non-lucid

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.

The title pretty much says it all. I'm dressed in all black, stalking into my old high school with a flute in my hand to play for their Christmas concert. The place is well lit and pretty busy, so I sneak into a stairwell and slide underneath to hide in the darkness. I feel the approach of something evil, so I sprint up the stairs to the top floor. When I look out, I see that the whole floor has been cut away, replaced by a huge hole and some unknown machine surrounded by catwalks. Scientists in white lab coats surround the machine and enlist my help in turning it on. This I do, and an energy beam shoots out from its center and starts to cut through everything in its path. I realize that it's supposed to drill to the center of the earth.

I'm hanging out with one of my advisers from my summer internship. He's filming a documentary about global warming, and he walks through the halls of his university as I follow him in a powered wheelchair (having great fun as I do this). He and the film crew then take off for London, and I follow them onto the plane. I realize that I haven't packed anything for the trip and start to freak out.

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.

I'm watching a TV ad for a new day care center, showing itself as "fun" for the kids. The babies enter the building by a catapult launcher, which throws them headfirst into tubes that then slow them down before depositing them in a central play room. All fine and good, but then the dream shifts into something more sinister. Babies keep on coming, row upon row of identical babies with blank stares. This continues until someone decides the only way to deal with it is to flood the world, and water pours over the packed babies to suffocate them all.

The dream starts in my ecology classroom. The teacher has just handed back an exam, and I've done particularly poorly. I start to complain, arguing for several of my answers, but the teacher doesn't budge. I become louder and more forceful, flailing my arms and even screaming. My classmates start to look at me funny, but I don't care...

I wake up into the same ecology classroom. I realize that the previous dream had been caused by me falling asleep in class, and I'm quite embarrassed. The teacher scolds me while handing back the actual test, on which I've done well. It seems that I actually moved a bit while dreaming, and I apologize. This is, of course, a false awakening, and I soon wake into real life.

I'm driving with my friend Z., and we pull over to a rest stop to chill and get gas. As one of us is pumping the gas, a policeman comes over and asks to see our identification. When we show him, he gets a serious look on his face and tells us we need to come with him. I know I haven't done anything wrong, so I make some excuse about needing to dig around in the car for a bit and then floor the accelerator. We engage on an epic chase sequence through rolling green countryside, and eventually I manage to shake him by doubling back at a turn.

I head to another police station and report the activity. The officer there takes me seriously and hauls the other one in for questioning. He uncovers a whole ring of corruption where officers drive people out to the middle of deserts, take their money, and leave. The dream shifts to an explanation of the charges and the whole conspiracy before I wake.

1. I'm taking a trip with my college friends into New York City. We ride the subway, then get off and start to negotiate taxi prices to get to our next destination. There are 15 of us, and the lady at the counter just kind of laughs when we ask if we could get a decent rate. At this I snap, and pull out a sniper rifle. I order everyone to the roof, and they obey fearfully.

Everyone lines up along the ledge of the roof, while I take a fortified position near the back. I start sniping, one after another, and feel great sorrow when I catch one of my friends with a bullet. Soon the police arrive, but without proper backup, and I snipe several of them. I then notice a stunning woman in a white dress swinging her legs out of a nearby window. I put my scope on her, but then notice she too has a rifle. She smiles at me and starts shooting at the crowd. Eventually the police get a machine gun emplacement set up and start to pepper my position, and the concrete blocks that shield me start to give way.

I awaken into my dorm room at college, where I get up and breathe on a mirror. I start writing the salient points of the dream in my breath as my friends are playing Mario Party in the background on the N64. It's hard to get the words to stay (failed RC), but I feel satisfied at some point. I then real awaken, angry...

2. I'm playing backgammon and discussing world issues with former president Bill Clinton.

3. I go to a concert in Columbus Ohio where Avenged Sevenfold is doing an experimental set and recording it directly to Youtube.

I have gone to the back of the campus dining hall, where some students have started a productive garden. Everything is planted in raised beds, but there are benches and containers that once held the plants currently in the ground. I take a couple of these containers and begin to arrange some tomatoes in them, then place the full container on a bench. One of the cafeteria workers, an older black lady, approaches me and begins to talk about the uses of tomatoes as I listen politely.

1. I am in jazz band, and my bass skills fail me rather epically.

2. I'm drinking with my friends, in what amounts to a rehash of the truth-or-dare game from the night before.

3. I visit a shooting range with my dad and pop off a good deal of rounds fairly accurately. I note that instead of my meager 22 rifle, I could be renting Uzis and machine guns! Before I can do so, a whole busload of deaf and dumb people pour out onto the range. They talk in sign language to each other and begin to shoot.

I exit my old house and start off at a good jog through my neighborhood. I set an excellent pace, and it feels as if the scenery is flying by without me slowing down or getting fatigued. I pass along an avenue with heavy woods to both sides and come out in a more rural area. I see a church building to the side, and I pull into it to rest. Several attractive girls invite me to stay for the service, so I do. The preacher, their father, is incredibly charismatic, but I soon realize he's spouting nonsense about aliens and other science-fiction style crazies. I leave, but not before I'm forced to take their book, which has a purple cover and a hypnotic spiral on the front.

After I arrive back home, I start to read the book. As soon as I open it, an invisible force projects from the pages and forces me flying backwards! I realize that if I turn the book, I can use this force to actually fly, and I buzz around my house and backyard for a few moments. I then figure that this is a bad sign, so I manage to fling the book away and land hard. I then rip the book into several pieces and place it in a compost pile.

My college friends and I have gone to the apartment of the children's musical group, the Wiggles. Part of my dream-self expects their place to be brightly colored and the Wiggles themselves to be dressed in gaudy clothing. When I see them, however, they are dressed in solid black robes and topped with Spanish priest hats (birettas). They look serious and even epic, although they maintain a sense of good humor as we visit. Eventually we start to play improv theater games, and they guide us through some tips. My friend Q is advised to be "more like Morgan Freeman" for his dramatic entrance.

I'm in some massive factory where robots are being reconditioned after mechanical failure. They shuffle through a row of men and women in white lab coats holding scanners, and above all the bustle is an official-looking man holding a digital watch (time RC). When a robot is identified as needing repairs, it's taken to the side. All the others are stuffed onto a train and sent whistling through the underground complex. The goal is to get each batch of robots done in five minutes, but this rarely happens.

1. I'm reading articles on the internet, and see that the University of Kentucky has a sophisticated oil-cleanup system. I stop reading that and read about a local college's study abroad program. One is to Kenya, another to another African country where the girls are very fat. Also on the website is the college's opening ceremony, where a Christian singer's voice is beautiful enough to cause chicken eggs to hatch.

2. I visit the same college's game club. I see myself playing a board game with P and others, and express surprise.

1. I'm dressing in my room to go to my old high school. I'm indecisive, and wind up taking clothes with me into the school bathroom. I change several times, but the bell rings when I'm in a long-sleve shirt, shorts, and gym shoes with long socks. This is an ugly combination and I have a minor panic attack as I have to go to class.

2. I'm walking the streets of a generic city with my mom. Together we enter a Jamaican-themed hotel, where a steel-drum fronted band is playing a tropical tune. My mom steals the bass and rips off a solo, then throws the bass to me. I miss, and the bass crashes to the floor. We leave and go to eat, and I am rude to her as dinner conversation continues. She reaches a breaking point and tells me tearfully that she's hidden three divorces previous to my dad and my own conception.