Author Archive
Justin’s Thoughts on Aurora
July 23rd, 2012 | 
Author: Justin shares his thoughts on Aurora over at HYPERVOCAL.COM
Among other questions, he asks — if we’re selling semi-automatic weapons at Walmart because crazies can get them anyway, why not sell weed and prostitutes at Walmart also? Let’s at least be consistent.
“RODEO CLOWNS”
A little while back we went to the Santa Barbara rodeo to watch our good buddy Cord Mccoy ride bulls. It’s pretty impressive stuff. We wouldn’t be able to do it.
Zev didn’t fulfill his dream of being one of the actual clowns, but he’s still a clown, and he did get his turn in the barrel.
VIDEO: “Wheelchair Touchdown”
Lots of bad things going on out there… here’s something good. Hope everyone’s doing well.
Z & J
Greylock Songster
Justin’s 22 Month-Old niece Bee Montana Kanew learns every Kanew’s favorite song – our Camp Greylock alma Mater…
A Story of Survival
This is a pretty incredible, moving 14 minute video about a kid named Ross, whose “friend” shot him in cold blood to get into a gang. Ross survived, and lived to tell the tale… and says the incident gave him a new lease on life.
“I just look at what I got, I don’t look at what I don’t have.”
Also — sorry we’ve been bad about updating regularly. We’ve had some stuff going on, but we’ll try to do better now. We’ll be up in San Francisco for an AASCEND function next weekend, October 15th, if anyone’s in the area.
“The Geek Defense”
This is a Recent Article about a hacker who was busted for hacking into the US Military computers in the wake of 9/11 to tell them their security was crap. He called himself “Solo”.
When he was busted, part of Solo’s defense was that he was diagnosed with Asperger’s, and therefore in some way not responsible for his actions. He’s not the first hacker to make this claim. “The Geek Defense”, as they refer to it, seems to be a growing excuse for hackers. 
On the one hand it seems like it may well be that people with Aspergers are less responsible for what they do than others, since sometimes it’s harder for them to censor their words and even actions. I know we’ve had a few moments I’d rather not talk about that may or may not have occurred had Zev not had Aspergers.
On the other hand, we would hate to see Aspergers being used to excuse obviously criminal behavior. There’s a big difference between not knowing when to censor yourself socially and not knowing when you’re breaking the law.
Where do you come down on this argument? Let us know.
Z & J
RACE DIARY EXCERPT (PART 6): SWIMMING WITH SHARKS
(CLICK HERE FOR THE PREVIOUS EXCERPT)
We happened to be riding the ferry with the mayor of a neighboring town – a nice young guy with slicked back hair who looked a lot like Gavin Newsome, San Francisco’s mayor.
Gavin took a look at our clue and told us the “World of Ocean” in the clue was referring to Ocean World, one of Manly’s main attractions, and “7 miles from Sydney and 1000 miles from care” was a reference to Manly itself, which is where we were headed.
“Ocean World is not far from the dock,” Gavin said. “When you get off the ferry, you’re going to want to take a left and head down the beach. It’s a quick run up the coast. You can’t miss it.”
“Great, more running,” Zev said.
“Get used to it,” I told him. “It’s a race.”
“Don’t remind me.”
Thankfully, this run was quicker than the one to the ship. We found the cluebox right where the Mayor had said it would be – right by the entrance to Ocean World.
ROADBLOCK: WHO’S READY TO GET TANKED?
Race Rules stated that we each needed to do 5 Roadblocks by the time the last leg rolled around, assuming we made it that far. We had decided beforehand that I’d start things off, especially if it was a swimming challenge, which it sounded like this was.
“You do it,” Zev said.
“I’ll do it,” I announced as I ripped open the rest of the clue.
I was to head into Ocean World and SCUBA dive in a shark tank, where I would have to look for a compass.
It was a good thing we chose me. Swimming, sharks, and looking for stuff are all low on Zev’s to-do list. 
As I scrambled to the changing area, we saw teams from the 1st plane just leaving the challenge, which was good news – we weren’t far behind.
I quickly changed into my wetsuit and climbed down into a shallow wading pool, where an instructor was waiting to give me a crash course in SCUBA diving. I had never done it before, mostly out of fear. There was no time for that now.
The teacher was nice and reassuring, which put me at ease, which is exactly where I needed to be to deal with the initial shock of an extended period of underwater breathing. It does not come naturally – to me anyway – and was not easy to get used to. 
