One Must Imagine Sisyphus Happy

I'm not sure if this was one dream or two. I recalled them together and they had a connected plot. I was really mad at the end. Like really, really mad! The emotion lingered for a while after waking up. I rarely feel anger, so on the occasion that I do, it's almost a welcome experience.

Mall Shops, Cheats
I'm in a competition with Lance. We are owners of small shops in a shopping mall. The competition is to own more shops than the other. Apparently, it's just a computer program because I easily find how to cheat by editing my character data. I give myself all the max stats and money. Lance and I both use this cheat. We quickly realize that this ruins the fun of it. So agree to not cheat. Lance buys a bar that sits in the middle of the mall and gets a lot of foot traffic.

I write a program to make money off the bar for Lance. I am reluctant because I know the game is so easy to cheat that someone will use my program to steal money. But I do it anyway. I finish and decide to have a few drinks.

Work From Home, Fire
I have a false awakening. I still feel tipsy from the drinks of the previous dream. I must not have slept very long. I am in an apartment but it's nothing like my waking life. I look at a clock: 12:56 in the afternoon. I check my laptop. There's an urgent IM from work from just a few minutes ago. The producer wants me to shut down the bar program that I wrote in the previous dream. As I expected, someone is exploiting it to steal money.

I'm glad I woke up just in time. I know what to do, I just need to change a few lines of code and upload it to the server. But now I become aware of two other people in my apartment. One is Garrett (an ex-coworker that I didn't like). The other is a young woman who I don't recognize but seems familiar. I intuit that she is my roommate so she has a right to be here and Garrett is her guest. It occurred to me that maybe it was my sister, but the girl was definitely blonde. Anyway, they are chit chatting about nothing in particular in the kitchen. I need to work so I'm annoyed that they are disturbing me.

I carry my laptop to the kitchen and place it on the stove top. I forgot the power cable. I fetch the power cable from and plug the laptop into a power socket that is oddly on the edge of the counter near the stove. I forgot the network cable. I search the apartment for it. As I search, Garrett and the girl and collecting their coats to leave. I am silently relieved that I will have some peace to work.

Still searching in another room, I overhear them conversing. It turns out they decided not to leave. Instead they have the sudden urge to have sex. My reaction is "ugh, great...." It is a surprise because I intuited that the girl wasn't attracted to Garrett. Still, my reaction is mostly one of indifference and mild annoyance.

They are having sex on the floor next to a closet with sliding doors. I see the network cable on the floor in the closet. I careful step around them, trying not to touch them. I say something sarcastic like "don't mind me and don't let me interrupt your garden-variety sex while I get this wire." Garrett becomes enraged by what I said, especially the words "garden-variety." He gives the girl a few final thrusts and finishes. Then he stands up and confronts me. I ignore him and take the cable to the kitchen.

Garrett follows me and continues to yell and spew. I plug the cable into the laptop on one end and into the freezer on the other. I realize in the moment that this is strange but not enough to become lucid. Garrett throws something heavy at me. I dodge the projectile and it hits the stove top. Garrett storms off and out the door. Good riddance.

I turn to look at the stove and see that the gas knobs are damaged. A small flame is lit from each of them. I think if I can just turn them off then I can safely shut of the gas and get it repaired. I reach with my hand but quickly pull it back; too hot. I find a broom handle and reach with it to tap the knobs. The flame only grows. It's clear to me that the damage is increasing and will soon become disaster. I see on the wall above the stove the two master gas line valves. They aren't on fire yet. I try to reach them with the broom stick but I can get the leverage to rotate the valve with just a stick.

I start to panic. I can't stop this. The whole apartment is going to catch fire. I think of my roommate and worry for her safety. I intuit that her name is Laura or Lauren. I call for her to see if she is still in the apartment. I need to get everyone out before the fire gets worse. The glow from the gas flames gets brighter and brighter. I need to call the fire department. Wait, I think, I might have a fire extinguisher. Let me try that as one last chance to avert disaster. I scramble around the kitchen, searching the cabinets for the fire extinguisher. The metal of the stove now is glowing red hot. It looks ready to explode. By now, I feel more anger than panic. This is all Garrett's fault! I decide I should just run to get the heck out of there. Wake

Furniture
Some furniture gets delivered (day residue). One item is a table which can be customized with replaceable tops. The saleswoman is showing me samples, trying to get me to buy some expensive table tops.

