side notes

I remember bits and pieces of a Lucid last night, but not enough to write anything up.

Expect a legit update tomorrow night at the latest. Even if I have to do a BEoD.

This is not a fancy dream journal, nor is it particularly exciting. This is a dream journal for people with short attention spans. People like me.

The awesome stuff will come, I assure you. Just hang with me here.

[Dream in blue.]
[Lucid in red.]
[Nightmare in pink.]
[Non-dream in normal.]

Dream #1: Bodyswap.

I don’t remember much, because it was my first dream of the night and I had a fraught morning, but, what I do remember, is that Jen (who lives 300~ miles away) and I bodyswapped. I’m not sure why, exactly, though, because we bodyswapped into dolls, but continued to be human-like.

I do, however, remember this:

I’m on MSN with her, with a bodyswap device in my hand, ready to swap back into my body (which she’s sporting) and give her hers back (which I’m sporting). I tell her I’m just setting it up to go and she asks why. I say because we were meant to be sleeping together tonight and I was hoping to have sex with her [but even if she’s down there in my body, and I’m up here in hers... it doesn’t really count.]

She says she’s happy in my body for the night and we should swap back and my parents should come fetch her tomorrow. I say but I really wanted to sleep with her and I say I’m going to do it. So I turn to my dad and I say that I’m going to swap back now and he needs to go fetch me in a minute. He says I can’t do that tonight and to stick with the body I’ve got.

I’m about to start having a go at him , when I wake up.




Dream #2: Alton Towers

I’m at Alton Towers for some really strange reason. I think I’m there with college. And then, because I’m not enjoying myself anymore, I get on the coach to go home, even though it about five hours too early. The coach driver says he’ll go around in circles because he can’t stay at Alton Towers. I say okay.

Next thing I know, Luke’s on the coach with me, on the seat next to me. The ventilation is open overhead and there’s a nice breeze coming in. I ask what he’s doing here and he says he was bored. I say okay. He asks where the coach is going and I tell him it’s going round in circles. He says he wants to go back to Alton Towers and I say I don’t know whether it’ll go back there, but it doesn’t matter, because we live next door to each other [we do] and if the coach takes us home, he’ll get home too.

I get a response much like, “Fair dues.” and we carry on sitting next to each other in comfortable silence. Then I wake up.




Dream #3: Spaceship.

This was the best dream I’ve had in a while.

I’m on a spaceship, with a pregnant Amy Pond [from Doctor Who] and two other men [who we’ll call Man #1 and Man #2 to avoid utter confusion on my part]. I’m in the ventilation shafts [like Jeffrey’s Tubes from Star Trek], which are shining blue and are a little bit too small.

The floor is gridded, but it doesn’t hurt to be sat on or crawl across and it’s pretty light, so I can see where I am.

I’m on a pillow, so I think I’ve been sleeping here, and Amy is near me. We talk about something, but I’m not sure what, and I notice there’s a book or two nearby, but I don’t take note of the titles. I’ve been there a while, but I’m not sure why. I’m part of the crew, though.

I crawl through the tunnels until I reach the main area, where I find out from Man #1 that the transport pod, used to navigate through the tunnels, has been ejected, leaving us with a gaping hole with no air.

I decide to test this, so I grab a remote, crawl through the tunnels and emerge into an enormous glass area. I can see space through the glass, but I can’t see how high the glass is. I point the remote upwards and press the button, knowing I’m going to die if it goes wrong.

This object illuminates high up; it’s shaped like a bauble but made of golden lights. I grin and shout to the others that it’s safe to come out.



They shout at me, because I was an idiot. I shrug because I don’t care.

Next thing I know, I’m at the top of this pillar thing in the middle of the gigantic room, about 60ft or so in the air. It’s tall and thin, branching out four ways at the top and I’m sat on one of the four, straddling it and pulling plastic covers off the main spike in front of me, revealing information inside. I find out that the captain (deceased) didn’t like books, excluding about five. Because of his fondness for these five books, he allowed them on board. They were listed, and I thought they were boring.

The next plastic cover reveals, in the captain’s voice, that he had taken the bauble pod thing to get away. I don’t know why.

Suddenly, the spoke I’m sat on gives way and I start to fall, but I grab on to the main bit and shout for help. Man #2 reaches out and helps me clamber onto the second spoke. Man #1, far below, is flicking through some manuals and commenting on them. He’s boring me, so I start looking through the plastic things again, while Man #1 talks to me. I don’t remember the conversation.

