Here’s someone in the United Kingdom with Asperger’s syndrome (a form of autism where people can find it easier to understand concepts and social norms if they are presented directly and logically, rather than having to rely on being able to pick up social cues) looking for volunteers for a writing project! I personally know a few people with Asperger’s and they are highly sensitive, creative, interesting, and beautiful people – and this project would greatly help at least some of them.

She’s looking for people around the world to join her free online LiveJournal community and write up short step by step guides to handling various social situations (job interviews, public transit etiquette, shopping, business etiquette, when and how much to tip, etc.) There are already some guides posted for ordering coffee, taking yoga classes, etc and she’d love to see more and will compile them into an upcoming freely distributed nonprofit book and credit the authors.

You may access her online community, “aspergers_howto” here: http://community.livejournal.com/aspergers_howto/

If you have any problems logging in or using LiveJournal please comment here and let me know, I’ve become somewhat of a geek/expert over the years 🙂

From Stacey’s introduction to the community:

My name is Stacey, and I am a 19 year old university student from the UK. I have a diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome, and have found it difficult to get ahold of helpful literature concerning how to deal with the every day social situations in which I find difficulty. With some encouragement from the people close to me, I have embarked upon a project to write a book to fill in this gap.

The book will be aimed at people who have Aspergers, but will be useful to a range of people who have social difficulties. The format so far is that of a ‘how to’ guide, with a series of stand-alone guides which outline step-by-step many of the tasks which cause people with such difficulties problems.

From how to plan a bus journey to what you should do if a homeless person asks you for some spare change, I hope to compile a decent selection of guides which will be applicable to most people.

I encourage people to submit art or writing related to this issue to Amnesty’s exhibition – they do plenty of great work to reduce violence and human rights violations around the world. I would have preferred the more inclusive terminology of ‘relationship abuse’ or ‘intimate partner abuse’ when referring to domestic violence – however I applaud the way the intersections between society’s marginalizing certain groups of people and violence against them are explored, and the sympathetic treatment of community-based grassroots responses to violence and different forms of discrimination, and the use of art as a healing tool.

Call for Submissions: Amnesty International‘s Stop Violence Against Women Campaign Art Exhibition
Amnesty International organizers for the Stop Violence Against Women campaign announce a call for art submissions. Be part of an inspiring art event that tells women’s and girl’s stories of both struggle and victory over violence and motivates people to take action in support of the International Violence Against Women Act. Exhibition will launch March 8, 2009 and travel to six cities throughout Northern California through June.

Now accepting artwork and media that raises awareness about the diverse forms of violence women and girls face around the world, such as trafficking, body image, Ciudad Juarez, or domestic violence, and that offers inspiration about women overcoming violence such as art therapy or activist campaigns. Anyone is invited to submit. All forms of artwork considered. Submit work no later than January 10, 2009. For an application form, find one attached or email svaw.norcal@gmail.com.       

If you have any questions please contact Renée Gasch at svaw.norcal@gmail.comFor more information on Amnesty International USA’s campaign to Stop Violence Against Women please go here: www.amnestyusa.org/women

Occasionally we at Synchronized Chaos find other zines or publishing projects we find interesting and help publicize them. The 23 Press is an independent media project based on Discordian philosophy, a free-thinking way of embracing chaos and contradiction as a jumping off point for creative thinking and personal growth, rather than brushing the chaos under the rug with some type of over-arching system that can too easily become repressive. Inspired by the works of Robert Anton Wilson and others, Discordianism affirms the individual and the local community and grassroots pragmatic efforts to improve the world and create/find beauty while having fun in the process. Many people were into Discordianism back in my college student/hippie activist days and it provided the theoretical background for many of our progressive projects and campaigns. You can read about Discordianism here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discordianism

Call for submissions to the 23 Press:

have  you ever written silly poems, surreal works of short fiction, discordian puns, or situationist epics? drawn ‘bob’ dobbs’ head, recorded merry pranks, written limericks or zen koans or flying spaghetti monster fanfiction? magick? taken photos of hot dog buns?  created any kind of radical discordian art? then oh please send it to us – twentythreepress at gmail.com – so that you can be a part of twentythreepress’ first ever Discordian Compilation Zine! All High Emperors (everyone) who are selected for inclusion will receive a free copy of the project. 

