You are invited...

[hilary]

... to a <FONT COLOR="aa00aa">Room Warming Party</FONT> http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/messages/786/2095.gif

I've signed up for a meeting room with voice and text chat, shared browsing, and even a whiteboard for us to doodle on...

Hopefully this will be the place for some very intelligent and profound discussions - eventually. But First I would really appreciate some help in working out how we can best use it. So if you can, please join me

on Sunday 15th at 6pm UK time (5pm GMT)

To sign up please go to this page (http://www.onlineClarity.co.uk/gatherings/signupfree.html) and fill in the form. Then there is a small program to download, and we're all set.

<CENTER>...</CENTER>

All, that is, apart from the Mac users. Sorry. There isn't a Mac version of the software yet, though they do have one planned. Meanwhile, they say:

"Some Macintosh users have successfully used LCP while operating their Macintosh system while using "Blue Label Power Emulator (http://www.lismoresystems.com)" or "Virtual PC (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/virtualpc/)". If interesting in learning more about this subject, please visit http://www.macwindows.com."

[jte]

Hi, Hilary - I can't make this time, but vary the times a bit if you start doing this regularly and I'll try to start attending - nice to have ppl I can talk about the IC with... Thanks!

- Jeff

[hilary]

I definitely hope to do this regularly! I should have said - if you can't do that time, what days/times are good?

One other thing I should have said: if you do have a headset with microphone for your computer, you can talk to everyone in the room. If not, though, you can still hear what is said and communicate through text chat. Just so long as you have a working sound card.

[rinda]

I would like to be there, except I too have a prior commitment. My band has an all day practice, with people coming from long distances... If we do this again, and I know in time, I will move things around to be with you there.

[gene]

Hilary

As much as I have wanted to do this, I am still on dialup, and do not know when it will be okay or not okay for me to tie up the phone line. Hopefully this will change soon.

Gene

[tashij]

Hilary I have a mac, but I wanted to tell you that your voice makes me swoon.

[dij]

Hi

if I don't forget, and am around the computer at that time, I'll come. I don't have a mic though.
I do like chats.

[hilary]

Rinda - sorry for the short notice - what kind of band, and what do you do?

Gene - it does work over dial-up. Well, it'll have to, as our broadband isn't connected yet here. (Any day now, though!) Maybe you could sign up and download the program anyway, just on the off chance that you will be able to monopolise the phone line?

Tash - is that swoon, or fall off chair howling with laughter? I do hope they get the Mac version done soon - Bradford and Lindsay use them, too.

Dij - hooray! I think that makes about 5 of us coming so far...

http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/messages/786/2099.gif

[rinda]

Omigosh- no hint of criticism intended at all... I'm excited that you are offering this, just disappoiinted that I can't be there. When one starts something new, you've gotta jump in somewhere/sometime!

I'm in a band that likes to play "newgrass", country - story-songs (not whiney things), soft rock, folk (my favorite), gospel, things that make a point. I sing, most often I choose a harmony line, and play a bouzouki, autoharp (appalachain-style), mandolin and guitar. The player of the pictured autoharp is Harvey Reid - I don't know him, but do know his brother. The picture does convey how I sometimes feel when I play/sing. Sometimes we do things that we write ourselves that defy categorization.

Autoharp, played Appalachian-style (http://www.woodpecker.com/images/hrautoharp.gif)

bouzouki (http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=freespace.virgin.net/hurdy.gurdy/bazuki.jpg&amp;imgrefurl=http://freespace.virgin.net/hurdy.gurdy/fretted%2520instruments.html&amp;h=357&amp;w=461&amp;sz=27&amp;tbn id=NgMosjjDT_MJ:&amp;tbnh=96&amp;tbnw=123&amp;start=38&amp;prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbouzouki%2B%2B%26start%3D20%26hl%3Den %26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN)

Rinda

[tashij]

Your voice knocked me off my chair with it's beauty.

[heylise]

I did the chat-tutorial three times. Two times to learn chatting, and all three (and going to do more) times for learning to speak English. I learned it more by reading than in school, so my pronunciation is horrible.

Looking forward to hear you all!

LiSe

[hilary]

Aaah.

Quaint English voice, shame about the brain. When I said Sunday 15th, I meant the other 15th, more conventionally known as the 16th. Oops.

