Starting from the Middle

I have stalled and stalled and postponed and tarried and even prevaricated starting this blog, largely because I have a deep-seated all-or-nothing, go-big-or-go-home kind of programming. As a result, most of the time I just go home (or stay there). It hasn't really served me all that well, and here on my 39th birthday, I figured, if my friend Doug can blog, with two little daughters to corral all the time, why shouldn't I?

I have many things I aim to cover here, and we'll see how life goes in playing along. Time is often my enemy, and that, coupled with a kind of irrational perfectionism and completist sort of mentality, has forestalled my diving in to blogging properly. I have been fretting about "laying the appropriate groundwork" and "starting from the beginning" and things like that, but in the end my rational brain knows that it doesn't really matter, as this is mostly and exercise for my own fancy anyway. Maybe this will help to break my antiquated habit of double-spacing after a period, which will help if I ever get around to writing my thesis. So here I go, thoroughness be damned: starting from the middle (sort of).

On June 6, 2008, I was formally diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, which lies on the autism spectrum. It explained a lot, like, my whole life. Perhaps even the difficulty I have been having writing my master's thesis. The title is set (Characterization of a cysteine protease expressed in late-stage gametocytes by the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum), but not much else. Much of my current time is sucked up by the observation and tracking of the construction of the retirement home I shall soon (March 2008) share with my lovely wife of 14 years. I've been posting the process on my Flickr page.

Anyhow, yeah, Asperger syndrome. Me and thousands of others. I am sure I'll prattle on about Asperger's a fair piece here, too. I've been seeing a number of articles that touch upon ASD lately, like even in magazines like Wired, not to mention the recent genetic studies that suggest there is some sort of heritable factor. I wonder if this increasing visibility an indication that the perspectives and research on ASD are about to change, or if it is my newly-heightened awareness of the topic (more likely the latter). Time will tell, I suppose. In the meantime, John Robison's book and blog, both entitled "Look Me in the Eye," is an excellent peek into the Aspergian experience. I highly recommend them.

I think I'll stop here before this particular post gets any more chaotic. Peace & happy Halloween.