kon'nichiwa

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Hello Friends,

Some time ago I read the book ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time’, given to me as a present because Christopher the main character had a lot of similarities with me: he wants to be an astronaut*, has trouble eating**, loves science, is a Sherlock Holmes fan, cannot lie for life, takes words literally, is an atheist and relates to animals well. I read the book like in a day and was stunned to find all these secrets about me spelt out. Then I did research and have understood that this is why I’ve always been different, not because of my obnoxiously high IQ (especially non-verbal) as I used to think it was. It came to me as something of a relief.
*I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a child, not any more. **Also as a child. Thankfully I eat OK now.

Though I prefer to get diagnosed eventually (because I don’t want to keep doubting myself), I don’t think I’ll be rushing to see specialists in a hurry, as 1. I’m getting sufficient help from what I read, 2. I hear of difficulty in adult diagnosis, and 3. I’ve recently had disappointing occasions to see that many of the ‘specialists’ aren’t that thorough or precise in what they do. It may be an NT trait? They seem quite happy to ‘get by’ with whatever they come up with as far as they get ‘token recognition’. This reminds me of a YouTube clip with an AS man Dave saying he thought Trinity College would be full of ppl like himself (who likes pursuing his interests with rigour and passion).

The only AS things that don’t fit my profile: 1. I have friends, I think I’m good at making friends*, and 2. despite the fact that many of my friends like calling me ‘clueless’**, I still believe I can read general atmosphere and facial expressions well (or well enough at the least). I can tell whether people look happy or not happy. It also helps that I use a set of code like trying to talk approximately half the time if two of us are talking. This stops me from chattering away and boring ppl with some obscure facts I feel urge to define. Like matter anti-matter asymmetry and that Dr Watson once said that talent instantly recognises genius and which part of the brain is thought to process language in what way and an interesting discrete maths puzzle I recently found (I may post this in the Games forum later). I hope you will not mind that I’m chattering away right now. Ever since this summer when I started contemplating of joining this forum, I’ve actually spent weeks on end trying to edit this, trying to make it ‘short and sweet’ is the phrase, and this is as short as it can get. Hope it’s at least ‘long but lovable’. I personally assess myself to be a somewhat mild or borderline case (borderline between AS and NT) as you would see in the points I gave above.
*Not before I trained myself for many long years I admit, but the point is I did learn. I can do chatting too.
**Good news is ppl actually like me this way. They say it’s ‘soothing’ and ‘you are a tonic’.

I feel that joining WP may be the only chance for me to - I spent some time defining this one - relate to ppl without trying to be someone else? This aspect stands regardless of whether I fit the diagnostic criteria. I used to think that Sherlock Holmes was about the only person on earth who thought like me, but when I read all these posts here, or books on AS, I find just too many traits I previously thought were my unique characteristics:
-I was a Martian in the playground.
-I can never get the hang of time and it always slips by or more like flies by when I’m concentrating.
-I’m always bumping into things (once when I was extremely busy I went through a phase of trying to open a door after smashing right into it first. However, I’m a good gymnast).
-I’m a scatter brain and have an ingenious knack for forgetting things outside the range of my vision. I’m in the habit of establishing elaborate rules & lists to compensate this.
-I have narrow and obsessive interests (which include AS and WP now) as well as total void outside interests, the latter of which, combined with some of the points above, makes life a little too thrilling in various social situations at times.
There are also love of logic and consistency, pedantic perfectionist, keen perception in certain areas, stimming, precocious reader, experience of being bullied, etc., etc.

Any comments? 1. This is a great site! People can put their precious time & effort into something as beneficial and altruistic as running of this site. Thank you. 2. At first I had no comments, but then I looked through other people’s comments in that the_enigma introduction thread and realised this was where we could express our gratitude and write social niceties. It is a good idea, so I copied. 3.I actually had the whole the_enigma introduction scheme written up, which also took me days and days, but I edited it out because now and then I can be anxious of strangers (including friends who suddenly look like strangers when I’m lost at how to interpret their actions), and sort of can be daft and a little paranoid. Like when I don’t walk by the side of a parked car which you cannot look in. Although statistical chance of being abducted by someone in the car is minimum, if it ever happens it happens whole, not < .0001 times as in the probability (this probability is just a guess). 4. Apologies in advance if I cannot reply promptly.

Looking forward to your replies (hints, hints!),
WD

Very pleased to meet you, whitedragon!

This sounds so familiar.

Welcome to WP!

This sounds a lot like me. I can make friends, and I can read people if I think about it. The difference between what I do and the way a NT person does it is that I rely on a comprehensive mental database of human reactions to smooth over those parts that dont come naturally to me. Unfortunatly this means that I am occasionally subject to software malfunctions if I'm overstimulated.

