Well I played around with the screenshots of the game and got some really nice pictures. If ya want a glimpse of Pandora and it's beauty, check out the pix here:

http://www.tree-of-souls.com/video_g...tml#post161002

(didn't want to hog the thread with game pictures) ;)

:D Great advice Apache. I can't imagine as much as I used to but it's getting better. ;) I love that quote it is really important to stay true to yourself. :D

Progress Report for Apache: I managed to get down to the beach with my brother after 2hrs or traveling. ;) It was a shame that I didn't get to stay there longer but the moment I smelt the salt air wafting from the kilometers of coastline I knew I was home. I feel at peace and so unbelievably contented now, even though I could only have a short swim..The water was cool to the touch and amazing. :D There were little cliffs full of bushland above this little sheltered beach we went to and I imagined the Ikran leader poking her head over the top and trying to hand us some more shells to collect.

This is the beach here from a pic on google I found. (notice the beautiful bushland above):

http://www.ideal-sydney-getaways.com...et-beaches.jpg

And this is the view of it from the main beach..It's in the distance:

http://www.sydney-australia.biz/phot...each-manly.jpg

Ma Tsmuke! I've posted it - The Canoe Dream!

Now, how weird is that?? the place I saw in the dream (or rather, meditation) looks almost identical to your google pic above! :shock: Only there are no rocks & the trees are closer, otherwise, they are so, so similar... I am sure it was easy to imagine the Ikran Clan leader with shells there!

I am so happy you had this dip, altho a short one, but it was worth it, right? the sea... mmmm! I was born in the middle of the continent but I lived 10 years in Dubai by seaside, & every time I hear salty smell & feel the breeze, the feeling is the same: "Home!" How strange, but beautiful...

Luckily for me, I was at the seaside on my birthday, & managed to have a swim roughly about the hour of my birth... when I dived in, & then got my head out of the water, I really was seeing the world with "new eyes", almost (?) reborn. It was so great. Maybe like in Moco Loco dreams when we dive into a lake as humans & come out as Na'vi :P

I am really glad for you, ma tsmuke! You inspired me to go to the beach, too. It will be cold now but hey, I was born in Siberia, I hope I still have some endurance! :D

lol my dreams and now this post from you apache are making me think of Ponyo :D I really liked that movie. It made me wish I spent more time by the water. There's a secret beach here which I visit on occasion.

Edit: Pictures :D

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...s/SAM_0631.jpg

Some of it has real sand :P Maybe people don't want to go because it's so trashy.

Haha - well for me it is mostly a bit of a secret. My housemates know some thing and are pulling my leg at times because of it, especially because I cannot run like the wind over some fallen trees but rather stumble around hoping I do not fall down :P
But yeah - with my hammock as a bed and always this forum on the laptop, its hard to hide that I am weird :P

Actually you posting this inspired me of posting this here. For me it was not so new, I had that image in my head last winter, so its been some time. But yeah - sounds pretty similar, but I did not see any seeds floating by...

Oh I see you! I just love to go to the leake here and just swim to the middle of it and then let myself float. I feel the water all around me and to me it is really being immersed "in mother earth" to use a rather stereotypical expression because I cannot think how to say it otherwise.

Well that is the major one I guess. Three possibilities would have allowed me to succeed - either loosing some pounds - running a bit faster in sprints (not easy once you pulled that glider up the hill 2-3 times) or get better equipment. I WILL try again some time, but I have failed for now :(

Oh yes - I hope I will have time and means to go hiking and exploring and yes - Earth plants and animals are, if one really takes a good close look at them immensly fascinating at times :) - But I'd not mind seeing some Pandoran ones close up, too :P

Greetings

Hopefully your housemates still accept you for being "weird" In my opinion, we are all weird in our own way.

