New years day a special meaning

Some of you probably have already heard this story if you have, then feel free to disregard this blog

On January 1st 2013 it will be the start of a new year, but that day has special meaning to me. It has special meaning for me because it would mark 3 years that I had a non cancerous tumor removed. God gave me a second chance in life and On January 7th 2011 I rededicated and recommitted my life back to Christ realizing I received a second chance.

My story starts in 2008, in 2008 I was a Junior at my college things were going pretty well for me. However in 2008 I learned that I was Autistic. Ever since I was 4 I was aware  that I was different and some speculated I was Autistic back then but it would not be till I was much older that the truth finally came out. I was diagnosed as having high functioning Autism. I was angry surely not in fact I will be honest I was in denial. However that would not be the end of my troubles. In early 2009 I started to have very bad headaches, so my doctors found out that I had a tumor on my pituitary gland. I was scared because they could not tell me if it was cancer or not. It was determined not to be cancer. However I do not remember much of 2009 but I do remember is the tumor started to rapidly grow my vision started to rapidly decrease, my behavior changed I was not who I was. What hurt the most is I lost friends and when I tried to make new friends I found myself being shunned and blocked. Finally my doctors said this tumor is not cancerous but it is rapidly growing and if we do not get it then it will continue to grow in your brain and eventually you will die. They also said that the surgery could have complications though the changes were low they said I could have a stroke. On January 1st 2010 I had the surgery and the tumor was removed. As I was being prepared for surgery I would be honest for one of the first time’s in my life  I was scared. I literally felt like I was knocking on heavens door. However the surgery was a success and I had no complications. I feel like God guided the surgeon’s hands and gave me a second chance.

2010 came and thanks to God I got my vision back that I had lost and I spent most of the year recovering and getting my strength back. However, since the tumor was gone I asked my doctors if I was Autistic. My doctors confirmed that I was still and indeed had High Functioning Autism, Slowly I begin to to accept my Autism and merged it with who I’m. 2011 came and I realized that God had given me a second chance at life. So on January 7th 2011 I rededicated my life to Christ I got saved on May 4th 1996 but I felt like I needed to rededicate . I’m I perfect, by no means I still mess up but I try to live for Christ. Also in early January 2011 I started I’m unique Ministries.

It has been 3 years since my life changing event, Autism is who I’m and I have become an activists. But more importantly I give Jesus credit and thus new years always will have a special meaning for me.

The Longest Day

Southeast Tennessee is a nice area to live in as it is surrounded by mountains and the climate is considered mid. Contrary to belief and despite our Mountains Southeast Tennessee gets tornadoes. In fact the area has a long history of tornadoes. Hamilton (Chattanooga), Bradley (Cleveland), and McMinn (Athens) counties are considered tornado prone. Some of the area’s tornadoes have been strong and intense. Southeast Tennessee has experienced tornado outbreaks. A few that I have witnessed in my lifetime include May 1995, The Nashville outbreak on April 16th 1998 which brought tornadoes to Southeast Tennessee. Another outbreak is what us natives call the Plateau outbreak of November 2002. We have also had several tornadoes that were spawned by intense squall lines. However one tornado outbreak that I will never forget was the April 27th tornado outbreak.  A day that I have coined the Longest Day.

Three days before April 27th our local meteorologist gave a warning that the 27th could be bad for tornadoes. On April 26th our local meteorologists gave a warning that I have not heard before. They said that April 27th would be a tornado outbreak. Our local meteorologists and even our local weather service put out warnings. The warnings about the incoming danger said this would not be our typical tornadoes, or tornado outbreaks we have had. Both local meteorologists and our weather service said this was going to be very bad they even used the term a super outbreak. In fact, the Local meteorologists said this was going to be like April 3rd 1974 and for those of us that were not alive in 1974 we were going to see a 1974 event. I was also watching The Weather Channel and Dr. Forbes gave Southeast Tennessee a torcon of 6-7. As a weather spotter I was concerned, 1974 was before my time, but I had researched that outbreak and read about it. April 1974 was very bad for our area and my parents told me that was a disastrous day. Also as a weather spotter I knew I needed to go to sleep so I could be ready for the 27th

I woke up early on the 27th everything seemed to be coming together highs were supposed to be 77-82, which is average for late April, so nothing unusual. However when I looked at the maps and models I saw very intense wind shear being detected, along with cooler air colliding with warmer air. I stepped outside on my porch and it seemed like the air wanted to suck you up. I said to myself “This will be the longest Day”. As a student I was also supposed to go to college that day, but I did not go for several reasons. First of all, as a spotter I was to be on the lookout for thunderstorms, second, at my college their really wasn’t a safe place to go all the hallways were surrounded by glass windows. At my college everywhere you went there were windows which I knew if a tornado hit the glass would be debris.

