Ahhhhhh..... That's Better!

Faulty power source replaced.....
The world is right again.

DANGER!! DANGER!! PC POWER SOURCE FAILING!! CAN'T COMMUNICATE.. MELTDOWN ENSUING!!

can't take this...cellphone internet blows... might just whither and die...

help

I Make Pretty.. YAY!

I made myself a little lovely with the pretty beads mom gave me... LOVE IT!!!

Still not really great at photographing my pieces... I'll have to upload some more though... Thank you for going to the bead shops mom... Ohhh and what is that stone again?? The pretty big blue one?

Who's The Aspie?

So I have this friend. He's a very high functioning Aspie... kinda hard to get sometimes. Incredibly frustrating most of the time, but I love him to death.

So, most of our communication has been via text lately, which can be very dumbfounding as he's not always good at precisely stating his thoughts and it leaves me with a lot of guess work.

Tonight, I emailed him a link to a news story and texted him to tell him to look at it.

Me: "OMG HEY!!!!"  (you have to say something to get his attention... THEN explain yourself once you've got his attention... cuz if he thinks he might not be interested, he won't answer... not that he admits it) sooooo....

Me: "OMG HEY!!"

Several minutes later.....
Him: is 4 horses!!

Used to his broken messages, I assume he's talking horseMEN...
Me: Like Apocalypse?(You know... The Four Horsemen.......)

Several minutes later....
Him: No....... as in Hay is for Horses... doofus!"

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...... ??? I thought he was supposed to be the literal one! ?! ?!

American Idol..... Akkk!

OMG Casey!!! by the skin of your teeth! I thought J-Lo was gonna cry!

Having missed the majority of the show, I walked in and got it to the right channel about 15 seconds before they said Casey was going home...


Casey!! I love you! You deserve to be there... I really expected it to be Naima or Haley or Lauren or even Stephano... but he's such a cutie.... He'll go far on looks, and don't forget he can actually sing.


They totally made the right call in using the save...

Yay Casey!!

American Idol... and Showing Your Penis

I think everyone was great tonight! I really wish they would change the voting to who do you think SHOULDN'T make it. It would make things so much easier.

I finally got Jacob!

I have to say, though everyone had a good performance, there are still people that I "don't get"(as Randy would say..) Thia, Pia, Stephano... Great voices....In truth, they just bore me. I thought Naima was going to be one of my favs in the beginning. Her style excited me.. and to be honest, I've been a bit let down up until the last 30 seconds of her performance. In the end, she turned it up.. but the beginning was a snoozer.

This week's votes go to Casey, Paul, and JAMES! These guys never let me down. I know some people don't get Paul.. but I just dig his funky vibe.

If I had to make critiques...

Jen.... WTF is up with your make-up artist? I have it on EXCELLENT authority that only hookers and disco singers wear that shade.

Scotty-baby.... Someone needs to show you how to hold a mic... You're driving me NUTS!

Haley... You were one of my favs.... You have that great growl... but here's the secret. Your growl is your massive, beautiful penis. If you show your penis all the time, no one will appreciate it anymore. You just need to whip it out on occasion, give us a little peek. Tease us. Make us want your penis... Dangle it. But don't walk around with it always hanging out because it quickly loses it's "WOW" factor.

But that's just the way I see it.

Oregon ASD rate 1-in-98

So, I was talking with a friend about the fact that Oregon has one of the highest ASD rates in the nation. I did a little online research... and found some very interesting information...

Since 1992, schools have been able to assess children for autism as provided by a federal law called Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This assessment, though labeled the same as a medical diagnosis, is not a diagnosis. Apparently, the criteria for eligibility under this law is pretty flimsy and not as stringent as the DSM-IV's medical diagnostic criteria. Which, in itself is not a problem... The idea behind the IDEA is to identify children in trouble and address the situation (hahahaha, right). (For a better understanding, check out this article by Autism Watch)


Where this causes an issue is that for some reason when gathering state-wide statistics on autism, Oregon's school assessments are counted right in with the medical diagnoses, from what I gather, making it appear that Oregon has double or triple the average amount of ASD cases than other states. According to the Oregon Dept of Edu, 1 in 98 students suffer from ASD.(not a link to the ODE, but an article I got the info from.)

My question is, why are they gathering this information from the schools, shouldn't they be getting it from the physicians who SHOULD be doing the diagnosing?

Today is a Good Day!

Several days ago I ordered Burp some coloring books online from Amazon. I know.... Online? But I was able to get some in his "special" interest areas, and that is exciting. I got Knights and Armor, Knights and Dragons, Vincent Van Gogh, George Washington, and two regular-can-buy-in-the-store books. He's known since Friday that these were coming and we've been tracking them across the country. Nevada to California to Kentucky, finally to Oregon, Portland to Roseburg then back up to Springfield. It was rather amazing... and frustrating to watch. Burp got an extra surprise as I had also ordered a new book on knights for him...

Then... today is March 22nd.... wait, I'm sorry.... MARCH 22ND!!!!!! And how could you NOT know what that means? It's release day... I'm sorry, RELEASE DAY!!! for the new Lego Star Wars: The Clone Wars game. Burp got decked out in his Darth costume and dug into his Christmas/Birthday stash for $50 and I drove his happy-ass to Walmart. Ok, I did try first to go to a gamer store, thinking they might more understand of his over-excited dorkiness, but they were sold out.... damn! In like 3 hours, sold out. (And yes, for those of you who will point out, he probably gets it from me as I HAVE dressed up for Harry Potter movies....) So we went to Walmart, he found it in the case and made his purchase... (I know, I used the word purchase for an item that doesn't exceed $150... breaking my own pet peeves.)

