Hello World, I am Amy. On the internet I am also known as ywingempress, punkEwok, or (my gaming alter-ego) Reina / reinadrake. I live in Canada. I love computer things and computer games and learning interesting things.
I am a recreational thinker. I’m a nerd from back before being a nerd was cool. I miss the old internet before social media ruined everything… but I love today’s internet, because I can read endlessly about every fascinating subject I have ever dreamed of. I studied computer science in university in the early oughts (I love that word), and was usually the only girl in the class, which still mystifies me as to why the subject is still so gendered. I used to make and run a lot of websites, for both work and fun.
I’m very interested in how computers and brains compare, so I am considering going back to school for neuroscience or cognitive science. I am naturally intelligent (in the “I was good at school” sense, especially math and science subjects), but oh so far from a genius. I analyze and systemize everything. I can’t decide how I want to spell ‘systemise’, but ‘analyse’ seems weird.
Recursion is the most beautiful thing I can fail to describe properly. Thinking of recursive analogies for every day human things makes me ridiculously excited and everyone around me thinks I’m nuts.
I am cautious by nature, but also very curious. I’m both an idealist and a pessimist.
I was formally diagnosed with Autism at the age of 41 (though my old therapist first suggested it when I was 32 and my psychiatrist at the time agreed). It explains a lot. :P I have an intense need to know how my brain works and how it’s “different”. I wish social skills had been taught to me in school, I would have been spared from so much pain.
Autism is both a disability AND a gift to the world. It’s my natural operating system and can’t be separated from who I am. But it also makes me incompatible with a lot of society, and I really hope society can meet me halfway because just existing in the greater social world is exhausting for me.
I come across as ‘intense’ but really I’m just passionate about my interests and I always mean well. I take people at their word. More than anything, I hate being lied to. I literally cannot understand why some people are mean jerks.
I have a need to figure out how to fix the world, and also to know everything about everything. Wish me luck. ;)
I live in Canada with my two cats, Alpha and Omega, who are the only children I’ll ever need. I’m close with my immediate family, though my parents and brother live on the other side of the country. My sister at least lives in the same city. I currently am in a stable long-distance relationship with a guy I’ll call Jay.
Computer gaming is my main thing right now, along with Star Wars. I liked the old expanded universe better than the new stuff (exception: <3 Rey), but Star Wars in general will always own my soul and have too much control over my wallet as well (“of course I need these Star Wars ziploc bags!”). In my teen years I was obsessed with figure skating (both as a fan and doing it myself), and I intend to start again soon just for fun.
My hobbies (in the xkcd sense):- Thinking about meta-cognition
- Answering rhetorical questions
- Over-preplanning and considering all possible logical contingencies
- Visualizing the end state when following something to its logical conclusion
- Explaining the humour behind a joke in an earnest way, especially when around people who didn’t think it was funny at all
- Trying to put opposing concepts on an axis or spectrum and considering if it really is an independent variable
- Explicitly identifying and describing nuance between two synonyms
- Asking myself (and sometimes other people) “how would I teach an AI to do X”, where X is something humans just take for granted
- Distilling analog information to digital, and assessing correctness
- Learning just enough about a new subject to discover it is way more complicated and fascinating than I thought, then adding it to my “stuff to read about” list; and then I look at the time and realise I should have had supper 2 hours ago
So what are my plans for ywing.net? Excellent question, hypothetical reader.
I have lots of things I want to write about. But writing is hard. For some reason I have no problems writing lengthly reddit comments, especially about autism-related things, so some of those will be revamped (can one really “revamp” a comment?) into blog entries here. And I need to figure how how to get the rest out of my head.
There will be stuff here about my cats, as I decided to lean into the whole crazy cat person thing. I have a lot of links to podcasts and computer game-related things to share. I hope I can make ywing.net a reflection of who I am as a person once again, after 15+ years of it sitting idle. I registered the ywing.net domain in 2002, I believe.
Social media mostly killed the “personal website” paradigm. I miss the early internet. I want it to be fun again. I don’t like my attention being commodified. I hope I never have to hear the word “monetize” again. If I ever have ads on my site, it will only be until I can make another $15 to get my Ad-Sense total to $100. CA$100 is the threshold for them to actually pay me. I’ve been stuck at CA$85.39 since 2016, for real.