I haven't updated postings on this blog for much of the last year or so. There is no good or profound reason for my tardiness in posting on this blog, either.
This post is like the other more recent post that is out of date sync with the remainder of the blog.
As you may note, almost every other post carries the same date as the first post. I did this to keep most of the postings in order from the true beginning until the more recent observations and comments were created.
I shall digress from that model with this post.
Since getting laid off from the U.S. Census, I have been 'hunting' and 'gathering' looking for an employment opportunity that could last me for at least 12 more years of work life.
Currently I am in the 'nether world' of having accepted a contingent offer from the Transportation Security Administration and now continue the process of trying to figure out how to completely and correctly fill out the monstrous background check documents that I seem to remain slightly and mediumly out of the loop with.
It certainly doesn't help matters that I worked four different assignments for the 2010 Federal Census of the United States, in different times, and out of more than one office.
But as of this morning, I haven't received any new Emails about problems I have been having with those forms, so I am keeping the fingers I don't use typing, crossed.
Uncertain that I will eventually get the call from T.S.A., I am also attending job fairs and 'hunting' for positions, as a caveman can and should do.
Naturally too, being the caveman that I am, allows me to work on my 'hunt' and 'gather' much information about possibilities for me in an economy that continues to stink and does not look to be improving any time soon.
Now that The Marymount Plan's measure on the November 2, 2010 ballot for residents of Rancho Palos Verdes has its own identity, "P" I have been and will continue my quest to offer commentary, facts, figures, and just about every means at my disposal to help voters learn how dangerous I feel having up to 250 college-age students living in on-campus housing at the particular site of Marmount College, would be.
Since I am a true caveman, I have the ability to singularly concentrate on hunting for facts, gathering information, and working hard towards defeating the 'enemy' that is approval of Measure P.
Cavemen are uniquely qualified that, when necessary, we can focus solely on the subject at hand, plan, and then execute means to deliver results that are good for the cave dwellers and good for the community.
Folks like me can concentrate, without distraction, on important matters and leave just about everything else out of the picture, until we decide other things are important.
I call what true cavemen do, sequential tasking and you can read all about that on posts describing the real differences between multi-taskers (mostly females) and sequential taskers (mostly males carrying the caveman genetics in these times).
Since earlier this year, I have been learning more about and finding better relationship to my nature as a caveman and my mediumly affective Asperger's Syndrome. I have found out many fascinating things about how these two seemingly very different things are actually beneficial to each other.
Cavemen, as history notes, were required to remain extremely focused on the two major requirements of their lives; supplying the cave with food and assisting in the creation of more cave-babies.
You see in many persons, mostly males, with Asperger's a view that they are very uncomfortable doing or thinking about more than one thing at a time.
Cavemen were the first and most importantly for the success of the cave, the best sequential taskers.
Try and distract an Asperger's person away from the one thing they are concentrating on and you will quickly notice the frustration and irritability that is caused.
Also, cavemen must also have been extremely aware and keen to their personal surroundings and tactile responses in order to hunt for food or grow and reap foods. We see that many Asperger's persons are extremely sensitive to touch, taste, noise, bright and overly sharp images and everything else that would keep them from complete concentration of whatever task they are performing.
Terri knows this well when I am typing away at a keyboard. She knows that she must do more than a simple verbal request to get me to acknowledge that she is even in the same room as I am.
Terri also knows that when I am in my stream of whatever I am doing, I am unable to concentrate on anything else and nothing is of greater importance than what I am doing at that particular time.
It took quite a long time for me to learn not to erupt with much anxiety when distracted by something other than what I was doing. It is very difficult to get many Asperger's persons to feel any real ease at being distracted and it is hard to teach that to others.
So I pondered and pondered and now I feel that Asperger's Syndrome is a very long and very old established consequence of having more genetic similarities to true cavemen than science has learned, so far.
Maybe someday scientists will finally discover more connection between those with Asperger's Syndrome and those of us who continue the genetic line of true cavemen.
I also have been pondering Autism and I am now thinking that it may be a genetic result of cavemen genetics clashing with newer genetics that still have yet to be discovered.
