The Guardian for this meeting was Agatha Macbeth. The comments are by Agatha Macbeth.

Bruce Mowbray: 's current display-name is "Bruce".
--BELL--1300
Agatha Macbeth: Hello grey Brucie
Bruce Mowbray: Heya, brightly colored aggers!
Agatha Macbeth: How's the connection today?
Bruce Mowbray: well, so far, it seems pretty good.... although if I am great to you that might be a bad sign.
Agatha Macbeth: Not now, I refreshed you :p
Bruce Mowbray: ooops.. GREY to you, sry.
Bruce Mowbray: Ahhh! I suddenly feel so refreshed!
Agatha Macbeth: You are great, not grey :p
Agatha Macbeth: Bruce almighty
Agatha Macbeth: And his faithful fish
Bruce Mowbray: You know, it's really strange. Sometimes what legs is my entries in the chat box, and other times what legs are my gestures..
Agatha Macbeth: Hm
Bruce Mowbray: and today it seems that the gestures are leggy but not the chat.
Bruce Mowbray: laggy!*
Bruce Mowbray: [ Blame it on the Dragon!]
Agatha Macbeth: There is a few seconds delay between your nods and your words
Agatha Macbeth: Bit like thunder and lightning
Bruce Mowbray listens carefully for technical analysis of lag.
Agatha Macbeth: Oh I don't do technical stuff, just observe
Agatha Macbeth: Hehe
Bruce Mowbray: Not me, actually, but my typist caught them.
Bruce Mowbray: OH!
Agatha Macbeth: Oh
Bruce Mowbray: I hate it when they don't get my chat entries in order!
Agatha Macbeth: Well that one did
Bruce Mowbray: and it seems like this time they completely deleted one.....
Agatha Macbeth: Hm
Bruce Mowbray: okay, what I had typed was this: ( which I still do not see in the chat) -- " Are you aware that this week I caught nine squirrels?"
Agatha Macbeth: Oh yes (I am aware)
Agatha Macbeth: Been following it on FB
Bruce Mowbray: (My typist caught nine squirrels . . . NOT me!)
Agatha Macbeth: Never seen a squirrel in SL
Bruce Mowbray: OH, of course! Good ol' FB!
Agatha Macbeth: Yeh
Bruce Mowbray: may neither, but I'll bet they exist here.
Agatha Macbeth: Cute little buggers
Bruce Mowbray: me*
Agatha Macbeth: Love their tails
Bruce Mowbray: I mean, if a blue fish can swim in midair, surely there can be a squirrel or two in world.
Agatha Macbeth: I would imagine so
Bruce Mowbray: Did you see the pictures of the squirrels on my FB page?
Agatha Macbeth: May even be a few avatars
Bruce Mowbray: ha ha!
Agatha Macbeth: Yes!
Bruce Mowbray: kk.
Agatha Macbeth: They are great
Bruce Mowbray: cute little buggers, aren't they?
Bruce Mowbray: especially the juvenile ones.
Agatha Macbeth: Mm
Bruce Mowbray: I hate to trap them, but I hate even worse to be wakened at 5.30 in the morning by them.
Agatha Macbeth: Do they eat your nuts?
Bruce Mowbray: Nope.
Agatha Macbeth: Ah
Agatha Macbeth: Well that's something
Bruce Mowbray: there are a couple of walnut trees across the road.... but here in my homemade jungle we only have Oaks.
Bruce Mowbray: and they have done a wonderful job of planting acorns that sprout into new oak trees.
Agatha Macbeth: Oaks have fruit don't they?
Bruce Mowbray: only acorns, I guess.
Agatha Macbeth: Hm, what are those little oval things then?
Bruce Mowbray: Squirrels are major gardeners, you know.
Agatha Macbeth: Oh yes
Agatha Macbeth: I have some here too
Bruce Mowbray: I think those little oval things are acorns, actually.
Agatha Macbeth: Ahh I'm thinking of pine cones
Bruce Mowbray: Ahhh!
Agatha Macbeth: Yes that's right
Bruce Mowbray: yes we have a lot of those too! Pinecones, I mean.
Bruce Mowbray: when my typist first came here in 1971, he planted for blue spruce trees as a windbreak.
Agatha Macbeth: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn
Bruce Mowbray: and every year they shower the area with pinecones.
Bruce Mowbray: four blue spruce trees*
Agatha Macbeth: Spruce Bruce
Bruce Mowbray: [Get your act together Dragon!]
Agatha Macbeth: Wonder if dragons like acorns?
Bruce Mowbray: do you know about the Spruce Goose?
Agatha Macbeth: Er, no
Bruce Mowbray: What was that guys name? Howard Hughes.
Agatha Macbeth ponders the connection
Bruce Mowbray: he built a huge airplane out of wood.....
Agatha Macbeth: Right
Bruce Mowbray: and he called it the Spruce Goose.
Agatha Macbeth: Oh
Bruce Mowbray: I think it is still somewhere around Los Angeles.
Agatha Macbeth: Flying?
Bruce Mowbray: I could look it up.....
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, he actually flew in it!
Bruce Mowbray: just a sec please, I will have it for the break ( drop).
Agatha Macbeth: The hermit par excellence
Bruce Mowbray: https://www.google.com/search?q=spru...w=1311&bih=747
Bruce Mowbray: drop approaches rapidly.....
Agatha Macbeth: Aha ty
Bruce Mowbray: yw.
--BELL--1315
Bruce Mowbray: Its wingspan was greater than a 747's!
Agatha Macbeth: Must have used a lot of wood
Bruce Mowbray: For sure!
Agatha Macbeth: Glad it didn't catch fire
Bruce Mowbray: Do you equate the " excellence" of a hermit by his ability to do Google searches?
Agatha Macbeth: Dunno
Bruce Mowbray: I should've said evaluate, not equate.
Agatha Macbeth: Did HH do them?
Bruce Mowbray: did Howard Hughes do computer searches?
Bruce Mowbray: I don't think so.
Agatha Macbeth: Yeh
Bruce Mowbray: but he was a hermit!
Agatha Macbeth: No google then I guess
Bruce Mowbray: a very neurotic hermit, to be sure.
Agatha Macbeth: Yes, OCD
Bruce Mowbray dies from laughing....
Agatha Macbeth: Yay you came back
Bruce Mowbray: [back --- instant resurrection!]
Bruce Mowbray: Just like the cat!
Agatha Macbeth: Even Jesus took three days
Bruce Mowbray: yeah well things are faster now.
Agatha Macbeth: Like I said, Bruce Almighty
Bruce Mowbray: Ha ha ha!
Agatha Macbeth: With his fish and his dragon
Bruce Mowbray: Bloody left to this weekend, aggers?
Bruce Mowbray: bloops!!!!!
Agatha Macbeth: Per favor?
Bruce Mowbray: WHAT ARE YOU up to this weekend?
Agatha Macbeth: Oh, trying to garden (as usual)
Bruce Mowbray: ( Dammit. I must train this Dragon!)
Agatha Macbeth: And get round to doing some painting
Bruce Mowbray: I so envy people who are still able to do gardening.)
Agatha Macbeth: Weather hasn't been too good last couple of days
Agatha Macbeth: I envy them too - I hate it
Bruce Mowbray: so your painting is outdoors -- like your gardening?
Agatha Macbeth: Yep
Bruce Mowbray: I see.
Agatha Macbeth: Don't garden indoors
Bruce Mowbray: All of my typist's gardening is now indoors.
Bruce Mowbray: Sadly.
Agatha Macbeth: Bonsai?
Bruce Mowbray: No, but other plants....
Bruce Mowbray: so many in fact, that his house is a bit like a jungle.
Agatha Macbeth: Nice
Bruce Mowbray: I love plants.
Bruce Mowbray: I used to be one.
Agatha Macbeth: With me it's the outside
Bruce Mowbray: and I can transform myself into one at any moment.
Agatha Macbeth: An aspidystra?

