Heresy, blasphemy, lies, and other pointless jokes

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Now diagnosed
I don't have the paperwork yet, but I was assessed yesterday and diagnosed as Aspergers. It's official now.

For anyone keeping count, the only reason I need the formal dx is to support a disability discrimination case at work. (More on this is previous posts).

Yesterday I hired a lawyer. ( Read more... )

Lawyers, docs, & money...
I turned 47 this year. I have a pretty good life. I live on my own in a modest apartment in one of the biggest megalopolises in the world. I have a few lovers and a few friends. Not a lot, but a few. I'm reasonably healthy. I work at a pretty good job making money that qualifies me as "filthy rich" in most of the world, although just middle class in most of the western world.

In nearly all ways, I think of myself as "able". Autistic, I learned a few years ago, and so self identified autistic, but able nonetheless.

( Read more... )

Been a while since I've posted...
I've kind of been hiding from the world most of this year. Some of it is due to some work stress, which I've apparently been underrating. (More on this later.)

Some of it has been because

_tia_marie_ has been going through a series of surgeries to correct an elbow she dislocated a few years ago.

I don't know that I'm "back", exactly, but I felt like posting today.

Looking for a diagnosing professional - SF Bay area
After writing a number of times about the power of self identification w.r.t. autism, I find myself in need of a mental health professional who is willing and able to diagnose adult autism.

Does anyone have a favorite in the SF Bay area? Or know how to go about finding a referral to one?

FTR, I'm not looking for long term therapy at this point, just a diagnosis and some help dealing with a potential discrimination issue at work.

(I'll write more about it all later.)

Psst!
Blood orange is the new pomegranate. Pass it on.

I'm considering a t-shirt...
"Perseverate on marksmanship"

Anyone else think this sounds like fun?

poly intimacy
Someone on another list recently asked for a description of how someone "who actively and openly participates in the Poly lifestyle" experiences intimacy.

My reply follows. ( Read more... )

Damn. I'm apparently pretty "normal" in this case.

http://www.freemosquitoringtone.org

I didn't listen to it for long enough to determine whether there are any out-of-consciousness effects.

PDT vs PST
This week I got an interview schedule from an automated system our HR department is apparently using. It lists times that each of us will be interviewing a candidate and states explicitly that "All Times Scheduled in Pacific Standard Time".

Local time is currently Pacific Daylight Time. So they're using an irrelevant and nonexistent time zone.

I never know whether to take people like this literally, ask for clarification, (which seems to upset people), or what. This crap bugs me. I got an email a couple days ago talking about a meeting scheduled for 12pm. 12hrs "post meridiem" would be 12hrs after mid day would be midnight, right? Except that neither midnight nor noon are A.M. or P.M.

(It doesn't help that I've been spending time recently working with ISO-8601 date format and the question of how many minutes there are in a week, depending on leap seconds, and whether the interval is the time between two particular points of just a random week.)

I took my bike in for service last week. Among other things, it needs new tires.

A set of cheap tires cost around $500. And they expect them to last around 4000 miles. Even at 5000 miles, that's still $.10/mile.

My bike gets around 34mpg. Gas would have to be $3.40/gallon in order for my gas costs to be equal to or more than my tire rubber costs.

I'm paying more for tire rubber than for fuel for my bike.

Second leading cause of death in children worldwide...
...dehydration due to diarrhea.

"Between 1980 and 2000, ORT decreased the number of children under five dying of diarrhea from 4.6 million worldwide to 1.8 million — a 60% reduction. According to The Lancet (1978), ORT is "potentially the most important medical discovery of the 20th century".

ORT = Oral Rehydration Therapy = drinking something like gatorade, basically.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_rehydration_therapy

Fascinating. I was led on this journey because the can of coconut juice I'm drinking claims to be a natural "isotonic" beverage and I wondered what "isotonic" meant.

I remember from biology, (maybe chemistry), the concept of Ringers' solution, which is water and salt in concentrations comparable to a healthy body. At the time, it was mentioned as being a way to protect open wounds as with burn victims. Ringers' solution is considered a perfect buffer because the salt water has a tendency to equalize Ph values, regardless of whether they are acidic of alkaline. And that fact alone gives it a slight antiseptic quality. Any time a medical tv show talks about hanging a saline drip or Ringers IV they're talking about essentially the same concept used for generic fluid replacement.

"Isotonic" apparently suggests oral intake, and for that to work successfully, they've found it requires both sugar, (usually glucose), as well as salt and potassium. Hence, the sugar in sports drinks is actually a chemical requirement rather than a superfluous luxury.

I wonder if they're bathing burn victims in gatorade these days.

New Palm announcement
Today at CES in Las Vegas, Palm announced their latest operating system and device.

More info on palm's site: http://palm.com

(For anyone who doesn't know, I"m indirectly involved in the development of these things.)

Black Tuesday
C'mon and say it with me! It's fun!

Black Tuesday

No on almost everything
I finally read through my voter info for the propositions this year. And I'm thinking that I'm probably voting "no" on everything except 4 & 8... ( Read more... )

11/8 Introduction to Skydancing Tantra

Introduction to Skydancing Tantra
with Chris English

Saturday, Nov 8, 2008 at Edges in
Santa Clara, CA

Ever Wondered About Tantra?
( Read more... )

I'm sad
It's the end of an era. No more public sex. :(.

http://california.neighborcity.com/San_Francisco/SoMa_(South_of_Market)/detail/347563/74_Otis_St/

For anyone who doesn't know, I have enjoyed Power Exchange since they originally opened back on Harrison Street as a private club. At the time, they were about the only place one could rent to hold a party which included both men and women. When they bought out the old Playground and opened the Otis street site, they became a public sex club - one of the few remaining in the city. And one of the only public sex clubs I've heard of which welcome both SM play and mixed gender couples. For a number of years, they were free admission to women, couples with a toy bag, small groups, and anyone they recognized as a player. This essentially meant that despite it being a somewhat raucous atmosphere, and by comparison to paying $50 to play for an evening for other alternatives, (when they were available), they were still an attractive option.

I don't know how many people are aware, but there used to be a number of public sex clubs in the city. All were gay. And in the panic of the aids epidemic, the city closed almost all of them and stopped issuing public sex club licenses. The rumor is that there are only two or three licenses still extant and, like NYC taxi medallions, the only way to get one is to buy out someone else's.

I don't know anywhere else in the Bay Area, nor anywhere else in the world, honestly, which could host public sex clubs. And now we've lost ours, which is a shame. I don't know the story behind the loss, although I've heard rumors of tax evasion and the above ad mentions bankruptcy.