Yeah nothing wrong with not hugging trees, would just love to share it with someone here.

Autumn is beautiful here, but it's so short it's almost sad because it's mostly over in 2 weeks.

Winter is nice here if you get far enough away from the cities. As always, it's beautiful in the woods, but its gross on the roads because the snow turns grey/black and it's kinda depressing.

:love: :love:

That is so beautiful. It makes me think of Narnia. :)

Flying Ikran at night
 

How are you able to turn Iknimaya from day to night? i've read that its a certain part of the game when you have to leave for 2-3 hours but, when? I would love to fly my Ikran at night, it would be like a whole new experience in the game.

How i keep the feeling alive
 

Avatar was an amazing experience and i don't want that amazing feeling of it to die. i draw art of the Na'vi, plants, and animals. i always like to imagine the world of Pandora in my head, and when i do, it feels like i'm actually there. I play the game to get a new feeling of the world and its amazing. i will never let the feeling die.:)

If you stick around any map for about 3 hours, it will change to night mode for 30 minutes. You can just let it idle and keep checking back when it comes close to 3 hours.

That's the best way. Though there is one map in the Na'vi campaign that won't turn into night no matter how long you wait..

Three hours of day, thirty minutes of night? :S Crappy.

But worth the view.....;)

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e7...0-22_00037.jpg

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e7...0-22_00032.jpg

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e7...0-26_00009.jpg

The na'vi in this game have such a weird way of standing. I notice it every time I see a screenshot.

I bet they say the same thing about us......

Not *all* na'vi, just the ones in that game :hmm:

It's really sad night wasn't at all publicised/mentioned... They could have really worked with it, given the game a faster day/night cycle (a lot of games use a minute for an hour in the game's clock or slightly slower, so you get a day/night cycle that isn't distracting but still lets you see all the different parts).
They also should have made it persistent, I've played for over 3 hours, but when moving between maps, it resets it :(

That's true. It would be really interesting if you spend the whole afternoon (in game time) climbing up to reach your ikran and then the map turns into night as you fly back down. :)
Some people might not have the time to wait for 3 hours for the day/night cycle to change.

I suppose if they make another Avatar game after the 2nd movie is released then hopefully it will be a lot better then the first game.

I suppose I must consider this post a request help in trying to return to the feeling, rather than a description of how I kept the feeling alive... mostly because I failed miserably to do so.

I partook (I wouldn't describe my experience as merely seeing, though perhaps of Seeing) of the experience of Pandora in the first days after its release, I saw it twice in 3D once in 2D, dragged various family members to watch it, purchased the DVD the day it came out... and although my acquisition of the CE Blu-ray was slower in coming, the day I watched it again was little less than a triumphant return. And it is mostly because of that return that I am here again as I was over a year ago... although I always read more than I posted, a fact to which my post-count attests. Ever since I watched those extra minutes featuring this world, further fragments of Pandora that I had never yet experienced, I felt a blank space within myself, a yawning void where once there had been... well, mostly PAD to be honest, but also where this community had been.

A member of AF in the early days, and then of ToS when it spread its branches I found something in these places that I failed to find almost anywhere else: Acceptance, care and understanding. In the time of my absence I had allowed myself to fall back into "the world" and had not kept the feeling alive. I experienced it for moments as I travelled the wilds, in the UK and Japan mostly but even then the feeling was transitory.

Having finally realised that a part of me is missing, I have come back, in the manner of a penitent supplicant. Asking to return to this place, to you all, where I knew contentment for the time that I was here. I hope to regain what I lost.

Please. Will you help me?

