side notes

My dream recall has been different lately. Usually i remember something when i wake up and that's gonna be my entire recall. Lately i've been waking up without recall only to get flashbacks of the dream back to me at random.

I dreamed about tidying my room i even brought up the vacuum cleaner wich i never do unless i'm expecting someone to come over. (i was cleaning my dream home because i was expecting company!!!!)

I remember a passionate scene where i was saying goodbye to someone. In the freedom of a dream there's like no boundaries. It was very nice to be able to really express love without the bad feelings of guilt and other things that hold us back. That someone i saw yesterday and i kinda knew it's probably the last time i'm ever going to see her in person. We never really got closure or anything so for the sake of being happy about the situation i'm going to assume this was a shared dream and she won't have any negative feelings left-over towards me. It's a perfect ending.

I was in Island Park (real place), a man promised a real trip. I know it meant acid. I felt anticipation and then rejection when it did not come through.

Then I'm traveling somewhere. My dream cars are almost always like clown cars. Like I'm oversized or the car is too little, and I feel like there is never a roof. Anyway.. I'm driving and going over hills and I notice I can see the outlines of the states and it's like I'm driving on a map. I was between Kansas and Missouri. I felt lost and I didn't know where I was supposed to be going, but I know I had a destination. I don't know if I was being followed the whole time or if anyone had been with me, but I remember shouting at someone in another car, telling them I was bound to get lost and I needed help. It was someone I knew, but that's all I know about them.

According to my memory, next I was in some sort of forest, but it was slightly cartoon-like. I might've been in the same dream, because I know more came before this, but all I can remember is thinking of Yogi Bear and then a bear-like creature appeared. At that moment, I felt I had just figured out something big. Something spiritual, something for myself. In fact, thinking the name Yogi, the appearence of the creature, and the epiphany-like feeling all hit me simultaneously. I wish I could remember more about this part, because it's making me think of my spirit guide.

>>> Later on, during a nap.

I'm dreaming of being at work (where I had just been.) I'm sitting on pot of chili along with a friend, and it actually felt quite awkward, but I was supposed to sit on it to keep it warm. Then once it was at the right temp, we were supposed to stick it on the stove-top. I also remember talking to a co-worker about one of the managers and something that was going on with him. I remember looking around and realized that the manager I was talking about had been staring at me the whole time. I pretended that I didn't say anything.

I have from time to time had prison dreams. Although not in a long time and seldom recorded.

I was sitting on the toilet in a dingy bathroom watching a picture tube TV. As I began to notice my surroundings. I realized I was in a men's bathroom that was packed with rugged men who looked down on their luck.

As a group walked out, one man squeezed my hand in a suggestive way. I retracted my hand quickly. I took a look at the gray jumpsuits and realized with a certain level of fear: I was in prison and I was one of the smallest friendliest faces around.

I made my voice extra deep and tried to make dull and ignorant sounding statements. I left the bathroom with lurching gate. I entered a community area and there was my best friend Joe, his other best friend, my GF, and a few other people.

I wondered what we all had done. I took my GF aside into a storage like room with a connecting walk way over an enclosed courtyard. I had the impression she was merely a visitor. I asked her:

"How did I end up in prison? I don't remember even going to a trial."

She told me my name was on an arrest list. I started looking around trying to take in the predicament and how I would need to act to survive. It crossed my mind I was arrested due to a case of mistaken identity. I looked past the courtyard where I saw a 20ft barbed wire fence and police cars on the other side.

Tried to WILD. I got my body into SP, or just about. I was like this for an hour before I turned over to just sleep. I kept getting a small vibration in my ear at every small sound I heard. Is that normal for you guys? I've felt it before trying to enter SP, does anyone know what that is?

Anyway, rolled over and had a dream. I was at some kind of cook-out family thing at my moms house. My cousins were there, and my sisters. I had my son and T with me. I was going in and out of rooms. I saw my oldest sister in one room, and she was kind of acting like she used to when we were living together. Like her teenage self again. I remember seeing my other sister, but she was being stand-offish, like me a little. My oldest sister, I'm not sure how she was doing this, I can't remember her really saying anything to me, but she seemed to be trying to pry at me like start a fight. Kind of acting like I was having a bad attitude and she was going to make it a scene, I don't know.

