Pacific Northwest: Washington, Oregon, Idaho

[Kaiatéya]

Well, I'm not ashamed to say I'm way out of shape, as anyone who met me at the meet-up no doubt saw

But when I was more in shape, Averill Lake was still quite a trudge. Might not be so bad as a day hike if you didn't have the big backpack with many days' worth of supplies, like Rolyu said. But once you get up there you're happy you're not going to have to go anywhere for a few days

When I was in my mid-teens I hiked up Mt Elbert in CO with my dad .. we started well below the tree line, had a base camp right around the tree line, and then day packed up to the top the next day. When we got near the top, it was like Pandora without exopacks. We had to stop every 30 seconds and pant for a couple of minutes .. really thin air up there. But holy wow was it worth it. I can't imagine trying to do that hike today, the shape I'm in right now.

GNP would be awesome. I've never been there. My parents have gone a lot though, so there must be something to it..

[IlccEyren]

HOLY! go google it! its stunning scenery beyond belief. i'm going to double vote for that one lol
                                                                                                                             l
                                                                                                                            /\

[Coyote]

Multnomah Falls is a nice hike, too, but I don't remember if there's camping up there. It's steep, with lots of switchbacks, and the first mile or so is very "tame" (ie, paved trails and a little too easy for the general public, IMO) but I'm told that up at the crest of the falls and beyond it got more quiet and less traveled.

My parents used to take me there when I was little kid (Oregon native, born in Portland!) but I don't remember much beyond the hike up.

Someday I'll have to drag every one to Boise/Idaho. There are some sweet, sweet spots out here for hiking and camping.

[IlccEyren]

haha sound fun. i know of some places. they are never occupied or never were a few years ago at least. they are gorgeous and there are no real trails so you just have to have fun out there and you'll stumble on some incredible places. its in manti, utah where i spent a good 2/3 of my childhood. its a tiny town set up against the mountains and there is some amazing scenery as well.

[Kaiatéya]

I haven't been very far into Multnomah Falls' trail (enough for it to get wilder, but not enough to find camping), but I've been quite a few miles back into Eagle Creek. There's some amazing scenery back there and supposed to be some great camping too. It's also a great place to go hang out when there are those rare crazy heat days here .. punchbowl falls was around 75 or so when it was in the 100s up top.

[IlccEyren]

  i cant stand heat. I will jump in an icy lake before going back to las vegas in the summer.

[kharul_karyu]

So, is anyone up to see this lovable film just one more time??

I am, but I'm just wondering if other people are.

And it doesn't need to be at Seattle's IMAX @ the Pacific Science Center. It could be in any venue... because I'm likely to see it in any "random" (or... nearby, should I perhaps say) venue myself.

[Sanmäkx]

At least twice more; I've got tickets for PacSci this Saturday at 9:30am and next Monday at 7:30pm with a friend.

[MaTe]

will go today and plan to pickup a ticket for last show next Thursday at Lincoln.

[Kaiatéya]

At least twice more; I've got tickets for PacSci this Saturday at 9:30am and next Monday at 7:30pm with a friend.

Gah.. wish I could join you. That Pac Sci screen was lovely.

[Tsawla Eltu Tsamsiyu]

If anyone is planning on going through Stayton, OR, anytime soon (or at all), please let me know. We could work out some time and place to chat for a few minutes.

[IlccEyren]

Haha this is someone torture. I'm the loner in IF, ID there's no way i'll be able to go. oh well though I'm planning on seeing it as many times as I possibly can so I'm game or would be.   
I agree though.

If anyone is planning on going through Stayton, OR, anytime soon (or at all), please let me know. We could work out some time and place to chat for a few minutes.

Should Anybody have the absurd chance of traveling though Idaho Falls let me know I'd love to meet every single one of you guys

[kharul_karyu]

I could, with almost certainty... show up if there is a collective interest already going...

(eh... slight emphasis on could?)

This means I could go to Oregon, Kaiatéya. Supposedly, there's "a few" fans around Portland...

(Man, I don't want to say goodbye to Avatar on the screen yet! *sniff* *sigh* Wow, how time flies...)

[Kaiatéya]

There are about 4 of us in the Portland area that I know of. Perhaps you could make it up here for a meet-up some time, ma Tsawla?

