Introducing myself

Page 1 of 1 [ 15 posts ]

Ieba
Butterfly

Joined: 29 Jul 2007
Gender: Male
Posts: 10
Location: Netherlands

30 Jul 2007, 5:01 am

Hello everyone,

I am 45 years old I live in the Netherlands and I was diagnosed with Asperger around a year ago. I have been an amateur astronomer for ten years now. Recently I have built my own Newton telescope out of parts from the scrapyard and the diy-store.

Star gazing and hanging out in the workshop of the observatory is one thing I like. Other hobbies are computers (I switched to an Apple Macintosh recently and I hope to get rid of everything Windows very soon), running, swimming, work out at the gym - sports as a way to keep my diabetes under control which came on top of being an Asperger. I use medication to control my diabetes; fortunately I don't have to inject insulin yet using a syringe (I don't like sharp objects - I can't remember the name of this type of phobia; can anyone help me out?)

I have spent a lot of time recently watching the Tour de France (aka Tour de Dope) :twisted: . Any more TdF fans out there?

Tim_Tex
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 2 Jul 2004
Age: 45
Gender: Male
Posts: 46,086
Location: Houston, Texas

30 Jul 2007, 5:06 am

Welcome to WP!

Tim

_________________
Who’s better at math than a robot? They’re made of math!

dawndeleon
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 13 Jul 2007
Age: 48
Gender: Female
Posts: 695

30 Jul 2007, 6:51 am

welcome to wp. good to have you here.

blessedmom
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 9 Apr 2007
Age: 56
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,701
Location: Western Canada

30 Jul 2007, 10:27 am

Hello and welcome to WP. If you want you can check out the In-Depth Adult Forum. It is where many of the older Aspies post.
Nice to meet you!

_________________
"It is what it is until it isn't. Then it's something altogether different."

JerryHatake
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 1 Jul 2006
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Posts: 9,025
Location: Woodbridge, VA

30 Jul 2007, 10:59 am

Nice to meet you, Ieba.

_________________
"You are the stars and the world is watching you. By your presence you send a message to every village, every city, every nation. A message of hope. A message of victory."- Eunice Kennedy Shriver

Jainaday
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 8 Jul 2007
Age: 40
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,099
Location: in the They

30 Jul 2007, 11:51 am

Welcome

Never watched TDF, and I'm afraid I'm a linux girl, so the whole apple thing isn't so familiar. We have blood sugar and astronomy in common though!

See you about :wink:

richie
Supporting Member

Joined: 9 Jan 2007
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 30,142
Location: Lake Whoop-Dee-Doo, Pennsylvania

30 Jul 2007, 3:54 pm

Welcome to WrongPlanet

Taken
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

Joined: 24 Jul 2007
Age: 54
Gender: Female
Posts: 56
Location: NC

30 Jul 2007, 6:50 pm

Don't you love it when you say Hi and they immediately direct you to the old folks table? LOL

_________________
Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live. ~~
Oscar Wilde

Ieba
Butterfly

Joined: 29 Jul 2007
Gender: Male
Posts: 10
Location: Netherlands

31 Jul 2007, 3:20 pm

Jainaday wrote:

Welcome

Never watched TDF, and I'm afraid I'm a linux girl, so the whole apple thing isn't so familiar. We have blood sugar and astronomy in common though!

Hi Jainaday,

Tomorrow I have another check-up of my blood sugar in the health center in my neigborhood. At the last check-up I had a level of 7.6 mmol / liter (in what measuring units is this measured where you live? I mean non-metric unlike western Europe). I've kept a close watch on everything I eat and take my regular excercise, running, so I think it will be ok.

I have been using the Coronado solar telescope quite a bit lately. It is installed in the dome of the observatory. Unfortunately the Sun is hiding the last few days.

The basis of the Apple operating system is actually Unix. Underneath the Apple OS there is a full fledged FreeBSD Unix system available. If you have X11 installed and a working terminal (similar to the konsole of Linux) you can use your Apple like it were a Linux system. The fun part is that almost every Linux application available will run on an Apple Macintosh. For the few Linux apps that won't run with the Apple a modest message is shown so you won't have to waste your precious time trying to compile or (binary)install a Linux app that is not going to work anyway. The Apple OS is really a wonderful piece of technology (I use Tiger 10.4 on a refurbished G3). Now I'll quit before everyone thinks I'm posting into the wrong discussion group. I think I've become a happy convert (allelujah)

.

Erik

blessedmom
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 9 Apr 2007
Age: 56
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,701
Location: Western Canada

31 Jul 2007, 3:23 pm

Taken wrote:

Don't you love it when you say Hi and they immediately direct you to the old folks table? LOL

Actually, unless you consider being in your 30's old, many of us aren't that old.

_________________
"It is what it is until it isn't. Then it's something altogether different."

Jainaday
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 8 Jul 2007
Age: 40
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,099
Location: in the They

31 Jul 2007, 4:38 pm

Hmn. . . I feel like an imposter.

Due to the generally horrific nature of health care in the US, I haven't actually had my blood sugar checked since I was diagnosed in my early teens, but I believe the standard units here are mg/dl - so metrics, but different metrics.

