2008.09.18 07:00 - Pixie baseball

Enjoy - CH

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood ...

Wol Euler: hello cal
Caledonia Heron: hey there :)
Wol Euler: sorry to disturb the peacefulness :-)
Caledonia Heron: not at all - I'm pleased to see you :)
Caledonia Heron: how are you today?
Wol Euler: pretty well, thanks. It's a fine day in RL, sunny but cool, gentle breeze; that helps enormoously.
Caledonia Heron: mmm, sounds nice
Wol Euler: I just got back from an extended lunchbreak, I sat in a little park and looked at the trees and sky for a while.
Caledonia Heron: nice!
Wol Euler: allowing myself a little time out :-)
Caledonia Heron: I have a view of the countryside out my window, it's very restful :)
Wol Euler: nice. The office where I am right now is on the ground floor of a broad inner-city street, with trees and rosebushes on both sides.
Wol Euler: lots of people walking past, busses and schoolkids.
Caledonia Heron: lots of bustle... sometimes the city is invigorating
Wol Euler: hello Puro
Wol Euler: *Poru, sorry
Poru Kamachi: Konnichi wa
Caledonia Heron: hi Puro :)
Wol Euler: konnicni wa, Canadajin des'
Caledonia Heron: oops, me too ... hi Poru :)
Wol Euler: but I don't speak Japanese at all.
Wol Euler: you came at the wrong time, three of our members do :-)
Poru Kamachi: watashi wa Igirisu-jin (English ;) )
Caledonia Heron: I speak pretend Japanese :)
Wol Euler wonders wehther there is a Japanese translator object in-world ...

Introducing a new person to PaB...

Caledonia Heron: we are here for the play as being discussion Poru
Caledonia Heron: have you attended before?
Poru Kamachi: I haven't no, but I always intended to
Wol Euler: ah :)
Caledonia Heron: sure :)
Poru Kamachi: I forgot my password so couldn't login, I finally got round to resetting it. I've come here to relax ^_^
Wol Euler smiles and nods. It happens.
Caledonia Heron: great idea, we meet and discuss our activities in a relaxing way
Wol Euler: (Cal, do you have a copy of Sky's notecard to give Poru?)
Caledonia Heron: the information about play as being is here -
http://playasbeing.wik.is
Wol Euler: (we really must get that dispenser built!)
Caledonia Heron: no, I have not received it
Caledonia Heron: let me go to the website for some info
Caledonia Heron: sec
Caledonia Heron: while I look - Poru, we take the chat from our discussions and post it to the wiki - is it ok to include your comments?
Poru Kamachi: if you like
Caledonia Heron: Play as Being is a group of people exploring reality by using our own life as a laboratory. It's a thought experiment to see what is left if we put down what we have. Can we make conjectures, hypotheses about what Being could be, and play with those in our day-to-day life? What happens when we do? The best way to find out is to just give it a try. You can also consult the FAQ page. Or read snippets from some of our daily discussion excerpts , and glimpse some examples of how the practice has changed our real life.
Caledonia Heron: oops, just got part ... I'll try again

awww, crud... My screen looked like the message did not paste into the text box... so I pasted it again... redundantly redundant...

Caledonia Heron: Play as Being is a group of people exploring reality by using our own life as a laboratory. It's a thought experiment to see what is left if we put down what we have. Can we make conjectures, hypotheses about what Being could be, and play with those in our day-to-day life? What happens when we do?
Caledonia Heron: There is a meeting 4 times each day at 01:00, 07:00, 13:00, 19:00 SLT (1 a.m., 7 a.m., 1 p.m., 7 p.m.) in a virtual world called Second Life and a region called Rieul (195,148,75). Each meeting will have a Guardian present for at least 30 minutes.
Wol Euler: The discussion is a little freer than that might sound at first :-) We discuss what arises in meditation, the thoughts and feelings we have while or after -- or sometimes just talk about life and the world :-)
Caledonia Heron: yes, metaphysics and baseball :)
Wol Euler: and sawdust :-)
Poru Kamachi: and baseball, *laughs*
Caledonia Heron: and pixels :) or is it pixies?

A small inquiry about the auto-recording project...