I shall ponder and write on this blog more, in the nearer future.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
A New Post After Some Serious Pondering
Greetings!
Yes, it has been over two years since my last post. I have been learning much and pondering even more and that is why I am now posting this higher than all other posts.
This blog was created to offer humor and insight into men like me....a true caveman.
But I have been doing a lot of thinking and I may have found a real link between the real men who lived in caves and did those things I illustrated in this blog, and what I am and have seen and learned in others.
I think if scientists study people like me, our brains and how we think, they may find the genetic and chemical link that offers the best insight into early mans' history and how people like me can be helped live in this environment better than we do now.
It is all about understanding how people like me, mostly males, think and see things and how it must have been for real pre-historic cavemen, so very, very long ago.
I have a form of Asperger's Syndrome which is a mild form of autism. For me it benefits me in many ways and it allows me to consider why I am the way I am and how I might be more genetically closer to pre-historic cavemen that most others are, today.
In going through this blog more, you will read that I am not able to multi-task and I am a great sequential tasker. That type of thinking and working was probably the only way pre-historic families survived and grew in numbers and I explain it all fairly well in the first few other posts on this blog.
I am a visual thinker and take things almost exactly as I see them. This is one trait of someone with Asperger's that is universal between the milder and more harsher forms of Aspergers leading towards autism.
It is now my opinion that truly successful cavemen, the ones who really contributed to the success of the community had to have been almost completely visual in their thought processes and nowhere near as verbal or thoughtful as others, typically women, in the community.
It is because I am and cavemen were almost completely visual in their thinking processes that they were able to hunt and gather better than persons who were more verbal and better at thinking through abstract thoughts.
Since I see what I think and think what I see, I am able to spot things like animals more clearly than many others.
I don't allow distractions to get in the way of a singular vision or thought I am considering and that is also why is takes quite a bit to get my focus off of what I am tending to and on to what someone else wants me to consider or listen to.
I simply do not and cannot focus on more than one thing and a time and that is probably the same genetic trait of so many cavemen back in their day.
They were so keenly focused and single-task oriented that they were able to provide for the cave that which the other cave dwellers needed.
Here is an illustration that people like me see very clearly but is almost impossible to explain to others who do not think and conceive as we do.
Take the following sentence: How to open a bottle of wine with no corkscrew.
Now to most people, that sentence means there will be a lesson in how to open a bottle of wine when there is no corkscrew available.
But to folks like me, I see a bottle of wine and I see another bottle of wine with a corkscrew attached and consider that there can be two different types of bottles, one with a corkscrew attached and one without a corkscrew attached.
Now for almost all of you reading this, the sentence is a no brainer. But for persons with forms of Asperger's we consider two bottles and 'see' both of them and wonder what in the heck the lesson should be about.
For most people who communicate to those having forms of Asperger's Syndrome, I am sure you know what I am trying to get across.
I bet those folks get fairly agitated because their Asperger's person has such a difficult time understanding verbalization that are found perfectly normal and easily understandable to those who don't have Asperger's Syndrome.
I can also imagine the frustration in peoples' faces with they have to repeat their words because whatever they said either doesn't sink in or is misunderstood by people like me.
I think there is a woman with the last name of Grantlin who has Asperger's and goes around lecturing about how she thinks. I think she is off base with her thinking and I feel she could help everyone better if she refocuses her comments to make them better understood by those who are not like she and I.
It looks to me that the genetic makeup of someone with forms of what we call today, Asperger's Syndrome is actually and more factually better considered as how a 'normal' caveman thought and saw things back in pre-historic times.
I now think that the evolution of the brains of humans caused what was 'normal' to become 'abnormal' after so many thousands of generations of peoples.
I would make a perfect caveman if I were to be transported back to the stone age.
I can sit and look for a kill on a hunt for hours and hours.
I can clear my head of just about every thought not necessary to help nourish myself and others.
I can grow things much easier than others I feel because I can be so patient in my work and waiting for foods to grow and get harvested.
I can offer instructions in a step-by-step manner that clears away what I consider as unnecessary wording and items.
