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Having fun with First World Anarchists
November 21, 2013 — xanthippaIf you are not familiar with what First World Anarchist (FWA) are, I suggest a quick trip to reddit or imgur.
Fair warning: if you click on the above links, you may suffer pain from laughter and lost hours…
In a nutshell (no pun intended), FWA is a person who is so fed up with our over-micro-managing overlords and their persistent petty rules that if, say, they see a line with a ‘DO NOT CROSS’ sign, they’ll photograph themselves crossing it and post it on the internet to share with all the other FWAs. It’s kind of like a mild oppositional disorder with a sense of humour.
I actually find the growth of the FWA movement to be a good thing: finally, people are beginning to rebel our over-regulation….but, this is supposed to be a light-hearted post and I should not ruin it by philosophising or preaching!!!
Yes, I live in a household with two very enthusiastic FWAs: one is a teenager and the other is an engineer, so that explains that. But, I digress…
The idea of these photos FWAs share is to break a petty or irrational or annoying rule – with attitude.
Open the package on the opposite side of where it says to!
Use the champagne glass for red wine!
Post a picture of that tree with attitude!
Put the sock marked ‘L’ on the right foot!
So, you can understand my dilemma when I came across this picture: do I post it to r/firstworldanarchist or would that be a bad idea….
Thoughts?
Aspergers, reading faces and cultural differences regarding ‘smiling’
November 20, 2013 — xanthippaOne of the questions get asked most often when I reveal I am an Aspie is when/how did I get diagnosed with Aspergers’, as I am of a generation when this was not a commonly known about thing. As a matter of fact, growing up on the other side of the Iron Curtain, I am pretty sure this was not recognized as a physical thing.
Completely irrelevant factoid: From a very early early age, I used to suffer from crippling migraines. My mom took me to specialists and they told her that unofficially, these are migraines, but that because ‘migraine headaches’ have been ruled by the Communist Party to be ‘something capitalist rich ladies with nothing better to do make up to be interesting’, so they are no longer permitted to diagnose or treat this condition. So, I highly doubt ‘Aspergers’ Syndrome’ was something that anyone was willing to even mention…
To answer that question, I explain that my older was always an atypical learner. For example, when he was 4 years old and I was pregnant with his brother, as per the advice of the parenting books and with my obstetrician’s permission, I brought him to one of the pre-natal ‘well-baby’ checkups. When the obstetrician walked in, he pointed to the big poster on the exam-room’s wall and asked my son:
“Do you know what this is?”
My 4-year-old looked him seriously in the eyes and replied:
“That is the female reproductive system. Would you like me to explain it to you?”
As a matter of fact, when he was just about 18 months old, we took him to the Science and Tech museum – he loved trains. He would go into the room displaying train engines and, whether anyone was listening or not, would point to parts of the steam engine and explain, in detail, how the machines worked (using half-baby, half scientific language). He was mobbed by a large group of camera-wielding Japanese tourists, who were convinced he was part of the museum exhibit…
Yes, he is a genius: after all, he IS your humble blogger’s son!!!
(Explanation: from selecting a mate to timing the pregnancy to choosing rearing techniques, I had optimized primarily for intelligence, so the proven fact that my sons have both scored in the ‘genius’ range ought not be a surprise. The fact that they are not emotionally damaged beyond repair is just a lucky bonus!!!)
What I am trying to establish is that he was both a smart kid and an atypical learner. So, it took until grade 2 that he hit the metaphorical wall – until then, he could use his intelligence to hide the depth of his difficulties. But, by grade 2, his cognitive skills were so high, and his ability to express them in writing so low, because here, in Canada (unlike where I grew up where it’s half-and-half written and oral testing), marks are awarded ONLY for written testing and that just kills young Aspies’ spirit. He turned out to be above the 99.98% range of his peers in cognition, but below the 40% range of his peers in ability to express it in writing… So, the gulf between what he knew and what he could produce in school was so huge that he began to fall into a deep depression.
Thus, when he was in grade 2, we sought help. Luckily, there was a very well respected psychologist who had office hours once a week at my son’s school and we sought her help. Frightened by his depression at such a young age, we got the ‘deluxe’ package of evaluation. (This was not an indulgence, we just did not want to take any risks with 50% of our retirement plan.)
So, he went for many hours of tests.
And, so did we – the family.
Each one of us, parents, went for a 3-hour evaluation and then we had an ‘all 4 family members interacting’ evaluation session.
I don’t know what went on in the other sessions, but when it came to my evaluation, they gave me a series of totally messed-up tests. Like – 150 ‘facial expressions’ where I had to say what the person in question was ‘feeling’! Like – who CARES what they were feeling – that’s involuntary and thus irrational and thus, obviously, irrelevant. I’m only interested in what people are thinking because I respect other people enough to presume them to reign in their in their irrationality and show me the respect of acting logically and rationally!!!
Isn’t that obvious?!?!?!?
After all, I do this for them – and I have been told that reciprocity is the cornerstone of civilization! So, why would they not reciprocate and do this for me?
RIGHT?!?!?
Ok, ok, I did not do so well on that test. To my credit, I did get 7 right…
But, having studied Konrad Lorenz’s books at great length during my teens, I did much better on the body-language one: I got almost 25% on that one!!!
Aside: I have worked on this really, really hard for many years since that fateful day, taking internet classes, and am now at a little over 40% on the facial expressions one! And, I totally get like 45% on the body-language one! I don’t mean to be boastful, but… I’m close to 50% on the ‘real-woman/she-man’ ones!!!
