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    task of the month

    task of the month dreams

    1. [LUCID] Going to a wedding / Tasks of the Month / Foiled flying

      by , 12-29-2016 at 07:31 PM
      Bed @ 2145
      Woke @ 0215; BTB @ 0230, couldn't sleep; BTB @ 0520
      Woke @ 0640


      Going to a wedding
      I'm at Bob W's house. I pull up YNAB on my phone to check something, and he sees it and asks me about it, appreciating that I'm taking good steps to take care of my finances. Now we're getting ready to leave to go to a wedding, and I'm still in my grubby clothes. I'm not sure where my good clothes are, but I think they're waiting for me where the wedding is being held. Now I'm in the house by myself; I know that everyone else has already loaded up in Bob's van and they're waiting for me. I have a moment of doubt about whether we'll all fit, but I assume he knows what he's doing and that we'll be fine.

      Now I'm sitting by myself in a vehicle. I look around and realize I'm not in a minivan. I get out and see that I was in a large station wagon. I walk out of their garage onto their driveway, and I see a huge double-decker tour bus, and I know they're waiting for me. I get on board. To my left, a narrow stairway goes up to the upper deck. Another passage leads off to my right to the driver, and I can only see one chair - a nice big padded one - in front of me. Now we're driving down his driveway, and the driver makes some comment about having shifted too many gears too soon, and that he can't shift back, so it'll be a tough merge into traffic on the main road.

      Now we've arrived and are in the room where the wedding will be held. It's a small room with lots of dark wood; very attractive, but I'm concerned that there are only three chairs plus a lectern. I look around the room again and realize that it's actually a hallway; there are many closed doors going this way and that. A woman - the wedding organizer - says that a couple more chairs are on their way, but I know that's just not enough - it won't even be enough for our small party, let alone for all the other guests. Looking through a window, I notice that one of the doors leads out onto a balcony.

      Now I'm standing on the balcony with Blake, looking down at a steep beach. A huge wave crashes over the beach, going way up the sand, eventually cresting the top and going down the far side. I can see a large bag get washed over, and I know that there's a path down there - though I can't see it - that's about to get washed over.

      Tasks of the Month
      I'm in a house, and I realize that I'm dreaming. I start to move slowly and carefully, then I remember that I always do that in my lucids and force myself to walk normally while making it a priority to remember that I'm dreaming. I try to remember what my goals are and remember that the first TOTM is to find a missed present. I try to visualize what a Christmas tree with a single present under it would look like, then turn around, expecting to find it. Instead, I find a whole bunch of small, sparse, undecorated trees. I don't see any presents, but I walk over and look under them. I see something small near the wall, so I crawl under the trees to get it. It's a huge pouch of Fruit by the Foot. I tear it open, curious as to what I'll find inside, and I'm almost surprised that it actually has Fruit by the Foot in it. I pull the roll out and see that it's not well rolled, and it's somehow really gooey. I unroll a bit and try a bite. Because it's so gooey, I end up getting a bit of the paper in my mouth, but I decide that, since I'm dreaming, the paper won't be a problem, and I can't even feel it. It tastes just like the real thing. I get some on my fingers, and I have trouble getting it off.

      Now that I've completed the first task, I try to recall another one, and I remember the pencil task. I start to form an image of a table with a piece of paper and a pencil; then I notice that there's already a table in front of me, covered with arts supplies, with someone sitting at while drawing. I'm already fixated on the idea of summoning a table and completely ignore the one in front of me. Once I have the image in my mind, I turn around to find a table exactly as I'd pictured it. Walking up to it, I mentally command the pencil to draw something. It rises to a 45 degree angle and starts to scribble all over the paper. Some areas are densely colored in with jagged strokes, and other areas have wide, flowing curves. Oddly, the pencil is drawing in blue. The paper was already half-covered in some kind of picture, and the existing design is quickly hidden by the scribbles.

      Now that I've completed both tasks, I try to think of something else to do, and I decide to summon Jadzia Dax (I have absolutely no idea where this idea came from - I haven't watched DS9 in years). I think of what she looks like and turn around, but no one is there. I start wandering the house looking for her. I see a couple of people and ignore them, then finally find someone who kind of looks like her, even if she is wearing a dress. As soon as I start walking towards her, she changes into a grizzled man with a buzz cut. I try to change him back, but it doesn't work, and the dream fades.


      BTB @ 0650.
      Woke @ 0810


      Foiled flying
      I'm in a house looking at a post from Heather. A picture shows two of her boys playing with a strange toy: one of them is holding something in his mouth, and the other is pulling on a long elasticated cable attached to the mouthpiece. I can't imagine what this thing is supposed to do and how they can play with it without one of them getting hurt; either the one with the mouthpiece gets a face full of elastic or the other one ends up with a hard mouthpiece flying at him. The caption of the picture says something about home-made gifts often being the best ones.

      Now I'm working on Poppy's table with Bob H. The table has been pulled apart in the middle, and he's trying to put the leaves (3 of them, each 6 inches wide) back in. He's having trouble, trying to put them in the wrong way, and I really want to tell him that I'll take care of it, but I don't so I don't offend him. Eventually he puts an extension in the tip of the table (since when has this table had extensions?). I try to look at it without being obvious to see if the grain of the wood matches - I don't think he got it right. Thankfully, he announces that he needs to leave and asks me to finish up and then put the table away somewhere safe (it's currently off to the side of the living room just to get it out of the way).

      Now he's gone, and I realize I'm dreaming. Vividness is poor but not bad. I rub my hands, but it doesn't really do much. Nearby, I see my dog and cat lying down in front of the fireplace, and the dog is licking the cat. I praise him for being a good dog, walk over, and pet the cat. Her fur is warm and soft, and the dream grows more vivid. I try to focus on more of my senses to see what else I can pick up. I can't smell anything, and there's nothing to taste, but I can hear her purr. I stand up and decide that this time I'm going to practice flying.

      I walk down a hallway and turn left towards the front door. I open it and pass through and am disappointed to find myself in the garage. I decide there's no need to wait until I'm outside to fly and jump into the air then zoom towards the open garage door. Unfortunately, there's chain-link fence covering the doorway. I steel myself to pass through it, knowing that I've flown through things before; but as I'm about to hit, I have a moment of doubt, and I get caught my it. I manage to force myself through, but I'm disappointed to find myself in another indoor area. I scold myself for failing to properly imagine what I should find. Looking around, I see that there's a section of the ceiling that seems to be open, and I fly towards it. As I get closer, I see that it's also covered by chain-link, but at least I can see sky beyond it. Once again, I get caught by the fence, and I end up waking up.
    2. [LUCID] High-rise hotel

      by , 12-20-2016 at 08:07 PM
      Bed @ 2230
      Woke @ 0520


      High-rise hotel
      I'm in a high-rise hotel room, wearing my bath robe, moving around quietly so I don't wake my wife. Something strikes me as "off" and I realize I'm dreaming. I look around, marveling at how good everything looks. I remember I'd intended to rub my hands together to stabilize, but I decide to just run my hand along the wall instead. I remind myself that this is a dream and that everything I see and touch is a creation of my own mind (but it doesn't really affect me). My wife gets up, and I worry that means that my real-world wife is going to wake me up. I try to about how to use the dream, but my wife is telling me about some problems she's had with our email lists, and I don't want to ignore her in case I'm wrong about this being a dream. I half-heartedly answer her while trying to think how I can prove to myself whether this is a dream or not (doing a nose-pinch never even crosses my mind). Eventually, I decide that, yes, this really is a dream, and I need to get to it.

