2014.04.28 13:00 - Only the Dance

The Guardian for this meeting was Eliza Madrigal, who almost "called in" today but is so glad she didn't. The comments are by Eliza Madrigal, refreshed by company and longer pauses than usual.

--BELL--

Eliza Madrigal: Hi Bruce :) so nice to see you
Bruce Mowbray: Heya, Eliza! Always good to see you, too!
Eliza Madrigal: having an agreeable day?
Bruce Mowbray: Well, yes and no.
Eliza Madrigal: how so?
Bruce Mowbray: The good news is that my typist put the finishing touches on the lesson he'll be delivering next Sunday -- on Gnosticism.
Eliza Madrigal: congratulations!
Bruce Mowbray: The bad news is that he's experiencing some sort of flu, which has quite upset his usual vertigo.
Wol Euler: hello eliza, bruce
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Wol :) looking loverly
Bruce Mowbray: So, he's staying close to level surfaces... and to the bathroom, if you get my meaning.
Bruce Mowbray: Heya, Wol!
Wol Euler: awwww, sory to hear it
Eliza Madrigal: Oh, dear :( yes, please take care of yourself Bruce
Eliza Madrigal: 's typist ;-)

Bruce Mowbray: Well, I have to take care of him!
Bruce Mowbray: Especially since he refuses to do that for himself.
Eliza Madrigal: you are the steady hand?
Zen Arado: Hi all
Bruce Mowbray: I am!
Wol Euler: heheheh
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Zen :)) Good day!
Bruce Mowbray: Heya, Zen!
Wol Euler: hello zen

Eliza Madrigal: how is the day going for your two, Zen and Wol?
Bruce Mowbray remembers from Zen's presence that his typist forgot to load Dragon... (brb)
Zen Arado: not too bad
Eliza Madrigal has dragon too but is so far too impatient to use it in SL
Zen Arado: ty
Eliza Madrigal: :) good
Wol Euler: unexpectedly well actually :) the office closed at 4pm when the boss drove off for his presentation, so I've been at home slacking and eating since then
Zen Arado: it's hard to keep yourself using it
Eliza Madrigal: yay, so glad to hear that Wol
Zen Arado: yet it gets better the more you use and correct mistakes
Wol Euler: actually I just discovered that the current Mac OS has built-in speech-to-text :)
Eliza Madrigal: I like it for other kinds of writing
Wol Euler: I'm going to set that up and try it on my other computer this evening
Bruce Mowbray: Heya, Zon.
Zen Arado: yes...I tried it and it's quite good
Eliza Madrigal nods
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Zon :) ntsy
Zen Arado: although just using the built in mic
Wol Euler: hello zon
Zen Arado: Hi Zon
Zon Kwan: heya
Zen Arado: I use it on iPhone for texts etc
Eliza Madrigal: while waiting at the dentist with my son, a man was checking his email verbally, like in "Her" - it felt so strange
Bruce Mowbray: I used it to prepare next Sunday's Sunday school lesson.

Wol Euler: um, eliza, weren't you blonde when I arrived, three minutes ago? :)
Eliza Madrigal: not 3 minutes ago no
Eliza Madrigal: but I have been blonde recently
Wol Euler: funny, it must have been an echo
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Eliza Madrigal: everyone seeing their own version of one another
Wol Euler: just like in RL actually
Bruce Mowbray: or maybe you saw my antlers - glimmering through Eliza's hair....
Wol Euler grins.
Eliza Madrigal smiles

Eliza Madrigal: No aggers today I guess... hm...
Wol Euler: odd, that

Eliza Madrigal: and I'm not sure of topic. For me this has been a *full* day - one of those days that seems like a year took place
Zen Arado: oh sorry Eliza
Eliza Madrigal: not at all bad
Zen Arado: you asked me about my day and I didn't ask about yours
Wol Euler: what's been happening?
Bruce Mowbray nods and listens.
Eliza Madrigal: oh, don't worry... just like to sort of take temperature
Eliza Madrigal: I spent the morning in a lawyer's office :)
Wol Euler: oops
Eliza Madrigal: but... by this afternoon I felt very encouraged by the direction we were all going in
Zen Arado: I don't know whether that is good or bad
Eliza Madrigal: well, it isn't the sort of thing that you wake up like "yay, lawyer today!" lol

