When I reached the pavilion Fael, Adams and Quilty were already there. We were shortly joined by Prosper.
Fael Illyar: Hi Maxine :)
Adams Rubble: Hello Maxine
Quilty Bookmite: hi Maxine.
Maxine Walden: hi, Adams, Fael, Quilty, nice to see you all
Maxine Walden: Taking me a little time, with lag to see you each clearly
Maxine Walden: is it just my lag?
Quilty Bookmite: Seems OK to me.
Adams Rubble: Sunday lag is not lagging :)
Adams Rubble: i.e. slower on Sundays :)
Maxine Walden: OK, yes, I am seeing more clearly, Sunday time may be a bit lagging…in RL and SL
Adams Rubble: I have some lag
Quilty Bookmite: I expect the server is pretty busy.
Maxine Walden: Fael, what an extraordinary outfit!
Adams Rubble: We just had a big thunderstorm here
Fael Illyar: Thank you :)
Quilty Bookmite: hi Prosper.
Adams Rubble: Hi Prosper
Fael Illyar: Hi Prosper
Prosper Telling: Here too
Maxine Walden: hello, Prosper
Prosper Telling: Hi
Prosper Telling: (Actuallly still seem to be)
Bertrum soon joined us as the contrast between the peaceful experience in the pavilion just now and storms which were interrupting communication came into our conversation
Maxine Walden: rather peaceful just to be here together
Quilty Bookmite: No storm on this side of the Atlantic.
Adams Rubble: Hi Bertrum
Faenik loves wells!
Maxine Walden: Hi Bertrum
Bertrum Quan: hi all
Quilty Bookmite: Hi Bertrum
Fael Illyar: Hi Betrum
Bertrum Quan: hi Fael
I raised a question and we soon began to talk about aspects of space, probably both internal and external
Maxine Walden: anyone have anything they would like to discuss or share?
Quilty Bookmite: Yes, although it’s something of a random thought…
Maxine Walden: please, Quilty
Quilty Bookmite: On the blog a short while ago, someone spoke about how they were affected by where they sat in these talks in relation to other people.
Quilty Bookmite: It’s an interesting thought. I have only been coming to these talks a short while and I don;t know anyone that well.
Quilty Bookmite: I tend to think carefully about where to sit when I arrive but my eventual choice seems fairily arbitrary.
Adams Rubble: I honestly don;t think that I am
Quilty Bookmite: And often quite English. :-)
Adams Rubble: Although I like it when we are closer in a small group
Adams Rubble: easier to see
Quilty Bookmite: I have tended not to sit directly next to someone in case it seems presumptious., which seems ridiculous. :-)
Quilty Bookmite: It does seem better to sit closer together. :-)
Bertrum Quan: I agree that closer would be better…especially to see
Quilty Bookmite: If I am meditating in RL it is actually quite pleasant to be sitting next to other people sharing the experience.
Maxine Walden: a sense of spaciousness, or too much or too little space? Might be different feelings about this; what do others thing/feel?
Maxine Walden: think/feel?
Maxine Walden: I had noticed the sense of so much more space here than in the previous teahouse, and for intimate conversations I had also noticed the sense of almost too much space
Prosper Telling: I usually end up in the same place, just adjust camera controls until I get a good shot of everyone
Faenik: why not?
Udge joins us and the topics of space and spaciousness continues
Udge Watanabe: good afternoon everyone, sorry I’m late.
Adams Rubble: Hello Udge
Maxine Walden: that is surely one way of handling the space issue
Fael Illyar: Hello Udge
Quilty Bookmite: It is interesting. I am also aware that my comments may have made people self conscious.
Maxine Walden: Hi Udge
Adams Rubble: Nobody is late here :)
Quilty Bookmite: hi Udge.
Udge Watanabe grins
Adams Rubble: No I don;t you made anyone uncomfortabel Quilty
Bertrum Quan: I don’t know how to adjust the camera view. So I preferred the tea room
Maxine Walden: oh, Quilty, I don’t think so; I imagine we all have some relationship to space, where we are sitting, etc which may be forground or background at different times
The issue of ‘distance vision’ in SL as well as RL came into our thoughts
Adams Rubble: It might be a difference of video cards again
Prosper Telling: Click under veiw and select camera controls
Adams Rubble: those of us with weak cards like closer
Quilty Bookmite: Of course, if we all sat together at the start, anyone new joining would be forced to sit at the edge or away from the rest. :-)
Faenik: indeed?
Adams Rubble: that too :)
Quilty Bookmite: My card is pretty week.
Prosper Telling: Good point
Quilty Bookmite: And maybe I just think about it too much. After all, these are only our virtual selves.
Maxine Walden: I have changed my seat here in the pavilion if the group has been small, coming closer
Quilty Bookmite: Sounds reasonable. :-)
Adams Rubble: In RL there are other dynamics at work
Adams Rubble: Everyone likes to sit in the back
Adams Rubble: except thoise with weak eyes
Adams Rubble: hehe
Adams Rubble: like me
Maxine Walden: could someone please explain the weak cards/closer observation; I am still rather a newbie
Quilty Bookmite: I am something of a front sitter on many cases. Mainly because I tend to leave my glasses in the car. :-)
Adams Rubble: My video card is not the best
Quilty Bookmite: Less powerful graphics cards.