So I was getting kind of pissed off and wanting to leave. In my head we had been there for a couple hours already, so I went into the living room and saw my mom on the couch. It took me a second to focus on T sitting next to her, I raised my eyebrows (something we do when we wanna leave someplace) and he nodded. We started to get W's things together when my mom was kind of like, "ahh are you leaving already? I'm cooking chicken, don't you guys wanna eat?" I told her it sounded good, and I sat down on the couch. I started ranting to her about how D, my oldest sister was being. She didn't really listen, and T made it look like we were going to stay and eat.

I went outside and for some reason there were people standing at a stop light next to their car. They actually were dancing to some techno in the middle of the street. It looked like fun and I went and joined in for a bit. Then I'm walking back to the house and there's an election going on, something for the city.

Everyone's in these pews and the little electronic voting things are behind this pulpit or w/e. Everyone's getting seated, my sisters and mom and dad are in the back row. T's voting in the thingy. I get up to go talk to him. I've got W in his carseat and I'm carrying his bags. T comes out from behind the thing and we're looking for somewhere to sit. This old man pats the pew next to him and I laugh for some reason. Then we notice an newly empty pew and we sit.

There's a comedian of some sort on the stage thingy and he was being kind of funny. Apparently he had some of his friends down in the corner at the front and they were laughing all annoyingly giving their friend shit. I got a close look at one of his friends and it looked a lot like the cable guy. Ugh.

Then I'm outside again and I was getting outa my car for some reason, going back inside to see T and W. I take my seatbelt off and my shirt comes off. I get out of the car before I realize I'm only in my bra. As I'm walking back to my car, this girl comes out of a clothing store, she's dressed really preppy and my first thought was, she got the job. Then she says something a long the lines of "I've already dealt with enough dirty whores today, please." I was shocked. She was walking toward her bike rather quickly now. I started following her, still in my bra, pissed off. She seemed a little scared and I asked her what her problem was. I grabbed the bag that was in her hand and slammed it down. She almost got to her bike, but I beat her and pushed it over, getting in her face. I was so ready to tear her up. She moved and started walking away from the bike. I picked up the bike about to throw it at her, I ended up sitting it down. I was going to go inside, but she said something else to make me mad. She was on the ground, not sur ehow she got there, but I kicked her really hard in the belly.

As I did I saw a cop go by on a street about 10 feet away. I hurried and hid in the entrance of the place where T was. I saw the cop pull in. The girl was still on the ground where I left her. I almost went inside to sit down, but I figured they'd find me and it'd make a big scene. So I stayed put, but I was really scared and hating myself for what I did. Then I hit denial. I said fuck this, this is a dream and I made myself wake up.

I went back to sleep. I was at my moms again, same cook out. I was standing outside with my cousin, so I thought, then he started yelling at me. Then I'm inside with my mom and she tells me she needs to show me a video. It's a video of me and it was telling me about "all the drama" I cause in the family. I couldn't believe that she thought of me like this. One term, brightly bolded, like they were trying to sell the damn thing said "Dramatic Darkness" is what it called me. My mom was almost in tears, like it was some kind of intervention thing. I gave her a really disgusted look, angry because I knew her and my family absolutely didn't understand me at that moment. I got up to leave and she said if I left then me and T would have no place to stay anymore. (I don't live with her, I have no idea what that was about.) I said, "That's great mom, reject your daugther and your grandson. You know, mom, W is all I have now." Then I gave her more attitude, mockingly, said "yes I know this is more 'dark drama'!" Then I was going around to grab all the stuff. I went into the kitchen and I didn't leave, I cried.

Before me and her got into it, me and T had also had a fight, I just can't remember much about that one.

Also, I can't remember if the following bit is from my nap or last night's dream, but I remembered something else.

Being on a bike path of some sort with my friend A and she was guiding me around it.

So I'm at this place, and there are people waiting on these little subway type things. Some of the people were a few of my friends. One of them, A, was handing out blotter acid. Instead of the paper though, these were transparent and had the look of cotton, but the texture was like those stale "bread" crums you get at church.

I had my son with me, but it was like three in the morning and he was sleeping in his carseat. We were sitting on this bench outside. I told her I better not, then I changed my mind. I took two of these acid tablets and realized I could get my mom to babysit. I try to call on her, but my friends were shaking their heads at me. They all left me there with my son, getting ready to trip. I started tripping, no visuals, but I had an extreme body high.

