Imaging The Future

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Photo1: Sitka, Alaska; photo2: the T@B model small ROV, could be us!; photo3: fossiling somewhere.

Randi and I spent Saturday morning looking at small RVs -- strange, given our location and circumstances. We had talked about getting a small RV in past years, trading up slightly from tent camping, carrying a ready-made dry bed and toilet.

Perhaps this is more about envisioning the future, beyond our professional lives. We have talked about moving and settling in Sitka, in southeast Alaska, a vast wilderness of water, islands, rugged mountain landscapes, salmon, whales, and brown bear. Think steady halibut and Dungeness crab! We were both enamored with Sitka, where we visited a couple of years ago. It suits us, being off the beaten track, close to nature, unpretentious, strong sense of community.

I'd like to have a small RV, an R-Pod (look great in the campground), I-Camp, or T@B, maybe the European model (here too). The classic teardrops are a bit small, and I'm not interested in towing a barge. Yep, the small ones are just right -- a bit funky, basic, and portable.

I can see setting myself to visit all of the classic fossil sites of America and Canada, hitting the road several times a year, staying away long enough to appreciate the routines of home.

Envisioning the future.

On Bubbles, Buffers, and the Permeability of Membranes

Our students and families here in Dakar are buffered from Senegalese culture. They live in ex-pat communities, behind walls, and children are serviced by an array of so-called domestics -- maids, cooks, drivers, sometimes nannies. The kids are plugged-into technology, and are whisked from the bubble of their fortress homes to their fortress school. Families commonly reside in Senegal for years without seeing and experiencing Senegal, save a select slice, consisting of excursions to the toubab market and the toubab beach-side resorts in Saly.

Or so I felt at the close of my first year here. My opinion has changed. The subjects of internationalism and cultural bubbles has proven to be much more complicated, and personal. My initial opinions were oversimplified and exaggerated.

The following are notes for a paper on psychological bubbles:  how they work, the interaction between bubbles and the milieu (international), and an application here in Senegal.

INTRODUCTION

=  open with profile/stories of 10 individuals:

=  C. is a Brit living in Monterey, married to an American, is consultant on construction projects in Senegal and elsewhere, often on the road, staying in 5-star hotels

= B is a Canadian international school teacher, living on compound, shies away from contact with culture, has distain for Senegalese and Senegalese culture

=  R. is 6^th grader, with Senegalese father and American mother

=  M. is 4^th generation Lebanese Senegalese, parents both prominent business owners in Dakar

=  B. is an international school teacher, former PCV, avid Africa-phile, politics and the arts, avidly learning local language, actively engages/seeks out culture opportunities

= M. is young international school teacher, attracted to surf scene, youth culture, adventure sport

=  E. is daughter of company executive, mother has private business, works with Senegalese, refers to them as her “boys”, opulent home

=  Y. is son of prominent diplomat, actively connected to culture, infinitely curious

=  A. is a Lebu fisherman, father of two

=  S. is Senegalese, a Dakar taxi driver, father of three, city boy

=  big questions:  What is a cultural bubble?  How do cultural bubbles work, particularly in an international setting?  How does this apply our life in Dakar?   

=  refer to initial perceptive/opinion, now realize that it oversimplified, if not laced with hyperbole

 

SUMMARY POINTS

1.     We inhabit psychological bubbles, which encapsulates all that we are:  our beliefs, opinions and attitudes;  our customs and traditions;  our habits and conditioning;  the totality of our self.

2.     Can understand differing response to cultural milieu – in ourselves and others --  through an understanding of the bubbles in which we reside:  how the milieu influences us, and how we tend to respond or react.

3.     The culture of Senegal has tremendous depth and breath, and the depth/breath of our interaction with it is shaped by our interest/curiosity, the nature of our bubbles, and the social realities of living and working in the country.  As M. commented, it’s all culture

4.     We might identify the central points in Senegalese culture, and create learning opportunities around them.  What are these central points?

 

NOTES x POINT

1.    We inhabit psychological bubbles, which encapsulates all that we are:  our beliefs, opinions and attitudes;  our customs and traditions;  our habits and conditioning;  the totality of our self.

