New member from Virginia.

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Hi all. Name's Jordan Garrett. Decided to join this site while looking for an asperger's support place. Given the amount of detail I plan to go into and just that it's easier for me to post facts and expand upon those somewhat when introducing myself, I'll do that.

Name: Jorda......wait, I already told you. I'm not repeating myself.

From: Goshen, Virginia.

Age: 21

Gender: Male

Personality: A lot of people would call me boring, but if you look beneath the surface, I think I'm a pretty decent and relatively smart person who's well opinionated on a variety of issues and who enjoys looking into things with an analytical eye regarding things like quotes (philosophical ones), as some of we aspies tend to do from time to time. That being said, One asperger's syndrome stereotype that does fit me is that I don't tend to have the best sense of humor. When it's on, I tend to be dry and sarcastic (which is perfect, given that my voice can tend to be monotone) and I tend to be making people laugh as opposed to doing it myself (Though I've had my laughs here and there, I'm usually not the type of guy who will find things so funny I'll "lol". Usually it's a smile.), though sometimes, I find enjoyment and amusement in flirting (even if it's joke flirting, where I'll do it with other men for fun.) or just acting somewhat OTT. I can also be quite punny. Another stereotype that would tend to fit me is that around new people, I'm shy and tend to avoid eye contact and if I engage in it, I try and keep it locked in for a short amount of time.

Hobbies: One thing I enjoy that's generally looked down upon and mocked is the "sport" of professional wrestling. Though I've become relatively disenchanted with it over the years, I do try and give it a shot on a week to week basis, though I've got no problem walking away from it or changing the channel if it bores the pants off of me. I also enjoy collecting cards (Yugioh, though I'm not a fan of buying the cards as singles as much. The fun comes when you buy a few packs, tear them open and find a rare card. Gives you a sense of achievement), analyzing things, playing with my pets, watching crime shows, sometimes a good show on history, some game shows such as Bingo America, Russian Roulette, Catch 21, etc. Playing video games is also cool. The genres I enjoy are RPGs, first person shooters, survival horror, adventure and to a lesser extent, platformers such as Sonic and Mario (The older games, for the most part. Don't get me started on "New Sonic"). Finally, I like me some country music and 40s music as well as some classic rock.

What I find endearing: Intelligence, an energetic (Not overly so, but I tend to find that sometimes, those people sometimes bring out a more carefree side of my personality), somebody who looks at things from all angles, whether it be a question on a test or a quote they are trying to understand the meaning of. Don't accept the "established" reality as reality. That is to say, just because a vast majority of people see things from a certain viewpoint, don't feel the need to agree to appease them. There's a fine line between being an individual with a personality and a number who sells off what makes them unique to fit in with the in-crowd. Moving on, I definitely like (in women: I don't bat for the other team.) a tendency to be flirtatious, as long as the women don't try and flirt TOO much or get too explicit. Afterall, flirting's supposed to be "Wink and a nod" type of fun (IE: Tongue in cheek.), so being subtle is kinda the name of the game.


How to irritate me: Give me a demeaning label. I was in a debate (Political. Gotta love debating with somebody who's EXTREMELY partisan.) and multiple times, this person insulted my intelligence and did what is referred to by you crazy kids as "Baiting". And get this: Because I had cussed, he demanded that I apologize (and I did, so as not to exasperate things between us), yet he never did for implying I was mentally ret*d. Let me make one thing clear: I have nothing wrong with people with retardation, because I know it isn't their fault. I'm an aspie, so I certainly understand that mental disorders aren't the fault of people. It's just that I DO pride myself on being smart and logical and it annoys me to see a person insult my intelligence in an arrogant and smarmy way. This person also called me a "Liberal" time and again. And similarly to retardation, I have nothing wrong with Liberals, for one, but I don't support the left, the right, the independents or libertarians or the green party. I support the people who's policies I most agree with, which is why I thought Obama was the far better choice over McCain. No bias was involved in my choice, as I researched both candidates on unbiased sites and came to my own conclusion.


