Idle Chatter, Nothing About The Bakken-- December 16, 2016

Bloomberg has a most interesting story on Shell and the company's new finance officer.

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Idle Chatter

I absolutely love to blog; I learn a lot. I started the blog simply to try to understand the Bakken. I've written about that elsewhere and won't go through it again.

Two things about blogging. A lot of "stuff" I've read in mainstream media over the years (New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, etc) is nothing more than blogging. It seems that articles in the mainstream media have become more like blogs than "news" over the years.

The second thing about blogging is that I find myself reading other blogs much more often than I otherwise might. Tonight I ran across a very interesting blog. I won't link it or provide enough information for others to find. I can guarantee that no one would be interested and I don't want folks to wonder how I ever found this particular blog. I stumbled upon it through a book review over at Amazon.com. It was a most entertaining review and written in a style I had not seen before. Fortunately, the reviewer left a link to his own blog, something that I didn't think Amazon.com "allowed." But in this case, the link was there.

I went over to that blog and was absolutely fascinated. The writer's interests seem to be atheism / Christianity; the German language (I think his first language is English, but he took up German in school and has an advanced degree in the language); and politics. At least politics now because of the Trump/Hillary campaign. He is very much a Hillary supporter and would hate my politics, but I get the feeling we could easily discuss the candidates in a friendly matter and he would call me an idiot and I would call him by his first name.

It turns out that he has been told he has Asperger's syndrome. He knows that some folks consider Asperger's syndrome on the autism continuum and he has no problem with either diagnosis. He calls it a "condition."

Some years ago, after I retired out of / from the US Air Force, I was a substitute middle school and high school teacher for several years. I absolutely loved it. I taught in a district that had an exceptionally large number of students with special needs. They were a challenge, but they really taught me a lot. One high school student I remember particularly well was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. He was incredibly smart in math but he had difficulty with interpersonal skills only to the extent that if those around him "bothered" him, he did not have boundaries or filters to moderate his behavior. If those around him treated him with respect and/or deference he was just fine. But if "teased" it was going to be a bad scene. It was then I wanted to make sure he did not have any sharp objects. Whatever. I digress.

The point is, he taught me a lot about his "condition" and human relationships in general. What I learned from him made reading the blog I alluded to that much more enjoyable.

He started blogging the same year I started blogging, 2009. I see that he has a "Support My Blog -- Donate Now" gofundme account. His gofundme goal is $250 million.

He has received $130 to date.