So…what happened to Cheshire?

So…if you’ve been following this blog, you’ve probably noticed a distinct lack of posts. I wrote about this two posts ago, but I figured I’d share some details.

For the past year, I’ve been trying to get into a graduate school. My grades are excellent-I’m one of the top in my class…it’s been a solid three years since I wasn’t on the Dean’s list. However, my references are a bit shaky because of some of my personality quirks and my GRE scores aren’t exactly spectacular. There’s also been some RL stuff going on which ties everything together.

Oh, where to start, where to start?

When I applied to graduate schools, I applied to four schools. I got rejected from three and until the last two weeks of school the fourth prospect didn’t look good. I applied to a few more, and then the fourth prospect came through. The fourth prospect (which I won’t name…the whole pseudoanonymity thing) is actually a lab I’m quite estatic about because I’ll be doing work that’s straight out of science fiction for a professor whose work I’ve been following for awhile. I’m essentially a fanboy working with the producer of my favorite body of work. Wh00!

So, shortly after this I found out that I was diagnosed with Asperger’s when I was like 5 years old and was essentially never told about it. Well, I was but can you really expect a 5 to 10 year old to understand the psychology behind ASDs? A little heads up before I entered high school or college would have been nice.

I ended up doing some research into the subject and found to my pleasure this diagnosis explained quite a few of my personality quirks…I basically challenge people because I have difficulty reading social structure and fall back on my applying own experiences and projecting my own personality quirks on to others because I have trouble reading folks who aren’t me. This caused a whole lot of introspection and looking back on certain events like my entire undergraduate career and the breakup with my abusive ex. It came out as a mixed bag…I feel the same way about the ex (even more negative, actually), but there are definitely some things I’d change if I could in the way I interacted with folks in my undergrad career. I can’t change them now, but I can avoid repeating the same mistakes now that I’m in graduate school.

Oh, and as for the Asperger’s diagnosis? Found out that I wasn’t immunized against polio or measles, mumps and rubella. Had conversations about autism with my dad which ended up with me headdesking quite a bit. It’s not the fucking vaccines. I love my parents as much as the next person, but I’m quite surprised they dropped the ball on this one because they both have some serious education under their belt.

My graduate school is in another part of the country…about as far away from Iowa as you can get. This has caused me some internal struggles as a father because this means I won’t be seeing my kid as much. Financial struggles, as well because graduate students aren’t paid a whole lot and I have an extra burden to bear in child support. It’ll be a struggle but I think I can make it. I’ll just have to be really careful about what I spend my money on, and I’ll see my spawnling every so often on travels home.

So…yeah. That’s what I’ve been up to. Moving out of a place (rented house) that you’ve lived for 5 years is surprisingly difficult and I’ve been packing and cleaning to prepare for this move as well as working 40 hours a week and participating in research at ISU. I’ve been uber busy moving and introspecting.

I’d really like to return to blogging. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll have a chance to until I settle into a new routine. I’m moving at the end of this month, and will be starting my new job at the beginning of next month.

Expect posts to pick up again late next month. Ish.

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If you’ve gotten this far, thanks for reading my blog

I haven’t posted a youtube gem in awhile and I normally post music. So let’s switch something up for a change. I’ve recently been getting more and more into stand-up comedy, and Patton Oswalt is one of my favorites. Here are two of my favorite jokes that he performed.

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