Through the lens of a Level 1 Autistic Individual

Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right      Racial discrimination and segregation unfortunately continue to exist, although they're not nearly as prolific as they were a century ago. In the 1960s, President Johnson started Affirmative Action, and its implementation over the next half-century had become Reverse Discrimination by letting minorities jump to the front of the line rather than joining the line in an equal basis with whites. Job applicants were given the shaft by all of this, even though they themselves didn't benefit from discrimination, let alone implement them.      I applaud the end of Affirmative Action and its current form lumped in as "DEI". Pushing agendas is creating a massive backlash, and I look forward to the end of the "If it's male and pale, it's stale" mindset.  And don't lump Environmental Responsibility with DEI. Fixing the environment actually helps with equity, as people wouldn't be limited by growing up in pollution.

Catharsis (From a Facebook Memory 22 Jan 2022) Remnant ("Pina") of an agave plant extracted like a rotten tooth The other day, we got around to getting rid of an agave that was getting ornery. An agave has uninviting sharp petals(?) that can house spiders or even vermin in the hollows. My stepmother had these plants at her house, and to me they symbolize her choosing meditation, vegans, and "plants have priority" rather than participation in our childhood with our father. Taking a saw to the petals and chucking them into the greens bin and then ripping the "pina" from the earth and rolling it to desiccate in the sun gave me that feeling of adrenaline in opposition to someone who tore my father from me and never did create any fond childhood memories.

 2010: Under the Sea Rare photo of me in one of my Theme Party outfits at the WRCA Convention -- I had a lot of fun with some of these throughout the years, but unfortunately photos are rare at best. I have a space suit all ready to go for this year too. | Photo taken and originally posted by Cricket Farewel l

A (Near) Decade of Halloweens at the Office 2011 -- Wearing my new Bubble Boy outfit -- at work, I wore my Shippou (InuYasha) and went to what would become the only "real" lunch event -- I was the only one in costume, though. Unfortunately, the SDCC Volunteer Dinner was a bust, due to my name being "hijacked" from the list. The hijacker admitted what happened, but never did reconcile. They were also in charge of the Daily Bulletins during Comic-Con, but in all the years of my volunteering there, he never did get photos of my cosplays. Only by sheer luck did I get a photo in, when they allowed individual submissions. Halloween experience round-up: Old Town Cosplay Gathering WIN with a few dozen cosplayers Comic-Con Staff Party/Banquet FAIL to be Remembered (wasn't put on the list) This weekend Saturday Seaport Village 'Meh...' (had FB responses but none showed) Sunday Haunted Trail with the Aspies Group WIN -- one of the Zombies even recognized me. Tonigh...

Invisibility: A Letter to the Curious Someone asked me why I seek out visibility:  Perhaps it comes from being left out a lot throughout life -- I would see others having fun and getting photos together to show off, and I would never be in them. By the time that I did get to where they were, they would have dispersed to do other things. I even had someone intentionally leave me out of as many visibility opportunities with the clown group as possible, with her grudge against me for having exposed her exploitation of a loophole in an annual recognition. The wrath of a trophy-seeker scorned. After each running of Comic-Con or the clown convention, I looked for posts with myself in them. Those were exceptionally rare in both cases, unless it was with my own camera. A few kind individuals did step up and help out as much as they could while still having things "organic" and not some weak substitution to placate me. I wanted to show the world my creative outlet, and be "cool...

  A Journey That Inspires Another Journey I made a second trip to Baraboo, WI for the Big Top Parade, and my time within Baraboo was an absolute gem in the weeklong trip. On the way to Baraboo, I rode the California Zephyr train to Omaha, NE where I then rented a car (actually turned out to be a tank of a truck in the form of a Nissan Titan). Aboard the train, all went fairly well, but I picked up on some underlying judgment from another passenger. In the Lounge car, I took a seat and someone nearby lamented that the reading lamp wasn't working. I tried clicking the buttons for both, figuring that perhaps he only tried one of the two, or perhaps there was a loose connection and my heavy-handed button-pushing might make that evident. He commented "I'm an electrician, so ..." and that gave me the impression that he thought of me as a fat buffoon. Whether or not this was the case, it wasn't isolated during the journey in both directions. Two decades ago, I made a con...