Happy Holidays!

Its been a busy month with the conclusion of another semester and the holidays quickly upon us. Earlier in the month, I spoke at the Culturemondo round-table in Taipei (http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=812263&lang=eng_news). I had a wonderful time in Taipei and visited the Consciousness Research Group at Yang Ming University. I also visited the Psychology Department at the National Taiwan University and met Jenyi Chao who happened to be moving to Hong Kong next month.

I met many new friends at Culturemondo and caught up with old friends that I hadn’t seen in a while. Joy Tang, who founded OneVillage (http://www.onevillagefoundation.org/ovf/), and one of her partners in Ghana, Kafui Prebbie (http://www.kafui.com/), were highlights. It is always fun hanging out with Joy as she knows many interesting people in Taipei. I spent a few days with Kafui in Hong Kong, where he also gave a talk to our students.

Collaborating with one of our students (Matt Bailey) and a local artist (Maggie Blue), we also hosted the first of a bi-monthly event to promote consciousness (with a press write-up http://www.timeout.com.hk/around-town/features/17269/the-awakening.html). It was a daylong event that included talks, yoga, drumming, film screenings, kirtan, and dancing. The next event will be on Feb. 21st. If you are interested, there is a Facebook group.
There is still time to submit an abstract for Toward a Science of Consciousness that will be held in Hong Kong in June (http://www.asiaconsciousness.org/TSC). It is shaping up to be a memorable event. We will be announcing the plenary speakers shortly.

We’re rebranding our lab, MERECL, to Playlab (will need to write another song) after moving to Kowloon Tong (http://www.playlab.hk/Home.html) with an emphasis on Meaningful Games. We are starting up several exciting new game related projects. If you are a game programmer or artist looking for a great group to work with, please contact us!

The holidays are an opportunity to spend time with family and catching up with friends and on reading. Some of the recent books include Tribes by Seth Godin (one of the TED books that was sent this month), and Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (a book that nicely complements Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond). I’m really proud of my kids who performed wonderfully in their holiday shows, and speech competitions. We had a fun time at home this holiday season watching films, shopping, playing, and spending quality time together.