I used Facebook to campaign,
Now they are kicking up a fuss,
But I’m not going to complain
I can always use Google Plus.
I contacted a lot of folk
In order to spread the word,
Seriously it is not a joke,
Facebook is often times absurd.
Should I be blamed for the amount
Of messages I choose to send?
It is, after all, my account
And I only sent them to my friends.
So I will do what I will do,
What if, of friends, I have oodles?
Facebook, that is enough from you,
Please don’t make me go to Google.
Filed under: asperger's syndrome, autism, disability, social media | Tags: AS, asd, asperger's, asperger's syndrome, autism, change, disability, emotions, FaceBook, information processing, privacy, social media, social networking
That I have Asperger’s is no secret. That I have trust issues is not as readily apparent because I am always prepared to trust someone once, but once betrayed by them it may take years before I am even prepared to consider extending trust again. I have been betrayed, my personal space, my privacy has been invaded. I conceal little about myself, but I like to be the one who reveals myself. Generally I am not very worried about privacy because I have nothing to hide, but when someone else takes it upon themselves to snoop into my affairs I take exception, largely because it offends my sense of etiquette, it is grossly ill-mannered. I resent having nosey young people snooping in my personal accounts.
On the request of my manager I allowed another member of staff access to my login so that they could answer emails in the company’s inbox, it was not an entirely unreasonable request assuming, as I did, that my colleague was reasonable. Unfortunately she is not particularly bright and managed to delete all the contents of my “Sent” folder, leaving me with no record of emails sent to HR or Wages. I could let that go, people make mistakes, but then she pretended my manager had asked her to try and find the missing emails, I allowed hat back into my account. She had lied, rather than fixing her stupid mistake she went into my Facebook and posted updates. She thought she was being funny, she has not the wit to be funny. I do not consider it a joke when someone trespasses in my personal space and violated my privacy. What is totally unforgivable is her trying to pass off her banal and immature remarks as mine. Needless to say that is the last time I allow someone else to use my login. I am not always quick to forgive a hurt but I am slower to forget one.
Last night was not good, on top of having my personal space violated, my sense of order was assaulted by yet more staff changes. A company had a right to change shift patterns to meet demand, it has a right to allocate those shifts, but I do get upset when that entails moving people to whose presence I am used, particularly when they make my workplace more enjoyable. If they had asked me I could have given them a list of people to move off my shift, headed by the idiot who abused my Facebook!
Filed under: social media | Tags: Android, Blog, blogging, FaceBook, Wordpress
As you may be aware I have set out to blog every day of this year, and so far things are going well. Personally I prefer to write my blogs on my laptop or on a PC. Sometimes my work schedule interferes with my plans, for example one of our managers tonight has happily logged himself into all the available PCs, so no one else can use them. On occasion, at home my internet drops out and so I cannot post from my PC. It is at times like this I turn to my phone.
In essence my procedure for blogging from my phone is the same as from my PC; I first draft the blog on Google Drive and then copy and paste it to WordPress. The WordPress app on Android lacks some of the functionality of the full program, but it is very easy to use.
Typing on my Android phone is very quick and easy because I use Swype; it is too quick and easy because Swype sometimes decides to substitute its own choice of word for the one I typed. This is not a problem as long as I notice it, but when typing quickly mistakes are easily overlooked. Before I copy my text to WordPress I read it over and correct it.
When I have my text pasted into WordPress I then put in any links I want, this in much easier on a PC than on my phone, but out can be done. On the PC it is also easier to add tags, on the phone I have to you’re each one, even the ones I use often. Finally before posting my blog, I read it over again and make my last tweaks and corrections.
Once my blog is published I read it over again and usually discover some of my corrections haven’t happened. Fortunately it is easy to edit a post on WordPress. Finally I can sit back and relax until my friends start pointing out my spelling mistakes on Facebook. A last edit and then finally, I can sit back and relax until my friends start pointing out my spelling mistakes on Facebook (this last step may be repeated several times!)
Filed under: asperger's syndrome, autism, disability, Justice, Parenting, social media | Tags: AS, asd, asperger's, asperger's syndrome, autism, bullying, child abuse, cyberbullying, depression, disability, FaceBook, information processing, internet, language, personal development, personal growth, self empowerment, self harm, sensory processing, sexual abuse, social media, social networking
A girl is quoted in the Daily Mail as saying, “As a girl, it’s normal to start putting raunchy pictures on Facebook at 13, and you feel you have to live up to that.”