      As I'm trying to decide how to use the dream, I remember that the current task of the month is to find a buffet. I picture a table full of food in a hallway, open the door, and go out. I do end up in a hallway, but there's no food. The hallway dead-ends to my right at another picture window, so I follow it around a corner to my left. I see an open doorway to my left and a stairwell (going down) to my right. I marvel that this place looks exactly like it does in real life (which it doesn't - this place doesn't exist). I look through the doorway and find only a small room. Turning around, I see that there's now a plastic card table (white) set up between a new doorway and the stair railing. Some of my kids are arranging bags of candy on it. It's not quite the buffet I'd been planning on, but it's still a table full of food, so I think it's close enough. I remember I'd had an additional goal of eating something, so I walk over to see what's there. I see some large bags of peanut butter M&Ms, but they're not open yet, and I don't want to open them myself. To their left is a large bag of small assorted candies, and it's already open. I reach in and pull out what I believe to be a small Snickers. My eldest daughter laughs at me for my choice and makes a comment. I rip it open and am surprised that it has a small heart covered in red foil. I'm amused - even though it's Christmas time, the table is full of Halloween candy, and now I have a Valentines chocolate? Somehow I know it's dark chocolate, so I don't mind the weirdness. As I'm unwrapping it,
      I wake up (for real).

      Points: 27

      Updated 12-20-2016 at 08:36 PM by 28190

      Categories
      lucid , task of the month
    3. [LUCID] Strange meeting / Steam controller / A skilled player / Mad scientists / Vacation / Kids

      by , 10-27-2016 at 03:04 PM
      Bed @ 2245
      Woke @ 0120.
      Attempted BTB @ 0145 /w MILD & SSILD
      Meditated, got up, went back to bed, got up, had a drink, listened to a book, back to bed, etc. Fell asleep past 4.
      Woke @ 0440


      Meeting with my boss
      I'm in my (old)boss's office for my every-other-weekly meeting. She's finishing something up and has a few papers on her desk. They're up-side-down, but I can see long lines of highlighter on them. I have a brief thought that maybe it's paperwork for a raise, but I squash that - I got one recently from "my other boss." I have a moment of confusion, since I just had a one-on-one with "my other boss," but "remember" that he's actually her boss and I meet with both of them. She's listening to some really weird music that's making it hard to think, and I hope she'll turn it off. I see her move what looks like an ipod, but I have the odd feeling that the music isn't actually coming from it. She starts saying something about duct tape, how tempting it is, how it needs to be controlled, and I'm really confused. I think I must have missed her opening sentence and that, if I'd caught it, then everything would make sense.

      She keeps going about the duct tape, and I suddenly I realize that none of this makes sense and that I must be dreaming. I do a confirmation nose-pinch and am able to breathe. I have almost no "did I do it right?" hesitation and am extremely confident that this is a dream, and I have no qualms about doing weird stuff in "my boss' office." I stand up and walk over to the wall trying to decide what to do - I consider trying to phase through it, but I know that that's a good way to get somewhere totally random, and I don't want to lose lucidity in the transition. As I'm considering, I notice that my head is closer to the ceiling than it should be. I decide to see if I can grow further, and I do - I actually get my head within a hair's-breadth of the ceiling. Everything in the room looks a bit smaller, a bit further away. I remember a task of the month, to reach into my pockets and pull out whatever's there. I do so and find only my usual setup: my right pocket has my keys and Swiss Army knife, and my left pocket is empty.

      Now I recall my 3-step goal. I've done steps 1 and 2 in a previous dream, and I kick myself for not posting a new step 3 - I've never successfully banished something from a dream, and I'd intended to update it to something simpler. Oh well, I'll give it a shot. I look around for a good candidate and see some baby toys on my boss's desk, including a small blue tower filled with marble-sized balls and a couple of plastic keyrings. I decide to banish one of the keyrings. I turn around, concentrate hard on making it disappear, then turn back. They're still there, though I have the feeling the contents of the desk shifted slightly. I decide that trying to remove something when there are two of them is a bad idea. I decide to do the little tower instead, but I don't want clutter around it in case that makes it harder. I walk over and rearrange things, moving the tower to the center of her desk and leaving a large space around it. I face the wall, focus on making the tower disappear, and turn back. It's now a tiny fraction of its original size, but it's still there. I decide that if doing the behind-the-back trick won't work. I'll just forcibly will it out of existence. I stare at it, willing it to vanish, and it starts vibrating madly;
      then I wake up. I check for an FA, but I'm back in reality.


      BTB @ 0445
      Woke @ 0630 /w alarm


      Fiddling with a Steam Controller
      I've just received my new Steam Controller and I'm showing it off to my kids. I'd heard it was large, but it's much larger than I expected. I'm also a bit disappointed by its appearance: in photos, it was always a dark shiny black, but it's actually a kind of matte light gray. I take note of each of the inputs, noting that something right in the middle also seems off, though I can't put my finger on what's not right. To the left is the fake D-pad - I try it out, and it feels like a normal D-pad. I look again, and it's not circular but is actually D-pad shaped, and that confuses me. Right in the middle of the pad is a tiny clickable Steam button. There's a circular pad on the right and another one in the lower-right, partly on the grip. A trigger button just to the right of the D-pad surprises me - I have no idea how you could press it without really contorting your hand. Triggers are all over the back, both on the main body and on the grips. Now the D-pad has changed, and it's a large layout of tiny red thumbsticks laid out in a three-tiered pattern: the outer tier has them in up/down/left/right positions, the middle tier has them for diagonal movement, and the inner tier is back to up/down/left/right. I note something in the software controls which allows each thumbstick to function independently, or you can lock each one to send only the direction corresponding to its position (so the left stick could only send 'left,' no matter which way it was being pushed). So far, I haven't actually plugged the controller into my computer, but I do so now so that I can finish its configuration and give it a shot in a game.


      Watching a skilled player
      I'm watching someone playing a game. Right now, he's in some kind of top down view of what I assume to be the game's galaxy, showing many planets, solar systems, and other astral objects. His ship is just a tiny dot currently orbiting a planet. Now he's received a mission to deliver something quickly to another planet which is on the other side of the galaxy, and I'm curious to see how he'll manage it, whether he'll try to use any kind of subspace gate or some-such or whether he'll just fly there without using any shortcuts. There's a lot of movement of the planets and systems, and he brilliantly uses gravity assist after gravity assist to fling himself to the other side of the map faster than I ever thought possible.

      Now the game has switched to 2D side-scrolling action. He's not strong enough to fight the enemies here, so he's just running to the right, jumping over enemies as he encounters them, never stopping his movement. Now he's reached the end of the level, and he's got quite the crowd of enemies following him. There's only one enemy left between him and his goal, and it instantly kills him. He's a bit disappointed, but he's not really concerned, saying he'll get it next time.


      Mad scientists
      I'm watching a scientist in a lab. He's recently been exposed to a mutagen and needs to focus to keep his body from 'pooling' - but despite his constant attention, his gut is still very distended. Now he's overheard a junior scientist talking about revealing what's going on to their superiors - who have been kept in the dark - so the scientist manages to expose him to the mutagen. His skin ends up turning red and bumpy all over, and another scientist starts to permanently close his mouth by fusing another mutagen-infected <something> onto his face. I'm horrified, but thankfully another scientist convinces him to pull it off before it's too late.


      Another vacation
      I'm strolling through a beach town with my family and in-laws.

      Now we're at the vacation house. My father-in-law needs some kind of charger. I run through the list of what I have, and he says he's already got the right cable, so he just needs my charger with the standard female USB port.

      Now we're watching video provided by our management company showing a family touring the duplex we have up for rent. I can't believe how much stuff is left over from the previous renters - we're going to have to get over there and deal with it ASAP. In particular, the living room is full of baby toys and baby furniture. Now I'm looking at an application from a lady who'd like to move in. It says that she's requesting assistance to pay the rent - I've never seen anything like that before, and I show it to my wife. Looking more closely, we see that she's requesting a 3rd party source to pay $90 of her monthly rent. As we continue to look at it, we realize that the listed monthly rent is wrong; it's currently listed at $600 which is way too low. I can't remember exactly what it should be, but I think it's somewhere in the $700 range. In fact, the management company controls the rent and recently bumped it up due to market conditions. I'm going to have to contact them to find out what's going on. I'm frustrated that we can't probably change it for people who have already put in applications, but they really need to fix it immediately before any more applications come in.


