2013.12.22 13:00 - Christmas expectations and tesselation - tiddley pom

The Guardian for this meeting was Aphrodite Macbain. The comments are by Aphrodite Macbain.

Aphrodite Macbain:

The more it snows (Tiddely Pom),

The more it goes (Tiddely Pom),

The more it goes (Tiddely Pom),

On snowing (Tiddely Pom),

And nobody knows (Tiddely Pom),

How cold my toes (Tiddely Pom),

How cold my toes (Tiddely Pom),

Are growing (Tiddely Pom)

A.A. Milne

Aphrodite Macbain: Thoughts on a snowy Sunday at the Pavilion...

Bruce Mowbray: So, what's up with the Nigerian bishop?
Aphrodite Macbain: It's in the same article you sent me
Bruce Mowbray: oh.....
Bruce Mowbray: The article about Pope Francis....
Aphrodite Macbain: He has left the church because of the Pope's statements
Bruce Mowbray: Oh, I didn't realize that....
Bruce Mowbray: I was concentrating too much on the radical nature of the Pope's statements.
Aphrodite Macbain: read right to the bottom
Bruce Mowbray: Cool!
Aphrodite Macbain: that's what the Pope will have to face
Bruce Mowbray: I took copies of that article to Quaker Meeting today.
Bruce Mowbray: We spend an entire HOUR talking about it.
Bruce Mowbray: and then we had only 20 minutes of silent worship.
Aphrodite Macbain: It is so hopeful. But it may not bear fruit considering all the other perspectives
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, that was the opinion of one of our members, too.
Aphrodite Macbain: He has a tough row to hoe
Bruce Mowbray: I said that I felt these were the most "radical" things I've heard from ANY religion in my lifetime.
Bruce Mowbray: (AND SO HAPPY TO BE HEARING THEM!)
Aphrodite Macbain: nods
Bruce Mowbray: Wonders why I didn't even know there had been a Third Vatican Council until today.
Aphrodite Macbain: It's funny how it comes as such a pleasant surprise. We are so used to hearing bad news, stupid pronouncements...
Bruce Mowbray: indeed.
Bruce Mowbray: Like a fresh breeze flowing through the crusty old house.
Bruce Mowbray: So, you're flying to Toronto today?
Aphrodite Macbain: No, Calgary
Aphrodite Macbain: I have friends there. Then we will drive to Banff and then on to Vancouver through the mountains
Bruce Mowbray: Hmmm. So, you're already in eastern Canada, then?
Aphrodite Macbain: ?
Aphrodite Macbain: No
Bruce Mowbray: OH! That's right!
Bruce Mowbray: I forgot!
Aphrodite Macbain: I live on the west coast
Bruce Mowbray: Your solstice hiking club.
Bruce Mowbray: YAYYYY!
Aphrodite Macbain: I used to live in Banff
Aphrodite Macbain: :) yes
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, but I thought you might be in Ottawa or Toronto for the holiday....
Aphrodite Macbain: so I know many people in Alberta
Bruce Mowbray: cool!
Bruce Mowbray: SUCH a beautiful area.
Aphrodite Macbain: My family is in Ottawa as are a few other friends but It's too big a trip
Bruce Mowbray: Probably the most beautiful place in the western-northern hemisphere.
Bruce Mowbray: yeppers.
Bruce Mowbray: Especially with all the airlines so packed. Yuck.
Aphrodite Macbain: so a 1 hour flight to Calgary is what it will be

Aphrodite Macbain: Hi San!
Bruce Mowbray: Heya, San!
Aphrodite Macbain: Oops
Aphrodite Macbain: lost San
Bruce Mowbray: Here today - gone today...
Aphrodite Macbain: :)

Aphrodite Macbain: What are your plans Bruce?
Bruce Mowbray: Well, I will light a few candles, drink some eggnog (no alcohol in it), and write some computer programs.
Aphrodite Macbain: no gin?

Bruce Mowbray: Oh yes, gin -- for sure!
Aphrodite Macbain: huh?
Bruce Mowbray: Just not in the eggnog.
Aphrodite Macbain: ah
Bruce Mowbray: I'm a purist when I come to both gin and egg nog.
Aphrodite Macbain: rum is good in eggnog
Bruce Mowbray: Perhaps, but that would sort of interfere with my purism about egg nog, don’t you see?
Bruce Mowbray: I am doing some special graphics work right now.
Aphrodite Macbain: Oh?
Bruce Mowbray: yeppers.
Bruce Mowbray: I am working with parquet deformations....
Aphrodite Macbain: tell me about parquet deformations then...
Bruce Mowbray: kk, Just a sec..
Bruce Mowbray: I will find you a graphic about what I mean.
Bruce Mowbray: this will take a sec....
Bruce Mowbray: https://www.google.com/search?q=parquet+deformations&safe=off&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=UFa3UqvGCeiqyAG_0IHQAQ&ved=0CCoQsAQ&biw=1838&bih=994