Ma tsmuk,
I feel so bad for you in your situation. First off, PAD can be a bad thing that can either trigger some serious depression, or minor case of the blahs into something much worse.
I agree that you NEED to get the feeling back,but I am wondering if perhaps attacking the PAD head on with everything at your disposal would not help your emergence from this situation much better.
Are you in a Country where Winter's icy grip has clamped down hard? That might make easy fixes a bit tougher, but there still are things shy of going th the beaches of Hawai'i that can help, and at a lot less cost.
Because I think you are saying that even AFTER seeing the collectors edition, with it's 19 minutes of extra footage, you still have this dark void in your psyche, getting lost in the movie several times a week might have the opposite effect. Is it because you see Pandora , and the Na'vi as a fictional creation, something not attainable in your life?
Perhaps not. Perhaps you can CREATE your own Pandora right where you live. Not the paradise that the movie espoused, but the fostering of the IDEALS of the Na'vi people themselves.
Can you get involved in some seemingly small ecological project in your local area? It could be anything that was Hands On making something better. I agree thar raising people's awareness is a good thing, But I think that the BEST think that you could do for your heart space is to get involved with a clean up, or improvement of an ecological problem area, and when you finish it, no matter how large or small, know that YOU MADE A DIFFERENCE to something on this planet. You think that Eywa, however you visualize her would not take notice of your valiant effort to make things on this rock in space? Oh, I think that she would, and I also think that you would would feel so good about it, that as soon as you could, you would find another problem spot that could benefit from your healing touch.
Before long, you would not only be able to fully enjoy the movie about the Na'vi people, you would have the SAME HEART, in the REAL WORLD, making a difference, and THAT would make you feel GREAT!!!
Niri Te

I feel for you, Iluvrien, because I have the same feelings and have been through this before. It's like, you can't stay high the whole time. (I've never done drugs, but they provide useful analogies sometimes.) It's sad - I really wish it weren't so, all I'd need to do would be to watch Avatar again - but it's just the way people are built. Sometimes some people can keep it alive for a while but it's pretty much a losing battle eventually for just about everyone.

I know I've been in valleys recently as deep as the highs I was in after seeing Avatar. It sucks.

But everything can be positive. There's no such thing as a negative experience if you use everything for learning. And I - we, you - learned so much from Avatar. Too much to negate it all by saying that if we can't repeat the same emotional high then it didn't count. There's too much at stake in the world and in our own lives to make that mistake.

Self-development generally takes a lot of hard slogging, daily work, persistence, and courage. Sometimes there's a seminar or an event that has a massive boost and you get euphoric for a while. I had one such seminar where the voice inside - the one that tells me I'm no good, criticizes everything and everyone and especially me - actually shut up altogether. It was mind blowing. Lasted a month. Man, you think I wouldn't want to get back to that state? I went through that seminar again a dozen times. Didn't happen. But the other work I did - the day-to-day exercises, persistent practice - that paid off big time. That did result in permanent change. Even though I never got back to my little-voice-gone state. So I figure the "losing my voice" experience was a signpost: "This is a good place to hang around."

Avatar was a movie that managed to have an effect like a self-development seminar - big shift inside, euphoria lasting days. Wow, I had thought I was too old for that kind of experience. Humbling, beautiful, tearful. But now the lasting change has to come from daily persistent hard work. Avatar was a signpost. Pointing to what? Not so clear for me this time; still figuring it out. How about you? Any of this ring a bell for you?

I understand - if you read my old threads, I've made a few when the same happened to me.
All I can say is to give it a bit of time, and be careful with emotions - feeling too strongly before watching reduces the experience for me.

Also, the soundtrack. Listen to it, but make it special - listen when you can concentrate, perhaps even when not doing anything else. It helps a lot.

Of course we will. Oel ngati kameie :)

My apologies for the delay in my replies, with such responses I had thought it better to think about each one before I posted... and I had to edit it a couple of times. My original responses to each post were originally even longer!

First, to Niri Te,

If only I could attack the PAD head on, sadly even the PAD is a shadow of what it once was. The void within is where both my longing for Pandora and what it represents, and the sense of community I felt here and on AF resided. To keep a long story short, with reference to my available options, I reside in Northern Europe, so the beaches of Hawai'i (which I have never visited, although I did make it as far as Guam once, apologies for not using the Chamorro spelling) are a somewhat difficult option. As a further aside I should add that we are experiencing all that is best about the cold, the rain and the cold rain these days. I have nothing against the rain, personally, and walk in it by choice in summer... but not the cold rain.