Zen Arado: of course we don't need to qualify' life anyway
Wol Euler: depends on the reason and the outcome, I guess
Eliza Madrigal: right

Zen Arado: it's funny how much we read about lawyers in books
Zen Arado: so they must be interesting
Wol Euler: I hope both were good, or if not that the outcome at least was good
Zen Arado: thinks about the Chinese story about good and bad
Eliza Madrigal: thanks... I'm suspending judgment for now, but I'd say it was a bit of a leap for women and children kind
Wol Euler smiles.
Eliza Madrigal giggles
Eliza Madrigal: tell us, Zen?
Zen Arado: a giant leap?
Eliza Madrigal: Or...after the bell perhaps..
Zen Arado: nah
Zen Arado: you all heard that I think
Eliza Madrigal: a giant hop

--BELL--

Eliza Madrigal: okay... well, after the bell I say we settle in with a topic :) :::pauses::::


Eliza Madrigal smiles
Eliza Madrigal: that is the first time in forever none of us was typing during the pause
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Wol Euler: hehehe

Bruce Mowbray: my typist was watching eight goldfinches on the feeder right outside his window.
Eliza Madrigal: ::::ooooooh:::::
Eliza Madrigal: 8!
Bruce Mowbray: I could try to get a photo, if you like...
Eliza Madrigal: would love that
Zen Arado: photos aren't the same though
Wol Euler: pleease
Eliza Madrigal: it would be like peeking through Bruce's window to Bruce's typist's window


Eliza Madrigal: :) anyway....
Wol Euler smiles.
Eliza Madrigal: topics?
Zen Arado: the living reality of living creatures is so beautiful
Bruce Mowbray: kk. They are getting skiddish. I can only manage to get 3 or 4 of them to pose for me.
Zen Arado: I sit and watch my little sparrows when I sit in the sun
Eliza Madrigal: aw... "my" little sparrows
Eliza Madrigal: sounds very sweet
Eliza Madrigal: I feel that way about the squirrels that come to the balcony
Wol Euler smiles.

Wol Euler: hello san
Bruce Mowbray: Heya, san!
Zen Arado: hi San
Santoshima Resident: hello
Bruce Mowbray: afk -- uploading photo.... brb.
Eliza Madrigal: I once visited a friend at her parents' house in Georgia... all while the kids were growing up and they'd had a place in the city, they had spent weekends building this other... well... hard to call it anything but a wonderland. Outside of one window there was a finch nest.. they were so bright and... mmm it was a big moment

Eliza Madrigal: Hi San :) we're appreciating birdies
Santoshima Resident: lovely
Wol Euler: is this red shirt day?
Eliza Madrigal: haha
Wol Euler: I missed the memo
Zon Kwan: hi San
Eliza Madrigal: me too, obviously
Zen Arado: we joined the red shirts
Wol Euler: a dangerous move
Wol Euler: "a job for life, but perhaps not for long"
Zon Kwan: life is
Eliza Madrigal: life is a dangerous move, Zon?
Zon Kwan: nods
Eliza Madrigal: :)

Eliza Madrigal: :::takes a deep breath::::


Eliza Madrigal: beautiful Bruce, thanks so much!
Wol Euler: so funny to see a winter scene in that photo, when here it's full summer
Eliza Madrigal: yellow is a friendly color
Bruce Mowbray: We're barely into spring -- and the goldfinches havn't completely gotten their summer feathers yet.
Eliza Madrigal: do they get puffier?
Bruce Mowbray: No, but they change from a drab greyish to a bright yellow.
Eliza Madrigal: ah :)

Santoshima Resident: needing a nap ... please excuse me
Bruce Mowbray: kk, Sna-ji.
Bruce Mowbray: San-ji.
Eliza Madrigal: okay san... happy napping
Wol Euler: bye san, sleep well



