Practical Tips and Tricks

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I don't think that can be stressed enough, it is an incredibly good and workable solution, it is the most often suggested because it works.
And also: your eyes will be less focused, therefore, the pupils will widen, making you look more "open" to the other person. I don't know the actual science of it, so it might seem I'm making a claim I can't support, but I don't care. Ask two people close with you to mimic that out in front of you so you can one's pupils get wider when they look at the other person between the eyes or between the eyebrows.

I try to make my own day to day life easier for myself. If I know ahead of time I'll have a very busy week, I make a big meal and eat on it for days. Because I know I won't have the time or energy or focus to cook for myself every night. So I make a big lasagna or chicken enchilada casserole, or a big meatloaf. Each night I will have a different side with it, like rice one night, or corn or beans or bread. Husband goes to bed very early, so I get about 90 minutes to myself most nights. I use it to cool out, most often with all the lights off and no noise, but I put the fan on for white noise that blocks sounds from the street.

I do some think ahead before I open my mouth, guarding against consequences of what I say and try to avoid trouble. If I know I won't be able to handle a social situation properly, I don't go.

All those things that your NT friends (okay, not just NT's, but lotsa people) do that don't make sense? Like crying about not having enough money for their kids to play soccer but eating at the fancy restaurant two or three times a week. Crying about the cat getting pregnant, but never having a cat spayed. Crying about the broke-down washer or dryer while grabbing yet another beer from the CASE of beer in the fridge. Whining about the weeds-and-grass fine but never mowing the lawn. Try not to do those things and you make less trouble for yourself.

Make your home into your haven. Your cave doesn't have to have lion poop in it. Recently I found and bought a treasure: an old photo darkroom door. It is a cylinder. You pull one door open, but you have to close it behind you before you can open the other side. I made a drawing of what I want my relax-room to look like, and husband will build a wall soon and put the door in. I will do my yoga in there. I will put my comfy chair, white-noise fan, and incense in there. Husband has a plan to insulate the room from noise, for me. He is awesome.

I sleep under the heaviest blankets I can find. Cold will keep me awake or wake me up, so I have an electric blanket. I put a comforter on top. It's as close to a hugbox as I can make. I asked husband to work on one of those for me. On our couch, behind the cushions, is a space where I can squeeze about half of me into it. If I lay down on the couch for any reason, I will press myself into that space. It is good that husband likes the bedroom cold during the summertime, because I can still use heavy blankets.

Clean up after yourself whether you want to or not, you will find you have less housekeeping. I myself find housekeeping relaxing. It is an opportunity to play loudly my favorite music or a lecture. But if you have gross things around, it has an effect and distracts you from the things you want to enjoy.

Be your own best friend. Be the person you go to for comfort and validation. Be the one who pats you on the back when you've done well and the one who shows you path when you've lost your way. Love you better than anyone else does. Treat yourself better than others do. Make or buy a gift for yourself sometimes. When you do well, reward yourself. when you've done poorly, don't kick yourself.

Making stuff gives you satisfaction and self sufficiency. The other day I made wonton soup for the first time partially from scratch. Yesterday I made myself egg noodles for the first time from scratch for a stirfry. It turned out great, and egg noodle is the basis of the wonton wrappers, so now I can make the wrappers too. To make wonton soup totally from scratch takes one more step: boiling down a few items to make broth. Next time.

I assemble my own computers and I am slowly building the computer case itself(for my next machine). I shouldnt ever have to pay someone for repairs because of this.

A good place to spend time on the net is instructables.com. You can learn all sorts of things there.

look for solutions instead of for problems. the positive in things rather than the negative.

here is how this applies to Asperger's:
exploit your traits for potential positive applications.

example: i am somewhat face blind. here is how it actually comes in handy. it helps me read people. when they are in a different frame of mind, their expressions and therefore features look different, they do not look like the same person to me and i know to pay extra attention and recalibrate.

at work, make yourself indispensible. do the work others are reluctant to; take an early or a late shift. your reliability is innate. might as well take advantage of it.

I am making egg noodles.

I took 1.5 cups of flour, and a teaspoon or so of salt and mixed them together. I combined 1 egg with 2.5 teaspoons of oil, and mixed that with a fork.

Along with 1/4 cup of water I mixed the egg mixture into the flour mix, and mashed it around. Once that was dry flaky dough, I (with clean hands!!) mixed and kneaded the dough into a ball. I then transferred it to a piece of parchment cooking paper and pressed and folded till it was smoothed out, and I formed a ball with it. I'm currently letting that rest for a bit before I form it into noodles.

I'll post more in a bit.

I messed up at traditional noodle forming, so I am using a noodle roller machine. Lunch in 30 minutes! Who is hungry?