      Watching kids
      I'm helping watch some kids who are all fairly young; I don't know any of them. One of them in particular is poorly behaved and doesn't want to go to bed. We end up doing something weird with sofa cushions and his crib to make a bed that he's willing to sleep in, and we're very relieved when it actually works. Some of his siblings are in the same bedroom as he is, so it's important for him to sleep so that they can sleep too.
    4. [LUCID] Leaky ceiling / Missed meeting / Contaminated food / Lucid in the lab

      by , 12-20-2015 at 09:32 PM
      Bed @ 2230
      Woke @ 0540


      Leaky ceiling
      I'm in my master bathroom relieving myself. As I start, I notice that there's a drop of water on the ceiling. This concerns me, but I figure that maybe there's an explanation that's not terrible, though I'm not hopeful. My first guess as to a cause is that something is wrong with the weather sealing around the window. I'm surprised by how full my bladder is, and as I keep going, I notice more and more wet drops hanging on the ceiling. They seem to be popping up constantly. By the time I'm finished, the entire ceiling is covered with large droplets of water. I'm saying something like "no no no no no" and call out to my wife "Honey, we've got a problem!!!" As I continue trying to find out what's going on, I notice a place where the ceiling changes levels. Inside, I see some small pipes and immediately jump to the conclusion that they're the source of the problem.

      Missed meeting
      I'm sitting at my computer in my office. I realize it's eleven thirty and that I didn't dial into the daily meeting earlier; but then I look at my daily calendar and see that it's been moved to five PM. I hate it when my team lead does that; the new time is after I'm done for the day! Now I'm on the phone with someone. Now I'm closing browser tabs, trying to get things organized again. I'm really confused by the contents of the tabs - there's lots of gaming stuff. I keep closing them and finally notice a stylized blue E at the corner of the window. Oh, of course, I'm in Windows, which I only boot up for gaming. When did I boot Windows?

      Contaminated food
      I'm at a party with some people I know. Everyone else has food, but I don't. Now I'm in the kitchen to see what's available, but all I see is a half a rolled-up something on a cutting board near the sink. I try to nonchalantly look around to see if there's a plate I can grab to get some, but I don't see anything. Suddenly, weird stuff starts happening. Little statuettes start exploding and everyone starts behaving very very oddly. I realize their behavior has something to do with the food and am thankful I didn't have any. Somehow I manage to talk to some of them and snap them out of it. Now I'm listening to a group of them talk afterwards (mostly older women I don't know, though Jen is also in the group). Someone is saying that the stuff in the food is pretty nasty, that even touching it will let it enter your DNA and make changes to your aging process, and that it affects women more than it does men.


      Lucid in the lab
      I'm watching the opening credits for a TV show which takes place in some kind of laboratory. In the footage, a lot of shining stainless steel and a variety of fancy-looking instruments are pretty constantly in the frame. Now the credits are showing a character who's young, strong, and not quite all there. He's used for simple manual labor, moving stuff from one place to another; but really he's used for comedy relief, always banging into things and messing up the other characters. Sure enough, he comes through a door pulling a giant metal cylinder that's much bigger than he is, acting as if it's nothing, but as he makes the turn he swivels it into another character who gets stuck between it and the wall. I recognize this guy from something he did much later - I hadn't realized this is where he got his start. Now I see another guy in what looks like a glass elevator, but he's rotating slowly around. When his capsule lines up with the door he has a brief moment to connect something, but he keeps missing his opportunity and having to wait until it spins around again.

      Now I'm walking along a hallway in the building. Strangely, many pieces of equipment have handwritten signs on them with very strange, humorous (to someone) instructions written on them.

      Now I'm walking down another hallway with a group of people. Over the PA, someone announces that they're going to drop meat on our heads. What kind of lab is this? What kind of experiment is this? The ceiling starts to open up, and something starts to fall out. People start screaming and running for the far end of the hall, but balloons are already falling out of the ceiling. Balloons? Strangely, they pop the moment they touch anything. At first, I'm relieved they weren't really dropping meat on us, but then I look behind me and see that the balloons did actually have stuff in them, and that the floor is now littered with unidentifiable bits of red chunks and red stringy stuff. Ewww.

      Now we've entered an area with some other people. A woman dressed only in white bra and panties starts swaying her way towards my group. I don't make eye contact and try not to stand out, hoping she'll ignore me. She ends up fixating on the guy right in front of me and starts making out with him. Somehow she ends up sitting on my chest (she's very soft) while she's kissing him. I'm repulsed and try to think of a way out of this when I realize I'm dreaming. I shout out "This is a dream!" and wonder if any of the DCs will try to argue with me, but they just ignore me.

      Now I'm standing again, and I'm by myself. The dream is rather dull, and I know I need more vividness. First, I look at my hand. It's got four fingers and a thumb, but all my fingers are too long, and the thumb is pointing almost straight downwards. Colors are better now. Now I start to go through my memorized list. First, to help activate the logical side of my brain, I calculate the first few numbers of the Fibonacci sequence. Getting to 13 is easy, but the jump to 21 takes some effort, and I stop there, not wanting to focus too much and lose the dream. Next up, I try to activate my creative side by singing Mary Had A Little Lamb. I manage to sing one verse, though it somehow gets muddled together with B.I.N.G.O. I know it's wrong, but I don't care - I sang something and that's good enough. Now, onto the real tasks. I know I need DCs for both basic tasks, but I haven't seen anyone since right after getting lucid, so I'm a bit worried that I won't be able to find anyone. I turn around (I'd been facing the hallway) and find that I'm now in some kind of cafeteria area. Tables are scattered around haphazardly along with large ornate pillars, and lots of people are milling around.

      The closest person to me is a really cute, impeccably dressed (sweater vest, long sleeved shirt, slacks) little black kid. I ask him what a good task of the month would be. He very clearly enunciates something, but it's not a task. I go to a nearby woman and ask her, and she also says something that's not a task. I round one of the pillars and talk to an older man, and he says something that, again, is not a task. Oh well.

      I move onto the second basic task: I throw back my head and do my best mad scientist laugh (Mwa ha ha ha ha ha). The guy looks at me like, did I really just do that? But off in another part of the cafeteria I hear an answering high pitched cackle (Eeeee hee hee hee hee hee). Score!

      Onto intermediate one. I pull out my phone and will that Frank will call. Nothing happens. I decide that I'm going to count down from five and that it'll ring when I reach zero. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Zero. The moment I count "zero," the phone starts buzzing (it's quite a strong sensation in my hand) and the notification light starts blinking white, but the screen doesn't come on. I press the power button and it turns on to reveal an RPG. In the dream, I recognize that it's a smashed-up mess of at least two different games, and the city names shown on the map clue me in on what they are though I can't remember them now. Flush with excitement over successfully completing both a basic and an intermediate task in one dream, I wake up.



      Fragment: I'm walking through what I know to be a college campus. My wife is with me, and she mentions going to visit a place on campus "now that she can put the baby in the Ergo." I don't understand what that has to do with anything, but whatever.
    5. [LUCID] Hockey gang / Impressive office / Super chase / Failed Joke TOTM

      by , 11-16-2015 at 10:20 PM
      Patrick Stewart's hockey gang
      I'm in a house with a group of street toughs who have just helped "us" out. I'm in their room, and I see a tiny record player on the bed. For some reason, I think briefly about stealing the record - somehow I know it's valuable. I decide not to - besides just being wrong, I have no desire to cross a group of street toughs - and leave room. As I'm walking out, one of them walks in. He gives me a suspicious look, and I wonder if I have a guilty look on my face from my earlier thoughts. Now I'm in my room, talking with my wife about making copies of records. She's sitting on the edge of the bed working on something, while I'm laying on my side facing her. She doesn't understand why it would be all that hard, saying that surely wax would do the job. I explain that normal wax is too soft, that while it's easy to push into grooves it would deform when removed and so wouldn't be useful for making a good copy. Instead, we'd need some kind of wax that's easy to work with when warm but which hardens completely when cool.