Adams Rubble: so I don;t see the people in the distance
Adams Rubble: I see flashing lights instead
Maxine Walden: ah…yes, I see, thanks, sort of like near or distant vision
Adams Rubble: yes
Maxine Walden: potential
I wondered aloud about RL and SL dynamics re comfort/discomfort with personal distance and we discovered the advantage of being able to bypass some of our RL ‘warts’ and also to have more equally heard voices in SL
Maxine Walden: thanks, so much to learn; but does it seem that different dynamics work in RL? trying to stay out of view in some ways?
Maxine Walden: while here it feels safer to be ‘up front’?
Quilty Bookmite: Well, for one thing, we don;t have BO in this reality. :-)
Adams Rubble: haha
Quilty Bookmite: Not yet, anyway.
Prosper Telling: in SL it is also easier to be heard if your RL voice doesn’t carry so well
Udge Watanabe: I really wish RL had profiles…
Maxine Walden: all our warts of RL don’t show here, and equal voices in SL
Prosper Telling: And abs maybe…
Quilty Bookmite: I seem to have inadvertenty changed the table and the screen just by clicking on them.
Faenik: could be
Maxine Walden: yes, I think Dakini mentioned that such could happen, Quilty
Quilty Bookmite: the warts are interesting too. I have tried to make my SL image look something like my RL image.
Quilty Bookmite: Ah. Thank you.
Prosper Telling: But are we anymore the flesh and bones behind the keyboards than we are the avatars we present here?
Quilty Bookmite: However, I haven’t been able to find a good approximation of male pattern baldness.
Maxine Walden: interesting question Prosper
Prosper Telling: Or a beer belly (though in my case it’s more rice, no beer)
Udge Watanabe: I was delighted to find htis combover hairstyle. It has a bald look too, but not as good
Quilty Bookmite: I think I would avoid a combover in RL. :-)
Quilty Bookmite: These days, it is too thin even to colm over.
Prosper Telling: Shaved head here… the vanity of it all.
Quilty Bookmite: Shaved head, I think I could live with. I normally get it cut really short.
Faenik: なるほど^^
In my mind several questions were being raised in the discussion so far, which I shared aloud:
Maxine Walden: So many interesting questions seem to be arising: does SL free us, or throw our RL selves into higher profile even if to our private selves? Do we feel different with our different SL appearances? So many questions…
Prosper Telling: So we present images in RL to present ourselves in a better light… Does sound like SL.
Quilty Bookmite: SL is an opportunity to be someone other than ourselves…
Udge Watanabe: or even something…
Quilty Bookmite: and yet most of us, me included, tend to do fairly ordinary things here.
Prosper Telling: I find it weird if I change, say, my gender or something… it’s like there is a mental disconnect between me and my avatar.
Adams Rubble: We can learn to be free here from many superficial things that may get in the way in RL
Quilty Bookmite: I guess that’s why most of us don’t go too wild. It doesn’t feel real if we do.
Udge Watanabe nods.
Prosper Telling: Sounds likely… who said it was our limitations that keep us sane?
Quilty Bookmite: I think it was you. :-)
Dolma joined us and there was some wondering whether SL fosters our trying to find our deeper selves
Maxine Walden: Seems most of us seem to be trying to find our deeper real selves here in SL
Quilty Bookmite: hi Dolma
Dolma Bosatsu: hi :-)
Maxine Walden: hi, Dolma
Prosper Telling: I’m sure I’m not the first…
Dolma Bosatsu: pardon me for joining prior to asking….
Maxine Walden: Prosper, you may be trying to bring another thought here
Quilty Bookmite: Alright with me, Dolma.
Dolma Bosatsu: :-)
Maxine Walden: Dolma, not a problem, we welcome anyone, and fold in the strands of conversation as they arise
Faenik: ah :)
Dolma Bosatsu: ty Maxine, very gracious…
Prosper Telling: Dolma, you and Fael make nice contrasting images on either side of the circle. Hi.
Dolma Bosatsu: please do continue with your conversation…
Quilty Bookmite: As I get older, I’m sure I get more boring. But I can honestly say I’m not more bored.
Dolma Bosatsu: dark and light?
Quilty Bookmite: I just appreciate the simpler things in life more.
Maxine Walden: you might wish to check the chatlog to see the strands we are considering
Maxine Walden: oh, that reminds me, is everyone OK with their conversation here becoming part of the chatlog that we post after each of these Playasbeing conversations? Anyone not OK with that?
Quilty Bookmite: Fine with me.
Prosper Telling: No prob here
Udge Watanabe nods
Udge Watanabe: did it just go quiet or have I crashed again?
Quilty Bookmite: It went quiet. :-)
Maxine Walden: Thanks, all, just feeling a need to make sure about these various housekeeping details
Udge Watanabe: good :-)
We had another ‘space’ in our conversation for a minute or so and then continued to wonder about our ‘selves’, spaces for appreciation of elements perhaps beyond our ‘selves’; all different ways of perceiving reality
Prosper Telling: we got pretty quiet except for the birds
Quilty Bookmite: They are worth listening to. :-)
Quilty Bookmite: Even electronic birds.
