task of the month

Just a small aside; not even two weeks after rejoining I've had three lucids... Knew being involved here would do the trick!

I had several small dreams last night, but they were dull so I'll cut to the chase.

I am sitting on a red velvet couch in an incredibly elegant ballroom. Red velvet curtains twenty feet high have been drawn across all the windows, and beautifully polished wood pillars stretch upwards fifty feet to the cathedral ceiling. A glimmering chandelier hangs above the ballroom floor, casting a golden hue across the room. I know I am waiting for someone, but whom I'm not sure.

Suddenly, a beautiful Latino woman tackles me off of the couch. Before I know whats happening, she begins hurling fireballs at me. I remember that I'm spider man, and I begin slinging around the room, even though my webs are invisible. Her flames are flying everywhere, but the room is impervious to fire or magic, as nothing catches. I sling some webs at her but they seem to have no affect. Finally, I hide behind one of the luxurious curtains and get a good look at her - gorgeous, and in a white dress with a large cleavage swoop and quite long train.

The beauty of both the place and the woman jolts me into lucidity. As soon as I become lucid she lowers her hands, and turns to look me in the eye, smiling. Most dream DC's I encounter go still and brain dead when I become lucid, but not this one. I walk slowly out from the curtain and I am suddenly in a tuxedo, and I have the overwhelming feeling that this is my ballroom. "You're finally awake!" she says with a smile, which I must admit creeped me out. Usually in my lucids whatever plot was occurring vanishes, but not so here.

"Dance with me" she requests, as the two of us embrace in fine ballroom posture. We begin sweeping around the ballroom in the most elegant waltz of all time. My heart is in my throat as I haven't had a lucid this clear in months. After a few moments of our sweeping dance, I try to recall the task of the month, and recall the basic one about asking New Years resolutions. The effort of remembering causes me to dance clumsily and nearly lose lucidity. I stop dancing to look at my hands and surrounding to anchor myself, and notice that the red paint of the walls has become a Christmas wallpaper of green gold and red. I look at her and her beauty makes me nervous to speak to her, even though I know its all a dream. I ask her her New Years resolution.

Suddenly, she sweeps me up and begins to lead like I was a few moments before. She is leading so hard that she seems to just pick me up and hover me across the floor in an aggressive dance. She spins me and dips me like a lady and I take this to mean her resolution was to take control, whether it be dancing or something deeper. I find it funny that I am being held in a dip, and I allow myself to lose lucidity and wake up grinning.

WHAT A COOL DREAM!

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #180: The Dome of Stars

I have a false awakening in my house where I’m trying to do something as quickly as possible. What is it? Oh right -- I’m trying to get out because I’m having a lucid dream.

I move through the rooms as quickly as I can. The layout is similar, but just different enough to throw me off. I wind up in the garage and there’s a new hallway off of the south wall that wasn’t there before. I follow the hallway into what appears to be a bordello. Five or six women who look like Victorian-era prostitutes are standing or sitting near a set of mirrors. One of the seated women is reading a magazine, a couple of them are applying make-up, and some are just standing around not doing much of anything.

I feel like this is one of those LD scenarios where you’re supposed to be thinking sexy thoughts but the women mostly just seem like they’re relaxing on break. I really don’t feel like bothering them. I start asking them something about why they’re running the bordello in my house, but they start moving around and the scene feels a little confusing. I go ahead and phase out through the wall to clear my head.

Now I’m out on the street. Across the street I see a man standing under the branches of an oak. He looks Hawaiian, heavy-set with a salt-and-pepper hair and a neatly trimmed mustache. I remember the Task of the Month, and approach him asking, “What’s your New Year’s Resolution?”

He’s incredibly eager to answer, and a smile spreads across his face. “To make the most of things, <something something>, and…” He grabs one of my hands in both of his and finished triumphantly: “To cook with more cinnamon!”

His enthusiasm is contagious and I joyously shout, “Thank you for that great answer!” I pause for a moment. “But could you repeat that part in the middle?” He doesn’t seem interested in doing this, though, and wanders away.

Task done, now I just feel like exploring. I fly up past the top of the tree, reminding myself that “The world is yours…” I move up past the treetops and look out at the stars. It’s a beautiful night and I take a moment to enjoy the unfamiliar constellations. I notice one set of stars is exactly the same as a set in a different part of the sky. I laugh at my brain taking this “shortcut”. But then I wonder… did it only do this because I expect it to?

I fly up higher and higher until I can see that the sky is curving above me. In fact, there is no limitless sky but rather just a huge dome that I can reach the top of if I just fly high enough.

And I do! When I reach the very top of the dome, I see a small, glowing control panel! There’s a single flashing green button sitting there at the top of this dome of stars. But as I reach for it, I start losing altitude. I tell myself that “this is all mine” but I can’t shake the notion that I’m just not going to be able to reach that button to find out what it does. I reach up and up, trying to reach it, but the dream fades.

I lack the recall of the events leading to this moment, but me and a group of people whom I don't recall but one are under attack. A group of hostile "survivors" I guess you could call them are searching for us. Me and a few from our group go and hide in the ruins of a destroyed building. An M1 Abrams tank drives by and soldiers walk by as well. I notice the insignia this group uses and it interests me a little. It's a crescent moon. However, my interests are soon interrupted when I think we are discovered(my recall is a little shaky on this part). Our group has been discovered by the enemy and they are feeding our group to these extremely devilish-like creatures. One is like a large black serpent sort of thing with gnashing teeth. The other is almost like a clam, but the size of a truck with huge eyes and sharp teeth. The creatures are devouring my group, whom for some reason Merle Dixon is a part of. Merle? I thought he died!!!