Twitter Racing Game
I'm with Ben and Dave. They are playing a racing video game that they control from their cell phones with Twitter. The television is very high, almost at the ceiling so we have to tilt our heads to see. I really don't want to play with them or be around them. I reluctantly watch. Maybe my sister is here too?

Dave and Daisy
I'm with Dave and his family. We are waiting in a big line of people to enter a mall or maybe a movie. It's already dark. In the dream, Dave has a sister, who is Daisy. I'm only interested in hanging out with Daisy. Finally the line starts moving toward the entrance. As we near the entrance, we see a sign advertising the filming of Star Search. Dave and I want to see that instead of what we originally planned.

He asks if I want to go with him. I say yes, as long as it doesn't cost like 1000 dollars. We see that the tickets are $89 for "2 point" seats and $111 for "3 point" seats. We buy the 3 point seats and enter what looks like a movie theater. When we get in, it's open seating and the theater is already mostly full. We see two open seats that aren't very good. We realize paying extra for the "3 point" seats did nothing for us.

Then the scene changes. Instead of a movie theater, we are in a club. The layout is very strange. There are many small rooms connected by corridors. Every walks from room to room in a clockwise circle, stopping briefly to mingle, then walking to the next room. The experience feels something like a theme park. It's mostly dark and the walls are black. Loud music and laser lights. I'm walking with Dave in a crowd of people walking from room to room. Somewhere ahead of us Daisy. I want to catch up with Daisy so we can hang out. Dave is slowing me down by stopping to talk to people. He talks with one guy about getting a close shave. He finds a mirror and quickly shaves his face to demonstrate. The other guy warns him not to do that here.

I separate from Dave and get closer to Daisy in the crowd. She looks back and sees me. We almost meet but the dream fades.

Hotel Rooms
I am staying in a hotel with my girlfriend and a few other friends. We are in a large suite, but I want to have a room for just me and my girlfriend. I talk to the other friends about changing or rooming arrangement. Something about the bathroom.

Games in Mall
I'm in the video game store of a mall. I see two guys watching StarCraft on a TV screen. I talk to one them and learn he is a pro gamer. He is very friendly and encourages me to join his clan. Then he leave but has forgotten his copy of the game in the store. Then out in the mall hallways, a group of people are playing laser tag or something. It's disruptive to the other shoppers as these players run amok in the mall.

Terminator RPG
I'm in a game world. I am with my roommate Hugh. We are an RPG party. We are in a dark underground dungeon. We constantly fight enemies and descend down stairs. Each floor looks about the same as the last. I am a fighter, maybe a dwarf. I have over 400 hit points and I do most of the fighting. Hugh is a very weak class. He has 2/4 hit points. He is a pixie? He does the looting and inventory management. The enemies are all skeleton mages. They have red eyes like a terminator, but they aren't metal, just bone. I think of Terminator and expect that the later enemies will be metal and much harder. After a while, I do some of the looting. The skeleton mages have items like "Terminator tool" and "Terminator ring". I ask Hugh if I should these are worth taking or if I should just leave them.

Chess, Leaf Blower
0647: Cleaning up after a chess tournament. In a backyard, me and another guy are folding up patio tables and umbrellas and picking up chess pieces off the ground. I use leaf blower to collect the stray pieces (but in the dream, I call it a wood chipper). Need to drive the tables to a new venue. A group of four girls is leaving and the other guy wants to follow them and try to pick them up. I have trouble starting the leaf blower. I say my father game it to me, like an heirloom. There is a swimming pool and a pickup truck.

fragment
I recalled this at the very end of the night. I think it fits in here. Sara holding the front door open for me at work.

Baseball Stands
0911: At a baseball game with my father. It's a huge stadium. I think it's the Dodgers vs the Tigers in Detroit. We sit way up in the nosebleed section. Then two guys I knew in high school sit near us. My father points them out: "Hey look who it is." I ignore them and don't want to talk to them: "They aren't my friends anymore." Then the scene is a much smaller baseball field like at a high school. One of the high school classmates is at bat. He bats left-handed. He hits a foul ball that bounces around our seats and I grab it. Father suggests I give it to the other guy. But I refuse and keep it.

