markhepburn
Some additional context: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-20/autism-driving-licences-new-standards/103108100
Hands down still my favourite album! I actually don't remember why I bought it. I am "Nirvana changed my life" years old, and I didn't listen to much music before that because I hated what was on the radio. $30 for an album was significant money, but I did take a punt on a few if I'd vaguely heard about it. I don't think I got into it on the first listen, but I remember gradually realising in successive plays how the textures just wash over you. It's very much a whole greater than the sum of its parts, but Eric's Trip is always fun.
I'm a big fan of Aftershockz (apparently just "shokz" now) bone conduction. One of my ears must be funny and didn't hold buds very well, but I can throw these around my head and they're on. They don't block out noise which is often a bonus but means you can't hear anything in a noisy environment.
A few years back there was a reddit AMA on "people with autism, how would you describe it to people without?". I read it out of curiosity, and with a growing sense of unease that most of the things people described I identified with myself! At the time I largely shook off -- I'm an introverted nerd, of course I like spending time on my own and focussed on an interest -- but a pretty common thing mentioned was "it feels like everyone else got the instruction manual of how to behave and socialise and I missed out", and I felt that one in my soul. More recently my brother was exploring the possibility he might be (ND friends had suggested it) and he passed on the embrace-autism.com website which I again identified pretty strongly with, and more pertinently, absolutely aced the self-assessment tests. It still would have been just a now-strong-possibility, but otherwise not that relevant, but after attending a particularly loud party with my girlfriend I had a shutdown episode. I'm pretty sure I've experienced it before but probably not in front of someone like that, and that was when I decided to investigate more formally.
Stray Cat Blues, Rolling Stones (unfortunately; man it's a great song if not for the... Entire subject)