Hello Everyone!

This is Doug speaking. Nice to see we have a forum now. Thanks for setting this up, Taylor.

Heya' Doug.
You're the first "local" to join in since the site was put together. ~throws confettis~

Yeah, figured it was about time, and a FB group just didn't seem quite special enough, and too open to trolls. Hopefully, with a nice quiet private forum we can get the people we want here while staying under the radar of those wanting to go around causing unpleasantness.
Mum had suggested making a side board for parents to have their own discussion, and maybe an "Ask the Aspies" thread or something. I'm thinking it might work, but it might also detract from the more "It's cool, we know where you're coming from" vibe of the forum. And some of the 'rents might be a tad less forum-savvy, so perhaps an FB group would work better on that end... Thoughts?

For those not in the know, Doug is the "Moderator" of our group meetings in Ithaca.
We'd discussed the possibility of making a FB Group or forum a couple times in the meetings, but things seemed to get sidetracked somehow by the 'rents once the matter of the group/board needing a name came up.

Hey there Doug, it's a pleasure to meet you. If you haven't read around already, my name's Alex, but most just call me Al or Lou.

I'm an Aspie in IA, so I'm glad to be a part of this. You should hurry and bring the rest of your group here to liven things up!

Hi--
Tried posting in mid Nov., failed; I'm trying now to post again. I could not reenter this site using my original ID and password after MANY frustrating attempts, so this one is a new attempt with a new email address, ID, and password, successful after several attempts(?). But, my post in November never appeared here... (Oh, if I haven't told any of you yet how VERY MUCH I DETEST COMPUTERS [I'm always battling with mine and I HATE COMPUTERS!!!!] - and I've had yet another VERY bad week with mine!) I use my computer for writing, editing photos, editing video, working on my web site, reading newsgroups, corresponding by email, etc. - but I think I would live at least 10 years longer if I threw my computer into the lake... Looking forward to Thursday's meeting.
ddd-rrr

ddd-rrr wrote:Hi--
Tried posting in mid Nov., failed; I'm trying now to post again. I could not reenter this site using my original ID and password after MANY frustrating attempts, so this one is a new attempt with a new email address, ID, and password, successful after several attempts(?). But, my post in November never appeared here... (Oh, if I haven't told any of you yet how VERY MUCH I DETEST COMPUTERS [I'm always battling with mine and I HATE COMPUTERS!!!!] - and I've had yet another VERY bad week with mine!) I use my computer for writing, editing photos, editing video, working on my web site, reading newsgroups, corresponding by email, etc. - but I think I would live at least 10 years longer if I threw my computer into the lake... Looking forward to Thursday's meeting.
ddd-rrr

Yeow, sorry to hear you've been having so much trouble with the Compy, but I'm glad you finally managed to make it through.
Is it an older computer? I remember practicing all sorts of fun vocabulary when we had the old 98...
I'm looking forward to this thursday too. It'll be nice to get out of the house.

Since I work with a difficult to edit video file type (28Mbps 1920x1080-60P), I needed to upgrade my computer, and I succeeded in building a "reasonably-priced" 4.4GHz computer with 16 gigs of RAM and a video card with 480 cores (for GPU rendering acceleration of the video). I reused my Blu-ray writer, dual 24" monitors, power supply, keyboard (I like a mini keyboard...;-), and mouse - plus the three 2T hard drives + extra smaller ones, all in the bigger case needed to fit and cool everything (with 7 6" fans, fortunately barely audible).
It is FAST! 8^)
ddd-rrr

ddd-rrr wrote:Hi--
My computer is a core-2-quad 2.83GHz / Win7-64bit / 6gigs of RAM, and soon, a WAY too expensive video card (with 480 cores) for video editing acceleration. Not the latest, but no "slouch". I have the services of a live-in "technician", without whom I would long ago have dumped my many-times-daily EXTREMELY annoying computer, with which I do not get along(!). I think people who choose not to use computers are VERY wise!;-)
--DR

Whooo, fancy.
Is it freezing up a lot, crashing, or just generally being a pain?
Ours is Win7-64, dunno' all the fancyspecbits off the top of my head, but it's well behaved...