Any way, he is in 7th heaven and I've already had to copy down like a million cheat codes....
The next big date? May 10th... oops.... I'm sorry, MAY 10TH!!!!! Lego Pirates of the Caribbean comes out.
And yes... he has that costume too! LOL

My Letter to the First Lady....

In my life, I have written hundreds of letters to various government officials, none of which I've ever sent. That's one of my weird quirks.. I will get super involved in researching, writing, and rewriting my letter.. and fail greatly at the buying a stamp and putting it in the post.

Yay modern times and email! So here is my letter that I sent to Mrs. Obama. Click here to send your own email.

Dear Mrs Obama,

I am writing to you as I appreciate that you have used your position to directly address some of the issues impacting the youth of our nation. I know you’re busy, but I hope you have a moment for this.

My concern is our education system. I am troubled by the fact that my son, who is in the 4th grade, has never had a text book. I am sure that you are aware that there are several methods by which people learn best; some by hearing, or seeing, or doing, or a combination those processes. By eliminating text books, one of those systems is being completely eradicated. There is no copying and solving, the current system is a photocopy in which the child just fills in the blanks. This doesn’t work for all kids. Sure, most get by… but is just getting by really enough?

My son has learning disabilities. He has Asperger’s Syndrome, ADHD, and Anxiety Disorder. While the school is great in addressing his social issues, they are failing him academically. With 1 in 150 children being autistic, it seems to me that the education system would address that autistic children learn differently because their brains process information differently, therefore they must be taught differently. I am not educated as a teacher. I know this about my son, but I am not trained to address it. Without a textbook to assist in homework, I have great difficulty addressing his homework in a way that ensures continuity of information. I am amazed at the new terms and procedures that they have created to teach simple mathematical practices.

I was fairly disgusted to learn that $300 million is being allocated to restructure the standardized testing system. I understand the need for standardized testing, but the sad truth is that schools stream their curriculum to the tests, and the other things are being forgotten.

In a time of such huge financial crisis, is this the best way to spend that $300 million? How many textbooks could that money buy? How much would it cost to buy every child in America a math book? To me, this seems a much more critical issue.

I used to dream of owning my own home and getting my son a dog.

Now, I long for textbooks.

Thank you for your time,

***Psam***



OMG---- I found a typo after sending... instead of eradicated... I used irradiated. hmmmmmmm oops, no way of even pretending I meant that... infact, the absolute opposite of everything I was trying to say... damn it.

Wrong Planet

So in combing the internet looking for some clue to help my son get a grasp on his math issues, I came across an autism web-community called wrongplanet.net
They offer a forum, articles, chatting, blogging... all sorts of stuff.

Anyone who knows me well, probably knows that I'm not much for support groups, self-help, or even just talking much about my problems. I have to say, I've been part of this community for maybe a week, and already seeing changes in myself and the way I deal with Burp.

I cannot even begin to explain how much of a relief it is to hear that other people have gone through the struggles I've been, or am going, through, how they dealt with it, and, THANK GOD, that they came out on the other side. It's nice to have it stressed that NO ASD kids are alike, and therefore what works with one, won't work for another.. And though I've known there is no cure, I've always been looking for the "fix".... and there is none. I'm beginning to accept that. There are ways to help some symptoms.. but some things are just the way they are, and that's all there is to it.

It's also taught me some important truths. My son does not get social interaction. He never will really. He can be given tools to understand social cues, but he can never be made to blend socially 100%. At this point, he wants to be social. But now, he is socially oblivious, and that will change.. As he grows up, he will learn more social cues. He will pick up on the fact that other kids know he's different. He will pick up better on when kids are being mean to him and when they don't really like him. More likely than not, this will cause him stress and make him more anxious about social interactions. He will probably become antisocial to some degree. The most important thing I've learned is that this is okay.

On this forum, there are adult ASD people who give advice. It is so great to get stuff from their perspective as most ASD kids don't have the tools to explain why they do the things they do, or how they think, or anything to let the parent understand better. It's interesting to learn that really, just about every little quirk my son has is directly related to stress.

For the longest time, I could never understand how Burp could do so well at my mom's house, often not even requiring meds, yet home without meds is CHAOS. I understand it now. Everything there is pretty routine. Most deviations to that routine have their own routine. There are certain things that differ there from here... and somehow, the way those differ make it so that it's not an issue.. Burp knows he will NEVER get the tv from Papa, so he watches tv in his room.. At home, Burp will never watch tv in his room because he can usually get the tv from me. At grandma's, he has free reign when it comes to snacks and treats. Here, there are certain times that he's allowed certain treats. USUALLY, he doesn't have to do homework at grandma's, can't avoid it at home. Grandma lives in a place where he can, to a certain extent, roam free. Here he's limited spacially and has a limited number of kids to play with on an every day basis.It makes sense.

One thing that I've felt really helpful is "Congratulations! Your Child Is Strange", written by a member of the forum who has Aperger's and for several years has been offering advice to parents through the forum, and finally decided to compile some of his most commonly given advice into a book. It's a free download, check it out. Not everything applies to my son and I don't agree that all of the advice is right for us.. but it has helped immeasurably.

Anyway, I feel that I'm taking a step in the right direction and decided to share it. I hope it helps someone else out there.