The Peaceful Gnome

How did I save over $500 today you ask?  I stopped and thought about what I was about to do and didn't spend it :-)  Hey, for me that is a big deal.  My computer, the very one I'm writing this blog post on, is slowly dying, it's old and worn out, the "comma" key is broken, the "insert" key is broken, the battery is dead and it only works off of AC right now.  It's heavy and sort of clunky and slow.  When it had to be rebooted this morning when I was about to use it I said out loud "I should just go get me an iPad!"  So I checked my account and the cash is on hand to do that, and still, barely, pay the rent at the end of the month.  Of course I'd need to put off some debts I owe and I'd need to really scrape to manage rent and BART tickets the rest of the month after that... but I'd have a really cool new iPad!  Oooh. So, after briefly considering getting a cheap netbook computer for around $200 I decided to jump into my car, y...

I think Rachel nails it in her conclusion of her series critiquing the EQ test. The professor continues: I have some sympathy for this view, because I have met many adults with Asperger Syndrome who can cope with one-to-one relationships and are very caring within these, and only find it difficult when they have to process information in fast-changing social groups. Equally, I have met many adults with Asperger Syndrome who can display their excellent empathy when they have the “luxury” of considering all the facts “off-line”, that is, when there is less time pressure creating demands to respond in real time. Anyone else notice the sleight-of-hand here? Karla asked about people on the spectrum — not just people with Asperger’s. Personally, I don’t find it an appropriate emotional response to turn the conversation toward a subgroup of a subgroup, when the question was about all autistic people, and when Karla was expressing her concerns about the dehumanization of all ...

A Critique of the Empathy Quotient (EQ) Test: Part 3 For an autistic person talking to another autistic person, blunt honesty is usually the most appropriate response. In fact, I have autistic friends who absolutely insist on my being blunt. When they ask me a question, they want an honest answer. By the same token, when I ask my non-autistic husband a question, I honestly want to know what he thinks, largely because I don’t intuitively know how non-autistic people see me, and I very much want to find out.

August 9, 2011 Rachel Ableism , Alternative Theories of Autism , Critiques of Autism Theories , Empathy , Marginalization , Mind-Blindness , Modes of Thought , Myths about Autism , Theory of Mind (ToM) In Part 1 of this series, I outlined the basics of the EQ test, introduced the definition of cognitive empathy assumed by the authors of the test, and critiqued the statements on the EQ that speak to how well the respondent can read nonverbal cues. In this post, I will talk about the problematic nature of the statements that measure perspective taking. Another great post, the double standard is very blatant and easy to see, if "they" fail to see it well... "  Full post here.

Well then, even though I have not yet gone to a shrink and been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, the general consensus of people I've spoken to who know me pretty well is "well duh!" :-)  I keep waiting for someone to say "Nah, you are not that odd Larry, you seem pretty normal to me, Aspergers?  Really?  I don't think so," but not one person has come out and said that :-/  So then, it's not just my own self image that says I'm weird but pretty much everyone else says the same thing.  Phoo. Knowing this does give me an opportunity to watch myself and try and figure out things I'm doing that may be inappropriate, before I do them if I'm really lucky!  I've had the same job for a very long time so they are pretty used to me, but I still worry that I'll say or do the wrong thing and wind up fired for it.  I did have a melt down at work once when one of the homeowners was on my case constantly... that didn't do me in so I sup...

I woke up at 3:00am this morning in the midst of a dream where I was pounding on the door of the "Control Room" of the universe.  God's command and control center if you will.  I was shouting at him through the door asking him, "What in the fuck do you think you are doing?"  Usually I don't say such things to God but I was asleep at the time so it just slipped out.  I can't honestly say what the rest of the dream was about, it's just that one last scene that was in my mind when I woke up.  Back filling explanations using my way too vivid imagination, which I've done all my life when I found myself doing inexplicable things, involved coming to grips with the idea of Asperger's Syndrome and the very depressing thought that it's not a disorder than can be treated but just the way I'm wired.  I'm not going to stop being weird, ever :-)  I've always sort of embraced my weirdness, glorying in doing things that push the boundaries ...

A Critique of the Empathy Quotient (EQ) Test: Introduction and Part 1 August 6, 2011 Rachel Ableism , Alternative Theories of Autism , Critiques of Autism Theories , Empathy , Marginalization , Mind-Blindness , Modes of Thought , Myths about Autism , Theory of Mind (ToM) This post is the first in a series critiquing the Empathy Quotient (EQ) test. Please feel free to offer your thoughts, your suggestions, your constructive criticism, and your own personal responses to the test or to my analysis of it. Your comments will help me refine both my thinking on the issue and the quality of my critique. Introduction The Empathy Quotient (EQ) test was designed by Simon Baron-Cohen and Sally Wheelwright, and is included in their 2004 paper The Empathy Quotient: An Investigation of Adults with Asperger’s Syndrome or High-Functioning Autism, and Normal Sex Differences . It is frequently used as one of the primary measures of empathy in autistic people, and is often brou...

A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Five I finished book five, now I'm waiting for all of my fellow fans to catch up so I can talk about it without spoiling it for them.    Come on you lazy laggards!  Catch up already!   I love this series, the HBO version of the first book, Game of Thrones, was awesome as well.  It's funny how, after having read 4 books of the series and then watching the HBO take, I now have the look of the characters that I saw on HBO in my mind instead of the, admittedly vague, appearance I gave them in my mind when I first read about them.    SPOILERS BELOW S P O I L E R S BELOW So, now that I've warned everyone not to peek if they don't want to be "spoiled" in their reading I can say that what I loved about this latest book in the Ice and Fire series is the way several of my most "hated" characters got what was coming to them.  Note, this is not a plot summary but just a shor...