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Below are the 25 most recent friends journal entries:

December 2nd, 2009
07:25 am trinityva [Link]	Transformers Fanfic: Connection Title: Connection Characters/Pairing: Blackarachnia/Slipstream Verse: Animated Wordcount: 2,000+ Rating: NC-17 for spark-sex (I've seen people rate that differently, but let's be on the safe side here. It's sex.) Warnings: The aforementioned spark-sex. Crackiness. Oh, and this is 87% Deceptisnark by volume. Summary: A cracky conversation in tf_afts (which I'm sadly having trouble finding) led to the comment that Slippy and BA would make a wonderfully snarky pair. I joked about it, but the person said she didn't like me stopping before the good part. That led to... this. The good part. Enjoy your Decepticrack. ^_^ ( Connection ) Tags: fanfic, transformers (Leave a comment)
December 1st, 2009
01:57 am intralimina [Link]	Old Tales and Curious Drawings I'm in this weird sudden space of renewed interest in fiction writing after over 5 years with zero interest. That sort of thing has happened before but typically not for quite so long a stretch (although this time there were "circumstances"). Some of my Interests are cyclical, not constant. Anyway I was poking through old stuff I'd written and came upon this ancient, unfinished project that I started like, no joke, 15 years ago. It's a collection of short, surreal stories on themes of transformation that take place on a parallel version of this island I used to live on. I don't really know if the stories are any good--I haven't reread any of them because I was more intent on re-familarizing myself with the cyberpunk world of Liminal (a project I actually did finish, and on re-read 5 years later still feel is pretty damn good). But I did create these curious pencil drawings to go along with the island stories. These drawings are pretty strange to me because they represent a super-precise hyper-realistic style that I've not really worked with since, oh, maybe '98 or so. All of my more recent work (back when I was able to do any of it) was all in the direction of the collage painting wackiness, some of it dangerously bordering on (shhh, don't tell!) abstraction. I look at these weird drawings and wonder if I'll ever do anything like them again. I could, but will I? Do I still have that in me, or has my own Muse moved on? Tags: lj, personal history (Leave a comment)
November 30th, 2009
11:42 am dyspraxia [rainbow_goddess] [Link]	Developmental coordination disorder I just read this article about something called "developmental coordination disorder." To me it sounds like they are talking about dyspraxia. What's the difference? (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
01:52 pm all_disability [mysocworknet] [Link]	New Resource -My Social Work Network Hi all, Just wanted to let everyone know about a free resource I founded called My Social Work Network (www.mysocialworknetwork.com). Thought anyone who works in the disability field might find it helpful. I personally spent much time studying abuse of women with disabilities. On My Social Work Network you can create a professional profile, network with other social workers globally who share your interests (we do have a people with disabilities selection), search thousands of social work jobs, post and browse resources, and keep current on social work news -just to name a few features. We just added free volunteer/internship posts for those who are either looking to fill a position or for those who are seeking a position. You do not have to be a social worker to join, just bring your passion for your causes. My hope is My Social Work Network will help advocates to better connect and mobilize so we can better fulfill our mission of social and economic justice for all. Feel free to check the site out and if you feel it adds value to the work we do, please help to spread the word. Sincerely, Michelle C. Bussolotti, MSW Founder of My Social Work Network www.mysocialworknetwork.com (Leave a comment)
November 29th, 2009
11:37 pm signing [thaichicken] [Link]	"inquisitive" sign history I'm writing an essay, and I am supposed to pick three words that describe myself. Since I'm studying three languages right now and foreign languages are a big part of who I am, I decided to use one word from each language. I want to use something to the effect of "inquisitive" from ASL, and the sign I'm thinking of is wiggling the index finger many times (QUESTION-QUESTION-QUESTION). I feel like this is a very bizarre question, but I'm curious whether to a native signer there would be any significance in moving my finger sort of in the shape of a question mark while I do sign it. Thank you very much! x-posted to deaf (Leave a comment)