      Now I'm at an ice rink watching the group of toughs play a hockey game. I'm excited to find out that they're led by Patrick Stewart - except where I see his name written, it's something like Patrick Steaus. I get a look at his face and - even though covered by a helmet with facial bars - I'm sure it's him. His face is more angular, more lined than I've seen it before, but it's still him. I only got a quick glance at his name earlier, so I look around trying to find it again. I see it out of the corner of my eye - again with that strange almost-spelling - but it always changes to something else before I can get a really good look. Maybe this is his "pen name" that he uses to hide from some of his fame? At one point the names of all the players appear on the wall near the ceiling, moving around in a circle, each name separated from the next by a ♠. Even so, I never get a clear look at the name. Now the game is over and he and his team are skating around the rink on an exhibition lap. As they're leaving the rink I take note of how incredibly smoothly they're skating - it looks unnatural. I also get a better look at their armor/uniforms - they're covered head-to-toe in something that's shiny, hard, and completely black. After they're gone, I belatedly kick myself for not taking a picture - my friends would have loved this. I pull out my phone and open the camera app, hoping my battery doesn't die, looking for something with his picture and/or name. I can't find anything with either. Oh well.


      Impressive office
      I'm leaving a stairwell and stepping into a long hallway. A foreign couple is pushing a cart towards me, seemingly looking for where they're staying. I move around them and continue on, coming to an open elevator. Looking inside, I see a roughly 10 year old boy. I realize I'm on the wrong floor and decide to take the elevator, but then somehow feel uneasy about getting inside. I realize I'm only one floor down from where I need to be and decide to just take the stairs.

      Now I'm walking through another hallway. A light yellowish wall is to my right; the left wall is glass, looking out into some kind of fancy lobby area. Small potted trees dot the hallway. A strange vehicle is coming towards me, and I somehow know it's an automated cart that moves through the halls carrying people and/or things, and that normally it has wheels on the end of long legs (which let it pass over almost anything in the hallway) but that it's currently in a collapsed state. Looking further down the hallway, I see another one coming towards me. This one is extended to its full height and is carrying a handful of people in business suits. I immediately feel that I'm not comfortable with having this thing drive over me and look for a place to get around it - problematic, since it takes up the entire width of the hallway. Thankfully, I realize there's a spot in the hallway in front of me that does actually get quite a bit wider - as if someone cut a larger circle out of that area - and I'm confident that I'll get there about the same time as this thing (it's traveling at about walking speed). As we get closer together I realize that it couldn't have gone over me anyway, since it's criss-crossed horizontal and diagonal struts underneath itself. I'm impressed by its appearance - so spindly, with shiny chrome struts and black wheels that seem much too small for its size - yet it still seems very stable. I move to my right, it moves to its right, and we circle around each other, continuing on our ways.

      Now I'm walking through the lobby. This place is gigantic and very attractive. The floor is shiny, pedestals with small statues are dotted here and there, and the walls and ceiling are glass, revealing a beautiful light blue sky. I "remember" that the ceiling didn't used to be this high, that they recently did construction to raise it up, but I can't remember when that construction happened, even though it must have been a significant project.. I walk near a group of seated bigwigs, stopping to hear what they're saying. I notice a woman in a white dress standing nearby - a secretary? - but I don't really pay any attention to her. Individual conversations stop and someone important - maybe the CEO? - starts talking. As I'm listening, I get a feeling that my chest is exposed. I look down and realize that my white button-down shirt has its top button undone, that I'm not wearing a tie, and that I'm not wearing my customary undershirt. All this is odd, but it doesn't explain that strange sense of exposure I just had. I pull the flaps together, somehow feeling self-conscious about actually buttoning the top button without also wearing a tie, then walk off.


      Super chase / failed joke TOTM
      I'm standing knee-deep in water. I'm in some kind of urban setting, with buildings all around. At least one building directly borders the pool. I see other tall buildings nearby, but I'm also able to see the sky through gaps between the buildings. It's dusk. As I walk along, I come to a strange bump in the water. As I get closer, the bump stands up and reveals itself to be a woman dressed in something resembling Super Girl's costume, with the addition of a mask. She starts playfully chasing me. I generally manage to keep away - neither of us can move well through this water - but she manages to grab an arm or a leg every so often.

      Now I'm near a wall (tiled with small green tiles, each a slightly different shade) and realize that I'm dreaming, and if I throw myself through the wall she can't follow. I jump backwards towards the wall, but I have a moment of concern - I judged my distance poorly, and I'm not going to hit very hard. Will it work? I decide it will - this is my dream, after all - and as I hit the wall it shatters and I pass through. For a moment I see only black with green bits whizzing everywhere.

      Now I'm seeing what appears to be an ancient monitor. The background is white, and a handful of words and/or a simple graphic (can't remember) is drawn out in giant black pixels. I have no presence here - no body - and this screen takes up my entire vision. I figure this is related to "the void" I've other LDers talk about, and I just need to approach it calmly. I picture the screen splitting down the middle, moving to the side, revealing a new dream world; but all I get is a pixelated animation of the screen sliding apart. I remember that one of the best ways to escape the void is to imagine physical sensations, so I imagine what it feels like to spin around and around.

      Now I'm sitting across from Mom at a cafe table. Behind her is a small coat room painted a light beige; I see a coat rack to the left. She looks good, wearing a black and red dress with a red jacket over it. As I'm trying to decide what to do next, I remember that I have dream goals. I remember that the first thing on my list is remembering where my real body is, but I just don't feel like doing "you're not real" all over again. I don't have any recollection of my second intensification exercise. Once I dismiss the "sleeping body" exercise, I remember about the current TOTM, so I ask Mom if she can tell me a joke. She gets a really serious look on her face and says "No ... no, I can't," then launches into this weird philosophical monologue about how telling a joke really exposes the depths of your soul, especially when you're in a dream.
      I wake up.

      Updated 11-16-2015 at 10:23 PM by 28190

      Categories
      lucid , non-lucid , memorable , task of the month
    6. [LUCID] Beer in space / Scanning stations / At the hotel / Traffic signal + Flying and pumpkin hunt

      by , 10-17-2014 at 02:56 PM
      I go to bed at 10:50, intending to get up with my wife's 6:30 alarm. A few hours later I wake for some reason (no recall) and return to sleep. At 3:10 a kid makes noise and wakes me. I jot down a fragment then return to sleep. At 5:50 a kid wakes me as she uses the bathroom. She's coughing once she returns to bed, so I take her some water. I can't seem to get back to sleep, and I hear my wife's restlessness and know she can't either. At 6:15 she gets up and showers, and I fall asleep while she's in the shower.


      Beer in space
      I'm on a very traditional star ship (or maybe a space station?), walking through the corridors. It's a very traditional design, with identical gray corridors meeting frequently. I'm totally lost, but that's OK: I'm wandering around the place trying to get a feel for it.

      Now I see the officers in the conference room, where everyone is looking out the windows. Captain Picard looks out last and gets a disgusted look on his face when he sees what the rest do: a giant brown beer bottle floating in space, spinning slowly. As the label rotates into view, everyone can see it has a goofy picture of the captain, and the name of the beer and its catch phrase are poking fun at the captain. Everyone immediately knows this was done by Q.


      Scanning stations
      I'm watching as defense stations around the world are doing some kind of scan. As I'm initially watching, there are 5 stations, but the number keeps growing as the dream continues. At first, I'm watching from inside some kind of control room. I'll see a quick clip from one control room, then I'll see a clip from a different control room in a different station. I can tell I'm seeing different stations because the people in the room change, but the room itself stays exactly the same. I'm surprised they'd use such an obvious trick to try to save on production costs; even the camera angle stays exactly the same! The last room I see is being run by a stocky Russian woman, and everyone is speaking in (what I identify as) Russian (though I can't understand a word of it).