Eliza Madrigal: if Aggers were here, she'd be asking if she crashed you know ^.^
Wol Euler smiles.
Bruce Mowbray: :)

--BELL--

Eliza Madrigal:

"... at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered.
Neither movement from nor towards, Neither ascent nor decline.
Except for the point, the still point, There would be no dance,
and there is only the dance."
T. S. Eliot

Wol Euler nods.
Wol Euler: which one is that from? I can't quite place it
Wol Euler: one of the Four Quartets, I think, or of that period
Eliza Madrigal: http://www.coldbacon.com/poems/fq.html - yes, somewhere in here
Wol Euler: aha! *beams*
Wol Euler: well done me
Eliza Madrigal: :::claps::::
Zen Arado: Burnt Norton?
Eliza Madrigal: this is something I'm "working on" though not too intensely, with qi gong
Wol Euler listens.

Bruce Mowbray:


For most of us, there is only the unattended

• Moment, the moment in and out of time,
  The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight,
  The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightning
  Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply
  That it is not heard at all, but you are the music
  While the music lasts. (V)

 

 Eliza Madrigal: T. S. Eliot's "Burnt Norton" initially appeared in 1936, but eventually this poem became the first of the Four Quartets (1943), a cycle expressing the poet's most mature meditations on time and the timeless.

Eliza Madrigal: music heard so deeply, that it is not heard at all ~ a wow


Wol Euler nods.
Eliza Madrigal: Aggers! where've you been!
Agatha Macbeth: Evenin' :)
Wol Euler: yay :) hello aggerses
Bruce Mowbray: Heya, aggers!
Agatha Macbeth: Fell asleep reading >.<
Zen Arado: Hi Aggers
Wol Euler: awwwww
Eliza Madrigal: couldn't have a proper session before :P
Zen Arado: not an exciting book then?
Agatha Macbeth: Maybe it wasn't :p
Eliza Madrigal: haha Zen

Agatha Macbeth: Did I miss anything?
Eliza Madrigal: the finches
Eliza Madrigal: two pauses
Agatha Macbeth: Finches?
Eliza Madrigal: and a still point

Bruce Mowbray: OH! I will slide you the photo of my typist's birdfeeder, aggers.
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Agatha Macbeth: Great
Agatha Macbeth: Is the same one?
Agatha Macbeth: Oh yay
Eliza Madrigal: not from the Goldfinch book (a good read)


Bruce Mowbray: I'd mentioned that it was barely spring here, and that six finches were nibbling at the feeder outside the window -- and then took a photo, but could only get 3 to pose for me.

Agatha Macbeth: Are your finches the same as ours?
Bruce Mowbray: don't know.
Agatha Macbeth: Or more exotic?
Bruce Mowbray: these are not exotic at all.
Wol Euler: we could ask Darwin
Zen Arado: chaffinches?
Agatha Macbeth: Darwin Mizser?
Wol Euler: no Darwin Charles
Agatha Macbeth: Oh him
Zen Arado: Greenfinches?
Agatha Macbeth: The pelican man


Eliza Madrigal: what do you guys think of the professor from the buddhism/psychology book saying that buddhism is a rebellion against natural selection?
Agatha Macbeth: Is it me or does Wol look like a tree?
Agatha Macbeth: It is?
Wol Euler: O.O
Bruce Mowbray: I've not listen to the last week of lectures yet.
Wol Euler: strange idea (eliza)
Bruce Mowbray: looking forward to doing that tomorrow.
Eliza Madrigal: she does not... she is sparkly and dramatic and glamorous today
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Wol Euler: thank you, eliza
Eliza Madrigal: right, isn't it Wol?

Agatha Macbeth: I don't think of it as a rebellion against anything
Eliza Madrigal: he said that at the very beginning
Bruce Mowbray: oh, he did?
Bruce Mowbray: I must have missed it.
Eliza Madrigal: and I kept waiting for him to really work through the thought
Bruce Mowbray: I've listened to all but the last week.