Another foul ball comes to me and I catch it. Then a guy in the stands who is dressed like an umpire step out to the edge of the field. He looks at me as says "Hey, we need that ball back." I think about it and then throw one of the balls to him. Then the chuckles and walks back to the stands. He tricked me! I want to say "Nice lesson in honestly for your kid" but I don't have the chance.

Short WBTB in which I use the bathroom and recall my goals and intention

Doors
Method WILD
Lucidity C
Vividness B
Control C
Begin lucid in an unfamiliar house. My plan and visualization was a Christmas party from a few weeks ago. But this house is totally different. I walk through the house, opening doors, trying to teleport to the party. One set of doors is three sets of doors, like connected hotel rooms, but three doors instead of two. I open one set of doors and see a man who looks like Wolverine from X-Men, but shorter and less threatening.

I open another door and see a woman who looks like the girl from Boy Meets World. I kiss her and then walk past. Now I am outside. It seems like a remote mountain road and the house I was in was a luxurious winter cabin. I walk out to the road. It's daylight. I'm in the middle of an evergreen forest. Dream fades.

Shutter Island and Nice Car
Method DILD
Lucidity C
Vividness B
Control C
1114: Not sure how, but I become lucid. I am in the Daisetta house. Once again I recall my goal to relive the Christmas party. I imagine a girl there whose name is Rachel. Instead I am with a woman in the family room. She leads me into the bathroom. I kiss her (I tend to do that a lot) and look at our reflection as we kill. Then she tells me that Rachel was missing but they found her (this is from the plot of Shutter Island). She pulls back the bathtub curtain. There is another woman in wet clothes who seems frightened. The bathtub is divided into two sections, like a food lunch tray.

I lose interest in that and move on. I walk back to the family room and phase through the sliding glass door (with some difficulty). Now I am outside and walk to the front yard. It's night and the streets is lined with cars. Across the street, I see a nice car with the door empty and lights on. It's white sports car, looks like a Tesla Roaster. I walk up to it and climb into the driver seat. On the passenger seat, there is a lit candle. I blow it out. Then I shift the car into drive and peel out. I drive up the residential street as fast as I can. It's fun to drive so recklessly. I turn out on to one of the main streets of town and weave through traffic. Other cars honk and swerve. I try to go even faster but I can't seem to.

Randomness
0413: Halo expansion pack for my character. Got it from Hugh or Lance. I show Ben too. Why lie? Good job market now. If lost job during recession, you will be okay now.

Pirates Game
1040: Playing Pirates of the Caribbean game. But also some elements of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. On a tropical island, fighting skeletons, trapping birds, digging for treasure.

Work
1606: I'm building a new tool at work but it's confusing. No one knows how to use it. I scramble to explain why it's working strange.

fragment
0537: Prepare for sleep with games. Dreams get wiped.

The Beach at Night
Method WILD
Lucidity D
Vividness C
Control C
0618: I visualize a sunny beach, but instead I find myself on a beach in the very dark of night. Nonetheless, there are many people around, laying as if to sunbathe. I am laying down as if sleeping. A girl walks up to me and greets me. She extends her hand to help me stand up. She has short black hair. I can barely make out her other features in the darkness. She leads me down the beach toward the water. We hop over a man laying on his back.

We get near the water and I notice the water and sand. The sand isn't smooth. It's clumpy, like a stampede of horses just trampled through. The attention to detail improves my lucidity a bit. I turn to look at the girl and realize how pretty she is. I pull her in close and kiss her. Then I say confidently and excited: "Let's go in the water!" Now I lead her by the hand a few steps into the water. Then I say, "No wait, let's go ON the water!" I start running on the water's surface, pulling her along. She's a bit scared but also excited. I feel the wind on my face as we go faster and faster. I say "We can go anywhere we want. And we can go as fast as we want!"

