My brother-in-law recently came to visit on his new motorcycle. We had a few sunny days lately but I still had to test my polarizing filter outside. I decided to take the motorcycle as the subject as it has many different angles.
I like the aesthetics of motorcycles, but I’m not one to drive something with less than 4 wheels.
The motorcycle was a good subject and I liked the result so I thought I’d might as well post some photos.
A few people might know by now that I am autistic. I have only been officially diagnosed about 2 weeks ago but it was something I have suspected for quite some time. Because of this suspicion I requested a referral to an institute specialized in adult autism diagnosis. This refferal ultimately resulted in an expected diagnosis of Autism.
The reactions of some people on my diagnosis have been weird to say the least. At first some stated they don’t think I “have” autism, and now, after the diagnosis, they react like I am somehow different than before.
This is nonsense of course but it has in such a short time already made clear to me that there is much ignorance and, as a result, prejudice surrounding autism, especially concerning some social aspects.
For example; most autistic people (me included) have a profound lack of empathic abilities. Our (apparent lack of) reaction to other peoples emotional states can often be wrongly interpreted as being rude or anti-social.
I feel the need to state that we (or at least the most of us) do care about other people’s feelings, but we are simply unable to tune in to the other person’s emotional state. We might even be completely unaware of the emotion, even when we are the cause.
The short documentary “Autism Reality” by Alex Plank gives a short and insightful view on autism.
Especially the comment on how mentally exhausting it is to act normal was immediately very recognizable to me. Like most in my position I have learned scripts for social interaction by observing other people. Making eye contact for example, does not come naturally to me and it is a conscious process. Concentrating on someone speaking to me and “acting normal” is therefore mentally hard work and sometimes I can simply not keep up…
For now, let me conclude with this; there are a lot of aspects to autism, both good and bad. Autism in itself is neither good nor bad and, in my opinion, not a disorder but a difference.
I hope you keep that in mind next time you see me or another autistic person!
Last thursday a 1000lb bomb from World War 2 was discovered just a few 100 yards from my house. The bomb was discovered on old farm land just 70cm (just over 2 ft) under ground while building preparations were being made for a new residential area.
The area was immediately closed for public with round the clock surveillance. Sand-filled containers where stacked around and over it as blast proofing while awaiting disposal. One side was left open for the pressure to escape in a safe direction, in the unfortunate case of a detonation.
Because our house was in the shrapnel zone we were not allowed to go outside while they were working on the bomb. The families that lived even closer to the site were evacuated during that time.
The bomb was successfully defused and transported within 2 hours. It will be detonated on a safe location as is the custom in these occasions.
OTACOOL1 was about otaku rooms, which I missed out on. OTACOOL2 was all about cosplay, and I’m not into that myself. Now comes OTACOOL3, and it’s focus is on workplaces, and a workplace I have! There are even a few figures moving about sometimes so I thought what the heck, I’ll put it up there.
You can find my entry here, there’s even a rare self portrait at the end…
