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AJ’s Weekly News: 5 May 2023

A mixed week

Pegasus computer at Science Museum, London, 2004. Author’s own photo

1. Personal Notes

2. This Week’s Medium Stories

1. Personal Notes

A good weekend

Last weekend, I went out with my fiancée to celebrate our anniversary, and we had a lovely meal in the evening. It was a long weekend because of the bank holiday on 1 May, and the whole weekend was relaxing.

(Late last week, I worked extra hard to get ahead with my writing on Medium. So it took a while to slow down.)

Extra information for my son’s autism assessment

As mentioned in last week’s newsletter, last Friday, I had a long Zoom call for my eldest son’s autism assessment (adult ADI-r).

After the assessment, I emailed a few additional facts that I could not think of at the time.

But that was not the end of it.

During the long weekend, I kept thinking about what I had said during the call.

Then I looked at:

Childhood videos
Nursery reports
School reports

And I felt like I had not given an accurate representation of my son to the assessor.

So I wrote some notes. A lot of notes, in fact. And I edited them over the weekend.

On Tuesday morning, I emailed them. Unfortunately, the assessment people did not provide a direct email address, so I was limited to emailing the admin staff and asking them to forward the information.

When they did not reply, I worried the assessor would write the report without my additional information. So I emailed again the following day. I was relieved to hear they had received my email the day before — they had just neglected to acknowledge it.

I feel like I should have done a better job of answering the questions in the first place. But I was not prepared for them. I suppose I played a different role during my own autism assessment, so my experience of that did not help prepare me all that much.

Also, for my autism assessment, questions were sent in advance, in writing. And they did not do that with my son’s assessment.

I don’t really have an excuse for doing such a poor job initially. Perhaps it’s because I had to remember things from 17 years ago; perhaps it’s because they asked about “the before times” — before my wife died, and things to do with the school that she would have known more about.

Hopefully, they will come to an accurate conclusion — whether they decide he is autistic, or if he needs to be assessed for something else instead.

My MOT had expired

Just before my fiancée’s car had its yearly MOT check, she asked me when mine was due. Having bought the car last June, I assumed it would be June.

But I was wrong.

She checked online and found it had expired in late April!

Within an hour, I booked the earliest available MOT and switched to using my very old car. It was nice to drive a simple car once again.

I was lucky that my old car was still available. I plan to store it away and declare it off-road soon to save money — and that would have left me without a vehicle.

A failed MOT

My fiancée’s car failed its MOT. There is corrosion underneath that needs repairing. We are suspicious about the garage that sold her the car 11 months ago because it cannot have deteriorated that much in such a short time.

It’s as though they have an arrangement with their MOT tester to overlook certain faults. Online reviews show someone else had a similar problem last year.

Not a good day

Our two cars had their MOT tests booked on the same day at different garages. My fiancée’s was early in the morning at a garage near her home. Mine was in the afternoon, some distance away from my home.

To save me from walking, my fiancée said she’d give me a lift in the afternoon. However, her car failed the MOT.

She phoned and said she did not have enough money to pay for the repairs. So I offered to lend her some. (She has a higher income than me, but little savings.)

At that point, it sounded like she’d be leaving her car at the garage, and borrowing her mum’s car later in the day.

Without a car, she could not give me a lift. That was understandable and I was fine with that.

Then the garage said it would take time to get all the parts, and she could safely drive her car until they were ready to repair it.

At that point, I expected she would revert back to the original plan of giving me a lift.

But her daughter, who was with her, did not like changing back to the original plan. She wanted to see her grandmother (who lives close to their house), which they’d have done if they’d borrowed her car.

So to keep her daughter happy, she ditched her plans to help me, took her daughter out for lunch, and visited her mum.

It felt like I got the rough end of the deal.

To make matters worse, I wore a heavy coat and had no sunglasses as I walked across town on an unexpectedly warm and sunny day; I was unprepared.