We are zooming along the water, parallel to the coastline. We are approaching a city in the distance. A collection of twinkling lights and buildings barely visible in the darkness. I jump off the water and soar into the city, landing on a street surrounded by tall buildings. I look around. The girl is gone. Whoops. End.

fragment
0729: Person talking about dreams. In body. Other person gets trapped in dream. ... we are OK.

Work and Games
0757: Menial tasks at work. Patching and doing regression tests. Playing the game. Zombies in a dark room. Playing another game. Humans sieging an elven city. They reach the queen's chamber and challenge her army to a final battle.

Game with Trippy Time
Method DILD (absurdity)
0815: Playing a FPS game with Hugh. He takes the lead and I follow. We are walking down a hilly city street. We reach an intersection and I look left. I see a bunch of enemies. We all turn to shoot. I only have a pistol. I fire fire shots at a guy at point blank range. But the world seems to freeze. Then it unfreezes and the five shots all go at once.

Then suddenly I seem to be on an acid trip. I see swirling colors and symbols of drugs and poison. I notice this is all so strange and become lucid. Then immediately a false awakening. It's dark and I'm in my own room. I'm confused and disoriented. End.

fragment
One last dream in here but I didn't write down. It was long. Babysitting for some rich family. Then going to a bar near a beach. Tornado warning coming in from the water. Helicopters somehow fly over the tornado and weaken it. Order drinks at the bar. See the pretty young girl I was supposed to be babysitting. She's been following me.

fragment
Ben is watching me play a computer game, but he is bored.

Haven't recorded my dreams for over a week. These are pretty weak in terms of recall and interest.

Spaceship, Randomness
0907: On spaceship which is one big open platform that we stand on. Something about Germans. Fighting. Kick guys down through a hole in the platform to their death in outer space. Cover the hole again to preserve the airlock.

skip

Learning a play in English instead of Spanish. Coworkers eating sandwiches for lunch.

TV
1135: TV crew interviews a couple about their [notes unclear: either "wedding day" or "missing dog"].

Indian, Newlyweds
1146: Guy from India is my teammate in a video game racer. His job is just to watch and control my resources and tanks. I win. His boss is upset but it turns out to be a misunderstanding. He gives me a printout of a bunch of Internet jokes. But they are all very old Coke vs. Pepsi gags. Interrupts me just as I am going in to the bathroom.

skip

Newlywed couple seeing a counselor. The guy is in the Marines and he has to leave for "basic."

Trespassers
1559: In a remote cabin, watching basketball with coworkers. I'm holding two people prisoner because I found them trespassing. I order McDonald's and share my French fries.

P vs D
I'm in a video game. It's a futuristic shooter. I'm just wandering through a spaceship when I come upon two teams fighting a match. One team has the clan tag P, the other D. P makes me think of Protoss, and for some reason I think D means Terran. The players where space suits like the marines in Starcraft. D's suits are blue, P is red. They aren't shooting each other though. They are playing a sport where you throw a ball, a bit like basketball but more like water polo without water (which, interestingly, is nothing like the game we call polo, but I digress). The glowing blue ball is in the hands of a player from the D team. The game is stopped and the two sides are arguing about something. Something about one team being rude. Then something about old forums posts for a clan called 3DM which later turned into D.

The Girl in the Window
Method DILD (false awakening), DEILD
Lucidity C
Vividness C
Control C
Short lucid here. Still got sex on the brain lately. Don't recall before, but start with a false awakening. I quickly realize I am not in my own room so I become lucid. I seem to be in a hotel room. The bed is near the window which is unshaded. It's sunny and bright outside. I look out the window. I figure I am on about the third or fourth floor. The window overlooks a swimming pool area which is surrounded by more hotel rooms on all sides. Down one floor and to the right, I see in through the window of another guest's room. It's an attractive young woman wearing just a towel. She sees me, we make eye contact. She smiles.

I step out through my window and directly to her balcony, all the way across the pool courtyard. It's as if the scene through my window is just a flat painting and I violate the fake 3D perspective and just step the short distance in 2D space. Does that make sense? Anyway, I somehow unrealistically get to the girl's room. Once I am in, things return to be more realistic. She is laying on a bed, still wearing just a white towel. She is brunette and nicely tanned. She smiles at me seductively. There's another bed in the room and another girl who I don't really pay attention to. I flirt with the girl in the towel:

Me: I'm the guy from the window.
Her: (laugh) I'm the girl from the window.
Me: Did you just get out of the shower?
Her: (nods, she stands up, walks behind me, takes my hand and starts to lead me away)
Me: (now aware of the other girl) Your roommate won't mind?

