AvatarMeet 2015 - Event Log

Started by Alan, July 23, 2015, 08:27:58 AM

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Alan

Just though I would start an event log for any of the attendees to record the coming and goings of AvatarMeet 2015.

Here's my little dit from Wednesday when we all arrived.

Well, CyanRachel and I made it to the hotel....too early.  So we dropped off our bags and caught the free shuttle bus into the town centre.  The town was pretty busy, sort of like an inland seaside resort.  More sweet shops than you can shake a stick at.  I even saw a hummig bird!

We called in at the visitor centre to grab some leaflets before catching the free bus back to the hotel.

Mikko and crew had arrived and checked-in and also booked a meeting room for the evening.  We sorted out the badges and MSGs plus posters, with the amazing artwork done by Ekirä.  We finished which just it time as folks started to arrive.  There were two new faces to the clan - Seze and ballju, which was great.

It was all very informal and after a brief overview of the meet up from Mikko everyone just settled down for some social catch up.

A group of us went out for an evening meal before retiring back to the hotel.  We ended up pausing on the way back to take a look at the stars and spotted Saturn.  Then things descended into geekyness as we talked about Pluto and the space probe, how gyros work and the lovely stuff that powers it!

Wednesday will be a trip to the cinema at 10:30 to watch Avatar CE followed by and exploration of Estes Park and then in the evening we will be visiting the local observatory for some star gazing and see if we can find Pandora!

Alan

Alan

It was the first full day of AvatarMeet which was started off by a trip to the Reel Mountain Cinema to watch Avatar on the big screen.

We arrived pretty much spot on 10:30, got our snacks and moved into the theatre.   The put the film on for us....but the was no sound!  Several multiple attempts later they got it to work (they were playing it from a bluray).  It was the collectors edition and so we all went through the emotional roller coaster that Avatar is to us.

On emerging it was just after lunch and to we ended up splitting and finding different places to eat.

Afterwards some went on a hike and a group of us had a go at some Na'vi crafts, like needs work, macramé and making necklaces.

It was quite a pleasant afternoon, and before long it was time for tea.  A group of us went to a Chinese restaurant which had great food, but their service was a bit on the slow side.  Unfortunately this made us a little late for the next activity which was a trip to the local observatory.

This was an amazing evening.  It started off with a couple of videos and a talk about the star constellations, with the use of a huge wall layout.  We were then split into two groups: one got a photo show of images that had been taken through one of the chaps' telescopes and the other went to look through the telescope.  Then the group's swapped over.

Some of the images we got to see through the telescopes were of Saturn, a double star, a star cluster, a super nova and the moon.  They were amazing sights.  We left the observatory at about 11 pm!

And that was it for Thurs!

Alan

Toruk Makto

A *few* of us spent the afternoon marinating in the hot tub for a bit, but essentially it was indeed a great day!
-M.

Lì'fyari leNa'vi 'Rrtamì, vay set 'almong a fra'u zera'u ta ngrrpongu
Na'vi Dictionary: http://files.learnnavi.org/dicts/NaviDictionary.pdf

Alan

^ Ha! I watched you type that in Markì.  ;D

Alan, Alan, Alan...

Ftiafpi

Party in Fifi's room! Room 234.

Vawmataw

Fmawn Ta 'Rrta - News IN NA'VI ONLY (Discord)
Traducteur francophone de Kelutral.org, dict-navi et Reykunyu

Alan

...ahhh....yes I saw supplies coming in for that ;)

Afraid I'm too "Donald Ducked" after today's activities to party!  I suppose I best tell a little bit more...

Are you all sitting comfortably?  Then I shall begin.

It was an early start.  Well I say early, we needed to be up and away by 08:30.  The reason?  Well it was volunteer day at Bluff Lake Park.  This had been organised by Raiden and was a continuation from last year of our desire to do something positive and constructive in line with the themes of Avatar.

Once we had sorted out the car pool thing it was a 1 1/2 hour ride down from Estes Park to the volunteering location.  On arrival we filled in the usual "It's not our fault if you injure yourself" form before the park official gave us and overview of the park and explained what we would be doing.

