Gordie

Nothing for me either! We must be among the privileged few who are above being spammed. James

Scary advert? Thought you were talking about the Hyundai ad that appeared on ITV1 HD while Steven Gerrard was busy scoring an England World Cup goal on Saturday night. James

Yep - pre-16, entirely academic ... post-16, half-decent socially, all gone wrong academically. I think I preferred my pre-16 life though. James

Yeah - I get that too. Thinking so much and so hard about how I should be responding, how I should look and what I need to say when it's my turn to talk that I'm not really thinking about and taking in what's being said to me! It's like I'm on auto-pilot, putting on a silly, fake-sociable front. I'll say things I don't mean because they seem like "the right thing to say", and always regret it afterwards. James

Jealousy? Probably not. But still, judging by what you've said, and it is only one side of the story, she doesn't sound like the best of counsellors to me. You need more than basic IQ-style intelligence to have the confidence and skills to go out and socialise with people. It's probably because you are different to the "normal teenager" that your fellow teenagers don't like you. They can't relate to you like they can with their friends. Being serious and mature isn't cool, unfortunately. Give it a few years and you might find people start to attune more to your way of thinking. (Hmmm ... I don't think I've ever used the word "attune" before in my entire life! ) James

Having been an adult yourself for over 13 years, of course you were right to pick up on it - end of ... The terminology needs changing sharpish. James

The blokes there are that clingy, are they? James

I go to a once-a-month evening social group for people with Asperger's, at a pub in my home town of Yeovil. It's been going for quite a few years now, run by the NAS, with other neurotypical volunteers who help out. It's always well attended, taking up a good 2 or 3 tables each time. Not sure about daytime activities around here, as they're not the sort of things I would typically indulge in. James

What ScienceGeek said. I'd say I probably understand fewer jokes than the average neurotypical person, but not too many fewer. James

It's just you. Or maybe it's just ... not me. I'll always find something to watch. Besides, the summer months are now upon us, so TV is bound to dry up a bit until the autumn ... unless you like the World Cup and/or Big Brother! Hey - I liked it! When £525,000 was on the verge of actually being won (it was the final question), but was lost, that was incredibly dramatic! Guess you didn't see that one. I suppose I'd agree with you to a point though, coz it wasn't quite so good when only £75,000 was actually won, as having had £1,000,000 to start off with, £75,000 seems like a drop in the ocean, when of course it totally is not! It's all relative. James

You're right there. What amused me was that Mike Stock and Pete Waterman (formerly "Stock" and "Waterman" of 1980s hit factory "Stock, Aitken and Waterman"), who wrote the song, haven't moved on one bit from their late-'80s style of music. Okay - I admit I loved it at the time, but that was over 20 years ago now! I thought they might've updated their sound a bit! But nope - it could've been Kylie and Jason singing that song and it wouldn't have been out-of-place! Maybe they thought it would work in Eurovision, which would've been fair enough perhaps, but nope! James

Hey - I can totally see myself in his position! I could easily have been that "dense male"! I'm an Aspie, dontcha know? Misreading signals, lacking female attention ... it fits perfectly! James

Ohhh - I can totally relate to this, especially feeling exhausted ... except I can apply that to just about any meeting with someone I'm unfamiliar with! Just "acting normal" is exhausting, knowing I can't just be myself. Put me in that sort of situation for anything over an hour and I'm mentally knackered! That's probably why it took until I was 20 before I got diagnosed with Asperger's - because I'd spent my whole life doing this, almost habitually. The way I act doesn't come at all naturally, but because it's not all that obvious to anyone else, they have no idea it's an issue. Perhaps since my diagnosis, I've relaxed just a touch, probably because I know people are more likely to understand how I really feel, so I feel more able to act genuinely and say more honest things. But it's only a very subtle change. It almost annoys me really, this acting, coz I probably need to be myself with certain people, so that they know what my life is really like. But it's like I just flick a switch when around a new (or even just a newish) person, and start putting on this "normal" act, so they start to wonder what my problems actually are. James

It should be something to be proud of! We're better than them, coz we have better taste in music! Coming last year-after-year proves it! Nah - seriously, zenemu's hit the nail on the head at the end of his post. We don't take it seriously (and possibly the same goes for Ireland ), and I reckon the rest of Europe has detected that now, so they figure they might as well give their votes to countries that give a toss, rather than waste them on a country that mocks the contest year-on-year. On the other hand, zenemu, I'm not sure winning the Eurovision Song Contest (and it still would be far from guaranteed) is sufficient justification for joining the Euro. Anyway, the interval act was the clear winner on the night - that was very cool. And surely I wasn't the only one not to realise that Spain's "pitch invader" was not a genuine part of their act ... surely? It was Eurovision after all, where nothing seems too unusual to be part of an act! I didn't bat an eyelid until several minutes later, and had to rewind it to see what all the fuss was about! James

Just give her money - that's what I've usually asked for on birthdays and at Christmas time. That way, I can't be disappointed and I have the freedom to spend it on whatever I like, even if it's really mundane things (now that I'm 29)! I'm not fussed if it seems unimaginative (probably coz I have no imagination myself! ), and I'd rather have money than something I don't want. It works the other way too, by the way - when I have to think of presents to buy for ANYONE! Having no imagination / appreciation for others' desires and interests makes such a task very difficult! Indeed I'd rather not give anything to most people on the understanding that they wouldn't have to give me anything themselves! Bah humbug! James

Slightly , but have you seen Jobcentre Plus' "WorkPath" leaflets? The front cover of those has a picture of a smartly dressed man at a computer ... but he's got that obvious Down's Syndrome look, like they had to make it REALLY obvious he had a disability. You can see it here (as long as you've got Adobe Reader installed on your computer): http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/dwp1008.pdf It certainly raised an eyebrow with me. James