Being so visual, I believe I have greater abilities to select a possible mate who could provide the best offspring for the success of the community. It is natural and doesn't require very much thinking-through, perhaps.
I can also some great things, one at a time. If I get requested to do too many things at one time, it is like a circuit overload and I am quite sure many readers have seen or heard what happens when someone with Asperger's feels overloaded.
It is true that when someone asks me to do something or go somewhere, I naturally feel they want me to do or go right then and they have some difficulty if I get frustrated with their request because my thought process allows me to first and foremost accomplishing the request almost immediately.
It is in my nature to listen to one thing at a time, do one step at a time, think about only one thing at any given moment.
I construct blog posts one thought at a time after only considering the overall theme of the post and then include individual words in a step-by-step pattern.
I can concentrate on a maze and get through it probably much quicker than others because I see the route so clearly while blocking out wrong pathways quickly and storing that information so well.
But if you want me to have a conversation with you while I am eating, then we have a problem.
If you want to talk to me about vacation plans while I am driving, please don't waste our time.
If you need to provide me information then just do it as simply as possible and do not add any 'extraneous' wording or non-informative thoughts to me, because I will get confused.
I do get frustrated easily if you don't seem to understand what I am trying to say to you because it is perfectly picture clear in my mind and I have real problems with the concept that you can't 'see' in your mind what I am talking about.
But if we can connect on instructional terms, I am a fantastic teacher with lessons that involve visual topics, including hands-on and practical training.
"What's that! Can't you chew gum and walk at the same time?" Well, for many folks like me, it can become a bit hard to do two very different things at one time. If I am chewing gum and walking, watch my mouth and feet because I will be chewing in time with my steps.
I also can confuse 'normal' people with my comments to their statements and questions. If they are not visual thinkers, it is more likely I will miss what they are trying to tell me unless I can 'see' is easily.
The stock market and most financial matters are far too abstract for me to comprehend. If I can visualize a pattern or something similar to a picture of what is trying to be explained to me, I have a better understanding. These matters seem to have too many multiple layers and different concepts that are not visual and linear.
I can delve into what many feel is abstract thought, but to me, it is not abstract as long as I can 'see' it like matters involving the universes down to single-cell animals and viruses.
I don't feel out of the ordinary in terms of what 'ordinary' Asperger's people have to deal with.
Have you noticed that many people like me can not verbally communicate with other for extended periods of time and feel quite calm and at peace? It's just natural for us.
Our frustration level peaks when a verbal-based person attempts to get their points across to us when we are doing something else or just being our silent, pondering selves.
I can sit and think about nothing for a long time, too.
When I have no opinion about something, I really and truly have no opinion or real consideration of any value for me to communicate.
Terri gets very agitated at times she shops and finds something and then asks my opinion and tell her I don't have one.
However, there are times I will walk into a store to get something for Terri and I will take a quick glance around and if my eye catches something I usually get it because it offers me visual pleasure seeing Terri and only Terri wearing it. I can 'see' Terri wearing it before she sees it and I am usually right on about 90+% of the time, as long as I pick the correct size.
Picking the correct size however, is another abstract that I will always have problems with. I always have to remember what size Terri tells me she is when I shop for something for her to wear. I know what I think I like Terri to look good wearing and she usually agrees. It is another 'natural' trait.
But I will always hate shopping with Terri because she can look at multiples of clothing at the same time and that drives me batty.
I think when you see a group of 'nerds' having a discussion you have no clue to what they are talking about, either they are communicating true abstract concepts or you are not understanding their visual-base communication. That is not all that uncommon.
A comical illustration of that is when Penny has trouble understanding Sheldon on "The Big Bang Theory". Sheldon is not verbal except for his exacting wording that multi-taskers like Penny can't 'see'. Sheldon is trying to verbalize what his mind 'sees' but Penny's mind is not set up to understand Sheldon's mind. That is not necessarily a bad thing, though.
So in the end, I feel more comfortable with being a true caveman now. I hope to be able to help others understand why they might be different and how we all can communicate better, together.
Sometimes I use humorous remarks because things can be so darn funny to me that only myself and others like me would understand and the rest of the folks think I am out of my mind.