I realized pretty quickly that that staying calm and focusing on my breathing was the key. If you don’t stay calm, you might quickly find yourself panicking, and panic leads to more panic, which is not a good path to go down when you’re underwater with sharks all around you.
So as I lowered myself into the main tank I put the sharks and stingrays out of my mind and thought only about the in… out…. of my breathing, and my search for this compass I was supposed to be looking for, which I was told I would know when I saw.
It took a few seconds to get my bearings.
I let myself sink to the bottom and started to explore the sand on the floor of the tank with my fingers, thinking the compass was probably small and might be buried… but the sand looked like as though it had already been combed-through by everyone else.
I decided to find a place in the tank that others might not have wanted to check out for whatever reason. In general on The Race, it pays to go the way your gut tells you not to. “They” know what your gut is going to do before you do, and they count on it.
I need unexplored territory. But where?
I stopped and looked around. There was a tunnel running down the middle of the tank that looked tough and uninviting to climb over.
Perfect.
I moved to the tunnel and found that a net had been laid over one part to make it easier to climb, so I reached up, grabbed hold, and started to make my way over it.
I saw Zev in the tunnel underneath me watching. He flashed me a thumbs up. 
After a slight struggle, I was on the other side.
Unexplored territory.
I made my way towards the far end, into a dark, nearly pitch-black corner, which felt exactly like the less-explored area I was looking for.
Sure enough, there in the corner, leaning up against a wall, was a big, golden compass.
I thought about celebrating, but I was using my mouth for breathing, so I couldn’t yell like I wanted to just yet.
Don’t drown. This isn’t the time.
I grabbed the compass, tucked it under my arm, and starting making my way back across the tunnel, trying not to let my excitement interrupt my air intake.
It was a little tough to get back over the tunnel with the heavy compass in my hands, but I managed by tossing it out in front of me in the water a little and chasing it up and over the glass. Out of the corner of my eye I caught Zev through the window below me pumping his fist, and I answered with one of my own – but I had to check myself.
Stay focused on the breathing. In… out… and ignore the sharks.
“YEAH BABY!!”
When I surfaced back in the instruction pool, I finally let out the yell of excitement that had been building inside of me. A lot of things were going through me – I was pumped to have found the compass, happy to have successfully SCUBA dove for the first time, and just generally thrilled to be back on The Race again and living in the moment.
“Yeah!” I shouted again.
I felt a little guilty for being so happy when I saw Vyxsin standing in the water right next to me sobbing uncontrollably, having had a bit of an underwater panic attack. 
It was understandable. I hadn’t been far from that myself when I first went under.
“Just breathe,” I told her, giving her a reassuring rub on the back. “That’s the most important thing.”
I’m not sure she heard me, but I didn’t stick around to find out. I climbed out of the tank and moved to the changing room, ready to move on.
Posted in Adventure, Race Stuff, The Race Diary | 
Tags: amazing, diary, excerpt, justin, race, zev | 
4 Comments »
“Just Add Water”
This is an amazing piece about Clay Marzo, a surfer with Asperger Syndrome.
As we’ve mentioned before, one of the things that’s been most apparent to Zev and I as we’ve met people on the spectrum – both high-functioning and low – is that many of them tend to have THAT THING – be it sports, bugs, chemistry, game shows, or in this case surfing – that they love and focus all of their ambitions on to an extent us “neuro-normals” can only dream of.
Clay shows that when someone on the spectrum does hone in on THAT THING and dedicate themselves to it, they’re capable of great things.
Let us know what you think of this – and please, if you know of more videos like this, or examples of people on the spectrum with unique talents… share it with us.
Thanks Tara for showing us this one.
Z & J
“Famous People with Autism”
In the spirit of promoting the talents of people on the spectrum, here’s a list
of 10 talented, famous people with Autism that Autism Speaks just tweeted today. Best-selling authors, inventors, primatologists, musicians, and the creator of Pokemon. Not bad at all.
And it goes back further than that – Einstein… Mozart… Darwin… Glassenberg?
Zev must’ve been #11.
“Just Hold My Hand”
This is a poignant obituary for Jameson Lindskog, 23, who was killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan. Jameson was a medic who had Asperger’s, and was known for telling it like it is.
The end of the article is heartbreaking:
“Even after he had been shot, Lindskog calmly instructed another soldier who came to his side on how to administer first aid to him,” the soldier would later tell Lindskog’s mother.
When he was done, Lindskog told him: “That’s it. That’s all you can do for me.”
Then he added, “Just hold my hand.”“
People on the spectrum can be just as brave as the rest of us.
