Thread: Task of the Month for November 2013

Originally Posted by vasiona

Is it okay to join in with this even if I'm really new? I wasn't really planning to, mainly because I haven't been here long and hardly have any posts, but I read over the tasks anyway and they seemed fun - and I remembered the first basic one in a lucid dream last night, so I decided to try it. I understand if I'm too new to participate in this, but it was still interesting to try, and I think I'll attempt some of the others if I get the chance

The disembodied head, the spider-like girl and being Mark (lucid, FAs) - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

"The first question that comes to mind is the one I saw on DV for the first basic task of the month.

Without answering his question, I ask: “What are you thankful for?”

He frowns a little, but in thought rather than annoyance. “Well,” he says, “I had sleepytime with —” he says a name that I don’t hear clearly — “Yesterday at lunch.”

I’m trying to remember the exact words he says so that I can write them down when I wake. “Wait,” I ask, “with whom?”

“Eowyn,” he says. The dream is fading. Before I have time to try any stabilisation, it’s almost completely dark."

The answer was definitely...unexpected, especially the way he phrased it.

(Also... does it count if the DC asked is nothing more than a head? )

Sounds like a fun dream. Everyone is invited to do the task of the month. There is no minimum time or whatnot for people being on the site. It is to try and spawn creativity and to keep people motivated about lucid dreams.

Yes to what BrandonBoss said. And really funny dream too haha!! Congrats on the totm

Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

Advanced Task ii - November 4th is King Tut Day. Find an Egyptian tomb and resurrect whatever is inside.

great task. i'm gonna do this. i'll try to start out here in michigan too.

Carve the human.

this though, not happening.


is there an active thread where people put up casual tasks?

I'll try out basic task I tonight

Advanced Task i - Successfully count the months backwards from November to January

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.

Full entry

Originally Posted by second

great task. i'm gonna do this. i'll try to start out here in michigan too.



this though, not happening.


is there an active thread where people put up casual tasks?

You can check the lucid challenges forum Lucid Challenges

This is a bad month for lucid tasks for me for some reason..I liked flying double wingers too..
Some of us have seen gory things in the real world so we don't do those but I otter be able to toss a pie......

Okaaaaay, I'll be less gory next month, I promise

Asked my mum what she was grateful for! And then I got things mixed up, turned my family into people with pig faces and we were about to have a pig with a human face for dinner.

DJ

Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

Okaaaaay, I'll be less gory next month, I promise

Yeah I'd rather see carving humans and other gory/scary limited to October .

Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

Okaaaaay, I'll be less gory next month, I promise

Sorry... Not meant as a complaint,Just saying.....
Don't let me spoil the fun, If we don't like them we don't have to do them...

Oh that's alright. I tend to err on the side of gore. I'm a gore whore

Yippee - A Lucid With Doing Several Tasks - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

I did basic and the easier advanced task - soo happy!!

See DJ above - the months were no problem at all, actually - and I sampled three DC´s on what they are thankful for.
Pretending to be a radio-moderator and even wanting to tell them that the style in the show would be very respectful and all..

Anyway - the first one was a woman - maybe around 50, in plain dark clothes and she didn´t look at me directly - but she answered.
And of all things - she answered "The Church and what it did for humankind."
Good there were two more persons around.

Ah - for the first woman - I very highly suspect, I might have talked out loud in my sleep, because I felt like having problems vocalizing, and like written in the DJ as well - this exact problem occurred before, esp. in ugly dream situations, and others sleeping with me in the room have told me, they had heard me mumble afterwards..

Second person was a quite nondescript guy and he said something trivial - not "The weather" but something similarly un-astonishing and I unfortunately forgot it.
The third DC was a younger woman, looking very good - and looking into my eyes, too, while answering.
She said, she was thankful for the fact that humans can understand what other humans think with communicating.
So - that saved my sample..

Oh - almost forgot - the very first being, I asked, was a beautiful grey cat with a lot of fluffy fur and an elegant face. But she just looked at me disdainfully - got off from lying half on her back and stalked off. Should have better petted her..

Do I get wiiings now?

