Glieuaeiel's DJ

Swimming Pool (7:15) (LUCID)

The play I'm watching turns out to be rather experimental. First they pretend like the play was over, then they keep going. Then they even turn on the house lights and go offstage, but somehow I know that the play's not actually over yet. I wonder how they're going to catch everyone's attention again to continue the show.

Later, walking down a hallway, I realize that I'm dreaming. Time to go on an adventure! I'm carrying a backpack, which would be an annoyance to deal with, so I get in an elevator to take it back to my room first. But then I realize that that's stupid. I'll make it disappear instead. Setting it against the wall of the elevator, I focus on it. How to make it disappear? I imagine being able to see the corner of the elevator through the backpack--just a wireframe. Then fill it in with some colors . . . the dream doesn't feel stable . . . it was a bit dangerous to try to control things this directly . . . but just a bit more . . .

Suddenly, the backpack disappears! Immediately, the dream feels twice as vivid, twice as stable. Success! Now I go straight to the floor of interest, instead of going back to my room first. After getting out of the elevator, I start taking off my clothes. Then I pause to do a reality check: I wouldn't want to be doing this in real life. Although, now I think on it, why would I want to do it in a dream, either? It's kind of taking a lot of time to remove every blasted item of clothing. Well, whatever. As I continue, I think about what I want to do with this dream. I remember one of my dream goals: "swim beneath the ocean."

Later, I look through a window. Gravity and architecture aren't quite behaving properly; the exterior of the building slants diagonally away from the window, ending many stories below in a pool at ground level. I dive out the window and splash into the pool. Darkness and confusion reign for a few moments as a bodiless voice narrates something about symbolic significance of water, representing protection from the danger of the outside world. Moments later, I break the surface and see undulating hills of water all around, like small ocean swells. The narrator then says, "You know what else represents protection?" and suddenly a girl floats into view and up to my side. She's not wearing anything.

Obviously, the expectation is that I'll take this chance to have sex. "Squirt me," she says with an encouraging smile. I give her a wry look and reply, "No." I'm not interested in doing that right now, although I do "squirt" off to the side just to acknowledge the temptation, or something. We pick a direction and start swimming that way. On a whim, I decide to go in for some manual stimulation and reach between her legs. She doesn't react, though. "That doesn't do anything for you?" I ask after a few moments. She shakes her head and replies, "Like I said, I'm trying to quit." Soon, I wake up.

Personal Tutoring (8:20) (LUCID)

Alone, I'm exploring a castle. After a while, I realize that walking is taking too long, so I take out my bike and start riding around instead. But even that gets boring, and I start wondering what else I could be doing. Just like that, I remember my dream goal about swimming in the ocean, and I realize that I'm dreaming.

Moments later, I find myself again underneath the water in a swimming pool. Dumbledore is tutoring me in dream control. Rather than trying to force myself to the surface, he says, I should trust the dream to buoy me. This strikes me as real wisdom. I hold myself in cannonball position and focus on the sensation of being lifted and turned by the water. Soon, I wake up.

Christian String Quartet (9:00)

I'm sitting in a public area when suddenly I hear an acoustic guitar behind me. Cool, live music! When the string quartet starts playing a song, I'm not sure exactly what it's about at first, but I suspect (slightly uncomfortably) that it's Christian rock.

Previous hours:
Feb 25, 0:27-8:40
Feb 26, 2:38-9:03

Family Musical

I'm sitting with my family in a shopping center, looking around at nothing in particular, when I hear a strange sort of music from the group behind me. Turning around, I see that my family is using coins and glass cups to make ringing noises with a definite rhythm and melody. Delighted, I pull a coin from my pocket and join in. It takes me a few tries to figure out how to hit it to get a clear bell tone, but once I figure it out, it's really fun!

At another point I decide to try out my tap dancing skills. Although I'm wearing tennis shoes and I've never practiced this before, it goes pretty well. Except then one of my relatives notices my efforts, smirks lightheartedly, and shows me how it's done. Her shoes are much better than mine for the purpose, and I recognize that I've been put in my place.

Another cousin, a boy of about eleven years, goes over to the nearby piano to play something. But by now, the passersby in the mall have noticed our little show, and they all flock around the piano, expecting great entertainment. To give him a little breathing room, some of us come over to the piano and shoo the other people a bit farther back. His dad sits down with him and they start playing a piece together. Mostly it's just the little boy, but the dad sometimes has to play chords in the high register because the boy's arms aren't long enough to reach that far. In the middle of the performance, a stranger who knows the piece comes up and starts pointing out mistakes in the boy's version, interrupting the father. How annoying.

Grandparents' House

I'm hanging out in my grandparents' house when Mom tells me to go fetch Grandma. I do, and when I come back I find out that Mom is going soon, leaving me to stay here for the night. Just me in the house with my grandparents? I'm uncomfortable with this prospect.

Dramatic Entrance

I'm at a ballroom dance behind a glass wall from the main dance floor. I decide to mischievously break the glass, but I'm not sure exactly the best way to do it. I try it multiple ways, rewinding the scene every time to play it over again.

