Towards Freedom

The largest (11) and longest (4hrs) chat yet!!

It all started with an intercontinental music debate featuring Rachel, Dyl and Breaca the resolution of which is still forthcoming.

Ray and Sangeeta talked about her circus protests leading to surprising information about the World Wildlife Federation who are not as animal friendly as thought to be (see http://www.peta.org/feat/greenwash/wwf.html)

We were delighted by reizen's 1st appearance at our chat - Andrew & Ranjana engaged in a discussion about healthcare and Andrew's role in helping hospitals make better decisions. For those of you who don't know, Ranjana is involved in supporting caregivers (http://www.familycaregiverssupport.org).

Hi all! Another great chat this week.

Ranjana was able to put in only a very brief appearance, since she had to go into the big city in order to sell tickets for her organization's fundraiser which you can find out about here: http://familycaregiverssupport.org/events/yaya/ So if you are in the area, just come on by.

The chat started off with a mystery! Who was using the kirksey957 handle? Was it Kirksey or was it Rachel? That was the question Sangeeta and I were studiously trying to unravel. The kirksey957 personnage remained silent for a long time so it was a very difficult problem to solve for a long time. Then the handle identified itself as a Rachel who had recently found a dog that she wanted to keep. You would think that at this point most sleuths would figure the mystery was solved, but not I! Nay! I was not to be so easily dissuaded so I immediately put forth the possibility that it may be Kirksey himself, disguised as Rachel! This brought forth the response "Are you kidding?" and though I was willing to pursue the matter further, no one else was - well at least not the only other two handles in the room who were busy talking to themselves as though this serious matter didn't warrant further investigations.

Pretty big turnout this week and a long chat too!

Michael, Ranjana and Sangeeta started it off discussing the latest information regarding Bacon, the pig some students are trying to save from slaughter. Here is the thread on RHP on this:

http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/showthread.php?id=9330

The discussion continued as Dyl (who just got home from work) and Rachel arrived. Rachel told us that Kirksey was in Louisville at his best friend's wedding.

Sangeeta and Rachel started talking and for some reason Ranjana informed the latter that the former would be back in half an hour because she's taking a cat to the vet. Yes I know this sounds very confusing. Think about how Rachel felt. Think about how Sangeeta felt wondering where she really was. Think about how I felt when I was informed that Ranjana had broadcast this information, because I had told her to!

This week's chat started with me talking to myself since there wasn't anyone else in the chatroom. This exercise didn't appeal to me greatly so I left.

Soon some others arrived and began to talk to themselves, but the activity, for some reason, did appeal to them.

Fjord informed us that his grandson Orin is playing in a chess tournament. Orin is very keen on the game and is interested in learning the openings now!

So this time it was Michael who was talking to himself in the chatroom - in fact, he was singing from Tannhaueser, so melodiously that both Rachel and Ranjana waltzed in on waves of sonorous ecstasy!

Rachel said she liked music but didn't like her voice, but Ranjana reassured her that all can sing with a little training. Michael then explained how the neighbours felt about his singing. Rachel then revealed that she knows how to play the cello! However, we didn't get to hear much about this because her computer started experiencing difficulties as Kirksey came on to explain.

This proved to be one of the most surprising chats we have had, though it started out in a rather unusual fashion.

Rachel and Breaca showed up first wondering why no one else was in the chatroom wondering if Ranjana's GMT message had been misunderstood, but when Fjord appeared, they felt certain that they had shown up at the correct time. So they said 'hi' to him, but he said 'halode' to them, which caused Rachel to say 'huh?' and Fjord to ask if it was Rachel or Kirksey. Then they proceeded to discuss the time and agreed that it was all messed up.

So this was our strangest chat. First of all it wasn't the SatChat, but was supposed to be the SunChat. However, since I can't change the heading what we have to do is come up with another reason for calling it the SatChat. I thought we could still call it that by pointing out that we all 'sit' during the chat and thence we have 'sat' and therefore 'SatChat'.

I am open to other ideas, but this issue really must be cleared up as fast as possible as you will see in the next paragraph!

And so this SatChat started before it really started, with Ray showing up at least one day early just to say "A big hello to everyone" with an enormous smiley face because he knew there was no one in the room!

As if inspired by Ray's conspiracy, Andrew showed up one hour early and left several vibes, he says because he might not be able to come back, but since he did come back, one has to wonder what his real motivations were!

Well, I really don't know how to tell you how this week's chat started because I wasn't there. But Kirksey was. Unfortunately, he isn't here to tell you, so I'll just have to reconstruct it as best I can.