It wasn't so much that the CE, with its additional footage, was unable to sway me (it was) but that in swaying me it made me realise that the feeling it bestowed had not been around for a long time, and even then (due to the pressures of family and the mundane world) it was quick to depart. One thing that had helped me hold onto the feeling before had been the feeling of community I experienced here. So watching brough both the a) lack of the feeling and b) mourning for the loss of this community into clear focus for me.

I am still trying to understand all the gifts that that Avatar gave to me. If I do see Pandora and the Na'vi as fictional, then I do so in an aspirational sense. Pandora and its people should be, and if they do not exist out there (in the wider universe) for us to join, then we should be working towards fostering their values, harmony and nobility here, in ourselves. Of course the last year has had its share of difficulties and as such I am not sure i have any faith in humankind's capacity to actually do that.

I am afraid my options with regards to local improvement options are fairly limited, and I am only able to do a bit of personal clearup. My wife and I visit various green spaces in the city we live in, as well as whenever we travel to my home, or her home country. When we make these trips we always carry bags with us, sadly experience has taught us that these places are always defiled and disrespected by people dropping litter and other items. We do our best to clear them and bring the discards to whatever local recylcing services we can find. It is a very small thing but it is our hope that in some tiny way we help.


Next, to Sempu,

I agree with this wholeheartedly, and I certainly don't make the mistake of thinking it was meaningless because I haven't been able to hold onto the feeling. Quite the opposite, my experiences during the times watching the film, and for the weeks afterwards, both here and in my daily life were so profoundly important to me, and they felt so fundamental as to be a major reason I want the feeling back.

Now I am left with the resolve to do things (which is quite often frustrated, sadly) but without the feeling that original drove it. That bittersweet sense of awe, wonder and longing for something so perfect, a world so beautiful and a life-system so harmonious in nature that it transcends any single description that I attempt to ascribe to it.

Oh yes, a lot of what you say is very familiar indeed. Although in my case I am not so sure that it was about change, rather it was about a reawakening and confirmation of values and beliefs that getting older (and more jaded) in the modern world had buried or silenced. Many of the values espoused in Avatar were ones that, in the idealism of my early years, I was taught and took onboard without reservation.

It was only contact with the crass, self involved commercialism of today that subsumed them and told me they were "impossible" and "childish". Avatar brought them back out of the shadows and, for a little while at least, said that they were reasonable and maybe even possible. And then I found these communities! Places where the values are not only accepted but embodied!

And then, for some reason, I allowed that world, the human world, to draw me away again. And it was only after seeing the CE that I had realised it had happened. Slowly but surely I had become seperated from Avatar, Pandora, the Na'vi and this community. Realising that, although it took me some time to do so, was such a shock it drove me back here within seconds (the link never left my Firefox toolbar), although it took me a day or so to summon the courage to post again.


Finally, to HNM,

This thread has been useful to me, but now that you mention them, I will see if I can find your old threads too. No telling what insight I might find there, thanks! The latter point is understood, that is one reason I have not watched the CE again after the first time after I received it. I know that, at the moment, if I put it on I will be desperately hoping fgor the feeling to return, and that in itself will reduce the experience, as you say. It is hard to be blocked from doing what I feel I need to do by the need itself. :(

Sadly, the only form in which I have the soundtrack is attached to the film itself. But I am looking to get it, for those moments like now when watching the film might be a mistake but I need a reminder.

You are all, too kind. My apologies for the wall of text! Irayo.

My two cents:

After I made this depressive post on Niri Te's thread, I've been pondering & musing & came up with this:

Keeping the Avatar feeling alive - could be like in love: you meet, you fall for each other, you feel euphoric, you go thru the so-colled "chocolate & flower period" :love: - but the time comes when the honeymoon is over, the routine kicks in, & it can grind down anything. To keep the feeling alive, over years... I guess one of the secrets would be to take it to a whole new level once in a while: nothing is worse than boredom & apathy, indifference kills just about everything. Or, as Osho plainly says: "Wipe the dust of your eyes & learn to See that other person again".

