Carlos and I get acquainted:
Connected
Caledonia Heron: sorry - I crashed :)
Carlos Cornelius: don’t worry… do you know how can i sit down? Im new in SL
Caledonia Heron: sure - right click on the pillow and select sit from the circle menu
Carlos Cornelius: thanks
Caledonia Heron: yay! well done :)
Carlos Cornelius: so, are you meeting daily?
Caledonia Heron: yes, your profile indicates you are new in sl - how are you finding it so far?
Caledonia Heron: yes - there are 4 meetings per day
Caledonia Heron: 1,7,1,7 sl
And orient to SL, avatars and ….shopping
Carlos Cornelius: OK, this is just my third time. I like it, although I am a bit confused
Caledonia Heron: lol, yes, that’s pretty standard I’d say - I was confused when I started also
Caledonia Heron: can I answer any questions for you?
Carlos Cornelius: sure, well… I guess I have many but how to get new clothes is something I would like to do soon
Carlos Cornelius: everybody looks very fancy in SL
Caledonia Heron: ah yes, clothes and hair, skins, etc
Caledonia Heron: there are 3 ways - transferable gifts from friends, freebies and items that are for sale
Caledonia Heron: you can buy things at shops or you can browse items at sl brokers like slexchange.com or onrez.com
Caledonia Heron: or….you can make things :)
Carlos Cornelius: ok, thanks… did you design your own?
Caledonia Heron: no, I’m a little short on time so I typically shop for things
Carlos Cornelius accepted your inventory offer.
Carlos Cornelius: how long have you been using SL?
Caledonia Heron: over a year
Carlos Cornelius: I see you have given me a shirt, thank you!
Carlos Cornelius accepted your inventory offer.
Carlos Cornelius accepted your inventory offer.
Carlos Cornelius accepted your inventory offer.
Caledonia Heron: yes, you’re welcome - I’m searching through my inventory for guy stuff :)
Carlos Cornelius: and a bunch of other things… wow, thanks!
Carlos Cornelius accepted your inventory offer.
Caledonia Heron: freebies - but something to change into :)
Carlos Cornelius: yes, it helps a lot, thank you again
Carlos Cornelius accepted your inventory offer.
Caledonia Heron: of course
Carlos Cornelius accepted your inventory offer.
Caledonia Heron: all the clothes snap to the body so many things are really unisex - I often find men’s clothes less hoochie mama :)
Carlos Cornelius: haha! yes, fashion is very important here in SL…
Caledonia Heron: you can go to Free Dove or Yadni’s and find lots of free things
Caledonia Heron: lots of other places too
Caledonia Heron: and if you’re new there is a window where vendors give out stuff to new avs
Carlos Cornelius accepted your inventory offer.
Carlos Cornelius: yes, i will check out these places
Caledonia Heron: if you go to Calla there is a freebie area just to the left of the front door - look for the object called Jack in a Box - it has free clothes, skin, hair, etc …pretty nice for a starter kit
Down to “bidnez”….arrival at PaB…
Caledonia Heron: how are you here at PaB?
Carlos Cornelius: i am part of the “ways of knowing” forum and Piet (Pema) invited me
Caledonia Heron: ah, of course Carlos M (hope I got it right?)
Carlos Cornelius: yes, are you also at wok?
Tara popped in:
Caledonia Heron: hi Tara :)
Tara Farmer: Hi guys
Caledonia Heron: yes - not terribly much since things moved to sl
Carlos Cornelius: Hi!
And then she popped out. Back to PaB:
Caledonia Heron: Qwak is less appealing to me
Caledonia Heron: Qwaq
Caledonia Heron: (always think of ducks)
Carlos Cornelius: I know this is much nicer
Caledonia Heron: indeed
Caledonia Heron: have you been meeting with the others in qwaq?