I remember that it started to wear off fairly quick, and I remember being home and getting online. I was upset that my friends ditched me on acid. I got on aim to talk to someone. I remember talking to him but I have no idea what was said.

The dream faded.

I'm in a gas station now and my friend, A, is with me again. I'm behind the register, which is a little role-reversal, my friend is the one that worked at this station. Anyway, Danny Carey, the drummer from Tool, walks in. Everyone in the store was like shiit it's Danny Carey. I was blown away. He was in a hurry and told us he had a meeting to go to soon. So I let him cut, he's f'n Danny Carey! lol My friend does something to where she payed for his stuff and he payed her back or some shit. So I had to sign some huge ticket and Danny starts to leave. Before he is out the door I say, " Heyyy, next time you swing by, you better have Maynard with you."

He laughed and smiled and said "Alright! I will do that!" lol The whole thing felt so real, like how it would've happened if it did in real life. So I sort of feel like I met Danny Carey.

<33

I hate getting redirected. Lost EVERYfuckingTHING!

Ok. Pardon me, please.

I was at home with my parents. I can't remember what we were doing, except my mom had a bunch of lighters with a flower and some fancy little writing. I can't remember what it said, but each lighter was in different colors, same design. For some reason, my dad was really irritated with me. Everytime I spoke he got very angry. I have no idea what I was doing and I was so confused in the dream. I was trying to figure out what was wrong but he just kept getting angrier. So I went and sat by my mom in another room. I was crying and trying to talk to her, but it was really hard to do.

My dad came into the room with his arm raised. He was getting ready to hit me really hard and I was so scared. I had never felt that scared of somebody before. I remember closing my eyes, crying still, prepared for it. Then he stopped. I got up to leave. I went outside and realized I was standing in a parking lot.

I was pushing a cart and started to run. I noticed ice all over the ground and I was sliding. I didn't want to fall so I kind of started skating to slow myself down. I couldn't see my car and I wasn't sure if it was even there. I walked over a few rows and saw my car. I reached it and then a cop was standing beside me. He grabbed a cup that I hadn't noticed was in my hand. He checked the cup, as if suspecting alcohol. I let him and then he was asking me what happened.

I just told him I got into a fight with my parents, I didn't want dad to get into trouble. The cop said something about being underage. I was about to tell him that I'm an adult when my parents came out and were getting into the car. My dad saw the cop and gave me look of disgust. I told him I didn't call them and the cop started asking him questions. I decided to leave.

I was getting into my car and I noticed J's truck sitting next to my car. He was in the drivers seat, staring at me. He had a soft sympathetic look on his face. I got out to say goodbye and I saw my son in his passenger seat. I went around the truck and picked up my son. I was about to buckle him into his car seat when I woke up.

So, I guess it was a good thing I got redirected because I remembered more details that time, like the ice all over the parking lot. Crazy dream...

Forgot to mention, in waking life, me and my father get along and are very close. =/

A few months ago I had to design an "innovative" game as some sort of homework.
Even though I had a good idea, I couldn't figure out one of the key elements in the game.
I thought about it a lot and randomly ended up having a lucid dream where I actually was in the game I designed.

To my surprise, the problematic element in questions was already fixed in a rather brilliant way, which I thought was absolutely awesome.
Since then I've been meaning to test if I can actively use lucid dreaming to sort of overcome similar hurdles, where I'm lacking the creativity to solve a certain problem.


I wake up.
I try not to move and close my eyes, trying to remember any dreams.
Oddly enough, my mind is blank, I feel like something is preventing me from thinking clearly.
I find this rather weird and decide to get up.
Grabbing my dream notebook I notice that the currently open page is not empty.
Did I write something down during the night? I can't remember doing so.

I have a hard time deciphering the text in my notebook, which Isn't very unusual since I often take notes with the lights off if I wake up during the middle of the night.
Suddenly the text seems clear. It says:

"Fireflies in the Sky. Wake up!"

It's written in very beautiful old fashioned style.
I can't have written this! My handwriting is horrible!
What does this even mean?

Then I get it... I'm dreaming!
Fireflies? Huh? Oh well, the wake up note was useful.

