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sixteeη thiηgs
Image by Mike's...Seat related tales
1.I have Aspergers syndrome. It affects me in a couple of different ways. Most visibly in hand/eye co-ordination, my handwriting is very untidy. It also impacts on my behaviour and decision making, much of what follows is a result.
It's not an excuse, but it is the reason.
2. I am not a social animal, visiting or being visited is a chore to me. Meeting new people an unpleasant necessity. I despise the press and morass of humanity, "the great unwashed"; all the ignorant, uneducated "and never want to be" morons I have to share the train with, the foul mouthed, bigoted and inconsiderate…. I could go on. Suffice to say I hate them. Do you know that Australian post apocalypse film where the guy appears to be the only human left alive? Apart from the obvious sadness over family and friends (yeah, that’s you); that would pretty much be a perfect world for me. Have you seen what we're doing to this planet? On the other hand, there is love and compassion and art and music and great food and friendship and children and other stuff I like about people. But its hard for me to make friends and keep them because:
3. Communication is difficult for me. I don’t talk much and I don’t start conversations and I lose interest
In them in about 3 minutes and become distracted by (oh hey do you see the way the sun is catching that window over there…) things and I can't always follow the thread and then people think I'm being rude but they just don’t have anything to say that means anything and (its kind of like gold and seems to pour off the pane as if the light were liquid and I wonder if I could capture that in a photo…) they talk about the weather and the dog and some neighbour of theirs that I never knew who won a lottery and did you hear about Mable's foot (I wonder how my Lego auction is doing?) and have you seen that program and did you know about the SALE (I could probably get away with 2 minutes online couldn't I?) and do you want to go and eat? Oh hey, yes, I'll come have lunch, sure, I'll even pay for coffee. But please don't talk all the way through it because I'll get distracted and then you'll (I just want to see that Spike Milligan clip one more time and I have to get that ceiling painted) think I'm rude and never speak to me again BUT I'LL JUST THINK THAT’S FINE! Because it was hard for me anyway…… So mostly I type, I email, I write letters (badly) and I avoid the telephone (I unplugged mine at work, I've got away with it for 3 weeks now) and I just keep trying to fit in, but it won't happen, I can't talk to you.
4. Obsessive /Compulsive. That is a fair description of me, of things I do. I obsess about things that have caught my interest and sometimes it lasts a couple of weeks and sometimes it sticks. Like Flickr, I came here looking for photos for some project and then stayed and posted my own and now I can't stop even though I'm not that good a photographer. I'm just a snapper but it just grabs me so. And friends here inspired me to do things I wouldn't have thought of otherwise and gave me a purpose and something else to obsess about and then there were all the benches. I had to Photo some for a brochure once and now I can't stop doing that and Lego is just Great and I want more of it and I just have to have things put back where I put them and they need to be THERE when I want them and can't you just put a cap on something and maybe leave a towel in the bathroom and perhaps, just perhaps understand that I need to do things THAT way and help me out a little bit?
So its not easy. And then I think of something and I HAVE to do it, even if I shouldn't or I'll buy something that I didn’t need but I just really WANTED and I am Compelled to do these things.
We all have choices and are responsible for the decisions that we make…. But sometimes…It's not (as I mentioned before) an excuse, but it is the reason.
5. Computer Addiction is something that fills my day. I work in front of a PC from 8 - 5 (less 1/2 hr lunch) and then I go home and I spend another 2-6 hours (sometimes) using the Laptop on Flickr, Ebay, Youtube, Email, Paint.net and Games/games/games. It used to be that on holiday I would have 2 weeks away from a screen but Now I have the laptop and there's free wireless hotspots and I can't stop. I probably need help.
6. There is just not enough time around any more, where did it all go? As a teen I remember being bored and just hanging around waiting for something to do with my time but now I just don’t have enough. It’s a long work day so I don’t get to do the things I want then, I go home and eat and sometimes cook and then get the kids in the bath and hey look, its bedtime. Yes I know I said all that about computer time, but see.. I don’t have time enough to get that ceiling painted after work and its too late to start that other project right now and I need a few hours just to get the stuff together for that other thing and it would take me an hour to get to the Gym you know… so the pc is right there and takes no time to start up and do the thing right then. The weekend gets swallowed with cleaning or visiting (ARGGH!) or shopping or something and I just never ever seem to be able to put aside or grab those two hours I need to get started doing that thing I know I have to get done. I am going to have to give up my Sunday lie in and maybe get started. Anyone got time to spare?
7. SMOKERS STINK! You people really smell and should know that. also.. it seems I am to much of a coward to write what I intended to here.
