The Health Report
Good day everyone!
I got up and I vomited my two oranges.
I did intend to have yoghurt; as it is a probiotic it shall heal me.
But, dear, the processed sugar!
This was after I had a dreadful pain, the likes of which I have not known in many years.
I am getting along very well with my Autism Awareness Week in Africa report.
I never dreamed I would get so passionate about the issues involved.
And I never never dreamed that I would put in so much of myself, after really such a short time keeping this blog, and being out of contact with my friends for so long.
Have visited Silver Cuckoo and the C family - grandmother, daughter and grandson - remember me.
I know exactly where Colchester is: it's in Essex. It's basically the county town. It is somewhere intermediate between Cambridge and London.
I then took off my pyjamas and bra and put on more summery clothes than I have been wearing at present. I think I get overheated from all these late nights and early mornings.
I do actually have a day off. No, haven't checked all my e-mail.
Read through Librivox and Aspies for Freedom. I don't intend to do ANY reading today.
Quel horreur and quel dommage: I don't know. There's going to be a prenatal test for autism.
I think it is a very good thing, mainly, because maybe you can strike the right balance of intervention and acceptance.
Any autistic children - biological or adopted - will have a home here, for as long as they live.
Imagine if this option had been known to my mother. I wasn't a particularly high-risk pregnancy, though she did have some bad habits that she had to give up.
I believe passionately in the right to life. That's the only area in which I'm really conservative. And yet supporting life these days is so radical, especially as it seems to deprive of the right to choice - we didn't ask to be born. Yes, I'm being a cheeky teenager. Perhaps there is something to the theory of chytownangel that we are one-third or two-thirds of our chronological age. What I would have given - sometimes - to be 9 or 18 again!
Now I must tell you my terrific news.
When I posted Autism Awareness in Europe (I'm going to think of a better title, truly!) I got a response from Larry Arnold!
He's from the National Autistic Society, and and and and he's the only autistic member of the board.
He'll pass it on to his mates like Mike Stanton. Okay, he didn't actually promise that, but it's going to happen.
Oh dear! He lives up in Coventry, took care of his mother, and became a big full-time activist. I would say he was one of my inspirations to write what I write, along with other proponents like David Andrews (now in Finland), George Handley and Kevin Philips. Google any of these names and see what comes up.
It will be much easier now zathras24 is my friend and he can moderate my posts more easily because he knows me a bit better - well my persona!
Imagine the possibilities and opportunities which have opened up to me!
I have ripped some songs from Celine Dion's first French album. I am going to have to fix up the kerfuffle which I had caused in the second last week of March with usernames. I only did this because I forgot my password, not to cause any trouble or things like that.
Have read lots from new_atalanta which I promised to explain to sallyodgers, and now this is a clear and simple way to have done so.
I like the Expulsion one by katherine_b (still having an awesome time over there?) and the Frozen in time one by a member I can't remember.
And I thought I would be so ill in May. I am so getting myself checked for bipolar. It may well be hereditary. Just how heritable are affective disorders, and when do they necessarily come out? In adolescence? In the early twenties? Later on? I even know that some people get bipolar in childhood. I don't normally write in my sick times, I learnt that lesson after many years! I had thought of it first on Mother's Day, and now the idea is becoming an obsession.
I hope that it is another manifestation of hypochondria. But if it's to do with my brain, don't chuck it down the drain!
I know what happened. I made a pretty significant disclosure which does not reflect well on me in Autism Awareness in Africa, so if anyone wants dirt on me, they can look here. Basically, I have no dirt, but archaelogy would be required to tell between my dirt, and other people's. Anyway, I have much better boundaries than I did in 2002, so I almost certainly will not get into this situation again. It was the equivalent of a stranger dragging me into their car for a love fest full of my favourite sweets - think Lion, Witch and Wardrobe and Edmund getting his Turkish Delight and betraying his family in the process. I do love the Narnia Chronicles - books and movies.
Also May the 17th is a significant date for all sorts of reasons. I remember where I was in 12 hours time 4 years ago, when we processed a major disclosure which had been coming up for over a month, perhaps boiling up since the start and we didn't see the signs. I was the second to post, right after a big Disney World fan who had the record for the most posts. Phrases, even now, stand out! I remember it nearly verbatim, at least some important parts. And everyone's opinions. I wrote a poem about it during Easter Sunday - a long month ago. I stand by my promise not to come back until next week. If at all.