Well that's beside the point, but anyway this is part of the dream is actually very frightening to me. I don't recall very well, but it was some point in time around this part of the dream in which I realize this is far too out of place and I become lucid. Okay, time to get the hell out of this place! I now fly off until I come to a town where I enter a grocery store. I fly around inside for awhile and I do a reality check because I just feel like doing one even though I'm lucid already. I plug my nose and breathe through it. I do this several times and then look at the backs of my hands. I notice my right ring finger is only half the normal length. I then look at my palms and I see my left hand is shaped the same as my right hand(the fingers are on the same sides). I now move along and land on the ground. I think about what to do and remember I can still do the task of the month. I walk up to the cash register where there's an African-American man who doesn't seem to be enjoying this job too much.
"Excuse me sir," I begin. "What's the meaning of life? Shit...wrong question, disregard that one." "Uh...what is your New Years resolution?" The man now steps out from the counter and begins browsing items near the cash register. He turns to me and answers. I don't recall his answer 100%, so a lot of this is paraphrased.
"There're only two things I try to do," he says. "Radio broadcasts and New Years resolutions, and I a suck at both of them. Though my voice is quite majestic."
He continues rambling on for a few minutes and I'm thinking to myself about how I'm going to recall all of this quote to type it on Dream Views. I soon leave and I end up traveling on a snowy road. It is an unmarked and unplowed road with a frozen lake nearby it. I think about what I should do next, but I soon awake to my dog singing the song of his people downstairs.

Well I just typed this whole thing and it didn’t save right and now I am starting all over. Going to type on word on my computer then copy and paste. Sucky.

Bed: 1115
Supplements: 100mg 5htp, 250 mg Valerian Root
WBTB: 4 am
Supplements: 250 mg Valerian, 4 mg Galantamine, 500 mg Choline, .4mg Melatonin

I was a little restless getting back to sleep but after about 45 minutes was able to.
I woke up about 45 minutes after I fell asleep not thinking I had slept at all except I remember a fairly vivid dream. I recalled a bit and then went back to bed quickly.

Non-Lucid: I was eating with others and an ex-coworker was among them. I was being very quiet and then all of a sudden broke the silence and asked if they still worked there. I had a hard time conveying what I wanted to say during this dream. The words would come out slurred or very quiet and the DCs had a hard time hearing me. The scene turned into an office type area and we continued to chat about work a bit. I left to look for my room since now I was a hotel . I went up a couple of floors since my room was 501 or 50 something. I passed some stairs and saw a couple more people I knew and said something indiscernible to them as well. I was on floor 5 but it was a bunch of offices and this area I wasn’t supposed to be on. Not sure of this transition but I ended up outside by a bay. The weather was grey and wind. There was a large boat and a bunch of shopping carts lined up in the water, they were moving up and down with the waves. I went around the boat to a pier area. I needed to get across the bay but there was a huge line of people to take the transportation boats across. The line was behind and above me on a wooden dock area. I stood there wondering how I could get across, thought of swimming or taking a different boat but could figure nothing out. I woke from this and recalled for a bit then went back to sleep.

Laying in bed with my eyes closed there was a female with their arm over me, not sure who it was at this point. They had their hand on my boy parts and the dream got a little sexual at this point so to keep it PG13 I thought something was a little strange shortly after this and did a RC.

LUCID: I did some stabilization with my hand for a bit then started touching stuff around the room. I rubbed a blanket on the bed which was very fuzzy and really focused everything. I touched the window which was nice and cool. I was in a cabin type room with wood paneling and tall narrow rectangular windows. Instantly I thought of TOTM invisibility and the infamous girl’s locker room. Fortunately there was a school across the street, unfortunately it was an elementary school and that wouldn’t work. I hit the window with my elbow, broke the glass and went through. The school was till across the street, I was in a parking lot/street area with roads/highways above. I noticed many people around and thought about the new years resolution TOTMI yelled focus a couple of times and it seemed to focus a bit more. I saw a police officer about 100 yards away and was going to ask him. I looked down at my clothes and I was wearing a white shirt. I wanted to be in a suit or something nice. I tried a few times to will new clothes but had no success. I got pulled from the dream but was able to DEILD right back to a scene with a smaller boat. I was headed toward the boat to get in but was pulled back out of the dream. DEILD again and very wary of getting pulled out again I didn’t open my eyes and didn’t move. I was in a boat moving along a canal (feeling). There was a lady in the boat talking about mailing a package and she was concerned with the size and the price of the box. The boat stopped and I was out of the boat. I reached out for something to grab and felt something with my left hand, a rough wall, stucco. I opened my eyes and was solid in the dream. We were at a strip mall type place that was outside with grey stucco. I climbed some stairs in front of me and entered some glass doors into the first shop I found. As I entered the shop there was a rack of coats by the door, I touched them to anchor myself further and yelled “focus” again as I turned a corner. I saw 2 guys and a customer (girl from the boat) at the counter. They were all looking at me since I just shouted a moment earlier. I thought of the new years TOTM again and walked up to the guy at the counter behind the register. I asked him “what is your new years resolution” he was very perplexed with this question. After a few seconds of him thinking he said got out …. “To think” and I said sarcastically “you want to think?”, the then said “ well I have an inspection coming up”…. “To pass inspection”. I was good with this answer and then backed up. I had a plan for the opposite TOTM. I stood on my hand (this was not graceful like I imagined, more like a neck handish stand then a full on hand stand). I said “gravity is reversed today”. This was less dramatic than I anticipated as well but they did float up in thie air like they were in space. I flipped back around content with this and as I left I told them “opposite day is later this month”. Outside I looked for somewhere to do invisible task and saw a lady and two kids go into an apartment area. I flew/floated across the street to an area with houses/apartments. I went into a door. The room was bare and dark, marbled grey and black and kinda futuristic looking. There were many doors but all of them were locked but one. I went in the unlocked one and it was a tv room with a couch and a big dark window above the couch. 2 DCs were in there, one was Eddie Murphy and the other was some Arabic guy. I looked down and had a bunch of clothes on. I took a big snow outfit type of clothing off with some difficulty. I grabbed a football with some writing on it off of the entertainment center and began to toss it back and forth and hold it like I was going to throw it. Eddie wasn’t happy with this and he asked me about my broken window. I said that it didn’t matter anymore. I decided I was going to fly up and out the window. I took off and landed on the windowsill. I think I might have had an FA here but not sure. Behind me I knew it was a counseling session for people who thought they were in dreams but weren’t. To be sure I wasn’t crazy I did a RC again… phew still dreaming. I was perched on the window sill and in front of me was a huge pine tree; I thought of crashing through it but decided to focus on TOTM. Across the street were a dirt parking lot and a restaurant there. I flew over and landed in the lot. There were a few RVs in the lot and the restaurant was a seafood restaurant and it was up some stairs and off of a wooden deck. I decided to make myself invisible then. I closed my eyes and thought about brining my hand in front of my face and not being able to see it. I felt I was invisible and my eyes were still closed, right before I opened them again I thought about people who said that they can’t close their eyes when they are in a lucid or they wake up. I thought about me doing it just finds and at that moment woke up.