What could be "a whole new level" as far as the Avatar feeling is concerned? My modest example: Avatar was a Big Bang, right, it's effect is undoubtful; it varied from person to person but it was powerful for each of us. The first new level for me was - to discover the forums :). Next new level - to discover the soundtrack on YouTube (I guess I only did it because of people's comments about the OST on the forum). Next - I got an Avatar CD (finally!) - by a pure miracle if you ask me. (I listened to it a couple of days ago after a month break, & cried like hell - but it was good, it was a sign that the feeling was still alive - & so was I :P) I also smiled like this :D when it came to Climbing the Iknimaya.... try to find it Iluvrien) Next - Seattle Meetup 2011 thread which I came across by chance - this is what I call 'the sense of community'! OK I didn't go to Seattle in 2011 - but see this Promo Video for Seattle 2012 Meetup, & tell me if you're at least tempted to "see your Real Avatar family"? Even if you can't make it to Seattle, at least you can follow the thread, & it will be worth it. Next new level - I got to know people from the Meetup thread, & Alan being him generous self sent me this Our Only Home video - made by fans! & I ended up doing Spanish subtitles for it & I loved it! Sense of community? hell yeah! Have a look Iluvrien, do you do anything from the video (yes you do - & that, too, is a fact)? - so you're part of the community then, no doubt about it. And so on & so forth.

My latest "next level" was... to start drawing. I've been on this forum for what, 1.5 years - & of all the anti-PAD remedies I thought the only one that didn't apply to me was Fan Art. But about a month ago a "drawing bug bit me" & guess what, these drawings, altho they are simple & childish, they help me somehow "to bring Pandora here". My post on "Can you even enjoy..." thread still stands & my feeling is true- but this "new level in drawings" gives me a sensation of "having the power to colour the black & white world." Ok my pencil-drawn Pandora won't become 3D, holographic, and alive... but something is better than nothing... Maybe later I'll discover yet another "new level". LIke cosplaying :P

Excellent post :)

I've only managed to watch Avatar once per month or so for the last few months, but that keeps it effective and every time I do, which I only do when I'm in the right mood beforehand, it's as strong as ever.

Haven't watched it in months. I keep glancing at it and going..."No..." >_<

Try saying "yes".....

Sometimes I'm in the mood to watch it but I hold it off a few times till the mood gets really high then I go ahead and slip that disk in. The big issue is deciding whether to watch it in 3D or blu ray. Blu ray visuals are LINtastic but 3D visuals are eye popping with the issue of slight darkness and dry eyes. I find myself struggling to choose which to watch and end up doing other things...lol.

I've been too tired or down to watch it recently :( - would not be a good idea for my emotional state right now.

I've actually had several moments in the past month when I'd really like to watch it, and then in trying to, something upsets me and it's no longer a good idea (firstworldproblems). It'll work out one of these days though.

I agree with everybody who says that Avatar watching requires a right mood. I've been holding off waiting till I Really miss it; actually the plan is to hold off till Seattle Meetup 2012 :shock: & watch it with the clan. THAT will be something! :awesome:
But I might have a micro-meetup (or two) in between, with just one or two ToS members. In such case... I guess Avatar watching will be inevitable :P :rolleyes: Ah well! the mood must be right in any case so we'll just wait and See...

Ma Apache Blanca,
I think that the "mood level" will be in direct proportion to the amount of BLUE PAINT worn.
ta Niri Te

:xD: ^^^win

I watched the movie just under a month ago, and it may have been a mistake. Instead of being awed at all the natural scenery and such, my mind could only focus on the dispassionate actions of the RDA. I was burning myself up with anger as I also thought of other events and parallels on Earth. Normally I come away from the movie feeling great and wanting to accomplish so much but this time I felt a deep, dark cynicism that I had not known before. Certainly not the feeling I was hoping to keep alive.

EG, imho you're angry for a good reason; your anger just needs a proper way out, to be "channeled" to "a cause worth fighting for". There are different manners of "Fighting", too. I don't know what to recommend here, only that, imho, acting like Quaritch, one becomes no better than him. But there must be some way.

