I was diagnosed with asperger's when I was 22. My special interest has switched a few times throughout my life. When I was a child I use to love collecting Victorian coins and specialised in Queen Victoria's life history. I then went through a phase of mastering various online video-games during my teen years. I have always had a fondness for chess and took it up more seriously when I started University. During my 2 years in the chess society: I was elected the PR officer & Captain of the 2nd team in my first year, due to helping establish and run/organise our chess volunteering project (working with the UK charity Chess in Schools & Communities) in local primary schools in the Nottinghamshire area. I attempted to run for President in my 2nd year but failed miserably losing by 8 votes to 1 but was given captaincy of the 1st team as consolation. I would define myself as a chess enthusiast. I have a 3 year gap in my education history due to having break downs from making the transition from; secondary school to college, college to University and the death of my youngest brother last November, followed soon after by the divorce of my parents caused me to suspend my studies for a further year. I will be completing the final year of my degree in: Finance, Accounting and Management next June but my University has agreed to let me revise/study from home and just come in to sit the exams in Jan and May, which will help me significantly. I intend to pursue a career in Accounting (Tax preferably as I find it the most interesting then transfer into Tax law later on) to help fund me playing in chess tournaments around Europe. Since the death of my brother on the 13th November 2012, for a period of 6-8 months I spent most of my time researching into theories eluding to a potential afterlife and the origins of the Universe. I found watching (mainly via YouTube) 100s of lectures and debates between the worlds leading atheist and theist debaters very interesting and useful. I was a big fan of the late Christopher Hitchens from the atheist side and William Lane Craig from the theist (christian apologetic) side, I'm an agnostic myself. I also find the following persons interesting to listen to as well: Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Lawrence Krauss, Dinesh D'Souza, John Lennox and Daniel Dennett. To relax I enjoy watching my favourite football teams Manchester United & Yeovil Town play, I also love watching good films & tv-shows. Horror and sci-fi have always been personal favourite film genres of mine, but since the age of 15 onwards I started to watch anything that had a 7+ rating on imdb, will drop to 6+ if it's horror/sci-fi or the storyline interests me. Chess for me is as essential as oxygen, I need to spend at least 3-6hrs a day either thinking about chess or doing something chess related. I specialise in the: King's Indian defence (transpose to the Modern Benoni & Benko Gambit in favourable circumstances as well), Sicilian Najdorf, Berlin defence, Chebanenko Slav, Catalan and Reti openings exclusively. My favourite players of all-time are: Robert James Fischer, Garry Kasparov & Vladimir Kramnik. My favourite active players are: Vladimir Kramnik, Boris Gelfand, Hikaru Nakamura, Viswanathan Anand and Michael Adams. I have recently been considering booking an appointment with a doctor to see whether I might have bipolar. It's only after watching Homeland where the main character Carrie Mathison has it that I first considered it. I have taken various online free test questionnaires and scored highly in it. My only concern about seeking a diagnosis is I have been told by anonymous recruiters of grad scheme programmes I'm looking to apply to in Jan 2014, having bipolar is seen as a big red flag (unofficially) i.e. in the sense of having my application rejected on the basis of having a diagnosis of bipolar. The part that interests me is I have been told that persons with bipolar get their own special kind of meds? I have been on and off anti-depressants for the last 5 years. Since I have moved home I now have a new doctor that I find irritating, her attempts to relate to me via talking about chess, when she clearly knows nothing about chess, I have found both degrading and insulting for the both of us. I had an excellent doctor at the medical practice on campus who also had asperger's. I often consider committing suicide myself, not because I'm depressed, I hate the paradox regarding the existence of life and the Universe. Apologies if the above is incoherent and/or lacks proper structure, I'm tired, if necessary I'll edit it later.
15 Oct 2013, 6:13 pm