      Now I'm looking at a map of the earth that has all the stations marked out on it. I see red arcs appear from every station to every other station, then start to shrink. I assume that whatever is still under the arcs still needs to be scanned, and the places the arcs have shrunk away from are already scanned and determined not to have anything interesting.


      At the hotel
      I'm in a nicely appointed bathroom. It's long and thin; one wall has a long row of sinks followed by a long row of urinals, while the other wall has only stalls. I'm walking back from the urinals towards the sinks. Initially I think I'm alone, but then I realize there's a woman at one of the sinks closest to me. I'm very surprised to see a woman in here, but I just walk around her and go on my way. She's doing something at her sink (washing her teeth, maybe?), and there's stuff on the floor around her (towels?).

      Now I'm in the (impossibly huge) foyer of a hotel, standing in the middle at what I first assume to be a concierge desk. I'm with other people I know, and someone is talking about coffee. I realize that this isn't a concierge desk but is rather a tiny Starbucks. While he's getting his coffee, a woman in my group who's standing near me tells her friend that she's never had Starbucks and wonders what it's like. I tell her that Starbucks coffee is too heavily roasted, almost burnt, for my tastes.

      Now I see a couple of people with small plates of food. I look around to see where it may have come from and realize that on the other side of the Starbucks is a small table with lots of fruit on it - I specifically see strawberries and chunks of pineapple. Despite being right next to the Starbucks, I think it's actually provided by the hotel, so it's probably complementary. I think about going and getting some.


      Unclear traffic signal + Flying and pumpkin hunt
      I'm driving a car of some kind, maybe an SUV (I've never driven an SUV IRL). I'm stopped at the top of a hill, waiting on a ramp to join with a larger road that's down and to my left. Between the large road and my ramp is a HUGE board that reminds me of a scoreboard at an athletic event. Most of the middle of the board is taken up with rows that look like they should be holding team names and scores; around the edge of the board I see more than one set of red/yellow/green traffic lights. Initially, the board is completely blank. Nothing is on the rows, and all the lights are off. Eventually one of the greens on the left-front of the board turns on, but since it's away from me I assume it's for the other road. Other lights start cycling, though none on the right. Up to this point I've been alone at the top of the ramp, but I still start to get concerned that maybe one of those lights was supposed to be for me, and I'd hate to hold up traffic. As I'm thinking about this, I realize that a motorcyclist is going around me, tired of waiting for me to go. I check my mirror and am horrified to see a long line of cars waiting behind me. I decide to ignore whatever the strange sign is trying to tell me and just go.

      Now I'm on a three-lane, one-way street. Somehow I'm aware of the driver behind me not liking the left-hand merges he has to do on this road. I think nothing of the strangeness of knowing what another driver is thinking/talking about, but I do try to figure out what he means. If you're switching left, you merge left; if you're switching right, you merge right; so what's the big deal? I can't see how this road changes anything.

      I start to get a vague sense of "wrongness" and decide to do a nose-pinch RC. Initially, it only seems to deepen the sense of wrongness; something's not right, but I can't quite put my finger on it. I keep doing it, eventually realizing that, yes, I'm still breathing through my nose (left nostril only), even though it's pinched. I do it a couple more times to confirm that, yes, I'm really dreaming.

      Now I'm standing in front of a house on a kind of rock path made of very coarse white gravel and small rocks. The scene is very fuzzy, and I know I need to ground myself in the dream. I start by looking at my hand, but it's badly out of proportion, and I really want something to keep me here and not convince me I shouldn't be here. I kneel down and pick up one of the larger chunks of white rock. As I feel its solidness and hard edges, look at its shape, and study the sparkly flecks in it, the dream becomes crisp. I stand up and recall my goals for this dream: the basic challenge to cut open a pumpkin and see what's inside, and my personal goal of better flight.

      Nearby, I see an open door into what looks like a small shed. I look inside to see if there any pumpkins here. As it turns out, there are two: a medium-sized one on a table to my left, and a small one on a counter near the back. I don't like the look of either of them and continue on my way. I remember reading about someone finding a pumpkin patch and decide to check if there's one behind the house, but there isn't. I change my mind about the pumpkins in the shed, figuring that any pumpkin will do, even if it's sickly looking. I return to the shed and take the larger of the pumpkins, but in my hand it changes into a collection of small orangish guards connected by strings. It's useless to me now, so I leave it.

      During this first part of the dream, I frequently stopped to re-ground myself. Sometimes I studied my hand (slightly different each time), and sometimes I picked some part of the scenery to look at. From this point onward, I forget all about doing any further groundings.

      Somehow I end up back in the house. I'm in what's probably a living room, though since the house is completely empty it's hard to tell. I'm standing on hardwood floors, and in front of me is a wall that's mostly window. Even the doors are mostly glass. I'm getting a bit frustrated with not finding my pumpkin, so I decide to move onto flying. After all, there's no reason I can't fly and look for pumpkins at the same time. I decide to start out by jumping. Last time I tried jumping in a dream, something really strange happened, and I want to see if I can do better. I manage to jump all the way to the (fairly high) ceiling, then gently float down, That was fun, so I do it again. But, jumping isn't flying, and it's time to fly!

      Now I'm outside (not sure how I got here), flying about head-level off the ground. I know I'm flying, not just gliding like I have in previous dreams, so I know I can go as high as I want. I head up to about roof height, then come back down to head-height. Now I'm flying along above a field. To my right is a high school athletic field of some kind (baseball, maybe?) with a high chain-link fence around it. I see a few small groups of people talking near the fence. I know some of the people in the groups, and in one group I see Amy. I feel sad, thinking on how we used to be good friends but that she left all her old friends (including me) behind. I decide to give her a scare, so I fly by her and somehow pick her up in my wake so that she's flying behind me. Her additional mass slows us down, but I don't mind too much. We fly down the street into another neighborhood. I see Sarah H. standing by the street, and she sees me and gets an amazed, incredulous look on her face.

      Now I'm in another house, in a small hallway. The outside door (some kind of side door) is behind me, and a set of bi-fold doors is in front of me. The doors remind me of the bifold doors in my wife's parents' old house that hid the washer and drier. I decide I'm done trying to "find" a pumpkin, and I'm going to add one into the dream. I know that asking DCs for something tends to work well, so I decide that I'm going to find a DC behind these doors, and that that DC will help me get a pumpkin. I open the doors and walk through to find a mother and daughter working on laundry. The mother looks like an old-fashioned washer woman: she's wearing an off-white blouse with a darker off-white skirt and has her hair pulled back and up in a floral handkerchief. I think the daughter is wearing something similar. I see that the mother has a rather tired, hard-bitten expression on her face, but I go ahead and ask her for a pumpkin. She gives me a look that says "I don't know why you're in my house, and I don't know why I'm talking to you at all" and eventually drawls that there aren't any pumpkins around here. Behind her, I notice a small table designed like a pillar, and I see that it has a small misshapen pumpkin sitting on it.
      Who Would You Nominate?-starfruit_whole1.jpg
      I consider calling her on her lie but decide not to. I look over to her daughter to see if she'd be any more help, but then poof I wake up.

      Updated 10-20-2014 at 02:00 PM by 28190

      Categories
      lucid , non-lucid , memorable , task of the month
    7. [LUCID] Grocery store / New directions / Lost ties / Parking deck excitement

      by , 12-16-2013 at 06:22 PM
      Side-note | Lucid

      [LUCID] Grocery store task
      Before bed, I was running over my known dreamsigns, telling myself that "If I see X, I'll know I'm dreaming" I don't remember how this one started, but I think there's a good chance it was the "huge room" dreamsign. After waking up, I couldn't remember anything for a few moments. Just as I thought all was lost, I got a flash of this one. I'm sure I forgot parts (like how I got lucid in the first place).

      I'm in a grocery store. Some kind of event is going on at one end. I'm at the other end, getting snacks. Lots of junk food is hanging in front of me; nothing is too my back. A friend is with me, but I knew that as a DC he can't be as fast as me, because he's bound by the rules of the dream. I'm still waiting for him at the snacks, and I know that once he arrives and gets his own snacks it'll still take him a while to get back to the event. I start thinking about how I can help him. I decide that adding moving walkways to the store would be a good start, but I don't actually try it.

