Damn, and I thought this was going to be a thread about the joys of being a pyro. (amka)
And I thought it was going to be a disturbing account of how get back at someone who really annoys you. (Kayla)
I was thinking Black Rock City. Was the Burning Man on anyone else's cultural radar? It's not likely to be the hot topic of conversation here, sure, but any pyro-thread on the day after Labor day should bring a whiff of scorched playa with it. Chris Bridges (I'm sure) has heard of it, and certainly twinky, and Tom and Christy know about everything. Anyone else?
Don't get me wrong: I've never been, and I never will go. It's not compelling to me, although I've always been just on the fringes of groups that have it as part of their lexicon. For me, though, it's more of "my life without Burning Man" than "how Burning Man changed my life" sort of thing (my life being one of those Rosencrantz/Guildenstern mini-sagas that floats around the outskirts of such major cultural events as Burning Man, EnderCon, and even formal graduation events).
I did make it to WenchCon, though. And I'll come back next year, so long as I keep the dibs on my beard.
[ September 03, 2003, 01:04 PM: Message edited by: ClaudiaTherese ]
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
quote:If they're so nonconformist, how come you gotta obey some fascist wearing a lanyard just to use the Port-A-John?
....
Burning Man is about being part of a community. Unfortunately, it's a community of people who can't get up before 1 p.m."
Holy cow, that's fabulous. Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :
One of the guys who used to work for me at Sears went every year, so I know what it is and when it is. But that's pretty much the extent of my caring about it -- the difficulty of being without one of my salespeople in the BBQ grill and Patio Furniture department over labor day weekend. But since it was every year, at least I could plan ahead.
--Pop
Posted by porcelain girl (Member # 1080) on :
heard of it. read about it in national geographic a good while ago, then i remember wanting to know about it a couple years ago out of nowhere and looked it up.
never been. used to really want to go; not such a big deal now.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
It's one of those things I've been aware of for a long time, but it's never been something I felt any real interest in going to.
Posted by Professor Funk (Member # 5608) on :
A girl in my photo class did a photoessay project on burning man. She did another project the next semester on Guy Fawkes Day. I still think she needs to do an all-out expose documentary on the psychological undercurrents of contemporary society and why we like to burn things in effigy.
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
Every time I see a Hatrack pyro thread, I grin. Pyromania cuts across so many social contexts.
(You will have to cut and paste, as I keep screwing up the fontage on this page.)
[ September 03, 2003, 01:26 PM: Message edited by: ClaudiaTherese ]
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
katharina, check out the "welcome back" link too.
I'm interested in some of the underlying structures of the event: e.g, the prohibition on commercial purchase (except for lattes *grin), reliance on bartering, etc. Why does it seem to work for this short period of time? Does it really? (Isn't fugu13 a member of a collective community? Does that place work on a barter/trade system too?)
Posted by Professor Funk (Member # 5608) on :
I think once everyone's sufficiently doped up the bartering works fine. It's getting to that point that everyone gets testy.
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
CT: Wow. That's shockingly apropos.
Ah well, let the participants play. Everybody needs a hobby.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Are you thinking of plaid? If fugu is a member of a collective of some sort I wasn't aware of it (not that that means that it isn't the case).
Interesting question, though. I'll have to give it some thought.
It is funny, isn't it, how many of us have a thing for fire? When I was younger I certainly set more than my fair share of things on fire.
Perhaps somewhat more strangely, I also felt a compulsion to boil things. No living creatures or anything pathological--just random things I'd happen across--pine cones, action figures, poke berries, etc.
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
I liked candles. My parents (understandably) did not like me liking candles. I still liked them. So, I hid them. Lit. In the wooden cupboard.
They were found.
I was shown images and details of what happens when a house burns down. Literally scared the pyro straight out of me.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
That's pretty funny kat. I have to say I never tried to hide anything that was still lit.
Posted by Professor Funk (Member # 5608) on :
I was always deeped psychologically traumatized by Fire Week. Did you guys have Fire Week in elementary school where they came and talked about smoke detectors and evacuation plans?
