Asperger's (it's on the high functioning end of the autism spectrum). Basically, I don't have the innate ability to understand social cues like speaking volume, tone of a voice, posture, and facial expression and my learned ability to grasp these things is limited and constantly in need of updating and refreshing (I can be "out of practice" in differentiating angry looks from worried looks). I very often have to pause in the middle of a conversation to ask "I'm not annoying you am I?" because I honestly can't tell the difference at a glance between "annoyed" and "thoughtful" expressions. I can also, very often, screw up tone of voice when I'm speaking and accidentally say something in a way that's offensive when I don't mean it to be. This is because of something called a "flat affect" the gist of which is I tend to speak in a monotone unless I'm actively trying to have tonal variation in my speech (which, again, takes study and practice for me to accomplish in the first place).
A "fun" side effect of all of this is that, because I lack an inherent understanding of social concepts, some things like patriotism and religion make absolutely no sense to me in anything but a theoretical sense. I'm also very interested in understanding cultures and psychology and the like and, well, wide theoretical knowledge base + lack of social understanding = no taboo filter. I talk about things I find interesting and don't usually realize the "interesting topic" is offensive until someone is yelling at me for being an insensitive dick. I'm constantly left asking, entirely without irony, "Was it something I said?"
On the upside, I know an awful lot about dinosaurs and I can learn new drawing techniques stupidly fast.
I have mild OCD. Mostly to do with timing and object organization/symmetry. I'm early a lot and I know where everything is... and Sagan help you if you're late meeting me or put something back where it doesn't go.
I also have mild multi-cross synesthesia. I taste voices and smell light (which extends to colour in some cases, mostly neon colours). My brain essentially has the wires for some of my senses crossed, so what should be reading strictly as audio input gets partially interpreted by my oral senses, and some visual input gets routed through my olfactory centers.
There are people that I can't stand to listen to because their voices taste horrific and make me gag (and there are voices that are delicious and I could listen to all day every day, like Neil Gaiman - hazelnut coffee with vanilla creamer, or Carl Sagan - warm bearclaw pastry with cream cheese); There are types of light fixtures I have to avoid because the smell makes me queasy (flickering fluorescent lights are the worst) but then again I could stand out smelling moonlight forever.
I mostly stay inside a lot >.> and write and draw.
A "fun" side effect of all of this is that, because I lack an inherent understanding of social concepts, some things like patriotism and religion make absolutely no sense to me in anything but a theoretical sense. I'm also very interested in understanding cultures and psychology and the like and, well, wide theoretical knowledge base + lack of social understanding = no taboo filter. I talk about things I find interesting and don't usually realize the "interesting topic" is offensive until someone is yelling at me for being an insensitive dick. I'm constantly left asking, entirely without irony, "Was it something I said?"
On the upside, I know an awful lot about dinosaurs and I can learn new drawing techniques stupidly fast.
I have mild OCD. Mostly to do with timing and object organization/symmetry. I'm early a lot and I know where everything is... and Sagan help you if you're late meeting me or put something back where it doesn't go.
I also have mild multi-cross synesthesia. I taste voices and smell light (which extends to colour in some cases, mostly neon colours). My brain essentially has the wires for some of my senses crossed, so what should be reading strictly as audio input gets partially interpreted by my oral senses, and some visual input gets routed through my olfactory centers.
There are people that I can't stand to listen to because their voices taste horrific and make me gag (and there are voices that are delicious and I could listen to all day every day, like Neil Gaiman - hazelnut coffee with vanilla creamer, or Carl Sagan - warm bearclaw pastry with cream cheese); There are types of light fixtures I have to avoid because the smell makes me queasy (flickering fluorescent lights are the worst) but then again I could stand out smelling moonlight forever.
I mostly stay inside a lot >.> and write and draw.
"Hey, Huginn... Muninn, whichever one you are, say 'nevermore.'"
"F*** you," said the raven.
"F*** you," said the raven.