Hi, Candyfloss. I'm the friend of the friend of your aunt that recommended this forum to you, so basically I'm the reason you're here. As I wasn't diagnosed with Asperger's until I was 20, I went through all my school years in mainstream school. Academically, like zenemu above, I did great, which seems somewhat surprising to me now. I got 1 A*, 8 As and 1 B in my GCSEs. (Yeah, okay - I'm bragging! Still not as good as zenemu though. ) It was after school, into college and university, that my studies went downhill because of the lack of structure. The structured environment of school did wonders for me, I think, not that I knew that at the time, never having experienced anything different. I think I revelled in excelling amongst my peers in my class - I'd say that had a lot to do with what kept me going and kept me motivated to succeed at school - the fact that if I ever did badly in anything, I'd never live it down, I had such a reputation. Couldn't afford to turn up late, couldn't afford not to have done my homework ... not because I feared the teachers, but because I feared the reaction of the other kids! Socially, I had a fairly decent circle of friends for most of the time I was at school, whether it be at primary or secondary school. That suited me fairly well - I was never gonna be the most popular of kids, but I think I was at least respected by most people, probably for my academic ability. That's not to say I wasn't bullied ... regularly ... not just because of my Aspie ways, but because I'm also unfortunate enough to have ginger hair, as you can see from my avatar ... never a good thing if you don't want to stick out like a sore thumb. But it wasn't all bad. I suppose it just depends how obvious your Asperger's is to other people. And of course I didn't even know had an autistic spectrum disorder then. I just thought I was a bit different - a bit more than just shy, but obviously I couldn't put my finger on what the issue was. I think, somehow, I just managed to adapt my eccentricities and hide them so that they didn't look too unusual. I still know a few of those I would call "friend" now, partly (but not entirely) thanks to Facebook - indeed one of them recently invited me to his 30th birthday party coming up in July. I have plenty of other school "acquaintances" on my Facebook friends list too, but that's probably more just because they recognised my name than because they were a friend of mine! I even had the pleasant surprise of an apology from a few of them, for being immature and picking on me in our school days, which was nice. Nice to see people seeing the error of their ways and growing up. Anyway, I can't think that I'd have been any better off in any kind of specialist school really. I needed pushing, and that's what mainstream school did for me. I suppose it gave me a bit of self-confidence in a way too, being so much more academically proficient than a lot of the other kids - maybe I thought, "At least I'm more intelligent than they are, even if they've got the social advantage on me!" James

For the record, not including emoticons, 515 characters. (No, I didn't count - I got Google to find me an on-line character counter.) "Epic fail" is an understatement! Not that I care though, coz I hate the Twitter obsession, seeing as it only became fashionable after Facebook was already established, and all Twitter is is the status update bit of Facebook, as far as I'm concerned. Now ... I'm off to Mont Blanc (500th forum post!) ... James

Never mind the Doctor! What about his new assistant?!?! She's converted me into a Doctor Who fan - never really watched it before this week. Excellent stuff though - cracking special effects too - fantastic in HD. But "Amelia" (the child version of Amy) was the best thing about it. Best actor I've ever seen - absolute class act, and with no training!! James

Sounds to me like you'd been infected with some kind of malware/spyware/virus. I've heard about that underlining thing quite often ... but if someone in-the-know has managed to clean it all up now, then you should be fine. But just so you know what it is if it happens again, well that's what it is. James

Congratulations - you've now moved to Salisbury Hill. And I see I'm soon to move from Ben Nevis, over the Channel to Mont Blanc! James

Ah - this is familiar territory for me! I've been participating in Aspie-related research for years, most often for the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (ICN) at University College London (UCL), and also a few times for the Autism Research Centre (ARC) in Cambridge, some of which has involved the use of eye-tracking devices. The only mildly annoying thing is that you rarely get to find out the results of the tests you take part in, or the analysis that has taken place as a result of them. But then I suppose I could ask - I just ... don't. Anyway, if you're interested, and live in or can get to London, contact either of these institutions - the ICN at UCL would probably be your best bet. State your diagnosis and say you'd be interested in participating in any future research projects. They'll probably e-mail you when something comes up. An appropriate e-mail address (seeing as they contacted me only a week or two ago, asking me to update my details and fill in a questionnaire) would be: ascdatabaseicn@googlemail.com ... and mention me if you like (full name: James Gordon), if they're wondering how you got hold of their e-mail address! James

How about 13 time zones east? Your geography's pretty accurate! I'm in New Zealand for 4 weeks - landed last Friday, and since Saturday, it has indeed been warm and sunny! Should last until this Saturday too, before turning less favourable. My brother's wedding is coming up on Saturday, February 20th - that's the primary reason for me and Mum coming over here, but when you come so far, you wanna make a proper job of it! Hence the 4-week stay. And I've not seen my brother for over 2 years either, since he left home for New Zealand. But it does mean I miss out on your meet, unfortunately. And I would even if you did relocate it: on the 13th, we'll all be away on the long stag/hen weekend, and if you moved it to the 20th, well that's taken up by the aforementioned rather important family event. By the way, doesn't that side of the world equate to "UK and snow" at the moment? James

*is disappointed to be missing this, while on the other side of the world, coz he wants to meet Mumble and Tally in particular, mainly coz they're female, Aspie and around his age* Who says I'm fickle? Having said that, Kathryn seems quite cool too. The only thing I won't miss is the pizzas. James

Well, now I know the correct answer is "no", I'll answer ... "no". I'm on IE8 ... and, as you say, I expect most residential users are, simply because Microsoft nags everyone to upgrade Internet Explorer via Windows Update as soon as a new version comes out. James