It was a nice, quiet, cool night before holi. Nobody was in the mood to play with colours.. esp. Flying Officer Shubham Singh and his loyal brother Er. Rohit Singh.. who refrained frm the whole idea. I had slept very  late at night.. but was expecting Er. Apurv Gupta, Er. Rohit Kishore aka. Chor, Er. Toshki Yadav aka. **atu , Madhur Mittal and Rachit Raj aka. ahem.. let it be... to step on me in the morning. At around 10 in the morning, they came. Din even get the tym to wash my face.. and there was no sense doing it.. coz u were goin to be treated lyk a dog..may be worse than dat. Well, but i did get the tym to change into kurta and a pair of jeans.. more apt for the occasion.

Finally, taking one last breath.. i went downstairs. Aahh.. it was nice. Everyone springin upon you.. like mad monkeys..then moving hands lyk it was the best they could do.. this was the way holi was played..yea.. !

After they had invaded me, i joined them and we headed towards Er. Sid's home. He as usual was into his computer.. but was fully ready for action. He offered himself to us.. and really looked lyk some goat.. who was bout to be slaughtered.. and well, he was coloured. Then, it was Saurabh's turn. i still remember that look on his face.. as if he was goin to be smeared.. and he was right! Even Rohit was completely surprised to see all of us there.. and he too.. gave in.

Then we went to several other places.. even Er. Chanu joined us..and he was happy he did. Went to HIG also.. nice environment there.. met quite a few friends.. and Varun..who was totally engrossed in himself.. Rachit got into some petty fight with him but came back grounded.. lost.

Met Sir Chaturvedi and Sir Ulrick on the way.. and took their blessings..

It was quite an appealing day..overall.

http://shittyvid.wordpress.com/everything-looks-better-in-slwmotion/

The Shittyvid team

So, what we are going to do, is, post shittyvids. We already have a blog (daioandsid.blogspot.com) which has some of our old shittyvids. But times change:P

Sid has bought a new camera: the Casio Exilim EX-F1

This great camera can capture 1200 fps highspeed video!

So, we are going to use this wonderfull camera for our new video series: ''Everything Looks Better In Slowmotion''

Also, Dario and Sid discoverd something wonderfull: adobe after effects, which we used to make an intro and an outro for our new video series.

Take a look,

The Shittyvid team

http://scd.univ-orleans.fr/WebContent/Viewer/viewer.asp?INSTANCE=incipio&EXTERNALID=WBCTDOC_529

http://scd.univ-orleans.fr/webcontent/viewer/viewer.asp?INSTANCE=incipio&EXTERNALID=WBCTDOC%5F348&SYNCMENU=INFORMATIONS_INFO_HOW

Ora non si sà bene come o perchè, compilare ed installare l'accoppiata ffmpeg e vlc
è un'operazione che o non và a buon fine o porta ad un vlc non funzionante come quello nel sistema.

L'unico "successo" lo ho raggiunto "replicando" l'installazione di gentoo ~x86 leggendomi gli ebuild, compilando ffmpeg e vlc che vengono installati in /opt/vlcmc e creando un "wrapper" vlcmc in /usr/local/bin in modo da avere un nuovo lettore senza intaccare il sistema.

Intanto procurarsi i file:

ffmpeg-0.4.9-p20080326.tar.bz2

ffmpeg-shared-gcc4.1.patch

vlc-0.9.0-test2.tar.bz2
aggiornato alla versione test2 (RC2)

FFMPEG

Scompattare l'archivio ffmpeg-0.4.9-p20080326.tar.bz2
entrare nella cartella ffmpeg e applichiamo la patch

cat ../ffmpeg-shared-gcc4.1.patch | patch -p1

poi (è una riga unica)

./configure --prefix=/opt/vlcmc --enable-libfaac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --enable-zlib --enable-x11grab --enable-liba52 --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libfaad --enable-gpl --enable-nonfree --enable-postproc --enable-swscale --disable-ffmpeg --disable-ffserver --disable-ffplay --enable-hardcoded-tables

poi i soliti

make
sudo make install

VLC

Ora scompattiamo vlc-0.9.0-test1.tar.bz2
entriamo nella cartella vlc-0.9.0-test1
e da terminale

export PATH=/opt/vlcmc/bin:$PATH

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/vlcmc/lib

export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/opt/vlcmc/lib/pkgconfig

poi nello stesso terminale con le variabili esportate (è una riga unica)

./configure --prefix=/opt/vlcmc --enable-dvdread --enable-dvdnav --enable-gnomevfs --enable-faad --enable-qt4 --enable-esd --enable-flac --enable-theora --disable-dvb --enable-ffmpeg --enable-dv --enable-x11 --enable-xvideo --enable-svg --enable-gpl --enable-dv --enable-esd

quindi

make
sudo make install

Manca solo lo script di lancio (wrapper) che ho chiamato vlcmc

sudo gedit /usr/local/bin/vlcmc

#!/bin/sh
PATH=/opt/vlcmc/bin:$PATH
export PATH
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/vlcmc/lib
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
/opt/vlcmc/bin/vlc "$@"
#-----------------------------------

Lo rendiamo eseguibile con

sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/vlcmc

Ora dando il comando vlcmc si apre vlc-0.9 con interfaccia qt4 e funzionante.
Da nautilus tasto destro su un video -> apri con -> apri con altra applicazione -> usare un comando personalizzato -> scrivere vlcmc
sarà poi disponibile per quella estensione vlcmc.

Ovviamente dovete avere tutte le dipendenze necessarie, che al limite installate quando il configure si blocca richiedendole.

Personalmente prima di ./configure --eccetera do un bel

export CFLAGS="-g -O2 -march=core2"

che mi fà compilare un codice ottimizzato per la mia cpu voi in --march= dovete mettere la vostra
gentoo-wiki.com/CFLAGS
gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-4.3.0/gcc/i386-and-x86_002d64-Options

Non è stato possibile usare ne checkinstall ne dh_make entrambi (stranamante) non vanno a buon fine (con gimp2.5 in /opt/gimp funzionavano), boh poi quando dico che non funziona mai un ...

Tutto viene installato in /opt/vlcmc per rimuoverlo è sufficiente eliminare la cartella, poi cancellare il "wrapper".

sudo rm -r /opt/vlcmc
sudo rm /usr/local/bin/vlcmc

Se qualcuno ha qualche miglioria sui ./configure o mi spiega come compilare con l'ffmpg statico
direttamente in vlc "dichi" pure.

Astenersi "perditempo" e "santi & puri".

18/06/2008 :
Broken ffmpeg libraries :
Since Debian use the same soname packages name than my packages, official packages (vlc, totem, etc...) linked against libavc* doesn't work with my libavc* packages.
If you want to use vlc and friends you need to downgrade libavc* packages to the official packages.
Beware : downgrading to these packages will remove all debian-multimedia packages who depends on libavc*
To downgrade do the following :

If somebody know a better solution tell me.

A tutt'oggi 11 luglio nessuno conosce una soluzione migliore.

Quindi o si fà funzionare vlc e si rinuncia a tutta la "bella robina" di debian-multimedia, tipo kdenlive, o si rinuncia a Vlc, il più PORTATILE DEI PLAYER, DA SEMPRE (su windows) CON TUTTI I CODEC INTEGRATI.

MA NON POTETE COMPILARLO CON FFMPEG STATICO (come fà Archlinux ad esempio)
STO C4ZZO DI VLC DI MERDA?????????????????*

Per ora rinuncio (malvolentieri) a VLC, ho tentato di compilarlo "a la" archlinux ma senza successo
e poi mi sono veramente rotto ...

A volte un sano reboot di XP è salutare e rilassante.
Col nuovo pc è veloce come una saetta.

* non vuole in alcun modo essere un'offesa all'ottimo VLC
che uso dalla notte dei tempi insieme ad mplayer classic.