I rub my hands.
For once I try to remember if I set myself any goals for lucid dreams, which is something I always forget to do.
I try to think of the current task of the month, but then I remember it's already June and I haven't checked what the current Totm is.
Then I remember the dream where I solved my game design issue and that I wanted to try if I can do something like that voluntarily.

I decide that I want to create a game right now, but I want my subconscious to design it for me.
An exploration adventure type of game in a mysterious world, that's what I want to create!
Something sort of like a modern Myst game.

I summon my Phoenix wings and try to teleport, thinking of these key aspects, but it doesn't work.
I strongly feel like this type of teleportation only works if I have a specific location in mind.
Maybe I should try another form of teleportation.
I think about opening the door in my room, hoping for the finished game to be behind it, but decide against it.
I know what lies behind this door too well, I doubt it would work like that.

I should use a portal!
Using my right index and middle finger I draw a big circle on one of the walls in my room.
Even though the borders of it clearly form and start glowing, the inside is still solid.
This is not working quite right.
Then I remember that KristaNicole uses portals in a different way.
She writes the name of the destination or the person she wants to meet on the portal before opening it.
I decide to try that.

I make the tip of my index and middle finger glow and use them to write onto the portal:

"Explore"
"Adventure"
"Mystery"

I rest my palm on the wall and try to push against it with some energy.
The text I've written glows and the wall within the boundary of the portal disappears.
I'm now standing in front of a portal with a bright blue/white glowing border with very dark purple void inbetween.
Sweet! I step through the portal.



I fall out upside down on the other side, in my usual fashion.
I'm really not very good at portals...
Noticing that I am now outdoors, I look around trying to figure out where I am:


What the heck, I know this place!
Of course! This is once of the worlds in Myst IV!
I'm amazed at first that what I tried sort of worked, but a bit disappointed that I didn't end up in a new game.

Another portal opens and Yuya jumps out.
I am actually very surprised by that. I usually go to her, not the other way around.
Plus, am I not in my own dream bubble? can she enter my dreams like that?
Then I remember that she's actually done it before.

"Silly Hyu."
"You gave me permission to enter your dreams a long time ago."

She's probably right. Why would I not? I love having her around.

"It's amazing what the human mind can do, isn't it?"
"Yes, it absolutely is, though this isn't exactly what I've tried to accomplish."
"Are you so sure about that?"
"Well... this is a world from Myst."

"Are you suggesting that your subconscious accessed the game data to generate this world?"
"Well, no. That would be silly."
"Yes. In other words this isn't a perfect copy of the Myst world."
"How long has it been since you've played that game?"
"Quite a few years actually."
"Yes. Do you really think this world is in any way identical to the world in Myst?"
"Well. No. Probably not. But it feels the same way."
"Exactly. But you still created this world. Your subconscious decided where the mountains go, which way the rivers flow..."

Suddenly I'm not really disappointed anymore. She's absolutely right, I created this, it totally worked.
I point my hand at a spot on the ground and try to grow a tree with my mind.
A small plant pops out of the ground and slowly grows into a fully grown tree.

"Holy shit! This is awesome!"

Yuya smiles.

"Directly shaping things is quite amazing, yes, but what is much more amazing is what your subconscious can generate using just 3 words."
"The conscious mind is quite limited. Sure, you can create any object and design any aspect of it."
"But your subconscious can create infinite worlds on the fly, with millions of objects, every single one designed down to the last detail."

"If I wanted to, could I change this world into another one?"
"Sure, if you let your subconscious do it for you."
"How do I do that?"

"You either request something very specific, a place you know or have seen somewhere,"
"or you request a world that gives you a certain feeling, which is sort of what you did to create this world."
"Yes, but how do I actually change it? Do I create another portal?"
"You can use a portal, but you don't need to, you can simply use your willpower."

Holy shit! Would that really work? That would be so awesome!

"Okay, I'll try!"

I point both of my hands at the sky, and think of the Tron movie.
I want to create a world similar to the grid!

"No. Don't try. Do or do not!"

I know that she's absolutely right, but it's easier said than done.
But I do know that when she says it's possible, it really is.
She has no reason to lie to me, I fully trust her.

