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Showing posts from February, 2021

The Gun Argument

SID: autistic/adhd with ptsd/mdd, yt, US Navy veteran with topsider watchstanding arms training. I would personally feel even less safe with a weapon, as gun ownership has a risk during maintenance as well as an automatic escalation of violence during a conflict. Not to mention "mental issues" are a target for discrimination and cognitive issues make deescalation more difficult. Basically if a cop yells an instruction at me and I can't understand, I don't respond in time, even if I'm doing my best I will get shot. Better to eliminate all apparent threat and hope to God no one thinks my cell phone or plush toy is a gun. At my intersection of discriminations due to physical and cognitive disabilities and gender, I do not feel like the Second Amendment protects me in any substantial way. However, I do not support criminalizing weapons possession regardless of the source of the weapon, I think everyone should have the right to arm themselves as best they may, and I wo

Five Reasons You Should Diagnose Your Child

1. Diagnosis should be giving you more flexibility, not less. Some people throw huge fits about putting things on IEPs, for instance, so having it would allow you to put autism-specific needs on the IEP. Whenever you find people who cut things off for you because of a diagnosis, punch them. Just kidding. 2. Please don't assume your kid is fine with something just because they aren't reacting to it. Could be something else is more interesting. Could be they haven't reached their "limit". If you constantly bombard a kid with many small stressors, it's very hard to figure out what actually triggered their eventual meltdown. 3. Allow your kid to be themself. Allow them to be autistic, even when it's tough. Allow them to have unique sensory needs and be overwhelmed when life sucks. They will not always have that room as an adult. 4. To force society to accept autistics, autistics have to accept their label en masse and create space for themselves. T

How I am De-scenting my Silicone Thermos Seal

First of all, I always get silicon and silicone mixed up, so please don't get offended if I do here. The one I'm talking about is the one that's squishy, like cartilage, not the one that's hard and makes glass. But there's two common characteristics between the squashy and the brittle uses of this element: high temperature resistance, which is why they are used in circuit board construction and pressure cooker gaskets; and their ability to absorb and release "volatile organic compounds (VOCs)" - that is, they *stink* after a while. My misadventures with the cartilaginous silicone compound has included accidentally brewing rather insect-filled sake in a rice cooker (irrecoverable: the insects got into the seams of the lid and then I broke the handle); moldy coffee and tea in various bottles and thermoses; and finally, after removing the smell of mold from one such Thermos by leaving it soaked in dish soap and vinegar in a hot car for a week, I w

They're Gonna Take Away My Kid's Diagnosis!

This is like the third time I've heard some variant of this complaint: "My kid turned X years old and now the Doc wants to take away their diagnosis because they are social!" You don't just stop being autistic. It's a lifelong condition. If the kid was autistic during diagnosis, the kid is autistic now. But what does "social" mean, like, verbal? plenty of verbal autistics. Well-spoken, interests outside of their age group, Hans Asperger's "little professors" are very social - to adults. Not so much to their peers. These autistic people are the savants, the maskers, the people who get shit on for being too autistic to fit in with the neurotypicals and get shit on for not being autistic enough to match somebody's stereotype. (Hey, internalized bullshit is still bullshit.) Anyway, bit tired, sorry, recommend reading this article on Augmentative and assistive Communication for verbal and semiverbal autistic adults; and my collec