Nazrax

House full of distractions / You're not real!
I'm with my wife walking through a dark, mostly empty parking lot. Now we're walking somewhere else discussing something music-related. Whatever it is, we have differing opinions.

Now we're in a house getting ready to go somewhere. We need to take showers before we can leave, but first we need to pack a change of clothes. We're in a smallish (10'x10') room putting clothing into small reusable grocery bags, planning to change into them after taking our showers. Now I'm dressed in my bathrobe walking down a long hallway towards the bathroom at the end. I see my sister-in-law (wearing a bluish dress) preparing to sit on the toilet, door still open, and turn around - I don't want to see that. As I turn, I see I'm next to another bathroom, but for some reason I decide to wait for the one at the end of the hall instead of using this one. Now I'm walking through another part of the hall and pass a doorway into a living room. Looking in, I see my children and my sister-in-law's kids (her oldest son stands out in my memory) watching TV. They don't see me.

Now I'm at a coffee table flipping through a magazine. An ad catches my eye - lots of text, very colorful. In fact, the page with the ad seems to be really long, longer than the magazine. Now I'm watching something on the TV. It's some kind of weird documentary. Women in very ornate clothes, with an Asian cast to their features, are swimming with dolphins. They've got something metallic covering the fronts of their torsos - it seems to be that they're making metal molds of their chests by getting in the water and letting it cool the metal against them. Now I'm watching a different documentary about two kinds of bird that are very physically similar and differ only in their behaviors. Both birds are smallish, blue, and seem too stocky. The narrator shows two nests and asks which one is which. After a few seconds he points out that the bird in one nest is making one kind of sound while the bird in the other nest is making another kind, and identifies the breed of each bird. One of them makes a very odd, un-bird like noise for a moment. Something else happens and one bird flies of the nest holding a wine bottle cork, and the narrator comments about the decoy nest and being fooled, that it's really hard to tell a decoy from a real one unless you know that male birds only ever sit in the decoys - but from a distance you really can't tell which is which ...

Now I'm playing a video game. My character is running downhill quickly, and a friend's character is to my right and slightly ahead of me. As I'm running, I see heaps upon heaps of equipment, BL2-style. The equipment is probably 50% white, 40% green, and 10% blue. At one point I see a couple of oranges to the far left but can't get to them in time. There aren't any enemies - just this endless downhill run - very odd. Now we're no longer on the loot covered hill, and enemies are near. I equip a fusion canon and something else. I don't remember getting any ammo for either, but I think I must have. Now I'm firing on someone, but the fusion canon is just a tiny beam of purple light that doesn't seem do anything. The other weapon is also a flop, so I change weapons and try again, still to no effect. I try every weapon I have, and I just get laughed at.

Now I'm dealing with a home intruder, still using the weaponry from the game. Again, I try everything I have, but he just ignores me, laughing, and does whatever it is he's come to do. Now we're in the kitchen. His accomplices are taking a friend hostage, saying they'll release him when I publicly post a bunch of embarrassing information about the current operation. He puts sticky notes on the fridge detailing what I need to release. As I'm looking at some envelopes he left, wondering if the return addresses are legit and could use them to track him down and find my friend, I remember I have a real weapon - not just virtual - upstairs. I run upstairs to get it, afraid of using it, afraid of not, hoping I can get it and get to them before they leave and it's too late.

Now I'm upstairs, standing in front of my closet, and I realize I'm dreaming. I do a quick nose plug RC to check, and it works. I slow down, trying to stay calm but not become too detached. First, I shout "INTENSIFY DREAM!" a few times. Nothing really seems to happen, but it feels good. I take in my surroundings and see that I'm upstairs in a kind of open loft. The closets are behind me, the stairs (and a wall-railing) are to my left, walls are ahead and to my right, and I'm standing on a dark green carpet. The ceiling is very low, and a pair of ceiling fans are hanging down even lower. It's dark up here, so I try to cause one of the fan lights to turn on. Nothing happens; oh well. I remember that I'm supposed to remember that my real body is asleep in bed and that everything I see is fake, so I tell myself that I'm asleep in bed and that everything around me is created by my mind. I really get into it and start getting dramatic. I touch the back wall (which is textured drywall) and shout "YOU'RE NOT REAL!" and the wall moves back a few feet. I turn around and (with no fear at all) grab one of the spinning fan blades, stopping it instantly, and shout "AND YOU'RE NOT REAL!". I place my hand on the ceiling and shout "AND YOU'RE NOT REAL!" and move the ceiling up a few feet. I'm having the time of my life, and every time I shout at something I feel like I'm going to burst with laughter.