Zon Kwan: he has a point
Eliza Madrigal: yes... he does talk a little more about it in his last lectures
Bruce Mowbray listens.
Zen Arado: I have gotten behind on that course
Bruce Mowbray: Oh, good -- I'll look forward to that
Eliza Madrigal: last lectures are very good - about "enlightenment"
Zen Arado: I thought he was mostly comparing evolutionary psychology with Buddhism and finding many parallels
Zon Kwan: we are driven to ceratain point by our instincts
Zon Kwan: then we must take charge
Agatha Macbeth: Charge!

Bruce Mowbray: Yes, and he has mentioned several times how evolution has brought forth certain behaviours in us.
Eliza Madrigal: to go against what seems the natural grain of thinking/conditioning could be seen as rebellion... but doesn't buddhim assert that the "natural state" is not the conditionig?
Bruce Mowbray: for example, gratification, and how short-lived it is. and why
Agatha Macbeth: Revolution as opposed to evolution?
Zon Kwan: awakening
Agatha Macbeth: Yowza
Eliza Madrigal smiles
Eliza Madrigal: I think of "enlightenment" 'as' the next evolutionary leap... not an end state to anything

Bruce Mowbray: I think his point is that evolution has condition asked to respond sometimes in reactive ways, and that Buddhist practice can enable us to overcome those responses. and in that sense it is anti- Darwinian, perhaps.

--BELL--

Zen Arado: it comes back to me that he says our natural state is one of survival and are being driven by our genes but that makes us suffer
Bruce Mowbray: yes, Zen said it in fewer words - and better.

Zon Kwan: natural means directed by outside forces
Eliza Madrigal: Bleu and I were talking about this on Sunday... seems to me it is a transcendence beyond but including the conditioning we know... like one has to 'know themself' to go beyond the self... not undo the self?
Eliza Madrigal: hmmm... nature is really hard to define
Zon Kwan: to know oneself yes
Zon Kwan: ultimate aim


Bruce Mowbray: I was telling Eliza earlier that I have just finished putting together my Sunday school lesson on Gnosticism. and knowing oneself, to the Gnostics, was how we come to know God, or so they thought.
Zon Kwan: yes
Bruce Mowbray: they called it gnosis.
Eliza Madrigal: Bruce I'd love to hear more of your lesson
Wol Euler listens.
Eliza Madrigal: if you're willing :)
Agatha Macbeth: Hip gnosis
Bruce Mowbray: well, what shall we do.
Zon Kwan: to manifest oneself
Bruce Mowbray: it's all printed out and I could send it to you in a word document if you wanted.
Eliza Madrigal: nice

Eliza Madrigal: well could you give us highlights now?
Bruce Mowbray: I suppose I could record it and posted on my website. but all that seems a bit self-serving.
Bruce Mowbray: well I'm presenting it in three parts.
Eliza Madrigal: which things jumped out as crucial to know?

Bruce Mowbray: the first part is a broad stroked historical context,
Bruce Mowbray: the second part is an investigation of Gnostic thought and worldview
Bruce Mowbray: in the third section which will not be given until the following Sunday,
Eliza Madrigal: I really enjoyed hearing your audio of John teaching... but understand if you don't feel comfortable
Bruce Mowbray: will be an investigation of the gospel of Thomas.
Bruce Mowbray: thank you so much that's very kind of you.
Eliza Madrigal: ah, Thomas gets his own class?

Bruce Mowbray: it's not that I feel uncomfortable. I just don't want to monopolise people's time.
Wol Euler: funny coincidence, a friend was telling me about the Gospel of T recently, I'd never heard of it before
Eliza Madrigal: definitely not a waste
Bruce Mowbray: yes the gospel of Thomas will get his own class, its own class, and also this class really needs opportunities for discussion, so I hope there will be ample time for that too.
Eliza Madrigal: marvelous

Bruce Mowbray: I think the gospel of Thomas is the most famous of all the antiquities found at Nag Hammadi in 1945.
Bruce Mowbray: it certainly the one that has been studied the most.

