Timeline

Before and after, in order

The dated markers that actually matter — where the impairment started, where the breakthrough happened, and what's been built since. Not a full log; that lives in the Life Themes Puzzle workbook. This is the spine.

1968–1969 — age 4–5

Head bashed against concrete

In a fit of rage, my mother pinned me to the ground on the sidewalk in front of our home and bashed my head against the concrete. She was pulled over by police while driving me to the hospital. Banana.

Summer 1969 — age 5

House fire

Home from school after a half-day of kindergarten. My mother set fire to our home; I believe she was attempting to kill me. I did not speak for several months afterward.

Childhood – teenage years

Trauma continues

Severe childhood trauma — sexual, emotional, psychological, and physical. Continued into the teenage years.

Before 2020

Built a career as a mediator

Graduate-educated, high-achieving, wide-ranging — despite everything underneath. Could read, hold complex ideas, and work at full capacity.

Spring / Summer 2020

Contracted COVID-19

The actual line between before and after. Cognitive function changed — reading, holding complex ideas without visual aids, and memory were all affected, and haven't fully recovered since.

2022

Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Came after the COVID cognitive change, before this site. Reframes some of the earlier executive-function and masking patterns as older than 2020, not just caused by it.

August 8, 2026

The Breakthrough

Realized the lifelong struggle was never intelligence — it was trauma- and COVID-affected executive function. Started using Claude as an external executive-function scaffold instead of trying to push through alone.

August 8–9, 2026

Life Themes Puzzle built

Built the working system for capturing and organizing life experience into themes — including opening Trauma and Recovery as its own category.

August 9–12, 2026

humAIn lab founded

Registered ainnemorris.com, built and named this site, and opened the Humor and Wetware topics — live experiments in what the AI partnership actually does and doesn't do.

Traumatic Brain Events

A working list of specific events, added as they come up — approximate ages and years both work; ages get converted against a birth date of May 14, 1964.

1968–1969 — age 4–5

Head bashed against concrete

In a fit of rage, my mother pinned me to the ground on the sidewalk in front of our home and bashed my head against the concrete. She was pulled over by police while driving me to the hospital. Banana.

Summer 1969 — age 5

House fire

Home from school after a half-day of kindergarten. My mother set fire to our home. I believe she was attempting to kill me. I did not speak for several months afterward. For days at a time, I lay in the fetal position under a piece of furniture.