♫ 9 GOATS BLACK OUT
♫ Anthem
♫ Asagi ❤
♫ Baroque
♫ BLOOD ❤
♫ Bloody Mary
♫ ｂｏｒｎ
♫ Buck Tick
♫ BY-SEXUAL
♫ B'z
♫ ℃
♫ COЯE THE CHILD
♫ D ❤
♫ D&L
♫ D=OUT ❤
♫ danger☆gang
♫ Deadman
♫ Deathgaze
♫ D'espairsRay
♫ Dio
♫ Dolly
♫ DOREMIdan
♫ downy
♫ Dragon Ash (yeah baby!)
♫ Due le Quartz
♫ Duel Jewel
♫ EXILE
♫ exist†trace
♫ Gackt
♫ the GazettE ❤❤
♫ Girugämesh ❤❤
♫ GLAY ❤
♫ HYDE
♫ Juliadoll
♫ Kagerou ❤
♫ Kagrra, ❤
♫ Kain
♫ L'Arc~en~Ciel ❤
♫ Lareine
♫ Luna Sea
♫ Mako
♫ Malice Mizer
♫ Matenrou Opera
♫ Merry
♫ Mr Children ❤❤
♫ MUCC ❤❤
♫ Miyavi ❤❤
♫ Nightmare
♫ NФA
♫ Nodo of Scherzo ❤❤
♫ Noir Fleurir
♫ Onmyouza ❤
♫ PANIC☆ch
♫ PARFAIT
♫ Phantasmagoria
♫ Plastic Tree ❤
♫ Polysics
♫ Rentrer en Soi
♫ Rodwell ❤❤
♫ the Romeo
♫ the Royal Dead
♫ SADS
♫ SID
♫ Tokyo Michael
♫ Unsraw
♫ UVERworld
♫ Versailles
♫ Vidoll ❤
♫ Villain
♫ Viored

This Wordpress Blog is in no way a diary, as that is not on Wordpress.  This is a Blog where I will discuss bands, trends, concerts i go to and fandoms... OH MY GOD Fandoms, the bitching, the ranting, the elitists and the teenagers who believe anyone a day over 19 is old and decrepit, and as such doesn't deserve to live and is not worthy of music.

With this, let me bid you good day and let's begin this journey.

My son  - 10 -  is a picky eater.  He will eat....

Any advice gratefully received

Answer:

• We became this way at a very young age...in infancy or before 2 or 3 years old
• We would rather starve than try a bite of something we find offensive
• We are almost all super-tasters (doctors can do a simple test to determine if someone is a super-taster, and a google search will give a couple of at home tests that can be performed). Supertasters have been proven to be excessively sensitive to a substance in vegetables that makes them taste bitter...extremely so to most supertasters (like myself)
• Many foods that others perceive normally, we often don't see as being food (example, some view a plate of spaghetti as look like a plate of worms, or peppercorn bacon as bacon that has been sprinkled with dirt, or a salad as a bowl of tree leaves).  Since our brain doesn't process the item as food, we have a strong repulsion to the idea of eating that food, just like most "normal" people would have an aversion to eating sticks, grass, and other non-food substances
• We often have an extreme sensitivity to textures and often shut out a food we normally like if the texture is different (i.e. someone won't eat mashed potatoes [mushy] even though they will eat potato chips [crunchy]) Pickyness lasts beyond a few years. Most toddlers go through a picky stage, which they will eventually grow out of.
• Diets are extremely limited, beyond the normal picky kid phase. For instance, they might only eat one brand of bread or peanut butter, and will be able to tell the difference if you try to trick them
• Often have extremely sensitive gag reflexes, and will gag if forced to try a food that he/she does not like

This is just a sample of things that usually define most of us...especially when we were children.  Below I will give a few suggestions:

Some of us have a disorder called Sensory Integration dysfunction.  You can also do a Google search on this to find out a bit more information, but to give you a basic summary, people with this can either be hyper or hypo-sensitive.  Most of us are hyper-sensitive if we have the dysfunction.  The basic definition is that your senses work correctly, but your brain processes them incorrectly.

Touch: may have an extremely difficult time wearing shirts with tags, or socks with seams because it hurts or feels weird. Also texture of foods would fall into this category
Sound: Extreme sensitivity to noises
Taste: Dislike of foods with strong tastes
Smell: Can smell things that others cannot smell
Sight: Sensitivity to light and colors

If you suspect your son might have this disorder, you would need to seek help from an Occupational Therapist. Some studies have shown that kids who get treatment for this can get a little better, but diagnosis and therapy before a child is 5 is where it seems to be most helpful. After that point, it doesn't seem to work as well.

Outside of this, I cannot offer a whole lot of help if your desire is to cure your son of this.  What we tell parents is most important is that you accept and love your child despite this condition.  Understand that for those of us with the disorder, no environmental factor could have helped us.  One study was done on identical twins separated at birth and both, despite being raised by separate sets of parents, turned out to be picky eaters. Others studies too, are starting to find that this condition is a genetic one.  Force feeding and other punishments seem to only make the problem worse, and serve to give the child psychological problems with food as well.

We suggest that you offer the child a wide range of foods, but allow him to eat as he chooses, making sure that there is always an acceptable food to him on the table.  Do not make any issue out of what the child does or does not eat.  If there is a food similar to a food your child already likes, you might attempt to offer him a similar food, making sure it is similar in taste and texture that he already likes. Try to become good at explaining tastes and textures to your child so you can attempt this, but again, don't make a huge deal out of it if he will not try it and especially if he doesn't like it after trying it.

Socially, it is important for you to stick up for your child, especially to parents who try to force feed him and make a huge deal of things. We have all felt the social stigma of this eating disorder, but somehow have managed to get through years of thinking we were the only ones.  Now, with a group that has reached nearly 2000 members, we know we aren't the only ones. And we are certain that this is just the tip of the iceberg. The Food Network shot a segment of us this past weekend, and once that show airs, we are certain of reaching thousands more. Eventually, we want to get this disorder studied and classified so that maybe people will stop being so overly sensitive about how we eat. It will also give parents a way to tell others why their child eats a certain way and hopefully a way of not feeling so guilty for the way their child eats.

I would also like to note that almost all of the members on our site are relatively healthy...at least as healthy as our non-picky peers. We often don't get common illnesses as often as those around us. Almost all of us are brilliant in some capacity (extremely smart or gifted). And we are in general all extremely successful at life.  We have also found members who have lived well into their 80s and 90s with no real health problems, despite an extremely limited diet.

Ultimately, I would encourage you to join our forum. We do have other parents of picky eaters on there, and an entire section devoted to parents of picky eaters.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask me and I will do my best to answer them.

Jessica

C

Komplexe und rundenbasierte Strategiespiele a la Civilization sind
normalerweise eher auf dem heimischen PC zu finden. Begründen kann man dies vor allem dadurch, dass sich Strategiespiele besser mit einer Maus und Tastatur spielen lassen. Die Entwicklerlegende Sid Meier wollte aber endlich mal das Gegenteil beweisen und bringt nun Civilization Revolution, einen konsolenexklusvien Strategiekracher, auf den Markt. Laut eigener Aussage handelt es sich bei diesem Titel sogar um den besten Civilization Teil den er je gemacht hat. Ob man seiner Aussage allerdings glauben schenken darf, zeigt die folgende Review.

Das Spielprinzip von Civilization Revolution ist zwar simple, aber dafür extrem suchtgefährdend. Ziel ist es das eigene Volk zur mächtigsten Weltmacht zu machen. Hierbei stehen dem Spieler 16 verschiedene Völker zur Auswahl. Unter anderem stehen die Germanen, die Ägypter, die Chinese und sogar die Japaner zur Verfügung. Natürlich braucht das Volk aber auch einen passenden Führer und so wird jedes Land von einer historischen Person zum Sieg geführt. Alexander der Große leitet zum Beispiel die Griechen, während die Inder von Gandhi angeführt werden. Insgesamt werden vier verschiedene Zeitepochen gespielt. Die Antike, das Mittelalter, das Industriezeitalter und zum Schluss die Moderne. Das Gameplay erinnert an Brettspiele wie zum Beispiel Risiko. Rundenbasiert müssen Einheiten bewegt, Gebäude erbaut und Technologien erforscht werden. Es gibt vier Wege den Sieg zu erlangen, nämlich den Herrschaftssieg (sämtliche gegnerischen Völker besiegen), den Kultursieg (z.B. 20 Weltwunder erbauen), den Wirtschaftssieg (20.000 Gold erwirtschaften) und zu guter letzt den Technologiesieg (als erstes Volk ein Raumschiff bauen). Vor allem bei dem Technologiesieg fällt einem recht schnell auf, dass hier im Vergleich zu den PC-Teilen deutlich Abstriche gemacht worden sind. Die Spielwelten sind kleiner, es stehen weniger Gebäude und Einheiten zur Auswahl und überhaupt wurde vieles vereinfacht. Sid Meier wollte das Spiel für Konsolenbesitzer zugänglicher und einsteigerfreundlicher machen. Dies ist ihm zwar voll und ganz gelungen, aber gerade Civilization Veteranen dürften dadurch etwas unterfordert sein. Trotz allem spielt und steuert sich das Spiel nahezu perfekt mit dem Controller. Maus und Tastatur geraten schon nach kurzer Zeit in Vergessenheit. Eine Partie dauert aufgrund des etwas schnelleren Spielverlaufs maximal drei Stunden, dies schwangt aber je nachdem welcher Schwierigkeitsgrad gewählt wurde. Bei Einstiegern ist zudem eine Eingewöhnungszeit von ca. einer Stunde zu empfehlen. Danach dürfte es aber keine Probleme mehr geben. Sollten die normalen Partien zu langweilig werden, hat der Spieler außerdem die Möglichkeit zehn verschiedene Szenarien aus der Geschichte nachzuspielen. Des weiteren besitzt Civilization Revolution einen hervorragenden Onlinemodus mit bis zu vier Spielern. Mit Ausnahme von leichten Lags läuft das Spiel absolut flüssig im Internet und vielleicht darf man sogar mit neuen, herunterladbaren Szenarien oder anderen Spielinhalten rechnen.

