Summer Travel 2016 – Hong Kong, The Philippines, and Thailand

Well. So much for getting the blog up and running. Nevertheless, since I still have one, this seems like a good place to review what I did over the summer. I have pictures, too, but the phone I used to take them is dead and doesn't want to recharge at the moment. When I get it fixed, I will update the post.

It’s been a few weeks since my trip to the South Pacific ended, and I’m finally starting to feel like I am readjusting back to the US. It has been a great trip, and I’m very thankful for everyone who contributed to the trip, either by donating time, resources, or just moral and spiritual support. God has done wonderful things for both me and those I’ve been working with this summer, and I wanted to share what went on with everyone.

Phase 1 – Arrival and Arrival

My initial trip to Hong Kong in May was rather short – only a few days – before I continued on to the Philippines with Linda Smyth. Linda was nice enough to host me for the entire summer, and it was great getting to travel with her in the Philippines at the start of my trip. Upon arrival in the Philippines, we met Cody and Marie, who escorted us to Pastor Randy’s church in Arwas. Cody and Marie had scheduled an Insight Seminar at the church, and we arrived several days early to prepare. 

Once we got to the church, I led a short review/discussion session with Cody, Marie, Randy, and Linda. The session lasted for two days, and gave everyone a chance to refresh their familiarity with the seminar material, as well as discuss new insights into the ideas and theories underlying the program’s teaching and activities. Everyone had something to add to the discussion, but Cody, in particular, contributed a lot to the discussion, with many interesting and helpful ideas and insights that will help us develop better programs for future seminars. 

After the introduction session, the delegates began to arrive for the main program. We had around a dozen Christian leaders in attendance. Many were from the local area, but several traveled many hours to attend the seminar. Almost all of them were active pastors who were interested in learning how to better teach and minister to their churches and communities. They were an intelligent and excited bunch, and it was a pleasure to meet and interact with them throughout the seminar. Cody led the Insight training, and Marie focused on the IBS (Inductive Bible Study) program. (Cody and Marie ran both programs during the seminar, at the participants’ request). Unfortunately, I can’t say too much about the discussions that took place during the seminar itself, as the entire program was conducted in Tagalog (and, occasionally, local dialects), which I am unfamiliar with. My discussions with Cody and the participants, however, helped me see how they were learning and developing their understanding and relationships. 

In the Insight Seminars, we focus on these two main interrelated points. In order to build strong, positive relationships with God, ourselves, other people (Christians and otherwise), and our environment, we need to have the best understanding possible of the parties involved. Thus, the seminar focuses first on how we can gain understanding and discernment, and applies these ideas to the development of various relationships in the participants’ lives. Our immediate focus in on understanding ourselves (what Leonard, our Mozambican director, calls our “first environment”). If we don’t understand and relate well to ourselves, we are hindered in every other relationship, because every other relationship we have depends, in some way, on us. Controlling ourselves and taking responsibility for our actions is the first step in building strong, lasting relationships with others.

Of course, focusing purely on the self is detrimental, since life consists of far more than just “me.” During the seminar, Cody led discussions on our relationship with God, with the Church, and with others in our community. There was a lot of enthusiasm for the ideas being presented in the seminar, and more than one participant commented later that, until they attended the seminar, they had not thought about their work in terms of relationships, but more in terms of actions and procedures. They were delighted to learn how they could further develop their ministries through communicating an understanding of what a good relationship (with God or men) really means. 

As the program came to a close, everyone expressed satisfaction with their experience. The participants praised God and celebrated a better understanding of Him and His creation, and our presenters were blessed to not only help others learn, but to learn from their participants. Many of the discussions during the week were truly group discussions, with Cody and Marie facilitating, but not dominating, the conversation. I think, all in all, everyone left with new lessons and ideas. It was a fantastic trip, and I want to thank Cody and Marie for organizing the seminar, and Pastor Randy for hosting everyone.

Phase 2 – Hong Kong

When we got back to Hong Kong, I was asked to help Linda’s son, Scott, present a seminar for his church in Fairview Park. Scott had previously attended a seminar Al and I put on in the Philippines, and had worked with Al and I on subsequent training projects in Hong Kong since then. I met with Scott both before the seminar, and we had weekly reviews of the progress of the program during the 10-week seminar. Since Scott would be presenting the material each Sunday afternoon, Sunday became an extremely busy day for him. In order to give himself some breathing room, he asked me to cover preaching at his church while I was around so he could focus on the seminar training. The best way to learn is to teach, but “best” rarely equals “easiest.” I was happy to pick up the preaching to give Scott a chance to focus on the training. 