Hi--
(I'm not sure whom I/m replying to, but...;-)

What is an "FB"?

If I'm responding to "Rauhiss", the problems are mostly with my not understanding software, and even after about 16 years of using computers, I STILL don't "get" how it "works", sigh... And my patience is not very great (an Aspie thing, I guess), but hollering at the computer doesn't seem to get the computer and software to do what I want, darn it! 8^(
Ah, well - "moan-'n'-groan", "whine-'n'-complain"...;-)

It was an interesting meeting last night - but it was too bad about the car trouble someone had (lucky the car was stuck in the church driveway and not out in the middle of nowhere, though). 'Course later I thought to ask some more specific questions that may have helped to get an idea of how bad the engine damage likely was, and how serious (and expensive) the repair.

BTW, if anyone is interested in what I do/did, dump "ruether photography" into Google and my web site comes up first among about 204,000 entries (all too many of which are mine - but I'm NOT Rosemary Ruether's son, David! 8^).

Also, who is it who is interested in cats?

ddd-rrr

FB is FaceBook.

The way computers work has something to do with complicated electrical whatsits, but usually it's just easier to go with "magic"...
I find that what I yell tends to make more of a difference to a misbehaving computer than how loudly I yell it. I've made up quite a variety of colorful phrases for getting Firefox to stop that whole "not responding" business.

It was a good meeting. I'm glad the cupcakes went over so well.
I learned some new things about classical music and history, though I can't quite recall what those things were just now.
Yeah, rough break about the car. I hope they got everything sorted okay.

Also, yay cats!

Hi--

Ah, yes, "F A C E B O O K" . . . . .
I was on it for a while, but it didn't do for me what I wanted (email and NG postings were better for me), so I left it.

And, yes, operating a computer successfully still does seem like using magic no matter how many of them we have built. Maybe I need instruction in your incantations and how you use them...8^)

Thanks again for the cupcakes! Classical music? History? When? 8^)

I guess "tune in again next time" to perhaps find out about the car, unless its owner posts about it here sooner... About meetings, even though we may all really, really want to attend, if the weather is bad, it may not be worth the risk. Is rescheduling a meeting possible/practical rather than waiting two months for the next scheduled meeting?

We've had many cats ("serial" cats, though...;-), and they have all been very different. Our current cat is finally settling down (sorta...;-) at about two years old, but what a pain he was at first (a friend suggested "WMD" as a name ;-). He bites less now (so he still needs a bit of "training"), but he has stopped being so destructive and annoying. Or, as we used to joke, "You take our average overactive cat, PLEASE!" 8^) But - when he's cuddly, cute, and nice, he's S-O-O-O good (but this is usually when he's hungry...;-).

ddd-rrr

I mostly used to play games on it, but it works well for keeping up with family members who live quite a ways away.

Well, I can't post most of the words I use here without putting the site's rating from PG to at leastNC17. "Gafriggen" is one of my favorites. The computer doesn't seem to know which are actual words and which aren't, but as long as it sounds obscene it seems to get a reaction.

Heh, might have to bring them more often...
And the two guys sitting on the couch (I forget their names) were discussing those and some other things for most of the meeting.

Yeah, kittens can be pretty wild when they want to. Like kids, they usually grow out of it after a while. A nice, friendly cat is one of the best things in the world, I think. We've got four here, all pretty well behaved.

Hi--

I've written about 17,000(!) emails and NG posts in the last 16 years or so, one-finger typed (and I *STILL* need to hunt for keys and look at the keyboard while poking at them...).

My computer-curses are neither "PG" nor quiet - and the %$#^& computer had me using them again last night as I tried to RIP and organize some music pieces. BLEAH! I don't think I will EVER learn the basics of computer usage........

Uh, DO NOT get me started on current politics, and the disgusting selfish antics of one party in particular! 8^(

BTW, are you interested in music? Have you had much contact with (uh...;-) "serious" music (SUCH a bad term, as if all classical music is not fun, and all other music is not serious!)? If you haven't heard much of it that you like, I can forward a few MP3s of some neat stuff (contact me through the email address on my web site - search "ruether photography" on Google) by Bach, Satie, Prokofiev, Chopin, Liszt, etc. Same for any other folks in the Aspie group (but just don't pass on the MP3s!).

