slaphead

Hi everyone, HUGE Thanks to all of you for your replies and advice. I've tried all of the suggestions that you've made, which is why its taken me a while to get back on here, and I'm still getting the same result. I've tried everything you good people mentioned and I've come to the conclusion that another program is interrupting when I'm trying to copy a DVD. Either that or a recent "security update" for winnders-bl**ding -XP has banjaxed something. I'm currently step-by-step uninstalling recent downloads and updates to see if I can get a result that way. Funny thing is, copying video CDs works fine on the same burning drive! Duh? I've put my DVDRW into my son's PC and it burns fine, although v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. Son's DVDRW drive has same probs in my machine as my drive had. It reads DVDs well enough to play the movies, but gets interrupted when reading to burn. now off to hit it wiv a big stick!

Hi, I do a lot of DVD burning and have hit a problem thats driving me barmy (And that doesn't take much). For no apparent reason, every time I try to copy a DVD with Nero6 Digital, or Ashampoo Burning studio 6, all starts well, then I get an error message stating "cannot read source disk" or words to that effect. It happens at different stages of reading each disk and yet last week I could copy any disk at all. I've tried uninstalling and re-installing both burning software suites, same result. Both burners will burn DVDs from my own video files stored on me hard drive, but won't copy a damned bl**dy thing. ######! Can anyone help please? I'm not a complete novice, but I'm not a (for want of a better phrase) Techie. Could something else I'm running be interrupting the burning process? All the DVD's I'm trying to copy play perfectly in WMP and Nero MP (and on my 3 PS2s and 2 stand-alone DVD players. I need to copy loads of DVDs as I'm forever shooting vids of the kids to send to various relatives up and down the country. I also do a lot of video work (free of charge) for my daughter's Primary School. Xmas plays, special assemblies etc and I'm getting snowed under because I can't copy the DVDs. Nearly forgot, I've tried 3 different DVD drives and 2 different DVD writers in my PC with same results - no cucking fopies.

Just taken a look, VERY Impressive! Many thanks for posting this here!

Hi, we had similar, but fundamentally different, problem a few years ago. When eldest was born, we had 2 dogs. when eldest was 3 months old, we had 9 dogs (both parents and 7 pups!) we didn't know biggun was AS/ADHD at the time, and we kept the only pup that biggun would permit on his lap, as we thought that there was already a bond between them. As the next 2 years unfolded, we had to re-home the female dog as she snapped at biggun. Unfortunately, the old male dog died (well he was 15 years old). Life went on, daughter arrived following year, Biggun was Dx'd 2 years ago. around the time of DX, biggun was having trouble at school, bullying, incapable teacher (being very polite and generous here - oh,sod it!, the man was an arrogant pig, a coward too - but that's another story) etc. Anyway, one evening, biggun collapses in floods of tears and when calmed down said that he was sad and upset because he was missing 'Rebel' (the old male dog who died when Barry was 2). So, after many family pow-wows, we decided to get Barry a puppy, which we duly did. Barry chose his 'own' pup from a litter of 6, he named him 'Rebel' (surprise, surprise!), and we all trotted off home. Next morning all hell broke loose, Barry & Rhiannon had a MAJOR fight. Cause? "She was trying to fuss MY dog!". Upshot? we went back to the chap who had the pups and fetched another one home , for Rhiannon. Both kids refer to respective dogs as "mine", but Wifey Linda has to feed and exercise them all! I wouldn't advise this course of action for everyone, you really have to be very 'in' to dogs - our 3 poochies live as members of the family, always indoors and sharing bedrooms with us and the kids- but it was our way out of the problem we had. Also, on a cautionary note, Dogs, along with most other 'pack' animals, can often sense when a human has a problem (physical like a broken leg,or mental like AS). whilst most dogs will respond positively by 'loving' "their"human, the pack animal instincts can cause some dogs to attack the 'weakend/sick' person. we believe this is what our female dog did to biggun, which is why she was re-homed and not put down.

