I've seen this pop up a lot over the last few days. It seems many people seem to think that Autism and Aspergers Syndrome is all about being a brat (if a child) or an asshole (if an adult) This is not true, there is far more to both conditions than just being a butt face.

Unable to maintain eye contact during a conversation. This is common amongst Autistics and those with Aspergers. It may give the impression that they are not listening to a word you are saying but take it from me, they are. Or at least I am. I may not maintain eye contact with you and my eyes will wander around the room, but I am listening to every word spoken.

Anxiety in social situations. I get this but only if I am in A: an unfamiliar place such as an unfamiliar town, city or shop for example. Or if I have been left alone with someone I am unfamiliar with. In fact a couple of weeks ago I was sat at a bar drinking a coke, mum and her partner went out for a cig and left me with my brothers GF whom I am not very familiar with, and I just felt the anxiety in me creep up until I had to go to the bathroom to pee and basically calm down.

Sounds/noises can scare. Yep, with some Aspies a certain sound or noise may scare them or they may hate it altogether.

Doing peculiar things to calm oneself. Some Aspies may do something to calm themselves or relax that others may find weird, such as covering their ears, or rocking back and fourth. One thing I do is close my eyes and rock back and fourth in my computer chair cause it relaxes me so much.

They like to keep to a routine. I personally like my routine and I hate if anything changes in that routine. Especially if it is a sudden change it can upset someone with Aspergers/Autism. A prime example is when my family came to stay, I didn't like it as it disrupted my routine, but I wasn't about to allow my family to sleep in a car/shop door way.

They may say or do things that offend others, but seem okay to them. Something I seem to do a lot. I'll say something, or even type something that seems perfectly fine at the time, then someone will get arsey with me over it, making me go back and re-read or re-think what I said or did and I then realize that oops, I should have perhaps re-worded that. The number of people who have called me names and whatnot and my response has been "wtf have I done/did I do?" cause I genuinely do not notice.

There are many, many more traits I can list such as being heavy into a specific hobby or multiple hobbies. I just want people to understand that Autism and Aspergers isn't just about people being an asshole. However I do understand that online specifically, some people do use it as an excuse to be a dick. Which then makes us genuine cases look like dicks too. It should never be used as an excuse. It's reason behind the weird behaviour, but never an excuse for it.

This is a follow on from my Aspie journal.

I kinda feel let down by the school, even though I left school 12 years ago. Why? Because I think if they had picked up on it like they should have, and I was given the right support, my school grades would have been better. I also feel if it was found earlier in my life I wouldn't have found it such a struggle to find and even hold a stable job for the past 12 years. I have been in and out of work for 12 years.

At least now I have an answer and can work at making my life better and learning to handle my Aspergers. I have started to work on a few things myself such as saying high to people first when I see someone I know while outside, instead of either pretending I haven't seen them or letting them speak first.

Yup, it's official.

I have a card that states "This person has Asperger Syndrome" It arrived yesterday.

Not sure if it makes me happy or not. I mean, I am glad I have an answer, but I don;t want people to feel like I am using it as an excuse to be a prick if I show the card.

Well, according to my local council I have anyway. I haven't actually gone anywhere.

As you may be aware I have had family stay here temporarily while they find themselves new accommodation. As such have been using my address as correspondence for their mail and such including mums welfare claims. However our welfare department, for some reason told my council that I no longer live here and that mum does.

Therefor the council, who handle welfare that pays rent and handles the council tax, have suspended my welfare because they "think I have moved" Which is news to me as I have not moved a fucking inch. However this problem has been dealt with.

It's just annoying that departments we rely on for help, make such cock ups. Everyone makes mistakes but these departments cock things up far too frequently.

I follow her page on FB. Excellent page!

He works for a tree surgeon company and has done for quite a few years now. But today something went wrong, his colleague was up a tree trimming branches while her BF was below clearing, however for some reason he didn't hear his colleagues warning that a branch was about to drop and it landed straight on him.

He was wearing a hard hat (thank fuck) but still ended up with a head injury that needed to be glued shut. Now he is showing all the signs of mild concussion and other signs of head injury such as vomiting but at the moment he is okay. If he had not been wearing his hard hat I think his injuries would be far worse, in fact I know they would have been if it didn't kill him.

This is a repost from  Tamara's journal. I am just going to copy/paste her journal here. I know times are difficult but even the smallest of donations is a great help to such organizations.

Hello everyone!