Now I notice what seems to be a short pull-chain coming out of what looks like a smoke alarm and focus on it, focusing on my desire to have light, and the room becomes much brighter. I remember that I had three things I wanted to do, and that remembering the true state of my body and of the dream was the first. I try to remember the second, but I have trouble - and I think I'm starting to lose the dream since I think (and don't catch) that I added this goal to the list when I was dealing with the people a few minutes ago. I wake up.


Inappropriate ads
I'm watching an ad for something sleep related - maybe a better mattress? It shows people who are well rested and compares them to people who aren't - but the weird part is that all the comparisons are sleep related. One shows a woman rolling over in bed showing how easy it is for her, contrasting it to someone who can't seem to roll over. Another one shows her sitting up in bed, contrasting to the woman who's slouching. After a few like that, it switches to toilet-related stuff. These ads are actually showing people using the toilet, putting black bars over inappropriate bits. I'm surprised they're able to put this kind of thing on TV, or that people would view the ads favorably. I do actually briefly consider the toilet, but then I remember we have a dual-flush toilet and that doesn't seem to be an option for thees, so oh well.


Battling lava creep
I'm standing with @Jakkarth next to a pond. I know I'm dreaming, but I believe he's also lucid with me, and I'm completely absorbed in the plot of the dream. On the far side of the pond is some kind of temple building. It's kind of like a pyramid skyscraper, looking like a normal office building except for the slight slope to its walls and the staircase coming down the middle of the building. Something like hardened lava has worked its way down the steps and across the water, and it's almost reached us. I believe @Jakkarth and I have had a continual battle against this lava stuff, and that if we don't beat it tonight then we will have completely lost. We decide to give it one more try. I thrust my hands forward (I believe he does the same), close my eyes, and really push with my mind. After a few seconds I open my eyes to see if we've done anything, and I'm amazed at the transformation: the water is now crystal clear, and from what I can see there's no remnant of the stuff on the building. The sky is also a gorgeous light blue, and the sun seems to be hanging directly over the building. It's beautiful, but it's so dazzling I can't look up past the base of the building without being blinded. I try to hold my hand over my eyes, but most of the building remains hidden by the light. I ask @Jakkarth if he can see any better than I and he confirms that the stuff is gone. I'm overjoyed and jump into the water to swim across. Even though the pond is fairly wide I swim across in just a few strokes. I don't know how I managed to do that, but it felt great! I consider that it felt as though I were larger than life swimming across a much smaller pond. Now I'm standing in what seems to be a fire escape balcony. The railing is at the wrong height, as if I'm way too tall for it, as if confirming my theory that I'm too large for this world.


Leaked artwork
I'm looking over a booklet of leaked artwork for a new game. I keep flipping page after page, but it seems to be the same couple of pictures repeated over and over. Now I'm using a blank sheet of paper to write out a spell that will turn someone into an anthropomorphic bear based of off one of the sketches. As part of the spell, anyone affected by this form will be unable to sew.

Prison weirdness
I'm seeing the inside of a prison. It's a very large space, very gray, reminiscent of the courtyard of a castle. Up ahead is a wall with a giant arch; above the arch, in huge letters, is a sign proclaiming it to be the women's restroom.

Now I'm in a hallway, near a corner. A man walks slowly around the corner taking some pills. An employee sees him and rushes up to stop him; it seems the pills are dangerous.

Beach house
We're in the car, driving through a rustic downtown area. We're following Waze's directions, but the path seems really loopy and doesn't actually seem to be getting us anywhere. Now we're arriving at the beach, where we're going to meet our pastor and his family. We turn onto what ends up being a really short stretch of road - maybe 20 feet - dead-ending into a sharp 30 foot drop-off. It seems Waze messed up again ... I decide that when we get home I'll try to edit Waze's map so it doesn't try to direct anyone else off a cliff. Looking down, we can see the beach and the mom we're meeting lounging on a nice beach chair. The waves are surprisingly large, and I think we may not be able to enter the water - a particular disappointment for my wife, since she was able to spend so little time in the water during our vacation a couple of months ago.