=  We inhabit psychological bubbles

=  Bounded/membrane enclosures that encapsulate all that we are

=  All of our beliefs, customs, attitudes, opinions, habits and conditioning, our personalities, flow patterns of psychic energy, all of our pictures of ourselves, our needs/desires

=  Stemming from our culture, or nests of cultures, ranging from family, region, nation, mixed with the idiosyncratic

=  We experience our own bubbles at a young age through what is not us:  our relations – friends, families of our friends, our community.  We experience the similarities, how we resonate with others, and the differences, points of friction or disagreement

=  The bubble defines whom we are, and its membrane protects us from threats, energy is invested in maintaining the boundary, without it, we experience nothingness, existential terror, loss of self

=  We – the bubbles – vary in their physical properties and dynamics/responses

=  All people in all cultures inhabit and maintain bubbles, a psychological body.  It is necessary for the integrity of the self, it defines our self

=  Tend to notice it when it is pressed against, when we encounter differences, friction, disagreement, punctured, encounters with another bubble, or embedded in a different cultural milieu.  Marriage can be an intensified study/experience of bubble dynamics (my mother would never have been that cold), as points of resonance in a honeymoon period yield to differences, as the deeper, initially repressed aspects of the self begin to express themselves

=  These are psychological worlds – complex, interactive, and conditioned, no less so than the external world, microcosm.   Our bubbles are cultured, with patters of interaction

=  We can study individual differences, how your bubble is different than mine, with respect to relative physical properties -- size, permeability, fortifications and guard posts, circulation, and psychological qualities reflected in the investment of psychic energy – where and how it is directed.

=  Ways in which loss of bubble happens:  where, under what circumstances?

=  Bubble maintains the integrity of our personal meaning, constructs of the world that make sense, our sense of rightness, competence, confidence, self-justification, goodness

=  It is our feeling of I, and we tend to choose from the environment evidence which confirms or reinforces that sense of self

=  It is the psychological self, the totality of I, or many, constantly shifting small i’s

=  We seek confirmation of our pictures of our self, as opposed to existential reality

=  We react when the integrity is threatened, whether it be a poke, a rub, or a deformation:  the sense of self is affected, and responds reflectively to right itself, to restore the picture, the whole, how we define ourselves;  the bubble, and the membrane of the bubble, defines and protects the core of our integrity

=  Homeostasis, equilibrium, in accord with habits and conditioning

=  It is a world, no less complex and interactive than the external world, the totality of who we are

=  Can view as a world composed of a culture, reflecting the culture of our youths, our models, our training;  the nested cultural milieus in which we were raised are reflected in our bubbles, how else to explain it

=  Pictures and imagination, no need to be consistent with reality, objective we are not – the hero, hard-bodied elite athlete, happy, fashion magazine-cover beauty, brilliant and insightful, object of envy and admiration, world traveler, clever and sensitive artist, eternally youthful/Peter Pan, wise King, courageous risk-taker, the suffering and lover, the clairvoyant psychoanalyst/magician,  the selfless altruist, wealthy granter;  secret knowledge, secret insight, can’t tell you, special, sacred insight, implying difference in status, worth;  the common thread being that they are all false, all imaginary

=  Bombarded by evidence to the contrary to our pictures)

=  We all inhabit bubbles, the totality of who we are, our training, our habits and conditioning, beliefs and customs, our psychological and cultural worlds. 

=  We can observe an identical dynamic in individuals regardless of culture or place, be it Arona (a Lebu fisherman/diver from Plage Ouakam), Samba (a Dakar taxi driver from Yoff), Almamy (a Baye Fall tourist guide from Fass).

 

2.    Can understand differing response to cultural milieu – in ourselves and others --  through an understanding of the bubbles in which we reside:  how the milieu influences us, and how we tend to respond or react.

=  Differences/similarities:  amongst siblings (Mark & I), relations with parents (across generations), relations amongst relatives (within families), relations amongst friends of same community, relations across regions, cultures.

=  Differ in how we respond:  reacting with or without self-questioning, self-examination, reflection

=  Differ in the degree to which we tend to identify, to hold fast to our identification, or reflect in the aftermath, separate

=  Differ in our ability to be quiet, to be still, to try to be still, to listen, to be receptive

=  Differ in the tendency to attend to universals

=  Differ in the degree to which we identify with negative states

=  Differ in the tendency to justify or question those justifications – what am I doing?  why am I responding this way?

