About me
I was diagnosed as autistic with ADHD in my early 50’s. I spent a lot of years beating myself up because I could do all of the things that seemed easy for everyone else. Why can’t I walk into a room full of strangers and talk to people? Why do certain noises bother me but nobody else seems to notice? And more.
Since my diagnosis I’ve been working to understand who I am and how my autism, ADHD and other neurodivergences have shaped my life and continue to influence who I am. Talking about it helps.
I have 2 goals with this site.
1. To help those who were diagnosed as autistic later in life, and those who haven’t quite figured it out yet, to understand what autism is. You are not broken or defective or less than everyone else. You have a community that will welcome you and help you.
2. I know how hard it can be to navigate corporate America as an autistic person. I’ve learned a thing or two through the years, and I’m happy to share.
I’ve done a grand total of exactly 1 podcast appearance. If you are interested in hearing more about me, you can find the podcast here.
About the art on the site
Someone looked at the site and asked me “Is that your art?”
No. No it is not. There is exactly 1 piece of art on this site that I created, and it is this lovely self-portrait that I drew when I was six years old. Give or take a year.
Apparently this was during my “Green Period.” Like the current generation of AI software, I too struggled with fingers and toes. But at least I’m happy.
Based on the smell and the fact that the paper is sticky, the red staining around the feet is probably residue from some cherry-flavored candy. There were some Valentine cards in the box with this drawing. My point is, I’m not standing in a puddle of blood.
Everything else on the site was either created by someone else or by AI software. I do my best to give credit where it is due. So if something on the site doesn’t have a credit associated with it, it probably came from either the Microsoft Bing Image Creator or DreamStudio.
The images go through 3 steps:
Feeding the AI software prompt after prompt until it produces something like what I want. For this, I wanted a group of 1950’s scientists seated around a table.
Note that the wooden table background is part of the image.
Into PhotoShop for modifications. Rotate the image, remove the wood background and the edges of the picture, remove the background from the drawing, etc.
Into Canva to add text and lay out the overall image. The seal on the right side was also created using AI and PhotoShop, and combined with the other image.
