The Move Goes Ever On and On

...or at least, it's beginning to feel like it these days. I'm not blogfading or anything, just really busy and really tired. I gave notice today; Matt and I have to be out of the apartment completely by mid/late August now, as we told the landpeople that this was our last month of rent, so hopefully everything goes smoothly between now and then.

Random snippets of recent occurrences:

- I am horrible at packing books. I should probably never work in a library, unless my goal is to appear on Jeopardy at some point before I get fired. I managed to empty our main living room bookshelf last night, but not without ending up sitting on the floor for several hours trying not to read every single thing I picked up!

I think I'm a text addict.

The result was really weird too -- given the eclectic collection of stuff on that shelf, I had bits and pieces from Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, a 2006 Scientific American article on rotavirus, Don Delillo's White Noise (a book I like the word-patterns in but can't really make head or tail of), and several rather silly Christmas poems from the 1986 Ideals annual dancing through my head throughout the evening...

- In looking for "music to paint walls and clean hardwood floors by", I was very happy to have access to downloadable MP3s (CD Baby and amazon.com lately).

I am utterly endeared to what would probably be termed "pretentious progressive art-rock", most recently Phideaux. The album Ghost Story (EDIT: oh, and Doomsday Afternoon too -- gah, I am so happy that this kind of utterly achingly beautiful music is being made!) in particular is a thing of beauty if you happen to like longish multi-layered songs with fuzzy guitars, clear melodic vocals, and lyrics involving the words "shadows", "universe", "darkness", and such.

- My copy of Future Stuff arrived! (Mark Plus, did yours arrive yet?)

I've not read through the whole thing yet, but I've read enough to confirm that yes, there is an entry for a TV set with legs. I guess the idea was that you'd be able to watch MTV on it and it would "gyrate to the music" or something. Somehow it doesn't seem to have quite caught on (you think?).

Most of the book, though, is actually fairly tame for gee-whiz-future! standards. Aside from the aforementioned walking TV and a few other fun frivolities (the very first entry in the book features the Moller 400 flying car), the vast majority of the items listed sound like the kind of "As Seen On TV!" stuff you might find at the local Dollar Emporium.

E.g., one page describes a "talking VCR remote" that verbally guides you through the programming process. Another gushes excitedly about a "self-stirring saucepan". Another is about a self-cooling pillow. Another is for, I kid you not, something (a dry mix of spices?) called "Pickle Quick", which...quickly pickles your pickles, I guess.


(I've spent a lot of time recently washing paintbrushes in this here kitchen...)

Anyway, sorry if my posts have been lacking in substance lately. I just don't want to post about important stuff unless I have the energy/time to give it justice. (And I certainly don't want to, at least for a while, get into posting things that are going to make me feel like I have to stay up until 1 AM responding to all the wrongness on the Internet.)

But definitely expect more posts on brains, robots, longevity, autism, and the occasional cute kitten in the near but non-specific future!

Garage Door Is Wonderful

OK, I had to share a picture of the supremely awesome garage door on the house I am in the process of moving into (we are currently in the "minor repairs and renovations" phase).



The house itself is, I've learned, a mid century modern ranch, with particular features characteristic of 1950s postwar architecture: large picture windows (on the front and on the side facing the yard/patio), low profile roof, and so on.



I had never really thought much about this style of house, and always sort of fancied myself in some little steep-roofed Victorian, complete with gables and carved balustrades and secret-passage nooks. No idea why, possibly my East Coast origins or the storybooks I read that often featured such houses.

But, I have to say, the whole MCM thing is growing on me. Given my longtime fascination and delight with all things retrofuture, living in a home straight out of the "Our Friend, The Atom" area has its appeal!

Once we get it fixed up nicely I plan on going around and taking photos and captioning them with things like "The World of 2009!", and pointing out things like...oh, the way we have things like nifty flat-screen monitors now, BUT we're also still using things like gas stoves, etc.

