Salutations from a Neurotypical

[Anthro2009]

Hello,

My name is Ariel and I do not have a dx, official or unofficial (although I'm not sure if I'm 100% typical, but that's another topic!). Although I have known an individual from time to time who is on the spectrum (primarily young adult males with Asperger's), I come to Gestalt primarily from my undergraduate research on support groups for parents of children with ASD in St. Louis. I'd be happy to provide details or an abstract to anyone who wants to know, but right now I just want to let everyone know that: YES, I am a researcher. NO, I am not researching right now... so onto the fun stuff:


First name: Ariel

Age: 21

Location: Ohio

Hobbies and Interests: Being a student; taekwondo; Medieval Combat

Reason for being here: Sophist invited me a while ago, and I'm finally taking her up on that.

Date of diagnosis (whether official or self-diagnosed): N/A, see above...

Favorite subjects: Anthropology! Of course!

Year/Grade: First year graduate student

Favorite music: Whatever's playing.

Books: Whatever isn't assigned for class. Recently finished Elizabeth Bear's Promethean Quartet, looking to move into more Sci-Fi soon.

TV shows: Big Bang Theory, That 70s Show, guilty pleasure: Secret Life of the American Teenager

Movies: Rocky Horror Picture Show, Watchmen, Donnie Darko, Addams Family Values, a bunch of others.

Magazines: Don't read any.

Comic books: Legion of Superheroes

Favorite foods: probably nothing that's good for me, but if I make it from scratch it's okay, right?

Instrument: I used to play clarinet and tenor sax. I love them both. But I'm not good at them.

Sports: Taekwondo. Medieval Combat sports.

Family: Fortunately large, and a huge part of my life.

Clothing: Anything cheap or free. I reconstruct a lot of things myself.

How did you find this website? Sophist

Job: Being a graduate student in anthropology, mostly.

Plans for the future? PhD as soon as possible, and hopefully a stable professorship after that.

Any comments? Thank you to Sophist for the invite!

[Sophist]

RHPS.

[goddessoflubbock]

Hi Ariel and welcome! I am in total agreement on the favorite foods - if you get a chance check out the recipe thread. None of mine are really healthy but they sure are good!

I'm an NT who is raising and married to a couple of my favorite guys who happen to be on the spectrum

[adhocisadirtyword]

Welcome to Gestalt!

[Aspen]

Welcome Ariel.

[renaeden]

Hello Ariel. I fully support your move into science fiction reading.

[Noctivagus]

Hi Ariel, welcome to Gestalt, how are your fins

[Mesonoxian]

Hello Ariel,
Pleasure to meet you, don't mind the mess.

Anthro2009:
...looking to move into more Sci-Fi soon.

If you are looking for a good Sci Fi book I just read Galactic North by Alastair Reynolds and quite enjoyed it. It is a bit on the dark side so fair warning if that is not your taste.
Something a bit lighter is the robot series by Issac Asimov ( The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, and The Robots of Dawn. They are fun if you like a little murder mystery in your Sci Fi.

Noctivagus wrote:
Hi Ariel, welcome to Gestalt, how are your fins

She can't be a mermaid. Atlantica isn't anywhere near Ohio.

[Anthro2009]

Thank you to everyone for the warm welcome.

Noctivagus, no fins for me, but some days in rainy Ohio I wonder if I'd find them useful.

Mesonoxian, thank you for the suggestions. I've recently requested Greg Egan's _Quarantine_ from our interlibrary loan, because I saw a passing reference to it in an article I was assigned to read and it reminded me of the need for some Sci-Fi in my life. Has anyone read it?

[Mesonoxian]

Anthro9000:
...Greg Egan's _Quarantine...Has anyone read it?

I read it some time ago. If I am remembering correctly, it's an entertaining read and does a good job of illustrating some of the concepts of quantum mechanics put forth by people like Bohr and Schrödinger. There is something I find a little philosophically unsatisfying about the idea that humans could have a direct influence on wavefunction collapse beyond the nano level, but the book was still fun.

[ruth]

Hi, Ariel. Welcome. I love "That Seventies Show". I love the way they so subtly suggest that the "kids" are stoned. I missed a lot of the humor and the innuendos when it first ran, and thought it was a pretty stupid show first time around. But now I'm picking up on all kinds of things I overlooked originally and I totally love it. And Johnny Darko is fantastic.