Is your sense of humor a little out of the norm?

Years ago there wasn't much in the way of humor that really made me laugh.  Maybe some low brow humor, but not much and then came along Mystery Science Theater 3000.  It was a show where they watch new and old cheesy movies and make off beat comments whether it was about the stars or about the weirdness of the scenes.  This was not a show that had high ratings.  It was a niche show that only appealed to certain kinds of people.  Most people didn't find the humor in it.  They totally missed it.  It went over their heads.  Admittedly some of the humor went over my head, too, at times, but then they'd do some oddball short comments or noises or whatever that fit into the scene in such a way that cracked me up and if anyone were to see me laugh at it, they wouldn't get it.

And don't get me started on nerd humor that's more prevalent today, such as some of the things on Attack of the Show.  Some of it is also low brow and then there's some tech humor that goes over non-nerds' heads.  Science and tech and all that kind of humor.  It gets the ratings more, now.  More people admit to being nerds or geeks at heart and so now these shows get their rightful place on tv.

Now there's Sunday night Cartoon Network Adult Swim with Aqua Teen Hunger Force, which is just a really weird bizarre kind of humor that man y people would just assume forget about.  People would be "What is this weird sh**?"  "Turn it off."  They don't get it.  And that is the kind of humor that gets me.  It's weird it's obscure.  Some of it's low brow.  Some of it even goes over other viewers heads.  And What about Robot Chicken?  That's a lot of nerd humor all packed into one show.  So many Star Wars skits.  So many about GI Joe, which us kids of the 80s loved.  He-Man.  Transformers.  This is some major geekery that all us geeks loved from when we were kids and just to see the humor in the show, a lot of people would just assume forget it, but man oh man.  It's great stuff.  I'm a geek.  I love oddball humor.  I admit it.  And I'm proud!

Aspergers in Entertainment

So, how do you see entertainment and movies showing characters that are pointed out as having Aspergers Syndrome?  So far I've only really seen "Alphas" on the Syfy Channel, the movie "Adam," and I even looked at an episode of "Arthur" where a character had high functioning autism.  If there are any others, not counting
"South Park," what haven't I seen?

On "Alphas," a character named Gary is a high functioning autistic.  He shows very autistic traits.  He's like a few levels above "Rain Man" (another movie with an autistic).  Though he is high functioning he is not nearly as functioning as many of the aspies I know and even a number of Aspies say the same thing.  I think this show could make people very aware of what aspergers is and what high function autism is like, but many of these shows only show people that are lower functioning than most of us.

"Adam" is a romantic comedy involving an aspie that shows what aspergers is all about.  Again it shows and educates the audience.  However there is that problem of stereotyping us to be all like Adam or all like Gary.

Autism, as many of those reading know, is a spectrum disorder.  There are many more aspies that are, again, more functioning and less the media stereotype that is shown.  I like the fact that these shows and movies are out there, but we also need some where there are characters that are autistic and don't show it right away or so outwardly.  I do see shows with characters that have some of these traits and there are even shows where people have speculated that some of them were autistic, but this is never a major point and never brought up.

So in conclusion it's great that more people know about it, but the one key thing they must know is that most aspies typically are seen as regular people till they get to know them further and some of the signs just somewhat show.

Aspies and Empathy

Do we have empathy or sympathy?  We don't often display it.  I know I'm terrible at it and sometimes I dislike myself for it.  But I shouldn't should I.

Aspies are blind to body language and many other things socially.  Even an NT would have difficulty showing it if it was someone they didn't know or wasn't close to in one way or another.  They might feel something, though.

We don't display it, because we don't connect to the people or situations as much.  It's hard to connect with someone we can't read.  It takes us longer to read other people and get to know them.  We do show it when the most extreme happens.  The most beautiful words can reach some of us.  And we do cry at these situations.  The closer we are to someone, the more we're likely to show it.

NTs quite often are like this when they watch a movie or tv show.  They don't know the characters like they know their friends, relatives, etc.  Some may shed some tears when the scene is touching enough, but it likely takes a lot of stimulating things in the scenes.  But without these stimulating experiences, the power of what you should feel something from is lost.  So without being able to take in enough stimulating experiences, an aspie can't show his empathy.