Basically they had planted about 100 trees and what they needed doing was some mulchy-compost putting round the trees and the a couple of buckets of water pouring round the roots.

It was a short walk to the location and so with buckets, spades and compost in hand we set to work.  First job was placing the compost round each tree. Whilst this was going on buckets were filled with water from the river.  It was not a difficult job, but rather tiring due to the altitude and also the humidity, which must have been at 1000%!!!

We took a short water break before being taken along a board walk that overlooked a large pond.  There was a group photo before walking to the final destination and doing a bit more.  'True Love for Neytiri ' found a preying mantis, an Raiden picked it up for the camera.

Once thoroughly worn out we headed back to the start.  There was a bit of car group rearranging for those who wanted to go to the zoo, head out on an adventure or go back to Estes Park.  A few meals and hours later some folks headed to the party.  Who knows what happened there. ;)

Alan

Plumps

Thank you so much to you all for keeping us (who had to stay behind) on track :D

Aynga perängkxo ayoer (a zolene 'ivì'awn kelkuro) nìyll a fì'uri irayo seiyi nìtxan :D 'Ivong Na'vi

Toruk Makto

Quote from: Ftiafpi on July 24, 2015, 09:20:52 PM
Party in Fifi's room! Room 234.

All I can say is the party was Kcufing Epic.

Lì'fyari leNa'vi 'Rrtamì, vay set 'almong a fra'u zera'u ta ngrrpongu
Na'vi Dictionary: http://files.learnnavi.org/dicts/NaviDictionary.pdf

Alan

Quote from: Plumps on July 25, 2015, 12:26:44 PM
Thank you so much to you all for keeping us (who had to stay behind) on track :D

Aynga perängkxo ayoer (a zolene 'ivì'awn kelkuro) nìyll a fì'uri irayo seiyi nìtxan :D 'Ivong Na'vi


Irayo nìtxan ma tsmukan.  You'll have to make it to one.  It'd be great to meet face to face.

Sooo...what happened today - the last day of AvatarMeet 2015?

Well, when people surfaced for breakfast (some having only gone to bed at 5 in the morning!) Aketuan organised and lead a trip up the trail ridge mountain road.  This took us to about 13,800 feet above see level.

We stopped at a few places to take in the scenery before moving onto the next viewing spot.  It certainly got colder the higher we went.  We stopped off at one place and walked up a gentle slope to where there was some snow.  However every step turned out to be a real effort and you were soon out of breath!

We made it to the visitor centre but it was rammed with fellow tourists and so we headed back down the mountain.  After a pit stop at the lower level visitor centre it was time for some 'om, yom, yom' at a cafe in town.

The traffic in Estes Park was colossal and made us 10 minutes late getting back to the hotel in time for Karyu Pawl's Na'vi refresher class.  This was an overview of the previous three classes with practice sessions.

There was a brief respite before the arrival of a special guest from Lightstorm who happened to be visiting Estes Park for a family event.  You couldn't have made a better coincidence!  This was a question and answer session covering a number of areas.  I missed a bit of it as I had to step out momentarily.  But it was great that the opportunity occurred.  At the end of the session we gave our visitor copies of the MSGs and posters to take back to Lightstorm.

The last thing we did at the hotel before going to the clan meal was have a fun pineapple prize draw where all the attendees ended up with a pineapple related prize.

With the prize draw complete, we all headed off into Estes Park for a clan meal at a Nepalese restaurant.  This was an outdoor event and quite pleasant.  Our visitor from Lightstorm dropped by again in passing, whilst we weighted for orders to be taken.  It was going to be interesting how they were going to split up the order into 25 different checks!

The meal was really good and a new experience for some.  Eventually it was time for us to pay up, but the checks never came, so one of our number went to investigate.  He came back with a message the Lightstorm had paid for the meal and a piece of paper that read: "To AvatarMeet.  Thank you for everything you do.  Much love Lightstorm".  This brought much cheering and clapping from the clan.