Oel ngati Kameie Aurora ma tsmuke. :D I'm so happy to see a fellow water child here. I think swimming out to the middle of the lake would be such an amazing experience. You would be truly immersed in one of nature's elements. There's not many other elements that allow you do do this, apart from earth, spirit and air. It's a little hard to zone out at times at a beach if it has lots of people on it..It's one of the reasons why I couldn't do any meditation yesterday.

That sounds pretty tough, I bet the hang glider weighs a bit.. Though when you say proper equipment do you mean equipment like a new hang glider? Or the harness?

Wow I haven't seen Ponyo but I've been meaning to. Is it good? I really like that picture you posted Moco. Even a rocky outcrop by the sea could be a beach of sorts. It's great that you have somewhere to go. Hopefully you can get there and relax with there being not many people around.

Oh wow I shall see asap!! (Hah rhyme.) Oh wow!! That is so interesting especially with you imagining no rocks but more trees, in any case I'm glad I posted the pics of for you ma tsmuke. Haha yeah it was, my brother and I were sitting around on one of the rocks and I could see this big tree overhanging and I thought, the Ikran clan could live here and no one would even notice. :)

Thank you ma tsmuke, it was definitely worth it! I haven't been down to the beach for a whole year. O.O Amazingly my body knew just what to do when I was swimming out there, like I had never left. *sigh* That is amazing Apache, it's so surreal to imagine a beach by a huge city but I'm glad that you could live near the sea for so long. The sea never leaves your heart. The salty smell was the first thing I picked up when I got there, then I felt the breeze and heard the gulls. :awesome:

I am so glad that you got to have that experience Apache, it would of been amazing to feel..Especially when you emerge with new eyes. I can imagine that to be true, when you relax in the water it brings out the best in us.

Ahh I always knew that Siberians were a strong bunch, just like the nords and the people of the baltic states. :) I'm glad I could inspire you to go again, the sea would be calling you again. You should be okay, just as long as when you get out you cover your ears with a woolen hat or earmuffs, they can ache in the cold water.

I think I might go down to the beach again this weekend, the feeling is so strong, and I must meditate this time hehe.

Yeah, I go occasionally. I'm actually considering getting a wetsuit so I can go swimming in winter.

That's a great idea. :) Alternatively you could always use a rash vest and quickly go in the water and then rug up with a huge jumper and a beanie.

Yes - i like to do that. Sadly the lake here is also not always that calm, it may have some people if it is warm and alot if it is sumer and sunny. And it has an agly power line going over it, but usually I find a spot I do not have ot see any of that and can float :)
At the ocean it is harder - I found one spot on my vacation this year that was almost empty of people in the early morning. So I camped next to it in the treed and went there in the morning. No people, I cound float again. But the waves of the ocean make it a lot harder, so I got salt water in my mouth for that :):embarrassed:

Yeah, it is about 25 kg I think and the hill is 40 m high. They had old crappy gliders for the schooling. They were too small for me and were not good in lifting. I managed to get lucky a couple of times, did about 4 or 5 good flights to the base of the hill. But I depended on me running to exhaustion and even then it only worked if there was wind in the right direction. I did not manage within the timeframe of the course to reliably start and land, so I basically failed the course, which sucks unbelievably because this was really a dream of mine.

I think I need a glider with bigger wings (for easier takeoffs) and be more fit in sprinting. If I manage to get that, I may try again one day.

That's a huge shame about the power line..I suppose if the lake get's a little rough you could always kayak across it instead.

That's a cool idea about camping by a beach, as long as you stay hidden. :P I always try to avoid swimming in a beach with waves as it does make it a lot harder to avoid the waves crashing into you. You can find some sheltered spots at a beach to go swimming though. Waves are great for board riding. :D



O.O Woah 25kg is pretty heavy..But then the wingspan is normally about 10 ft or more. That's such a shame about you pretty much failing the course. Though it's important to stay focused and think of ways to succeed. I suppose you could see if you can get a more lightweight glider if possible. I imagine that it would be really hard to take off and stay on course, especially if the wind changes.

