The Guardian for this meeting was Zen. The scribing is by Aggers.
Agatha Macbeth: Evening all
Zen (Zen Arado): was trying to meditate thrtr
Zen (Zen Arado): dozed off
Agatha Macbeth: thrtr?
Tura Brezoianu: hi Alma, Agatha
Zen (Zen Arado): there
Agatha Macbeth: Ah
Zen (Zen Arado): typing getting really bad
Agatha Macbeth: Aww no dragon?
Zen (Zen Arado): dragon not much better
Agatha Macbeth: Ha!
Agatha Macbeth: Bruce says much the same
Zen (Zen Arado): Bruce is better than me
Zen (Zen Arado): N.Irish accent not good
Agatha Macbeth: Good job you're not a Geordie!
Agatha Macbeth: God knows what it would makeof that
Agatha Macbeth: Why aye bunny lad
Agatha Macbeth: Etc.
Agatha Macbeth: Anyway
Agatha Macbeth: Anyone been dreaming?
Zen (Zen Arado): like Sting
Agatha Macbeth: Oh Sting talks proper
Zen (Zen Arado): now
Agatha Macbeth: Was watching a film with him in it the other night
Zen (Zen Arado): oh?
Riddle Sideways: Quadraphia again?
Agatha Macbeth: Quad...what?
Agatha Macbeth: Isn't that a computer?
Zen (Zen Arado): Quadrophonia?
Riddle Sideways: Who movie
Riddle Sideways: spelting optional
Agatha Macbeth: Ohhh
Agatha Macbeth: Quadraphenia
Riddle Sideways: ty
Zen (Zen Arado): close
Agatha Macbeth: Rock on Tommy...
Riddle Sideways: report = Dreams - yes. Recall = none
Zen (Zen Arado): Dragon won't start
Riddle Sideways: done
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): well, I had one interesting dream this week
Riddle Sideways: oh good
Agatha Macbeth listens
Zen (Zen Arado): great
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): It is early in the morning. I am sleeping in my bedroom in the house where I grew up. The windows are open. At first, I hear a lot of noise that sounds like heavy construction equipment working outside. Then it changes to a choir singing. They are rehearsing in the side yard outside one of my windows. It sounds very beautiful. I go to the window. (The windows are all wide open. I think that my mother left them this way. I am thinking that I should close them at least partway.) I look out and see the choir all seated down below and off to my left. I am enchanted by the music. I wonder if they can see me in the window. I'd like them to know that someone is hearing and appreciating their music. When they finish, I feel an urge to applaud and let them know I am here. But I also feel self-conscious and don't want to make a lot of noise by clapping. [end]
Agatha Macbeth: So a construction crew became a choir, that's novel
Zen (Zen Arado): Could that have happened Alma?
Tura Brezoianu: Harmonious work.
Zen (Zen Arado): A nearby choir?
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): what's really interesting is that I actually could hear the music and listened for awhile. That doesn't usually happen in my dreams. I dream about music, but don't actually get to hear it.
Zen (Zen Arado): Maybe a nearby church?
Agatha Macbeth: Blacksmiths I could understand
Agatha Macbeth: Can you remember the tune?
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): no, it would never have really happened. it was a big choir, sitting out at the end of our driveway
Zen (Zen Arado): I suppose there is an obvious meaning
Agatha Macbeth: Does your house look like a church?
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): and no, I don't remember any of the music, except that it was very beautiful
Agatha Macbeth: Maybe they took a wrong turn
Zen (Zen Arado): that if you accept disharmony it can become harmonious ?
Riddle Sideways: rehearsing for your concert
Zen (Zen Arado): Something like that?
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): it just seemed like a gift, that they were right there singing in the early morning when I awoke
Zen (Zen Arado): Heavy construction equipment could sound good to some people
Zen (Zen Arado): like people love the sound of steam engines
Zen (Zen Arado): or even diesel engines in locomotives
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): maybe it is something about something being constructed that seems noisy and chaotic at first, but then evolves into a lovely harmony
Zen (Zen Arado): so long as you aren't too close to it :-)
Agatha Macbeth: Are you doing any projects like that atm?
