Fine Tuning Fine Hearing

Fine Tuning- Fine Hearing

As a young aspie kid Mom sent me out to play, actually out to my hearing laboratory-the great out of doors. We lived out in the country and there was little in the way of anything but natural noise. I ventured out of our house and could play in our yard and Grandma's yard next door. Actually Grandma's house was on old 1800s church that had been converted into a house and I was amazed that I could hear the tin roof panels heating up and expanding the creaks and groans they made. I also heard the wind current move from around the roof as the air mixed from the cold and hot areas of the roof. Sometimes a BIG adjustment or movement of a tin panel would send my playmates (rabbits) scurrying for their dens. (made a 'loud' noise). I never really figured out that others were unfazed with my hearing and no one ever seemed to connect to what I heard.

I learned that all that all the extra noise was just there and absently just learned to deal with it, the majority of the time life is tolerable I found. Keep in mind this was the early 1960's and homes were quiet, there was no TV blaring no boom boxes and the worst noise I dealt with on a daily basis was the Volunteer fire serien from a town 3 miles away. Perhaps that is why in my kindergarten class I realized for the first time (hindsight) I was hearing too much at once and experiencing overloads and in reality not hearing a thing. This is where I learned to figure out via the tone of the voice of the teacher or simply follow the actions of the others to fit in. I remember being SHOCKED the first few times my teacher gave instructions and I never heard them. They must have been "Get Up and push your chairs in and form a single file line." I did that like my class mates were doing but I was just following their lead.

To complicate the hearing issues I was having my first picture thoughts (unknowingly) and these optic canceling events were turing OFF my optic nerve and replacing that visual with a brain generated image I was supposed to be using to think with. I absently Ignored those picture thoughts for eight more years until I figured out they were MY thought process. THIS IS THE TIME AND THE PLACE WHERE ASPIES NEEDED TO BE TAUGHT PICTURE THOUGHTS! If the world knew what was going on in my brain they would have told me of Picture thoughts, still pictures motion pictures, how to convert those pictures to words to be spoken, and what picture thoughts of the many to use to solve what problem. I'd been set and picture thinking like I do today by 3-4 th grade IF this were common knowledge. Folks in my Anthropology report similar things! We all had the same milestones in Autism development.

Back to hearing, I guess now know the obvious and the CONSTANT need for perfect behavior in school and at home allowed me to develop ways to "turn off" the hearing so that the noise would not drive me crazy. I wonder if we were doing a simple Aspie noise experiment that worked whereas the modern ideas have one drugged up in an IGNORANT disguise of helping. My one and ONLY autism tantrum that seem like events in autism today was my first trip to the dentist. That was an aspie disaster of all time, read more about this in earlier posts of this blog. Despite the threat of a Whack, and the stigma of doing "wrong" dad would be mad, etc., I simply could no longer control my behavior and indeed lost it.

GOD I HATE To admit this, but in this case it was the Autism and not the child -a very popular theory in modern autism-one that in my mind promotes too many drugs. Obviously that was an extreme case, but, otherwise we have proved Autism doesn't have to be as bad as it is, ignorance is no longer bliss.

If the shoe fits wear it? Rich is back on his cave man idea again. It seems the odd thought process the super senses and the lack of some others fit a cave man life style? Through out this Blog I make reference to cavepersons in real life (us) Are we the missing link?

In real life I have learned to use my gift of hearing, and use it to trouble shoot cars, figure out all kinds of mysteries and have fine tuned it to use as kind of a lie dector test. Despite what people say some are just saying those words and don't mean them. I know aspies are known for being disrespectful of authority figures and maybe this ties in to that, but some of the first people to cross me had a 'shutter' in their voice that probably only I realized. I'm sorry but it just hard for me to trust some folks, I have since learned they were usually my boss and they were simply playing a game of politics to keep their own butt of the chopping block. Still I had a total disrespect to one boss that others loved I knew all long he was untrustworthy and years later the truth came out all of it and it wasn't pretty. I never could really explain to my co workers why I never trusted that person but I gained a lot of respect from them after that.

