So all of us know that feeling of NEEDING to provide information on various subjects. I know we do it with our perseverations of the moment, but I am unsure whether we have documented the fact that we don't limit this to perseverations. For example, when I know something that might interest someone, or not even interest them, but relate to them in some way, I MUST tell them. This is useful when I find out someone's favorite band is playing. I tell them and they are excited, even if I don't know them very well. It is something that must be done.
This gets me in trouble at times like tonight, when I told someone about what appeared to be an unexpected new romantic relationship that formed. The person I told knew both the people involved, so I thought it was relevant. Apparently what I did is akin to gossip. I feel very bad about having done this, as it turned out I was factually incorrect. But if I were equally certain and the situation presented itself again, I would probably do the same thing without remorse, until someone said their feelings were hurt as a result.
Do the rest of you do this? I guess the word for it is "gossip" but that word connotes people who enjoy the drama of soap operas, rather than people being compelled by the connections that exist between two things. I would never enjoy hearing about, say, Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz, nor would I bother to tell someone about celebrities unless I knew they were really into that sort of thing. But, when it's data about friends, it seems like it would be extremely interesting to anyone even peripherally involved.

I know this is one reason so many Aspies use LJ. We have information that needs to be expressed, and this is a good way to do so. I originally got mine because I knew it would be more efficient to tell each story one time, on the internet, instead of 12 times to 12 separate people in person.

See http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/10/opinion/10herbert.html

Hi, all - I was reading the Sydney Film Festival guide today, and came across two films dealing with autistic characters. I was wondering if anyone's heard of either of them, and what they're like?

( Synopses from the Guide under the cut. )

Thoughts? Anyone familiar with either of these?

So, Rutgers is a ‘Public Ivy’:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Ivy#The_Public_Ivies_according_to_Greenes.27_Guides

Okay, that’s not a shocker, although the EE department wasn’t exactly educational nirvana when I was there, especially during my undergraduate years, in which we had an embarrassing shortage of both teachers and facilities.

What makes this interesting to me, though, is that Rutgers also was an original ‘Ivy League’ school, though the athletic grouping was less formal in those days and Rutgers later drifted in a completely different direction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_league

I can’t say I favor the athletic direction that Rutgers has taken, although it does help keep the school in the news (not always in a good way, thanks to Imus), but if I had my own university to steer I would take it in a Rutgers direction rather than a Princeton one. In fact, I say we build some missile silos on campus in Piscataway and use them to nuke Princeton.

So, some of y'all may remember my post of about a month ago, telling you that I'd be writing an entry regarding a ten year old boy I'd met at the New England TASH conference, whose parents were looking for help vis a vis the school department, with regards to his use of facilitated communication. I'd like to invite you all to read and comment, as I really feel a pull to help this family. I believe that we can figure out some way to help, collectively, or if nothing else, get people talking about facilitated communication (kind of ironic, perhaps) and assuming competence rather than incompetence, etc. I've seen amazing things happen here in our community, and I'd love to see it happen again. I've posted the link so as to encourage people to comment there rather than here in order to keep things streamlined, though if you'd feel more comfortable, you may comment here, of course (perhaps I should screen comments? We shall see.)

Anyway, please check it out. Matthew is a wonderful person who very much deserves our attention and help.

Thank you in advance!

There seems to be a robin building a nest on the window ledge above the next-door neighbors’ door. I think it might be taking advantage of a light rain. Will the neighbors tape a picture of a kitten to the window, as I did many years ago on our equivalent?

I did it in reaction to sparrows or the like. I like birds but they should go stand in the shrubs and trees rather than on my door.

An American Robin is a fairly large bird, however, so I didn’t expect to see one on anyone’s window ledge, whether building or not.

Mallards do like to stand on the peaks of our roofs in the development, but when I see one on a window ledge I’ll have seen everything there is possible to see, and more. :)

I haven’t managed to drag my butt to a game yet (and I don’t know whether anyone has bought any of my tickets that I put up for resale), but I have bothered to find out the name of this year’s porcine mascot. The little pig is called Boarack Ohama.

