In my post before this one, I was exalting the benefits in our virtual lives, of saying “Yes” over “No”. Chapters begin, that we may never have even dreamed about, and new  friendships blossom. In yesterday’s post, I chose Hypatia Pickens as someone I had admired for a long time, and that the opportunity for a friendship came about from saying yes and joining the Machinima Artist Guild” ( See: Just Say”Yes!”) All our experiences and all our choices, definitely move us down the Game-board of Life in a slightly altered way. I know I sound a bit glib, if I don’t live Second Life as a game I certainly don’t live real life as one,  but looking back, we can see the moves that made a difference.. We just can.
Natascha Randt is a moderator on M.A.G. She knows what is good and she knows what she likes..she minces no words. I, to be honest, was afraid of her, as I knew my machinimas were very much below the quality of most I was seeing, being upped daily. She already had made it clear that there had to be a very good reason to watch one over the length of 3 minutes, and most of the ones I was sharing were 4-6mins. I cringed waiting for her review. So that is how we met, but if  it’s true she is blunt honest and critical, when needed, she is fair and  she knows what she is talking about so we listen. If she says she likes something, we know that is blunt honest too. She has 237 videos, I am sure all by her, on her YouTube channel, and many of them were produced to  give instruction to those of us(most of us) who can really use that kind of information. How to make a mirror that reflects on the  screen was a fascinating one, as we know mirrors in SL do not reflect, and lots and lots of plane videos, showing them off and what they can do, and how to film them doing it.

Natascha (Nat) loves anything that flies

Natascha (Nat) loves anything that flies in the air, that can lift off a runway, and she is an adept pilot as well. I have always had a love/ fear relationship with aircraft. To this day I have never set foot in a helicopter, and only the necessity of multiple trans-atlantic crossings, could get me on a passenger plane, but they fascinate me, and here we can try what we would not try in real life, so when I asked  Nat if I could co-pilot someday, she said sure and offered a jet, a helicopter, and a  DHC-2 Beaver( lands on water) and I said “Yes” to all three. We took the Jet first..

and we taxied for take-off..

We flew to the East the jets sounds (very realistic) booming in our ears

Heading towards the sunrise

We flew to the West, and I was starting to feel braver, and less white knuckley.They actually had a bit of color flowing back into them, when bam! we shot straight up

Nat put us into a stall as we hit the sim wall.. oiy oiy oiy...

And that is the last I remember of my jet ride, as I was ejected into the atmosphere.
The sun was in a ball, and I was trying to hold a crash position, and Nat was flying away without me. I blacked out…but when I came to…we were miraculously landing. Huhh??? I thought.

Nat was taking it slow into the hangar.."What a pilot!" I thought.

We landed..a perfect touch down. Nat was taking it slow into the hangar..”What a pilot!” I whispered to no one.

So before I could even think, She said, "you want to ride my Sea Wolf?"

So before I could even think, She said, “You want to ride my AirWolf?”
“Yes!” I said, because I didn’t know what it was. Well it turned out to be  a fatal helicopter, that I was destined to be just one more fatality on.

Take off was smooth, Nat handled this "bird" very well

Take off was smooth, Nat handled this “bird” very well, but even with her expertise, sim borders loom up like invisible Alps, and not a pilot in the world can navigate through them. It was my second ejection of the day, and I took to remembering I hadn’t been in so many aerial accidents since the days when  I used to fly with DOUGIE Flossberg!
(“Come Josephine in my Flying Machine”)
This time Nat was sucked out too!

Makes you wonder who was piloting...

Makes you wonder who was piloting… and then I found myself tip toeing over a submarine, (was it a dream?) and we were strapping ourselves into the seats of her DHC-2 Beaver, about to make a big water take off. So far we had survived more than we should have, but luck does run out when you least expect it.

I had no fear of take-offs, and over water seemed somehow "safer"

I had no fear of take-offs, and over water seemed somehow “safer” Wrong….

Wow! This was so Wrong,,. i mean I saw the movie that Nat made

Wow! This was so Wrong… I mean I saw the movie that Nat made. This part did not come in the beginning!! not on take-off!! Let’s do a replay of that….

So, I ended up on the bottom of the sea. When Nat shouted down if I wanted to do it again, a little voice whispered in my head, “I think your No button is stuck on Yes. Why don’t you just say “NO!” and that is what I did…putting a thank-you on at the end of course.
“No thank you”

"But Nat...Thank you!!"

” But Nat”..big wave..”Thank you!”

Here is Nat’ s YouTube Channel.Lots of interesting, instructional, beautiful, “tests, videos, piano playing. It’ s all good.Check it out. 192 subscribers can’t be wrong.
  NRandt YouTube Channel

* Footnote the quote “your No button is stuck on Yes…?” I stole it from Emile Stratten:)