What, about you, makes you unusual?

Since Most Tropers Are Young Nerds, what about you specifically make you different from most people?

For me, I didn't say my first word until I was 3. And yet, I was reading when I was 4. I even have a childhood memory of being in some kind of preschool program and reading through the books there, and pronouncing the word "island" as "is land". I distinctly remember that happening before kindergarten, and I was clearly reading back then. (Plus, I was one of the youngest kids in my class, so I was definitely not yet 5)

If that sounds strange, well, it is. I'm autistic, which might explain a few things.

So, what about you makes you different from other people?

I have actually spent hours thinking about the best way to string my eccentricities together. I now describe myself as a "far-left transgender vegan atheist who uses Linux."

If it wasn't for TV Tropes and Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking I don't think I'd have thought to add the Linux part like that.

Anyway. Yeah. That's how I'm unusual.

I spend time on the tvtropes forum.

No traits beyond that, breadloaf? :/ Come on now! I'm sure you can think of something.

Okay fine. So this week some guy sends me some college humour joke which is basically this guy using little pictures instead of letters to stand in for variables or unknown constants. I found the joke mildly amusing and then decided that upon seeing it I would review my notes on how to solve second-order homogeneous constant coefficient differential equations.

Cuz I like calculus.

:P

Anyone do anything really weird that you can remember?

When I was in like first grade or so, I had a tape recorder, and I had a trampoline, and an Atari800. I used to use the tape recorder to record the music to Jumpman for the Atari800 - or more accurately, the sound of my older brother playing the game (as it didn't have much in the way of music, just the death song and beginning of level song), and I'd play it back while jumping on the trampoline. (The trampoline is quite the addictive drug)

As I got older, my actions began to make more and more sense. But I think anyone would question the sanity of a little kid who records the sound of video gameplay, then plays it back while hyperactively jumping on a trampoline for minutes on end.

My little brother remarked on how, when he was growing up, he always thought it was normal that the instant I came home from school, I'd just go straight to my game system or computer and not interact with anyone for the most part unless strictly necessary. That's what he was used to; an unsociable older brother who just immediately did his own thing as soon as he got home, and that of course was electronics.

In fifth grade or so, while on vacation, and having neighbors over, I talked the neighbor girl's ear off about Microsoft Windows and showing her stuff on the computer that was interesting to me, but not to her. My dad later told me that she left out of boredom.

I didn't have the greatest of social skills then.

Anyway, let's share these types of crazy life stories. We all probably have them! I think.

Besides my Asperger's:

-I could read before I could talk.

-I'm left-handed.

-I'm very mixed.

-Over 90% of my most listened to music comes from videogames.

-As a child I could talk a person's ear off when it came to animals.

It seems that the OP and I are quite alike.

edited 1st Nov '10 12:04:26 PM by rmctagg09

This'll take a while and I'll be adding to it a lot.

Fears showers and water. Has NLD. Prefers fiction to reality. Hates pop culture. Avoids television like the plague. Talks endlessly about interests, especially fiction, science, history, ideas.

Hates romance and thinks that it should take a 1,000 year hiatus in fiction. Has extremely large vocabulary, with extremely low comprehension and pronounciation skills.

I know that my opinions are wrong, but I hold them anyway.

edited 29th Oct '10 7:07:12 PM by AlirozTheConfused

Yeah, some of that sounds quite familiar indeed. I talked people's ears off about video games, or whatever other subject got my attention at the moment. And most of my music is video game music, even now.

I never crawled, I just moved from sitting around to strutting one day, if my mother is a reliable source.

I deliberately mispronounce certain words just to see if people would correct me. My favorites are internets (internet) and mafle (maple).

Also, I'm the only person I know who uses the :ם emoticon. It's like :o, only slightly bigger.

I have clear memories from before I turned two years old, though not very many of them.

I used to have a serious drinking/aggression problem, but I'm one of the less common cases who managed to get it under control without going completely stone cold sober.

I've lived in a different city every year for the past six years.

I've lost two jobs for refusing to compromise my integrity (though in hindsight at least one of those issues was petty enough that I probably could have let it go had I been a little wiser about it — the other I still maintain I was right about).

The proudest act of my life happened when I was in jail (no, really). The cops drug some poor guy into my cell half naked, and I literally gave him the shirt off of my back. I've always felt good about that. I don't think I ever told anybody about that until just now. That was also about the time I decided it was probably a good idea to scale back the booze.

edited 29th Oct '10 4:53:30 PM by TheBadinator

Well, that's quite an interesting life. Not many people are willing to admit they've been to jail!

I'm seeing a lot of interesting life stories in this topic!

It wasn't as big a deal as you might think, but it was the last incident in a long line of screw ups that forced me to reevaluate my behavior.

Among other things, I became bi yesterday. That was weird.

^ Bicameral? Bipartisan? Bicycle? Bicultural? Biracial?

One of the unusual things about me is that I can't guess a whole word just from hearing its parts.

edited 29th Oct '10 7:32:40 PM by AlirozTheConfused

^ Bisexual.

Edit: I can't really see how I could've become a number of those things in a day, or at all for some of them.

edited 29th Oct '10 7:28:19 PM by Meophist

It's easy to become a bicycle, just put a wheel on each shoe, and you'll go places.

re, topic: Nothing.

^ He can't, he's two tired.

Okay, I'll try...

I am an atheistic Young Communist who has a love for history, and German military memorabilia and language.

These alone set me apart from most teenagers my age (15).

edited 29th Oct '10 7:41:34 PM by SpaghettiCatIV

I walk incredibly fast, even for other non-foot-shuffling teenagers.

I can name at least 50 countries.

I know a shit ton of Halo and Gundam trivia.

First true friend 7th grade.

I formerly reenacted as a civil war soldier. Part of the ACWA.

I'm an Eagle Scout.

edited 29th Oct '10 8:38:23 PM by CommandoDude

Commando: A fellow reenactor? You are now my hero...

Nobody believed me, one day I came to class in my gettup (Minus rifle/bayonet/gunpowder).

Hah, going to the mall today with my friends in our Halloween costumes nearly got me arrested. I was an East German border guard...

Damn you, and your politically neutral uniform!

I think y'all are trying too hard to be "excentric and out there."