This was around 7am and I got up and wrote good notes since some of the details from earlier started to fade. I went back to lay down and hadn’t been asleep for but a couple minutes when my daughter got up. Not sure if the supplements did everything or it was a placebo effect. I am going to keep experimenting every few days.

Date: 1-13-14
Time: 1:52 A.M. - 5:03 A.M.
Technique(s) Used: N/A
Non-Dream | Dream | Lucid
_____________________________
This is the longest WILD I've had - in fact, the longest lucid dream, as well, so excuse the length

The dream began with me waking up from my bed. From the moment I got up, I alread knew that I was dreaming.

The house was dark, not many lights on. I ran my hand across walls to stabilize, and went to the living room.

The lights were dimmed, but not so dim that I couldn't see. Everything was in its rightful place - nothing out of the ordinary.

A few knocks echo from within. I go to the door, and see that it is a friend of mine. I open the door and let him inside, but take note that his eyes seemed awfully black.

He comes inside, and immediately takes a swing at me. I had to fight him. Though I was dreaming, I did not have any great fighting moves - I simply tripped him up and hammered him with punches.

In an effort to get away, he suddenly transformed into an action figure. He shot his limbs at me, to try and deter me from his escape. Unphased, I picked it up, tore off the head, and threw it outside. The moment I did, the sun rose, and brightened up the day.

I stood outside, and looked to my left. There were several groups of other teenagers that seemed to be congregating some general thought. I began thinking of things I could do in the dream.

The tasks of the month were the first to penetrate my thoughts. I turned to ask my mother, who was at the screen door, what her new years resolution was. She held a nore of 'umm' for a bit, then dodged it by asking me what mine was. I shoo the question away, and go in search of a better answer.

I was swallowed by the group, and began asking around, seeing if anybody had a resolution. None did - their answers just the same as my mothers, only a lot more 'I don't knows'.

I was going to go somewhere else to ask a different character, when all of a sudden a good friend of mine stood out within the crowd, donning many winder clothes. I ran to her, and asked her what her resolution was. All she said was 'Disney' - I assumed she meant to watch more.

As we sit on the grass, I decided to try out the other basic task - I said to her, "Hey, it's night time."

She responded with, "It's not night time - IT'S PRIME TIME!"

I look to my left, and see that all of the teens are sitting as well - why? Looking to my right, I see a large skyscraper, with a huge TV attatched to it. It was playing a movie.

Unable to remember any other tasks of the month, I decided to try and look them up while in the dream. I got up and turned to go inide, only to notice that my house had been replaced by a massive complex.

I ran up the stairs, desperate to find a door. I suddenly stop, and say to myself, "Hey, I'm dreaming! Why am I trying to find a door?" I fall face first through the roof I am on.

Down through darkness I descend, until a computer monitor begins to hum. I look at the screen, and see that it is on Dream Views. It was stuck on one thread - I cannot remember the name.

Disappointed, I left, and emerge in a small housing area. There were train tracks that led through the area, but no station. Near the tracks, two girls, donning black, waited. I knew one, but not the other. Next to the tracks was a building that had no doors - just a hole.

I went in and observed the space. There were games and stores all around. I assumed it was a sort of mall, and went back outside.

When I went back outside, the girls were gone. I paid no further heed to this, and proceeded to climb a building. I made it up effortlessly.

On top, I saw a bird. It flew away, and gave me the thought: Why don't I play a little god work? I began to recreate the bird, but in my own image - it was cold and metallic. I look to my left, and see if fly towards me. I catch it, observe my handiwork, and let it take flight once again.

Climbing down, I hear several conversations going on. One guy said, "How could she like him over such a fabulous guy like me?" After I heard this, I was handed a notebook by a character. I found it odd that he handed it to me so absentmindedly - as if it were just automatic.

I take it, and look inside. Written it is was this: '7:00. Don't be late.' I thought of the girls waiting for the train, and ran back inside the mall.

I asked tons of people if anybody knew where the 7:00 train was headed. Nobody knew. One vendor, in broken English, told me to go down a different corridor - someone down there knew. I thanked him and ran down there.

I go down a green hallway, and reach a nursing office. I asked the woman inside if she knew where the 7:00 train was going. She said that it was going to a village on the border of Korea. I thought of a way to get there.

I walked up to a pale wall and ran my finger down it. This caused it to crack. I stuck my fingers in the crack, and opened it. It made a portal to a mirrored copy of a nursing office in Korea. I thank the woman, and step inside. Shutting the rift, I run my thumb on it, sealing the crack.

Walking outside, I was confronted by a group. Whether they were just thugs or Korean police, I didn't know - but I knew I couldn't stay there. Jumping in a flying car, I drove away. However, they followed in their own cars.

I was gunned down, but a large aircraft took hold of me and carried me to safety. I blacked out,and when I awoke, I was back in my bed, still in a dream.

I went into the bright living room, and saw that my mother had made peppermint fudge, as indicated by the small candy canes on top. I went to the door, and looked out the window. I saw the sithouette of the aircraft that had saved me, and woke up.

Date: 10 Jan

Pre bed: turmeric

Sleep was rather bad, like I was lacking some sleep chemicals, recall from non-lds pre bed - close to zero.

Wbtb: felt sleepy, had 1/3 latte

DILD+DEILDs: In a room and there's this kid from my childhood and he is somewhat grown up now. I am thinking about that. He's naked from the torso up and is sweating while vacuum cleaning. I am sitting behind a desk, contemplating and the thought that I was supposed to be lding comes to mind.

I begin to examine the surroundings and wonder if this could be a dream. Yet my thoughts are so orderly and organized at this moment and everything feels more like real life than dream (no usual dreamy feeling).

I keep thinking in what feels like a daylife manner, reflecting on lack of dream feeling. I know that in such a case I have to perform a RC, but I don't see any sense (like it's possibly going to fail). Something in me tries to convince me and kind of distantly makes me feel that right now my body is in horizontal position and asleep. I conclude that it is a dream and remember my goals. There is a black girl with ponytail and I reverse the inital plan (make an old man younger for the opposites task) and decide that I will make a potion to make her age instead. I feel conscientious about doing this to a little girl and how evil it looks, but really want to see the results.