The world would need decibel meters in an Autism class rooms and in homes to hear all the stuff we hear too much of, realizing what we hear would be one of the biggest and most important things ANY autism 'expert' could ever learn. Even if they learned this, we still have our internal hearing, we can hear our blood flow and joints move and hear certain types of food as we chew-that is good for a bit of a rouse. Some hearing filters I (we) have developed do improve the outside noise issues but make the internal noise we hear more prominent. Thankfully I have LOST a lot of hearing in my right ear probably due to an injury and that more than anything has done wonders autistically. I still hear way too much with other ear.

Contents of book

Contents of the book

Autism Pre Rain Man Autism,by Rich Shull I Universe publishers

Chapter 1 A Personal Note from the Author

Chapter 2 Rain Man's Curse

Chapter 3 The Pictures of Autism

Chapter 4 Day -to-Day

Chapter 5 Schooling and Education It was not in the Text Book

Chapter 6 The Autism School of the Future

Chapter 7 The Obsession, Automotive Progress in the Works

Chapter 8 Misfortunate Listening

Chapter 9 Pain What is That?

Chapter10 Finding a Doctor

Chapter11 Autistic Driving

Chapter12 A Bit More Enlightenment

Conclusion

1/Introduction of my self and my anthropology of people like me from all over the world that have figured out autism.

2/ Discussion of Modern Autism

3/The key concept of Autism, the HOW the Why and many more aspects of autism necessary as a starting point for proficient picture thinking. This is the inside information necessary to comprehend autism.

4/Explanation of an aspie in real life.

5/A nearly moment to moment explanation of my blind backward autism school experiment. This was Autism in real life before Autism was even diagnosable, Describes the benefits of Splinter Skill Learning. Relates "Picture Thinking" to real life and describes how it developed from simple thoughts to advanced ones.

6/My Vision of teaching autism by 6th grade,,, it has been done already by all of us in our Anthropology, "condense our 30 years experiments and do it in 6 years."

7/An aspie splinter skill developed to full potential.

8/Living and dealing with Autism and it is 'deafness' at times.

9/describes my pain free injuries and those of others I have met.

10/My Struggle in dealing with a medical establishment totally ignorant of autism.

11/ Autistic Driving, It seem we can be really good drivers, tells of our driving adventures and trick we use to be responsible drivers

12/ A lite overview of Gay Lesbian Transgendered and BI sexual history from BCE to present times. MANY folks in our anthropology are in the GLBT spectrum and most people have never had GLBT history presented to them and are shocked to find popular figures in traditional history were gay, you just didn't hear that part. Our most Famous Aspie Alan Turing, Father of the Computer was gay.

The book is 150 pages 24 illustrations of picture thoughts and my first autism text books (adapted) plus one X-ray of a painless injury.

Splinter skills

Splinter Skills and Autism success

Splinter Skills are (my idea of them) are areas of instant genus or knowlege,a learning hallway if you will for someone on the Autism Spectrum.

In my own case my splinter skills were cars when I was younger and that grew into anything mechanical as I aged. In school everyone absently figured out I could do about anything if it was in context of a car. I could not figure out division on a chalkboard and was tutored for it (math in general) all the time. BUT my Dad figured on a hunch I'd be able to figure MPG on a car,,,,Walla it turned out to be the same thing. They took splinter skills so far as to say If a blue car hit a yellow car in a traffic accident the scratch would be green.

I have a lady I correspond with and her son is fanatic about trains and has learned how to count, tell time (train schedules) and read maps of train routes. He has even studied other countries and their rail systems. She has even shows him old films featuring trains and told him this is how people dress and behave while on a train.

