Hello from ATL

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Greetings folks.

I'm glad to have found you. I am self-diagnosed with AS and probably ADHD. I found out about AS several years ago reading an article in the NY Times one morning. Wow, what a revelation. I immediately felt, "this is me they are talking about!" So many things in my life suddenly seemed to make sense.

I did further research and everything seemed to bear out that yes indeed I am an AS-wired person. (The Aspie quiz that's linked to from this site says I am very likely an Aspie. PS, on some other thread I'll go into my feelings about the word "Aspie".)

Not only my own traits, but my father's even more pronounced AS traits and my nephew being Autistic have made me more sure of this. Also, my brother's wife, a psychologist, said she thought (not herself having done a professional diagnosis but just based on what she has observed of me) there seemed a good likelihood that I have A.S.

I just passed the magic age of 50 and haven't really seen any need for a professional diagnosis at this point. But, looking back, I really wish I had known this when it might have made a difference in my interaction with women on other than a platonic level. I am, for all practical purposes, celibate, simply because I've never had a successful relationship with a woman to whom I was really attracted. I incredibly dislike the whole dating phenomenon and the idea of "the chase".

I do wish there was a way I could re-learn this stuff, but oh well...

And I have to say that while there are things I truly regret and miss having -- notably, a significant other, and a family, as I would also love to be a father -- even despite all that, most other aspects of my life have been good. I have a small number of friends who have truly been my (non-genetic) family over the years. In this I consider myself extremely fortunate.

Also, even though i am over 50 i am blessed with genes that make me look younger than I am. Many, not all tho, of my peers are chronologically younger than me -- aand, for example, many (again, not all) of my musical tastes tend to be younger than is typical for my age group, e.g., hip hop, drum n bass, et al, (altho us hip hop folk are getting older too!). I like BBC Radio 1xtra on the web.

I like many types of music from the above-mentioned, plus reggae, latin (esp. salsa, merengue, bachata) to jazz (esp of the Miles-Monk-Coltrane era), gospel music and classical music. While i like some music genres better than others i don't totally rule anything out, even country!

I am a sometime DJ and for several years had a show on a noncommercial community radio station, and you can find me every year at the Winter Music Conference in Miami Beach in March. Me and an associate also are getting ready to put out a some tracks he produced.

I am also a professional librarian, and was for several years the webmaster of a large urban library system. Being an AS-wired person helped me get that gig, because all my web skills are entirely self-taught, from spending several previous years teaching myself to create and maintain a website for my DJ business, and, Aspie-like, putting more focus often on working on the website than on deejaying! I have an interest in subject classification systems, which currently doesn't help me in my current library job. I am also interested in urban transportation systems.

I live currently (most of the time) in Atlanta but consider both NYC (Brooklyn) and ATL to be my 1st home. My main growing-up environments were NY and Alabama (where my pop worked a long time). Also a relatively short but quite influential time of my life was spent living in Toronto. Finally, having non-genetic family from New Orleans meant that truly special place/people have been (and still are!! !) a part of me. (Let everyone come home who wants to!)

Actually my pop moved us around alot when I was growing up. Almost every year up thru grade 6 i was in a different school in a different state. A.S. aside, that didn't help me develop good relations with my age peers. On the other hand that, along with my mixed ethnicity, made me pretty adaptable to varying sociocultural milieus and instilled in me a love of traveling.

Well I could go on, but have already gone on too long Like I say, I am really glad to have found this group.

Nice to meet you, malik.

Welcome here, Malik. There's at least one other DJ who posts on this site; I think he said he lives in NC.

Hope you enjoy being on Wrong Planet!

Welcome, from another half-centurian (+ 1)

Welcome malik!

Hi and welcome to the Aspie community...

Welcome to WrongPlanet!
I am coming up on the big five-oh myself....

Welcome

Welcome to WP!

Welcome.

Thanks for the welcomes, folks.

Tim_Tex, your signature is interesting; what Decatur are you referring to? Illinois, Georgia, Alabama, or another? Or perhaps the street in New Orleans?

Welcome. I too am new to the community, adult, male, likely on the spectrum, and in Atlanta...

...and I for one am more than happy to be wrangling with this as an adult rather than as a child. Agreed, I'd like to have caught it - not that I am sure what "it" is yet - the very day I turned 18.

I am eager to hear your thoughts on the word Aspie.

Howdy

I'm married now, my first was a not a good thing at all, didn't last long and in my mid 20's and didn't get married again till in my mid-late 40's. You know about yourself a bit more, never say never. Takes a little to investigate yourself a bit perhaps, if so inclined and you've found the right place to do it, wonderful people here. And my wife had to practically hit me over the head, I just assumed we would get married and forgot to ask her.