Always scared the snot out of me and I remember going to bed in tears because I was sure my house would burn down.
Strangely, though, I remember drawing a poster for Fire Week in which our school was in flames and people were running everwhere. I won first prize and they reproduced it. Twisted, twisted.
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
Yes, Noemon, it's plaid.
quote:Perhaps somewhat more strangely, I also felt a compulsion to boil things. No living creatures or anything pathological--just random things I'd happen across--pine cones, action figures, poke berries, etc.
You got me there. I've never heard of an obsession with boiling. (Are you sure you aren't British?)
I had various autistic-ish behaviors like tearing paper into tiny, same-sized pieces, lining up small twigs in rows, and color-sorting the playground gravel. (yep, real popular in gradeschool, I was)
Which reminds me --> there's an awesome, awesome article in the current Newsweek about autism. Very comprehensive of the latest trends in the research: that the diagnosis of this as a disorder may be in question, as it is likely best described as a different manner of processing, with some in the spectrum being exceedingly successful at the work they choose to do. There's an excellent analogy to a saltwater fish in freshwater -- in the right environment, well-adapted, but in the wrong environment, crippled. Same for the freshwater fish, though.
Posted by Professor Funk (Member # 5608) on :
quote:I've never heard of an obsession with boiling. (Are you sure you aren't British?)
Ha ha ha ha ha!
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
Hiya, Professor Funk. Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
quote:I had various autistic-ish behaviors like tearing paper into tiny, same-sized pieces,
*stops rolling paper strips into little tubes between fingers long enough to gape in recognition* (Ask Slash for confirmation (if he remembers) )
Does this mean I get to be CT when I grow up? *cheers*
--- wait... that says had. *looks down at floor under chair surrounded by tiny tubes* This does not bode well.
[ September 03, 2003, 01:43 PM: Message edited by: katharina ]
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
I take it back. I have tried to hide something that was still lit. When I was in late grade school, a friend and I tried pouring a gallon or so of gas into a storm drain and setting it on fire. We were hoping to ignite sewer gas. While nothing of the sort happened, we thought that what did happen was pretty cool--when the gas caught, it created a shock wave that caused all of the manhole covers in my friend's court to jump an inch or so in the air.
As black smoke poured up out of the grate, we realized that my friend's father would be coming home soon, so we stuffed a cushion from their house into the opening, hoping that that would somehow seem less conspicuous (?). As you might imagine, we got in trouble.
I am very glad not to have myself as a child.
Posted by Professor Funk (Member # 5608) on :
Hi. I'm not new, I'm just trying to delay my post count on my real name.
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
katharina, how cool! When we finally meet, we'll already have something to do together.
(Seriously, that's great. Tom and Christy are remarkably tolerant of my weeding obsessions when I visit. I can't really calm down enough to be social unless I have some mind-numbing task to do in the background first. You and me, babe, the human shredding machines. )
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
*gives PF the macWedgie
Noemon, good grief. I'm glad you are still here.
Are you ever going to write a memoir? Because you were really a fascinating kid.
*would pay big bucks, at least full retail price Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
All right! *hug* I can't wait.
I'm trying to translate the busy hands thing into cross-stitching. The next project is this.
Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :
And I'll light your pieces of paper on fire. Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
quote:You got me there. I've never heard of an obsession with boiling. (Are you sure you aren't British?)
You'd think so, wouldn't you? Actually, I think I was trying to make potions. I didn't have access to eye of newt or wing of bat, but I was able to get my hands on leg of action figure and cone of pine fairly regularly. Oh, and green food coloring. Lots of green food coloring.
quote:I had various autistic-ish behaviors like tearing paper into tiny, same-sized pieces, lining up small twigs in rows, and color-sorting the playground gravel. (yep, real popular in gradeschool, I was)
.
Oooh, oooh, I did stuff like that! I would probably have gone on to arrange the gravel in patterns though, with the colors bleeding into each other.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
quote:Noemon, good grief. I'm glad you are still here.