Carlos Cornelius: yes, i try to attend the sunday talk, but i haven’t been able to do much lately
Caledonia Heron: mmm, understood - weekends are difficult - so much going on
Caledonia Heron: have you been doing the 9sec practice?
Carlos Cornelius: i tried it for 2 weeks, but it has been hard because i am at the last stages of writing my dissertation
Carlos Cornelius: everytime I try to relax and unplug myself from my surroundings i can only think of my dissertation
Caledonia Heron: lol
Caledonia Heron: dedication :)
Carlos Cornelius: but i will have more time during the summer and i will try to attend SL more frequently
Caledonia Heron: yes, this forum may work for you :)
Carlos Cornelius: have you been doing the 9sec practice?
Caledonia Heron: yes, admittedly not as disciplined as perhaps some of the other participants :)
Caledonia Heron: I’m what you’d call a shade tree mechanic :)
Caledonia Heron: winging it under a tree…ha!
Carlos Cornelius: :)
A bit of mutual professional curiosity and then time in space (like outer space):
Caledonia Heron: what is your dissertation about …25 words or less :)
Carlos Cornelius: the psychology of time, more focused on representation and memory than on experience
Caledonia Heron: wow! you certainly are in the right place :)
Caledonia Heron: have you interviewed any astronauts?
Caledonia Heron: they have an interesting perspective on time - those that have flown
Carlos Cornelius: yes, i am excited about finally being able to participate a bit more
Carlos Cornelius: no, but i would love to talk to astronauts
Carlos Cornelius: most of the research on the psych. of time is specific to diagnosis of illneses and animal research
Caledonia Heron: ah ok
Caledonia Heron: did not know that
Carlos Cornelius: very interesting, but nothing very exciting, like experiences of astronauts
Carlos Cornelius: but it is a sort of new field and time is a very big issue
Caledonia Heron: LOL
Caledonia Heron: yes
Caledonia Heron: indeed
Caledonia Heron: a friend who lived in space for several months said it was like a dream and when he dreamed he didn’t know if it was real or a dream or when he was awake vice versa - it got a little jumbled up
Carlos Cornelius: wow, that sounds very interesting, for how long was (s)he in space?
Caledonia Heron: mmm 4 months I think
Caledonia Heron: maybe 6….
Carlos Cornelius: it must be a very intense experience
Caledonia Heron: an eternity!!
Caledonia Heron: yes - very hard on the body
And then time in dreams:
Carlos Cornelius: time in dreams is something no one has studied… i think
Carlos Cornelius: difficult to test, but very interesting
Caledonia Heron: yes - anecdotal and subjective
Caledonia Heron: a person who visits here frequently - Maxine - is interested in psychology also - perhaps you will meet her
Carlos Cornelius: oh yes, i have seen her in the qwak forum
Caledonia Heron: ah ok, you have met :)
Carlos Cornelius: what are your interests?
Which led to talk of patterns:
Caledonia Heron: professionally I am interested in information, how we use it, how we parse it, how to slice and dice it, how to look at it visually, how people make connections between what they know or don’t know and information they receive, those sorts of things
Carlos Cornelius: i am very interested in those issues too…
Carlos Cornelius: i have done some work on visual attention
Caledonia Heron: oh really? interesting
Caledonia Heron: and what are your general conclusions regarding that?
Carlos Cornelius: i don’t have many, but one of the things i found most interesting is that the visual system has to eliminate and parse a lot of information
Caledonia Heron: yes
Carlos Cornelius: and then the brain interprets what little is left
Caledonia Heron: I have an example of that - say a person, you or me, goes to a very large event, say 10K people milling about over the course of 3 or 4 days
Caledonia Heron: how is it that you can parse and identify the same people or sets of people repeatedly?
Caledonia Heron: what is it about the elimination or recognition process that allows for that action?
