On the Spectrum #101: Go ask Daddy

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Wiseguy.

On the Spectrum #100!: Sharing

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Oh, my god! I've made it to 100! I never thought I'd make it this far! (Yay!)

OK, back to the strip...

Believe it or not, Jacob really is every bit as cute as I draw him here; much more so actually.  That being said, he can still be a real brat sometimes! LOL.

The above story actually came from his teacher, during a Paerent-Teacher conference, late last year.  She told me what happened, and I immediately thought, "I've got to use that!

On the Spectrum #99: He gets that from you!

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Welcome back!  I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday.  This is a bit of a "breaking the fourth wall" strip.  There were rather a few people who left comments, sent me messages or upon reading #98, looked at me and said, "Huh?"  So this was just a (paraphrased) converstaion that DW and I had about it. 

One thing about Michael and Jacob (Jacob to a much greater extent): If they're not paying attention, or don't feel like talking to you, they'll answer, "Yes," or "Yeah," to pretty much any question.  So before we make that snack he said he wanted, or whatever, I usually ask a really absurd question like, "Do you want me to put eels in your underpants?" of "Do you want to be fed to a wild honey badger?" And if they say, "Yes," then I know they probably haven't been listening for at least a few questions now.

Also while we do occasionally play the "He gets that from you" game (always playfully, mind you) usually it's a lot more specific than this.  In all honesty, I'll admit that this comes off as a wee bit mean-spirited. But hey, what can I say? She was frustrating me! (And I LIKE #98! LOL)  But there are plenty of traits, both typical and autistic, in both of our boys, where we know which one of us they got them from!  (I'm a collector myself, and earlier today Michael was showing me a set of toys from a catalog and said, "I want to get the whole set!" And I was like... *sniff* You ARE my son!) LOL

On the Spectrum #93: Who's Your Alpha, con't

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You know how I mention last week that Michael had learned not to leave his food unattended where the dog could get it?

This was how he learned. LOL.  (And yes, that's exactly what he said afterwards.)

Tried a little mock-impressionism with the emotional panels.  Might do that some more, might not, we'll see.  Let me know what you think.  (Be gentle though - first time! LOL)

On the Spectrum #92: Who's Your Alpha?

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I assume we're not the only ones with a wanderer at meal time?

Jacob has a habit of getting up about fifty-seven times a meal.  So he's always the last one finished.  He's also the ONLY one who ever leaves food unattended (Michael's learned) so Haley pretty much knows who to camp out near at dinner time.

You'd be surprised how often this still happens. LOL

Oh, and... first appearance of Haley, our dog.  We've had her since Michael was about one and a half, before we knew he was autistic, and just after Jacob was born.  She's a Border Collie - Australian Cattle Dog mix.  She's a good dog (apart from her table manners) but she hasn't really figured into any of the stories so far, so I've never drawn her in.  (Also because she's kind of hard to draw! LOL)

On the Spectrum #91: A Woman's Work...

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No, I'm sure he didn't understand the irony in what he'd said.  He is pretty good at making vacuums though!

As for me, I'vs still got a lot way to go before I'm used to this new software.  For one thing, I don't know how Michael ended up so much darkwer in the right hand panels.  I'm pretty sure I was using teh same colors.  Oh well.  I'll keep practicing! LOL

On the Spectrum #89: Jurassic Lark

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Poor Jacob! 

This is the last of our trip to D.C. (Natural History Museam, if you couldn't tell!)

On the Spectrum #88: National Treasures

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A word of advice to the curators at the Smithsonian: If you’re going to secure a National Treasure with a fence that has an opening in it large enough for a small child to fit through, at some point a small child is going to cram himself through that opening!

“It is possible, however unlikely, that they might find a weakness… and exploit it.”
~ General Taage

Now how my wife got through that same ‘small, thermal exhaust shaft’ I’ll never know.

One more thing... To better understand the little joke in the first panel, please see #71.

On the Spectrum #85: Following Directions... EXACTLY

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Well... I didn't say to PUT IT ON upstairs!  It's about a month early for a 'Michael's Birthday' one. In any case, this is from his Birthday Party LAST year. (Boy how time flies!)

BTW... If anyone didn't get what was gonig to happen here, check out #29.  Basically, Michael HATES being wet.  One drop of water on his the cuff of his sleeve and he'll take off ALL his clothes, down to his socks and underwear.  He'd take off his HAT if he'd been wearing one!  And he doens't really care where he is either.  No inhibitions, that one.

Also, that being the case, I'm curious to see if PhotoBucket censors this one like they did the last one that had Moonie's naked back-side in it.  If they do, I'll re-post it ASAP from another host.  (I just realized... We seem to have a LOT of naked butts in this strip!  Yeah... there's a lot of naked in our life. LOL)

And I'm sorry it was so long in between udpates.
One more thing... In case their Mom's or Dad's see this, this marks the first appearance of Michael's friends Caleb and Dylan as well as Caleb's Dad, Mike.  (Hopefully they can figure out which one's are thier kids! LOL)  (And Sorry Ty, Trent, Caden, Nicholas and eveyone else. There's only so much room in one panel and so many people I'm willing to draw in one night!  Maybe next time! LOL)

On the Spectrum #84: Fun with Pronoun Reversal

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Ok, so... file this one in the "I'm going to hell for it" folder. :)

BTW, sorry about missing the udpate last week.  And also sorry to say that there will not be a comic next week either as we will be out of town.