04:51 pm trinityva [Link]	Argh. I... don't much like "anti-psych absolutists." facepalm ( cut for mention of self-injury ) I don't love everything about mental health care as currently provided in our society, by a long shot. But these people who'll take something that actually is a problem for those who struggle with it and wildly remap it so they get to be right about "psychs" ... unnerve me. As does the abbreviation "psych" itself. As far as I know, that neologism is what Scientologists call psychiatrists. That... really doesn't make you sound saner than those you oppose, dear. Current Music: Cradle of Filth - The Death of Love (23 comments \| Leave a comment)
01:21 pm faceblind [xshardsx] [Link]	Hello All I was just puttering around the internet and started looking up groups related so some of my interests. So, does anyone here have any stories about the benefits of prosopagnosia? For instance, my skills at bluffing my way through situations is incredible, because I have so much practice pretending to know people. Someone who I know from one context will approach me while I'm in another, and usually it's more of a pain in the ass to try to explain to them what prosopagnosia is than to just pretend like I know exactly who they are and hopefully piece it together over the course of the conversation. So I dunno. Any thoughts? Current Mood: curious (4 comments \| Leave a comment)
November 28th, 2009
11:15 pm dot_gimp_snark [leastconcern] [Link]	Dear Idiots Situation: I was sitting in the campus library with a friend who has cerebral palsy. We were chatting about ear stretching and how he has 1" ones and whatnot, and we got around to materials... Friend: I really like redwood stuffs. Me: Yeah, I like the color red in general. But I really like metal stu-- Person: OMG! Both of us: taken aback Person: YOU SHOULD TAKE THOSE THINGS OUT OF YOUR EARS! IT'S MAKING YOUR ARM STICK UP! IT'S LIKE IT'S PULLING ON A MUSCLE! DON'T YOU KNOW THAT STUFF IS DANGEROUS?! Me: Uh... Friend: I have cerebral palsy. My arm stays like that, and it twitches. Person (to their accompanied friend): I didn't know big lobes cause cerebral palsy. They walk away. We're left dumbfounded. And yes, the caps was basically her speaking in above-appropriate-library voice. Current Mood: busy (27 comments \| Leave a comment)
08:58 pm trinityva [Link]	More silly memes. the I AM meme THE FAMILY TREE MEME Tags: meme (Leave a comment)
06:47 pm ask_an_aspie [nederlandergirl] [Link]	Put simply, what is your opinion on hugging? (16 comments \| Leave a comment)
10:36 pm mabgath [Link]	For the Star Trek fans in the auditorium... ( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. ) Current Mood: discontent Current Music: Fidelity // Regina Spektor Tags: film, hilarity ensues, new and unique methods of diplomacy, star trek, videos of the online persuasion, vulcanosity, what the fok? (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
10:20 am ask_an_aspie [rikuxsora] [Link]	I have a little brother who is 7 years old, and he has aspergers. Conflict already exists because I'm over 10 years older than him, but because of his condition I have a hard time understanding him. My brother is extremely difficult to get along with. He is stubborn, self-centered, and hard-headed. He refuses to listen when people are trying to help him, and he wants his way, always. I know that these aren't traits that every kid doesn't have to some extent, but his are extreme. My concern is in regards to his absolute dedication to defiance. It seems like he does things intentionally to get negative attention for it. The biggest thing, in my opinion, is when he uses the restroom. If it's at home, he doesn't close the door unless instructed to. No matter where we are, he doesn't wash his hands. I try to explain to him the importance of washing his hands, but he won't do it. Every time he comes out of the bathroom, someone asks, "Did you wash your hands?" and he gets a guilty smile as if he enjoys it. When told to wash his hands, he gets extremely upset and says things like, "Fine, fine! Okay, I'll go wash my hands!" He'll slam the door and run water over his hands. And then the question becomes, "Did you use soap?" and it just repeats the situation over and over. My question is, is he just acting out, or does it have anything to do with him having aspergers? Like I've said before, I try to understand him, but more often than not I just don't. Sometimes it seems to me like he's just aching for attention, but I'm not really sure. I don't know if it's because I'm just so much older than him that I can't understand, or if it's because we don't think the same way. (16 comments \| Leave a comment)
12:17 am signing [mexjose] [Link]	I'm here to ......... Hello, Member of Signing. Actually, I'm also Deaf, and Use ASL ( American Sign Language), of course, i am here to help you, if you need to know what is sign for any word, whatever. Feel free to contact me or post this a leave comments. :) (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