=  Graphic of shared cultures

=  Differences in the flow of psychic energy

=  Differ in what attracts/repels us

=  Differ in what are we afraid of

=  Differ in relative locus of control

=  Differ in all these personality traits

=  Differ in the degree to which we are curious enough to press through apprehension

=  Differ in our interest/ability to observe/reflect upon the dynamic – my reactions, separating/detach my reaction (meaning) from the object

=  Differ in our willingness and capacity for self-observation as a context for learning

=  Differ in our tendency to defend ourselves, to vigilantly maintain defensive perimeters

=  Differ in our tendency toward project and confusion of projection with the object itself

=  Differ in our tendency to transfer ones internal stagnations/internal blockages to object

=  Differ in the degree to which we attend/explore causal links – how are things really connected?

=  Differ in our ability/willingness to be or become small v need to occupy or fill the space

=  Differ in the tendency to be quiet v to be center of attention

=  Differ in the degree to which we identify with pictures of oneself and one’s life

=  I can inhabit their bubble, can they inhabit mine?

=  Differ in the degree to which we are satisfied with surfaces;  doubt ones understanding of a situation, ask, what am I missing

=  Differ in our intentions and aims (conscious or unconscious drives)

=  Differ in how we respond when provoked, punctured, tripped, deformed, pressed, rubbed

=  Differ in how we respond to anxiety

=  Differ in our need for/pursuit of comfort:  I’m comfortable/at ease only when certain conditions are met, limited by that

=  Differ in the degree to which we understand the dynamics of psychological projection, transference, self-justification, attribution

=  Differ in the degree to which we are susceptible to identification with negative states, whether focused on self (self-loathing, self-recrimination, sadness, depression), or others (blame, jealousy, envy, anger, resentment, account-making), whether active (enflamed), or passive (smoldering)

=  Differ in our tendency to behave intelligently – set aims (charting course, requires a keel), on-going assessment of those aims (dead reckoning), reframing those aims as circumstances change (course correction), critically filter information to inform progress toward those aims (meteorology), observation of the process (routine maintenance of the hull) – as opposed to drifting, or piloting without a keel.

=  Differ in the degree to which we assimilate to the norm – everyone likes me, everyone admires me, I fit in, everyone speaks highly of me

=  In international setting, can view bubble dynamics in two ways, from outside in (how the milieu influences/impinges upon the bubble) and inside out (how we respond to the milieu)

=  Differ in the tendency to look for misconceptions and misperceptions, and then challenge them.

=  What do we feel safe/secure doing?  About what are we threatened.

=  The tendency to be condescending.

=  Examples:  Samba, R, H,  B;   we can analyze

 

3.    The culture of Senegal has tremendous depth and breath, and the depth/breath of our interaction with it is shaped by our interest/curiosity, the nature of our bubbles, and the social realities of living and working in the country.  As M. commented, it’s all culture

= The context of Senegal:  characterizing the milieu – there is not one Senegalese, but a great many, not different than the range of cultural milieus in my home of Monterey County.

=  We can ask:  Which Senegal do you inhabit?  What aspects of the culture have you experienced, and to what depth? 

=  It is true – we, the expat community here in Dakar, are buffered from Senegalese culture.  In part, it is out of necessity.  The difference between our customs and material wealth is extreme. 

= We tend to live in a so-called third culture, a derived culture, composed of families who have greater identification with an international milieu, and education in international school attended largely by other ex-pats, than their home countries.

= My students themselves, at the age of 11 and 12, are, with rare exception, quite open and interested in learning about an experiencing Senegal, as are many/most of their parents.  Families are busy – with their work, with sport, with travel.  Having domestics makes the business of family life easier and more efficient.

= While the psychodynamics of bubbles contribute to the buffering, I now attribute much greater weight to the realities of living in Dakar – the need for privacy and security, given the fantastic disproportion between relative material wealth.

 

4.    We might identify the central points in Senegalese culture, and create learning opportunities around them.  What are these central points?

 

LINKS TO TERROR MANAGEMENT THEORY

PsychWiki          UMissouri          Suite 101          

Greenberg1          Greenberg2          Greenberg3          

 Salzman1          Salzman2          Salzman3

Elements of a Curriculum on the Psychology of Living 6: Learning to Become Small

Introduction to the series

How is it that children spend a thousand hours a school year in classrooms, but over the course of a dozen years come away with having learned so little about themselves -- practical knowledge about the psychology of being human.

