Today I was at Tigh Na Mara resort, on Vancouver Island, to deliver a keynote presentation at the Timber Framers Guild conference. The subject of my presentation was the hidden legacy of ancient builders, a legacy that we have almost forgotten but which still runs through the symbolism of creative work in many fields. I have prepared a web version of my presentation (here) for anyone who wishes to view it. Please use a standards-compliant browser (such as Firefox, Opera, or Safari) to view the presentation.

Alcohol offers the drinker a reverie, a nostalgia for the way things once were, or are imagined to have been. Alcohol halts the inner life, or guides it to splendors of the past, or comforts the lost self in the present. Whereas the stimulant user always gazes forward, hungry, the alcoholic seeks to look back. The here and now is unacceptable, it rankles, and the alcoholic possesses no solution for the future. Save one: to continue the fight, to reclaim lost dignity or power or pride, to sweep the old wounds away with a single, defiant gesture of omnipotence. For this is the underlying promise of alcohol, its unspoken secret: that we can remake the world.

Today I was at Tigh Na Mara resort, on Vancouver Island, to deliver a keynote presentation at the Timber Framers Guild conference. The subject of my presentation was the hidden legacy of ancient builders, a legacy that we have almost forgotten but which still runs through the symbolism of creative work in many fields. I have prepared a web version of my presentation (here) for anyone who wishes to view it. (Please do use a standards-compliant browser — such as Firefox, Opera, or Safari — to view the presentation.

Me, circa 1982...

This week I was invited to present at the careers day of my old high school. I have not been back to the school for perhaps twenty years, and I am not in touch with any of my peers from that time. So it was an interesting experience, revisiting those old halls and talking to students in grade eleven about how their careers might unfold. I offered them some basic advice: don't plan your career too far ahead, decide on one step at a time, follow what you love, consider your own measures of success (which are not always those of your peers), enjoy, experiment, discover. The various presenters were introduced at the outset of the session in a humorous way: by having the graduation photo and yearbook blurb for each presenter projected onto the screen of the auditorium. There I was, when it came my turn: feathered hair (remember, this was the age of Luke Skywalker), confident smile (hiding my insecurity), one chin. I looked upon this image from my seat in the auditorium and was understandably a bit chagrined. But alongside the photo was my yearbook text entry, which reads as follows:

Activities: Prefect, Wing Captain, 2nd XV rugby and tour, Macbeth, judo, gymnastics, badminton, sailing, debating, France '80, WW I and II.

Today I was facilitating a group for social service professionals working with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. We were talking about various developments in psychology research, and this reminded me to update my links page. In addition to material on psychology, I also tend to post links in the subjects of astronomy, society, literature, technology, alternative history, and so on. It’s a mixed bag, really. The main links page is here. Additionally, a tag cloud page (which visually ranks links by category) is here.

Several people have voiced interest in participating in an informal creative process group, a forum for people to work on writing primarily, but also other forms of creative work. This initiative is still very much in development; not even the dates and times have been established. But the basic idea is to meet once every couple of weeks over the next few months, at a comfortable and convenient location, and work together toward whatever creative goals people bring.

If you are interested in this type of group, please let me know. My guess is that the group (if it runs) will get off the ground over the next few weeks.

My last website posting was in early January. Apologies for the delay. I've been busy writing, teaching, learning to juggle (really -- it's not that hard), parenting, working with cancer survivors, and developing a new website design. There are still many glitches in the new design, and various things may not be where they used to be, and the front page is littered with posts from the old site -- in the wrong order, but nonetheless still there. I will be working on the new design for the next week or so, tweaking it, trying to get it right, adding new content and new organization. Bear with me.

I've been facilitating workshops for social service professionals interested in learning more about FASD (technically, FASDs). FASD stands for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, which are neurodevelopmental disorders that affect twice as many people as autism. FASDs represent a wide range of symptoms, all of which are caused by exposure to alcohol in the womb.

The aim of these workshops is to educate people about FASDs. Toward that end I am providing the resources that I have created for the training. These four pdf files (attached below) include a basic introduction to what FASDs look like and how they are diagnosed, an overview of the context of these disorders and their risk factors, a collection of mentoring and parenting responses for those who work with individuals affected by FASDs, and some information on working with trauma (since about 90 per cent of those affected by FASDs are also traumatized.)