But, jokes apart, it's true about the right moment. An example: one of my best friends didn't see Avatar when it came out :shock: because she was "turned off by all this hype". 2 years later, unable to shut up, I suggested we watch the CE & she could make her own conclusions.

Never there was a wronger moment!
The neighbor got inspired to do DIY just about the "Jake discovers bioluminiscence" scene. The cat imagined she was a stingbat & started darting around & bouncing off the walls knocking stuff off. The player got stuck! at "Jake at the clan fire" :shoop: Luckily, my friend kept the old DVD player & it took about 30 min to replace one player with the other & start again. Then the cat started yelling for the food & of course it was: "kitty-kitty, here-here..." I was seething inwardly & hissing outwardly, "You're Loosing it!!" - but heck man. I admit though: to watch Avatar for the first time on a tiny TV ... it's doesn't do it much justice. Almost "0" justice actually. I can understand.

In the end my friend said she liked the movie & she would see it again. I just said "It's best if you wait for Avatar 2 & see it in a cinema WITHOUT distractions!"

I didn't lose Avatar. I love it, & if you love somebody/something, you love them in good clothes, bad clothes, or no clothes (sometimes preferable :P) I had tears in my eyes at key moments, but since then I am still waiting for "the right moment to watch it" - right time, right place, & with a right person. Avatar deserves it.

That is the Beauty of the way that Ateyo and I live, our closest neighbor is MILES AWAY,
we have NO kids, the dog goes OUTSIDE when we put a movie in the DVD player, (ALWAYS AVATAR since we saw it the first time), we are snuggled in the bed together, the big screen LED TV is on the wall by the foot of the bed, and we have a KILLER sound system, everything powered by our own nuclear breeder reactor 92 million miles away.
Niri Te

I am keeping the feeling alive by writing a fan fic where by humans with BLUE HEARTS on Pandora can sign up for an Avatar program and live in an Avatar Communityhttp://frum.learnnavi.org/fanfiction...syuk-tsulfatu/ that interacts with the other Na'vi clans!

My solution is to read fan fiction and create my own story, where Na'vi and humans with BLUE HEARTS all live on Pandora. A research company is seeking permission to open a community of Avatars on Pandora!
http://forum.learnnavi.org/fiction-f...syuk-tsulfatu/

And a fine solution it is, oeya lora yawnete. Ateyo has pulled me into this project, being the contributor to all content of a Military, or Aviation nature. Is is a ton of fun, you guys ought to all start your own fan fictions.
Niri Te

What I do to keep it alive
 

:D
I watch the cut footage alot.
I love the Hunt Dance and of course Uniltaron. I went through something like that during a vision quest with the Cheyenne. Peyote is.......::party:

I wish They would have left alot of these clips in. I love when Jake tells Neytiri the Teylu is good so she piles it on his plate....;)

also loved "The Drums of War". :war:
I think everyone would have got to know the Na'vi better. Though it was sad hearing Grace speak of Siylwanin's murder and the other Children....:'(
Though I never get tired of the Music. Or walking alone in the woods.
But I think it will be something I will always carry in life....:love:

A lot of it was missing due to the time limitations of IMAX :(

Nice to see on the bluray though, even not finished.

that's awesome! You can walk around just in loincloths, or just in beads, if you want to, & play loud music! :awesome: and that^^^ must be my next "new level" :awesome: : an Avatar lover-lover :P

I also loved the bit when Max smacked the guard on the head with a teapot, & drove a bulldozer into Hellsgate *finger* :xD: & Avatar drivers had a chance to fight. Max is cool.

you lucky swine! I read your other posts about being with Cheyenne, man, how I wish to share some time with the natives, it's my childhood dream! Ah well. At least some of us are That lucky. Congratulations :P I prefer to call Peyote Mescalito though - a power, or a spirit associated with the plant - & I have Big respect to those vision quests. Whoahh!

"this is why we are here... the forums happen to house the richest deposits of Avatar fans..." (quoting Promo Video Seattle 2012)