Yes, sadly future meetups will not involve an Avatar screening unless someone buys one of the fancy new BluRay 3D setups

Idaho Falls is pretty far out there .. oeru txoa livu, ma IlccEyren. ^_^; Is Idaho even technically part of the Pacific Northwest? Maybe you guys should make a northern Rocky Mountain meetup or something...

[kharul_karyu]

Kaiatéya I could find myself in Portland in the final few days of February. Actually, I don't think I *ever* walked around in Portland like I've often done in Seattle. It would be a nice treat.

Maybe we could also talk about the insanity of real life before we go to see Avatar on that day. I found myself thinking about "accepted insanity," like how Nature in captivity (like Sea World's recent "killer whale" event) turns around and kills a human being, or the insanity of politicians being too weak to stand up for the people, instead writing legislation that happens to be a big wet kiss to the industries that are supposed to be reformed. I just see Avatar as some sort of stop sign for us in 2010... showing that something that could happen in humanity's future. Maybe there won't be life at all on nearby planets, but I could sure see people going overboard for some other resource, like, 300 years from now.

I've got my attention set on knowing when people have had enough of this madness and stop working at whatever jobs are left or maybe actually march in the streets peacefully, like what Martin Luther King, Jr. did. I argue with conservatives on Twitter about how MLK brought about change. It's been over 40 years since he has walked on this Green Earth and we still talk about him. In fact, I *marvel* over him. I can't wait for that kind of change to make itself apparent again. But, knowing Obama's acceptance speech in Denver, it was ironic in so many ways... and yet, I haven't seen very much leadership from him since.

I also marvel over the fact that America produced so much on the run-up to World War II and rebuilt Europe after the war ended. To listen to some of these talking heads on the television today, they make it seem a whole other country *BESIDES* America had that kind of wealth, power and courage to do that sort of thing. But I know what makes (made?) America great. It's the same thing that makes Nature or the net neutrality idea so great.

Anyway, I know I'm diverging from the topic... again! SORRY! I just loved the fact that Avatar is so awesome and enlightening. I'm sure that thousands and thousands of years ago, mankind was *SO* in tune with Earth and community, like the inhabitants of Pandora were depicted in the movie, to their own planet and to themselves. Nevertheless, it's just a visual treat to witness such a widespread and direct linage to something... "more tangible" than anything offered on Earth... for many hundreds of years ago? It makes me sad, I wonder just what was lost in that time, through the ages. Kinda makes me want to move to the Amazon, now, and look for a tribe that still remains.

Wow. I've got so much on my mind. I'm sorry that it's like when I go to open a bottle of Pepsi that has been shaken up, it creates a mess... here, again. I hope what I've written here doesn't make anyone upset... but I do want to talk about this with people, like, in person. Hopefully. I'm still amazed that there's nobody else "officially" from Olympia that is excited about Avatar like I am... given how enlightening this all is.

[Kaiatéya]

No, I think it's cool. And as some might consider this sort of thing off-topic, I dunno, we met each other in person through this thread so it seems somewhat appropriate to converse here.

Anyway, I had some similar, if less deep thoughts about the subject of why Avatar is deeply touching over here and here on my Na'vi/Avatar blog. It does feel like a wake-up call that it's touched so many people on such a deep level, sometimes even beyond their understanding of why. It's full of archetypes that we long for more and more as we get farther away from our world and real reality, and more and more into the false reality of concrete forests and instant always-there food and instant global communications and miraculous medicine. I rely on that stuff too but I think we lose something by forgetting where we came from. Can most people really imagine what life would be like if all that infrastructure collapsed suddenly?

Today I've been working to save a dying plant, and it put me in the mind of all this stuff too. It was one of these "gift plants" that my SO bought basically to rescue them from the store, ones that I don't think they particularly plan on surviving anyway. It started drying from the bottom up, like its (now-dead) sibling so I figured I'd bring it up to work where there's more sunlight and some plant fertilizer. On the way in, I was under an umbrella with it, but it asked to feel the drizzly rain one more time. So I held it out while I walked. Sad. I repotted it today and got my hands all squishy in the mud in the process. It feels good to exit the antiseptic environment of modern living sometimes and reconnect with what's real around us.

Anyway... Back to the thread.