So Kirksey enters the room all by himself and waits around for a whole 59 seconds before Ranjana shows up thinking it is Rachel. Naturally, this surprised Kirksey so much that he was speechless for several minutes and Ranjana thought that Rachel wasn't even there. Well, that's true isn't it, because Rachel really wasn't there (she was visiting friends), and it was really Kirksey who eventually informed Ranjana that he had gotten some soup out of the microwave. Ok so far so good.

This SatChat saw us discussing some serious issues thanks to them being initiated by Rachel. I will summarize the main ideas behind these.

The first had to do with a CBS news presentation which apparently talked about someone murdering some people at a slaughterhouse and this was somehow linked with PETA. According to Rachel they said:

" It said PETA went to far. It happened several years ago. PETA isn't really saying anything but, "Meat's not treat for those you eat!"

This was an interesting chat with Breaca being the first to enter the room. Finding no one else there, she started to spin silently, whatever that means. She did this for more than 3 minutes, apparently without getting dizzy until Rachel showed up. Then I think she stopped spinning silently so she could talk to Rachel or perhaps she kept spinning, but not so silently for she spoke (no pun intended perhaps)!

So this was a record-breaking chat in that it exceeded 999 lines! This is all the more remarkable considering we didn't have our usual large turnout exemplifying Margaret Meadiator's inspiring words:

"Never doubt that a small group of talkative, committed people can change the chatroom. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

Fear not though, because this is only a summary so you shall not have to endure all that happened by virtue of my brevity.

This was one of our shorter chats, but nonetheless quite interesting as you will see.

Zoe was the first to enter this week, soon followed by Kyron and Ranjana. It turned out that Zoe was turned out very well done, because she had a sunburn acquired from purchasing a cd. I realize that sounds quite remarkable, until one is told that she had to go to the store under a very bright sun in order to get the cd. The good news was that Zoe passed 4 of her exams and is already a fully qualified GMDSS electronics operator who can't use a VCR.

This was an enormously long chat - more than 4 hours!

Now Zoe came in first, but decided to go have lunch so when Rachel entered she didn't get an answer to her 'hello' so she tried a little harder with "Zoooooooeeeeeeeee", but of course didn't get a response. Then Breaca came in and said 'hello'. Then Zoe suddenly appeared saw what Rachel had written and said "hellooooooooooooooooo". As luck would have it, I came in just at that moment and thought Zoe was saying hello in that rather extravagant fashion to me so I quickly tried to reciprocate "hellooooooooooooooo to you tooooooooooooo".

Wow! The longest chat yet - over 5 hours!! Geez you people talk a lot!!!

Dyl started the chat - well in a way he did. He showed up about 12 hours early because they do the time differently in Australia. When he saw that no one was there, I think he thought he was late rather than early, because instead of celebrating his promptness, he merely exclaimed "bugger" three times and vanished!

Another enormous chat more than 5.5 hours! It was one of our best, with a couple of exciting new members and one of the most profound discussions we have ever had in that chatroom!

We were delighted to see the newest member of our family, Larry (rhp huntingbear and papa_bear in the chat) appear. He did not just appear though. He was the first person in there! He uttered the first word! It was "test"! I will refrain from mentioning that he came 6 hours before the chat started though. He is after all from Australia and has no doubt been influenced somehow by Dyl.

Finally, a shorter chat as several people were unable to attend.

However, Larry, Zoe, Kyron, Breaca and I were in there pretty quickly. Zoe greeted me with "How now brown cow", and though that took me completely by surprise I was still able to make the exceptionally original response of "mooooo".

Breaca, we were glad to learn, was feeling much better after a few days of illness last week, and she brought a father's day greeting with her. She also told us that ironman had offered her a draw which is quite something given his record, but Breaca is contemplating continuing the game because she feels that she may be in slightly better position.

I want everyone to know that I came first and waited around for the rest of you! Rachel came next and thought she was alone but she wasn't. She had some interesting information because she had adopted 10 timber wolves through a government program for a $125.

Larry and Fjord came next and I was able to tell both of them the courtesy with which Rachel had handled a rude poster a few days ago. I told several people this and it is worth seeing the calmness and composure that was demonstrated by this 12 year old who handled the admiration with grace and humility:

Dyl was there first, but no one could talk to him. That's what Zoe and Larry found out when they got there, so they talked to themselves about the origins of their names, purclecow and papa_bear.

Ranjana appeared late and Zoe thought that she had been eaten by hungry whales, but it turned out that she had only slept in.