There are a number of small items like two small cups, nail-size gemstones and something else I can't recall. While the dream is generally very stable, it begins to thin out at this point and I am left feeling concentration wise powerless and slowly find myself back in my body. Not ready to let go I remain still and short afterwards the I am back in the same dream.

It comes slightly as a surprise that I succeeded to resume from the same place, but welcome it and continue mixing my potion that looks like a shot of cough syrup. If I am not mistaken by the time I'm done mixing the dream thins out again and I am shortly back in my body.

The dream resumes again. This time I wait a bit before undertaking any task related action, thinking it may be proper to stabilize at this point so I unconvincingly rub my hands and run my fingers through a nearby towel, feeling it's texture. At this point the little girl and my childhood friend are nowhere in sight. I move away from where I was standing and look around, the entire room looks extremely realistic and detailed, filled to the brim with objects. It's like I am really in someone's room or a life memory. There are way too many objects for me to memorize so I don't try to, just remember a number of toy boxes with something written on the them in red, and a very prominent display of video games. There are two black gaming machines like from the late 80s.

The DC of my bf comes from somewhere as I am examining the room. Suddenly, I feel coldness on my feet and look below to see that I am barefoot and feel the cold coming from the green tiles on the floor. This is simply amazing and this whole dream feels incredibly life like detailed and stable (not so much vivid as detailed). I analyze this and share it with my bf who agrees with me. At this point I briefly wonder whether I might have run accross a smart DC and should ask some questions, but then remember my other tasks.

This time it feels appropriate to summon a DC and work from there. I decide I want to call Mrs. and think about her. The part of the apartment where I am looking, mentally calling for her is a bit dark and I briefly worry a scary DC might appear instead, but in a second, a DC that closely resembles her comes in. She has some sort of hat/bandage on the head. I get closer and begin to examine her face, she has lots of wrinkles on her forehead, around the mouth and saggy cheeks. I place my palms above her face to cover the places I want to change and then move my hands away. Initially, her face remains the same, but after a few more procedures the wrinkles visibly diminish. She doesn't look as young as I wanted but at least her skin is in much better condition, as if she just had a facelift.

Somewhere around this moment, the dream fades again. I know the drill and continue as usual, in the meantime become worried about my memories after each blackout/deild. I mentally count the number of blackouts to be sure, 3.

Back in the same room. I feel that I have spent too much time with this task, while there were other main tasks I had in mind. Time to go out and look for a palace. I head for the window and look down. Nooo! The whole dream continues to be worryingly detailed and realistic and it doesn't feel like a good idea to jump out of the window. I gather courage and hang on to nearby windows and water pipes to go down.

On the street I look around for a suitable building but become overwhelmed. In every direction I look are closely packed residential buildings. Finally, one of the streets seems somewhat less cluttered with a larger building at the distance that leads me to believe there's enough room for a palace round the corner. As I head in that direction, I have to wait for a large industrial truck part that's slowly coming out of a garage to make a turn and continue in, of course, the same direction as me. I manage to squeeze between the building wall and the large truck part and reach the end of the street.

Unfortunately, this turns to end of town cars-only road with lots of concrete and weirdly shaped boulders, cars passing by in close proximity. I think that I don't want to change the dream too aggressively as not to compromise the coherence. But maybe not everything is lost, I just have to find a way to cross over and go to what seems like a more appealing part of town. The dream fades.

Date: 08 Jan

Pre bed: 3mel

Wbtb: 1/3 latte, around 34 mg caffeine

I'm quite sleepy and resist waking myself too much, but still try to stay as awake as possible while in bed, repeating mantras and goals. I fall asleep with some long deep REM rebound.

DILD: It's a very long dream where me and parents get ready for a trip. Then I meet a DC that feels like a kindred sprit, I am eager to discuss with him possible solutions to a problem we both have.

A few moments later, I realize that this is a dream and remember my goals, freeze water and go fishing. The guy disappears somewhere. I am walking in what looks like a park and as I think about the task, I see that there are large puddles of water all around. Initially, I try to use them for the task even though they are too shallow and begin freezing them by willing it as well as by placing my hands down over one of them, where while they freeze, they emanate coldness and there's a cool mist effect lifting from the puddles! But then I realize this isn't going to work for the task and walk a bit further where there's a much larger and deeper body of water, like a pond.

I will the water to turn to ice, but to my surprise nothing happens. This annoys me. I contemplate whether to just get on the water as if it is frozen, but am uncertain if it will work, if I continue to expect to sink if I step on it. In the meantime, the water finally freezes. When I look at the surface, I see that part of it begins to melt already and dig with my hands in the softened ice to make a hole. This happens quite easily with no discomfort from the cold. There's some coldness, but it's ok, since I didn't think about it too much. I put my hands through the hole, reaching as far as I can and expecting to run across a catch.

I wait for a while but there's nothing around them and it gets kind of creepy what might be lurking in the darkness below the ice. In the area that's partially covered with ice, I can now see a number of small fish swimming around and succeed in catching one. It is a small tropical butterfly type fish but silver and red. As I hold it, my bf appears next to me and I tell him to take a picture, which I so much wish I could bring to rl, but before he can take the pic, the fish escapes.

I become so happy that have completed the task, I lose lucidity and begin to tell the dream to myself. After a while, I realize the dream is still going. Now I'm on the street in some neighborhood, there is an unconscious movement from my part and I end up floating in mid air, slightly above the ground, very stable though. I correctly recall this feeling from many dreams I had and exclaim to myself that taking off isn't as difficult as I have thought (previously irl). This is a good opportunity to practice a bit of flying and I do some flight manipulation, where I try to think of the direction and my body flies well in that direction. Then I try to take a turn and go in the opposite direction, but it doesn't quite work.

