Theme
9:34pm September 11, 2014
This is exactly how much I loved mud as a kid.  Give me a kiddie swimming pool full of it and I’d waller in it like a pig.  And just as happy as can be, too!  I’m not kidding when I talk about how much I love mud.  (And yes, I’d get hosed down before they’d let me back in the house.)

This is exactly how much I loved mud as a kid.  Give me a kiddie swimming pool full of it and I’d waller in it like a pig.  And just as happy as can be, too!  I’m not kidding when I talk about how much I love mud.  (And yes, I’d get hosed down before they’d let me back in the house.)

7:58pm September 8, 2014
[Photo of resistors, an electronic component with bands of color around the middle.] Ways to tell your child is an autie #238: Sie likes sorting resistors by color. No – sie doesn’t just like it – sie loves it, sie thinks it’s a game, sie thinks it’s fun, sie thinks it’s a reward, sie has no idea that anyone could possible see it as tedious or busywork. Sie will take a giant tangle of resistors as big as sie is, and sort it neatly into drawers. Sie will always get super-excited when hir father tells hir, “It’s time to sort resistors now!” and gives hir a chance to do it. These are the old kind of resistors, the kind with colored stripes.  Sie can’t even read the colors to the numbers, but sie can sort them perfectly.  Every time.  And hir dad is thrilled that he doesn’t have to do all this extra work, because he has this weird offspring who will do it for him with cheer and excitement.  But not too weird, given he’s autistic too and probably takes this sort of thing for granted. (My father was an electronics technician for most of his career.  He never had the schooling to be an engineer, but towards the end of his career he was promoted to engineer on sheer life experience and knowledge.  As a technician, he did everything from fixing and designing electronics, to digging ditches for experiments.  I really wish Anne could have his old job, which she’d be perfect for, but jobs that good don’t exist anymore, at least not in quantity.  What Anne has that a lot of engineers and technicians don’t, is an ability to do anything as long as it’s hands-on, and that’s what my father had as well.  So they didn’t just get used for the things in the job description, they were used for literally anything that needed doing, and that was actually kind of cool.  I used to love going to work with my dad and watching everyone work. or getting my radiation badge and walking all the way down the linear accelerators, etc.)

[Photo of resistors, an electronic component with bands of color around the middle.]

Ways to tell your child is an autie #238:

Sie likes sorting resistors by color.

No – sie doesn’t just like it – sie loves it, sie thinks it’s a game, sie thinks it’s fun, sie thinks it’s a reward, sie has no idea that anyone could possible see it as tedious or busywork.

Sie will take a giant tangle of resistors as big as sie is, and sort it neatly into drawers.

Sie will always get super-excited when hir father tells hir, “It’s time to sort resistors now!” and gives hir a chance to do it.

These are the old kind of resistors, the kind with colored stripes.  Sie can’t even read the colors to the numbers, but sie can sort them perfectly.  Every time.  And hir dad is thrilled that he doesn’t have to do all this extra work, because he has this weird offspring who will do it for him with cheer and excitement.  But not too weird, given he’s autistic too and probably takes this sort of thing for granted.

(My father was an electronics technician for most of his career.  He never had the schooling to be an engineer, but towards the end of his career he was promoted to engineer on sheer life experience and knowledge.  As a technician, he did everything from fixing and designing electronics, to digging ditches for experiments.  I really wish Anne could have his old job, which she’d be perfect for, but jobs that good don’t exist anymore, at least not in quantity.  What Anne has that a lot of engineers and technicians don’t, is an ability to do anything as long as it’s hands-on, and that’s what my father had as well.  So they didn’t just get used for the things in the job description, they were used for literally anything that needed doing, and that was actually kind of cool.  I used to love going to work with my dad and watching everyone work. or getting my radiation badge and walking all the way down the linear accelerators, etc.)

8:24pm July 24, 2014

fruityplant:

nomnomnom! hungry banana slug devouring a leaf.

10:59pm December 4, 2013

things about Hufflepuffs #74

thingsabouthufflepuffs:

Hufflepuffs are easily entertained, and don’t get bored often. This trait sometimes makes them appear silly or too easily excited, but in that respect, they really don’t care what others think. They’re having fun.

2:41pm November 26, 2013
This is me while playing with my cat.  (She’s behind my laptop.  I poke my hands over the edges and make tapping sounds behind it, she tries to catch my hands.  She loves games where we’ve got a barrier between us.) The reason I posted is that not many people can recognize this as a smile, but it is.  Anne has a similar smile sometimes.  It’s like, my mouth barely moves but I can totally feel it as a smile and it’s quite genuine.  It’s a smile that happens most often when I’m fairly relaxed and enjoying myself.

