2009.12.21 07:00 - Talking on the shortest day

The Guardian for this meeting was Eden Haiku. The comments are by Eden Haiku.

Weather reports from four corners of the world

Yakuzza Lethecus: hey eden

Eden Haiku: Hi Yakuzza.
Yakuzza Lethecus: ur east of westcoast canada ?
Eden Haiku: East Coast. Montreal.
Yakuzza Lethecus: much snow in the east of the us this weekend
Eden Haiku: And you?
Yakuzza Lethecus: also in canada ?
Yakuzza Lethecus: NRW, germany
Eden Haiku: Not this week end. But it has been very cold. We had snow last week.
Eden Haiku: You also got a lot of snow in Europe I heard,
Yakuzza Lethecus: jep
Yakuzza Lethecus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balve
Eden Haiku: Do you like it?
Yakuzza Lethecus: it's great, haven't had white christmas in years
Eden Haiku: Nice. Thanks for the link, Balve is where you live. Looks beautiful!
Yakuzza Lethecus: i uploaded a few pictures on saturday, 1 sec
Yakuzza Lethecus: http://www.flickr.com/photos/40413449@N07/
Yakuzza Lethecus: those are right out of the window of my flat
Eden Haiku: We all feel like children when there is snow, don't we?
Yakuzza Lethecus: hehe, i am working and i got a car :)
Yakuzza Lethecus: i know both sides of the coin :)
Yakuzza Lethecus: here where i live you can't use public transportation
Yakuzza Lethecus: you really need a car and yesterday the traffic nearly broke together, glad it was only so bad on a sunday
Eden Haiku: See, I don't have a car, I don't like driving so I do not feel the pressure. I work at home also, it makes things easier... Thanks for the great pictures. Looks like fairyland!
Eden Haiku: In Germany, I have only been in Berlin. And it was when the wall was still there. It seems very different now.
Yakuzza Lethecus: I really like the environment here, but you can't do that much when you don' life in a city
Yakuzza Lethecus: i've never been in america or canada
--BELL--
Eden Haiku: Yes, I know what you mean. We spend 3 or 4 summer months in a country house. Thought of living there all year long. But with no car and temperatures below 40 sometimes in winter, that was not possible. My boyfriend does not even possess a driving licence. I do but I avoid cars just the same ;-)
Eden Haiku: Should live in Venice ;-)
Yakuzza Lethecus: hehe
Yakuzza Lethecus: but but maybe with rising sea level
Eden Haiku: Sorry, my sound was off and I never heard the bell.
Yakuzza Lethecus: who knows how long venice still got dry feet
Eden Haiku: True ;-)
Eden Haiku: have been practicing the 9 secs breaks lately?
Zen Arado: Hi Eden, Yaku
Eden Haiku: Hello Zen.
Yakuzza Lethecus: hey zen, i don't have special experiences most of the time
Eden Haiku: We were sharing about weather in East Coast and in Germany,
Zen Arado: no me neither
Eden Haiku: Do you write a note sometimes?
Zen Arado: always think I must be missing something !
Zen Arado: I have a blog
Eden Haiku: See ;-) How is your weather Zen?
Zen Arado: but hardly ever write anything
Zen Arado: it is cold here
Zen Arado: snowed yesterday but has gone again
Eden Haiku: I find it helps to write down after the experience.
Zen Arado: I live about 10 m from the sea
Zen Arado: beside a sailing marina
Yakuzza Lethecus: i hardly experience things i define as worth to make a note about
Eden Haiku: It is never special but writing it down you capture a feeling of the break.
Yakuzza Lethecus: where do you live in irland zen ?
Yakuzza Lethecus: it was irland right ?
Eden Haiku: So you have a milder climate Zen?
Zen Arado: North
Zen Arado: small town called Carrickfergus
Zen Arado: about 10 mile north of Belfast
Eden Haiku: Love than name. Is it gaelic?
Zen Arado: yes
Zen Arado: means rock of Fergus
Zen Arado: we have a Norman castle
Yakuzza Lethecus: jep it looks interesting
Yakuzza Lethecus: john de courcy
Yakuzza Lethecus: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrickfergus
Yakuzza Lethecus: hey storm
Eden Haiku: We are so distant in geography and yet reunited here, in this pavilion. Hello Storm!
Storm Nordwind: Hello everyone
Zen Arado: http://www.ni-environment.gov.uk/pla.../carrick.shtml
Zen Arado: Hi Storm
Eden Haiku: Looks beautiful where you live Zen.
Storm Nordwind: I have never been to Ulster
Zen Arado: yes I live in an apartment
Zen Arado: you can see them in photo
Zen Arado: can I ask you guys to be friends?
Eden Haiku: I see it is really closed to the sea.
Eden Haiku: Sure, with pleasure Zen.
Storm Nordwind smiles
Zen Arado: thanks
Zen Arado: I grew up in a Belfast slum though
Zen Arado: outside toilet
Zen Arado: pretty grim
Eden Haiku: You must be happy to live close to the sea now.
Zen Arado: my father worked in the shipyard
Storm Nordwind: Everywhere is close to the sea in the UK! ;)
Zen Arado: yes :)
Eden Haiku: Yes, I realize...
Storm Nordwind: Now I am 750 miles away from the sea. It is very strange!
Zen Arado: and very cold I'll bet
Storm Nordwind: Very warm today at 45 degF
Eden Haiku: Here the ocean in Quebec is 1000 kilometers away, so I find seaside very exotic.
Yakuzza Lethecus: any interesting historical artifacts in near your new place storm ?
Zen Arado: forgotten Fahrenheit :)
Zen Arado: about 5 C ?
--BELL--