It is becoming increasingly apparent to me that this world in which I now live is neither the world into which I was born, nor that in which I grew up, but rather it is a strange alien place, I am a stranger in a strange land. I am reasonably sure that when I was young, girls did not publish raunchy pictures of themselves. Of course when I was young there was no Facebook and the nearest we came to pornography was the magazine Health and Efficiency with its photos of naturists holding beachballs or ping pong bats. So what is it with the raunchy pictures? Don’t get me wrong I appreciate raunch as much as anyone, but there is appropriate raunch and inappropriate raunch, and teenagers posting semi clad and suggestive photos on the internet is definitely inappropriate raunch.
While obviously humans are to blame, what has made this disturbing behaviour possible is, one the internet, and two digital photography, particularly smart phones. Last century nude photographs had to be developed either by the photographer or sent to a select few processors who would handle that sort of content without passing it to the police. There was a time when the polaroid camera was the height of technology for people wanting to take candid snaps in the bedroom and there was little facility for sharing the pictures. Now anyone can take a photo, edit it and upload it to the internet in seconds. In the old days if someone wanted to publish something they had to make an effort. it required thought and planning, but now the act of uploading is so quick and easy people have shared before thinking of the consequences. Even in the early days of mobile phones the greatest damage too much vodka could cause would be inappropriate SMS messages; now with a little drink and with little encouragement, teenagers are exposing themselves to exploitation, derision or worse.
Remember when we were told not to talk to strangers? Today’s young people are supplying their intimate details along with intimate pictures to all sorts of predatory creatures, not only to those who wish to take advantage of them but also to the sort of cruel monsters who find it amusing to drive young people to suicide. The papers repeatedly draw attention to teenagers who, unable to bear anymore cyber-bullying, have killed themselves. It is no longer realistic to assert that it was not the bullies intention to cause death, they are aware of the possible consequences of their actions, therefore it is reasonable to infer that they actively want to cause death secure in the knowledge that they will escape justice. In the light of recent events every case of cyber-bullying should be considered as criminal assault or attempted murder and where the victim dies it should not be manslaughter but always classed as premeditated murder and punished accordingly.
Apparently child trafficking has risen by over eighty percent facilitated by the internet. I think we must be aware of the dangers of the internet, but we should not overreact, the internet can be a force for good. The internet must remain free, therefore it’s abuse must be severely punished to keep it so. Getting young people to expose themselves online is sexual abuse and should be punished severely, as should all child abuse.
We are privileged to have access to the internet and we have a responsibility to use it responsibly. Access to the internet is not a basic human right, prisoners have recently been allowed access on the grounds that it is a right, it is not. There is a hierarchy of rights, some like food, water and shelter are fundamental and should be enjoyed by all. I would argue that freedom of speech should be a fundamental right. However one person’s rights cannot be allowed to deprive another of their fundamental rights. The right of a child to grow in safety, free from abuse and exploitation is a fundamental right and those who have denied children that right should not be provided with the facility to continue. Even if access to the internet were a right, the abuse of the internet can never be. It is unreasonable for someone who deprives others of a fundamental right to then demand secondary rights. A child abuser still has a right to be treated as a human being, to food and shelter, and medical care, they even have a right to respect as a human being, but there their rights stop. No one has a right to abuse children, and in “abuse” I include treating children as a possession or commodity. Children are our most precious resource, our hope for the future and our most important people, if we fail them we will destroy ourselves.
Filed under: asperger's syndrome, autism, social media, Travel | Tags: AS, asperger's, asperger's syndrome, autism, blogging, blogs, FaceBook, information processing, language, neurolinguistic programming, nlp, personal development, personal growth, t, time management, Twitter, Yoono
I really do need to get to work on my schedule, there are so many things I want to do and too many ways to lose time. One of the advantages of my paid employment is that it does allow me quite a lot of reading time, this won’t help for my online course, but it may free up non-work time for activities other than reading. I once calculated that I have a thirty six hour day based on the activities that I can do simultaneously. I travel by public transport which means I can read or watch DVDs without the need to concentrate on the road. I can listen to mp3s and music while gardening.
Because of the way I process information there are many activities I cannot do in tandem with others, I cannot listen to factual radio programs while reading, I cannot do anything while watching television. This is the area upon which I shall focus as it is here that there is the greatest danger of losing time. I don’t intend to give up television, but I shall be somewhat more discriminating, it is too easy to lose an evening watching things that are not really important. The computer is another potential time waster, especially Facebook and Twitter. I find that having Yoono running at the side of my screen allows me the occasional catch up on my feeds,. The most useful thing I have done with my networks is to link them to my Google Mail so that at the start of a session I can quickly scan for notifications that demand a response.