November 27th, 2009
08:59 pm signing [buckeyebrain] [Link]	A random question Hi. This may seem out of the blue, but is there a sign for "Jeopardy"? I usually either fingerspell it or sign 'trouble'. I wonder if there's a more formal sign for it, though? Thanks in advance. (1 comment \| Leave a comment)
10:22 pm trinityva [Link]	WHUT I just watched the first episode of Beast Wars. I'm not sure if it's just so far outside what I'm used to that I'm balking (which is common with me; I am a Taurus), but my initial reaction goes something like: NONONONONONONONOOHPRIMUSNO ANDHODAMNISPRIMALANUGLYMOTHERFUCKERTOO I will probably watch a bit more of it to get more used to the setting and story before being sure, but I'm sadly disappointed so far. The only interesting bits were arguments over leadership, which are kind of stale because G1 already did that, and more interestingly IMO. And... I gather that Rattrap is supposed to be amusingly cute, but I just found myself wishing some Predacon would gut him, or at least tear out... his vocal cords? His vocalizer? Whatever. Argh. Someone shut that thing up. Now. Not that the Predacons were much better. (Can I just say I'm glad it's abbreviated "Pred" and not "'Con?" Thanks for not making me wince more, at least.) And I guess Megatron (will I ever get used to calling something that looks like Barney Megatron?) is supposed to be classily evil and erudite, but spending five minutes talking when he could have crushed his enemies strained even my prodigious ability to suspend disbelief. Yes, all Megatrons are pretentious; it comes with the territory. But for slag's sake, you're the descendant of warriors, you fool. Or at least you claim to be. Shut up and shoot at them, damn you. helmdesk Eesh. I... hope this stuff gets better. Tags: fandom, transformers (18 comments \| Leave a comment)
November 26th, 2009
09:39 pm trinityva [Link]	Heh. Because I'm honestly curious about something now. And never learn. XD And no, despite the icon... what I'm curious about is not what you think it is. 【ANOTHER ANON MEME】 Tags: meme (Leave a comment)
06:22 pm trinityva [Link]	Thanksgiving These days, I feel torn about Thanksgiving. I've been trying to find out exactly what the story of how the celebration got started is. I've heard everything from the standard story told to children in school, that it's a celebration of a short peace between the European settlers and the Native Americans, to a story that suggests that the Native Americans were threatened and offered food to placate the settlers, to a story that claims that the settlers were actually celebrating having massacred large numbers of Native Americans and threw a victory party for themselves. I'm not entirely certain which of those is the truth, or how to determine which is true. The people in the blogoverse that I used to hang out with most often talked a lot about white privilege. And while I'm sort of fatigued by endless discussions of societal "class" these days, even about "axes" on which I'm "oppressed" (I do talk about those things, but I'm rather tired of the academic phrasing, as I'm no longer sure it convinces anyone who isn't already on board with the theory), if the massacre story is the true one, then surely it's a mark of my social standing that I get to have fun at a harvest festival while Native Americans get to seethe in the knowledge that everyone else is told lies and partying while they remember what happened to their ancestors. But it's weird. Thanksgiving was never my favorite holiday -- that was always Christmas, which delights me even now that I've left the religion behind. But I'm not the type usually to think about the things I'm thankful for, and there's always been a part of me that liked the annual reminder. It's pleasant to see all of one's friends talking about what's good in their lives and what they appreciate, and it's healing to remember the good in yours. Especially this time of year for me, when the cold and the dark make me more prone to brooding than usual. So I don't know. When I was being all political, I hated the day by default, sure I'd uncovered its true history and that was all that mattered. But now I'm not so sure. I'm not certain how to verify what story is real, for one. For another, I do believe a harvest festival is only sensible, and though I'd like to purge ours of weird, twee cutesiness hiding possible atrocity, I personally cannot, and as the years go by I'm less and less convinced that the great We will ever do so either. So. It's often taken as yet another sign of privilege that the privileged feel stuck and guilty. But, well, then here I am, as an anon put it, "defensive in privileged ways." As always, I'd rather be honest than