 

A little conversion formula

Zen Arado: about 7 C
Storm Nordwind: That's 7 C Zen!
Storm Nordwind chuckles
Zen Arado: subtracxy 32
Eden Haiku: Anyone would like to share what happened during the pause?
Zen Arado: divide by 9
Zen Arado: multiply by 5 ?
Storm Nordwind: Apparently arithmetic was happening Eden! :)
Zen Arado: yes :)
Storm Nordwind: And I was reflecting for Yak how "historical artifacts" is a strange term for a city that's only 150 years old
Eden Haiku: I was wondering if 'divide by 9' was some new experiment with the 9 secs/90secs...;-)
Storm Nordwind chuckles
Zen Arado: a little conversion formula
Yakuzza Lethecus: hehe, i know but there have been non european ppl in colorado right ?
Storm Nordwind: Now every time I convert, I will be converted Eden - thanks to you!
Eden Haiku: chuckles
Zen Arado: time Americans changed to SI units !
Zen Arado: fahrenheit seems so old fashioned
Eden Haiku: ;-)))
Zen Arado: and celsius so much easier to use
Storm Nordwind: There are 5 times as many Americans as there are Brits, and you remember all the trouble we had to convert Zen!
Zen Arado: yes and we still havent properly yet
Zen Arado: so we have a strange hybrid mixture
Eden Haiku: We changed many years ago and many people are still using Farenheits
Zen Arado: we still use miles instead of kilometres
Storm Nordwind: Yak... I know very little of the history yet. I do know that there is Mesa Verde in the remote corner of the state. But that's hardly local. Bear in mind that the area of Britain, where I came from, is only 90% of the area of Colorado!
Yakuzza Lethecus: hehe, only liberia,myanmar and the usa aren't using the metric system
Eden Haiku: In France, they still give you the price in francs along with euros in some places.
Storm Nordwind: There is something romantic about the simple word "centime"
Eden Haiku: Human beings resist change.
Zen Arado: so true
Eden Haiku: Yes and it can't buy you cafe au lait anywhere now!
Yakuzza Lethecus: a few weeks ago we had a couple of shops in which you could buy things for DM at an 1:1 exchange rate but it was capped at 100DM or something
Yakuzza Lethecus: i miss the Deutsche Mark :)
Eden Haiku: Only Liberia, Myanmar and the USA? That is amazing.
Storm Nordwind: My old hobby, when I visited France, was to find the cheapest bottle of wine that was still drinkable. I stopped at 85 centimes!
Zen Arado: I don't miss the old Sterling system
Storm Nordwind: Counting in 12s is so much more natural though
Eden Haiku: Yes, even their cheap wine is pretty good!
Zen Arado: you think ?
Storm Nordwind: Sure. And easier to do on one's fingers
Zen Arado: dozens hmmm
Eden Haiku: Counting in 12 would be more natural? Why?
Eden Haiku: How many fingers do you have Storm?
Storm Nordwind: It divides by 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 whereas as 10 divides by 1, 2, 5 only. So much more useful
Zen Arado: :)
Zen Arado: never thought of that :)
Storm Nordwind: How many finger bones do you have on one hand Eden?
Storm Nordwind: Now point to them with your thumb
Eden Haiku: Should I know that? ;-)
Storm Nordwind: You have 12
Zen Arado: yup
Storm Nordwind: It means you can count in 12s and keep your other hand free
Storm Nordwind: Good for traders
Zen Arado: so more natural system :)
Eden Haiku: Ah!!!Enlightenment!
Storm Nordwind: I still count mantras that way without a mala!
Zen Arado: anything else in human body have 12 system?
Zen Arado: feet?
Yakuzza Lethecus: hmm
Zen Arado: do you know the idea of the Golden Ratio?
Yakuzza Lethecus: Anatomisch besteht die Hand aus Einzelknochen. Die Anzahl der jeweiligen Knochen variiert innerhalb der Wirbeltiere. Beim Menschen beträgt ihre Zahl 27. Die Handwurzel (Carpus) wird bei ihm aus den acht Handwurzelknochen (Kahnbein, Mondbein, Kopfbein, Großes Vieleckbein, Kleines Vieleckbein, Dreieckbein, Erbsenbein, Hakenbein) gebildet, die gelenkig miteinander verbunden sind.
Eden Haiku: There is something very compelling about number 12. Months, inches...
Yakuzza Lethecus: ah, sry
Yakuzza Lethecus: but it tells that there are 27 bones
Yakuzza Lethecus: sec i should have watched in the english article
Eden Haiku: 3.1417 yes, tell us more?
--BELL--
Eden Haiku: 3.1416 reather
Storm Nordwind: 1.618
Zen Arado: 3.14is Pi I think ?
Eden Haiku: Numbers are my weak spot...
Eden Haiku: Yes Golden Number is to create forms isn'it?
Yakuzza Lethecus: math is in general my weak spot :(
Storm Nordwind: The golden ratio is the square root of 5 plus 1 divided by 2
Zen Arado: anyway...as you prob know paintings used tis ratio to give a pleasing symmetry
Eden Haiku: Yes, algebra and the rest are way out of my reach, and geometry and the likes. Puzzling.
Zen Arado: but it is found in human body proportione too
Zen Arado: and isn't it tied to Fibonnacci sequence too ?
Eden Haiku: square root of 5 plus 1 divided by 2
Eden Haiku: Fibonacci sequence sounds a bell... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number
Storm Nordwind: Yes. The ratio of consecutive terms, getting more accurate as the terms get larger
Zen Arado: iteration
Storm Nordwind: The spirals in sunflowers are the classic attractive example
Zen Arado: 1 1 2 3 5 8........
Zen Arado: amazing thing
Storm Nordwind: each term being the sum of the two preceding ones
Zen Arado: yes
Eden Haiku: Ah yes