Larry and Zoe were both eating, but when Zoe found out that Larry was eating a mandarin she wanted one too but obviously Larry wasn't able to get one to her. In fact Zoe seemed disappointed when Larry said that he was no longer eating a mandarin because he had eaten it all, so she told him to eat another mandarin.

An unusually short but still interesting chat this week.

Fjord was in first 10 minutes before the chat started said "halode everybody" and took off.

Breaca came in a few minutes later and found that she was all alone however Rachel and Michael appeared within 3 seconds of each other and Breaca was no longer lonely.

Rachel talked about having her tonsils removed while Breaca talked about watching a concert on tv all of which was especially interesting since they were both talking to each other about these two rather unrelated topics simultaneously.

This was the most hilarious chat ever! You will soon see why if you can get through all of it. Just remember you have been warned!

Breaca entered right on time and started talking to herself because no one else was there. Sangeeta arrived soon after and started talking to Breaca. Now those of you who know Breaca and Sangeeta are aware of what an ominous pair they have the potential to make.

Lori was the first in after a long absence! In fact, she was early! So early that she had no one but herself to talk to. So that is just what she did. Her conversation with herself touched upon an explanation as to why she was early (she felt she would forget if she weren't), what time it was where she was, summer vacation, the time in Canada and finally having exhausted all possible topics of conversation that she might interest herself in over a whole hour, she started to sing.

This was a short chat with very curious beginnings. First Larry appeared an hour early to announce that he wasn't going to be around for the chat and left. Then Kirksey showed up asking if anyone was home and getting no answer, he left for a few minutes but didn't log out. So then when Rachel logged in from Florida she saw Kirksey was still there and called:

[remora91] dad?

This was a relatively short chat much of it centering around the disgraceful abuse of the RHP TOS - specifically with the rampant sexism that some people just seem to accept. Well, we don't!

Anyway, Ranjana started the chat by getting in there first and talking to herself with the usual bad typing. Kyron came in afterwards, but didn't say anything to her and I can't say I blame him since the typing was so incomprehensible.

This was a very short chat and will also be a very short summary. This is just as well since there has been considerable events taking place on RHP regarding the behaviour on the forums. Here are some of the key threads:

*Thank you Moderators!! http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/showthread.php?id=13511

*Don't we all want the same? http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/showthread.php?id=13488

*Missing the point. http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/showthread.php?id=13467

*Enforce the TOS! http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/showthread.php?id=13389

Another ex-moderator story http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/showthread.php?id=13439

An apology from Cribs http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/showthread.php?id=13456

I think as a Mod…. http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/showthread.php?id=13461

*The best moderator http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/showthread.php?id=13405

This was again a very short chat.

Dyl came early again because he didn't know what time it was. Then he left.

Rachel and Kyron showed up followed by Ranjana, then Sangeeta, who told everybody that she and her 'adoptee' were enjoying Macgyver very much.

Rachel told us that her voice had almost returned fully after her tonsil operation, but admitted that she was sleeping all day pretty well so Ranjana said she was glad Rachel was a taking break from all that sleeping in order to join us.

Sangeeta came in first and seemed very pleased about it. Breaca came next and the two of them talked to each other because there really wasn't anyone else to talk to.

They would have continued to talk to each other even after I entered, but Breaca had to go and empty her hotmail account, so I had to talk to Sangeeta. It seemed that she had posted in the physics forums about imagination being more important than knowledge in science (Einstein's quote actually) and some silly people interpreted it as imagination instead of knowledge and were making even sillier posts. So all these people had to be straightened out - which they were!

A very strange start to the chat with Ray coming in 15 hrs before it started and talking to himself, then leaving:

[rgoudie] Did I leave my keys in here… [rgoudie] No, they're not here.

Then David comes 1 hr early, starts talking to himself, then leaves:

[DreamlaX] Yay I registered my name! Not that it really makes a difference… [DreamlaX] I'll be back when everybody will be here…

Finally, both of them come in 10 minutes early and start talking to each other, and stay:

This was a very short chat, because most people weren't present. It started off with Breaca and Ranjana forming a mutual admiration society. Then they at least stopped long enough to appreciate my puns starting here:

http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/showthread.php?page=3

Some of these were considered so good that bbarr threatened to alert the moderators! However, the best part was that he started making them himself, much to Rachel's chagrin. In fact, the phenomenon seems to be happening all over the site:

If you have managed to read through all the Veggiechess SatChats, you now know many things.

You know the various members of the clan and something of their personalities. You know about veganism and animal rights. You know about music, art, technology, extra-sensory perception, smoothies and may be even some chess. You know about puns. You also know why the SatChats remained so even after they were changed from Saturday to Sunday.