Comments on: “Fun” isn’t always all that easy, either.

By: Ettina

Ettina — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 15:28:42 +0000

Here are some categories I thought of:
age of diagnosis – could be recorded as specific as possible then you could search for all in a certain range?
whether they were really identified as autistic at diagnosis or later – eg Donna Williams I think was diagnosed very young but grew up basically undiagnosed for all practical purposes. A non-autism example would be My Thirteenth Winter, the author of that book was identified as gifted/LD in her early school years but they didn’t understand how she could be both, so the diagnosis was ignored.
Whether the book is an autobiography, a non-autism related book, an anthology or an autism-related informational book (such as the one about social skills that Sean Barron and Temple Grandin co-wrote)?
Whether they had any pets and what kinds, you could search by general category (eg mammals) or by specific species. You could also maybe have something about how long they had the pet, at what age and what happened to the pet (eg if they died of old age, died of some calamity, were given away, went missing, etc)?
OK, I see what you mean. This is making my brain hurt.

By: The Integral

The Integral — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 14:41:03 +0000

This post is proof that even fun activities can cause overload from fixation on small details, or from necessary contemplation going haywire because all the options float around in the brain, colliding with one another. It’s like an expanding gas in a very tight space…….that eventually results in KABOOM unless the space is made bigger…….hence the warnings on aerosol cans (do not puncture or incinerate……that would make the gas expand/molecules move so fast as to blow the thing up trying to get out)…..ahh, chemistry…….

By: nemezide

nemezide — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 10:15:43 +0000

I think you could skim through all the books just the way you like to read them.
Then you get your list of categories and have somebody ask you questions like you listed in your posts, e.g., “which authors are employed?”
If the question is stated properly, it should make you go to the bookshelf and pick up a pile of books by employed authors. Then all you do is make a list of them, or have somebody do it for you. Then make a list of unemployed authors, which would be everybody who’s left on the shelf.
Then put all the books back on the shelf, pick next question and repeat.
Would it work?

By: andreashettle

andreashettle — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 12:50:22 +0000

For Diana Carr at coomment #19 Amanda is currently laying low so she can recuperate from the post-CNN publicity, which means she isn't replying much to people right now. If you're simply looking for more information on autism from the perspective of autistic adults, though, then you might want to go to: http://ballastexistenz.autistics.org/?p=317 and then scroll down to comments #56, #92, #102, #105, #133, #134, #138, and #147 to see some links to pages that might be useful to you. These include some links to blogs written by other autistic adults. Amanda is not the only intelligent, articulate, insightful autistic adult out there -- she's merely the most visible right now because of the CNN special. So if you're simply looking to talk with autistic adults for their perspective, then there are tons of resources out there for you. Amanda also has a lot of links to other people's pages. Go to the main page of her blog (http://ballastexistenz.autistics.org/?p=317) and look at the left and right hand columns. I'm not sure what you mean by "how to get on the bogg?". If you mean blog, this is it, right here, you're already at Amanda's blog.

By: diana carr

diana carr — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 20:35:18 +0000

i so want to talk with amanda, can you tell me how to get on the bogg? i an diana a retired nurse. i live in Las Vegas, nv.

thank you, diana carr

By: Javik

Javik — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:49:14 +0000

From how you have described this before, it seems like you could take advantage of this delayed processing ability. Since this is a hobby project, there’s no hurry to get it finished. And so if comprehension takes time to develop, it does not matter.

You might want to try just looking through some the books with the intention that, at a later time, you will be able to finish the project once you’ve had time to digest the material.

I wonder if you even need to read each page word by word. Just scanning each page and focusing on the page for a few seconds so the words are clear and focused, may be enough to imprint it in your mind.

Perhaps just looking through the books one at a time without trying to comprehend the material will allow the categorization process to work itself out in the back of your mind, and without you having to consciously do the categorizing.

By: n.

n. — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 10:22:22 +0000

Poproxy, i think that expansion of the library (you will find more library upstairs in the museum, I think near the art exhibits or the Einstein Auditorium) is something we were working on but maybe got sidetracked to other things. Can you help? Please talk to Muskie at the meeting.

By: Nomad

Nomad — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 14:14:07 +0000

As a PhD student I use a free program called Jabref. After the odd 200 references (and growing) I could not do my work without it.
It lets you put in keywords, links …and if you write a summary the search function will look there too. Hope that helps.

By: ballastexistenz

ballastexistenz — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 09:16:08 +0000

That depends on how many authors, and which book.

By: tinted

tinted — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 08:19:26 +0000

Do you include books written by several authors, (at least) one of whom is autistic?