 

Best-sellers and haikus

Zen Arado: Dan Brown mentioned it in his famous novel
Zen Arado: Da Vinci code
Eden Haiku: :-)
Storm Nordwind shudders
Zen Arado: which I confess to having read
Zen Arado: :)
Storm Nordwind throws lumps of ice at Zen
Eden Haiku: Me too. Enjoyed it.
Zen Arado: me too
Zen Arado: such bad taste I have :)
Storm Nordwind found it poorly written and factually inaccurate
Zen Arado: but entertaining :)
Zen Arado: must read about Fibonacci sometime though
Zen Arado: it comes into everthing
Eden Haiku: yes, entertaining.
Zen Arado: chaos theory too I think
Zen Arado: you ever do journalling Eden?
Eden Haiku: I like reading best-sellers once in a while. You get a pulse of what people read all over the world.
Eden Haiku: Journaling? No, not recently.
Zen Arado: you have to relax sometimes
Zen Arado: I am reading Stieg Larrson at the moment
Eden Haiku: Some are really good also. 'Eat, Pray, Love' by Elisabeth Gilbert is wonderful. 
http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/eatpraylove.htm
Eden Haiku: Millenium! yes!!! http://www.stieglarsson.com/Millennium-series
Zen Arado: enjoyed first and just started second
Zen Arado: Salander girl is strange
Eden Haiku: Do you do journalling yourself Zen?
Zen Arado: not at moment
Eden Haiku: I love Lisbeth.
Zen Arado: tried it for a while
Zen Arado: she has Aspergers maybe
Eden Haiku: Bit of it I think.
Yakuzza Lethecus: bye everyone
Zen Arado: I have a friend with it
Eden Haiku: I would love to write a best-seller ;-)))
Zen Arado: bye Yaku
Eden Haiku: Bye Yaku.
Eden Haiku: Would anyone like to focus on a subject for the next break?
--BELL--
Eden Haiku: ::::::On the in-breath wave/::::::I'm connecting with the flow/::::::And flowing with it
Storm Nordwind smiles
Zen Arado: I do a lot of meditation practice
Zen Arado: 3 times a day
Zen Arado: zazen
Storm Nordwind: I suspect the beauty of your poetry will reach people worldwide, Eden, even if it doesn't make you millions
Zen Arado: have to see some Eden
Zen Arado: you have a blog?
Eden Haiku: In fact, I forgot to do this breathing as we were talking about books. Got trapped in books talk...
Eden Haiku: On the PaB wiki, I post haikus on Guardian Contribution page and user page.
Zen Arado: ok I will check
Storm Nordwind: I have changed my profile to a haiku at the moment
Zen Arado: I like haiku
Eden Haiku: Thanks Storm. The best-selling desire is not even for the millions. It is like: I have something to say! (said with a 2 year old trepidation!)
Zen Arado: but never tried writing them
Eden Haiku: 5 syllables, 7 and then 5
Eden Haiku: Should be about nature but we can expand that...
Zen Arado: I did a little course that included them
Zen Arado: an Open University course
Zen Arado: that's where I got the one I used one time here
Zen Arado: On a bare branch.....
Zen Arado: had to write an essay on that
Eden Haiku: Oh, I remember, that is how I got the idea of writing haikus Zen!
Storm Nordwind: I once won a haiku competition in a British daily newspaper (he says, immodestly!) ;)
Zen Arado: well done
