Seeing John Elder Robison tomorrow!

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I know many of you have read his book, "Look Me in the Eye". I have it, and have read it several times. Tomorrow, I'm going to the annual Easter Seals Autism conference in my state. He's going to be there, and getting a signed book is part of the price of admission. I'm also going to hear him speak. I'm so excited!

I saw him here in Portland in 2008.

I saw him at the mall last year. Didn't go up to him as he was busy talking to a sales associate at Best Buy. Still, it's kinda cool to live three towns away from him.

I'm very excited for you.

Cool! I loved his book! I have an Aspie coworker who is a big Classic Rock fanatic and when I told him that the guy who made KISS's guitars is an Aspie his jaw dropped!

Ironically, just recently, Autism Speaks hired John Elder Robison
to sit on their advisory board.

I know, and he said he wants to try to help point them in the right direction.

He was very nice in person, and he even wrote down some sites for me to visit. The presentation was entertaining and informative.

I was annoyed by his stereotyping. He was generalizing all of us and I wanted to tell him not all aspies are good at math and into electronics and all that tech stuff.

That is the one thing that bothered me. I do not have the same interests he has, but I do identify with the intensity.

Did you tell him that?

Just finished the book the other day myself. I don't think I've had that much fun flipping around inside a dust jacket for a while now. Like having someone walking around inside my head with me, able to understand why I loved my chemistry set and why I had printouts from a BBS that contained instructions on how to make explosives with common household items. There was some interesting stuff in those printouts about hacking the phone system, too. Very entertaining stuff for a young girl such as I was.

Look Me in the Eye was the best read for me in long time! The stuff with the fire department was hilarious. Reminds me of stories I heard about my own father.

Hope John makes it back to the pacific northwest sometime soon.

How did it go?

The conference, itself, was very overwhelming. It was mostly NTs. I really do hate crowds. The presentation was amusing, and very well done. He was very nice when signing my book, and wrote down a website for me when I asked for information. He also told me I had "the look" (on the spectrum). I knew that, but it was interesting to hear from him.

I think he could definitely be a good advocate for us. Also, he discussed a test that's currently being studied. It measures the plasticity of the brain. It was interesting because NTs score one way and those on the spectrum score entirely different. It didn't matter where a person was on the spectrum. It could be a definitive test for autism, rather than the system we have right now, which involves a lot of speculation.

I didn't, but I can.

This is such an old thread, I'm sorry, but I just laughed out loud in public seeing this thread.

I'm dating john elder robison's son, so I know him personally haha.
To the people saying that it's annoying how he generalizes, it's just sort of how he works. It is sort of an autistic thing, after all, to think that everyone works the same way as you do.
I remember once we were eating out a some place and he was talking about how people with Asperger's don't move their eyes when making facial expressions. I wanted to laugh so badly because all the aspies I know (including his son, as well as HIM) use their eyes. Not as much as NTs do, of course, but still. Sigh.

That being said, he's a great guy. He says some of the funniest things...

Ex:

John: "Where were you when Kennedy was shot?"
friend: "I was in grade school."
John: "I was at the doctor's getting a shot in the ass."

You lucky dog, you! Or, as John (aka: Ampie) would say, "Woof." Neat that you'll have a signed edition; enjoy your visit. I really liked his book and his sense of humor.

BTW, John Elder Robison is a registered member of the Wrong Planet. Via WP I have conversed with John (and he's great). Upon watching my video he responded "Woof!" That's a compliment. Hello to John from the Wrong Planet and hope can visit soon. Excited for you, veiledexpressions