After I’ve been through the second plastic things, that spoke gives way, but I manage to clutch on to the top of the colemn and stop myself from falling, but my legs are dangling and I start screaming for help, but the two men ignore me.

I reckon they would have caught me eventually, but I’ll never know because I woke up.



All in all, I missed a bunch of dream signs; bodyswapping, Alton Towers, spaceships, Jen, Amy Pond, Doctor Who, Star Trek, claustrophobia... But oh whatever. I'll do better next time. Although that spaceship dream would have been EPIC lucid.

This is just the techniques I tried to perform to induce this lucid dream.
It failed. No dream. But you can read if you want.

June 2-3, 2010.

As I was falling asleep, I performed the breathing technique (WILD), and I think I got through sleep paralysis. Well, maybe not all the way. I couldn't fall asleep, so I just gave up and went to bed. Then I woke up in the middle of the night. As I was falling back asleep, I performed the FILD technique. After a few minutes, I did an RC, But I wasn't dreaming. So I tried the WILD breathing technique again, after counting up to 400 while saying "I'm dreaming", I got so uncomfortable that I turned over. I did an RC just to make sure, but to no avail, I went back to sleep.

May 14-15, 2010.

Okay, just so you know, sometimes I have a dream in which I don't remember. And once I wake up from that dream; right exactly upon waking up, there are these funny phrases in my head. Some are stupid, it's kinda ridiculous. I had this happen to me twice now, and that's what I was going to post here. I heard, "Fix that stubborn robot!" LOL.

I just spent a good 30 minutes typing down two long lucids just for your enjoyment, but pressed something by accident and now the text is gone. TT_TT You'll just have to live with brief notes and hope that I will pull myself together again tomorrow for another try. TT_TT

-unknown date. Hogwarts like school. A fight with three witches on top of a castle in ruins.
-05/06/2010 Maneuvering dream where my wings are visible and I'm trying to evade being captured by some weird group of officials.
-06/06/2010 An attempt to make myself a hidden blade which almost works. Some random telekinesis and a snow storm. o_O

I decided to change the title of my DJ, as I think this is more fitting.

Plus, with the new system, it feels better to undergo a complete change of pace.

[I]This is a paper I wrote for my English class. Read the Poem, "America" by Tony Hoagland.[/I]

English 100
Dr. Mark Lawhorn
Poem Analysis: “America” by Tony Hoagland
In the poem, “America” by Tony Hoagland, the poet tells a story of an experience while teaching a class in the modern day United States. A student compares America to a prison. The poet in annoyed with the young man who presumably comes from middle class Suburbia. In the middle of the conversation, the poet recalls a dream about stabbing his father. The poet compares modern America to a nightmare of floating in a pleasure boat down a river full of drowning people.
Overarching themes throughout the poem are consumerism, capitalism, and greed. The poem describe the poet’s journey as he goes through a mental and implied spiritual metamorphosis firstly getting annoyed with his student, wanting to tell him “how full of shit” he is, then recalling his dream, then recalling a quote by Karl Marx, “I was listening to cries of the past when I should have been listening to cries of the future,” and lastly empathizing with the student while imagining the metaphorical nightmare.
Another main grouping of themes is dreams, nightmares, waking life, dream life, sleeping, and lucidity, specifically, being aware that one is dreaming. The people in the drowning in the river could be compared to the laborers in foreign countries manufacturing goods for America while living in squalor, or Americans unhappy because of misguided values. The “you” in the pleasure boat is The American, or America itself, or the ideal of consumerism. In the poet’s dream, money is clogging up the father’s heart. The poet is actually helping his father by stabbing him. In the dream poem, the father thanks his son, and says, “And so I perish happily, freed from that which kept me from my liberty.” So, again, we have the theme of captivity. The subtle metaphor of America is money comes to the forefront. The poem in the dream becomes a dream sign, something in a dream which makes the dreamer realize he is dreaming, and the poet becomes lucid, which is similar to waking up in a dream. The poet thinks, “I am asleep in America too, and I don’t know how to wake myself either.”
Themes are paired with contrasting themes: older generation and younger, teacher and student, nightmares and dreams, communism and capitalism, anger and compassion, the material world, and the world of dreams. The young student bemoans the modern American consumer based value system, and as the teacher questions himself and learns, the student becomes the teacher. Marx’s quote “near the end of his life” implies Marx retrospectively thought communism was less than ideal. But, the poet wonders if capitalism is really so freeing as he questions if Marx would have imagined the modern American nightmare if Marx had been “listening to cries of the future.”
In the last stanza the poet speaks of you turning the volume higher in the nightmare. This is obviously a reference to television or listening to a radio. The sound could either be you drowning out the cries of the future, the implied screams of the people dying in the river, or the screams of third world laborers themselves, as if we somehow take a perverse pleasure in the pain of others by passively purchasing goods which we know are manufactured by those suffering in poverty, and in doing so are exhibiting a kind of complacent sadism. “America” is a complex poem, with thought provoking ideas, and interesting themes cleverly threaded through the fabric of the piece.

