Your Autistic Life

Your Autistic Life: The Ruminations of an Autistic Man

This is my blog. I masked my autism for the first 50 years of my life. I discovered in March 2023 that I am, in fact, autistic. Prior to this time, my life was mostly okay, but did not make much sense overall. Since my self-diagnosis, my life makes much more sense.

If you don’t know where to start on this site, this page has the articles you should read first.

Premium articles can be found here, besides appearing in the other sections.

Editorials:

  • Flipboard: An Ableist Platform

    I don’t recommend it for anyone, and especially not for people with mental health conditions. I don’t watch the news on the television anymore. Rather than do this, I used to use Google News. I did this for a long time. It was my main source of news. I tried using the fediverse for this,…

  • YouTube Channels Peddling Nonsense

    I’ve noticed a few of those lately. I find this practice shameful. Do read the entire article. I swear it is all linked together. I’d say the second part is more important than the first, because I think more people have misconceptions about data deletion, but the first part provides some background. Titles Of Nobility…

  • Declaring One’s Autism Won’t Do Anything To Combat Police Ineptitude

    I don’t think that declaring that one is autistic will change anything. I’ve seen lately a bunch of news articles talking about new rules whereby people who have behavioral disabilities, autism in particular, will be allowed to declare their disability so that the police can handle them properly. Before we go any further, let me…

Latest Articles:

  • A Senseless Breakup As a Zen Koan

    She put me in an impossible situation, and gave me the gift of a koan. I’m still reeling from the worst breakup of my life. Well, the worst breakup so far. There’s no telling if something even worse will come some day. It’s been almost two years, but last night a song came up and…

  • Gift Giving: A Minefield

    I’m both a bad giver and a bad receiver of gifts, according to society, at any rate. Gift giving is a minefield for most autistic folks. It definitely is one for me. Since Valentine’s Day is upon us, here’s a reflection on why most options are terrible. In no specific order, A great part of…

  • Is Meditation More Pleasurable Than Sex?

    What being neurodivergent and queer has taught me about this question. There is frank talk about sex in what follows here, including masochism. In my view, it is light talk, but reader beware. From time to time I see claims that meditation is indeed more pleasurable than sex. Wow! Let’s reach for the meditation cushion…

  • Getting Rid of Old Shit

    I’m lightening the load. Don’t think for one second that getting rid of old shit is easy for me. I do find all kinds of reasons to keep stuff around, but life events sometimes insist on your making the decision to get rid of shit. My divorce was such an event. I had to part…

  • On Zen Practice

    The revolutionary art of unlearning. I don’t think that what follows is especially original. It was probably communicated to me at the beginning of my practice, but I was too bewildered and stupid to understand it. It is only now, after years of practice, that I finally understand what was communicated. When I talk about…

  • Why Are Autistic Folks Generally Tolerant?

    I do have a simple theory. My theory is that it is because we don’t generally believe in arbitrary social conventions. Those very same conventions usually do not serve us, autistic folks, well. Once the social conventions that oppress us daily are seen as arbitrary, it does not take much to realize that most other…

Latest Videos From My YouTube Channel:

  • Dog Barf

    Alice’s dog barfed, and Finn has an idea regarding what the cause could be. https://youtube.com/shorts/8wSAMDhYEgM?feature=share

  • Kristi Noem Deals With Her Pets

    Poor pets! However, Mike has a solution… Well… sort of. https://youtu.be/Hb_1XZFTitc

  • Archimedes and Eclipses

    Did you know that Archimedes discovered eclipses? https://youtu.be/9zdXOcusUhs

Latest Music:

  • Stimming Is Life’s Greatest Hits 002

    The greatest hits so far in the Stimming Is Life series.

  • Stimming Is Life 013

    Even more music to stim to! I’ve given an autistic reading of The Rifle’s Spiral by The Shins here.

  • An Autistic Reading Of The Rifle’s Spiral

    My take on a few lines of The Rifle’s Spiral by The Shins. This music video came into my orbit before I knew that I was autistic. However, there are a few lines in there that have always captured my imagination. I’ve had other neurodivergent people listen to this piece, and they also latched onto…