Ready For a Fight

Tags

Asperger's Syndrome, Autism, bullying, DAMP, Facebook, fights, social media, song lyrics, Weird Al Yankovick

This time, it wasn’t a case of being or not being woke, this time, I was attacked online because I got a song title wrong. I follow the Facebook page of Weird Al Yankovick, a singer best known for parodies of other songs. His most famous ones are parodies of two Michael Jackson songs, “Beat It” and “Bad” respectively titled “Eat It” and “Fat” and a parody of the Coolio hit, “Gangster’s Paradise” which is called, “Amish Paradise.” Anyway, one thread asked followers to name their favourite Weird Al songs. Mine are “Good Old Days,” “That Boy Could Dance” and “A Complicated Song.” However, I didn’t know that exact title of that last song, I thought it was called “Constipated” because that’s the theme of the first verse.

Weird Al Yankovick

Not long after, I get a response from another Weird Al fan telling me the correct title of the song. I would have thanked him if he hadn’t added, “A true Weird Al fan would know that.” I replied that the album the song was on was given to me as a copied CD and the sender didn’t include the song titles. This person stated that I could have checked anywhere and that common sense should tell me that. With his patronizing comments, I was beginning to feel my blood boil and I was ready to engage in a slanging match with him. Therefore, I began forming arguments and counter insults in my brain.

Not wanting to be the asshole first, I simply asked him if it really mattered that I got the title wrong and then sat back waiting for some sort of patronizing response where I would then retaliate with my full arsenal. To my surprise, this person agreed that it wasn’t really that important and that he does get a bit ‘anal’ when people get Weird Al’s songs wrong. Well, that kind of took the wind out of my sails. I was all ready for a keyboard battle but it didn’t happen. Furthermore, he admitted that he was being anal, something I was ready to call him out on. So in the end, I praised him for being such a hardcore Weird Al fan.

That’s the thing with cyber bullying. I know of horrendous stories of people being bullied online by people they know but it can be different with people who could be halfway around the world. You’re not going to ever meet these people in the flesh so it’s much easier to be aggressive with them. That’s another downside of the net, because one will never meet people whom they don’t agree with, they can hurl abusive insults at them and get away with it. Of course, the other person can hurl them back just as easily. This doesn’t always make internet chat rooms and forums a nice place and why I usually don’t go into them. But if I do and someone resorts to hurling insults or downright abuse, then I can give it back just as much, though I don’t really want to.

As a result of this post, I’ve decided to make this week “Weird Al Yankovick Week.” All song lyrics posts will be Weird Al songs.

To buy He Was Weird, go to: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Was-Weird-Publisher-Generation-Publishing/dp/B00SLVHRFG/ref=sr_1_1?crid=36I8I1G32U0R4&dchild=1&keywords=he+was+weird&qid=1614625425&s=books&sprefix=he+was+%2Cstripbooks%2C148&sr=1-1

Fears Of a Return to the Bad Days

Tags

Facebook, guns, intolerance, Marine Corps, Politics, social media

Once again, my lack of wokeness has caused me to fall foul of the woke brigade. Last week on Facebook, I was watching a video from a programme called “Full Frontal” hosted by Samantha Bee. Her presentation was on college fraternities and their dark origins based on sexism and racism. In reality, the college frats weren’t always what you see in films like “Animal House.” Of course, with my Asperger’s/DAMP mind, this got me to reflect back to my college days after I got out of the marines. Not really in line with Samantha’s point but it was enough to get me thinking.

Samantha Bee

To bring you up to speed, when I left the marines, I made the ‘tragic’ mistake of thinking that four years of having, (no choice), to wear a crew cut in the service of my country was grounds to grow my hair long. Not a cool thing to do in intolerant 80s Reagan America. Naturally, I got a lot of crap off people for doing so. My explanations of serving my country fell on deaf ears or just ignored. I had long hair, therefore, I was weird or something was wrong with me. One attempted counter to me being in the service was that I had volunteered, I wasn’t drafted. No matter, I willingly gave up four years of my life. As a result, I thought that there should be a draft because everyone would experience what I did and wouldn’t have been so quick to judge me.