Feeling the Need to Build

I keep wanting to build a computer.  I've got this perfectly fine computer, but I just want to have the anticipation of receiving the parts, the feel of the parts in my hands, the research that goes into it. And the feeling I get from making one work and bench marking it and seeing how well it can run games.

There's just something about putting one together and knowing what's in it.  Making one better than the next.  I'd get a real kick out of building and selling these beasts, too.  But I simply am broke and don't know the business end of things like tax paying and such or how it would affect my disability.

I was looking into video cards minutes ago and it's kind of silly to replace the one I have now, since it hasn't been in there long, but that was only to replace a broken one that was overheating.  It's like I really want to push the games I have to their limits and see just how good I can make them look.  I have a ATI Radeon HD 4850 with 1 GB of video ram in it, now and I was looking at an HD 6850 2 GB.

I was at one time looking at a touch screen monitor in anticipation of Windows 8 and I know that's a long ways off.  I guess I'm sort of an addict to computer technology.

Sad But True...Emotional Disconnections

I quite often feel disconnected from people emotionally.  Whether part of it is fear or something I can only describe as a uncomfortable ickyness.  This is causing me some problems or at least it will with finding someone for me.  I do want closeness with someone, but I fluctuate from an idea of being close to the people I do know feeling uncomfortable and weird to...well just okay.  I've never been the hugging type.  I have a friend from HS that likes to hug and there's even someone from work that does that on the rare chance I happen to stop by the store she works at for something and she's there.  I usually don't reciprocate or I don't feel any connection at all, if I even try to do the same.  It doesn't always feel uncomfortable, but when it doesn't I tend to not feel anything or I feel a little bit.

It's been suggested to me at one time or another that I even can start out as friends with someone and it can turn into more, but if I go into something, not expecting much more, then it just feels icky to have that idea.  Like the idea of dating a sibling.  That kind of bleh.  They're saying I could try, but when you feel like that, you just can't.

I can't even go see my friends or rather ask them if they'd like to hang out.  Surely I'd say yes now and then if asked, but I don't really like to make the first contact with that question.  I guess that's kind of off the topic.  I don't know.

All I know is that emotions can bug the heck out of me and the only time I don't mind them is if I'm watching anime with dramatic moments and feel the need to let some tears go.  That I like.  It's kind of like emotionally being drawn to something that can't judge you even the slightest.  (Is that why I disconnect?  judgement?)  It's also kind of like letting out things that I feel uncomfortable doing with people.  Surely I feel empathetic towards people, but the showing that I care enough is kind of draining and uncomfortable part of the time.  So what can I do.  It just feels "ew" for some reason.  Other times I disconnect enough that I don't mind showing a little something.  I'd sooner show it with a hug than with words.  I'd sooner type it out than say it verbally.  I'd sooner show concern by being there.  By listening.  By helping.  By actions.  But I don't know that I can say them.  The hug is the line between I can't/I can.  It's a sometimes thing when confronted with it.

Cartman-Burgers (South Park Spoilers)

If you haven't seen the newest episode of South Park, I suggest you either watch it and read later.  With that said I'm going to talk about the new episode entitled "Ass Burgers."

So the show starts off with the myth surfacing that you can get Asperger's from vaccines at a young age.  Nothing new here.  Just an old study that's kept on resurfacing ever since ever so long ago.  Let's move on.  We've got Cartman not wanting to get a shot, so I guess he just wanted to get out of it by saying he has "Ass burgers" as he put it after frying up some hamburgers, wrapping them, and sticking them in his pants.  Yep, the old "Ass burgers" joke.  You can see that coming.  To many of us with Aspergers, that's an old joke.  Some of us take it in stride and think it's funny ourselves and then there are other aspies that are down right offended by it.  Really, I don't care.  Even I thought it was funny when I first heard it, but South Park picks up and runs with it the rest of the episode and they make it funny again.