Sunday - tomorrow. Sorry Kevin, sorry Harmen. Harmen just helped me test the software... seems that voice quality over dial-up is intermittent. But I will get broadband within a couple of weeks, so maybe we can have a bigger get-together then...

[cheiron]

Thats OK Hilary

I logged on this evening (embarassed grin)

Going to try the other Saturday which people recently have been calling Sunday to prevent this sort of confusion. http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/happy.gif

LiSe - You and me both... I've been through the training a few times.

Not a lot of it has stuck yet

http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/specs2.gif

--Kevin

Practice, practice

\

\ \ \

[dij]

oh hey

I did the tutorial too, enjoyed the voice, logged in, had a rather chirpy conversation with myself, clicked on whitboard and had nothing happen, chilled out for a bit, logged out.

All in all it was a fun experience. I look forward trying this again, maybe even when some of you guys are around, like, for instance on a Sunday or similar.

[jte]

Welp, I believe you're 8 hrs forward from Pacific time, so that's 10:00 am Sunday for me - which is pretty much going to always be taken. These times would work for me generally:
- 3 pm Sunday your time , 8 am my time
- 9 pm Sunday your time, 1 pm my time
- Saturday times in that range (3 - 9 pm your time) would also work for me

But it's not my place to ask special favors - if you've got a time that works for the majority, go for it. But if you can vary some sessions within those times, would be nice to attend some.

And I agree you have a lovely British speaking voice! :-)

- Jeff

[hilary]

Definitely I'll vary the time!

Since I last posted - I've found an alternative provider of a similar kind of service. Fewer bells and whistles... doesn't look nearly as pretty... but the voice chat definitely works. So if the first one fails tomorrow, we can try option 2, and have maybe 20 or 30 minutes of free trial there. Now I just want to put together a suggestions form, and then I'm going to bed.

Oh no, wrong again. Then I'm going to do the washing up. Ugh.

[heylise]

Sometimes it seems to be good, never to know dates or days. I really did not notice anything about the when. I asked the others here, "when is Sunday?", oh, day after tomorrow, oh thanks.

And again, "is today Sunday?", yes, oh thanks.


LiSe

[heylise]

Well, here I am. It says connecting to the chat room, failed to connect, connecting again, failed etc. Maybe 50 times now.
Anything I am doing wrong?

LiSe

[hilary]

You're about 50 minutes early! Don't tell me I got the time wrong for Holland? Wouldn't be in the least surprised.
But no, nothing you are doing wrong. Probably you have just found another bug in the software.

There is an email on the way to everyone who signed up explaining a change of plan. After all the fuss of signing up and downloading the software, it is not stable enough on my computer to run a meeting.

SORRY!!! http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/blush.gifhttp://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/blush.gifhttp://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/paperbag.gif

However - I have a backup plan. If you go to http://www.onlineClarity.co.uk/gatherings/ondemand.html, you can login directly to a different room. Another small download - oh dear, oh dear, sorry... - but much smaller and simpler than the last one.

This means anyone else who wants to drop in via that link in about 40 minutes' time can do so - no signing up in advance is necessary.

One thing, though - it is charged by the minute, so please don't come very early!

[heylise]

No, not you, me! Summertime!!
Did not reckon with that one.

At least that is what I guess.

LiSe

[candid]

A note to those who were unable to make the Room Warming Party:

It was fantastic to hear those we've only read before, and the new software seemed seamless. I believe there's much potential to expand upon what we do here through this additional feature, and encourage you who can make the next meeting to check it out.

[cheiron]

Ahh, Candid

You make it worse for me!

My Firewall, Norton 2004 refused to let me into the room... I have deleted all rules now but did not get it all done in time.

Anyone got any ideas?

http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/messages/786/2103.gif

--Kevin

[candid]

Kevin, yes, ditch Norton and get Trend PC-cillin! http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/happy.gif We missed ya!

[hilary]

You could go to ondemandconferencing.com who make the software we used, and ask them for suggestions.
Also, one of these days they will get the original software sorted out, and it shouldn't have trouble with firewalls.

Cheer up!!

I've uploaded the great, fat recording of the meeting to http://www.onlineClarity.co.uk/gatherings/roomwarming.html - zipped up to save a MB. If you open the html file in the archive you can watch the text chat unfurl and listen to the audio in synch. It should also be showing the webpages on the right hand side - I will also have to pay their tech support a visit.

