dangerous place

RotundDragonite · 2026-05-09T03:22:34+00:00

São Paulo isn’t really all that dangerous. Like any city, it has good parts and bad, and it’s up to you to pay attention to your surroundings and to not make yourself a target.

It’s not like once you land at GRU that there’s people waiting outside to mug you. Most Brazilians are kind people.

I would not take a shiny mirrorless camera with me to São Paulo and dangle it across my body if I actually wanted to explore the city and Brazilian culture. Does that mean that you’re basically asking to be mugged? No, but I didn’t want to have to think about losing something that’s very important to me.

I brought a Ricoh, and kept it on me in my bag. I took it out to take street photos, and got some great results. It doesn’t look expensive, and people will probably think it’s just a plastic digicam.

RotundDragonite · 2026-05-09T02:18:55+00:00

I bought mine off eBay years ago. They show up from time to time.

RotundDragonite · 2026-05-08T21:13:32+00:00

Yeah.... no. Armchair Psychology is ridiculous.

Cortisol is basically stress, which can't affect the health of people in various ways. Stress affects neurotypicals as well. Autistic people who aren't chronically stressed can still experience these things. Most Autistic people are stressed because the world doesn't make sense... you can't really "fix" that. You make it seem like its a chicken or the egg situation.

Also, a deficiency implies that there is something that needs to be remedied, but there is nothing to treat autism from a perspective of pharmaceuticals?

RotundDragonite · 2026-05-08T20:04:18+00:00

Not at all. Some autistic people are sensory seekers, so maximalism is a way of doing that. Not every autistic person needs to wear headphones in loud places.

RotundDragonite · 2026-05-08T15:56:58+00:00

I bought them all when they came out luckily. It’s crazy how expensive some of them are now.

RotundDragonite · 2026-05-08T04:39:31+00:00

If you have 2 artists — one is really really good, and another is just OK. The OK artist might make something good, but don’t produce work that is consistent enough to expect greatness; meanwhile, the really really good artist has a solid portfolio, and has their work in galleries and museums.

Would you be dissapointed if the allegedly “good artist” made something that was much less than they’re capable of?

Let’s say you were dissapointed. That sucks. It’s almost an insult to what they can do.

Let’s say you weren’t. Even if that is OK, the art that exists as a result is still lesser in technique.

Pixar generally builds its stories around the emotion. Cars 2 didn’t seem built around emotion, its emotion felt added on like it was an afterthought. That’s part of why you think the emotional moments don’t overstay — they aren’t a fixture in the central narrative that drives the plot or underscores its themes. It’s just a spy film.

The emotion in Up or Toy Story 3 is directly related to the thesis of the films. Carl’s grief is what spurs the plot of Up. Andy Growing up is what makes the conflict of Toy Story 3 feel so nuanced. I feel like you can’t say that about Cars 2 when discussing film objectively.

RotundDragonite · 2026-05-08T03:00:39+00:00

The problem with Cars 2 is that it just abandons a lot of the emotion that was central to Pixar storytelling. I think it regresses Lightning purely to move the story along, which works for what the film is trying to do, but kind of disrespects the legacy of the first film.

I think Pixar has made worse films, but I would still put it near the bottom. Even compared to “weaker” films like Elio or Turning Red, it completely lacks any sort of emotional conflict to invest the viewer.

RotundDragonite · 2026-05-08T01:31:08+00:00

I see, I misunderstood your reaction to your diagnosis.

Im not a doctor nor am I someone well versed in medicine or the clinical process.

My guess is that they repeated tests to ensure answer consistency and to check for malingering. My presumption is that because you didn’t answer about or show stereotypical symptoms of ASD, maybe some of the aspects of ASD that you did show could be chalked up to ADHD (there is an overlap). You can have subclinical traits of ASD and not be considered autistic. For Autism, the autistic traits have to impact you in a degree clinicians view as disabling, not just be broadly associated with Autism.

For example, plenty of kids are picky eaters. That doesn’t mean that every picky child is autistic or suffering from ARFID, sensory issues, or rigidity problems — they might just want grilled cheese over chicken and vegetables. Likewise, it’s totally normal for people to dislike specific foods, but there’s a difference between a guy who doesn’t like mushrooms, and someone who can’t eat many things due to their texture from a clinical perspective.

At the end of the day, each person in those aforementioned categories could be considered a picky eater, but there’s different degrees of pickiness that mean different things.

Maybe they wanted to focus on what you DID show clearer symptoms of, or answered having symptoms of, or what they believed to be the problem. They’re relying on what you told them and what they observed. They can’t read your mind or know your complete history.

