littlenemo

Congratulations Lauren You probably remember me from my one job as a film extra - as a Blue Meanie in Yellow Submarine

I'm sleeping 3-6 hours a night at the moment. But as it takes me at least half an hour (usually longer) to go to sleep, I can't be sleep deprived Good to know. And at least it only affects me - When Dot was a baby she was a nightmare at night, so none of us got a good night's sleep for a couple of years.

Sorry BD, I'm useless at this sort of thing (recognising people); I'd do just as well if you had listed folks' ed. psych's foot sizes ( as I'm in it at least I'd get 3 this time, rather than the 2 I got last time) Now a word search... that's more my kind of thing. Or a sudoku using letters, so it spells out someone's name across the middle With your brains and beauty (and Karla's help ) I'm sure it'd be no problem for you nemo

I took Com and Dot to Ice Age 2 yesterday with the cinema association card. I'd never used it before and the guy at the counter hadn't seen one before, so Com explained it all to him . Then we got a couple of drinks and some popcorn, was just about to pay when Com pipes up "It would be cheaper if we got deal 1." He's right, 40p less for exactly the same as we just ordered . Then, just as it was about to be rung up, he asks "What's the difference between deal 1 and deal 3?" and it turns out it's exactly the same (price and everything) but with a free kid's ticket thrown in for the next visit. So we get that instead. My problem with all this is that Com gets me in free because he's 'disabled', but he is obviously more able than any of the rest of us, staff included! nemo

The lead keyboard player/singer claimed he wrote 'Wild Thing' - but then he also claimed to written everything the Enid ever did, which is why the rest of the band quit . That was why the band suddenly went pear-shaped (as did the main man, I seem to remember).

At the blood donors, it's widely accepted that pulling the plaster off the inside of your elbow is a lot more painful than the donation I think next time I'll say I'm allergic to plasters and see if the alternative is better . nemo

And I thought you were talking about our kids.

We need to learn from the past and take responsibility for the present and the future.

Have you got your free entry for carer card? There's an old thread about it here I know it won't take much off the total but every little bit helps...

Welcome back! You obviously haven't stumbled on any of the Tech Support stories websites. There are thousands of them! They're full of 'illogical errors' like covering the computer with fridge magnets , putting plants on top of your computer then over-watering it or my favourite (from the RAF) bolting the computers to the tables with 10-inch bolts that go through the hard drives and motherboards! nemo

Sorry Lauren, but I have to agree with Canopus on this one. Changes to society don't stop with a change of government, and the Thatcher Reagan era was where the backlash against late 60's and 70's liberalism really took hold. One of her Education ministers (Keith Joseph, I think) told the party conference "We don't want an educated population. An educated population is a troublesome population. What we need is a trained population. " And New Labour have pushed the policy even further. Another aspect, which is more relevant to this topic, is the classic government/church tactic of uniting its followers by demonising outsiders. This has been accelerated in the last few years with the 'war on terror', but spills over into other areas like the Mail's bigotry over immigrants and asylum seekers and scare stories linking autistics with violent crimes. My favourite barometer for this is the colour of clothing (especially men's). When tolerance increases, the range of colours available and their brightness increases. But in times like now everyone wants to be drab and blend in, because if you stand out you become a target (raising your head over the parapet) because being different is a threat to 'normal' people . I suspect the reason this poor man was attacked was simply because he was different and vulnerable. And until the backlash against this current period of illiberalism starts, these sort of events will continue.

"I'm never going on another girlie friday night out or hen night again! It's always the same - a succession of increasingly loud and flashy pubs and clubs , a succession of increasingly loud and flashy hopefuls [fighting them off with stick our gorgeous Batgirls were ( though that bloke did have a point, the Judge had been a bit heavy with the slap / ). And that point about halfway through when the jokes and giggles turn into incoherent laughter in a language only really drunk people understand. " Half the time he'd felt good about not drinking any more cos it meant that he didn't act like... like... well, like you do. The rest of the time he wondered how long it would be before the lights, music, voices and the masculine miasma of lotions, potions and hairgel would turn him back to drink. Cinders wanders to the mouth of the batcave, into the crisp, cloudless night and takes a large lungful of cold air. He looks up at the new moon and sees only stars. "And the lads (and a couple of the girls) and the scrumpy! We explained that it was the real stuff (flat, smells like garlic, tastes like apple juice from really, really butch organic apples) and that was why they only sold it in halves. But no, they insisted on two halves each, downed their lagers really fast []then refilled their glasses with the scrumpies (sounds so innocent in the plural). And yes, as always they felt great after the first pint, but as soon as the second 'pair of halves' arrived... "And all phasmod kept saying was 'I don't care. I don't have to work tomorrow. I've finished it!'" "And that guy at the take-away! "And whose idea was it to make me designated driver? We were in taxis! But then when I tried to help them in on the way back from the Harvester, I was accused of molestation! [ and I didn't even know moles had trains!]. And once inside, the Judge wouldn't stop with the 'f'naar f'naar airbags' jokes. But at least they got the drunker members to have a chug-a-lug contest with pints of water, while I made herb teas and hot chocolates for the rest. [Just to make this story even stranger, at this point I exceeded the number of smileys allowed (there's a limit?! ;wallbash: ), so you'll just have to imagine the rest ; ] Though the number of times the batloo has been flushed tonight certainly explains the water shortage! ;wacko: I dredd to think what sort of state it'll be in when Vish gets to it. "After all that I need a night out of my own - Beacon Hill, next full moon." ;bat: Heading back into the cave, Cinders taps his earpiece. "I love these new mobile phones ;thumbs: - now I can talk to myself all day long and no-one bats an eyelid!" ; G'night all (except Hailey - G'day) ;D