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): I have been practicing some music with some friends
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): but I don't sing in a choir any more
Zen (Zen Arado): that's interesting
Agatha Macbeth: Not sure where the construction would come in then
Zen (Zen Arado): you play guitar?
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): I try :)
Zen (Zen Arado): What kind, electric?
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): acoustic folk
Zen (Zen Arado): Do you do picky style?
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): I try, but I'm not very good
Zen (Zen Arado): You don't have to be very good to enjoy playing with people
Agatha Macbeth: Modest with it
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): very true
Zen (Zen Arado): just being able to strum a few chords
Zen (Zen Arado): it's great
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): some of my friends are very good guitarists
Zen (Zen Arado): I tried to play classical guitar for years
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): oh, that's difficult
Agatha Macbeth: I never seemed to have enough fingers
Riddle Sideways: thought for a minute you were headed toward saying the guitar string would be a 6 or 12 person choir
Zen (Zen Arado): I know
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): it is, in a way, Riddle
Zen (Zen Arado): I made a synth patch that sounds like a big choir yesterday
Zen (Zen Arado): you can make it do EEa or AAe etc
Riddle Sideways: btw - my synth broke yesterday :(
Zen (Zen Arado): mine are software
Agatha Macbeth grins
Zen (Zen Arado): amazing what you can do with them and it's great fun
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): I actually had a second dream about music the same night as the one I just shared
Zen (Zen Arado): listens
Riddle Sideways: /listens
Tura Brezoianu listens
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): I'm outside the house I grew up in. I'm doing some work, washing some dishes in a sink. I hear someone playing an instrument in the house next door. At first I think it is a banjo, and I think it might actually be Pete Seeger living there and playing. I look over and through a window see a silhouette of a woman sitting at a keyboard. I think she must be playing a harpsichord. Then some people come out the back door of that house with some instruments, including a string bass. They are warming up to do some practicing. I think it might be nice to listen, but I've finished my work here and feel like I need to move on. [end]
Agatha Macbeth: More music
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): so seems like something about music was trying to get through to me
Agatha Macbeth: Interesting
Tura Brezoianu: But this time you want to get on with other things
Zen (Zen Arado): did you live in the Appalachians Alma:)
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): no, I never have Zen
Zen (Zen Arado): I watched a documentary about that one time
Riddle Sideways: lots of practicing
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): but I love Appalachian folk music
Zen (Zen Arado): there were so many Northern Irish and Scots and that's where the hillbilly music came from
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): in both dreams I am sort of an accidental audience
Riddle Sideways: like that
Zen (Zen Arado): I was never able to play in a group
Zen (Zen Arado): you are lucky
Zen (Zen Arado): never seem to have any musical friends
Riddle Sideways: hmmm, always play in groups
Zen (Zen Arado): do you know where the term "hillbilly" comes from?
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): no
Agatha Macbeth: Hills with billies?
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): a reference to mountain people?
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): hill = mountain
Zen (Zen Arado): There were lots of Northern Irish who were often called William
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): ah
Zen (Zen Arado): and they usually lived up in the mountains
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): the name Willie often shows up in folk songs
Zen (Zen Arado): :-)
Zen (Zen Arado): I have lots of dreams with music as well
Riddle Sideways: wikipedia has something about billy meaning comrade
Zen (Zen Arado): Oh?
Zen (Zen Arado): what I said I saw in a documentary as well but that might not be true
Agatha Macbeth: My youngest son's name is William
Zen (Zen Arado): it was actually a group of Americans who were playing traditional music
Zen (Zen Arado): I had quite a long dream last night
Agatha Macbeth: Ooh do tell
Riddle Sideways: musical?
Agatha Macbeth: I like a long one
Riddle Sideways: /listens
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): did you record it?