Caledonia Heron: how is the autorecording coming along Wol?
Caledonia Heron: Poru, we are going to a new system to record chats - Wol is working hard on it
Wol Euler: very well, actually! the first stage is working, I have got the "capture" bits running
Caledonia Heron: excellent!
Wol Euler: Fael is working on thet next stage, a webserver with database to store the rough-cut texts i
Wol Euler: which will hopefully generate wiki pages automatically.
Wol Euler: I still hope to be running on Octover 1.
Caledonia Heron: that will be great! a good goal :)
Wol Euler: I keep forgetting to ask Storm to give me "builder" permission for this site, so I could set the test unit up here.
Caledonia Heron: send him an im right now... he is very responsive to those requests :)
Wol Euler: scripts alwys work differently under real-world loading than when I test it on my own land
Wol Euler nods. will do.
Caledonia Heron: yeah, for sure .... we should stress test it for a while
Wol Euler: absolutely, that's why I said October instead of this week :-)
Caledonia Heron: lol, a little room to try it out
Wol Euler: I want to have it running parallel to recording by hand for at least a full week.
Caledonia Heron: sure, redundancy until it's truly complete
Wol Euler: and fully tested.
Caledonia Heron: yes! exactly
Wol Euler: Our common habit of posting in entire wikipedia pages, for instance!
Caledonia Heron: mmm, sure, you are going for a similar setup I guess
Wol Euler: the end result should be identical, that is my target.
Caledonia Heron: excellent, thanks for your good work :)

What exactly _is_ the 9 seconds again? ...

Poru Kamachi: forgive my interruption, but, do you know if any of the Yoshiwara geisha are arond?
Caledonia Heron: no, I sure don't :)
Caledonia Heron: do you have a meditation practice Poru?
Wol Euler: I don't know any, sorrry.
Poru Kamachi: I don't have a specific practice of meditation, but I do pray on occasions
Caledonia Heron: this group is trying a particular way of practice
Caledonia Heron: every quarter hour we take 9 seconds to drop what we're doing and notice what's so
Poru Kamachi: I see
Wol Euler: like a 1% attention tax :-)
Caledonia Heron: and by extension, once one drops the "noise" you can attempt to drop the dropper, and see what you notice
Wol Euler: many find that too rigorous or too intrusive, I do it only on occasion during hte day, at natural breaks.
Caledonia Heron: yes, the time increments are a guideline, somewhere to start ... I think most people do it when it works for them
Poru Kamachi: I think it sounds quite deep, to stop everything and realise where you are in space in time
Caledonia Heron: there are other exercises some of the group are trying and further extensions of the initial 9 second activity
Poru Kamachi: *and time
Wol Euler nods.
Caledonia Heron: yes, exactly or where you are *not* in space and time :)
Poru Kamachi: yes
Caledonia Heron: or that there *is* no space or time
Wol Euler nods. I do it most often as a kind of mental stock-taking: Why am I behaving this way, why did I just say that?
Caledonia Heron: it's very seductive in it's strangeness :)
Caledonia Heron: interesting Wol
Caledonia Heron: for me I find that the most profound instances of dropping everything aren't about me per se
Caledonia Heron: perhaps I am not that introspective
Caledonia Heron: or merely oblivious :)
Wol Euler smiles. Or perhaps I need self- correction more than you?
Caledonia Heron: oh no! I don't in any way think that accurate

Albertus and Adams join us...

Wol Euler: hello albertus
Caledonia Heron: hi Albertus :)
Albertus Urvilan: good day all
Caledonia Heron: Albertus, we have having a discussion with the play as being group
Caledonia Heron: have you attended before?
Wol Euler: (brb, phone)
Caledonia Heron: k
Caledonia Heron: hi Adams :)
Adams Rubble: Hello everyone :)
Caledonia Heron: Albertus, while I find the introductory material I'd like to let you know we record the chat log
Adams Rubble: Nice to meet you Poru and Albertus :)
Caledonia Heron: may we include your comments?
Poru Kamachi: Nice to meet you too Adams
Albertus Urvilan: Read any Dogen, Caledonia?
Caledonia Heron: Here is the introduction from
http://playasbeing.wik.is
 ... Play as Being is a group of people exploring reality by using our own life as a laboratory. It's a thought experiment to see what is left if we put down what we have. Can we make conjectures, hypotheses about what Being could be, and play with those in our day-to-day life? What happens when we do?
Caledonia Heron: no Albertus, I don't believe so
Caledonia Heron: again, may we include your comments Albertus?
Poru Kamachi: I hope I don't offend anyone here, but I wish to continue my tour of this place and as such will be leaving this pavillion
Caledonia Heron: yes, of course Poru, people come and go all the time
Caledonia Heron: nice to meet you
Albertus Urvilan: Yes it's fine
Poru Kamachi: arigatou gozaimasu
Caledonia Heron: ty Albertus
Albertus Urvilan: Fine to include my comments
Caledonia Heron: that's a lovely dress Adams :)

On being open and receptive...