Grafisch wurde Civilization Revolution sehr sauber umgesetzt, setzt aber keine neuen Maßstäbe. Die ganze Spielewelt ist liebevoll und farbenfroh erstellt worden und die Übersicht geht auch niemals verloren. Besonders hervorzuheben sind allerdings das comicartige Charakterdesign (welches allerdings nicht jeden ansprechen dürfte) und die großartigen Animationen. Aber auch die Licht- und Wassereffekte können sich wahrlich sehen lassen. Trotz allem gibt es aber auch Schattenseiten zu sehen. So kommt es manchmal zu leichten Ruckeleinlagen und Grafikfehlern und insgesamt hätte Civilization Revolution auch etwas mehr Details verdient gehabt. Aber gerade im Vergleich zu anderen Strategietiteln geht die grafische Umsetzung vollkommen in Ordnung. Akkustisch erfüllt das Spiel leider nur seinen Zweck. Die musikalische Untermalung ist schön stimmig, wiederholt sich aber leider ständig und auf eine Sprachausgabe wurde komplett verzichtet. Stattdessen verwenden alle Charaktere ein Sims-ähnliches Geblubber welches auf Dauer leider doch etwas nervtötend ist.

Fazit:
Civilization Revolution ist ein sehr gelungenes Strategiespiel geworden, welches sich vom Großteil der PC-Konkurrenz nicht fürchten muss. Dennoch zieht es gerade im Vergleich zu den PC-Teilen der Civilization Reihe etwas den kürzeren. Zumindest wenn man ein erfahrener Spieler der Reihe ist. Denn um den Titel auf der Konsole zugänglicher zu machen wurde er vereinfacht und in Punkto Komplexität etwas heruntergeschraubt. Was aber auch einige Vorteile mit sich bringt. Dadurch ist Civilization Revolution nämlich gerade für Genreneulinge so zugänglich wie kein anderes Strategiespiel. Man kann Sid Meier nicht oft genug loben, denn Civilization Revolution wurde nahezu perfekt auf die Konsole umgesetzt und bringt gerade in Bezug auf die Steuerung keinerlei Nachteile mit sich. Technisch wurde das Spiel sehr sauber, wenn auch alles andere als weltbewegend umgesetzt und am nötigen Umfang mangelt es natürlich auch nicht. Sollte man das Spiel bereits mit allen Völkern absolviert haben, bleibt einem ja noch ein hervorragender Multiplayermodus sowie spannende Szenarien. Abschließend kann man Civilization Revolution wirklich jedem empfehlen, der sich auch nur im geringsten für rundenbasierte Strategiespiele interessiert. Mit Sicherheit das bislang beste Strategiespiel, das für Konsolen erhältlich ist!

To take your "Good" pick... Click on the Manifesto

Coping strategies for dental procedures for highly sensitive individuals

Introduction
When it comes to health care, few aspects are as problematic for individuals with heightened physical sensitivities, especially those on the Autistic Spectrum and with Asperger’s Syndrome (“AS”). I, myself have had considerable sensory issues, from childhood into adulthood, and I’ve “been through the ringer” many times with the dentist. Fortunately, I’ve developed a number of coping strategies and mechanisms, and by trial-and-error, I’ve figured out how to visit the dentist successfully and persevere through even the most trying procedures.

I have written this work in hopes of shedding some light on the ubiquitous and mysterious conundrum of ASI’s and their extreme difficulties with the dentist. The coming pages explore this issue through the lens of my own personal sensory and social experiences, as a 43 year-old woman on the Asperger’s end of the Autistic Spectrum, who has both experienced and overcome lifelong difficulties with dentists.

It is my hope that this work may shed light on common (but often unrecognized) sensory issues which are often particular to AS, show the significant part these play in further complicating what is already a difficult process (whether you’re autistic or neurotypical). Believe me, you/we are not alone! And NT parents of AS kids, please note: We’re not deliberately trying to thwart your attempts to get us the best dental care possible. We’re just very special people with extreme sensitivities which aren’t (yet) particularly well understood. And those issues can make going to the dentist nothing short of torture.

Personal Background
I am a 43-year-old Aspie woman with lifelong, chronic sensory issues, who has always had real problems with the dentist. Fortunately, I tend to be pretty obsessive-compulsive, when it comes to my daily dental care. When I’m nervous, I soothe by brushing my teeth. And I’m very careful with how I brush (I used to work with a guy who was even more OCD than I, and he brushed his teeth so hard, he wore the enamel off and had to have them all bonded -- the thought of that doesn’t appeal to me in the least, so I’m very careful when I brush!). I also chill out in the evenings by flossing while I’m relaxing after a long day. So, I manage to soothe my frazzled nerves and take care of my teeth at the same time, which is great for avoiding painful dental procedures.

I absolutely detest getting my teeth cleaned and worked on. I can be so phobic about it, I go to great lengths to avoid the dentist, both by canceling my dentist appointments, and by being so conscientious about brushing and flossing that I get the seal of approval from my dentist every year. They are continuously amazed at how well I take care of my teeth, and they begrudgingly tell me that I probably don’t need to come every six months to get my teeth cleaned. They hate telling me that, but it’s the truth.

When I do visit the dentist and I need to have a tooth filled or a crown put on, I’ve developed some coping strategies that let me stay in the chair for however long I have to, and keep from losing my mind. It wasn’t always that way. I used to really “lose it” and suffer for hours afterwards, even days. Going to the dentist used to exhaust me so terribly, I’d be in shock and all I could do was sleep, after I got home. Now I have my ways of dealing with it, and I’ll share them with you shortly.

Others are not so lucky to have good coping skills, unfortunately. A close friend of mine is so sensitive and so phobic about the dentist that she neglected her teeth for years, and she’s now paying the price. She’s got to get lots of fillings replaced, have multiple root canals, and she may lose some of her teeth to a bridge. She’s also missing a tooth in the back of her mouth, which she hasn’t had replaced by a bridge or an implant, and now her teeth are “floating” out of position, which is not good, because she’s a voice actress, and she needs to have good enunciation to get work.

Bad teeth are a bad problem for her, and her problems have their root in her sensitivities, her fears, and her history of trauma with the dentist. The thing about your teeth though, is that -- like we imagine about other problems -- if we ignore them, they’ll just go away. But if you want to keep your teeth (or you want your kids to keep theirs), figuring out how to go to the dentist is an essential coping skill that you really can’t avoid cultivating -- unless you don’t care about bad teeth.

Why It’s So Hard for Some of Us
Going to the dentist isn’t pure living hell for everyone. I don’t know anyone who enjoys it, but not everyone sees it as the life-and-death situation that some of us dread. I’m one of those people who, for years, had a terrible time even thinking about the dentist. But there’s a reason for everything.

Those annual visits were particularly hard for me because:
The sounds of getting my teeth worked on was very hard to take. I think it’s safe to say, everybody hates the sound of a dentist drill. I can’t imagine anyone who does (other than the drill-makers who delight in the sound of their products being used). It wasn’t just when I was in the chair, that it bothered me -- it was hearing the drill in the background, while I was sitting in the waiting room, dreading the thought of being the person in the chair.