Getting back to Samantha’s video. I wrote on the thread that it might be a radical idea to bring back the draft as military service did a lot of good for me and maybe 18 year olds aren’t ready for college. Needless to say, I got some rather angry responses, although credit where due, except for one person calling me a ‘fascist,’ no one hurled insults at me. I did try to address every response personally and then made a general statement in regard to the responses. I even admitted to the gentleman who accused me of not seeing past my nose that he was right because I was speaking from my own experiences. He along with most people didn’t respond to my responses, so I guess they either agreed with my point or just didn’t want to engage further.

While the responses weren’t insulting, many of them did give me concern for the future of America. While no country in the world honours its wartime military better than the USA, America does tend to go 180 degrees in the other direction in regards to its peacetime forces. The peacetime military gets treated with indifference and even disdain. I was hoping that after the support America gave its military personnel after two questionable wars, that it would still continue to honour its servicepersons in peacetime. Some of the responses I got gave me worry that America is not going to do that.

One popular response was talking that giving an 18 year old a gun was worse than sending him/her to college. What they don’t realize is that the military teaches a person to respect and care for their weapon and when and how to use it. Some responded that sending an 18 year old off to war isn’t the answer. Wasn’t that what America has been doing for nearly two decades? In general, I sensed a disdain for the US military in general and was wondering that if many of these respondents simply hated the US military. That’s exactly what I faced when I served in the years following the Vietnam War. No one thanked me for my service until nearly 30 years after I served and only two respondents did on this thread. So, I ask, is America going to start hating its armed forces again?

In between those responses there were some good ones. A couple of people had a very good idea which I am definitely on board with. National Service doesn’t have to mean military service. The idea of a civilian service for people leaving high school is an excellent one. Doing national, state and local projects which they would be paid for would do a lot for 18 year olds. It would give them the chance to experience life before entering higher education and give them a mature head for doing so in the process. With the rising costs of higher education, they would be able to save for it. Plus, they would get the opportunity of serving their country and community without having to join the military. I think it’s a win-win all around.

I hope the woke brigade are taking notice.

To buy He Was Weird, go to: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Was-Weird-Publisher-Generation-Publishing/dp/B00SLVHRFG/ref=sr_1_1?crid=36I8I1G32U0R4&dchild=1&keywords=he+was+weird&qid=1614021836&s=books&sprefix=he+was+%2Cstripbooks%2C148&sr=1-1

I’m Not Woke!

Tags

Asperger's Syndrome, books, clothing, DAMP, films, intolerance, political correctness, Politics, sexism, television, woke

I found this out last week when I received a comment on my other blog, 80smetalman, stating that I was a misogynist because I made a comment on singer Olivia Newton-John’s weight. Back in 2012, I wrote a post on ONJ’s 1979 album, “Totally Hot.” In my closing comments, I reflected back on my seventeen year old self in 1979 and commented on how I thought that Olivia looked better after putting on a little weight. My Asperger’s Syndrome allows me to reflect back in time quite easily. Anyway, this person calling himself John wrote a comment on that ancient post telling me how wrong it was to comment on someone’s weight and how inappropriate it was to do so on a music blog. He further stated that if I comment on one person’s weight, then I should comment on the weight of everyone I post about.

Olivia Newton-John in 1978

In my response, I apologized for my crystal ball not working in 2012 and if I had known that someone would have taken offense in 2021, then I would have not posted it. Furthermore, if I had known my observation on Olivia Newton-John back in 1979 was going to cause offense, I would have kept those observations to myself. So far, I have not had a response back.

Here lies a problem with the woke brigade. They are going back in history as far as the 1970s and beyond and looking for sexist and racist content in books, films and television shows. Then they are demanding these shows are taken off the air as they “no longer fit in today’s climate.” I can see merit in that last part. Some shows, films and books could be considered ‘dated’ and not politically correct in our modern world. But banning them is going a step too far. Just because I might enjoy a certain show from my teen years, which might be considered sexist or racist these days doesn’t mean I am either of those things. If there is something that bothers my political, social or moral compass, then I won’t watch it, simple as that. What I won’t do is to preach to others that they shouldn’t watch just because of what I think. I like a recent response from a former script writer from the 1970s who apologizes for the fact that he didn’t know the story lines he wrote for certain sitcoms would cause offense to people fifty years later. I can’t remember all that he said but if I can find it, I will post it here because it was pretty funny.

