Asperger's: My life as an Earthbound alien is a great first person account from a CNN Manager who also happens to be an adult Aspie girl like me. She found out that she had Asperger's Syndrome at the age of 48, and has found it has helped to explain her sense of "otherness" around people. She succinctly explains both the negative and positive side to living with Asperger's :
"I live with anxiety, because the world can be overwhelming and people have expectations that I always, sooner or later, fail to meet. I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have been told that I am rude, inaccessible or cold, yet I have never purposely tried to harm anyone, nor do I mean to be, well, mean.
I could tell you so much more, but instead let me share one last insight. Don't pity me or try to cure or change me. If you could live in my head for just one day, you might weep at how much beauty I perceive in the world with my exquisite senses. I would not trade one small bit of that beauty, as overwhelming and powerful as it can be, for "normalcy."
I agree completely. Know us before you judge us against your views of what is 'normal' and 'healthy'.
It's great that I am starting to receive comments on my MsBehaviour Files columns at The Big Idea. Like this excellent question, considering I spend most of my time reporting on web tools and new technology. Do I get any freebies or cash in return for mentioning new media companies, or am I genuinely providing an altruistic service to web-users in NZ?
I am proud to say that neither myself or Chelfyn receive any money or technology incentives for our columns or radio shows. If we review gadgets we even give them back afterwards. Sad but true. Damn those geek ethics! My sole sponsor is Fudge.com, who give me products from their Paintbox and styling range to keep my hair diva purple.
It's a rare platform that is editorially independent to these days, and we have resisted advertising or sponsorship for Mohawk Media to keep ourselves unbiased in our research and recommendations. We also do our best to find open source software with no licensing fees, or webtop services that are accessible and affordable to creative Kiwis, small companies & charities.
We need to start being more efficient with what we have, and not just trying to be the biggest fish in the sea. If we all work together collaboratively we can do anything!
The old fashioned way to back up files is to save them to DVD or an external hard-drive. The disadvantages of using an external hard-drive is that you have to remember to actually do this regularly, and make sure you then store your backups off-site in case of fire. At the very least you should store them in a fireproof safe, and a hard drive can still be damaged if you drop it.
The new wave of online tools offer both secure storage using 128-bit level military grade encryption, and collaborative workspaces for sharing files between remote teams, friends or family.
Being the new Web Mistress for Alt TV is fun. I helped build the website for their search for a Naked News Flash Anchor in New Zealand this week.
The plan is to cast a girl or guy who is intelligent, articulate, and happy to read the news topless. They promise Full Frontal, Serious News, not hours of airtime on missing Otters.
New Zealand has a long tradition of the naked protest. Sometimes it's almost like living in the 1960s still here. Our Kiwi girls are apparently promiscuous on a world class scale according to an international sex survey, and we even get our boobs out for royal visits.
Hell, Auckland even has an annual Boobs on Bikes Parade so why should our news be any different? If the content is well researched and contains actual journalism, who cares if the female or male presenter is letting it all hang out?
We want content over style please, and if this upfront format gets a new generation into serious news then Bonus.
Founders arriving at Y Combinator often have the downtrodden air of refugees. Three months later they're transformed: they have so much more confidence that they seem as if they've grown several inches taller. [4] Strange as this sounds, they seem both more worried and happier at the same time. Which is exactly how I'd describe the way lions seem in the wild.
Watching employees get transformed into founders makes it clear that the difference between the two is due mostly to environment—and in particular that the environment in big companies is toxic to programmers. In the first couple weeks of working on their own startup they seem to come to life, because finally they're working the way people are meant to.
I have seen the transformation myself. It's never too soon to start out on your own.
How-to guides, tips and tutorials are one of the most popular areas of online content these days. More people are embracing lifelong learning, and online you can learn at any time, and at your own pace.
You can now listen to fortnightly podcasts of the MsBehaviour Files on Radio Wammo. Wammo is the afternoons show host on Kiwi Fm which broadcasts 100% Kiwi Music. His Radio Wammo site also hosts podcasts from Kiwi regulars like David Slack, Russell Brown, Sam Hunt & Te Radar.
Kiwi Will Watson needs help to finish his feature documentary, 'War Without Guns', to be produced and distributed across the world. It's a great story of how the NZ Army Peace-keepers went into war torn Pacific Island Bourganiville a decade ago, and brokered peace, by leaving their rifles at home and taking guitars along instead.
They brought Aroha or love back to the island, with music and harmony. It's a story that should be celebrated, as proof that more guns are not the answer to stopping a war.
I have just read Blind Faith by Ben Elton, who as always captures the intellectual zeitgeist, and darkest scenarios of my thoughts.
In his new novel he paints a dystopian future that tackles the issue of Faith v Science, which is something I feel quite strongly about.
If the house is burning down do you A. pray for a big sky daddy to put the fire out? Or B. do you get a hosepipe out. Hell even a bucket is basic technology.
Well the house IS burning down and science can fix things, but we need religion to get out of the way and shut up with the stone age bleatings. Give scientists all the money instead and let them concentrate of saving the planet.
Watch Sir David Frost talk to comedian and novelist Ben Elton on Over the World for Al Jazeera, about his latest novel 'Blind Faith' and how intellect is being sidelined in favour of faith and feelings.
As he tells Sir David Frost in this interview, "Intellect is on the backfoot, and passion & 'feelings' are on the front foot. I think it's a worrying situation. Ignorance is what oligarchs exploit"
I think Blind Faith should be mandatory reading in any religious studies programme. Yet again Ben Elton serves up a healthy dose of cynicism coated with comedy, and makes me want to keep working at prevent his vision ever coming true.
Blind Faith tells of a UK gone mad after a great flood with religious Political Correctness. Where any rubbish believed by anyone of any faith must be respected however bonkers. It's a modern 1984 where privacy has been given up voluntarily.
"The Holy Order was announced at the weekly Wembley Stadium Faith Festival. These were the celebrations at which charismatic believers from all over the capital convened to share their heartache, rejoice in the Love and testify to their faith. The stadium held 250,000 people and so it was decreed that any gathering of that number who could be seen to speak with once voice should be able to make a law."
Of course the first law passed is the Faith Law making it illegal to have no faith. Showing the wrong emotion is dangerous, Group Hugs at work are mandatory, and one must act normal even at home, in case your chat room host or neighbour notices and reports your to the Inquisitors.
Acting 'normal' is over-emoting one's innermost feelings at all times, and privacy is considered suspicious. Darwin is a banned text, and the only books allowed are self improvement manuals. You can NEVER turn off the television.
It was so horrific that I had to keep reading it in short bursts, and then go outside to listen to crickets, and look at my view of One Tree Hill to remind myself that thankfully I now live in New Zealand. Blind Faith is an extrapolation of my worst nightmares that caused me to flee the UK and move to a rational, and above all secular country.
As an 80s child, I grew up watching Ben Elton on the UK's Friday Night Live with his vitriolic rants about Mrs Thatcher. His bile helped shape my adult cynicism and world view which translated perfectly onto the page in his books.
I think I have a copy of all of his works, from Stark & Gridlock on climate change, to Popcorn on the trend of death & violence in cinema and on TV. In Dead Famous he painted an inevitable end to the Big Brother human zoo, and in High Society he wrote about the real reasons for the War on Drugs/Reason.
In all of his books he has laid out cynically and succinctly the machinations of politicians and media use to manage the Mood of the Public. This is perfect to add to my collection, as is an Evlove Tshirt.