It did not take long for action to start, Late in the Morning the first tornado touched down in my county, which is Bradley. This tornado would be rated an EF2 with winds estimated at 125 mph. As the afternoon started it seemed like every storm that moved into Bradley was producing a tornado. Most of the tornadoes had gone north of me but that was about to change. late in the afternoon a very violent tornado touched down in Chattanooga and was heading straight for me. The weather service issues a tornado warning. The weather service warned that this tornado had done a lot of damage and our area was highlighted. Me and my family took shelter, but unknown to us at that time this tornado is a high end EF4. The lights went out in our home and we heard the train sound, as Christians we being praying please let this tornado miss our subdivision. After we got the clear our home was spared. Overall in Bradley county we had 7 tornadoes touch down in one day, Hamilton county also had 7 tornado touchdowns and McMinn county had 5 tornado touchdowns. As I mentioned above we get tornadoes and sometimes outbreaks but never had we had that many in one day and we had nothing like this even compared to past outbreaks.

The next few days we drove down the road to see how bad it was, and I could not believe what I saw, everything was gone. Homes that were build well out of solid brick were gone all that was left was the foundation and tiny parts of a wall. The national Weather service gave this tornado an EF4 Rating with winds estimated to have been 190 mph they almost rated it an EF5. Also as they made the maps public I saw were the EF4 curved right before it would have entered my subdivision. Had the tornado not curved there may have been a chance I would not be here writing this reflection.

Since the longest day, we have had more tornadoes touch down, and we even had another tornado outbreak March 2nd 2012 but even the 2012 outbreak did not compare to the longest day. Our are will have tornadoes and always will as every year there are at least a few that touch down in our area. But I will never forget the Longest day. At the same time I also know April 27th will happen again it maybe a while, it maybe next year but it will happen again one day. In the meantime we as I sated will have tornadoes. Part of our area is included on the eastern side of the Dixie Alley and despite our mountains we have a long history of tornadoes.

Tornado Myths

Despite tornado myths being proven false there are still a lot of people out there that believe in them. I will be discussing the ones I hear the most about in East Tennessee

Myth 1. Mountains protect areas from tornadoes

• no this has been proven false, lets look at some cities. Cheyenne Wyoming has an elevation over 6,1000 feet yet the Cheyenne Metro area has had over 75 tornado touchdowns. Denver Colorado elevation 5,280-6000 ft averages several touchdowns a year. Colorado Springs elevation 6,100-7,000 ft the Colorado Springs Metro area has had over 80 tornado touchdowns 
• Also two states hold the record for highest altitude tornado occurrence Wyoming and California have had tornadoes as high as 10,000 ft
• Plus tornadoes have occurred in the Smoky Mountais as high as 5,000 ft

Myth 2. Eastern Tennessee does not have tornadoes

• this is false, Tennessee as a whole averages 20 tornado touchdowns a year, Eastern Tennessee in a typical year will see 6 tornado touchdowns with most of them touching down in the Southeast part of the State 
• Here are some counties in East TN that are tornado prone using data since 1960: Bradley(Cleveland) 26 tornado strikes, Hamilton(Chattanooga) 25 tornado strikes, McMinn (Athens) 23 tornado strikes, Monroe (Sweetwater &Tellico) has had 16 strikes, it is a mountain county, Polk county has had 15 and so has Marion. Monroe, Polk and Marion are considered mountain counties.
• Other counties in East Tennessee that have had tornadoes are: Blount has had 15 tornadoes and elevation ranges 1,000-5,000 ft, Knox county has had 14, and Greene county which like Blount has elevations of 1,000-5,000 ft has had 13.