I loved these boots and wore them most of the time

Now let’s get to the related subject I was originally going to write about, cultural appropriation. Back in the 1980s, I wore boots like the ones pictured above. Back then, it was the intolerant times of 80s Reagan America and therefore, I got a lot of stick from people over them. I was called things like “Chief Jay Strongbow” (a Native American wrestler in the WWE) and basically labelled weird for being out of fashion and dressing like I was in the 1960s. My reasons for doing so, wanting to be an individual after giving up my individuality for four years in the service of my country didn’t justify it in the eyes of the intolerant.

Chief Jay Strongbow

These days, it would be the Left who would be giving me stick for wearing these boots. Because these boots are considered to be Native American, the left would be accusing me of cultural misappropriation. That I, as a white man, should not be allowed to wear such footwear. All I know is that I thought those boots were cool, even if most of 80s Reagan America didn’t. I never wore them because I wanted to be Native American and I definitely would not disrespect theirs or any other culture. If I still had the boots, I would be tempted to go out and wear them just to see if anyone does accuse me of cultural misappropriation. Oh by the way, wouldn’t the right calling me “Chief Jay Strongbow” for wearing the boots also be racist?

Because I am so misogynistic and unwoke, I have decided to end the post by being both sexist and racist and post pictures of two women, both of whom I consider very sexy ladies and are both the hottest women in the TV series they appear or have appeared in. However, one I consider the sexist woman of Afro-Caribbean origin of all time and the other I consider the same but of Hispanic origin. I await your slings and arrows in response.

Michelle Nichols: played Lieutenant Uhura in the original Star Trek series.

Marissa Ramirez: currently plays Detective Baez in the TV series Blue Bloods.

To buy He Was Weird, go to: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Was-Weird-Publisher-Generation-Publishing/dp/B00SLVHRFG/ref=sr_1_1?crid=36I8I1G32U0R4&dchild=1&keywords=he+was+weird&qid=1613411408&s=books&sprefix=he+was+%2Cstripbooks%2C148&sr=1-1

Is It Woke?

Tags

Asperger's Syndrome, DAMP, feminism, political correctness, Politics, sexism, sports, transgender, woke

As I pointed out in my post last week, wokeness seems to be everywhere. Whether it’s the woke left looking for instances of sexism, racism or any other ism everywhere or the anti-woke right looking to call out instances of wokeness in everything they see. The whole thing had my Asperger’s mind in a spin and I thought the best thing to do was to try to ignore it. But try as I might, the woke and anti-woke brigades seem to be everywhere, at least on the net. Then, a few days ago, fellow blogger, Chateau Cherrie, wrote a post which really rattled my DAMP brain. Her posts is about how the left has killed the goals and dreams of female athletes.

FFI, here’s the link: https://cheriewhite.blog/2021/01/23/how-the-left-killed-the-goals-and-dreams-of-female-athletes/

Without going into details, Cherrie’s post is about how transgender athletes, in this case women who were once men, are now allowed to compete as females. She argues that allowing this to happen will not only set women’s sports but feminism itself back one hundred years. I can see what she is trying to say, that if transgenders are allowed to compete as women, then it will create an uneven playing field for athletes who were originally women. She uses science is used to back up her argument stating that while transgenders might no longer have male reproductive organs, they still have male muscle and bone mass and that is what will make it unfair for female athletes to compete.

Great Britain Olympic Women’s Boxing gold medalist, Nicola Adams

Me being me, I took the subject onto the question an answer website, Quora. The responses I got were very interesting in regards to both sides of the argument. One respondent stated that transgender athletes have been allowed to compete in the Olympics as women since 2004 and have yet to win any medals. On the flip side, it was pointed out if back in the 1976 Olympics, Bruce Jenner had been allowed to compete as Caitlyn Jenner in the women’s decathlon, she would have wiped the floor with the opposition. Also, like with Cherrie, science was brought in on both sides of the argument. So, not wanting to give myself headaches over it, I have come out with this suggestion for myself: let the transgender athletes compete as women and if turns out there is an unfair advantage, it can be dealt with then.