Anyway, though, back to the garage door -- this garage door is, as far as I can tell, the house's original door, and they literally don't make them like this anymore (at least not on a "go down to the Home Depot and buy an exact replacement" scale). The challenge in saving it so far has been the fact that the previous owners had converted the garage, probably sometime in the 1960s or 1970s (the house itself was built in 1954), into a family room. And in doing so, they not only nailed the door shut but removed the hinge hardware and put a layer of fiberglass insulation and paneling over the inside surface. So we've been ripping all that out, and if all goes well tomorrow we may actually manage to open the garage door, which will be the first time in decades it's been open.

Which, you know, is kind of cool.

(And, no, I am not going to turn this into an architecture blog or anything, I just figure now and then it is interesting to write about things that are actually sort of physically going on in life, not just things I happen to be thinking about or studying. And there's also a lot about houses that makes me want to wax philosophical for some reason, which I might get into later, but I have been painting most of the day and am completely wiped, so bedtime!)

EDIT: We got it open!! And it works! Yay! Mini-timeline appears below:


Initial state: converted garage. The door is covered on the inside with painted paneling.


We took off the paneling (the guy in the dust mask is Matt, my SO) and found...fiberglass insulation and a giant picture mural thing!


We had to tear down the little workroom on the side of the garage in order to get at the garage hardware. But it's a good thing we did because we found...lots of termite tunnels. We knew there were subterranean termites based on the inspections but it is really good to find where they actually seem to be coming in, so you can plug up their entryway, etc.



Almost there! The hardware has been reattached and is, amazingly, actually functional. And the door itself did not seem to have any termite damage...the termites much preferred the unpainted wood framing that was holding the insulation in, apparently!



....and it's open! Yay! (I have no idea why I am so excited about this door and being able to open it, but, well, I am. :P)

Comment Policy Reminder (To All You Anons)

I am glad to create a more accessible blog, and it was learning that some people found the login system inaccessible that compelled me to allow anonymous comments. I am pleased that so far I have not been inundated with spam.

However, I have been receiving comments from (most likely) multiple "anonymouses". And y'all aren't using anything, not even an initial, to distinguish yourselves.

And...while obviously this is not a great moral outrage, it is annoying, and makes it really difficult to keep track of discussions, and it frankly compels me not to respond to any of those comments because I don't have any kind of a "distinguishing reference".

So, I will repeat here a point from this blog's comment policy:

if at all possible, please sign your comments with some sort of distinguishing nickname. Or your initials. Or even initials that aren't actually yours. Or a single letter, like "A" or "J", or heck, even a number. Just something so that I don't end up dealing with five different "anonymouses" commenting on the same post and having to somehow guess who said what. That kind of thing gets incredibly confusing really quickly.

Posting as "anonymous" with no other indicators or initials or anything does not make you a terrible person or anything so please do not presume I am saying that. I am not. I am just saying I find it really confusing when people do that. So I am asking as a matter of courtesy that you distinguish yourself in some way. This does NOT require a blogger login, all it requires is that you put an initial or even a little ASCII doodle or something after your comment in the text of the comment. Thanks.

(Comments disallowed on this post because I don't feel like prompting a big meta-discussion about comment policies!)

I Think I Need This Book!

Entitled Future Stuff, and written by Malcolm Abrams and Harriet Bernstein, the Amazon page includes the following summary (from a library journal review):

...a consumer's guide to over 250 useful and time- and energy-saving products and services which will affect the way Americans work and play by the year 2000. They are at present on the drawing board, in production, or already being test marketed. Included are not only serious inventions like voice-activated computers and lenses to help the blind see, but also fun stuff like kiss moisturizers and bikinis which will change color with one's mood. The book gives the odds on availability, estimated time of arrival, price, and explains how each invention works.

Normally I wouldn't post about a book before actually obtaining and reading it, but this just sounds utterly hilarious and I couldn't resist calling it out. I mean, the cover has a WALKING TV ON IT. Yes, with legs. Wow. And I can't wait to read the "estimated times of arrival", that sort of thing is always interesting!

EDIT: Oh, and the book was originally published in 1989.

On The Feeding of Quirky Mammals, Part 4

In this fourth and final installment of this series, I will be discussing matters of obtaining, choosing, and consuming food. That is, I will attempt to explore a possible range of responses to questions like, "How can I get food?", "What food should I get, and how much of it?", and "What options do I have in terms of places to eat when I am not at home (or even when I am?)"

