Laughing With Aspergers

Buying Stuff for People is Hard

 

Since this is the first Christmas I have owned a debit card with my own checking account, I plan on buying each person in my family a present. The problem is, my siblings (with the exception of Katie) aren't little sugar cubes any more. Little kids seem to be satisfied more easily and more inexpensively than older ones. Like, if John and Claire were five, I could buy them some hot wheels and a cheap makeup set, respectively, and they would love it. Now they're 15 and 13 years old. John likes expensive XBox games and imported Japanese action figures. I don't even know what Claire likes nowadays. Probably expensive makeup sets. Even Katie's tastes have become more refined. I'm only willing to spend about $10 on each of them but I don't want to buy something they'll just forget about and throw away in a landfill. I'll probably just make my mom and dad something. Old people are easy like that.

New Species

I was on vacation at the beach last week. I didn't do much because I was too busy having mental breakdowns. In the brief amount of time I was mentally sound, I took pictures of these two lepidopterans.

The first photo is an Oleander Moth. I was super excited to see this one because I've been looking for one forever. The one below is a Little Yellow. It's also a new species for me. I don't bother taking pictures of species I already have. It feels good to add these two to my collection.

In the past few years I have photographed 153 species of insects, spiders, reptiles, amphibians, and birds. I try to photograph one of each sex of species that are sexually dimporphic too. So I have 172 photos in all in my collection.

Social Media

I thought I was on the internet a lot.

But what about those people who follow Walgreens on Twitter?

Social Media. It's all just too much.

 

Review: Crash Courses

I've been watching these videos on Youtube called 'Crash Courses' because my mom told me to. They have a bunch of different subjects, and each subject has around 25 to 50 videos that are about 15 minutes each. 

So far I've watched World History, US History, Literature, and Chemistry. They also have Big History, Biology, Ecology and Psychology

They are entertaining but still informative, and humorous without being distracting. They keep my attention and are a good refresher on things I mostly already know. Except for Literature, which was about a bunch of books I am never going to read.

 

Aspergers, Words, and Dinosaurs

Ever since I was a 'sugar cube', I've enjoyed using bigger or lesser-used words. It made me feel smart and important. I especially liked learning all the dinosaur names that I could. 

I think I mostly use big words because I don't like to use the word 'very' when describing something. Like 'very pretty' should be 'glorious'. Why can't 'very bad' be 'horrendous'?

Some of my favorite words describe bad things: appalling, innane, sychophant, absurd, unholy. They are fun to say when you're angry. 

I also have strong affection towards animal-related words: avian, equine, lagomorph, bovine, gastropod, cetacean, monoplacophora. 

Sometimes I wake up at 3:00 a.m. and think: 'What is another word for this word?' Then I get on my ipad and look it up on the thesaurus (which I thought was a dinosaur the first time I heard it.)

 

A Conversation and a Butterfly

This weekend I went for a walk with Sadie in the woods behind my house to take some pictures. I didn't find a lot of stuff, because most everything is dead now. The only thing I took a picture of was this bug.

Along the way, we came across a lady who was marking trails or something. She said 'Hey' and I said 'Hey' and she wanted to pet Sadie. And then she said some more stuff and I said some stuff, and it was actually an OK conversation. And I only got a little bit sweaty. (I break out in cold sweats when I talk to strangers)

There was a butterfly fluttering around right behind her, and I had to resist going after it the whole time we were talking.

But I resisted it, because I am a mature adult. 

 

Why I like hanging out with animals more than people

1.    They don't care what you're wearing.

2.    Their social cues are easier to read. I can read the social cues of my fish.

3.    They are completely incapable of being judgmental.

4.    You don't have to start a conversation with them.

5.    They're more pleasant to look at than people.

 

 

Christie's Happy November 3 Survey

THREE WAYS I AM STILL A KID
1. I like toys.
2. I love 'Miss Spider Sunny Patch Friends'.
3. I hold my mom's hand in public.

THREE WAYS I AM ALREADY OLD
1. I don't like it when my parents host loud parties.
2. I don't like parties in general.
3. I am tired.

THREE THINGS I WANT TO DO
1. Go back to Jekyll Island.
2. Get a new camera.
3. Go back to the North GA Zoo.

THREE NEW THINGS I WANT TO TRY IN THE NEXT 12 MONTHS 
1. Indoor skydiving.
2. Go to the Toucan Farm in California.
3. I don't know. I'm not very ambitious.

THREE THINGS I LIKE ABOUT MYSELF
1. I like that I like the things that I like.
2. I normally don't sit around and think about my own attributes.
3. ?

THREE THINGS I STRONGLY DISLIKE ABOUT MYSELF
1. I'm lazy.
2. I'm tired.
3. I am socially awkward.

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE ME
1. Daddy longlegs.
2. Mr. Clean.
3. Infectious diseases.

THREE OF MY EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS
1. The internet.
2. My mommy.
3. Food. And other things necessary for my continued survival.

THREE THINGS I JUST CAN’T DO
1. Touch my toes.
2. Make friends.
3. Juggle planets.

THREE CAREERS I’M CONSIDERING
1. Wildlife photography.
2. What's the person called who puts stickers on fruit? I could be one of those.
3. Entomology.

 

Recent Critter Photos

 

Red-headed Inchworm -  Macaria bisignata

Common Buckeye - Junonia coenia 

Gulf Fritillary - Agraulis vanillae 

 

Katie's Birthday Party

Yesterday, Katie had her 7th birthday party. I guess it was supposed to have a How to Train Your Dragon theme. But really, my mom and Katie wearing costumes was the only themed thing going on. Because we found no HTTYD party supplies anywhere. We didn't even find any costumes. My mom had to make them. 

They had a "dragon egg" hunt, which was basically an Easter egg hunt in October. And made s'mores outside. I just microwaved mine.

The only thing I participated in was driving the tractor hay ride. Katie had a flashback to the time we got lost in the woods so my mom had to carry her home after she took this picture. I went to sleep afterwards. 

My sister Claire took over after I retired. I woke up around 11 pm to the sound of the tractor and screaming. People were still partying.