      Now, I'm looking at the store's safe. I pick up something that would let me open it (maybe the key? I don't know), but then I decide, that I'm in a dream, so I should use my mind! I stare at the door, trying to picture the gears inside it spinning, unlocking, and opening the door. Nothing happens.

      Now I'm with my family in a kind of hallway next to the windows. It's wide enough for a line of cafe tables and enough room to walk. We're sitting on the floor, looking out the window. A couple of bulky men are standing outside the window. Beyond them is the parking lot and road, and beyond the road is a steep embankment going up. My wife and I are sitting right next to each other, my right arm pressed against her left. I remember the task to close my eyes for ten seconds. I get an odd feeling of excitement, that I'll be doing something I know I shouldn't be doing, but I KNOW it'll go well. I close my eyes and start counting. I focus on the feeling of my wife against my side and on the memory of what I saw. I almost see a kind of "after image". The men's shirts particularly stand out as blobs of color. I reach 10 and open my eyes. As far as I can tell, nothing has changed. I consider trying it again, except visualizing a different scene with my eyes closed; but I don't do it.


      Now I'm looking at the embankment. People are climbing up ladders to the top, but something is going wrong. They're complaining loudly about it, even though it's their own fault. (I don't know how I know they're complaining; they're across the street where I can't hear them). Eventually, some other activity has to stop because their complaining is just too much of a pain.

      Now I'm walking with my third daughter on the road, just like everyone else. We're still following the rules of the road and get into the left turn lane behind a line of people.


      New directions
      I'm walking through a grassy field (some kind of park, I think) sending a text message to Jakkarth, telling him that I've moved to a new place. I try to give a thumbnail sketch of where it is, but I'm still not familiar with the area and I can't provide real directions. I tell him that I'll send proper directions once I get back to the house. Now I've just come down from being on a play fort. I realize that my phone isn't in my pocket and look around for it. I see it on the ground under the fort, and I realize that it fell out of my pocket somehow as I was coming down.


      Lost ties
      I'm walking around outside church Side-note(which looks nothing like the real one)[/COLOR] when I see JB, one of our deacons, holding a wad of ties in one hand and his cell phone in the other. He's using the cell phone to talk through the PA system, announcing that he's found some ties and that they'll be going in the trash unless they're claimed soon. He shows them to me and asks if they're mine; I take a quick look and tell him they aren't. He gives one final warning over the PA, then starts to throw them away, but I stop him. I tell him that it always annoys me that the policy is always "Claim your stuff or it goes to Good Will." I wish there were a short period during which the stuff stayed on display but where anyone who wanted it could take it. He thinks about it, then agrees with me and hands me the ties to look through again, to see if I want to keep any of them. He warns me that there's trash in the middle of the wad of ties. I see that he's been going around the property, picking up trash and wadding it all together. On closer inspection, I really don't like any of the ties and start looking for a place to throw them away.


      Parking deck excitement
      I'm in the passenger seat of a van driven by people I'm staying with. I don't know them very well. The father Side-note(who looks like Iron Man 3's Killian - something had reminded me of Extremis the night before)[/COLOR] is driving, and his kids are in the back. We're in a parking deck, trying to get out. The main exit is backed up, so he decides to take a "short cut". He drives over a curb, knocking over some glass jars that had been placed along it. Following this path around the deck, we reach what should have been an exit, except that it's been mostly walled off. There are still gaps around and under it where we can catch glimpses of the outside. I see tires under it and hope it's not a police car, and that if it is they won't realize what we've done. He backs up back over the curb. I see that the unblocked exit is right next to this one, and that it's currently clear. I don't think he should take it yet - if it really was a police car out side, we don't want to tip its occupants off that we were the ones who jumped the curb - but he just takes the exit. Sure enough, it was a police car, and they start following us, though their lights aren't yet on. The father starts slowly accelerating. I ask incredulously if he's planning on getting into a chase with the police, but he denies it. By this time, he's going recklessly fast around the parking lot, trying to lose the police before they actually turn their lights on. I consider bailing out of the car, but decide that would be just as dangerous as staying in.


      Fragments
      It's night. I see something about a ghostly apparition - some kind of advanced technology - that jumped on / through a helicopter and brought it down. An investigation is ongoing into what it was. I see a pool of some kind in front of me. An artificial animal - a cow? - is helping fill it. Suddenly, I realize that the plot to bring down the helicopter was from the artificial animals, and that it lets them fill these pools over and over, becoming rich and taking all the power as they do so.

      Something in a house.

      Updated 12-16-2013 at 06:31 PM by 28190

      Categories
      dream fragment , side notes , lucid , non-lucid , memorable , task of the month
    8. [LUCID] Talking about lucid dreaming / Gift of a hymnal / Fragments

      by , 12-08-2013 at 06:15 PM
      Side-note Lucid

      Talking about lucid dreams
      I'm standing on my driveway talking with my pastor and MB. The kids are sitting in camping chairs on my side of the garage; my car is nowhere to be seen. All of us are talking about lucid dreaming. I say something about WILDing and I'm surprised when my pastor knows what it is, saying that he'd once done it himself many years ago. I mention that one of my long-term goals is to learn to have WILDs quickly, on demand. My pastor asks how long it usually takes to get into a WILD. I explain that a skilled WILDer can do it in under twenty minutes, but that newbies can often take more than an hour. I confess that I haven't managed it at all, yet, but that I'm determined to succeed. The conversation continues for a little while longer.

      Now I'm in one of the kids' bedrooms doing something. Now I'm downstairs. Bethany is unhappy with the kids - she'd told them they could be outside barefooted or in shoes but not just in socks, since the socks would get dirty. All of the kids wore just socks while outside, so now they're covered in leaves (from the driveway) and oil (from the garage floor). Even though I was wearing both socks and shoes, I check my socks anyway. They're damp from being sweaty but are otherwise fine. I take my socks off and put them in a nearby cabinet which seems to be a make-shift clothes hamper, as it has a small (but growing) pile of colored laundry. My wife tells me that if my socks are dirty like the kids are then I need to put them in the separate "dirty sock pile," but I tell her they're just sweaty.


      Gift of a hymnal
      After a failed WILD, I'm trying to sleep. I'm laying in bed and remember that I just had a conversation with friends (JB and BJ) in my kitchen. I realize that that can't have happened, that I must have dreamed it. Something feels off, and I do a nose pinch RC. I can easily breath through my pinched nose, so I know I'm dreaming, experiencing a false awakening (my first!). It's pitch black. I decide to try voice commands and try to command LIGHT, but my voice is hoarse and I can barely hear myself. I try again with STABILITY, but again, it barely comes out. I realize that, even though I'm convinced this is a dream, I'm still hesitant to shout in case I'm wrong and I woke up my wife. I decide that this really is a dream, so it doesn't matter, and even if it's not a dream we'll just laugh about it and go back to sleep. I really don't want to lose the dream, so I keep my nose pinched and keep focused on the strange feeling of breathing through it. I keep trying my voice commands, and eventually the light in the room (especially near the door) "dims" up. It's dim, but it's enough to see by. I shout STABILITY and LIGHTS again for good measure, and I find that I can actually shout now.

      I'd just been listening to the podcast where they were talking about extending the dream, and CanisLucidus talked about just looking at all the detail the mind comes up with. I look around my bedroom, trying to take it all in. I notice that it's larger than life, but it's decorated pretty much how my real room is. The doors, windows, bed, and dresser are all in the right place, and I think the walls and floor looked right, though I'm not positive. I notice a small shelf on one wall that's not there IWL, with some very small framed pictures of people. I walk over, pick one up, and look at it. It shows couple of people, including a woman in a purple dress. I don't recognize them, and I realize the danger of putting too much attention into the picture, so I put it down. For some reason, it ends up on face down on the shelf. I kneel down and run my hands through the carpet - it looks and feels exactly like my real carpet. I think about what to do and realize that one of my simple goals was to try the "internal nose pinch" and see if it was reliable. I tried it, and alas, I couldn't breathe while doing it. So much for that RC. I consider phasing through the wall and flying off, but I decide that that's a little too advanced for right now: I want something I know I can accomplish so that I can boost my confidence.