Why you'll like me/hate me: I think above all else, why people will either be hot or cold on me is because while I try and be a respectful person, I don't beat around the bush or try not to at any rate. I also don't create BS (or outwardly attempt to, though I inadvertently will sometimes) and I hate the presence of it on the web. Other reasons you'll hate/like me is because I can tend to sometimes be sarcastic, so it really depends on if you like that or not in a person.


Anyways, if anybody wants to greet me, feel free to post in the thread or drop a PM. I'm willing to talk to new people every now and then. Now that I've finished up in this thread for now, I'm just gonna look around the forum for a bit. Thanks for reading.

Edited so as to abide by the rules: Didn't notice the sticky rules before posting my thread and I certainly posted language that the board wouldn't agree with, so I did away with it. I was too worried about getting my thread up and was negligent, so sorry for that.

Last edited by jg914 on 04 Apr 2009, 1:26 pm, edited 6 times in total.

Nice to meet you, Jordan.

Greetings, and welcome to Wrong Planet, Jordan.

Thanks for that. Good to see I'm getting a nice reception so soon after joining. Thanks to you as well, JetLag.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Hello and welcome. It's refreshing to see somebody willing to say a little bit about themselves when they join. I've been to Virginia before; was actually participating in a joint urban ops exercise with the American military on a base close to Richmond. We rappelled out of Black Hawk helicopters; it was fun stuff.

I think you'll fit in quite well here; there are plenty of us around here like that. I think you'll particularly enjoy the Politics, Philosophy and Religion forum (PP&R) although while there's a lot of great intellectual debate going on in there, there's also a lot of mudslinging and flame wars (as you would expect on a debate forum that deals with touchy subjects) that you have to navigate through to get to the good stuff. Your sense of humour will also likely be appreciated here.



I think you're talking about the dog and pony show wrestling, which in my mind is something completely different from actual professional wrestling. Still, though, if you recognize that it's all just a show for entertainment purposes, then I have no problem with it. It's the people who take it seriously and think it's real that I'm iffy about.

I used to collect Pokémon cards myself back when I was a kid; I still have a holographic Charizard lying around somewhere that I should probably be taking better care of. Nowadays I have a Magic: The Gathering deck, but it's pretty simple and I have it because I enjoy the card game and not so much for collection purposes. I guess you watch a lot of CSI too; I love the original series but not so much its spinoffs.

Heh, New Sonic... While I have to admit that Sega has been going downhill with their Sonic games in recent years, one of my favourite games has to be Sonic Adventure 2; right up there with good old Sonic 3 and Knuckles.



There's actually a singles thread in the Love and Dating forum that you can use to post a profile for the express purpose of seeking out romantic connections. You could also try Aspie Affection, to which there should be a link to near the top of your window.

For friends, though, I think you'll be quite pleased with the amount of people you'll find here who fit the bill for what you like. Disregard for social conventions and norms (established reality, so to speak) is one of the main traits that define most aspies.



In general, most of the people here are very tolerant, open-minded, and reluctant to label, but you may run into a lot of irritation if you venture much into the murky waters of PP&R... Still, if you like debate, you'll always have to put up with some degree of demeaning labelling; it simply comes with the territory. If you're willing to put up with that in your search for intellectual stimulation, then I'd say go for it.




Most people here appreciate honesty, if not bluntly honest about everything themselves. All I can say is try to get yourself out there and demonstrate your personality, and you'll find your own following eventually.

Last edited by BobTheMartian on 05 Apr 2009, 8:28 am, edited 1 time in total.

Well, I can understand how it'd be fun for some (I mean I could see why people get that adrenaline rush, but I'm just not a person who enjoys heights. I get uncomfortable standing at the top rung of a ladder and I was petrified hanging upside down in a ferris wheel as a kid when it had reached it's apex. Still glad you found the experience fun. If you're into spelunking, Lurray Caverns is a good place to visit. Decent town surrounding some great caves.



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Yeah, flame wars don't bug me as long as there's a decent amount of threads offering good conversation to balance them out. While I don't have a problem doing some digging to find a few good topics which interest me, I don't want to have to start digging through the boards with a baco as opposed to a shovel.