Mac people, please let me know if you can't play wma files. I won't be able to convert the whole thing, text as well as audio, but I can convert the audio to mp3 or something, I expect.

[hilary]

Candid, if you want to start that 'gatherings ideas' thread we talked about, fire away! I must spend tomorrow doing work for customers and hopefully also the newsletter, so I will go quiet for a while.

[cheiron]

Well if folk can stand this?

I typed this whilst listening? Maybe repetitive... no editting.

Martin / LiSe ? Yes, I agree? the oracle seems to predict the seeds of the time and give advice. I find that my behaviour regularly changes those seeds. Especially in unstable situations.

I think though sometimes the seeds are fairly fixed.

Candid maybe this addresses your point re. oracles and the future?

This gives me great difficulty when doing readings for others.

Candid, Like the exaggerated imagery bit?. Reducing ? Focussing?

When you talk of ?finding out exactly what the question is? I try to find a connection with their space for this as well as words.

Yes? I find it very hard to tell how to pitch an answer with no eye contact?

Thank you for the connection LiSe ? Air and Fear ? Absolutely.

Yi Mastermind group sounds good.

Yup I would pay? Agreeing with Candid ? It comes down to value.

$5.00 - $10.00 Sounds OK for me.

Widening it beyond the Yi ? I find wider techniques hitched to the Yi very good indeed? Worth exploring? for me.

There are many, think, on this forum who could talk very well about the Yi? I suspect that they would fill in their approach very interestingly? Everyone here tonight has started to do that ? very good.

Maybe some formal presentations? maybe just their experience and thoughts too? as per some of the thoughts tonight.

Yes 20 minutes sounds like a max followed by a lot of discussion.

Doing a free reading? ? Well folks can get that anyway at Clarity? Being in the forum has to be the purpose of being there? No?

Unless it is about live / collective with one person taking the lead? but the conversation might quickly move to technique.

BTW ? The frames seem to show differently on the recording ? or is that me?

Candid - Yes in the forum we could really knock ideas about on a reading? But I am slow and need thinking time? my prob.

Yes LiSe ? Could be confusing for folk asking the Q.

The nice thing about speech is that it takes us past the anonymity / Web limit. I must say I am very impressed hearing peoples voices this evening? Sound; informed and considered all? made a difference to me?

Yes LiSe / Martin ? I need a connection and a sense of the other? a closed querrant is so disheartening? I never know quite what to say to such folk to be helpful? growthfull

I agree Candid has a very expressive voice?

Hilary? Can we please have window for hand waving http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/happy.gif (For Candid)

Nah, You sound good Hilary?

You talk very clearly LiSe http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/happy.gif

I am so sorry I missed you folk?

Martin you are so clear? keep talking it will become easier? otherwise I will have to learn Dutch? Your nightmare? http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/happy.gif I like your thoughts BTW

Yes, this is very good

--G?night

--Kevin

[candid]

One feature/benefit that hasn?t been mentioned is that it provides an opportunity to develop our oral presentation/communication skills.

I grimaced at my own presentation of thoughts when I listened to it back. I could say how ill-prepared I was, having forgone the meeting due to the original software issues, and how I was on my way catch up on some needed sleep when I opened my email to find Hilary?s message about the changes. So I quickly clicked, loaded and was there, half asleep. Excuses aside, it?s a great way to improve communication skills.

I believe anyone who comes out of their shell in this type of setting can benefit from the meeting, just by speaking and participating; to say nothing of what we stand to learn from others.

?where the moods of his own heart are concerned, he should never ignore the possibility of inhibition, for this is the basis of human freedom.? 31.3

I just can?t say how delighted I was to hear the voices of a few people I?ve known for so long. It adds such dimension to the words they speak/write. I?m hooked on wanting to hear more of your voices.

[heylise]

I loved it. It was great to hear your voices, it is adding so much to the mails. I am going to practice talking, listening (still having a lot of trouble to understand what is being said), and maybe I will even be able some day to contribute some more to the conversation. I agree very much with Candid's remark: 'an opportunity to develop our oral presentation/communication skills'. For me that is absolutely certain.
I will get myself a text with sound, anything, and play it over and over. Listening/reading what the lady said in the tutorial was already a big lesson in English.

For the time being I will have to be satisfied with just saying small things. But I was enjoying so much what was said, and most of all the sounds. Are Yi-people different from an average group of people? I am inclined more and more to think so. And now I read Candid's mail with 'sound added', because I know now how it sounds in real words.

