Hello world!

NEW
10 PRINT “HELLO WORLD”
20 END
RUN

I “wrote” that program when I was in second grade. My reaction to seeing the results was, “Ok, and?”

My imagination tends to run way out in front of my ability, my knowledge, and the technology of the time. When they took the gifted kids (and me) into the computer lab, I was excited. I was picturing the a big fancy room with lots of machinery like I saw in the movies. But, it was the back corner of the classroom with one Apple ][e computer. It had a green screen and a floppy drive sitting next to it. They told the gifted kids (and me) if we learned some stuff, we could make the computers do anything we wanted.

I was included in with the gifted kids, but I never obtained the rank of master. I “failed” the test by .5 points. I still argue that the proctor screwed up. There was one question that went like, “If a man traveled up a hill and down a hill to go from home to work, how would he travel to get home?” It’s a sexist question to start with, because it was the 1970s. But further, my father drove up a hill and down a hill to get to work. But, because of traffic, he traveled along the river to get home and that route did not involve hills. So my answer to the proctor was, “He travels along the river to avoid traffic.” The really messed up thing was the guy actually argued with me, a six year old. He kept repeating it and telling me I didn’t understand the question. I did understand the question, he just didn’t fully understand my answer. He was living in a 2D world, and I was answering on a 3D level.

But, I was outpacing the “regular” kids in class, and in many cases, annoying the teacher. So, they made an exception for me to move in with the Gifted Kids. I was never fully accepted because I didn’t fit in with the Giftoids either. I could never decide if I was the dumb smart kid or the smart dumb kid. Over time, I would be described as “smart in special ways” or “gifted in different areas”.

It wasn’t until 40 years later that I would finally have an answer. I was Autistic. I had ADHD. And, according to my significant other, I have all the signs of Rejection Sensitivity Disorder. All of those things makes me a wonderful employee as long as I the job involves working with machines and has very little human interaction.

Jacki started writing a year ago, and it has helped her. She has Autism as well, and therapy helped her, so I followed suit. So, I figured I would write a bunch of stuff just to get it out my brain and in 1000 years, some archeologist will stumble on a server and figure out how to boot it up and then start reading this and start a religion based on my writings… or just roll their eyes and read Jacki’s blog.