      I remember I want to do the basic TOTM be given a gift by a DC, so I walk towards the hallway. The stairs are in the right place, though the hallway layout is odd. I remember that, to get something to appear, I need to not just casually think "It'll be there" but to really strongly picture it, almost as if I can already see it. I start trying to imagine in detail that my wife is around the corner in the hallway; but as I'm doing it, she comes up the stairs. She says something and goes back down; I follow her.

      Now I'm near the bottom of the stairs. I feel like I'm in a mansion. Downstairs is a huge area, well furnished, with a very high ceiling. I'm on a grand staircase, at least 10 feet wide, flaring at the bottom, going straight up behind me to the second story. My wife is a couple of steps below me. I ask my wife if she has anything for me. She says she does, but she wants a quick kiss first. I kiss her, and she walks off towards the kitchen to get whatever it is. I realize that I shouldn't let her out of my sight, since she might disappear if I do. I go after her, following her into the kitchen (which is outfitted with lots of shiny black appliances). I don't see her in the kitchen, and I get worried. I shout a dream command WIFE, but nothing happens. I walk through the kitchen, though the dining room, and back into the living area. I pass an older, well-dressed man carrying a Psalter; I completely ignored him, but I think he was the butler. As I'm walking into the living area, my wife comes out of the kitchen carrying one of our old hymnals. She gives it to me, saying it'll go well with the hamburger.


      Often, when I wake out of a dream, I'm aware of it fading first. Not this time. Poof I was awake. I tried to DEILD, but nothing happened; I was probably hampered by a strong desire not to lose the dream memory.


      Fragments
      I'm looking at pictures of different people. I have a program(?) that lets me alter reality by altering pictures of the reality. I'm trying to copy an aspect of a person from one picture and paste it onto a different person in a different picture, but it's not going well. The perspectives of the pictures are different, and the pasted image isn't lining up right.

      I'm outside, in a park-like setting, watching people. There are nine people who have successfully done ... something ... but they need ten to fully win. They're pleased at having come in first again, yet disappointed that, once again, they failed to get the full ten.

      I'm looking at Gunnerkrigg Court. Annie is watching two forest dwellers talking to / examining a boy from the Court. He's strong and somewhat puffed up, and the forest dwellers (a youth and an old man) are pondering over him. His muscles should only be about half the size they are, and they want to know how he made himself strong, if he used some kind of magic or trickery or what. The old man especially is throwing out more and more strange theories about the boy's strength. I (or Annie?) starts to wonder if there's something to it, and if this is how Eglamore gets some of his abilities.

      I'm driving on a 4 lane road in the right lane. A tan van is to my left and starts to come into my lane. I stand my ground, but she keeps coming, eventually scraping against me. Now I'm in the left lane and she's in the right, ahead of me. I can see a silver line running along her driver's side where she scraped me. Somehow I see the driver's side of my car, and I see a long scuff mark but no scraped paint. I'd been trying to decide if I should chase her down and get her insurance information, but since my car isn't actually damaged I decide just to let her go.

      Updated 12-09-2013 at 06:31 PM by 28190

      Categories
      lucid , non-lucid , false awakening , dream fragment , side notes , task of the month
    9. [LUCID] Dark ride / Military home / Electronics and groceries / Fragments

      by , 11-17-2013 at 02:19 PM
      Third-person | Lucid

      Dark ride
      I'm driving to church on a motorcycle in the dark. I'm on the surface street near the church and all the traffic lights are out. I know people are supposed to treat such intersections as 4 way stops, but since it's dark I don't know how many people will even realize there's supposed to be a traffic light. I realize my headlight is off and turn it on, but it doesn't work very well, only shining a small pool of light a few feet in front of me. I have some loud music playing on my phone, so I hope that will help people notice me.


      Military home
      I'm in a beautiful old home that's been "borrowed" by the military. The home is clearly very expensive, with lots of dark reds and browns of hard wood everywhere, with lots of high quality fabrics hung and placed everywhere. Mom (who used to be in the RAF) is showing me around. She shows me the men's room and decides to make use it; the men's room guard completely ignores her since she's well known on base. Now I'm in one of the bathroom stalls by myself. Someone else comes into the bathroom.

      Now it's not a bathroom stall, it's a bed alcove. I know I woke up at about 4 AM and now I'm trying to get back to sleep. As I'm lying there, I'm going over my dreams, trying to increase my recall. Suddenly, I realize I'm dreaming. Now I'm standing near the bed, and I realize I have a task of the month to do. I think about doing the ask-a-DC task, but that requires having someone nearby; but since it's night, everyone's asleep, so there won't be anyone to talk to. Instead, I decide to count the months backwards. Since I've been practicing this one in real life, I had no trouble counting backwards from November to January. I still want to try asking a DC what he's thankful for. I realize the guard should still be awake, and I can ask him; but I need clothes first, so I go to the open closet and start looking around inside for something to wear. Unfortunately, the light isn't working, and I can't see inside well. I try to use my key-chain flashlight, but it barely casts any light at all - I'm surprised it's working so poorly and figure the batteries must be almost out. This also surprises me until I remember that they're rechargeable, so of course they're almost dead.


      Electronics and groceries
      I'm working on electronics with the kids. We're going to make a simple LED+resistor circuit on the breadboard, but I decide that it would be better if each child had an individual cut-off button. I decide to implement it with my microcontroller so that pushing a button cuts power to the LED for a few seconds before automatically bringing it back on. I have some trouble getting everything hooked up right - I'm having trouble remembering which way the connections in the breadboard go - but I get it eventually.

      Now I'm riding my bike to the nearby grocery store. Going up the hills is a lot easier than I remember - I attribute it to not pulling the trailer with the kids in it. Riding on the roads with cars goes well.

      Now I'm at the store and find a table set up with my electronics; one of my daughters is sitting at it. I still haven't finished the programming, so it doesn't work right. I head home. As I'm preparing to make a right onto the large road near our house, I see a huge store on the corner. It doesn't look very nice, but it claims to be a runner's emporium with everything a runner could ever need. Looking more closely, I see that their front room is filled with random riding toys - it must be because we're close to Christmas. Turning onto the road, I'm looking behind me and using a rear set of pedals - but car pedals, not bike pedals. I face forwards but I'm still contorting my body to use the pedals behind me. I want to switch to the ones in front of me, but I can't remember which is gas and which is brake. I think the big one the left me is brake, but I'm not sure, so since I don't want to hit the car in front of me I just stay stopped by putting my feet on the ground.

      After I get home I realize I left my daughter and my electronics at the store. I don't want anything to happen to her, and I don't want the store to trash my electronics, so I head back out.


      Coleson's recovery
      I'm watching something about Agent Coleson being on life support, waking up, and pull tubes out of his mouth. He should be dead but he's not. The tubes he's pulled out are dripping various things - gastric juice is making a mess, and some unfertilized (human) eggs are producing little red sacks where they've fallen into some water.

      I'm looking at a Facebook page for a pastor. At the top, it's talking about the pastor's amazing recovery, except it's describing word-for-word what happened to Coleson. Further down, comments are going back and forth between praising the pastor for his good work and throwing insults at him for his views.



      Workers and doughnuts
      A bunch of men are at our house to help with some work. There's a really nice breakfast laid out for everyone. I'm particularly interested in the pastry table, but I'm disappointed when I see that most of the really good doughnuts are gone when I get there.


      Experimental radish cure
      A guy with little time to live tries an experimental treatment made from concentrated radishes. It's a partial success: he grows large and strong, but he's covered in wrinkles and looks like an old man.


