert "voice" after "her shrill." Oh, let's forget picky proofreading stuff---you will find that when you revise and edit---if you intend to use this in your novel.

I really like the passage of "blood seemed to scrape and squeeze her stomach." You know what you have used there? Alliteration. I like alliteration. That entire paragraph is very strong in description. It definitely hooks the reader in wanting to read on. Nice word choices that work with the exercise. Then you have a very emotional and effective paragraph where the baby is born---very nice---excellent. The rest of the piece is equally as nice too. I would be proud to have written that.

Please take this as a compliment when I say this. If this piece were turned into me when I taught English, I would have to check if for plagiarism as it sounds professional. But, I know that this is your work Batz---you are very passionate about what you are interested in---so I am not accusing you of plagiarism. And knowing you, and if you were a student of mine, then this is the caliber of work I would expect from you. That is the ultimate compliment I feel you could get from a teacher---for that teacher to feel like it is a professional caliber work. Oh...there are some things to correct in proofread/revise/edit---but that is to be expected. If you can keep this kind of enthusiasm/descriptiveness/passion/etc. in your novel---then it should be great. You do have the gift of creative writing . 100 A+.

With the addition of Odin, here is the updated list:

Glider18
Garyww
SpongeBobRocksMao
Millie
Pensieve
DeLoreanDude
GeomAsp
BobTheMartian
Inventor
Sunshower
Outlier
Poopylungstuffing
Morgana
Fiddlerpianist
WaterWater
AnAutisticMind
Starr
Scorpileo
ProfessorX
Danielismyname (your poetry is a gift whether you think so or not)
CanyonWind
Sora (I think you have described autistic gifts in your life whether you realize it or not)
Itsallrosie
Gaya
Dustintorch
Ghfreak13579
TheDoctor82
Lionesss
ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo (in finding something positive about social aloofness)
Dianitapilla
Lita101 (I added your name because you stated that you want to find the good things in autism---that is positive)
Batz
Joshandspot
Prim8
SteveeVader
Tory_canuck
Alba
Odin

Thanks glider for your kind words. I'm not the best proofreader in the world, but when i revise it again I'll check it for mistakes. Now if only I can work on my setting (always been my weakest skill as an aspiring writer) and my vocabulary. I probably have a good vocabulary, but I want to expand it more. That way I can choose the right word and see if I can sound like an educated person in my writing (not saying that big words are often better.)

Forget about me for a minute... how's your novel coming along? I can imagine it right now having themes and a great plot. I'm not usually a reader of Sci-fi (partly because some seem to focus on gadgets more than characters), but I would read yours any day. I know it'll be a great read, might possibly be on the bestsellers list (actually, I shouldn't say that since some books that are on the bestsellers list are horrid to me. I should say win an award.) Who knows... we could be rivals in the future. That'll be great.

Thank you Batz---your words keep me motivated. I need to discipline myself to keep on top of my novel---I have a tendency to not write like I should---but, I always seem to be thinking about it.

I will give you a little summary of a section of it. In the second part of the novel, an autistic teenage boy (classic autism) who is the son of a main character from the first part of the book, has discovered his father's notes about a time warp in a cave. This father has AS. The son enters the cave and eventually finds the time warp described by his father. The boy is transported back in time to the earlier part of the 20th century---and---because of his autism (which was not well known about in America at this early time) finds himself taken into a mental institution of which he must escape. He has a close call with the infamous lobotomist, Dr. Walter Freeman.

I should point out that this cave is filled with a mysterious race of creatures that might best be described as alien. They control the time warp. I should also point out the premise of the story is a quest to find an incredible archaeological discovery that will change the world forever. It is a race to see who can get to this first. If the alien forms get to it first, then the world will be in danger. But the good guys---our two autistic characters and their allies, are guided by the spirits of a long lost ancient civilization.

glider18 wrote

Found something that can be attributed to this. It the Discovery Criteria by Tony Attwood and Carol Gray. It's been posted on another thread recently, but i felt it can be in here too. I think this achieves the positives of AS and Autism.

Batz---Thank you for your compliments on the summary. And, I especially thank you for copy/pasting the Attwood/Gray discovery criteria list. I hit most of those. With all the positives there, you bring up a great point---doctors should focus on the positives rather than the negatives. I have this view for my youngest son who is going for testing in a few weeks. I feel like if he is diagnosed with autism (probably AS or PDD-NOS in my opinion), then the doctor will probably want to seek a course of medication or therapy to counteract negatives. But what if that doctor, like you said, were to focus on the positives? That would be wonderful. If I were a doctor I would say, "Your child has AS, and although there will be some challenges, let's look at all the positive gifts you can expect from it." So that is my view---I will look for and focus on his positives and strengths. I love the way he is, and I don't want to change him. The reason for seeking a diagnosis is so that his teachers will know, and therefore they can understand him. See, in our school, there have been several students before him diagnosed with AS (and at least one with classic autism)---so the teachers have experience with them. And I will say, our teachers and school seem to focus on the positives. I feel like our school is an exception in handling differences. There is a boy who just finished the 7th grade here that has classic autism. To most people he would seem very challenged. But at our public school district he has been regarded in a gifted way. The students are generally mystified by him and how he can recall encyclopedic knowledge. The students respect him and he is generally the center of attention because he has come to view himself as positive and therefore places himself within circles of friends. Those circles aren't feeling sorry for him and including him out of sympathy. They are including him because he glows with a positive air that can be contagious. Just seeing him and his perpetual smile brightens up my day. And he is on the school's football team, track team, and band (he plays drums). But the point is, like you said, to focus on the positives---and then look what happens?