I never knew for sure, if the drill would be used on me, which was nerve-wracking. It’s one thing, if I knew something horrible was going to happen. Then I could prepare for it. But not knowing was probably the hardest piece.

One of the other problems was, not only the drill made noise. Everything in the dentist office made noise. The cleaning apparatus, the little spittoon that had the blue water that swirled my spittle and blood down the drain, the x-ray machine, the sound of implements being arranged and re-arranged. The cleaning apparatus sounded a lot like a drill, too, when it got going, so I had a lot of bad associations with it, even though I knew that getting my teeth cleaned was not the same as having them drilled and filled.

One of the other sounds that really bothered me was the sound of the cleaning pick on my teeth. The scratchy grinding of the metal against my teeth.... well, put my teeth on edge. I hate the sound of hard things scraping against my teeth (including wooden popsicle sticks), so the sound of the cleaning pick was pretty distracting and troublesome. Imagine having someone sit you down, forbid you from moving, and force you to listen to fingernails on a chalkboard for an hour, and you’ll get a little bit of an idea of what it’s like for some of us. But I had to put up with the sound, so my teeth would be clean.
Another problem I had was with sitting still for an extended period of time. When you have sensory issues, it can be next to impossible to sit still. I personally need to move to relieve the sensory agitation, and “move the energy” that gets “blocked” like a flowing river stopped up. I was pretty hyper when I was a kid, which I believe was sensory in nature -- directly related to my surroundings. Being assailed by the noises of the room and not being able to move, to calm my nerves, was just torture.

Now, I was actually able to keep still, when I was a kid. But the only thing that did it was the fear of being cut or nicked by a sharp implement. It wasn’t pleasant, feeling like I was under constant threat, but it did the job. Also, I grew up in a time and a place that was very discipline-oriented, and most adults had no problems with correcting badly behaving children. So, my dentist was often stern with me and insisted I sit still. I think that a more lenient approach would not have worked with me. And operating in a parented environment like today’s, when permissiveness and acceptance is much more widespread, would not have helped me to sit still.

I could also never tell exactly when the cleaning would be over, which made me crazy. I could sit still for a while, if I knew when I was going to be able to move, but being locked in place for an indeterminate period of time was torture. Again, I was reprimanded by the dentist or hygienist, if I moved, so I knew what I was supposed to do. And I did my best to do it.

Blood in my mouth and blood on my clothing made me very uncomfortable. The experience of spitting out blood into the spittoon made me really nervous. It defied my logic. In the first place, my mind told me that blood belonged inside your body, not outside. Bleeding was a sign that something was wrong. And if I was spitting out blood, then something was wrong, and the dentist/hygienist was doing something bad to me.

Bleeding was bad.

People who made you bleed were bad.

People who made a living from making you bleed were not to be trusted.

People who brought me to the people who made you bleed for a living were punishing me for something, but for exactly what, I was never sure.

It was pretty rough to sit there and submit to what I perceived to be mistreatment at the hands of people my mother handed me over to.

Ultimately, I learned to differentiate between intentionally making people bleed for fun, and having bleeding be incidental to a necessary procedure. Eventually, I learned about necessary evils and how to tolerate them for the sake of long-term gain. But it was pretty rough, when I was a kid, trying to get my head around the experience of dentist visits. It just didn’t make sense that my mother, who loved me, made me go to them.

Only when I was in my teens did it occur to me that bleeding while getting dental work done might be good. I learned that bleeding is the body’s way of cleaning out wounds, and I came to associate some (but not all) types of bleeding with a positive physical action. So, that helped me cope emotionally with the normally distressing experience of spitting out blood.

One thing that was really troubling for me, too, was getting blood on my clothing. I couldn’t always hit the spittoon properly -- I was disoriented and dizzy (which I’ll talk about in a bit), and I would sometimes get blood on my clothing. I hated that! The little red specks on my clothing made me so uncomfortable, both as a reminder of what I’d been through, and because they could stain. Blood spots were messy. Messy made me nervous.

It took me years to figure out how to keep the blood off my clothing. I was a real klutz when I was a kid, but as I matured, my balance and coordination improved.

The taste and texture of the toothpaste was a problem for me. I hated the feel of the grainy texture on my teeth, and the taste of it bothered me. Eventually, I came to associate the taste with clean teeth, and it became actually agreeable to me. But years later, when they started having different flavors available for kids, that made me nervous, because I associated sweet flavors with a) sugar and b) artificial flavorings, both of which I was convinced were “bad”.

I had a strong fear of swallowing the toothpaste. In my young mind, I associated the toothpaste with medicine, and I got it into my head that swallowing the toothpaste would be a very bad thing. I was so on-edge when the toothpaste would come close to the back of my mouth, where I might swallow it. But I couldn’t move to rinse it out, because the dentist/hygienist had to work on me. It was so nerve-wracking!

Years later, it occurred to me that a dentist probably wouldn’t have toothpaste that was toxic or poisonous, or that couldn’t be safely swallowed, at least in small amounts. If that were the case, I reasoned, a lot of people would be dead, and dentists would be put out of business by lawsuits. So, I convinced myself that swallowing toothpaste would not be the end of the world.

I didn’t deliberately swallow it, but taking the pressure off made it easier for me to relax -- and avoid ingesting any of the paste.

I was desperately afraid of choking. I always have been. Some Aspies have real problems with swallowing, and I had some issues when I was a kid. When I went swimming, I often accidentally inhaled or swallowed water, and it completely freaked me out. So, I associated having a mouth full of uncontrollable liquid with the feeling of drowning.

Being in the dentist chair, I had a hard time coordinating all my senses, to begin with, so controlling my swallowing reflex was even harder. Sometimes, I literally couldn’t feel whether or not the rinse was going down my throat, and that really frightened me. When you’ve nearly choked often enough, you start to get a complex about possibly having something go down the wrong pipe.

The lights were too bright. Of course, dentists have to have enough light to see what they’re doing, but for me, it was too much light. That spotlight was supposed to be bright, but it was blinding, and it made it even more difficult to keep my balance and keep from choking on the rinse.

I hated having that overhead light lowered down to point right in my face — very glaring! I can get sensorily overwhelmed even more quickly, if bright light is combined with loud sounds and strong smells, so the dentist chair was not a friendly place for me. It was just so overwhelming. There was no escaping it... Bright lights overhead, the sound of equipment and drills and machinery, the smell of toothpaste and medical supplies...

It was almost too much at times.

Being injured for days afterwards completely threw off my everyday sensory experience. Having nicks and cuts in my mouth complicated things, because it distracted me from my daily sensory experience. It was a new physical sensation my mind has to “parse” each moment of each day, until the injuries heal up. It’s bad enough that I get nicked and cut and bloody while I’m at the dentist, but then to have to go through days of this “sensory background noise” of constant sensitivity and pain, is disorienting and agitating. I’ve since learned to deal with this... it’s really been a learned thing for me, as I’ve gained life experience with having a sore mouth after dentist visits, and I’ve learned how to handle it. But when I was young, it was so hard for me to handle the feeling of cuts in my mouth.

I was afraid that I’d infect them, or they wouldn’t heal. It really hurt me! But I didn’t let on, because I didn’t want to worry my parents. I’d made their lives difficult enough with my problems. I didn’t want to burden them with more.

I hated being leaned back in that chair. Sitting absolutely still in the chair was hard for me. The longer I was in the chair and the longer the cleaning or procedure lasted, the harder it got. I felt like I was going to fall over, and I was afraid I’d be cut by the dental implements. I was intent on holding still, but I was so distracted by the feel of my teeth being worked on, that I often felt nauseous. I literally felt sick, whenever I was leaned back in that awful chair, forced to look into the light.

When I’m off balance, to this day, I have to hold my head a certain way in order to feel right again — but moving my head this way and that was definitely not what the dentist wanted me to do. I remember many an exclamation of frustration and consternation, when I would move at just the wrong time, and the dentist would lose his/her angle and would have to start again.

It also made taking x-rays tough, when I couldn’t hold still long enough for them to position the film or take the shot. I remember some times when I messed up the shot and they had to try again... or I’d be in such pain and discomfort from the film holder digging into my sensitive gums. It couldn’t be over soon enough, and I dreaded the thought of getting x-rays.

