A noteworthy quote and an interesting link

One of my mom friends was watching the kids at her son's school. Two of them were arguing pretty loudly. One of them said to the other,

"Just because you're rude and obnoxious doesn't mean you have Asperger's too!"

And there you have it. Keep that in mind, the next time you have an altercation.

And if you'd like to meet a 19 year old Aspergian, my son Cubby is now on Facebook. Send him a friend request at

http://www.facebook.com/jack.robison

Cloud Computing and me

I read a blog post on cloud computing recently that got me thinking. It’s came from my friend Ann Dawson, who works for Tortus, a local web company.


Here's her story

I thought of my own situation and how it’s evolved. I dismissed the cloud phrase at first but the more I thought about it, the more I saw I am definitely into the concept if not the name.

In my pre-cloud days I had endless trouble keeping track of appointments. I’d fail to show up somewhere, and the only thing that saved me was the residual goodwill people had for me. Something better was clearly needed, but what? I had Outlook on my computer at home, and I synced the calendar with my Blackberry, but stuff still fell through the cracks because I never had a single calendar that was accessible anywhere.

As an example, I’d get a phone call at work inviting me to do a radio show, and I’d agree and set a time, but it was just too much trouble to type all the info into the tiny phone keyboard. I could write a note in my work computer, but I promptly forgot these half the time. I just had to hope I remembered till I got home and put it in Outlook. It wasn’t a very good system.

That was where thing stood when I found MobileMe from Apple. MM has a virtual version of Outlook that keeps all my contacts and appointments and tasks online, and it synchronizes seamlessly with Outlook at home and my new iphone. I had seen MM before but I didn’t pick up on it. I decided to give it a try when I got my new iphone a few weeks back.

The new iphone is such a marvel it’s deserving of a post of its own, but that’s something for another day.

It’s really remarkable how well MM works, and what a huge improvement a small thing like that can make. I can sit here at my desk at work, and schedule a date two months from now, and it’s just there. It’s downloaded into my phone right away, and it will be on the Outlook calendar when I get home. All automatically.

In itself, that isn’t too magical. There are other apps that do something similar but Apple’s seamless integration with the online calendar and my phone is really neat. But Wait! As the late Billy Mays would say, There’s more!

The same MM app also makes backups of my writing and stores them online. There was a time that we thought of online backup as vague and insecure, but frankly, I’d trust Apple’s servers a lot more than some local web hosting firm. Wouldn’t you? Some people are really good at making backup discs and carrying them to a safe location, but I’m not one of them.

And at the same time, I keep another backup on the Google servers. I don’t know how to calculate the reliability of that dual online system, but I’ll bet it’s far better than any of the do-it-yourself home backups it replaced. Anyone who ever tried to restore a home backup and found an unreadable CD knows what I mean.

MM also synchronizes email from multiple accounts, something I was never able to master till now. Gmail was a huge step forward in terms of search ability and storage, but this goes a big step farther.

I can now access all my writing from any computer, anywhere and any time. I can do the same with all my appointments, and my contacts. I can even remotely wipe all that stuff off my phone if I lose it.

MM even holds the backup records from my company, so those computers are protected by the same inexpensive solution. And finally – this is a small thing but it’s really a big deal – MM keeps all the Internet bookmarks from my various browser in one place. I never realized how useful that was till I saw it.

I no longer depend on any particular computer for anything but photo processing. I could lose any one or two machines and those aspects of my life would be totally unaffected. The only place I remain machine-dependent is my photography. Those files are really big, and I need an online backup provider for them. I thought I had one with HP, but as soon as I signed up they got out of the business.

At least they gave me a refund. That’s more than you get from some startups.

I’m still looking for the best online backup for my original image files. I’ve got 80,000 of them, so it’s a lot of space. Any suggestions?

Some tools for writers

I don't post many stories or tips on the process of writing. This evening I'd like to take a small step to address that deficiency.

I do 99% of my writing in one of two places - in my office at home, or in my corner at Robison Service. I seem to write better material in the morning, but I write stuff at night too and hope it's acceptable.

I don't use outlines or any tools to prepare a book.