Walking around Portland can be fun in a couple of different areas, though more pleasant when it's not typical PNW overcast and rainy. Anyone in the Portland area on this thread still, and want to meet up? I can go PM the people on the meet-a-friend thread who mentioned wanting to meet up.

[Tsawla Eltu Tsamsiyu]

I will be in Portland this weekend (Saturday), but sadly enough I won't be able to make it to any meet-ups this weekend. Sorry, People.

[Kaiatéya]

Heh, doh! And I have an [l]I[e]MAX viewing tentatively scheduled for tomorrow morning...

[Sanmäkx]

an [l]I[e]MAX viewing

<flails> Tsayvrrtep fratsenge lu kxanì frakrr!

[kharul_karyu]

I have to agree with much you wrote, Kaiatéya.

When you brought up archetypes, I just knew I had to comment on this. Archetypes are the way stories are more or less told. People can poo-poo them, but the fact remains that it is one way (or is it the only way?) of looking at a story. I tend to think that the irrational among us dislike Avatar because of a jealousy of looking or realizing the journey of the hero is so simplistic(?) and can bear rewards for the courageous ("Well, of course!").

They try to compare Avatar to Pocahontas, Dances with Wolves or something, but archetypes are a "literary vehicle," as I look at it, and have been since the mid 16th Century. To discredit archetypes is to discredit, well, Shakespeare or the works of Joseph Campbell... and Star Wars, which George Lucas was inspired by Campbell's work. I just think it's funny to try to discredit Avatar on these terms, when it's so well-known in "modern" or "western world" storytelling.

Maybe they don't understand that the hero resides within all of us, to a point... maybe that's what makes them upset, maybe that person longs to be special or unique, a sense of totality of belief? And since everyone and anyone can be a hero, a sidekick, a skeptic, a guardian... (Yeah, I had Dramatica, that storytelling software at one point), maybe they don't feel special. I don't know why there are "Antagonists" to storytelling. I guess everyone needs to have a place, a representation... even us, outside of storytelling.

On collapsing infrastructures, I think that would force some of the people into catatonic shock. Some of them, I'm sure, are unprepared for the system to fail. I hope I'm not one of those. Others, perhaps, have been the types to wave the "don't tread on me" signs and have this "Ronald Reagan" belief that government doesn't work. And when it happens, they won't believe it. They might as well think they are that powerful.

In reality, governments tend to fail every 80 years, at least the strongest ones... on some level. I have a copy of this book, maybe any of you out there should pick it up if you're into history. It's called The Fourth Turning by William Strauss and Neil Howe. Take a look of the changes in history from the link below. You might be surprised. Click around, you might rediscover something that you may had forgotten.

http://www.fourthturning.com/my_html/body_turnings_in_history.html

You'll note there are archetypes there, too, throughout history. Maybe "archetype pessimists" just hate the label they have been given. Anyway, it amazes me that up from the generation before the "War of the Roses" to today, mankind is in constant war with itself. Maybe I won't be able to see the "normalization" of human needs in my lifetime, maybe they will just get worse... but still I'm an optimist. I guess you have to be, anymore, to be the fleeting last of the Generation X'ers? Maybe it's just me, as I am peaceful guy...?

Kaiatéya, as you work with your plants, I can't help but to remember that Jake ran out of the lab as soon as he was first "ported" into the the "Avatar" body. I guess his sense of longing, to squeeze dirt between his toes, was just a "lifelong need" to become in awe of Nature, the same need that I guess we all feel, such as yourself. But to us, it's the amazement of a blossom in this weird winter we are having.

Your blog posts were good, too. I guess maybe just reading Avatar-based material is all that maybe I really needed... and writing about it, too. The first one kind of hit the spot there for seeing what Avatar means to you. You had good points. I guess I'll read it over again and again. *sigh* And the second post, the "Why" made me laugh out loud. As I fall down further through the rabbit hole, eating the red pill of reality (What is the Matrix? )... the "why's" aren't even asked, since I'm surrounded by zombies, I guess. I just wonder now how hard the impact will be felt when the bottom of the rabbit hole is reached.

As far as Portland is concerned, I'm down for anything... if anything ends up happening, that is. The Seattle area seems to be on a break of sorts. Which is fine. In being human, we're all flakes, right?

"Speak for yourself, Kha'rul!"

Oh.