One area where I can totally agree with Cherrie on is the attitudes of the Left. Not all of the responses I received from those on the left when I asked the question were friendly. One respondent called me a ‘recently jumped on the bandwagon rando’ because I asked a question on a subject which has been around for years. I was also told by another to check my facts before asking such questions. Believe me, if I had access to the facts, I would have checked them. What is funny is that both of these respondents made it impossible for me to respond to their answers and that’s my beef with the Left. Lefties can be just as narrow minded to the opinions of others as American rednecks. Let me tell you, calling me a ‘rando,’ whatever that is or ‘stupid’ is not going to get me to agree with you. If I don’t have all the facts, and I say this to both left and right, present me with them so I can make a more informed decision. Ignoring or attacking opinions that don’t agree with you isn’t the way to win anyone to your side.

If you read all of Cherrie’s post, you will have noted that there is another area of the Left where she might have a point, I’ll handle that one next week.

To buy He Was Weird, go to: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Was-Weird-Publisher-Generation-Publishing/dp/B00SLVHRFG/ref=sr_1_1?crid=36I8I1G32U0R4&dchild=1&keywords=he+was+weird&qid=1611594370&s=books&sprefix=he+was+%2Cstripbooks%2C148&sr=1-1

Woke or Not Woke?

Tags

Asperger's Syndrome, Autism, DAMP, Facebook, films, political correctness, Politics, television

Unless you’ve been completely cut off from any media, it’s more than likely you will have come across the big debate on ‘woke.’ According to the Google dictionary, woke means to be aware of issues regarding social justice, particularly in reference to issues such as sexism and racism. Meant as a political term, it has now become the epicentre in the division of people who are woke and those who are not. Both sides seem to be looking for instances of both and are ready to argue the point. My question is: Has the debate on wokeness gone to the point of the whole thing becoming ridiculous?

My first rumblings on the question came a few weeks back when I saw a presentation on Facebook about a Netflix series I watched back in the summer called, “Cursed.” The series was yet another look into the legend of King Arthur, only this time, it was from the view of the Lady of the Lake and that leads to the first rant the presenter makes about wokeness. Her problem with “Cursed” is that the Lady of the Lake is a teenage girl named Nimue, whose mother is a druid priest, and while there are times when she acts like a typical teenager, the presenter blasts the show stating that feminists are wanting female heroes to be like men. I get the impression that the presenter, I can’t remember her name, never watched the series, at least not all of it. It wasn’t like Nimue was going around, sword in hand, hacking down all the bad guys. In fact, many of her vulnerabilities come forth. On the other hand, while she gets help from Merlin and a knight, she’s not portrayed as a helpless female. She may doubt herself in some circumstances but in others she is quite strong. If she was portrayed as a helpless girl who couldn’t survive without a man’s help, I’m sure there would have been lots of shouts from feminists denouncing it.

The above isn’t my main tut at the presenter. The presenter’s big rant is levelled at King Arthur himself, or at least the actor who plays him. You see, in “Cursed,” King Arthur is played by a black actor. Oh the calamity! Her dig is at wokeness for race swapping because the legend of King Arthur is set in ancient England and therefore, King Arthur would have been white. Predictably, she (yes, the presenter is female), brings forth what outcries there would have been if a white person had been race swapped to play a character who was believed to be not white. It’s obvious that the presenter is much younger than me because she doesn’t remember that for a half a century or so, as late as the 1950s, key characters in films, who were known to have been black, were played by white actors who ‘blacked up’ for those roles. Which do you think is more patronizing?

Like so many people in the world, I sometimes find myself getting weary of wokeness. However, I am getting just as tired of people who make it their mission to point out wokeness or political correctness on every tiny level. I’m sure that with my Asperger’s mind, I can’t point out things from TV and films which are racist or sexist or politically incorrect and I’m even more sure that I can do it in both directions. Okay, I’ll give an example which even could label me a racist. See, in all of Eddie Murphy’s films in the 1980s, there is a scene where he goes and beats up a gang of white boys singlehanded. I could scream that Eddie Murphy is being reverse racist and this is demeaning to white people but as I type this, I can already hear how silly I sound.

