I haven’t blogged much over the last couple of weeks. I’ve got 4 large projects on at work and truth be told, after long days slaving away over code and imagery and managing peoples expectations I really don’t want to sit in front of a PC in the evenings either.
This is a shame as there’s much to blog about in the world of autism, the evil ND [twirls moustache evilly] and notably autism and the good old feeling-like-an-old-friend mercury uh, connection. I will blog them (an exercise which is becoming increasingly like prodding a dead fish with a stick as it floats on the surface of a scuzzy old pond) but right now I’m as offline as I ever get. Luckily Dad of Cameron is still happily prodding away – most recently at the new Jim Adams study. And of course The Hub is still going well. Also, this site’s daily visitors are still climbing – certainly more than some other sites are. And hey! – by the look of the trends of a certain site it looks like the message about DAN! is getting through.
Anyway, enough cheap gloating. MOM-NOS, in a moment of madness put me forward for a ‘Thinking Blogger’ award.
The official rules for participation in the Thinking Blogger Awards meme are as follows:
1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.
MOM-NOS explained her reasons for nominating me as follows:
When I was new to blogging and new to the concept of neurodiversity, Kevin scared the daylights out of me.
And some people say neurodiversity is a cult – I tell you, after me scaring the living shit out of people and browbeating them into submission, its the work of minutes to get them to sign over their souls to the evil Neurodiverse in blood – MWAHAHAHA!!! come to a rational decision with no coercion at all (free tshirts!!).
In all honesty, being nominated for this particular meme/award by a blogger such as MOM-NOS is humbling. There are several writers on the Hub that I love to read. Amanda, Kathleen, El Diva (for the snark), Mike Stanton and MOM-NOS. This is by no means to suggest the rest are terrible but I would happily buy books written by these people (which is why I excluded Sue from that list – I already have bought a book written by her).
So I will wallow in self indulgence on this, the recognition of my dual good nd/bad nd personality and waffle on for a bit.
Blogging is an odd thing. Its not really journalism (although Kathleen is getting about as close as its possible to get) and its not just a web site. I started this four years ago next month and (as Brad has graphically – and somewhat redundantly – illustrated) it charts a period of my life that has gone from utter ignorance about autism and science to a stage where here, now, I have friends I consider important to me who are either autistic, live thousands of miles away, live a few miles away from me etc. I’ve been quoted in scientific journals, been interviewed, swap emails with scientists and doctors who are active in the autism community.
Damn. How did that happen? I’m not a particularly skilled wordsmith. My grammar sucks donkey balls. I veer wildly between icy, brittle British overpoliteness and the written equivalent of a cudgel. Meh. Such is life.
None of this is a cue to tell me how great I am. I already know I’m not interested in fishing for compliments.
So what did I do to deserve a ‘thinking blogger’ from someone of the written quality of MOM-NOS?
I *hope* what I do/have done is become part of a blogging community of a wide and beautiful diversity of humanity. I don’t know about you Dear Reader but my feed reader is full to bursting these days.
What I hope I have done – what I strive to do every day – is to offer a set of tools for this community to become louder, more communal, to reach out to the untapped natural audience ‘out there’ who believe in equality, diversity and optimism. When I die, my epitaph can read – Here Lies Kev: He Incited An Angry Mob. Thanks. You Bastard.
Enough. I’m supposed to nominate five blogs that make me think. This will be tricky as a lot of my favourite blogs have already had this meme/award bestowed on them. Am I allowed to replicate? I better not.
1: Nidahas is a web development blog run by a Sri Lankan friend of mine – Prabhath. His was the first blog discussing web development I can recall that included the fact that its author came from a developing nation. Insights galore.
2: Juicy Studio is a web dev blog that concentrates on accessibility issues. Gez (the owner) and I have known each other online for what must be about 6 years now. Good grief. Did I say he’s a genius? No? He’s a bloody genius.
3: Dr Crippen. Great name, great blog. If the NHS ever gets sorted out it will be in no small part down to the efforts of John. A one man anti-Hewitt machine.
4: Joel Smith. My first encounter with Joel’s words was via the horribly necessary list of killed autistic people. Shocking and eye opening. Joel writes calmly. I admire that as I struggle with it.