proper. So, the truth: I feel weird. I miss celebrating harvest time with my family without wondering what I say to the family kids, as they repeat their Pilgrim stories proudly, sure what they learned is the truth. I don't even know what the truth is, and I have no right to recite one of the other truths to them to redress the wrong. So: I'm thankful for my friends and the good people in my family. I'm thankful for a job, and one that means I can give back to the community and help other people with disabilities who are having problems or in trouble. I'm thankful for the chance to advocate, to allow my voice to be heard. And I'm thankful for the love of a puppy and two cats. I'm thankful for the Internet, as much as I hate it sometimes. (14 comments \| Leave a comment)
November 25th, 2009
02:36 am conuly [Link]	So I'm taking a break from cleaning (OMG) to watch Castle. It's cheesy and corny, sure, but I like it. Mostly. This time they have a dead body in a garbage chute. How do they find it? Some girl tried to put a pizza box in it. The cops come, they talk about the event, we even see a picture of the sign on the chute - NO RECYCLABLES. In NYC, you have to recycle your glass, metal, plastic, and paper. It's the law, and it has been since I moved to Staten Island, some 16, 17 years ago. I just went online and checked - yup, on the little fliers they hand out every school year, it says pizza boxes are recyclables. You can get a ticket for this! And here's these cops, and last episode they just had a budget cut, and they don't say anything? Don't they have a quota? (Of course they have a quota, everybody knows they have a quota!) Oh, I know - they're homicide. Listen, dead bodies aren't recyclable. You don't get a ticket for that. You get a ticket for not recycling your pizza boxes. sighs Ignorance. Current Mood: amused Tags: castle, nitpicking, nyc, television (8 comments \| Leave a comment)
November 24th, 2009
11:25 pm trinityva [Link]	Fanfic: I Belong to Nobody Title: I Belong to Nobody Characters: Megatron, the Fallen, (briefly) whoever exactly make up that gaggle o' Decepticons who resurrect Megatron Verse: Movie Wordcount: 1,890+ Rating: PG Summary: I never liked the way that Megatron, who was "pretty much the harbinger of death" in the first movie, was portrayed as a sycophantic servant of the Fallen in ROTF. So I decided to restore his dignity. Do not anger the Megatron fen, for our vengeance is swift and terrible. ( fake cut is fake ) Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Halford - Silent Screams Tags: fandom, fanfic, transformers (2 comments \| Leave a comment)
11:22 pm chaoticidealism [Link]	He's a Jerk? Must be Asperger's I've been seeing it said around the Internet, mostly on sites where most people know just enough about Asperger's to think there's nothing more to know about it, that Asperger's is an excuse to be mean to people, have no empathy, abuse others, and trample all over people's feelings, and then claim that you can't help it because you've got a disease. (These are almost always males they talk about. Apparently females don't get Asperger's.) That this is a myth is obvious those of us who have interacted with people who actually have autism, at least if we haven't been so unlucky that our only such contact was with an autistic person who was deliberately and unrelatedly rude and obnoxious (well, it's not as though autistics can never be jerks at all). Here's why it's a myth. Positive social contact takes skill. You want to charm somebody? Figure out what they're feeling and how to make them feel better? Figure out how to get them to help you? How to amuse them? Well, you're going to need social skills. You'll need not just the charisma--trained or untrained--but also the ability to use it while having a conversation and at a speed that's fast enough to keep up with the other person's non-verbal and verbal communication. However, negative social contact takes skill, too. Do you want to intimidate someone? Insult them where it hurts? Figure out what they're feeling, and how to use that to make them feel horrible? Seduce them into your car and murder them in your basement? You're still going to need social skills. My stepfather, for example, who is a textbook sociopath (and thankfully left the family several years ago), knows exactly how to "push people's buttons" to create a great deal of misery in the people around him, to intimidate people. When I lived at home, he was very perceptive that I was frightened of being worthless; so he called me worthless a great deal. When he wanted to be liked, he was. The neighbors thought he was a great guy, because he wanted them to think that. His social skills are highly refined; his morality is not. Sure, you can accidentally say something that hurts someone. You can accidentally say something amusing