Yeah, me too. It's strange; as a kid I was pretty much immune to the peer pressure that usually gets kids to do stupid and life threatening things, so I never got into drugs, or did things that I thought were beyond my limits, but I nonetheless did some incredibly foolish and dangerous things all under my own steam. Usually those dangerous things involved fire--that business with kicking a knife was unusual.
quote:Are you ever going to write a memoir? Because you were really a fascinating kid.
Really? Huh. I've actually refrained from writing a landmark post because of a feeling that my life hasn't really been all that interesting. Oh, I mean, it's been interesting for *me*, don't get me wrong. I just don't really feel like I've had a life that would make for interesting reading.
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
katharina, that is so cool. I really feel much closer to you, and much less scared of meeting you in person. *hug Not that you're scary, mind, just that we can sit side by side and share in a task. Neat! (You bring your crosstitch, which looks lovely (!), and I'll bring my crochet hook. It'll be a blast. )
quote:I was able to get my hands on leg of action figure and cone of pine fairly regularly ...
Ahhh, high friends in low places, I see.
quote:Oooh, oooh, I did stuff like that! I would probably have gone on to arrange the gravel in patterns though, with the colors bleeding into each other.
Did you ... did you color-sort the M&Ms into rainbow rows, too, and agonize over where to put the tan?
*are you my real brother? Bro, we have a sister, too. She makes tubes.
[ September 03, 2003, 02:05 PM: Message edited by: ClaudiaTherese ]
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
quote:Really? Huh. I've actually refrained from writing a landmark post because of a feeling that my life hasn't really been all that interesting. Oh, I mean, it's been interesting for *me*, don't get me wrong. I just don't really feel like I've had a life that would make for interesting reading.
Good grief.
I've been waiting, like, forever, and you just trotted straight past 2000. Really, you must. Please?
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
quote:Did you ... did you color-sort the M&Ms, too, and agonize over where to put the tan?
Well, I don't specifically remember doing that with M&Ms, but I did sort my Lucky Charms by shape and color (I would then pretend to be a god/black hole, and draw each piece inexorably to my gaping maw. My wife god/black hole would plead their case, and I would judge them. The pieces I deemed innocent were allowed to escape my gravity well, but the guilty were sucked right through the event horizon and consumed. Surprisingly, almost all of the guilty were marshmallows.)
quote:*are you my real brother? Bro, we have a sister, too. She makes tubes.
Maybe so, CT, maybe so. It would definitely explain a few things, wouldn't it?
quote:Good grief.
I've been waiting, like, forever, and you just trotted straight past 2000. Really, you must. Please?
Hmmm...I'll think about it. I really hadn't even considered the possibility before.
[ September 03, 2003, 02:37 PM: Message edited by: Noemon ]
Posted by Pod (Member # 941) on :
i heard about it initially on NPR a couple years ago, then i started to talk to a friend of mine about it. We talked about planning some route to get there and actually have stuff to produce, but we're both really busy and didn't get any farther than that. We'll get out there eventually.
Posted by ak (Member # 90) on :
We found out at the very first hatrack picnic that almost all hatrackers are pyros. Of the seven of us who went, all seven were. We had great fun burning stuff in our fire on the beach. Fritos burn like little torches!
Posted by Storm Saxon (Member # 3101) on :
I tried to see if anyone wanted to go either last year or the year before last and got no bites. C'est la vie.
Posted by Jaiden (Member # 2099) on :
Oooh! I did the M&M thing! It also drove me nuts when there was no M&M logo on the odd M&M *laughs*
I also used to rip off the dot matrix paper side things (the ones with the holes for feeding) and fold miles of accordions using 'em... my mother was driven nuts
(I've also heard of the burning man )
[ September 03, 2003, 11:23 PM: Message edited by: Jaiden ]
Posted by ak (Member # 90) on :
Did anyone else take the Autism Quotient test linked from the Newsweek article? I got a 24 which is above average. They say average for females is 15 and males is 17. <laughs> That's really unscientific! I mean, two points difference????? Where is the evidence for all this sexual dimorphism they are talking about?
