Brigadoon

Coos deals with his AS

Coos Part II This si more about dealing with AS in RL I use Coos as an example. He does do alot of the same things the same way!

Hello again! I chose to do this in my native tpying (NO useing Word for fixing stuff) I do because this is about comunicating and after Word fixes stuff it aint me no more.

Coos is a builder! He lives in a world of pictures not text. Coos may be slow at times. That is becuse he most view most everyword as a picture and prosss things by compairing pictures. This is a wonderfull thing and a horid thing he deals with. I am told there are others like myself that do the same. An example is if you say Dog I will see pictures of 100's of dogs some movie clips of my favorite dogs even. Relating this to computers helps people understand how this canmake things slow. try downloading a picture of a dog done in ASCII art. then download a bitmap file (*.bmp) @ 1600X1200 Hmmm taks alot longer right? Ok now download seveal video clips also and 50 or so pictures WOW now that will take some time. Coos sees pictures for most everything. sometime many pictures.

I am told people with AS can not tell others emotions by looking at them. Well some may have a big problem with this. I guess I adapted. My method of adapting to this is the picture thing again. I have a huge database of pictures. I have one that is for new people I meet. I have basic faces in then M & F I have them stored by emotions. "People that are Sad" People that are Happy" "People that are Mad" ect. I have to go through all those pictures and find THE BEST MATCH. I then store that picture of them with a Name PersonsNameSad1 lets say Everytime I see them sad I file another picture. Then when I have known that person for a long time I can view all there pictures and match meny times. If alot match then I know that person is sad. I also assoisate pictures I see from there words to help sort out what they are felling.

Like I said earlyer I am a builder. When I get a picture of what I want in my head I see it very simularly to how we see in SL (or any 3D Cad program) I see what it should look like I can rotate it and see it from above below and all sides. I then can build what is in that picture. Most of the time the picture changes/evolves. As I compleate one part, more of the picture changes or becomes clearer. The house I just built in Lane sim was a picture I had of a place I wanted to build. It has turend out better than the picture.

Now if I do not have a good picture of what it should be then I do not build. I have to have a good picture of what it should be. I can do oddball stuff without a picture. a good example is the Lane Learning center. It is a collection of Odd things that SL lets you do that is strange to most people. I have a Street Car that floats. I have a 737 stuck in the side of the moutain. Why you ask? Well I guess "Because it is there." I can do it so I do. Mainly it is all about showing you can do things deferently in SL and it is OK to do so.

I guess people with AS like computers so much is becasue there brain work like computers and computer programs. Databases for sure. SL is a HUGE database. it is a combination of a 3D Cad program milions of chatrooms and a HUGE database. That is why SL works for Coos He and SL have alot in common.

Another thing Coos loves about communicating in SL vs RL is that you do not have to "Look the other person in the eyes when they talk" (type in SL). They look down at there keyboard for one thing. :) You also look where your mouse is pointing. Now most people is SL know this is the case It does not bother them if you are not looking right at them. Coos does use a method simular to one used RL he puts the mouse pointer about where the bridge of the nose is that way when they do look up Coos looks like he is looking them in the eyes. I in RL look at the bridge of peoples noises or there eye brows. They do not know I am doing this and beleve I am looking them in the eyes.

Coos is lucky he sees his world the same all the time all colors are right (unless SL is messing up) No so for the person in RL Some colors cause distortions in his world. This can be interesting things that are flat seem to be 3D Reds seem closer and blues seem to be farther. Not by alot but just enough to nitice a 3D effect. Yellow light is bad for the person behind coos also. Yellow sometimes hurts and plays tricks.

Coos does not have to hear also that is good. he has to read text. My hearing is good I hear so much all the time. The problem is when it does reach the brain it overloads. The brain is overprosesing all the sounds. The squeek in a wooden floor of a busy restrunt is just as important to the brain as the conversation from the person setting accross from you. The brain must do as with the pictures run through a data base of sounds decide it is a squeek in the floor then decide this is not important. Well you can see how this can be very hard to keep up with a coversation at times. If you ever do meet the person behind Coos. Please do not get upset if you are asked to repeat what you said. I do buffer most of the convo while I prosess that squeek but sometimes I do not get it all. I ask you to repeat so I am sure I DO understand what you said.

I hope this helps people to understand how dealing with this on a daily basis can be incredably tough thing for us.Our way of seeing and hearing IS different! That does not mean it is wrong. It does not mean we are BROKE! Our world is the same world. We just prosses information a little differently than most.

From what I can tell most people with AS do things somewhat the same. My guess is the "Living in pictures" part of it is why I am so good at building in SL. I know lots of people may be like me. Always known there is something different about me. If any of this sound like you. I do encurage you to check out the info about this at least know for yourself if the diference is related to this. You can decide for yourself if you wish to share the info with anyone else. I know I am happer knowing why things are "A little different to me".