Eliza Madrigal: "if you bring for what is within you, what is within you will save you - if you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you"

Bruce Mowbray: yes that's one of the more famous quotes from the gospel of Thomas.
Wol Euler nods.
Agatha Macbeth: Got that right
Eliza Madrigal: was completely blown away when I first heard that line from GoT
Agatha Macbeth: GoT :p
Eliza Madrigal: :)

Bruce Mowbray: , to me, it seems that modern day Christians do not appreciate that until the fourth century, there were many versions of Christianity---- many responses to this guy called Jesus.

Zon Kwan: so better express oneself
Agatha Macbeth: Love it
Bruce Mowbray: many Christianities.
Eliza Madrigal: yes
Wol Euler: mmhm
Eliza Madrigal: it would help if more people knew
Bruce Mowbray: the various Gnostic movements were just some of those versions of early Christianity.
Eliza Madrigal: Gospel of Mary too
Bruce Mowbray: were maybe a few more people will know after next Sunday morning!
Eliza Madrigal: (there is a)
Eliza Madrigal: :)) Bruce

Bruce Mowbray: yes the gospel of Mary. it's also believed that Jesus and Mary Magdalen were husband-and-wife -- which of course would not work with the Orthodox Church.
Eliza Madrigal: I think the divisions that exist now are based on people not wanting to know things
Bruce Mowbray: absolutely so!
Bruce Mowbray: that's the purpose of orthodox theology: confining the religion to narrow limits.
Agatha Macbeth: Back to orthodoxy
Bruce Mowbray: some people feel we are born into our politics and into our religion. it sure makes life easier.
Eliza Madrigal: the Jesus with wife stories keep coming back, but I thought her name was Margaret now, lol
Bruce Mowbray: ;-)

--BELL--

Agatha Macbeth: Maybe that was her second name
Bruce Mowbray: you ought to check out the very last verse in the gospel of Thomas
Bruce Mowbray: (I'll find it.)
Wol Euler makes a note

Bruce Mowbray: Logion 114 -

"Simon Peter said to them, Mary (Magdalene, probably) should leave us, for females are not worthy of life. Jesus said, see, I am going to attract her to make her male so that she too might become a living spirit that resembles you males, for every female that makes herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven."


Eliza Madrigal: that's weird
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Wol Euler raises an eyebrow.
Bruce Mowbray: Marvin Meyer has written an excellent essay about this in his book about the gospel of Thomas.

Zen Arado: it's funny but I have never read any of those apocryphal books from the Bible
Zen Arado: they seem alien
Bruce Mowbray: yes they do seem alien.
Zen Arado: to me
Eliza Madrigal: well that verse does ^^
Bruce Mowbray: and such a variety!
Bruce Mowbray: no wonder the church fathers were upset!
Zen Arado: I am conditioned to the old-fashioned Bible
Bruce Mowbray: I think most of us are, Zen.
Eliza Madrigal: I'm sure that what was meant at first was "this sort of life" kind of the same argument of women going into ministries
Zen Arado: but Catholics use the Apocrypha?

Bruce Mowbray: well, the all-male hierarchy was one of the things decided at the Council of Nicaea.
Agatha Macbeth: Probably :p
Bruce Mowbray: that the Gnostics are well known for using coded language.... especially after the Council of Nicaea.
Bruce Mowbray: when their various texts had been banned.

