Sunday, September 30, 2007

Wanderers Retreat

:: detail from music & the brain by Lynne Taylor ::
The theme is apparently telecommunications, or at least that's how it's being for me. Plus other themes, such as chemistry and forensics. One of our visitors is expert at neutron activation, helps police determine where crime scene fragments and shards might have come from. Archaeologists have an overlapping skill set.

I wheeled the giant ergonomic workstation (a monster) behind Terry's desk so we could have an intimate "projection booth" with room for several onlookers, with the intent to not disrupt proceedings in the dining room. We used Terry's computer projector connected to my Ubuntu Dell laptop, also Terry's Apple speakers. The results were quite pleasing: sharp picture, good sound, and a lot of human knowledge at our fingertips, including "youtubes," of which I streamed several.

Greg Kramer was by, and Gloria, who I enjoyed meeting up with during our last retreat was well. Barbara and I talked local politics quite a bit. Jon played wonderfully while Don sang some old hits. Jon needs a well appointed music lab with a fat pipe to the Internet in my view. He wouldn't squander, dymaxion kind of fellow that he is.

This morning involved trips to the airport, getting Tara to a friend's, and serving on a Quaker committee relating to our upcoming Willamette Quarterly Meeting.

Later I hosted a college football brunch (University of Oregon versus University of California), then Trevor took me on a field trip by bicycle to a new electric car dealership on 20th and Sandy. And the winner is... CalBears, thanks to a touchback at 16 seconds.

Evening brought welcome new faces: Buzz and his darling daughter, Elliot Zais, Lynne Taylor, Gus Frederick, a walk-in stranger with many overlapping views... Terry. After the crowds thinned a bit, we projected the full length film Idiocracy, a Hollywood Video purchase.

Terry and I then had a long talk regarding the new intelligent design website, an umbrella forum for a lot of American pragmatist writings Terry's been collecting -- plus he's got some of his own, with lotsa links to ancient Greek philo. We'll likely spice up the mix with a dash of American transcendentalism to boot (I shared about my new "Synergetics as Neoplatonism" meme).

Looking forward.