It always bothers me when something reputedly scientific calls things "boys' toys" and "girls' toys". I just feel that's flatly inaccurate. I'm patently a girl. Very much a girl. Extremely 100% girl. And I like the toys that blow up or run or make loud noises or fly or do interesting stuff best. I like the toys that you can build things with. These are the toys they say are boys' toys, yet that is most certainly self-evidently false! It really upsets me because it's like saying I'm not a proper girl. Who says I'm not? <looks threateningly at everyone> I'll beat up anyone who says that!
[ September 04, 2003, 01:51 AM: Message edited by: ak ]
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
ak, I'll agree with the "girl" part, but "proper"? How boring that would be! Posted by ak (Member # 90) on :
Oh rivka! <laughs> I meant proper in the sense of normal or natural or right. I guess that's sort of a Britishism that I picked up from reading too many Britbooks. I didn't mean anything with the connotations of "prim and proper", for sure!
Posted by ak (Member # 90) on :
I'm really curious to know other people's scores, though. I feel way way out on the edge of the spectrum at my score of 24. I really wonder how that compares to CT, say, or the Rabbit. I think if all my heroine role model jatraqueras have high scores like me I'll feel a whole lot better. These stupid Newsweek people are giving me gender issues!
[ September 04, 2003, 04:43 AM: Message edited by: ak ]
Posted by Ralphie (Member # 1565) on :
That Onion article rocks.
We always had matches in the bathroom instead of air-freshener, and I used to go through hundreds of matches, lighting them and then watching them fall into the toilet. I loved the smell of the sulphur and the noise the flame would make when it hit the water.
I set myself on fire when I was three. Fortunately, they were flame-retardant jammies and simply melted onto my leg. No real damage.
I still leave matches in the bathroom and play with them. Posted by Human (Member # 2985) on :
Firebugs ruuuule! I am one, of course...play with candles and stuff all the time. Burning is fun. Getting burned is the bad thing.
I took that autism test. I got a 9. I'm below average. WAAAH! Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
<-- reads a fair amount by British authors, has a number of British friends, and some British relatives. Knew precisely what you meant by "proper." Couldn't resist pulling your di- uh, leg, anyway.
Ok, I took the test, and got a 26. And I tried really hard not to answer those very clearly slanted question in ways that would give me a high score. I'm kidding, I tried to answer them honestly, but a lot of them were rather transparent. Anyway, I scored higher than you did, ak, feel any better? Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
Hi, ak. You raise a good point about the data--I'll try to find the original reference, and we can puzzle it through to see if the conclusions follow.
On first score, I got a 34. Second time, I could bring it down to 29 if I stretched my envelope a bit. Don't know how validated the scoring is, but trust me -- you aren't on the extreme here.
*goes back to lining up pencils by height, subdivided by eraser shade
[ September 04, 2003, 10:12 AM: Message edited by: ClaudiaTherese ]
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
quote:Well, I don't specifically remember doing that with M&Ms, but I did sort my Lucky Charms by shape and color (I would then pretend to be a god/black hole, and draw each piece inexorably to my gaping maw. My wife god/black hole would plead their case, and I would judge them. The pieces I deemed innocent were allowed to escape my gravity well, but the guilty were sucked right through the event horizon and consumed. Surprisingly, almost all of the guilty were marshmallows.)
Okay, that's it. You ever decide to let your life story be known, and I'll write it.
(I have to ask -- was that your pretend childhood wife god, or are you and Mrs. Noemon just really, really well suited to each other? )
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
It was my pretend childhood wife god.
Where is the Autism Quotient link? I'm not seeing it.
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
Link is via Newsweek magazine picture in left border, about halfway down, overlaid with "Where do you fit in? Take this test."
(Ah, but I bet you could talk Mrs. Noemon into a quick game of "judge the sinning cereals" if you tried. I have a sneaking suspicion, though, that the marshmallows are still being the really naughty ones.)
[ September 04, 2003, 10:50 AM: Message edited by: ClaudiaTherese ]
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
How did I miss that?
I'm off to take the test.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
I only scored a 14.
