I'm Brennan Hickam, and I'm a Platonic male friend. I've been a Platonic male friend to many women in my time, a task I have undertaken both willingly and begrudgingly. Most men refer to this as the "Friend Zone," and it's often considered a mark of shame, for the promise of sex is constantly dangled in front of our primitive brains while our conscious minds remind us that it will never happen.
Being the Platonic male friend is fine in some scenarios: if they're our exes and we don't want any more from them, if we're simply not attracted to them, if we made a religious commitment to abstinence, and if we're gay. However, this is often not the case, and we are stuck at an impasse with girls we would totally fuck but we can't. In this case, there would be some sex at the end of the rainbow if there wasn't interference at one end or the other. Whether you girls aren't attracted to us or we're spineless pussies who are too nervous to ask you out, either way we are stuck.
How we as humans reconcile failure has been on my mind a lot recently. Many of the world's problems stem from it, but we are nowhere close to knowing which way is best for which scenarios. There is no more primordial failure for us as males of the species to not be able to spread our seed to willing and fertile females. For those of us stuck in the Friend Zone, we often choose the route of blaming you. We call you manipulative gold-digging harpies toying with our emotions and crushing our hopes and dreams, but all too often we can only blame ourselves.
Although I have accepted that it is my own fault that I constantly end up in the Friend Zone, there are still a few things I don't get about you women. Why do you stick around with terrible excuses for humanity when there are so many perfectly decent guys waiting in the wings. Men aren't picky. All you women need to do is snap your fingers and you'll have guys clambering for you like little kids with candy. We often have to wait years, even decades, for the privilege of sex, but all you need to do is sit at the bar and look inviting. Stop torturing yourselves! If you're no longer happy with the guy you're with, and especially if he's fucking around behind your back, do yourself a favor and kick the bastard to the curb. If he thinks he can do better than you, you know you can do better than him.
I know that all sounds a lot like "don't fuck them, fuck me!" but I really believe it. No one should feel like they have to stay somewhere where they don't feel happy, least of all you. And as a final word, to us Platonic male friends everywhere, if you're not abstinent or gay, we don't deserve to give you everything you want while the one thing we want remains unanswered for. And now, I'm headed out to the bar: maybe this time I'll find what I'm looking for.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
The Times They Are A Changin'
Well, I was right: one of the things that would get me back on my ass and posting on this blog would be packing up and going somewhere else away from the distractions of home for a couple of days. The destination of this excursion: Bend, the rather large central Oregon town that invokes a feeling of deja vu within me, a person who has spent the last three months essentially living on central Oregon.
I haven't been here in more than a decade, and it shows in the fact that I recognize absolutely nothing. The areas around the High Desert Museum, Sunriver, and Mount Bachelor are totally different now, packed with resorts, supermarkets, and strip malls, the folly of a rapidly-expanding tourist stopover. I've noticed this in many places I've been; even Albany, a town seemingly frozen in time, has changed in a few significant ways over the years. Change is the law of the modern land, but we are a species that thrives on the comfort of the familiar.
Change can upset and enrage some groups of folks, and lives can be shattered when things simply don't go according to plan. There's a lot of tension going on between the old and the young of this nation today. Understandable, really, since the old folks can't retire and keep on working, and the millions of young folks looking for work are left out because of it. The average age of the workforce is shifting permanently up, and the young and old are having a tough time adjusting, getting aggressive and defensive towards one another. They will eventually adapt, but it will take time.
In increasingly uncertain times, people will hold on to what is familiar, to what they percieve as normal. I believe firmly to this day that I was hardwired to have a paranoid personality. I am never off my guard, I pathologically think negatively of every situation I come to in life, and I have always viewed the unknown as something that will be the death of me one day. The transition into adulthood has wrecked havoc on the deepest layers of my psyche, but it never showed past the quirky-yet-friendly facade I put up on a day-to-day basis. The weight of the world is crashing down hard, and I can only hope to brace myself.
Perhaps I might view change more positively if I wasn't instinctively paranoid. I might be able to view it as exciting, as a myriad of trackless paths with a million opportunities just waiting to be explored. Alas, as I see it, all the paths lead into packs of wolves, endless wastelands, lava pools, and other rather unpleasant things. Maybe the truth is that it's a little bit of both, and that our choices and outlook dictate whether we'll end up down a pleasant road or down the alpha wolf's digestive system. Like the whole "being crazy and loving it" spiel last time, it's a matter of life being what you make of it.