Most of my writing is done on Gateway computers with Microsoft Word. I back my stuff up online.

None of that is very novel or interesting, but I'll bet you have not seen this nifty gadget:
http://www.cliches.biz/clichecleaner/

That thing is called Cliche Cleaner, and that's pretty much what it does. It's a program that analyses your words to find repeated phrases or tired cliches (it has an inventory of thousands)which it then lists for your perusal and alteration.

It picks up both trite stock phrases, like "fit as a fiddle," and repeated phrases of your own making, like, "and then the Klingons killed him."

I used it for the first time on the initial version of this newest manuscript. Till I ran it, I had no idea how many repeated phrases and such I had. Quite useful, and only $12.

The next useful tool is a drink. Some of you drink bourbon or wine; I drink tea.

This fellow has a company in upstate New York that specializes in the blending of teas:
http://www.harney.com/

I got to know owner Paul Harney because he has Land Rovers, my favorite vehicles.

They sell bottled tea, but what I really like are the fruit flavored bad teas. Flavored tea that you buy is usually full of sweeteners and other bad stuff. The Harney teas are just straight bags of tea and fruit essences and spice.

I also like their bottled organic juices.

Harney teas are sold in the coffee shops of many of my favorite bookstores, including Northshire in Manchester, Vermont.

When I am doing reseach for a story I like to copy materials and take photos. I own several cameras but the one that gives the best bang for the buck is my Canon G10

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/583955-REG/Canon_2663B001_PowerShot_G10_Digital_Camera.html

For $500 this little camera runs circles around the competition. It has image stabilization, which reduces blur. You can hold it over a book or catalog and take photos that print as nicely as photocopies. Its image quality is remarkable. It's small and portable, and reasonably rugged.

Some of you have asked where I get ideas. I think they develop over time. Something comes to me, and I talk to friends about it, and the idea of a story germinates.

I get some ideas from what people write me on the blog or Facebook, and I get more from talking to people in person. At some point, it pops into place and I write it down. I do a lot of formulating and thinking while walking. Here is an image from my local woodlands:



That particular photo was taken with my Leica camera, and processed in photoshop with the Photomatrix HDR plugin. HDR processing compresses the color range in the scene to render more of the subtle shades visible. All the colors you see are natural but the HDR processor brings them out in ways you would not otherwise see.

Riding the zip lines at Berkshire East

I'd never tried this before. I'd heard of zip lines in faraway places, like Colorado or Costa Rica. They are now right here in Western Massachusetts. The course at Berkshire East in Charlemont was really a blast!

Here are some images of the run:







And stay tuned for more book news . . . Woof!

The sequel to Look Me in the Eye

For the past couple of years, I have pondered what sort of book should follow Look Me in the Eye. I actually went so far as to write most of a book I called Beyond Normal, which illustrated Aspergian thinking through stories. However, I could never convince myself that book was a true successor to LMITE and this spring I decided to put it aside and start anew.

I thought carefully about who my readers are, and what they would want. The answer just sort of came to me in the midst of speaking engagements at special needs schools and colleges. I realized that there is no inspirational guide to Asperger’s for teens and their families, and I resolved to write one.

I thought of this project as a sort of Beginner’s Guide to Asperger’s. I think the finished book needs a better title, but that’s its message. I resolved to write a book that you could hand to a teen who was just learning about AS, and he’d feel good about himself after reading it. Not only that, he’d have some useful ideas and he would have thought the thing was entertaining to read.

That book began as a two page outline April 29. Two months later, it’s a 58,000 word manuscript, well on its way to completion at about 70,000 words. This story has pretty much flowed out of me naturally, and I’m now on the home stretch. I’d like to share its organization with you, and as for your suggestions to take this book the rest of the way.

Here’s a brief summary:

I start with an introduction, which is sort of a ten-page life story. I assume people who read this book have not read LMITE, but if they have, that’s okay because they each stand alone. After meeting me, readers will continue on to chapters describing the autism spectrum, and the history of Asperger’s, including Nazis, Untermenschen, and the resurrection of the diagnosis in the 1990s.

