the mellow tigger's musings

On Friday, I walked to the asian grocery store that I've mentioned a few times. I walked past that gas station where the guy was shot and killed 3 weeks ago. On my way towards the store, I passed somebody who had scored some drugs, because the 2 of them were celebrating verbally. I was surprised that the mobile police camera wasn't stationed at that street corner like it often is. On my way back home from the store, a police car parked itself at that gas station where the drug deals happen.

Saturday night, I was in bed asleep. I was woken by nearby gunfire (about 6 shots) shortly before 11pm. I dutifully called 911 to report it. The next day, I learned from the Citizen app that ShotSpotter detected the gunfire on the street west of me, at about the location of my house on the block. No wonder it sounded so close. According to the Citizen report about this event, there was only 1 corroborating 911 call, which would be me. Everyone else either ignored it or hunkered down instead of calling.

Today, I walked to the site of the old Aldi's grocery store. The store was entirely empty, with no sign of any kind of move-in by the new grocery business. It was supposed to open this month. I have no idea what has caused the delay. I hope it's still planned, because I need a general-purpose store like Aldi's here, much closer than the only chain grocery (Cub Foods).

I learned this evening that Phillip Murphy died last month. He was just 4 years older than me. I met him a few times at Jordan community council events. He went to the training with the group of us who did community patrols several years ago. There was a good write-up about his life, autism, and traumas (thanks to life here in the warzone) in the local Star Tribune newspaper. There's a full copy at this MSN link, which should remain freely available. I never "joined" the True North Minneapolis Facebook group, because it's such a haven for racist anger, but it was a good place to identify dangerous events in the area. Without Phil to corral it, I expect the quality will decline significantly now. I may have to pay for an annual subscription to the Citizen app, so I have a reliable way to identify the troubles of the day.

If you (or people you know) play No Man's Sky, share the information that everyone should make a backup of their save game file immediately. The game currently includes a game-ending bug that will erase/corrupt your save. If you don't have a backup, then you might have to start the game over again.

A player who was affected by this bug has asked online for help finding a solar system that they named planets, flora, and fauna in that system for memories that their dead mother would recall, as an online tribute to the memory of their mother.

Keep an eye out for the "Krasher" system, traveler.

In the 1940s, Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger both used the same new word (free archive copy) to describe the condition of their young patients: autism. As I called them, "Kanner's autism" trended towards children with more severe difficulties, while "Asperger's autism" trended towards children with less severe difficulties, but even that minimal distinction was imprecise. Autism today is diagnosed merely as a spectrum disorder without sub-type distinctions.

The psychologist who diagnosed me, about 20 years ago, mentioned after our discussion that she was "not allowed" to use some of the personal history I related for a diagnoses of Kanner's autism, because some of it was hearsay, things I remembered other people saying about me, which I could misremember or misinterpret. She was allowed, however, to use the same stories for diagnosis of Asperger's autism, which she did. I frequently wondered if my paperwork would be different, if she had access to interview my mother who could relate first-person stories of my childhood directly. Otherwise, why would this doctor even mention that distinction? I implicitly trusted this psychologist's opinions later after I learned that she had personal experience with non-verbal autistic people, so she was very familiar with "both sides" of the spectrum.

This 5-minute video, "Finding Donald", by The Atlantic talks about Kanner's first "Case 1" patient, Donald Triplett. It's related to a longer article they wrote about him, "Autism's First Child".

I bring up this topic because Donald Triplett died on Thursday. He lived a very long life, beating the odds (see #3) by very many decades.