The ground level - in and out

[Kiyevanie]

Morning

Monday again...

[Elyris]

Afternoon

Personalized figures? This is kinda nuts indeed. Unbelievable what kind of stuff is done today. I've only been two times in Legoland (Denmark) in my life - once as a child and once when my cousin was still small (on neither occasions much could be done though ... my grandparents always felt too old for a kind of 'ride' and my aunt is a chicken throuhg and through, so ... yeah ... no). I think I still would prefer an exhibition with a lot of interactive stuff. I'd imagine I would really really love to have the opportunity to go on a scientific field trip, taking samples, mapping the surroundings, describing plants and animals (and plananimals). Something like this - slow and immersive - makes my eyes sparkle only thinking about it.

Hmmm - despite the luring extras on the spot I can't believe it ot be a good idea to 'meet up' in Florida (nothing against it in and of itself but the US are a crazy and dangerous place and I'm not even at 'how to pay for this').

I should try and gather enough resources to go on that Baumwipfelpfad (uhm ... Tree-top-path) on Rügen this year. It might be nice (except spiders, I freak out with spiders).

[flighter]

Talkinb about scientific trips... Hypothetically...

To come here during the summer season, it would cost some 250 EUR for a ticket, and that would be the most expensive part. To rent an apartment in the mountain village, it would be around 15 to 20 EUR per day, plus maybe 3 to 5 EUR for food, per day. That's all. The entire mountain is yours, insects, plants... small animals if you can catch one.

[Elyris]

Morning


Iiiiiiii - don't really feel mountains that much. Not that I got something specifically against them, I just don't love them like I love the shore (then again this is based on a trip to Bavaria many years ago where the alpes gloomed high rised on the horizon, which was spectacular on first glance and then only a bit worrysome - as you can't see the horizon itself - and one to the Harz, where all seemed out of a Grimms Märchen at first glance and got depressing and somber soon - as the valleys are small and rather deep, side of the mountains always close and dooming, cutting out the light and only leaving a small patch on sky to see - in both cases I was so happy to get back home and see the horizon agin, see the wide open sky again).


Plus: My family would never ever allow me to leave the country on my own (heck - it would be hard to go anywhere outside of a 200km radius). Last time was an absolute pscho-feast and I am not in the metal situation to get trhough this right now.

[Kiyevanie]

Morning

Well, I hear ya on the mountains. They're pretty to look at, from a distance, but after a few days I start to feel caged in there... Been on a mountain vacation several years ago, in Switzerland, and as much as I liked everything else that mountain looming over the whole valley was kinda menacing. I'm a shore and sea person too.

But your family - that's crazy!

[Elyris]

Hey Kiy

Nothing like an open environment, huh ?

Well - yeah - in smaller things of daily life as well as in 'bigger' things love, acceptance, support and 'understanding' are only given as long as you stay within the lines of what is considered 'normal'/'allowed'/'sane' by them. And don't you ever dare overstepping. If you do you'll be dragged through a group control hell of a very specific kind. I still wonder why people think that all violence is corporal, physical in nature when the 'invisible' one is so much more vicious. If someone hits you in the face and you get blue and green anyone can see it, but if you are pressured like that (there's not even yelling involved, it's slow, kind and menaching) there is no evidence and nearly everyone who you try to express yourself to outside of that mess usually thinks you exaggerate completely and should check your view on things before you say such mean things about your oh-so-loving family. And in addition, they actually are -they can't, don't and won't see what they are doing, always claiming to want the best for you and knowing better than you in every aspect.
Old, tired, deoressed and completely alone as I am I find myself trying my best to avoiding anything that might sprout 'conflict' if I can, making me even more passive and depressed. It's especially bad now again as my aunt somehow managed to get herselv in a 'relationship', so I am exposed to a lot of stuff that males me fell really really bad, yet everybody jsut says I should check what I feel and change it, as this is the 'natural' thing to do.
Thank you all very much for nothing - my life is shjt and everybody congratulates me for it.


Sorry - another rant, but my energy is at it's limits.





Do you think we#ll ever get to see Pandoran shores or even a more general overview of the geography (I am really interested in that).

[Elyris]

Morning

[flighter]

Good evening!

[Elyris]

Mornig


OK - who ordered the snow?

[flighter]

Me. 20cm at lest. Why?

[Elyris]

Morning


So so .... >_> It's already on recourse.

[Nawmtirea]

Good morning!

No snow in the Hamilton/Toronto area. 30 years ago we would have 4 seasons; winter, spring, summer & fall. But now we don't get the defined, harsh winters we used to get. February used to be one of the coldest months, with -20C wind chills. The last week of January before we left for Florida, the temperatures were +5 to +15C all week. The 10 days we were in Florida, the weather at home was -15C and a lot of snow. Then when we got back, the +5 to+15 temperatures returned. Those high temperatures were unheard of in February 30 years ago.

Visiting Pandora got me homesick for the old NaviBlue days (I even recovered my old forgotten Photobucket account - lots of memories in there!), although I don't have the spare time that I used to have (and now get to spend that time actually with Atokirina instead of online with her).
We'll post some pictures of our Pandora visit once Atokirina finishes going through all of them (we ended up with almost 600 photos!)
We were really blown away by the amount of work and detail that Disney put into bringing Pandora to life. Elyris, I think that you would really love the plant variety (both "Pandoran" and the exotic real Earth plants mixed in with them). For a world completely built from the ground up, it truly is beautiful. You can walk around for hours just gazing at the plant life (and then for hours more after the sun sets and the "biolume" comes alive). It is too bad that Disney is quite expensive, as well as the airfare to get there.