Nobody seemed to understand what I was going through. Indeed, if you don’t have balance and/or sensory issues, it’s probably next to impossible to grasp the impact that such instability has on your head, your attention, your stomach. Just imagine what it would be like to ride a tilt-a-whirl for three hours, then get off and have someone tell you that you have to sit up straight and hold absolutely still for half an hour, or you’ll be cut with sharp scissors and/or end up looking really awful. That’s what it was like for me. But whenever I tried to adjust my head to regain my balance, I’d get out of position, and whoever was working on my teeth would get very upset with me. I couldn’t help it — I was just trying to stay upright. And not throw up.

I also had trouble coordinating my physical position with a mouth full of liquid -- that was very troubling. There was something about having to concentrate on not choking on what was in my mouth that made it hard for me to sense the space around me, which threw my sense of balance off.

The talking made me nervous. First of all, I couldn’t respond well, if my mouth was numbed. And second, I couldn’t really understand what was being said, because my thinking was so focused on keeping my sensory experience together. It took me a while to figure out a) that someone was talking to me, b) what they were saying, c) what it meant (I had to translate into pictures in my head), d) how I should respond, e) what I should say (I had to translate the pictures in my head back into words, and f) if what I’d said was the right thing.

Talking was usually at a minimum at the dentist, but when it happened, it was important, so the pressure was even greater for me to communicate, which I couldn’t do very well. It was all I could, to just sit still, let alone come up with a coherent verbal response.

And that, dear reader, is a relatively brief overview of the sensory challenges this Aspie kid had with going to the dentist. There have been times when I’ve toyed with the idea of having all my teeth extracted and just having dentures, but in reality, that’s the last thing I want to do!

Fortunately, I’ve figure out some ways to deal with the dentist, and I’ll share them now.

Dental Coping Ideas from Aspie-Land

Getting through even the most “routine” dental procedure takes a pretty strong act of will with me, but I can do it. I have to do it.

I’ve developed a set of specific, deliberate physical actions with my tongue, and I have a special breathing technique that really works. It suppresses my gag reflex, keeps me from choking, and (perhaps most importantly), it keeps my mind off the sounds of the drill and/or the cleaning pick. It also lets me feel that I have some control in the situation, which is an important psychological aspect of each visit.

How do I do it?

Basically, I position my tongue, so that it’s pressed against the back of my throat and flat on the floor of my mouth, I breathe loudly through my nose, and I make a conscious effort to either relax specific parts of my body, or I hold onto the arms of the chair and “stim” along the seams of the upholstery.

Here’s a picture of what I do, with my mouth and my breathing:

Using my Tongue to Suppress my Gag Reflex and Gain Control
The specific, deliberate physical action of pulling my tongue to the back of my throat and pressed to the floor of my mouth not only keeps my mind off the whine of the drill and the scraping of the cleaning pick, but it also gives me a greater sense of control in the situation.

How do you do it?

Pull your tongue to the back of your mouth, pressing it against your epiglottis (that little dangly thing that hangs down in the middle of your throat). You should feel a “wad” of tongue against the back of your mouth. Now, at the same time, press your tongue flat to the floor of your mouth. You should feel the tip of your tongue making contact with the thin line of membrane that runs under your tongue, connecting your tongue with the bottom of your mouth.

It might seem simple, but this basic action achieves a number of important things for me when I have to endure a trip to the dentist:

First, it blocks off my throat and blocks the way for any liquid to go into my airpipe. Remember, some Aspies have problems swallowing, and with me, I’ve always had an intense fear of drowning and/or choking.
Second, it keeps my tongue away from the machinery, so I don’t get nicked or cut. It also keeps my tongue from interfering with the sharp implements, so I’m not getting in the way of the hygienist or dentist while they’re working. Again, the more my tics and physical responses get in the way of the people who are working on me, the longer my agony lasts. So, keeping my tongue pulled to the back of my mouth lets me participate in the procedure as an equal partner who is involved, not some poor dweeb who is just being put upon.

Third, it gives me a single point of physical focus, on which I can put my full attention.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, it gives me the sense that I am in control of my situation, and that I am able to keep myself from gagging, even choking or drowning in the “runoff” from the cleaning/procedure.

Holding my tongue firmly against the back of my mouth and blocking off the fluid runoff from entering my airpipe is probably the most important thing I can do to relieve the anxiety of being in the dentists chair. If I do nothing else through the course of my visit, if I can manage to do this -- and if I do it well -- I can get out of the office in one piece without being completely wrecked.

Try it and see how it makes you feel -- maybe you can try this with your sensitive kid and practice it with them... when you’re driving in the car, or a trip to the dentist comes to mind. You might also want to practice doing it with your sensitive kid(s)... maybe when you’re on long car trips and you’ve run out of things to do. Make it into a game, make it fun, and help them practice this move. It’s a simple thing, but like I said, it offers me a whole lot. Like sanity.

Nasal Breathing
The other part of this is a technique I call “nasal breathing” -- it basically makes a lot of noise in my nasal passages while I’m breathing. While my tongue is pulled to the back of my mouth, pressed against my epiglottis, and held down low, out of reach of the cleaning/filling tools, I focus my attention on breathing through my nose. I breathe very slowly and I do it in such a way that it’s actually quite loud. Remember, I have constricted my tongue in the rear of my mouth, and I also constrict my nasal passages.

When I usually breathe, most of the “action” takes place inside my nose, and it’s quiet. When I inhale, I feel and hear it in the front of my nostrils. When I do nasal breathing, I focus my attention on the breath at the back of my nose, and in my nasal passages, and I breathe slowly while “constricting” (I don’t actually know if it’s possible to do that or not) my nasal passages and causing the air to make a rasping, rushing sound as it passes through.

I also count my breaths and take them very slowly -- 1 - 2 - 3 - 4... and release them very slowly -- 1 - 2 - 3 - 4.

This nasal breathing gives me something else to hear (that’s closer and more immediate) than the drill or pick, and it’s totally controlled by me. If I do it right and I put my full focus on my nasal breathing, I can all but block out the sound of the drill.

Conscious Relaxation
While I’m focusing my attention on my breathing and keeping my tongue in position, I can still get tense. My body has a mind of its own, sometimes, and no matter how engaged my mind is in keeping my tongue and breathing “just right”, I can still become physically uptight, so I need to consciously address that, too.

I focus on specific parts of my body to relax, like my feet and legs. My feet are good candidates for relaxation, because I can actually move them a little without making the person who’s working on me slip and injure me. I wiggle my toes to remind myself they’re still there, then I consciously relax them... and work my way up my body, from toes to feet to ankles to shins to knees to thighs... I’m usually so focused on my tongue and my breathing that I don’t have a lot of attention left over for my feet, but sometimes I have to focus on relaxing them, because I’m getting so tense, and I have to do something else with my brain for a while.

Stimming Relief
In a pinch, if all else fails, I find it helps to hold onto the arms of the chair and “stim” along the seams of the upholstery. I run my fingers along the bumpy edge of the seams, and I press my fingertips against the very end of the arms of the chair. Sometimes it alarms the hygienist or the dentist, but I reassure them that I’m fine. Also, they can see, from whether or not I’m stimming on the chair arm, if I’m getting agitated and taxed, and sometimes they’ll take a break. That’s a relief.

The Bottom Line
Visiting the dentist can be particularly difficult for highly sensitive folks and people on the Autistic Spectrum. But there are ways that I’ve found I can mitigate the effects of dental trauma, and keep my teeth in fine working order. My approaches are based on the assumption that even with hyper-sensitive sensory faculties, my brain can’t necessarily do everything at once, so if I deliberately focus myself on a sensation/experience of my choosing, I can “block out” the necessary evil of dentist visits. It’s taken me 40+ years to figure this out completely, but I now know that if I’m totally, wholly focused with all my undivided attention on one specific set of experiences, I can get through a trip to the dentist in one piece.

This approach has worked for me, many times. I continue to improve (and I continue to procrastinate and cancel dentist appointments, which is a really bad habit of mine that I need to break). But when I cannot avoid the dentist anymore, at least I have some coping mechanisms that help me get through that odious experience in one piece.

In Conclusion
I hope this brief work has given you a sense of what some of us Aspies go through at the dentist. I hope it heightens your sensitivity around what drives us over the edge, and what may help you and/or your Aspie kid to visit the dentist as regularly as possible.