The other part of the episode picks up where last season left off where Stan is depressed and thinks everything is sh** after his parents divorce.  His mopey attitude lands him with the school counselor where after talking with Stan, Mr. Macky calls the school nurse and asks if they gave him a flu shot last year.  Again, the "vaccines may cause autism" myth is brought up.  But let's look at this again.  Depression or melancholy is common with some aspies.  Seeing things in a bad light may be another.  Stan has lost touch with his friends.  He has no social life anymore.  Problems among friends is common.  Eventually Randy makes a big deal over how the school made Stan "mentally incapacitated."  Which I guess means Randy thinks it made him stupid or "retarded" as a word used by some people, which we know is far from the truth.  Randy always overreacts to things he knows nothing about, so that's classic Randy, right there.  Just like classic Cartman who carries on the "Ass-Burgers" joke throughout the episode.

So Stan is taken to a special place where there are people with Aspergers.  One is blowing bubbles out his butt.  Another is peeing on the wall.  This reflects on how ignorant people are about the disorder.  And of course when Stan enters the room, they stop acting and get back to their regular selves.  So we can see Matt and Trey don't think we're stupid or anything.  It's just them saying "Ok folks, get real.  Aspies aren't stupid or mentally retarded or anything like that."  However when the group changes their act they go on and say that asperger's doesn't exist.  They tell Stan that he probably sees the world as shi**y and that they see things for the way they really are.  Does that sound familiar to you?  Aspies are commonly very opinionated about the things around them.  I know I am at times.  lol.  Then they go on to say that aliens made things this way and that to other people it doesn't look shi**y.  Ah, another parallel to aspergers.  A lot of people try to describe aspergers as if the person with AS feels like an alien on another planet.  It's like you don't really understand people very well in a general sense.  So NTs look like aliens to us and we feel like aliens compared to them.  We have this separation in our social IQ, hence the whole alien thing that the characters talk about.  The group tries to get Stan to blend in to find the alien base.  That's what many older, more experienced aspies try to help newly diagnosed people to do.  They try to blend in.  They try to meet NTs half way.  Blending in isn't bad when you're trying to be socialable as long as you stay true to yourself.  Just ignore the alcohol use in the episode.  It's just there to make it look more like they're using some disguise to blend in.

To be honest this episode didn't really outright try to teach anyone about AS.  The part where one aspie says that aspergers isn't real wasn't Matt and Trey trying to say that.  Obviously, because this was said by a character that was meant to be taken seriously.  Matt and Trey had no stance.  They had no intent on really outwardly telling everyone what AS is like.  It wasn't like the episode where Cartman tried to fake tourette syndrome.  That one was in your face about what that syndrome was.  This was a little less in your face about what AS was.  This actually seemed a little more intelligent in a way and in a way not.  They very much wove into the episode a very very small general summary of what AS is and how uneducated people like Randy saw it.  Actually it more or less made everyone that doesn't have it look like they didn't get it.

RIP Steve Jobs

As everyone knows by now, Steve Jobs died yesterday at the age of 56, due to pancreatic cancer.  I have my iPhone and although the iPad seems to look and work to me like nothing more than a big iPod/iPhone, it greatly shaped the tablet industry.  I personally think android is better suited for tablets and there is a lot more the iPad could do.  But thanks to Steve Jobs being a leader in the industry computers, phones, portable computing, portable music, music sales(iTunes).  And as an aspie that admires the tech industry, I thus admire the leaders in that industry, whether it be Apple, Google, or Microsoft.

In the days of Napster and mp3s being shared illegally on a large scale the music industry started to sink.  They were not open to the idea of online music sales.  MP3 players played CDs converted to the MP3 format to carry any songs you wanted on the go, while CDs only carried a limited amount of songs.  Steve Jobs saw opportunity in this.  He offered record labels the chance to make up their lost sales by selling music online in digital downloadable form.  In conjunction with this online distribution service known as iTunes, Steve created the iPod, a portable device like the MP3 players on the market, but better.  Many people have collections of CDs lining their walls and all that could be stored on these devices that used miniature hard drives.  Of course I had nearly 2,000 songs from CDs and (cough)file sharing(cough cough).  The price was decent for the music, but the copy protection was complicated.  Fortunately the copy protection no longer exists.  Music is my life.  I love listening to any song I want, anywhere I want.  There just was no better way to have and play my music.  I love you, Steve Jobs, for introducing record companies to digital age of distribution.

The tech world will greatly miss him and those who he inspired along the way will surely miss him, too.  May you rest in peace, Steve Jobs.  The world thanks you.