I assume you took a picture and are keepig a record of incidents. If nothing else works, a letter to the Chair of Governors usually stirs things up. In our experience letters tend to have more effect than telephone calls and promises don't get forgotten quite so quickly good luck nemo

Stained glass is a good course - arty, creative, includes history, physics and psychology (if done properly) and you get something beautiful at the end. And when you've finished the course it's just a short sideways step into orthoscopics (Ian Jordan's thing), which will be crying out for trained folk soon. nemo (a fool's gold mine of daft ideas)

Well done, Suze Hailey was the only one I was sure of - that kid had to be an Aussie!

How do you become more selfish? Ummm... Seeing as this is an autism (or Autism) forum, this seems a bit of a strange question. You could try learning from our kids - wonderful as they all are, altruism is a concept few of them can comprehend, let alone spell. I try to get a night off every 6 months or so and have just spotted that V for Vendetta (made by those Matrix boys) is on at the Imax in Bradford for the next 3 weeks See you there?

emo? As long as you're mistaking me for Emo Phillips, I won't take a fence.

Could have been, but when I'm there I can't see anything or anyone else Like my mother says: "Depression is sooo selfish!" But then again she hasn't got a clue about most things in the real world. Hailey - I'll see what I can do...

Wot? No blushing smiley? Just imagine a couple of dozen of the things. (lost for words) I was there too at the time, Viper. Thanks for asking for it, as it gave me something else to think about. Me too, then at least I might have an idea what to do with it. Halfway through doing anything another better idea arrives (anything from quantum physics to a 3 storey greenhouse), and off we go again. Z used to complain about all the half-finished projects lying around, but not any more - I just have a computer full of them now nemo (currently working on 2 animated short films, a book on early western Christianity and one on the origins of celtic art, a new type of greeting card and getting out of my room and into the sun [plus parenting, housekeeping and oh yes, paid work])

Just to give a long-term view on the sleep patterns, I've always had problems getting to sleep before 2 (and often later), but have developed a way of life that works well. Being a freelance designer, I can chose my own work hours, and have found that the 9pm - 3am shift is the best. No distractions (phone, kids, the outside world generally) so I can concentrate (especially when writing computer code). As someone said above, this is no longer a 9-5 world, but if a client gives me a job at 4pm and it's finished and attached to an email at 9 the next morning they don't go anywhere else for the next job. As long as Felix' sleep pattern doesn't take too much out of you, I wouldn't worry about it. keep up the good work nemo

Apparently dishwashers use 6 - 10 times more water than washing up in the sink, so think of it as 'doing your bit for Blighty' As for standpipes, we had them in Leeds quite a few years ago and they weren't as bad as we'd feared - you get fit and end up chatting with neighbours you never knew you had (even if the conversation is always about how *&^%$%^&*ing useless the water companies are ) My only suggestion is to buy your buckets now before the rush (1 per person per day seemed to work out well) good luck from soggy Yorkshire nemo

Just stumbled on Dragonforce, the funniest band I've heard in ages - ridiculously fast heavy metal (they call it 'extreme power metal' ). Since the keyboard player discovered the 'harpsichord' setting, they sound like some old prog band (ELP, Enid, etc.) played way too fast (at 78 rpm for us oldies). If you go to their site (dragonforce.com) their latest single plays automatically, and you can watch videos of a stunningly dyspraxic stage show. As far as I can tell they've all been on the ritalin way too long and maybe ought to cut down on the caffein too Gilbo - if you can manage to join it, dimeadozen has some brilliant early Elvis torrents. Well worth checking out

As Bid says, that's the point of the site: the negative view is the one portrayed bt The Voice of Autism (how dare they claim to speak for people they won't listen to?! ) After about 8 pages it changes into an argument for listening and understanding rather than behavioural programming and institutionalisation. A message that obviously needs to be repeated loudly and often as there are certain organisations that don't want to listen. SV - I was angry with it too to start with, but that's the point - we need to change the prejudices that allow people to portray autistics so negatively. Rant over nemo

The reason that the moon looks bigger as it's just above the horizon is an optical illusion - the brain automatically puts it in focus with the distant landscape, and so scales it up to match. Once it's a bit further up, it jumps to its real distance/scale and that magical moment disappears. Back in the late 70's I kept a diary of my moods (or biorhythms, as they were called then). I was amused and a bit worried to find that my cycle of creativity- depression (what's called bipolar now) was a 28 day cycle that peaked at the full moon, when I rarely got more than 5 hours sleep. Very useful for knowing when to time creative work, but a bit too close to lycanthropy for comfort. Unfortunately these days it's a bit more random, and certainly not on a regular cycle, but i still love the full moon when working on a new project.