I close my eyes, releasing tiny bits of energy through my hands into the sky.
I think of the atmosphere of the new Tron movie, of the lightcycles, of the Grid.
As I open my eyes again, I hear Daft Punk playing in the background, but the volume is very low.

Holy shit! I am on the Grid!
There's blue neon stripes everywhere, I can see skyscrapers in the background, some type of rocks floating in the sky.
It's just like in the movie. It's in the same style, it has the same atmosphere to it, but it's not a location that was in the movie.
I turn to Yuya in excitement.

"Did you see that??? I did that!"

She starts laughing.

"Yes Hyu, I know."

A lightcycle appears and stops right in front of us.
A women gets off, and as she takes her helmet off I immediately recognize her: It's Olivia Wilde / Quorra.


She starts approaching me and Yuya says jokingly:

"I think your subconscious likes Olivia Wilde."

No kidding Yuya, guess who my conscious mind likes as well...
This could turn into a rather awkward situation.
Olivia stops in front of us and says smiling:

"Yes, I think your subconscious really does."

I smile, and try to act unsurprised and not too excited that she is here...
But looking into her beautiful and bright eyes I have to think about how attractive she is and fail miserably at acting unsurprised.

Reading my thoughts, Yuya starts laughing out loud.
She finds it absolutely hilarious that such situations make me uncomfortable, and I find it quite silly that I do.

Olivia asks me:

"Do you want to go for a ride?"

Suddenly I get extremely excited.
Yuya says "Ha. Try to catch up!", creates her own lightcycle and drives off.
I follow Olivia to her lightcycle, getting more and more excited.
I sit behind her, and hold onto her for support.
She smells nice...

As we drive off, my vision blacks out. Fuck! I got too excited!
I desperately try to stabilize the dream. I want to ride a lightcycle with Olivia!!
But it fails, and I wake up.

I was laying in a hospital bed. Took me a minute to realize that I was in labor. I was kind of freaking out and T was standing beside me as we were waiting on the Doctor M. I told T that I didn't understand, because I hadn't been to a check up in quite a few months, not to mention, we hadn't even had an ultrasound. We didn't know what it was going to be. He said we hadn't been in because we ran out of insurance. =/

I mentioned to T that I didn't think I was in labor just yet, and that we should wait. Then I realized that my lower back had been aching all day, and said maybe it was going to happen soon. Then doctor came in and delivered my baby. It was a boy. I don't even remember it happening, but I saw him laying in a crib next to my son, W. I didn't even notice that I hadn't named him yet.

The doctor gave me the bill which was so ridiculously high, it was about 1500. Probably more than that IWL. I was upset about it and was trying to figure out how to get some deductions. There was a nurse and my doctor standing in the hall and smoking cigarettes. =/

Can't remember anymore than that.

I just noticed i wrote down another dream sometime ago. Possibly lucid, i don't remember.

Just organizing some of my notes.

"DVD/ game"
"I was on a mission to get information"
"Doesn't look like my own dream"
"Tentacles man/female"
"Charlie sheen was in it... :S" don't even like the ego-tripping mothefucka
"kwas lan is led zo/~ze" <=== i don't know what the hell i wrote down, gotta figure this out.
"Someone or something might have tried to prove a point to me"

Lots and lots of recall, all from last night / this morning.

Fragments:

- I was in a movie theater, but when I looked up at the schedule of movies, there were instead some lucid dreaming classes being advertised. Should have reality checked >_<

- I was watching Djokovic-Federer at the French Open. John McEnroe was commentating, and he said something like "The timing of Djokovic's push (his win streak) couldn't have come at a better time for Federer," in terms of motivating him to win. He then said he thought Federer would win it all.

- I had a dream I was wearing some sort of body armor.

- I had a dream where I was in a hotel, in a large room I was sharing with a few family members. I went out a sort of window/door into a balcony-alleyway, but after walking around I got lost and couldn't find my way back to my room. The rest of the dream was about my quest to find my room, but I only remember flashes. There was an atmosphere of great tension and mystery about the dream, as if something was really wrong, but I can't quite remember what was going on. I remember being in a long corridor of rooms with numbers, and I had to try to guess which was the right one based on some clues. I also ended up going in a room where there were many computers set up, and participating in a kind of contest there.