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
21. In range of normal.
I think it was the social questions - I love social occasions, I love people, I love long conversations, and I like hearing people's stories.
It is an effort for me (I have to think about what I'm saying), but it is an effort with a definite payoff, so I like doing it.
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
I missed it the first go-round too, Noemon. (extra points to ak!)
The thing is, I think I score pretty high on reading others' body language/facial expressions and interpreting intentions, too. At least, in the original Newsweek magazine version, there was an interpretation of eye expressions exam that I aced, and I've always tested well on those.
But the Aspergery symptoms have more driven my life, ever since I was tiny. Social situations used to be agony for me, and I was really reclusive up through high school. But when I realized that practicing medicine well meant being able to read between the lines and make friends fast in order to get patients to trust you with emotional and physical intimacies, I made a concerted effort to study how people interacted and teach myself how to do it. This was overlaid, though, on top of the compulsion to count the number of steps from the bus stop to my front door.
(I still do this, but I've added a little variety to spice it up: now I count by little running patterns of the form (1, 2, ... n-1, n) to the "nth" power. I really like limiting n to the set of even numbers, as this sets up a nice walking rhythm. 1,2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2 ...)
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
Of course, I've only recently realized that this is a little weird.
Noemon, we now have scientific proof that you and I are not the same person. Apparently you are a girl and I am a boy. Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
quote: I made a concerted effort to study how people interacted and teach myself how to do it.
Exactly. I'm fine now (at least I think so ), but it took effort to overcome what I thought was shyness and to try and figure out what people are like. To do THAT, I needed to be humbled enough to be willing to maybe learn from people whose strengths were very different from my own.
It's one of the reasons I loved my mission - I HAD to learn to figure out people to be a good missionary, and that's one of the reasons I love Hatrack. Easy access to brilliant, passionate people with real stories who are introspective enough that they like to talk about themselves. It's like a crash course in civilization. I love it.
[ September 04, 2003, 11:08 AM: Message edited by: katharina ]
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
I scored a 9, and I think I was fairly honest about it.
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
That does not surprise me at all. Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
katharina, I think you're "fine" regardless, I really do. (But I know what you mean, too. ) It seems to make more sense to look at this as "different."
However -- the great big kahuna of howevers -- that raises the question of how appropriately to assign the concept of "disorder" or "disease" to begin with. For example, is deafness really a disability (or rather, what do we mean by that)? We broached this topic here at Hatrack in the ambiguous genitalia thread, skirted around the edges with the deafness controversy, but never really worried down the bone of it together. Now that we have sndrake here, we might have a shot at a really interesting discussion (he seems to bring a very fresh and thoughtful perspective to this issue).
But I've got to go be a grownup, and so that'll wait for another time.
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
Tom, doesn't surprise me one whit either. You have a knack for putting others at ease. Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Oooh, this sounds like a fun discussion (the new topic that CT is bringing up). CT, I can't wait until you have more time, and can start it properly. What perspective does sndrake bring to this one? I must have missed some relevant posts.
It seems to me that whether something is a disorder or not--whether almost anything is positive or negative, in fact--depends almost entirely on the perspective of the individual experiencing it.
Posted by ak (Member # 90) on :
Oh, CT! I'm so relieved I'm not the highest. I got saved by my sociability too. I LOVE parties and making friends and stuff like that. There is a lot of social stuff that I had to learn by rote, but my mom actually made a pretty good effort to teach me.
I would love to write a series of textbooks with diagrams and pictures that would train people like me in all the things that one really really needs to know that nobody will tell you about because they assume it's instinctual in you as it is in themselves. There was mention made of a facial expression training tool. I'd love to get a copy of that.
Posted by ak (Member # 90) on :
CT, did you say there was a facial expression interpretation test too? I can't find it. Where is the link?
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
You know ak, just a few days ago I was looking at a site that sold software that is supposed to help in recognizing subtle facial expressions. It wasn't on this computer, so it isn't stored in my history, but I can try to retrace my steps and find it for you if you'd like.