In the end, I believe that we all have our “stuff” we need to get through… our challenges, our shortcomings, our foibles, our hurdles. Just because some of us have traumatic difficulties with the dentist doesn’t mean we’re crazy or deliberately trying to sabotage our health and well-being — we’re just really, really sensitive and we require different strategies to be successful.

Acknowledgments

Tremendous thanks goes to Temple Grandin for her amazing contributions to our understanding of sensory issues on the Autistic Spectrum. I've never met her, but her work has truly changed my life.

Olga Bogdashina deserves a big Thank You, as well, for her groundbreaking work on sensory issues among Asperger’s and Autistic individuals. She’s done us all a tremendous service in helping us understand the physicality of the Autistic Spectrum.

Thanks also goes to my friends and family who have persisted in loving and accepting me, through all the ups and downs over the years -- many of which I can directly trace back to sensory issues.

Thanks also goes to N and Dr. R, my hygienist and dentist in the Big City, who was the first individual sensitive and sensible enough to not rush me through my dentist visits. I'm forever grateful to you both.

But most of all, thanks Mom, for hanging in there with me and making sure I visited the dentist regularly, when I was in your care. Thanks for being as resourceful and dedicated as you were, dealing with a conundrum like myself. I know it wasn’t easy, but it did pay off!

Note: This paper was begun in response to a post over at Aspergers World.

This paper is freely available for download at visualvox.wordpress.com. No payment is required.

Now, a bunch of things come to mind, when I read this.

The first is, Why is this considered a "sensory diet" that needs to be specifically detailed to parents? I thought that's just how kids were/are supposed to occupy themselves when they're kids!

I mean, seriously - why is this a plan of action that is called out as something special, something artificial? Why is this something that is seen as out of the ordinary? When I was a kid, this is just what we did -- we played plenty of "Chase Games" like tag, follow-the-leader, obstacle courses, red light/green light, and running races. And we played plenty of "Exercise Games" like Simon Says, creating and running through obstacle courses, and singing "If You're Happy & You Know It". And we didn't need a trained expert to "instruct" us how to do it.

Am I the only one who thinks that this "professionalized" approach is a bit silly? For people who are too busy to tend to their children and are eager to plop them down in front of the television or the DVD player or the computer, it might be necessary to detail exactly why kids need to play games like this, but it's a sad, sad commentary on modern American life, when parents and adults need to be explicitly told to create conditions in which their kids can play tag, follow-the-leader, and red light/green light.

I really think there's something in kids that instinctively knows what they/we need, in order to mature and grow up strong. When I was a kid, we instinctively did jumping jacks, stretching, situps and pullups, tumbling/head stands, balance beam, standing on one leg, and wheelbarrow. We didn't need "guidance from an occupational therapist or other individual who is experienced with sensory integration." We just did it. We ran around and played. We raced each other and tested our physical limits and worked our tumbling and balancing into the course of our play. We skipped rope. We climbed, we jumped, we did all sorts of things that kids apparently don't do anymore, unless they're specifically ordered to do so by trained professionals or parents who have been coached by experts.

How did we get to this place? How did the domain of child's play become the exclusive domain of qualified and certified professionals? I have no doubt that the work authors who describe in detail (for overwhelmed adult minds) the tangible benefits of kids just being kids has made a contribution to the developmental health and well-being of lots of challenged kids. But what the hell is up with parents, that they need to be explicitly told that their kids need to play at, physically and socially, in order to develop properly?

WTF?

The next thing that comes to mind is, Holy smokes, the top part really describes me to a "t" when I was a kid. I wonder if my parents knew/noticed any of this stuff.

It's really interesting to think back about how I was when I was growing up -- really hyper and hard to control, and sensitive on top of it. And when I look at the list of issues kids can have:

* being extremely silly and unresponsive - CHECK
* laughing uncontrollably - CHECK
* losing control of his/her body--getting extremely limp and/or clumsy - CHECK
* becoming either hyper- or hypo-sensitive to pain and other physical stimuli - CHECK
* getting aggressive--pinching or spitting, usually in a taunting, almost maniacal way - CHECK
* humming and clicking while wandering around aimlessly - ??? could very well be

All of this stuff just fits me so well, except for maybe the last one, which I don't really recall. Not that it would have been unlike me. I was an "unusual" child, to say the least, and I probably would have considered wandering around aimlessly while humming to myself to be quite a useful and productive use of time - no joke.

When I look at the list of Sensory Processing Disorder symptoms over at http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/sensory-processing-disorder-checklist.html, I'm really struck by how well a lot of them fit me, and how well they fit my mother. Whoah. This puts Mom's behavior in a whole new light.

The problem when I was growing up was that she was on the opposite end of the spectrum than I -- she was hypo-sensitive and sensation-seeking (like the proverbial bull in a china shop, always loud and high-contact and rough and not very good at figuring out physical boundaries, etc., etc.), while I on the other hand was hyper-sensitive and I had really bad reactions to touch and being pushed and pulled and treated like some rag doll.

It's so wild to think about this, now -- it really puts things in perspective. And it makes me a lot less angry with her.

It puts my whole family into perspective, in fact. My siblings had issues. I had issues. We all had issues.

And my parents made sure we grew up in an environment where we had a "rich sensory diet". But I'm not sure they were consciously aware of all this. I don't think my mother really understood the nature and the impact of her behavior -- she still doesn't, from what I can tell. My dad did things, too, that tied in with "sensory richness", like building a hanging bar for us kids to play on, and always encouraging (and pushing) me to test my physical balance limits, like with my skateboard.

Mom and Dad did appear to do things instinctively to address my issues, such as spinning me around and making sure I was always physically active and encouraging me to do lots of things that developed my balance and coordination. I was a dorky kid, with a lot of problems balancing, and I have distinct memories of my parents -- especially my mother -- going to great lengths to get me to participate in activities that would help me develop those. But I'm not sure they consciously chose or planned to do these things. It wasn't like they had a formula for making sure we kids developed adequate proprioceptive and vestibular viability. It wasn't like they consulted with experts about how best to address my sensory processing dysfunction.

At least, I don't think so. It could be that they did talk to child psychologists and what-not, and they just hid their methods from me (which wasn't hard to do, when I was an innocent and all-but-clueless kid). Mom did have a copy of "Dr. Spock" around, and she consulted it a lot, but so much of what my parents did, other parents in our area did for their kids, as well. It was just how things were done in the world I grew up in.

This part of my post dovetails nicely with the first part -- that is, what is up with parents today, and why do they need to have these things explicitly told to them?

This really, really puzzles me. Is it because there has been so much emphasis put on "professionalization" in the past 50 years (since the USA rose to a position of global domination and the parallel veritable explosion of higher education and proliferation of specialists), that we as a society are invested in our experts? Is it because we as a society have put so many of our eggs in the basket of developing "professional expertise" that we're now obligated to dip into the pool of professional knowledge, in order to do anything, anymore? Have we become so enamored of our "advancement" that we've made it all but impossible to live our lives? I smell the scent of another extended blog post, for another time... but the burning question with regard to this issue within the context of this post, is, are parents so dependent on professionals for guidance, that they are afraid to just parent? And are they so distanced from the varieties of life (sitting in their homogenized cubicles in their standards-driven office environments), that they fear even the slightest deviation from "normality", as it's defined by the qualified professionals of the day?

Seriously, when I look at the organizations dedicated to stamping out the "autism epidemic," I'm struck by the corporate backgrounds of these individuals. How many of the folks sitting on the boards and doing the research have actually experienced what it's like to be outside the acceptable range of "normal" behavior and human experience? Where's the diversity? I wonder. The unfamiliar makes people afraid. Fear makes people do rash things. Fear makes people start and/or send money to organizations and initiatives that promise to relieve their fear.

I think one of the big reasons that my own parents could create situations where I was active and had the chance to develop coordination and balance, was that they themselves have sensory processing issues, themselves and they grew up in an environment where sensory issues and autistic spectrum behaviors and tendencies were/are actually a "regular" part of life.