I illustrate the three kinds of people who make up the world’s population: There are those of us on the spectrum, of course. Next, there are Proto-Aspergians who have some AS traits, but not enough for a diagnosis. They are what you might call common geeks. Finally, you have everyone else, the neurotypical or nypical population.

Next, I have a chapter explaining the Asperger diagnosis from the DSM manual. The official diagnosis is rather brief, and I’ve elaborated on what I think some of it means. I think my chapter length definition is both more entertaining and more illuminating than the official description, but that’s just me.

I conclude the first section with a story on fixable disabilities, which is how I see Asperger’s. It’s my belief that we Aspergians will always have different brains, and most of us suffered some degree of disability as kids, but we have the power to work our way out of disability even though we are always going to be different. At age 15, there is no telling where you can go. It’s all in our minds.

Part one kind of sets the scene: who I am, what AS is, and all that stuff . . .

The next part of the book illustrates Asperger’s through stories of my life. People seem to like the storytelling style of LMITE, and I’ve used that here but all these stories are set in the childhood-young adult age range so they have more relevance to the teen/family audience. Part two begins with list of Aspergian traits and references to chapters where they are discussed. For example, Bullying is discussed in Lobster Claws and Animal Wariness. So a person who wanted to know about that could just flip to those chapters and read them.

In the next few weeks, I am going to post the intro to part two, and you can see the final chapter names and what I’ve covered. With every behavior, I either show how I turned it into a competitive advantage or I describe how I minimized the disability and tried to find value in something.

That's pretty much how I go through life. I find places my strengths are appreciated, and build them up, while all the while minimizing my deficiencies (of which I have plenty)

For example, I show how my special interests got me teased as a ten year old, but my fascination with waveforms, music, and electronics took me to the top of the world in the music industry. I show how I made the best of my blindness to other people’s social cues, and how I found places where I could hold my own.

Some stories illustrate practical things, like how I learned to share. I talk about my high school dream - finding a girlfriend. And I have some funny stories, like what I’ve learned from pig racing at the county fair.

The third part wraps the whole thing up. I describe some traps Asperger people can fall into – entitlement, lack of self reliance, and victimhood. I explain the secrets of my own success, such as they are. With that, the book certainly comes to an upbeat and inspiring end. The ideas for this book really sprang from the programs I’ve been doing at schools. These are the kinds of things teens and teachers ask me, and of course my answers are very abbreviated when I’m speaking to a crowd. A book allows me to lay it out better.

After struggling all that time with the Beyond Normal idea, I’m surprised at the speed with which this manuscript has appeared. It has come out more like LMITE. Hopefully that’s a sign it will move into the marketplace in the same way, too.

Right now, I am writing the remaining stories for Part II. I have the whole arc of the thing worked out, and I’m filling in the details. I’ve got a few friends reading stories and offering suggestions, and I’m now turning to all of you for your thoughts.

If you were asked what you would want in a book for teens, parents, and teachers/counselors/doctors/etc, what would you say? Please let me know your thoughts and I will do my best to consider and integrate your feedback.

I’ll consider story ideas, philosophical questions, comments . . . anything at all.

It’s taken me a long time to get to this point, but now that I’m here, things are moving briskly. I expect to show this book to publishers later this summer.

John Goes To Washington

Last week, I went to Washington, DC to serve as a public reviewer for the National Institutes of Mental Health, on a panel that provided peer review of grant applications relating to autism research. It was a real honor to be invited, and a great responsibility. The weeks leading up to the meeting were busy for me, reading the large batch of applications.

The photo above shows me with three of my fellow reviewers. From left to right they are Anshu Barta, a pediatrician from California; Pat Schissel, an Asperger advocate from NY; me; and Aspergian author and professor Stephen Shore. We're in the lounge after a successful session chewing through applications.

As a reviewer with a personal stake in autism, I did my best to advocate the research that will provide the greatest benefits our community and our society. With all the questions we need to answer, and all the different ideas and approaches, I faced some hard decisions!

The applications covered a lot of ground. We considered applications for all manner of studies, covering statistical data, cells, animals, infants, teenagers, and adults. The researchers themselves were a diverse group, with public health specialists, psychologists, psychiatrists, neurologists, geneticists, biologists, and scientists and doctors from a host of other subspecialties.