Carlos Cornelius: exactly, it is something that seems to be happening in all sorts of information processing
Carlos Cornelius: it is actually very difficult to model it, but it comes very easy to us
Caledonia Heron: a very complex process of distinguishing attributes
Caledonia Heron: beyond characteristics I wonder if it has to do with the time/space people hold or their “vibrational” characteristics if that makes sense
Carlos Cornelius: i like that term, vibrational
Caledonia Heron: :)
Carlos Cornelius: for example, i like watching birds, and cardinals are a lot more vibrational than say, ravens
Caledonia Heron: yes
Carlos Cornelius: so features definitely play a role in eliminating information
Caledonia Heron: yes, and looking for patterns
Caledonia Heron: so you may have physical patterns - say an accepted pattern for beauty is symmetry
Caledonia Heron: we have patterns which we use to distinguish things on the outermost levels
Caledonia Heron: but I think also we look for patterns under the hood - the vibrational ones….people who vibrate alike find each other so often it is significant
Caledonia Heron: anyway….information speculation :)
Caledonia Heron: armchair information analysis
Carlos Cornelius: yes, and then you can see that mathematicians are right when they say that searching for beauty is something they care about
Caledonia Heron: absolutely
Caledonia Heron: the patterns are compelling
And we speculated a little more:
Carlos Cornelius: yes, it is nice to do armchair speculation in the virtual world
Caledonia Heron: from our virtual chairs :)
Carlos Cornelius: :)
Caledonia Heron: I see patterns as I shift from being present in my daily life and to the 9sec mode - the pattern seems so close to the same it is imperceptable but still apart - like a chromatic shift or something but sameness too….ack! that doesn’t make sense
Carlos Cornelius: i am going to start doing the 9sec practice more often, i think repetition is the key to start seeing a pattern
Caledonia Heron: I’m not sure
Caledonia Heron: maybe there is no pattern :)
Caledonia Heron: ha! that is the pattern….no pattern
And, again, back to vocabulary – how do we talk about this stuff:
Carlos Cornelius: i guess the problem is how to talk about an experience in terms of a pattern
Caledonia Heron: yes, frequently vocabulary is a thing that arises as we try to articulate our experiences
Caledonia Heron: I keep trying while waiting for the practical version of the Vulcan mind meld :)
Carlos Cornelius: :)
Caledonia Heron: then you will know someone has “gotten” what you have seen
Caledonia Heron: I am still amazed by the fact that people I have known for a very long time don’t really get what I’m saying sometimes - after so much time there is something to learn about and from one another
Carlos Cornelius: i think that trying to talk about this kind of experience is very tough
Carlos Cornelius: it reminds me a little bit of the distinction that some philosophers made between plurals and a singular
Carlos Cornelius: representations v. representation(as a capacity) experiences v. experience
Caledonia Heron: yes, interesting
Caledonia Heron: experiences v. experience
Caledonia Heron: lol, I’m thinking it over and then jump to homographs….polish the furniture, polish sausage
Carlos Cornelius: :)
Denouement
Caledonia Heron: I hope you will come here again :)
Caledonia Heron: that I haven’t scared you off :)
Caledonia Heron: rambling a bit today
Carlos Cornelius: yes, i will, for now the 4 pm is the easiest one and then i will try to make it to all of them
Caledonia Heron: great!
Carlos Cornelius: you didnt scare me at all, on the contrary, now i feel even more enthusiastic about coming
Caledonia Heron: oh good :)
Carlos Cornelius: :)
Caledonia Heron: I have an appt on the hour - I must go
Carlos Cornelius: ok
Caledonia Heron: may we post your comments to the log?
Carlos Cornelius: sure
Caledonia Heron: ok, then I will collect it and pass it along….so nice to see you here :)
Carlos Cornelius: same here, see you soon
Caledonia Heron: bye - and let me know if you have some sl questions or need help with something….reattaching your hair or when your ear is stuck to your knee or something silly like that :)
Carlos Cornelius: ok, thanks :)
Caledonia Heron: k, bye
