Hooray, Hooray, It’s an Autie Holiday

Five ‘must read’ autism spectrum books and five ‘must read’ Aspie/Geek Chic books for the summer

Despite running the risk of turning this subject into an adaptation of the Boney M song, this focuses on essential reading material for the summer holidays.  If you’ve not already booked your holidays, this little article is for you.

One major difference is no that BAA/Peel Holdings-tastic trashy airport book is covered.  All books within this subject concern autism spectrum disorders and some Geek chic titles which I most enjoy.  I do apologise for the non-inclusion of any Terry Pratchett Discworld novels or trivia guides on ‘Star Trek’ and its forerunners.

Five ‘must read’ autism spectrum books

1. Best Book for the Railway Station Waiting Room/Shelter
‘All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome’, Kathy Hoopman
I have mentioned this book elsewhere in a previous post for the best Christmas books.  This is an uplifting book stating in simple terms what Asperger’s syndrome is like to anyone 7 – 14 years of age.  For anyone else, it is also a good coffee table read, due to the amount of cat pictures.  Dog lovers on the autism spectrum or caring for such persons may appreciate ‘All Dogs Have ADD’, also by the same author.

2. Best Book for lazing on the beach with
‘Urville’, Gilles Trehin and Uta Frith
This is one book you could lose yourself in literally.  Gilles Trehin’s drawings of his imaginary metropolis are nothing short of unbelievable.  Just make sure you don’t have to keep any eyes on any children – and leave the sun lounger when the tide is about to come in.

3. For long train journeys (UK only)
‘Freaks, Geeks and Asperger Syndrome: A User Guide to Adolescence’, Luke Jackson
Given that most UK train journeys tend to have more stops than their mainland European counterparts, a book which is less likely to throw you off course is worth reading.  In this case, Luke Jackson’s take on adolescence is funny and easy to read on a long Inter-City service from, for example Birmingham New Street to Penzance.

4. For long haul flights/coach trips
‘Nobody Nowhere’, Donna Williams
Though I am in no capacity to recount any experience of long haul flights, I would say Donna Williams’ first book is most suitable enough to make the long flight (so to speak) fly past.  It is a gripping title which refuses to let go.  I can testify on this statement, as when I first read the book, I almost ran the risk of losing sleep.  I would say every one of Donna’s four autobiographical works are worth reading, though I recommend starting with her first one so as to enjoy her next three books properly.

5. For bedside reading
‘Loving Mr Spock’, Barbara Jacobs
For bedside reading, Barbara Jacobs’ book on living with a husband with Asperger Syndrome is both funny and harrowing.  It states in detail the difficulties of combining a job as a talk show host in the West Midlands and looking after her spouse.

Five ‘must read’ Aspie/Geek Chic books

Put on your 1337 t-shirt and head for the sun.  It does exist in real life, not just in Second Life or in the local newsagent.

1. Best Book for the Railway Station Waiting Room/Shelter
‘The Rough Guide to Television’
The Rough Guides are pocket sized and pithy enough to pass the time with, in the same way the Observers’ Guides are with birds and other topics.  Besides, mentioning the Platform 5 range of spotters guides would be too obvious.

2. Best Book for lazing on the beach with
‘CSS Zen Garden’, Dave Shea
Do we laze about on the beach, or look for a bar with the best free Wi-Fi access?  In our case, it is usually a case of ‘all our sun loungers belong to us’.  However, to allow for any exception, any decent computer magazine or XHTML/CSS coding book is a good read.  In my honest opinion, Dave Shea’s classic work on CSS created websites is a must for the summer sun.

3. For long train journeys (UK only)
‘Don’t Make Me Think’, Steve Krug
This book is just the thing for reading about web accessibility and improving your website.  Steve Krug’s book is a ‘must read’ for anybody wishing to make their website ideal for humans and search engines alike.  The text is just as easy to follow for beginner/intermediate level.  Best enjoyed on the Manchester Piccadilly – London Euston route.

4. For long haul flights/coach trips
‘Metro Maps of the World’, David Ovenden
This book may not only be ideal for reading on the long haul flight, but also useful if you are visiting any location detailed within.  David Ovenden’s hardback book includes a brief history of each light rail/heavy rail system from London to Lisbon.  Entries include the Melbourne tram network, Manchester’s Metrolink, and up and coming systems.

