The Guardian for this meeting was stevenaia Michinaga. The comments are by stevenaia Michinaga.

stevenaia Michinaga: hi Arch
Archmage Atlantis: Hello Steve
stevenaia Michinaga: I'm filling in for Lucinda tonight
stevenaia Michinaga: how are you?
Archmage Atlantis: Wreastling with multiple realities
stevenaia Michinaga: Hope you come out on top
stevenaia Michinaga: how does one find mutiple realities
Archmage Atlantis: I hope only to come out, top is as false to me as bottomeis
Archmage Atlantis: Is that a serious guestion, Steven ......?
Archmage Atlantis: How does one find them?
stevenaia Michinaga: I find one complex enough
stevenaia Michinaga: aren;t many just reflections of one
Archmage Atlantis: For me it is easier to know that the one I see at this moment, is only one of many
stevenaia Michinaga: can you define, for me, what makes one a separate reality from another?
Archmage Atlantis: No, I cannot
Archmage Atlantis: I can only tell you how it feels to me
stevenaia Michinaga: perhaps that is what I am asking
stevenaia Michinaga: what makes it one for you
stevenaia Michinaga: perhaps that is the question I am asking, what makes one ... for you
stevenaia Michinaga: opps, sorry the rext didn;t scroll
stevenaia Michinaga: *text
Archmage Atlantis: There are enttities that you and I both know, yet i know them through a different lens
Archmage Atlantis: I need to go and see if Rhii's group is still active
stevenaia Michinaga: thinking of your lens metaphor
Archmage Atlantis: I hear you
stevenaia Michinaga: I just left it, a heeded discussion on abotion
Archmage Atlantis: My turn then
stevenaia Michinaga: very interesting
stevenaia Michinaga: bye arch
stevenaia Michinaga: hi Cal
Calvino Rabeni: Hi Steve, Arch

--BELL--

stevenaia Michinaga: I'm filling in for Lucinda tonight
stevenaia Michinaga: how are you?
Calvino Rabeni: OK, thanks .. busy day, now settling into evening
stevenaia Michinaga: :)
stevenaia Michinaga: this is a nice settling place
Calvino Rabeni: Nods .. not much happening here, which is good .. I went outside my usual zone today .. on the spur of the moment, went along on a shopping expedition to one of those HUGE bulk food stores .. it was mobbed ..
Calvino Rabeni: "overstimulated" as they say
stevenaia Michinaga: yes, some are more comfortable with shopping / gathering than I am, even in SL
stevenaia Michinaga: I'm a shopping / hunter, go to store, bye milk... leave
Calvino Rabeni: there was gridlock with the shopping carts near where the free food samples are given
stevenaia Michinaga: I seem to have have an unusual tolerance for that
stevenaia Michinaga: gridlock and waiting in lines
Calvino Rabeni: For free food samples? :)
stevenaia Michinaga: no, just in general
stevenaia Michinaga: wading through the muck
Calvino Rabeni: The thing that feels strange to me.. people from so many different ethnic backgrounds and languages .. all coming together under the high ceilings and fluorescent lights inside a huge box containing an extreme economic monoculture
Calvino Rabeni: Everyone equally out of place in it
Calvino Rabeni: Like a mosaic of colors where the pieces haven't been glued in yet
stevenaia Michinaga: like the marketplaces of the past, only driven by a single hand, as opposed the the unique stalls of the past
Calvino Rabeni: Yes

--BELL--

Calvino Rabeni: The night before I went out to an older commercial district with small shops and restaurants ... lots of little ethnic cafes .. 3 or 4 italian resturants, some taverns, pubs, thai and mediterranean restaurants, an old barber shop with the striped pole, coffee huts, herbalists and health studios
stevenaia Michinaga: it is amazing the beauty of those markets w/ unique vendors lined end to end, integrated into the fabric of a city, not located surrounded by a sea of cars
Calvino Rabeni: and it was a lot like those older restaurants
Calvino Rabeni: (I meant to say markets)
stevenaia Michinaga: :)
stevenaia Michinaga: it;s what came to my mind too
Calvino Rabeni: The italian guy could have been right out of a gangster movie with accent, posture, slicked hair, etc
Calvino Rabeni: and in that zone, the car service station with its technology and graphics and glaring lights was the bizarre looking standout
Calvino Rabeni: so it was like the inversion of the big box store
stevenaia Michinaga: it;s a shame that somethng like that which has exosted for centuries needed to be homoginized under a sngle entity to be successfule in a car driven world
Calvino Rabeni: Yes
Calvino Rabeni: this was an older district
Calvino Rabeni: very organic, and not integrated within an economic "machine"
stevenaia Michinaga: the older, the more comfortable
Calvino Rabeni: so different than big box retailers or stip malls
Calvino Rabeni: This is true in many areas of life .. it's hard to notice the freedoms we don't have ... because what we can do, and actually do defines the model of lifes possibilities
Calvino Rabeni: So we might feel free, while in many ways being quite restricted
stevenaia Michinaga: isn;t that true to anyone who lives with more than yourself
Calvino Rabeni: For instance in some countries I could create a market-like shop and set it up nearly anywhere ... on the street by a park, maybe on the freeway median, who knows
stevenaia Michinaga: nods
Calvino Rabeni: and it would integrate in with an ecology of similar enterprises
Calvino Rabeni: creating a human scale social fabric
Calvino Rabeni: A story I enjoyed hearing, from one of the visitors here
Calvino Rabeni: she decided to start a cafe
Calvino Rabeni: and set it up in the front room of the house
Calvino Rabeni: it became very sucessful and lasted for years
Calvino Rabeni: and had who knows how many positive social side effects
Calvino Rabeni: a kind of "open source economy" if you will
Calvino Rabeni: and I said something like
Calvino Rabeni: "That's not something I could do here where I live"
stevenaia Michinaga: where was her cafe?

--BELL--

Calvino Rabeni: I think it was in a small town in south africa
Calvino Rabeni: (And as she reads the Wiki - hello, your story is inspiring :) )
Calvino Rabeni: Anyway, we attempt to do that kind of thing around here
stevenaia Michinaga: wb Arch
Calvino Rabeni: but the deck is stacked against it
Calvino Rabeni: the best so far are small temporary installations like street fairs
Calvino Rabeni: perhaps under the auspices of a church, or operating under temporary city permits, etc.
Calvino Rabeni: but they can't become part of the social fabric
Calvino Rabeni: WB Arch :)
stevenaia Michinaga: not for very long
stevenaia Michinaga: we were talking about marketplaces, temporaty in their curent form of street fairs
Calvino Rabeni: They remain temporary, can't become part of the aspects of the cityscape that people get used to and comfortable with, part of the everyday life feeling
Calvino Rabeni: We like diversity of opinion
stevenaia Michinaga: yes please Arch
stevenaia Michinaga: but I must be leaving shortly
Calvino Rabeni: I think humans are Goldilocks creatures who like to live in the middle zones ... just right ... perhaps that's true of all life
stevenaia Michinaga: yes, seems to be the nature of comfort we are attacted to
Calvino Rabeni: I'll need to slip out during the nect bell
stevenaia Michinaga: nods me too
Calvino Rabeni: Its what we evolved for
Calvino Rabeni: living between the fusion heat of the sun and the deep cold of interstellar space
Calvino Rabeni: just the right distance from each
Calvino Rabeni: in a narrow sheltered "just right" zone
stevenaia Michinaga: night Cal and Arch

--BELL--

Calvino Rabeni: Goodnight Arch
Calvino Rabeni: Take care