Quests Galore

I decide to play an old Harry Potter game for nostalgia's sake. I finished the main plot long ago, but there are a bunch of bonus quests that never did finish, and none of them are easy. You have to save up a lot of gold before doing them. After collecting some money, I try starting one of the quests that I've heard is particularly hard--not because of difficult battles, but because the quest is sort of a mystery and it's hard to guess where you're supposed to go next. Indeed, a glob-like creature rises out of the darkness, eats most of my gold, and vanishes without a trace. Well, that got me nowhere. So much wasted time gathering that gold.

I decide to give one of the other quests another try. It involves defeating a ghostly horse-riding warrior. I've tried it before, earlier tonight, and I know that he does a lot of damage, but at least the objective is straightforward. I ride down into his canyon lair and we immediately start fighting, repeatedly charging down the canyon and passing each other like we're jousting with swords. If I hold down one of the trigger buttons on my controller (like the R2 button on a PS2) it will charge my attack, so that if I release the button at the right time, the slash of my scimitar will do lots of extra damage. The trouble is, he's doing the same thing, and we're both losing health at about the same rate. In fact, I'm about to die!

Hurriedly, I pause the game and try to find a health potion in my inventory. While looking around in there, I realize that I also still should have Armageddon's Blade, an epic weapon that I received for completing the main storyline all those years ago. I drink the potion, unpause, and run away from the ghostly warrior to give myself time to search for the sword. I'll also have to ensure that I'm suitably fireproof so that I don't kill myself as well when activating the sword's epic power.

Somehow I end up in a village with a friend of mine, a girl, accompanying me. While I'm talking to some NPCs, she sets off to do a different quest. The NPC remarks upon her departure, saying in a commiserating tone of voice that "women are ever unfaithful." Irked by his sexism, I try to explain that women are people too, and this one just happens to be busy at the moment: "There are only ten slots in our inventory, and we're each trying to do about twenty quests at the same time," I say.

Circumlocution

I'm hanging out with my dad's friend's son, whose father is there as well. The father makes a casual remark that I respond to at face value--then I realize that between the lines, he was actually saying that his son is gay and he thinks I ought to start going out with him. Apparently he thinks I'm gay as well. I'm impressed that he can say this much without actually saying any of it outright: it's the only logical interpretation of his comment. [I can't remember the exact wording of the comment, but presumably it wouldn't make as much sense in waking life anyway.] I add something to my previous response, hopefully making clear that now I understand his second meaning and I'm actually not interested in guys. The son does indeed interpret it that way and hurriedly responds, "That's fine." I suppose he probably feels a bit uncomfortable about his dad's attempt at matchmaking.

Previous hours:
Feb 20, 0:00-8:31
Feb 21, 3:40-8:30
Feb 22, 0:25-8:33; frag: doing touristy stuff

Frags:

• While standing in line to visit a tourist location, some of my new acquaintances who speak the local language explain to me some of the jokes being told by the people around us.

Sex with My Cousin (LUCID)

[Okay, yes, awkward subject. The label "lucid" makes it seem like incest was a dream goal of mine, which I assure you is not the case. And it should go without saying that in waking life, although I do think she is attractive, we are certainly just relatives, with all that that entails. Please don't shun me!]

I'm outside, near a cottonwood tree, when I realize that I'm dreaming. I try to force things to happen, but the dream blurs, and I remember that it's better to try to work within the dream logic. How might I fly into the air within this system? I notice a strong wind at my back: perfect! I let myself be blown into the sky.

What next? I know that it's considered cliche and unrefined to try to have sex in a lucid dream, but at the moment I feel like doing it, and to hell with what everyone else thinks. Again, I try to think of how to make this element come naturally into the dream. Where would I find an interested girl? Hmmm. Probably I can just imagine that she's flying in the sky somewhere out there in the distance where I'm going. And indeed, I soon notice a distant speck growing larger, which turns out, unexpectedly, to be my cousin. We hold on to each other to keep from flying apart. Clothes disappear and not much copulation happens, because I wake up.

Frags:

• playing a really awesome new platformer

Previous hours:
Feb 15, 1:40-3:25
Feb 16, 3:50-9:00
Feb 17, 23:56-9:26

Frags:

• My class is taking a tour, but because of a schedule change, we have to wait in a church for two hours while there's a service going on.

Frags:

• I'm getting hardcore teased by my classmates. I feel mortified. The situation's so stressful that it's literally a nightmare, and I have to wake myself up to escape.
• "sex in locker room"
• I look in the mirror to find that my hair's been tye-dyed with pink and blue. It looks pretty cool. I conclude it must have been my new shampoo that did this without my realizing.

Frags:

• kissing one of my classmates (who IRL I've recently taken an interest in . . .)

Underworld

I'm dead. There's a sarcophagus down here in the underworld with me. I'm not exactly sure what dead people are supposed to eat, so I try eating some dead flesh. Then I try eating a pebble.

Suddenly my roommate arrives. It occurs to me that since the underworld is the great equalizer, he could be from literally anywhere in the world. I'm not sure what language I should use to introduce myself. For that matter, I'm not sure what I should give as my birthplace. He probably won't know of my hometown, so should I mention my state? Maybe just my country?