Anybody who says that autism is a "new" epidemic has never spent time with my family, my extended network of relatives, and the insular communities of faith in the neck of the woods where I grew up. Most, if not all, of my relatives (including third cousins twice removed, whom I actually did grow up around), as well as most of my friends and acquaintances and people I went to church with, could easily be placed somewhere on the Autistic Spectrum. Where I grew up, all you have to do is go buy a quart of milk at the local convenience store, to bump into people who -- in private or unguarded moments -- exhibit plenty of signs of "autistic spectrum-ish" behavior. I'm serious about this. We're built differently, where I grew up. If you head into that neck o' the woods (and I do mean woods), I can all but guarantee any aspiring student of the autistic spectrum will find a plethora of examples of folks all along the autistic spectrum and/or with significant sensory processing issues, who are "recovered" or at least sufficiently rehabilitated to function fully as mature adults in the big, bad world. (I won't say where that neck of the woods is, for the sake of privacy and retaining the human dignity of possible targets of "autistic diagnosis".)

Does this mean that the land where I grew up is chock full of behaviorally challenged individuals who need special intervention, just to get along in the world? Hell no. It just means that this so-called "autistic epidemic" might, to some extent, be a fabrication of people who have become so distanced from the flow of natural, organic life, that

A) they don't realize that their kids actually need to run around and play, in order to grow up capable and strong and well-adjusted to the social and the physical world,

B) they can't make a move without consulting with a trained professional expert, and

C) that the phenomenon we call "autism" may, in some cases, actually be an extreme and underdeveloped expression of what may be perfectly normal part of life -- a part of life that certain folks know how to integrate into their daily lives, over the course of their constantly evolving life experience.

Now, I can sense that I'm drifting off-track with this post. And I may be courting a great deal of controversy (even wrath from the "autism epidemic" proponents). I'm finding more tangents, and my associational mind is going wild, here, and I'm sure I'm not being very diplomatic, so I'll get myself back on track and speak to these issues more, later on. For now, let's return to the "Sensory Diet" web page.

Under the Activities, I find even more "regular and normal" parts of my childhood experience:

Swinging/Bouncing

* Inside swings -- we had a front porch swing that we kids often sat and swang on. It wasn't "therapy", it was fun, and it was what we did on summer nights.
* Trampoline -- our town had one at town hall for us kids to jump on during summer vacation. I think they may have removed it, due to safety concerns, but it was one of the best parts of summer, to head over to town hall and jump on the trampoline, while the Bee Gees were playing on the radio.
* Hang-bar -- my dad installed one in our back yard, and we played on it constantly. It was just something that we had. I don't think a doctor or expert told him to put one in. It was just seen as something that was an essential part of growing up.
* Tire Swing -- my grandparents had one of these, and when all the cousins would gather, we would all just achingly pine for our chance to get on that swing. It was one of my favorite parts of visiting my grandparents, and it was a really vital element in me keeping my cool, during visits. My grandparents' house out in the country was full of strange and strong smells that my city nose didn't recognize. It was easy for me to get sensorily overwhelmed, so I spent a lot of time on the tire swing.
* Outside swings -- see above. Also, I and my siblings and my best friends, loved to swing on the playground swingsets, long past the time when we were supposed to "grow out of them". We'd head over to the park and sit in the swings and twirl and spin and do all sorts of things that "normal" people would probably consider aberrant. But we were by ourselves, and we didn't get crap from anyone, because no one was watching us. And if they had been, we would have told them to "shove off!" anyway.
* Outside trolley -- ?? what's this?
* Exercise ball -- This is a newfangled thing, so I can't speak to its place in my childhood development.

Squeezables like nerf balls and silly putty were a really important part of my childhood experience. No trip to the pool was complete without a nerf ball to throw, flinging water in all directions. And nerf footballs were the only acceptable kinds of footballs to have. I remember many a game of football, with all us kids squishing and pressing and worrying the nerf football, till it started to literally fall apart in our hands. We loved our nerf footballs to death, picking absentmindedly at the surface, squeezing and pressing and throwing and catching.

We really played catch with any ball we could find. Soft squishy balls, hard softballs, tennis balls, baseballs... Run-down was a particular favorite, as we could play it in limited space and race back and forth between the bases, coordinating our motions and actions.

And we didn't need to have trained experts show us how to do it, or tell our parents to allow us to do all this.

We just did it ourselves. Our parents expected it. And they created space and opportunity for us to do it.

This wasn't all considered a "special sensory diet" -- it was just the process of growing up. It was The Way Things Were Done.

This being said, the last thing that comes to mind is, What is up with this web page, with the "scheduling" of these kinds of sensory diet activities? How contrived -- and artificial -- is that?

I mean, come on, people -- You have seriously got to be kidding me, that you'd actually "work in a sensory activity at least every half hour" as though it's some part of an official agenda. What's wrong with just spontaneously allowing these things to happen? What's wrong with just creating an environment where kids are allowed to do all this on their own, at their own pace, in their own ways? I firmly believe, from my own experience -- and my own fully functional nature -- that even the most impaired kids (if given half a chance) have the innate capacity to identify the activities and the pastimes that will strengthen their weak points.

They/we just have to be allowed to do so. Without being ridiculed. Without being pitied. Without being considered "abnormal" or "defective". Without being bullied and tortured and treated like freaks.

Maybe I'm being overly negative-Aspie and insensitive to the needs of SPD/Autistic kids, but to me that having adults organize and participate in these sorts of activities with special needs kids seems a little dumb. Adults just don't have the imaginative range or the endurance or the flexibility (in terms of time and attention) that kids have, and they're (in my opinion) much too "temporally bound" -- as in, too aware of time schedules and deadlines -- to give kids the quality of attention and activity that they need.

Why not just turn off the television and unplug the DVD player and computer, and get the kids to play? Why not just "chase 'em outside" like my mom used to do all the time, and create places where they can indulge their every SPD-rehabilitory activity to their hearts' content? Why not just gather a bunch of kids together and teach them to tolerate differences and recognize each others' strengths? Teach them to let the kid who can't hit the ball to save his life keep score and organize the league. Teach them to be patient and not tease and taunt just because one of the kids picks his nose or flaps his arms when he's agitated. Why not just let kids be kids -- and teach them to let other kids be... other? Without sanction. Without punishment. Without shame and ridicule. That seems to be a more fitting solution, than contriving all these carefully scripted and scheduled and choreographed and adult-driven activities that are poor imitations of the "real thing." And it might just train the emerging generation of NT folks to tolerate diversity and not be mean-spirited bastards to those of us whose worst, most heinous crime is making others nervous.

How about just not treating developing kids like we're abnormal... simply because they're still developing?

We are all works in progress, and the sooner we stop pathologizing diversity and learn to let each other just be (and give us ugly ducklings the time and the chance to become the swans we truly are), the better off the whole planet will be.

That's just my opinion, but I don't think I'm wrong.

Video di FusionCast

NOTA:

Usate uno dei selettori evidenziati alla volta, visto che usano tutti la stessa combinazione tasti (SUPER+TAB).

Here's another one..

Many organizations use disk image cloning to perform mass rollouts of Windows. This technique involves copying the disks of a fully installed and configured Windows computer onto the disk drives of other computers. These other computers effectively appear to have been through the same install process, and are immediately available for use.

While this method saves hours of work and hassle over other rollout approaches, it has the major problem that every cloned system has an identical Computer Security Identifier (SID). This fact compromises security in Workgroup environments, and removable media security can also be compromised in networks with multiple identical computer SIDs.

Demand from the Windows community has lead several companies to develop programs that can change a computer's SID after a system has been cloned. However, Symantec's SID Changer andSymantec's Ghost Walker are only sold as part of each company's high-end product. Further, they both run from a DOS command prompt (Altiris' changer is similar to NewSID).

NewSID is a program we developed that changes a computer's SID. It is free and is a Win32 program, meaning that it can easily be run on systems that have been previously cloned. NewSID works on Windows NT 4, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

Please read this entire article before you use this program.

Version Information:

• Version 4.0 introduces support for Windows XP and .NET Server, a wizard-style interface, allows you to specify the SID that you want applied, Registry compaction and also the option to rename a computer (which results in a change of both NetBIOS and DNS names).
• Version 3.02 corrects a bug where NewSid would not correctly copy default values with invalid value types when renaming a key with an old SID to a new SID. NT actually makes use of such invalid values at certain times in the SAM. The symptom of this bug was error messages reporting access denied when account information was updated by an authorized user.
• Version 3.01 adds a work-around for an inaccessible Registry key that is created by Microsoft Transaction Server. Without the work-around NewSID would quit prematurely.
• Version 3.0 introduces a SID-sync feature that directs NewSID to obtain a SID to apply from another computer.
• Version 2.0 has an automated-mode option, and let's you change the computer name as well.
• Version 1.2 fixes a bug in that was introduced in 1.1 where some file system security descriptors were not updated.
• Version 1.1 corrects a relatively minor bug that affected only certain installations. It also has been updated to change SIDs associated with the permission settings of file and printer shares.