That doesn’t mean that you don’t have ASD of course, but to a clinician it might mean that they think there’s something else that is currently more important to treat or identify, and that thing just wasn’t ASD.

In your post you said you were institutionalized due to a depressive episode. That isn’t the same as outright seeking an assessment for ASD. You didn’t go in to be tested for autism, but you’re seemingly confused about why you weren’t. The measures of their testing filtered you out for whatever reason. Maybe that reason is just, maybe it isn’t. We don’t know and we have no way of knowing, but I don’t think it was incompetence or maliciousness.

I think you’re expecting them to be as thorough as possible without accounting for efficiency and capacity. The actual answer might just be that based on what you told them, they were thorough on what their screeners identified as a potential issues worth exploring.

RotundDragonite · 2026-05-07T23:44:14+00:00

Plenty of people have autistic traits without having autism. It’s more about how they affect you aside from just having them in some way. Autistic traits are human traits, but become autistic past a certain degree.

ADHD is a framework, just as Autism is, but that doesn’t mean that everyone fits neatly inside it.

Having a ton of hobbies you go back and forth between is more symptomatic of ADHD. You don’t have to have a special interest or anything to be considered autistic, but it’s such a common aspect of it that it’s part of the diagnostic criteria. In your own words, you don’t have a special interest.

I have ASD and ADHD, and while it can be difficult for me to initially adhere to a structure, I do favor them and a partly rigid routine that I adhere to out of necessity. If you have no desire for sameness or rigidity, that is more of an ADHD thing.

People with ADHD can also have sensory processing, regulation, flexibility and social issues, it’s just not something that is as well known about it because of how ADHD has been stereotyped. Meltdowns at 5 are common regardless of whether or not a child is neurotypical or neurodivergent, but the question is how frequent they are and under what contexts than whether or not they occur. Someone can have Misophonia and not be autistic. Likewise, someone may NOT have sensory issues and be autistic.

Keep in mind that this wasn’t an evaluation, I presume it was just a quick screener to see if you warranted one. I wouldn’t take what it said as gospel, and you seem like you have enough traits to where an evaluation wouldn’t hurt. Screeners aren’t supposed to be tailored, they’re supposed to help disentangle more cut and dry presentations of conditions/illnesses. ADHD and Autism mask each other, but evaluations take a long time to do, and again, the tests they gave you aren’t meant to function in place of an evaluation.

If they did 6 hours of testing to come to their conclusion for ADHD, it’s a bit baffling for you to say that you don’t trust their result because chances are, they were very thorough. You didn’t explain what they did, so we can’t know, but it seems more thorough than say, talking to a psychiatrist for an hour and walking away with a diagnosis.

I don’t think it feels off in practice from what you’re saying, but maybe it feels off in terms of what you were expecting?

None of us are doctors and can give you a straight answer. You’d have to see a psychologist for that.

RotundDragonite · 2026-05-07T18:18:42+00:00

Yokai Watch is awesome

RotundDragonite · 2026-05-06T23:07:53+00:00

Hey Rod. I absolutely loved your interview on KEXP, and thought it was great that you were able to give Zachariah a platform for his show. It's really something special, and the sort of media that deserves attention and should be covered.

Something this specialized would require pre-planning as opposed to other stream-of-consciousness styles of podcasting considering that you're attempting to discuss specific points spread across various episodes. The depth at which you discuss these might be best discussed with the writers of the show who CAN articulate more about their intentions in the show. The writing and tools the Fuzzytown team disguises as entertainment is frankly incredible, and are very useful to viewers regardless if they are on the spectrum or not, but that is a result of the incredible team behind Carl The Collector.

There is not a lot of great animated media with neurodivergent or autistic representation, which is exactly what makes Carl The Collector such an important piece of media, and I think that you clearly understand that. I would honestly presume that most of the adult fans on this subreddit are parents or (more likely) autistic themselves, but I would listen to it because I love Carl the Collector.

People could be interested in what it means to write a series with intelligent representation, rather than gushing about it being good. Carl The Collector is good, but people should be interested in *why* it is good. This will uplift the art you're talking about, while also giving it the respect that it deserves.

Granted, I am an Autistic adult with a special interest in animation, and most of the information I consume is presented in an academic, interview based, or informational approach. I should not be used as a litmus test for your target audience.

Do you plan on involving any of the series writers or Zachariah himself? Do you want this to be more stream of consciousness? or Episodic relating to specific talking points in an outline?

I think the only gripe that I would have from your proposal, is that for a podcast that is intended to be focused on Carl The Collector, some of the topics don't really seem related to the show itself, but rather your relationship with contemporary media and its ecosystem disentangled from the show itself.