Originally Posted by PercyLucid

The purpose of these are to exploit the ability of the oneironaut through challenge (tasks) motivation (making the oneironaut feel motivated) and rewarding (the wings.) For this reason, we always had some guidelines, these tasks should be more studied to make sure you meet them both.

- You can see how basic i and ii are in similar of difficulty. One for those more holiday themed and the other for those more mischievous and funny.

- Advance i is way too simple and neither does not provide a sweet outcome (such as throwing a pie or like I suggested, gravy in the pumpkin pie, something doable in waking, but that no one sane would do.) You can see a HUGE difference in dream-ability between both advanced i advanced ii. The human being is lazy by nature, and only a very few will try to do the advanced ii, due it's advanced requirement if you can just say the months backwards. This will result in less people trying the hard advanced and those who accomplish it, will have a not-so-valued reward... true, it is the same wings, but if you can earn $100 for one hour work and the same $100 for ten hours work... why wouldn't you work 1 hours if you get the same prize? This is the very reason you have a second pair of wings for those who complete the advanced tasks.

- Both basic must be at the same level and so, both advanced as well. In fact, advanced ii could meet the challenge of a lucid task of the year, as it requires several abilities, there is a huge unbalance here and only those who are very skilled will do the advance ii but the average have an easy way to earn the second pair of wings... and it is not about the wings, but the development of the oneironaut.

I have been the MILD teacher for this community and on topic admin for a reason (until I ran out of time.) If you see the tasks I assigned two years ago, they have been carefully picked to meet these guidelines, and in the long run, means more development for our oneironauts, which should be the goal of these.

Just my two cents.

I empathize.

Personally, I think counting months backwards in waking life is a difficult and uninteresting task, so, why would I want to do it in a dream?

We can do literally almost anything in a dream. We can visit other planets, morph into mythical beasts, wield superpowers, shoot fire out of our fingertips, and lightning out of our eyeballs. I personally suggest that all tasks of the month/tasks of the year be things that are impossible to do in waking life. I have found that easy tasks that I can do in waking life are actually extremely difficult to do, because they bore me. When a task is exciting and fun, I find it's much easier to get that to incubate deep into my subconscious mind. When I first came to DV some years ago, I found the ToTM to be well thought out, challenging, fun, and interesting. One year, I was one of only three or four people to complete the ToTY. That same year I also did almost every ToTM. I became frustrated, over time, when it seemed to me like no one's suggestions for the ToTM or the ToTY were being considered, even people who had completed many of the tasks of the year and month over and over like myself.

My suggestions to improve the ToTM: polls. For example: the staff posts 5 different choices for each category for ToTM two weeks beforehand, and whichever one gets voted up becomes the task.

Well - Waking Nomad - I think you might mix up "why would I want to" with "how could I remember such an irrelevant thing?".
I did recite the months from November to January backwards last night - see above - and it was the easiest thing in the world, actually.

Sorry - I do not want to brag - but I pure and simply had my waking-life memory easily accessible.
And to practise this memory-access was the point of this task, as I understood it.

I knew about the tasks - that I wanted to do them, and why (wiiings..) and it took 5 seconds - like if I did it now.
So - 5 sec. are wasted time in your book? How long are your LDs?


I went flying out of the window to look for DCs afterwards by the way and had some several minutes left - and that as a bloody novice.
The wings sure are worth the 5 seconds!

And it is something to cultivate - having day time memory - so you get dream-control.
I just found it so much more easy than conjuring up a pyramid with sarcophagus and - an at least potentially slightly frightening being to resurrect..
Whole other calibre..
I mean. Wow - that will take some doing, I would say.
But sure - I am in for it!

Waking Nomad - is 5 sec. too much, or do you have a problem to remember, what you had planned exactly for your dream?
Or is reciting/counting/access to common knowledge like the months in some way impaired, maybe?
Maybe it is more advanced than it felt last night..

Edit:
Why do I not directly go for the special stuff with eating a human for the next task-LD (directly next comes something else, I guess..)?
Not because of the choice of food, primarily - I deem it difficult to have a viewpoint of several entities at once - and not women, but turkeys - transforming into animals plural.

That is an other calibre again, I think..

Wiiiings!!!