Eliza Madrigal: have been listening to Jimmy Carter recently, and hadn't known that he left the So Baptist Convention when they made similar decisions to exclude women
Bruce Mowbray: ooops.
Bruce Mowbray: wrong hot key.
Agatha Macbeth: Still growing peanuts?
Zen Arado: the Presbyterian Church I attended didn't allow women to become elders
Bruce Mowbray: I am a deep admirer of Jimmy Carter.
Eliza Madrigal: (he's) still teaching Sunday School, like Bruce :)
Agatha Macbeth: He must be getting on a bit now
Zen Arado: because it says in the Bible that women should not teach men
Bruce Mowbray: I actually met him in 1976, when he was running for president.
Zen Arado: and they are just to be a helper
Eliza Madrigal: you did? wow
Eliza Madrigal: he is beginning activism for women now actually
Eliza Madrigal: although always part of his belief system
Agatha Macbeth makes a note to get active
Bruce Mowbray: yes the woman I was dating at the time was a lobbyist at the State house in Columbus, and she got free tickets for both of us to "Dinner with the Next President."
Eliza Madrigal: neat
Wol Euler: cool
Eliza Madrigal: daughters have volunteered Habitat for Humanity... think a wonderful thing
Bruce Mowbray: wonderful.
Eliza Madrigal: meanwhile George W is painting :P
Agatha Macbeth: Would make a good tag
Bruce Mowbray: oh my God.
Eliza Madrigal grins
Bruce Mowbray: I understand his paintings are getting mixed reviews.
Bruce Mowbray: have you seen them?
Eliza Madrigal: I was surprised he could paint
Wol Euler: I have, they seem pretty amateurish to me
Agatha Macbeth: For one moment I thought you meant Washington >.<
Zen Arado: I'm sure he could sell them anyway because of his ....
Wol Euler: my answer to the question "if these were signed 'Fred Bloggs', would you care about them?" was "no".
Zen Arado: fame?
Bruce Mowbray: well, maybe it's a case of simple does as simple is.
Agatha Macbeth: Doing a self portrait crossing the Delaware
Eliza Madrigal: fame with a question mark..yeah
Bruce Mowbray: ha ha.
Eliza Madrigal: hehe Aggers

Eliza Madrigal: impressed me a little that he painted Dalai Lama
Agatha Macbeth: Hope it came off after
Eliza Madrigal: hahahha
Wol Euler: *rimshot*
Zon Kwan: waves
Agatha Macbeth: What colour would you like Mr Lama?

Eliza Madrigal: thank goodness you came today Aggers :D - AND you jumped into 99 Days
Bruce Mowbray: I think he might have been a better president if he had practised painting before going into politics.

Agatha Macbeth: Shalom Zon
Eliza Madrigal: Bye Zon :)
Eliza Madrigal: maybe so Bruce
Bruce Mowbray: Bye Zon!

Agatha Macbeth: I jumped in with one toe
Eliza Madrigal: one toe is enough
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Eliza Madrigal: to begin with
Agatha Macbeth: Single step and all that

Bruce Mowbray listens to hear more about how 99 days is going.
Eliza Madrigal: we're on day 6
Bruce Mowbray: nods.
Eliza Madrigal: am enjoying the contributions
Bruce Mowbray: I keenly remember the day that Wol presented that idea at the retreat in Nova Scotia.
Eliza Madrigal: am not being personally as disciplined as I'd envisioned
Eliza Madrigal: yes me too... wonderful day
Bruce Mowbray: ;-)
Agatha Macbeth: Pretend it's FB
Zen Arado: :-)
Eliza Madrigal: how would that help? lol
Zen Arado: my creative writing course started to day and I still have to other courses running
Eliza Madrigal: post pictures?
Wol Euler smiles.
Eliza Madrigal: oh wow Zen... didn't know. You're taking more than 3 classes?
Agatha Macbeth: Horses for courses
Zen Arado: yeah but the other two will finish this week
Bruce Mowbray: I just started one from future learn today -- a course in mathematical symbolism, of all things!
Agatha Macbeth: Yay
Zen Arado: these courses are addictive
Bruce Mowbray: yes they are.

Zen Arado: we need a course on how to withdraw from doing courses

Bruce Mowbray: I sometimes take up to 4 courses at one time.
Eliza Madrigal: @@
Agatha Macbeth: Mauna Loa
Bruce Mowbray: fortunately now I'm only enrolled into . . . the Buddhism and the mathematical course.