Of course what I really do need to do is actually organise my schedule so that the activities that matter have sufficient time allocated to them and that requires a little more planning than hitherto. I don’t have to use the time rigidly as allocated, but it is important that there is sufficient and, to me, that I have an advance awareness of how my time will be spent.
Filed under: asperger's syndrome, autism, disability, Politics, social media, success | Tags: AS, asd, Asperger diagnosis, asperger's, asperger's syndrome, autism, blogging, blogs, Br. Ramon SSF, Christianity, Dan Bradbury, disability, emotions, FaceBook, information processing, meditation, National Autistic Society, personal development, personal growth, self empowerment, social media, social networking, spiritual development, spirituality, Twitter
The other day on Facebook Dan Bradbury was being criticised for being too concerned with money, and it was suggested that there were better indicators of success. No one who has observed Dan with his wife and daughter could think for one moment that his primary criteria for success is money. It was during one of Dan’s conferences, largely thanks to Richard Wilkins, that I realised that the only thing that prevented me from realising my success was that I was trapped into the belief that success is measured by money and status.
According to the National Autistic Society only 15% of adults with autism in the UK are in full-time paid employment. I have been in employment for most of the last forty years, I may not be at the top of any profession, I may not be a great entrepreneur, I may not be a “go to” authority for the media when my field comes up, but I am working and being paid for it. I may technically be disabled, but I have never needed to claim any disability benefit, and only claimed unemployment for a short period in the 70s. I have done this without any formal help, although I couldn’t have done it without considerable support and tolerance, particularly from my wife and family. It may be true that with support my career path may have been different, but I have not complaints, I did it MY way.
I have been married for over thirty years to the same person. I haven’t been able to find statistics on the incidence and longevity of marriage or long-term relationship for people with autism, but my understanding is that it is an area in which a very small minority are successful in a society where, increasingly, long marriages are a thing of the past. A Guardian article in 2010 showed that not only are divorce rates climbing, but that the numbers of couples getting married is falling. By any relationship yardstick, autistic or otherwise, I consider my wife and I a success. People with Asperger’s are known to have particular problems with relationships because we lack social skills, particularly in communication, as a consequence we tend not to make friends, I have a friendship that dates back to 1972, my early days at university. I also have several people with whom I socialize and many more online friends. I may not visit people in their homes, but I do not like to be visited and I believe a level of reciprocity is involved in these things so I prefer to meet in neutral venues. I am happy with this level of interaction, and therefore count it as a success.
Educationally I have to accept that my qualifications are somewhat lower than my IQ would suggest they should be. However I made it to university without any special assistance, unfortunately I did not have the self-discipline to complete my university degree although I somehow managed to get through three very boozy years. It may be true that, with the right support, I could have made it through university with a degree, but no one knew I was autistic back then, and no one forced me to focus on alcohol and politics instead of my studies. Had I had the appropriate support I may well have been a graduate and gone through with my plan to become a Franciscan friar, but had I done so I would not now have two granddaughters without whom, I strongly suspect, the world would be a duller place! Of course, I think it’s fair to say, had I carried through my plans I would have been perfectly happy, and I admit to a pang of jealousy when my friend and confessor Father Raymond Lloyd went off to be a Franciscan hermit – Brother Ramon SSF.
Which brings me full circle. I am not a celibate hermit who spends his life in prayer. I am a grandfather, a husband and a worker, none of which prevent me spending my life in prayer, but I must admit my theology with its strictly logical foundation might horrify most believers. My life works, and a big part of my success is because I never knew I was autistic so I just had to get on with my life. My autism brought me no outside help nor did it allow me any excuse for inaction – which my natural laziness would have exploited – or for failure. My autism made me who I am, a success. My diagnosis gave me an interest that impelled me to write and make some amazing new friends. With an earlier diagnosis I may today have a success more in line with what society considers success, but I’m damn sure I wouldn’t have had half as much fun or interacted with such amazing people!