 The sessions went well. Attendance started very strong, which is good, but did fall off towards the end. This is expected in long-running free programs. The seminars are often taxing and can be frustrating, as learning new ways to look at ideas can be quite stressful. We often experience fatigue after several weeks of programs, which is one reason we prefer shorter intensive programs with long-term follow-up. Fortunately, Scott is well placed to provide such follow-up, and I have confidence he will continue to work with his church members to help them develop both individually and as a body. The participants themselves expressed interest in the material, though some expressed a desire to see more immediate application of some of our concepts. This kind of feedback is helpful, as it allows us to see where the seminars are strong or need a change in focus. Often details like this will vary from culture to culture, as different people require different approaches or points of emphasis. 

Both my sermons and the seminars were recorded, and can be viewed on the Fairview Park Christian Church’s YouTube channel [insert link to YouTube channel].

In addition to working with Scott, I was also able to meet with some local church leaders to talk about using the seminars as part of leadership training/discipling programs. These discussions are very preliminary, but the people we talked with were interested in finding new ways to help their church members understand more about themselves and God, and I am hopeful that we will be able to continue our discussions in the future.

Phase 3 – Thailand

Finally, I spent a week in Thailand attending a graduate course as part of my PhD program. For those who aren’t familiar with U.S. PhD programs, there are usually about two years of classes before work on the PhD dissertation/research starts in earnest. I chose this course in part because of the tuition discount – in general, the discount on tuition was equal to or greater than the cost of travel, making it both an economical choice, as well as a great opportunity to work more closely with students from non-western cultures. The differences in perspectives and history, as well as the students’ willingness to share their experiences and ideas made the course entirely worth the trip. 

The class investigated the characteristics of various cultural value systems: guilt/innocence, shame/honor, purity/impurity, etc. These cultural values have a significant impact on how different people view and understand the world, and understanding them helps tremendously in seeing how intercultural communication – including communication of the Gospel – must be conducted carefully and with deliberation. This is not to say that all communications must be slow, only that we must always pay attention to both what we are saying, and what the people we communicate with are understanding. Of course, this is true in any communication, and the more you know about the people you are talking to, the better you can communicate.

Away a Long Time

Well, it's been a long time since I've last posted here. I do intend to get the posts back up and running, but I have had a lot of changes going on recently, and keeping up with my own life has been quite a bit distracting. This weekend, I will be heading to Grand Junction, CO for a conference where I will be presenting at two workshops, and trying to build connections for IRI. After that, I will be coming back home, and, with luck, be able to catch up with myself again.

Some of the ongoing events that I am working with include:

• The recent acceptance of my PhD application in Intercultural Education (hooray!)
• Making class selections for the program in August
• Weekly youth programs focusing on cognitive development and critical thinking
• Preparation for the Grand Junction Trip
• Rebuilding the IRI website (we should have a new site up in the next few months)
• Preparing for a training trip to the Philippines and Hong Kong
• I will be in the Philippines for several weeks in May
• I will be in Hong Kong for June and July

In short, I'm keeping busy. I didn't intend to stay away from the blog for so long, and I can't say when I will resume regular posting again, but I do intend to get things up and running in the near future.

On the Road! Next up: Conceptual Thinking and teaching

It seems I wasn't able to pull my ideas together in time to get an extra blog in. This is due, primarily, to the fact that my chosen topic required more reflection than I had originally thought. It's also because the topic will probably take more than one post, which takes some extra time to write up. Instead, I will provide some insight into my upcoming insight - over the next few weeks, I plan to look at how the idea of conceptual training interacts with the practice of teaching.

During the work we have done with IRI, we have identified several areas where traditional (and some non-traditional) teaching methods can conflict with conceptual training. I plan to look at some of these areas of conflict to see why the conflict exists, and what we might be able to do to facilitate more critical and analytical thinking in our teaching methodology. Please note that many of these concerns aren't unique to our work - a lot of them are concerns that have been raised in education for years. The reason I am reviewing them is not because they are all original, but in the hopes that the insights we have gained may inform the ongoing discussion and perhaps present new windows into potential solutions.