Bruce Mowbray: My typist will be writing programs that can make pictures like those.
Bruce Mowbray: Yikes!
Aphrodite Macbain: opening… looking
Aphrodite Macbain: Cool. They look like Escher drawings
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, they were originally inspired by Escher's work.
Aphrodite Macbain: Is this what you will do during the winter? Hibernate and write programs?
Bruce Mowbray: yeppers.
Bruce Mowbray: and I get very fuzzy and small and curl up into a ball.
Aphrodite Macbain: an internal exercise
Bruce Mowbray: indeed.
Aphrodite Macbain: activating grey cells
Bruce Mowbray: Internal-
Aphrodite Macbain: renewing your creative soul
Bruce Mowbray: the best sort of exercise.
Bruce Mowbray: ;-)
Bruce Mowbray: Yes!
Bruce Mowbray: and hopefully also rubbing a few brain cells together..
Bruce Mowbray: and thereby generating a bit of warmth.

Aphrodite Macbain: I am reading 2 books a week and loving it. Dostoevsky, Barthes, Goethe
Bruce Mowbray: OH MY!
Bruce Mowbray: Yikes!
Bruce Mowbray: That's: some heavy material, too.

Aphrodite Macbain: Hi Qt
Bruce Mowbray: Heya, Qt!
Qt Core: Hi Aph, Bruce
Aphrodite Macbain: Happy yuletide, solstice, Christmas
Qt Core: and goodbye to dieting too ;-)
Bruce Mowbray: Hannaka...
Bruce Mowbray: Kwanzaa....
Aphrodite Macbain: Buon Natale
Bruce Mowbray: ;-)
Aphrodite Macbain: What is your family doing to celebrate?
Bruce Mowbray listens.
Aphrodite Macbain: apart from enjoying panetone!
Qt Core: well, as my mother is in a clinic until January we found that we can have lunch there, so going there
Aphrodite Macbain: they have a cafeteria?
Bruce Mowbray: That's good - that you'll be with her.
Qt Core: no, we'll have lunch with all the patients
Bruce Mowbray: Ahhhh.
Aphrodite Macbain: :)
Aphrodite Macbain: nice
Bruce Mowbray: yes, nice.
Aphrodite Macbain: I hope you can find ways to celebrate there
Qt Core: well, Christmas lunch with hospital food... we'll see
Aphrodite Macbain: I am beginning to enjoy this season.
Bruce Mowbray: It's the spirit (or spirits?) that count.
Aphrodite Macbain: Not sure what has changed. Perhaps my expectations...
Bruce Mowbray: Hmmmm.
Bruce Mowbray: Expectations are what makes the season almost unbearable for my typist.
Aphrodite Macbain: I remember, as a child sitting under the Christmas tree and thinking, "is this all there is?"
Aphrodite Macbain: waiting for some rush of joy...
Bruce Mowbray: When I give up all those expectations - and relieve friends of their regarding me - I actually enjoy Christmas.

Qt Core: i remember the happy gathering with family at large, shifting from a new idea and joy to a quiet almost boring duty
Aphrodite Macbain: nods
Aphrodite Macbain: Yes- thinking of others makes a lot of difference.
Bruce Mowbray: I surely hope that you realized that NO, THIS IS NOT ALL THERE IS!
Aphrodite Macbain: It's been hard this Christmas, nevertheless
Bruce Mowbray: Yikes!
Aphrodite Macbain: 3 friends have died within a month
Bruce Mowbray: oh my, Aph.
Aphrodite Macbain: seems it's the time of year...
Bruce Mowbray: And holidays make those passings seem more poignant.
Aphrodite Macbain: nods
Aphrodite Macbain: families left behind
Aphrodite Macbain: my upstairs neighbour
Bruce Mowbray: My dad died the day after Thanksgiving -- and I still remember all of us trying to get through Christmas.
Bruce Mowbray: But, we did!
Aphrodite Macbain: nods
Aphrodite Macbain: I suppose it can draw the family together
Aphrodite Macbain: How is your sister doing Qt, may I ask?
Bruce Mowbray: Indeed, if one's family is made of that sort of stuff...
Bruce Mowbray listens.
Qt Core: she's good
Qt Core: she just spent the day with good food and friends... while i did some grocery and book shopping
Aphrodite Macbain: nice
Bruce Mowbray: Book shopping is one of my all-time favorite things to do.
Bruce Mowbray: Have a great time hiking, Aph.
Aphrodite Macbain: Bye Bruce, Qt. Merry merry Christmas
Bruce Mowbray: MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Qt Core: bye, Aph, merry Christmas to you
Aphrodite Macbain: I wont be hiking this time. Just eating and drinking!
Bruce Mowbray: ahhh!
Bruce Mowbray: MY sort of exercise!
Bruce Mowbray: I was telling Aph before you arrived that I intended to spend Christmas writing a computer program that will draw parquet deformations.
Bruce Mowbray: like some of these:
Bruce Mowbray: https://www.google.com/search?q=parq...w=1838&bih=994
Qt Core: the tessellation problem
Bruce Mowbray: Indeed!!!
Bruce Mowbray: Tessellation!