Now, if only I could apply those lessons to my own life
Damn, this was another deep trip down Downer Central, I better liven things up next time.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Normalcy
I've been in a lot of those deep, introspective moods lately. E3 is going on and by all accounts I should be excited and talking about that, but everyone else is excited and talking about that, so let's actually make the title of this blog make sense and talk about some of my experiences in life. This is "The Bre2nan Experience" after all.
I haven't really made any new friends in the three years I've been at OIT. Sure, I've met people, and even got a few minor friendships going, but none of the real good, steady friendships I used to have back in high school. As much as I thought my life sucked back then, at least I had people to complain about it with. They're all still around, and I still talk to most of them, but engaging in our good old-fashioned shenanigans is rather complicated when I am a full 200 miles away for most of the year.
And so I've been thinking lately, why is this? What changed? Why can't I see eye-to-eye with anyone here long enough to form any sort of connection. Well, I think I came up with a fairly good explanation of what is going on. Most of my really good friends have been screwed up in some way: one was a jittery autistic kid who spoke jibberish most of the time, one was a ritalin junkie who played with stuffed animals up until he was thirteen, and one pretty much goes through the same shit I do plus the occasional panic attack. They all have slightly more issues than I do, and being in a larger social environment where I was pushed aside and openly mocked for being just a little bit different than everybody else, it felt good to know that there were people out there who had it worse than I did.
The "straight man" I became for the most part, up until I got started at OIT and discovered, at least from my perspective, that the only ones here were *shudder* normal people. Those medication junkies I loved to hang around before didn't last long before dropping out or spending every cent to their name on Amazon purchases and weed, and since I inexplicably keep getting good grades, I linger on.
I've now started doing *shudder* job interviews. Great! I felt like the crazy guy in regular everyday interaction, but now when I get a shave and a haircut, dress down in business attire, and start talking about my future ambitions, I feel like a downright imposter. "Detachment" is a pretty good one-word description; I've never really felt like just part of everyone else. I was different, I knew it, and it forever skewed my psyche. My old adaptation mechanism that had served me well all those years wasn't going to cut it at OIT or in the business world, and now I have been forced once again to cope with the social detachment that has followed me throughout my life, now with the only respite being the calm spots between waves of crushing loneliness.
So how do I survive? Where do I go from here? Well, it's obvious, isn't it: I need to learn how to be the screwed-up guy and love it. It's only when I'm not ashamed of my own quirks that I can really gain back the confidence I once had when I surrounded myself with people who were (or at least I percieved them to be) crazier than I was. It's gonna take some doing, lifetime patterns of thought can't just be willed out of existence, but it's something I have to do, and something I will do as part of my first steps into the rest of my life.
I haven't really made any new friends in the three years I've been at OIT. Sure, I've met people, and even got a few minor friendships going, but none of the real good, steady friendships I used to have back in high school. As much as I thought my life sucked back then, at least I had people to complain about it with. They're all still around, and I still talk to most of them, but engaging in our good old-fashioned shenanigans is rather complicated when I am a full 200 miles away for most of the year.
And so I've been thinking lately, why is this? What changed? Why can't I see eye-to-eye with anyone here long enough to form any sort of connection. Well, I think I came up with a fairly good explanation of what is going on. Most of my really good friends have been screwed up in some way: one was a jittery autistic kid who spoke jibberish most of the time, one was a ritalin junkie who played with stuffed animals up until he was thirteen, and one pretty much goes through the same shit I do plus the occasional panic attack. They all have slightly more issues than I do, and being in a larger social environment where I was pushed aside and openly mocked for being just a little bit different than everybody else, it felt good to know that there were people out there who had it worse than I did.
The "straight man" I became for the most part, up until I got started at OIT and discovered, at least from my perspective, that the only ones here were *shudder* normal people. Those medication junkies I loved to hang around before didn't last long before dropping out or spending every cent to their name on Amazon purchases and weed, and since I inexplicably keep getting good grades, I linger on.