Eliza Madrigal: I smiled about Wol's blue meditation cushion. Mine is blue also... but I noticed that the very week I bought it a year or so ago, I stopped meditating regularly. I think the cushion felt too official

--BELL--

Eliza Madrigal: but now I've broken it in...feels like a hurdle
Agatha Macbeth: Breaking in a cushion is an amazing concept
Wol Euler smiles.
Eliza Madrigal: these we're on are well worn :)
Wol Euler nods.
Agatha Macbeth: Indeed
Eliza Madrigal sees buckwheat spilling out


Eliza Madrigal: can't even fathom taking a math course for fun
Agatha Macbeth: It can be quite fun
Agatha Macbeth: That's the benefit of an exact science
Bruce Mowbray: well my typist is a real dunce when it comes to math, so I thought I'd give him a taste and see if the course could help a bit.
Eliza Madrigal: I'd like that to be true for me... am open to believing it could be

Bruce Mowbray: it's only a three-week course.
Eliza Madrigal: really?
Bruce Mowbray: yes only three weeks
Eliza Madrigal: fascinating
Wol Euler: how many days is that?
Zen Arado: I used to like pure mathematics
Bruce Mowbray: I have not listened to the first lecture yet . . .
Wol Euler: or how many "events"
Zen Arado: it can be quite fun
Bruce Mowbray: well there appear to be a lot of events in the first week . . .
Zen Arado: but not the applied stuff
Bruce Mowbray: I mean maybe eight or 10?

Zen Arado: I still wonder why we have to learn algebra at school when we never use it
Zen Arado: unless you're an engineer or something
Bruce Mowbray: just a sec. I'll find it.
Agatha Macbeth loves quadratic equations
Eliza Madrigal: Algebra is the bane of my existence
Zen Arado: of yes I use quadratic equations all the time
Agatha Macbeth: Aww, poor Al
Wol Euler: well, I thought it was about teaching abstact thinking, rather tahn a particular tool
Zen Arado: I use them for doing shopping :-)
Zen Arado: I struggle with arithmetic these days

Eliza Madrigal: I would have my degree now if it wasn't for phobia of algebra :) my college transcipts show my enrolling and dropping like a dozen times
Eliza Madrigal: ::hangs head::
Zen Arado: but as Wol says it also trains your mind
Agatha Macbeth: Doesn't sound like you Liz
Eliza Madrigal: I know..
Wol Euler: wow
Eliza Madrigal: am full of surprises :) lol
Zen Arado: oh an algebraphobe

Bruce Mowbray: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/.../8885/progress
Agatha Macbeth: Surely
Wol Euler: and nobody saw that and took you aside to talk about it?
Eliza Madrigal: well, coincided with some pretty touch times at first... then later no... I do well then hit a block where algebra represents everything wrong in the world, hands sweating, etc..
Agatha Macbeth: Ick
Wol Euler: awwwww

Eliza Madrigal: it is much different to go back when older too, and kids have learned in diff ways
Eliza Madrigal: teachers are impatient... but, I'm determined to do it... just may be 80
Bruce Mowbray: they say that students tend to be good in either geometry or in algebra . . . but not both. something about the brain's maturity
Wol Euler: that's the spirit!
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Eliza Madrigal: yes, I did great in one algebra course
Eliza Madrigal: because the teacher taught it in a visual way, and a story way... felt useful

Bruce Mowbray: I loved plane and solid geometry -- but algebra threw me for a loop, until I was much older and got into computer programming ( which has almost nothing to do with algebra, actually)

Eliza Madrigal: a friend tells me that when I go back I need to make lots of time to live in the lab
Eliza Madrigal: and not feel embarrassed no matter what
Wol Euler nods.
Bruce Mowbray: nods.
Agatha Macbeth: The dragon takes wing
Eliza Madrigal: did you take to programming in spite of the algebra?
Bruce Mowbray: they actually had nothing to do with each other. I was referring mostly to maturity of the brain.
Bruce Mowbray: ooops

Bruce Mowbray: sometimes I think I do better without the Dragon altogether.
Agatha Macbeth: Tell him to stick to guarding gold
Wol Euler: Fafner!
Eliza Madrigal smiles
Wol Euler: can you name it?`
Eliza Madrigal: and pearls
Agatha Macbeth: Bless you
Bruce Mowbray: Wagner?
Wol Euler: I certainly would
Zen Arado: tell me about it Bruce :-)
Wol Euler: can you name your dragon, I meant
Agatha Macbeth: Cyril?
Bruce Mowbray: I'm not going to name him until he's trained, and tamed.
Wol Euler: like "Diane" in Twin Peaks
Eliza Madrigal: heheh
Eliza Madrigal: or her...