Thank you Ophelia!
This feels great!
And off to the pyramid after one or two private-themed LDs it is!
And turkeys - even if I can not even imagine such a thing, actually (yet?)!

Amen to that Nomad.

PercyLucid and WakingNomad: your suggestions are noted and much appreciated, especially from a former admin! Actually, it was a PM from Percy several months ago, that suggested I was making the basic tasks too hard. In fact, you suggested something simple like "pick a flower" and I used it the very next month and it was pretty damn successful. So thank you for that! I know that kinda contradicts with what WakingNomad just said about making all TOTMs something impossible in real life, but oh well, can't please everyone (though I do like the Poll idea...)

Good news is, I don't ignore suggestions from the task club, or from other members. In fact, this year's TOTY wasn't my idea at all, so no worries about me not considering others' ideas. In fact I can't wait to see what they come up with for December!!

All but bonus task complete! Surprised over here! Happy though! Scared to try the turkey family... I've never been an animal outside wolf, hawk, and one time a dragon thing... so a tad nervous on that.

1) Asking DC what they are thankful for... turned out slightly hilarious: Decided to try the first month challenge for November! - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

2) Throwing a pie in a DC's face (of course work HAD to get involved -_- ): Another task of the month complete!! Woot woot!! - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

3) November to January count, wouldn't say it was intentional but it happened: November to January TOTM completed! - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

4) Ressurection and tomb.... went very odd.... : TOTM whittling my way to the last one! Tomb and Resurrection - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Now to attempt the turkey one! I'm surprised I was able to do any to be honest!

Better late than never... Advanced 1.

11/21
7:00am I went back to sleep after looking at the gloom outside and almost instantly it seemed I was at the computer wondering what to do and counted the whole year backward thinking this is not worth wasting a lucid dream on and went off to see what I could find to haunt (Haunting is always worthwhile),
Walmart is my usual target but then I saw the 200 yr old hotel across the street that has been closed up for 50 years and men are preparing for demolition by removing the asbestos and is deserving of a good haunt, (I even thought I may not be alone ) It seemed the men could not see me but knew I was there got real hinky and picked up their tools and left,Then the dust settled around my computer again and I found myself back in bed waking up.. Hardly even a good haunt

[QUOTE=OpheliaBlue;2062004], you suggested something simple like "pick a flower" and I used it the very next month and it was pretty damn successful. So thank you for that! I know that kinda contradicts with what WakingNomad just said about making all TOTMs something impossible in real life,

You might be surprised at how difficult it is to pick a flower for someone that does not remember ever picking a flower.
Like Meeeeee.

[QUOTE=woblybil;2062177]

Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

, you suggested something simple like "pick a flower" and I used it the very next month and it was pretty damn successful. So thank you for that! I know that kinda contradicts with what WakingNomad just said about making all TOTMs something impossible in real life,

You might be surprised at how difficult it is to pick a flower for someone that does not remember ever picking a flower.
Like Meeeeee.

I know right? I definitely like the basic I task to be for super beginners, because sometimes even just remembering the task at all can be an obstacle to overcome. To this day I sometimes struggle with remembering all 5 of them. Or like, if I completed 2 already, then sometimes I can't remember the 3 I haven't done lol. They're great exercises though, these tasks. And I don't mind suggestions, and mixing things up.

Did basic like two weeks ago, but there's always something coming up and by the time I proofread and post the entire journal entry it will probably be Christmas, so here's the relevant part:

The girl now comes from somewhere and I finally remember that I was supposed to ask a question. At this point there is the realization that I had many chances to do so, yet always forgot to. I take it slow and ask the question - what are you thankful for, and become all ears, trying not to influence her answer. She opens her mouth and only some gibberish comes out, I can't make any word from that. I ask her again and she starts laughing maniacally. That pisses me off because I still expect to hear a normal answer. In the end she blurts out: "Are you deaf or what?". Her eyes seem quite lively but I have no explanation for this behavior

I love those ask DCs tasks, I can never tell what the end result will be.

Originally Posted by NyxCC

I love those ask DCs tasks, I can never tell what the end result will be.

..... Our DC's learn their answers from children.....