I've now started doing *shudder* job interviews. Great! I felt like the crazy guy in regular everyday interaction, but now when I get a shave and a haircut, dress down in business attire, and start talking about my future ambitions, I feel like a downright imposter. "Detachment" is a pretty good one-word description; I've never really felt like just part of everyone else. I was different, I knew it, and it forever skewed my psyche. My old adaptation mechanism that had served me well all those years wasn't going to cut it at OIT or in the business world, and now I have been forced once again to cope with the social detachment that has followed me throughout my life, now with the only respite being the calm spots between waves of crushing loneliness.
So how do I survive? Where do I go from here? Well, it's obvious, isn't it: I need to learn how to be the screwed-up guy and love it. It's only when I'm not ashamed of my own quirks that I can really gain back the confidence I once had when I surrounded myself with people who were (or at least I percieved them to be) crazier than I was. It's gonna take some doing, lifetime patterns of thought can't just be willed out of existence, but it's something I have to do, and something I will do as part of my first steps into the rest of my life.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Double Feature: Thor and X Men First Class
Damn, Marvel have been on a roll with the move releases this year, haven't they. "Thor"s been out since the beginning of May, "Captain America" is coming out in July, and this month Fox decided to join the fray with their most recent attempt to revive their X-Men franchise. Just coming back from X-Men and having long delayed giving you all my thoughts on "Thor," I'll be double-featuring them right here.
"Thor" is just plain awesome in a way that movies have not been awesome since the '80s swords-and-sorcery boom. It isn't a comic book movie in the traditional sense, but a space fantasy epic that looks and feels very similar to the 1980 "Flash Gordon" movie. It's all-out, 100%-commitment weird, and it is AWESOME for it. Screen time is divided between the space-fantasy wonderland of Asgard and 21st-century Midgard (Earth), and the schism can be felt not only in setting, but in acting style. Everyone from Asgard is putting on their best Shakespearian melodrama, and everyone from Earth acts basically how everyone from Earth acts in your average modern Hollywood movie. It's awesome, end of story, go see it if you have even one drop of geek blood in you.
This is one of those things that underscores the recent trend that comic book movies have gone through. The movement is towards more authenticity to the comic books, which means more of the characteristic weirdness will be translated to the screen. We've seen it in "Kick-Ass," "Scott Pilgrim," and "Watchmen" (to a lesser extent) and we're beginning to see it being carried over into the Marvel movie universe and likely into DC's with "Green Lantern." The only property that has been sheltered from this trend is Batman, for which the Chris Nolan films remain, and have every intention of remaining, cerebral crime dramas with occasional appearances from Batman. Nothing wrong with that, but it does put blinders on the focus of the Batman mythos in this context. The "Batman: Arkham Asylum" video game shows you much more of Batman's brand of weird.
Speaking of comic book weirdness, let's move on to "X-Men: First Class." Brian Singer is back in charge as the producer, and he's brought the Hammer of Retcon down upon "X-Men: The Last Stand" and "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" giving us a prequel to the two movies he was involved with. It's hard to have faith in a series that's been circling the drain for a good portion of the last decade, but I can safely say that "First Class" redeems it all.
The themes of discrimination and struggling with being different are back in the limelight, as well as the relationship between Erik Lensherr (Magneto) and Charles Xavier (self-explanatory) in their earlier years. Yes, the series is done sucking Wolverine's cock, as he's demoted to only a brief cameo as much more interesting characters are given the screen time. The two leads give surprisingly good performances, even considering that they were played by Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan in the previous films, and the rest of the supporting cast holds their weight as well. Cold War tension and '60s class elevate the whole production as the film runs with a plot that would be right at home with one of the old James Bond movies and runs with it. There's no restraint here; nothing was cut in fear of it looking stupid, from the yellow Spandex uniforms of the X-Men to Magneto's horned helmet at the end.
X-Men is definitely out of the toilet for a while, and Thor is off to a flying start. And it's only just begun; there's still "Green Lantern" and "Captain America" to talk about. Guess this calls for another double-feature come July.