Now I'm out of the car looking for a place to change. I see a long row of blue port-a-potties but would rather not change in one of those. Now I'm in the living room of a nice older house. The lighting is dim, partly because of all the dark wood around. For some reason I'm looking for coat hangers. I come across one that's a solid piece of plastic with a wide variety of slits cut in it, each labeled with the kind of clothing that goes in it; but the handle is on the end, and holding it by the handle makes the whole thing sideways, including the labels and slits. After a moment I realize it's supposed to have a handle on the other side, but it's been broken off.

Now I'm walking down the hallway. I look into a couple of bedrooms as I pass them. One of them has white walls, a light carpet, a computer on a small computer desk, a bunk bed, and stuff strewn all over the floor. I realize I'm in the T's house. I hear something (don't remember what).

Now I'm back in the living room area. A kid is holding a gun, and I'm talking to him on the phone, even though we're in the same room. I know the gun is loaded with a single blank, so I tell him to point it away from anything nearby and shoot it. The muzzle flash is very pretty. Now I'm reloading the gun, but I'm having trouble with the clip. I've already slid a little rack out of the clip - like on a Pez dispenser - and I'm putting bullets in, but I'm skipping spaces and having trouble getting some of them to go in properly.

Fragments:
I'm at a restaurant with my family and my sister-in-law and her family, moving table and chairs to make a circle of chairs large enough for all of us - except that I'm not actually planning on staying for whatever the event is. Something about an extra chair and a hoodie.

Boat vacation
I'm talking to my in-laws about our next vacation. We're talking about a cruise, or something else large-boat-related, but someone suggests we could rent a smaller boat and have it all to ourselves and just stay in the water near an island.

Now we're in an interior room in a smallish boat along with a bunch of other people. The room is lit mainly by strands of haphazardly strung Christmas tree lights. We can't dock yet because the sun isn't up yet and this island only allows docking during the day (except it's actually quite bright outside ...). I can see out a door, or something, that the dock is crowded with people - waiting for our group to disembark? - but someone asks why there are a couple of people with RPGs (I never actually see them) and the captain says it's to make sure we don't try to dock early. As we're waiting, Sam does something with a big bowl and some essential oils.

On the dock, I see a car that's been painted psychedelic colors. It's parked facing right, passenger side towards the water. The driver's side windows have been replaced with something solid, and they're painted the same way the car is. I'm confused about how anyone could ever drive it.

Mountaintop domes
Somehow, I see a mountain on a tropical island. The whole island is covered in thick trees. There's a large glass structure at the top and another identical one hanging off the side. Somehow I know that one is the original and the other somehow mirrors it, but I don't know which is which (though I assume the one on the side is the mirror).

Now I'm in one of the structures. It's a very large geodesic dome made out of metal struts and glass panes. At the center is a model of the mountain with the structures on it. I'm not actually sure which structure we're in - the one on top or the one on the side - but I go over to look at the model. It's so precise and so real-time that I can see us moving around in the model dome on the side of the model mountain. Looking out the window, I see trees stretching away forever under a beautiful light blue sky.

Lucid in the ocean
It's the middle of the night. I'm in my bedroom, laying in bed, looking at my phone. My wife is straightening the pillows on the window seat, and we have a brief conversation. I notice light coming from the office and decide to check it out. Now I'm in the office turning off my monitors. Now I'm back in the bedroom walking towards my side of the bed. The floor is remarkably clean of stuff, but my son's inhaler chamber is in the middle of the floor. I pick it up, put it on the dresser, and continue on.

Now I'm standing in the ocean with water up to my mid chest. It's a beautiful day - cloudless, but not too bright. The ocean is a translucent blue and is completely calm. The shore is behind me; I'm looking out towards the horizon. My wife is about 10 feet away to my right. Other groups of people are scattered around. There's maybe 50-100 feet between each group, and the groups go as far as I can see in any direction. I look to my left and see a VERY tall wave heading perpendicular to shore towards us. It's a literal wall of water: each edge is straight, and (I don't know how I know) it's only a few inches thick.

