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:

  • You Don’t Understand Free Speech

    I know my title is provocative. It is intentional. The law is one of my interests. At the same time, I’m not a lawyer. I’m merely better informed than the average American. Let me be clear that I’m going to talk about the right of free speech embodied in the Bill of Rights of the…

  • Invisible Minorities Are Vocal About Their Identities With Good Reason

    It is because the majority tends to forget that these invisible minorities exist. I recently came across a “bash the vegan” joke that got me thinking about the issue at hand here. I’m paraphrasing, but the joke was: The toughest part of being a vegan is keeping it to yourself. I think there are several…

  • On The Importance Of Teaching Neurodivergence

    In my view, it would allow us to handle better the friction that occurs when meshing different communication styles. As I was writing about the sources of friction between my ex-wife and I, it occurred to me that knowing about neurodivergence would have been extremely useful to us. It is unclear whether it would have…

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:

  • Soda Stream

    With Soda Stream, you can make your own farts at home! (If you are on the fediverse, you’re going to have to follow the link to the article to see the video.)

  • Fartulent

    Watch this ad for the new drug Fartulent. (If you are on the fediverse, you’re going to have to follow the link to the article to see the video.)

  • The Hand-Dancing Form Of Stimming

    Sorry, no music due to copyright reasons. This is a short recording of myself stimming to music.

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…