I've decided to change Flying Spider Monkey to a blog, as the old site—built in Dreamweaver for my free-lance design business—no longer serves.

Blogging has always seemed to me like a great idea, but only if one has something interesting to say. Really, this is about finding my voice. As a returning student in a graduate level studies, I find my voice steadily growing in clarity and confidence. A world of ideas and possibilities continues to widen for me daily since I began the Integral Master of Arts program at John F. Kennedy University in the fall of 2008. A distance/online learning environment has certain advantages over bricks and mortar learning. Timing is flexible, classes are smaller, and the level intimacy has surprised me. The biggest difference is the focus on writing, since traditional "exams" loose their relevance online, writing is the best way to display learning. I suppose most people already know how much writing is involved in higher education. Being forced to write in such marathonic volume, changes a person. Well, it's changed me anyway.

My intention for this blog is to begin easing out of academia (3 quarters to go) and slipping into an outwardly-projected and opening attitude towards life. Out of necessity, I will begin by mirroring posts for this quarter's online courses; Cognitive Science and Integral Politics. I will inevitably draw in varied interests as is my bent. I hope some may find this interesting, as I respond to this draw to speak things out into the Whateversphere.

Thanks for reading!