17:46 PM 05/23/2012

I hear a lot of people claim that autistic people don't seem to have as strong emotions as the average neurotypical person. (Right...neurotypical. That means nothing really. Think Joe is the same as Bob? Sue as Beth. Nope.)

From what I've obseved that's not the case. I can pin the origin of the statement down to two things though that make total sense to me.

1) Autistic people need to keep a better hold on their emptions in society because society has rules about that sort of thing.

2) Because autistic people have to learn the social norms from those around us we are often "misread" by those around us because we don't react the way they expect.

I can't count the times I've met someone that people claimed had no emotion and I found otherwise after taking the time to get close to the person and have them open up to me. This happens both with "neurotypical" people as well as autistics so why does autism get the bad rap?

Not sure about that one.

Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/258224.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.

11:51 AM 05/23/2012

Our dog passed away today in the animal hospital. I'm not much for talking about it. We're having him cremated. Work insisted I go home early so I'm home now. I'm turning my phone off in a little bit and taking a nap for a little bit.

Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/257998.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.

21:00 PM 05/21/2012

Our dog Richie is currently in the hospital.

On Friday after coming home from work I noticed that his ears were sitting funny. Turns out they were swollen. We called the local animal emergency line later that night and they said to put him on Benadryl and see if he gets better.

Well he got a little better the next day so we didn't think of it and kept talking ot the vets and giving him the Benadryl until my sister who works for a vet office came down and basically rushed him to the animal emergency hospital where they gave him a shot and prescribed some Prednesone steroids.

The next morning (Sunday) he wasn't much better and wouldn't take the medicine. So with the help of my sister we managed to get the prednesone in him and waited to see how he was the next morning.

This morning he was in pain and barely able to walk. My sister came up and we rushed him to the vet she works for and they got him in first thing. And...he's been there all day today.

They did bloodwork and he's got low protein counts and low white blood cell counts and as of this evening he's accumulating fluid in his belly. An ultrasound showed nothing out of the ordinary except a couple of gall stones. They've sent out for a urinalisys and have requested old bloodwork from his regular vet office but at this time they don't know where he's losing the protein.

They've got him overnight on an IV but the doctor admitted openly that she doesn't know what's the cause of all this.

It just doesn't feel like home without him around here. :-(

I think I'm going to change clothes and go to bed early now.

Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/257584.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.

09:42 AM 05/20/2012

Well yesterday I lost my phone while riding my bicycle.

Why was i riding? To try and ride to work for my health to see what the ride is like.

Why am I suddenly getting into shape? Because myself and others at my office are going to do the Warrior's Dash in Wisconsin this year. (Google it. I'm too tired to provide a link.)

*Charlie Brown wa-wa voices in the background*

Yes I _am_ insane why do you ask? ^_^

Seriously I need an excuse to get back into shape and the Warrior's Dash is a darn good one because I've wanted to do something like this for years. (Okay maybe you don't have to Google it - it's basically a fairly long and messy obtacle course. Pretty grueling.) There are a number of different classes and one specifically for the 40+ year range so I don't think I'll feel too out of place.

The good thing about this is I posted that I was "IN" for this with my co-workers. That means that my normal crippling fear of embarrassment works for me this time not against me. If I fail to start the event I lose standing with my coworkers and that's not going to happen. No shame in competing and losing but much shame in not competing when you said you would.

Let's cover some things here before I continue:

1) I'm not in as bad a shape as people think I am. I'm not going to die of a heart attack just because I compete in an obstacle course.

2) I'm aware of the risks in shaping up as quickly as I need to (August 18th) before attending this. In fact it's every bit right on the "clean up then die" track record that my family seems to have.

3) If you aren't going to support me in this I don't want to hear it. Period. I can't afford the negativity. As a support person I get enough of that in my life already.

Moving on...

The best cardio solution I've found for myself is to ride my bicycle to work every day or as close to that as possible. That's 40 minutes of cardio a day approximately. Yesterday, before I had to turn back, I rode halfway to my office. Of course at that point I sat on the halfway bench and realized I no longer had my phone. I then walked the bike back down the bike trail to where I knew I last had it. Didn't find it so then I rode the bike home.

Then my wife insisted that we walk back up the trail and look for the phone. So I walked back up the trail to the bench again and back down the trail where my wife picked me up in the minivan.

I was tired after that but not inordinarily so. That means I should easily be able to ride the bike to work in the morning even if I have to stop halfway. The bike path technically opens at sunrise so I'll be just on the edge of that if I leave the house by 6 am. I have a 7 am start time and normally leave in the car at 6:10 and arrive at 6:20 - 6:25 depending on traffic. So I estimate that If I leave by 6 I should be able to get there by 6:45 without a problem. Especially since the bike path is an almost straight shot to my office with no other traffic really. There are 5 intersections along the path. (Three major, two minor) Hopefully at that time in the morning the traffic should be doing the separated waves thing so I'll be able to cross those quickly enough.

