asperger's syndrome and life, part 1: opening statement

Since I moved to the Triangle, I've had an increasing desire to dig deeper into the intricacies of Asperger's Syndrome.

This is the difference that I have. I'm not going to run away from that. I did when I was an unbeliever. I won't now. Take it or leave it. God made me this way.

And the fact that I have it has driven me recently to volunteer with the Autism Society and other groups. I want to help people. I want to give back in any way possible.

That being said, I also want to know and understand the symptoms and how it affects my life. And I admit that the things that I've found (although I'm a little unsure of the accuracy) have bothered me. For example, people with Asperger's syndrome struggle with:

-Problems engaging in small talk (I am hit or miss on this)
-Problems with depression and anger
-Lack of empathy
-Unable to see things from the other's point of view
-According to one site, having difficulty with entering relationships and marriages, and I've read that Aspies have a divorce rate of about 80 percent.

Glad I have God's favor.

I want to discuss some of these issues later, so stay tuned.

Mock College Football Playoff Bracketology, Some Weeks Late

If the Football Bowl Subdivision had a 16-team playoff, with all 11 conferences receiving automatic bids, and five other schools recieving at-large bids, and if the season ended today, with no title games) here's what we'd be looking at:

No. 1 Auburn (SEC auto bid)vs. No.16 Florida International (Sun Belt auto bid)
No. 8 Michigan St. (At-Large) vs. No. 9 Oklahoma (Big 12 auto bid)
No. 4 Stanford (At-Large) vs. No. 13 Northern Illinois (MAC auto bid)
No. 5 Wisconsin (At-Large) vs. No. 12 Virginia Tech (ACC auto bid)
No. 3 T.C.U. (Mountain West auto bid) vs. No. 14 Connecticut (Big East auto bid)
No. 6 Ohio State (At-Large) vs. No.11 Boise St. (WAC auto bid, if there is a three-way tie with Nevada and Hawaii, then i'd give the bid to Boise as a tiebreaker because of BCS ranking)
No. 2 Oregon (Pac-10 auto bid) vs. No. 15 U.C.F (Conference USA auto bid)
No. 7 Arkansas (At-Large) vs. No. 10 LSU (At-Large)

With this said, we do have title games coming, and some bubbles could be burst. That is all.

I love Sundays.

I love Sundays.

I wouldn't have said this a year and a half ago. I would use Sundays to sleep in and watch football, basketball, movies, Nintendo, whatever. Often I'd sleep in to rest up from a long night of shenanigans.

I still stay up late at night. But it's mandatory that I take my butt to Grace every single Sunday. It just has to happen. That's what Christianity does to you.

I also love the fellowship among Christians afterwards. This is the first solid Christian community that I've ever been around. I will confess that I did feel kind of out of the loop during the summer when I spent a lot of time in Fayetteville and Virginia and GNet wasn't active, but now I'm really plugged in.

And did I mention football on Sundays? It doesn't even matter that my Panthers are angling for the No. 1 draft choice. It's a male soap opera.

I still love Fridays and Saturdays. But add Sundays to my must-look-forward-to days.

Some Days Late...Parental Advisory Suggested....

On Veterans Day, I remembered the contribution made by my deceased grandfather, late great uncle, and two of my cousins. They all served our country.



And yes, I lived in Fayetteville, North Carolina for seven and a half years. Most of you know that Fayetteville is home to Fort Bragg, which is due to become the largest military base in America by next year due to its expansion. Veteran's Day is held in high regard in that town.



I spent that day wrestling with the notion that Veteran's Day could be a form of idolatry. I feel that might apply to Fayetteville more than, say, Raleigh, with it being a military sanctuary and all. We make a big deal about soldiers dying in war for our freedom...but didn't Jesus die for our souls????????????? I meditated on this Thursday.

I'm all for Veterans's Day, but why can't we have a Jesus Appreciation Day? Ain't that more important?? If you believe in Christ anyway, which I do, you would feel that God would protect us and our freedoms (or the freedoms that God enjoys anyway) from evil Islamic thugs.