Filed under: asperger's syndrome, autism, disability, Politics, Scotland, social media | Tags: AS, asd, asperger's, asperger's syndrome, autism, autism awareness, Autism Awareness Month, Autism Community, blogging, blogs, disability, emotions, FaceBook, information processing, sensory processing, social media, Twitter
So Autism Awareness Month is over and what has it done? The Autism Community has been blogging fervently for thirty days, parents have been blogging about their experiences, and so have autistics some on their own blogs and some as guests of blogs like The Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism. So many words written by so many people, but have they made any difference? Have all those words changed anyone’s mind? Has anyone outside the Autism Community noticed all those words, did anyone hear them, did anyone listen?
I know, personally, that I have made new contacts over the month, and I’m delighted that some of old posts have found a new audience. From feedback I have received, I know that some people have found my words useful but the feedback is largely from other autistics or their families. I am glad that we are supporting each other, and it is important that we continue to do so, and not just for one month but for all twelve for as many years as we need each other, but I wonder how much impact we are making on the wider community.
In fact we know we are reaching a wider community, Autism Awareness Month does get media coverage, and it is marked by documentaries like Louis Theroux’ Tough Love. More importantly we have a presence in the mainstream media, autistic characters are being written into more and more television dramas and the occasional comedy, autistic characters feature in mainstream movies from Hollywood to Bollywood. Even more importantly governments are beginning to notice us, some American states are specifically recognising Autism in healthcare provision, Scotland now has a national Autism Strategy with over thirteen million pounds of government funding. In all honesty the gains so far made, however magnificent, are small compared to the overall needs of the autism community, but they are a start for which we should be grateful. The campaigners who have won these gains should be proud, and we should be proud of them.
No one knows for sure who was the first autistic, but it is fifty years since the National Autistic Society was founded and in that time understanding of autism has advanced greatly and gains have been made, we still have a long way to go. I don’t know how much of a difference Autism Awareness Month makes, but I know we have not come so far that we can afford to stop now. Even if the main value of Autism Awareness Month is that it gives us strength to carry on, then it is valuable. I hope Autism Awareness Month spreads awareness of Autism to a wider community, but whatever I have enjoyed it. I have made new friends, found new blogs to read, learned new things, and from reading the posts people have shared, my respect for autistics and their families is greater than ever. Thank you everyone who made this month so special with your posts, your fund raisers, media interviews, your walks, your participation. Thank you, you make my world a better place!
Filed under: asperger's syndrome, autism, disability, social media | Tags: AS, asd, asperger's, asperger's syndrome, autism, blogging, blogs, depression, disability, emotions, english language, FaceBook, Gary McKinnon, information processing, language, literature, Neelam Bakshi, self empowerment, sensory processing, social media, social networking, Twitter
Sitting here in the early hours of the morning Internet was down and I was reflecting on how upsetting that was to me. The Internet has given me a new freedom and facility to communicate with others far beyond what I ever had before, and has given me the opportunity to socialise freely in a way to that I never could. I have always found conversing with other people a burden, I can do it, but I dislike it. I am reasonably content to listen to others as long as they are being interesting, occasionally they are. Communicating online, as I have said before and will probably say many times more, gives me the opportunity to edit my thoughts before bestowing them on others. When I am at my computer I am generally away from other distractions which also makes communicating easier; face to face interactions are too frequently conducted under circumstances where competing stimuli make meaningful exchange difficult.
I tend not to ask for help. At school I would rather sit crying at a question I could not answer than raise my hand in class and ask for help, I rarely ask for directions, hate calling tradesmen, and even where there is a formalised arrangement to request help such as with my Doctor, I prefer not to. When – last year – I posted about the problems I was having, I received a lot of support from people on line. I could never have shared my problems were it not for the Internet, and so would not have received the support I needed. Because of the Internet I don’t have to ask for directions, I have Google Maps, indeed for most of the questions I need to ask there is Google. People may raise concerns over changes to Google’s privacy policy, personally I consider it a small price to pay for what I get from them. (Yay Google!)
I socialise on Twitter, I really enjoy Twitter, 140 characters is enough for most communication and for anything longer I have my blogs. As well as allowing me to share my thoughts with others my blog allows me to understand my own thoughts as I have mentioned before. http://springingtiger.wordpress.com/2010/01/09/blogging-and-the-construction-of-thought/ Were it not that I already have family and friends on Facebook I doubt I would pay it much attention, personally I prefer Google+, possibly because the postings in my circles tend to be more interesting and far less trivial than on Facebook. Social Networking has become a way of life that works for me and that – in combination with attending my place of employment – I find perfectly satisfies my needs for social interaction. I have posted several times on aspects of social networking, indeed I have just found an earlier post on exactly this topic. At the risk of being repetitive here is that earlier post…Asperger’s Social Groups!