Then I wake. Damn it. I DEILD back. I'm in the same room, but the towel girl is gone. The other girl is still here. The towel girl had left my field of vision while I was looking at the other girl, so I guess this kinda makes sense. The second girl is blonde and pale, quite the opposite of the other girl. She walks to me and says nervously: "I'm not as good at this as she is", referring to the other girl who seems gone for good. We start to have sex but I'm still thinking what happened to the first girl. Dream fades. I try to DEILD again but no success.

I have filled two notebooks with my dream journal entries. This night I started my third.

Tholy's Factory
0427: I'm watching the life of an eccentric tycoon who builds a giant factory. People call him "Tholy". Inside the factory is an artificial lake, and on the lake are built battleships that we will use to beat the Russians. Tholy does all this for his nephew. There is a charitably couple who donates money to build a church inside the factory. Tholy seems interested in the wife. Something about so much money that the banks will delay the transaction for investigation. Other random details about the factory: There are two long lines of floating platforms across the lake which will be used to build the support columns. Then there are large sheets of steel that are bent over to form a roof.

Random Weirdness in Grocery Store
0742: At grocery store with mother and sister. Looking for specific things but can't find them. Maybe cheese and cat food? Something about a lightsaber that should be hanging on the wall but it's missing. Mouse and keyboard don't work. I complain that the store is arranged illogically.

Movie / Video Game
0859: Laying a bed. I hear behind me a movie playing on my computer. It sounds like a typical anime fighting movie. Then I'm looking at a youtube video of a replay of a fighting game. But it takes the person forever to navigate through the menus of the game to start it.

Random Weirdness in Apartment
0940: I'm living with Lance as my roommate. I have a phone connected to the land line. The phone rings. I accidentally have the phone off the hook while Lance is trying to make a call. My bathroom floor has a bunch of hair on it, like I just gave myself a haircut. Lance tells me my shower faucet is broken.

fragment
A friend is pregnant and about to go in to labor. (day residue)

Random Weirdness in a Video Game
1010: Sister and her boyfriend. I am playing a video game in the living room. It's a team shooter like Call of Duty. I'm covered in blankets. Something about grabbing a woman in the game. Then I'm trying to fall asleep in the same spot. Cell phone rings. Something about a horse skeleton.

Starcraft Game
1110: I'm in a game. It's a first-person shooter. The theme and units are all Starcraft. But the game plays more like Unreal Tournament. I start out as a marauder and run around jumping and shooting grenades at the enemy. Then I realize I'd rather be a reaper.

Record my 50th LD this night. I think my actual count is off by a few but it's close enough. So yay me!

Playing Cards
In the desert, maybe in the wild west like Red Dead Redemption. I am with a friend around a campfire and there's also another DC. He's a middle-aged man. In the dream I recall thinking he looked like a well-known actor but I can't recall who. We start playing cards. My friend and I play a few rounds of Texas Hold 'Em. Then the third man is dealer and he deals out a hand of 7-Card Stud, which my friend and I don't really like. Then we play a different game where we are dealt out a lot of cards, like a whole deck. I ask it he dealt too many. Recall fades.

Sex DEILD Chain
Method DEILD
Lucidity C
Vividness B
Control C
Recall is a bit hazy. DEILD from a previous dream that I don't recall. I enter the dream in an FA, looking through my sleep mask at my bedside clock. I try to move my limbs but it either wakes me up or triggers an FA. So I lay patiently without moving, just waiting and staring at the clock. I begin to become sleepy and close my eyes which triggers yet another FA.

Now I'm in a different bed and the stability of the dream is better. It's a very large bed and there is a huge pile of laundry on it, almost up to the ceiling. I'm laying on one corner of the bed. I roll out of bed and put on my glasses. The dream becomes clearer and more vivid. I walk out of the bedroom. Outside, the hallway is an open balcony overlooking the entryway and living room of the house below. I don't recognize this house at all.

