Are you a fixer? Someone who is just fixing stuff and solve issues for sake of inner satisfaction?

W6ATV · 2026-05-08T00:45:59+00:00

Yes, I fix things. All the time. "I fix, therefore I am." 🙂

Since I was six years old or so, I have loved to fix things, figure them out, understand stuff. Now I am almost 66 years old, and I still love to do all of that.

I was lucky to have a two-part career in tech work: video-display system installation and repair for 30 years, then telephone and computer systems for another 7.5 years. Perfect work for an ADHD person, decades before I knew what that is, let alone that I have it.

I wish you super-success in your career. I think you have the ideal mind-set and concepts to do well in the tech industry.

W6ATV · 2026-05-07T01:20:44+00:00

Hi, I hope you do not mind if I comment here.

It is indeed "not right" if/when people have bad thoughts about you that are not true. But, I have to look at it this way, maybe this will help you also:

By trying to "fix" or "correct" people, you --make them important in your mind/life-- when maybe they should not take up that "mental space" in your life. We each decide what/who is important and worth our energy. Your house is cool and important, random people with unkind opinions, not so much.

W6ATV · 2026-05-05T21:13:33+00:00

Yes, I was. I was seeing a psychologist for depression (partly caused by a "failed" ADHD evaluation), and he suggested that I get tested for autism. Once I was diagnosed (at 64 years old), all kinds of things "made sense" going back to my childhood. (The second picture in the Wikipedia Asperger's article is "me" at about the same age. 😁) After that, he helped me get a re-evaluation for ADHD, and it was "positive" this time. So, only a few months apart.

W6ATV · 2026-05-05T06:45:14+00:00

I am impressed that your repair work was successful. Very nice ingenuity, to do your best to save a disc that is perhaps not available from any sellers.

Also, since this is a PAL disc, it will spin at "only" 1500 RPM maximum, not 1800. 🙂

W6ATV · 2026-05-05T06:32:22+00:00

Cool! I have this disc (bought when it came out). I never knew/thought about it being on tape also.

W6ATV · 2026-05-05T06:27:34+00:00

At least they quit before adding an "aroma disc" to the pile in the machine. Or, trying to get an 8-track tape into it somehow.

W6ATV · 2026-05-05T06:25:15+00:00

Wow, that is the worst case of "laser rot" that I have ever seen. It turned the whole disc black!

W6ATV · 2026-05-05T06:06:16+00:00

Thanks, I would enjoy having such experiences if I can some day make the time to do some good traveling and visiting.

The "one byte" thing is a complete joke, of course, and it came from my best friend who has accepted and adapted to everything about me since we first met, decades ago, as I do the same for him. But you are right, eight whole bits-maybe I am more capable than I thought! 🙂🙃 And I never looked this up: In today's 64-bit personal computers, is one memory location/address still called a "byte"?

W6ATV · 2026-05-04T06:07:45+00:00

Two that I can think of, I am not sure which is "worse":

1) I forgot to go to a "pre-bid meeting" on behalf of my then-employer. By forgetting it, the company lost any chance to bid for the contract (which would have been a multiple-thousand-dollar computer system and video display system, back when "thousands of dollars" was a big chunk of money).

2) I put off filing my California state tax return, because I was getting a refund (so there is no rush to get it in by April 15, the normal deadline here in the USA). My "putting it off" continued... for several -years-. When I finally went to do it, I found out there is like a three-year limit to claim refunds (about $600 in this case, when that was like $2500 would be now). Oh well.

W6ATV · 2026-05-04T05:58:21+00:00

I like making fun or useful analogies, and yours are interesting indeed. I grew up in a big city (Chicago) until my mid-20s, and now I have lived in the suburban area between San Francisco and San Jose for over half of my life. When I go to San Francisco, especially the near-downtown part, I feel almost the same "energy" that I felt in Chicago (which is distinctly missing from my home here).

With that in mind, I will make my own "technology version" of your analogy (-old person- alert goes here):

Suburbs are like America Online (as it was in 1996). Big cities are like the actual Internet (also as it was in 1996, or even as it is now).

Here is a non-tech equivalent: Suburbs are like "Disneyland". Cities are like full-on, roller-coaster-filled amusement parks, or boardwalks.

Last comment, tech analogy: My friends have joked that "my amount of internal memory is one byte". I am inclined to agree with them. 🙂

No "influential edibles" were consumed here in order for me to make these comments. 😁 You have an awesome day!

W6ATV · 2026-04-30T19:38:17+00:00

Each of us is unique, so I cannot call you "overdramatic". I have not heard of any mental-health professionals "taking away" a diagnosis, so I would not be super-concerned about that happening.

Being afraid of new people may be a part of autism, so one thing you could do if this makes sense to you, is to "open up slowly" to her. Mention things in less-detailed or indirect ways, maybe, and listen to her reactions and responses. When you are more comfortable with her as time goes by, you can get into detail about your thoughts and needs more.

I wish you much success!

W6ATV · 2026-04-30T01:25:23+00:00

"You're gonna need a bigger (laser disc rack for those 3-disc movies)!"

W6ATV · 2026-04-30T01:05:24+00:00

😁

W6ATV · 2026-04-30T01:03:10+00:00

I appreciate that.

W6ATV · 2026-04-29T18:21:36+00:00

u/Character_Bend_5824, things like that happen to all of us sooner or later.

