2009.11.01 13:00 - shared silence, appreciating the waves

The Guardian for this meeting was Fox Monacular, filling in for Maxine. The comments are by Fox Monacular.

We sit silently for a while, sharing the playgoda space.

Lia Rikugun: hello fox
Fox Monacular: Hello Lia
Lia Rikugun: wanted to check if someone came to grab the log :)
Fox Monacular: I can do it:)
Lia Rikugun: oh ok great, I think there was a message that the GoC is not able to do it
Yakuzza Lethecus: hey there
Lia Rikugun: hello yakuzza
Fox Monacular: Hi Yakuzza
Fox Monacular: it's rare that I can make it to 13 00 sessions!
Lia Rikugun: what time is it for you?
Fox Monacular: 4pm, but usually i'm at work where SL is disabled, ot with a baby who thinks a laptop is for cartoons only
Lia Rikugun: :)
Lia Rikugun: hello wol
Fox Monacular: Hello Wol
Wol Euler: hello fox, lia, yaku
Yakuzza Lethecus: hi wol
Lia Rikugun: what would you like to talk about?
Wol Euler: me?
Lia Rikugun: :) anybody and yes you too wol ;)
--BELL--
Fox Monacular: :)
Lia Rikugun: silence :)
Wol Euler: I'm just back from holiday, and am still processing being here again
Lia Rikugun: how nice :)
Wol Euler: I'd forgotten that Stuttgart was hilly :)
Wol Euler: only away a week but it seemed like ages
Fox Monacular: Hi Pila
Wol Euler: hello pila
Pila Mulligan: greetings
Lia Rikugun: hello pila
Fox Monacular: funny contrast: it's silent in PaB and very noisy in the coffee shop where I am right now:)
Wol Euler: :)
Wol Euler: can people there hear the birds here?
Pila Mulligan: maybe its the coffee
Fox Monacular: no, I'm wearing headphones:)
Yakuzza Lethecus: good night everyone
Lia Rikugun: bye
Pila Mulligan: bye Yak
Wol Euler: 'night yaku, sleep well
Lia Rikugun: will go to bed too :) good night
Pila Mulligan: bye Lia
Fox Monacular: night Lia:)
Wol Euler: night lia
--BELL--
Fox Monacular: so where did you go for vacation, Wol?
Wol Euler: I was in Israel for a long week
Wol Euler: it was lovely.
Pila Mulligan: interesting
Fox Monacular: oh great
Pila Mulligan: first time?
Wol Euler: mmhmm, but not last!
Wol Euler: I loved Tel Aviv, a very easy city to be in.
Fox Monacular: I've always wanted to go... perhaps one day...
Fox Monacular: did you go to Jerusalem too?
Wol Euler: not this time, I chickened out when the protests in East Jerusalem became violent
Wol Euler: if it had been Paris or London or somewhere else where I could speak the language (and read street signs!) I would probably have gone
Wol Euler: being unable to read the local alphabet is very disconcerting
Wol Euler: hello qt
Qt Core: hi all
Fox Monacular: hello Qt
Pila Mulligan: hi Qt
Fox Monacular: yes, I know what you mean, Wol, about not being ablt to read street signs... I went to Hungary for one summer...
Fox Monacular: had my phrase book and a dictionary on me at all times
Qt Core: same for my summer china trip
Wol Euler frowns. I thought Hungarian used the Latin alphabet?
Fox Monacular: yes, but the language is different from Russian or English:)
Wol Euler: ok, but you could at least make a guess at how names sound.
Fox Monacular: yes:)
Wol Euler: The Hebrew alphabet is entirely different from Latin, I couldn't even guess at pronunciation let alone meaning.
Fox Monacular: :)
Wol Euler: I realized this when I was IMing with a friend from a cafe, trying to tell her where I was.
Wol Euler: I had *no idea* what the cafe was called!
Wol Euler: there was a menu in front of me, but all in Hebrew :)
Pila Mulligan: did you have freinds there to guide you around?
Wol Euler: so I gave the phone to the waitress and asked her to talk to my friend.
Fox Monacular: :)
Wol Euler: yes, sort of. They were at work, we met in the evenings.
Pila Mulligan: ahh
Wol Euler: I met Fefonz and his wife, twice :)
Pila Mulligan: nice
Pila Mulligan: how did oyu happen to got to Israel Wol?
Pila Mulligan: waht drew you there?
Wol Euler: curiosity, really.
Wol Euler: I have friends there, not just Fef, and have several times been close to visiting but something always came up
Wol Euler: most recently the Lebanon war.
Wol Euler: I found myself with time off, a pocket full of money, and a strong desire for sunshine and warm water
Pila Mulligan: funny thing, with all the tension there, I've heard airports in Israel are easeir to use than airports in the US -- maybe they have better refined the art of security
Wol Euler: well, I wouldn't say that. It took over an hour to get through the *three* security checks in Ben Gurion on the way out.