5: Mike Stanton. Again, another calm writer. Dammit. I really must learn how they do that. I often find myself back at Mike and Joel’s sites cross-referencing things.
So – that’s it I think. Back to my temporary hibernation.
Left Brain Right Brain 
Glad to hear you are taking a break, Kev (though we all know you are just putting up a front while deviously scheming your next online coup).
Talk to you soon, my friend.
Make sure the hibernation is only temporary.
Hey Kev,
A big thanks for all that you do for the community.
Oh, I see they removed Liz’s testimonial from the GR site! I thought they were going to leave it, or at least that’s what I thought I remember seeing earlier. Apparently some recovery is okay but other recovery is not, if you don’t use quackery.
Oh, and thanks for the compliment about my blog!
‘Liz’ has gone but Meg is there ;o)
I veer wildly between icy, brittle British overpoliteness and the written equivalent of a cudgel.
That adds to your unique charm Kev. 😉
I wrote a longer comment earlier, but apparently I mistyped the confirmation code. Can you change your settings so that the comment doesn’t disappear when that happens?
Hi Bonnie,
I use the same anti-spam plugin. In some browsers you can click “back” one or two times and reach your original comment entry after a wrong code.
I also lost a shorter comment by mistyping the anti-spam plugin (I swear it seems fuzzy sometimes, usually when the comment is long)… So I have started to put the comment in the buffer by selecting and Ctrl-C before squinting to read the letters.
I play the recording of the letters so that I can get them correct (click on the little speaker icon) otherwise, sometimes they are too hard to read….
Oh, okay, I see it’s still there (Meg’s recovery).
Strange however that they didn’t feel it necessary to add notes from people who didn’t think it was vaccines at first. After all, they clearly believe that you’ve since been bought off by Big Pharma – oh, that’s right, the millions spent on Chelation are given to wonderful people who wouldn’t possibly want to protect their interests like Big Pharma does…
So you bought Sue’s book but you haven’t bought mine 😦 Don’t think I can be fobbed off with a Thinking Blogger meme!
Hey Kev,
Well it happened. I was booted from the EoH goup for being an antagonist. Indeed, the following post was the proverbial straw:
mark.connolly.cgb5@ wrote:
“Doesn’t his alias,bones0504, have something to do with boning his mother before she died? Maybe his real name is Norman. Thank you, I’m here all week, dark Sundays.”
[my response…]
Mark, if you weren’t so feebleminded, I’d actually be mad, Although, I have to admit, I’m losing I.Q. points merely responding to this. Perhaps, you’d like to blame it on the vaccines I received some 30 yrs ago.
Mr. Schaffer, you should be ashamed of yourself for allowing such drivel (fyi: childish, silly, or meaningless talk or thinking; nonsense; twaddle) on your supposed insightful forum. All I’ve done
is respond to questions posed to me, and all I’ve received in return are ad hominem attacks (def: appealing to one’s prejudices, emotions, or special nterests rather than to one’s intellect or reason; attacking an opponent’s character rather than answering his argument). A debater commits the Ad Hominem Fallacy when he introduces irrelevant personal premisses about his opponent. Such red herrings
may successfully distract the opponent or the audience from the topic of the debate.
Tell me Mr. Schaffer…if thimerosal = autism, then why doesn’t evryone just chelate their child? It works doesn’t it? Or is it MMR that causes autism? Or is it environmental toxins = autism, or is it
microsoft = autism, or maybe it’s aluminum = autism…etc.
I suppose it was only matter of time that I got booted as Mark Connolly and about 10 others of his hypocritical ilk dictate the flow and tenor of the posts (Len “Papa Bear” Schafer being the enabler). I truly believe, however, that they are not a true representation of the purpoted 1776 members.
The Leninator told me he needed more information in order to verify my identity (go figure). I told him that my name is actually Lilly Merck Kline, the bastard love child of Thomas Verstraeten and Julie Gerberdine.
I don’t think he found the humor in that….
I wonder if EOH people would object to someone in the CDC who wanted to anonymously “blow the whistle” on vaccines causing autism? If they truly believe what they say, surely they can see that their words could be used against them by big pharma if anyone ever brought true, but anonymous, evidence before the public.
But that said – I think we can all use our real names. If you also disclose all criminal charges, medical malpractice charges, etc, against yourself when speaking. Let’s see if they do that (probably not).