Review: Look Me In The Eye by John Elder Robison

I recently finished reading Look Me In The Eye by John Elder Robison. About a month ago, I attended a talk by Robison here in Ottawa where he was promoting a new book and speaking about his life with Asperger's. At the time, I couldn't quite afford his newest book, so I opted for this one.

Look Me In The Eye is a memoir about Robison's life up until a few years ago. It starts off in the early 60's with his childhood and inability to make friends due to social awkwardness caused, in part, by his then undiagnosed Asperger's. One trait he writes about, that I sometimes struggle with, is the inability to make eye contact with people. He eventually did make some friends though.

Later, low grades and serious issues with his parents would lead Robison to drop out of high school. One of his passions had been mechanics and repairing electrical equipment. This got him involved with the music scene as a mechanic and roadie for a local band. He began associating with the likes of Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd before being asked to go on tour with April Wine. After that, he built smoking and flaming guitars for KISS. When music was no longer lucrative, Robison joined a toy company and helped design some of the first electronic games.

Eventually, he married his high school girlfriend, had a son, got married again, and started working in the auto industry, where he now manages a company.

All this is inter-mixed with thoughts on Asperger's, the Autism spectrum, and disabilities in general. Robison was diagnosed with Asperger's in his forties by a friend who was also a therapist and felt he was a textbook case of the syndrome.

Since being diagnosed with Asperger's, he has written several books and has also become an advocate for people with disabilities. One thing I found interesting in this book was how shocked he was by the positive feedback from people with various disabilities, especially autism and Asperger's, as well as family members, and how the book helped them to understand themselves or their loved ones a lot better. I know it definitely had that effect on me!

I don't have autism or Asperger's, but I do have some traits that I now realize are typical of those conditions. It's never been something I've been comfortable even thinking about, but this book has finally made me feel comfortable with openly acknowledging and admitting that yeah, I do have some autistic traits. But, more importantly I think, it's also made me go "so what."

Looking forward to reading Robison's next book, Switched On.

Cheers!

TCAF 2016

 Another TCAF (Toronto Comics Art Fest)/solo trip to Toronto under my belt!

While not as fun as previous years, this time was still enjoyable. Despite foul forecasts, the weather held up and I was able to get out quite a bit and walk around.

While searching for a place to eat on the Friday after I arrived, I managed to find Big Smoke Burgers, a really good little burger place that I had missed somehow on my previous trips. Seriously good burger and onion rings! Then I bought some comics at the event's store. I'll explain in a second why this turned out to be a really smart idea.

The next day I got up, had a breakfast consisting of several things I had stocked up on the night before in order to save money and avoid junkier food items and attended a panel being held right in the hotel which was a spotlight on a new book about a futuristic war between Canada and the US. I bought the book the previous evening, and it was really good.

So, it turns out buying some things early was a good idea because TCAF this year was packed! They had to add another venue solely for their featured guests. And, while that was busy, it didn't begin to come close to how crowded the main venue was.

Picture three floors of this!

Now, TCAF has always been pretty crowded, but this year was insane! I could barely find room to check out some of the tables. Just walking around was tough! So, I did a once-over of the three main floors, got a couple things, and got out of there fast!

While not as big as previous hauls, I did still mage to get some good stuff this year.

After making it out of the fest's main location, I was glad that the other events I wanted to attend that day were all at my hotel. Went out later to get some snacks, then stayed up late watching TV from the comfort of a gigantic bed which I'm currently missing way too much!

Got the train home the next day, and that was it.

While I had lots of fun, the crowdedness of the event and the higher cost of the trip itself makes me think that it might be time to move on from TCAF/Toronto and find a new, less expensive place to go in the future. It was good while it lasted.

So onwards to new adventures, I guess!

Cheers

A Placement and Other Interesting Things

I finally got a placement within the job mentorship program I wrote about a while back.

This was my first week. The placement is twelve hours a week, so Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings, with progress meetings twice a month and runs for three months.

This week, I'll primarily be attending workshops, getting to know people, and learning how things operate but, eventually, they want me to run my own workshop about public speaking in regards to interviews, self-promotion, and "elevator speeches." They would also like me to work on a "Humans of New York"-style project for social media. Should be interesting!

The only downside is that I've had to take a hiatus from volunteering with the treatment centre, but this is the first major work opportunity I've gotten in two years, and I offered to help if needed on my down-time.

Speaking of the treatment centre, I'll be attending an advocacy event there later in the week.

Something else that might make me busy for a while is an Abilities Centre, which would include athletic facilities, arts, and life skills programs, planned to be part of  a new development project here soon. The creation of the centre is being organized by a woman who works at the treatment centre I've been volunteering at, so I sent her an email about the possibility of getting involved with the project somehow. Hopefully something comes out of it.


Cheers!