I realize there's no way this is reality. I decide that the oncoming wave will be a portal, and that as I pass through it I'll change form. A couple of seconds later, the wave passes over me and I barely feel it - I'm not pushed around at all. I lean back in the water to expose more of my body check over myself and see that I look a bit different, but not to the degree I'd imagined. Oh well. I see another wave coming and enjoy the sheer ridiculousness of the situation as it again passes over me with no effect. I decide to try something totally different, so I loudly say "Nazrax to Enterprise, Nazrax to Enterprise, one to beam up" and try to imagine the white swirly effect of being in a transporter beam. For a moment I even close my eyes, but then I get scared and open them again. The scene is unchanged. I'm a bit disappointed but glad I didn't lose lucidity with a stupid mistake.

Now I'm further along the beach, still up to my chest in water, and my swim trunks are down around my ankles. I reach down and try to fix them, but I move really really slowly. After a moment I realize I'm instinctively moving slowly to avoid disturbing the dream and realize that A) that's kind of silly but B) maybe it means that my dream and/or lucidity is fading. I remember that my current goal is to remember that my real body is asleep in bed, so I tell myself that my real body is asleep in bed, that everything around me is a creation of my mind. I hold up my hands, look at them (they seem perfectly normal), and tell myself that even these hands are just creations of my mind.

I see a couple near me and realize I know them. I greet Mike, then Nan; then I realize that Nan is actually standing right next to the woman I'd just greeted. I greet her, assuming the first one was her sister, but then I realize that she's the sister and the first one was Nan. I get really confused, then I wake up.


Fragment: I'm with a group of people standing on a grassy field. It goes as far as I can see in any direction. It rolls gently, going up and down gradually and no more than about 5 feet. Thin, bright streams run over it here and there. I have the impression of a lot of yellow, though I don't know what it's from.

Helping my parents
I'm in the kids' bathroom (which is as it is in real life), getting ready to take a shower. I check my phone and see that I need to move quickly - Mom stayed with us last night, and she wants to head home soon, but first she wants to go to the store with us to get something.

Now I'm downstairs in "my house." I'm working on some kind of balance transfer from eBay for Frank. He's been selling stuff, but the money has been accumulating in his eBay account and he can't figure out how to transfer the money out into his bank account. Now I'm holding a bunch of printouts of emails from eBay which should document the amounts and accounts involved. I remember that some banks have a minimum deposit, and I don't know if this will meet it, so I think it may be necessary to make a withdrawal and then immediately redeposit it, plus the eBay stuff, so it'll go through. Now I'm printing out a cashier's check for $90 - that plus the eBay stuff will exceed the minimum. As I'm looking at it, I realize I should have ensured that the documentation I have (the emails) is enough - it seems kind of flimsy, and it would be a pain to have requested the cashier's check for nothing.


A strange day at school
I'm in a small classroom with only my oldest daughter, oldest son, and our physics teacher. I'm listening to him with only half an ear as he drones on about something. He's standing at the head of a short rectangular table. I'm sitting to his left, and my children are sitting across from me. He's going on about something, but it doesn't make any sense. I hope the book will be clear enough to figure out the contents of the lecture and do the problems. Now my children are doing the problems in their workbooks. While I was distracted, it seems the teacher finished his lesson and gave us the rest of the period to get started on our homework. I keep doing whatever it is I'm doing, since I don't actually have the workbook with me, and I feel a bit embarrassed about it. Eventually I look in my backpack, on the floor to my right, just to make sure - and it turns out the workbook was there all along. Whoops. I get it out but then can't find anything to write with; I end up borrowing one I find laying around somewhere.

Now I'm outside class talking to my daughter. She says the teacher is really well known, that he's currently second in his field. She says something about the intermediate competition she and her brother are part of, then wonders what it must be like to be in advanced like I am. I have no idea what's going on at all, so I say something generic.

