Summer Vacation: Day 8

Okay, now if you look at the date, I'm actually writing/posting this on Sunday. But I'm writing ABOUT yesterday... 'cause by the time I had experienced yesterday, I was too tired to blog about it.

My Saturday started off with a text message from Kelly on my phone! It read "Superman is awesome!" Than means the HE GOT TO SEE SUPERMAN RETURNS!!!

Brian and I have been all geeked-out about SUPERMAN RETURNS for a few months now. (Kinda since we saw X3, actually. X3 was GREAT with the action but didn't pack nearly the emotional punch of the first 2. We figured SUPERMAN RETURNS would... And we were right.)

But I was surprised to get a call from Kelly one night after work to find out that he's all geeked-out about SUPERMAN RETURNS too!!!

We had a long and enthusiastic conversation about the Superman character and what was so great about the first 2 movies and what we had heard/read/seen about the new movie.

So when Brian & I went to see SUPERMAN RETURNS the night before it officially opened, I had to text Kel's phone and tell him what we were doing :) He texted back that he wished he was with us.

And so when my phone beeped at me yesterday and I read Kelly's text, I was ecstatic!!! I KNEW how bad he wanted to se it, and it's hard for him to see big, blockbuster typ movies in L. A. because they're not as much fun by yourself, or with a bunch of other people in the filmmaking biz. (He only just recently saw REVENGE OF THE SITH because he knew it wouldn't be as much fun without us! Poor dude!!! He finally had to buy the dvd and watch it at home. He still hasn't seen the last , MATRIX movie.)

Anyway, I texted Kel back asking if he could call me, and he did and we had a long, very cool conversation about why SUPERMAN RETURNS and Bryan Singer rule!!! (He went with some L. A. friends, but they were watching a different movie. Kelly and Brian and I are able to watch these types of flicks with the eyes of our Inner Child, so to speak. It sounds like his L. A. buddies can only watch flicks with the eyes of Entertainment Industry professionals. At least, that's the impression I got.)

I had just logged into SL when Kelly called, and by the time our conversation was over my SL sweety had come and then left to meet up with some of her friends. So after the call I was pretty bored.

After an hour or 2 of wandering aimlessly around SL, I asked Brian if he wanted to finish up our Grand Trek 1 -- the sailing venture inspired by the trek I described about a week ago. ("Day 5"... Although it took place on "Day 2".).

Thursday we were both online with not much to do, so we looked at the SL map and discovered that 2 of its main "continents" (for lack of a better description) that appear not to be connected actually ARE connected by a single, slim waterway. I had already sailed from my home, with no real destination in mind. When we discovered a path that excited us, he joined in on the voyage and it became a cool family adventure, if you will.

We didn't even make it halfway to our destination on the first leg of our voyage. We came to a stopping point because Brian needed to eat, and then my baby became available to sail with us, so I talked her through out to load her Host Watch and then how to rez vehicles out of it while we waited for Brian to dine. But then this club that she works at announced a Medievil/Fantasy-themed dance event, and my baby LOVES her some Fantasy/Medievil, so we got fdressed up for the event and went dancing. All involved agreed to pick up the second leg of what I had already begun calling The Grand Trek at a later date.

However, my baby was with her friends still and when I asked, Brian was busy doing some research on the Net.

So I pestered my baby in IMs until she felt bad, then realized what a friggin' brat I was being and tried to make her not feel bad. (I'm a real mature sort, aren't I?)

But then a couple hours later, Brian was done with his research and told me he was ready for some sailing!!!

Oh, and while on the first leg of the trek I created a Group in SL called the Mangy Raiders! It's a pirate group. Brian created a flag for us and everything!!! I created it just for such sailing excursions as the one we were about to finish up! See, Brian made these GREAT black sailboats with pirate-flag sails! They sail spectacularly!

Also, Brian loves to utilize the physics of SL to their fullest, so he also created a FLYING pirate ship! That's what he was sailing in. Run out of water? NOT A PROBLEM for Brian's Flying Pirate Ship!

Turns out this feature would be INVALUABLE on this second leg of our trip!

Okay, to give you some sense of scale, here's a pic of me at home.

My home is a treehouse that my SL baby and I share. To further enhance your sense of scale, I'm standing on the deck in this pic and you can see the whole treehouse.


See me there, against the trunk on the deck on the bottom level of the treehouse?

Okay, so here's one more pic of the treehouse...

The blue dot is the treehouse. I don't know if you can see in on such a low resolution of a pic, but it's actually shaped like a little house. So the blue dot denotes where the Grand Trek 1 began on Thursday. And the pink-ish/purpe-lish line tracks the first leg of the voyage.

Some more scale for you. Behind me is the castle that marks our First Leg Endpoint/Second Leg Beginning point.

And the reason I look like Captain Jack Sparrow is because after I created the Mangy Raiders group, if felt only right that we should sail wearing pirate avatars. Brian has a few (including Jack Sparrow) but Captain Jack is the only pirate avatar I possess.

No look back at the map above...

The yellow dot NW of the treehouse is where we were headed. You can see that this is a decent little trek we were embarked upon. Most of it was navigating tight little waterways. And Brian was on the slower computer, so evn though he possessed a flying ship, it was still tricky for him to follow my lead.

For the first leg of the trek Brian was wearing a Long John Silver avatar. But yesterday he was wearing the above pictured guy.

Surly-lookin' fella, huh?

And me...

I just slapped on a Jolly Rogers T-shirt and some blue cammos. Oh, and some Morpheus style shades that I had bought from Brian. (He, of course, offered to just give me a pair, but he was selling them for so cheap I didn't see the necessity.)

There was one point in our journey where the waterways simply didn't connect. In order to get where we wanted to go, we would have to cross land :(

That's where Brian's flying pirate ship came in handy!!!

I simply boarded his vessle, snatched up my own and away we went!

That's me sitting attop his mast. Not the most comfortable location, as his boat is to small to have an actual crow's nest. But hey, it got me across the land without having to resort to car or foot or flying (all of which would have violated the spirit of this trek.)

When we got to the next waterway, I rezed out my boat again and we continued out journey!

These are the other pics I took. Pretty, no?

It was a cool little adventure!!! Sailing in SL is a very Zen-like experience! (Probably like sailing in RL, only I've never had the oportunity to do it.) It gets you out of yourself and gives you something relaxing to keep the "worry" part of your mind busy, but it's not so hectic as to keep you from thoroughly enjoying your surroundings!

And speaking of SURROUNDINGS!!!

This little trek took us through a huge swath of SL!!! We got to see places we'd been before (via teleport) and places we didn't know existed!!!

On the narrow straightaway connecting the 2 continents, there's AN OIL RIG!!! And I didn't explore it, but judging by the minimap I was navigating with, it looks like there is even meters and meters of pipline beneath the water!!! (What they're pumping through a virtual pipeline, I have NO CULE!)

The below map roughly shows the complete trek.

After this journey, I can't imagine what's next for the Mangy Raiders. My baby is a Mangy Raider, and she hasn't gotten to sail with us yet :( So that'll certainly be part of our next outting! (Escpecially since getting her and Brian in the same place at the same time always seems to result in HILARIOUS conversation!!!)

But do we repeat that trek? Is there more water that can be sailed? I'll have to look into it.

In the meantime... It's probably about time I got on with Day 9 of my Summer Vacation!!! ;)