MMO means 'Massive Multiplayer Online', usually tagged onto , as you correctly guessed, 'Role Playing Game'

We had Barry diagnosed on the NHS. His School was concerned and gave us a letter to take to our GP, who was a tremendous help. He referred us to the Bethel child and family centre in Norwich, where after 2 0r 3 visits with a psychology Nurse, we got to see the psychologist Dr Rini Hooegkamer (apologies to him for probable miss-spelling) He diagnosed Barry and was incredibly down to earth about how he had come to his conclusions, (even giving us an impromptu chemistry lesson to explain how taking omega 3 supplements would help Barry (and myself)). All in all it took nearly a year to get to this stage, but help and advice from the professionals and from people on this , and other, forums kept us going. I appreciate that you need a fairly speedy dx, but we are still learning about Barry's condition after 3 years, so a note of caution here, you may find out from the professionals that there is more than just Asperger's in the mix. We found out from the Bethel Centre that Barry also has ADHD, and that there may be other things which will 'come out' as he gets older, so it really is a constant learning curve! Hope some of this helps and good luck! PS for anyone who lives near Norwich and can, get a referral to the Bethel Centre from your GP, Highly recommended!

Hang in there Pingu, I have constant pain myself because of a spinal injury and I can be a right Nazi at times, I don't know how my missus hasn't shot me before now! Like yourself, she's the strong one who keeps us going, without her, our family would be in serious trouble. Our thoughts are with you.

Hi, I voted 'mainstream mainly satisfied', but feel that this needs clarification, so here goes: Barry is in his final year at Primary School. The small village we live in has a small (50-60 pupils) school, who have been excellent with Barry, and supportive to both him and to ourselves as a family. BUT... Our local High School don't seem to want Barry as a pupil because he has 'violent outbursts' mentioned in his 'statement'. The High School SENCO seemed horrified that her cosy little world might get disrupted by a 'violent' pupil! The High School have never met or even seen Barry, but his statement has got them panicking and running for the excuse cupboard! So much for trying to place him with what few friends he has got! However, there is another high School quite close to us, who have an excellent record on 'special needs' education, so we are about to visit them and see what they have to offer Barry. If this School turns out like the local one, then it will be Home Edding for us, and stuff the LEA!

Hi, hope everyone has enjoyed their festivities without too much stress! I'm curious as to how I would go about getting myself diagnosed for Asperger's, how do I go about it? My 10 year old son Barry has ADHD and Asperger's, and I see a lot of his traits in my own behaviour. Also, as other people have already said, it would explain rather a lot about my past! Any info will be gratefully received, and I wish you all a very Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

Hi everyone, we live in Norfolk, kids attend a little village school. School reported problems with Barry so Our GP had referred us to a local Child & Family support centre in Norwich, where Barry was assesssed firstly by Phsychiatric nurse, then by Consultant Phsychologist Dr Rini Hoekamer, who made the diagnosis after observing Barry (several visits) and both School and ourselves used questionnaires, I think they are called Connor's,(or something like). The LEA child phsychologist visited School and observed Barry in Class, dining room and playground, all done with FULL consultation with us, and reported his findings.After receiving the report, we then had to take Barry round to see several specialists who advise the LEA .This was quite upsetting for Barry as it wasn't "His" doctor, and we had taken him to "strange (new)" places, which always disturbs him. This all resulted firstly in Barry's diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome, and ADHD, both moderately severe, (By Dr Hoekamer) and then the LEA 'statemented' Barry based on the diagnosis and their own observations and our visits to their specialists. I hope that some of this helps and I'm aware that not all Schools are as open and co-operative as was Barry's. I really do think that having a forward-looking Head Teacher has helped both Barry and us as a family. To anyone who comes into contact with the Bethel Centre in Norwich I would say don't be cautious, they are brilliant, brilliant people as well as being damned good at their jobs. Be as honest with your answers as you can be, holding a point of view back defeats the object, and can really make things worse. I know that its very tough and sometimes heartbreaking to tell an "outsider"(i.e. Doctor) aspects of your family life, but it really does pay to be honest with yourself and the professionals who are assessing your case. I had a great deal of difficulty coming to terms with Barry's behaviour, as it was mostly manifested at School, not in the home.It was a real shock when I first saw Barry go nuclear, I cried afterwards, but it opened my eyes to something that I had been in denial about, and I had been quite obstructive towards the School up until that point.( I thought they were talking rubbish). Linda and myself are being as open as possible about Barry's AS & ADHD with both family and friends, we truly believe that the more open we are, the more people will find out about these conditions. Ignorance is not bliss, it's unforgivable. crikey! that turned into a bit of an essay, sorry folks!

