Laughing With Aspergers

Art Update

Hello, I have returned after an absence. Again. Except this time I've actually been productive. I've made 16 new paintings since the last post, and I am continuing to improve. Also, I have made my first capitalistic exchange. David's dad bought my owl from the last post. I'd definitely consider it the crowning achievement of my life so far. I do want to sell more, but at the same time I don't because I consider them to be my sons. :|

Here's a few of my new ones. I'd appreciate it if you told me which ones are your favorite, and if you'd consider these good enough to sell for a few hundred dollars. (I won't be offended if you say they're not)

From top to bottom, Bearded Vulture, Plum-headed Parakeets, Brown Pelican, Marabou Stork, Great Hornbill, Victoria Crowned Pigeon, Roseate Spoonbill, Blue Cranes, Carolina Wren

~Christie

Art Rampage

This past week I've been on an art roll. I've made 6 paintings and they're all pretty dang good. I started painting this barn owl shortly after I finished the ornate hawk-eagle from the last post. It's hands down the best piece of art I've ever created and I'm super proud of it. Unfortunately, this means I've been slacking with my math. I can either do one thing at 100% or two things at 20%. This is also why I didn't make any posts during this time. I was too busy concentrating on art. It was worth it though.

              

 

 

A Work In Progress 3 (sort of)

I painted this Ornate Hawk-eagle recently.  I had planned on taking pictures as I worked on it but I completely forgot. He's supposed to be looking left, but I think I failed to convey that. Also, the cere should be closer to the eye, and the eye itself should be larger. Otherwise, I'm fairly satisfied with it. I haven't painted anything in years, so I'm kind of surprised it came out as nice as it did.

       

    sketch                                                                                   revised sketch                  

 

Also "cere" is not recognized by my spellcheck. This spellcheck is garbage.

 

 

Synesthesia

A while back I made a post about how I associate colors with numbers. Since then, I have discovered that this is a real thing called Synesthesia.

All this time I thought it was just me being weird. Learning that it was actually a documented neurological phenomenon was really exciting to me.

From what I've read, it's more common with people on the autism spectrum. So I guess that makes it relevant.

this Wikipedia article gives a nice overview

I would be interested to hear if any of you also experience, or know someone who experiences Synesthesia. 

 

My Nature Blog

Earlier this year I started a nature blog where I document all the cool things I find. It's not 100% done, but it's mostly operational now. My mom designed it and I really like how it looks. (I also appreciate that she put so much effort into it for me, thank you)

Since it's winter and there's not many creatures about, it probably won't be updated often right now. Come spring, I'll be adding new pictures probably at least a few times a week, if not every day.

A forewarning, if you are repulsed by spiders, snakes, and/or copulating insects, you may want to stay away.

here it is

(Interestingly, the word "copulating" is not recognized by my spell-check) 

 

Retrospect

Back when I drew a lot, there was a method I used to measure my artistic progress. I would stick my favorite pictures I made on a cork board in my room where I could easily see them. When I drew new pictures that I thought surpassed the ones on the board, I would replace the old ones and put them in a binder.

Every few months, I would get the binder out from underneath my bed and look at all of the old work that at one point, I thought was good. Even though it was a bit uncomfortable to see how poor my anatomy and shading was, it was also extremely gratifying to see how much I had improved.

I've been looking through all my old posts, and that's kind of how I feel now.

When I was sixteen, I felt ten. (Yikes) I definitely don't feel ten anymore.

Driving no longer terrifies me. It's actually pretty fun. I don't feel like I'm going to die.

I no longer mistake immature Blue Dashers for Swift Setwings. This is the thing that probably made me cringe the most. (And I cringed at nearly everything) Also, mistaking what is clearly a female dragonfly for a male? How embarrassing.

Wow. I really wouldn't stop bashing Santa. I'm sorry Santa, you didn't deserve that. None of the jokes at your expense were clever or funny anyway.

I'm not sleeping 20 hours a day. I actually have a somewhat normal sleep schedule. I'm not grossly sweaty all the time either.

When my mom is gone, I can take as many showers as I want because I can do my own laundry now.