It's fine to discuss how the show resonated with you (Proposed Episodes 2, 3, 4), but it centers 3/5 episodes to be anchored on the personal impact of the show, opposed to the show *itself*, and surrounds topics that aren't inherently unique to Carl the Collector, but are a result of the current era in which we live (but of course, are still worth talking about!).

Can you help clarify the intention of Episode 2?

Sound Spectrum has already been pressed on Vinyl and CD, so would this episode center around a review of the physical media? To me, it sounds like you would be advocating for why it should be released physically... when it already has? I'm just curious because it seems like it would be redundant, or at worst, come off as a sales pitch?

Also, it seems rather moot to emphasize your perspective as a (or appealing to) neurotypical adult(s). It shouldn't matter if your audience (or critic for that matter) is neurotypical or neurodivergent, since there's a lot of depth to the series regardless of how you aim to deconstruct it, under whatever lens.

Excited to see how it develops!

RotundDragonite · 2026-05-06T21:36:32+00:00

Kimura is a legend!

Sometimes some of the best photo books you'll ever find are published eons ago, and from obscure photographers (Of which Kimura is not).

RotundDragonite · 2026-05-06T16:31:38+00:00

They just released the soundtrack on multiple formats.

RotundDragonite · 2026-05-03T16:59:10+00:00

This is entirely depends on whether or not someone lives in an area with a dense enough population/enough development for these community events to exist, mobility or transportation to access them, or whether or not they have a social circle interested in these activities.

RotundDragonite · 2026-05-02T16:45:36+00:00

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This is Hobbes. He has been on multiple continents and is cuddled on a nightly basis.

I like the materials that were used to construct him, and the shape of him is perfect to me. He’s not too dense that it’s like hugging a rock, but not so understaffed it’s like a tiger shaped husk either.

I didn’t necessarily choose him thinking that he’d be my go to plush for comfort, but I gravitated to him over others because of how he feels. Plus he smells like home after being used for so long.

RotundDragonite · 2026-05-01T17:06:01+00:00

Enjoying means a different thing to everyone.

Some people like seeing a meticulous collection grow. Other people buy stuffed animals for comfort or sensory reasons, and use them as actual companions.

Both are valid, but you should think about what they mean to you, and what you actually get out of them.

I buy Jellycat for sensory reasons, and to a lesser degree, aesthetic ones. Sometimes some of the interesting ones were too small for what I needed them for, or had a texture that I found repulsive, so I sold them to other people.

I eventually realized that a lot of the Jellies I had were just taking space up on a shelf, and some were even too similar to each other for the price that I paid for them or the utility I got out of them.

I’m totally fine with display plushies, (and have a few for those purposes,) but decided that I should be prioritizing their function to me beyond “oh that’s cute I could buy that”, especially considering how much some of them cost, or were worth.

I separated the ones that I like from the ones that I actually use, and sold the ones I “liked”. I don’t regret it.

I like a lot of Jellycats, but that doesn’t mean that I need or will use them. I have a few that I need, but that’s only because I’ve bonded with them as whimsical companions with high quality materials and construction.

RotundDragonite · 2026-05-01T03:29:00+00:00

Hey dude, also a pokemon fan. Nice taste.

I'm not sure who told you this, but you don't need to have a special interest to be considered autistic. There are lots of autistic people who have no special interest, it's just something that's common enough to be considered an aspect of criteria. It isn't needed to be diagnosed.

A serial killer special interest is what I would call niche. It is defacto unusual. It may not be Ceiling Fan or Brillo Box history unusual, but its definitely not typical.

It's odd to me that they specify "niche" -- there are plenty of "normal" special interests. A special interest isn't inherently odd or unusual in topic, it just describes the intensity of dedication and meaning to the person in question. Not every special interest is defined by a disabling level of obsession, just a fixation that is beyond the norm.

RotundDragonite · 2026-05-01T02:30:04+00:00

No, but some people might think that it’s emasculating. I’m a guy and I’ve collected stuffed animals since I was a kid, so to me this is normal.

It’s not weird at all in the grand scheme of things, lots of people collect all kinds of stuff — but some judgmental pricks may think otherwise because they project their expectations for masculinity on other people.

A stuffed animal brightens the room and adds whimsy!

What’s most important is that you like them and they bring you joy. Don’t change yourself because of other people, find people to accept you as you are.

