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Perseveration
Have we talked about perseveration? I feel like we haven’t talked about it enough. So perseveration is the fixation autistics feel. That’s really good when you’re trying to write up your master’s project. It’s less helpful when you’re stuck on a bad emotion and can’t let it go. It’s the whole Class 58 brain thing. […]
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Catastrophising
This post comes with a trigger warning for discussion of self-harm and suicidal ideation. In case you hadn’t noticed I am incredibly good at catastrophising – most autistic people are. I think it’s connected to my cognitive rigidity, whereby while your average neurotypical (NT) brain is an off-road car, my brain is a freight train. […]
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Note to self: stop working in book publishing
Today is now a write-off. After my weekly shift at the library this morning I was going to use this afternoon to plan next week’s tutorial and a talk on supporting autistic university students I’m hoping to do next year. Instead I got an email from a client. Sometimes books refuse to die. Sometimes authors […]
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Ancient Astronomy-Astrology
Most modern astronomers would prefer not to admit it, but astronomy and astrology share a common ancestry. When the ancients were carefully recording the positions of the stars, the time and appearance of eclipses, and the sudden new occurrence of comets, they weren’t doing these things to put a man on the Moon and communication […]
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Public Service Announcement
***We interrupt our regular programming to bring you the following public service announcement.*** I’ve seen a lot of tweets recently from autistic people worrying about where they are going to go if everyone deserts Twitter. And I thought I should probably let you know, dear reader, where I hang out. Since if I feel like […]
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My Top 10 Archaeoastronomy Resources
As mentioned previously, archaeoastronomy is having a ‘moment’ and seems to be hugely popular. So this list includes a wider variety of resources than my primers list from last week including some non-academic and older books. Note that I am an affiliate so if you purchase anything after clicking from the following links I may […]
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Primers on the history of astronomy
The interesting thing about telling my physical science students at the Open University about my studies into the history of astronomy is how often they express interest themselves in learning more – especially since this academic year I am intending to do some fieldwork in archaeoastronomy. Archaeoastronomy seems to be very much of interest to […]
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It’s official
My daughter has autism. It’s basically an open and shut case. They knew she was at the end of the screening assessment. Everything else was just confirmation. I may have had a good cry when they sent me the full diagnosis yesterday. I’m so relieved. I was worried that they’d say something along the lines […]
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This is why we can’t have nice things
So I’ve spotted that two people have unconnected from me on social media in the past week. What does that mean? For record, I’m not talking about randos on twitter I’ve never met. But people I’ve worked with, eaten lunch with even. It’s happened before. Someone I considered a good friend appeared as a “person […]
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On the MIGDAS and other stories
My daughter has had her autism assessment, the only thing left is for her to fill in a form called the MIGDAS. Despite being only 16 the assessor wants her to do the adult version as she’s clever and shows good levels of self-awareness. But it’s 28 pages long and we’ve been away and her […]