The following series of blog entries explores the elements of a curriculum on the psychology of living, with the aim of providing children a toolkit for understanding themselves and their relations at a deep level.

There is nothing novel in these ideas; none belong to me. They are, I believe, generally accepted concepts from cognitive, social and clinical/counseling psychology, and deserve to be as much a part of the pedagogy of schooling as math facts and decoding skills.

I've shared these ideas with students and parents in recent years, typically in the context of a parent-student conference, or in response to unnecessary dramas associated with managing a classroom of two dozen or so diverse children.

The entries are not referenced, but the concepts can be found in an entry-level psychology text. The bibliography may be developed at a later date.

Imagine that we are studying life on Earth through a very large telescope from a distant world. What patterns might we observe in the lives of humans? What might we conclude about the nature and organization of their minds, their so-called psychology?

* * *

Observation is everything.

To become quiet and observe. To separate from the chatter, the street noise, as it were, a consequence of our large, complex brains, spinning freely, like windmills.

I believe that for many students, being quiet, really quiet, might be perceived as an altered state, unfamiliar and uncomfortable, though I think that all could recall moments of quiet, of specific experiences of being quiet, or quieting.

We are living in a time of being plugged in, through ear buds. Listening may seem foreign, requiring an effort, work. We identify with the noise, a kind of hypnotism, mindlessness, calming, buffering.

Becoming quiet is the entry point to observation, and all forms of personal work, be it prayer, meditation, or reflection of any kind. Listening and observing is everything, the basic skill, both with respect to others and to ourselves, particularly to the sensation of the body.

While active listening is a core construct in practically all classrooms (it is one of four so-called community agreements at ISDakar), we might introduce students to the experience of being quiet as a part of our daily practice. We might open the school day by sitting quietly, with no other aim than to listen to the sounds in our milieu, to the sounds most distant, and the sounds most proximate, to the sounds emanating from outside ourselves, and the sounds emanating from within us. No reference to prayer, or meditation, no suggestion of any practice other than listening and being quiet -- a springboard to a discussion of what it means to be quiet, what it feels like, what it tastes like. The aim would not to create little gurus, but to acquaint children with the taste of being quiet, offering them a point of reference.

Our left hemisphere talks, incessantly, like talk radio, offering critiques, commentaries, and analyses. But the chatter is not us. The noise is the functioning of a very complex left hemisphere running of itself. It is not about being mentally ill; it's a consequence of our being human, and of inhabiting an exceptionally complex machine.

My students deserves to know this. It's at least as important as finding a common denominator.

We must teach our students to listen, by taste, as if it were an unfamiliar state, then practice it yearlong.

The Week in Review: Crystals & Cap Manuel

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Photos (top to bottom): photo1: Naomi (Congo) & Mahima (India) observing the growth of salol crystals through a dissecting microscope; photo2: Wayde (South Africa) & Chiara (Ecuador/Italy); photo 3: Sam (Gambia) & Chiara; photo 4: Sam; photo 5: Victor (France), Devin (USA), Jahou (Gambia), Alexandra (Canada), JC (Burkina Faso), Carlota (Spain), Kevin (Gambia); photo 6-8: students poke around a limestone/tuff outcrop which underlies the volcanic layer covering much of the surface of the Cap Vert Peninsula.

Elements of a Curriculum on the Psychology of Living 6: Irrational Thinking & Negative Emotion

Introduction to the series

How is it that children spend a thousand hours a school year in classrooms, but over the course of a dozen years come away with having learned so little about themselves -- practical knowledge about the psychology of being human.

The following series of blog entries explores the elements of a curriculum on the psychology of living, with the aim of providing children a toolkit for understanding themselves and their relations at a deep level.

There is nothing novel in these ideas; none belong to me. They are, I believe, generally accepted concepts from cognitive, social and clinical/counseling psychology, and deserve to be as much a part of the pedagogy of schooling as math facts and decoding skills.

I've shared these ideas with students and parents in recent years, typically in the context of a parent-student conference, or in response to unnecessary dramas associated with managing a classroom of two dozen or so diverse children.

The entries are not referenced, but the concepts can be found in an entry-level psychology text. The bibliography may be developed at a later date.

Imagine that we are studying life on Earth through a very large telescope from a distant world. What patterns might we observe in the lives of humans? What might we conclude about the nature and organization of their minds, their so-called psychology?