#999:
Date: April 2nd, 2011
Length: 4 minutes

I'm in a sort of game where I'm a bad guy being hunted by the inhabitants of an island. I have a couple powers to escape them, like short-range teleportation. They have various vehicles and guns, and I'm basically just running for my life the whole time. The island has two parts -- a village where most people live, and another area which is more remote and has sort of an observatory, partly floating on water, and a dock. It's very early morning.

I get chased through the village, then I'm nearly sandwiched between two small armies, but manage to evade them by teleporting. Progressively I start getting hurt more and more, until it looks like I'm going to be killed. Just at that moment, the sun rises fully and I suddenly gain mechanical wings. I activate them immediately and fly off a cliff, evading the villagers who are extremely angry I got away. I start flying towards the observatory, looking for a good place to hide.

I end up landing in the water, and the dream fades out here. I may have gotten slightly lucid for a few moments.




#1000!!!:
Date: April 2nd, 2011
Length: 4 minutes

I'm in a small plane that my friend is flying, even though he has no training in this. For some reason we're flying to some place that's actually really close by. Anyways, we fly over a highway, and the ride is really shaky -- my friend doesn't really seem to be a good pilot. I keep telling him to be careful and we avoid colliding into a few things, but then we suddenly come up on a tall building and crash into it, unable to pitch up fast enough.

We apparently have several "lives" though, so we end up starting over again. I think we crash again. The third time around, the plane is different, and we're with another friend. The plane now seems very makeshift, composed of a bunch of long pieces of cloth held together by ropes and the like. We're also much higher in the sky. For a while we fly smoothly, but then we start going in circles in the air. My two friends argue for a while about how to fly the plane, then things stabilize for a few moments.

Eventually, the plane starts falling apart for some reason. I find myself stuck on a cloth platform above the main section of the plane, where the other two are. The place I'm at is collapsing, so I need to jump and land below without missing or falling off. I'm quite scared, but I finally do it. I jump down, but I don't make it perfectly and find myself hanging on for dear life. For some reasons my friends are casually taking their time, attending to other things in the plane and letting me hang there for a while before helping me up. I don't recall much after that, I think we arrived above some sort of island. I wrote something here about become lucid also, but I don't recall that?


Ahh, 1000+ dreams. Really happy to have made it to this many, it's really nice to be able to go and look back at all these dreams, I can still remember most of them when I read them. Of course, there are many more to come, hopefully with greater frequency and quality of lucids!

Well there aren't a whole lot of dreams up, try to get one or two per night and it'll be easy to find dreamsigns and consistency. But here are some that jumped out at me. The ones on top seem especially to be dream signs, the other ones are just things that showed up more than once:

Friends (RC when you see your friends, pictures of friends, get a text from a friend, make plans with a friend, think of a friend)
The facade/outside of buildings (try to notice every time you are outside of a building what kind it is, if it fits its location and time period, make sure to RC every time you see a building)
Working for people, having some sort of job (not sure if you have a job, RC every time you think of it if you do, and also any time you think in general of other people having jobs)
Macabre/fantastic stuff (blood, flesh, ogres, wow, zombies) (rc when you see or think of these things and play games/see videos that have them in them)
Music, esp guitars (I'm guessing you have a guitar... RC to it!)
Computer stores & video games (RC when you see, use, think of these things)
basements/caves, beings living in caves (RC when you see/think of these things. If you have a basement, maybe go down there a couple of times a day and RC)
______
drugs/druggies/drug dealers
political things (republican calling you liberal, Obama)

Lucidity: 6/10
Vividness: 7/10
Length: ~6 Min.

I was lying in bed looking towards my door and then a bright box appeared in the center of my eyes. Some of the scenery changed and I was very happy that I finally did a WILD on purpose. So I looked around my room and there was almost nothing in it. Then someone attacked me. He came through the wall as I recall and tried to kill me. I fought back and I noticed that there started to be more spider-webs on the walls of my room, so many in fact that you couldn't touch the wall without getting bit. So I tried to do a fireball jutsu like in Naruto and it didn't work, I asked the guy who attacked me how to do the fireball technique. Then I calmed down and I thought that I wasn't dreaming anymore. Then an octopus arm popped out of the wall. I dodged it and used x-ray vision to find my foe. I found a floating panda in the next room. I surprised him and tried to kick him as hard as I could, but he wouldn't even move at all.