I've also noticed that I've been clinging less to nostalgia. I recently gave away some stuffed animals that I've owned ever since I was tiny. The idea of getting rid of them would have been inconceivable a few years ago. Things I've had since forever aren't valuable to me anymore. Or at least, the nostalgia of these things aren't, and without the emotional attachment, what good is an old nasty stuffed duck? I sometimes think that maybe I should miss this stuff, but I don't. I've even gotten rid of that old play-kitchen thing. (If you remember that old post haha)

I've noticed a lack of strong emotions in general. Not exactly in a bad way. I feel sort of more emotionally balanced and relaxed and content most of the time. Which I guess is a good thing? I still experience things such as righteous fury and laughter at least, so I know I still have functional feelings. I suppose all this is just what being an adult is like.
Which is fine by me, because I like not crying a lot.

Basically what I'm saying is that I've definitely leveled up as a person, and I think I'll continue to get better.

Happy New Year. :)

 

HI.

                                                    Here, have this butterfly.

Hello everyone.

So, it's been forever since we've posted anything.

Basically because I've been having health issues all year. Nothing serious, but I wasn't in the mood to blog about anything, and I don't even know what David's been doing. At the beginning of this year, we had planned to take a break and then revamp the blog a bit, but we never got around to it because we're procrastinators. Then I got sick and never posted again, and since I didn't do anything he didn't either I guess.

Now that I'm feeling mostly better, you can expect to see more posts from me soon. I can't speak for David, but I'll try to make at least one post a week. Maybe two, if I have ideas.

A recap of what I've been up to this year in the time I wasn't in pain:

There was a bunch of trash in the woods behind my house and I picked all of it up. I probably picked up around 20 trash bags full. I hate litter.

I turned 19. Almost not a teenager anymore.

My family and David's family went on a cruise in Alaska. I stayed behind.

I have now reached the 250 species mark. (In regards to my photography)

I started my own nature blog that's just for my photos. I post pictures of everything I find there. I'll link it here soon. (It still has issues I need to work out)
I also started a tumblr blog where I post only my best/favorite photos. You can see it at wedontneedfeatherstofly.tumblr.com

I got a new camera.

I got a phone.

I had a Facebook account and I deleted it. It was a good decision.

My bug knowledge had increased exponentially. I am becoming more powerful and more confident in my identification skills.

It occurred to me that I am a huge nerd. I mean, I've always known I was nerdy, but I've only just realized just how much of a nerd I am.

I called Amazon customer service on my own, of my own volition. A huge accomplishment.

I got my learners permit and am now learning how to drive. <-- Definitely the biggest thing for me this year.

That's all the major non-medical stuff I can think of. I'll do individual posts on most of these things.

My mom has recently told me that our Facebook page has over 700 likes. That's a lot. So thanks, and sorry about disappearing.

 

 

Hope You Feel Better Christie

 

Last week Christie had her wisdom teeth taken out. The whole process sounds pretty crummy. 

So I made her this get well post it note. 

David

Laughing With Aspergers: Under Construction

Social Skills: Small Talk

Small talk can seem meaningless. Like the smallest of the talks.

And sometimes you just don't care about the small thing the other person is talking about. 

But you have to think about small talk as a warm up to a conversation. Like the beginning that gets you to the middle where you get to talk about more interesting things.

If you do not warm up with small talk, then you can overwhelm someone with your topic and enthusiasm. 

You don't want to startle people by just blurting out a topic. 

So, when you are just meeting someone or don't know them very well, you start with small talk to warm up the conversation. Usually a basic question you can ask anyone. 

Where are you from?  What are you doing this weekend? 

 

Then you learn a little about their weekend and then about them. 

And then you move into talk about interests or things or ideas that you might have in common. Then the conversation is warmed up and to the more interesting part. Hopefully. 

 

In all honestly, I don't do this well. I wasn't even sure about the sequence of these events as we wrote the blog. But I do kinda my own version of this with people I know. I usually have a topic I already want to talk about. But instead of launching into that topic, I ask a question that is related to the topic. Like if I want to talk about characters from a movie, I might ask someone's opinion about certain types of movies or characters. Then I listen. Then we eventually get to talk about my topic. On the way to my topic, the other person may some some interesting things. 

But then again, I don't meet a whole lot of new people. So I guess I'll have to use smaller talk for that.