      Pizza zombies
      I'm walking around a house filled with pizza-eating zombies.



      Analysis
      Dreamsigns:
      * Very dim lights
      * Bathroom weirdness

      Lucid awareness: Poor. I didn't realize dream control was even an option, but I did remember to do the TOTM
      Lucid control: Non-existant. I didn't even try.

      Updated 11-18-2013 at 02:46 PM by 28190

      Categories
      lucid , non-lucid , false awakening , task of the month
    10. [LUCID] Drugs at a wedding / Candy and flying / Motorcycle seat

      by , 10-14-2013 at 03:38 PM
      October 13, 2013

      A side-note
      A lucid dream
      A dreamsign

      These dreams came after insomnia kept me awake from 1:30 to 4:30. Before going back to bed, I listened to the dreaming self-hypnosis files I made for myself.

      Drugs at a wedding
      I'm at a wedding with my wife. We're walking around "back stage." Lots of people are moving around, getting ready. We pass the photographer's area and see at least half a dozen giant camera lenses - they're inches wide and at least a couple of feet long. I think ruefully back to the few weddings we shot with our "cheap" DSLR.

      Now I'm standing above the seats. The place looks like a concert hall, with the seats in a semicircle around the stage. The floor is incredibly sloped, going down at at least a 45 degree angle. There are countless rows, so the stage is far, far below me. The curtains are still drawn. My wife is sitting on the top row, which is still a good 10 feet below me. Her chair is all by itself, with a table and lamp next to it. I realize she'd expected that I would sit with my friends while she stayed in the back to feed the baby. Now I'm next to her, seeing if there are any seats nearby we can move to and sit together.

      Now we see a group of her old friends a few rows beneath us. They see us, too, and are waving at us to come down to them. Now we're with her friends. They're in a roughly circular area that's clear of chairs. I don't know any of them, so I'm staying at the edge of the clearing, near the chairs. I want to sit down, but even though this area doesn't have many people sitting in it, they're sitting in such a way that no three adjacent seats are empty: if I'm going to sit, I'm going to have to sit next to someone. I finally resign myself to it and sit by a stranger.

      Now my wife is gone - I don't know where to - and her friends are acting very strange, very loopy. They're trying to give me something that will make me feel really good. I don't know what's going on, but I want no part of it, so I start to walk away. A girl from the group comes running around in front of me and tries to slap something on me. I don't know what she's doing, but I'm sure it's nothing good, so I dodge. I think she missed me, but then I notice there's a small sticker on my nose. With horror, I realize it must be some kind of drug patch. I try to peel it off, but it's too late. I feel the drug start to take effect, and the world slips away.

      Now I'm on a pool deck. I feel very strange, and I'm not myself. I think I'm a mouse, though I'm really just very small. A tiny dog is nearby. The deck furniture towers around us. We swim out into the pool and make it to a small floating platform, which we climb onto. I manage to tie the platform to the dog, then we both jump back in and swim back to the pool deck, with the dog dragging the platform behind itself.

      Now I'm in a dusty town. Something is wrong, though I'm not sure what. I see the town sheriff and deputy go up to a large door with two keyholes. They each take a key, insert it into a keyhole, and turn at the same time. Somehow, I know that they were given these keys by a stranger, and that by unlocking this door they've corrupted themselves and unleashed destruction on the town. Now I'm running from something in the town.

      Now I'm running down a wide hallway when giant yellow squash, a.k.a. Squashers, come bounding in from the other direction. I hope they didn't see me and try to get out of their way, but one veers off towards me. As it's pushing me towards the back wall, I wonder what it's like to be killed in a dream. That stray thought gets me lucid.

      Candy and flying
      Now I'm in a small room, the size of a small closet. It's kind of like a little tiny cubicle, since it's not actually closed on all four sides. At this point, as is usual for my lucid dreams, I'm still following the dream's plot. I decide to make the room bigger, so I point at one of the unconnected edges, then move my finger, and the edge of the wall follows my finger, growing longer. I make a similar gesture and push the wall back.

      Then I remember that I have 2 goals I want to accomplish (flying and one of the basic tasks of the month, eating candy) and I should be doing those instead. I decide to tackle eating candy first. I start to think about how best to summon some candy. I remember that most of my attempts at direct dream manipulation in the past have failed, so that's out. Believing that something exists behind me, then turning and finding it, has always had a great apeal to me; unfortunately, it's also always failed in the past. Then, I remember reading that ordering DCs to change the dream tends to be very reliable, so I decide to try it. I walk through the gap in the wall into a living room. A few women are sitting around on overstuffed chairs, some with ottomans, some without. I walk up to the nearest one. She's in a tan chair next to a small round side-table with a lamp, with her feet resting on an ottoman. She's wearing an intense blue, maybe a purple. I tell her to give me candy.

      She looks up at me, and I see that she's a friendly middle-aged woman. She gives me a motherly smile, grabs her purse, and starts to look through it. It's packed full of odds and ends, but nothing looks like candy. She looks up at me, then points to a long, narrow, zippered bag (also a violent blue) on the ottoman. It's already open, and it's packed to overflowing with all sorts of candy. I pick it up and look through it. I remember that in the waking world I'd been planning to try to eat some chocolate, so I look for a chocolate bar. I manage to find a "Fun Size Snickers" bar near the top of the bag, so I take it. I tear off the wrapper and look at it. It looks just like a tiny square chocolate bar, with smooth brown sides and a wavy top. I take a bite through the middle; it tastes like chocolate. I look at the section I bit through and see that it looks like a Three Musketeers bar, but with a thin ribbon of dark chocolate running through the middle. It actually tastes about as it looks.

      One goal finished, one to go. I leave the house through a sliding glass door. I find I'm at the top of a grassy hill. In front of me, the hill leads down to the ocean. I can see the waves lapping against a rocky shoreline with just a bit of sandy beach. Off to my right are a few trees. To my left, the grassy hill just goes down with nothing in the way. I turn to the left and start to run down the hill, then jump up and spread my arms like wings, holding them straight out to my sides. At the height of my jump, I'm three or four feet off the ground, but I quickly come back down and stabalize in a glide just a foot or two above the ground. It's not quite the flight I'd hoped for, but I'm still moving quickly through the air.

      I'm half pleased, half disappointed. Gliding in the air was neat, but I'd really wanted to *fly*. Now I'm back at the top of the hill. I get another running start, jump, spread my arms, and start flapping. I have a clear picture of the roofline of the house - I believe I managed to hang in the air for a few seconds this time before coming back down. This time, I'm gliding so low that tall pieces of grass are hitting me in the face.



      Motorcycle seat
      I'm outside with Andrew, looking at his small motorcycle. He's trying to fix it, but he needs to go get something. He asks me to hold the bike while he steps away. Now I'm holding the bike, but I don't know why. Don't motorcycles have kickstands? I look down and see not one but two: one on the front-right, and one in the normal place at the back-left. Both kickstands are already down, so I gently let go of the bike to see what'll happen. The bike starts rolling forward, pushing the front-right kickstand back. The rear-left one is holding. I stop the bike and try to reposition it so that it'll stay up on its own.

      Now Andrew is back out with another man, someone who looks at home on a motorcycle. There's something wrong with his seat. It's a piece of leather with a plaid pattern inserted into a square wood frame. During the cut, they removed the sealant keeping it watertight and pulled it up from the frame, away from the glue that held it down. They've fixed whatever the problem was and have re-glued it, but now they're worried about how to reseal it. They keep talking about using tape, but none of us likes that idea, since it wouldn't work very well, not to mention looking very tacky. I suggest using more of that same acrylic sealant that was used on it originally, but they shoot that idea down. They're fixated on trying different kinds of tape. I'm still convinced the clear sealant is the way to go, but I suggest they should call the motorcycle company and see if they can order some of the original compound. They consider the idea for a moment, then realize that it's a holiday so the company won't be open, and later in the week is an important company event, so they'll be too busy to talk to people about fixing broken seats.