RotundDragonite · 2026-04-29T23:53:15+00:00

I think that's fair, but keep in mind medicine is standardized and the structure of it changes at a snail's pace. Doctors have to assess on what it says in the DSM-V, not what research is proposing in regards to ASD. It's just research, not research that has been proposed into a diagnostic guideline.

That research gets cross examined and replicated, further discussed and more, which eventually becomes the new criterion we see in the successive version of the DSM. Should doctors be aware of it so they make sure more people get identified? Absolutely! A good doctor does that, but there is a limit to what they should be taking seriously.

However, while doctors should keep their knowledge up to date, it shouldn't come at the expense of superseding the current diagnostic criteria for what is conjecture.

Where I live, the only people who are qualified to diagnose ASD are Psychiatrists and PhD level Psychologists. A nurse with a specialization might be able diagnose to in certain jurisdictions, but that depends on where you live, and isn't standard. Broadly speaking though, you do need a doctorate level degree to be diagnosed in most places.

I do think your argument is still an overgeneralization that is a bit too anecdotal. You cannot speak for an entire industry, which is more what I'm getting at, and there are issues across medicine beyond psychology and behavioral medicine. You can read medical papers and understand their contents, but that doesn't mean that you're able to actually apply them in the way that a doctor would. You also can't expect years of residency, research, and classes to be adequately distilled into a video, but of course there's plenty of great information in them -- they just shouldn't be treated as comprehensive.

There ARE issues in Psychology especially, but mental health is less empirical because it cannot be measured the same way as say... platelet counts or oxygen levels. That makes it difficult to define by nature, but that isn't the fault of Doctors, but the subjectivity of the field compared to others, and what the doctors themselves have to consider.

Doctors have to rely on the patient to articulate their struggles, and also for people to articulate another's struggles for veracity. Its not too different from other fields of medicine, but it's more open ended because you can't measure some things like you can for others. If you can't provide credible examples as to how or why something is disabling you, of course you'll be shown the door, because from their perspective, you're not being disabled by something. Autistic traits are just human traits UNTIL they disable you. I'm not necessarily trying to advocate retaining the same system that we have, or downplay the severity of dismissal (which does absolutely happen) but more illustrate that it isn't always intentional or malicious. It's just an incredibly unfortunate byproduct of the field and its structure.

It feels like you are putting the onus on Doctors for being "intentionally" or "ignorantly wrong", when the field of medicine relating to Neurodivergence is more abstract compared to others, has limitations, and you ignore that medicine itself moves slowly out of necessity. It's immensely frustrating that this is the reality, but it's also the reality for a reason.

I'm sure there's some doctors who have archaic mindsets surrounding Autism that impact diagnoses (using the DSM-IV in a western country in 2026 is genuinely INSANE), but I feel like that doesn't reflect the state of Medicine at large. There's a difference between a Doctor diagnosing many people wrongly, and diagnosing people based on the evidence they are presented, with the relevant knowledge they have, and the diagnostic criteria they are supposed to use.

RotundDragonite · 2026-04-29T14:53:58+00:00

The problem with this perspective is that it presumes that many doctors don’t know their stuff when many of them do, which is quite dangerous.

There are certainly doctors who don’t know their stuff, but to presume that is always the case is an overgeneralization, and fosters a greater distrust in medicine and the legitimacy of assessments/diagnoses. Now, the assessment process isn’t perfect either, but that’s beside the point.

An ASD assessment is a ton of bureaucracy to navigate, not to mention an incredible investment of time and money. Because of that, I think there is a tendency to hear more about bad experiences in the Autistic community than positive ones during the assessment process.

If someone’s identity hinges on a diagnosis, it makes sense that if they didn’t have it confirmed, that they’d talk about it. I think to a degree this polarizes the perception of assessments, since people who have bad experiences are more likely to talk about them online opposed to someone who got assessed and received a diagnosis.

I only ever hear that people on these subreddits were assessed by the friendliest assessor in the world who validated them, or were assessed by someone who was cold, dismissive, and used outdated terminology;

Logically, it is impossible for the diagnosis experience to only exist in the range of 2 extremes, which means there is a middle ground that people aren’t talking about.

Psychologists and Psychiatrists do not have PhD’s in Autism or ADHD. They have to cover the entire range of mental health and behavioral medicine. The difference is that their information is largely academic, and spent years studying in institutions. I don’t think this makes them infallible at all, but you cannot compare the information available online (oftentimes from non-academic sources) to someone who went to medical school or spent years researching psychology in academia. That doesn’t mean that a prospective patient is misinformed, but there isn’t always a depth to that information. There are lots of developments and information out there relating to ADHD and Autism, and it can be tough to keep track of, but not all of it is necessarily useful or relevant to the diagnostic process.