But that's what's coming next - this week I am on the road! Next week, I may have the beginning of the teaching discussion, or I may talk a bit about what I've learned on my WY trip - depending mostly on how interesting the trip turns out to be.

Trip Prep

As I mentioned last blog, next week I travel to Wyoming to meet with Al and update our plans for the rest of 2015 into 2016. I am also looking for some part-time teaching work to expand my reserves (I originally planned for working with IRI two years before having to go back to work - I made it five, so I'm overdue). As a result, things have been a bit busy for me. This means a shorter post today, and possibly no post next Monday, as I will be traveling, but I will try to post something later this week, to make up for today's lightness and next week's lack.

Schedule Changes Change Things

Well, it appears that, due to both immigration policy changes and some issues regarding water availability in Chimoio, my trip to Mozambique has been postponed for the foreseeable future. The water issues are, apparently, creating a high-mosquito environment that Malaria turns into a high-risk environment, and is also creating water shortages. I don't have all the details on what the background on the issues are, but it is apparently significant enough that our Mozambican Director thinks I should probably stay away for now.

This leaves me with more time to find work, however, so it isn't all bad. With some contracted or adjunct work, I should be able to start rebuilding my cash reserves for the next few years working with IRI. Sometimes, one closed door opens another.

I will be traveling to Wyoming in early August to meet with Al when he gets back from Mozambique. We will discuss everything he has seen while he was there, and work on our goals for 2016 and beyond. There's a lot happening with IRI (even if my personal adventures are a bit curtailed), and we need to make sure we have a plan of action. Granted, most plans don't survive the first "interesting" event they encounter, but at least it gives us a foundation to build and modify our approach.

Exciting things are happening - we just need to make sure we are ready to act on them!

Trip Preparations and Changes

It appears I get another schedule change. I will no longer be going to Alaska this year - the meeting was postponed for scheduling and financial reasons, but is being rescheduled for next year. I will be heading to Mozambique and South Africa, however. I am still working on the details, but it appears I will be heading over mid-July and staying for at least a month or more. Of course, procedures for getting a visa for Moz. have changed, so I also have to figure out how to get the visa so I can get there. It's things like this that keep life interesting.

2015 Tour 1 - Complete!

Well, it looks like I've finished running around for now. The next trip isn't scheduled until July, so I have a few months to process things and work on other projects. I'm still recovering from the travel (I just got in yesterday), so to make up for last week and give you something to look at this week, I give you a picture of my route for this tour:

Stage 1 - The March Route:

Thanks to Google Maps for the Image

If the image is too small, the distance covered was approximately  3500 miles or 5633 km. I was able to visit several of our supporters and friends, and it took about two and a half weeks to cover. I stayed in Broken Arrow for about a week and a half before taking off again, which gave me a bit of a break. Then came stage 2:

Stage 2 - The April Route:

Thanks again to Google Maps - you are quite useful.

This trip covered about 1800 miles or 2900 km. I stayed in Lewistown for about a week, which was the longest stay of the trip back. The entire trip took about 2.5 weeks, with the Lewistown stay counted in.

The grand total distance covered for the trip was about 5400 miles or 8690 km. Yes, I know the numbers don't all add up correctly, but I'm estimating and rounding a bit. The basic idea is there. That basic idea being that this was quite the long haul. 

In addition to the distance traveled, I had to get the car repaired twice along the way, and I still need to get the AC fixed (it broke down somewhere around Denver). It turns out cars don't like being driven over 5000 miles in two months. Overall, though, it was a great trip, and I'm glad I was able to go. Thanks to everyone I got to talk to and stay with along the way, and to everyone who pitched in and helped me out with various (mostly repair) expenses. Y'all are great. (What? I went to Texas on this trip, I can use "y'all.")

On the Road Again

Once again, lots of traveling this week, so not much to post.

Check that, here's a quick travel tip: always, ALWAYS carry extra oil and coolant on long trips. It saves you from, for example, realizing that you are out of coolant while driving on a highway in a location that is about 45 miles from the nearest inhabited area. That is not fun. Not fun at all.

There - that's your tip for the week. Next week is the seminar I am holding in Lewistown, MT. I should have something more interesting to update with then.

Travel Takes Time

I'm currently in the Dallas, TX area. I started in Spokane, WA, and have been driving through Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma. I return to OK tomorrow. These trips are primarily to meet with supporters and partners. We want to keep our connections with the people helping us, and the best way to do that is in person. It is a great trip, and I get to meet lots of incredible people, but it is tiring. It also makes writing up posts difficult at times, especially when I am moving from place to place every day, and each trip is over 4 hours.