Confused and disoriented, I encounter an attractive girl who I don't recognize. I grab her and we do the business. The dream destabilizes and I wake. I DEILD back into a similar scene with a different attractive and anonymous girl. I lead her back to the bedroom with the bed covered with laundry and proceed. This cycle repeats 3-4 times, connected by a mix of FAs and DEILDs. Mostly I just recall that the sex was great.

Work and Pizza
I'm at work, which is surprisingly rare in my dreams. I sitting in one of the pens instead of my real office. I recognize many real coworkers sitting near me. CG is walking back and forth between me and LM, because LM and I don't get along. CG is calling him "Steel" for some reason. Anyway, I'm begin especially sarcastic and disruptive.

I walk to the kitchen where I see one box of pizza so I take a slice and return to my desk. Moments later, I return to the kitchen just as a pizza delivery man is dropping off another pizza box. This happens a few times, with a delivery man dropping off a single pizza just as I am there to take a slice.

Been out of practice for most of the week. I can see my dream recall suffering. This was a good night though.

Practice RCs, Dream Guide
Method DILD (prospective memory)
Lucidity B
Vividness C
Control B
0626: I don't recall the beginning very well. I'm laying on a bed. My roommate is in the room. I push off a bunch of small wood blocks from the bed and they fall on the floor noisily. Then I pull the covers over me and my roommate leaves the room. I don't know why, but I remind myself to do a reality check. I nose-plug once and don't believe it. I do it again and now realize I am lucid. I remember my plan: do nothing, practice reality checks, let my dream guide find me.

I walk out of the room. I now seem to be in the Daisetta house. I walk out to the backyard and then around to the side of the house. I try a list of RCs. Many of these I've rarely or never done so I wanted to experience what they were like in a dream:

Nose-plug: I can breathe.
Count fingers: I have double-vision as I look at my hands but I still count 10 fingers.
Finger through palm: doesn't work.
Memory: I couldn't recall how I got to this house.

The next few needed some objects, so I walked back inside the house to the kitchen.

Clock: numbers were changing crazily, and I could will them to change.
Text: for double-spaced lines, the text seemed normal. Fsingle-spaced lines, it started to dance and look crazy. But for both I don't recall actually reading or remembering the words.
Light switch: I notice the light turn on and off but the light level doesn't really change. But there was also sunlight coming through the window so I wouldn't expect a lamp to make much difference.

Cool, that was interesting. Now what. I notice my roommate in the house, so I decide to will him to leave. I look at him and imagine that he is about to leave for work. He does starting moving toward the front door and out to a car in the driveway. I follow him with my eyes and my will all the way until he is gone.

Then I recall the bit about letting my dream guide find me. On cue, the door bell rings. I open it and a man enters. He's maybe 35, slightly overweight, with tan skin, black hair, and a goatee mustache. I don't recognize him, nor is he very impressive. He just looks like a random guy. In his hands, he has a brown paper bag. From the bag, he pulls out a candle which he presents to me like a gift. He says something like "Here's something that helps others in your situation." I try to interpret what that means but don't get it. He opens the bag and shows me what else is in there: a bottle of sake and a fried rice cracker treat that you might get at a Japanese restaurant or market. I'm trying to figure out what these things could mean and I wonder if this guy is really my dream guide.

The door bell rings again. This time, it's another man, a bit older than the last, with pale skin and a cleanly shaved face. He's wearing a blue business casual shirt and slacks. I imagine he is an accountant and I vaguely recognize him as a type actor who plays small parts in TV shows and commercials. He doesn't say anything. I look at him and back at the other man. Confused. Not sure what to make of this. Dream ends.

New AA At Work
1207: Living with my mother. New work office. I sense that my work is a TV show and we've started a new season with some new characters and a new setting. There's a new administrative assistant who is an attractive blond woman who reminds me of an actress. I need to fill in a overtime paycheck request form. I do this and give it to the woman. She checks and and sees I forget the date at the top. I take it back and realize I've filled the whole thing in pencil but it should be in pen. I feel embarassed.

