Review of Know Yourself Conference

Dear Readers,

On July 18 AANE held their 3rd annual conference for adults with AS entitled Know Yourself: The Key to a Better Life.  I attended it to hear the opinions of those speaking and to also write my thoughts on the conference into the blog.  The main speaker was Ari Ne’eman, founding president of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network which seeks to advance the principles of the disability rights movement in the world of autism.  He had many points about the current state of help that is offered to people on the autism spectrum.  Two I felt were the most important.  The first is that we as people diagnosed with a disorder don’t always receive the rights given to us by the Disabilities Act.  Upon seeing us with no visible disability, most people can’t realize we are different in how we function.  When we are discriminated against for how we act in certain environments do to our condition, we are not offered the same treatment as someone with a missing limb might.  This thinking must change to allow us fair treatment in the workplace and elsewhere.  The second point Ari made was in regards to how some experts, parents, and others view how people mental disabilities.  They see us as delinquents unable to fend for ourselves and so they are in charge of decisions regarding us.  This outlook must change as well.  No one but ourselves knows what we need and these people outside of our perspective cannot make all the right decisions that will affect us positively.  We must speak up for ourselves and express a vested interest in how we want to live other whys we’ll have no control.  These two points are what I felt were the most important.

After an hour break for lunch, everyone attended two workshop sessions, each lasting for about an hour and a half.  The first workshop I went to was entitled “Effective Advocacy and Disclosure” with Stephen Shore as the speaker.  He gave a synopsis about how he grew up with Asperger’s Syndrome even there was no diagnosis for it.  Afterwards Stephen discussed about disclosure of a persons condition whether it was in the work place or else where.  I felt that one idea was most important of them all.  If part of a person’s lifestyle is disturbed by certain surroundings it is not necessary to fully disclose your entire condition.  The example that was given was when some people work under florescent lighting they get headaches and cannot function properly.  In this case, only disclosing the fact that florescent lighting causes you pain is all that is required to get the proper reaction to have the lighting changed.  A full discussion on your diagnosis is not needed in this case.  The only time you might want to disclose your condition is when nothing is being done to change the lighting in a way that will benefit you.

The second workshop I went to was entitled “Thriving With Aspergers”.  The speaker, Paul, also gave a brief description of growing up with Aspergers and how it affects his current daily life.  At the moment he is the director of engineering at a high tech company.  Paul’s job requires him to manage around 250 to 300 people.  He made some interesting points about how he reached this position.  One I found most interesting is that whenever a mistake is made, he’ll take responsibility for it regardless if someone else is to blame.  This was because Paul didn’t want to sit through three or so hours of bickering between the people he managed about who was actually at fault.  As a result more important matters are attended to such as how to fix the problem that occurred.  Such a method of operation may have consequences in the long run but if it keeps things running smoothly then no issues should arise.

Overall I felt the conference was a great experience and I learned many new things about the culture in which I am a part of.  If you didn’t get a chance to come this year, I hope next year you will as it was certainly enlightening.

August 27, 2009   Posted in: Uncategorized  No Comments

Review of the “Adam” Boston Premiere

 

Dear Readers,

 

            On July 14, 2009 there was a screening for the movie Adam that AANE received a limited number of tickets for.  I was one of the fortunate few asked to come so I might write my thoughts on the movie onto the blog.  Adam is a story that revolves around a relationship between a person with Asperger’s Syndrome, named Adam played by Hugh Dancy, and a Neuro-Typical, named Beth played by Rose Byrne.  As the story progresses, both character’s must overcome difficulties relating between themselves, family, friends, and interactions with the outside world.

            During the better part of the movie I felt many degrees of sadness for Adam as he is trying to live in the world with his condition.  Also when he tries to convey his feelings and has so much difficulty I could relate.  Adam worked to the best of his abilities to fit into an environment that seemed both hostile and foreign to him.

            After the movie there was a Q&A with Hugh, Rose, and Max Mayer, the director.  One of the questions asked that I found most interesting along with the answer was what helped to inspire how Hugh portrayed the character Adam.  Hugh stated that he had no prior experience or knowledge of Asperger’s Syndrome until after he read the movie script.  He then went searching for materials online to help give him the image he needed to play the character.  I found it extremely amazing that a person with no previous experience of AS could portray such a character so well.  Hugh could not have done a better job as Adam and I commend him for his performance.