Eventually all of this knowledge simply spills over into the world at large, and actually broadens our knowledge and insight........ The trick is to get an aspie to talk about their knowledge in some form the traditional person will understand. That can be done and has been done many times. People in my anthropology are typically not social butterflies we do get along in general and usually strangers don't realize we are aspie. CO workers and others close to us know it but it isn't a problem.

Again if we have identified interests, they can be our learning hallway. Aspies it seem have some ability to get along in the real world but it needs to exploited. Obviously modern autism is on another page. Splinter skills, make our lives successfull.It seems all of us work in realm of our splinter skills, and we often times are ground breakers in our fields. "We have lots of Computer programmers."

Please don't Ignore the Key to Aspie success, It is an odd way to learn and to do things but it is our best shot at traditional life. To see how this scenario really played out in real life read the book The Enigma by Andrew Hodges on Alan Turing Aspie and Father of the computer. If Alan would have lived longer the would have another Temple Grandin.

True Science "fiction"

"True Science Fiction"

Our Autism Journey a special journey through space and time is in effect discovering and exposing one of earth's last frontiers. Even though we have been to the Moon in person and Mars by machine that is 'chicken scratch' compared to the Autistic mind and what it has already given to mankind (the computer) and what it can give, once it is figured out. Man in general knows just enough about himself and his world to be dangerous.

Are we Cave Persons? Are Apies simply an earlier version of man? There is a lot of sense to that theory as our senses rival those of a wild animal, if I were a cave man I might expect to be able to hear like I do, realize stuff well beyond the hearing range of others. That noise could easily save your life if you were being chased by a dinosaur. Picture thought the Brian Generated thought I speak of in this blog are IDEAL to a primitive life, they flow wonderfully, they are precise and to the moment and can function really well without words, or language. The hieroglyphics I see in National Geographic look like Picture Thoughts to me, something like a number line in a first grade classroom more than a chalkboard frozen in time on how to kill a beast for dinner. I can see where the cave pictures are trying to develop the next steps of Picture thoughts.

Of Course there are the Pain-free Injuries we have? Talk of science fiction? Again If I were a cave person there would be no chemist counter or over the counter pills or even hospital and x-rays so one might as not even bother feeling the pain. If your basically naked and barefoot a pain tolerance along with the aspie lack of feeling for things hot or cold would be really handy, as well. In modern life wearing clothes is a hassle for many of us and ''EEK '' with the thought of wearing "scratchy" items

Today we are fish out of water, Our senses and thought process have yet to grace a text book. Mankind has only really been connected and modern if you will for the past 100 years or so, that is where man became a great danger to himself. Not that we have not made remarkable progress in a lot of things but we still miss the answers to all kinds of troubles. Aspies alone think like no other population on earth, and via the world wide web we are finally connected. Are we earths last living cavepersons? We have an entire anthropology of Aspie that all have done pretty much the impossible and now face the impossible. Our hindsight Aspie knowledge proven over time and proven again modern in modern times for its adaptability seem wasted as we are NOT billionaries. We are not discoveries of modern autism we are discoveries on our own, freestanding. We will never be a 'product' of modern autism as we are too different for them. Modern Aspie are simply pawns in a shell game and sadly the all the best intention of the modern autism community is ignorant of the most precious facts of our condition. As I say through out this Blog our thought process has never been in print before. Our Inside information will keep the psychologists and the researchers busy for the next century figuring out even more about our human thought process and different bodies. You cannot find knowlege,the knowledge of autism, without a clue as to what rock you need to look under. Those of us in our living anthropology live under that different rock and to be quite honest are dying off fast. Perhaps modern autism takes heart in that fact? It is mankind that is real loser.

The day autism is forced to admit to its past and discover its past modern autism will dry up as will the ABA and group homes and bad behavior. It will be replaced with Autism like ours from a time and era gone by and just due the nature of Picture thought we will chance the world as we might not be all that 'smart' But you have to admit we have a different point of view and hear like your dog. I have all kinds of Inventions based on our point of view. Really the progress man has made is just the obvious 'something' there to be exploited, It might have came about through research but it still there for the taking, once it was figured out.

