If I had a nickel for each time I've been told to stop "overthinking" this type of hypothetical or categorical question, I'd have...a lot of nickels.
The way most autism literature describes "literal interpretation" is often not at all similar to how I experience it. Teenage me even thought I couldn't be autistic because I've always been able to learn metaphors easily.
In fact, I love wordplay of all kinds. Teenage me was fascinated to learn all the types of figurative language there are in poetry and literature.
But paperwork and questionnaires are hard, because there's so much they don't state clearly. Or they don't leave room for enough nuance.
"List all the jobs you've had, with start and end dates." What if I don't remember the exact day or month? Is the year enough?
"Have you been suffering from blurred vision?" Well, if I take off my glasses the whole world is blurred, but I'm fairly sure that's not what the intake form at the optometrist is asking.
Or the infamous (and infuriatingly stereotypical) "Would you rather go to a library or a party?" What sort of party? Where? Who's there? I work at a library. Am I currently at the library for work or pleasure? Does it have a good collection?
It's not common figures of speech that confound me. It's ambiguity, in situations that aren't supposed to be ambiguous.
Still life - Teija Lehto , 2023
Finnish, b. 1965 -
Woodcut, 83 x 53 cm.
everyone shut the fuck up and look at this snake named barcode
[Image description: a facebook post reads Bobby Easley is at High Caliber Tattoo... followed by I'm very proud to have been able to cover up a tattoo for a client and new friend who has changed his way of thinking about people. I'm happy I was able to make him feel better about himself and the skin he lives in. The post includes four images showing a large swastika tattoo on the back of someone's calf. The person's skin is white and the tattoo includes an American flag motif. In the subsequent images the swastika is drawn over in purple ink and finally tattooed over with a gorgeous dark red carnation. /End image description.]
Reminder: you can always just stop hating and being an asshole. You'll probably even feel better about yourself.
Something that I love so much about New Zealanders and Australians is the way they sometimes say "nunnight" for "good night." It's not "night night" like I've heard in other places, it's very distinctly "nunnight." Absolutely top-notch thing to say. So snuggly, hearing it feels like a hug
This is incredible. I love the...dancing sea stars?...on the boots or leggings on the person on the left-hand side of the frame. I love how intricate the flowers are around the middle person's neckline. And I love how the right-hand person used the red and blue closure tapes from the bags to add color and how they incorporated them into the neckline detail -- that's seriously so beautiful and not something I would have thought to do, I think. Jesus, what an outstanding thing.
The baobab is known as the thickest tree in the world, with its trunk reaching up to 9 meters in diameter, and the largest one recorded had a circumference of 54 meters. Its upper trunk smooths out into thick branches, forming a crown up to 40 meters in diameter.
– There are nine species of baobab in nature: six of which are found on Madagascar, two on the African continent, and one in Australia.
– The baobab can absorb and store a significant amount of water, with an average tree holding up to 4,500 liters. Elephants love this and eat the baobab’s bark during the dry season.
– Baobabs are incredibly long-lived, with some trees reaching up to 3,000 years old.
– Because the baobab’s trunk has very few growth rings, radiocarbon dating is needed to determine its exact age.
– The wood of the baobab is soft, spongy, and fibrous, used in the making of cloth and rope but unsuitable for traditional woodworking such as furniture making.
– The baobab plays a crucial role in local diets: its leaves taste like spinach, its fruit contains six times the vitamin C of an orange, and its seeds can be processed into oil
https://lifeontheplanetladakh.com/blog/baobab-tree-majestic-lifesaver-africa
Fannish things, writing, other stuff. Often NSFW. My pronouns are they/them.
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