I will not be like Edmund - stuffing his face with Turkish Delight and disbelieving. I will be like Lucy - coming into the wardrobe and receiving Jesus humbly and getting messages from Gabriel. I think Tummus is a Gabriel figure - it hardly occured to me until this morning. But if you read the Christmas story and Luke's Gospel, it really begins to make sense, and then compare with events. I think you can compare Narnia books to Bible books: eg. Magician's Nephew is Genesis and The Last Battle Revelations. I have a long Blake essay to write and I will do this.
As for the other place in which I had been involved and now have left, (I was more or less forced out, rather than having chosen to leave and having tapered off my visits - I realise that I make the board sound like medicine, and it is so not a support group - any more than Aspies for Freedom might be!), I have not had the gut feeling that I wish to come back and contribute lots. Not as I used to. I have lots of happy memories and great respect for everyone, especially the chief, Jagoda Ubran-Klahen, and other people I did get to know very well. I do love Ela and I send her hugs and kisses and I wish her happy times at school. I can hardly believe that Ela's first year of school is over - or shall be!
The Blake essay is about The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. I am doing lots of background reading, and looking at Van Gogh for fun. I would like to write poems and draw pictures on the computer based on symbols he has used. Like a creative response.
Thank you for making comments on the Ivy. I have more green pictures for spectrum_on_lj, I just haven't got off my posterior and put them on yet. I took them very early in the morning, about this time yesterday or the day before. Most of them are about our garden both back and front. I decided to take pictures of our dahlia plant which was badly hurt in a storm.
I think if I was any plant I would be a dahlia and if I was an animal I would be a seal. Not a performing one, but one that is free and wild and has a big family full of aunties and cousins.
Tante Vero is a strong woman.
And Larry hates Autisme Europe. I mean hates them with a passion. I understand why. He has some very valid critiques, and I do share some of them.
On balance, the National Autistic Society is really good. The United Kingdom is so lucky to have dedicated parents and outspoken autists who made the organisation's culture of excellence and continue to pull it to account. Well done everyone!
Autisme France is getting better. Autisme Alsace is like a role model. Other regions have yet to pull up their socks so to speak.
I will look through CD-ROMS and Wikipedia and do lots of research. There is a lot I still have to learn about Africa and I want to avoid systemic bias as far as possible in my commentary. The power of an independent, observant individual still matters so very very much.
Especially in citizen journalism. Temple Grandin said good jobs would be a journalist or a copywriter. I can see lots of people on Wikinews who would fit the broader phenotype! Look at the list of Aspie Wikipedians one day. And I can say quite truly that I knew Alexander Plank when ...
See, in December 2003, I just began to explore Wikipedia and decide if contributing there was really for me. This is before it became the accepted resource, and very few people really knew about it except if you followed computer news. Alexander had got into trouble about Mother Teresa. It's a topic which arouses great passion. I am just as passionate about Medecins sans Frontiers or any of the supranational organisations who do good work. There were revert wars and lots of nasty things.
Now he started WrongPlanet which I did have the fortune to follow - standing on the sidelines - right from the beginning - June 4 2004. This was before Aspies for Freedom significantly revamped their web presence, so for a month there, they had virtual monopoly among the Aspergian refugees.
The story of Aspergia is an inspiring one and I hope I will tell it well. It was also a short one. It only lasted for 2 years, but I observed it en passant since about September 2002. And I began to integrate and internalise Aspergian understandings into my self-concept and outlook, gradually.
Also there is Aspergian Island, and the Fellowship of Aspergian Secret Society. This must be one of the most secure - in both the technical and social sense - and stable Aspie communities out there. Aspergian Island, sadly, is wracked by fights and discursive discussions. I don't like the atmosphere in the open forum, and they don't seem to do things like Aspies for Freedom or make friends like WrongPlanet/On the Spectrum (which is created by some people who split off from WrongPlanet).
South African Autism Congress Programme came out. Inspired a lot of talk and thinking. Some of the sessions are splendid and there is some great native talent. I must point out some of the presentations separately. Some are on topics which are in my interests or have wondered about for years. There's a lot of progress in research between 2002 and 2006.
Do you think one day there might be room for a presentation about the ideals and realities of one woman's experience of the autism community online? There is a slight predecent, I believe. That would be Martijn Dekker and his Independent Living list back in the first half of the 1990s. It was nearly the first prominent one and lots of people have had friendships and relationships and activities enhanced by this particular community, much in the same as ANI-L did at the very first.
When I do my Autism Awareness in the Global Village and process the reactions and responses thereof, maybe ...
Watch this space everyone!
And I have no pain in my chest now.