Bruce Mowbray: but nevertheless, time for Dragon, fish, and antlered being to be off a scraping.
Agatha Macbeth: Pema is a dragon
Wol Euler: if I had a current-generation iPhone, I would find a hack to rename Siri to Diane
Eliza Madrigal: :) bye Bruce, enjoy your dinner
Bruce Mowbray: thank you everyone!
Wol Euler: bye bruce, scrape well
Agatha Macbeth: Bye Brucie, scrape well
Eliza Madrigal: that would be fantastic Wol
Zen Arado: by Bruce


Eliza Madrigal: did you see the Twitter made for following up with TP characters?
Wol Euler: bye zen
Agatha Macbeth: Oh oh Diane
Agatha Macbeth: Zen is still here:p
Eliza Madrigal: :))
Zen Arado: I just joined twitter again
Wol Euler: oh, sorry
Zen Arado: not sure why
Eliza Madrigal: I talk to Eden there mostly
Wol Euler: yes, eliza, that crossed my path but I didn't really get on with it
Agatha Macbeth: Yay Edie
Eliza Madrigal: I use my "RL" twitter now rather than eliza
Zen Arado: I think I follow eliza but you didn't follow me back
Eliza Madrigal: am integrating identities
Eliza Madrigal: Oh?
Zen Arado: :(

--BELL--

Eliza Madrigal: I'd follow you for sure if I knew it was you
Agatha Macbeth ponders a fake Zen
Eliza Madrigal: okay let me find you....
Zen Arado: I can't be bothered looking up people to follow
Zen Arado: I think it was because I wanted to follow the tweets on that Buddhism course
Agatha Macbeth: Sounds like a Brasilian footballer

Eliza Madrigal: I have followed you now :)
Zen Arado: I don't think I have made one tweet even
Zen Arado: ty :)
Agatha Macbeth: Look out Zenny, you're being followed
Eliza Madrigal: you have a few music links... that's convenient...much harder to find shares like that on FB

Zen Arado: I try to get people to follow me on sound cloud
Zen Arado: :)
Zen Arado: but I get these young woman with big boobs who want me to look at their website
Eliza Madrigal: hehe wonder why I never get those
Agatha Macbeth: Not me :p
Wol Euler: yeah right
Zen Arado: she usually has a name like uswr 148562
Agatha Macbeth: Probably Russians looking for a husband
Zen Arado: user
Eliza Madrigal: a good man is hard to find Zen :)
Zen Arado: in Kentucky?
Zen Arado: ha one was in Detroit
Agatha Macbeth: Amazing to think some women can be that desperate
Eliza Madrigal: everyone has a story
Agatha Macbeth: Indeed
Zen Arado: detroit is a bit rundown
Agatha Macbeth: It got run down by the motor trade
Zen Arado: yeh
Eliza Madrigal: yes
Agatha Macbeth: Suzi Quatro is from there tho
Agatha Macbeth: So not all bad
Agatha Macbeth: And Lene Lovich originally

Eliza Madrigal: Wol, falling asleep? time for a little meditation so you can write in 99 days? :)))
Agatha Macbeth: Yay
Wol Euler: awwwww, yes
Wol Euler: thanks
Wol Euler: heheh
Eliza Madrigal: Zen want to come to Zen Retreat?
Agatha Macbeth seems to hear music
Zen Arado: ok
Eliza Madrigal: we can sit for 10 minutes
Wol Euler: do you ahve a LM?