That's the long way of saying I don't have much to post this week. Next week is much more relaxed, as I will be staying in the Tulsa area for a while.

An Interesting Interpretation

Well, I'm back to traveling. I just finished a missions conference in Grand Junction, Colorado, and am on my way to visit a church in DeKalb, Missouri. I love to travel, but I will admit that I also like having a few days between presentations and driving to cool down a bit (and post blog entries). Right now, I am taking a short break in Denver before heading off tomorrow for Missouri.

While I am traveling, I still get updates from the office and our supporters. One such update proved particularly interesting: apparently there was an article in a magazine that referenced an article that I wrote for the Room For Doubt website.

Now, I remember writing the article: I was asked to write a series of introductions to several web articles that people might be interested in reading. The articles in question were not articles produced by Room For Doubt (a Christian website), but by several atheists and agnostics, who were talking about their understanding of ethics, morality, and life in general. The hope was that the Christian readers of the Room For Doubt (I'm going to call it RFD from now on), site would be able to see how outsiders to the faith through about and understood our world. As such, I was asked not be as unbiased in my presentation as possible, allowing readers to think about what these alternative views and their implications (both good and bad).

One of the readers, apparently, was Kent B. True (the nom de plume of Harold Orndorff) for the Restoration Herald. It seems I was a more successful than I had intended in my neutrality, as Kent was under the impression that I was endorsing the content of the articles, not simply the reading of them. Kent's article was sent to us by one of our supporters, who was curious about the interesting position Kent claimed I was taking. Unfortunately, I have tried to find where these articles got posted, but have failed to do so. This means that I have only my recollection of my comments (as my original comments are buried in some deep, dark corner of one of my computers), so it may be that the framing of my comments by the site, or even the comments themselves indicated a position I had not intended to take. So, both for our supporter's and Kent's sake, let me clarify my position.

To be fair to Kent, most of his analysis was of the content of the articles I was recommending. These articles were largely existentialist in nature, and Ken (to brutally shorten a much longer and more complex argument) believed existentialism to be untenable as a source of ethics.

I agree.

There: point clarified. Now this is not to say I was just blowing smoke in my recommendations for these articles, I genuinely believe that the authors are intelligent people making the best case they can for their position. That's why I recommended other people read them; it is important to understand other positions, not just our interpretations or caricatures of other positions. This does not, however, mean I agree with them. Certainly, there are parts of what many of the authors said that I think are legitimate, but I tend to agree with (as well as find fault with) parts of what nearly everyone says. Just because I agree with a point, that doesn't mean I agree with the main point or conclusion of a position or argument.

I believe existentialism to be a valiant effort, but ultimately futile. That is, really, one of the big reasons I am not an existentialist. To me, it looks like someone trying to cross a vast chasm by holding out two boards...then trying to walk across them. The idea of putting out boards to cross is good, and the idea of crossing on the boards is good, but when you put all the ideas together, they just don't work.

So my apologies to anyone who believed I was an existentialist. I know I am amazing, and everyone wants me in their corner, but that's not the case here. Also my apologies to whoever might have been confused by the misunderstanding. Finally, I apologize to anyone who really didn't care about any of this, and read through this article hoping I would eventually move on to something more interesting.

If anyone is interested in Kent's views and opinions, he also has a blog called The Clubhouse. While I do not endorse all of his ideas (or anyone else's, really), I do think he has some interesting points, and endorse reading them.

It Turns Out Trips Take Preparation

Just what the title says. This particular trip will be about two months long, and involve at least five states where I will be presenting/speaking that I know of so far. I think it's getting to me a bit, but I want to keep posting regularly, so here's the update: I am getting ready for lots and lots of driving broken up by periods of speaking and presenting. I expect I will be exhausted by the time I am done, but I plan to keep posting during the trip. Speaking of which, the next post will be a kind of "recap" for those people who have just started visiting recently, and may not be up on all my "Insights Into" posts. My plan is to give an overview of the topics I have currently covered along with links, so newcomers can catch up without having to read the less interesting posts (like this one). I may also try to give a quick overview of where I am headed with the posts, as well, depending on the amount of time my travels afford me.

Next post - probably from Kansas or Colorado.