Sooner or later, thought, AvatarMeet has to come to an end and we all had to say our good byes.  Some retired back to the hotel for a gaming session, whilst others went to get some rack for an early start for their journeys home

So until the next meet up Irayo nìtxan ma aysmukan sì aysmukan.  Eywa ngahu frakrr.

Alan

Vawmataw

Fmawn Ta 'Rrta - News IN NA'VI ONLY (Discord)
Traducteur francophone de Kelutral.org, dict-navi et Reykunyu

Ftiafpi

Srane, lu hasey. Fìultxari alu AvatarMeet oeru solunu nìngay.

`Eylan Ayfalulukanä

FTU and I have safely made it to Elko, Nevada, where we will spend the night before returning to Reno

What a meetup!

Even though there was no special Avatar-related event that this meetup was built around, I think it was as successful as any other meetup we have done. This year, I think the 'central theme' was really about 'family building', and getting to know each other better. Most attendees were veteran attenders, but I think we are all usually too busy at these events to simply talk.

I also think there was a lot of 'high level' activity this year, especially above 9,000 feet (2743 meters) ;)

Yawey ngahu!
pamrel si ro [email protected]

Seze

I really enjoyed getting to meet everyone that attended this year.  It was really nice being able to put faces to names now.  Really looking forward to next year already!


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`Eylan Ayfalulukanä

FTU  and I are safely in Reno! We spent the afternoon and evening shopping. FTU files home tomorrow. I go back to earning a living...and playing with two new tigers that arrived next door while I was gone!

Yawey ngahu!
pamrel si ro [email protected]

Toliman

Quote from: `Eylan Ayfalulukanä on July 28, 2015, 02:31:57 AM
...and playing with two new tigers that arrived next door while I was gone!
Sounds nice  :)  I like tigers  :)

Tirea Aean

Quote from: Toruk Makto on July 26, 2015, 12:44:22 AM
Quote from: Ftiafpi on July 24, 2015, 09:20:52 PM
Party in Fifi's room! Room 234.

All I can say is the party was Kcufing Epic.

Confirmed.
LOLs were certainly had.


Wish I were there in person.  Thank you ma Ftiafpi sì Seze  for including me as much as was possible!

Ftiafpi

Quote from: Tirea Aean on July 28, 2015, 01:44:29 PM
Quote from: Toruk Makto on July 26, 2015, 12:44:22 AM
Quote from: Ftiafpi on July 24, 2015, 09:20:52 PM
Party in Fifi's room! Room 234.

All I can say is the party was Kcufing Epic.

Confirmed.
LOLs were certainly had.


Wish I were there in person.  Thank you ma Ftiafpi sì Seze  for including me as much as was possible!

Spoilers: Tirea was as drunk as Fifi was. :D Good times, man.

Tirea Aean


Wind12

tsa'u lu 'o' :) :) :) :) :)

I'm so glad I was able to make the camping portion this time and to be able to get to know more tsmuk better. I want to thank Aketuan for the AMAZING tour of Colorado! and Markì for the use of his "kelutral" ;) and All of the meet planning team, and also Raiden for helping me get out more (I still have a way to go, those "Tarantula Hawks" we're a bit much for me, lol)

I got see see so many different climates and clouds while I was there, this makes for a very happy Wind12, lol

Oh, and CAH is the best card game ever, hands down( because each hand is so dang funny, lol)

I had a bit of a bumpy return back to the pa'li clans area, first off my flight on Sunday night was cancelled due to to many flight hours for the crew, and the earliest flight back was not until 7:58 pm Monday night, so I thought I was going to have to stay over at DIA, but because it was an employee issue, and not a weather related cancellation, I got a free night at a nice hotel in Denver, so the next Day my flight was Delayed until 9:05 pm, but we finally took off, and I was doing good until as we were decending into KC I rubbed my eye brow and I got the worst pain in my head ever, it was like a burning sensation in my eyebrow that expanded to like a SEVERE migraine extending from that spot. It was so strong that by the time I got home( and had two aspirin) in St. Joe that I was feeling queasy and went straight to bed. I feel better today today though :)
I can't wait until next time :D