Martin and I had to visit our other site yesterday, which is about 120 miles away and involves a boring journey along the M6 which for any visitors from overseas is what we like to think of as a linear car-park. My feeling is that the Government should outsource the motorways to NCP. Well, we did actually manage to get where we were going. Our colleague Peter was with us (asleep on the back seat on the way down) and commented that we were lost without the internet to answer our random musings on film and music. We spent a good five minutes dragging our memories for the name of the film where Clint Eastwood played a secret service agent on presidential protection duties. Eventually 'In The Line Of Fire' popped in to my head and we were happy. Internet enabled Palms are required urgently. Please give generously to save future annoyance.

I watched The Autism Puzzle on BBC four yesterday and it struck me that the diagnosis of 'within the autism spectrum' seems to be device for allowing any symptoms which cannot be described within terms of other conditions, to be put into one convenient bucket. Maybe I missed the point and they all have the same basic cause. Excuse the simplistic analysis but it is like all broken legs from green-stick fractures to multiple compund fractures are still broken legs. It also occurred to me from reading the Oliver Sacks book, that if some people can re-assign parts of their brain to handle functions which they have lost, is it not possible for an autistic person to become 'less autistic' by the same method. The symptoms of Asperger's syndrome which is usually defined as for want of a better phrase, being at the milder end of the autism spectrum, has symptoms whiich I recognise in myself from my early twenties. Of course for me this was probably just a normal social awkwardness but where does insensitivity to others feelings turn into real autism? So many people behave as if they have no concept that other people may be thinking in ways which they do not. I learnt to be more comfortable with people. On my first day at work proper (16 years ago) it became clear that the telephone was a major part of the day-to-day operation of the department and I was petrified of it. On the day on which I had to start answering the phone I was actually quite scared but over the years I have learned to put it out of my head and now I can happily do my half-day duty on our help-desk. I still do not like phoning people I do not know.

It is quite noticeable that my own mind has changed so much over twenty years. I sometimes worry than my own thoughts and concentrations are too trvial but I look around at the fixation with celebrity and Football and I think otherwise. Or is this fixation just a manufactured idea, set up my the TV companies and the Newspapers to define how they think we should think? Apologies for harking back to my old colleague's idea about the current education system being the Government's way of keeping people from thinking but I think that idea may be relevant here. It is also like the idea of the Belcerebon People. Vis :-

The Belcerebon people of Kakrafoon used to cause great resentment and insecurity among neighboring races by being one of the most enlightened, accomplished and, above all, quiet civilizations in the Galaxy.

As a punishment for this behavior, which was held to be offensively self-righteous and provocative, a Galactic Tribunal inflicted on them that most cruel of all social diseases, telepathy. Consequently, in order to prevent themselves broadcasting every slightest thought that crosses their minds to everyone within a five-mile radius, they now have to talk very loudly and continuously about the weather, their little aches and pains, the match this afternoon and what a noisy place Kakrafoon has suddenly become.

In other words, feed us junk to fill up our minds and we won't think about how ludicrous our existence is due to the obvious faults in the way the world is run. Thinking about real things is dangerous and only makes us worry about them. I don't believe for one minute that there really is a conspiracy; my line is that the reason for all these plainly stupid actions throughout the world is plain incompetence and I think human nature likes to make one try to behave in a 'cool' manner whenever possible. Be good and clever and be cool, be incompetent and be very uncool. All politicians are uncool (except Mo-Mowlam and she is not in power). Oh dear! This sounds like the anti-truant campaigns that are going on at the moment - It's cool to be in school. It is though. Just go or go back.

Soundtrack for today.

From Gardens Where We Feel Secure - Virginia Astley