The Geek Syndrome

Interesting story about how Asperger's Syndrome/autism rates seem to be going up. Particularly in Silicon Valley and other tech-job hubs. The author suggests that the information revolution offers slightly autistic people greater opportunities to succeed on their own in society and greater opportunities to meet others like themselves - and to marry and have kids. Given that autism is believed to be at least partly genetically based, what happens is that autism is being passed on more frequently and there are a rising number of kids born with mild to severe autism.

Its just interesting food for thought....are the techies of today breeding the Mentats of tomorrow? And would it be worth it to trade the ability to read social cues for the ability to have enormous technical/mathematical talent (in the case of Asperger's patients)?

I'm sure I'm missing a lot of subtleties here - I actually know little about psychology or what it must be like to live in a very social society without any ability to be social (I constantly bitch about my own shyness, but that isn't the same thing). I guess its just interesting to consider.

brain dump

Watched the last new episode of AbFab, in which we see the contents of Patsy's purse (a sight no one should have to endure). Watching the new episodes it has struck me just how really ODD this show is. I also realized its about the only show I know of that features outright physical gag comedy performed by women - that in itself doesn't make AbFab as outrageous as it is but it is striking when I think about it.

Why in the world is there no such thing as a wide-strapped camisole anymore? All I'm finding are these string-strapped things that don't hide a bra strap, and I'm sorry, that little "elastic lining" is not going to do ANYTHING for me. I'm not usually this vain but I'd like to be able to wear them for both work and weekends and these just don't look professional. Who do I have to know/kill?

! Brain has performed an illegal operation and will have to shut down - Abort? Retry? Fail? No headaches right this second but I barely headed off a migraine today that announced its insidious prescence with the little sparks at the edges of my vision. Aspirin is a beautiful thing. I'm chalking this up to persistent sinus annoyance, birth control weirdness, crappy posture and caffiene/lack thereof. And I'm as sick of writing about it as you are of reading it so <forrest gump>that's all I have to say about that</gump>.

Christmas cards arrived today and should go out soon. There appear to be some misprintings as far as names, but I think the addresses are right. If you recieved a misspelled one, blame Hallmark - D. and I gave them the correct info.

Cats like small shiny roll-y things. This is no shock to anyone who owns a cat, but Miss Spice has taken a particular affection to some round ball-bearing like magnets that are part of a construction toy of D.'s. Evidently these are more alluring than my New Rock boots, which she has great affection for due to their stink of real leather and rubber.

Recieved "Hispanic Costume 1480-1530" today. I've been looking for it for awhile but I have no idea when I'm going to have the chance to have a real sit-down with it.

The solstice is in a few days (Dec 21, I believe). The shortest (worst) day of the year. However, afterwards all of us SAD Sacks can look forward to longer days :)

Time to feed cats/go to bed.