April 2016 – JAR of Geek

Filler

There are a lot of things I’ve learned this past week. Most of which are lessons I have to learn again and again.

Two of these involved communicating with people. Saying the wrong thing at the wrong time in the wrong way. One of the people accepted my apology; the other didn’t. This is, of course, a known issue for me. I often don’t realize how things I say will be interpreted until too late.

I probably need to start editing my every communication, or at least triple think it. Maybe I could create a character in my mind to review these things when I don’t have a friend handy.

Another involves time management. I’ve run out of so much time by procrastinating too much. It’s hard to keep a grip on my attention sometimes. There’s things that need to get to done for my second job. And I really need to get back to writing my novels and this blog. The fact I’m posting something Monday evening instead of over the weekend like planned is a great indication. Of course I did have to go to Dallas Saturday night for a job, which also threw off my days and sleeping.

Anyway, I just wanted to post something here to keep in the habit of writing sort of regularly.

New Star Trek Coming

I’m excited about the new Star Trek series coming next year. For those who don’t know, CBS announced a new Star Trek series to start in January 2017. It will be on their All Access streaming service. (http://www.startrek.com/article/new-star-trek-series-premieres-january-2017)

I have mixed feelings being excitement and apprehension. I’m excited that Star Trek is coming back to television, really where it does best. And I’m hopeful that it will be great. The fact they have Bryan Fuller as showrunner is reason for hope. In addition to Hannibal and Pushing Daises, he was responsible for many of the best episodes of Star Trek: Voyager. They also have announced that Nicholas Meyer is a writer on the show. He was responsible for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, partially responsible for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and responsible for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. With talent like this, CBS is certainly not messing around.

I’m also excited about the rumours that it will be set in the prime timeline instead of the JJ-verse timeline. Though, given the fact that Paramount owns the Star Trek movie rights and CBS owns the TV rights, it makes sense. The rumours also say that it will be set immediately after Undiscovered Country. Or at least the first season will be. There are talks that the new series might be anthology-based, with each season in a different area and time. This could be interesting.

Amidst the excitement, there is also apprehension. Enterprise had such promise, and they dropped the ball. (At least until the last season.) But these people at the helm give me a lot of hope for it.

There are some things I’d like to see. One, I would really like it if it wasn’t the Enterprise again. Except maybe if they want to do stories with the Enterprise-B or -C. What would be even better is if they had a female or, even better, and alien captain. That Klingon in Undiscovered Country (I forget her name) was right. With all the talk about multi-culturalism, the Federation is still a very humans-only club. It would be nice to see some more diversity. That’s one of the things that was really good about DS9.

So, we’ll just have to see. I’ll give the first season a chance. I’m too much a fan of Babylon 5 to stop after only a few episodes, and too much a fan of Star Trek to not give it a chance to fly.

An Odd Hero

I had a friend over yesterday, and I got to tell a cool story again. This got me thinking about autistic characters in fiction and how well they are portrayed, but that’s getting a little ahead of myself.

This friend asked about some of the framed pictures I have on my wall that are signed prints of different actors and a writer. The one in question is of Mary Lynn Rajskub.

Why is this comedian and actor so important? Because of her character Chloe O’Brian on 24.

(A side note: I intend to include 24 in my planned feature of per-episode review and commentary on a rewatch. I just don’t know if I want to start with that one or not.)

Why then would a fictional character be important to me? Because Chloe is one of the few characters I could really identify with. Even though it was never official that Chloe was on the autism spectrum, she had many of the same problems relating to people that I have, a similar intelligence, a similar sense of humor, and a similar fierce loyalty to those she considers friends. I could never be Jack Bauer, but I could be Chloe. The character also gave me hope for myself to see someone with Asperger-like personality traits to be portrayed positively instead of for laughs like on a certain popular sit-com. Chloe was successful in her professional life, becoming a valued coworker and an even more valued friend to a select few. She also became successful in her personal life. After a couple of tries, she finds someone who can understand and accept her as she is. In my personal life, I’m still waiting on the second part of that.

A few months ago, I took a special trip down to Austin to go see Mary Lynn in person on her comedy tour. While there, I got to meet her briefly and tell her what Chloe means to me and thank her for creating that character. She seemed to appreciate it. She said that she had heard from many people about if Chloe was autistic, or more specifically Asperger’s; but she had never heard that from someone on the spectrum himself.

It’s a memory I hope doesn’t soon fade.

This is when I met Mary Lynn Rajskub in Austin.

Autism Acceptance

What could I make my first post about? How about one of the most important things to me this month: my autism.

For April, groups like the Autism Self Advocacy Network are sponsoring Autism Acceptance Month. This is important to help people understand that autism is more than just a childhood thing; adults have autism, too. We don’t grow out of it.

What does an autistic adult look like? Pretty much like everyone else. We just think a little differently and have trouble in social situations. But we can still be productive members of society, as long as people make small allowances for some odd quirks from time to time.

I had a little trouble with this when I went to my current job over a year ago. However, after some of this trouble, I decided I had to let my supervisor and the HR manager know about the diagnosis. Since then, we’ve worked together to help me fit more in. And now, a year in, they are both quite impressed with my progress.

Now, why then Autism Acceptance Month and not Autism Awareness Month? Aren’t all the autism things supposed to be blue? Well, that’s only if you want to support Autism Speaks. (I’m not even going to link to them like I normally will do with any organization I mention.) This is an organization that believes that autism is a terrible disease that is horror for families and needs to be prevented and cured. Frak you! I don’t want to be cured, and I don’t need to be cured. Some of the more extreme cases of people almost totally withdrawn into themselves need some therapy help, but mostly we need to be understood and accepted as people like everyone else.

Obligatory First Post

As I’ve been listening to more podcasts lately, I’ve decided to try and start a blog about things that interest me. Why the title “JAR of Geek”? Simple: JAR are my initials.

I might discuss recent news; reviews of TV, movies, or books; commentary on other issues. Topics will include (but are not limited to):

science
science fiction
autism
atheism
religious studies
cats
games (board and card)