Quick Update

So this week I am getting ready for traveling next week. As my next travel session will probably be very long, that means getting my tax info out of the way so I can travel with at least that much stress off my shoulders. This has been distracting, so my post this week has been delayed. I keep telling myself "I just need to finish this thing, then I will post," but the truth is, it really isn't happening. So I figured I should put up  short post to explain why my post isn't up, and probably won't be until next week.

Job accomplished.

In the meantime, I have been thinking about the terms I have been using to describe Direct Understanding. Part of the trouble I have had in explaining our ideas is that we have a lot of terms we could use, but none of them are exactly what we want. Understanding, comprehension, ideas, concepts, definitions - all of these have different concepts attached to them, but none of them quite work, since the common understanding of them tends to be 1) vague, and 2) highly overlapping. This makes precision difficult, and explanations long and somewhat tedious. I may, therefore, put together a list of terms with definitions as I use them in my explanations - a kind of Glossary of Jason. I'm not sure if/when I will do this, but given the complexity of the topic, it may be useful. Whether I do or not, I still want to spend time exploring how direct and indirect understanding impacts our personal identity, so that will probably be in the next post.

This Year's Travels Begin!

Today I leave Spokane for Casper, WY. As I have mentioned before, I will be working with one of our local Church partners, as well as putting on a secular version of IRI's human development workshop for Casper College. This week is travel and preparation, and next week the real fun begins! I am looking forward to working in both venues. We know that our work is beneficial for both Christian growth, and general human development, and are excited to demonstrate this at Casper. The college training will be held during the day, while the Church work will take place in the evening.

Once I finish the workshop in Casper, I will be heading back to Spokane. There is still work I need to do here, as well as additional plans to me made for the rest of this year. Things are starting to heat up; let's see where they go!

Insight Into: Travel (In the North)

As I've noted previously, I will be traveling from Washington state to Wyoming in a few weeks. One of the things I really like about my work is the opportunity I have to travel. So far, I know I will be going to Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, and Alaska in the first half of the year, and probably back overseas in the second half. I love travel; I get to see all kinds of different places and people, and learn firsthand about thing going on in those places. I often learn things I never would have known had I not been there in person to see what's going on and talk with people who are far closer to the local happenings than whatever news anchor or website I would have gotten information from otherwise. It is fun, exciting, and generally one of the two best parts about my job (the other being teaching).

That said, there is one part of travel that I don't enjoy so much...the actual travelling from where I am to where I'm going. Often these trips involve several hours in a plane or car, sitting. Each has ways to keep distracted - on a plane, you can read, or sometimes watch in-flight shows, or listen to music. In cars, you actually get to stop and get out from time to time, which is extremely welcome. Nevertheless, the actual trip out to wherever I am going is usually on a tight schedule and/or budget, so there are no extra stops or sightseeing along the way, so it is a lot of sitting. If I'm driving, it also involves navigation, timing gas and hotel stops, and managing the weather (also driving, but I figure that's a given).

This particular trip, I am driving across Montana to reach Wyoming. Being winter here in the U.S., neither Washington state, Montana, not Wyoming are known for particularly hospitable travel conditions, and I am currently in the process of making sure my car is up to the standards needed to cross the mountains in winter. This means figuring out what kinds of tires to use (all-weather, studded, something else?) where to get them (someplace with high quality but high cost, or someplace like Wal-Mart), and what other materials I may need (a shovel, tire chains, extra supplies, etc.). The fact of the matter is that even with all my preparations, a heavy storm in the passes could keep me locked in place for days, depending on when it hits. Alternatively, I could have great weather the entire way, and not need anything I am taking with me. Coming from the plains, winter car preparation hasn't usually been this complex for me, so this is an interesting experience. I have driven through this area in near-winter before (usually around November, not February), so I have some idea what I'm in for, but this is the first trip where the entire trip will be through the wintry north. All in all, it should be far less dull than a lot of car trips, though, and I plan to travel by day, so while it might take longer, at least I will have the benefit of daylight (and the effect it can have on ice and snow - namely, helping get rid of them).

For those of you who are native to this kind of climate and terrain, feel free to enjoy my nervous discomfort; I know I would find it amusing, if the situation were reversed. For those of you for whom snow is only real as a concept, here's a quick taste of the difference it makes in travel and driving. It's kind of fun knowing that some who read this post will find it amusing (because they've been doing this since childhood), while other will (I hope) find it interesting and very different from their own experiences. The world is a big place, and the internet brings a lot of people together - even for posts like this.