I've come across this book in bookstores a couple of times.  It's written by a clinical child psychologist.  The premise is nice, but the treatment of AS is simply appalling.  The author takes great pains to separate "normal" nerds from "Asperger's sufferers" who are dysfunctional and impaired.  He basically argues that anyone who's at all successful in occupational and social functioning can't be AS no matter what traits they display--Bill Gates is the primary example he uses.  Basically, he tries to separate "good, functional" nerds from "Asperger's sufferers" and it's bothersome to me.  He dismisses Tony Attwood's claim that many math/engineering students and professors are on the spectrum, claiming that it's irresponsible.  What's worse, he uses John Odgen* as an example of a "real Asperger's person."  He's sympathetic to the bullying which Odgen receives, and even claims that Odgen isn't "a representative of all nerds, or even all Asperger's sufferers."  So nice of him to suggest that maybe most of us haven't killed people.  But,  then he incorporates Odgen into his criticism of Attwood, claiming that if Attwood's claims are true then "MIT and Caltech would be bloodbaths."  I don't really have the words to adequately express my feelings about this, but it would no doubt feature a string of obscenities.

Anyone else familiar with this book?  I needed a place to rant about it, so thanks for indulging me.  I just hate the way we're so often portrayed in the media--even by people who claim to be sympathetic to "nerds"!  In conclusion, this author can kiss my ass, as well as that of my possible-aspie uncle, MIT graduate.

*John Odgen is a high school student who knifed another student who bullied him, resulting in that student's death.  This tragic situation has probably been discussed here before.

http://www.dutchgrammar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1509#p10084

by Renmazuo (Posted Yesterday, 12:23 pm)
By the way, it seems to me that the Flemish tend to pronounce it the Dutch way more often than the Dutch. This occurs with English words as well e.g. flat: [flɛt] (NL) / [flɑt] (BE)

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http://www.dutchgrammar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=792#p10083

by Renmazuo (Posted Yesterday, 12:11 pm)
Thanks Quetzal

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Jen tre interesa artikolo de Miroslav Malovec pri la evoluo de terminologio en Vikipedio kaj ĝia influo al la lingva komunumo:

Verkante artikolojn por Vikipedio ĉiu kontribuanto renkontiĝas kun terminologiaj problemoj, ĉar ne ekzistas fako teknika, scienca aŭ arta, kie ne troviĝus ankaŭ terminoj. Oni verkas pri landoj, urboj, monumentoj, artistoj, sciencistoj, sportistoj, politikistoj, inventoj, eventoj, bestoj, plantoj, mineraloj - ĉie svarmas terminoj, kiujn necesas esprimi en Esperanto.

( legu pli de Terminologio en Vikipedio )

Lately whenever I've been around people who don't know me very well, I start to feel slightly Stalkeresque. Because of my 'keen eye for detail' as the colloquialism goes, I tend to know far more about people than they've actually told me: like how many kids they have and when their birthday is or how many biscuits they had for lunch.
The only problem with this is that later in conversation I'll say something like: "Hey you better get to your doctors appointment, you don't want to be late!"
And the person in question will ask me how I knew they had an appointment, and I'm not sure how to answer, as most people find "You mentioned it two weeks ago while on the phone with your daughter, I was ten metres away stamping dates on bookmarks." just a teensy bit creepy.
My mother tells me that the reason people don't remember saying these things in my presence is because that to them, unless I am speaking I am essentially invisible.
I found her opinion interesting so I decided to test it.
I walked subtly up to people while they were talking and waited for them to notice, I discovered that for the most part as long as you aren't within a metre or of the people talking you are functionally non-existent- it depends on the size of the room, the position of their bodies and even how interested they are in the conversation, but I've been able to be within a foot of two people talking for around three minutes before either noticed my presence. (I'm not non-verbal but I prefer sign language and don't like announcing myself)
It would certainly explain my latent invisibility, either that or I have unknowingly developed superpowers.
What do you think?
P.S. as a result of my experiment I have developed a reputation for ninja like skills at sneaking up on people. (Which is silly, I wasn't THAT quiet.)

Hillary Clinton has made it so that Peggy Noonan’s fictitious fantasy world actually coincides with the Earth we all live on, if only for this one article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121027865275678423.html

BTW Peggy talks about something I had noticed:

In case you didn't get what was behind that exchange, Mrs. Clinton spent this week making it clear. In a jaw-dropping interview in USA Today on Thursday, she said, "I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on." As evidence she cited an Associated Press report that, she said, "found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

White Americans? Hard-working white Americans? "Even Richard Nixon didn't say white," an Obama supporter said, "even with the Southern strategy."

If John McCain said, "I got the white vote, baby!" his candidacy would be over. And rising in highest indignation against him would be the old Democratic Party.