Complaining About The Team
0144: In a dark office with Lance. It's raining outside. We are talking about the company football team. The quarterback was replaced by C and we are joking about how bad he is. He can't throw a spiral. Lance finds a radio broadcast of the game on the internet. Our team is losing. Now it seems to be college football instead of the company. We talk about what are team should do. Now it seems to be Starcraft instead of football. Lance says all they do it mass tier one units. I suggest something tricky like a DT rush.

So I'm trying to get back focused on my tasks. My lucid rate has been ok lately but they have all been kinda aimless and accidental. I want to get into my fun and rewarding tasks. Didn't actually succeed in any this night, but it was a good effort so I feel good about it.

First Cycle Randomness
0755: B. First cycle. Bunch of randomness here. Not sure of the order. I'm in an airport, picking up lots of loose change. I think there was just a party of something and there's a bunch of change left. There are also pushpins with people's names written on them. I think the one I read said Bill. I am careful to keep the coins and pins separate. Then my father is here and he's haggling with a man to buy a coin sorting machine. I really want him to buy it to make my job easier. The fact that he's haggling over the price makes me think he is cheap. Then I'm talking to my father about the pushpins and the names on them. They were part of some party event where each person is given a pin and you're suppose to find the person whose name is on it. Or something like that. My father and I are talking about the psychology of it. Something about how people's anticipation always leads to disappointment and therefore people's happiness is always going down. Weird. Then I'm at another party or maybe back to the party that started it all. A group of people are sitting on couches around one guy. He looks like a frat boy with a backwards hat and t-shirt. They are talking about the pushpin game. He's bragging about how good he is at these party games. Last time, the game was to annoy people and he won four times in a row. He also has his own internet video feed on him all the time called "HD Hale." Then I'm watching a TV commercial for MetLife with a statue at the top of a building. The voice-over is talking about how they have solid investments on Mars. The statue is of Abraham, Jesus, and 4 other monks holding torches. But then the commercial turns into a comedy skit. Jesus is now Robert Downey Jr. and he's talking to the Abraham statue, who is played by someone named Carmack. He's saying, "Hey Carmack, why do you always get to be the father of God?"

Street Fighter Documentary
0927: C. Hugh is watching a documentary about Street Fighter. The original stages were in an underground hideout of a gang called the Panthers. But they abandoned it because it was radioactive. Then it talks about the possibility of a sequel and what will happen to the characters after many years. I see an older Ryu with his face starting to wrinkle and his hair starting to go gray. It says Blanka won't be around because he can't have children.

Counter-Strike, Lucid
Method DILD (spontaneous)
Lucidity B
Vividness B
Control C
0949: Very quick time from the previous dream. I'm in a game of Counter-Strike. I must be T because all my enemies look like CTs. A guy is camping upstairs in a building with the Para machine gun. I sneak in through a window and kill him. I take his machine gun and start camping the same building. I'm at the top of a stairway, overlooking the front room of the building which has a front door and several broken windows. Many CTs try to attack me from this front door and windows. One has a shield. But I mow them all down with my machine gun.

As I'm doing this, I sense that I'm narrating the action in my head. It's as if I'm trying to help myself recall this later for my dream journal. Now one more enemy comes to the front door with a flashbang in his hand. He throw it up the stairway and it goes off near me. This sudden flash combined with the self-narration makes me lucid. I stop fighting. I walk down the stairs and outside. I still see the CT enemies around but they are just standing still doing nothing.

I look at the scenery. Vividness is pretty good. It's bright day. It seems like a small town in France or Italy with cobblestone streets and stone buildings. I'm in a large city square or courtyard, with impressive buildings on three sides and a street lead up a hill to the north. I've been walking up the street on the slight incline of the hill. I start to remember my plan. I rub my hands and look at them to stabilize. Feels pretty good. Next task: summon music. For some reason, I think I should be indoors for this. I turn around and see one of the buildings. It's an old stone church with stained glass windows. Think Notre Dame. It's beautiful and vivid. I start walking toward it, but the dream fades.

