A quick real life catch up as it's been a wee bit mad here at the moment. First up, apologies to anyone who missed my dulcet tones on the radio Tuesday , turns out they'd overbooked the amount of English males they needed so I unfortunately got dumped from the panel. I did managed to randomly add a few comments near the end but due to timing they skipped the punchline. Story of my life.  As a (self congratulatory) aside the visuals I produced for the inaugural  David Byrne themed Byrne's Night in Dumbarton seemed to go down a treat!       And on another bright note it looks like there may finally be some progress on the whole house situation that wont have to involve legal action and/or government intervention. Or any more Autistic meltdowns.  Which is nice.     I can't say too much right now except that having such a high stress level every day for almost 4 months certainly takes its toll. My head feels like someone has set a huge bag of firework...

Today isn't just young Master Cassidy's 20th birthday but also the 20th anniversary of the premiere of THE greatest animated film ever too!       So this is a good excuse to listen to the podcast I did with Autism Through Cinema regarding it.   It's Disney/Pixar's Cars if you didn't know by the way. You can listen to the podcast  here if you haven't already. Go on, I'll still be here when you get back.  To be honest, most folk don't expect it to be in my top ten film list (then spend way too much time figuring out where it sits in relation to Suspiria, The Wizard of Oz, Times Square, La Cabina, A New Hope and Bride of Frankenstein...as you can tell I never did get invited to parties as a teen). "But why Cars?" I hear them cry. Well, the Autie-ness of the movie permeates thru' every part of it - from a design point of view the 'faces' of the characters are reminiscent of Thomas The Tank Engine (a huge Autistic favourite...

Well 49 years ago today actually, quite possibly THE greatest film of all time was unleashed (in less than 40 cinemas - yes really, 20th Century Fox had no idea what to do with it) upon an unsuspecting world - and cinema would never be the same again. And neither would my life if I'm honest.   For one thing I'd have had no excuse to talk to the kid in the Star Wars t-shirt the day I started my new school so would never had a friendship that has endured nearly 50 years which is pretty good going for a group that, allegedly, find making friends difficult I reckon.  Plus it gave us the perfect excuse to dress the twins as Luke and Leia for Halloween when they were tiny.  Oh and it introduced Cassidy  to his go to cuddle buddy.   Luckily for us they've embraced Star Wars too (or have I brainwashed them? - answers to the usual address).     Obviously next year is gonna be the biggie - with the original version being spruced up for a timely re-release - but ...

 Happy World Goth Day one and all!   And to help you celebrate here's mine and Rho's podcast on all things Goth from a few years back.

Must have missed this one at the time but seeing as there's a protest in  Parliament Square on Friday, 22 May I thought I'd mention the fact that,  according to new Ofsted guidance, Autistic children as more likely be extremists.   Some extremist Autists yesterday.   First mentioned in a series of 2023 and 2024 training materials for Ofsted inspectors, it seems that Ofsted believes that autistic people are more susceptible to becoming terrorists or extremists because of their ‘special interests’. One of the Ofsted trainings on Prevent indicates that the trainer should tell school inspectors:  ‘Children and young people with Autism are at increased risk of being susceptible to extremism. This is because they are more likely to develop special interests.’  The training does not explain this assertion but does go on to claim: ‘Children with autism are more likely to experience social isolation and so use the internet to find friends. They trust the info...

  To give you all a break from our housing woes and to add a wee bit of cheer to the proceedings (because let's be honest we need it right now) why not prepare yourself for Eurovision 2026 by giving mine and Ro's Eurovision best bits podcast from a few years back a re-listen? You can find it here (but please don't give us nil points).