Things I thought everybody did...

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I do a Holmes-style scan and see things NTs normally wouldn't notice.
And I don't think I have a radio. Mine alternates between a mp3 player and an extremely annoying CD playing one track over and over again.

#1: Name and form a mental bond with their weapons.
#2: Feels uncomfortable making eye-contact.
#3: Possesses an extensive knowledge of unusual topics.
#4: Liked deep pressure.
#5: Has a perpetual personalized radio station within my head, constantly playing all my favorite Industrial music.
#6: Spent considerable amounts of time pondering the etymology of words.
#7: Read the entire Oxford American College Dictionary in 3rd and 4th grade (and continuously read entire dictionaries and encyclopediae).
#8: Replay entire lectures and conversations in my mind throughout the day.
#9: See everything in "exploded view," with imaginary arrows showing where the components belong and how they interact with one another and the whole of something (people included, which is why I liked anatomy and physiology so much).

I have read the American Heritage Dictionary and the local phone book--white pages and yellow pages--during slow times at work. We can't bring in outside reading material and I needed to look busy while having something to do with my brain.

The average non-Autistic does not have these abilities soooooooo..........

These abilities are more than likely not measurable by current I.Q standards yet they may give you an edge in problem solving, imagination, creativity, academic subjects, trivia, etc in a non-conventional way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savant_syndrome

Savant Syndrome:

Epidemiology
One in ten people with autism have savant skills.[1]
50% of savants have autism; the other 50% often have psychological disorders or mental illnesses.[1]
Prodigious savants have very significant disorder and disability. Examples include Richard Wawro, Henriett Seth F., and Jonathan Lerman.

A 2009 British study of 137 parents of autistic children found that 28% believed their offspring met the criteria for a savant skill, defined as a skill or power "at a level that would be unusual even for normal people".[7]

Speaking as a regular dude, many of you, my friends, fit the definition of Savant Syndrome and don't even know it. Anecdotal evidence is beginning to convince me of either (1) the estimation of Savant Syndrome is too low( similar to how the projection of cognitive disabilities were too high in the Autist) (2) The natural neurology of the Autist (where some are aware of unusual abilities compared to the norm and others are not).

In my opinion, too many people are looking for abilities deemed important by society (academic) and not those that may seem trivial.

TheSunAlsoRises

That's funny. Everything you listed I do the same thing.

Music plays in my head 24/7...it sucks when I get a song I don't like playing over and over>_<

I believed everyone associated letters and numbers with colors.

I believed everyone saw words spelled out when they heard them.

I believed it was normal to experience pain when writing.

I also use to not understand why they always put up pictures of missing persons in places. I know I wouldn't be able to recognize any of those people if I saw them.

I'm hyperlexic and didn't realize that most people only begin thinking in full sentences around age 7 or 8. When I first heard that, I literally thought "That's BS! I know for sure I was thinking in full sentences by my first birthday!"

I also didn't realize I read faster than everyone else, I just thought on the few occasions I had to read with someone else that the other person was a slow reader.

I didn't realize that other people could pay attention and that I had ADD.

I didn't realize that most people cannot remember early childhood.

I didn't realize that other people could think in concepts, using no language at all. I can picture something, but I'm thinking in words as I do it. I cannot even imagine thinking without language- the idea that my dyslexic friend thinks almost exclusively in concepts confounds me.

Things I only recently learned other people do not do:

1. Have difficulty knowing what to do with their arms/hands during conversation.
2. Unlike a radio, I have a tv set with multiple channels running in my head at all times. Though this may be ADD. I did not know that other people did not have this until I took some kind of assessment or other and it was one of the "positive" responses. Then I learned that other people have times of calm in their brains. I do not know if I have ever had this.
3. Rehearse routine conversations before having them. Thinking of the most plausible courses the conversation could take so that something of value can be prepared to say, wherever the conversation might lead.
4. Go through life gathering a stockpile of "small talk" topics, so that I will have something to say when small talk is appropriate. The problem with this is that sometimes I insert them into very bizarre and meaningless places where small talk is either blatantly inappropriate, or just simply odd. Like we will be having a work-related conversation and I will stick in an anecdote about my kids. Just weird.
5. Have a hard time figuring out when it is their turn to talk on the phone. I hate telephones. Hate.