Hope everyone has a happy and safe 4th of July! See you again on the 11th!

On the Spectrum #82: Careful...

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Yeah... Of course that's not what she meant... LOL. 

Most of the time the kids write this stuff, but occasionally we do as well. ;)

BTW: THANK YOU to the folks over at Autisable for pickling up the strip and agreeing to syndicate it.  Anyone who hasn't checked them out should do so, they run a lot of different blogs and get posts from a wide range of people within the autism communtiy. There's always something new and interesting being put up from somewhere.  So take a look!

On the Spectrum #75: The History Channel

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Never can tell when they're really paying attention, can you?

On the Spectrum #65: Merry Christmas, 2009!

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One of the biggest differences in my and DW's skill sets is that I speak 'Michael' and she speaks 'Jacob.' 'Michael' is pretty easy, actually, but I'm still better at deciphering what he means when he doesn't quite know how to say it. 'Jacob,' on the other hand, is a language that is made very complex by the fact that many of its words sound very similar to other words in English that have very different meanings. LOL. Anyway, in this kind of situation, I can usually figure Michael out, but I have a much harder time with Jacob. (DW... the exact opposite.)

(Oh yeah - and I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but when Jacob says "Yes," he ALWAYS adds on, "OK."  It's like one word, "Yesohkay!"  That thows a lot of people who assume he's saying "That's OK," which, if you think about it in context, means "No," when he's really saying "Yes."  You can imagine how frustrating that might be for him! LOL

ANYWAY... This is the last "OTS" update of 2009! So I'm done for this year. We'll be travelling, as we usually do on the holidays, through the 4th of January, so the next update won't be until 1/10/2010.

In the meantime, I hope everybody has a Merry Crispy, a safe a happy holiday and a safe and happy New Year!

See you in 2010!

~Scott

On the Spectrum #60: The loneliest profession

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Does ANYONE like going to the dentist?

(And technically it's his Great Uncle Dennis (well, Great Step-Uncle, actually) but whatever. LOL.

On the Spectrum #55 - Another Brick...

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No profound symbolism was intended here, just some humorous scripting from Michael.  BTW, if you're old enough / young enough to get the joke here, let's keep it a secret from the whippersnappers / old fogies that don't get it, K? LOL.

If you're between the ages of 35 and 55 snd STILL don't get it, there's a clue that's about as subtle as a sledge hammer in the background behind Michael. ;)

On the Spectrum #49 - No 'hand-me-downs' for the first born!

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You can be forgiven if you don't get the joke right away. The thing it that while Michael doesn't seem to understand (or care) that flowers are typically for girls, he fully understood (and cared) that 'hand-me-downs' were for little brothers. In this scenario I guess novelty trumps gender appropriateness.

(And it's been awhile but the full image recycling count (of OTS#5) remains 6 - See OTS #'s 5, 14, 18, 27, 29 31; while the partial recycling count is now up to 4, see OTS #6, 24 & 26. LOL - It's far from the only art that gets recycled here, but I've gotten far more mileage out of that on than any of the others.)

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On the Spectrum #48 - 'Incredible' Scripting, part 2

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This is a continuation of OTS #47. This line is from Syndrome's speech that kicks of his final scene in the film.

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On the Spectrum #47 - 'Incredible' Scripting, part 1

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I'm sure you seen this! I think the technical term is 'scripting?' Sometimes it's in context, like above, sometimes it's when playing with toys, and sometimes it's just echolalic.

This is from Pixar's The Incredibles - another must-see, if you haven't. The line is from a scene at the beginning, when Dash was sent to the principles office, but was going to be let off, again, must to his teacher's chagrin.

Speaking of scripting, do any of you have a kid that doesn't know this one?:
800-588-2300 ... Empiiiiire ... Today!

(God I hate that song!)

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On the Spectrum #37 & 38 - Helen Keller jokes

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No, we do not approve of 'Helen Keller jokes'...

And we're probaly going to hell for thinking about them in that second to last panel!

This is one of my favorites though. "I want to put the couch away!" is one of the reasons this strip even exsists. It's not quite as funny at three in the morning... But still.

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On the Spectrum #35 - Feelin' Sad

When I first posted this, a lot of people didn't get it. I guess the only thing I can really say is that, to me, Michael's feeling sad (whether becasue he felt bad about mistreating Jacob, because he made his mother sad, or just that his mother got angry with him) was his way of expressing remorse. So knowing he felt that way, I want to let DW know that she didn't have to worry. This was just the kind of thing that happens when you have two boys that are close in age. They fight. (And I'm guessing that neurotypical brothers or brothers and sisters probably don't really feel that bad about fighting, or even about getting in trouble over it! So everything's OK.

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