Planning, Planning, Planning

We are working on our scheduling for 2015 right now at IRI, and it looks like I will be traveling quite a bit during the year. If anyone happens to be in the areas I will be visiting, and wants to talk about our work, they are welcome to contact me to see if we can meet.

The current (verified) plan is:
Feb. 2-5 - Casper, WY*
Mar. 13-15 - Grand Junction, CO
April 12-17 - Lewistown, MT

Meetings still in planning include:
Broken Arrow, OK - Early March
Alaska - July
Hong Kong - Fall 2015

We are also hoping to schedule some stops with our friends and supporters to give personal updates. If you have any interest in arranging meetings with me or anyone else at IRI, you can contact us at: info@insiaghtagentsofchange.com.

---------------
*Edit: this is actually 3-6. My mind was off a day, apparently.

Hong Kong Report

I've been back from Hong Kong for about a week, and I am still a bit jet lagged. The trip back was a fairly uneventful 32 hours, but I fear I have not entirely recovered. My time in Hong Kong was, however, very enjoyable and fruitful. I was able to work with Al and Kitty on a variety of training projects. Al and I also got a chance to review some of our respective observations and theories as well as set up some long term plans for IRI.

As always, the people we are working with were great. Linda, our host, was a great sport about having more guests than beds (I slept on a couch while I was there). She also worked with Al on training programs at church, eventually taking over the training herself. Kitty, our HK board member, also worked with Al and me on church training programs. I think that Linda and Kitty are an excellent start on developing new trainers in Hong Kong, but we will certainly be looking for more as we go along. I was also able to work with Kitty on a number of teacher training programs for some of the local schools. Like last year, we primarily focused on SEN (special educational needs) schools, whose teachers face particular challenges which require creative and adaptable thinking. In addition, Kitty arranged for me to be a keynote speaker at an educational conference. The audience was primarily senior teachers and principals, although we had some education students and a few parents, as well. The presentation was on building relationships in educational environments, and (from what I could tell) was well received. It was a great opportunity, and I'm glad I was able to present to such a great audience.

I'm grateful for the opportunity to work in Hong Kong. It is a great place, and I love working with everyone there. Currently, our plans are to return next year - Al will be back for a short time in the Spring, and I should be back for another round of teacher training in the fall. We hope to increase our presence in educational and professional development, and to that end, I have begun looking into PhD programs to provide additional credentials for our program, and to advance my own knowledge and formal academic research on our theories and strategies for human development. I'll keep everyone posted as that plan develops.

Speaking of theories, I should finally be back to ABC thinking next week with...the ABC cognitive style.

Return to the U.S.A.

I am headed back to the States - the trip should take about 23 hours or so. I expect I will be next to useless for about a day after getting back, what with jet lag and all. I hope to have a bigger post later this week detailing some of the highlights of the trip. Next week, we will be back to the ABCs of ABC!

Busy Week, Not Much Posting

My time in Hong Kong has been very interesting and exciting. I have been working on teacher training, youth programs, and long-term plans for IRI. Unfortunately, this doesn't leave me with as much time to put together more on the ABC concepts. Sorry for the delays. I will be in Hong Kong for one more week, which will continue my busy schedule. I plan to be back on track to continue the overview of the theories behind our work once I get back to the U.S.

I have had a chance to talk with some of our overseas team members at length while here, and have learned more about how some of our ideas have been impacting the people we are working with. I want to include an analysis of some of that information in later posts, but the short version is that things are going very well in terms of our human development programs. The long version will have to wait for a more in-depth blog (or two). In the meantime, I will post a summary of the Hong Kong trip once I get back to the States (or next week, if I can carve out the time).

Arrived in Hong Kong

I have arrived in Hong Kong. I am still a bit jet-lagged and trying to get settled in, so there won't be a regular post this week. I have a busy schedule while I am here, but I will try to get the next cognitive system overview up for next week.

Tired now, time to sleep.

Travel Prep and Delayed Posts

I am preparing for a trip to Hong Kong to do some work with local educators and teach some workshops. I will be traveling next weekend, and arrive late Sunday, so next week's post will probably just be a short update, too. I will continue the overview of our ideas/philosophy of cognition as soon as I can - probably Nov. 3rd at the latest. Sorry for the delay.

The next post will be from Hong Kong!