Don't get what you mean by Dog and Pony show? Wrestling that focuses more on style and showing off than substance? If that's what you mean, I agree. It's been one of my problems over the years with WWE and more recently, their second competitor, TNA (which was once more of a "down to the business and to the point: wrestling" program, wheras now, it feels like more of a soap, IMHO. Regardless, I do see it as entertainment and I'm certainly not like that "crying wrestling fan" you see all over the web. If you don't know what I'm referring to, look for "crying wrestling fan" on Youtube.


As for Pokemon: I collected the cards myself somewhat, but I kinda moved on as years went by. I discovered the yugioh cartoon on KidsWB, had some friends in my private school who collected the cards, etc, so it's easy to see why it just grew on me so quickly and why I left Pokemon behind. I also did duel sparsely with Yugioh (for fun. Definitely wasn't a master strategist), but the game has evolved way too fast for me and is becoming too complex for me to want to play it now as opposed to just being a collector. I know you didn't come off as a fan, but try and wrap your mind around a chess game that lasts a few turns and then consider the fact that as you watch this game happen, more and more strategies are being created rapidly to make games even shorter, which all but eliminates the rewarding of players who plan for the long term and take their time to build their strategy. That's the state of the game. On top of me not being able to (or at least without considerable diffuculty), like I said, the game is evolving way too fast. Decks that were viable months before are now essentially worthless, which I think is sad.

As far as CSI goes: I watch it regularly, but far from religiously. It's a good show, but sometimes the acting lets it down (Caruso tries to be the tough guy way too much and he seems too invulnerable and 2D most of the time in his acting, IMO. You want a real hard boiled detective? Swayze is way better, IMO. He's just easier to buy for me). If anything, I'll watch Law and Order shows but it should be noted that while I do enjoy crime shows, I'm not the type to never ever miss them or to even watch regularly, more than I am somebody who records a few who look interesting so I can watch them later.

On Sonic: SA2 was a good game, but I found SA more fun, aside from the stupid change from "Robotnik" (which was a very cool name..) to "Eggman", which was basically explained as a name they called Robotnik to pick on him which stuck, before somehow, Sega came up with brilliant idea to say "Eggman" was the grandson of robotnik, which doesn't make any sense to me. But yeah, I agree that Sonic's definitely been on a downhill slide since his DC days. I think his lowest points were when he kissed Elise in Sonic 360 (Umm....yay, beastiality??? Kidding, sort of, but even if you disagree with the beastiality argument, it's hard to argue that it was stupid for Sega to include the kiss in the game.) and Mario and Sonic at the Olympics (WTF? We could have had an amazing crossover game in which Mario and Robotnik faced off or when Sonic and Bowser had an epic speed vs strength showdown, but instead, Nintendo goes COMPLETELY lazy and gives us this, simply because they knew it would sell well since it's Mario and Sonic together for the first time. *SMH*).




Cool. Didn't notice the singles thread (Mainly because I haven't been in Love and Dating yet. That'll do it.), but I did run across aspie affection earlier. The male to female ratio is somewhat lopsided, as I don't think they have even 400 women to over 1100 men (last I checked), but still, there were some good looking women and ones with some good personalities (judging by the profiles) over there. Same applies to a lot of women here (at least, so far I've gotten good impressions.)




That's true and a good point, now that I think about it. And honestly, I'm up for the challenge of dealing with the crap-slinging. While it's not fun to see people make baseless accusations, at the end of the day, that's exactly what they are: baseless. If people want to make themselves look like jerks, I can't promise I won't get annoyed, but I'll definitely try and be the bigger person and not try and ignite things, since it helps nobody. That's one thing people don't have to worry about: me being incendiary. I can be blunt, but it takes a lot to really set me off.




Good to hear and I have tried to be honest about myself and not beat myself up. And honestly, if a following comes, my own cult so to speak, that could be fun and I wouldn't object (especially if I got my own groupies.... ), but honestly, it's not what I'm looking for. My main objective is to find some more acceptance and find a place where people like me can talk with people who understand them and who don't judge them because they aren't the biggest social butterflys or the most empathetic or the funniest, which oftentimes, a lot of people with ASD/AS will get, simply because just like some of us don't know how to cope with others, they don't know how to cope with us, almost as if we are each wearing our own pair of shades.