Well it is a small lake only :P - so what is rough is maybe that now it has about 12°C or less, so I will not swim there. Soon we will be able to walk across

Well there was not so much choice :P - But the mediterranean is usuall ynot too bad in waves. I think most came from the boats. Yes, I hid my hammock well in a little grove and only set it up during the night.

Ah actually the instructor said that I will probably do just fine in the air. Its not supposed to be that hard and I did the right moves when I managed to get off the ground. But most of the times I did not and that was a problem. I guess a more lightweight glider with bigger wingspan would be the technological solution - me going swimming and biking twice a week from now on would be the better one. Its winter though :( . The technological solution wont work anyways because during schooling, there are just the two gliders allowed that are there. I do also not want to buy such expensive gear and then trash it on the dummy hill...
Nah - loosing some pounds and training to run faster will have to be the solutions I fear...

Hmm well you could always try to do both eventually. Although buying more gear would be costly. When you get fitter you should feel twice as good as before. :)

It would be amazing to sleep in a hammock under the stars. :)

Such a shame about the shrinking lake though..But I suppose that the tide and the seasons dictate that.

In other news: I really want to start a new fanfic but I strangely feel that I need to research more on the Pandoran plants.

Hmm - I need to try that with the hammock under the stars... the one I have has a mosquito cover on top, so the view of the night sky is not too great - also I usually have had a tarp on top to prevent possible rainfall or wind to get me at night. But I want to experiment :D

Oh and the lake - to get this right - it is a small lake to begin with. Probably people from larger countries would only call it a pond. It was created during a gravel mining operation for road building some decades ago. Now it is a lake (or pond). There are already some larger trees at its shore and people come to do barbecues there im summer. Swimming and barbecueing and everytinh is basically prohibited, but no one cares (which has the benefit that no one can tell you what to do there - like bringing the dog, making a little fire, swim naked, whatever... - because everyone else is not there legally anyways. So everyone basically has to accept everyone elses behaviour unless it is really annoying to several people, at which point they will ask him to change this). Sadly the place I live is crisscrossed with powerlines and one runs over that lake, which probably is part of why no one is supposed to go swimming there :P

But anyways - on weekdays in summer when not so many people are there, one can float in that lake, look at the different shades of green of the trees at the side and feel very much "inside the Earth", because one can feel touched by it (I consider water and air to be part of Earth) everywhere on the skin :D - That to me gives me a perception of connectedness that is physical. I dunno - somehow this relates a lot to "the feeling" we were talking about here.

Hmm couldn't you get a white thin mosquito net..You can usually see out of them. Experimenting is good!

Oh right I get you. I just thought it was a small natural lake. :P It's great that you guys can do whatever around there, Seriously, so many beaches and lakes have so many rules that make it less fun to be there.

:D Nice description. I think it fits very well into the "feeling" that we talk about here because so many people love the connection that the Na'vi have with each other, Eywa and Pandora. We have our connection with Earth/Gaia and all the animals in our own way and you just described a great connection with the Earth through water and air. :)

I feel a connection with Gaia and her creatures whenever I'm swimming in the sea, covered in dirt or sand, petting a friendly pet, standing by a breeze or just sitting near an open fire. It's so easy to establish a connection but you need to have an open mind. :D

A very quick one before I ride to work to my RDA: :P
@Moco Loco: I liked your secret beach :) nice! I guess I would be going there regularly to remove the trash, apart from having fun... until skxawngs throw some more... :angry:

@Pa'li: yes, it was great to live by the beach! :rolleyes: Imagine going there straight from work/studies? At least to paddle in the water, under a huge Arabic moon... I miss it so much :'( but no worries. There will be more beaches in my life. I am sure!

@Aurora: if instead calling ourselves weird, we call ourselves "special, interesting, different, wow..." - it will sound & feel better! :P :D Works for me.

Have a good day aytsmuke si aytsmukan, my direhorse is kicking, I am off!