For once in a while, this will be a quite serious journal.

Last year, when I went to the US in June, I spent some time with a good friend of mine in Texas. Since she knows how much I like tigers, she brought me to a nearby animal sanctuary that specializes in big cats: In-Sync Exotics (http://www.insyncexotics.com/), and has a lot of tigers. It was truly awesome, despite the heat wave, to see all these big cats and the beautiful tigers. Some of them gave us a bit of a show, and one of the volunteers even fed some treats to one to show us the mighty fangs of the beast! ^^

Today, my friend told me that the big cats have been infected by distemper virus, probably carried out by a raccoon. They have already lost four big cats, and about 20 more are infected. They're doing everything they can to help their cats fight the illness, but, since there is no cure, all they can do at the moment is fight secondary infections and try to relieve the pain.

Which costs a lot of money. So, if you have any spare money, please send them some to help alleviate the vet costs. They could also use donations of meat for the animals, and also regular supplies for the staff if you happen to be in the area and be able to help.

Here's the link to their website again: http://www.insyncexotics.com/

Please donate if you can, and spread the word in any case. Every little bit helps.

Thank you very much.

Tam

One minute I was writing a reply next minute they've dissapeared off the face of the planet. Google can;t even find the forums or if it does no links work.

Saw this today, thought this was a cool idea.

Rant time.

So as you may, or may not know if you have watched me recently, I currently have my youngest brother, my mother and her partner all staying with me until they find a place to live. They got evicted from their last home, wasn't entirely their fault, but that isn't important.

They have little money coming in, but all her partner has wanted to do is go to the pub. He went yesterday cause he's acting like a big baby over an argument with a car he and mom bought sunday, and he came back rather drunk, had a go at everyone (except me cause I didn't come out of my bedroom) and then proceeded to feed his dinner to the dog, then a couple hours later had the nerve to ask "whats for dinner?"

But that isn't just the issue. I have no privacy, no time to be alone, I get moaned at if I have the volume up "too high" on the computer (even though it's my fucking home) Mum is always asking me to run errands which I don't mind but it IS always me that does it, My bro wont and her partner wont.

Basically it isn't just one big problem getting to me, it's lots of stupid little things, some I haven't mentioned just because they are petty, and it's all stressing me out.

It's coming up to 10:00am and the current temperature is 21celsious (70F) I have never known it to be this hot at this time in the morning.

In the communal area behind my apartment the dear old ladies in the ground floor apartment have a couple of bird tables. One hasn't been used for awhile due to the poor old gal' spending most of the year so far going in and out of hospital. The other one at the opposite end of my block attracts birds and has been attracting squirrels.

So seeing as the old gal my end isn't able to get out side very easily now I figured that next week I'll purchase a couple of bird feeders and some nuts/seeds and hang them this end on her table. Hopefully attracting both birds and squirrels.

So, this afternoon while me and mum were minding our own business we suddenly hear the very loud sound of a helicopter which was unusually low. When we looked out of the window we noted the East Anglian Air Ambulance was circling the area extremely low so we knew they were trying to land. Eventually it lands on a parking lot close by. I go out to be nosy and I find that a gentleman (of unknown age at this time) had collapsed from a suspected heart attack close by. Unfortunately despite the best efforts from four paramedics and half an hour of CPR time was called and the body covered up.


It's kinda left me feeling a mix of emotion. I have never seen CPR actually performed until today and never seen someone die.

As you know from other journal my family is still here. It may take a bit longer to find a place as it has to be from a housing authority as a private landlord wont touch them. Apparently there are private landlords who would but we have yet to bloody find one! I have a high phone bill to prove mum has been phoning around trying to sort things out.

Mums belongings are now safely in a storage place, we did that last Friday.

Which is why I haven't been on IM's or FA much lately. Been a month so far but I'm not in a hurry to get rid of them. My sister is currently laying asleep on an airbed in the lounge as she has just done a night shift. It's a bit cramped in this one bedroom apartment what with my stuff plus a bunch of their belongings too.

As my sister is asleep I can't do what I wanted to do today....yet. I wanted to put in another power outlet in the hallway for the clothes dryer/tumble dryer. Which requires banging in cable clips for the cable.

My mountain bike broke down again. Same cable as last time in the exact same spot which indicates a problem with the outa cable.

I'll fix it later, shouldn't take much longer than 20 minutes.

