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.
Fortunately, Michael arrived and so did Bear, but because the former didn't bring tofu, they started talking about opera with Andrew who had also shown up.
At some point Rachel, while discussing academics put forth the following proposition "math = crappola". I found this comment surprising since I was not aware that math had anything to do with that crayon company.
By this time, the opera group had progressed to the point where Michael had generated consensus within the party on the idea that Mozart, Beethoven and all the other operatic composers were famous because the particular members of the opera group listened to them.
That being resolved, Andrew felt he had to catch his plane. I conjectured that he must be participating in the chat through a cell phone if he were just about to catch a plane. Fjord then made his incredible suggestion that may be it was a landong. For those of you unfamiliar with computer technology let me explain the brilliance of his comment. In order to connect to the net, one often uses LAN (local area network) and to connect the laptop, which is no doubt what Andrew was using if he were on the road, you use a dongle. Hence, the remarkable creation landong a wonder of imaginative synergy!
At about this time, Kirksey had taken over the kirksey957 handle having spent the last two chat sessions painting his house. After hearing that Fjord had gone for a walk in the forest and that we had a forest beside us that had been cut down to accommodate a house that was built on a swampy piece of land, he started telling us about zoning laws. Apparently, in Louisville there are times when you can't leave your garage door open!
This no doubt made Bear think of food and so Sangeeta suggested berries since she had just made a berry smoothie. Naturally, I reminded her that it may be because bears like these fruit that they are called bearries. Though I also pointed out that if bears use these as laxative they could be called bearease. That made Bear frown, but Fjord leave. So I quickly brought the subject back to chess by noting that Emanuel Lasker was almost related to a bear because his brother was almost called Bearthold. Kirksey thought I was on a roll until I suggested that it was a bearoll of fun after which he said something about "it never ends" followed immediately by "I'll see you next week" and never stayed for Bear's very imaginative multilingual pun, which I am saddened to say I didn't quite get because I don't understand the multilingual language.
We noticed that Fjord, though gone, had not exited. This should prove to be significant at some point later.
Sangeeta started talking to Ray about string theory and provided a very interesting website showing fascinating videos about this remarkable physics topic:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/program.html
and they discussed several interesting ideas concerning dimensions and realities that led us to some intriguing ideas by Seth:
http://www.secretoflife.com/seth/
Kyron showed up because he had some linux matters to discuss with Ray while I talked to Bear about languages for a bit, but then he had to go so he didn't notice that Michael had eaten and fallen asleep though he claimed he was only digesting.
Flash suddenly appeared and told us about his recent dietary successes which have been significant! We are looking forward to his story on our forums before too long.
We concluded the chat by discussing the need for eating to completion in order to maintain the honor of the table and how some people, like myself, have had to carry this burden alone for years, with minimal assistance from family and friends and that this luxury will no longer be extended to said family and friends who really must do their part in this endeavour.
We all noticed that Fjord had not exited the room and as Michael left him a final message regarding paint, we wondered when he was returning to enjoy the solitude it would offer after our departure.
Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2004 8:30 pm by reizen To solve the mystery - I was on my laptop at the Asheville regional airport NC which was kind enough to offer a free business center with high speed internet. I had an hour to spare - my original flight being canceled. The flight I took on a small turboprop plane to connect in Charlotte was indeed the worst flight I have ever been on as it was extremely turbulent. I usually can't come to the chatroom, even though I enjoy it, because I like to spend time on Saturdays with my family - whom I don't see often enough because I am at airports.