I've struggled with bitterness towards Fayetteville because soldiers always get their - kissed there at the expense of the "townies" in many things. But bitterness is wrong and respect is required of me. We should say thanks to all of the difference makers in society for what they do.

We are all equals, no matter what Satan puts in our heads about us not being equals. I respect Veteran's Day, but I sometimes fall victim to seeing both sides of the coin here.

Idolatry and bitterness are evil. Good day.

Part 2 of my Homecoming Rant-Courtesy of Fayetteville Observer-

Old news, but click on the link below. The comments below are stellar.

http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2010/10/29/1043919

Two comments stick out...We had "Hot Topic" claim that the shooting happened partly because Methodist admitted the undesirables who couldn't get in at any other school. I figure that he argues that if Methodist had smarter kids, they would be smart enough to not shoot each other. He argues that the administration wouldn't have to enact such policies if they had higher admission standards.

I hate to say it, but he's partially right....I think a lot of their policies are partially due to the administration knowing that they are not bringing in the brightest students(although this has slightly changed in the last few years), but the strict policies at MU were also inserted because of the fear of a student's death or damage to the school's reputation. The dry campus rule and such exists because of the latter reason.

Another poster claimed that Methodist will never rise above tier III status. I do agree that it's a third or fourth-tier school, simply because the only kids they can draw are golfers, athletes, and locals with (hopefully not racist) parents who won't let them go to Fayetteville State University. I do believe that there are people in Fayetteville who won't send a kid to FSU over the race issue. :(. The jury is still out on whether their status will improve in the future, however, due to the regime change that's on the way.

For Pete's sake, they had to invest heavy in a nursing program to get their female enrollment to 37 percent, in part because it was the last gimmick they could use to get more girls enrolled.

All this shooting crap and drama gives me the motivation to just distance myself from the university. And Fayetteville. It's not my scene.

Scrap the Homecoming Review...I have something else to talk about

Well..Homecoming was decent, I supposed. I got to see a small amount of people that I went to college with. And yes, they are all doing well in this horrid economy. I regret that more of the old folks didn't return though.

It's just that it was overshadowed by hogwash. First of all, an Alpha Delta Phi sister had a seizure during the football game (she's fine). Secondly, one of my friends got kicked out of Huske Hardware for "teetering" (when she had high heels on and wasn't drunk), which put a damper on our Saturday.

Then I had to wake up to news that three kids got capped at Izzy's (Methodist University's version of Shooters) and that two of them were in critical condition as of this writing. As a result, Methodist established an unprecedented Izzy's Off Limits policy, threatening expulsion if any student dares to enter within 200 feet of Izzy's. There goes profit for Andy's and Dino's.

Now I was a HUGE partier and carouser during my college days. I used to enjoy Last Call. And there's a minor chance that I would oppose this if it happened to a bar that myself and my friends frequented. But I don't have a big problem with this.

First of all, I graduated from Methodist three years ago. That enough should distance myself from this situation.

Second of all, it has been well known that Izzy's serves underage to minors. That's why everyone abandoned Last Call and invaded on the yuppies' playground.
In my previous life, I had no issue with this, but now I realize that it's bad business and it's immoral. I have been to Izzy's numerous times. There are no bodyguards, and it has a Wild West atmosphere to it. Drunk 19-year-olds make stupid decisions. And if they are going to try to kill each other over a rap battle, maybe a line should be drawn.

This is an unprecedented move, folks. Methodist is private institution and can write its own laws. I do believe that that Hendricks and Blanc don't want to put restrictions on the whereabouts of its students, but once the Izzy's thing got out of control, I figure they wanted the chance to put the cat back in the bag. The actions of some bums gave them a chance to end it, and they took advantage of the opportunity. And no, MU students aren't the only ones that have off-limits places. Fort Bragg puts it on their soldiers, and for good reason, because the places on that off-limits are full of sin. Don't blame the "n------" for this.It was bound to collapse, whether by Hendricks' hand or the ALE's.

Go to Last Call.

Well....

I'm on this set direction..to teach...but i still feel frustrated...I made the wrong choice in school and major and it still haunts me, I guess.