How to Get Food

Obviously this is not a question I (or any other individual person living in a particular area in particular socio-economic circumstances) can answer definitively for everyone else. How you get food is going to depend on many, many variables, from what is available in your local area to your transportation options to whether or not you are getting whatever support you might need (as some individuals may not be able to shop on their own, etc., for a variety of reasons).

I can say, though, that from what I've personally experienced and learned of the experiences of others on the autistic spectrum (in addition to people with other disabilities, from ADHD to mobility issues), the mere existence of grocery stores within a several-mile radius of one's dwelling does not in any way guarantee that one is going to have an easy time getting food. The same goes for income variables -- again, simply having a job or some other means of financial support and hence being able to afford food does not guarantee that one will be able to actually obtain meals on a regular basis.

So, what might stand in the way of someone's getting food (presuming they don't live in a remote mountain hut with no source of income aside from milk from the family goat, which some people assuredly do, but which I personally lack familiarity with the situation of to the point where I don't feel qualified to comment)? Here's a short list:

- Transportation / Location

So, say there's a grocery store two miles from where you live. That isn't too far, but whether you can get there or not (much less on a regular basis) is going to depend on all kinds of things. If you drive yourself, getting there at least probably won't be much of an issue (unless parking is really crappy or something), but for those of us who don't drive, we've either got to:

...get a ride from someone we know,
...have someone who can bring us groceries,
...ride a bicycle or other human-powered vehicle,
...take the bus,
...or walk (or wheel, if one is a wheelchair user).

Needless to say, whether any of these things can be done at any given time is going to depend on a lot. If you're very fit and like walking, you may be able to walk (or bike) -- but not if the only access to the store entails going on a freeway. Moreover, in the walk/bike cases, you are obviously limited only to what you can personally carry (a wagon or bike trailer can help in this regard but still), and if you take the bus even if you could technically tote more than you could if walking, the bus driver and other passengers aren't likely to appreciate your taking up six rows of seats with your bags, etc.

Right now I am both lucky and very spoiled, as I live with someone who drives (and who is also quite the foodie, hence the likelihood of a bare cupboard here is close to nil).

But that was not always the case, and is not the case when I am home alone (e.g., when the one person I live with is away on business, which is infrequent but has occurred).

I have never lived completely alone but in college my and my roommates' schedules frequently didn't entail sit-down meals with all of us together, so there wasn't really an "eating prompt" in place for me for a long time, nor a consistently established means of food procurement. I survived on things like "energy bars" and frozen burritos from the gas station a block away from one of my apartments for a while. Occasionally I trekked down to the Trader Joe's on my bike, shoving as much as I could into a backpack, which generally meant I had better quality edibles for a little bit at least, but that brought its own problems with it -- e.g., the time it was so hot out that my milk spoiled on the way home!

Anyway, the point here is that you may well have trouble just getting to a local food source, and if you need routine like I do in order to do a lot of essential things, not having a consistent means of getting there can lead to serious badness.

I wish I could recommend or explain some general formula for EVERYONE to get access and transportation to groceries, etc., but unfortunately there simply isn't such a formula. About the only things I can really recommend are:

(a) If you have any choice in where you are going to live, try and pick a location within walking / biking / wheeling / skating / etc., distance from a source of groceries, preferably without any busy main roads to cross in between. You probably don't want to live right next to a grocery store or anything, as that would probably be noisy and annoying for other reasons, but if you can find a dwelling fairly close that will at least remove one potential hurdle.

(b) If you cannot find a location to live that meets criterion (a), then try and find something with access to public transit.

(c) If you cannot take public transit for whichever reason, and you don't know of anyone who might be able to periodically give you rides or pick up groceries for you, you may qualify for some sort of ParaTransit (transportation for people with disabilities, available in some areas) service. I have no experience with ParaTransit services, though, so I unfortunately cannot describe this process.

(d) Look around for online grocery delivery services in your local area. I've never used one of these so can't recommend any, but supposedly they exist and some people seem to like them.

Again, I know these are probably fairly "weak" suggestions but the problem is that anyone who doesn't have an established means of transportation for obtaining food is probably up against a lot of in-built accessibility problems. A lot of neighborhoods in many parts of the USA at least are so extremely car-centric that it almost seems as if the planners were not even considering non-drivers (or even disabled people who do drive, in many cases).

