I Can Relate: An Asperger's Girl on TED Talks

Alix Generous: How I learned to communicate my inner life with Asperger's

Thanks to my sister Jamie for bringing this one to my attention.

Alix Generous's description of her visual thinking and vivid lucid dreams are very like my own as is the shyness and social awkwardness.  But I can only wish that I'd founded a biotec company dedicated to autism assistive technology by age 22 or developed the ability tounderstand humor well enough by then to perform what amounts to informative stand-up comedy.

She is amazing.  As is her vision for a future for those on the autism spectrum in which they are welcomed and integrated in society, their talents and contributions to culture and technology valued and the road blocks to their success removed.  I love her vision and if what she has already accomplished is indicative of her future success I've no doubt she'll have made it real by the time she is my age.  If not a decade sooner.

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I hope I don't wear out my visitors on the subject but my OCD and hyperfocus has kicked into overdrive since my diagnoses on Wednesday with high-functioning autism and I started collecting online resources.  Storing some of the most meaningful to me on my blog makes more sense than hiding them among the bushels of bookmarks on my browser.

Expect more but I promise I will diversify at least a bit.  There were quite a few nearly as significant developments during my six month hiatus which I can share--books finished, craft projects done or begun, thinned waist, thinned wardrobe, yardsale, a dire diagnoses rescinded, an ER visit, other health issues tended to, videos watched, room makeovers, items purchased, sorting and organizing projects progress, mood improvements, lots of reading and research, aspirations and insights.....

About the only one of my usual activities neglected since April was writing of all kinds and I think that is back now.

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Living Wholeheartedly: Brené Brown TED Talk

Brené Brown at TEDxHouston

Living Wholeheartedly

or

The Price of Invulnerability

I lost count of the ah ha! moments these twenty minutes gave me.

In a nutshell:

• We're born to be connected.
• Interpersonal disconnect defines our current culture.
• What breaks interpersonal connection aka relationship?
• Shame. Guilt. 
• Why do some weather encounters with shame and guilt while others are sunk by it?
• Those who are sunk have a deep-seated sense of unworthiness while those who weather it have a pervasive sense of worthiness.
• That sense of worthiness keeps their hearts whole and resilient.

How do the wholehearted live?

• With the courage to be imperfect.
• With compassion and kindness beginning with themselves.
• With connections rooted in authenticity--able to let go of shoulds be who they are
• Believing they are enough just as they are
• Embracing vulnerability--seeing it as the source of their beauty
• With willingness to takes risks--love with no guarantees
• Releasing need to be in control
• Practicing gratitude and joy

Those without the skills of wholeheartedness attempt to escape the pain by numbing the difficult emotions through:

• Addictions
• Perfection
• Control

BUT

You cannot numb selectively.

Attempts to numb sadness, shame, grief, anger, fear...
Will also numb love, joy, peace, gratitude, hope...

Without emotions life looses meaning and purpose.

Don't be satisfied with my synopsis tho.  Listen to her presentation.  The story she tells about the course of her research is priceless.  And there are plenty of points I didn't include.  Plus I paraphrased in places.

And she's funny.

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Friday Forays in Fiction: TED Talks on Words

I'm a lost in my favorite jungle today.

Words Words Words playlist at TED Talks

13 Ted Talks that explore language concepts like:

Why is 'x' the unknown?
What do our language habits reveal about us?
Is the paper dictionary dying?
Ode to Envy: How does fiction help us understand better than exposition?
What can you learn by tracking a word across centuries through 5 million books?
A plea to Non-Native English speakers to continue to honor and cherish their mother tongue.
Is texting killing language skills?
How did language transform humanity?
What makes a word 'real'?
What if Einstein had to pass the TOEFL?
Why do legal documents need to be so long and obfuscating?
What is Duolingo?
Why do we need poetry?

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Beatbox Brilliance

Beatbox brilliance: Tom Thum at TEDxSydney

I'd never heard of a beat box until a week or so ago and now, after watching several videos featuring them, I'm putting it on my wish list.  As well as that other device he used near the end where he recorded snatches of notes and beats and single words individually and then, using something like a keyboard, made a song out of them.

The beatbox, as Tom Thum plays, it sounds like a whole orchestra held in the hand.  Of course, I'm most interested in making it sound like a drum symphony.

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Sam Burns: The Little Drummer Boy with the Big Happy

Sam Burns a 17 year old with Progeria, a snare drummer for his highschool marching band gave this TED talk last fall on the theme of his life philosophy and the huge premium he put on happiness.

I watched this over and over.  Can't get enough of it.  One of his big aspirations was to contribute in such a way as to change the world.  As I watched I was holding that hope for him as well.  Then while preparing this post, I happened to glance down at the comments on the YouTube page and saw that he'd passed away in January.

Well I expect that between all the lives that he touched during the exemplary life that he lived, this video that's gone viral and the HBO documentary about his life that aired last October he has triggered change in enough people that the cumulative ripple effect can't help but change the world.

I know I was changed by my encounter with him in this video.

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Oh, Make it So!

Camping Star Trek Style

by Heath Alseike

License: Creative Commons 2.0

How Star Trek will finally come true | ideas.ted.com:  'via Blog this'

This post on TED by Nilofer Merchant discusses how we're about to bring the Star Trek world to life.  We're thirty years out Merchant thinks.

As exciting as the technological inventions that mimic what was once the far-fetched tech on the classic Star Trek--communicators (smartphones), universal language translators, video chatting, replicators (3D printing), using light to diagnose medical conditions etc--these aren't the focus of Merchant's prediction.

She is more interested in the ways the new forms of communicating provided by technology are creating new ways for people to form purposeful associations that have the power to make effective and lasting change that once required the involvement of huge organizations or governments.  Both notorious for lumbering zig-zags toward goals they are as actively resisting as they are pursuing.

The notable characteristics of these groups forming for a purpose are their tendency to celebrate diversity, see the potential of those with different abilities, champion creativity over conformity, value individual and community well being over material wealth, and the ability to envision even the far-fetched and make it so.

This was the heart of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek universe and his vision for our future.  Though I couldn't have articulated that at age eleven that was the heart of my fascination with Star Trek from the classic 1960s series and through each movie and series that followed.

I wanted to live in that world.  I still do.

Nilofer Merchant a two-time book author, former tech executive and blogger at: Yes & Know. Twitter: @nilofer.

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Out of Thin Air

Pamelia Kurstin: Theremin, the untouchable music

Pamelia Kurstin on a TED talk stage playing the Theremin.  It looks as though she is coaxing musing out of thin air with her fingers and hand gestures.  It's amazing to watch.

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