Please send submissions to twentythreepress@gmail.com

I’m also helping to put on an art auction of very young children’s art to benefit a global humanitarian project of San Jose State University’s Entrepreneurial Society. As the quarter proceeds we will brainstorm and decide on an organization dealing with some global issue (malaria, AIDS, hunger, child labor, pollution, tree planting, clean water, literacy, etc) and auction art off to wealthy venture capitalists to fund our chosen project. This event takes place December 4th at the reception after we present our own business plans to the investors.

They’re looking for art by young children (any style/medium OK but something that can be hung up on a wall.) The theme is “Good Ideas” – either a business idea they child has, or an invention, or a place filled with things they child thinks are good ideas.

If anyone here has young children, teaches, works with kids, or knows of kids who would like to participate (and the kids can come see their art on the walls in SJ State if they would like) then please send a scanned PDF/JPEG to our vice president Ruth Gonzalez at rkgonzalez@gmail.com with the child’s name, age, and an artist’s statement describing the work.

You may also send artwork via mail to:

Ruth Gonzalez
700 Vasona Street
Milpitas, CA 95035

Also I encourage you to check out http://www.helphealfran.org – website for Fran Varian, a talented poet/author/human rights activist/community builder from San Francisco who’s battling late stage Lyme disease. She was bitten by a tick and came down with recurrent flulike symptoms, then was misdiagnosed for years before finally receiving a correct diagnosis and finding out she needed expensive treatments not covered by insurance.

I attended a benefit auction and art performance for her last night in SF near the Civic Center – excellent variety, from a guy playing bicycle handlebars as a musical instrument, to singers, folk music, poetry, humor, lovely art and music, etc. Some acts were serious and beautiful, others more lighthearted and fun. Lots of love for Fran, which I admired though I’ve never met her.

So if you have some kind of chronic symptoms, please get a second/third opinion, don’t let the first doctor tell you it’s nothing or just stress. He/she might have inadvertently made a mistake and there are diseases which go undiagnosed till they are much harder to treat (Lyme, Crohn’s autoimmune digestive disorder, etc.) Also please check out the site…there is a place to donate but it’s not just about money, it’s about passing the site on, leaving notes of encouragement, perhaps donating some creative use of your time and talent to a benefit auction in your area, etc. People last night were offering to write stories on command, send recipes, etc in exchange for donations to Fran’s treatment.

If people are interested, for Fran or for any other charity or cause readers or contributors support, we can auction off advertising space or host a charity writing/art auction around the holidays. Please let Synchronized Chaos know by commenting and we can all organize something in the next couple of months.

What follows is an editorial statement endorsed by at least one of the people helping facilitate Synchronized Chaos, as a private citizen without intending to speak for everyone or set policy or a precedent for the magazine. We welcome and publish all comers and all views and hope to encourage intelligent and informed dialogue on issues affecting our world.

I, Cristina Deptula, editorialize as a citizen to support the Author’s Guild amicus friend of the court brief in the Antidote Int’l film company versus Underdogs Inc/Laura Albert case opposing the use of breach of contract claims against authors who choose to disguise their identities for any reason. A number of the Synchronized Chaos staff agree (as private citizens editorializing, as said above the magazine takes no official position and simply serves as a venue for artwork and opinions.) In the interest of protecting those who wish to write under a different name (bloggers wishing to discuss their workplaces without risk of cease and desist orders or getting fired for ‘not being a good fit,’ those who live in areas not tolerant of their race/politics/values/identity/etc who want privacy, those in Burma, China, and other countries with less freedom of speech, etc) we oppose any misguided legal precedent setting that could be turned against a future unpopular author to silence them.

Hopefully we’re closer to having national shield laws for journalists to protect them from legal action for not disclosing sources to whom they have already promised anonymity, too. Reporters should not be forced to break promises and people need the protection of anonymity/privacy at times in order to speak the truth. Government prosecutors should not interfere with the freedom of the press any more than they should with the confessional booth, to respect and allow for the private social functions of those institutions.

(Of course, ethical journalists should do their homework and ask around and not take the word of one anonymous source, either.)