So dad just phones my little bro basically grilling him for information about mums belongings that are still awaiting collection at her old house. Now originally they were given 14 days to remove their belongings, however it has recently come to our attention that the minimum time by law is 28 days. So the gentleman dealing with mums housing case has said to leave it there cause by law until 28 days is over the landlord can not touch her stuff.

However dad doesn't believe us when we say to him that mum has been trying to contact the estate agents, he was told mum hasn't and seems to rather believe his false informant over his own two sons.

If anyone wants to question whether mum has had contact with the estate agents to try to sort out collection of her goods I can request an itemized phone bill from my phone provider that will show that mum has indeed been making many phone calls to the estate agents. I can also get her call logs from her cell phone where the estate agent in charge has phoned her 3 times over the passed two days.

I really hate being called a liar cause I don't lie.

I have mum and her partner and lil bro staying here temporarily until they get things sorted. and I am using my shitty laptop in the evenings to allow them to sleep in the lounge.

However the charger has just broke on me lol. I've got it to work now but I'll figure out a more perminant solution tomorrow.

I had an over heating issue with the new computer which is now fixed. I managed to fix the heatsink that got busted off in transit and just redid the thermal paste.

I have steam. Only got a couple freebie games at the moment. Just wondered if anyone else plays on steam?

Yep 7 hours ago the bailiff arrived to evict her, her BF, my brother and my sister from their rented accommodation.

What started this? Rent arrears. What sucks about it? The arrears are NOT their fault in the first place. Basically, the council they claim benefit from for the rent has done nothing but fuck them around for past six months. They stopped their benefit three times. First time because a bailiff arrived (allegedly) and reported back that no one lived at the address. Even though the house was clearly full of furniture and had dogs barking inside, clearly lived in. Then the second and third time it got stopped was due to some bastard contacting the council and telling them mums BF no longer lives with her. He's always lived with here. Then the same council that put them in rent arrears refused to help re house them because of the arrears.

Then the woman who turned down their application for help FAILED to refer their case to social services on the day she refused them help as she was supposed to and waited until yesterday afternoon to refer it.

So now Social Services can't do anything to help just yet because they need 7 to 10 days to assess her situation. In case you're wondering why Social Services are involved it's because my brother is a minor.

Nemo being silly.

I just had a peak inside the power supply for my old computer, the one that seemed like it just spontaneously committed suicide the other night despite the fact the computer was switched off.

Well when I had a look inside I found a nice net of cobwebs down one side. Along with a shit ton of dust. I could not find any sign of any electrical component failure, not visual signs anyway so I cleaned out the power unit, grabbed one of my old spare motherboards and tested it....works 100% fine now.

So the cause? lots of dust and cobwebs.

A Magic Museum has just opened up in my town. It's the only one of it's kind in England. It's ran by the Davenport family who have performed magic tricks for generations. Some people find the entrance fee to be a bit high, I however am undecided about that part.

You get a tour of the museum area. A young lady dressed in period clothing gets you to say a magic word to open a door that she says is stuck, however the door you think will open does not open, the wall with a fireplace attached opens. You enter a little courtyard themed area where the young lady talks about how people accused women of being witches many years ago etc and how they were tortured/killed in England. Then you go through to a display area with lots of information and display items. Following that you enter a @shop@ scene with a young gentleman behind the counter who gives a talk on some of the old props magicians used to use many years ago. There are also plenty of props on display. He also demonstrates a trick or two.


Then you walk through to another display area and find a man and a woman who perform an escape trick for you. It's the usual climb into a mail bag, lock the top, cover with a sheet and he escapes in 10 seconds. Of course all that after he hands the items around the audience to make sure they are real. This area also has many old items on display.

Then there is the headless lady. I can't work out how they did it but it is a real woman who appears to be headless in a chair being kept alive by pipes and a machine. Then after all that you get to see a real magic show.

Now, I have seen many magic shows and performances on TV in my time but I have to say, seeing them on TV, then seeing the same tricks performed in front of your eyes is a very different experience.

So, I was sitting here doing the things I do every night such as watch TV, chat online etc when I started getting a strong smell of burning, that smell you get when something electronic starts burning out. Anyway I couldn't pin point where it was coming from then all of a sudden my cat walks over to my old windows XP computer which is set up behind me and starts sniffing around it and meowing.

So I go investigate and find that for some reason even though it was turned off the power supply had developed a fault and started to burn out. If I had not found the source there may well have been a fire in my apartment tonight while I slept.