"Thor" is just plain awesome in a way that movies have not been awesome since the '80s swords-and-sorcery boom. It isn't a comic book movie in the traditional sense, but a space fantasy epic that looks and feels very similar to the 1980 "Flash Gordon" movie. It's all-out, 100%-commitment weird, and it is AWESOME for it. Screen time is divided between the space-fantasy wonderland of Asgard and 21st-century Midgard (Earth), and the schism can be felt not only in setting, but in acting style. Everyone from Asgard is putting on their best Shakespearian melodrama, and everyone from Earth acts basically how everyone from Earth acts in your average modern Hollywood movie. It's awesome, end of story, go see it if you have even one drop of geek blood in you.
This is one of those things that underscores the recent trend that comic book movies have gone through. The movement is towards more authenticity to the comic books, which means more of the characteristic weirdness will be translated to the screen. We've seen it in "Kick-Ass," "Scott Pilgrim," and "Watchmen" (to a lesser extent) and we're beginning to see it being carried over into the Marvel movie universe and likely into DC's with "Green Lantern." The only property that has been sheltered from this trend is Batman, for which the Chris Nolan films remain, and have every intention of remaining, cerebral crime dramas with occasional appearances from Batman. Nothing wrong with that, but it does put blinders on the focus of the Batman mythos in this context. The "Batman: Arkham Asylum" video game shows you much more of Batman's brand of weird.
Speaking of comic book weirdness, let's move on to "X-Men: First Class." Brian Singer is back in charge as the producer, and he's brought the Hammer of Retcon down upon "X-Men: The Last Stand" and "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" giving us a prequel to the two movies he was involved with. It's hard to have faith in a series that's been circling the drain for a good portion of the last decade, but I can safely say that "First Class" redeems it all.
The themes of discrimination and struggling with being different are back in the limelight, as well as the relationship between Erik Lensherr (Magneto) and Charles Xavier (self-explanatory) in their earlier years. Yes, the series is done sucking Wolverine's cock, as he's demoted to only a brief cameo as much more interesting characters are given the screen time. The two leads give surprisingly good performances, even considering that they were played by Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan in the previous films, and the rest of the supporting cast holds their weight as well. Cold War tension and '60s class elevate the whole production as the film runs with a plot that would be right at home with one of the old James Bond movies and runs with it. There's no restraint here; nothing was cut in fear of it looking stupid, from the yellow Spandex uniforms of the X-Men to Magneto's horned helmet at the end.
X-Men is definitely out of the toilet for a while, and Thor is off to a flying start. And it's only just begun; there's still "Green Lantern" and "Captain America" to talk about. Guess this calls for another double-feature come July.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Me, Myself, and Asskicker
As an aside in one of the early topics I did for this blog, I mentioned how there was usually "one best class" for me in any RPG that I have played. There was usually one setup that suited my play-style, and thanks to Gamefly I can now add the Crusader from Oblivion to the list of "one best classes" that I have played. How does this work in a non-class-based RPG like, for example, Fallout 3.
Well, I had a very interesting experience with Fallout 3, and it's about time that I got around to sharing it. For the first run, I made a character named after me, and shaped him after my own personality. Brennan was the amiable vault chaplain who was skilled in science and first aid. This made hacking my way out of the vault a cinch, but it also meant that I got spanked royally by every mutated abomination I encountered out in the wasteland. Fitting, because it's probably how I would really do in an environment filled with armed-to-the-teeth bandits and mole rats the size of St. Bernards gnawing at my legs. Only my elevated capacity to put myself back together kept me from constant death.
I tried again, this time going a totally different route with a character called Asskicker. Asskicker was a morally-bankrupt sociopath struggling to keep a job as a fry cook in the vault kitchen. He solved all his problems as a child by shooting BB's at them and/or beating them up, even if it meant putting tiny pieces of metal in his own father. He had trouble figuring out how to get out of the vault, but once he was out in the wasteland, he made everyone his bitch. He rigged the nuke at Megaton, and watched all its citizens die with a look of sadistic glee. He went on to amass all the weapons and all the caps in all the world, and the only thing that ever gave him trouble was that damn Megaton security robot.
I know now why there are so many fantasy RPGs with magic systems and all of that: to give the nice, smart people a fighting chance in a world where super-powered monstrosities are plotting your death. If Brennan were in a fantasy RPG, he could be a shaman or a druid and lay down some ass-kickings with thunderbolts summoned out of thin air, or shape-shift into a tiger and make dinner out of his enemies. In Fallout, however, he's left to run like a bitch and hide from a pissed-off Super Mutant and stitch together what's left of his legs while praying that he's not dragged out and gang-raped by bandits.