            I highly recommend this film both as something enjoyable to watch and as material to learn more about what AS is.  Put it on your list of summer movies to watch and I fully believe you’ll appreciate the experience it provides.

 

For more information on the film or to see the first reviews from the NT’s of the world check out the Boston Globes review at, http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2009/07/16/dancy_makes_hub_pub_stop/ or the “Adam” homepage by visitng, http://www.foxsearchlight.com/adam/

August 6, 2009   Posted in: Entertainment: Reviews and Critiques  3 Comments

My Gaming History

Dear Readers,

Before I start writing about the current games I’m interested in, I feel I should provide a background history of my gaming experiences.  The first game I ever played at around age 10 or so was a shareware version of Tetris for the Macintosh (FYI shareware refers to a free version of software open to the public).  I would battle with my younger sister to get to the highest possible score. Needless to say I kept the high-score table filled with lists of my names and previous scores I’d received in the past. Tetris placated my gaming appetite for a while but I soon found it lacking. That is when I moved over to console games.

The first console I ever owned was a Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) with a copy of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past bundled with the purchase. This game included the missing aspects I so desired. It had action, adventure, a story line, dungeons with bosses, upgradeable weapons, and lots of side adventures to go along with it. This encompasses some of the basic requirements for a Role Playing Game (RPG). I enjoyed this game immensely and from time to time will pull it out just to play it again though I have long since completed nearly every aspect of the game. I soon dove into other console games for the SNES such as Super Star Wars – Return of the Jedi, Donkey Kong, and many others. These games kept me satisfied for a while as well but I soon hungered for more. At this time I would return to the computer but on PCs.

I did have the chance at one time to play Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, but I never got to play through it fully. The first strategy game I ever got to experience full hand was Starcraft. It was similar to Warcraft but allowed you to accumulate a much larger army. Also the battles were against technologically advanced races rather than against races which utilized magic and medieval weapons such as swords and arrows. At the same time, I became interested in first-person-shooters (FPS). The initial FPS game I played for the PC was called Half-Life. In Single-Player, you play as Gordon Freeman who is part of a science experiment gone completely wrong. It opens a gate of a sort allowing thousands of hostile creatures to enter our world and you as Gordon must drive them back. In the games Multi-Player, you pitted yourself against other opponents in various environments. What was really wonderful about this game though is you could alter the game play with different mods developed either by the original company or by a third-party. Team Fortress Classic was one of my favorites. Two teams went head to head against each other in different map scenarios. One such scenario was capture-the-flag. Each team would try to take the other team’s flag back to the base while at the same time preventing the opposing team from doing the same. The game gave each team different classes to use in order to achieve their goal. For example, the Scout is the fastest class available allowing it to run through areas and avoid being shot at easily. However this class had very minimal armor thus making it an easy class to kill.

From that time on, I continued to play those genres of games, upgrading my consoles and PC as the games became more advanced. I now own a PS2 and 3 and a Nintendo Wii along with a Dell XPS M1730 laptop. I own a variety of different games such as The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Half-Life 2 original and Episodes 1 and 2, and Assassins Creed. Two years ago about I introduced myself to a new game called World of Warcraft (WoW). I had played Warcraft III and I was interested in seeing the continuation of the story. The game was so amazing that I’ve continued to play it to this day. Nearly all of my gaming time is spent on WoW.

So this is my brief gaming history to the present day. I still play some other games besides WoW such as Team Fortress 2. In my next article about gaming I’ll be discussing some of the aspects about WoW that I enjoy as well as some of the dislikes. Thanks for reading and I look forward to seeing your comments.

August 6, 2009  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Gaming  No Comments

My Introduction to the Community

 

Hello Readers,

                My name is Alexander Copeland Albert.  I am a 24 year old diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome.  To keep my 2009 summer interesting, I decided to volunteer some of my time to the Asperger’s Association of New England.  While there are many activities that I could participate in to help AANE, I was offered the chance to write for the blog that is hosted by the association.  I felt this would be a wonderful experience and also give a new perspective to the blog that was otherwise not available.   I shall be writing about my interests and my experiences as an adult with AS.

                My interests typically revolve around video games.  I enjoy them immensely as they provide me with countless hours of entertainment.  I also enjoy watching anime and movies as well as reading sci-fi and fantasy books and manga.  These are all pretty broad interests so I hope I’ll have plenty to write about.  I look forward to reading your comments and responding to them.

August 6, 2009  Tags: , ,   Posted in: My Life  5 Comments