glider18's Wonderful World of Autism

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Hi Batz and Happy New Year.

I remember a commercial not too long ago about software like this, and I wondered about it. But I thought that it might not work well. Like you, the typing out of material slows me down too. I think this is why many authors used to carry around a tape recorder so that they could record the ideas---then write it down later. I feel more confident about this software now that I know someone who has experience with it. With the variation in accents, I can see the benefit of the training process. How does the short training process work?

I'm just in this bit of a writer's rut. I don't have writer's block---all the ideas are there. I just can't seem to get myself to put it down on text. This Dragon software might be the thing I need.

A great method that can work, though I rarely use it, is the outlining method. Outline all the major parts of the story with headings. Then go back to each heading and fill in sub-category headings. Then go back and write in paragraphs under each of those---then connect them---and theoretically the story should emerge. Of course, being educated in the writing process, you know about outlining.

You might be interested in something unusual I do with writing. For example, this part of the novel involves a backpacking adventure. I researched backpacks and found the Kelty Tioga of the late 1960's and early 1970's to be the model I wanted. So guess what---I actually bought one of these backpacks in real life for inspiration. I will place my old tent and old sleeping bag (from my youth) in it along with other essentials and hike around with it. That way, I can better describe with accuracy the details of hiking. When I describe the character's nights in the tent, I will put the tent up and stay in it myself (I haven't slept in this particular tent since I was a child---but it's the tent that the character will use). Peter Benchley, the author of Jaws, did a similar thing. He went on a shark fishing adventure and got the elements for his novel Jaws. Richard Matheson, the author of Duel, headed out in his car (with a tape recorder to record ideas) along the roads that he would use for his story about the truck that would chase a man in a car along lonely highways. So I believe in this method. I need the key objects for the novel. Sometimes though, those objects aren't feasible. I can't go out and buy real houses. But I can get blueprints, or HO scale models of them. I am actually creating in HO scale the resort town that is used in the novel toward the end of the story.

So with this said, I can really see the benefit of using the software you mention. If I can get that working on my laptop, I can head out with the hiking thing, and speak the story. There might be some potential to this.

Thank you for your post. It has actually given me further inspiration to get to work on this story. I need that.

I hope things are going well for you at college---and in life in general. Keep in touch.

I have an aptitude for poetry, but I don't work hard enough to make full use of it. My interests are all in other subjects and when it comes to a choice between Keats and Tennyson or a DVD I usually pick the film.

It is my fond hope that one day, in the not too distant future, I will become obsessed with poetry and give it the 110% it deserves.

Why gladly, glider. Okay, so when you first create your user, you go through a process called the training process. You can choose between three options: No training, Short traing, and Extended training (this is for those who have speech impediments or communication disorders or learning disabilites.)

After you choose, you go through first the process of Dragon adjusting to your volume and acoustic readings. You should read off something in this step. Then begins the training itself. You choose one of several selections of sections of reading materials then you train by reading the words on the screen. It'll know when you say the right word. After that it'll adapt to and save your files. And that's it.

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot: if you want to buy Dragon, buy the Preffered edition, not the Standard edition. The reason why I said that was becasue if you want to use a digital voice recorder then you can seak to it and then have dragon transcribe it for you by USB. You can get the Sandisk Sansa Clip mp3 player if you can. It costs cheap and Dragon can transcribe what you're saying on it very well. The only thing you have to do is transfer the file to your computer so Dragon can access it.

Well, as of now I'm having fun with Dragon and can actually make stories out of my imagination now without second guessing myself, especially if i have a digital recorder. Ican actually get things done for once three times or more faster than by typing (which is 23 at the most. Ouch! ). Oh well, at least I won't be as bored now.

Well, I'm off now, so I'll see you later.

Then again, don't buy the Sundisk Sansa Clip mp3 player. Just get a digital recorder. Well, last Monday I bought a Sony ICD-PX720 digital voice recorder and it works wonders for me. There's different settings and types of qualities you can select. You can even select how high or low the sensitivity should be on. It's a really great product to use.

The reason why I said get that is because it's Nuance Certified (NUance is the company that makes Dragon.) That means Dragon tested the recorder on Dragon and gave it a score. All in all it got a 4 out of 6 on the accuracy score, which is still good. But when you use a headset with the recorder, then you accuracy score goes to 5 out of 6.

Well, as of right this moment I'm recording my short story into my recorder. For once I can actually pace around the room and accomplish something far sooner than I've expected. I'm still on chapter one, but so far I have about 51 minutes of recording so far, so I'm doing well.

Well, just to keep you updated.

Until next time.

You're like me.

I was sitting in my mother's car in front of some evergreen trees and I was staring at them like my eyes were hungry and dying and taking in everything...I saw them kind of how an alien would and thought how amazing it was that these organisms existed that took moisture from the ground and grew to about 15 feet and had so many leaves...I went into a reverie for about half an hour.

As Spring is about a month away for me, after a cold and snowy Winter, I am once again putting together bookings for my music ministry. Speaking in situations like this is a challenge for me, but it is the music that most people seem to want to hear anyway. But I do make an effort to communicate testimonies relating to my faith in God. Before my diagnosis of AS, I rarely said anything when I played music in churches. But after the diagnosis, I have spoke---I know the reason for my challenges of communicating---and I feel better for feeling awkward.

When I pack up the van, I check to make sure I packed everything for my performance. I check for:

*Hammered Dulcimer packed in heavy duty flight case. Inside is a tuning wrench, tuner, and two playing hammers.
*Hammered Dulcimer Stand
*Drummer's Throne for me to sit on.
*Mountain Dulcimer in a case with picks inside.
*Banjimer in case with a Hohner Echo Harp harmonica inside also.
*Notes for my program including scriptures, testimonies, and list of songs.