Zen (Zen Arado): yes
Agatha Macbeth: Yay
Zen (Zen Arado): I am walking around this huge department store with my mother and what seems like her boyfriend. Walk through these doors and am in a big butchery department - really gigantic place with men walking around in white uniforms. Cut myself a couple of sirloin steaks but don't like the look of them and leave them there. Machines encrusted with blood. Couple of guys discussing problems with one of the machines. No one pays any attention to me. Walk back out and I'm in a vast area of sand, like a little desert. Start chatting to a couple of guys and we start to make little troughs around the edges of small areas with trowels. Then the guys walk on and I try to catch up with them. There is a big cliff of sand and I look down and wonder I can make it by sliding down the side = which I do. Then I meet up my mother and her boyfriend again
Zen (Zen Arado): done
Zen (Zen Arado): really weird
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): any associations?
Zen (Zen Arado): I always wonder what is behind those doors
Zen (Zen Arado): in bid stores
Zen (Zen Arado): big
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): behind the scenes
Agatha Macbeth: Good heavens
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): that's where the workers go to get away from the customers ;)
Zen (Zen Arado): :)
Tura Brezoianu: It's where customers think that they have everything in stock that they can't find on the shelves
Zen (Zen Arado): yes
Riddle Sideways: yes
Zen (Zen Arado): and they have parties
Agatha Macbeth: Wonder where the beach comes in
Riddle Sideways: a different door
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): now this reminds me of the story about the Chinese butcher in the book we are reading in the book group
Zen (Zen Arado): There isn't any water anywhere
Agatha Macbeth: :P
Agatha Macbeth: Ding!
Zen (Zen Arado): I was trying to get sensory images
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): yes, butcher Ding
Zen (Zen Arado): I could hear the noise of the machines and the blood on the machines
Zen (Zen Arado): yes there is an association
Agatha Macbeth: Sounds like something out of Silent Hill
Zen (Zen Arado): when I cut the steak it was effortless
Tura Brezoianu: Was the blood and the raw meat distasteful?
Zen (Zen Arado): I don't eat sirloin steaks now anyway
Agatha Macbeth: Wu wei!
Zen (Zen Arado): though I still eat some meat
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): can machines be in wu-wei?
Agatha Macbeth: AI wu wei maybe
Zen (Zen Arado): I suppose some machines perform effortlessly almost
Zen (Zen Arado): they try to make them like that anyway
Tura Brezoianu: when every part isf perfectly fitted to every other part
Zen (Zen Arado): yes exactly and they are more efficient and consume less energy
Riddle Sideways: and would not Clang as much
Zen (Zen Arado): that's in Zen and the Art of motorcycle maintenance
Tura Brezoianu: silent humming
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): every time my computer is in wu-wei, Microsoft forces another update
Zen (Zen Arado): isn't it?
Agatha Macbeth: Yeh
Zen (Zen Arado): The way the parts of a motorcycle work
Riddle Sideways: Silent Running (was a great movie)
Zen (Zen Arado): I think he talks a lot about that
Zen (Zen Arado): what was that about Riddle ?
Riddle Sideways: sending the Trees and plants into space
Riddle Sideways: Earth did not want them anymore
Zen (Zen Arado): I'm not too sure about Microsoft Wu Wei
Agatha Macbeth: Sounds like Silent Running (I missed what Riddle said)
Riddle Sideways: yes, was
Agatha Macbeth: I loved that
Agatha Macbeth: Bruce Dern was brilliant
Riddle Sideways: what was the robot names
Zen (Zen Arado): that seems a strange thing to do
Agatha Macbeth: Huey Duey and Louis
Agatha Macbeth: He played cards with them
Riddle Sideways: thank you,
Tura Brezoianu: I also had a dream this morning.
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): Donald Duck's nephews
Agatha Macbeth nods
Riddle Sideways: /comes back to listen
Zen (Zen Arado): listens
Agatha Macbeth: Do tell Tu
Tura Brezoianu: I thought for a while I was writing it down, then I realised I was still just lying there imagining I was writing it, so I got the recorder and really recorded it.