The breadth of researchers and applications really gives one a sense of the scope of the problem we face in unravelling autism's secrets. So the issue for me was: Which efforts are likely to have the greatest public health significance and impact on the autism community?

Some research had applicability to anyone on the autism spectrum, while other work was directed certain subgroups. That made our ranking job harder, because we have so many needy groups. One thing the review process made clear to me was the tremendous diversity of the American population.

The applications I read had already been vetted by one group of scientists; the review groups like the one I participated in join the process pretty near the end of the road. My job was to provide a public perspective, and a stakeholder’s insights. For that reason, I and my fellow public review committee members were chosen for our personal connection to autism. In a sense, we provided a counterbalance to the scientists and doctors who fill the other seats on the review boards.

This particular request for applications (see http://www.nimh.nih.gov/recovery/index.shtml#autism-spectrum-disorders) has allocated to it $60 million to fund between 40-50 grants.

Now that we’ve voted, the applications will wend their way through some additional NIH processes, with the final decision on funding being made by the participating NIH institutes by the end of September. Since this money is part of the Government’s stimulus package you’ll be able to read how it got spent right next to bridge building and courthouse renovation, on www.recovery.gov. I suppose you could say this is the medical equivalent of road construction. Congress said stimulus proposals had to be shovel-ready, and in a sense, these applications are. All the research being considered is intended to deliver some kind of meaningful benefit within twenty four months.

So here’s how it happened . . .

We started at 7:50 on the morning of June 19, and finished by 5:00. Three review groups of about thirty people each tackled several hundred grant applications. Here we are, in the thick of it:

In my group there were five public reviewers, twenty-some scientific reviewers, a scientific reviewer as chair, a scientific officer from NIMH, and various staffers. The room was pretty full. The list of reviewers for each meeting is available through the NIH website, although the list of grant applications stays confidential.

Before the meeting, each application was reviewed by several scientists with expertise in the particular field. They assigned scores from 1(best) to 9 (worst). The scores of the different reviewers were averaged to form a composite score, which was like the qualifying lap time in a road race. That set the order in which we considered the applications.

That part of the job was several weeks of hard work for the initial reviewers, and even more work for the NIH staffers who had to coordinate the whole thing. Review day was the culmination of all their efforts.

We opened the meeting with the top scoring application, and proceeded down the list. For each one, the lead reviewer gave us a summary of the application, and its strengths and weaknesses as seen by the various reviewers. Then the floor was opened for questions and comments. Any of us with an opinion were free to voice it regarding the strengths or the weaknesses of the application.

Any of you who know me won't be surprised to hear I had plenty of opinions.

After all the comments were heard, the chair read us the scores assigned by the original reviewers. We were all asked to assign our own scores, which we did. In some cases I'm sure we agreed with the original scores, whereas we gave other applications significantly higher or lower ranks.

I was pleased to see disparities in the scoring from time to time, because it told me the committee members truly had their own opinions. I did my best to score them fairly, but it was a hard job
We all scored each one.

I didn't know what to expect, having never done this before, but I have to say I was pleased and I felt the process was fair. People paid attention when any of us spoke, and I'm sure our opinions did influence the voting. So our individual voices did indeed affect the outcomes. In my group, 28 of us cast votes, and it was our votes that made the final score for each application. I was pleased to note that someone spoke up for just about every application, in one way or another. In some cases they were critical, while other times they were laudatory. No one was passive.

Looking in from the outside, it seems like everyone has an opinion about what our government should fund. But when it comes time to actually choose, the job is harder than it looks. It’s like being a judge – we have a duty to be fair and evenhanded, despite our personal preferences.

It was a long day, preceded by a long two weeks getting ready. But now it's done. I'm proud to have made a contribution, and honored to have been invited.

The autism review is done

We started at 7:50 this morning, and finished by 5:00.

It was a long day, and a long two weeks getting ready. But now it's done. I'm proud to have made a contribution, and honored to have been invited.

I'm headed back home in the morning. Then, Sunday, I am off to Portsmouth Abbey for the Newport Car show. I hope we have nice weather.