- Timing/logistics

This is a tough one, as even if you have a lovely grocery within easy transport or walking distance, your school, job, or other schedules and routines may not provide you with much time and opportunity to actually obtain food.

You may also end up in obnoxious situations like having a bus route that goes by the grocery but never when you are actually free to ride it -- e.g., a lot of bus lines I've noticed actually cut back on service on weekends. Moreover, even if you technically "have time" in the evenings, etc. for grocery shopping, if you've had other things going on that day already you might not consistently have brain left over for dealing with the store!

In any case, your goal is obviously to get food into your dwelling, and obviously that is going to take a certain amount of time every week, month, day, etc. And the first task in that regard is simply finding what opportunities actually exist timing-wise given your schedule, location, and transportation constraints.

It is probably good if you can find something consistent because this will likely be easier to keep to than simply a vague plan to go get stuff when you run out of something.

Though on the other hand, some people might only be able to get together the executive functioning to GO shopping when they've run out of something.

The key is to figure out what sort you are in this regard, and see to what extent you can match that with available resources. And if there's a mis-match, just remember that (and I realize this is much easier said than done) it's okay to seek help.

And of course there is the matter of planning. I am utter crap at coming up with things to have for dinner -- essentially I don't plan those sorts of meals, except very rarely when something occurs to me at random, and often it turns out to be some sort of semi-edible science project when I do (like last weekend's rice noodle/curry/carrot/soybean/ice cube disaster.).

Again, I am lucky enough to live with someone who seems to really like doing food-things (and who I can certainly end up sometimes helping to make pretty awesome tasty things), but if I did not have this lucky break, I would probably be living on lots of frozen Kashi meals and the like. Which wouldn't be a tragedy, but would certainly mean a less varied and probably more expensive diet.

The bottom line is that if you figure out that (for whatever reason) you just aren't going to be able to reliably and consistently create meals for yourself out of discrete ingredients, then you need to be able to get stuff that you (or someone you live with, or who helps you) can put together quickly and easily. And then when you go to the store, you need to make sure and stock up on this kind of thing, so you don't end up having "Ketchup Casserole with Circus Peanuts" or something similarly frightening five nights in a row.

- Sensory/information processing issues

There are some grocery stores I can usually navigate reasonably well -- such as the small Indian market down the street from my apartment. For me, an accessible store is generally (a) not too large (usually this means "less overwhelming"), (b) not crowded, and (c) organized in a way that makes sense to my brain.

For you, the criteria may be different -- e.g., you may be extremely sensitive to fluourescent lights (which really only bother me when they get to that dying-and-flickery stage or when I can hear them buzzing), or you may not be able to stand the smell of a particular thing, or you may only be able to use automatic checkstands, or any number of other things.

But in any case, sensory accessibility is definitely something you may well run into even if you have a conveniently located grocery in your neighborhood. And the first step to figuring out what to do about that is to figure out what is going on! If you are anything like me (which you may not be, but I am figuring I am probably not the only person out there like this), you may not even be able to recognize sensory overload when it is happening, and may not be able to figure out exactly what it is about some places that bothers you for a long time after going there.

When I was little I was apparently...a bit of a challenge to go shopping with because I was forever darting off, trying to find clothing racks to hide under or bookshelves to sit on, or spinny-chairs to spin on, etc.

Moreover, I also developed aversions to certain places that I now recognize to be sensory in nature -- like the one discount store that made my skin crawl due to the music they piped over the speakers and the weird yellowish lighting -- which at the time nobody could explain, least of all me.

And when I got a bit older, I developed habits like trying to wear headphones wherever I went (something that has happily been de-stigmatized immensely by the introduction of the portable MP3 player, yay!), and trailing my parents in the store with my face stuck in a book or magazine the whole way (I would follow by watching their feet). So really sensory issues are nothing new for me -- it's just not been than many years since recognizing them for what they were.

It may not be easy (especially at first) to figure out exactly why some places make you feel like you need to escape now (or, as in the case of the mall I grew up near, makes you start feeling really "out of it" the longer you are in it), but one clue is that if you find yourself avoiding a place, it's possible you may just feel crappy and confused when you're there.

