The other day I found out the hard way that you can get chemical burns from isopropanol/isopropyl alcohol/IPA. I was cleaning Dolly Baby and spilt some isopropanol on my trousers. I didn't think much of it, assuming it would evaporate quickly.

Four hours later I felt like my skin was sunburnt. It had turned red in the areas where the fabric had kept the IPA in prolonged contact with my skin (as I'd moved throughout the day, there were two smaller patches and one big one where the initial spill was). The next day it had blistered.

Strangely, I can't find any info on getting chemical burns from isopropanol, so I'm putting this out there as a warning. If you do spill isopropanol on your clothes, please change and wash the isopropanol off thoroughly! Someone suggested it may have reacted with a chemical residue in my trousers (eg fabric conditioner, detergent or maybe this set of joggers was in one of the loads I use laundry sanitiser in) and that otherwise it would have been fine. In any case, do not take the risk! It CAN cause burns if kept in contact with skin, so please do be careful and don't allow it to sit on your skin! Hand sanitisers are different as they are mixed with something like aloe vera and your hands will be exposed to air, which will evaporate the IPA.

Okay, that's all, bye.

I'm 6 sessions into my anxiety CBT and I feel like I've made no progress. My therapist said she doesn't know anything about autism and she's not here for that. She also dismissed my social difficulties as "overthinking". Unlike my phobia CBT, where I was making visible progress each session, I feel like I've made none with this therapist. I'm starting to realise that CBT is maybe not the right approach for what I used to describe as anxiety, but might be better described as "overwhelm".

In search an article explaining autistic anxiety, I found this brill article by Dr Megan Neff. Continue reading →

Gaslighting is a specific term. It’s a technique where the gaslighter manipulates events in a way that makes their victim start to question their own perception of reality and memories, leading to them questioning their sanity. The word comes from the play that later coined the term.

You know how HEPA filters get so filthy, so quickly? Techie Uncle saw my air filter and told me that I was wasting money, and kitchen roll is just as good. So I replaced the old filter with a layer of kitchen roll, but it was sooooo loud, and the fan is so weak anyway, it just didn’t seem worth it, so I packed it up again. When I can start spending freely again, I’ll just find a regular square fan, like this dude.

But one area it does seem to be working well is in my vacuum. The old HEPA filter was so clogged up with feathers and dust bunnies and clay dust from a project I filmed last year and still haven’t finished editing.

This is after washing

All I did was add a sheet of good old cheap Wilko kitchen roll over the new HEPA filter.

Do you know what one of the biggest causes of micro-plastic in the ocean is? It’s shedding from synthetic fibres. I’m so fed up of seeing brands promoting their “recycled from plastic bottles! Saving the ocean one bottle at a time!” policy as something good.

All you’re doing is replacing large bits of plastic with tiny bits that will be ingested and inhaled by all sea creatures.

Hemp mylk is gross, but the rest is cool!

I'm just letting off some steam. Being stuck in the house all day with a couple of hardcore anti-vaxxers is doing my head in. Apart from the bonus, these are all things I've heard them parrot. Is there a vaccine against stupidity?

(Updated now I actually know how bingo works lol)

There was this guy on the radio a few weeks ago talking about a study he did into metabolism. So we're always told that to lose weight, we should eat less and exercise more, but according to his study, humans will burn the same amount of calories regardless of how much activity we do; you can run for an hour every day, or sit on your butt all day and you'll still burn the same amount. This is so disheartening. On the other hand, it made me look at the amount of calories I'm consuming. I have a massive weakness for crisps. I could easily eat a six pack in one sitting. At one stage in my life, I actually used to do so on a regular basis. Then I realised how ridiculous that was, and restricted myself to no more than two a day, which I mostly stuck to. And, oh boy, did the weight fall off. I was worried I would just waste away, but after a while it did stabilise.

After learning this fun new fact about metabolism, I started looking at the fat content of crisps, and it's a whopping Continue reading →

Please read through this site. It's obvious the government is putting protecting its rich mates above protecting the population. Know your rights!

Section 44. provides employees with the means to contest the adequacy and/or suitability of safety arrangements without fear of recriminations (e.g. getting sacked or transferred) or suffering detriment (e.g. loss of wages).

Section 44. provides employees with the 'right' to withdraw from and to refuse to return to a workplace that is unsafe. Employees are entitled to remain away from the workplace (e.g. stay at home) if – in their opinion – the prevailing circumstances represent a real risk of serious and imminent danger which they could not be expected to avert.

Section 44. entitles employees to claim for 'Constructive Dismissal' and (unlimited) compensation in the event that an employer fails to maintain safe working conditions.

https://section44.co.uk/

I feel a little bit disillusioned with Rudy Simone. Aspergirls was my absolute favourite Aspie resource, for the first time I'd found every single "you're such a weirdo/freak/shame on the family" moment I'd had explained, understood and accepted. For the first time I found people who really really knew what it was like for me, to know that I wasn't just a weirdo/freak/shame on the family, but there was a reason for my being a misfit, and it wasn't my fault. This book was like the best friend I never had.

But after Rudy Simone's "I'm not Aspie anymore" speech it feels a little disingenuous.

Having said that, I still really do recommend the book. It helped me in so many ways.

First up, I want to make this bit clear: I don't have a problem with her statement that "I truly don't feel autistic anymore".

After a few years of reading through Aspie forums, I've read of many people reaching adulthood feeling like they wouldn't qualify for a diagnosis anymore. If you've been reading my posts on Asperger's on here, you'll see that I also feel like I might not even be obviously Aspie enough to qualify for one anymore. For me, Asperger's = negative. So now I've managed to reduce the severity of the negative aspects by changing my diet, I do kind of feel like I'm going native. But I know that however much I may present as "normal", and however well I've learned to navigate this NT world, inside I still think like an Aspie, I still stim like an Aspie, I still loathe uninvited touch like as Aspie, I still have aversions like an Aspie, I still get stuck on social situations I havn't rehearsed for like as Aspie, I still see things from an Aspie point of view (and don't see the things NT do).

But anyway, she says later:

You're bound to have heard this one:

They say talking to yourself is the first sign of madness.

The ever-elusive "they"! But is it really? You see, for me, talking to myself is the only way I can effectively interact with the outside world.

Verbal communication does not come naturally to me. My way of thinking is primarily visual and abstract. If I don't rehearse what I need to say before-hand, all that will come out is a jumbled mixture of sounds and random syllables. So what I spend a lot of time doing is something called "scripting". Although this is different from the echolalia-type scripting, which I will talk about later.

If you were to be creepy and place a spy-cam in my room, a good deal of the time you would see me, sitting on the bed, doing what appears to be talking to imaginary friends. What I'm doing, then, is practising how to talk.