Newsletter | Life Stories | Personal
Autistic Widower’s Newsletter #13
Welcome to this week’s newsletter.
Contents
- Articles
- Recommended Writer
- Personal Notes
1. Articles
Weird Workplace Stories 21 — The Car Carpet
Can you guess whether or not it was used in a car?
This might not be the most interesting story in my Weird Workplace series. But it’s a slice of my life that I remember from when I was around 18 years old.
It’s a tale I had to share for completeness.
For the photo, I used my living room floor. Unfortunately, once it was on the computer screen, I could see dirt that my cordless Henry vacuum cleaner is too feeble to pick up. My solution was to “edit it clean” using Affinity Photo!
Observations and Opinions About Autism Terminology
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD); Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC); Asperger’s; High Functioning; On the Spectrum; Diagnosis
I wrote this article quickly; it’s somewhat “off the cuff” and quite opinionated, which is not something I would normally do.
After I published it, I thought of one or two other things I could have included. But I think it captures most of the key points.
The photo is one from my personal photo library. I took it in 1993, during the very first holiday I ever went on with my late wife.
We stayed in Ilfracombe, Devon. But the photo was taken in Lynmouth, one of the nearby places we visited during our one-week stay.
It’s a while since I looked at the photos from that holiday; it’s hard to believe how much my life has changed over the last 29 years.
The Medium About Page vs Short Bio
Medium, I hope you’re working on this!
You could think of this article as a polite mini-rant.
I find it frustrating that Medium seems to encourage us to write an About page. But yet they do not show this page on their mobile app — so it’s of limited value.
For the image, I took screenshots using my laptop and phone. Then I added some overlays to illustrate my point.
Desert Island Tracks: 8 Songs From My Younger Years
It was so hard to choose, but these are the ones I’m going with
Recently, Sandra Jasionowska wrote Nine Tracks From My Polish Childhood in response to Eight Desert Island Tracks-Songs From My Early Childhood by Gerald Sturgill.
Reading those articles motivated me to join in and write this one.
In my previous articles about music, I avoided embedding YouTube videos. Instead, I simply listed the songs and included a link to a YouTube playlist.
This time, I took the risk and embedded the videos. Everyone else seems to do that, and it’s much more convenient for readers.
The photo is another one from my library. I took it during the last one-week holiday I ever went on with my late wife, in 2011. We stayed at Broadhaven, Pembrokeshire, and this shows the beach there.
(We did also stay away for a couple of days in 2012, but this was our last “proper” summer holiday.)
2. Recommended Writer
This is the part where I talk about another writer on Medium.
I’ve chosen Megan Llorente this time.
Megan is a Medium Top Writer in Inspiration. She writes about relationships, motherhood, and entrepreneurship.
Megan’s About page says she is:
- Sharing inspiring stories to help uplift and empower others
- Bringing women together and building community
- Supporting other writers and especially other women
As if that wasn’t enough, she is also the creator of two publications on Medium: Modern Women and MIDFORM, as well as being a professional coach.
Here’s a selection of articles by Megan Llorente on Medium:
3. Personal Notes
Car Viewing
My fiancée is still looking for a car, so it’s been yet another week of car viewing.
Once again, I’ve found it tiring to interact with used car salespeople and to travel to unfamiliar places, often at short notice.
Used cars seem very overpriced at the moment; perhaps it’s because many people cannot afford new vehicles. It certainly seems hard to find a good one that’s around 7–10 years old, especially when it has to be cheap to run.
One car we looked at had a clattery engine; another did not have a height-adjustable seat; the next one had signs of accident damage.
Finally, on Thursday, my fiancée decided to buy one. I had a number of reservations, the biggest one being about the clutch. But the seller responded by giving her a 6-month warranty on that part.
Sadly, things took a surprising turn later in the day.
A few hours after she bought the car, the engine warning light came on!
The seller got us to take the car to his preferred garage in the next town, which was inconvenient.
To cut a long story short, she ended up getting a refund.
It looks like more car viewing is on the horizon…
(And I’ve not even mentioned my own car shopping difficulties.)
Read for Read
Recently, I came across a Read for Read club on Medium, by Indigo.
Given that I’m not very good at promoting my writing, I decided to give it a try.
One of my stories was included in ‘Read for Read’ Club | List 34.
It was interesting to be presented with a variety of stories, mostly from writers I didn’t know.
I don’t do things by halves though. Not only did I read all the stories the same day, but I also commented on every single one.
Unfortunately, that seemed to “max out” whatever daily quota Medium allocates to me.
Medium Jail
After writing all those comments, Medium locked me out from publishing anything else: both stories and comments.
It’s been frustrating to see notifications coming in when I cannot respond to them. (It must look like I’m ignoring people.)
It’s something that has happened before on about three occasions, so I knew it wouldn’t last forever. Well, hopefully not anyway!
Next week, I will try to pace myself and spread out my commenting activities over a longer period.
Unfortunately, that’s not how my autistic/ADHD brain likes to work.
Once I get into reading and commenting on stories, I get carried away — and Medium doesn’t like that.
If I cannot get my act together, I might have to leave the Read for Read club.
In another bizarre twist to my punishment, my follower count dropped to zero this morning! Luckily it seems back to normal again now that I’m about to publish this newsletter.
But…
If this newsletter is late, now you know why.
Thank you to all my readers and subscribers. I appreciate you and hope you continue to find something that amuses or interests you.
Best wishes, and see you again next week.
Thank you for reading!
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