A lot of people I've noticed seem to blame this kind of thing on "social anxiety" or even agoraphobia, and some people may certainly have those things (by themselves or in conjunction with sensory issues). But having been through a lot of frustration due to trying to put into practice the advice of people who said I was "just scared" in certain situations, I have come to really wish I'd known about sensory issues sooner in life.

Since learning to actually correlate certain "weird" or "bad" sensations with things like noise or crowds or certain kinds of lighting, I've learned to do things like make sure I have headphones/earplugs available, try to visit stores at less crowded times of day, and if I must visit a store that makes my brain feel like it's been shoved into a glitter-filled kaliedoscope and shaken (Whole Foods, I am looking at you!), not to go alone.

So, anyway, if you haven't already, you may want to try things like ear plugs or noise cancelling earphones in stores, or sunglasses (if the lighting bothers you), etc. Additionally if you are going to be running errands in places that are going to be overloading regardless, make sure you wear comfortable clothing so that the sensation of a stiff, unpleasant fabric rubbing against you isn't adding to the overall load you have to process.

And also realize that even if you may be able to communicate in a certain way in certain environments, all bets may be off in a store environment, especially if things are busy. Hence, you may want to think about bringing a pad and paper (or even small computer) with you so that you can write things down to show clerks, etc.

What Food to Get

This is definitely another area that is going to vary according to the individual, and I am not even going to attempt to provide a list of specific things everyone should eat on a regular basis. That would be ridiculous considering the different tastes, allergies, and other factors that vary widely between people and affect what each of us can eat at any given time.

However, there are a few very general things that I think can be said pertaining to nutrition, food storage, shelf life, and preparation issues that I figure are worth mentioning here. I've learned these things through a combination of reading (my interest in longevity/biogerontology has compelled me to read about dietary factors a fair bit) and experience so take them for what they're worth.

BIG HUGE DISCLAIMER: I am not a doctor or a dietician, nor do I know your particular individual situation and its constraints, nor am I ignorant of the fact that some people have very little choice indeed in what they have access to in terms of food. However this writing cannot possibly encompass or solve all the problems with the world's food supply, etc., so all this is intended to do is share some

- Not all "convenience food" is evil!

While "convenience food" in general can be more expensive than buying separate ingredients and combining them yourself, if you can afford it at all, it is often (at the very least) cheaper than going to a restaurant. Moreover, if you can't or don't cook consistently, this kind of thing can literally be a lifesaver.

And there are actually some surprisingly good (and not-too-bad-for-you) options appearing these days -- Trader Joe's has a number of frozen veggie burritos that aren't bad, in addition to various other products in the freezer section, along with some "shelf stable" meal packets that are actually surprisingly good.

- Unless you are a hummingbird, avoid (non-dessert) products where the first or second ingredient is some form of sugar

If your aim is to obtain a food product that is not dessert, and that you want to be able to (for instance) have for breakfast and get sustained energy from throughout the morning (as opposed to a "crash" halfway to lunchtime -- from experience I can definitely say that molasses gingerbread cake is a terrible breakfast choice), you probably want to avoid the toaster pastries, the "granola bars" speckled with colorful M&Ms, and so on.

The problem with these sorts of things is not that they exist at all (without them I am guessing some people might literally starve to death, and I understand that some people have economic and availability constraints that unfortunately mean a "junk subsistence" diet, which is a whole problem unto itself way beyond the scope of this writing), but that they sort of masquerade as being "meals" or "meal replacements" when they are really no more nutritionally loaded than your average candy bar, and potentially less so in some cases.

And when it comes to beverages, most bottled or packaged drinks (at least in the locales I'm familiar with) contain wicked amounts of sugar these days, so don't be seduced by labels proclaiming "fortified with antioxidants!" -- you could still very well be getting something nutritionally equivalent to the powdered fruit punch you drank as a youngster regardless of whatever "grownup" and "healthy-sounding" terms are on the label.