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala) listens
Tura Brezoianu: So in the dream I'm travelling, and I can see the globe spread out before me like I'm looking at it in Google Earth. India was in front of me, foreshortened, as I was looking from the south. To the north of India was a part of Edinburgh (spanning the full width of India!), and I could see the roads laid out very clearly, and it seemed I'd never before had a good idea in my head of how they fitted together.
Agatha Macbeth: HA
Agatha Macbeth: Love that
Tura Brezoianu: Then I'm going back home but I can't go directly north, because I see that the ground is dropping steeply down right in front of me, almost vertical. So I turn left, to the west, and it's a grassy hillside sloping downhill. At the foot it becomes grassy woodland, and some rough stone walls, the sort you would find separating fields in the more northern parts of Europe.
Tura Brezoianu: There's a lion there, and I'm trying to avoid it. The lion is a rather scrawny thing, but it can run faster than me. I hid behind trees, and tried to get from tree to tree without it catching me. There was a commentary going ob, like a nature documentary explaining that the lion may practice hunting by not catching its prey when it could, but letting it go to chase again. I seemed to be in that situation. Then ahead of me I saw a huge military tank emerge slowly from the trees, and I got behind that, hoping that I could shake off the lion.
Tura Brezoianu: *going on
Tura Brezoianu: Then I entered a door somewhere, and I'm inside a building, which I understand to be some sort of spy headquarters for something like MI5. I'm in a large room full of desks and bookshelves, with about half a dozen people working there. They seem to know what the situation is, it's like I've passed some test by gaining entry, and then I need to carry on in the same direction, passing through the building from room to room. Then I reach a room where everyone is dressed like in the 60s, or like in a film from the 60s, I can even see the film grain over the whole scene. They're looking at me like they also know the situation. Then I go on to the next room, then I woke.
Agatha Macbeth: Blimey
Tura Brezoianu: done
Agatha Macbeth: You seem to have some dangerous dreams
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): wow, what an adventure!
Zen (Zen Arado): that's a long dream!
Zen (Zen Arado): How do you remember all that?
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): like a dream in four acts
Tura Brezoianu: They're always fresh in my mind imediately on waking. But they decay quite rapidly.
Riddle Sideways: like a Film Studio, going from set to set
Agatha Macbeth: They do
Zen (Zen Arado): That happens to me with the recorder
Zen (Zen Arado): it's like a dream I have recorded the dream but when I wake up I haven't
Agatha Macbeth: Mine seem to evaporate totally before I'm even awake
Riddle Sideways: yep, gone
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): I have that too, where I am trying to recall and record a dream while I am still dreaming
Zen (Zen Arado): I think it would be great to have an alarm clock that said "what was your dream what was your dream
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): oh, that's a great idea, Zen
Riddle Sideways: AOL's "you have a new dream"
Tura Brezoianu: I wonder if there's an alarm app that you can record your own message for
Zen (Zen Arado): we would still find a way to forget
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): there must be, Tura
Tura Brezoianu: Or just write "what were you dreaming?" on the ceiling above your bed
Agatha Macbeth: On the mirror :p
Agatha Macbeth: Sorry
Agatha Macbeth: Just me
Zen (Zen Arado): you seem to get a lot of military connections in your dreams Tura
Zen (Zen Arado): were you ever in the army ?
Zen (Zen Arado): or territorial Army
Tura Brezoianu: Yes, there have been a few military references on some of my dreams. I've never had any connection with the military thgouh
Tura Brezoianu: This dream seemed like a rather friendly one, despite the lion.
Zen (Zen Arado): there is probably still a part of you wants to go back to Edinburgh
Agatha Macbeth ponders the connection between lions and Edinburgh
Zen (Zen Arado): I saw a news reader speaking from Edinburgh and there was a kind of castle walls background, very steep but someone had built a block of flats on top of it!
Agatha Macbeth: Lion rampant?