As usual, this has given me food for thought in more posts and since I don’t like writing posts that are too long, I won’t venture any further. Before I do, I’ll leave you with a thought. Instead of trying to look for instances of offense in either direction, just sit back and enjoy the show as in most cases, it’s meant to entertain. If you think that a programme is trying to use the show to peddle a political message you don’t agree with, then don’t watch it. However, there might be others who don’t take this offense and it’s not your place to have the show banned and stop others from watching it.

To buy He Was Weird, go to: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Was-Weird-Publisher-Generation-Publishing/dp/B00SLVHRFG/ref=sr_1_1?crid=36I8I1G32U0R4&dchild=1&keywords=he+was+weird&qid=1611085151&s=books&sprefix=he+was+%2Cstripbooks%2C148&sr=1-1

Happy Holidays

Tags

Autism, Christmas

Like most of the world this year, I couldn’t get into the Christmas spirit straight away. The past year has been a very sad year in many respects with most of us being confined to homes and limited in social interactions throughout most of 2020. It was only just a few days before Christmas when I finally got into the spirit. Christmas Day was pretty much enjoyable for me, a huge 1.5 litre bottle of prosecco helped. And though I couldn’t visit my children, we got to all have a big chat on Zoom, so modern technology was a big help. Therefore, I count myself as fortunate, while I know there are many out there who couldn’t. My thoughts are with them.

Now 2020 is very nearly over and like so many people in the world, I am looking to 2021 with very hopeful optimism. The fact that there’s another lockdown in the UK and I won’t be going out and getting blind drunk to bring in the new year, doesn’t bother me. I wouldn’t have done that anyway and I’m working New Year’s Eve and finishing the 24 hour shift New Year’s Day. Still, I will be looking towards the new year with much hope. Hope that the new anti-Covid vaccine will work and that life can go back to normal. I know it won’t be as normal as it used to be but at least we’ll be able to go out and socialize more. With that said, I wish all of you a very happy new year and hope for the best. I am forever grateful for you taking precious time out of your days to read my posts.

Happy New Year!

What If They Knew I Had DAMP?

Tags

Asperger's Syndrome, Autism, bullying, DAMP, schools, teachers, teasing

Any excuse to use my book cover

Although the setting in my book, “He Was Weird,” is in contemporary times, my experiences on which the book is based on happened in the early 1970s. There are a number of reasons why I decided to do it this way, like the fact that school shootings weren’t heard of back then or at least hadn’t hit middle class white suburbia. With no internet back then, I wouldn’t have been able to include the cyber-bullying which the protagonist suffers either. There are a few more reasons but those are the two main ones.

I have heard many people from my generation and before say things like, “They didn’t have Asperger’s Syndrome or ADD in my day.” Hopefully, you are seething with rage at that ignorant statement. In fact, I wrote a post a few months ago dedicated to all the things I was called back then because they didn’t have terms such as Asperger’s Syndrome, ADD or what I believe I have, DAMP. This brings me to the point of today’s post, what if I had been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome or DAMP? Would it have made any difference to the way I was treated during those three hellacious years?

In “He Was Weird,” the main character, Mark, is eventually diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome and DAMP. However, in spite of his diagnosis, there is no let up in the bullying. One of his bullies accuse him of getting all sorts of money from the government and living off welfare in a similar fashion of how many white Americans accuse non-white ones. Furthermore, although Mark’s teachers say that they will make allowances for him and help to meet his needs, in reality, they don’t fully carry it out. So, for Mark, even in modern times where more is known about these conditions, there is no help or no let up in his mal-treatment.