8.Reading and writing are joy to me. I need to have a book on the go all the time sometimes a few. I read before sleeping, on the train, in front of the television, while visiting (aRRGH!) and on the toilet; but never while eating. Science fiction and humour for the most part and occasionally a textbook. Never anything high brow or worthy though. I am no intellectual. Favourites are Lord of the Rings (alright, alright! I hear you), DUNE, anything Pratchett particularly "Small Gods" , Sandman, Lucifer and Fables. I write stuff that amuses me and I enjoy it. I had one Poem published but I don’t have a printed copy. You wouldn't like it anyway… there was swearing.
9. Humour. If it makes me laugh, I love it. Pratchett again, Monty Python, Blackadder, bad jokes, good jokes, fart jokes, Big Fat Whale, Dr. McNinja, Spike Milligan, Coupling, Scrubs, Harry Hill, people falling over, animals doing stuff, plain dumb stupid people like that girl in my degree class waving a mouse in front of the monitor trying to get the cursor to move and so on. I'm pretty funny myself. Honestly.
10. The Beach is just about the best place in the world to be, preferably when its warm, but I've sat and shivered and still enjoyed being there. I love the sand and its different colours and textures, the things that get washed up, the smallest shells and the knotty driftwood, the sound of gulls and waves, foam and splash, the joy of poking in rockpools and jumping back with a start because "something" crawled over your foot, swimming in cold seawater and throwing seaweed at each other and just the smell. Caswell on the Gower is my favourite, but just about any beach will do. Take me to one now.
11. Projects I don’t have time to finish include: A full size Dalek I want to build (selection of parts collected), Hellboy's Samaritan replica I have started to scratch build, Citadel Miniatures I began painting, scratch built Horrorclix Frog monsters (unfinished), a foam pumpkin I should have carved last year, The Unseen University paper model that cost me a lot and is sitting on a shelf unmade, the pile of stuff I want to ebay, The Lego ship I was re-building and bought a whole lot of parts for modifying that is gathering dust and taking up room, a costume I want to assemble, an attic that needs clearing, an unpainted ceiling, fixing that Kitchen sunblind, waterproofing the shed. Really, I don't have time to work.
12. Toys and Games. I love to play, on a Computer, a console, a tabletop, a board, with toys, with paper, with "things" and with my children most of all. I don't recall my dad playing with us much and my wife says hers didn’t at all, but I do play with my kids and I hope they remember it. I like my toys and collect and keep them, I have stuff from my childhood.
I consider myself child-like rather than childish, but form your own opinion
13. Ten jobs in ten years, I get bored easily, though it isn't always my fault, made redundant twice. I need to be kept occupied or I find myself things to do (see 16) and I don’t fit in with people (see 1 and 3) so that doesn't help. I'm pretty settled now though, 3 & 1/2 yrs and counting. I'm probably to old now to get anything else if the credit crunch puts me out of work again.
14. There is no Justice, Just Us, and no Gods but those we make ourselves; this is a far from perfect world, we need magic, Arthur C Clarke style, hopefully it will happen soon.
15. Being a parent is just the best thing. I love my kids and I love being a Dad and I try to be the very best one that I can be, though I am strict and I also make mistakes. Those little smiles and laughs and hugs make all the other shit worth it. Without my family I would have given all this up long ago. I was scared of having children, I was in denial when Mrs. Said she was pregnant. My only regret now is that we didn't have more, but that would have been selfish.
16. I am wilful, and if I think something is going to be funny I will do it, regardless. I'll drop something in your shopping cart when your back is turned, I'll tamper with the toilet paper dispenser so only one sheet will come out, I'll hide your office stapler and say Simon borrowed it, I'll salt your coffee and I'll tell you I'm king of some such place and that grapes cause wind and that your not supposed to eat the yellow foot of a cockle and I'll lie about just anything for the hell of it. In fact… If I were you I'd read the last fifteen again and re-evaluate it all because I just wouldn't trust me.
and that’s it. 16 isn't enough though………..Shall we start "100 Things"?
Gila National Forest 3157a
Image by DB's travels
The north end of Silver City is the Gila National Forest and the road (NM-15) to the Gila Cliff Dwellings. The road is very winding, narrow, and the trees are very close to the shoulder -- it often seemed to be not much more than paved animal tracks. Once you became acclimated to the fact that your average speed was going to be about 15 MPH and it would take an hour or more to get to the cliff dwellings, it was quite relaxing.
There was another shattered fantasy on the route to the cliff dwellings, but that was okay. Per various listings I've seen, there are multiple hot springs in the area -- but it turned out that none were very accessible and word was that most them were closer to being mud pits than springs. So, "soaking in a hot spring in the wilderness" was struck off the list of things to do and photograph.
Because much of the road to the cliff dwellings was heavily wooded, there wasn't much opportunity for interesting pictures until it came out on a fairly dry ridge, where there was a surprising amount of cactus growth.
In California you don't typically see these types of cactus growing in an area that is fairly heavily wooded.
Best viewed as part of New Mexico set.
View on black, courtesy of B l a c k M a g i c