Posted by ak (Member # 90) on :
“Consider the child who can spend hours watching how a glass bottle rotates in the sunlight”
That's me, though I can obviously talk and make eye contact too. I have spent hours watching the way water behaves in a sink or tub, watching the patterns a drop makes when it hits the surface, and the propagation of the resulting wave. Or watching the way sunlight filters through tree leaves in a breeze, and noticing the little overlapping sun images that form on the ground. They are particularly cool looking during solar eclipses. God does live in the details. I understand lots of things about how things work because of all these observations. To me stuff like that is endlessly fascinating. I just become transfixed.
Also I can't tune out music. The musical part of my brain is always very active. I usually have a song playing in my head, even if there's no music going on in the world right then. When people leave their radios on some godawful classic rock station at work, for instance, I can't tune it out. I have to pay attention to my 107,618th listen of Stairway to Heaven, or something, of which only the first 50,000 were enjoyable. Most people don't even seem to hear it, yet I can't tune it out. Muzak is horrible painful excruciating torture to me.
Posted by ak (Member # 90) on :
Noemon, great! Well, yeah, but I don't mean something I have to pay for! Posted by Kayla (Member # 2403) on :
Wow, I suck at facial recognition, apparently.
quote: You correctly identified 61% of the expressions. For each emotion expressed, your score is as follows:
Joy: you correcly identified 3 of 4 Fear: you correcly identified 0 of 4 Disgust: you correcly identified 3 of 4 Surprise: you correcly identified 4 of 4 Anger: you correcly identified 2 of 4 Sadness: you correcly identified 2 of 4 Contempt: you correcly identified 3 of 4
Scroll down to "Take the test."
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
I'm actually thinking about buying the CDs myself. They're only $30 each, and they look like they'd be really useful.
I'm the same way you are about details. I can sit and look at a sculpture, or a bug, or winter sunlight reflecting off a bale of hay for hours. At the same time, like you, I'm fairly adept around people.
I am able to tune pretty much anything out at will though, whether it's scent, sound, or what have you, which is a good thing considering some of my coworker's taste in music.
Posted by ak (Member # 90) on :
Kayla, I did even worse!
RESULTS:
You correctly identified 50% of the expressions. For each emotion expressed, your score is as follows:
Joy: you correcly identified 3 of 4 Fear: you correcly identified 0 of 4 Disgust: you correcly identified 2 of 4 Surprise: you correcly identified 3 of 4 Anger: you correcly identified 2 of 4 Sadness: you correcly identified 3 of 4 Contempt: you correcly identified 1 of 4
Did it confuse you that they seem to be feigning these emotions and not actually experiencing them? I mean their eyes often seemed to have amusement in them, even if their mouths were showing disgust or something. I honestly had no idea, though, on many of them, and just took wild guesses. That's bad enough but what's worse is I think sometimes I was positive that one thing was being conveyed and actually it was something very different!
Sheesh, no wonder I'm so clueless about people!
[ September 04, 2003, 02:44 PM: Message edited by: ak ]
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
I did just as poorly ak!
You correctly identified 50% of the expressions. For each emotion expressed, your score is as follows:
Joy: you correcly identified 3 of 4 Fear: you correcly identified 1 of 4 Disgust: you correcly identified 3 of 4 Surprise: you correcly identified 2 of 4 Anger: you correcly identified 1 of 4 Sadness: you correcly identified 2 of 4 Contempt: you correcly identified 2 of 4
Posted by ak (Member # 90) on :
Noemon and Kayla, we all three seem to be worst as figuring out the negative ones. Maybe that's because there was really only one positive one to choose from, though. Maybe if there had been more nuances we would have fared even more poorly!
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
A lot of times I didn't feel like the expressions corresponded to any of the choices listed.
Posted by Ralphie (Member # 1565) on :
Whoa - I scored a six on the first one. Does that mean I suck the autism from others like a anti-autism black hole?
The facial expression test thingy: RESULTS:
"You correctly identified 61% of the expressions."
It's difficult guessing the correct facial expression if you haven't seen them at neutral. You don't know where their eyebrows normally are on their face, or the tilt of their mouth. Some of them it was like basic guesswork. The more I saw a specific face, the easier it was to guess their emotion.
