Autism, Anxiety, and working at home during a global pandemic!

by Contributed | Nov 20, 2020 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

This post was written by Office Apps & Services MVP Peter Rising as a part of our Humans of IT Guest blogger series. Peter shares his journey with anxiety, raising a son with severe autism, and coping with working from home during the global pandemic.

All of my life, I never quite fit in and I was never sure why.  Everything in the world seemed a little strange to me.  I didn’t understand people, they were a real mystery to me.  Other children would tease me while adults would always try to get me to do something I wasn’t particularly interested in.  One of my first teachers complained to my parents that I had handed a pencil to her to get my work done.  But to me, this made perfect sense.  The teacher wanted it done, and I didn’t, so in my black and white brain, it was logical that she should do it.  In short, I was a loner and an introvert who wanted to do the things that interested me and nothing more.

Somehow though, after surviving the misery of my school years, I managed to start masquerading as a “normal human being” (I now know there is no such thing of course) and became employed. I quickly realized that the world was not going to adapt to me, so I had to adapt to the world.  This was very much a performance on my part though and people remained a mystery to me.

Fast forward a few years, and a lovely and beautiful lady called Louise agreed to marry me.  Our first son George was born in 2007, two years after we married. Then in 2010, Oliver was born and our little family was complete.  Oliver had challenges from very early in his life though. At just under 3 years old, he was diagnosed with extremely severe autism and sensory processing disorder. In the same week of his diagnosis, my mother passed away from a long-term illness.  Shortly after that, we were preparing to move to a new home and this is when I broke down.

Peter and his wife Louise at his brother’s wedding

I was at work as an IT Manager for a Global Manufacturing company and suddenly I just felt different.  I couldn’t explain it, but I suspected at the time that I may be having a stroke. My colleagues rushed me to the hospital where it was quickly determined that I had in fact had my first panic attack.  It took me a long time to accept this and I went through every medical check imaginable over the next few months until I had to accept that the doctors were right.

Anyway, counseling and medication got me back on my feet. It was at this point in my life at the age of 41 that through my anxiety, and Oliver’s autism, I finally started to understand myself as a human being.  Oliver is essentially me magnified by 1000! His autism and anxiety explained the challenges that I had always encountered fitting into the world.

In the years between then and now, we have managed to live with our challenges.  Simple things like going out for a walk in the park could be fraught with difficulties and unforeseen variables led to many trips abandoned due to Oliver’s distress. Over time, we’ve learned, adapted, and found things that work for us.

I also found a passion in life that I had been missing.  After 20 years as an IT generalist who was pretty much strolling through my career, I began to specialize in Office 365, and just like that, my work also became my hobby.  I had never really had a hobby before.  The 6 year old boy who had handed his teacher the pencil took his first Microsoft exam (the now defunct 70-346 – Managing Office 365 Identities & Requirements to be precise) and cried tears of joy after passing. I found a drive inside of me that I never knew was there.

Anyhow, fast forward to present day, and we are obviously living in perilous times in the world.  The Covid-19 pandemic has knocked humanity off its feet and overnight the world started working from home. I was already a passionate evangelist for Microsoft 365 technologies pre Covid-19, but I truly do not know where we would be now without the amazing tools and features that are within the many Microsoft 365 subscriptions or the amazing Humans of IT who share my passion and work together in this community.

It has been challenging for sure. The sudden change in everyday life has been particularly hard for Oliver. He is now 10 but has learning difficulties with no idea what Covid-19 is or means. The change in everyday life has heightened his anxiety and he has numerous triggers which can cause distress. The sound of dogs barking, planes flying overhead, noisy weather.

Despite these challenges, I am so proud of my family. We have adapted amazingly as you can see in the photo with Oliver below.

My oldest son George on the other hand is living his best life these days and is pretty much glued to his beloved PS4!  That is when we are not challenging him to do some of his school work.  Home schooling has been quite the challenge for both of our boys actually.

Peter’s son George reluctantly completing some Math homework during lockdown

So, even though it’s scary times, I’m hugely grateful for all that I have right now. My amazing family, my fantastic job, and my extended family from the amazing Microsoft community who all have their own stories to tell and I’ve enjoyed reading many of them. Thank you so much for allowing me to share mine.

Take care!
Peter

Custom Apps and Sideloading now live in GCC

by Contributed | Nov 20, 2020 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

We are excited to announce that sideloading and custom app capabilities are now available for GCC customers. This is in addition to the third-party app capabilities in GCC that we launched earlier this year, which gave access to hundreds of existing app integrations.  With this addition of custom app capability, organizations can now explore new ways to enhance their team’s productivity by creating and distributing their own apps on the Microsoft Teams Platform.

These capabilities are disabled by default in GCC environments – admins can enable custom apps through their Teams administration portal:

Once all the related settings are enabled, users in the organization will see UI changes in Microsoft Teams that reflect their ability to directly upload (or sideload) their apps and use them right away. Owners of sites can also control whether the members in their team are enabled to upload apps. 

For more details, see the GCC section of the “Distribute your Microsoft Teams app” documentation.

Friday Five: DAX In Power BI, Teams With Lists, More!

by Contributed | Nov 20, 2020 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Reinforcement Learning in gaming

Eva Pardi is an AI MVP, Software Developer and Data Scientist based in Denmark. Eva works at Laerdal, a company which provides training for nurses and doctors all around the world to improve the number of saved lives each year. Eva writes articles and speaks at conferences about data and AI, with her aim being to save lives and support humanity with the help of these technologies. For more on Eva, check out her Twitter @EvePardi

Practical Introduction to DAX in Power BI – Overview

Ahmed Oyelowo is a Microsoft Certified Trainer and Data Platform MVP with Expertise in Power BI and other related technologies. Ahmed has trained more than 40,000 participants across the globe using Power BI for Analyzing Data. Currently, Ahmed the Managing Partner of Foresight BI & Analytics, a Microsoft Practice in Nigeria. For more, check out his Twitter @AhmedOyelowo

Working With Azure Icons In Draw.Io (Diagrams.Net)

Dave Ruijter is a Data Platform MVP from the Netherlands, and he is a public speaker and consultant. His aim is to help organizations realize the full potential of the Azure cloud and the Microsoft Power Platform. He brings a decade’s worth of experience to the table and is a passionate Power BI evangelist, eager to share his knowledge and experiences from the field. For more, check out his blog or Twitter @daveruijter

Teams Real Simple with Pictures: Microsoft Teams Loves Microsoft Lists Pt 1

Chris Hoard is a Microsoft Certified Trainer Regional Lead (MCT RL), Educator (MCEd) and Teams MVP. With over 10 years of cloud computing experience, he is currently building an education practice for Vuzion (Tier 2 UK CSP). His focus areas are Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 and entry-level Azure. Follow Chris on Twitter at @Microsoft365Pro and check out his blog here.

Azure Automation: Scale-Down VM Size

George Chrysovalantis Grammatikos is based in Greece and is working for Tisski ltd. as an Azure Cloud Architect. He has more than 10 years’ experience in different technologies like BI & SQL Server Professional level solutions, Azure technologies, networking, security etc. He writes technical blogs for his blog “cloudopszone.com“, Wiki TechNet articles and also participates in discussions on TechNet and other technical blogs. Follow him on Twitter @gxgrammatikos.