More rather random movements mid air and then I fly high up near a tall residence building, where I climb the last three stories using my hands. I somehow take a step back (see the building from a distance, although I am at the level of the third to last story). A black dotted panther on the balcony catches my attention. It looks kind of small, but actually it is the right size compared to the balcony and the stuff around it. The whole building seems small as if I am looking at it from a distance, yet I am very close to it. I briefly pay attention to that, but then wonder no more. There is a dalmatian in the apartment with the panther and I just so love exploring people's places, like in many non-lds. On the balcony below is a centipede, a very long one, apparently the same size as the panther (fits the balcony lenght). It doesn't look very appealing and I see two more on different balconies, I become vaguely aware that I am causing the one-many effect.

At some point I discarded the idea of going for Toty, because I thought the dream might end, but since it's still going, I decide to give it a try. Somehow, I go down to the ground and begin exploring a dream version of a familiar street. The bus station is here, only residential buildings, some larger buildings appear, but nothing that looks like a palace. I head towards the larger buildings that seem suitable and try to think that one of them is a palace. It starts to change, more and more detail is added and it becomes a flashy top notch casino. I still believe I could change it to a palace by trying to add a few columns at the entrance, but just increase the level of detail/casino quality.

I move on to the next building's entrance, which I recognize as some sort of amusement area. There's a distant dream memory also at work. Since I don't feel I'll get anywhere further with the palace, I eagerly get in, looking forward to having some fun. At this point I remember a dream where I took a super cool ride at a place that looked like this and become very excited. The lobby of the place where they sell the tickets is visitor empty, there's just the guy that sells the tickets, a girl that will ride with me and a male DC. The tall male DC next to my right is accompanying me to the cashier and I get a number of false memories and begin to have romance thoughts about him.

The DC at the desk gives me weird instructions of how to properly hold to the cart and my behavior while next to the girl that's also taking the ride. She is new, so I have to be careful. Bla bla, my lucidity level is dropping. I go to the girl and we wait to be let in to the ride but the dream finally fades and I wake up.

1/11*? + *!!! Wow! Had a great wild. Previously I am fairly sure I wild into a dream of me doing the ssild cycles thinking I'm still awake but not true LD since I didn't realize already asleep but was conscious of my last known condition-attempting a wild in bed...just waiting for a dream to start. I suspect this because of the amount of time that has passed and I get up go to the bathroom and go back to bed. I then think maybe what I experienced right before I woke up was hypnopompic...voices and vibrations. It feels like I may not be too far from REM because it is later in the morning maybe just over 7 hours after first going to bed. Sure enough it doesn't take long to start getting a dreamy feeling and HH audio first I wonder if it is my wife saying something to me or talking in her sleep but then I hear what sounds more like a crowd of people talking. I feel like I'm close and I decide to try to move my dream hands and sure enough I get a glimpse of
my dream hands then a good view of them. But it seems like my dream isn't ready like I am in the void. Could this be delta sleep on the way to REM instead? I recall what Sageous said about having a specific scene in mind on wild attempts. My go to scene is a beach. Visualize a beach but it is not anything like what I wanted. I do closed eye teleporting or changing of the beach scene maybe six to seven times. Most of the first scenes were night time and then I got one with a very odd creature in the water and I say no on earth, but had morning light! Close eyes again and say no I want white sand! I get it and sunny! I decide to go in the buff but at first the ladies are in bikinis. There should be nude waitresses...thank you. I pick one out she looks mildly Polynesian perhaps mixed with white. She is beautiful. We get straight down to intercourse. I have a pre-orgasm like feeling and decide I want to spawn the woman I met two nights ago but then I say no let me do the task of the month - I'm already by a body of water. I only think of the water in my immediate view so as to block out the idea that I can't freeze this body of water or that it may be too big or something. Like in my previous attempt I hold out my hands superhero style and freeze the water and I quickly spawn pointed saw again cutting a hole in the ice super fast pushing the ice down and over under the ice sheet and I quickly spawn fishing pole with bait already attached as planned, drop the line in the hole and very quickly start to feel a tug though not really strong. I fished out a purple fish or eel like creature! I was rushing through this process expecting I may not have too much time and this expectation creates a false awakening what at first I thought was my actual awakening. I was lying in bed recalling my wonderful LD for several minutes before waking into another false awakening in church at the funeral we're going to today! Awesome!

Previously most significant dream I was extremely angry at a company I am dealing with in real life. I do not remember last time I felt this much anger during a dream. No idea where this emotion came from! Perhaps it was due to an underlying fear that something would go wrong with this business and I got a phone call during the dream and my mind thought one of the possible reasons for me receiving a phone call and created the scenario which then brought up the real anger I would have felt in real life if I got that call! I hope this was not a premonition ! It is probably just due to the fear. 97; 96 was short paper journal

Seems like I only LD when trying to do a TOTM these days. Come on Ophelia, a little more motivation here!

Anyway, I had a TON of lengthy nonlucids last night/early morning. So many that I barely recalled my brief stint with the basic task of the month. I don't even recall how I got lucid, just a vague recollection of jumping high and being in an extremely odd building. I do remember being happy that I was lucid, and thought of the basic 1 task right away. I was alone in this huge building that was somewhat reminiscent of a super fancy embassy suites: lots of interesting hanging plants and water falls, and all the many levels of rooms in a circle, surrounding the structures. I thought that I might find a DC if I simply walked into one of the rooms, expecting someone. Sure enough, I could hear someone peeing in the bathroom. I walked in and peeked (I knew it was just a DC, so I didn't care that they saw me peeking while they peed). It was a black dude sitting on the toilet, peeing lol. I said "Hey what's your name?" He said "Pepsi." I asked him "What's your new year's resolution this year?" He said something garbled, and I swear it sounded like he said to drink more Coke haha. So I asked him again to repeat and it was still garbled. Which made me mad because I really wanted a clear answer. Stupid uncooperative DCs. Then suddenly, Parrish (from the seafood department at work), grabbed me by the shoulders and hustled me out of the bathroom, which led us outside somehow. He said "Pepsi just wants to drink more Coke." I said "Ok, well what's YOUR resolution then." He just got really sad looking and said, "To be more like you."

D'awwwwwwwwwwww.

It kinda made sense though because irl we've been talking about work stress, and the effects it's had on us. Work stressed him to the point of ulcers, he can only eat like 5 things I swear to god. And he's lost a TON of weight. Not the good kind of weight loss: he was really muscular before, and now he's super skin and bones, he just can't eat. Anyway, in the dream, I just began giving him therapy about how in life when thins don't go your way and you meet your goals and find out it's not what you really wanted, you gotta replace it with something else: other goals, or hobbies. This is just typical mid-life crisis type stuff.