It's not going to be easy. It's already hard for me to get back out there. Especially with all the stuff around the house, the fact that we had to shell out for a new phone yesterday so I'm worried about money, and a number of stumbling blocks. But honestly I'm putting all those in my own way and my honor is on the line here. And I've got very little time to get to a certain level of fitness.

So yeah...I know the risks...I know the plan...I just have to execute it.

So no negativity, no "I'm just saying", no "Well I'm just warning you.". NONE OF THAT. I. WILL. DO. THIS.


As to the phone we reported it lost to ATT and the police. Then we went to the ATT store and I got a $0.99 iPhone 3Gs in replacement. Today the finder of the phone called my wife's number and returned the phone to us. So not only do I have a new phone now but I have an 8gb iPod touch once I jailbreak the old phone. So that all worked out. Still can't hotspot with the new 3Gs but I'm going to likely get a work phone to do that with in the future.

On a lighter note...I'm a hypocrite. I once swore that I would never ever buy another Blizzard game because of what they did to the BNETD people. (That one you _CAN_ go and Google because it's too long to explain.) Unfortunately it's been far too long at this point and I so missed bashing monsters on a tiny screen so I allocated money and bought Diablo III.

And it's awesome. :-)

*runs off to bash virtual monsters*

Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/257421.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.

18:51 PM 05/12/2012

Look...I'm not trying to be a pain here. And frankly I do like to talk to my family and relative and friends.

But...

I now spend almost 9 hours of my 11 hour workday on the phone. Often long phone calls that last an hour or more as I try and solve technical problems.

I'm not saying I don't want to talk to you people but please have the respect enough to understand that if I don't feel like talking to you on the phone there's a reason.

Over a cup of coffee, over the dinner table, text messages, email, even video calls possibly. Just not the damn phone.

When I get home from work the last thing I want to do is have an extended phone conversation.

It's most definitely NOT something the person on the other end of the phone is doing. Seriously. This is one place where "It's not you it's me." actually applies.

Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/257097.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.

*bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!*

Oh for Goddess' sake dog! There's nothing in the shadows!

*bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!*

I already checked there dog! Stop!

*bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!**bark!*

*sigh!*

Anybody know where I can get Prozac for puppies?

In all seriousness we're slowly training it out of him but between the barking and the licking of cabinets/stove/washer/anything that stands still long enough it gets annoying sometimes.

Another thing that gets annoying sometimes is people who don't post regularly to their blog. *cough* *cough*

Sorry folks. Been really really busy.

It's nice having a job it really is but damn it takes up a lot of time. I'm currently working 10 - 11 hour days and often under heavy stress. I like the work but damn it's tiring.

To amuse myself though I now have some virtual fish on my iPad, have finished watching all of The Galaxy Rangers cartoon on Hulu, and am currently trying to figure out what to do next on a great many fronts.

BTW - Kahn Academy is an awesome tool for learning. The collection of videos definitely leans towards the hard science/math collection but they do have history and finance and a number of other subjects as well. The format is awesome and easy to understand and if you are a gamer you'll recognize the achievement ladder structure right away. Heck it's almost like a gamer growth tree where you start out in one place and and from there you can choose what you do next. There are plenty of practice exercises and you can't move on in practice until you complete ten in a row of the current subject. Very very game-like. Complete with achievement awards.

Now they need to put some of the other skills up there like language and writing and...well...a whole bunch of things! If you're having trouble with anything math or science related I highly recommend the site and the iPad application.

That said I've loaded the app on my daughter's ipad and will likely use those to help her get ahead in the math and science department.

In other newa...

Managed to get all my Instructibles ebooks working in iBooks. That means I now have a good start on a digital library. Looking at our physical library I may revise our no books leave policy because there _are_ books here that I will likely never use and are definitely no longer relevant. (Nothing hard and fast but a lot of the older computer books while they do have certain things in them that are nuggets of information those nuggets can often be found elsewhere now.) *stop checking my forehead dear I'm fine.* (...) *and stop checking for a pod under the bed!* I'm not getting rid of a lot but some things just need to get cleaned out every so often. And a book about paying for college from the 90's is not really relevant to the current economics for example.

All that aside my wife got a Kindle and I got an iPad so we both have good ebook readers and that means we can have quite a few of our books on the go now.

Though honestly nothing will ever get me to give up the paper book. There's just so many reasons why. :-)


Still haven't figured out a good plan for the office furnature in the workshop. The plan in the house is set well enough but we have to set it in motion. The first step is getting that damn crappy armoire out of here. My wife has amanged to empty it but carrying it to the curb is going to be one hell of a pain. After that it's the dresser into that corner and the rolltop desk where the dresser used to be. Then the one bookshelf goes into our daughter's room and the one small art desk comes out. (She uses it only for dumping stuff on top of anyways.) Finally we set up my wife's corner, table, and hutches then move the lateral file under the one table. Her office space in the house will then be complete. Then I'll be able to work on mine more outside...