Did you hear that there will be 2 Avatar Meets this year? One in Vancouver, Canada in the summer and one in Germany in the fall when the Toruk Cirque du Soleil show is there? We're going to try to go to the Vancouver meet up. Atokirina wants to see more of Canada, so this is as good an excuse as any to travel the 3,355 kilometers from Hamilton to Vancouver.

Have a great weekend. I'll hopefully have some photos to post next week.

[Kiyevanie]

Afternoon

Last days have been a bit busy on my end... mostly work. Yeah.

So - no snow here (I didn't order it anyway), it's icy cold but sunny; definitely waiting for spring here.

@Nawm: Tell me about missing the good old NB-days... I do. Every. Single. Frickin. Day!
Your tour sounds awesome though - one day I'll have enough money to do it too. Hey, maybe until then the waitling lines for the rides are shorter *g*

[Elyris]

Morning


When you have to go on a short day trip with your granpa (who always just wants to go somewhere to eat) and you have no idea to go where (plus always going alone with him is not as fun as it seems) *sigh*

[Nawmtirea]

Good morning!

Just a quick check in today. Work at my night job is slow (as in nothing to do tonight) so I'm heading home for some sleep. Got lots of sculpting to do later today for a custom mask project. Atokirina and I are also trying to finally finish our Avatar themed bedroom (after what, how may years?) now that we've acquired a few new additions from the Pandora park. The Ikran that Atokirina adopted from Disney's Pandora has found a perch in the 7ft tall "tree of voices" in the corner of the room, and I'm sculpting a shelf to put our Hot Toys Jake figure on that will look like a shelf-fungus. We want to sculpt and cast a few of those blue cone shaped plants to put on the floor under the tree, but that may have to wait until we finish a few client FX projects. I have to raise the display case that's above our bed a few inches to fit the new Pandora art print below it. And Atokirina has finished sorting through all of the photos and eliminating the duplicates and out of focus shots, so we will hopefully be posting some of those soon. I'll have to create a thread to put all of those photos in and try to remember how to post photos on this site. Man, it's been a while. Going through my old Photobucket account brought back a lot of memories.

Kiy and Elyris, you two should think about attending the Avatar Meet in Germany in the fall for the Toruk show. It is really worth seeing live. I think Atokirina and I will be going to the one in British Columbia, Canada this summer. It will be our first Avatar Meet since the one I hosted in Toronto back in what, 2011 or 2012?

Ok, enough of my rambling on. Time for me to go get some rack.
Eywa ngahu.

Nawm.

[Elyris]

Morning

Ok - there was more snow yesterday ,so we had to dig out the car, but this night there came so much more that even my windows are covered in snow.

[Nawmtirea]

Sunny and +11C up here in the "Great White North". We're having an unusually warm winter. I guess now I know where all of our snow has gone. Sorry Elyris.

[flighter]

People, in heavy snow, most important thing is to dig out the right car, not your neighbor's car

[Elyris]

Morning

Didn't snow last night, but it was around -10°C.

@flighter: Well - that's easy. Except for the positioning it is usually the smallest snowhill.

[Nawmtirea]

Good morning.

I guess I shouldn't mention that it's going to be +10C today.
Can't say I miss the snow. For a Canadian, I'm not too fond of winter. Too grey and dreary. There's no green there. I'd take a green tropical climate any day. I love all of the interesting and beautiful kinds of palm trees they have down south. The flora is so much more interesting than the coniferous and deciduous varieties of the colder climates.

[Elyris]

Eh - you southerheers and your milder climate (You life quite a way south from me though)

[Nawmtirea]

Yes, I guess I do live in the most southern part of Canada. The northern parts of Canada can get 1 metre or more of snow that sticks around for months. Glad I dont live up there.

[Elyris]

Morning

You live south from me, for sure.

[Kiyevanie]

Morning
(Yay, finally finding the time to do a check-in... wooot!)

Climate: Yepp, technically speaking Toronto IS south of us here... it's just the gulf stream that keeps things halfway moderate in Europe.
And currently it's doing a lousy job of that; I'm freezing off all kinds of appendages. Brrrrrr! At least it's been sunny (yay! light!), December and January were a pest, all grey and dark.
I really could go for spring now. Like in "NOW!"

And yepp, I hear ya on tropical climate and palm trees, Nawm. Add a beach for good measure and I'm gonna be a happy person.

[Nawmtirea]

I really could go for spring now. Like in "NOW!"

And yepp, I hear ya on tropical climate and palm trees, Nawm. Add a beach for good measure and I'm gonna be a happy person.

And maybe a marguerita!

The unseasonably warm weather over here is messing with the plants. Some of the trees and spring flowers are starting to bud already. That shouldn't happen for at least another month. There's a saying "April showers bring May flowers", but now some of those flowers are peeking out of the ground in February!!
It's going to start dropping back down to -3C overnight again. I hope that doesn't damage the emerging plants.