Myth 3 skinny tornadoes are weak tornadoes

• False, unless you have a doppler on wheels it is impossible to know the winds, tornadoes are rated on the damage that they do with winds speed being estimated based on the storm surveys. A skinny tornado could be the lowest rating or it could be a very intense tornado. In fact, some rope like tornadoes have been EF5’s with winds over 200 mph. So tornadoes come in all shapes and sizes and tornadoes that appear to be skinny can be very powerful 

Myth 4 taking shelter under an overhead pass or bridge is safe

• This myth got started after the movie Twister and sadly it proved to be tragic during the Norman/Oklahoma City F5 tornado. Lot of people took shelter under  ohverhead passes and were crushed as the Monster EF5 tornado moved over them. The bottom line is they are not safe as you could be crushed or hit with flying debris your chances of survival are much higher going into a ditch 

Myth 5 A tornado can be outrun

• That maybe the case but it is not recommended driving during a tornado should be avoided. tornadoes can not move at all, or move as fast as 75 mph, most tornadoes will move about 30-40 mph but sometimes they can move very fast and go faster than a car. Not to mention cars are the least safe as even weaker tornadoes can flip a car and stronger tornadoes EF2 or higher can pick up cars

Tennessee got lucky

Yesterday was Christmas, a time spent celebrating the birth of Jesus, and a time to spend with family. However Christmas in Southeast Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Lower Alabama was a disaster as a storm system that formed in the gulf produced several reports of tornadoes. Tennessee especially Eastern Tennessee got lucky as we had to deal with heavy rain. We should be thankful that is all we had to deal with. Now, lets supposed the warm front made it up into Kentucky that would have warmed temperatures into the 60’s which means Eastern Tennessee would have had tornadoes. Eastern Tennessee would have had tornadoes because you would have had the warm air had the warm front pushed farther north, cold air in the atmosphere was behind the storm system and their was wind shear as well as lots of moisture all the ingredients for tornadoes. However the warm front did not go that far north so we did not get the warm air and so we just had rain with a few rumbles of thunder.

Now let say the same scenario occurred in March. Temperatures in East Tennessee and even Kentucky depending on elevation range from 60-70 degrees usually in march one can expect storm tracks like the one that occurred yesterday. Except in March the warm fronts usually make it as far north as the Ohio River which is why if that scenario occurs in March Kentucky and Tennessee have tornadoes. A good example was on March 2nd 2012 a gulf system formed off of Texas and merged with a storm system coming out of the Rockies, the warm gulf air was pulled up into Ohio, their was wind shear, moisture and cool air in the atmosphere. The result was a tornado outbreak that brought tornadoes to Mississippi, Alabama, Eastern Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio. Some of the tornadoes from the March 2nd outbreak were strong (EF2’s or higher)

So while Tennessee got lucky on Christmas, it should remind us that you always need to be prepared for severe weather even if it is outside of tornado season. as no matter the year if conditions come together you can have tornadoes. Spring and sometimes Late fall are the prime months for tornado activity in Eastern Tennessee. with the top 5 months being 1. April, 2. May, 3. March, 4. November, and 5 October

Praying for those impacted by yesterday’s storm and thankful it did not come this far north but like every year eventually the fronts will move north bringing tornadoes to our area and severe straight line winds

Look at Utah’s Culture

Last month we witnessed one of the country’s worst school shootings, such a tragedy and I’m still praying for those. Some have called for gun control. Now I’m a believer in the second and a person having a gun to defend themselves, to target shoot, and to hunt. However we also need to look at our culture and what we have come in society. It seems like we have lost a sense of morality in this Country. Some would say it is gun culture but guns have been in this country since the beginning and we have not had problems like this so is it possible to have both guns and low crime rates. Yes and for that we can turn to a Utah a  very gun friendly state were a lot of residents have guns and guess what they have a low crime rate. But lets look at Utah’s culture

Utah is mostly Mormon and what I see is they have a culture we used to have. Utah has a very friendly family culture, what I mean is a parent or parents are involved in the young person’s lives they focus on family activities they have a code of morale. And in a study Parents in Utah are actually being Parents and setting boundaries for young people instead of giving into a child they discipline their kids. Now a child can be disciplined and learn right from wrong in a non abusive way. Utah also has lots of city parks and recreation activities that promote family activities such as hiking, biking, walking, taking a walk in the forest. and with the Mormon teachings, though I do not agree with their theology they teach their kids right from wrong. We as Christians used to do that when parents used to be parents. I can remember growing up that if i misbehaved or did something that was wrong I would get a swat or a hickory. It was in a non abusive way but I learned right from wrong, Later as I got older I started reading the Bible as my parents would read the Bible to me and take me to church. I learned manners, I learned how to treat people, I had a sense of morality. My parents also set up boundaries and when I crossed them I got disciplined.