More Gunfighting
1108: B. It starts a bit like the end of the last dream. I'm in a quaint European town, but now it's near the ocean. I'm in a large courtyard again. In one direction there looks to be a shipyard. In the middle of the shipyard is a futuristic airplane that looks like a giant green and purple hornet. Hugh is here and I guess it's his plane. He's sort of like Batman and the hornet plane is like the Bat-Mobile. Hugh says he just got all the armor upgrades for it. He gets in and it flies way.

Skip. The scene is now similar to the beginning of the previous dream. I'm in an old building that feels like a church. I'm on the second floor balcony that overlooks the large room below. I'm alone with a machine gun and I'm fighting off enemies below. This time, I think they look like marines from Starcraft. After a wave, I am reinforced by my friend H who leads a small group of his own marines. He says we need to move out. Before leaving, I pull out my dream journal, lay on the ground (still in the dream), and start writing in it about this dream.

Bus Station, Failed Task, The Moon and Mars
Method DILD (false awakening)
Lucidity C
Vividness C
Control C
1201: I think I am in a suburb of New York City. I am near the river at a bus station. It's early morning and it's mostly light but the sun isn't fully up yet. I'm looking around for someone or something, not sure what. There are a few DCs around and in the booth selling tickets. I walk all the way around the building and give up on what I was looking for. I am wearing a black sweatshirt and sweatpants but white shoes. I exit the bus station through a chain link fence. I get on a skateboard and start skating away toward a residential neighborhood.

False awakening. I'm in an unfamilar bedroom with very little furniture. I'm sleeping on a cheap cot. There's just a bit of morning sunlight coming through a window to my right. This is all wrong so I become lucid and back it up with a nose-plug RC. But for some reason I question whether I am really dreaming. I nose-plug several times, each time confirming that I am indeed dreaming.

So I finally accept that I'm dreaming and try to remember my plan. Rub my hands. Ok, I do that but I bit rushed. Summon music. The song I have in mind is "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd. I imagine it in my head for a moment and expect it to keep playing on it's own. No. I try to will the universe to play it for me. No. I gesture with my hand, as if pressing a button on a remote control toward a stereo. No. Hmm. Not working. Discouraged, I abandon the rest of the plan.

Instead, I hop out the window and hover and land on the street. It's a quiet residential neighborhood, like in the scene before the FA. The street is framed with big trees whose leaves have turned orange and brown for the fall. The sun is just rising in the distance and the sky is still a bluish-black with stars visible. I can also see the moon and Mars, which is right next to the moon and almost as big. The colors are so rich and it's a beautiful scene. I think to fly to the moon or maybe fly to Mars instead. I run and jump and get some height but then halt. It's like my rockets ran out and I slowly drift back down to the ground. Now I'm stuck and I start the feel my physical body. I can feel the sleep paralysis and so now my dream body can't move. Even my neck is stiff but I'm still looking up toward the moon and Mars. I know I'm waking up soon and I can't move, so I start bring the moon down to me! I pull the moon closer with my mind and it's getting bigger and bigger. It's about to fill my view and crash into the Earth when I wake up.

Zerg, Driving, Bar
1247: C. Was patrolling for Zerg (Starcraft again). I found some but forget to write down where on the map. (I think that was a false memory in the dream and I didn't actually experience it.) Anyway, I'm beating myself up for that mistake. Now I'm driving home in my car. The street looks like the area around my real office. I want to stop at a bar. I have to make a left turn into the parking lot and I have to wait a while as other cars are pulling out of the lot. I think I cut someone off. I walk into the bar and it's very small. Everything is wood paneled. I accidently bump into a guy near the door. He's with a group of rowdy people. They must be college students and I want to avoid them. I walk to the bar area. The stools are all out of place. I pick up one and place it at the bar and sit down. I'm sitting next to a middle-aged guy to my right. I think he says hello to me. There are two bartenders which I think is weird for such a small bar and only a few people inside. They are both young guys with short black hair. One says hello to me and asks what I want. I think for a moment and order a Corona Light (which I though was weird because I'd probably never order that in a real bar). Dream fades.

0820: Amusement part. Christmas for Hugh's younger brothers. Video game theme. I am announcer of the ride as they go down.

1115: Tom Cruise ... in ... Suggest it is a ...

1400: In math class. Learning about Heydinger Bollinger fields. French teacher watches. I feel like I am not following.