So last night I went to sleep with the intent of waking up after every dream period. It didn't work perfectly, I only woke up after a couple, but in the early morning when I woke up I went back to sleep trying to count myself into a dream ("1... I'm dreaming, 2... I'm dreaming" etc), using a snooze on my alarm to regularly wake myself up.

It didn't work directly in the sense that I didn't ever consciously transition to dreaming, but I had a strange sort of lucid dream. Lucidity fluctuated a lot, but it seems like I re-entered the dream twice, but I don't recall if I actually woke up between re-entries or not, so I'll just mark the places I think they happened. Also a lot of other dreams recalled.

#996:
Date: May 30th, 2011
Length: 8 minutes


I began in some kind of house, where I quickly realized I was dreaming. I ended up walking outside, just stabilizing things for a few moments. I wanted to meet someone in particular, so I yelled out her name, hoping that would summon her. Instead, a sort of plot developed where she had been kidnapped and was being held in a building in front of me. My lucidity here was pretty insignificant, but I went inside the building. It was a sort of inn/bar, and I went upstairs to a room.

Now something to understand is that this dream had odd shifts in perspective to a game of Starcraft. My mind was interpreting the concept of lucidity strangely (second time this has happened lately...), as if Starcraft was the real life I would awaken to after this dream. At times, I had flashes where I was seeing my base in a game of Starcraft being attacked, and afraid that this would wake me up. I was asking my allies to help defend me.

Anyways, the person I was looking for was in the room, but my vision shifted to Starcraft mode and saw that she was "infested." I decided to just leave the room and head back outside, having to fight through some people who wanted to stop me.

Back outside, my mind was a bit clearer and I think I was more conscious of my dreaming state. As I walked, the dream began to fade, however. Everything turned dark, but I tried to concentrate on my sense of touch. <Re-entry here?> Eventually, I was back in the dream. I decided to try to use all my senses to stay anchored in the dream, so I walked into a nearby shop and found a bizarre glass container which had some kind of perfume in it. I smelled it and poured some on myself, and also ate two sort of black sort of "rocks" that were inside it. It tasted pretty disgusting, but I kept chewing on it for quite a while, happy about how real it seemed.

At this point my notes read that I was in a room packing up some stuff into my backpack. I vaguely recall this, but I don't know why I was doing it. Anyways, I think the dream faded here again, and I had another re-entry (maybe). I found myself in a wooden shack near a body of water. I looked at myself in a mirror -- I looked basically like myself, though a few features were somewhat distorted.

After a little more stabilization, I stepped outside. Below me was a pretty steep drop down to the water, and in the distance I saw a few hills and islands. I decided to go check out what was over there, though it didn't look like much. I launched myself into the air and flew down towards the water. As I did so, everything felt so real and crisp for a moment that I was completely exhilarated. I tried to calm myself, fearing that this would wake me up. Unfortunately, my flying slowed to almost a dead halt and I had a weird false awakening: the Starcraft game appeared again, with my base being attacked. I typed something like: "can you believe it! I was having a good lucid dream and just then this woke me up!"

I also wrote something in my notes about a checklist, but I don't remember what it had to do with the dream. It had an entry on it that said "pre-fight bosses."



#997:
Date: May 30th, 2011
Length: 4 minutes

I was in a class that was taught by one of my former History professors. It was the first day of this class. For some reason, there were a bunch of pool tables all around the room. I was eager to meet people, and quickly introduced myself to a few. People were told to assemble around the pool tables for some kind of group work. There was some confusion for a moment as some tables got deserted and others overcrowded.

After a while, something odd happened and we were suddenly in the middle of a zombie invasion. I was strangely calm (felt sort of like a game) and ran towards the class entrance. We weren't really in a building or anything -- the room was just sort of merged with outside. It was night time, and I followed a group of people across a small brook and to a sort of checkpoint. Once we made it there we knew we were safe.

Somehow I ended back in the classroom before the zombie thing happened. This time I walked towards the front of the classroom and then beyond it, to a seashore. There were a couple boats there, and I just enjoyed the view for a few moments, when the zombies came again. This time, however, it definitely felt real, and I was scared. I was with a group of journalists and we sprinted towards the same brook we had crossed before. This time, however, there was a problem and we were unable to cross it. Instead we had to take a long bridge to our left.