Needless to say, the psychologist identified (much less pejorative than ‘diagnosed’) both me and my hubby as Aspies….though, my hubby is way closer to neurotypical than I am – so I always take his lead when it comes to all that ‘human interaction’ nonsense. After all, men are so much better at this touchy-feely-relationship stuff! Sometimes I feel so sorry for those poor, poor, emotional creatures… But, I digress…
It may seem like I am changing topics here, but, please, do bear with me… Are you familiar with the atheist argument that once all the theists come to an agreement about what is the precise definition of ‘deity’, come talk to us, but, until then, please work to get a functional definition before you try to get us to ‘believe’ in this?
Well – here is the ‘facial equivalent’ thereof for us, Aspies!!! (Yes, the link is coming – just a little more ranting….)
I recall that when Ivan Lendl first came to play tennis in North America, reporters kept asking him why he does not smile – and he replied that nobody had given him a reason to smile – and this was touted as weird in the press and all….but as he became more integrated into North American society, he learned to smile whenever there was an audience.
Keep this in mind, please – especially with respect to the atheist argument about getting an agreed-upon definition of ‘god’ before asking us to believe in one…
SOOO much was explained to me when I came upon THIS blog entry:
‘In Russia, it is not common to smile at strangers. When you smile at a stranger in Russia, you may get the question “Have we met?” in return, because Russians normally smile only to people they know. Also, this is not common to smile when dealing with more serious issues. You wouldn’t see many smiling faces in business meetings, because business is serious, and by smiling, you show that you either don’t take it seriously or you distrust your partners’ words. Russian shop assistants are trained to smile, because smiling while serving people is unnatural for Russians. “I’m taking you seriously, you are important to me, so I don’t smile” is the natural Russian approach to a smile. ‘
It is a short post and chock-full of useful data, so I recommend reading it.
But, what it demonstrates is that facial expressions are culture-dependant and NOT in any way universal.
So, I urge you, neurotypicals: Please, first come to an agreement what do particular facial expressions express AMONGST YOURSELVES and only THEN come and demand that we, Aspies, try to decode that crazy mumbo-jumbo!!!
‘Electronic Tattoo 110’ – a microphone tattoo for your throat
November 18, 2013 — xanthippaIn the world of technology:
‘The patent is called ‘Coupling an electronic skin tattoo to a mobile communication device’ and was originally filed in May last year.
Throughout the patent, Motorola calls the device ‘electronic tattoo 110’ and said it would ‘comprise audio circuitry that enables reception of acoustic signals from a person’s throat’.
Put simply, the tattoo’s built-in microphone could pick up the sounds made by a person’s voice by reading vibrations and fluctuations of muscle or tissue from their voicebox.
It continues that the tattoo would either contain a battery that ‘may or may not be rechargeable’, or alternatively, could be powered by an NFC or Bluetooth charging device.’
Read the rest here.
Thorium Powered Car, Drive 100 yrs on 8 grams of fuel!
November 15, 2013 — xanthippaThere is no such thing as a ‘free lunch’!
Now, don’t get me wrong – Thorium is awesome. Just that if something sounds too good to be true, you should get your BS detector out. As Bill Nye The Science Guy (who recently had a cameo on The Big Bang Theory) says: extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof!
John Stossel – The School Revolution (with Ron Paul)
November 14, 2013 — xanthippaI had seriously considered home schooling my kids, but was advised against it on the grounds that as an Aspie parent of Aspie kids, I would not be able to teach them the social skills they needed to get along with the mundanes neurotypicals.
This was, indeed, true – to a degree.
‘School’ did not give my kids ‘education’ as the educators would have perceived it. Every day, I would tell my kids that even though they are not learning new ‘material’ in school, and that while ‘learning new material’ is the goal for most kids going to school, they, as Aspies, were in a slightly different category. Obviously, the material would not be new to them, nor difficult to master: their one and only goal in going to school was to learn how to ‘present’ their knowledge, how to PROVE to the mundanes muggles neurotypicals that they indeed have mastered that knowledge.
So, that is why my kids were not home-schooled.
Well, when I say they were not home-schooled, I do mean they attended actual official schools – from Montessori (I really, really do not recommend this for Aspies) to highly structured, incredibly expensive private schools, to public schools. They still learned most things at home long before they encountered them in school because I firmly believe that many concepts cannot be fully assimilated and become ‘natural’ unless they are taught at a much, much younger age that at which they are introduced in any formal schooling setting.
The best results we have found were actually in the ‘gifted’ program in the public schools.
Having an Aspie kid go to a Montessori school means he will learn everything about his narrow field of interest, but his horizons will not have been broadened.
Having an Aspie kid go to the most expensive private school meant that he was bullied by really rich people’s kids – so rich and influential (from politicians to the Russian mob) that the school was afraid to tell the parents their kids were being bullies. Sure, the classrooms were small – but that only meant that there were fewer kids willing/able to stand up to the bullies in defense of the Aspie. And, it meant a much more intimidated faculty…
Having an Aspie kid go to public schools means that they can see there are kids with much greater learning challenges than their own and makes them protective of their teachers. From other, less disciplined kids.
Actually, the ‘gifted program’ in the public schools has been the best, most accepting, environment for my kids. The kids who were not in the ‘gifted program’ in grade-school would not dare to bully the ‘gifties’ because they knew these were going to be their future bosses. As a matter of fact, girls from the non-gifted classes saw it as a status symbol to be seen with a boy from the gifted class…and it worked for the gifted girls, too. So, there was a lot of tolerance to accept the ‘differentness’ of the smart students by everyone else in the school and this worked to let my kids learn and grow to their best potential.
Sure, most new material was learned at home, years before it was introduced in the school. It was the social aspect, the ability to present their work in a way that neurotypicals would accept and to interact with other neurotypicals on the school playground that was the important lesson my kids went to school for.
But, had they been born with these neurotypical abilities, had I and my sons been more comfortable interacting with neurotypicals, I suspect I would not have wasted their time with the academically slow and questionable public schooling.
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 