Indeed my own Motor I have Autistically designed that is 70% efficient is not so much knowledge as it is point of view. Ford or others and maybe even someone already has (never worked) developed and engine like mine. My motor simply follows the flame of combustion backwards in the most efficient manner possible. If I ever loose the Forrest Gump or Rain Man labels someday the SUV's American's seem to adore might get an honest 30 Mpg and some practical machine might top 100 MPG. Please look at my web page via the link for the top of this blog for more on the motor.

Hollywood are you listening? This is true Science fiction, we area scrpit ,plot and movieline all figured out. Please help modern research do its job and make a movie about us.

Sincerely ""Mr Caveman""

Connecting Old and New Autism

Making a connection between old Autism and Modern Autism.

I need to address this point as people have been asking me time and again how does your Autism relate to my Kid and modern Autism?

I wish I had a simple explanation but all I can do is my best. I can see the autism connection in nearly every case I come into contact with. Sound and noise in terms of our super senses relates really well to some of the behavior issues of modern Autism. Perhaps too many pills and too many "experts" (with respect) simply just relate autism to their normal conditions and thus thinking they are doing the right things. But, if Autism was taught correctly and our Aspies would have hearing filters (something like an hearing aid/or even foam plugs like you wear in a factory) Do the pills really help? We are after all entire generations of aspies that grew-up without them.

Lots of Aspie bad behavior could be the result of unknown injuries, I realize now that many times I was in mood It was because I was really hurting but didn't know that I was hurting. Minus the physical pain, chemically perhaps the pain or the hurt will still register. Looking back with the aid of hindsight I realize that I had to have been suffering the silent effect of a pulled muscle or an injury. Perhaps we have a nagging minor little pain no one knows about including us. Perhaps and Aspirin would do wonders?

When I experience a modern Aspie having trouble processing or talking or thinking I can-fill in the blanks-with my own picture thoughts and know what that are missing. I know that I could easily figure out a problem If we were using the right kind of picture thoughts. Of Course Picture Thoughts have never been taught in a school of any type and the only aspies authors I know of that mention them are Bill Stillman (Demystifying the Autistic Experience) and Temple Grandin (Thinking in Pictures) . Temple only mentions Still and Motion pictures in her work and I add to them with Picture in Picture thoughts, projection thoughts and 3-4 dimension thoughts, and other types of thoughts of those in my anthropology.

A lot of this would be self evident if Splinter Skills were embraced. Splinter skills hands down are an aspies biggest asset. Please don't worry of 'tunnel vision/learning" you will find like we have, that Splinter Skills are simply our learning hallway. Once we learn a few things in our splinter skills our Picture thought really has a chance to develop and once that happens our Thought process is figured out and we relate to the real world so much easier. In absence of actually teaching us picture thoughts, at least, let us work in our splinter skills and we will learn and develop the Picture thoughts to go with them on our own. We have been developing our own picture thought for centuries, Please let us do it again now and abolish ABA.

I realize when people read this and try to relate this to their version of autism it is nearly impossible to make the connection: to be fair I make the same obversation in reverse I can't relate to modern Autism in terms of the new ideas it presents. I'm delighted I was never diagnosed or had an IEP. As hard as it is to believe old autism is just a different version of the new stuff, what we have figured out and proved within our anthropology is not common knowledge and none of us have a Ph.D. Sadly, professionals and educated people naturally wear blinders as they were never trained to 'listen to the folks they are supposed to be helping." Naturally, it takes inside information to figure out autism and we are the only ones that have figured out. We will indeed rewrite human psychology and reset a lot of human knowledge.

I respectfully urge my readers to think for them selves and ask? Who knows more of autism? People in the real world who do mostly traditional lives or those claiming 'Expert' status? Even if you opinion is we don't know a thing shouldn't all sides of autism be investigated and developed? Wouldn't autism really grow by leaps and bounds If it combined forces with it's working past. (we don't bite). The results would be fantastic!

