ARCHIVES - 1996 to FOREVER Nilknarf News:

Yeah, yeah, gotta re-use those words.

Went to the dentist this morning, got all cleaned up, gonna have to have a filling, but not a real filling, just stuff to build up one of the lower front teeth that's showing too much root. Whatever, I trust that my dentist knows what he's doing.

I told him this morning that I was really happy with the bridge that he made for my top front teeth, and he was tickled.

I was on the console today, and it wasn't a bad day, spent most of the day sitting. We had a full crew today, and several interesting cases. Like I mentioned the other day, I really love interesting cases, and I'm glad that I'm not one yet.

I was doing some on-line reading, and ran across an article on asperger's syndrome. Just for the helluvit, I took an online test, and I scored a 38.

Which puts me, if online tests can be believed, wholly into that category.

Strangely, it seems like I've been down this road before. I may have even written about it, I'll have to do a search of the site and see... nope, the search revealed nothing, so I'm free to write without contradicting myself.

Anyways, how will this realization help me out in my daily life? I have no idea.

Several things about Asperger's that I've read really hit home, though.

One of the most striking is the fact that I can't read between the lines, and I misinterpret body language and facial expressions on a daily basis.

The way that I've learned to compensate, though, has been very laborious.

Anyone, everyone that I love, I tell them so, every time that I get the chance. I would think that this might get boring, but Karen says that's it's OK, and nobody else has objected either. It's kinda like, you know, I might not indicate that I love you, but I really, really do, in spite of my actions.

This has been hard to learn, and something that I work on every day. Most people? From what I understand about people, they can indicate the way that they think by their very posture, by their facial expressions, by their small talk.

I don't do small talk. Never have, never have understood the reasoning behind it. Yeah, I'm really fun at parties, I am.

But I love to socialize... on a one-on-one basis. Get four or five people around me, and I'm a gork. Sit me in the corner, and I'll try to glean something out of the conversations that other people are having. I might even pop up occasionally with a snide comment, but don't count on it.

And I am single-minded... once I start doing something, I hate to be interrupted. And I will do that thing to the best of my ability and as hard and as fast as I can, excluding absolutely everything else. I can get involved in a task (preferably a creative one) and just lose myself in it. Computers and music are my current crazes, and they've persisted since my teen aged years. Well, not computers, they weren't around than, heh.

OK, enuff of that. It's a beautiful day, and I'm gonna spend some time with my beautiful wife, put the music and the computers aside for the evening, although Patrick will be hurt that I'm not working on his machine *again* tonight.

Well, so much for that idea, Karen is watching the bachelor, and I'm working on Patrick's computer. Karen fixed hamburgers for supper, and I had jelly-burgers, of course, one of my favorite meals. And this after I had liver and onions for lunch! I'm living in a gustatorial dream today.

O'yeah, I've gotten a few names for my machine, and one of them inspired... O'thumper. Y'see, I did get it implanted on St. Patricks' day, and Carol from suicide blonde supplied the "thumper" first. Li'l Annette had that one on her list, too. I also got some good ones from JD and from sweet li'l Annette.

So OK, folks, put on your thinking caps and get with it. Just email me with "Name that machine" in the subject line. I haven't mentioned any prizes yet, so they might be, perforce, SUprises? Enter early, enter often, you might win. As usual, if you don't play, you just plain can't win. And what does that make you? Why, a LUSER, of course.