Zen (Zen Arado): it's good to add sensory detail
Zen (Zen Arado): I think if we do that we will remember more of it
Riddle Sideways: said like a painter
Zen (Zen Arado): I think it's actually more from creative writing
Riddle Sideways: ah
Zen (Zen Arado): they teach you to notice smells and colours and how people dress
Zen (Zen Arado): and use those features when writing to add interest
Zen (Zen Arado): I used to sit in Sainsbury's Café with a little notebook and make little sketches, writing sketches about people
Zen (Zen Arado): it teaches you to be more observant
Tura Brezoianu: Sounds like a good exercise
Zen (Zen Arado): kind of like Sherlock Holmes :-)
Zen (Zen Arado): it's being mindful as well
Agatha Macbeth: The pen is mightier than the sword and a lot easier to write with
Zen (Zen Arado): all of these things blend into each other don't they?
Zen (Zen Arado): "When you paint you do the same
Zen (Zen Arado): you notice the colours in the sky
Agatha Macbeth: I remember your ducks well
Zen (Zen Arado): :-)
Zen (Zen Arado): the world can become much more interesting place if you write or paint
And now for some memories
Agatha Macbeth: Do you still have that place at Mugungwa?
Zen (Zen Arado): yes :-)
Agatha Macbeth: Wow
Agatha Macbeth: Must take a look sometime
Zen (Zen Arado): I have big rocky walls on each side
Zen (Zen Arado): nothing beside me
Zen (Zen Arado): sorry rocky walls front and back
Agatha Macbeth: It's all changed since I lived there
Agatha Macbeth: No more lighthouse :(
Agatha Macbeth: Adams' museum is good tho
Zen (Zen Arado): it's not that place you said it is further back
Agatha Macbeth: Oh
Riddle Sideways: had a place there also.
Agatha Macbeth: Right
Agatha Macbeth: I remember Sharon's place by the water
Zen (Zen Arado): I like to have a place to test that my music is working
Agatha Macbeth: Wol's is still there of course
Riddle Sideways: Wol may still have a place there
Agatha Macbeth: Snap
Riddle Sideways: oh snap
Agatha Macbeth: The Lindens pinched some rocks from her I think
Zen (Zen Arado): remember Vorder Forder?
Agatha Macbeth: I do
Agatha Macbeth: Lord I'm still in the group as well!
Agatha Macbeth: Wow
Zen (Zen Arado): he is IMing me at the moment
Agatha Macbeth: Oh!
Agatha Macbeth: Wave to him for me
Zen (Zen Arado): he used to come to PAB didn't he?
Agatha Macbeth: He did indeed
Agatha Macbeth: Not often, but he came
Agatha Macbeth: Think he was an artist if I remember
***Bong!***
Zen (Zen Arado): meeting is finished but can linger
Zen (Zen Arado): He lives in Iceland
Agatha Macbeth: Wondered what the bong was
Agatha Macbeth: Yes
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): I need to be going. RL requires my presence
Agatha Macbeth: Land of fire and ice
Agatha Macbeth: Be well Alma
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): bye for now
Zen (Zen Arado): bye Alma
Riddle Sideways: by Alma
Tura Brezoianu: bye Alma
Agatha Macbeth: Hope he's OK anyway
Zen (Zen Arado): he is asking me if I still practice Zen
Riddle Sideways: 11 years, so many friends
Agatha Macbeth: Yes!
Agatha Macbeth: I still miss most of them
Zen (Zen Arado): yes so many
Zen (Zen Arado): it's amazing that we keep going to PAB for so long
Zen (Zen Arado): must be about 10 years for me
Agatha Macbeth: Indeed
Agatha Macbeth: 10 years in September me
Zen (Zen Arado): I was in second life a while before I found PAB
Agatha Macbeth: I found it the first week!
