Incidentally, my aspie tip of the whenever.

[conuly]

If you're out and about and don't feel like making eye contact?

Kids are great for this. Just stare vaguely in their direction and, after a few minutes, comment that you "have to keep an eye on them". It doesn't have to be true. Heck, with sufficiently distracted parents you don't even have to know the kids in question (although it certainly helps if occasionally you can dash off because one of them is Doing Something Dangerous)! Just kinda act as though you know the children and people will assume.

For those of you who really dislike children, or who are wary of making this sort of commitment for paltry 5 minute excuses, I suggest you get yourself a series of badly behaved puppies. Or perhaps a mischievous pig? A ferret is always a winner in the "Can't look you in the eye" game, though they may not be legal where you live.

Comments

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

This is one of G's favorites, actually. When he's out with Scout, not only does he have an excuse to look at her, but people are often talking to him about her, so it's expected that he'll look at her.

But having a dog has its own set of problems, because they read your body language, so if your body language isn't sending the right message, the dog will act up. Which we think is why she walks much better for me—the "I am in charge and you'll do what I say" body language comes much more naturally to me.

[conuly]

people are often talking to him about her, so it's expected that he'll look at her.

My father once got pickpocketed for this exact reason - he was so involved in talking about the couple's cute ferret that he didn't realize... and... oh, was he ever angry...!

It does relate.

But having a dog has its own set of problems, because they read your body language, so if your body language isn't sending the right message, the dog will act up.

I never thought of that.

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

Well, our dog does seem to be particularly sensitive to it (she's got all sorts of issues), but when we first got her, we spent a lot of time with me saying (and demonstrating) "Okay, now you need to hold your shoulders like this, and your chin at this angle..." and she still responds a bit better to me than to him.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

OK, my quirk is that I am terrified of seeing people in public and not recognizing them. I am great with names, birthdays, and other details. I remember that forever. But I can't recognize people in movies from what other shows/movies they were in, and I can't recognize people if they are out of context (I saw my neighbor in his scrubs at the grocery store and couldn't remember who he was because I'd never seen him in scrubs). I even broke up with a boyfriend once because every time I wasn't with him, I couldn't remember what he looked like. I was sure I was going to run into him out and about, and I worried that I wouldn't recognize him. So I dumped him before that could happen (probably a good thing anyway; what does it say about the relationship that I couldn't even remember him?). Anyway, I like having the kids out for that reason. I can be too busy to talk, too distracted to pay attention, and like you said, keeping an eye on the kids so I don't have to look at the random person too much.

[conuly]

Sayga, have you ever heard the term faceblindness, or prosopagnosia? That's exactly what you're describing, right down to the phrase "can't recognize people out of context". I have that problem too - infamously, I once didn't recognize my own brother-in-law and Ana, and at that point I was seeing them weekly, too! Oh, and I went up to these people to say "My niece has that exact same outfit" and everything. Oy, that could've been soooooo embarrassing. (But it's seldom that bad.)

Wow, I just turned this all about me, didn't I? Sorry. I don't know why I do that.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

I have heard the term before, and looked it up to see if I thought it applied. I don't think that's quite it because I often recognize someone but have NO idea where I recognize them from. From what I've read about online, people who have this feel like they've never seen the person before in their life. I did take a quiz a couple nights ago on faceblind.org and I got a 67%. My husband got a 100%. The website said the average is 85%, so that might be why I feel so inept around Daniel--we're just on opposite sides of the facial recognition scale. He can look at a person on tv for 2 seconds and recognize them from a completely different show. It always gets me when he recognizes people from Voyager, when they were dressed up like an alien species and wearing tons of makeup and different hair and everything. I can NOT do that! I either don't recognize them AT ALL, or go, "Oh, what is s/he from?" On the first day of school and such, I'd always look at people's hair or backpacks so I could remember them the next day, but I never compared notes with anyone else before, so IF I'd even put any thought into it then, I would have figured it was just what everyone did when meeting new people.

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

This is one of G's favorites, actually. When he's out with Scout, not only does he have an excuse to look at her, but people are often talking to him about her, so it's expected that he'll look at her.

But having a dog has its own set of problems, because they read your body language, so if your body language isn't sending the right message, the dog will act up. Which we think is why she walks much better for me—the "I am in charge and you'll do what I say" body language comes much more naturally to me.

[conuly]

people are often talking to him about her, so it's expected that he'll look at her.

My father once got pickpocketed for this exact reason - he was so involved in talking about the couple's cute ferret that he didn't realize... and... oh, was he ever angry...!

It does relate.

But having a dog has its own set of problems, because they read your body language, so if your body language isn't sending the right message, the dog will act up.

I never thought of that.

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

Well, our dog does seem to be particularly sensitive to it (she's got all sorts of issues), but when we first got her, we spent a lot of time with me saying (and demonstrating) "Okay, now you need to hold your shoulders like this, and your chin at this angle..." and she still responds a bit better to me than to him.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

OK, my quirk is that I am terrified of seeing people in public and not recognizing them. I am great with names, birthdays, and other details. I remember that forever. But I can't recognize people in movies from what other shows/movies they were in, and I can't recognize people if they are out of context (I saw my neighbor in his scrubs at the grocery store and couldn't remember who he was because I'd never seen him in scrubs). I even broke up with a boyfriend once because every time I wasn't with him, I couldn't remember what he looked like. I was sure I was going to run into him out and about, and I worried that I wouldn't recognize him. So I dumped him before that could happen (probably a good thing anyway; what does it say about the relationship that I couldn't even remember him?). Anyway, I like having the kids out for that reason. I can be too busy to talk, too distracted to pay attention, and like you said, keeping an eye on the kids so I don't have to look at the random person too much.

[conuly]

Sayga, have you ever heard the term faceblindness, or prosopagnosia? That's exactly what you're describing, right down to the phrase "can't recognize people out of context". I have that problem too - infamously, I once didn't recognize my own brother-in-law and Ana, and at that point I was seeing them weekly, too! Oh, and I went up to these people to say "My niece has that exact same outfit" and everything. Oy, that could've been soooooo embarrassing. (But it's seldom that bad.)

Wow, I just turned this all about me, didn't I? Sorry. I don't know why I do that.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

I have heard the term before, and looked it up to see if I thought it applied. I don't think that's quite it because I often recognize someone but have NO idea where I recognize them from. From what I've read about online, people who have this feel like they've never seen the person before in their life. I did take a quiz a couple nights ago on faceblind.org and I got a 67%. My husband got a 100%. The website said the average is 85%, so that might be why I feel so inept around Daniel--we're just on opposite sides of the facial recognition scale. He can look at a person on tv for 2 seconds and recognize them from a completely different show. It always gets me when he recognizes people from Voyager, when they were dressed up like an alien species and wearing tons of makeup and different hair and everything. I can NOT do that! I either don't recognize them AT ALL, or go, "Oh, what is s/he from?" On the first day of school and such, I'd always look at people's hair or backpacks so I could remember them the next day, but I never compared notes with anyone else before, so IF I'd even put any thought into it then, I would have figured it was just what everyone did when meeting new people.