A German connection?

A German connection:

As our anthropology compares notes on all aspects of aspie life, one the points that really sticks out is a German connection. Many of us can trace our heritage to Germany someplace. We have lots of people in our group still in Germany and Europe. My own lineage comes from the German-Swiss border area. Thanks to my stepmothers genealogy efforts we have narrowed down lots of genealogy issues to a large degree. I can see shared names in her work, and our anthropology.

It seems lot of our ancestors made it to the East coast of America and then settled all over Pennsylvania and Ohio. Gahanna Ohio now a suburb of Columbus was one of the stopping points, From there they went on west. On the other end of world, many of our Counterparts in the aspie anthropology are from Australia and of course many of them also share the same German roots.

Of course, I have no idea what causes autism but it seems to run in families. I remember hearing about quite a few Autism cases in New Jersey not too long ago and again there is an area where many of my ancestors settled. Perhaps some day when all the t's are crossed and the i's are dotted this might actually be a clue of some type.

Motors and aspies

Aspie thinking and motors.

I remember the first gas crisis of 1974. (WWII as well) You could only buy gas on odd or even days, a (new at the time) Honda Civic sold for well above retail and they literally crushed many full size Chryslers of the era they could not sell. You could even get a cheap Cadillac. Obviously American's didn't listen as we back to our old ways and today many of us drive miserable SUV's causing tons of pollution just so that our Egos are fulfilled. How many have ever been off road further than a ditch? Politicians worry in public at least that we need to leave a future for our children we could start by leaving them with breathable air. Now that America is getting $2.00 + a gallon Gas again (despite fighting for it) the small cars are selling again.

Honestly, the modern model T we are using are just now over 100 years old and just as primitive as they always were. Their first inventors simply stumbled upon the obvious, no one really knew the details of the engine it just worked. Granted computer emission controls give the appearance of high tech but it just managing a 33% efficient motor.

Aspie thinking like mine coupled with my supersenses allowed me to really figure out the motors we use today. I have used my super hearing in troubleshooting and the knowledge I have learned, like my (our) autism insight is just too radical. Precious few people in the world truly understand a motor. Those that do DON 'T repair cars as they know they could never make a living at it and be honest. In reality you don't always have to replace parts to make it run again. Mechanics only get paid for replacing parts not for knowledge.

Yes, indeed I have a solution an aspie one. I have developed a new motor via picture thought and my current knowledge of cars that is 70%efficient. I designed this motor from the flame of combustion backwards. All parts spin the same direction, it idles at 2-3 rpm and easily runs at 7-8000 Rpm. refined versions could do even more. It runs really hot and needs to be encased in ceramics and cooled with nitrogen or Freon. I bet an SUV could get an honest 30 mpg using it and still have towing power. A small car might top 100 mpg.

Models have been built and concepts have been tested and of course all I need to make it work is a few million dollars in research money. Sadly the Rain Man image of being autistic does nothing more than qualify me as a numbers expert or a cousin to Forrest Gump. Just like autism is filled with experts all saying no way, Engineering people all say the same thing, as they run to their text books for comfort. I guess someday somehow, some way I'll just have to build it and drive it to someone's door and say here reverse engineer it. That was the way our model T motor was developed after all.

Modern Developments in hydrogen motors look great and indeed might surpass my engine in terms of efficiency. But just think of the rolling bombs some manufactures would create as they cut a few too many corners, Anyone remember (America) the Ford Pinto of the 1970s? Has anyone seen film of the Hindenburg blip blowing up?

Please use the link from this blog to see my web page and take notice of my motivation in all of this (well my aspie obsession) my 62 Pontiac,,,, The worlds worst car. (even worse than the Corvair).