You want to read the actual ingredients list whenever possible, not just the marketing claims, and if you see "sugar", "dextrose", "high fructose corn syrup", "evaporated cane juice", "brown rice syrup", "crystallized fructose", "glucose syrup", or any number of similar terms listed first or second, try looking for an alternative, unless your goal is actually to find a dessert item.

- Trail mix (may be) your friend

Okay, of course if you are allergic to all nuts, dried fruits, grains, and anything else that might conceivably be considered a trail mix ingredient, or if you simply don't like any of that stuff, then trail mix is probably your enemy and not your friend. I realize this item is going to exclude a number of people, and I apologize for that.

But for those of us that can eat mixed-together dried foods of various sorts, the ever-versatile option of trail mix (which I am using here generically as a term to mean, essentially, "dried bits of food mixed together") can be an awesome and convenient way to keep ourselves alive and fed. Seriously, I've lived on trail mix for various periods of my life.

Its advantages for people that might have difficulty with food preparation, shopping, etc., are very similar to the advantages it has for people who are hiking or camping -- which is to say, it is fairly shelf-stable (will survive a lot longer without refrigeration than most "wet" foods), it is portable (can be put in containers of any size and carried without fear of icky leakage, etc.), and can have a very high nutrient density.

(And it can be a good alternative for people who like granola bars but who are having trouble finding anything of that nature that isn't a dessert bar in disguise -- you often have a lot of the same "substrates" in trail mix as in granola bars, but without the sticky, sugary stuff they use to bind it together into the "bar" shape.)

Furthermore, there's also the fact that in addition to the numerous pre-fab mixes available you can make your own mixes based on what you (a) like, and (b) have available, and you (or someone who helps you with meal-related tasks) can make a ton of mix at once and then store it for quite a while in whatever size(s) of containers you want.

You can also make different mixes for different moods and days, and mixes that indulge whatever your individual food-quirks happen to be -- e.g., if you're like me and have a bit of a wasabi obsession, you can put a bunch of nuts and dried vegetables into a bag and shake with some wasabi powder, and have yourself a nice package of supremely spicy tastiness that you can take along with you wherever you go, whether that be the library or your living room or anything in between.

- Know your body and tailor your diet accordingly.

If you have any food allergies, etc., make sure you check labels, and read the whole label. I was eating some rather tasty cereal for a while a few months back, and couldn't figure out for a week why I kept breaking out in itchy hives every day mid-morning. It turned out the cereal contained peach extract, and I am allergic to peaches. I'd missed this the first time reading the label because I'd only checked the first few ingredients to make sure it wasn't ultra high in sugar -- it wasn't, but that didn't mean it was okay for me to eat!

Bear in mind as well that depending on age, gender, overall health, medical conditions, etc., different people may need different amounts and types of food and nutrients. As a small-boned mostly-vegetarian white female I know I need to make sure and get enough iron, B12, calcium, and protein, and that I may need to make extra effort to include enough of these things in my diet. I am not always good at this and my partner often ends up reminding me about protein especially, but I at least try to be aware of factors that could mean I need more or less of something.

And, of course, beware unscrupulous and random advice! Yes, this includes this very article, as I am not a nutritional professional and don't claim to be. If you read something that sounds good and logical, check your facts before doing it, and certainly be very leery of any claims that a particular "technique" or diet applies to everyone!

Any Good Gudelines for Autistic Spectrum Adults in the Workplace?

Okay, without getting overmuch into detail here (for reasons that any employed blogger should be familiar with), I have become quite curious as of late about actually useful guides (in the form of books, pamphlets, web sites, etc.) that one might be able to show to one's employers regarding autism and workplace communication and other issues.

I have not been able to find anything like this. And I've looked. Most of the literature I've come across is just, well, horrible and likely to cause more problems than it solves.

I do not think any of us on the autistic spectrum need our bosses reading all kinds of stuff about how we need "mentors" to be assigned to us (my last experience with someone trying to "mentor" me ended with them trying to induct me into a cult, so...yeah, not too interested in setting myself up in that kind of relationship these days), among other things.

I am actually thinking of trying to write something, but who knows if that will actually happen -- a lot of this stuff is just really difficult to explain.

But I think something needs to be there because some of the stuff I've seen and experienced is just ridiculous.

