Well, I met my “little” today (my little brother via the Big Brothers Big Sisters program). His name is Julius. Actually, I was supposed to be a “big” to his brother Count, but apparently their mom Gabriel thought I’d be a much better fit for Julius than his current big. After we talked, I couldn’t agree more.

Julius sounds like me when I was a kid: smart, kind of introverted, not the best social skills, at home more in a museum than on a basketball court, etc. He’s actually got mild Asperger’s Syndrome, which is in itself a mild version of autism. They’ve actually found very high concentrations of Asperger’s in Silicon Valley and other places where there are large numbers of talented people, both creative and more on the logical side. It’s sometimes called the genius syndrome as people with it, while often having less social skills, tend to be highly intelligent.
And at the end of the meeting, I found out their mom is a lesbian atheist, so we’ll get along just great.