Actually, I am out of their mind.
Yes, it has been over two years since my last post. I have been learning much and pondering even more and that is why I am now posting this higher than all other posts.
This blog was created to offer humor and insight into men like me....a true caveman.
But I have been doing a lot of thinking and I may have found a real link between the real men who lived in caves and did those things I illustrated in this blog, and what I am and have seen and learned in others.
I think if scientists study people like me, our brains and how we think, they may find the genetic and chemical link that offers the best insight into early mans' history and how people like me can be helped live in this environment better than we do now.
It is all about understanding how people like me, mostly males, think and see things and how it must have been for real pre-historic cavemen, so very, very long ago.
I have a form of Asperger's Syndrome which is a mild form of autism. For me it benefits me in many ways and it allows me to consider why I am the way I am and how I might be more genetically closer to pre-historic cavemen that most others are, today.
In going through this blog more, you will read that I am not able to multi-task and I am a great sequential tasker. That type of thinking and working was probably the only way pre-historic families survived and grew in numbers and I explain it all fairly well in the first few other posts on this blog.
I am a visual thinker and take things almost exactly as I see them. This is one trait of someone with Asperger's that is universal between the milder and more harsher forms of Aspergers leading towards autism.
It is now my opinion that truly successful cavemen, the ones who really contributed to the success of the community had to have been almost completely visual in their thought processes and nowhere near as verbal or thoughtful as others, typically women, in the community.
It is because I am and cavemen were almost completely visual in their thinking processes that they were able to hunt and gather better than persons who were more verbal and better at thinking through abstract thoughts.
Since I see what I think and think what I see, I am able to spot things like animals more clearly than many others.
I don't allow distractions to get in the way of a singular vision or thought I am considering and that is also why is takes quite a bit to get my focus off of what I am tending to and on to what someone else wants me to consider or listen to.
I simply do not and cannot focus on more than one thing and a time and that is probably the same genetic trait of so many cavemen back in their day.
They were so keenly focused and single-task oriented that they were able to provide for the cave that which the other cave dwellers needed.
Here is an illustration that people like me see very clearly but is almost impossible to explain to others who do not think and conceive as we do.
Take the following sentence: How to open a bottle of wine with no corkscrew.
Now to most people, that sentence means there will be a lesson in how to open a bottle of wine when there is no corkscrew available.
But to folks like me, I see a bottle of wine and I see another bottle of wine with a corkscrew attached and consider that there can be two different types of bottles, one with a corkscrew attached and one without a corkscrew attached.
Now for almost all of you reading this, the sentence is a no brainer. But for persons with forms of Asperger's we consider two bottles and 'see' both of them and wonder what in the heck the lesson should be about.
For most people who communicate to those having forms of Asperger's Syndrome, I am sure you know what I am trying to get across.
I bet those folks get fairly agitated because their Asperger's person has such a difficult time understanding verbalization that are found perfectly normal and easily understandable to those who don't have Asperger's Syndrome.
I can also imagine the frustration in peoples' faces with they have to repeat their words because whatever they said either doesn't sink in or is misunderstood by people like me.
I think there is a woman with the last name of Grantlin who has Asperger's and goes around lecturing about how she thinks. I think she is off base with her thinking and I feel she could help everyone better if she refocuses her comments to make them better understood by those who are not like she and I.
It looks to me that the genetic makeup of someone with forms of what we call today, Asperger's Syndrome is actually and more factually better considered as how a 'normal' caveman thought and saw things back in pre-historic times.
I now think that the evolution of the brains of humans caused what was 'normal' to become 'abnormal' after so many thousands of generations of peoples.
I would make a perfect caveman if I were to be transported back to the stone age.
I can sit and look for a kill on a hunt for hours and hours.
I can clear my head of just about every thought not necessary to help nourish myself and others.
I can grow things much easier than others I feel because I can be so patient in my work and waiting for foods to grow and get harvested.
I can offer instructions in a step-by-step manner that clears away what I consider as unnecessary wording and items.
Being so visual, I believe I have greater abilities to select a possible mate who could provide the best offspring for the success of the community. It is natural and doesn't require very much thinking-through, perhaps.