Non-lucidSemi-LucidLucid

I concocted a plan to confront LG, utilizing the golden bullets he left me. This is the plan:

Originally Posted by Sam's Paper Journal

Note: this is not a dream.

I'm standing by the Bar in McAnally's, the pub in Dresdenverse Chicago. The building is established neutral ground, and the place is specifically designed to break up magical energies. Its design is broken up into odd nooks and crannies perfect for a dream walk.

I order two beer from Mac and take them, handing Mac a twenty with my right hand as I hold the other two in my left. I thank him and make my way to a nearby table. I set down the beers.

I reach into the right pocket of my jeans, where I put the golden bullets LG had threatened me with. I place them on the table in front of me and look up at the ceiling while sipping on my beer. It tastes like I imagine butterbeer would: rich and sweet. Inexplicable.

"You really expect me to drink this?"

I open my eyes to find the Lunar God eying me skeptically. I relax and take another sip.

"I would have ordered a bottle of Pinot Gris again, but I'm really not in the mood for champagne."

The Lunar God leans forward over the table. "Sam." He says, "No games. What do you want?"

I'm wary of him. "I want to know who you are."

He leans back in his chair, satisfied. I watch the smirk form on his face and settle in for a round of bargaining. I don't forget that those little golden bullets on the table have been used to try to claim my life.

This is the result:

I'm with the Joker in an armoured truck in a scene eerily reminiscent of Fight Club. Now, what could that mean?


You're just a freak, like me!

I'm following two characters and a potential horror movie from a third person point of view. At one point, I accidentally possess one of the characters and take some time off from the plot to... dye my hair. So yeah.

Same location. I'm waiting for my karate class to start. I check my watch, and it's 6:90PM. I guess I'm late. No, wait, this is a dream sign. I look around, confused, because this doesn't really feel like a dream. I pay more attention to my surroundings, and realize that it actually is a dream. I stop to savour the amazing feeling of being lucid.

"I'm dreaming," I say, and I start to repeat it to myself as I move around the dream-world. I'm not feeling very well, so I go to grab something from the fridge (in a place I've never been). I'm craving rasberries. When I open the fridge door, I find clear Yop yogurt containers filled with frozen rasberries. I eat a few.

I'm moving toward the exit when Ben stops me and wants me to listen to a song. It's rap music. I'm not interested, and there was something I wanted to do tonight, so I'm busy. A brief wrestling match with my brother ensues, but I shake him off and run to the exit. A steel staircase leads to a latched window.

I will the window to be open. I crawl out and latch it behind me.

I remember that I wanted to go to McAnally's to meet with the Lunar God character. I stretch a hand out in front of me and will the dream to dissolve. I close my eyes briefly, but when I open them, the green grass and concrete and sun are still there. Energy continues to swirl around me. I close my eyes again, and push through the dream-fabric.

When I open my eyes again, I can't see anything. Everything is dark, though coloured energy swirls through the space to break up the monotony. There seems to be a slight tear in the dream, so I move toward it (zooming closer, not walking). I drop to my knees and feel for the wooden door that I'm sure should be there. I imagine the texture, feel for iron handles of the closed door. I visualize the grain of the wood that should be there, the glass that is set into it.

"Open the door," says Mac, rolling his eyes. "We keep them open while we're open."

I stand up and dust myself off, looking at the four pointed star mounted on the door, just above my eye level. Did I create that?


The dream star was more ornate.

I shake off the strange feeling and move to the bar beside the door. This isn't anything like I'd imagined the place to be. The wood is darker, glossier, and everything is more streamlined than I'd expected.

"Two beer." I say to Mac. I dig through my pockets for the twenty that should be there, but I only find a bunch of change in my right pocket, where the bullets should be. Loonies, toonies, quarters. I apologize for paying in change, and I give him the $20 pile of change, minus the six loonies I need for LG. I consider that since we're in Chicago, I should have given him American money. I let my hand hover over the pile of change, and will it into American bills. The money flickers and I see paper. I'm not sure if it worked.