I leave the room in search of my keys and my shoes, neither of which I currently seem to possess. I find two of my high school friends in a common area, acting like they're in the show Doctor Who. They're trying to simulate a thunderstorm. Such weather never happens in the underworld, and I feel a sudden wave of pity for them: they must miss being alive. They succeed in creating a clap of thunder, and to my surprise a portal opens that can only lead back to the living world. Who would have guessed that being a Doctor Who fan could be so useful? My friends celebrate their success for a moment, but before they can go through the portal, another voice speaks. It introduces itself as Robert Downey Jr., and some how he found out about their plan. Now he's betrayed their plan to the authorities, and they won't be able to escape.

Correct Change

I'm trying to find the right change to pay for my groceries at the local supermarket. But what I thought were bills turn out just to be a bunch of green coupons that are good for 2% off something or other. I try to figure out if I can use one of them with this purchase.

At another time, I'm trying to find all the loose change in my room and organize it. Just when I thought I'd found all my little copper coins, I find an entirely new stack of them that I hadn't remembered existed. I feel overwhelmed by all the pennies. Too many pennies!

Previous hours:
Feb 8, 3:48-8:30
Feb 9, 0:08-7:45

Frags:

• "hot dogs -> floor; my sister pays; packing"

Previous hours:
Feb 6, 3:15-12:53

Virginity

I'm at a party talking with a girl I sort of know when somehow we begin making out. Surprised, I think I want to stop this before it goes too far--this is not how I envisioned I would make my "sexual debut." But no, this is fun! That's what sex is about, right? Sex is just fun and there's no need to memorialize the first time. So I go with it.

Some time later, we're naked in a bed together. I realize that despite the obviously sexual nature of our activities, absurdly, I'm still technically a virgin. But then the girl takes the initiative, and, shifting her position, slips me inside. I'm impressed that she managed to do so without using her hands, but I suppose she knows more about this than me. Anyway, yes, it feels different; I'm not sure how I imagined it would feel.

A few minutes later, we're still going. I'm impressed with myself for lasting this long. In fact, we never actually finish. Eventually we just stop. I realize that this whole time, we've been clasping ourselves together like we're hugging, with our chin over the other person's right shoulder. I'm not sure we ever did any kissing. In order to rectify the situation, I slide my cheek back along hers, and we kiss. As I draw back, she gives me a strange look (or so I think), so I panic and wonder if that was too romantic a thing to do after a one-off fling like this. But when I explain my concern, she laughs and says that kissing is absolutely fine.

Holes in the Sky (LUCID)

Wandering about New York at night with some buddies, we come across their old high school. It's closed now, but we're in the mood for an adventure, so we break in. I'm not totally comfortable with this, and even though there was no audible alarm when we opened the door, I suspect there might have been a silent one. No sooner do I voice this concern to my friends than the floodlights come on and the police catch us.

Later, alone, irritated by the police and conscious of my lucid powers, I decide to walk around the perimeter of the school and telekinetically make writing appear on the chalkboards I can see through the windows. Let them try to explain that tomorrow morning!

Soon I wake up, but on a whim I do an RC and find out it was an FA. It's pretty dark, so I try to shout and make it brighter. That doesn't work, so I stop a moment to think. What would be a natural way to alter the dream and make it lighter? Aha! I direct my arms at the ceiling, and a square portion dissolves away to let in some reddish light. A pretty good solution, if I do say so myself.

Later, while I'm working on something, I see a couple of girls in bikinis off in the distance. I make a note of the location, but honestly what I'm doing now seems more important to me. Soon after, I wake up.


Previous Sleep Hours:
Sun Feb 3: 6:07-12:37

Baby Ghost

I'm playing a video game. There are five main sections of the storyline and they all have a specific name.

I've just finished a quest involving a baby child in a crib, the heir of a royal family. Somehow I start watching a trailer for the game, which I slowly realize is a cinematic retelling of a later section of this same storyline! Spoilers! But on the other hand, who really cares about spoilers, and the story is interesting. Apparently the baby later dies, and his ghost comes back to haunt the crib. I'm standing in a corner of the room at night when the ghost appears in that corner of the room. It attacks me, and I have to defend myself with a magic sword. Later on, Snape is having a conversation with someone when the person betrays him, stabbing a dagger into his side and cutting all the way around the outline of his body.


[I've decided also to add a star rating system to the titles of these entries, since what's the point of titles if not to give some indication of how interesting the content is:

*: fairly uninteresting
**: mildly interesting
***: unusually interesting (e.g. unusually long, unusually detailed, or unusually important)
****: interesting in content and impressive technically (in dream recall or control)
*****: life-changing, awe-inspiring, and the like]

Previous sleep hours:
Fri Feb 1, 2:23-8:30

No recall.

[Okay, I'm thinking now that these empty diary entries are getting pretty boring for all of us. How about I only update this journal when I have something to report? And when I do, I'll just make a list of all the sleep timestamps since the last entry. Studying abroad is fun, but it leaves almost no time to think about dreaming. . . .]