(Noemen - I agree. "That wasn't disgust, that was dismissive!")
[ September 04, 2003, 02:54 PM: Message edited by: Ralphie ]
Posted by Kayla (Member # 2403) on :
Hey, I did pretty good on disgust and contempt. (Wonder what that says about me, huh? ) Anne Kate, yeah, I had a problem with the "faking" the emotions. How are supposed to actually figure out what they are feeling, if they aren't actually feeling it?
Oh, and I once took a big old long series of test (psychological profile stuff) and one of the tests was to look at these pictures (that had people in them) and tell the story of what they were doing. It was easy enough. Right up until we got to the two pictures where you could see the people, but you couldn't see their faces. For some reason, I could come up with a story for all the other pictures, but not the ones where you could only see the back of their heads. The shrink kept telling me that it didn't matter what their faces looked like, I should make up a story about what they were doing. How is that possible? I wonder what that says about me. Anyone know? Weird.
Posted by Kayla (Member # 2403) on :
Oh, nevermind!
[ September 04, 2003, 02:55 PM: Message edited by: Kayla ]
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Yeah Ralphie, I agree completely! On one person I saw an emotion that I thought was joy, until I saw the expression that was actually joy for that person. My mistake was imagining her neutral expression incorrectly. I suspect that if I were actually watching these people instead of viewing still photos of them, I'd do better.
Then again, I could be deluding myself.
"That wasn't surprise, that was bemused indifference!"
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Of course, Kayla, now I'm curious as to what you decided to edit out, while still leaving the post itself.
Posted by Kayla (Member # 2403) on :
Noeman, Ralphie originally had up the "Joy: you correcly identified 3 of 4" part, but didn't have the numbers filled in. Everthing was "identified of 4." I was making fun of her, but she edited it all out, making me look like a moron. She enjoys doing that way too much.
Posted by ak (Member # 90) on :
Yeah, true, the test seems to have many problems. Some of them being lack of ability to specify exactly what you see the expression as indicating, and the fact that you don't ever see the neutral expression for the person, and the fact that they were faking. I don't think people's fake expressions (unless they are very good actors) are anything at all like their real ones for given emotions.
I would love to find a way to overcome these problems, though, and also to have something to learn by. The test told you what exact thing was being conveyed and what you guessed, but when I pulled the pictures back up to look at what I did wrong, they were being presented in a different order so I couldn't tell. I want to be able to guess, then have it tell me the right answer, then look back at the face and see what they mean. Otherwise how can I learn?
Posted by Ralphie (Member # 1565) on :
Kayla - You need me for that?
Noemen - That wasn't "surprise," that was "the dawning comprehension of the destruction of your youthful idealism!"
[ September 04, 2003, 03:38 PM: Message edited by: Ralphie ]
Posted by ak (Member # 90) on :
Ralphie, exactly! <laughs>
Posted by Kayla (Member # 2403) on :
I consider myself pretty good at reading expressions -- real ones, anyway. But that first test (sorry, Kayla) was awful! I'll bet money someone took each of those people and said, "Ok, now show joy. Now show fear," etc. They're not showing the feelings, but what they THINK the feelings are like. So they look dreadfully fake, and hard to read, because some of the visual cues are wrong.
I did pretty well with the other one, tho. Trouble with both is, there are so many degrees that are being ignored.
Posted by BannaOj (Member # 3206) on :
Well CT I scored exactly 34 on my first go round too. I think I'm inconsistent on the social questions. I like being in social settings but I don't have normal social "graces" and I end up being informed that I was rude when I had no clue that I was.
I also love cross-stiching and needle point. One of my best non-jatrquero friends started crocheting. I don't like it as much. I like cross-stitching better because it is like graph paper. My best masterpiece to date is this at 10" by 14" which took me two years to finish. (I can't get the imbedded link to work so I'm doing it the old fashioned way) http://www.dimensions-crafts.com/showproduct.asp?reqtype=1&colID=1&onPage=2&onItem=22&prodID=03830
I'm working on this needlepoint now with Killer Whales. It is almost finished and I should have about a year ago, but I got stalled and haven't gotten back to it.
