Notices by lizzzzard (lizzard@social.tchncs.de)

WAS mache ich falsch, dass mich Leute beim Einkaufen als Personal ansprechen - JEDES Mal, wenn ich einkaufe?! Ja, ich hab ne Engelbert Strauß Fleecejacke an, und gehe recht gezielt durch Gänge - aber ich schau doch die ganze Zeit nach unten und grummelig! Ich sende ganz klare "sprich mich nicht an"-Signale!! Heute zweimal, hintereinander! Einmal, während ich meine Margarine in einen Trolley geräumt hab! Was DENKEN die Leute da?!

#actuallyAutistic

Living alone, I'd just have spent this weekend doing nothing, with no sensory input that I can't control. I wouldn't even have noticed there was a problem.

The way it is, overstimulated as I am from a full-day workshop and long car commute on Thursday and with no way to calm my senses through Friday, I'm sitting at the breakfast table, crying from overwhelm. My husband was making bread (loud machine!) and de-cluttering the kitchen (loud visuals) when I came downstairs to eat, and it pushed me over the edge. Even the birdsong outside the window is too much right now.

At times like these, I feel genuinely disabled by being autistic.

#actuallyAutistic #sensoryOverload @autistics

@evan my gut reaction: the cooking example is completely different from the examples you just gave.

All your examples have one thing in common: trying to reap the benefits without putting in the effort. The restaurant situation is only comparable if the copycat is also a restaurant cook.

But if you're cooking a restaurant recipe at home, no harm is done to the professional cook, and no "unfair" advantage is gained for the home cook.

And then, knowing the recipe doesn't spare you all the effort: Even if you know the theoretical recipe, a lot of effort will still go into the learning and doing. I have the whole recipe library of a confectioner - but none of the skills, and not her professional kitchen, so I still can't do most of the things in that collection.

@mpjgregoire @lmorchard

@punishmenthurts @hellomiakoda I see a few parents around me bringing up their kids with honesty about their own mistakes weaknesses, and boundaries, and it gives me hope for the next generation at least. I am convinced it makes the children grow up as healthier and happier people.

@punishmenthurts @hellomiakoda and your parents didn't tell you?! Seriously? ... People. 😮💨

@punishmenthurts @hellomiakoda No need to be ashamed for family members. We don't get to choose where we come from, only where we go. And even there, starting conditions matter.

It's just that, as a mother, I have no understanding whatsoever how you can't talk about this with your child for whom it is obviously life-changing information. None.

Being so concerned with keeping face and protecting your own ego that they'd rather hurt their own offspring than admit a mistake - one that they probably didn't even know was a mistake at the time!

This is a pattern I see in abundance in the post-war generations, and it's probably just a human thing... But I do not get it. I mean I get that admitting errors is hard and egos are brittle. But within a family we should do better.

@lmorchard @evan some dishes are better made at home, some are better made at scale, and some need adaptions to function on either scenario.

But morality doesn't feature in that, just practicality. Food is life, let's keep copyright out of that.

#Halloween #costumemaking for the 8 year old kid: a thread.
This year's briefing was "chicken, but scary" (we own chickens).

Do you know how UNSCARY chicken costumes are? This is how. No one can look scary in orange leggings!

So we settled on "Raven". Black is good, much easier to look scary in black leggings, right? 👍

So, I started thinking, and taking measurements. Here's some concept "art".

Trying on the beak to get "sewing"patterns. This one was discarded as "looking too friendly".

I ordered some black felt and an oversized hoodie. I learned last year that Halloween costumes should be large enough to be worn *over* the jacket if you don't want the kid to be freezing -_-

I cut the feathers with a fabric pizza cutter. These things are sharp! Also on the back side, where my thumb goes! 👍🩸

Sewn on by hand, because my sewing machine's thread tension is off, and I don't know how to fix it. Probably easier this way anyways.

Working on the beak: corrected the pattern, cut from some cardboard (thanks, Amazon packages), and painted black. Glued together using hot glue. It still shows and isn't neat, but I actually like that.

But how to articulate the joint? I tried using string, but that blocks the movement itself. You end up with engineering questions every time you build something, even with costumes.

I got the tip to use book screws (which I just learned recently existed), and that got me thinking... After some rummaging in the basement I found a set of colored push buttons that were left over from when I was convinced I would have time to sew baby clothes 🤣

For the blood, I used a liner color that dries with some volume. It's the stuff that puffs up when you heat it up, but we're not doing that here.

Then I corrected the fitting of the oversized hoodie. No pictures of that. I made the arms shorter so kid can actually use their hands. Then made the arms tighter because otherwise you couldn't see the feathers as well.

I also made some feathers for the head that fall into your eyes, emo-haircut style. Kid is worried that this will make the costume look too cute.

Boy, an 8-year-old in a costume is inherently cute, what you want is HARD!

Kid wants the eyes to glow red. This I'm too lazy to build from scratch, though we probably have enough wires, battery packs and LEDs in the house to make the costume look like a Christmas tree. Instead I ordered a pre-soldered set of red glowys.

But I want more than just red dots, so I go googling "how to make eyes". Thanks go out to the furry community for great instruction videos and articles on everything costumes. I find amazing wings that I will NOT build because Halloween is in less than two weeks, and I know my limits, but they are so cool! 😎 Maybe next year?

So now I use modeling clay and two empty rolls of sticky tape to make the eyes. Did I mention that I'm a crafting materials hoarder?

The eyes have little holes that will hopefully allow me to sew them into the hoodie's hood, but I'm worried they might have turned out too heavy. We'll see...

The glowy stuff will happen in the center, and I'll need some kind of diffusor there. But I have an idea for that already.

I used a mixture of a plastic sheet (from a lid) and hot glue to do the lenses. I'm not at all happy about how it looks with the lights off, but it'll do the job of diffusing the LED light. Oh and also I put a coat of clear nail polish on because I thought it would look nice. It did, but the glue lenses kinda ruined the look in daylight again.

Finished!

@clacke @strypey @tbaldauf @Br3nda @AccordionBruce the US have bigger gaps between their cities than China? really? I've been on a two-night train tour within China, and it seemed quite empty between the large cities. but since that was in my teenage years and I had no part in the planning, my perception could be way off.

Not trying to question your statement here, it's just counter-intuitive for me and I'd like to know more.

At bedtime, my husband reads, then I sing them sometimes I stay for a bit, cuddling and sometimes talking. Today's topics for that last part included, in order:

- What weighted blankets are filled with
- Why it probably isn't lead because that's toxic
- An in-depth explanation of the effects of lead ingestion through paint or fuel fines and how it's irreversible
- other things that we learned over time are toxic
- how regulation by the state is important to keep us safe from stuff that's toxic
- why world peace is generally preferable to greed, even if we agree that having nice things is nice.

Then afterwards, I continued my "AI is stealing my job"-crisis on the couch with my husband.

Going to bed now.
#parenting #actuallyAutistic

@morph @triplingual my thoughts exactly!