May 25--Late For The Sky

[zyzyly]

I had a phone conference with my doctoral advisor this morning. She is just back from two weeks in Spain. There was a whole bunch of stuff I needed to get done while she was gone, but because of the mess at work I couldn't get to all of it. I told her that, and that I did what I could. I was prepared for the worst.

She was very cool about it, and told me I am right where I need to be at the moment. Which is kind of a surprise because most of last semester she was telling me I was behind, and that I needed to be caught up by summer. This is doctoral school in a nutshell.

I had to turn in a draft proposal for my project earlier this week. It was kind of long--20+ pages, thought the final product will be in excess of 80 pages. I went out and bought a heavy-duty stapler yesterday. This was the other part of our conversation. She made some suggestions for how to tighten it up, but otherwise liked it. She complimented me on my academic writing skills, and mentioned that it was refreshing to read something that made sense, where she could focus on the content rather than the mechanics.

So it was a good conversation. There is a bunch of stuff I need to do in the next two weeks before our next conference, but at least I have time to do it. It's starting to come together.

I went out after the conference and played Ingress for a while. Other than the person who recruited me, I have never met any other players. Until today, when I met three of them.

The first was a somewhat hapless young guy from the other faction who was trying to capture one of my portals in the park while I was nearby. I let him capture it, as I watched him, then took it back. I walked over to him and introduced myself. He was somewhat reluctant to talk, but I had already sat down next to him, so started talking about the game.

He has managed to get to level 7 without interacting with anyone. I'm the first person he has talked to, and I am on the other side. I gave him some suggestions for being more successful in the game, and told him about the intel map. I showed him how to deploy resonators more effectively on captured portals. I am guessing you aren't really supposed to help the opposing side, but I felt bad for this guy. And I went back and recaptured most of the portals later. I left him a few so he wouldn't feel bad.

Shortly thereafter someone from my side sent me a message and we met in the park. I knew who he was, but he was really the first person I had met playing. We talked for a while and he gave me a bunch of gear that I can use to play.

I went out and tried to capture some blue portals and make a field. One of the people from the other side sent me a message and asked if I was now the lackey of the guy who gave me the gear. Word gets around, apparently.

Anyway, I was at the last place I needed to make the field, and was looking at my screen. I looked up and a woman was standing a few feet away, with her phone out. I looked back at my screen and watched my portal get destroyed. It was her!

I said "hey" and she laughed. We introduced ourselves. She and her husband are the ones who I always run up against down south of where I live. My southern nemeses. We talked for a while and she told me they considers the guy who gave me gear an asshole. It was an interesting conversation. People add a whole other dimension to this game.

I edited some wedding pictures this evening that I took a while ago for some friends. They haven't really asked about them, so I kind of put it off until this week when they did ask about them, more than a year later. I'll see them tomorrow and give the pics to them. Don't ever hire me as a free wedding photographer. Anyway, they turned out great.

They didn't have a cake, but did have a toast with shots of tequila, which I thought was pretty cool, and provides my image for the day.

Comments

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Sounds like fun even if you were giving aid and comfort to the enemy. I hope the Summer proves not only fun but also immensely paper-writing-friendly.

[thoughtsbykat.livejournal.com]

I think it's cool that you met other players of Ingress and you helped someone from the other side.


Mmmm, tequila shots. it's been a long time since I've had some.

Glad that you are right on track in your doctoral program.

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[bardcat.livejournal.com]

Your luscious photo makes me thirsty and it is not yet ten o'clock in the morning.

[manintheboat.livejournal.com]

I play more often with the other side than my own side. You get more points that way.

There's jerks in both parties.

[kishenehn.livejournal.com]

The friend who got me into Ingress is someone I've known in person for many years, and every few days we'll do a dog-walk together where we'll hack some portals and catch up on the latest Ingress news. Beyond that, I interact in person with other Ingress folks only sporadically. I don't really bond with them much, but it's pretty interesting and fun to be able to attach faces and voices to the names you see on the Intel map. And doing a big joint op every once in a while is pretty exhilarating. :)

And of course it's not possible to look at such things with a completely unbiased eye, but honestly most of the ingress jerks I've encountered have been playing for the other team. (Blue seems to attract lots of cranky Republicans, for some reason.) I imagine some of those folks would say the opposite, though ...

[gracegiver]

I SO love that Jackson Browne song. I remember lying on the floor with tears in my eyes listening to those words and his voice, over and over again.

I enjoy reading your ingress reports. We will plan an adventure together soon with big nested fields in South Sac. I think the Green Team is curious about you and looking forward to your participation in that neck of the woods. I think there's a hangout too, just for your neighborhood.

We did car-gressing last Sunday morning, my first time. Three cars and 12 people. We drove up and down J and K streets dropping L8 resos on all the portals, and it's dense down there. Within 15 minutes we covered that part of town with green 8s. It was fun and profitable. And I met a couple older than us!!! I always thought I was the oldest player.

Oh, and as far as helping the other team? ABSOLUTELY! It's one of the gifts I find with our team - generous and easy going with full recognition of "it's just a GAME for crying out loud!"

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

After about a week of relaxing and recharging, I feel pretty good and am about ready to tackle all the things I want and need to do this summer. I will observe the holiday tomorrow and dive in Tuesday.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

It's ben since the wedding that I have tasted tequila. The tequila pictured was very good quality, though and I remember it fondly.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

It does look refreshing, doesn't it?

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

Ya, I figured that out. I do like most of the people I have met so far, but I think I will continue to mostly follow my own path.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

The biggest thrill for me was to see this guy playing, and know what he was doing. It gave me some perspective of what I must look like standing in the middle of a field, staring at my phone.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

Jackson Browne can do that to you, for sure.

I was added to the Elk Grove hangout, so am getting to see what people are talking about.

I finally figured out I don't need to hack every portal I come across, and am looking more for higher level portals so I get higher level gear. I found a couple of little parks today with all level 7 and 8 portals. All unlinked, too. I guess so they don't show up on the map as easily. I learn something new every day!

[kishenehn.livejournal.com]

At any given moment, there are certainly millions of people staring at their phone out in public ... but the interesting thing is that after a while, it's pretty easy to pick out the little subset of that group that's actually playing Ingress.