Post #117 - Volunteering Woes

As regular readers may be aware, that since May, I have been working as the volunteer communications officer in the local branch of my chosen charity. This involves drafting the monthly newsletter plus creating and webmastering the new online presence (the website).  My problem is that I'm not a perfectionist by nature and never have been, nor intend to be. This does cause a few issues in regard to working alongside more picky or strident people, as happened during my career quite a few times - it's those Belbin Team roles thing again!  I also take criticism badly and extremely personally.  I suppose that being an autistic female I should understand things a little better, but believe me, most people thing seem to think that I'm wholly unaffected by the condition. I'm really not and my autism tends to come out more in certain environments.  Often I feel that I just don't know the right way to do things at times; dealing with slightly sensitive topics such as disability means that I'm inclined to put my huge size 9 feet in certain places I should not.

It doesn't mean that I want to give up though - I really don't and plan to try to make a difference somehow.  It's just so hard for me - at least I was actually paid money to deal with this kind of thing during my career, now that I'm doing it for free it seems to piss me off so much more.

*Update* - 4th October 2017

Due to the fact that I couldn't really see what the build site looked like on the world wide web, I published the website live last week.  Apart from my husband (and now the bloggersphere, such as it is) I have told nobody.    The committee meeting is tomorrow morning ...

I am planning to emigrate tonight.

*Update* - 22nd October 2017

Both myself and my husband quit the charity last Thursday.  Apologies if my rather abrupt communication style and blog upset anyone - I really didn't mean to.  Thank you to the Branch Officer too - you were great.

Post #116 - Gaming In The 1980s

When I was a child growing up in the 1980s, video gaming was very much in its infancy.  Saying that, me and my two brothers were bought handheld electronic games though (complete with the mandatory four way chunky adaptor).  My stepfather purchased a Sinclair ZX81 early in the decade and then we upgraded to a 48K model (in full colour!) about a year later and hooked it up to our Sony Trinitron 14in portable television.  My first great love was Thro' The Wall  which was included on the Spectrum Horizons introductory cassette.

Thro' The Wall (bring on the wall?) was a bit like Sir Clive's ersatz version of Space Invaders.  That said, it was better in my eyes (way back then because I didn't have to venture into scary amusement arcades ...) My mum enjoyed it, especially when the puck managed to penetrate the top row of bricks(!)

Daley Thompson's Decathalon was another favourite in our household. My older brother broke the keyboard/motherboard by continually pounding away at it with two fingers and later on, a technical Lego wheel he made especially for the purpose of beating his younger siblings.

Also, I tended to like those extended adventure games such as Everyone's A Wally.  This was a follow up from the classic Pyjamarama and included the same cast of characters, namely Wally Weeks and his family.  I never completed this game, but still enjoy watching the game play on YouTube.

Mum (and my stepfather by then) purchased a 128K Spectrum after a couple of years and we played with that instead.  I can't say that I really noticed much improvement in its computing power though.