In fact, your whole introduction sounds a lot like me, which leads me to beleive you came to the right place, Im glad you could join us!



We wouldnt want you to be anyone but yourself

Nice to meet you, whitedragon.

Welcome whitedragon,

I think you are much farther from the NT border than you think.

Aspie Middle Earth perhaps?

Now I know why all my abduction trys fail, thanks for the hint.

So you grew up, lived a normal Aspie life, but you leave out the good parts.

Obsessions define us here. That other stuff will get you in the door, a quite seat in the corner behind the potted plant.

Obsession shows talent within the group.

Our narrow and obsessive interests form groups and clusters.

Mentioning obsessions brings in the obsessive, always fun. AS & WP hardly count.

The world we know, but each person here is a Culture of One, tell us about that one.

Thank you SleepyDragon. You're another dragon!


Thank you alei. How do you pronounce your name?


Thank you JerryHatake. Your surname sounds Japanese and I like that. Excuse me if it's of another origin.


Thank you Inventor. Aspie Middle Earth, haha! You have a way with words.

Waa. All these people I've been reading the posts by, and it's like, ooh, the celebrities, they are actually writing to me! Brilliant! So glad I finally plucked up the courage. I wanted to say a quick thanks before too long; I won't be able to log in until tomorrow.

With contentment and gratitude,
WD

Welcome aboard, Whitedragon!

My closest connection to dragons is my birth
year: I was born in 1964, so that makes me a
Wood Dragon in Chinese astrology.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Thank you Douglas_MacNeill. My granny was born in the year of the Dragon too, although I'm (vaguely) aware that Chinese and our system differ a little. I got my log in name partially from an epic fantasy phenomenally popular in the 19th Century Japan. I’m working on the translation. It’s got magic, adventure and heroism. I got it also partially from 'Kagura', a bit like fantasy/myth made into stage performance.



Thank you AnonymousAnonymous. Do you happen to share anxiety of being public? Sorry if it's a rude question. I ask because of your name, and it's just that this is one of the few autistic aspects of my life that I could do with some intervention.

1. Statistics, astrophysics, cognitive psychology/science, language and linguistics, genetic biology; they pretty much make up my life, though not necessarily in that order.

2. Japanese traditional theatre called ‘Kagura’; a bit like fantasy on stage, only it’s played by amateurs in some rural areas here. Imagine a Japanese traditional version of LOTR and/or such, with all the monsters, dragons, magic, adventure and heroism, made into musical with very danceable tunes, and get this, their dancing is Stimming in the State of Art! Another good thing is they usually don’t invent new stories, so the audience know when the hero or demons strike. You can watch one here:

http://www.npo-kagura.jp/contents/html/002-tv.html

Watch out for the rather piercing shutter noise accompanied by the image of a camera at the beginning. It’s followed by approx. 2 min. of gibberish inserted by the cable company before the story begins. I wrote up the story below*. If you haven’t the patience, go to the last fifth or so (best bit) in which the heroes fight with the demons, all of them spinning like mad.
3. There’s more but I’m writing far too much, and I seriously fear I’m boring ppl senseless.



It's so nice of you to say so, I thank you; however, I must learn to write in fewer words, I'm in a 'petit' panic here.

*Summary of Modori-bashi:
The Hero, WATANABE no Tsuna comes home to his beloved nanny, carrying a demon’s left arm he took, but the nanny is killed and replaced by one of the demons to retrieve the arm and the plan succeeds. The demons then attack Tsuna and nearly kill him as well. There the lord MINAMOTO Raiko and his men rush to the rescue and they all fight. The rest you can see. This particular stage is exceptional in that it is Part II of a three part story.

Welcome to WP!

Tim

Thank you Tim. Another member familiar to me in many posts. Hope your geography studies go well and you get a smashing career!

I must say it feels sad to have half the posts in my introduction thread from myself, but I just wanted to say:

Hello Jerry, your new avater looks absolutely smashing. Kakkoii. I see some Chinese things in the background.

Hello alei (I still don't know how to pronounce your name), I like Beautiful Wasteland, Ancient History, Knotwork, and Figment in your deviantART gallery. I also like the thing in Spirit Catcher.

but I did not know where else to write them.

Welcome whitedragon!

So you're Japanese. I'm really fascinated with the Japanese culture and want to learn Japanese and visit Japan later in life.

konnichiwa, whitedragon-san!

nihongo o hanashimasu ka? Yokuso!

I assume you speak Japanese? Welcome! Kagura is an interesting art form, although it never developed into one of my obsessions. Possibly I couldn't understand enough of it.

Good to meet you whitedragon! As far as getting a diagnosis is concerned, do what you are most comfortable with. I had my DX earlier in the year and was very glad that I did - but we are all different. From your introduction, you sound very aspie to me .

All the best!