Moving to the real world, say that back when I was that age and they did have the terms Asperger’s Syndrome, ADD, ADHD and DAMP. Would the schools and teachers moved more to help me? Would the students not have bullied me so much? My first thoughts to these questions go back to the first teacher I had when I moved to the town, who I based the Miss Erichetti character on. That teacher was old school and would not have been sympathetic to my needs. Actually, she would have used it as further evidence to put me in ‘the box.’ Note: I did spend several weeks with my desk and chair in a cardboard box. The teacher thought it would help me concentrate more. It didn’t and it lead to more bullying.

Other teachers might have made more of an effort to accommodate me. They could have catered more to my strengths and supported me more in my weaknesses and may have made some allowances for me. How far they would go is the question I can’t answer. What I feared is that the fact that some teachers would have gone an extra mile to meet me needs would have generated more bullying towards me. There would have been those bullies who would have accused me of making it all up despite any medical evidence to the contrary. Others would have continued the bullying just because they could.

My answer to the question in the title is that I don’t know if it would have made any difference. This was a town where there was pressure to be perfect and had high expectations of its children. Someone who has some sort of learning difficulty would not have reflected well on the status of the community. That’s one thought, the opposite of which, they might have given me full support, if only to raise the town’s status by saying they don’t leave anyone behind. I can honestly say that whichever scenario answers the question, it would be interesting to see how it would have developed.

To buy He Was Weird, go to: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Was-Weird-Publisher-Generation-Publishing/dp/B00SLVHRFG/ref=sr_1_1?crid=36I8I1G32U0R4&dchild=1&keywords=he+was+weird&qid=1607373137&s=books&sprefix=he+was+%2Cstripbooks%2C148&sr=1-1

A Week of Anxiety Over

Tags

Americans, anxiety, Donald Trump, Great Britain, Joe Biden, Politics, social media

Even though I have been living in the United Kingdom for the past 34 years, I am still American born and bred. Once upon a time, I had to point this out to one American who admonished me for ‘chiming in from the UK when I didn’t vote in the US,’ after making a comment on an internet feed about Obama. That’s not my point today, although my comment did get a good number of ‘Raves.’ What I want to talk about now is the that this week, not only I, but all of America had with anxiety over the presidential elections and more importantly, some of the myths generated by the media.

Following the close election result, some of the UK, right wing tabloids have been wetting their pants with glee because Joe Biden’s victory wasn’t the landslide some on the left were predicting. I never thought it would be. Sad to say that my country has become so polarized, I didn’t dare to predict any election result. True, many Americans despised Donald Trump but a lot didn’t. Therefore, I always thought the election was going to be close and it was. However, it did result in nearly four days of anxiously waiting to hear what the final result would be. Personally, I think this would not have happened if we disposed of the outdated Electoral College but that’s just my opinion. FTR, my views on the college wouldn’t change despite who won.

Some contributors to these right wing media sources are now saying that the US is heading for a second civil war. God, I hope not, as many Americans died in the first Civil War as all of America’s other wars combined! Others say that Joe Biden is out to punish Britain for voting to leave the European Union four years ago. From what I understand, Biden just wants to make sure the terms of the Good Friday Agreement between Great Britain and Ireland is honoured. Anyway, we’ll have to wait and see. I’m just glad the whole election thing is over!

Some of you are wondering how I voted, probably most of you don’t give a damn. Yes, I voted for Biden. In 2016, I voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein but she didn’t run this time and the Green candidate didn’t make any impact on me at all. At least this time, the Democrats didn’t make the ridiculous claim that voting Green was a vote for Trump.

This made me want to vote for Jill and not Hillary even more!

My anxieties on the election are over. Now I worry over a supposedly divided America. Can Joe heel the rift? I hope he can.

My Disillusionment With the Left- Part 1

Tags

anxiety, Asperger's Syndrome, Autism, books, crime, Karl Marx, police, Politics, vigilantes

Nice guy probably but his theory is unworkable.

First of all, I like to thank you, my readers, for comments and all the likes on my post, “I Need Motivation to Write.” That has given me the kick start I needed and once again, I have been putting pen to paper and the feeling has been rewarding. Now for the not so good side. As usual, my Asperger’s type mind has been throwing in the what ifs and while I am determined to finish my third novel by the end of this year, there are anxieties creeping into my mind, which I fear will hinder me in completing said novel.

