22 April 2006

The Why of Sam

| johnboy
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GrodsCorp have a sympathetic yet insightfull look into celebrity blogger, and former RiotACT commenter, Samuel Gordon Stewart, including a comprehensive biography. No real surprises there but it does fill in some gaps. Sam has indicated his approval.

I still maintain that if SGS is to acheive his stated life goals (start a family, hold down a job) then he needs to understand other people a lot better than he does, and broadening his experiences is the only way to do that.

In any event have a read.

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It looks stuffed.

It’s the spikey-eared dog that worries me.

Absent Diane2:12 pm 24 Apr 06

Does anyone really wanna hear that…. I’m sure we can all figure it out….

maybe they wrote all there was to cover?

I was disappointed that the story didn’t touch on his sex-life….now that would have been riveting 😉

Absent Diane12:38 pm 24 Apr 06

Bonfire – analysing the strange behaviour of others helps us all feel normal… its instinct..

sigh

cant we lay off this KID.

riotact is obsessed with him.

cut him some slack and let him find his own path.

he does bring attention upon himself by publicising his whole life, and maybe he never thought through the implications of that.

Absent Diane12:21 pm 24 Apr 06

yeah – and even the content is very child like… kudos to him having a child like imagination… I guess it must be a pretty amazing world he lives in…

Absent Diane11:43 am 24 Apr 06

He may be intelligent… but it certainly isn’t a conventional intelligence….The most disturbing thing I find about sam is his childlike drawings and his childlike obsessions with things. There also seems to be a history of erratic and irrational behaviour… if he is as intelligent as everyone says maybe he is a borderline genius… but I have seen nothing to suggest this… his drawings really are fucked in the head though….

JeffK is an invention.

Now THERE’S a guy who needs a good shrink. Or maybe he is one.

Yeah – he’s obviously come from not-so-fantastic circumstances and getting bullied at school is not something I’d wish on anyone (except the bullies themselves) 🙂

Putting yourself in the public eye (blogs, talkback) does tend to attract “attacks on [your] character” so some of the negativity Sam experiences is par for the course. Especially if you’re especially opinionated.

He does remind me a little of this guy though: http://www.somethingawful.com/jeffk/

although i do find his close relationship with Nattie a tad disturbing

i have always felt a little sorry for poor Sam, sure he’s ” different in many ways :/ but i think hes a nice kid deep down

Being of at least normal intelligence is a prerequisite for Asperger’s.
You may be right that he will become wise and worldly in time. However many people have limited life experience but through empathy and imagination demonstarte a reasonable degree of wisdom.
Being an “outsider” socially is the norm for Asperger’s given that impairment of social interactions is a key feature of the disorder.
I’m not quite sure how it trivialises things. There are many high functioning Aperger’s (eg. Hans Aperger, Bill Gates, Bobby Fischer, Issac Asimov)

Slinky the Shocker6:56 pm 22 Apr 06

Good call Thumper!
Oh, and I am so sorry that I can’t dine with a judge or enjoy a 2k+ dinner (WTF!?!). However, having a $50 meal at Carlo’s is just fine with me…

Maybe not insane in the TV is sending me messages, I wear a tin foil hat type way but some are certainly fairly dysfunctional. In general it can be difficult to attract high quality professionals to the ACT as if your in the $250K+ earning range you may also have a hankering for the cosmopolitan lifestyle that you can now afford, although ACT has many benefits, dining with judges, paying $2K for dinner and going to the opera are not among them.

And just a minor point, taking the word of the patients (ie the insane) as to whether their psychiatrist is insane (especially if their psychiatrist is the one signing off on their involuntary treatment order) maybe a little risky. Despite this I agree with your point, while noting that there are some really good psychs in town

The only psychiatrists I’ve come across have been completely insane – according to their patients. And they should know.

Slinky the Shocker5:07 pm 22 Apr 06

Nawnaw…it was more the question whether you actually knew what you were talking about, unlike me *he he he*

Fair enough, but given there are only about 20 (or less)psychiatrists in town plus about the same number of psych regs it is a bit too identifying a question.

Slinky the Shocker4:55 pm 22 Apr 06

Just curious 😉 Analysing your motivations I guess…

Why? (I am allowed to use DSM to diagnose mental illness/dysfunction if that’s where your going, although, I’m not doing that but just suggesting the available history is consistent with AD)

Slinky the Shocker4:32 pm 22 Apr 06

Are you a psychiatrist?

You only need two out of four from “A” so doesn’t need to fit A(3) if fits two from A(1)(2)(4). Besides I’m not maligning him just having a punt at classifying him on a traditional psychiatric axis, if you deliberately parade yourself in front of the public (even if only a very small one) you have got to expect some analysis of your motivations.

Slinky the Shocker3:47 pm 22 Apr 06

Just let him be for fuck’s sake. He’s mildly amusing, he’s got his own mind (a whacky one, but hey…) and he doesn’t hurt anyone.
And although I have no psychological training whatsoever, I can google Asperger’s, too and can tell you that he don’t fit Criterion A3 at all. “A lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest to other people)” By dropping into Sam’s Blog, I have learnt more about the fookin’ Golden Microphone, 2CC, FU2 or Nattie than I needed in 22 lifetimes.
Don’t get me wrong: I disagree with basically everything that Sam ever said, but I think he’s just too easy a target…

Absent Diane2:50 pm 22 Apr 06

unfortunately for samuel people who can’t assimilate generally get left by the wayside….. I do feel a little sorry for him….but there is a mass of people like that who can’t operate in society…. they all react differently… but eventually they just get dialled out of society…. which in the end is for the best for the race and for them..

Well he seems to want a family (suggesting a desire for normal social interaction), although it should be noted that a desire for normal social relationships is not a diagnostic criteria for Asperger’s.
He seems to have a failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level (Criteria A(2)), and a lack of social or emotional reciprocity (Criteria A(4)) and an encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest (radio) that is abnormal in intensity or focus (Criteria B(1)).

Anyway autistic spectrum disorders are way over represented in the internet using community so I’m just going with the odds.

(I’m only writing this because the voices are telling me too, I’m off to arrange my collection of other peoples toenail clippings by age, colour and density (tested by mastication) before photographing it and posting it on a blog)

I don’t reckon it’s Aspergers. Aspies WANT to relate to people and have normal friendships, they just don’t know how.

There’s no indication of that with Sam. He just wants to live in his bubble.

Oh dear. I think Sam’s on his way to international celebrityhood. These things can be catching, like avian flu.

Who ever he is his history reeks of Asperger’s (differential Dx being some non-specific brain fuckedupedness secondary to being premie and spending time in NICU)

pretty hard to start a family without doing the first of those.

Being able to talk to women is not an easy thing to learn for any of us men. But he’s going to need to get started as he’s got a long way to go.

Like getting laid, drinking shandies til he passes out and travelling the world in his pyjamas, johnboy.

I, too, have so many things left to accomplish before I have a small family and hold down a job.

Far out. This just makes me feel sorry for him on the one hand, and on the other, amazed at his ability to be more inward-looking than a Yank on an overseas holiday.

It’s up to Sam if he wants to listen to talk radio and do the other things he does. I don’t care about that.

What I don’t understand is why, if you disagree with him, then he thinks you’re “being mean”.

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