I hope you're proud of yourselves.

I live in the United States, where the political situation is best described as "we are watching the rise of a fascist dictatorship". A+ well done America.

But that's not who I am addressing.

Parents, I am talking to you. Particularly if you support Awareness(TM) and pushes for intensive intervention.

I've met you. A large number of you consider yourselves liberal or even progressive. A large number of you would claim to not support this. A large number of you threatened to move to Canada if this happened.

And that's why I hope you're fucking proud of yourselves.

Not only did you give money to an organization run by a man who supported the Mango Menace, but also you shot yourself in the "running to Canada" foot.

No one will take you now, and it's your fault. I mean, you destined me to fucking rot here, but y'all are all for my death anyway and don't pretend you aren't, I have a file of threats.

No one will take you either and it's your own doing.

Every time you demand 40h/week intensive, expensive therapy? You damned yourself. Every time you complained about how expensive an autistic child is? You damned yourself. Every time you threw a big public fit about what a pain in the ass your child is? You damned yourself.

Because of your Awareness, autism is now a named visa exclusion for many many countries. You have everyone convinced we cost much more than an average child and that we're hopeless drains on everyone else.

All so you could get tea and sympathy at the expense of your child. All in the name of support for yourself, the only real person in the situation.

Never did you think ahead to "maybe the US isn't going to always be a liveable situation", surely you didn't stop to think about how your child may not want to live here for whatever reason. It was all about your tea and sympathy and self pity.

And now you can't run away to Canada or the UK or anywhere else either! And yes, you fucked over me and mine. But you're stuck here too and even as I know I'm dying horribly (aren't you sad it wasn't by your hand? I know at least a dozen of you are) I can point and laugh pettily because you are stuck here too, in this cesspit of a Nazi run dictatorship.

A+ foresight, y'all. Well done.

I hope you're fucking proud. Just know it wasn't worth it. 

Empatica Embrace review, also a moving announcement sort of

 This is the first thing I've written here in a while. For Reasons (like needing to eat) I have made the decision to monetize, while still allowing access to the free content that is why people followed me to begin with. To support me & my writing, please visit My Patreon

 

I kickstarted the Empatica Embrace, a watch that may be able to reduce SUDEP (sudden unexpected death in epilepsy) by detecting seizures via galvanic skin response + motion detection. With a bluetooth connection to a cell phone, it will also alert designated people about a seizure.

 

In theory this is awesome right? The other data tracking it offers (sleep, exercise/activity) are also pretty cool, and the ability to add seizures that it missed? Sign me up. I was super excited.

 

Except...not so much. First, it arrived over 2 months late. It took over a day to fully charge, rather than the indicated two hours, and this did not speed up until I ignored the device entirely for over a month. Finally it charges up faster than it runs down, but it took some time.

 

Data collection is also iffy. It can't really tell anxiety from physical activity, and it has false alarmed at panic attacks and at bumpy roads. It also decided that 12% of its memory will never make it into my account ever. That's just swell.

To add to the data differentiation issue--the bluetooth feature is terrible. It'll lose connection for no reason a hundred times a day. I have to reset the phone and the bluetooth multiple times each day and I have had to reinstall the Alert app over a dozen times. Since it decided to no longer upload all the information, there's a pretty strong risk of it not recording all the relevant data, as it won't just overwrite that 12%. It's silly that it won't talk to my phone when said phone is in my pocket, but it's completely absurd that they can't communicate when the watch is sitting on top of the phone. 

 

The one time it does consistently talk to my phone is when it is time for the false alarm going over the bridge to school. Every day it goes off, every day I mark it false, and the next day it does the same thing. Supposedly if I tap the watch face it will register that the alarm is false instead of sending the call, but that does not seem to be true in reality.

 

Oh and how very alarming that call and text tend to be! They are not customizeable. "K needs your help" is what it says and what it sends. That's an alarming thing to get, even when you know it is probably a false alarm because it's time for me to head to school. Given my way it would just say "This is an alert from K's embrace" or something of that nature, but they won't do customizeable messages.

 

Less irritating than all of this (but a big issue when I recieved the device, everything else is just so much more), and yet still a problem: the device appears to be designed for an average sized adult wrist, although Empatica has been marketing the device to parents of epileptic children. There is no way this is going to properly fit your average child. The face takes up the entirety of the broad side of my wrist. The elastic strap does go tight enough, but that will not bend the rigid part around. Empatica suggests ankle wear, and I did try this, but the elastic strap cuts into the Achille's tendon and this is really uncomfortable and sucks and I couldn't deal with it, nor do I expect most children could. 

 

Finally, support for the Embrace is truly abysmal. They know my issues with the device, before you ask--I've tried for months to get a return and refund. They'll helpfully condescendingly tell you to do the same thing you just did, but there's no way to exchange a malfunctioning device or return one that doesn't work at all. 

 

In pros it does keep good time, if you can read analog. And I guess it's sort of cyberpunk looking if you are into that. 

 

I'd recommend against wasting your money.