Uh, oh. I just started that behavior. I used to look everybody in the eye when I talked to them. But apparently I'm getting to look maniacal or something in my old age and I'm beginning to 'concern' people. So I stopped looking at them.
Big difference there. You're looking away to appease them, which means you're aware that you make them awkward. I can't sense that at all. I look at foreheads and chins to give a false apperance, but looking somebody in the eyes, unless it's 1:1 and I really trust them, makes me skittish. If I try and stare somebody in the eyes while taking a drink of water/coffee my hands will be shaking. Depends on the "trust level" and thankfully I learned my forehead/chin trick before job interviews.
License plates: I always look at license plates first. That's how I identify the cars of people I know.
I don't look at them though, they just "pop" out if I look at a car. All it takes is a glimpse lasting a second or two if I pull out of a parking lot behind them and the gears start turning without any real though. Patterns pop out: PPC 799 ... 2 seconds later, Power PC 799mhz.. 'cuz the guy is a software engineer. Never tried, it's just THERE. 8AS G70 -- find a pattern in THAT one. Didn't even try, but I had one without thought.. .8AS looks like BAS and her last name started with a B and her first name started SA and G70.. well, G is the 7th letter of the alphabet with a remainder of 0. That one is 6 years old, and I'm not a stalker. I've got phone numbers of people in my head that I called 3-4 times before they moved out that on call years after they moved out of that place and after THEY forgot them.
Hell, I remember the license plate on the family car still... and that's been gone I think 16 years. When you move to a truck/van the plate changes. I don't remember what kind of car it was, what color, nothing, but that license plate is stuck in my head. 616 NHT. Why, on God's Green Earth, do I remember the license plate on the family car from when I was 8 years old?
Putting things in the same place: Every time, all the time. Otherwise I forget them.
Put them somewhere else tonight as an experiment... like on your coffee table. When you wake up, presuming that you remember they're on the coffee table, imagine having a 1/10 chance of finding them. Imagine looking at the coffee table, not seeing them, checking the kitchen, checking the table again, not seeing them, checking the bathroom, checking the table again, not seeing them, checking your pants from yesterday, checking the table, not seeing them, checking the phone table, checking the coffee table, not seeing them.
Imagine, some days, having to move EVERY SINGLE ITEM on that table by hand until you found your keys. DVD, lighter, box of ammo, pack of cards, ooops there's the keys! In plain sight the whole time, since there's only 6-7 things on there.
I'm not looking for a pity party or anything, certainly not. I've never been officially diagnosed with AS (it didn't "exist" the last time I went a shrink) nor do I want to be... but, I think it's fair to say that I do exhibit a number of said traits. I'm a mostly fully functioning human being with just enough of the AS traits to "feel the pain" I suppose and still get along with society relatively unnoticed.
Normal enough to know when I went weird (sometimes too late) but weird enough not to act normal sometimes.
Here's one for you regarding repetition and having to have things ALWAYS "just right":
I started running distances when I was 12-13. I did this build endurnace for wrestling, ended up actually running for sport shortly after that. When I started running for sport my father (has run more miles in races than I care to think about) clued in me in on something: underwear and socks are nothing but extra weight in a race. He's right. I followed his advice -- but I forgot to lace my shoes up nice and tight once when I was 14. You want to know what kind of blister you get after 3 miles of having a sloppy laced shoe on your foot? About 3" around. Lesson learned, "It laces it's shoes tight or it gets the blister!" A "normal" person would have laced up their shoes tight before races. I began ALWAYS doing that. Repitition == good to me. It's NOT conscious and I'm now 24, haven't run a road race in 2 years, but for about 6 years my friends have always chided me about how long it takes to get out the door. I'll spend 5 minutes tightening the laces on my shoes before we go out to a bar or something. Reptition. Comfort. I'd re-tie my shoes before a skydive out of habbit. I always did before a wrestling match or a race.
I now wear a slip-on shoe w/out laces because my frontlobes realized that I was acting like an IDIOT but the only way to really stop that behavior was to wear a shoe without laces.
Ponder this: After mounting a parachute, helmet, radio equipment, etc, getting ready to board a plane I'M RE-TYING MY SHOE TO MAKE SURE IT IS TIGHT! I know that's nuts, in hind sight, but it would have seriously worried me if I got a plane with a "sloppy" shoe. One would think I'd be double-checking my freaking parachute -- but I found comfort in tight shoes all the time. I'd double-check the rig AFTER the shoes. I did this week after week, not just a one time thing. Neurotic? Yeah.
I just started that behavior. I used to look everybody in the eye when I talked to them. But apparently I'm getting to look maniacal or something in my old age and I'm beginning to 'concern' people. So I stopped looking at them.