To play the race card as Mrs. Clinton has, to highlight and encourage a sense that we are crudely divided as a nation, to make your argument a brute and cynical "the black guy can't win but the white girl can" is -- well, so vulgar, so cynical, so cold, that once again a Clinton is making us turn off the television in case the children walk by.

Richard Nixon—who probably indeed never expressed himself so bluntly—was an especially bright bulb. He may have been an ethical moron, but he had brains squeezed into his big head so tightly that they stuck out of his ear holes. Bill Clinton also has big brains, and you may notice how subtly he speaks; ‘Jesse Jackson won here twice’ was a slip into crudity for him, and he paid the price. Hillary Clinton doesn’t have such a command of language; that is what I had noticed about her.

Well, Obama is going to be the nominee, and he has his own language problem, a lack of terseness. Maybe Wes Clark, now that he is free of supporting Hillary, and who in 2004 sometimes answered questions in one word, can give Obama some lessons in terseness. :)

http://www.dutchgrammar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=1571#p10082

by Bartholomew (Posted Yesterday, 12:30 am)
Waarom heb je mijn vraag niet beantwoord?

Waarom heb je niet mijn vraag beantwoord?

Is it okay for 'niet' to change place in sentences such are the ones above or is only the first sentence correct?

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Ted Kennedy:

"I don't think it's possible," [Ted Kennedy] told Hunt of the joint ticket, continuing that:

Obama should choose a running mate who "is in tune with his appeal for the nobler aspirations of the American people," Kennedy said. "If we had real leadership — as we do with Barack Obama — in the No. 2 spot as well, it'd be enormously helpful."

And Brent Budowsky’s column in The Hill: http://pundits.thehill.com/2008/05/09/pathetic-hillary-plays-the-white-voter-card

... something about Ted Kennedy telling why Hillary Clinton is no good for the vice presidency. I didn’t catch the details.

Brent Budowsky just called Hillary Clinton ‘preternaturally divisive and polarizing’ and said that she can’t help herself from doing that even when it is in her interest to do the opposite.

He also predicts she’ll suspend her campaign by May 21 or thereabouts.

Brent Budowski on the Randi Rhodes Show is explaining who Big Dog and Paul Begala have been going around race-baiting, too, so Hillary is clumsily trying the same. (Begala’s methods have been clumsy, too, while Bill’s have of course been subtle innuendo.)

The gas tax backfired with voters and the race-baiting is backfiring now with superdelegates.

Guh. I'm getting behind on keeping a few ARG timelines up to date...

- Thankfully The Dark Knight wiki has a number of regulars who are amazing in keeping everything up to date (even if the content isn't added in the most esthetically pleasing way)... I barely ever touch that one now aside from watching updates.
- A couple of people are my heroes on the Find teh Lost Ring wiki by keeping most of the stuff catalogued (and translated), but it's getting a bit behind on anything other than the blog/youtube updates. (this is another reason I love sharpreader - I'm using the unfiction forum rss feed and marking/storing posts that have info I need to review and get on a wiki)
- Live Psych experiment (Hurts to Heal) wiki is dead. I read among pages and pages of posts in the unfiction thread people asking about a wiki, and eventually decided to put one up. It's just not being used. *shrug* I'll likely remove it once it's done if it doesn't get populated. (I'm only lurking that one, not actively playing)
- The "Star Trek" wiki is just as far as it can go considering there's really nothing happening. But it's ready to go :)
- I set up a Books of History wiki in prep for the Ted Dekker novel series game / contest. I haven't yet finished White (book 3), let alone read the two new books primarily related to this game. So I certainly haven't been following the game. :P Got my reader updating me from player/meta blogs, but the wiki is just pointless now. Linked it once or two on the in-game forum, got a couple hits, and nothing since. heh. Once it's done, I may or may not document the game for posterity, but likely not, since a lot has happened.

And now, I've just set up a wiki for Hellboy II: The Golden Army which I'm going to attempt to populate as much as possible this weekend. Possibly try to spice it up a lot to compete with what's going to be listed in the top 10 fan sites on the webmaster resource website. The top 10 get exclusive content :)
I have a feeling though that I may be the primary updater for the Hellboy wiki, which might be expected considering it doesn't have the same enormity of fan following that say, Batman does, or the loyal fanbase of Jane McGonigal for FTLR...