One by one people fell behind and died, until it was just me and another guy. We ran as fast as we could. For some reason we were suddenly being chased by two cars, and we ducked out of the way just in time before they lost control and crashed horribly, blocking the zombies from catching up with us. I thought I was safe as we stopped a moment to catch our breaths, but then I realized the guy with me had been bitten and was turning into a zombie. He started approaching me aggressively, and I backed off. Soon he was charging me and trying to bite my face off. I fought him off desperately, but I was weaker than him and terrified. I frantically tried to prevent him from biting me while also somehow mentally accessing a menu, trying to stop this "game" (though nonetheless it felt like my life was at stake), and managed to just in time. I don't remember anything after that.


#998:
Date: May 30th, 2011
Length: 3 minutes

Basically just a dream of playing soccer. I was playing defense at first, then switched to attack, then back to defense, then back to attack. It all made sense at the time. After a few uneventful plays, I suddenly started to play much better, just sort of naturally sensing where my teammates were and making good passes. Then I got the ball on our half of the pitch, and suddenly found myself able to dribble their entire team. I fell just short of scoring a goal, tapping the ball a little too far in front of me and losing control at their last line of defense. Still, I was really happy with how I was playing.

We reached a break in play, and some guy kept complaining about how the online system for this soccer league was broken. I asked him why he was so concerned over this when it wasn't even playoff time. He explained that there was a team called "The 300 Spartans" whose name had caused a glitch in the system, somehow resulting in gif images of the car in Back to the Future to be placed above each team's name. This was apparently a very big deal.


- I also had a dream about being in some kind of underground facility, and meeting a ton of people I haven't seen in a really long time.

I'm in House #1. [So much for recognizing dream signs... :/] I look through a window that looks out onto the patio from the side opposite the dining room [um... in real life, that would be the bathroom window, from which such a view would be impossible...] and see that there's a wasps' nest hanging from the eaves outside the dining-room window.

I'm in the garage, and I say goodbye to P. There are two cool, old, red, elongated, flat-topped cars there (one might have been a convertible). My parents are taking me out somewhere, but I haven't been able to find anything I want to wear, so I'm only wearing my royal blue bathrobe. [I used to have this robe in real life, but I don't anymore.]

[Dreamskip.] I'm driving the brown car into the parking lot where our hair salon and the OSH hardware store are [back in our old town]. I'm naked, so I try to crouch down so that the other drivers around don't see me. When I try to park, the driver of the car that's parked crookedly in the space next to mine decides to back out and straighten his parking job, coming close to hitting my car, but narrowly missing it. I cower in my seat, frightened. When the driver gets out of his car and comes over to talk to me, I look down to check the arrangement of my blue bathrobe, which I'm suddenly wearing again, and make sure it's covering me decently. The other driver tells me that he didn't hit me.

Then, four young boys (10 or so) come to my car and start pestering me relentlessly, climbing in it and all over it and talking to me loudly and annoyingly. I yell as loudly as I can at them to GO AWAY. I'm surprised that I'm capable of yelling with that volume. After I yell at them like that about three times, they finally go away. I'm trying to keep my blue robe on and maintain my modesty, with only partial success. I continue to do so once I've moved from my car to a patio table on the sidewalk outside the hardware store. [I don't recall getting from one location to the other.] People pass me by on the sidewalk as I try to keep the robe up. Next to me on the sidewalk, B.W. and his chorale friends are getting dressed for a performance.

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Side notes:

This was an interesting twist on a classic anxiety dream. It featured the common dream scenario of being naked in a public place and ashamed of it, but it combined that scenario with two stressful occurrences from my waking life: a minor car accident in a parking lot, and the very spirited all-boys class I've been teaching once a week. In the dream, I yelled more loudly than I ever have in real life. Do I unconsciously wish I could yell that loud in reality? It's a plausible hypothesis.

I dreamt that I was a German soldier shooting Jews. Problem was, the bullets parted in mid-air and I could not be sure that the Jews would die. Atmosphere of confusion.

This is the first time I dream about a book I read. Yesterday I spent most of the day reading a disturbing book where the protagonist is an Obersturmführer.

The crazy part is , when I woke up I didnt notice anything strange about this dream. I was not lucid obviously.