Florescent lighting

Florescent lighting,

I have had a number of questions here of late about this topic and I thought I might clarify it a little more. I had posted that early unfazed florescent actually gets brighter and darker (like a fun house) and if an aspie is in a room without natural light we can see the room getting brighter and darker.

Modern florescent lighting just makes noise and lots of it at times. It does NOT get brighter and darker as modern lights are 'purely' DC voltage these days. Old Style light can still be found but, newer construction or remodeling features new lights. They are lots more energy efficient.

I read about people complaining their kid can't stand the lights,,, but is it, the noise of the light? Our traditional friends can't hear our "7th" sense. We can hear the transformer hum and it might sound like we are standing in the middle of a factory floor.

How many parents ,teachers, or "experts" ever think , that we hear what they can't. Out of sight -out of hearing range and it is 'out' of autism.

Autism's Hero

Dr. Alan Turing (1912-1954) "aspie" Father of the computer and W.W.II hero.

Based on the book The Enigma by Andrew Hodges and the PBS play Breaking the Code By Hugh Whitmore.

Autism from its undiagnosed past is just that, undiagnosed. I feel Dr Alan Turing would be diagnosed Aspie if he were alive today. Reading about Alan and viewing the play Breaking the Code (PBS), Alan's life has AUTISM written all over it. I bet there are even some pain tolerance issues in his life as he was outstanding distance runner as well, and seemingly he never hurt or had sore muscles. His work developing the computer is pure aspie coupled with his splinter skill of math :a computer was indeed possible. Only an Aspie would follow such a 'stupid' idea all the way through to the end like he did. Being a Gay Man before his time I'm sure he took much delight in breaking Hitler's war codes. Indeed that was the job of his first computer, to break the codes (enigmas). This won him Briton's Highest honor the Officer of the British Empire award (OBE). Only today is he getting the hero status he deserved.

Like many in our original anthropology he was Gay, and in the homophobic 1950s and before Gay was so misunderstood that Alan was even forced to undergo hormone treatments to 'make him straight.' Psychology then as now is grossly out of touch and not based on science and fact but, rather emotion. If the entire world hated gay folks Psychology to hated gay folks. Thankfully there are a few people of science in psychology that did mange to get Gay taken off the psychology 'Hit list' in 1973. Psychology desperately needs the same thing to happen in Autism today.

Gay, Lesbian, Transgendered and BI sexual history spans from BCE to the present time and of course is not identified in traditional history books. Alan's work is hidden under the cover of British Secret Service work. 1st lady Eleanor Roosevelt Woman of the Year for 10 years in a row and her lover (secretary) were instrumental in the civil rights fights of her era. They were even told by the FBI they could not protect them as drove through the KKK infested south with only a six shooter for protection. Look up Gay history on the web and see for your self most of the social reforms the world has made have a gay connection to them. Even in the past few months it is reported American President Abe Lincoln had a boyfriend.

All of this aside I bet many folks reading The Enigma will be stunned to see the obvious Autism in Alan's life and might even see some of their loved ones in the book. I would call this reading the precursor to Temple Grandin's Thinking in Pictures. If nothing else it is an accurate view of Aspie life before it was 'helped' so much. Many both straight and gay in our living anthropology are doing much the same thing as Alan has done. Sadly, I must remind my readers it is our anthropology of Autism that has never been admitted to. Obviously it is too late now as Autism is established and there is no room for a dietless, pill-free- non group home-drivers, in modern autism.

Please look over the web site Queers in History to read the stuff you never learned in a traditional history book, the web address is http://users.cybercity.dk/~dko12530/queerhis.htm

Face blind

For up to date readers of this blog the following should not be a total shock. Please keep in mind as we picture think we do not see what you see. We might see a brain generated image we are using to think with thus our optic vision is interrupted.