One of the things I and probably a lot of other spectrum adults have dealt with (in a variety of contexts) is the problem of either having it assumed we have abilities we don't, or that we don't have abilities that we do, and hence getting all the wrong kinds of "help" offered! I cannot even count the number of times in my life that, upon it becoming obvious that I have difficulty in something, people have reacted as if I either need everything done "for" me, or as if I am "refusing" to do that thing, etc.

In particular (again without getting into too many details) I think it needs to be a lot more understood that when someone has a lot of difficulty in one area, that does not mean that they are incapable of doing anything at all, or that asking for a logical accommodation is some weird coded way of asking for fewer responsibilities or "easier" work.

I don't want "easier" work, I want a way of doing my work that actually makes sense and can be done in a logical order. And I want some way to explain that what might be a "trivial" interruption for someone else is not trivial for me, and that while I can get a lot done when I have the opportunity to focus, it is not going to "train my brain to multi-task" by progressively requiring more and more activity transitions on a day to day basis. And so on. But so far this is not something I have been very successful at, so I would appreciate any tips.

On The Discovery of The Eyeball Conspiracy

So, it's been nearly two years since I had my eyes checked last. Like about 70 million other Americans, I'm moderately myopic (with a slight astigmatism) and have worn corrective lenses since I was eight years old.

This is not something I consider a big deal...while I severely disliked my glasses as a kid (see below), that may well have been because I had some degree of taste, and objected to my mother's conviction that all little girls needed to wear glasses that were both GIGANTIC and PINK.



Nowadays, I have nifty black rectangular-ish frames that I love:



...and I can see quite well with them. And unlike contact lenses (which I wore for a while between the ages of 16 and 23), wearing them does not require sticking my fingers IN my eyes, and they're a fair sight more difficult to lose on the bathroom floor, which is always a bonus.

Anyway, while I am a very visually-oriented person and am relieved that my lens prescription hasn't changed very much over the past ten years or so, I can't say I've ever really seen my need for corrective lenses as a tragedy. Moreover, it has never really even occurred to me to obsess over why I might be nearsighted...heck, a fair percentage of people in my family are as well, so it's not like this was unprecedented. Overall, the whole thing rates in my mind as Not A Big Deal.

So, you can imagine my surprise at coming across MYOPIA.ORG this evening. I'd been searching for data on how much people's prescriptions tended to change on average at around my age (30), and I have to admit I've not even gone forward with that search since finding this bizarre site, just because I can't figure out whether to be amused or kind of horrified by it yet.

Essentially, this page reads like...well, I have to admit I wondered upon encountering it whether it might be a parody of one of those autism-related conspiracy-theory sites (in which everything from The Government to Cell Towers to Aborted Chicken Fetus Residue to French fries is implicated in autism causation, with an emphasis on What They Don't Want You To Know(TM)). Case in point:

There are many frauds in the world, engineered by greedy, unscrupulous people. Getting shoddy goods, or losing one's money entirely is common. But what about a situation where you lose your money and your most precious gift, your vision, at the same time? And what if this is happening to defenseless children in every country of the world?

Over one third of our children, although born with normal vision, become nearsighted during their school years. Many have vision that has deteriorated to the point where they would be declared legally blind if they did not have the crutch of glasses to turn to. In some highly literate Asian countries, the incidence of acquired myopia has been increasing in recent years to the point where over 90% of college students are nearsighted! The eye doctors claim this is hereditary, even when there is no history of the problem in the family. But, of all our senses, why is it just our vision that so rapidly deteriorates at such an early age? What if one third of our children walked around with hearing aids or crutches? Would that be considered just "inherited"? The excessive amount of reading and other close work that we do in our modern society is the REAL cause of acquired myopia. And the glasses with minus power lenses that are normally prescribed by uncaring doctors make the vision get worse FAST!

Are you concerned about what your children view on the Internet? You should be more concerned about HOW they are viewing it. If they are wearing the glasses normally prescribed for myopia, their vision will deteriorate. If you ignore the information on this site and fail to educate yourself, you are a partner with your eye doctor in creating a visually handicapped child. The expense and nuisance of wearing glasses for a lifetime is the least of the problem. The more myopia you have, the more you are at risk for sight-destroying diseases such as retinal detachment, macular degeneration, glaucoma and cataract!