As someone said, not the outcome we'd hoped for, but let's hope Annie and her family can put this behind them and get on with enjoying life. Good luck to you and yours, Annie!! Also, lets hope that the School staff involved get festering insides for the rest of their miserable lives-######!

Hi Annie, any news?

Cheers Martian, thanks for the invite to jockland, but last time I checked the forecast map, my house was overlooking the beach instead of being 6 miles inland, so i think I will stay here and catch up on my fishing!

Hey, everyone, some good news! We received Barry's "Statement" of special education needs recently, He's now going to get one-on-one in class assistance! Yeeeeeeeeee-haaaa! His primary school have been excellent with him, can't praise them enough, especially now that the Class "Teacher", who gave my boy problems for months has been showed the door, partially due to our complaints about the fool! DOUBLE YeeeeeeeeeeeeeeHAAAAA!

Welcome, Martian from (near) Glasgow. Are there many of you foreigners in Scotland then? (just joking!) This is the place to be if you have any Aspergers/ASD probs, the people on here are a fantastic, knowledgeable and sympathetic bunch, wot more can I say? This forum Rocks! A warm welcome to all new members !

Hi Hailey, that is one very informative booklet, Like Sarah, i'm going to send a copy around the family! Many thanks ! Tim

Whoever he is, he's talking a load of old scallops! (thought I better not write naughty words on here!) I'm a working-class bloke who has an AS son and I think that the middle-aged man should get out more, as well as living on the same estate since the 1960's, he sounds like he takes his holidays there too! He's certainly NOT a socialist in the true sense of the word, and I doubt whether he is "working Class" either, as his views do not mesh with any socialist theory I've ever heard of (and yes, I have read a few!). Also, as he is anti-"scrounging jobless", he sounds more right-wing than Margaret Thatcher ever did! Where was this bastion of the working class when I needed his help in 1984 to stop Thatcher and her cronies bringing the country to it's knees with high unemployment/maximum profit economics??? I bet he's never been on a picket line in his life (and yes, again, I have been on more than a few myself, being an ex-Yorkshire Miner). People like him would be dangerous if they had more than one brain cell! Please print this out and give it to him next time you are unfortunate enough to bump into the obnoxious old fart!

Hi Nikrix, Barry swears that he sees our old dog, who died when Barry was 2, on a regular basis. We don't know if it's imagination, stress, sadness, phsychic ability or wishful thinking, but we do encourage Barry to talk about it. He does seem genuine in his belief that the old dog is still with us, and who am I to argue? I do believe in an afterlife - millions do as most religions are based on the concept in one way or another, but actually 'seeing' the departed is always going to be open to question and ridicule. Linda and I try to 'handle' it by trying to react in the same way as if Barry had said "I saw my friend Harry* at School today". This works for us, maybe you could try it yourself?. ASD kids have very different ways of interpreting information, nobody actually KNOWS how or why they process info like they do. I don't like the way the school are handling this, as you say it usually happens in quiet places. it seems to me that they are keeping your daughter seperate to make it easier on themselves, rather supervise her in the playground. (We had this problem at Barry's school, and I still think that proper supervision at break-times is better than excluding a child from the playground as this could further alienate the child from his/her peers, making school-life even harder for the child.) Slaphead. *Yep, Barry and Harry, or Bas & Has as the other kids call 'em!