* * *

As with the others in this theme, the ideas here can be simply stated, but deserve a lifetime of reflection and practical application.

We are conditioned, programmed beings, creatures of habit, responding to the environment in patterned ways. It is what we are, fully. We are fantastically complex and interactive food processing machines, designed to ingest and metabolize food of three types (hamburgers, air and impressions), allowing us to think, feel, move, and function physically.

We are subject to negative emotions, which recur like little (or not so little) subprograms, wasting tremendous energy, parasitic, like holes in the boat, robbing us of force, leaving us depleted. We have no right to them. They are habits, and destructive bad habits. There is no justification for them.

Negative emotions speak to us. They are irrational:

I will never be successful.


I can't do anything right.


People will never change.


No matter how much I change it doesn't make any difference; others don't recognize the changes.


There is no reason to have hope for the future; my past negative experiences tell it all.


If people can critique my changed behavior, then how can I ever be "good enough"?


No matter how much I change it is never enough.


Life should be simpler.


Life should be fair.


Life should be easy.


There is so much wrong in life how can I ever expect anything good to come my way?


There is too much to do to change my life for the better. It's too hard.


Why can't others change? Why does it have to be me that changes first?


Why can't life be easier on me?


My parents are the reason I am the way I am; nothing will ever change that.


People are only nice to me to see what they can get from me.


I've been treated badly in the past, so why should I expect anything different in the future?


If people loved and supported me, they wouldn't criticize or correct me.


It's always the same: extend my hand in friendship and get it slapped in return.


No matter how good a person I try to be, I always get screwed in the end.


I am what I am and nothing will ever change.


I believe that children deserve to know about, discuss, and explore the phenomena of negative states, irrational beliefs, their consequence, and tools for gaining separation. As a teacher of eleven and twelve years olds, my students are at a point in their cognitive and social development, at the cusp of adolescence, when the time is perfect to explore negative states, both generally, and in the context of our lives. When I've brought it up in the classroom, the room typically falls silent, what for me is an indication that the ideas resonate. As humans we are subject to negative states, and as teachers (including both parents and classroom teachers) we have an obligation to enlighten our students, in so far as we understand the phenomena ourselves.

Elements of a Curriculum on the Psychology of Living 5: Three Laws

Introduction to the series

How is it that children spend a thousand hours a school year in classrooms, but over the course of a dozen years come away with having learned so little about themselves -- practical knowledge about the psychology of being human.

The following series of blog entries explores the elements of a curriculum on the psychology of living, with the aim of providing children a toolkit for understanding themselves and their relations at a deep level.

There is nothing novel in these ideas; none belong to me. They are, I believe, generally accepted concepts from cognitive, social and clinical/counseling psychology, and deserve to be as much a part of the pedagogy of schooling as math facts and decoding skills.

I've shared these ideas with students and parents in recent years, typically in the context of a parent-student conference, or in response to unnecessary dramas associated with managing a classroom of two dozen or so diverse children.

The entries are not referenced, but the concepts can be found in an entry-level psychology text. The bibliography may be developed at a later date.

Imagine that we are studying life on Earth through a very large telescope from a distant world. What patterns might we observe in the lives of humans? What might we conclude about the nature and organization of their minds, their so-called psychology?

* * *

Three laws: the Law of Multiple Is, the Law of Opposites, and the Law of Invisibility. While they can be simply stated, their implications are complex and deserve reflection over a lifetime. They are not referred to as such in psychology texts, but do, I think, distill down many big ideas in the psychology/counseling literature.

We use language to communicate ideas and understandings. Consider how often we refer to ourselves by the personal pronoun I. The word connotes a singular, permanent individuality, but the Law of Multiple Is asserts that it is an incorrect attribution: we are neither singular nor permanent. Being creatures of habit, we respond to the environment in conditioned ways, always and everywhere. As the milieu shifts, so does our response, by association.

We are a constellation of worlds, some larger, some smaller; some are present when we're at school with other friends, some are reserved for mom when we're feeling overwhelmed. All are conditioned, all are patterned, all recur by association when the precipitating context recurs. It is the reality of our lives, and reveals the importance of observing ourselves over a very long period of time, taking snapshots of our moods, so as to recognize patterns, and thus achieve a little separation.

