Sailing the Noosphere

I'm playing at Pokerstars on my laptop, and losing pretty bad, when my machine suddenly crashes with a blue screen of death. I panic and restart, then try and diagnose the problem. I find that I have a virus from the old music site Kazaa, and Google from another computer to try and find the solution. I realize my trusty flash drive has the antivirus software I need, so I grab it and jack into the laptop.

When I open up "My Computer," I realize that every machine on the botnet is listed, an endless list with constantly shifting names (failed RC). Finding my flash drive, with the appropriate software, will be impossible... The visuals for this are all very vivid.

My parents and I are at the Cincinnati Museum Center taking in an exhibit on history. Multiple periods are contrasted, from ancient Assyrian engravings to the civil rights struggles in America. The exhibit proper ends with a model of a very pretty African-American girl in pearls and a cocktail dress getting lynched... then opens into a gift shop. People are sitting on benches in the shop with laptops, playing poker on Pokerstars.net. My mom comments on this as rather silly, then goes to discuss some business about layaway.

Poker serves as a transition point to an outdoors scene, where I sit down to a large ring game of Holdem. My mom insists on joining me, and initially the other players are fine with it. However, she is slow at playing and screws up her deal of Omaha when it comes around to her. The game goes back to Holdem and I get AK in the hole. My mom goes all-in, and I look at my cards again (which have become AA, so missed reality check) and call. Other players are disgusted with me for some reason...

I false awaken into my room at home, then go downstairs. My brother and his friend are there and report also dreaming about poker. With some questioning I find that they shared my dream, varying in minor details. I freak out about this and wake up.

1. I'm following my friend MB at her college. She changes clothes into a very pretty dress, then goes into a local casino and sits down to play blackjack. She's doing all right, but I decide to log onto a computer terminal and anonymously transfer money to her account for betting.

2. I kill a childhood bully, Nick E, with an axe in the backyard of my college dorm.

1. I'm engaged in a 2 vs 2 duel of Yugioh. My dream body is that of Yugi himself, and I'm teamed with Kaiba against Joey and some random DC. Everyone's cards have different backs instead of the standard vortex; my own have the Cinderella Castle from Walt Disney World. The game proceeds for a while, and Kaiba eventually summons a White Eyes Black Dragon which wipes out the other players. As we clear the table, there's some confusion as to whose cards are whose (even with the different backs). Suddenly I'm not Yugi anymore, and Kaiba asks me if I want to a draft of Magic the Gathering.

2. I'm in a hotel for an unspecified reason with my friend M from college. Our mutual friend Z has died, leaving us to write grief-stricken.

A number of circumstances have affected my recall and ability to post for the past week. But in any case:

1. A weird alternating dream; it began with scenes from an imagined Star Wars Family Guy. I remember a particular scene where Lois, toting a rifle, swung it about the cantina saying in a cutesy voice "Who's the murderer?" However, whenever a lightsaber cut was made, it seemed to cut through the animation. Through the hole would enter tentacles, as if from a Lovecraftian horror. It was like an oozing fungus, and as it consumed and grew I became physically ill. This change of scenes happened a couple of times before I woke up, breathing heavily.

2. In my grade school cafeteria, I'm playing blackjack. The cards aren't falling my way, and so I leave and go upstairs. I find myself upon opening a door in my own room. Soon V and J enter; V has a new haircut, but all the two can talk about is my own egregious bed head.

3. A huge earthquake breaks apart the continents, leaving much technology preserved but social and political lines in chaos.

4. I run parkour-style through a massive prefab house facility, only to find my research group seated in the middle in an already-assembled house. They are nonplussed and continue to play poker.