It has been a good month since I last typed out a response to the exercises in “Unmasking Autism”. I have, however, spent a week around the time of the last entry celebrating my special interests.
In short, this was a week (and I actually did it for a calendar week. Well, thursday through Wednesday) to reflect on my special interests through the years. Why I have battled a certain resistance to actually typing this out; I suspect a combination of factors
I have had a rough time with my stress reaction and sick leave. For a while, I was not clear on the short time plan to manage my situation; and until I had that covered, there was a period start December my spirits were decidedly low.
I am neck deep in a new/resurgent special interest: server management and orchestration. Apparently, black friday deals can be had for VPSes. I now have three, naturally, to serve monitoring, vpn, and backup purposes. The third one… will be used for something. I am sure.
But such servers and services cannot be merely stood up and tinkered on. Oh no. They must be orchestrated. With ansible, naturally. Such fun! And, also, easier to dip into and out of as the fancy strikes and spirits are tolerably high.
Anyway. I will be regaling, well, myself mostly, with tales of my special interests.
My oldest special interest: Stories and storytelling have been important to me as far as I can remember.
My newest special interest: At time of writing, it was 3D printing and modelling. I designed a shelf riser! All by my lonesome. And it came off my monitor and into the real world. Also, see above.
A special interest that has changed over time: I grew up a fervent Christian, as previously mentioned in this series of exercises. Those days are well past me; but I still am quite fascinated by the stories behind the stories.
A special interest that is collected or collections: I like to have or try board games and read books. Now my collection mostly is digital, with far more ebooks than I could ever read.
A special interest that has shaped my life the most: Not quite understanding people growing up has led to working for a couple decades as a people-understander. People with quite specific needs and outlook on the world, mind.
A special interest I share with someone: Training, an interest I have rubbed on to my eldest. Not fitness in general, or working out broadly. Training, for a purpose, smartly.
What is something positive my special interest have brought to my life: A general confidence in being able to learn about more-or-less necessary things.
I shall be expanding on these prompts across the next few posts in this series.