Anyway, pretty sure I lost lucidity after that. I remember Danny eating dead birds and eggs off the ground because the concrete was hot enough to cook them to medium-well. I told him he really DOES belong in the damn jungle.

This dream was very different and random. There were several points of transition of which I don't recall, so none of the events can connect at all, but it was still an interesting series of events.

The first dream I briefly recall being inside my grandparents' home. I believe I'm all alone here, that is until I begin investigating the area. I go upstairs and look around for awhile until coming across my grandma's room(which is in a different room than in real life), and I see she is sitting on her bed. I go in to see what she is doing and she informs me she is leaving to go somewhere. I say okay and she leaves. I'm very confused however, as she said she plans on driving, and she doesn't drive.

I don't recall the transition, but the next part of the dream I find myself leaving a building with my family. They all enter the car with the exception of my brother and I and drive off. I'm very upset that they'd leave us here like this, so I pull out a MK3A1 Jackhammer automatic shotgun and fire off a full magazine at the car and then reload it.

They don't come back, so I decide to do what is (not) best. I now aim the shotgun at an approaching car and the driver stops. A woman probably in her mid-twenties steps out with her hands up and runs away screaming. My brother and I get in and I strap in.
"Don't tell Dad about this." I say.
I rest my hand on the gear shift, ready to put the car into drive when I feel a sudden guilt. I tell my brother to get out of the car and we both exit. We begin to run off into the woods near by and come out into a large field. Near by there are some line trees and the street is about fifty yards away. I now hear a sound that would normally not affect me, but right now it is the last thing I want to hear: police sirens. My brother begins running towards the street without me and he runs into the cops immediately. I run to the pine trees to try and get away. The cops are coming from everywhere! There is no escape. I now notice a pine bush and I jump down and try to use it to hide. The dark sky will aid me since I'm wearing a black jacket as well. A few heavily armed policemen now walk by and search around, but to my surprise they cannot find me and move along. I take this opportunity and make a run for it. I find myself on a street under the lights. The road is empty minus a single woman who is standing topless in the road for some reason. Upon seeing me she puts her bra on. I'm hopelessly confused right now, I'm not sure when exactly, but around this time I become lucid. A man now comes by and he begins to have sex with the woman. Feeling slightly uncomfortable I move on and think about what I should do, and then I remember the task of the month. I need to go somewhere I shouldn't be while being invisible. I find a door in the middle of the road. It seems like a pointless door, but I can make it a portal. I now snap my finger and attempt to look at myself. There is only a very thin black outline of myself. I go through the door where there are many women and one man, and they all begin to talk about taking their clothes off. Oh God, yeah I'm definitely out of place. I now walk into the middle of where they're all sitting and they manage to notice me. I see I'm now visible again and I run back outside. I don't recall much more afterwards until I awake.

#262 - WILD - 4:55AM
WBTB 4AM: 4 peppermint green tea bags

I wake from a short non lucid dream and roll over to glance at the clock. I feel really wakeful, but with much effort, I relax my mind enough to get back to sleep. After a few minutes, I start lose my concentration but I notice vibrations and that's enough to pull me back just a bit. I begin to feel really excited and my heart rate increase but I manage to calm myself enough. I focus on the vibes for a moment to maintain the transitional state. After a moment I start trying to "move".

After some effort I suddenly and unexpectedly I roll out of bed landing face first on the floor. I pick myself up but feel something like the sheets attached to my head and back making any movement sluggish. I ignore it the best I can and walk away. After a few steps I feel free but I stagger around like a drunk man.

When I reach the main room, I realize I am totally blind. I decide to combat this by thinking about what the room should look like in the day time. After a few seconds the lights sort of fade in and I see in full vivid color. I am pleased, but also a little surprised this worked so well. I feel like I have gained some equilibrium and begin walking toward the front door. I can't help but notice sunlight filtering in through the blinds as I make my way outside.

When I step out on the porch I notice that it feels very cold even-though all the snow has melted in this version of reality. I don't like this so I shout out loud, "I am impervious to cold!" I am always amazed that I don't talk in my sleep when I shout so I do it few more times paying close attention to the odd sound of it. After the cold fades, I try to remember my goals. The basic TOTM comes to mind; Ask a DC for his or her resolution(s) for the new year. I immediately begin search around for a dream character.

The neighborhood looks way different than normal but I see nothing too crazy. There is a dark brown, old Ford pick-up parked at an unfamiliar house next door. I take a closer look and it appears to be running. As I start walking over, I notice a man sitting in the passenger side. He looks like Cousin Eddie from Lampoon's Vacation but a little chubbier in the face. I become way too excited that I found a DC so quickly and worry that I will wake up before I get close enough to talk to him. Because of the excitement, I deliberately walk slow and calm.

When I reach the truck, the man notices me and smiles. He seems genuinely happy to see me and gets out to greet me. He puts a hand up and we high five, but something odd happens. I get a double vision, like a dream glitch, of him connecting with my hand but also missing and hitting my face. I flinch a little but mostly try to ignore the strangeness. I decide to waste no more time and ask, "So, what's your new year resolution"?
He immediately answers, "Australian zebra zombie apocalypse."
I laugh a little and repeat it back making sure I got it right. He gives me a nod. Amused, but slightly annoyed I say, "Ok. That's not a new year resolution." Then, jokingly add, "you dick." Now, more serious, "No really. What is it?"
His reply was just as confusing as the first. With a flourish of his and ending with pointing at me he says, "Live from New Zebra, It's Saturday Night!"
I give up and just laugh. I play along, "Ok. Before the year's up, I want to see a bunch of zombie zebras from Australia on your porch." I punctuate my demand by making a swirling pointing gesture at this front stoop. I feel like I am done here and start to walk away, but quickly change my mind. I am actually enjoying this too much to leave and I can't think of my other goal. I lean my back on the side of his house as I ask another question, "So, what's going to happen to me today? Anything significant?"
He thinks for a second and begins to speak. but now the dream is fading. I faintly hear him say, "Oh no. Nothing special just...

I wake up.