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Cloning and Alternate Rollout Methods

One of the most popular ways of performing mass Windows rollouts (typically hundreds of computers) in corporate environments is based on the technique of disk cloning. A system administrator installs the base operating system and add-on software used in the company on a template computer. After configuring the machine for operation in the company network, automated disk or system duplication tools (such as Symantec'sGhost, PowerQuest's Image Drive, and Altiris' RapiDeploy) are used to copy the template computer's drives onto tens or hundreds of computers. These clones are then given final tweaks, such as the assignment of unique names, and then used by company employees.

Another popular way of rolling out is by using the Microsoft sysdiff utility (part of the Windows Resource Kit). This tool requires that the system administrator perform a full install (usually a scripted unattended installation) on each computer, and then sysdiff automates the application of add-on software install images.

Because the installation is skipped, and because disk sector copying is more efficient than file copying, a cloned-based rollout can save dozens of hours over a comparable sysdiff install. In addition, the system administrator does not have to learn how to use unattended install or sysdiff, or create and debug install scripts. This alone saves hours of work.

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The SID Duplication Problem

The problem with cloning is that it is only supported by Microsoft in a very limited sense. Microsoft has stated that cloning systems is only supported if it is done before the GUI portion of Windows Setup has been reached. When the install reaches this point the computer is assigned a name and a unique computer SID. If a system is cloned after this step the cloned machines will all have identical computer SIDs. Note that just changing the computer name or adding the computer to a different domain does not change the computer SID. Changing the name or domain only changes the domain SID if the computer was previously associated with a domain.

To understand the problem that cloning can cause, it is first necessary to understand how individual local accounts on a computer are assigned SIDs. The SIDs of local accounts consist of the computer's SID and an appended RID (Relative Identifier). The RID starts at a fixed value, and is increased by one for each account created. This means that the second account on one computer, for example, will be given the same RID as the second account on a clone. The result is that both accounts have the same SID.

Duplicate SIDs aren't an issue in a Domain-based environment since domain accounts have SID's based on the Domain SID. But, according to Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q162001, "Do Not Disk Duplicate Installed Versions of Windows NT", in a Workgroup environment security is based on local account SIDs. Thus, if two computers have users with the same SID, the Workgroup will not be able to distinguish between the users. All resources, including files and Registry keys, that one user has access to, the other will as well.

Another instance where duplicate SIDs can cause problems is where there is removable media formated with NTFS, and local account security attributes are applied to files and directories. If such a media is moved to a different computer that has the same SID, then local accounts that otherwise would not be able to access the files might be able to if their account IDs happened to match those in the security attributes. This is not be possible if computers have different SIDs.

An article Mark has written, entitled "NT Rollout Options," was published in the June issue of Windows NT Magazine. It discusses the duplicate SID issue in more detail, and presents Microsoft's official stance on cloning. To see if you have a duplicate SID issue on your network, use PsGetSid to display machine SIDs.

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NewSID

NewSID is a program we developed to change a computer's SID. It first generates a random SID for the computer, and proceeds to update instances of the existing computer SID it finds in the Registry and in file security descriptors, replacing occurrences with the new SID. NewSID requires administrative privileges to run. It has two functions: changing the SID, and changing the computer name.

To use NewSID's auto-run option, specify "/a" on the command line. You can also direct it to automatically change the computer's name by including the new name after the "/a" switch. For example:

newsid /a [newname]

Would have NewSID run without prompting, change the computer name to "newname" and have it reboot the computer if everything goes okay.

Note: If the system on which you wish to run NewSID is running IISAdmin you must stop the IISAdmin service before running NewSID. Use this command to stop the IISAdmin service: net stop iisadmin /y

NewSID's SID-synchronizing feature that allows you to specify that, instead of randomly generating one, the new SID should be obtained from a different computer. This functionality makes it possible to move a Backup Domain Controller (BDC) to a new Domain, since a BDC's relationship to a Domain is identified by it having the same computer SID as the other Domain Controllers (DCs). Simply choose the "Synchronize SID" button and enter the target computer's name. You must have permissions to change the security settings of the target computer's Registry keys, which typically means that you must be logged in as a domain administrator to use this feature.

Note that when you run NewSID that the size of the Registry will grow, so make sure that the maximum Registry size will accomodate growth. We have found that this growth has no perceptible impact on system performace. The reason the Registry grows is that it becomes fragmented as temporary security settings are applied by NewSID. When the settings are removed the Registry is not compacted.

Important: Note that while we have thoroughly tested NewSID, you must use it at your own risk. As with any software that changes file and Registry settings, it is highly recommended that you completely back-up your computer before running NewSID.

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Moving a BDC

Here are the steps you should follow when you want to move a BDC from one domain to another:

1. Boot up the BDC you want to move and log in. Use NewSID to synchronize the SID of the BDC with the PDC of the domain to which you wish to move the BDC.
2. Reboot the system for which you changed the SID (the BDC). Since the domain the BDC is now associated with already has an active PDC, it will boot as a BDC in its new domain.
3. The BDC will show up as a workstation in Server Manager, so use the "Add to Domain" button to add the BDC to its new domain. Be sure to specify the BDC radio button when adding.

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How it Works

NewSID starts by reading the existing computer SID. A computer's SID is stored in the Registry's SECURITY hive under SECURITY\SAM\Domains\Account. This key has a value named F and a value named V. The V value is a binary value that has the computer SID embedded within it at the end of its data. NewSID ensures that this SID is in a standard format (3 32-bit subauthorities preceded by three 32-bit authority fields).

Next, NewSID generates a new random SID for the computer. NewSID's generation takes great pains to create a truly random 96-bit value, which replaces the 96-bits of the 3 subauthority values that make up a computer SID.

Three phases to the computer SID replacement follow. In the first phase, the SECURITY and SAM Registry hives are scanned for occurrences of the old computer SID in key values, as well as the names of the keys. When the SID is found in a value it is replaced with the new computer SID, and when the SID is found in a name, the key and its subkeys are copied to a new subkey that has the same name except with the new SID replacing the old.

The final two phases involve updating security descriptors. Registry keys and NTFS files have security associated with them. Security descriptors consist of an entry that identifies which account owns the resource, which group is the primary group owner, an optional list of entries that specify actions permitted by users or groups (known as the Discretionary Access Control List - DACL), and an optional list of entries that specify which actions performed by certain users or groups will generate entries in the system Event Log (System Access Control List - SACL). A user or a group is identified in these security descriptors with their SIDs, and as I stated earlier, local user accounts (other than the built-in accounts such as Administrator, Guest, and so on) have their SIDs made up of the computer SID plus a RID.

The first part of security descriptor updates occurs on all NTFS file system files on the computer. Every security descriptor is scanned for occurrences of the computer SID. When NewSID finds one, it replaces it with the new computer SID.

The second part of security descriptor updates is performed on the Registry. First, NewSID must make sure that it scans all hives, not just those that are loaded. Every user account has a Registry hive that is loaded as HKEY_CURRENT_USER when the user is logged in, but remains on disk in the user's profile directory when they are not. NewSID identifies the locations of all user hive locations by enumerating the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList key, which points at the directories in which they are stored. It then loads them into the Registry using RegLoadKey under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and scans the entire Registry, examining each security descriptor in search of the old computer SID. Updates are performed the same as for files, and when its done NewSID unloads the user hives it loaded. As a final step NewSID scans the HKEY_USERS key, which contains the hive of the currently logged-in user as well as the .Default hive. This is necessary because a hive can't be loaded twice, so the logged-in user hive won't be loaded into HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE when NewSID is loading other user hives.

Finally, NewSID must update the ProfileList subkeys to refer to the new account SIDs. This step is necessary to have Windows NT correctly associate profiles with the user accounts after the account SIDs are changed to reflect the new computer SID.

NewSID ensures that it can access and modify every file and Registry key in the system by giving itself the following privileges: System, Backup, Restore and Take Ownership.

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Hahaha...I don't watch Naruto, but I just HAD to make some funny Sasuke pictures.  ^^;  Found them on photobucket~

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-Demon Diary (2) [6-7]
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-Random (3) [10-12]
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