Bruce Mowbray: enough?
Agatha Macbeth: Hm
Agatha Macbeth: Still see bits of Bruce
Bruce Mowbray: Yeppers, still parts of Bruce in there somewhere.
Bruce Mowbray: but I will abide with the tree until the next drop, if that's all right.
Bruce Mowbray: Blub likes the shade.
Agatha Macbeth: 'They need tree fellers, but there's only two of us'
Bruce Mowbray: Two tree fellers?
Agatha Macbeth: It's an Irish joke
Bruce Mowbray: ahhh!
Bruce Mowbray: I guess I don't have enough Irish whiskey in me at the moment to appreciate the joke.... sorry.
Agatha Macbeth: Aww
Bruce Mowbray: !!!
Bruce Mowbray: ;-)
Agatha Macbeth: Try scotch instead
Bruce Mowbray: AHHH! Now you're talking!
Agatha Macbeth: I am indeed
Agatha Macbeth: Gabble gabble
Bruce Mowbray: My typist's preferred beverage is gin, actually.
Agatha Macbeth: A friend of mine went to sim once where evrybody was a tree
Bruce Mowbray: (I think he must've been drinking it when he turned me into a tree.)
Bruce Mowbray: I would love to find such a sim.
Agatha Macbeth: Is your bark worse than your bite?
Bruce Mowbray: HA HA HA!
Bruce Mowbray: Look out, Blub, here we go again!
Bruce Mowbray dies from laughing....
Agatha Macbeth sends for the branch manager
Bruce Mowbray: Looks for regular clothes.
Agatha Macbeth: I see you wearing some
Bruce Mowbray: well yes here and there.
Bruce Mowbray: with a drop coming up I will have a chance to change.
Agatha Macbeth: Interestingly a lumberjack shirt
Agatha Macbeth: Maybe a tree with a death wish?
--BELL--1330
Bruce Mowbray: you mean my madras shirt?
Bruce Mowbray: (ooops! No antlers!)
Bruce Mowbray: Oh, there they are.
Bruce Mowbray: (WRONG ONES!)
Agatha Macbeth: Oh yay your jet pack is back