Asskicker can live up to his namesake in both worlds, though. Whether it's the Dark Lord of Something-something-something or just the friendly neighborhood mole rat, he'll kick their asses for the sake of having an ass to kick. As the "one best class" goes, Asskicker would definitely be it for Fallout 3. Even though he doesn't act the way I do in real life, he acts the way I do in games. So I'll keep on rolling with Asskicker in the Capital Wasteland, and I might even visit Brennan while I'm there, though all that's left of him now is a bloodstain on the side of Tenpenny Tower.
Well, I had a very interesting experience with Fallout 3, and it's about time that I got around to sharing it. For the first run, I made a character named after me, and shaped him after my own personality. Brennan was the amiable vault chaplain who was skilled in science and first aid. This made hacking my way out of the vault a cinch, but it also meant that I got spanked royally by every mutated abomination I encountered out in the wasteland. Fitting, because it's probably how I would really do in an environment filled with armed-to-the-teeth bandits and mole rats the size of St. Bernards gnawing at my legs. Only my elevated capacity to put myself back together kept me from constant death.
I tried again, this time going a totally different route with a character called Asskicker. Asskicker was a morally-bankrupt sociopath struggling to keep a job as a fry cook in the vault kitchen. He solved all his problems as a child by shooting BB's at them and/or beating them up, even if it meant putting tiny pieces of metal in his own father. He had trouble figuring out how to get out of the vault, but once he was out in the wasteland, he made everyone his bitch. He rigged the nuke at Megaton, and watched all its citizens die with a look of sadistic glee. He went on to amass all the weapons and all the caps in all the world, and the only thing that ever gave him trouble was that damn Megaton security robot.
I know now why there are so many fantasy RPGs with magic systems and all of that: to give the nice, smart people a fighting chance in a world where super-powered monstrosities are plotting your death. If Brennan were in a fantasy RPG, he could be a shaman or a druid and lay down some ass-kickings with thunderbolts summoned out of thin air, or shape-shift into a tiger and make dinner out of his enemies. In Fallout, however, he's left to run like a bitch and hide from a pissed-off Super Mutant and stitch together what's left of his legs while praying that he's not dragged out and gang-raped by bandits.
Asskicker can live up to his namesake in both worlds, though. Whether it's the Dark Lord of Something-something-something or just the friendly neighborhood mole rat, he'll kick their asses for the sake of having an ass to kick. As the "one best class" goes, Asskicker would definitely be it for Fallout 3. Even though he doesn't act the way I do in real life, he acts the way I do in games. So I'll keep on rolling with Asskicker in the Capital Wasteland, and I might even visit Brennan while I'm there, though all that's left of him now is a bloodstain on the side of Tenpenny Tower.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted
Two years ago this month, I found a game in the bargain bin at GameStop that changed my gaming experience forever. I was on a quest at that point to expand my gaming horizons, for the online FPS's that I had played so much before had gone stale and boring on me. I had heard about it, mostly bad things, but it was only ten dollars and it was worth a try.
This was "Assassin's Creed," and I fell in love with it. I still criticized it for being a repetitive, drawn-out affair punctuated by poorly-designed sword-fighting marathons, but I was hooked. I loved the parkour, I loved digging up clues on my target throughout the three main cities, and I loved planning my assassinations and routes of escape. Along with that, it had surprisingly believable characters and very interesting story threads involving them, as well as the future intrigue involving some guy voiced by Nolan North being held up in Aperture ... I mean Abstergo Industries and learning the truth behind their intentions.
This was not long before the release of "Assassin's Creed 2," which I made sure to pick up new as soon as it came out and loved it even more. I loved the new variety in missions, I loved the new setting and the new layers of intrigue that surround it, I loved the character of Ezio Auditore da Firenze and the entire ensemble surrounding him, and I loved the new tweaks to the gameplay that kept you much more on your toes during sword-fights. Everything that could have been better was made better, and I was now a dedicated fan of the series, even going so far as to buy the DLC expansions when they came out.