Coos Yellowknife and AS

Hello!

(Please excuze any and all tpyos contained in this document. I have lots of "Medical reasons why my typing sucks!")

I am Coos Yellowknife (aka Reddawg). I reside in a strange "New world" called Second Life (From here on known as SL). Here everyone one is colinizing a "New world" No one is a native of this new world. We are all Alians for another world. SL alows you to be for several "Other worlds" You can come one and be from Earth. (Most people in SL are Earthlings at lest part of the time) Most al of the people of Brigadoon are for the most part "From Earth".

The person behind Coos has what is called AS. Basicly a part of the Autistic Spectrum. I always knew there was something very different about me. I realy did not care what it was. I just wanted to be me. I wanted to be accepted for who I am. I grew up in the 60's so "Doing your own thing" was acceptable. So I guess I slped through the cracks with out being "TAGED". Now I do not mind that TAG. I am glad I did not have to grow up with that TAG! I was TAGGED as being Dyslexic as a child. That was not a "BAD TAG". It explained alot and was not concidered something that has to be "CURED". As I read about AS I see so meny that want to CURE me. They have all kinds of research to show this product (I call it Snake oil) will cure me. Well gee Do I realy want to be "CURED" HELL NO!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just want to live live most other Earthlings do. I want to live my life the way I want to. I do not want the govenment to take care of me because I am wired diferently upstairs. I can function in this world. I have done it for many years so far not knowing exactly what was the difference was.

Ok I am sure some people are now saying "You can't be Autistic". Who dignosed you as AS. I reply "I did" and NO human with the education in the midical field has ever brought up that I might have AS. So how do I know I have AS. Well I found out because of the "Brigadoon project" and a VERY painfuly back! I was serching for why my back was so painfull. When I saw a small notice at the top of the fourm about those with AS and Autisum. So I went to several sites about AS. I went through all the "Typical cricterestics of people with AS. WOW I realized that about 90% of those charicteristics were me. It was like some that knew me wrote them becasue they knew me. I also more that exceed the "Leagaly AS" guidlines (written by people that do not have AS). So if you still want me to prove I am "Truely AS" I will say to you. You give me a gift of US$ 10,000,000.00 I will gladly go to 5 (so called) experts in the field. 3 of my choise 2 of yours. If you do not wish to "put up" then please do not fill my email box (then my email trash can) with hate email.

At this point I would like to thank John Lester the creator and aministrator of Brain talk. Without his "Idea of Brigadoon" I would not have know (and may have never) known I was AS. Thank you John! Thank you for Braintalk and Brigadoon. Without eather I would proibly be still wordering why I was a little different, and have a hell of alot of back pain right now. Still wondering why I had so much back pain. While I am on the subject of my back pain I will say I did discover that I had broken my T6 vetabra when I was 20 years old. Well no one of that has a extesive training in the medical field has ever found that till now. So that is why I do not have a great deal of desire to go for evaluation for AS. Dispite there extesive training. They can not know or see everything all of the time. I found the information that has reduced my pain levels from about an 8 (scale 0-10) to a 2 now because of Braintalk. again Thank you John and everyone on Braintalk for support and "Ideas". The funny thing is the thing that turns out helping me more than ANYTHING (including medications) was something I had been giving my dog as a toy. (I am trained as an EMT I am not a medical doctor. So If you use any advise here you do so knowing it is NOT MEDICAL ADVICE. This works for me. I made a choise to use this "IDEA". If you wish to try this "IDEA" you do so at your own risk. Please read more about this before starting this "treatment" Results may vary" Ok now I said all that $#|] to cover my A$$ I will share my experences with tennis balls)

I found that if I use tennis balls to unknot my muscles. MOST of my pain goes away. Not just for a few hours like with pain meds. It goes away for weeks. I simply find where it hurts to put pressure on my muscles (knots) I put up with the extra pain for about 15-60 sec. then it releases the knot and the extra pain susides. Now there may be more knots under the first so in a place like the neck it can take longer than the 15-60 sec. to not hurt any more. I do this to all the muscle groups of the neck and upper back first. then to the rest of the back. I waas amazed at how tight my neck muscles were once I released all of the knots in them. I leteraly went from a level 8 to a level 2 pain in just a few days. for US$ 3.00 in tennis balls. (Warning: Please become knolageable in this before you try this if you choise to try it. Look for info about CMP) One last thing on CMP. Yes I have had a DR say I have CMP! He offered no good advice on what to do about it. I found that myself thanks to Braintalk and the Internet. (I beleve they do not know how EZ it was for me to get rid of my pain, or just do not want me to know that it was that EZ and cheep so I would keep comming back for more "DR visits" I do not know and it realy does not matter why. I found something that works for ME!) Ok enough about my medical problems lets get back to Brigadoon (and SL).