Escher

Qt Core: did you have to much Escher lately ? ;-)
Bruce Mowbray: Well, since most of his work is infinite....
Bruce Mowbray: It's easy to get "too much!"
Bruce Mowbray: Yikes!
Bruce Mowbray: I find his work to be philosophically challenging...
Bruce Mowbray: as much as it is artistically challenging.
Bruce Mowbray: I have a book --
Bruce Mowbray: titled "Escher on Escher" in which he explains the "rationale" for his etchings and drawings.
Bruce Mowbray: fascinating stuff.
Bruce Mowbray: https://www.google.com/search?q=parq...e=off&tbm=isch
Bruce Mowbray: ooops... wrong one.
Bruce Mowbray: no, I guess that was the right one - after all.
Bruce Mowbray: He first got the idea for his work from visiting Moorish mosques in Spain.
Bruce Mowbray: Studying the intricate patterns.
Bruce Mowbray: This is the book I was talking about:
Bruce Mowbray: http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Esch.../9780810924147
Bruce Mowbray: It is all first-person and autobiographical.
Qt Core: nice, i think i have something about Escher too, probably not this
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, a whole lot has been written about him.
Bruce Mowbray: (or rather, about his work.)
Bruce Mowbray: What fascinates me most about his art is its suggestive power....
Qt Core: every time i think about Escher i think about Calvino's Cosmicomics (as my edition has some of his work on the cover (http://www.amazon.com/Cosmicomics-It...+italo+calvino) read it many years ago, should reread it)
Bruce Mowbray: (a bit like, SL, come to think of it.)
Bruce Mowbray: Oh wow!
Bruce Mowbray: Is that book in English?
Qt Core: the one i linked yes, it is; the original is in Italian
Bruce Mowbray: I have the link....
Bruce Mowbray: So, if there is a translation into English (and there is!!!) I am going to buy it.
Bruce Mowbray: ty for the suggestion!
Bruce Mowbray: Do you do any computer programming, Qt?
Qt Core: beside work you mean ?
Bruce Mowbray: ahhh!
Bruce Mowbray: So, it is your work. Didn't realize that.
Bruce Mowbray: Mine is entirely recreational.
Bruce Mowbray: (and self-taught).
Bruce Mowbray: and very very simple.
Bruce Mowbray: I know only one language: Visual Basic.
Bruce Mowbray: and I bounce back and forth between VB 6 and Visual Basic 2010
Bruce Mowbray: but VB 6 will not run in Windows 7
Qt Core: i wasted the time when i would have done it even recreationally, i still have fun doing it at work but haven't found something i wanted to do enough
Bruce Mowbray: so, I had to make a virtual machine....
Bruce Mowbray: (VMWare.com
Bruce Mowbray: and install a XP operating system.
Bruce Mowbray: just in order to run VB 6.
Qt Core: once built there, the programs run in 7 ?
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, they run fine in either os.
Bruce Mowbray: Mine do, anyway.
Qt Core: i wrote the program to manage my book library in access 2, some 20 years ago... started several remake of it and never had a working new one ;-)
Bruce Mowbray: (but mine are very very simple.)

Bruce Mowbray: ACCESS -- that's the database program from MS....
Qt Core: yes
Bruce Mowbray: Hello, San-ji!
Santoshima Resident: hello Bruce and Qt
Qt Core: Hi San
Bruce Mowbray: Qt and I have been sharing our interest in Escher and computers, and what we'll be doing over the holiday.
Bruce Mowbray: Any special plans for you, San?
Santoshima Resident: some lunch crackers with cheese
Bruce Mowbray: WONDERFUL!
Bruce Mowbray: The simpler the better!!
Santoshima Resident: a walk
Santoshima Resident: seeds for the birds
Bruce Mowbray: YES!
Santoshima Resident: how about you?
Bruce Mowbray: YES YES!
Bruce Mowbray: The same!!!
Santoshima Resident: excellent :)
Bruce Mowbray: Maybe we will meet somewhere out there -- in a field, beyond right-thinking and wrong-thinking... (sry about that Rumi.)
Santoshima Resident: already have :)
Bruce Mowbray: Indeed.
Bruce Mowbray: Good people . . . I am going over to Bertram's meditation now.
Santoshima Resident: will you send a LM? i'd like to attend
Bruce Mowbray: I wish you both a safe and happy holiday -- however you choose to celebrate (or not celebrate) it.
Santoshima Resident: ty, bruce
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, I will definitely send along a tp, San.
Bruce Mowbray: (or an LM)...
Qt Core: :-) ty Bruce
Bruce Mowbray: Bye for now, then!
Santoshima Resident: ty
Qt Core: have fun
Santoshima Resident: good to see you Qt ~ stay well!
Qt Core: i'll try, you too!