Agatha Macbeth: Wonder if Wollie has touched down yet?
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, I was wondering the same thing.
Bruce Mowbray: [looks around for Blub.....]
Agatha Macbeth: Don't know what time the plane is
Bruce Mowbray: Will it be a virtual plane or a real one?
Agatha Macbeth: I presume a real one
Agatha Macbeth: Not made of wood
Bruce Mowbray: ( I would hope.)
Bruce Mowbray remembers when his typist flew into London's Heathrow....
Agatha Macbeth: In a plane?
Bruce Mowbray: well yes.
Bruce Mowbray: from Paris.....
Agatha Macbeth: Or by jetpack
Bruce Mowbray: it was interesting because our flight from Paris was actually on the runway and taking off when it was suddenly stopped....
Agatha Macbeth: Was it foggy?
Bruce Mowbray: and we were all taken off the plane and boarded in another one..... to fly to London.
Bruce Mowbray: I have no idea why.
Agatha Macbeth: Maybe they didn't wind up the rubber band
Bruce Mowbray: I do recall that the plane had triangular windows...., though.
Agatha Macbeth: Oh nice
Bruce Mowbray: yes I like them very much, and was sorry to have to give them up for a second plane.

Agatha Macbeth: The triangle is such a cute shape
Bruce Mowbray: indeed, the most economical geometric figure that there is.
Agatha Macbeth: I like pentagons too
Bruce Mowbray: which is why Buckminster Fuller liked it, too.
Agatha Macbeth: Old Bucky?
Bruce Mowbray: pentagons are also good.... more aesthetically pleasing, perhaps, then triangles.
Bruce Mowbray: than*
Agatha Macbeth: And they tesselate too
Bruce Mowbray: tessellation is also good.....
Agatha Macbeth: Indeed
Agatha Macbeth is quite aesthetic
Bruce Mowbray: My typist has been playing around with that... the tessellation, I mean.
Agatha Macbeth: Oh?
Bruce Mowbray: sometimes it is called " tiling."
Agatha Macbeth: Yes
Bruce Mowbray: yes actually he has written a couple of tessellation programs... very simple ones, actually.
Agatha Macbeth: Bees do it with hexagons
Bruce Mowbray: yes they do, and they do it very well indeed.
Bruce Mowbray: I will look for one of his tessellation's just a sec please.....
Agatha Macbeth: Wonder who taught them?
Bruce Mowbray: something to share for the next drop, maybe.
Agatha Macbeth: Mm
Bruce Mowbray: please bear with me.
Bruce Mowbray: The lag is incredible right now.
Bruce Mowbray: (is trying to upload image.....)
Agatha Macbeth: Ah oui, l'image...
Bruce Mowbray: oui. C'est ici.
Agatha Macbeth: Oh ty, thought you were going to rez it
Agatha Macbeth: Ah yes
Agatha Macbeth: There's Berti
Bruce Mowbray: It looks best at 4:3.
Bruce Mowbray looks around for Bertie.

Agatha Macbeth: It gets more ambitious as it goes right
Bruce Mowbray: yes, it does.
Agatha Macbeth: Wonder if fractals work the same way?
Bruce Mowbray: the original came out of a book by one of my heroes: Douglas Hofstadter.
Bruce Mowbray: know it's an entirely different thing from fractals.
Agatha Macbeth: Sehr gut
Bruce Mowbray: no*
Agatha Macbeth: Hm
--BELL--1345
Bruce Mowbray: this is simply a tweaking that gets performed on certain lines repeatedly.... and ends up being an interesting image.
Agatha Macbeth: Kaleidoscope-y
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, like that.... although I'd never thought of the analogy before. Thank you!
Bruce Mowbray: away from keyboard for just a second.....
Agatha Macbeth: YW
Bruce Mowbray: between squirrels and tessellation's my typist has his hands (and brain) full....
Agatha Macbeth: It's always good to be occupied...
Bruce Mowbray: yes, the devil's workshop, idleness, and all that Protestant ethic stuff.
Agatha Macbeth: 'They'll never make a cucumber out of me'
Agatha Macbeth: Well I'm definitely not protesant hehe
Bruce Mowbray: But I thought the idea of dropping was to let that stuff go, to release it.
Bruce Mowbray: me neither, ha ha!
Agatha Macbeth: Release what?
Bruce Mowbray: release all that Protestant ethic stuff.....
Bruce Mowbray: that stuff about idleness in the devil's workshop.
Agatha Macbeth: Oh I released it before I was born