I have had the hardest time in life realizing who people are. In 1 St. grade, and in real life I often identify people via their smell. (not body odor) I had a h*** of a time in grade school figuring out who was who and unknowingly started to using smell and the pitches of the voices and the way one walked to identify people. I have got better in recent years at identifying people as I use less and less picture thought in real life. The more I look at them the more I remember of them. The sound of their voice is also true indicator of their real views, I have lost court of the number of people I have met or seen over time that say one thing and mean another. My hearing is like a lie detecter test. It would take a decibel meter to hear the slight imperfection in their voice but it has proven to be a good indicator for me of who not to trust.

Today I often meet the same groups of people every few months for meetings and social occasions and I still find my self not knowing who is whom. The people with some obvious feature about them are easily figured out but the average person still looks the same to me. I often think to my self you could take 10 people I know well dress them all a like from boots to hat (women included) and I'd have to play "pin the tail on the donkey' to get their names right. People out of context really throws me for a loop, If you typically wear a suit and I meet you in casual wear I'm really lost. If mechanics would switch shirts at work I would really be looped as there was name tag that didn't match. It made for a few laughs as I stumbled with the wrong names. I learned to play it off as I was joking but in reality I was really lost and confused.

Obviously, a life time spent thinking with pictures has somehow detoured face recognition. I suspect typical humans learn this trait naturally as we learn to think with our pictures. If you would humor me yet again/What good does eye contact do for an aspie? Even if we are looking at you our eyes, they might be disconnected from our optic nerves and thus we still don't see you even if we are looking at you.

Talking is hard work

Talking, well it can be done.

This point of view is of course comes from a proficient picture thinker, although all aspies might relate to this in some form or another.

With the aid and hindsight of experience simple conversation is pretty easy and indeed predictable, meeting someone is especially easy as "introductions" more than most forms of human conversations follow strict social norms. I can usually safely count on 3-5 five minutes of pleasantries and good impression. I even learned to embellish the person I'm speaking to a bit. I have had a number of public contact jobs and indeed 'small talk' makes the customer feel comfortable. I often said to my self thank goodness they are leaving, as I'd started having trouble keep up with the conversation. One point, the conversation would no longer be figured out, and I'd need to start using picture thought to keep up. I know working on a rental car lot was not the place to be picture thinking (loosing track of reality) and trying to walk etc. Most of my 'introductions' are already figured out, no need for (in this case) for slow picture thoughts.

Interestingly as a left over from my Auto mechanic days I "natually/instantly" took my rental car conversations to side of an aisle or held them in front of a car so that I could picture think a bit and not have to worry about someone driving up on me. Most people assume (forgive me) since I don't look retarded or have Autism written all over me I heard them drive up or I heard them shouting at me. In reality my eyes are open but I'm sometimes looking at a picture thought. In other words the lights are on and no one is home. Some of my customers commeted, gee, thanks for getting me out of the aisle or some would say you must have been ran over before? Well, yes, I have been as mater of fact. I answered with the social answer bad drivers but knew it the fact I was on another planet.

This is indeed a sore point with me and modern Autism as everyone is demanding eye contact out of their aspies. We don't think like you do and our eyes might be open but they are in effect disconnected. IF any 'Autism Expert" knew what we were doing they would be more worried about what type of picture thought we were attempting to use. Close people in my life have learned to give me time and wait for a bit of eye movement to continue on with a conversation.

Otherwise the only really good way I have a conversation with a traditional person is on the phone, where picture thoughts can develop easily, or online, or If I'm really lucky I could be talking to another aspie. Televisions, music, people talking, Echoes, noises from a furnace or air conditioner all slow down picture processing. EVERYTHING sounds like it is the same volume to me the wall clock in the kitchen is just as loud as the television in the living room and If I'm stand between the two rooms I want to turn down the volume on the clock (impossible) as well as the television. If I go into DEEP picture thought I actually no longer hear the TV or the clock but then I have typically a motion picture or still picture thought (brain generated). Aspie conversation is doable especially if we are talking within the realm of our splinter skills. PLEASE slow down when talking to an aspie turn the TV off and make life as quiet as possible, it will pay dividends.