Wol Euler: The interrogation on the way out was sterner and more intimidating than on the way into the US :)
Pila Mulligan: hmm
Pila Mulligan: did you get to the the beach?
Wol Euler: oh yes :)))))))
Pila Mulligan: :)
Fox Monacular: :)
Wol Euler: hard to avoid, actually, Tel Aviv is a thin stripe of buildings alonside a beach
Pila Mulligan: see any kite surfing?
--BELL--
Pila Mulligan: some friends from here like to kite surf when they visit family there
Wol Euler: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...69523&t=k&z=14
Wol Euler: (google maps satellite pic of the downtown and beach)
Wol Euler: saw some, yes, but didn'T do any myself.
Wol Euler: I hd a very lazy week, just walked around and ate a lot of marvellous food
Fox Monacular: cool
Wol Euler smiles
Pila Mulligan: interesting (in the Google image) how they form the beach
Pila Mulligan: in arcs
Wol Euler: oh, hang on, wong thing. Paragliding, not kite surfing.
Wol Euler: the waves are far too small for proper surfing
Pila Mulligan: yes, kite surfing doe snot use waves either :0
Pila Mulligan: or not necessarily any way
Wol Euler: the Med is nearly tideless, the waves are hardly a half-metre high unless there's a strong wind
Pila Mulligan: maybe the beach architecture is to prevent sand erosion or drift
Pila Mulligan: with the barriers
Wol Euler: the breakwaters? yes, quite right
Wol Euler: I went to the beach at sundown one day, and took over a hundred photos of water
Wol Euler: the rounded shapes in that image are from the wave action
Wol Euler: the breakwater stops most waves, and the gap creates a circular wave effect
Wol Euler: propagating from teh gap towards land
Fox Monacular: sounds awesome
Wol Euler: that rounds out the sand in that pattern
Wol Euler: and where two wave sets meet, you get some fascinating interference patterns
Wol Euler: waves crossing each other at nearly right angles
Wol Euler: marching through each othter
Pila Mulligan: :)
Wol Euler: and the water was so warm, like a bathtub
Fox Monacular: really really jealous
Wol Euler: :)))))
Fox Monacular: it's been a really long time since I saw the sea...
Pila Mulligan: that pattern also occurs naturall when two ocean currents meet, like off Cape Hatteras and some other places
Pila Mulligan: naturally*
Pila Mulligan: "Two major Atlantic currents collide just off Cape Hatteras, the southerly-flowing cold water Labrador Current and the northerly-flowing warm water Florida Current (Gulf Stream), creating turbulent waters and a large expanse of shallow sandbars extending up to 14 miles offshore." -- wiki
Wol Euler nods
Wol Euler: there's something very calming and relaxing about watching waves.
Wol Euler: and listening to them too
Pila Mulligan: yes indeed
Wol Euler: after a while I put away the camera and just sat and watched and listened, and let my mind flow with the waves
Pila Mulligan: were you staying near the shore -- so you cvould hear the sea at night?
Pila Mulligan: that sound is a very conducive to sleep for me
Wol Euler: no, too far for that alas
Wol Euler: I have slept in a house within hearing distance of hte sea, it was quite wonderful
Pila Mulligan: also much fun is camping on a beach overnight
Fox Monacular: when I was a child we used to spend every summer in a small village in Latvia - where we had a whole beach for ourselves, it was very far from touristic places
Fox Monacular: I still dream about that beach... I think I can remember every dune there... something very primal, basic.. archetypal perhaps
Wol Euler nods and smiles
--BELL--
Pila Mulligan: sounds loively FOx
Wol Euler: have you been back since, Fox?
Fox Monacular: no, I haven't, and I think that if ever I'm back I'll be ablt to find my way around with my eyes closed
Wol Euler: mmhmm
Fox Monacular: but that might be an illusion, of course:)
Qt Core: especially if "progress" and modern things got there too
Fox Monacular: yes, exactly
Wol Euler: yeah.
Fox Monacular: I have to go, hungry boyfriend waiting for supper
Wol Euler: :)
Qt Core: the only progress i'd like in places like those is wifi ;-)
Pila Mulligan: and lunchtime here, so me too
Wol Euler: :)
Wol Euler: goodnight all
Pila Mulligan: bye for now
Wol Euler: enjoy your days.
Fox Monacular: bon appetit pila
Qt Core: have a nice meal you two (three)
Pila Mulligan: :)
Fox Monacular: goodnight wol, Qt
Wol Euler: bed for me, qt, falling alseep in my chair