Apollo is a friend of mine - and he's without a doubt one of the most talented, intelligent performers working today. He has a frighteningly sharp understanding of misdirection, and how to control where you are looking and when.

While a magician of sorts, Apollo's talent is unique from magic in that the secret is just as entertaining as the effect. Our company [http://theory11.com] is a collective of artists in the magic industry, but Apollo's expertise extends much further, to applications in law enforcement and military intelligence.

Apollo practices not only pickpocketing, but also putpocketing, where he plants an object on the spectator (in their pocket, etc). Their reaction, upon reaching into their pocket to discover a random, rubber shrimp, is pretty funny.

Interesting to note is that when Apollo is doing a stage performance, the audience often KNOWS he is a pickpocket. The participant on stage KNOWS he is going to try to steal something. But the more they consciously try to prevent it, the easier he can divert their attention right where he wants.

Most impressive about Apollo isn't what he does, though - it's how he does it, and how deep his understanding is of why it works. If you're interested in that sort of thing, definitely check out the book Sleights of Mind (featuring Apollo's insight on the neuroscience of magic) and the television special Brain Games, with Apollo and David Copperfield. Both are fascinating.

- jonathan bayme

God bless you.

I have worked with people like this, seen marriages to schizophrenics (somewhat less severe that Sally), and seen families supporting children with severe autism. Many of these are wonderful people and you are blessed to be able to see this.

But you, yourself, are going to need help to make this work.

Doing this for 18 months is one thing but you are going to need to build serious structural support for yourself to make the long haul. Build friend and family relationships where you can talk about what you are going through and which are committed to helping you through it. Make money, save as much as you can and avoid debt like plague, you already have enough stress in your life. Get a life insurance policy, get a will that creates a trust for Sally and receives the proceeds of the policy. If you are of any faith consider building up your church community.

You are essentially married to a not-normal person. You're going to have not-normal problems. It's okay to feel sad and tired and frustrated. Have people around you to help carry the load.

You have taken on a vocation as mental health advocate and social worker. Case management, navigation of the health system, is actually a profession, if you look around you'll probably find tools and practices to help you deal with the enormous administrative overhead involved with services.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but you should go get yourself checked out for psychological and emotional dysfunction. You are clearly yourself not-normal, which is awesome, but take seriously the possibility that you've got weaknesses of your own that need work. If you had ADHD or depression meds would make enormous improvements in your functionality. Even if it's all good, being in therapy, even only once a month, might not be a bad idea. Having a professional who knows you and can spot signs of depression or stress or anxiety could be handy.

I can't say enough how much I admire your vision and determination. My apologies if all of this has already occurred to you. Please take care of yourself.

There is a person with schizophrenia who posts to HN, who is shadowbanned due to the comments they leave, which are nonsensical due to their illness. Turn 'showdead' on in your profile, then hit http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=losethos and now http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=SparrowOS .

They've been writing their own operating system in assembly for the last few years: http://www.losethos.com/ and now http://sparrowos.com/

For more: http://qaa.ath.cx/LoseThos.html