ScottinSoCal 🇺🇦 🕊 🏳‍🌈 @ScottSoCal@computerfairi.es

My regular hairdresser has moved away. Had to get my haircut. Didn't try one i used once before because they did appointments and somehow that makes it more stressful. Going to a new place is stressful...

* i'd better wash my hair before i go, but it can't be too wet because that's probably weird
* it seems to be full of cool people. i'm not a cool person, is everyone thinking "look at the uncool person"
* do i need an appointment?
* i can't find the prices. what if I get my haircut and its really expensive?
* do i explain in great detail what bits to cut or give them some leeway? he must be wondering how much to cut off surely.
* do i do smalltalk if they aren't talking to me? start thinking of smalltalk topics just in case (football, holidays)
* do i move my head or wait for them to move it?
* he isn't cutting it short enough, do i now tell him to cut it shorter or wait till next time
* how much do i tip?
* oh no my haircut is taking a long time and others are waiting. the other person got theirs done in half the time
* is he slow or taking extra care to win me as a future customer?
* does he think i'm a weirdo? i bet he's thinking it the whole time
* he's offered me a drink. i'm really thirsty but i say no because it's all so awkward
* the other hairdresser is glancing at me while doing the other person. is it because he doesn't recognise me, or because my haircut is taking so long and there's people waiting?
* is this song on repeat? it sounds like the previous 2 songs
* do I now have to come back here forever because i've been once?
* why is he spending so long on my neck, i can't even see that bit
* why did he not offer me a mirror to see the back of my neck - that's what they usually do - has he carved his name in the back of my head?
* what if i come back next time and the previous person is cutting someone else's hair, is there a social rule that says i need to wait for the person who did mine last time, or can i just use the other person if they are free?

everyone else looks relaxed, but i'm exhausted.

#actuallyautistic @actuallyautistic

Do my #ActuallyAutistic comrades have an issue with knowing when to go to the bathroom?

#AskingAutistics @actuallyautistic

@actuallyautistic
After being here some time now and reading the accounts of those recently diagnosed, whether officially or self, as autistic, there does seem to be a difference sometimes between those of us diagnosed later in life and those earlier. I think, in so many respects, it's how much you see it as a burden, a life struggle and a hurdle, that will always be there and how much that knowledge impacts you and has to be dwelt with. It just seems to me that the older you are, the more likely you are to see it as far more of a relief than a burden.
That is because so many of us have spent our lives as if in one of those dystopian nightmares we can all have now and again. Where nothing is as it seems. Where you wander a world that seems as if it should be familiar, but where nothing is where it should be, or does what it should do. Where the people you meet in it seem as if they should be someone you know, but then are something completely different. Where you are lost, even though you feel you should know the way, where things change without warning, forever trapping you in an unsolvable maze.
But then suddenly it's as if you've stepped out of that nightmare and into a dream. A golden beautiful dream where we stumble upon something that feels like home. Not a perfect home, not our real world home, but nevertheless something that feels more like home than anything ever has or could. That is what a diagnosis can feel like to us all. Finally finding a home. The difference being that the longer you've spent in the nightmare, the more the dream can come as a relief and the more you can ignore just how much work needs to be done on that home.

#Autism
#ActuallyAutistic

Dear, Mastodon. Thank you.

Back in June I asked y’all to help me find work. And you did. Your likes and boosts helped me secure a new position that I started today.

As the Lead Product Designer for BookNook, I’ll be helping to bring equitable access to learning. That will bring me joy.

Y’all are badass and I bow to you.

#NewJob #Gratitude #ThankYou #Design #UX

All eyes are on Ohio as voters head to the polls to determine a precedent-setting fate for democracy in America. Will the GOP be able to assert a disproportionate amount of power, or will the Democrats win the day? Our guide to Ohio's election day is available now at #TheBigPicture: https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/ohio-vote-issue-one-abortion

Morning all, back with my news hat on, what global stories would you like to hear about on the radio tomorrow morning? Let me know, please, as some of these might actually make it on air - this is my first attempt to get set up prompts for a programme on Mastodon. 😉 On twi it was routinely easy to find excellent experts to explain certain topics - i think masto will fare not worse, fingers crossed 😀

@theautisticcoach @actuallyautistic Most people who tell you their problems are looking for you to express empathy, not for you to propose a solution.

Watch from the very beginning of the "racial brawl" and you see it was *everyone* against maga racists. Making it white vs. black is just them trying to divide us. MAGA RACISTS are the enemy of ALL DECENT FOLKS, ALWAYS. #montgomery #fascism #alabama #solidarity

https://old.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/15k6df5/how_the_whole_alabama_ferry_brawl_started/?rdt=38925

My inner dialogue has drastically changed. That’s what my late dx did for me. I don’t have this unkind internal voice like I used to have. A kinder me is speaking now. A forgiving me voice. How life changing inside my own mind that is. From the inside out…beautiful change that does not scare me for once. #gratitude #autism #adhd #differentnotbroken #internalvoice

If you tell me you’re an alpha I’m going to assume you mean like the radiation: incredibly weak, struggles to achieve penetration, but when it does it causes incredible amounts of long term damage.

Is this exclusively a Canadian game?

Sorry, had to ask.

#indigenous

"One of the most real scenes in modern television. Representation is so so important. We need to see the realities of living with disabilities and we need to see disabled actors featured as complex characters." - Brains and Spoons

@dukeoffailure @actuallyautistic I’ve worked in office with teammates who I just barely got along with, and at home for the past 3 years. I, weirdly, feel more like I’m connected to my team when I’m not forced to be physically there with them. If that makes sense.

I made a big step today towards something I don’t really want but I’m so panicked about my life that I had to do SOMETHING.

OK last announcement.

If you live in *Ohio* you should have voted "no" by now. But, if you haven't you still have till the end of Aug 8th! Time to search up your poll site and get going!

(But, don't feel bad if this referendum caught you off guard, Ohio Republicans are hoping no one will show up to vote.)

Vote NO on issue 1. It's a strange constitutional amendment that changes the threshold to make it possible for a small group to veto everything. It's the only thing on the ballot.