Still looking to complete certain projects this year if money allows. Let's see...

Repair the air compressor.

Transfer the boat title and get plates and stickers for the whole thing this year.

Get the timing chain and a muffler installed on the truck so I can pull said boat.

Finish the basement. Including stairs down from the main floor in the back hallway.

Move my computer and electronics stuff into the basement as well as a seating area if possible.

Move all the servers into the new computer rack but leave them outside in the workshop.

Maybe move my grandmother's love seat down there when it's refinished.

Get multiple gardens set up starting with the one in the back of the garage. It needs tilling and cleaning again.

Finish outer repairs to the house and paint it.

Install a fence to close off the back yard so we can let the dog out and have a quiet place to eat/sit outside with friends and family. Maybe a gazebo.

Break up the front two pieces of walkway and remove the culverts under them so water flows freely. Put in foot bridges.

Organize the workshop so one side is all craft stuff and the other is vehicle stuff.

Do all pending vehicle repairs and upgrades.

Paint inside the house.

Replace the attic fans. (Probably with a 16" Rotron in the one spot then 5" Rotrons elsewhere. They're all heat rated and better than the cheap fans they sell for attics.)

(...)

Okay this list is unlikely to be done this year unless we get a lot of money first. And with my schedule lately...

Other plans include:

Set up a dedicated study time and area for my daughter. Start with Kahn Academy videos and practices from that.

Draw more.

Write more.

Learn how to be comfortable with my drawing tablet.

Virtualize most of my servers.

Get all my DEC/PDP gear at least up and running if not running all the time. (The Vaxstation 4000-60 will likely end up running 24x7. The Microvax 3400/Microvax II/Microvax III/and PDP 11/04 not so much.)

*scifi ringtone from iPhone in background*

Oh crapola. One of $biggest_client's servers just went down. Gotta go!

Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/256967.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.

Originally posted by siliconshaman at Scrapbook

15:35 PM 04/08/2012

So once agian a holiday is upon us. I am currently working with my Linux laptop while the rest of my wife's side of the family plays Mexican Train with dominos. (I'm not a fan of dominos but I like Mahjong. Go figure. Also I'm jealous of their table. It's a huge dark stained piece with wonderful straight backed chairs. Pre-stressed. It's awesome but we have neither the money nor the space for such an object. Unfortuantely.)

Biding time today until I can get back home and get more things done. (Our house is a disaster.) That said I managed to get Google Sketchup working on my Linux laptop and it seems to work like a charm. It won't contact the 3D Warehouse but honestly I don't care about that because I can always download from that site directly. Unfortuantely the one plugin to convert the free Sketchup export files to something more transfer friendly causes it to crash so I'll install it on the Windows machine and see if it works there. If it does that then I should be able to output to something that can feed a 3D printer without too much trouble. Now I just have to get a 3D printer...

A good relative (my cousin I've not talked to in a while - have to rectify that) gave me a heavy bag this weekend. Already filled so all I have to do is hang it. It'll be nice to have something I can take my agressions out on. For now it'll go in the basement but eventually I want to make/get a fold-up stand for it so I can put it other places.
( In the cleaning department... )

Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/256608.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.

21:42 PM 04/03/2012

So...I just got my internet connection back up. Looks like my ADSL bridge has failed. Fortunately I had another in stock from when my dad got rid of DSL at his house. Still want to put the much hardier Cisco in there but can't seem to come up with a "dumb" bridging config between a WIC-1 ADSL and Ethernet 0/0. :-(

On top of all this I have work to do so I may need to go back into the office tonight. It's not far but it's just annoyance of having to go back into the office.

I realize I haven't been writing online as much as usual and it's not just work that's the cause. I'm writing offline...on paper. I'm using that as a relaxation tool - quill with a metal nib, dipping ink, and all.

Cross-posted from Dreamwidth ( http://nimitzbrood.dreamwidth.org/256316.html ) but feel free to comment here as well.

Okay maybe not that bankrupt as the last post was on the 17th of last month but still less than I've posted in the past.

Things seem to be going well at work but I'm not going to take that for granted.

Still working to keep the sugar down but last week I had to go off my meds (eating almost nothing but vegetables) to find out if something I am experiencing was a side effect of them. (It's not.)

And I have my follow-up checkup with the urologist on the 12th so that's a good thing. My regular doctor doesn't want to see me until June.

Getting things more organized but also going to have to shell out even more money because one of the tires on the lawn tractor is flat.

And...I have dried squid stuck in my back tooth. Wonderful.

Later!

(Not cross-posted to Dreamwidth because I can't remember my #&*^$*@ password and am not at my usual computer.)