I managed to buy groceries and cook for myself this week. It's enough to make sure I always have dinner. I will still rely on someone for lunches, but this is a good step for me toward independence.

I am considering asking a local cooperative if I can buy a large batch of their chili each week as a way to make sure I always have a nutritious lunch available. I know I like the chili, and I know they do sell batches of it for organizations hosting events. It's just a matter of initiating contact and discussing, and then logistics.

I'm extremely surprised that the text-only trials had results as good as they did. It's been my experience that people can detect something "off" from text alone as readily as they can from audio conversations or in-person interactions.

Regardless of medium -- email, instant message, forum post, fiction writing -- I have received feedback that my communication style is offputting, robotic, unemotional, pompous, direct (negative connotation), and more. If I try to compensate for lack of emotion by including emojis in emails/messages, I'm told it comes across as inauthentic, performative.

I mean, people generally don't say "he's an autistic writer" unless they specifically want to reference the fact that this is an autistic person who writes, whereas they would say "he's a gifted writer" when they mean that he's very good at his job as a writer.

I think this is a case of a word being used in two different ways. There is gifted, meaning "good at", and Gifted, as in the special categorization of giftedness. I think in your example, the former definition is being used.

It's like stoic (unemotional) versus Stoic (specific philosophy).

Also, congratulations on the diagnosis.

I also personally think of "giftedness" mostly as a trait that is identified for the benefit of capitalists to exploit. The program had a heavy emphasis on how to become better than non-gifted persons in the domain of moneymaking, and the majority of the sessions were about becoming an entrepreneur. Very much trying to cultivate Tony Stark wannabes and such. And even if the students don't become that, you know that capitalists are excited to identify potential workers who have increased productivity that they can pay the same hourly wage and exploit more surplus labour value from.

I don't think I have ever met a "gifted" person who wasn't autistic. I also haven't seen that term used much in recent years, as I'm mostly familiar with it from the early 2000s where it was used to name a special education program in the school system. A program that was (as far as I can tell) 100% attended by students that were level 1 autistic (low support needs).

From my understanding, the term "giftedness" mostly describes a very particular, narrow kind of exceptional ability, mostly in processing speed and fact retention. While this is certainly nice, it doesn't mean that someone is automatically poised to become a great leader or something, despite what the gifted program may have led us to believe. It is possible to be incredibly good at standardized testing and also to suffer from a lack of ability in other key areas, and I would say that the majority of the students I know from the program embody this.

Ultimately, my advice in general is that you don't need to tell people unless they have similar experiences and it would be a positive thing to do. I find that neurotypical people tend to misunderstand the reason that we tell them such things, and it can ireverably change their perception of us. I have had people tell me that they think I am trying to brag when I so much as tell them that I am very good at math, so I can't imagine how they would react if I used the term "gifted", given its loadedness in the cultural context here. My personal approach is to be open about my ADHD with neurotypicals, because it is well-understood and accepted and doing so earns me some much-needed grace about certain things. But I only discuss autism with other autistics unless it's online in a space like this which is demonstrably anti-ableist, because doing so with neurotypical people has only ever led to my social isolation once their perception of me changed. And giftedness is like the next step up in level of misunderstoodness. I have only ever discussed it with other "twice-exceptional" individuals, and all of them (us, in fact) have very much disliked the terminology and not identified with it.

IQ discourse and the generalized narrow focus of "intelligence" which sidelines all other kinds of intelligence definitely leads to communities that are focused around the topic becoming very and I understand very much why you are turned away by them.

I wonder if they're called Delta Force because they're used for regime change. (∆)

I have severe sensory sensitivities.

Stubb, their president since 2024, is so chiselled, lithe and trim that he resembles a besuited whippet.

As I meet Stubb in his suite at the same London hotel, he is just as affable and courteous as before, sporting a pinstriped double-breasted suit cut to emphasise his height.

The writer needs to contain their thinly-veiled crush. Wow.

Western media: "Hereditary leadership is bad! Khamenei must not be allowed to lead Iran!!"

Also western media: "Look at all these wholesome 💯 protestors supporting the Shah's son!!!"

Especially given the relative simplicity of the Shahed. It would not be difficult for the US to make copies with the resources they have.

Someone could make a new bot and we could ban the old one from posting