Pensieve---Do you find that at times noise levels can be more bothersome? I do. I know I stress positives (as can be seen by the response to Batz), but I also know we have challenges. But, as Batz said, "for every negative there's a positive." But, the challenges are there---so we have to deal with them. And like you---noise is a challenge for me (also bright light and touch---and to some extent with smell and taste too). When I perform in big band jazz concerts I really feel the loud sound of the trumpets behind me (I play trombone in it). It is a professional band with a lot of experience, so we often play loud. And those trumpets immediately behind me really crank out the decibels. I probably have some hearing damage as a result of all the concerts I have played in. Whenever loudness like that occurs, I almost feel like a huge weight is smashing me into the ground. You bring up an important point when you say that knowing people in the situation can make it alright for you. That is often like that for me too. You mention working with promoters and security---I can understand where that would be stressful. The shutdown card idea sounds like a good idea. I was in a sort of shutdown mode last night at my sons' Bible School. I was staying in the basement fellowship hall where some other parents and helpers were. And I remember once a lady pecking me on the shoulder and repeating what she had just asked me (that I had shut out). I was just absorbed away and didn't realize she was speaking to me. There is one little boy at the Bible School that I think might have classic autism. This was interesting because everytime he would do something "autistic-like", my youngest son (who is going for a diagnosis soon) would turn around from his table (several feet away) and focus on the boy. I didn't see the other children doing that to that extent. But I too would notice the boy. I feel like those of us with autism often quickly recognize other autistics. It's like we autistics often become in tune with each other. Pensieve---never give up your love of photography. Whether you know it or not, you have a reputation as being an extremely talented photographer. You have published photos. You are great. Keep focused on that.

Glider, simply wanted to say, that all the times I've read a great deal of your posts they never seem to fall along the lines of being seen as negative.Honestly, a great deal of things have transpired in my life and some of it not very good but, I'm glad to be like you, in that you always have something useful to say or reply with posts that are very meaningful.Anyways, since I'm not known for Stephen Hawking long posts, I'll conclude with saying have a wonderful day Glider..

Well today I got my sculptures back, and they're beautiful. I like the humanoid creature one better though, party because I put most of my time on it.

As for that exercise, someone said I didn't know the first thing about childbirth. They actually gave me a harsh critique, even though they didn't mean it. I know I don't know a thing about childbirth because I'm too young to experience it and because I'm a male. As you know glider, I written it at the top of my head, and because I posted that it was an exercise on description on here, they should've known that.

I was disappointed and mad at the same time, but you know what? I only do that for exercises. I only write spontaneously for exercises; if I was writing a short story I would've research everything I didn't know, outline the story, and revise it many times so much it would seem real. I want my stories to be real, so why would I not research something if I wanted it to be the final draft, a good final draft at that.. Besides, I said I only want to know if it was descriptive. Aaargh!

No, I shouldn't think like that. Everyone makes mistakes. I achieved my objective no matter what anyone else thinks. It's descriptive, that's all I needed to know about it. As time goes on I'll experience many things in life. Yeah... that's it. I'll show them next time with my short story. Just keep a positive attitude and don't think about it. Just brush it aside. It's only an exercise. Not like I'm going to publish it.

Whew... felt much better. Sorry, just had a moment here. But still, I would've researched childbirth if it was part of a final draft. Exercises help, but their more for practice and achieving what you need to achieve. Might still think about this tonight, but I'll be better. I just hhave to pray to research and finish my short story.

Thanks. Needed someone to talk to. Just couldn't take it off my mind.

This week I took beginner robotics. I was having a good time until some of the smaller kids disrupted the Lego City. I mean they would get in the way and play with things when we're supposed to do tasks with them. Unfortunately the bigger kids got into the fun too, and because it was too loud I spaced out. They annoyed me to death, and the bad thing was some of them were in the physics camp, so what else could I expect? I almost yelled at one of them, "Are you ADHD?" cause he really acted as if he had it, and he was annoying me. Just acting stupid.

I almost know nothing about robotics, but I thought it would be interesting. Takes too much math and not enough creativity. I mean, it does take creativity, but I would rather work on something where creativity is key like writing or music. Creativity is more important than just knowing math formulas and facts to me. I mean when I was in a group I almost said nothing since I barely know anything about it. I used to be a person of science, but now I think it's flawed.