The Law of Opposites asserts that what we observe on the outside often has its inverse, its opposite, on the inside. With exception. It is a law of compensation: what we observe is compensating for its opposite, otherwise it wouldn't be there. Over-confidence compensates for insecurity; fearlessness compensates for timidity; bullying compensates for being bullied. It is a general psychological dynamic that deserves to be commonly understood and practically applied, with discretion.

The Law of Invisibility, related to the Law of Opposites, states that we are able to observe others much more clearly than we can observe ourselves. It also suggests that we tend to attribute to others, or project onto them, qualities that are, in fact, our own. Simply stated, fantastic implications, calling into questions our most basic and deeply held perceptions.

Addition (1.30): In connection to these ideas, and irrational beliefs, E. refers to the work of Byron Katie, whose method has been used with children. She writes:

As I began living my turnarounds, I noticed that I was everything I called you. You were merely my projection.

"He should understand me" turns around to:
- He shouldn't understand me. (This is reality.)
- I should understand him.
- I should understand myself.

"I need him to be kind to me" turns around to:
- I don't need him to be kind to me.
- I need me to be kind to him. (Can I live it?)
- I need me to be kind to myself.

"He is unloving to me" turns around to:
- He is loving to me. (To the best of his ability)
- I am unloving to him. (Can I find it?)
- I am unloving to me (When I don't inquire.)

"Paul shouldn't shout at me" turns around to:
- Paul should shout at me. (Obviously: In reality, he does sometimes. Am I listening?)
- I shouldn't shout at Paul.
- I shouldn't shout at me.

Expressions of Grief

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As said in an earlier entry, Randi and I moved a tad closer to Africa this year, having moved from our relatively upscale neighborhood in Mermoz to Cite Africa/Ouakam. One clear indication of this is the family, or families, who live across the street. They occupy an otherwise vacant lot in a half dozen structures built from found materials, ranging from cardboard, corrugated aluminum, and wood scraps of various sizes, shapes and colors.

Africans are endlessly resourceful: they make it work, and do so in ingenuous ways. A vacant lot is transformed into a home, using found materials, with the support of friends and neighbors for whom relations and relationships are capital.

Almamy has explained that they are from Guinea, perhaps with an agreement with the landowner to occupy the property, thus watching over it. Squatters such as these are ubiquitous here. Even the most posh neighborhoods, such as you find in the Almadies, have Africans of lesser means living in the nooks and crannies, and making it work.

I reflected on this point while walking to work on Friday along Rue de Ouakam skirting around a squatter sleeping beneath a makeshift tent. People make it work here, be it sleeping in a makeshift tent, in a half-constructed building, or in a cave on the shore. The subculture/s of Dakar are something I'd like to know more about. They are certainly complex.

There was a death across the street, a young mother. I watched the shrouded body loaded into a van and driven away. For two days thereafter women came to offer their condolences and to grieve. There was wailing, and flailing, falling to the ground, shouting and rolling. The photos above, taken from video which I opted not to upload, capture a few of these rich moments.

From National Public Radio: For Many in Senegal, Statue Is A Monumental Failure

This statue is a short distance from where we live. You'll find this story at Monumental Failure.

Tour de Senegal: Almamy Badiane: The Patient Interpreter

A year ago we realized that in order to see and experience Senegal we would need a cultural interpreter. It's easy for an ex-pat to skim the cultural surface here, creating a life and a routine bypassing the richness and depth of Senegalese culture.

Almamy Badiane has become our close friend, confidant, and our guide to Senegal. He is smart, warm, and generous, and we thank him for his patience over the past two weeks.

Being a guide and translator by profession, working with Almamy involves both friendship and a business transaction. The art comes in blending the two roles, so that the feeling becomes one of traveling together in friendship, with deference to his cultural understanding.

Through Almamy we gained access that would not be possible otherwise. His engaging and friendly manner opens doors. We much appreciate his including us on visits with his extended family in Casamance.

Thank you.

Tour de Senegal/Niokolo Koba: Baking Village Bread

Village bread, shown being prepared above at Campement de Lion, is not that puffy, air-impregnated stuff you get in Dakar. Village bread, baked in a wood-heated beehive-style oven, has the consistency of San Francisco sourdough. The bread was served with all meals, but certainly most enjoyed in the evening when it was still warm, right out of the oven.

For video, see clip1.