When I received my diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome Ann Marie Gallagher made various recommendations one of which amused me, “To give details of Strathclyde Autism Societies social groups”. I laughed, my wife responded with, “Isn’t that Facebook?” On reflection I must admit I have embraced Social media as an acceptable substitute for face to face interaction. Social media give us an opportunity to exchange ideas without the discomfort of normal social interaction and allow us to communicate what matters to us and ignore the bits we find irrelevant.
I love blogging it is the place where I can organise my thoughts and turn them into expressible opinions. I am very clear that my primary purpose in blogging is to inform myself, if other people derive some benefit from my blogs it is a happy side effect. At this point I should perhaps thank those of you who have been kind enough to comment kindly on my blogs, actually I suppose I should thank every one who has commented regardless. As I have admitted recently I use blogging as a tool to recognise my own thought processes as much of the time they are amorphous and only become concrete to me when observed from the third person position. Also the process of blogging frequently stimulates recall – I have a great memory but patchy recall.
I use Twitter to share information I have found useful generally by posting a link or re-tweeting a tweet containing a link so that the original twitterer gets due credit. I use Google Reader to subscribe to several blogs – several of which are autism related – and I then pass on any links I think people will appreciate. I hope people are deriving benefit I am on several people’s lists so I think I must be doing some good. I also use Twitter to comment on life and to ask questions. I really appreciate people who tweet useful links – some perhaps for commercial reasons – people can be very generous with their time and knowledge.
My Facebook page (Rory Patton) I use primarily to interact with people I know. They are described as friends but I must admit there are few with whom I socialise. It is useful to keep up with family and the direct message facility I find very useful. I haven’t worked out how to avoid messages about games which are largely irrelevant to me. Facebook is a great place for passing on information and for campaigning. I particularly appreciate people who share their enthusiasms and have watched many YouTube videos they have posted of obscure singers, Indian dance and Mountain climbing amongst other things. There are privacy issues with Facebook at the moment – my advice is check your settings carefully.
Filed under: asperger's syndrome, autism, disability, Justice, Politics, social media, Travel | Tags: AS, asd, asperger's, asperger's syndrome, autism, disability, emotions, FaceBook, Gary McKinnon, information processing, language, social media, social networking
Not long ago I commented on the changes to privacy settings on Facebook, I suggested that if someone is sufficiently open and content with who they are, they have little reason to be concerned about what social networking sites may reveal about them. I think it is fair to say that Asperger’s tends to bring with it a truthfulness whether we want it or not. I also reflected why this directly impacts on the case of Gary Mckinnon. Here is an earlier post on the subject
Recently I reminded my wife of the problems I once caused in the ticket office of Glasgow Charing Cross Station. She suggested that honesty would be a good topic for a blog.
I had travelled back from Dumbarton but there had been no conductor on the train. On arriving in Glasgow I went to the ticket office and asked to pay. Unfortunately the clerks were unsure of what to do as the situation had never happened to them before. I have to admit now that I was not intentionally being honest but I was aware that I had not paid for my journey and sought to remedy that. I think I would have liked not to have paid, but I couldn’t not pay.
After I was sent down from University (another story) I was once arrested for reset (receiving stolen goods). An acquaintance asked me to look after a shoulder bag for him. I returned one day from teaching English to refugees to find policemen in my room. I was arrested and questioned, why did I have the bag? because I was asked to look after it. Did I know it was stolen? yes – I wish he hadn’t told me. Why didn’t I report it? it didn’t occur to me. When they asked me if I had any distinguishing marks I listed them all. Afterwards my friends couldn’t understand why I didn’t lie but I just say what’s so. The Judge admonished me as he was of the opinion I was not deliberately dishonest and warned me against the company I was keeping. Why did I look after the bag, surely I knew it would lead to trouble? Actually it never occurred to me, I do what I do and unfortunately current action is almost always disconnected from future consequence. I can logically think through a sequence of cause and effect when given time, space and the prompting to do so but generally I don’t for my own actions except in painful retrospect.
My family never tell me anything they want kept a secret because I answer questions truthfully, that’s the way I am. I can keep a secret as long as no one asks me, if they do it’s out! My wife says that one of the things she likes about me is my total inability to dissemble. I can say things that are patently untrue as long as they are ridiculous enough not to be believed. I can say things that are untrue as long as I believe them true but I am incapable of lying my way out of anything. This does not mean I am honest if I could lie on occasion I might, it could be useful to be able to.