Similarly, (if in a less potentially life threatening sort of way) these days I'm an armchair astronomer. I don't actually use a telescope regularly- yet- but am most impressed by those who use- and especially build- them often. I have binoculars, which are better than nothing, but as a student my opportunities to get away from people-light and smog are few and far between. Hopefully this stint of only seeing the brightest stars will leave me with mad skills for all the major landmarks (skymarks?) of the sky.

I looked up your telescope, though, and I can freely state that I am dripping with envy. I guess because I'm young and quite new to astronomy, it didn't even occur to me to see about non-professional efforts of observing the sun. . . and now I have to go read about it. It's like there's a whole new subject I hadn't even thought of. What are you're favorite things to look at?

As far as the whole cult of linux vs. cult of mac vs. that one NT operating system everyone else uses- the point of linux for me is that a) it's open source, which I feel strongly is better in principle, b) it runs on a PC, so I can still mess around a great deal with the hardware at will and c) it's not windows. I confess it's frustrating at times, but I'm willing to have to learn more, and even deal with a slightly inferior system, in exchange for these other benefits. Now all the real linux people can come and crucify me.

I have been considering an apple for my next machine, though, mostly for garage band and similar sorts of things. That's pretty preliminary, though- at least three years and a great deal of research away.

Taken
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

Joined: 24 Jul 2007
Age: 54
Gender: Female
Posts: 56
Location: NC

31 Jul 2007, 7:23 pm

blessedmom wrote:

Taken wrote:

Don't you love it when you say Hi and they immediately direct you to the old folks table? LOL

Actually, unless you consider being in your 30's old, many of us aren't that old.

Ha ha...guess I'm just not yet adjusted to the fact that people my age are now the "older" people. I'm in denial...please don't try to make me face the reality.

_________________
Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live. ~~
Oscar Wilde

blessedmom
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 9 Apr 2007
Age: 56
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,701
Location: Western Canada

31 Jul 2007, 8:30 pm

Taken wrote:

blessedmom wrote:

Taken wrote:

Don't you love it when you say Hi and they immediately direct you to the old folks table? LOL

Actually, unless you consider being in your 30's old, many of us aren't that old.

Ha ha...guess I'm just not yet adjusted to the fact that people my age are now the "older" people. I'm in denial...please don't try to make me face the reality.

I'm sorry. I guess technically we're the "middle" people. I have 3 teenagers that remind me EVERYDAY that I am the "older" person. And I got Maam'ed by a guy that had to be about 25 today! :evil:

_________________
"It is what it is until it isn't. Then it's something altogether different."

Taken
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

Joined: 24 Jul 2007
Age: 54
Gender: Female
Posts: 56
Location: NC

31 Jul 2007, 8:46 pm

LOL I'm sooo sorry. I'm still shocked when they don't check my ID for cigarettes and I have teenagers too. Funny I don't feel like I'm a middle aged person now...gosh when I was little I thought 37 was ancient. Excuse me while I cry.

_________________
Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live. ~~
Oscar Wilde

Ieba
Butterfly

Joined: 29 Jul 2007
Gender: Male
Posts: 10
Location: Netherlands

01 Aug 2007, 4:19 am

Jainaday wrote:

Hmn. . . I feel like an imposter.

Due to the generally horrific nature of health care in the US, I haven't actually had my blood sugar checked since I was diagnosed in my early teens,

Type 1 or type 2 ?

Similarly, (if in a less potentially life threatening sort of way) these days I'm an armchair astronomer. I don't actually use a telescope regularly- yet- but am most impressed by those who use- and especially build- them often. I have binoculars, which are better than nothing, but as a student my opportunities to
I looked up your telescope, though, and I can freely state that I am dripping with envy. ... What are you're favorite things to look at?

My favorite objects are planets. When I use one of my own telescopes. I have a 2000 mm Maksutov (nicknamed the "Russian barrel") and a small traveling scope, a 60 mm Astrolon. Both are very good for observing the Moon and planets like Venus and Saturn. Observing distant galaxies and nebulaes becomes a problem. At the big dome of the observatory I have a modified (souped up) Celestron C8 to observe distant objects like the nebulaes from Messier and other catalogs. The observatory owns an Sbig camera for astro-photography that I can also use, attached to one of the telescopes (there are now 2 on a single undercarriage in the big dome, the C8 and the Coronado, a third telescope for observing the planets will also be fitted later on. It is being built now in the workshop of the observatory - we're very well equipped).

We used to have a 150 mm Mistral (home-built at the observatory) with very good optics to watch distant objects. Our former chairman took it with him to start his own private observatory. He now lives in the United States with his new girlfriend who is also a (professional) astronomer. They both moved to a place near the famous ski resort of Big Bear, California, where there is warm weather and crystal clear skies all year round. Now that makes ME drip with envy. In the low country where I live the sky is cloudy most of the time and the humidity of the air is just terrible (mostly around 70 %, makes every object in your lens jump up around like a bouncy ball).

I have been considering an apple for my next machine, That's pretty preliminary, though- at least three years and a great deal of research away.

Try to find a good second hand Apple on eBay.

Page 1 of 1 [ 15 posts ]

Jump to:

Introducing myself Post Reply New Topic

Introducing myself