Agatha Macbeth: Totally by accident
Riddle Sideways: funny, profile says 4 extra months, but have no idea of joining before PaB
Zen (Zen Arado): I remember sitting having conversations with people on the other side of the world at 9 AM my time
Zen (Zen Arado): People from Pakistan and places like that
Riddle Sideways: yes
Agatha Macbeth: Didn't the region always restart during your sessions?
Agatha Macbeth: I seem to remember that
Zen (Zen Arado): that was a later time session
Agatha Macbeth: Ah
Agatha Macbeth: I know you ended up in the café a few times
Zen (Zen Arado): 7 AM SLT which was 3 PM)
Agatha Macbeth: Right
Zen (Zen Arado): yes it used to happen nearly every week
Riddle Sideways: gave Zen the restarting time slot
Agatha Macbeth: Didn't help with the log posting
Zen (Zen Arado): are you going to post the log Agatha?
Riddle Sideways: was every Tuesday until Zen took Wednesday
Agatha Macbeth: I iz
Riddle Sideways: it moved there
Zen (Zen Arado): I had trouble doing it last week
Agatha Macbeth: Yeh sorry about that
Agatha Macbeth: But I'm here now :p
Zen (Zen Arado): there is something wrong with that page stops you posting it neatly
Agatha Macbeth: Can do it from me chat
Riddle Sideways: that was the Wiki's fault
Zen (Zen Arado): the dream session page
Agatha Macbeth: The wiki can be a pain yes
Zen (Zen Arado): I managed to get it on as a link anyway
Agatha Macbeth: I have to use Safari to upload my bloody pictures
Agatha Macbeth: So annoying
Zen (Zen Arado): I go between chrome and Firefox
Agatha Macbeth: Then I try to save and it's logged me out
Zen (Zen Arado): Firefox doesn't allow me to voice type but chrome does
Agatha Macbeth sighs
Agatha Macbeth: Weird inni
Agatha Macbeth: t
Agatha Macbeth: I blame Boxy :p
Zen (Zen Arado): :-) blame it on da Boxee
Agatha Macbeth: If I see him again I'm gonna throw him in the pond and make him soggy
Riddle Sideways: annual certificate renewal
Agatha Macbeth nods
Agatha Macbeth: Easily forgotten
Riddle Sideways: once a year, Alfred is needed
Zen (Zen Arado): he would float though
Zen (Zen Arado): empty box
Riddle Sideways: until soggy
Agatha Macbeth: Probably go wuff or something
Agatha Macbeth: I loved his scripted nose
Alf's egohat (wear&touch): Agatha Macbeth is amazing!!!
Alf's egohat (wear&touch): Riddle Sideways is brilliant!!!
Alf's egohat (wear&touch): Zen is charming!!!
Riddle Sideways: great memories
Agatha Macbeth: Yep
Riddle Sideways: try again Tura
Agatha Macbeth: Party Sunday
Zen (Zen Arado): yep
Agatha Macbeth: Are you doing the music Zenny?
Zen (Zen Arado): yes
Riddle Sideways: YaY, should be back in time
Agatha Macbeth: Woot
Agatha Macbeth: Should be good
Riddle Sideways: with the new choir sound?
Zen (Zen Arado): somebody in perfect paradise told me that sunshine was there
Agatha Macbeth: Hehe
Riddle Sideways: SunJi
Zen (Zen Arado): no ")
Agatha Macbeth: I heard she was at WBH too
Zen (Zen Arado): sorry I have to go
Zen (Zen Arado): byee
Agatha Macbeth: Sweet dreams
Riddle Sideways: nite nite
Riddle Sideways: All
Tura Brezoianu: bye Zen
Agatha Macbeth: Lets just be sure I've recorded OK
Riddle Sideways: good dream
Riddle Sideways: s
Tura Brezoianu: "imagine pleasant nonsense"
Agatha Macbeth: Yep seems to have worked
Riddle Sideways: good
Agatha Macbeth: Oh I don't need to imagine!
Agatha Macbeth: I just *live*
Agatha Macbeth: :P
Riddle Sideways: by
Agatha Macbeth: Bye for now