I also think of video games when I was younger, when I was a kid the worst video game out there was Street fighter and later Mortal Kombat those games are now nothing now we have violent video games such as Grand theft auto that encourages robbery, crimes against women and mass shootings and other games like them. These games were so violent that they got an A rating which means adult only over 18 years. I have never played these games but I remember them being advertised a lot when I was younger. The bad thing is parents think it is cute and let their children play adult games. My parents were parents and if they thought a game was too violent I did not get it, but that was never an issue when I was growing up as I played mega man, baseball and Mario games. It seems that parents do not set up boundaries like they used too and I think that is one of the problems in this country

I also look at what we have become, gone are the days of going biking, taking hikes, and doing recreational activities. I can remember and I still do we go on bike rides, we hike and do some recreational stuff, we go look at leaves, I think that teaches kids their is more life than video games there is a world out there. Its a shame that we don’t do that anymore

Guns are not the problem but I think it is the people that have them, people who have no morales will find other ways to do harm. we can have guns and a low crime rate. maybe one thing we can do is restrict magazine clips like in AR’s maybe only having a 5 bullet clip or something like that. Guns are not bad but people are bad. I also think we need to do a better job of identyfing people who should not have them like the State of Utah. Utah is gun friendly but it is required that at gun shows and anywhere background checks are done and if you have committed a violent crime in the past 5 years then you cannot legally buy a gun in the state of Utah

So we can have guns for hunters, self defense and target shooting, but we also need to get morales, a family culture back in this country and return to recreational activities and to that we can look at the state of Utah.

Utah seems to being doing things right as they have guns majority of citizens in Utah legally own a gun but yet they have a very low crime rate and it appears to also be part of their culture that has Morales and encouramgent of recreational activities.

I’m Autistic and I’m not a Monster

I grew up watching the Weather Channel and watched a few cartoons.

I was interested in weather at the young age of 3

I tracked hurricanes at a young age

I went to school

I became a born again Christian

I went to middle and High school

I graduated High school

I went to college and graduated with a Bachelors

I was President of an Environmental Club at college

In spring I will have my Masters

I go to Church

I’m a weather spotter

Guess What I’m Autistic

Now do these things seem like a monster

The media in the past two tragic shootings the movie theater and this current one in Newton CT to Autism, some have already started calling us Autistics monsters in the Meida. We are not monsters, we are not violent, Noise, movement and lighting my bother us but we are not monsters. some of us maybe verbal others may not be verbal but we are not Monsters. Some say we can’t feel empathy but yet we have shown that we have feelings and care, we are not monsters. we may have meltdowns or get overloaded but we are not monsters. Those of us on the Spectrum just like everybody else was created by God, God Loves us, we all have ways we contribute to society, some of us are good at art, others are good at science, some are good in other areas, we want to be part of society, But yet people fear us. We have hearts, we have feelings, we can contribute to society,

We are Not Monsters

to the media do not blame Autism for tragedies

Today if you turned on the news you saw a horrible tragedy that happened in Newton CT this type of act was so horrible I am not going to describe it. However I’m a upset at the Media such as the huffington post, CNN, and ABC. They claimed that the person responsible was on the Autism Spectrum.  I find this insulting and fueling racist and misunderstandings toward Autism. I think we need to review what Autism is

Autistics are not evil, we do not go around committing acts of violence, we do not plot horrible crimes. In fact what the media fails to recognize is that Autism is a Neurological Disorder not a personality disorder. Now there is psychological parts to Autism but Media get it right it is not in the same category as personality disorders. Personality disorders that would cause a person to do something like this is Anti-social personality Disorder. Lets review some of the signs of Autism.

Autism- Autism is a Neurological Disorder, people who fall on the ASD may be verbal or non verbal, they tend to be extremely shy have a hard time starting conversation. Autistics also do not enjoy crowds. Here is another thing most people on the Spectrum have sensory issues to sound, light taste of food, color, etc. Autistics also do not harm other people with guns. Now the media says we can’t feel for people. They are a lot of us that care for people and can share feelings and have empathy.