I can also some great things, one at a time. If I get requested to do too many things at one time, it is like a circuit overload and I am quite sure many readers have seen or heard what happens when someone with Asperger's feels overloaded.
It is true that when someone asks me to do something or go somewhere, I naturally feel they want me to do or go right then and they have some difficulty if I get frustrated with their request because my thought process allows me to first and foremost accomplishing the request almost immediately.
It is in my nature to listen to one thing at a time, do one step at a time, think about only one thing at any given moment.
I construct blog posts one thought at a time after only considering the overall theme of the post and then include individual words in a step-by-step pattern.
I can concentrate on a maze and get through it probably much quicker than others because I see the route so clearly while blocking out wrong pathways quickly and storing that information so well.
But if you want me to have a conversation with you while I am eating, then we have a problem.
If you want to talk to me about vacation plans while I am driving, please don't waste our time.
If you need to provide me information then just do it as simply as possible and do not add any 'extraneous' wording or non-informative thoughts to me, because I will get confused.
I do get frustrated easily if you don't seem to understand what I am trying to say to you because it is perfectly picture clear in my mind and I have real problems with the concept that you can't 'see' in your mind what I am talking about.
But if we can connect on instructional terms, I am a fantastic teacher with lessons that involve visual topics, including hands-on and practical training.
"What's that! Can't you chew gum and walk at the same time?" Well, for many folks like me, it can become a bit hard to do two very different things at one time. If I am chewing gum and walking, watch my mouth and feet because I will be chewing in time with my steps.
I also can confuse 'normal' people with my comments to their statements and questions. If they are not visual thinkers, it is more likely I will miss what they are trying to tell me unless I can 'see' is easily.
The stock market and most financial matters are far too abstract for me to comprehend. If I can visualize a pattern or something similar to a picture of what is trying to be explained to me, I have a better understanding. These matters seem to have too many multiple layers and different concepts that are not visual and linear.
I can delve into what many feel is abstract thought, but to me, it is not abstract as long as I can 'see' it like matters involving the universes down to single-cell animals and viruses.
I don't feel out of the ordinary in terms of what 'ordinary' Asperger's people have to deal with.
Have you noticed that many people like me can not verbally communicate with other for extended periods of time and feel quite calm and at peace? It's just natural for us.
Our frustration level peaks when a verbal-based person attempts to get their points across to us when we are doing something else or just being our silent, pondering selves.
I can sit and think about nothing for a long time, too.
When I have no opinion about something, I really and truly have no opinion or real consideration of any value for me to communicate.
Terri gets very agitated at times she shops and finds something and then asks my opinion and tell her I don't have one.
However, there are times I will walk into a store to get something for Terri and I will take a quick glance around and if my eye catches something I usually get it because it offers me visual pleasure seeing Terri and only Terri wearing it. I can 'see' Terri wearing it before she sees it and I am usually right on about 90+% of the time, as long as I pick the correct size.
Picking the correct size however, is another abstract that I will always have problems with. I always have to remember what size Terri tells me she is when I shop for something for her to wear. I know what I think I like Terri to look good wearing and she usually agrees. It is another 'natural' trait.
But I will always hate shopping with Terri because she can look at multiples of clothing at the same time and that drives me batty.
I think when you see a group of 'nerds' having a discussion you have no clue to what they are talking about, either they are communicating true abstract concepts or you are not understanding their visual-base communication. That is not all that uncommon.
A comical illustration of that is when Penny has trouble understanding Sheldon on "The Big Bang Theory". Sheldon is not verbal except for his exacting wording that multi-taskers like Penny can't 'see'. Sheldon is trying to verbalize what his mind 'sees' but Penny's mind is not set up to understand Sheldon's mind. That is not necessarily a bad thing, though.
So in the end, I feel more comfortable with being a true caveman now. I hope to be able to help others understand why they might be different and how we all can communicate better, together.
Sometimes I use humorous remarks because things can be so darn funny to me that only myself and others like me would understand and the rest of the folks think I am out of my mind.
Actually, I am out of their mind.
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