Date: 05 Jan

Noisy neighbors and dehydration = wbtb

I drift in and out of sleep. There's a short non-ld where I observe and discuss a huge dog, two other large dogs and their owners. We take pictures.

DILD: This one started right after the non-ld as separate dream. I was looking forward to an ld after the neighbor induced wbtb.

I begin to feel the surroundings and hear a gentle tune as if coming from a toy or a music box. I am aware. This time things happen much slower and I notice that indeed, it was dark around me and then suddenly I open my eyes and see. The room is bright and vivid and dream-like liquid. This is supposed to be our kitchen. I'm happy I noticed the opening of the eyes. In this official dream entry/realization moment the melody makes a concluding sound, it then starts again. I find one of those kid toys that produce similar effects and make it play. I still hear the gentle tune plus there is a second layer of slower modern music (like a techno beat) in the background. I enjoy this for a while, having the feeling that I left the tablet on and the music is seeping in the dream.

For my disappointment, I ascertain that there is no one here and I wanted to do the resolution task again. I approach the window and see that the neighbor's place is just below, there is a bed and his entire room is accessible. Without hesitating, I get down and end up in his bed, but then have second thoughts. Things look kind of real, what if this is rl and I am trespassing? I decide to do a nose plug, it fails, but I notice the feeling is somewhat different from rl. I'm kind of annoyed and can't remember any other RCs to confirm. Finally, I conclude that I probably wouldn't be that crazy to do this normally and resume my activities.

My hope was to find the neighbor in his room, but there's no one there so I go around. It's a huge apartment complex in an unknown place. I pass by the windows of a closed store, some really nice sweaters inside and I almost lose lucidity thinking about the brand and design. I continue on my way to see another store, also closed. It's dark on the streets, like the city in early morning with no people in sight, apart for a guy that goes in the direction where I came from. I think he is another neighbor and then the realization hits me that I can ask him. I go back and follow him to his place. He soon comes down being a completely different DC (tribal dots on his face) with two other DCs accompanying him. He claims they are neighbors. I also introduce myself as a his neighbor and ask him about his NY resolutions. He replies he doesn't have time now, because he just met the other neighbors and it's one per weekend thing.

I insist on getting my answer, "don't worry I am not going to bother you, just tell me what your New Year's resolution is". He starts talking but I can't catch the words, the sound is muffled. He mentions something about a woman and then after repeated questioning from my side finally replies "I want to be someone they always remember, always want to know". Oh, that is beautiful, I exclaim and repeat his sentence a few more times to commit to memory. Two other DCs come in. I try to remember my other tasks but before I do, the dream fades.

Dec 27-28 (Lucid)
I was by myself in a city trying to go see Lord of the Rings in theaters, and buy myself a ticket that costs in the high teens. I'm looking around for the actual room the movie is playing in, but go back to the ticket booth, and buy the ticket alongside a flight to Australia. I find myself heading towards the plane and getting on, but it's slightly militaristic, lots of military are our escorts on and it's slightly part of the act and show, but also necessary because the plane is important. I get on the plane, find the movie theater room, which is very very large. Probably like the size, area wise, of 8 large movie rooms. There isn't one big screen to look at, but several smaller screens pointing every which direction scattered throughout the room. I pick a seat eventually that's fairly secluded, but as I sit there, I start to think. I realized I should pick a better seat because I couldn't see one of the bigger screens well, just some small ones. But I also wonder why I'm going to Australia, when I had work the next day, and the ticket costs like over $400. I got up to leave and grabbed all my stuff. As I was leaving I texted my friend Trent telling him how I almost just went to Australia by myself, and I further realized how silly the idea was. As I was looking for the place that would refund my ticket, I realized it was a dream at this point, ran back to the plane and got right on and into the movie room. As I was running to the movie room I saw stickers and signs posted all over for the military saying "shoot first" and "be fast" and other similar ones. When I was in the movie room I wanted to watch the movie for whatever reason, but I find out that it's not gonna start for another 18 minutes. I realize my dream wouldn't last 18 minutes, so I grab a remote next to me and point it at the nearest screen and turn it on. There is some news playing or something. I pointed at other screens too but couldn't get those to turn on. Turning back to the news station, I want to see if there are channels or how it would work. I could see faces of the anchor on screen pretty detailed, but not words. I cycled through and realized it was repeating like 3 channels. At this point the plane is moving and going really fast, but not flying yet. I go to a window, which is somehow nearby, and want to go outside. I put my hands on the wall and then my head and I could push my head through the wall of the plane. As soon as my head went through the dream went dark, as if I was waking up.
I didn't want to wake up yet, so I just reimagined the sense of wind going by, then the sight of looking along the outside of the plane and soon I was back in the dream! I launched out of the high speed plane with no fear and landed running on some scenery. I was running very fast and wanted to push myself even further. I was running and jumping faster and then realized I wanted to try one more thing, teleportation. I thought back to what people said the best way to teleport was, going through a solid wall. I see a rock face just big enough and flat enough for what I need, and run up to it. I think about where I want to go first, and I decide upon a strip club (at this point I was losing lucidity and didn't have much of my better judgement ). I put my hands on the wall and it felt fuzzy, not like the solid rock it should have been. But when I pushed my head against the rock I phased right through. It felt only slightly solid, and it looked black and foggy on the other side. I walked forward maybe 5 feet then emerged in a small room consisting of 5 or 6 guys and girls that were in the process of undressing. The room reminded me of the airplane again and the DC's looked like flight stewards/stewardesses. I keep going forward and see an open door to my left and there is another room of people slightly further along in the undressing process. Before I see anyone actually all the way I wake up, because I was getting too excited.