Diabetes Clinic

Yesterday, I took my youngest son for his diabetes clinic appointment.

Two appointments ago, he went in on his own, and the doctor spoke to me briefly in the corridor at the end, to put me in the picture.

Last time, they ignored me completely and only spoke to him, so I did not get a chance to tell them about his eating habits. Later, then they sent a report to me, so I wrote back explaining the ways he is mismanaging his diabetes.

So you can imagine my surprise yesterday when they insisted that I go in with him because he is under 18!

When I mentioned what had happened on the previous two occasions, they had nothing to say about it.

And when I mentioned the letter I had written, that seemed to come as a surprise. So I’ve no idea if anyone read it. (I sent a copy to his GP, too. But nobody replied.)

The doctor we saw yesterday was really good. I told her about his diet and the way he avoids taking insulin when out of the house; these are things they need to know, but he would not have avoided talking about them.

Rather than setting an unrealistic goal immediately, the doctor suggested small, achievable improvements my son could make. At this stage, a small improvement is better than none at all.

2. This Week’s Medium Stories

I’m struggling a little bit today, so I was relieved to see I’ve already published eight stories this week. I’ve been trying to publish no fewer than seven stories a week on Medium. So, hopefully, this newsletter alone with suffice for today’s story.

Is This Dream Funny or Just Strange?

Warning: I could write plenty more dream stories, so be wary of saying you enjoyed reading this! 😂

In the past, I’m sure I’ve heard people say stories about other people’s dreams are not interesting. But judging by the response to this story, that opinion may not be correct.

Perhaps I will delve through more of my dream notes over the coming months and turn them into stories.

The Big Question: Will AI Take Over the World Any Time Soon?

Do you imagine my electronics and software engineering background will affect my views?

I did an Open University degree in the late 1990s which included some Artificial Intelligence topics such as neural networks.

It’s a vast and rapidly advancing field, and while I do not claim to be an expert, I do have an understanding of what is involved.

In this piece, I kept it non-technical and focused on my personal opinions. I also included a funny Paul Hogan video clip.

Remembering the Apple II Series

Personal experiences of using the Apple II series of computers in the 1980s

A few years ago, I published numerous stories about old computers on my now-defunct blogs.

I am slowly republishing them on Medium because my current audience might not tolerate too many in one go.

(The first story in Keeley’s May challenge asked for a funny guide on surviving without coffee, tea, or alcohol. So when I wasn’t sure what to write, I fell back on one of those old stories.)

My Top Five April Challenge Stories

Just in case you missed them

Some people choose their top stories based on the number of views. Others look at the number of reads.

What did I do? I chose the highest-earning stories because Medium pays according to how much time readers spend with them.

AJ’s Answers to the Star Trek This or That Challenge

ToT, the final frontier…

My Medium friend Kerry Purvis created a Star Trek This or That challenge.

(This or That challenges require choosing between two options for each question.)

In some cases, I wanted to choose both. In other cases, I wanted to choose neither. But somehow, I got there. And I managed to include a few funny answers.

Deep Dive Into Writing on Medium

Including some tips and advice for newcomers

Recently, I responded to Subhi Najar’s deep dive question about writing in general. This time, the questions were about writing on Medium.

I broke some of the rules. For example, when asked for a single piece of advice for newcomers, I answered with six bullet points!

My Screen Habits Have Changed Over The Years

I grew up using one screen occasionally, but then everything changed

I finally joined Keeley’s May challenge on day 3 with this story.

The prompt asked me to write about my screen habits. But I went off in a slightly different direction by reminiscing about some of the screens I’ve used over the years.

I began with TV from the days when there were only three live channels to watch, and I ended up in the modern era.

Do I Love Star Wars, or Have I Never Watched It?

I’ve watched every episode of Star Trek, so can you guess?

It’s hard to write anything here without giving the game away. But I will say that I included a funny video clip, and you might be surprised by my answer.