One of these days I have to meet you!
AJ
Edit to fix URL, oh yes and I like quilting too because of the geometric designs, and the neurotic repetitive activity of hand quilting.
[ September 04, 2003, 04:45 PM: Message edited by: BannaOj ]
Posted by BannaOj (Member # 3206) on :
the first emotional reading test I got 34% the only ones I got right at all were joy and saddness.
Joy: you correcly identified 3 of 4 Fear: you correcly identified 0 of 4 Disgust: you correcly identified 2 of 4 Surprise: you correcly identified 0 of 4 Anger: you correcly identified 0 of 4 Sadness: you correcly identified 3 of 4 Contempt: you correcly identified 1 of 4 AJ
Posted by sndrake (Member # 4941) on :
I scored a 31 - high average. That's about right. As I've mentioned elsewhere, I was brain-injured at birth, resulting in some lasting neurological effects.
I've also had enough friends and acquaintances with formal labels of aspergers and autism to recognize there is some overlap in what I experience and what they experience.
I've come to view autism and asperger's as a "them" rather than an "it" - there's a huge diversity in what terms of what those labels encompass and I doubt that any one explanation or "pathology" explains everything.
Getting close to quitting time - gotta go home and do some cleaning for an apartment inspection tomorrow.
We're not being singled out, every apartment is being inspected and we received two days' notice that it would be done.
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
AJ: Deal! Posted by Yozhik (Member # 89) on :
I got a 32. This explains a LOT about my childhood.
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
I scored a 35 on the Newsweek autism test. I have long suspected I might have Asperger’s syndrome or at least some tendancies. But I don't have the OC-like traits discussed by CT. I just prefer thinking about stuff instead of people, and I lack social intelligence, though I've tried to improve my empathy. :sigh: Time to read up on Asperger’s syndrome, I guess. I wanted to anyway. I'll face the face test later.
[ September 05, 2003, 04:07 AM: Message edited by: Morbo ]
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
As far as the Burning Man festival, that Onion parody really sucked me in, thanks for that, CT. I would go just to see this mad pyro genius' 40' Fire Vortex.
quote: Using two industrial cooling tower fans, Nate Smith manufactured small tornadoes within a 40' wide cylindrical air chamber. He fed four 100# propane tanks into these twisters simultaneously to create spirals of fire up to 40 feet tall.
From the link. Fire art! Even more ephemeral than ice sculpture.
Posted by BannaOj (Member # 3206) on :
I'm seriously considering going back to obsessive compulsive needlepointing. The problem is that our house needs obsessive compulsive painting and my compulsions are conflicting with each other...
What to do?
AJ
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
Simple solution: download a wetware OC editor, set painting as #1 obsession, set needlpointing below "reality TV."
If only it was possible to edit compulsions...
Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :
Yikes, I scored a 24 on the autism test and only got 46% on the facial expressions. Perhaps there is a good reason why I'm an engineering professor.
Posted by ak (Member # 90) on :
A 24! Yay! I scored the same on the test as my heroine role model! <laughs>
<<<<hugs Rabbit>>>>
Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :
(((Anne Kate)))
I can sit for hours and watch a spinning bottle too. have you ever sat on the edge of a river and studied the patterns made by the pine needles that accumulate along the bank? Have you ever noticed how many different shades of white there are in an aspen grove on a sunny winter day? Do you see pictures of stange things in wood grains?
Posted by Christy (Member # 4397) on :
61% on the facial recognition. I found the girl with the glasses to be the most difficult and I didn't realize there was contempt, so I answered disgust too frequently.
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
And I'll come back next year, so long as I keep the dibs on my beard.![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
That's shockingly apropos.![[Party]](graemlins/party.gif)
![[Kiss]](graemlins/kiss.gif)
)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Evil]](graemlins/evil.gif)
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
Bro, we have a sister, too. She makes tubes.![[Embarrassed]](redface.gif)
![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
![[Mad]](mad.gif)