Nice to meet you all

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22/M/NY
I came across this forum; have lurked for several days, and have found the conversation to be quite stimulating.

I am a student, studying for my Bachelors degree in International Business (starting my fourth year this fall). A few months back I returned to America from Kyoto, where I was living for half a year studying various things.

I love animals, have 4 dogs (was 5 ), fantasy novels, and collect old prints of literature (I have a 1912 print of Les Miserable).

My first encounter with autism was in High school, when my ACapella Choir spent each holiday season singing to children at many of the local special needs schools and centers.

My second encounter was through my mother, who volunteered at such an institution as a lunch lady who I would visit throughout high school. She has unfortunately fallen too ill to work anymore.

I am unaware if I formally have any conditions discussed here, as family circumstances have lead me to be heavily uneasy around psychiatrists. I have however been asked by my various counselors to be evaluated for the usual disorders (ie ADD, Aspergers), but my grades have always been in the top percentiles (in math at least, English is my worst subject), so I didn't see the need to put the unnecessary strain of a scarlet letter on my record.

I look forward to speaking with you all,

Be Gentle

Hello Epilefftic,

Welcome To

Kyoto - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kyoto (京都, Kyōto) (Japanese pronunciation: [kjoːto] is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to ...
History - Geography - Politics and government - Culture
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto

Any other interesting places of travel? Past, Future...



I saw that movie decades ago, and I have two 1800's copies of Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales. different publishing houses though.
I too love to collect old books like those.



Many folks with Aspergers have endured the wringer treatment of psychiatrists and endured a lot of malpractice and misdiagnosis before anyone correctly diagnosed "Aspergers Syndrome".



With scores like that its not surprising some might suspect. (my son is an Aspie and estimated by the principal from testing, to be in the top 2% percentile/potential of his peers... yes, math, my Aspie daughter also was placed in gifted math in the 4th grade)...

Welcome

Last edited by AspieForty on 05 May 2010, 9:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

DaWalker: Thank you for the welcome

AspieForty: I am planning on going to Europe after I graduate.

I'm extremely jealous of people fortunate to have such old books. My only source is my grandfather, who has been leaking them to me. However his "collection'" will have to be "torn from his cold dead hands" as Charton Heston once said. WWII photo albums, postcards, ancient coins. I feel my generation got the shaft. At least I get it all in the will, since he says his won't care for them.

A bit of sad news though for a fellow book lover, my grandmothers' late aunt who has passed left behind her families private library of 1700 and 1800 prints on their land (they were quite the bourgeois), but some ignorant fools thought it funny to burn it down for fun.....

That's quite a place. Which country or countries, in particular? Eastern and Western Europe?



I'm curious ... are the photos published?? You can sometimes scan those kind of pictures, and publish online.. take out a Google account and make yourself money with it. You'd probably have to get your Grandfather to provide "captions" for the images... really *wow,* those are wonderful pieces of history, for education.



Sorry to hear that...

Italy, I apparently technically have dual citizenship, but I can't activate it until my older brother is a certain age because of some transcription law, or he'll be forced into some service.


Some of them are photo albums, some are publications. I have to say though, I was surprised at how gruesome some of the books were. There were an uncomfortably large amount of detailed corpse photos, both of children and soldiers (especially Japanese)

Online, there's some information available about WWII. It's only when you open old books / albums like you're describing, you begin to realize just how scarce a lot of history is on the web, and even moreso (moreso unfortunately) accurate information.

I've seen some photos during the general time-frame you're describing, mis-labeled in the wrong decade, and wrong countries... I'm wondering when this inaccurate information on the web, begins ending up in modern "peer reviewed" publications.

Your Grandfather's collection sounds like an excellent source for citations if you ever chose to publish anything on WWII.

These are definitely authentic. The Japanese soldiers uniforms are present, complete with banners, katanas. I just wish they did without the closeups, I have a weak stomach. I though 'Zipperheads' was a sarcastic term, but like Vietnam photos these are not pretty.


I would love to, but I am currently on a "Look but don't take" status with my grandfathers collection. I wasn't even allowed in his office until I graduated high school. I would be glad to digitize it when ownership is transferred.

Yup...

Hey, I got pictures of those two "Hans Christian Andersen" books.

They are filled with beautiful artwork... drawn with flowing gowns and the fashion of the day...


Copyright 1889 Belford, Clarke & Co.

It's almost eerie, the front of the book's pages is hand-written is beautiful calligraphy (the old feather pen) ... "A Merry Christmas to Elsie and Leo. 1889" (Children whom today, are somebody's great-grandfather.) I've always wondered who Elsie and Leo were.


Copyright 1893 McLoughlin Bro's.

This picture gives me a 'Hansel and Gretel' meets 'la belle dame sans merci' feeling


I've always admired calligraphy. I excitedly bought fountain pens with my Birthday money, only to discover that I have horrible horrible ugly handwriting. It gives me horrible memories of my 3rd grade teacher making me the only student with extra homework that included only writing the alphabet over and over on lined paper.

Wow you're up on your history.

John Keats, 1884.
La Belle Dame sans Merci (French: "The Beautiful Lady without Pity") is a ballad written by the English poet John Keats. It exists in two versions, ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Belle_Dame_sans_Merci



Calligraphy takes a lot of practice.... and I mean... a lot. I had a brother who could actually write like that -- freehand. He had perfected his handwriting. He would make obsessions out of things like that... I seriously believe he was Aspergers.
More than I have patience for.

No no, my handwriting is so bad that I am not sure if my right hand or left hand is neater. It is quite sad. I suppose I could give the practice thing another go. Maybe I could at least make my writing legible.

AspieForty: Are you a wikipedia nut too? I can't get enough of it. I am a google addict.

Yup. I have 2 or 3 personal wiki's
It's fun just writing and publishing on those kinds of sites.

I don't know how I got by before. I remember having to open up actual encyclopedias. The HORROR!

Yup. Just never cite Wikipedia on any college papers though.



The colleges teach you all the drill about opening "peer reviewed" books and journals from the school library. The heck with that jazz. I'm too lazy (although I do have several 100 books here). If you've got an Amazon account, you can peruse through published books, for free by doing a word search... or there's always the Google Scholar or Google Books mode.

It's alllll out there.

The trick is to use Wikipedia for the information and basic knowledge that you use to sculp and construct your arguments, and then quote 1-2 sentences from a peer review and cite those. That way noone is the wiser.