My friend and I have agreed to my terms.;-) NO KITTENS, EVER! (I have delicate, expensive speakers.) We get "used" cats, mostly from the SPCA...;-) Unfortunately, our 11 pound 2-year-old still acts like a kitten, but fortunately he has settled down some and the "ruckus" is no longer constant. G - o - o - o - d kitty (sometimes...8^).

ddd-rrr

NG being...NewGrounds?
We had to take typing class in elementary school, plus I spend most of my time typing at night in the dark, so I've got the keyboard mostly figured. But my dad can't even remember which button turns the computer on, so you're at least doing better than him. xD

We need more options that just trying to find the lesser of two evils in our elections...

I'm more into techno sort of things lately. I mostly listen to musics on youtube.

Two years is still youngish for a cat. We have one that's ten and still acts like an idiot half the time.

I have repeatedly tried to post a response to your post, but unsuccessfully... GRRRR! It did contain URLs, but I have been signed up here for far more than a week...
ddd-rrr

Hi--

"NGs" = News Groups. Most internet service suppliers provide 25,000+ NGs that you can "subscribe" to for free, on almost any subject.

As for politics, just votes for the Democratic, Independent, or Workers Party candidates and against the Republican or Tea Party ones and you will be better off at least 95% of the time...;-)

Here are some music suggestions for things on YouTube. The first is kinda "techno"...;-)


The "fun" movement from Prokofiev's Symphony no. 5:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT7YgZ8J-PA


And on a "different note", Satie's "Gymnastics";-):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSxDjW9bLCQ


Ahem..., Wendy Carlos performing Bach on the Moog synthesizer (I was lucky enough to be able to spend a couple of years messin' aroun' in Moog's factory studio playin' wi' th' toys...;-):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn0HAWX1TSA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o95yZCnGVAw&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fbh1mPE7lN4&feature=related


And a bit o' "geek"...:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V8vUXRdqNY&feature=related


An' Bach played by the aptly-named 17-year-old "Felix Hell":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcCXX7frG2Y

And Liszt, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kvG0nRQRtQ&feature=related

You should hear those with my big panel speakers and HUGE subwoofer (I've designed and built these for decades) - the latter ripples the floor, shakes the couch, and makes the air feel thick when playing these pieces! 8^)


TURN THE VOLUME DOWN before playing this Heinrich Ignaz von Biber piece (from late in the 1600's, NOT by the current Justin Biber)! There are a few surprizes in this piece that make most listeners guess that it is from the 20th century and not the 17th...;-):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC2oaSAToRE


Heck, I can't leave this without touching on at least a little Charles Ives. Here is a favorite piece of mine (and it is not your imagination - the two pianos, often played at right angles by a single player, are tuned a quarter tone apart!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU85bUyDPWs


Here is some John Cage prepared piano:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXbBeMa1SHc

Another side of Cage (especially the second part):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExUosomc8Uc&feature=related

And yet another - and you, too, can perform this one yourself! Just have a clock or watch handy, sit down in front of a piano, open the keyboard cover, sit quietly for 4 minutes and 33 seconds, close the cover, and then bow to your audience. Not surprisingly, it is called, "4:33"...;-) It, of course, consists of the sounds that occur during the time of "playing" it...;-)


And now for something completely terrible! (After double-clicking on an MP3 name for a piece, wait until the screen goes blank and then a player appears, which will auto-play the selected piece.):

http://www.donferrario.com/ruether/midi.html


As for the cat, in the last week or two, he has become much calmer and sweeter - but there is no telling how long THAT will last!

ddd-rrr

Ahhh. Haven't looked into those much.

I'm not registered to vote yet. When there's someone to vote for that doesn't nauseate me, I'll go register.

I'll give some of those a listen when my internet stops acting up. It's running slow today, I think it must have had too much turkey for thanksgiving...

Maybe he's just behaving so he'll get more/better toys for Xmas?