June 11--My Feet (still) hurt

[zyzyly]

Tonight is the end of the two-week Ingress walking challenge. I have already uploaded my statistics and I am done. The challenge was to walk as many Km playing Ingress as you could, in two weeks. I am fortunate that my daily walking circuit at the park is ringed with Ingress portals, so I just knocked out distance every time I walked. It was challenging, though. At the start, Malida and I were making once circuit of the park once or twice a day, and by the end we were making two in the morning and two in the evening. Holy cow--that's six miles a day. We both feel so much better, though, so it is totally worth it.

I ended up with 100 km for the challenge. Not sure how that matches up with the other participants. We are all meeting for breakfast tomorrow, and I will find out. I actually had 99, but went out and walked at 9 pm and got the last km, just because I like things neat.

There was all sorts of stuff going on in the park today. big picnics, lots of bouncy house things, and a big car show of vintage cars. After my second loop. I wandered through to take a look. A lot of the cars are tricked out, but a few are pretty much as they would have been when they were new.



This is a late 50's Bel Air wagon. This is what I drive when I travel back in time to the late 50s in a recurring dream. I park it at the gas station across the creek from my grandfather's house, where, in the dream, I rent the downstairs apartment from him. I had never seen one up close, but have a small scale model of one sitting here next to my computer.

In the early afternoon I met up with some Ingress people for a farming party. A farming party is where you find some portals and adjust them so they give you lots of stuff you need to play the game. I had met a few of the people previously, but most were people I had only seen represented on the phone screen. It was an interesting mix. Mostly men, though there were 3 women, including the one who set it up. Mostly young, but one guy my age, and one older than me. It was fun.

One of the younger guys, who I had already met, was setting up a big layered field. I had offered to help, and was going to throw links from one of the anchors. It was pretty cool, because pretty much everyone participated. I was pretty anxious, though, because I could very easily screw it up.

I drove out to my spot, which was a long way where the other guy was, and out in the middle of nowhere. The road was actually closed due to construction, but I was able to get around that and go to where I was supposed to be.



This was my spot. A portal out in the middle of nowhere. I got there and we communicated by video chat to coordinate our efforts. Every thing is timed out to the minute. I know that if you don't play Ingress, I have lost you here, and I apologize.

I got the word to start throwing links, but was blocked. Someone back in the city cleared the blocks and I was good to go. I started linking to portals miles and miles away, and my counterpart on the other side did the same. We ended up creating a bunch of overlapping fields, that got us (and our team) big points.

At one point there was a critical link I needed to make, and I couldn't. I had the wrong key. I stayed calm and looked through my stuff and found the right key and made the link. It was kind of being like a critical care nurse--needing to be creative under pressure. It was pretty awesome.



That big green thing is what we created. I was out at the northeastern point, up by the + sign. The long straight line represents 68 km. It is small, compared to some other fields, but it was the first time I had worked in a team to create a field, and it felt great.

Comments

[katbyte.livejournal.com]

That Bel Air is either a 55 or 56. No later (or earlier) I could tell you exactly if I could see the tail lights. If it had the bullet type lights, it is a 56. If it has the solid lights, it is a 55. Since I am old and drove the families 54 Bel Air and liked cars when I was younger, I know some of the older cars. Ingress is nothing I understand. I have tried to find out, but I don't get it, I guess.

[annie-r.livejournal.com]

Is it a little unsettling when you see something from a recurring dream in waking life?

[neptunia67.livejournal.com]

That's really cool (The Ingress field). I don't understand everything you're saying but enough to get the host of what you do in the game.

Six miles is a long way to walk!!

I love that you have a model car and it turns into a real car in your dreams.

[thoughtsbykat.livejournal.com]

Good job on your challenge. Plus 100 km is nothing to sneeze at. I'm glad that you are enjoying the game of Ingress.

[gracegiver]

oh man - we were the throwers in the Big Field that Never Happened tonight. We both made platinum Illuminator anywya, hoping for Onyx, but some strange blockers came out of no where at the last minutes so we couldn't complete the planned 20 layered field.

And look at me! Still up past midnight! Adrenalin.

[blistermoth.livejournal.com]

I'm kinda intrigued by this game. Do I just download the app to get started?

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

I was watching that take shape and saw your names at the Suisun end of it. Too bad the rest of the fields didn't work.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

Ya--I can send you an invite if you like.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

I probably could have read the info thing on the windshield and found out, but I just loved the look of the car.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

Nah--it was really cool. I love this recurring dream.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

I actually dreamed about the car before I bought the scale model. Kind of interesting--I have no idea where the dream car came from--oh wait! I remember now. My babysitter had one when I was a little kid! Oh wow!

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

they extended the challenge by 2 days and I managed to get another 20 km, in, so I was happy.

[neptunia67.livejournal.com]

Cool!

[katbyte.livejournal.com]

55 and 57 were the favorites of that era. Totally different from the before and after cars. My brother had a 55 Sedan I think but in the early 60s.