Albertus Urvilan: Dogen talks about the "fallen away body and mind"
Caledonia Heron: ah, interesting Albertus
Adams Rubble: Thank you Cal; your hair is beautiful :)
Caledonia Heron: sounds similar to our activities :)
Caledonia Heron: gosh, thanks Adams :)
Albertus Urvilan: Yes, and he's wonderfully poetic aboutthe state.
Caledonia Heron: in what way ... the descriptors, the process, what it's like?
Albertus Urvilan: It's amazing how poetry can be so precise about process, but so unfathomable to anyone who hasn't experienced it for themselves...
Caledonia Heron: ah, so the precision is related to the shared experience?
Albertus Urvilan: "I was in the ocean" may not convey an sense of experience to the listener who has lived inland all their lives
Caledonia Heron: yes, I see
Caledonia Heron: to me that is sort of like our discussions here ... the shared experience and vocabulary takes a meaning from a particular ground of being and activity
Albertus Urvilan: "I felt my body and mind fall away" may not express any meaningful experience to a non-mystic
Albertus Urvilan: Yes
Caledonia Heron: it requires a type of openess too perhaps?
Wol Euler: back, and reading. Hi adams!
Caledonia Heron: a receptiveness
Albertus Urvilan: The form follows the function, as Mies said
Albertus Urvilan: Yes, I do think a willingness is required. Of course it varies greatly betweenpeople (or avatars)
Caledonia Heron: yes, variance between ppl/avs and variance with oneself at any given time
Caledonia Heron: sometimes my antennae are more receptive than others :)
Albertus Urvilan: And don't you find it that it varies depending on who we're realting to? I actually feel very limited when my capacities aren't called into use, or required
Albertus Urvilan: In some way.
Caledonia Heron: yes for sure
Caledonia Heron: take this situation for example
Wol Euler nods
Caledonia Heron: I know Adams and Wol, and you and I have just met
Albertus Urvilan: Or more positively: when necessary, I can rise to the occasion.
Caledonia Heron: I freely can discuss these matters with Adams and Wol
Caledonia Heron: and , it appears that you too are in a similar wavelength and I can discuss matters with you also
Albertus Urvilan: Yes. And not with my dad.
Albertus Urvilan: ;)
Caledonia Heron: that is not always the situation with people who walk up to the discussion group and jump in
Caledonia Heron: it is a relative receptiveness apparently :)
Albertus Urvilan: ha
Wol Euler: heheh
Adams Rubble: :)
Caledonia Heron: lol, we're all at ... ha!
Caledonia Heron: see what I mean? :)

What we try out in SL...

Caledonia Heron: is this your first time here Albertus?
Albertus Urvilan: That's spark for the "archive".
Caledonia Heron: lol, yes
Caledonia Heron: or have we met before, possibly as another av?
Albertus Urvilan: I was here a couple times after meditation over in the zendo. I just joined SL two days ago
Wol Euler grins. An intereseting question, Cal.
Caledonia Heron: oh, my ... congrats !
Wol Euler: ah, welcome to SL.
Albertus Urvilan: Thanks
Caledonia Heron: how so Wol? I feel like I might be meeting people I know who appear differently recently :)
Adams Rubble: Yes, welsome to SL. I have seen you at meditation :)
Wol Euler: that's what I meant, Cal :-)
Caledonia Heron: ah ... that wavelength thing ... :)
Albertus Urvilan: I have enjoyed seeing how people can mirror their real-life personae, or try to avoid it
Adams Rubble is on that wavelength
Caledonia Heron: :)
Caledonia Heron: yes, people try out all kinds of stuff in sl ... their rl, their wanted life, any facet of themselves life
Adams Rubble: Or both, or all, or none
Wol Euler: different selves :-)
Caledonia Heron: yes, cheaper than lithium :)
Adams Rubble: :)
Wol Euler: lol
Caledonia Heron: good thing there's so many psychologists running around in sl :)
Adams Rubble: not to mention monks
Adams Rubble: :)
Caledonia Heron: if I had a nickel for every monk I've met .... :)
Adams Rubble: I might have almost $1.00
Wol Euler: lol
Caledonia Heron: lol, at least
Adams Rubble: Of course there are the nickel monks and the two cent monks
Wol Euler: heheh
Caledonia Heron: lol, monk denominations, priceless :)
Wol Euler: many monks have several two-cents-worths to give, in my experience
Caledonia Heron: for sure, everyone has something to contribute

Adios...

Caledonia Heron: I have to take off y'all .... it was nice to see you Adams and Wol... and very nice to meet you Albertus, I hope you return :)
Wol Euler: bye cal, take care.
Adams Rubble: Yes, me too. It was good to see you all. Take care everyone :)
Wol Euler: actually, I too must run, the autologging wont write itself.
Caledonia Heron: bye :)
Wol Euler: bye adams, bye Albertus
Caledonia Heron: lol, that's "write" Wol :)
Adams Rubble: bye :) Nice to meet you Albertus :)
Wol Euler: heheheh
Wol Euler: take care, all.