I know a lot of people can’t understand why when confronted with allegations of hacking Gary McKinnon made no attempt to conceal what he did. Just as when he was entering US Government websites he made no attempt to conceal his activities. I think it’s because it never occurred to him he was committing a crime just as it never occurred to him to lie about his actions. If he is to get a trial before a jury of his peers the jury should consist of people with Asperger’s (or at least their families). To put him before a court of neurotypical people from a totally alien culture in a strange country will almost certainly ensure he will not get a fair trial. A fair trial in Britain would be difficult, in the USA against a government determined to make an example of someone who has roundly embarrassed them a fair trial is impossible.
Filed under: asperger's syndrome, autism, disability | Tags: AS, Asperger diagnosis, asperger's, asperger's syndrome, autism, blogging, blogs, depression, disability, FaceBook, information processing, personal development, social media, social networking, Twitter
Today a piece on living with Aspergers.
I have been asked if I have any coping tips for adults with Aspergers. I think I should start by saying that I have had a serious advantage having been born in the early Nineteen-Fifties and also having been sent to an English Public School – Giggleswick – for my education which provided me with the discipline I needed to get through my childhood.
The benefit of a diagnosis of Aspergers is that it provides a context for one’s behavioural problems. The first coping tip I have is get your diagnosis confirmed and – only AFTER your diagnosis – start researching Aspergers. Become aware of your behaviours that differ from society’s norm, then you can can act on them.
Second and third tips. You are you and you can choose whether you wish to try and conform to the norm or not. Whatever you choose there will be consequences, but you’ve got Aspergers so you don’t recognise consequences. However consequences are real and manifest in how you are treated by others. As an Aspie you probably have the advantage of an aptitude for logical thought given the time. So the second tip is to logically assess your behaviours and calculate their consequences. The third tip is only to make those adaptations you want to, it doesn’t matter if you are thought odd as long as you can live as comfortably as you want. Do we really care what others think, do others really think? (Asperger joke)
The fourth tip is develop structure. I find my day goes best when I have fixed points of reference. My day is comprised of routines and alternative routines which depend on circumstances, the more eventualities you have planned for the less chance of being thrown by an untoward event.
Routines are crucial and can be applied to most of life, personal hygiene, domestic chores, travel, work, visiting the cinema, etc.
Be prepared is my fifth tip following on from number four. Perhaps I am extreme in my preparations, (http://springingtiger.wordpress.com/2010/10/11/mature-autism-be-prepared/ )having many pockets full of things I may need, but probably won’t. What is certainly true is that a little preparation can help you cope with sensory problems, if you have your earplugs and dark glasses in your pocket – or handbag – you may well be able to respond positively to an invitation to go for a drink.
Which brings us on to socialising. You are not obliged to socialise unless it is part of your job and if you’re an Aspie you probably don’t have that sort of job! The key to social events is to control them. Know how long you are prepared to put up with people and have an excuse ready so you can leave when you need. I prefer events with a purpose and a structure from which I can extricate myself easily. I love my quiz night because having done the bit I really enjoy I don’t upset the team if I go and leave them having fun. I went to a family wedding last year which I enjoyed because it was structured and I was mixing with people with whom I am familiar. Locate quiet places to which you can retreat to have a break from the bustle.
When it comes to information processing be aware of your difficulties and adapt to them. Twitter and Facebook are easier to handle than instant messaging because you have time to think and edit before responding. If you are on a course use a tape-recorder and make notes than – if it’s important enough – you can review what you are supposed to have learned. I keep getting into trouble because I forget to review, largely because I tend to forget there is anything to review because it hasn’t caught my focus in the first place.
A good tip immediately note down things you will have to do later, I use my phone’s calendar, but there are lots of widgets for Google or apps for your phone you can use. Develop a routine, identify task, note task, set alarms. Later when alerted you can use mind-mapping and project planning to actually move on the task.
Get support, there are people who will help you if they understand what you need. Locate them and drop the rest (Asperger joke).
Final tip use the internet – I know you’re an Aspie, you live in cyberspace – but I do mean USE the internet. There are plenty of resources online, you will find many linked on Twitter try @springingtiger. http://springingtiger.wordpress.com/2012/04/01/autism-awareness-my-autism-twitter-list/
If I had to put one tip as my number one it would be develop and use routines.