To bring you all up to speed, the new novel I am working on will be called “The V- Network.” It’s about a group of people who are individually let down by the British justice system who go on to form a vigilante group. The let downs come in many forms. Some of them are police who go charging in and arrest the intended victim of the crime or in some cases do not do their jobs properly. In other cases, it’s down to shifty lawyers and ‘right on’ judges. However, one thing I don’t do is somehow portray the let downs in the legal system are down to those in the system being lefty, bleeding heart liberals and that’s where my anxieties come from.

The big misconception many people have about rising crime rates is that it’s all down to do-gooders and liberal attitudes. While these attitudes do play a part in the causes of crimes in the form of things like lenient sentencing, they are not the total cause. My novel could be considered as being taken from a right wing or conservative approach because the perpetrators of the crime don’t get the justice they deserve. I’m worried that I will be accused of betraying my left wing principals and that I am moving to the right because of the story-line. I’m not!

Saying that and here’s a further example of how my mind works, while I still consider myself left of centre, (on the American spectrum, that makes me a raving communist), there is a lot about the left which I have become disillusioned with. Some of their lofty ideas don’t work in the real world and I live in the real world. Well, at least most of the time anyway. The problem with me is that my mind’s filter is very weak and everything gets through and is taken into consideration. Some might say that’s a great trait being open minded and though I don’t want to go the other way, this also causes my mind to go into overload and that’s not good either.

What all this means is that for me to get my mind in order and to unburden my soul, the next several posts, in between song lyric quotes, will be dedicated to my disillusion with the left and how my mind and hopefully others can go forward from there. I hope you will all come along for the ride.

To buy He Was Weird, go to: https://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1547469756&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird

 

 

 

It’s Sometimes Hard to See The Positive

Tags

anxiety, Asperger's Syndrome, Autism, D.A.M.P., Great Britain, softball, sports

The Phillies celebrate World Series glory in 2008.

Two months ago, I wrote a post titled: “Maybe I Should Just Quit.” The post was in regards to some problems I encountered when organizing my latest softball tournament, I organize two a year, and as a result, I was thinking of the possibility of stepping down from organizing the tournaments. In the end, I said I wasn’t going to step down for many reasons and decided to keep on organizing.

Since I wrote that post, a new development has entered into the equation. Shortly after, I was approached by someone who was representing the school where the tournaments are held expressing that the school was interested in taking over organizing the tournaments. They see it as a good way of raising funds for the school’s budding softball programme. I definitely see their point here. After two months of giving the issue serious thought, I have decided to step down and allow the school to take over organizing the softball tournaments.

While I feel relieved that the burden has been lifted from my shoulders, there is lots of anxiety running through my brain as well. Part of me still thinks I’m just using the offer from the school as an excuse to give up organizing the tournaments. At least, I worry that others will see it that way. Furthermore, since I’ve made the announcement to the British softball world, I have had several “likes” from people on Facebook on my declaration. My worry was that these people are clicking “like” because they are glad that I’m no longer organizing the tournaments and this was their way of diplomatically saying “Good riddance” to me. This worry comes about because I know that I have made mistakes during the sixteen years I’ve organized the tournament. On the other hand, I have had many positive comments thanking me for my efforts over the years. However, this does not fully stop me from worrying about the negative.

It is true that people tend to focus more on the negative than the positive in most given situations. This goes even more for people with Asperger’s Syndrome and related conditions. Even though there have been a lot of positive vibes sent my way, I can’t help thinking about the negative. Simply telling an Aspie to focus on the positive doesn’t solve the problem, especially with my past where I have been made to feel inferior to everyone all throughout my early life. These things do stick in the mind and even all these years later, it’s very difficult to shake off. Another worry, I’m not writing this to fish for compliments but am now worried people might think that.

This is not only mine but but typical of the mental minefields that people who have Asperger’s Syndrome have to walk through. The worry that something they have done might not be right in someone else’s eyes in spite of all their efforts plays heavily on an Aspie’s mind. It sure does mine. Hopefully, this worry will go away when I log back onto Facebook and see more positive comments.

The LA Dodgers

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