I have been listening several times to the recording. I did not know my sound was too loud, next time I will try to adjust it.

I hope to hear more voices in the future. It changes the way I read a mail. Knowing the sound makes me understand it much better, both the message and the person.

Hilary, and everyone who was there, thanks

LiSe

[dij]

Hilary sounds 'like a Queen on a bad day' LOL!!!

Hilary, if all else fails, I think there is future for you in recording books. http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/happy.gif

Are you a chelist like that red haired witch in witches of Eastwick? http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/happy.gif

Well, anyways, listening to the recording was fantastic. It is very informative and it stops me chriping in and disrupting conversation (something I'm very good at)
I'd be happy to pay about &pound;5 for recordings of this sort. Is that too little?

It has been great hearing you all and specially hearing everyone's thoughts on various subjects.
I have to say, I don't really like talking, and like Hilary, tend to be unable to think and talk at the same time. Yikes that sounds bad :\
However, hearing you clever people was really fantastic so I wouldn't mind some more of that.

2 funny things
1. Candid started the session by going on about lack of 'heated debate' and tehn LiSe said that she got 26.3 when asking about the gathering. I thought it was hilarious since it meant 'looking for trouble' in that context. Heh. Me and my daft interpretations.

2nd funny thing. I asked what is the significance of me joining this group here and got 53. The serious reading aside, I collapsed in a fit of giggles thinking Yi was telling me I came to 'git murried'. (don't worry, I'm already coupled. and evidently, easily amused)

[candid]

chuckles.. Dij, I enjoy your humor. Its a gift you share.

[lindsay]

I just wanted to say I?ve enjoyed Hilary?s recording of Sunday?s conversation so much I?ve listened to the whole thing three times. What a pleasure to hear Hilary, Candid, Lise, Harmen, Dij and Martin discourse so eloquently about the Yi and the exciting possibilities this new audio software offers!

On the technical side, although Mac users seem to be barred from participating in these talks, we are able to listen to recordings using Windows Media Player 9. This version requires OS X, and I?m afraid dogged users of OS 8-9 are out of luck. I tried Media Player 7.1 (the highest version supporting classic Mac OS), and that Player could not read the codec version even though .wma-format files were no problem.

Earlier this year I grew impatient with the limitations of Macs, and resolved to build a PC from scratch. There is a table in my house littered with chips and cards, cables and buses, heat sinks and processors, motherboards and capacitors, hard drives and power supplies, and so on. The problem is I can?t quite fit everything together to create a workable computer. My current creation looms ugly but lifeless, stuffed with ill-matched components and second-hand hardware, resembling nothing so much as a badly-stitched amalgam of body parts from Dr. Frankenstein?s laboratory.

But Sunday?s conversation has given me new hope. Perhaps a few more hours in surgery will bring the beast to life. I am lacking a few vital parts, a left hand, a right foot, a couple of vertebra, some minor internal organs, but I really do hope to be up and running before too long. Then I can join the rest of you in this wonderful development.

I honestly feel a breakthrough is at hand for Clarity and this forum. Hearing actual voices caused me to revise my mental image of each of the participants. I feel I know a few of you much better now. Thank you so much for sharing this recording!

Lindsay

[candid]

Lindsay,

SO glad to hear your response! I imagine I'm not the only presently self-conscious one here. I mean, its one thing to 'speak Yi on command', and another when Hilary says matter-of-factly, I'm going to record this now. Ohh kaay. Everybody FREEZE! Step AWAY from the Microphone!

But I agree, there's potential in that medium for us, and for the exact reasons you've mentioned. Two dimensional drawings suddenly pop out into a breathing person. It blew me away, and I know I wasn?t the only one to shed a few involuntary tears afterwards.

Pragmatically speaking, as a genuine seeking device, the talent/assist pool is here, more than we probably have a clue of. We take a lot here for granted sometimes.

Maybe this is a big step forward, as you?ve said. But be assured, four or five people can?t pull it off.

Lindsay Frankenstein. Sorta has a nice ring to it.

Anyone else?

C

[jte]

Yes, it was cool listening to the recording and hearing your voices, would like to participate in the next one, if possible (side note: will be out of town Thursday - Sunday - going to D.C. for training for work...)

- Jeff