that makes them laugh; you can accidentally say something that confuses them, frightens them, or comforts them. I've done all of those, purely accidentally. But, if you have clumsy, unpracticed social skills, you'll have just as much trouble intimidating people deliberately as you have trouble deliberately charming them. I've been thinking about this, oddly enough, while leafing through my D&D sourcebooks and, amidst the nostalgia, coming on the section that described character attributes. Charisma is a stat applied to a character that describes how good he is at relating to others; and among the skills dependent on it are things that range all the way from Bluff (lying, disguising yourself, feinting in combat) to Diplomacy (everything from seducing the barwench to brokering a deal between two warring nations) to Intimidate (everything from getting information from a prisoner, to mugging somebody, to creating a Fear effect that causes them to shake in their boots or even outright flee). A low-Charisma D&D character isn't just bad at the positive aspects of social interaction; he's bad at the negative aspects too. He can't get people to like him; but he also can't get people to fear him. Once you get into the single digits, he's little more than an unremarkable wallflower that constantly sticks his foot in his mouth, can't intimidate your average mouse, and usually insults himself by mistake when he tries to insult someone else. (I have, however, found it amusing to create a low-Charisma wizard who tags along, unnoticed and considered to be rather useless, until he breaks out the Time Stop...) D&D has it right. Low charisma--low social skills--don't mean you love to insult people. Sure, you can decide to try to use your social skills to be a jerk; but you'll be an overall ineffective one, probably no worse than annoying, perhaps even amusing. If someone with AS wants to hurt someone else, sure, they can do it; but it isn't going to be very subtle and it's probably going to involve more than social skills. Someone with AS trying to insult someone else just tends to look clumsy and the whole thing tends to end badly for the originator of said clumsy insults. Make no mistake about it--if they're trying to be insulting, it's not a consequence of having Asperger's; it's simply a consequence of wanting to insult someone. Autism only means low social skills; it doesn't dictate what you do with them. Someone with autism is as likely to accidentally insult themselves as they are to accidentally insult other people, and more likely than both to just say something that doesn't make much sense. Autism doesn't take away the choice of how to treat other people. There are autistic sociopaths and autistic altruists; but that has more to say about their character than about the fact that they happen to be autistic. Of course, there's one benefit to positive social interaction that you can't get from negative social interaction: In positive social interaction, both parties are trying to meet in the middle. As both parties learn more about each other, the connection becomes stronger and deficits can be compensated for. Eventually, thanks to familiarity (and for autistic/autistic connections, thanks to a shared neurotype), information flows more freely, and some of the things that an NT could do with a perfect stranger become possible for an autistic person when he has come to know the other person well. Negative social relationships, unless they're very twisted ones, simply don't foster that sort of cooperation. (17 comments \| Leave a comment)
12:53 pm intralimina [Link]	Survey to Assess Needs for Improved Course Designs I am posting this study information for a colleague. If you have been diagnosed with an ASD, and have not taken the survey yet, you may find it fun / interesting, click-y the link... (note you do not have to be a student to take the survey). Survey to Assess Needs for Improved Course Designs As colleges and universities offer more courses online, it is important that we consider how students with autism spectrum disorders approach online communities, especially online classes. My experiences as a diagnosed high-functioning autistic student and instructor have led me to question how online courses could be designed to better serve students with autism spectrum disorders. I am conducting a survey, seeking to determine if there are characteristics of some online communities ASD individuals prefer. I am also interested in learning what qualities of online communities might be disliked by individuals with ASDs. If you are an individual with an officially diagnosed autism spectrum disorder interested in offering opinions about online communities, I hope you will consider completing this brief online survey. You do not have to be a student. However, you should have some