However lets look at another disorder that is linked to mass shootings like this and serial killers

Anti-Social Personality Disorder

people who have this often when they are young abuse animals and steal and they have no remorse for it. as they get older the severity of their crimes gets worse, such as murder and mass murders again they feel no remorse because to these people when they do things like that they think they are doing good they get joy out of seeing people suffer they feel joy doing horrible crimes they have no conscious what so ever.

The Media should be ashamed of saying this man was Autistic I would argue for Anti-social disorder. Thanks to the media when you blamed us Autistics last time such as the Colorado movie tragedy we received hate messages, people were scared of us and thanks to you we seem to have a bad reputation when we try to socialize. You all at the major networks compare us to a criminal who destroys peoples lives

You owe all of us Autistics an apology and next time do a little bet research

How will DSM V affect Autism

In spring 2013 the new guidebook used to diagnose psychological problems will be used. The new guidebook among professionals is DSM V, which will replace DSM IV. While we do not know everything that is in DSM V one of the things that is known is there will be changes to the way Autism is diagnosed. Currently Autism is divided into Classical, mid and Aspergers, which is high functioning. DSM V is going to drop these terms and put them all under one category called Autism Spectrum Disorders. The Autism disorders will be assigned into sub-types such as classical Autism would be under the subcategory of severe, Aspergers the term will be done away with and will be grouped under High Functioning Autism. However this has caused a debate among professionals as some fear that doing away with Aspergers their patients or children will lose services. Some have even gone far as suggesting that government panels would be diagnosing autistics. So how are these changes going to affect the Autism community

In another blog I wrote how I feel like they should have left things alone. But it seems like they were trying to simplify Autism by causing it ASD. Now the fear comes of losing services is legitimate and parents and doctors do have some reasons to be concerned.  From what I have read the fear comes from the idea that people who are verbal will no longer qualify for Autism. But that may not be the case. The new guidelines focus on social skills, sensory and behavior. Some of the things that have been released look like this.

Concerning Social skills: is the person verbal or non verbal. If verbal do they have a hard time making friends, do they have a hard time starting conversations, do they struggle to talk about multiple topics. Failure to make eye contact, also repeats words  Must have at least 3 or it could be 4 of these

Sensory,sensitive to sound or noise, sensitive to light, attracted to spinning obects

Behavior: gets agitated when routine is changed, follows a repetitive behavior, spins objects, does not engage in play if the person is a child, etc

Now that is just a glance on what is included in DSM V so it appears most people are going to be okay and still be included under the Autism umbrella. Now another fear is that government panels are going to do the diagnosis. From what I have read this fear seems to come for what has happened in certain Europe Countries. In a few European countries private insurance was done away with and the government controls health care. This type of system is seen in Sweden, Austria, and the Netherlands. These countries also have an alarming truth, these countries require micro chips implanted in Autistics and in a few European countries if a panel approves and the parents are okay with and if the Autistic person is under 5 then he or she can be euthanized. This is also seen in China.

However here in America even with the Patient Care act, private insurance  will still be allowed and Autism will Not be up to a panel. From what we know It will be up to Doctors and psychologist to come up with the diagnosis of Autism not the government. As for having chips implanted into Autistics that would be a violation of the privacy act and HIPPA, Euthanasia is illegal in America. So while Europe does things different it appears that in America it will be similar to like it always has been.

Now what could change is perhaps people will be diagnosed earlier for Autism and be able to get into early intervention programs. While I do not agree with doing away with Aspergers it appears they are actually trying to catch everybody on the spectrum. This could be positive as with technology improving and better techniques doctors could point out ASD earlier. Sometimes I wonder if i was diagnosed earlier instead of being speculated if maybe I could have had some social skills training. But I did not have that as I was an adult when professionals determined that I was Autistic. So it could prevent people from following through the cracks

Now here is were some negative things come in about the changes. Doctors would have to learn new terms and that could cause confusion. For example the term Aspergers is often put down as Aspergers or some doctors call it high functioning Autism, the diagnosis is specific. Now Doctors would correctly have to put down Autism spectrum Disorders, that could cause confusion because unless that term is pretty broad as it could be classical autism, mild autism or High functioning Autism. So I can see that adding confusion in record keeping and insurance purposes. Another thing is doctors will probably still use the term Aspergers Syndrome to describe High functioning Autism as some professionals have said they would continue to use that term, so again how is that going to effect records.

Disclaimer I’m not supporting or arguing against the Patient Healthcare act