As I often do I will start this post with a links section, before moving on to the main part of the post. I will also be sharing some high quality pictures – enjoy!!

LINKS

Given the title of this post I am in this section dealing only with the non-autism related links that I wish to share – the others will be handled as part of the other section. First of all, courtesy of the Independent, a truly appalling landmark that this government has ‘achieved’ – one million food bank users. Next, through Huffington Post comes a story about Faith Schools. As someone who is a part-time minimum wage worker, I would not necessarily expect the London School of Economics to have much to offer me, but this post from that quarter is a devastating indictment of what this government have done to wages in real terms.

I have a great interest in science, and this article concerning discoveries about the element Lawrencium and its place in the Periodic Table is well worth reading.

All except those who would murder folk whose beliefs differ from their own will find my next offering shocking but sadly unsurprising. It comes courtesy of Padraig Reidy.

A survey boat named the Humber Guardian has been moored in the Great Ouse lately. The boat is owned by Briggs Marine, and I was reasonably encouraged by what I found on their website.

There is a campaign going on at the moment to get the Sun to show Katie Hopkins the door. This is because her latest offering would have made Hitler blench. For more details, here is an article in the Independent.

Tomorrow is the last day on which people who are not already registered to vote in the General Election coming up on May 7th. 38 Degrees are running a campaign to get as many people registered to vote as possible. The process is very straightforward. I provide two options:

38 Degrees

Gov.uk

My final offering comes courtesy of Tom Pride and provides further grist to the mill of those of us who (like your correspondent) reckon that another five years of Cameron and co will be unendurable. Enjoy this catalogue of horrors!

A PICTORIAL INTERLUDE

Before moving on the main part of the post, here are some pictures for you to enjoy…

LIFE WITH ASPERGERS

I was diagnosed with Asperger’s at the back end of 2006, by when I was already 31 years old. I got involved with Asperger East Anglia very soon after that, and out of that came what is now the King’s Lynn Asperger Support Society (KLASS). The group was originally established as local support group under the aegis of AEA, but when they lost their funding to run such groups in October 2012 we decided to keep going as an independent group. Since then, we have had no funding at all. In 2013 we were able to use King’s Lynn Town FC‘s community hub as a meeting place, but then they changed the times at which they were available ton the public in January 2014, and since then we have had no formal meeting place.

Perhaps the area in which I have personally been most affected by having Aspergers Syndrome is in the world of work, where I went eight and a half years without having a paid job, until I got my current job at James and Sons in April 2013 (merely by going in to work on Tuesday I will officially make it two years in this job). Initially my job was for 12 hours per week, and I was therefore still on jobseekers allowance (yet another thing the Tories are consistently dishonest about is the number of people who have jobs but still need benefits to get by as the amount of money these jobs bring in is so little).

I have not directly run in to the kind of treatment that has caused Kevin Healey to be in a long-running dispute with twitter. Kevin is still trying to get twitter to protect him properly, and as part of that change.org have a petition running on his behalf – and I urge all of you to sign if you have not already done so, and share as widely as possible, starting now.

My twitter account is growing steadily, helped by the fact that I always have good photos to share, talking of which, here are a few more…

What can neurotypicals do in the way of autism acceptance? You can find out by reading the wise words of Autism Mom.

I am nearly at the end of this post, but one more thing I wish to do is signpost another blogger with an Autistic Spectrum Condition who has recently signed up to follow this blog, David Snape.

My very final words concern something very important to me: research. Ignorance is so often the father of prejudice, which is why I take part in research projects at every opportunity. I want more people to know about Autistic Spectrum Conditions and to appreciate the abilities that many of us possess. For those who have made it right through to this stage I have two final messages:

1) Please share this widely

2)