After checking, I am off to my destination. I reflect on what I am doing. There aren't too many people around here packing up unusual instruments like these and performing on them in churches. The reason for this is due to my autism, which I consider as a gift from God. I realize my life with autism is different from a lot of other people's experiences with autism. I am an autistic savant. I did not have to learn to play these instruments as most people had to. After becoming fascinated with them, I already felt like they were a part of my anatomy before I ever purchased them. They felt normal for me from the start. They didn't feel awkward. I tinkered a little bit with them, and there it was, I was making music on them without knowing what notes I was hitting. Even on the organ, I play without knowing all the notes I am playing. The music just happens. I cannot explain it. With the harmonica I play, and echo harp, I immediately played songs on it. This is a two-sided harmonica with two rows of blowholes on each side. You have to flip the harmonica around to get certain chords---I found it natural without having to learn how to play it---the music just happened. This skill is identified as a talent type savant skill. Around 10% of autistics are savants (there are three types of savants). And you don't have to be autistic to be a savant. When I am playing, I feel like I have been enclosed inside a glass booth---isolated from the people around me. I rarely show emotion when I am playing. Watching myself play on videotape, I see someone I don't readily recognize. I feel like I am looking at someone who looks like me, but isn't me. But yet it is me. But what I am seeing as I watch myself is myself in what I call "savant mode," detached from the environment around me.

I know that some people aren't happy with their autism. But it is my hope that all autistics can find happiness in an interest that can benefit them in life. I believe all of us with autism have the potential to excel in something that can lead us to success and happiness.

Currently I am having some relatively bad back problems this weekend. It is very difficult for me to get around. Most people would be quite handicapped by this physical issue. But the special intense interests I have from autism have kept my weekend nice. Even though I am sitting or laying around for the most part this weekend, I can escape into my imaginary world of the novel I have been working on and make progress on it. And I have made an extremely important plot decision that will affect the storyline. So even though the weather is beautiful here this Labor Day weekend, I am content indoors with the gifts that autism has given to me.

Every adversity carries with it the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit.

- N. Hill (motivational writer)

You have a problem. That's good. Let's see what's good about it. (~ Paraphrase)

- W. Clement Stone (motivational writer)

---

I personally don't agree completely with what Hill has written but it certainly made me think for a few seconds or so.

As someone once said, some people complain about the taste of a lemon (It's so sour) yet others make lemonade out of it.

I have found the posts in this thread interesting to read.
The positive things I have read I find encouraging.
I like to view having AS as a positive thing, it explained many things in life prior to the diagnosis for me.

I am not sure where my talent lies.
I know that due to AS I can sometimes learn fast, it seems to be totally random which things I will learn fast, although I always enjoy it.

What if at the beginning of human civilization Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger had lived (rather than in the the 20th Century)? They would have set up a psychiatry practice in a cave somewhere. Hans Asperger would have studied little professor cave children who could accurately and ingeniously discuss how cave formations grew. After a few decades, what if a research laboratory in another cave found a cure for this eccentric phenomena called Autism that Kanner and Asperger had observed? And now, what if they decided to wipe Autism off the face of the young earth? What if?

No, more importantly---Where would be today if Autism had been wiped out at the dawn of human civilization?

Though it is debatable as to what inventors and scientists of the past were autistic (such as Einstein and Newton), there have been no doubt amazing technological breakthroughs as a result of autistic people.

Most people believe that Silicone Valley is full of Aspies. So where would our computers/ internet be today? True, without Aspies it still may have been invented, but would they have been invented so soon? Perhaps the internet would still be a hundred years in coming.

So let's look around us and acknowledge the fact that we with autism are a valued necessity for the progress of the world---the same way our NT neighbors are a valued necessity.

I believe I was made autistic for a reason. And I believe you (who are autistic) were made autistic for a reason. The reasons may not be evident now. But we should all search for our purposes and promote them in order to better the world.

I use one of these to deal with that:

http://www.inversionusa.com/inversiontables.html

Mine cost considerably less, however, so do not let those prices scare you!

Thank you Leejosepho---I may have to look into one of those soon. I appreciate the link.

My father had back problems a few years ago. He went to see a chiropractor and his back was fine after a few sessions.

The doctors weren't much help; all they did was give him pain-killers.

That's an option too. I actually have a cousin who is a chiropractor 30 minutes from where I live, so I might be giving him a call.

I agree on pain-killers. I haven't taken any pain-killers because of this philosophy I have:

My back is hurting because I have caused an injury. The injury needs to heal. Without medicine, when my back hurts it means I am doing something to irritate it. So I modify how I do that thing so as to not irritate it further. But, if I took pain medicine, the pain will be hidden and I will not know if I am further injuring my back.

And you are right, doctors can be of little help. Thank you for your advice.

So simple and so wise: Be grateful we get pain to tell us when something is wrong, then do whatever is needed to actually solve the problem while also learning to keep it from coming back rather than letting everything just get worse while merely "feeling good" via medication and without ever getting well. And of course, that is equally-best in the mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of our lives right along with the physical.

If you do go see a chiropractor, ask whether the inversion table or a large exercise ball would be best. Or, maybe just try laying face-down over a pillow-padded footstool to see whether that helps. If not, the inversion table offers de-pressurization for the lower back.

Thank you Leejosepho. I will take your advice---I appreciate it.

I have been trying to rest my back more, and I think it feels a little bit better tonight.

It is interesting how something good comes out of things like with my back. My back has been bad, and by being forced to rest, I started working on an autobiography and I made great progress on it. I now have the desire to finish it.