Category: Redux

To be used for LOM and HMS Redux

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Writing is Recursive

RJ Walters

Often times in my life I feel like I am going in circles.  The same things seems to always crop up to mess things up.  I didn’t get married until I was forty so I had my share of dates.  But on second thought I really didn’t.  I knew I was not very good at it so I didn’t even attempt that often. Except for a very few occasions I just never could get past the second date.  With those kinds of experiences in life I knew I was different from many around me. I would also later learn that … Continue reading Writing is Recursive

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I Don’t Have Many Friends — By Choice..

RJ Walters

Maybe I should explain the title some more before I continue with the post.  Yes, because of my Aspie traits and my isolation as a deaf senior citizen I don’t have as many friends as I had when I was in the corporate world. That is a fact that can’t be denied but it is not the point of this post. The point I am trying to make is that by Facebook standards my friends list is pretty abysmal.  I think at last count I had about 40 “friends”. Some of them I don’t “follow” because they post multiple times … Continue reading I Don’t Have Many Friends — By Choice..

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An Ounce Of Empathy & Two Ounces Of Brains

RJ Walters

I am a dreamer, always have been and always will be.  When times are bad I dream of better times. When times are good I thank the Lord. I have always dreamed that every citizen of our country has at least an ounce of empathy and two ounces of brains.  I have come to doubt that belief, especially since the person in the Oval Office doesn’t even seem to pass the bill.  I guess this particular dream will have to wait a while before it can be realized. Now don’t misunderstand me, I don’t expect everyone to be overflowing with … Continue reading An Ounce Of Empathy & Two Ounces Of Brains

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Aspie Trait #4 – We Just Don’t Understand Body Language.

RJ Walters

  Understanding body language, things like facial expressions and tone of voice are important for social interactions. But many of us Aspies are just not very good at those type things.  To us, it is a strange and mysterious thing so we often tend to misinterpret what is actually being communicated. Without recognizing these things our response to some conversations seems inappropriate. We generally take many things literally and based on the facts in front of us instead of as they may be intended. Of course, I have a more difficult time of tone of language than most Aspies since … Continue reading Aspie Trait #4 – We Just Don’t Understand Body Language.

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Aspie Trait #3 – We Are Good Writers But Not Good Speakers..

RJ Walters

  This week’s Aspie trait is one that is powerful for me. I have always been a good writer. In high school and college, I almost effortlessly got A’s in all my composition classes. Writing just came easily for me. If I add up all the posts I have written in the last ten years on the various blogs I have started, the number likely exceeds 10,000 posts.  I discovered I have hyperlexia which means that my comprehension for reading, writing and typing far exceeds my verbal comprehension. Public speaking is just difficult for me along with many other types of social … Continue reading Aspie Trait #3 – We Are Good Writers But Not Good Speakers..

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Aspie Trait #2 – We are honest to a fault

RJ Walters

   We Aspies are usually brutally honest and speak our mind. Our allegiance is to the truth, not people’s feelings. Most people learn not to tell the truth all the time. Sometimes white lies need to be said so as not to hurt friends’ feelings. But white lies just seem immoral or at least illogical to many of us Aspies. Of course, being brutally honest is not the way to make friends at least at a casual level so many of us lack those kinds of friendship growing up. I realize that I sometimes hurt people’s feeling here on RJsCorner by … Continue reading Aspie Trait #2 – We are honest to a fault

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Aspie Trait #1: We Don’t All Have The Same Traits Or Severity

RJ Walters

I thought as part of the RJsCorner rework I would add a weekly snippet about Asperger’s Traits.  I want to emphasize here that I am not an “expert” on this condition but I have apparently lived with it most of my life and I have also done quite a bit of study on the topic over the last few months. Since everyone seems to like numbered lists that will be the format these posts will take. The numbers are only the order of presentation and have nothing to do with priority. Let’s get started. It hasn’t always been so but Asperger’s … Continue reading Aspie Trait #1: We Don’t All Have The Same Traits Or Severity

Life On The Margins, Redux2 Comments

Everyone Deserves a Hand Up…

RJ Walters

As I have grown older and wiser I have learned some important lessons in life. One of them is that everyone deserves a hand up when they come across hard times in their lives. The words of Jesus taught me that early on but I guess I just wasn’t ready to hear that message. It would be years and many personal relationships before I took it to heart. I think I have had my share of troubles during my life. I grew up in poverty although I didn’t really realize it at the time. I had a very narcissist mother who just … Continue reading Everyone Deserves a Hand Up…

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Disappointment …

RJ Walters

This is going to be one of those personal posts for me as it delves into my inner being but it needs to come out.  I think it is natural that when a person starts to realize his mortality that he tries to summarize his life and the world around him. For some it is about legacy, some just tr I have been doing that a lot the last few months. It is not that I  think I will die anytime soon but of course I have much more life behind me than ahead. I have been searching for that one word to … Continue reading Disappointment …

Life On The Margins, Redux4 Comments

I Am Just Not a “Niche” Guy…

RJ Walters

  For my weekly bio post I thought I would talk a little about my blogging processes in particular but more generally about my thought processes which due to Aspergers is probably different than yours. Many of the more successful blogs around the Internet are niche blogs, that is they concentrate on one particular topic. Many that I read are of the retirement genre. Their readers pretty much know what they are going to get when they go to their sites. As they say like-minded people like to congregate together, especially during these trying times so they don’t want any surprises and … Continue reading I Am Just Not a “Niche” Guy…

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Being Interrupted …

RJ Walters

   Here is another post pointing out some of my neurodiverse characteristics associated with Aspergers Syndrome. If you interrupt me when I am in the middle of something I may smile at you and pretend everything is okay but on the inside I am beginning to boil. Hopefully you will let me return to my task and finish what I was doing. Stopping in the middle of a task creates a panic in me that is hard to justify. I just need to finish what I am working on or come to a reasonable stopping point. My working memory is … Continue reading Being Interrupted …

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About Make-up…

RJ Walters

Lord knows I have my problems in life, I have even been blogging about some of them in my Celebrate Diversity posts lately. So I can understand how so many women are addicted to their make-up. I also admit that I am not very well attuned to the social scene so I really didn’t know much about Alicia Keys, but I admired her audacity. By baring her bare face, Keys has revealed how makeup can become a crutch and a mask. The very fact that women are so encouraged to apply makeup communicates that we should be concealing our imperfections and … Continue reading About Make-up…

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Stop Using Sign Language Interpreters…

RJ Walters

The title above may seem strange coming from a deaf man but I really do think we have to stop using sign language interpreters for public announcements.  Its time to move on to better ways. Way better ways… The facts show us that the ASL interpreters who are often behind a public official announcing something is understood by less that 20% of the people who are deaf and less than 2% of those who have hearing impairments.  But there is a technology that is understood by probably 90%+ of that population. That technology is captioning.  It is cheap, it is … Continue reading Stop Using Sign Language Interpreters…

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Caught Between Two Worlds….

RJ Walters

This post is part of my continuing study of the Autism spectrum and particularly Asperger’s Syndrome. I am stuck between two worlds in my life.  I am a deaf man who lives almost exclusively in the hearing world but neither the hearing world or the deaf world considers me a homeboy.  I am seldom around other deaf people so I can’t speak for them but since almost 80% of us deafies are like me in that they went deaf later in life ways maybe I do.  One of my goals via this blog and a few other forums, is to help the … Continue reading Caught Between Two Worlds….