Machines were being woken up similar to transformers, and were controlled by someone evil. There were humans chasing us down still. I was on a team of people running away from someone hunting us down. The ones hunting us gave us a head start because we did something nice for them. We went down a hole, and were sliding down for a while. We were in an ancient building and had to find our way out. There were creatures that looked like giant centipedes around trying to kill us, they were poisonous so we had to avoid them. I get stung by one as we're running away and apparently it's a big deal, but I don't feel hurt. We run back to my house and we're supposedly safe. My perspective changes to the guy hunting us and he uses these lights on a large globe to track us down. They zoom on our location which is a large tower on his 3D map. Back to my perspective we're talking and enjoying getting away, and the room looks just like my kitchen. Soon I remember I'm being hunted and bring up that they know where we are. Jim Hatfield, my co-worker, is next to me apparently and is mad I didn't bring it up earlier. Soon the people who let us go earlier show up one at a time and we start talking to them to reason to them. I realize at this point I'm dreaming, and my fear goes away. The people killing me though are supposedly other lucid dreamers, but I think they're DC's. I explain to them that if we're both lucid dreamers we don't need to be fear each other because we can't get hurt and we can always come back. The girl I'm talking to agrees, but replies that lucid dreams are few and far between and I realize she's right. Soon enough the main guy who was supposed to be hunting is comes in and I just ignore him. I want to stabilize the dream so I rub my hands together, then I want to try licking the ground or furniture around me. I started just runnin my tongue along the ground. It didn't taste like anything, it just felt like a flat surface. I also tried furniture, but this didn't work at all as I didn't taste or feel it on my tongue. At one point the dream fades out and I wake up, but I DEILD back into it. I walk around deciding what to do while I'm still in the dream, then try to levitate a bit. I jump up, try to float. It works just a very small bit on my 3rd try but I fade out again and DEILD back in. I remember I didn't quite complete the ToTM so I ask my DC mom who happens to be there for a present. She go grabs one out of a stack of presents that I apparently missed, and hands it to me. The wrapping paper on it was your average Christmas pattern of a color with trees all over it, and when I tore it open, there was another set of wrapping paper there, but this one was silver, and had these oval logos on it all saying "Dragon Force". I tore open this paper and inside was a box saying "Dragon Force" on it and inside the box were several dragon shaped gummies. I grabbed one and took a bite, and it tasted like a fruit roll-up. I looked underneath the dragons and there was another set of gummies that looked like transformers and also Galactus. I start laughing at the utter randomness that the gift turned out to be. I then go back to my room, wake up along the way but DEILD back in by licking the couch in the living room (it was the old purple one). One of the DC's who used to be my enemy but who was now my friend showed up and I offered to show him my room. He is happy to see it and follows me. My room is extremely messy when we get there, like you can barely see the floor messy, and I have to push everything out of the way. He is happy that it is messy (I seem flustered that it's messy and kind of forget I'm dreaming at this point). I see my Xbox one and it's crooked and broken on the corners and I get really angry. I ask the guy if he believes in shared dreaming and he responds yes, I say I don't and think he's just a DC. He starts laughing and I don't know what to think. The TV is turned on and people are voting on if they think shared dreaming is real. I wake up, but DEILD back in one last time. I ask the guy what it was like for him to have me leave for a few seconds, but can't remember if there was a response. I just thought I would have faded in and out if he was a dreamer. I then fade out again and wake up and try to DEILD, but can't this time. Now I realize how ridiculous shared dreaming actually seems (my personal view, not to offend anyone who may believe in it).

I was in New York City with my dad. I’m exploring by myself and a guy I meet says he needs help connecting to the cellular networks there. I decide to help him and get it working. We then go into a restaurant to go eat, but he thinks thats weird so he gets up and leaves. I follow him, flustered that he didn’t thank me for helping him.

I realized I was dreaming and thought about what I should do. I thought of a task of the month and remembered the invisibility one. So I think of the most classic "naughty" trick in the book, go to the girls locker room. I'm outside, and I know I need to find a school, but it's really dark outside and hard to see. So I put on some night vision goggles, and things then green but they brighten up. I see a school not too far away so I head in that direction. I stop and realize I haven't gone invisible yet. I just think about it and repeat that people can't see me. For some reason I knew it worked and I head inside the school. There were girls leaving and they didn't see me walk by them. I head to the girls locker room, and there was one girl left. But then she left and I was by myself...
I then remembered that I wanted to visit Erebor from the Hobbit. I decide to phase through the wall and think that's where I want to show up. I push through it remembering an old dream that's how I did it. When I go through, I come out in a fancy hotel. I thought about trying again, but I decided to just explore a bit and see if I could just "stumble upon" Erebor. I find a hallway, and then a door. I open the door and realize I found it. But it was extremely dark and hard to see. So I thought maybe I just need to help my subconscious out, so I'm walking down the stone stairs from the movie trying to think of what it looked like. It doesn't really work because I end up back at the hotel.

I'm at home, and for some reason my mom is like a tyrant. She loves Erica, but doesn't treat me very well, and treats McKenna like dirt. This doesn't sit well with me so I confront her, and get mad at how she treats us. She's confused at why I'm mad, and I respond it's mainly for McKenna. I trash some of the food she's made to let her know how angry I was and then left to let that sit with her. Soon some people come over, and I felt like I needed to tell someone what happened. I grab either my dad or someone else and pull them away from the crowd to my room, and talk to him saying I was mad at her, but she's still my mom so I don't know how I should feel.

I'm at someone's house, but we're like all prisoners there. Someone hacks a computer to give us GPS coordinates from the wi-fi. Someone breaks in because they knew what we were doing.

I look at a mirror and think I should try to see through this, then realize that means I'm dreaming, but I wake up.

*Anyone reading this, to encourage me to keep up my DJ online I am going to start to paraphrase many of my entries...too much work for me at the moment*

1230? ~545-620? ~7am=wake from DILD, vibration mantra, SSILD, sleepy mantra. #95

Awareness DILD after ~5hour, wbtb. Once again I have a driving DILD. I am looking at my dashboard wondering why it is one solid dashboard without any of the normal items, not any of the plethora of items on my dashboard...nothing! Confusion for a second, then, I am dreaming! I very quickly decide to fly up out of the car (my mindset is...the car is immaterial, kind of like "there is no spoon" from The Matrix). I fly around but it is dark and I decide to fly up into space again stopping to look back down at Earth. The view is a little fuzzy. I decide to try out the Bonus TOTM. I fly back down look for a body of water, hold out my hands superhero style and freeze it. I spawn a pointed saw and start to cut a hole before I end up fading back to bed. Lasted maybe several minutes.

Edit: to add record of short dild during morning nap. I don't plan to count this one. After a few hours I went back to bed and had an awareness dild just before waking. I had just ran into the house taking cover from geese flying overhead shut the door and shortly after heard a wood chipper going at what felt like the early morning and I realized I must be dreaming before waking up.