5. For bedside reading
‘Greater Manchester Buses’, Stewart J. Brown
Behind the excellent ‘Nobody Nowhere’ and ‘Everyday Heaven’ by the one and only Donna Williams, Stewart J. Brown’s treatise on Greater Manchester’s buses from SELNEC up to the split of GM Buses is my all time favourite.  Packed with pictures of orange and white Greater Manchester Transport Leyland Atlanteans and several others, this is the most comprehensive history of its ilk.  There is reference to Clippercards, SaverSevens and the 400 Trans-Lancs Express as well as the buses themselves.  Unmissable!

S.V., 21 August 2009

“She’s in Broadstairs….!”

Donna Williams’ 2009 UK Tour Dates

Half Man Half Biscuit fans, I do apologise for my attempt at link baiting hoping you would expect an article on the above song from their 2002 album Cammell Laird Social Club.

More seriously, the tour dates for Donna Williams’ UK lecture tour have been revealed on her website.  This time, there are no dates for the North West though the most northerly date is at Middlesbrough.  Her penultimate tour date will be in the Kent seaside town of Broadstairs (hence the title).

Dates:

• 03/10/2009: Fareham / Oxford;
• 05/10/2009: Pontypridd;
• 06/10/2009: Nailsea / Bristol;
• 07/10/2009: Birmingham;
• 08/10/2009: Wrexham;
• 09/10/2009: Newry;
• 10/10/2009: Doncaster;
• 12/10/2009: Middlesbrough;
• 13/10/2009: Peterborough;
• 15/10/2009: Dublin;
• 16/10/2009: Broadstairs;
• 17/10/2009: London.

All dates may be subject to change.  Check the Events section of Donna’s website for details.

To any regular readers of this blog who may be interested in seeing one of her seminars, you will be in for a treat.  I am not just saying that because I know her as a good friend.  As well as being informed you will also be entertained by her approach on discussing autism spectrum disorders.

Half Man Half Biscuit fans on or off the autism spectrum, you may wish to attend the Broadstairs lecture, visit the place itself properly, stay overnight and leave home the following morning.  Sadly I cannot speak for the qualities of Broadstairs as I have never been!

S.V., 20 August 2009.

Postscript (01 October 2009): Donna’s final UK venue will be at Farnborough, not London.  I will be going to the Wrexham, Doncaster and Middlesbrough lectures, so if in the unlikely event you see me, make yourself known. Middlesbrough also has a place in HMHB History in that Hedley Verity was born there (hence ‘Hedley Verityesque’ on their 1991 album ‘Macintyre, Treadmore and Davitt’.

Give This Man A Job

East of the M60 says ‘no’ to the extradition of Gary McKinnon

A young man highlights the insecurities of US Federal computer system by sending a message about its lack of security.  One would expect the message to be returned more favourably and thank you for exposing this situation.

Now imagine if the message was sent soon after 9/11.  Instead of the kind thanks for acknowledging this error, they go down on this person like a ton of bricks.  They threaten him with 60 years behind bars, some informally wish to ‘let him fry’ by putting him on death row.  Being as this fellow is a British citizen, he is being threatened with extradition.

The subject in question, Gary McKinnon, has an autism spectrum disorder like myself which has led me to follow this case.  This has meant the grotesque shambles of a socialist reading the Daily Mail which has picked up on the campaign this Friday.  I abhor the aforementioned paper’s politics and Conservative leanings but they have succeeded in making this a more mainstream issue beyond the broadsheets and the internet.

Worse (and this is explained most explicitly in the Daily Mail given its Tory stance, as you would expect), it is claimed that the UK Government are in some way favouring the extradition plans.

A trial in the UK is overloading enough for a person with Asperger’s syndrome – let alone extradition and the possibility of a 60 year sentence – or Guantanamo Bay – if taken to America.

Instead of sentencing him for any amount we should give this fellow a job!  He might even make Windows 7 more secure than that present and without any yawning gaps.  Instead we could be sleepwalking towards sending a fellow Aspie to jail in America or worse, Guantanamo Bay.  Oi!! Labour!!! Deal with this at once, on behalf of your fellow brothers and sisters on the autism spectrum.  Like the author of this post.

To sign the petition sponsored by the Daily Mail, click here.

S.V, 06 July 2009.

Ewing School: East of the M60 first again

Update on Ewing School.

Some time ago, East of the M60 reflected on the ‘grotesque shambles’ of Manchester City Council’s proposed closure of Ewing School. Though a local Liberal Democrat newsletter exposed this at the end of last year, the story has finally made the Manchester Evening News (Wednesday 11 February 2009).  East of the M60’s story was released into cyberspace nearly a month before the MEN’s account of event.