Bruce Mowbray: Blub is reminding me that I forgot to make him move again.
Bruce Mowbray: There he goes.
Agatha Macbeth: MUSH Blubster!
Agatha Macbeth imagines harnessing a fish to a sled
Bruce Mowbray: Have you ever been to Alaska?
Agatha Macbeth: Nope
Agatha Macbeth: Cold enough here sometimes
Bruce Mowbray: I met a musher up there....
Agatha Macbeth: A musher eh
Bruce Mowbray: he was one of only two mushers who were allowed into Denalai national park in the wintertime.
Bruce Mowbray: Denali*
Bruce Mowbray: the dogs were absolutely amazing.
Agatha Macbeth: Who was the other one?
Bruce Mowbray: I don't know who the other one was,
Bruce Mowbray: but the dogs were amazing.
Agatha Macbeth: Oh okay
Agatha Macbeth: Huskies?
Bruce Mowbray: yes most of them were Huskies.
Bruce Mowbray: when I stayed with him, there were several musher packs of dogs at different locations....
Bruce Mowbray: and at sundown, the various packs would howl out to each other....
Bruce Mowbray: in sequence.
Agatha Macbeth: Best way to get about there I guess
Bruce Mowbray: one from this area, another from that area, and it was like a sort of chorus....
Bruce Mowbray: a lifelong memory.
Bruce Mowbray: The Call of the Wild.
Agatha Macbeth: White Fang
Bruce Mowbray: Jack London.
Bruce Mowbray: Yes!
Bruce Mowbray: Alaska is amazingly beautiful, breathtakingly beautiful.
Agatha Macbeth remembers it well
Agatha Macbeth: (Not Alaska)
Bruce Mowbray: " to build a fire"
Agatha Macbeth: Oh yes
Bruce Mowbray: should of been capital letters, sorry.
Bruce Mowbray: I think we read that in high school, actually.
Bruce Mowbray: and I remember being afraid of freezing to death.....
Agatha Macbeth: I wondered why he kept calling them 'biscuits'
Bruce Mowbray: YES!
Bruce Mowbray: how interesting, such images.
Agatha Macbeth: Makes it soud like he was eating custard creams or something
Agatha Macbeth: Must be a Canadian word
Bruce Mowbray: Today, I brought out a poem that my typist wrote in 1998, in which he compared the rooms of a huge house to a urinary bladder -- scalding him.
Agatha Macbeth: Wow
Bruce Mowbray: as a child....
Bruce Mowbray: I would be happy to send you a copy of the poem,
Bruce Mowbray: but I really don't think it should be published....
Bruce Mowbray: by the PaB press, as it were.
Agatha Macbeth: Oh okay
Bruce Mowbray: kk, I will find it.
Bruce Mowbray: are you going over to Bertie's?
Agatha Macbeth: I'm sure others would like to read it tho
Agatha Macbeth: Yes, course
Bruce Mowbray: well, then I will leave the publishing of it ( the poem) up to you.
Agatha Macbeth: Shall we?
Agatha Macbeth: Okay
Agatha Macbeth: Thanks
Bruce Mowbray: if you feel that it is worth putting in the wiki, then please go ahead and do so.
Agatha Macbeth smiles
Bruce Mowbray: going to Bertie's now. See you there!
Agatha Macbeth: Yep!
Agatha Macbeth: Here I go...

And here is Brucie's poem...

“REASSURANCE”


He was so afraid

when their rage spurt him from the huge house:

out of its scalding bladder rooms,

into an underneath narrow place

between nail-pierced boards and numb ground.

He was so afraid

he would crawl, alert on curled fingers,

through the flat dry cave

toward the shining eyes of animals

poised silent, watching,

awaiting, again, his coming.

And, though he was afraid,

he'd quickly whisper them assurance:

“It’s all right now!

They never look for us

Down here.”                                                                                          
                                      TK, 9-8-98