This is me while playing with my cat.  (She’s behind my laptop.  I poke my hands over the edges and make tapping sounds behind it, she tries to catch my hands.  She loves games where we’ve got a barrier between us.)

The reason I posted is that not many people can recognize this as a smile, but it is.  Anne has a similar smile sometimes.  It’s like, my mouth barely moves but I can totally feel it as a smile and it’s quite genuine.  It’s a smile that happens most often when I’m fairly relaxed and enjoying myself.

4:52pm November 20, 2013

Ohhh yayyyyy

I dreamed a comic or story character the other night, and I’m having so much fun coming up with her backstory and stuff…!!!! :) :) :)

And I’ve already drawn one piece of concept art that has fleshed her out even more for me – something about her smile and facial expression.

And I was finally able to draw semi-curly hair without making so many little curls popping out that it looks ridiculous.

So I’m pretty happy.  I just hope I can really do this, because it’s going to be more difficult than my previous comic project and I want to do it right.

7:38pm October 23, 2013
I’m exhausted but happy, been working on an art project all day. So happy to have my laptop back so I can do things like this. And so happy that once upon a time I got a graphics tablet. And so happy that GIMP finally is compatible with the graphics tablet. And that I’m finally developing a drawing style.  And that what is in my brain is finally making it onto the screen BETTER than I ever expected in my wildest dreams. And so many other things. Just happy. This is really hard work but also exhilarating.  Eeeeeeeeeee!!!

I’m exhausted but happy, been working on an art project all day. So happy to have my laptop back so I can do things like this. And so happy that once upon a time I got a graphics tablet. And so happy that GIMP finally is compatible with the graphics tablet. And that I’m finally developing a drawing style.  And that what is in my brain is finally making it onto the screen BETTER than I ever expected in my wildest dreams. And so many other things. Just happy. This is really hard work but also exhilarating.  Eeeeeeeeeee!!!

5:44am March 5, 2013

One of those dreams about something you wish could exist.

Just before writing this, I had a dream about a cool art form. It was the sort of thing that could almost exist in the real world but not quite.

It was this big scene sketched in a simple style, black on white. The paper was thick, and the lines in the sketches were sort of embossed onto it, so they stuck out of the paper and you could feel them with your fingertips even if you couldn’t see them. So it was accessible to blind people.

But here was the fantastical element: if you pushed around each element with your finger, you could either move it around, or it would do something of its own. So if you pushed a lamp post, it would move side to side across the paper, or wobble a bit. But if you pushed a dog, it would shift position a little and bark.

But for some reason the two coolest items by far were an umbrella and a piece of folded newspaper. You could explore the entire, huge drawing by pushing those around as they flew through the air tumbling head over heels, or tumbled on the ground. They also could interact with every single other object in the drawings.

I’m certain it would be possible, of course, to program something like this to work on an iPad, or in a Flash game of some sort. But what made it truly magical was that it happened on paper. And not just a flat drawing on paper. But a drawing where each black line was raised, so you could feel it under your fingers. And that made it not only something you could do without having to use your eyes at all. But also something more out of fantasy than science fiction or even modern computer programming.

It felt exactly like art made of raised lines on paper would be – only animated and interactive like an iPad game would be. Or on the other hand, it felt exactly like animated art or a game on an iPad – only it was raised lines on paper. As either a static drawing in raised lines on paper, or a simple computer or iPad game, it would be pretty meaningless. It was the combination of things, rather than one or the other, that made it awesome enough to write down when I woke up. Plus it was automatically blind-accessible.

11:15pm June 9, 2012

Okay speaking of monkeys and humans having mannerisms and crap in common. I was lying in bed absent-mindedly playing with my toes (first picture) when I ran across one photo of a monkey playing with their toes and then had no trouble finding an ape and another monkey doing the same. It’s weirdly comforting that these sorts of things likely go back for millions of years. It makes me feel slightly less silly. Slightly.

3:27am November 17, 2011

Beware, I’ve just discovered the camera on my iPod.

And a good camera app as well.

It’s not anywhere near as good a camera as my regular one. So I’ve been having a lot of fun taking weird close-up and/or out of focus and/or generally not great quality photos, and then playing with the various photo editing features.

My cat and I are the only two people around, so guess who I’ve mostly been taking photos of. :-P

The “beware” part is I’m about to start posting them.