Since Manchester Withington MP John Leech proposed an Early Day Motion for the retention of Ewing School, an online petition has attracted over 650 signatures.  This is in addition to the 2,500 signatures gathered at a rally in West Didsbury.

The loss of Ewing School and the council’s proposals are tantamount to “inclusion by isolation”.  Think of the pupils who will have made friends at West Didsbury, only to find he/she has been moved to Moston or Wythenshawe. For the good of fellow auties, aspies and SPLDers like myself, sign the online petition as soon as possible.  In the words of Del Trotter, ‘You Know It Makes Sense’!

Save Ewing School

S.V., 11 February 2009

Three Sparky Individuals, Two Lectures, One Amazing Day

Out on the road with Donna Williams in Burnley and Aintree.

Friday 19th September 2008 will go down as one of my greatest days in the near three decades of my existence on this planet of ours.

Ever The Honorary Northern Autie

Donna Williams to do 6 lectures in the North of England.

It is that time of the year again (and in case any regular readers ask, it is not Christmas).  Autie raconteur Donna Williams is to do 6 lectures in the North of England as part of her UK tour.  For anyone unfamiliar with her works, she is an established author and consultant in the field of autism spectrum disorders and an all round renaissance woman with a wealth of creative talent from singing to painting and poetry.

As with previous years, most venues are easy to get to on public transport and priced within easy reach of most incomes.

Her Northern lectures:

• Manchester: 13 September;
• Sunderland: 18 September;
• Leeds: 18 September;
• Burnley: 19 September;
• Liverpool: 19 September;
• Sheffield: 20 September.

For further details, click on the Blogroll link to Donna Williams’ website.  Tickets are only available on a ‘first come first served’ basis, so be quick as her lectures are extremely popular.

S.V., 28 August 2008.

Lift Off (With Donna and the Aspinauts)

A exciting new socially aware band about to hit the street

First came Kraut Rock, then Alt Rock. Now we have Aut Rock.

Something to Cheer About This Christmas

East of the M60 Exclusive Review:

Countdown 2007 Grand Final, Friday 21 December 2007

Never mind special Christmas soap opera story lines, never mind all these ‘lets talk about how good the telly was in 1980′ type programmes, this Christmas period’s televisual treat started at 3.25pm on Channel 4.

The Alternative Christmas Reading List

Christmas is coming, repeats are fast looming, as people in Argos are still queueing and awaiting their number – some twenty minutes later…

As eventual as death and taxation, the terrestrial television will face another repetition of Bonds from Moore to Dalton, and furniture adverts.

Donna Williams to do Manchester

Famous Australian author and all round renaissance woman’s 2007 UK tour dates unveiled.

For several years, Donna Williams has been well known to the autism spectrum fraternity as a leading author within this field.

My Year Zero Moment

Has anybody had what I would call a ‘Year Zero Moment’?

A Year Zero Moment relates to a time where one’s self realisation after several years had finally paid off. Did anything change for the better? Did you find your inner peace and did anything go upwards thereafter?

Four years to the day I began this post [28th November 2002], was mine. The most part of 2002 was about gaining self realisation and acceptance. It was at that year I realised who I was. It was then I started being ‘Stuart’ rather than some accepted form of ‘normality’, which made me seem more acceptable to the wider world.

In February of that year, I heard a word for the first time in several years: ‘autism’. Having tried to fit in elsewhere through this pastiche of normal, I started borrowing books on the subject and related disorders. Before recently, I too had, like several others been fed the media version of this lifelong developmental disorder. These are the special interests, movements (stimming), savant skills and being ‘trapped’ in a world of one’s own.

A meeting with a National Autistic Society employment agency was the watershed moment.  In the last three months prior to then, I had read several books on autism spectrum disorders and visited numerous websites on the subject.  On mentioning my interview with one of my relatives, she was – by coincidence – reading an article on Asperger’s syndrome – and thought “That’s Stuart!”  Before then, Tony Attwood’s first book on the subject made me think “Yes!” that’s me all along.

It seemed as if an answer had been found for my (then) 23 years, which reduced me to tears of relief.  I thought: ‘At last, this explains why I seemed different to most others’.  My diagnosis of Semantic Pragmatic Language Disorder in 1986 was one reason.  Was there another?

What has happened since them?  In that time, I tried (and failed) to seek a professional diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome, or other ASD (though a proud SPLD-er).  This is due to its co-morbidity with SPLD.  I had also created my own website with examples of artwork and poetry, done talks, written articles on Semantic Pragmatic Language Disorder and this very blog.  For me, I have experienced more activity in the last four years than the previous twenty three!

Stuart.