Even though the series had never let me down, I was still skeptical about "Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood." Why was it being released only a year after AC2? Why did they add multiplayer? Why do I get the impression that this is just going to be a bullshit side-story? Turns out I was wrong to doubt this game, because it was even better than the last time. The gameplay had gone through further improvements, the side missions had a focus around the main story that the last game lacked and the first game had, the god-awful facial animations from AC2 had been improved, and the overarching future story had made bigger leaps and bounds than ever. The multiplayer was even pretty fun, though it got boring quite quick as I could not escape the sense that I was doing the same thing over and over again.
I was eagerly anticipating "Assassin's Creed 3" to be released this year, but Ubisoft is giving me blue balls and instead is coming out with another "Brotherhood"-esque installment entitled "Assassin's Creed: Revelations." Revelations?! Finally, they might explain some shit to us this time! Confusing cliffhangers and other unsolved mysteries have been a staple of the series, and now that three games have come out they may hopefully be ready to tell us more of what's going on.
The first round of teasers have already come out, as well as a Game Informer cover featuring the game. The Game Informer cover offers the most clues as to what the game will be about. The cover features two protagonists from past games: Ezio from the last two installments, looking like age has finally caught up with him, and Altair from the first game. It has been confirmed that both Ezio and Altair will feature prominently in this next installment. Behind Ezio's head, you will see a building that might look familiar, for this is the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul (Constantinople in Ezio's time), confirming that this will be the main setting of the next game.
I was a little peeved that Ezio is featured again, for I did not think there was any reason that we needed to see more of his story, but his continuing presense is redeemed by the fact that he's in a completely different setting, and a very interesting one at that. Istanbul is a very interesting place culture-wise, a clashing point between the cultures of Europe and the Middle East. Plus, it's in Greece, one of the places I've been wanting to have featured in an Assassin's Creed game, and it will allow for much more ancient intrigue in the vein of the Romulus missions in "Brotherhood."
One question, though? Ezio's looking pretty old this time around. When does he, you know, procreate? Isn't the whole point of the Animus to relive the memories of an ancestor. You know, a direct descendant! So when does Ezio have kids so one of them can become Desmonds great-great-great-however many times-grandparent. This game better end with Ezio as a baby daddy or I'm gonna be pissed!
Overall, I'm excited about this game. It should bring a lot to the table with the new setting, and it will be interesting how it will handle the body hopping via the Animus Black Room between Altair's and Ezio's memories. Hopefully, though, this will eventually lead us to "Assassin's Creed 3." I will have been waiting for long enough by the time this comes out.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Autism Speaks ... Now
Well, for the first post in a long time, it's serious issue time. The topic of the day/week/month/whenever I decide to post again is mental disorders and PSA sites dedicated to increasing awareness about specific mental disorders.
You might have seen the ads on TV that are trying to increase awareness about autism. There was one a little bit ago comparing the statistics for autism diagnoses versus other somewhat-more-serious ailments such as cancer, diabetes, and AIDS. These are all put out by an organization known as Autism Speaks, an advocacy group trying to increase awareness about autism to help parents identify it earlier, opening the door to more treatment options. According to them, 1 out of every 110 children has autism, up from 1 in 160 in an earlier ad, and for something so common to be so misunderstood is an injustice.
They've gotten a little more interesting with their advertising since then, with one coming out rolling back the degrees of separation from "I heard of some kid with autism" to "My son has autism" AUTISM!!!! Seems like they're making an unusually big deal out of it. How should I know? Well, according to the criteria they base their statistics on, I have autism.
When I was 15, I was diagnosed with PDD-NOS, atypical autism is you're not good with remembering acronyms. My parents had always dismissed my shortcomings with social interaction as a "phase" that would pass over time. However, with the combined pressure of the extended family and the school system, they finally thought around the time I was in middle school "Hey, this might not be a phase, let's get him tested for this 'Asperger's Syndrome' we keep hearing about!" Autism Speaks and many other people and groups speaking out about autism would agree that my parents did all the wrong things, but I cannot blame them. They were just victims of the same misunderstanding that Autism Speaks is working to correct.