Maxine Walden: sometimes quiet does feel like something crashes, though, yes but the birds are so lovely
Dolma Bosatsu: may i mention, what drew me over here, was this: Seems most of us seem to be trying to find our deeper real selves here in SL
Prosper Telling: Not all empty spaces need to be filled up with words
Udge Watanabe: It#s definitely an exploration of what “self” means.
Maxine Walden: maybe aspects of our deeper selves are spacious, quiet
Faenik loves wells!
Quilty Bookmite: Or maybe aspects of something that is not our self.
Quilty Bookmite: Or maybe I am trying to be too clever. :-)
Faenik: なるほど^^
Maxine Walden: yes, something beyond our selves
Prosper Telling: >From a Buddhist point of view, everything is Mind.
Prosper Telling: Or Heart if you prefer.
Dolma Bosatsu: perhaps some of us feel freer here, not being confined by the limitations of our RL “self”
Udge Watanabe nods. A friend suggested that in the Buddhist view, RL is just as imaginary as SL.
Dolma Bosatsu: where in RL we may feel “defined” by our roles, our friends, family, and so many thoughts…
Prosper Telling: We’re just not so attached to SL that we have forgotten it isn’t real, unlike our RL.
Quilty Bookmite: It’s a good point. SL is obviously imaginary. RL we only think is real.
Maxine Walden: such interesting points being mentioned…
Quilty Bookmite: Maybe SL can help teach us something about reality.
Udge Watanabe: It can definitely teach us about ourselves.
Prosper Telling: Dolma, I think you are right though I’m not sure freer is the word I would use… here we are limitted by our imagination and fantasies…
Prosper Telling: Different set of boundaries.
Dolma Bosatsu: it’s interesting, the thinking that SL is not real, although the mind which experiences it is the same as the mind which experiences so-called RL….
Quilty Bookmite: And maybe in RL the boundaries are created by us and not as real as we think.
Udge Watanabe nods.
Prosper Telling: We really are having this conversation after all… all what seven of us?
Quilty Bookmite: … like the thought that I would never be able to do that.
Dolma Bosatsu: i think so…
Dolma Bosatsu: although you never know if everyone you see is “here”
Quilty Bookmite: I guess we can;t be any more certain of that than we can be that we are sitting in our room in RL.
Prosper Telling: Even in RL if ind that often the case
Dolma Bosatsu: haha
Quilty Bookmite: :-)
Udge Watanabe: back
Udge Watanabe: (heheheh)
Quilty Bookmite: If I wasn’t talking so much, it is possible I could be washing the dishes right now.
Quilty Bookmite: :-)
Dolma Bosatsu: haha Udge we were just talking about that…
Udge Watanabe: yes, I read the log :-)
Dolma Bosatsu: :-)
Faenik: why not?
Quilty Bookmite: Well, at least Faenik is here. :-)
Maxine Walden: are we being invited to hold reality more lightly given our SL experiences?
Quilty Bookmite: Not sure, but it is worth considering.
Maxine Walden: given what we are bringing to our conversation today?
Adams then returned after being cut off from SL by the effects of a thunderstorm
Quilty Bookmite: Welcome back Adams.
Adams Rubble: Thanks. Whew! Second huge tnunderstorm here
Quilty Bookmite: Is the thunderstorm finished?
Faenik: could be
Adams Rubble: Not quite. If I disappear again, you’ll know :)
Maxine Walden: oh, blown away be the thunder gods!
Adams Rubble: :)
Quilty Bookmite: Fair enough. Not worth risking your computer. :-)
Dolma Bosatsu: a storm just passed over me too, Adams :-)
Prosper Telling: Hope you need the rain as bad as we do.
Fael Illyar: Looks like I got an IM session that again made me unable to concentrate on the coenversation here :/
Adams Rubble: We can use the rain, thanks, Propser
Prosper Telling: Hello?
It felt we were coming back to one of this conversation’s beginning comments, about storms, perhaps at least in some way coming full circle; also I realized I had to leave soon.
Maxine Walden: We began the conversation wondering about storms; maybe storms come in various forms, levels of reality
Prosper Telling: Lag is gettig to me.
Maxine Walden: interrupting our communications in various ways, storms can
Maxine Walden: I need to leave in about a minutes, need to go to another meeting; will take the chatlog but of course hope the discussion continues
Maxine Walden: a minute
Fael Illyar: Ok, Bye Maxine :)
Quilty Bookmite: Ah. the time! I need to go to bed soon.
Adams Rubble: Thank Maxine Walden Maxine. Bye :)
Udge Watanabe: bye Maxine
Bertrum Quan: Bye
Quilty Bookmite: Bye Maxine. I will also go.
Maxine Walden: thanks all, lovely discussion, hope we can continue it or others soon
Maxine Walden: Bye
Quilty Bookmite: Thank you all. It’s been a pleasure.