Hi Tyler's Mum, We initially had a similar problem at Barry's School, but it turned out to be the HT backing up the class teacher' views. I wrote a strong letter to the School Governors Chairman and got him involved. After sorting out the priorities, (Chair-chap told me his 1st priority was to "protect and support his HT", you can imagine my answer to that!), we now have a very good relationship with the HT and the school in general, and Barry was moved to a different class, which made all the difference.(different teacher to be more accurate). Keep banging away at them, they'll have to agree with you in the end. Tyler's HT sounds like a right pillock tho. We got telephoned on Friday by our sen caseworker. We have got Barry's statement, and Barry will now get 1to1 support at school. Slaphead.

My son Barry says that Green is very important and special to him, although he doesn't know (or can't explain) why. He can take or leave other colours and combinations of, but intricate patterns can make him uneasy, whereas simple patterns (eg. rows of footballs/Man Utd badges or any other small-ish images on a plain background) tend to calm him somehow. Obviously, he does support MUFC, despite my best efforts to get him to support Sunderland, (MY God - the stick he's given me this season!), and as we are a footballing family, I used the badges and footballs as an example almost automatically. There is no significance related to the shape of the images in patterns that calm him. Perhaps you could ask your pupils if they have a special colour or shading/lighting effect? Barry is absolutely petrified of darkness and heavily shadowed areas make him very jittery, although very bright lighting upsets him a little too. Tim.

Hi, We have 3 dogs at home, all medium-sized cross-breeds. Barry loves them all, but in different ways. Our old dog, Tyke was born the same year as Barry, but on the same date as Rhiannon was 3 years later, and he plays 'fetch the ball' with Barry. Rebel is Barry's dog and he sleeps in the bedroom with him, and Sheba is Rhiannon's dog who likes to play tuggy. the dog's characters are as varied as any 3 people would be. I have always found that if you get a dog when it's very young and give it affection, discipline and exercise, then you truly have a 'best friend'.(a bit like kids they are!) Hope some of this drivel helps! Tim. I love smilies!

Hi Carole, you have put it far better than I ever could, I agree with you entirely.

Hi Steve, funnily enough, Linda and myself were discussing this subject the other day with other parents at our kid's School. We live in a small village deep in rural/agricultural Norfolk. We are surrounded by farms and fields and in our primary school there are just 73 pupils, out of which there are 3 diagnosed with ASD's and at least 15 who are 'in the process of'. We thought this was a high number for such a small group and the only thing we could come up with was pesticides in the air or in the water. Myself, I take anything given out by the Government or govt departments with a VERY large pinch of salt, but how can we be sure that they (or us) are right or wrong? It's a nightmare at best!

Hi! My son Barry doesn't stammer as such, but he will start saying a word and just stop in the middle of it, then take ages to complete the word. Its not just one type of word either and these are words he knows and uses regularly without any problem, Until he's upset/stressed/excited. Your son could be picking up on your vibes, or he may have something else on his mind, have you asked him if anything is bothering him or, as Barry would put it if something doesn't feel right? He might just be excited about something (like the upcoming easter holidays for example?) Hope this helps, keep your chin up! Tim

Hi Lisa, I shouldn't worry too much about the swearing, you are already doing the right thing by deducting 10p a time, it's a good way of getting your point (that swearing is not acceptable behaviour) across, and one that your child will learn sooner or later, you just keep strong and tough it out. We've had much the same problems with our son Barry (9), but we make him lose 1/4 hour of his playstation time as this seems to work better for him. (He lives for football and PS2, and doesn't really have any sense of the value of money). Perhaps you could stop 50p instead, to show him how serious you are about non-swearing? We tend to ignore it at home, but in public and at school, it's a no-no, as people in general don't want to hear it. Give your child a definite boundary line that must not be crossed where swearing is concerned.This may also work with other problems too, such as on/off temper, shouting, etc. Barry doesn't wear a coat, (or a jumper if he can avoid it!) and also says he doesn't feel the cold. We've just come to accept that as part of the AS and therefore part of who he is. Don't pay any attention to the disapproving stares, you are probably closer to your child than they ever will be to their's, like you said, Stuff the lot of them! Hope some of this helps and keep your chin up!