I go in tomorrow morning to fill out paperwork for HR to begin my new job. I’m waiting for Stina and Dylan to do some reference letters and send them along, but I’ll get them when they come–no major concern.

My major concern is falling into a pattern of presumed incompetence. It was coincidental that I found this blog post today about the least harmful assumption (presuming competence even when others do not) as almost all of the people I will be working with have been diagnosed with intellectual disability (and many of them with autism). I need to work and remember that their diagnoses may not be correct and that any communication is welcome. I hope I’m up to the task.

…is that I like spreadsheets, organization, and Kate Miller-Heidke.

Just got done making a spreadsheet that shows the titles of the songs from which I’ve pulled titles, the songs in the official canon I haven’t used yet, the songs that are official or semi-official canon but are covers, and the demos which have any sort of name. This is actually the third spreadsheet of its sort, as I have one keeping track of the number of times I use a song and one that lists the song, the lyric, and the date.

So I’m feeling a bit compulsive and pleased, now. And tired. Tried to go to the library, but the lights are made of some sort of migraine-creating forcefield that also happens to emit visible light, because within ten minutes my eyes and head ached. I feel sort of spoon-drained now.

I have a JOB. I’ll be working with young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in their group home(s) and work program. I go in on Monday to fill out all the HR paperwork. It looks like the timing might be a bit weird since I’ll be in Florida August 8-14, so I hope that’s okay. It’s a straight weekday job, first shift.

I’ve been blogging here for a year, and nearly a hundred posts.

There have been two Kate-lyric exceptions (both for MBT fangirling) and this will make my 97th published post. In this time, I have:
-Used lyrics from “Caught in the Crowd,” “Dreams,” and “The Truth” six times each (fun fact: I don’t like “The Truth”!)
-Used lyrics from “Blah Blah Blah,” “Day After Christmas,” “Our Song,” and “Out and In” five times each
-These seven songs account for 39% of my post titles
-I’ve used 34 songs, 32 of which are part of the official discography (including Elsewhere, Kate’s previous band). Including Elsewhere there are officially 54 songs (not including multiple releases or versions of a song), and I have an additional 32 or so demos. I think I’m going to have to make an effort to use all of the released songs for a title in the coming year. No promises.

In less compulsive, more personal news, I’ve had a bunch of interviews for jobs. The one I like best is for a group home and assistance organization in Chapel Hill who work with kids and adults with intellectual disabilities, developmental disabilities, and some neurological disorders. In practice this means a lot of people on the autism spectrum, some with Down Syndrome, some with CP, many with more rare disorders and disabilities, and a huge variation in levels of assistance needed. I knew it would be a good fit when the interviewer went off on a long tangent about how their clients are people and have every human right we do (I guess I passed for NT yesterday), even if they also need some help with ADLs or holding down a job. He used some language I only hear in the disability rights movement and stressed that you have to respect everyone as an individual or it would never work. I have a follow up interview tomorrow (after the first yesterday), so hopefully it works out! I’ve also interviewed for an in-home counselling position, and didn’t get a job at a local bookstore–but I did get an interview at a sister store later this week.

AT NO POINT DID I BREAK DOWN INTO SOBS OF FRUSTRATION OVER THE AMOUNT OF MONEY I NEED TO SAVE TO SUCCESSFULLY MOVE TO MELBOURNE.

I credit the cat and his soft, soft tummy for this. Little known fact: sticking your face in a cat’s side and breathing deeply is incredibly good for destressing.

I’m looking for something that will keep my brain occupied. I love anagramming and the last phrase was very successful. I want a two or three word phrase (maybe four, if one is an article) that is easy to remember and has 20-25 letters. The last one was “the very hungry caterpillar” and it worked really well. Suggestions?

This might be a little bit dense at the start for most of my friends, but I found it so fascinating I have to link anyway. It’s a summary of a recently published study on empathy responses in mice. Basically, if a mouse sees (or, to a lesser extent, hears or smells) another mouse respond with fear to an environment, it will likely respond similarly. If the mice are siblings or mates, they are even more likely to respond. Further, the scientists doing the study had a few ideas about where this empathetic response would be located in the brain and performed genetic and pharmacological knockouts on the mice–and they were right about two of their three hypotheses. Via knockouts, they were essentially able to make sociopathic mice–mice who feel no empathy for others.

So basically, they made the Brain.

Photos from last weekend. More are available on my flickr.

Hopefully these will work:

No subtitles or captions, I’m afraid, but a lot of what is spoken is either illustrated or written down in the course of the video.

It takes a special sort of neuroticism to make a spreadsheet of post titles to make sure you don’t repeat (I have, shamefully, two and a half times). I feel better now.

ALSO IT ARE DYLAN’S BIRFDAY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY THE BROTHER I ALWAYS WANTED.

Grading People from Rolling Credit on Vimeo.

A short commentary on the use of the terms “high functioning” and “low functioning” as applied to autistic people