The “How to Be Autistic” page:

Update: Respite room went well.

The TL;DR sumup:

Do your research.

Protect your rights.

Know your methods.

Maintain your health.

Develop executive functioning.

Play to your strengths*

Question authority.

Question reality.

Lessen stress.

Find respite.

Pick your battles.

Try the 6B art pencil.

Herein I am organizing my notes to leave around in the LTUE 2020 respite room. That way if I get tripped up by my executive functioning issues and don’t produce a final work, at least I’ll have something up.

More specifically, how to be an autistic content creator.

One metaphor: You are a mage. You use your stock of mana to shapeshift into a neurotypical human, and also to cast spells.

You commence battle into assuring yourself that you have sufficient mana. But some of the maneuvers take more than you think. And you find yourself running out. Soon this magic system is the kind where, if you run out of mana you can continue the battle by spending your own life force. And you don’t even realize you’ve run realize that you’ve run out and converted over

Another metaphor: Treat your physiology as if it’s a high-maintenance machine. You can use DeLorean from Back to the Future, where the savantism is the flux capacitor and its PRV6 engine is the mundane but vital support systems.

Use the metaphor that suits you. Get ideas, not directives.

Basically, take your physiology, including your emotions, and get it away from your ego. And what other people think. Science it.

Speaking of Executive Function–

Questions concerning executive functioning replaced questions about religion on this year’s U.S. census. How cool is that? Because high-functioning autistics need executive functioning support and this involves more than simply buying a Franklin planner. Important as this topic is, though, I’m not diving into it during the LTUE gig.

My Favorite Tools

(I am not getting compensated for any of these shoutouts)

My particular sensitivity is noise. (Note:AC/DC is not noise. Go figure.) Sometimes I won’t even realize the ambient sound of your office complex has affected me until I find I have become grouchy enough to make a couple enemies. That’s why a sound meter is a good tool. It shows visually what I’m not perceiving consciously, especially when I’m focusing on the task at hand.

https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/pubs/apps/default.html

It doesn’t have to be fancy. Just something that makes sound visible. The point is to be aware and take measures before it depletes me.

My wish list includes a sound app which will vibrate when it perceives sound at the frequencies and patterns which start depleting my energy and raising my stress. The evil part of me wants this app to beep like a car alarm when it detects these noises, just to educate neurotypical people.

Just because the world is so noisy and so ignorant, I use these little lifesavers:

https://www.bose.com/en_us/products/wellness/conversation_enhancing_headphones/hearphones.html#v=hearphones_black

At least I did until I broke them from overuse.

These are a more inexpensive replacement:

https://www.bose.com/en_us/products/headphones/earphones/quietcontrol-30.html?msclkid=362200de8ef119af88825ef1cfc0fd11&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=PLA%20Brand_QuietComfort&utm_term=4585375804836796&utm_content=SC_QuietComfort%20Ad%20Group&gclid=CMaf1_DIpOcCFWKrxQIdVIYLVw&gclsrc=ds#v=qc30_black

I got them refurbished. Hey, being disabled is expensive.

I can get by for the day with earplugs, or in an emergency with wet toilet paper, but I find that overuse leads to ear infection.

Stim methods

My stim collection:

Hiking

I’m doing that right now. It’s helping me to get ready for LTUE.

~~GeoSynth~~ ~~Electric piano~~ Any freakin’ musical instrument you plop in front of me

The musical instrument I can play in public.

Humming

Tweezers

Doodling

Oh yeah…

Apophysis

Diet

Food is not my religion. I engineer my diet. I tinker with chemicals and measure word output and three-dimensional visualization quality that results, in hourly and daily increments. I am a human guinea pig.

I am not posting my findings. Do the work and get Syour own.