During the last century, over 160 million human beings were slaughtered in warfare by other human beings. Compassion toward others is hardly a predominant human trait. This same lack of concern for others is also widespread in the business world. We all know how the tobacco industry does everything in its power to make our children into tobacco addicts so that they will become lifelong customers. The misery and death caused by this are of no concern. In a similar way, the eye "care" industry intentionally ignores prevention and makes our children into visual cripples so they will become lifelong customers. That the progression of myopia leads to eye disease and blindness is of no concern to these people. It's all about the money. This is The Biggest Consumer Fraud In History.

Wellllll...I am not even sure where to start here. Seriously, I had no idea this kind of bizarritude existed surrounding myopia of all things. But it gets better...from the same site, I give you, The Anti-Pinhole Conspiracy!

...pinhole glasses are a perfectly harmless device, even if exaggerated claims were being made. Exaggerated claims seem to be the rule in the marketing world. What would create such a massive coordinated attack against a small company selling such a harmless product? Do you smell the presence of the eye doctors and optical companies in the background as we do? Proof is difficult to find, but what other explanation is there? We are certain that if there was a way to make squinting illegal, they would try to do it. Isn't it strange that pinholes are not offered for sale in retail stores, where they could be made available without making any claims at all for them, just like off-the-rack reading glasses? The reason is that any attempt to mass distribute them has been deliberately and massively squashed.

OK. Here we get to the primary agenda of the myopia.org site: the pushing of "pinhole glasses", which are basically what they sound like: eye coverings dotted with many tiny pinholes. I've actually tried glasses like this (and even attempted making my own as a youngster after reading about the effect in a book), and yes, they do "work" in a sense. Impressively so, actually, at least as far as permitting some degree of clear distance-vision without the familiar curved transparent lenses as one finds in standard glasses. You can try it yourself if you want -- just get a piece of stiff paperboard and a pin, poke a bunch of holes in it, and look through. If you are nearsighted, you should see at least some distant objects far more clearly than you do without the pinhole surface.

Fine, I am not disputing that. But pinhole glasses also have limitations -- for one thing, they can reduce brightness significantly, and for another, they can interfere a lot with one's peripheral vision. When I tried my looking-through-holes experiment I found the effect interesting to be sure, but annoying as well, and in general far more limiting to my vision than conventional glasses. Would I try them again? Sure, perhaps, if I wanted a pair of eclectic sunglasses, or perhaps as a spare if I were going camping, but not likely otherwise.

Moreover, the myopia.org site seems to be pushing the rather silly notion that somehow myopia isn't genetic in origin, but (as the quote above indicates) the result of a conspiracy perpetuated by the "eye doctors and optical industry" who have banded together to suppress the "curative" or "preventative" pinhole lenses so they can continue filling their pockets with the money of those of us who have had our vision "destroyed" by all those years of reading and wearing regular glasses (the horror!).

Overall, I would definitely hold up myopia.org as a great example of what pseudoscientific nonsense looks like. While it does actually refer to a phenomenon (the fact that pinhole lenses can make stuff look clearer if you're myopic) that is certainly real enough, it goes into this big load of "Oh Look How We Are So Oppressed Even Though We Are Geniuses Who Know Better Than Actual Scientists!" drama-rama quite seamlessly. Then you've got the conspiracy-mongering. You've got the blaming (see intro paragraph quoted above) in which parents are called "...a partner with [their] eye doctor in creating a visually handicapped child" if they dare to "ignore" the information on their site. And then you have the invocation of the "glasses are ugly" ableist stereotype as a scare tactic:

But, when children have been adequately informed of what is at stake, will they really choose instead the inconvenience of a lifelong dependence on glasses to see and the increased probability of eye disease? Point out a few people with thick glasses and ask your child if it isn't worth a little effort to avoid needing such glasses to see.

Ew ew ew. This thing is a treasure trove, I tell you -- a treasure trove of ridiculousness!

And on that note, I am going to bed, so long as my "devastating" nearsightedness doesn't result in...exploding eyeballs or something on the way there!

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References:

- myopia.org
- Quackwatch on Eye-Related Quackery