Pensieve---That little boy I was talking about in Bible school...I asked some people who know the family, and he is autistic. I am assuming it is classic autism from my observation of him. Tonight was the Bible school picnic and a funny thing happened with him. He and his mother were playing cornhole and she asked him to throw the beanbag. He picked up the beanbag and threw it hard right onto her foot. Well, that ended their cornhole playing, and he went back to playing with the rest of the kids inside the big bouncy balloon thing. You mentioned the stacking of stuff with the boy you saw...I can relate to that. Mom said I used to stack stuff a lot.

ProfessorX---Thank you for the post ProfessorX. I appreciate you seeing my posts as useful. I truly try to speak from the heart. I hope you have a wonderful day too .

Batz---I'm glad your sculptures are beatiful. I have this image in my mind of what they look like. I would love to see a picture of them. As for your writing exercise---hmmm---I saw it as an exercise in description like you did. And that is what it was. So...phooey on your critiques. What do they know . You are talented and you know it. And I agree, if you were to write the "real thing" (novel or short story) you would be incredible. It helps to unload and rant every once in awhile. As for your Lego City---that would be irritating. Ooh---the loudness---I would space out too. As for the robotics, I would be like you. I would prefer the creativity there I think. And even though math was a strong subject for me, well, I think I would have gotten bored with it too. Good luck to you.

Thank you glider for the kind comment. It means much to me. You're righ, who cares what those critics say about my exercise. It's suppose to focus on description, and I did just that. I'm better now thanks to you.

We presented our robots today and demonstarted what they can do. Ours worked except for the part where we had to take the solar panel from the roof and bring it back to base (Takes two robots to do that.)

Well, as for sculpting, I now bought two packages of Sculpey clay: lightweight clay and Sculpey III (the colored kind.) I haven't used them yet. They're oven-bake clay, so I don't have to use a kiln, just an ordinary oven. Don't know what to sculpt though. Thoughts should come to me tomorrow.

I've been thinking for a few days about my saga some more (the one with the crystals as elements.) The one book where an evil dictator rules.

I've been wondering: I want to keep the evil dictator, but I want the story to have irony at the same time. I want the evil dictator to be the main character's best friend (he's from 25xx A.D.) from the near future. In his time frame crime is at a record stats, and everywhere you go there's poverty and anarchy. A group of criminals kills the main character (the female robot), and because of this her friend's traumatized by it so much he views criminals as evil and wants to do something to stop it. The only thing is though, he's not powerful enough, and the most powerful diamond has been lost during the revolution (they have a revoultion in his time frame. Ironically, the country's the United States before the revolution.)

So using the element time, he goes back to two years before he and her sister found the main character and steals the diamond. Then he causes a revolution and overthrows the government (Democracy gone. No freedom in the United States (the name'll change afterhe overthrows it.) He vows to fix the "problems" of society, and the people believe him. But when he says fix the problems, he means criminals. So he starts an operation to kill criminals and their families or relegate them to camps or out the country. The criminals won't take the abuse anymore, so they band together and start the coup against the dictator. And then two years pass and the war continues and that's where the story begins: in a utopia surrounded by the rim of poverty and desolation. So in other words, he's become what he hated, and he made a state in which he hated in the future.

Then I added one more book, but this one is where the main character's friend discovers his alternate reality version of himself, but he's nothing like the main character's friend. Like his future version, his alternate reality version lives in a world full of poverty, but it's ruled by a twelve beings from the fifth book. The twelve beings (I call them Jurors since they're made by the Creator to eradicate evil) each have a jewel--each is represented by an animal of the Chinese zodiac--implanted in them, and when they die the jewel stays so the successors will come, but this can only be safely done by a ritual; if not then the predecessor will speak to the successor's conscience and might even torment his/her body until they do the predecessor's bidding.

His alternate reality twin has Sin's eye (still thinking of how), and with it he saw the future of the main character's world going to an apocalypse like his. So he, his home reality twin, the main character, and a group of friends have to gather the jewels and destroy them. before the world ends with poverty. Unfortunately, some of the jewels found their successors illegally and they want to eradicate the world (although Sin's been washed from it in book four) thanks to the predecessor's torturing them. What's worse, even if you find a jewel it'll only be destroyed if all twelve were there at once and a diamond with a pure soul reside in a weapon. And the main character's friend's dad is one of the successors. This one's more complicated, and it attributes to all the books except the first one. But this will be the end of the diamonds for sure.

I think these twists might be effective and make the story a lot better than just say an evil dictator attacking people just because he can. I think having the country being the former United States is a great idea and just complete irony, seeing how our nation's the epitome of freedom and Democracy (no, I'm not anti-American; just thought it would be a great idea.) I just need to figure out how to plot it later on after I finish their future predecessors. I know I shouldn't be spilling details about my books now, but I can trust you. It's what we autistic people are good at.

So, forgetting about the saga for now... how's your book coming along? Should be exciting to add any plot twists once not thought of yet. Writing is can be onerous, but it's more like a fun activity at camp. I know you'll make it.

As for me, I need to stop being lazy with writing. I read Probverbs from the Bible since it's the best place to look up passages about laziness. One passage fits me. Now I'm going to make a schedule so I can write every day. Hope this helps.

Sorry for the monologue.