Mac waves me off, and I grab the beer and my loonies, setting them both down on a round wooden table near the bar.

"Aw, you don't need to do that," says a voice, "You already paid for drinks."

"These aren't coins," I say, turning to look at what I think is the Lunar God. He's younger than any incarnation I've seen before. He grins in understanding and takes a seat.

I take a sip of the beer. It tastes like Pilsner.

There's a third person at the table, whom I never acknowledge. Her (?) presence seems shadowy, dark, barely there. I think it's Elaine.

A girl comes up to LG and asks if it's okay if she leaves with someone.

"Yes." says one of us, before LG can comment. We kind of need to talk to him.

Unfortunately, LG's very presence seems to destabilize all dreams, and I can't remember a damn thing after that. Including whether I still have the bullets.

Failed Interrogations. Scare Factor: 3. Reaction: I need a new plan.[/QUOTE]

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

13.06.2010

Humans for Vampires, Apparently (Non-lucid)

Fragments...

Spike (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) got stabbed in the stomach. I was crying and helping him along. We got to my sister's house, I banged on the door. When we went inside, there was Edward (from Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter) with a weapon concealed as some household item (like an umbrella). He's crouched down and looking antsy. He's not happy with me barging in.

Earlier...I walked up to Spike, and when he turned around I saw that he was all pale(r than normal) and looked sick. I joked to him that 'he was still attractive though'. He started burning/blistering in the sunlight, though it wasn't that bright and we were under the shadow of a roof thing. Maybe that's when I saw he had a stab wound?

'Oops, I Did it Again' by Britney Spears was playing in McDonalds at some point. What's the McDonald dreams???

We (me and ?) were chasing after a woman who'd apparently caused this. Think we saw her at an airport. She was a mix of anime and real life and it was curious who she seemed out of place, and reminds me of Lum from Lum Invader (pictured above, only taller, older and deep green, shiny hair).

She/the enemy was sorry and sowed up Spike's wound in apology.

Notes: I don't actually find Spike attractive, so that remark was interesting. I haven't heard that song in forever either. And this is my second McDonalds dream...is it because of APH or is my subconscious is just craving Mickey D's? XP

Note to self: Don't play sims 3 before bed. It hijacks dreams...

Ugh, this is a bit annoying... I was too lazy to go through and copy all of my old DJ entries... I WAS going to at least do all of the lucids, but even that was tiring. So obviously I'll be posting in here from now on...

There should be a category for notes, since I'm not including a dream in this post...

Key:
Lucidity
Normal Dream
Dream Sign
((Notes))

Morning of December 23, 1969. Tuesday.



Sometimes a wrongful association stays with you as a sort of symbolic memory that is triggered by later recall. Dreams have a lot of “power” (or rather influence) at times, especially childhood dreams that seem “practiced” into a new (distorted) idea. In this case, the Christmas song “The Holly and the Ivy” is portrayed as something completely different than what the song is about - and this is likely unique to my own personal view and way of thinking. Instead of about plants, it is about a bloody battle between the lion and the unicorn.

The reasons for this are not entirely illogical in my opinion. There is a line in the song that is “the holly bears the crown”, which makes me think of “king” and of course the lion (especially as it seems impossible for me to associate a plant with a crown - even “crown of thorns”, sometimes changed to “crown of nails” depending on which story you go by, is something that does not immediately come to mind), and as there is also the line “and the running of the deer” which probably aided in creating this fictional representation of the song, as a deer is an animal with a very vague association with a unicorn. The fact that I did not understand hardly anything in the song (and the fact that it is somewhat meandering and incoherent as it is) at the time did not help either. Thus, dreams often “experiment” with potential interpretations of real life - just as in real life, you interpret aspects of dreams. A full circle, it seems. The inside and outside “worlds” are always trying to resolve things not yet understood. Dreams seem a large part of that cycle, which means some aspects of dreams are far less meaningful than conscious learning, contrary to what some people seem to believe, but there are many different types and states, of course - and dreams resulting from meditation, affirmation, and projection have different properties than those trying to resolve something not understood from real life.

The words themselves are also tricky. “Holly” can be altered to “holy” and “ivy” to “ivory”, thus adding to the idea that a mythical unicorn is more along the concept of an “ivory tower” which I have also associated with “castle in the air”. At any rate, this incorrect association is probably with me for life, even now in August of 2014.