The IDEA of Brigadoon was/is for people with AS/Autesum (or personaly close to someone with "IT") to work together to help each other with personal interaction. Has it helped me you ask. Yes it has! With that said I will say I spent the first few weeks hidden on Brigadoon. Partly because I could learn about SL under the Brigaddon protection. (Only those allowed in can see it is there or get in) Part was my computer could not handle the intence Graphics that is so prevelent in SL. Now that I have progressed I have owned several homes. Sold lots of (vertual) land in SL. I was even the owner of a mall for awhile. So yes it has helped me. Did it "CURE" me "HELL NO". I can not (and do not wish to) be cured. Some of this has helped me in my "Real Life" (from here on known as RL). Not bad for only knowing I was AS for 6 months. Sometimes non traditional "treatments" can help. Now you ask is Brigadoon an "Experament"? Well "YES" and "NO". Just depends on how you look at it. I am sure it is an "Experiment for some. I suspect it is viewed as an "Experement by some of the Lindens and some DR's". ( The Lindens are staff at Linden Labs, the owners/creators of Second Life) I went into it knowing this was a sort of experament. I did mind that. I do mind someone trying to ANAL-izing me. It is like assume or as I say it ass-u-me. Please if you want to anal-ize me see my offer above. For that I would allow you to anal-ize me.

Now is SL you get money. with the money you get you can bye things others make. At this point I will say that EVERYTHING in SL has been made by someone somplace. even the tools that help us make things were made by someone (Linden Labs mostly). SL is a 3D world. Based on the metric system. Everything in SL is in meters. If you do not know the metric system you will learn fast. :) SL is for the mostpart a #D CAD program. You "Create" objects (pimitives known as just prims in SL) You can change the shape of these objects and change the look or textures of these objects or parts. You put them with other parts and link them together. to make things you can use (like a house a chair or a a painting on the wall). You can viset a mall and bye other things made by others also. You need L$ for that. (Linden Dollars) I will go into that next.

Ok Now you get a small amount of L$ when you start in SL. You get paid weekly amount weather you are on or not. So you will have some money to do things in SL. Bye land, clothing needed items or TOYS! Well that weekly payment is not alot. So you think how can I make more L$. Well there was 3 ways to do that before Linden Labbs changed the rules to help "Protect the economy of SL". You could "Rate" people and they inreturn rate you back. It cost 1-3 L$ to rate someone. Not bad you would get it back and more next week so it was a good way to get some extra spending money. You can work in SL. There are jobs avalable. Most were hosting events that gave away "FREE L$ provided by the Lendens" Well that got scaled back also to "Protect the economy of SL" So that makes it harder to get money in SL. There is still jobs (if you realy want to work in a game). You can "invent something and sell it. That is still the best way to make money in SL. Work but work for yourself. There is one other way to make money in SL. Not perfered by most. I said SL has a true economy. It does, and it has a real currency market. You can use US$ to bye L$. You might want to do this to bye land lets say. (I have done this) You can also use this as a sort of futures market. bye L$ hope the exchange rate goes up (With reasent changes by the lindens I suspect it will rise now). I am playing this aspect of the SL game. (Only because the Lidens are not flooding the market with EZ to get L$) So I do not mind the changes as much as some people. It allows me to gamble in this market with more confedence it will pay off in the end. Now I do what I do in SL. You can join SL for US$ 9.95 and have an avitar forever and never spend any more than that if you like. Most people do it that way. I chose to spend my US $ on this game but there is lots of fun to be had for FREE in SL. If you need FREE stuff there are lots of people/places that will give you FREE STUFF clothing houses needed items of all kinds, including TOYS like cars airplains hover craft (Yes there is a "Marty" hoverboard like the one in "Back to the future" that is FREE) ect. SO you can have lots of fun in SL without L$ or land. Brigadoon makes it even EZer FREE land to build on, and learn SL. 

I am a member of Brigadoon but no longer reside there. I have decided that I have enough home (and avalable prims that come with land) in my "New location". I have moved out so that there is more land (and prims) for community projects, and for others that would like to try SL and are within the scope of the "Brigadoon Idea".

Like i said in the begening of all of this bableing called a Blog I said we are all from another world. Well being AS is sort of like that. We are alians in this RL. SL has showed me it is OK to be an alian in a strange new world! I will stop my babling for now. I will add my "invented" family history of Coos Yellowknife soon. I will stick to topics about Coos mostly from here on. I just wanted everyone to understand how Coos got here on this board. I will also say I have an "OPEN HOME" in SL anyone that would like to use it or the land (and cool toys) for enjoyment or learning it is open to all. (Just clean up your stuff aka prims before leaving). IM me in game I will give you a landmark. If you have questions about SL or Brigadoon (and not hate mail or want to anal-ize me cheeply) you can send me an email also.