Hey folks, welcome back to the blog with the best smell!
By god it's been so hot outside, my thermometer is drooping. I know you guys are expecting a I JUST DONT GET IT episode this week, but lets face it I spend every second week bitching and raging. I will probably be looking worse than a 'Sign Felt' regular like 'George Can't Stand Yah'. So let's take a break from things and do something an aspie would never do, break away from a structured schedule!
It's been over a month now since I started these blogs but I think we are building a closer bond. If you want, you can let that bond be what ever you would like, James Bond, Bonds underwear, funeral bond, well, maybe not funeral bond. This week I would like to talk about my habit of collecting and what I have enjoyed collecting over the years.
I know that all of you have a hobby of some sort and have probably collected something over time. I suppose this is my little confession of what makes me tick. I am sure if you know someone with Asperger's or you are an Aspie there is a passion to collect. My reasoning for collecting is that then I have things people can't take away from me and I have a place to go when reality is cruel. By me finishing to collect a whole set of items gave me a real sense of achievement. This comes down to Aspies collecting anything in that particular field that they enjoy. This could be general information, DVDs, toys, books CDs records or certain items of clothes. They could be collecting songs, trains or the ancient artefacts of the Mayan empire. I guess most collections are good, except for things like elephant dung or giraffe ear wax. Just because people collect doesn't make them Aspies.
So where did collecting begin for me? Well it all started when I was in preschool. Some of my older brother's Thomas the Tank Engine toys were passed down to me and I was playing with them. Yet when I saw that there were more of those toys on television I knew I wanted more of them. The beauty of all this was that where mum did the weekly shopping there was a toy section in the supermarket and it was right at my eye level. I knew mum couldn't leave me at home to do the shopping. I had to go with her, so you know what my performance was like every week when I couldn't get Toby, Douglas or James. I knew mum didn't like having people look at her and her screaming kid so with big Chihuahua eyes and angelic smile I conned every little rail engine I could. Yes I know the irony of me playing with 'Thomas' the Tank Engine toys. Anyway for those who don't know the trains were numbered. Whats the point of going from 8 to 10 when you haven't got 9? Then came along the Thomas the tank engine books. I Immediately memorised that they were at the end of aisle 8. As soon as mum or dad got the shopping trolly I was going like a rat up a drain pipe to the end of my favourite aisle. You know wild horses couldn't drag me away until I got the next instalment book. Boy my dad found out how loud I could really be if the book wasn't going to the checkout chick with me. This was a big thing for me because I wanted to know about all the adventures that the trains went on in the Island of Sodor.
As I was starting primary school my cousins got me into a series called 'BEAST WARS'! It was the sequel series to Transformers. This time the robots would transform into animals and dinosaurs. I remember my first toy was a blue frog called Spittor. As the show went on I wanted to know about such characters as Dinobot and Rattrap. The leader of the Maximals, Optimus Primal once became this gigantic titan of a robot and I remember desperately wanting him. I begged mum for it and come my eleventh birthday I opened up my present to see Optimus Minor. A bloody toy one eighth the size of Optimus Primal and they wanted me to jump with joy and be happy. Parents can be so cruel. I was disappointed but this more petite robot proved to be more fun than I first realised. Maybe parents aren't so cruel, but I still wanted my ten storey Robot that could transform into a jet, tank and ape.
I have gone on to collect such things as Pokemon, Harry Potter books, Ratchet and Clank and Crash Bandicoot games. They have all had their own little impact in my life. I understand that many of you here probably don't understand things like Pokemon, a game played by many Aspies, so I will make a blog about that later on. Something to show why games like Pokemon and Rayman are helping Aspies socialise and become friendlier. That way you will have a better understanding on how to have a great bond with your kid and to help them in today's world where video games have become the mainstream entertainment system.
I still do the occasional bit of collecting today. My main one is comic books. I currently read Transformers More Than Meets The Eye. This comic is about a bunch of roughians and misfits on a ship searching a mythological team of do gooders called the Knights of Cybertron. There are characters who suffer from disabilities even if they appear to be robots. You have Ultra Magnus who has OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and can't deal with badges being at an angle, dirt or something as small as a screw being loose. There is another character called Swerve who has tendencies of Asperger's and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) where he doesn't exactly know when to shut up and asks intrusive questions that can upset others. Personally I relate to him a lot because we both just want to make people happy and our nick names in high school were 'shut the hell up'. I'm not saying that this is a comic just for people with disabilities, More Than Meets The Eye can be enjoyed by anyone. You will laugh, cry, you will feel emotions for characters that are are either best of friends or the wackiest of insane robots. I'll stop talking about robots before you guys feed me a motherboard.
I guess we can learn a lot from the things we collect. Star Wars can teaches us to be patient, that we can't rush into things otherwise we end up with a lost hand and daddy issues. By collecting the stories of the ancient Greeks a man learn can from them how to traverse through great struggles and become someone fantastic. If you look at the family tree of Zeus, there wasn't much tragedy in a Greek Tragedy. Blues can teach us about dealing with pain when at a time of loss. Yet if we play the blues backwards our lover returns, the dog doesn't die and our favourite car is resurrected again from the bottom of the cliff.
Thing is, collecting is a good thing, if we embrace our fellow Aspies' likes, it gives us a better understanding of their identity and personality. We are the sum of our experiences, and for many of us that involves such things as collecting. We can unlock the barriers that are between the Autism and the Neurotypical world by understanding each other. All we need to do is give each other's likes a chance. The other thing I would like to say is as you can see from my little confession us Aspies do have a fantastic memory.
So what did I learn this week? I hate bugs! I have had to deal with so many blasted flies now that the heat is here! I have been feeling like a Titan fighting the Greeks on his way to Mount Olympus! I realise now I have a love for chemical warfare by spraying these infernal bugs.
This week I watched Gravity a masterpiece of visual entertainment. The story was also great I suggest you watch it!
Well that brings us to the end of another blog, may this week bring the fun kind of hot and not the fat sweaty uncle kind of hot!
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