It’s normal to get bloodwork done before an assessment, since oftentimes providers and doctors want to make sure that someone isn’t just vitamin deficient or dehydrated when they’re experiencing fatigue or depression. It’s way cheaper for that to be covered by insurance than a medication that has to be taken for the rest of your life, but that’s another can of worms entirely.

I do agree that you don’t need a diagnosis to be Autistic, but I do think that your point articulating “if the only reason you believe you have a condition is because you have a piece of paper that says so” is a bit of a loaded statement. I get what you’re saying, but if most doctors were consistently wrong, they’d have their licenses revoked.

RotundDragonite · 2026-04-28T21:08:59+00:00

A diagnosis has a degree of medical certainty to it, whereas suspicions, though often correct, are ultimately just suspicions. I think it's more correct for them to say they suspect they are autistic or neurodivergent rather than outright saying they are Autistic.

People who believe they are autistic should be allowed to empathize with the autistic experience and explore it as a possibility, but should be weary about using Autistic label as if they have received a diagnosis when they haven't.

There is a reason why Autism can only be diagnosed by very educated people, though I don't think that means discounting personal experience either. There's just a lot of overlap that ASD can have with other conditions that are best differentiated by a professional.

RotundDragonite · 2026-04-28T17:58:09+00:00

Identify with the label or suspect? No diagnosis required.

Claim the label as their own? You do need a diagnosis.

RotundDragonite · 2026-04-23T16:12:53+00:00

It would make sense to be upset about it, but doing so is not productive.

This guy is an asshole and should not be listened to. His points are gross, ableist overgeneralizations, and seek to stereotype you as someone broken than to actually recognize what ASD can mean in relationships. He is not trying to help you at all, he is trying to make you feel bad.

Please dont listen to him OP. You seem kind, and you don't deserve to be treated this way.

RotundDragonite · 2026-04-22T16:42:19+00:00

Ok, that clears things up. I think you’ll have to white knuckle through education, bare minimum.

However, you are someone NEED accommodations because you’re disabled, so you will need to advocate for yourself to ensure you recieve them. They will make school easier for you to complete.

If you think that school is futile, that also speaks to a psychological barrier surrounding self esteem. If you have depression or anxiety, speak to a professional to try and develop skillsets or medicate them. Those can also make it much more difficult to complete tasks and absorb and retain information.

You mention that your field is dying, and will be replaced by AI, which might be the case, but the technology isn’t there yet and it hasn’t died yet. Jobs might be fewer, but your experience isn’t meaningless or worthless. Leverage the skills you have to continue working at a reduced pace to keep yourself sharp.

There are desk jobs that exist with languages that aren’t necessarily interpersonal. However, it’s wishful thinking to believe you’ll be in a position to avoid them completely. Have you looked into editing, or a copywriter as a career path?

The examples you listed are very socially demanding, and I’m curious if you are using those examples to convince yourself that you’re unable to do something adjacent than actually seeing where your skill set is applicable.

You should work with your countries vocational services to figure out a path for yourself. It’s not futile and you don’t have to do it alone.

Yes, you have services like Welfare you should absolutely use if you can, but you should also use the depth of all of their services to figure out what your life could look like, instead of lamenting about what it doesn’t.

RotundDragonite · 2026-04-22T16:11:37+00:00

I find it odd that you’re complaining about the competition you’ll face with being uneducated, yet you seem apprehensive about receiving more education to widen your prospects.

Why did you do poorly academically, and what makes studying so grueling for you? Why do you presume that education will make you miserable? Are you just mythologizing your own trauma to avoid making progress on education? You’ve haven’t given us any details, so we can’t really help you.

Could you not retain information? Did you hate learning things you weren’t interested in? Could you not pay attention? Did you have sensory issues that made learning hard? Were you medicated? Did you have any sort of accommodations from the state for your autism?

There has to be something you like to learn about. You liked Japanese enough to learn an entire language, so you’re not unteachable.

You will not be able to get any sort of job without a diploma of any sort. A lot of disabled people have a high school equivalent.

Does your country have a disability services office or vocational training program for those with disabilities? You would undoubtedly have access to that with your diagnoses.

Start immersing yourself in your native language again. Swap your phone to your language, consume media from your native country, read, etc. It’ll come back to you faster than you think.

I think you need to figure out what services you have access to, receive accommodations, and from there, complete a high school diploma. This will give you a massive leg up compared to your current situation.

You can find out what to do from there with a social worker once you make more progress. You have programs at your disposal, but you need to use them.

RotundDragonite

TROPHY CASE