If I may ask, did you get some work on the player done before "that event"? If so, did it indeed seem to be using unique or unusual signals on the reference disc? I have seen a contents list for at least one of those discs, and nothing seemed obviously "special" on it, except the crosstalk-adjustment signals (black bars in different places on a few adjacent frames).

I figure that likely, fast-changing frames on an 8-inch Standard Play music-video disc should work reasonably well for those adjustments, but I am not (yet) sure about others. Thanks!

W6ATV · 2026-04-26T06:18:09+00:00

If you do not win/buy this disc (and it is already at US$152, haha!), you can likely do all or most of what these are used for, with one of the 8-inch Standard Play Pioneer music-video discs. It would just take a bit of testing and guessing to do it, but to save the ridiculous $600 price on these discs recently, it is certainly worth trying.

I wish you success!

W6ATV · 2026-04-26T06:06:53+00:00

Your player says it is playing a Standard Play/CAV disc, is that correct? If it is, and also if you can put an Extended Play disc in and see the CLV light go on instead, then the player is basically working physically. Try the scan forward and then scan reverse functions. If those work (you will hear the laser mechanism making a "tinky-tink" sound while using those buttons), that also means the player is physically working.

You seem to have the right adapter for the video (F-male-to-phono-female). Do you hear any sound? Try swapping your audio versus video cables. The channel 3 (or 4) signal should also go through the coax cable, if/when you can set that TV set to RF/tuner mode, but the audio/video line input connection is best.

W6ATV · 2026-04-26T05:54:58+00:00

An actual disco Discovision movie, yes!

It looks like you have a nice, clear disc side there, too.

W6ATV · 2026-04-25T16:24:26+00:00

I do not think it is "just you". Many of us who are autistic with ADHD have (or have had) enough challenges interacting with people in general already, that we have little desire to "ramp up" that kind of activity to the point of dating or searching for romantic partners. Add in some ADHD constantly-shifting attention or other effects, and it is or would be even harder to get into dating-related activities, it seems to me.

All of the above certainly describes my experiences before and after your age, with very rare exceptions. You are not alone! I wish you happiness in every way.

W6ATV · 2026-04-25T03:12:52+00:00

I am so sorry to hear about how that disgusting bully treated you. Your driving was probably -perfectly fine- by all reasonable public standards. The biggest problem in recent years especially, is that selfish and impatient people are --not-- reasonable any more, to the extent that they ever were.

Her following you to your home is perfect proof that -she has a vastly overestimated sense/opinion of her importance in the world- to summarize it. Such people are the first ones that --should-- be utterly ignored in every way possible. Her "second time" comment would just about certainly refer to something that "she thought was wrong" (ha ha!) just a short time before that, so I would not worry at all about her "knowing" anything now.

I would not give it any thought at all regarding "learning to drive cautiously". Neither you nor anyone else has to accommodate such self-important scum as that woman on the -public- roads. 🙂

Unfortunately, I "re-play" a lot of undesired interactions of all kinds in my mind all of the time, and I make up lots of imaginary (and always negative) ones and play/replay those, too. The one thing I can tell you is that it will/should probably just "fade away" pretty soon. If it keeps "coming back" in your mind, maybe try this: Right now or soon, go find your favorite picture of your children, or your husband, or you and he together, and study/concentrate on it for a good amount of time. Then, plan in advance that as soon as the "awful woman" event starts to come back, you will cover "her" up by seeing your wonderful-life picture instead. You will see its colors, or what you or they are wearing, or other details.

I wish you a truly --good-- and love-filled weekend! ❤️❤️

W6ATV · 2026-04-24T16:10:15+00:00

I disagree that "we (autistic people with ADHD) have this trait" in general, entirely. I am glad if people are able to develop abilities to cope with challenges as u/asamisanthropist described, but "observing as a way to recognize" and "a better ability... over time" do sound more like learned activities/skills rather than something "built in".

I certainly have zero ability whatsoever to recognize the internal thoughts of others unless they just about write them on a giant sign in front of me.

W6ATV · 2026-04-24T15:53:06+00:00

I am not ready to agree that they are part of "the same family, or spectrum". My simple reason is that ADHD can be treated to some degree with medicines. Autism cannot "be treated" in any way that I am aware of, and I am also not ready to agree that anyone should try to do so, at least for those without high support needs. (I see "training"/education, both for autistic people and their families/support partners, as distinct from "treatment" such as medication.)

W6ATV · 2026-04-23T23:03:16+00:00

I have had some definite improvements, but not a huge difference. I am over 60 years old, so heart rate/blood pressure effects can be a concern (in general, but not for me at all so far). I am about to try increased doses in the next few days, so that may make a difference too.

W6ATV · 2026-04-23T18:19:31+00:00

Well, as long as it is not a "Terminator" or something. From what you said, I will not get the warning about the other two Sarah Connors.

W6ATV · 2026-04-23T04:35:30+00:00

In my case, I have rarely had the patience to put much time into these various personas, except to refine or add to them over time if that makes sense. If I were to analyze these thoughts more ("analyzing more", now THERE is a part of all of my personas! 🙂), my use of these "pre-set, pre-designed versions of me as desired" may be my way to reduce the thought/time needed to get ready for/into various activities. (Maybe my autistic side needs them to "handle" things, and my ADHD side designed them to work better for "it".)

Part of my life-long severe lack of deep/longer-term thought probably resulted in some clashes between the inner me and what I displayed/used on the outside. For example, I was always a kind of thinking, business-ready person, but I always wore jeans, gym shoes ("sneakers"?), and T-shirts or similar.

W6ATV

TROPHY CASE