Well, OHSU concluded that I did not have Asperger's, but that I was still on the autistic spectrum. This was a relief for my parents, but it didn't help me all that much. I still had issues, only now I had a name for them and knew that at my age there was not really much that could be done about them. It doesn't exactly bode well for the 15-year-old psyche to be told, in a long roundabout way, that I would have problems for the rest of my life.
Back to Autism Speaks! Their intentions are noble, and for the most part their reasoning is sound, but some of their methodology seems questionable. Comparing autism to cancer or AIDS is quite bold considering that they are completely different in cause and severity. As an autistic speaking here, I don't feel like I have an incurable disease. I indeed have problems because of it, but I don't have the risk of dying an extremely slow, painful death.
One of the ethical issues regarding autism concerns what treatment is necessary. There are many parents out there who boast that they have found "cures" for autism, and many others with autistic children are perking an ear to it. On the other end, there are people who equate cures and treatments for autism with cures and treatments for homosexuality. I would have loved to have treatment options, but as I don't feel that I have a disease, I don't feel like I have anything that needs to be cured.
Autism gives people a unique perspective on the world, but it also deprives us of many of the tools to effectively share this experience to the world. If groups like Autism Speaks can encourage more parents to give their children these tools, then the world could have a lot to learn from us, all of us, not just the Bill Gateses and the Beethovens (allegedly). Just as misunderstanding leads to prejudice and fear, understanding leads to respect and cooperation, and if that's really what Autism Speaks is about, then I support them in their endeavor.
You might have seen the ads on TV that are trying to increase awareness about autism. There was one a little bit ago comparing the statistics for autism diagnoses versus other somewhat-more-serious ailments such as cancer, diabetes, and AIDS. These are all put out by an organization known as Autism Speaks, an advocacy group trying to increase awareness about autism to help parents identify it earlier, opening the door to more treatment options. According to them, 1 out of every 110 children has autism, up from 1 in 160 in an earlier ad, and for something so common to be so misunderstood is an injustice.
They've gotten a little more interesting with their advertising since then, with one coming out rolling back the degrees of separation from "I heard of some kid with autism" to "My son has autism" AUTISM!!!! Seems like they're making an unusually big deal out of it. How should I know? Well, according to the criteria they base their statistics on, I have autism.
When I was 15, I was diagnosed with PDD-NOS, atypical autism is you're not good with remembering acronyms. My parents had always dismissed my shortcomings with social interaction as a "phase" that would pass over time. However, with the combined pressure of the extended family and the school system, they finally thought around the time I was in middle school "Hey, this might not be a phase, let's get him tested for this 'Asperger's Syndrome' we keep hearing about!" Autism Speaks and many other people and groups speaking out about autism would agree that my parents did all the wrong things, but I cannot blame them. They were just victims of the same misunderstanding that Autism Speaks is working to correct.
Well, OHSU concluded that I did not have Asperger's, but that I was still on the autistic spectrum. This was a relief for my parents, but it didn't help me all that much. I still had issues, only now I had a name for them and knew that at my age there was not really much that could be done about them. It doesn't exactly bode well for the 15-year-old psyche to be told, in a long roundabout way, that I would have problems for the rest of my life.
Back to Autism Speaks! Their intentions are noble, and for the most part their reasoning is sound, but some of their methodology seems questionable. Comparing autism to cancer or AIDS is quite bold considering that they are completely different in cause and severity. As an autistic speaking here, I don't feel like I have an incurable disease. I indeed have problems because of it, but I don't have the risk of dying an extremely slow, painful death.
One of the ethical issues regarding autism concerns what treatment is necessary. There are many parents out there who boast that they have found "cures" for autism, and many others with autistic children are perking an ear to it. On the other end, there are people who equate cures and treatments for autism with cures and treatments for homosexuality. I would have loved to have treatment options, but as I don't feel that I have a disease, I don't feel like I have anything that needs to be cured.
Autism gives people a unique perspective on the world, but it also deprives us of many of the tools to effectively share this experience to the world. If groups like Autism Speaks can encourage more parents to give their children these tools, then the world could have a lot to learn from us, all of us, not just the Bill Gateses and the Beethovens (allegedly). Just as misunderstanding leads to prejudice and fear, understanding leads to respect and cooperation, and if that's really what Autism Speaks is about, then I support them in their endeavor.
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