experiences with online communities so you can explain what design qualities are or are not appealing in various communities. This will be an anonymous survey. Only your answers to interview questions will be saved and referenced during the study. The survey is offered via a secure server and all data will be destroyed after analysis is complete. If you are interested in participating in these interviews, please visit the following survey link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=6hUN2HISyDpNYnlwPpLkxQ_3d_3d Click Here to take survey Thank you, Christopher Scott Wyatt Doctoral Candidate Rhetoric; Scientific and Technical Communication Digital Literacy and Pedagogy Dept. of Writing Studies University of Minnesota wyatt050@umn.edu This study is referenced by University of Minnesota IRB Code Number 0909P72516. Tags: internet, lj, science (Leave a comment)
01:03 pm conuly [Link]	Well, I found out what the email is about! Somehow, by some miracle or black magic or I don't know what, my sister has managed to convince my grandmother to move up with us - and soon! We have a lot and a LOT of work to do, and I am one of the laziest people on the face of this good green earth, but I couldn't be happier. (And here I thought I wasn't doing Thanksgiving this year. Well, I may not be actively celebrating, but I sure do have something to be thankful for! I'm going to be less online for a while, cleaning and all.) Edit: Also? I want everybody to tell me how wonderful this is. BECAUSE IT IS AWESOME, IS IT NOT? (6 comments \| Leave a comment)
05:09 am conuly [Link]	Apparently, LibraryThing has a secret Santa (and you can sign up for other people...!) Would it be so tacky to post my actual wishlist (for the nieces, because I'm just like that... I'll admit it, I like picture books!), if I were to sign up for that? (And for the record, if I do get my act together and make a wishlist, not that I'm saying anything, but if I do, I prefer used books. You get more of them that way.) (Leave a comment)
01:30 am dot_gimp_snark [leastconcern] [Link]	Great low blow. Dear not-so-funny friend, Telling me I have one too many mental "problems" and congenital conditions that 1) seems impossible and 2) means I have a lesser chance of ever finding someone, isn't funny. It hurts. And this is why I go to therapy. Thank you, and sincerely fuck off, Dani (20 comments \| Leave a comment)
November 23rd, 2009
01:14 pm conuly [Link]	Apparently, some school boards are asking the question: Who owns lesson plans? Is it the teacher who wrote them? Well, most of us would say that if you spend hours of unpaid labor doing work to make you better at your underpaid job, you get to own what you make then. And apparently some teachers would say so too, which is why you can buy teacher-made lesson plans online. (Of course, you could always buy lesson plans somewhere, but some teachers are cutting out the middle man and selling their own plans.) And then - shock and horror! - they're spending the money they earn. Oh, sure, mostly that money appears to be going towards classroom supplies, which I would think the state should pay for, but sometimes - terrible! - they're paying for things like mortgages and home repair and the occasional dinner out. Yes, they're living the high life and it's WRONG WRONG WRONG. Lemme tell you something. If teachers have to resort to selling the fruits of their hard (and otherwise unpaid!) labor online in order to pay off their mortgages (or, worse, purchase the supplies that should have been provided for them and their students already), there's room for outrage, sure, but not at the teachers. (For that matter, even if they're spending that money on fast cars and trips overseas in first class, who gives a fuck? This is a capitalist nation, isn't it? Can't they spend the money they earned from their time however they like? If we're gonna get all "socialist" about our public school teachers, well, I may just move! To Canada!) Of course, the comments are a pain. Some people are under the impression that buying and selling lesson plans is EXACTLY THE SAME as buying and selling tests. Stupid. We don't expect surgeons to re-invent the art every time they pick up a scalpel, do we? No, we tell them how the procedure goes when they're in school (and still being tested on these things) and then we let them do it. Why should teachers spend hours of their own (unpaid!) time writing up a lesson plan on something they have to cover when 50 other people have already done it? They've already passed their tests, we assume they know how to teach (if they don't, well, then they need all the help they can get, don't they?), so let's help them do it already! ( Read more... ) Current Mood: aggravated Tags: articles, education (9 comments \| Leave a comment)

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