Eden Haiku: I had the name was just writing SL poems in any form...
Eden Haiku: (enthusiastic applause)
Storm Nordwind blushes
Storm Nordwind: Totally unexpected
Zen Arado: i remember they talked about something called 'Sabi'
Eden Haiku: Wow! You should write some more Zen. It would sustain your practice.
Zen Arado: comes from Zen I think
Eden Haiku: ;-)))
Zen Arado: kind of solitariness or something
Eden Haiku: You remind me of Yul Brenner Storm.
Storm Nordwind: Only in SL I suspect!
Eden Haiku: Saw him on Broadway. Standing ovation after 'The king and I'. He was revelling in the applause! Both hands up like an antenna.
Zen Arado: is he still alive?
Eden Haiku: Sabi?
Storm Nordwind: That would be me too
Eden Haiku: No, he died many years ago.
Zen Arado: sabi should be in a haiku I think
Eden Haiku: (mistaken) Yes, I notice, I was applauding Zen's haiku award. But you can take it for the beautiful skating ring you created for the village. I enjoy it a lot!
Zen Arado: like ...on a bare branch a rook roosts
Eden Haiku: That was the haiku you posted in the chat, I remember.
Eden Haiku: It is like we are in a spiral, on a new branch or volute...
Zen Arado: can't remember who wrote it
Zen Arado: maybe Issu
Zen Arado: anyway I am going to make lentil stew for dinner
Zen Arado: so I better go
Storm Nordwind: mmmm yum
Eden Haiku: Yes, I just read about sabi. Hope your dinner is not sabi though Zen...
Zen Arado: takes me ages to cut vegetables
Eden Haiku: *dinner
Eden Haiku: Good 9 secs pratice cutting vegetables!
Storm Nordwind nods
Eden Haiku: Bye Zen! Good evening!
Zen Arado: so long as dont cut fingers
Zen Arado: be less than 12 maybe !
Eden Haiku: Yes, please don't!
Zen Arado: bye
Storm Nordwind waves
Eden Haiku: ;-)
--BELL--

We wind down on Storm's haiku which will provide the title for this log

Storm Nordwind: Two sit by a pool / Talking on the shortest day / While sun is turning
Eden Haiku: I have been practicing the inbreath wave exercice indoors.
Eden Haiku: Nice ;-)
Eden Haiku: Solstice was yesterday I think. But poetic licence...;-)
Storm Nordwind: What do I know? The sunrise is still so early here. Not what I am used to! :)
Storm Nordwind: 10:47 local this morning according to the charts
Eden Haiku: I know what you mean. In Amsterdam, the sun would not rise before 9 a.m. I was so surprised!
Storm Nordwind: And in Stockholm, it never seemed to!
Eden Haiku: Ah, yes, I guess I checked an old page on the Web...
Storm Nordwind: I've decided that I could teach you that meditation exercise, by the way, if you wished, though I would not want to do it in PaB.
Eden Haiku: So this is the shortest day of the year.
Storm Nordwind nods
Storm Nordwind: "Sun station"
Eden Haiku: Oh that is wonderful. Thanks. How should we do it then?
Storm Nordwind: I suggest by voice, at a a time when we're both free in the next day or two
Eden Haiku: Yes, voice will be more easy. Very well. Shall we discuss free times on IM and end our session here?
Storm Nordwind: Good! Let us close the session. :)
Eden Haiku: A bit of skating maybe?