I look around and see that we're in a clear grassy area which is surrounded by trees and which has a scattering of small buildings. As we're talking a strange plane comes in view. It looks like just the fuselage with no wings, though in the dream I'm not at all surprised by its appearance. I am surprised by its color scheme - it's got a kind of yellow/black check, so I assume it's some kind of taxi service. The most surprising thing about it is that it's moving every which way and is sometimes on its side or even up-side-down. I point it out to my daughter, who turns around to look at it. I get more and more worried as it heads our way. We're the only two who see it, so eventually I call out a warning as loudly as I can - something along the lines of "Look out!!!" - and it crashes in the middle of the clearing. Most of us start to run towards it, to see if we can offer aid to anyone inside, but a man with a very commanding voice orders us to keep back, then less loudly explains how important it is to wait for it to cool down. Someone else says something about a majority of airplane deaths being caused by inhaling poisonous fumes.


Fragment: During WW2, an injured soldier is being shown a black and white video of a little American plane taking down a much larger enemy plane.

This is the first night in a while that I've recalled anything in some time. Hopefully it's the end of my dry spell

In a classroom
I'm walking into a classroom with a bunch of other people - mostly other adults. Now I'm sitting at a desk getting my stuff out and set up. As I'm pulling my laptop out of its bag, I see that it's not in its protective sleeve but is instead in the larger pocket. I'm confused (and slightly irritated) - I never do that! Now I've got the laptop on the desk and I'm trying to get everything plugged in, but I'm having trouble getting the cords to reach - somehow they've gotten tangled around each other. As I'm messing with the cords, I see some books standing upright propped up against the desk legs. Now the teacher has her projector set up and is asking some students behind me to do their presentation, but they're unable to. The students behind me are clumped together in small groups, and I suspect they're goofing off and not actually working. In any case, the teacher asks me to give mine. I'm not very happy about it - I hate presentations, and I gave mine last week - but I agree.

I'm still sitting at my desk, but now I'm listening to a talent show that's being performed on the other side of the classroom. The lights are dimmed to provide a nice ambiance - at least, as nice as you'll get in a classroom with uncomfortable chairs and small desks. A man and a woman are singing, and they're accompanied by a woman playing a piano and a man playing the largest string instrument I've ever seen. I think to myself that it's got to be twice as large as Seth's double bass. When I first look at him, I realize his instrument has strings running side-to-side as well as top-to-bottom, and that he's sliding his bow back and forth along one of the horizontal strings. There's a strange sound, almost electronic, and I assume it must be these strange strings and the strange way he's playing them, since there's certainly no electronic instruments being played. As I look more closely, I realize the horizontal strings are actually very tightly wound coils - that must explain the eerie sound. (After waking up, I realized I was hearing my music coming through my pillow speaker.)

Fragment: I'm walking through a wide hallway at work.

Photos of Dad
I'm standing with my mom and my wife in a grassy area near a street corner. A small tree is nearby, and a park is across the street. It's a beautiful day: it's bright but not too bright, there's not a cloud in the sky, and there's no traffic. Mom is showing us photos, all 8x10s, of my father taken when he was a child. In one, he's sitting on a bench, next to an adult male with really poofy blond hair, practicing his violin. At first glance, I think he looks just like my older son; I look more closely and realize he's actually pretty chubby. That's never run in our family, so I can't understand why he's so chubby in this picture. Mom shows us other pictures, but none is as clear as the first. One of them even gets destroyed (my wife folded and ate it??), but it didn't actually have my father in it, so it's OK.


Destroyed washing machine
I'm sitting upstairs in my office when I happen to look out the window to see a truck with a trailer pulling into our driveway. On the trailer is an old washing machine, looking really beat up. Now I'm in my family room with the washing machine. I've never seen something in such bad shape. It looks like it's been shot at a couple dozen times, ripped open, then left out to rust. I note that there's still some water in the bottom of the washing tub, and that'll make it even harder to sell.

Now I'm in another room near some tables covered in tablecloths. More tablecloths are piled on the floor - they've been used like towels to dry out the washing machine. I've got a ballpoint pen and am trying to write on a dry corner of one of the tablecloths, but it's not working too well. I test the pen by writing on my hand, and it works fine. My wife walks up and asks what I'm doing, and I explain that these tablecloths are now so dirty that they'll either be bleached or just thrown away, and that either way it doesn't matter if I write on them; and it's so rare to have an opportunity to write on a tablecloth that I can't just ignore it.

Now we're pulling the tablecloths off of the tables in preparation to wash all of them. With the tablecloths off, it's easier to see the tables: it's a pair of folding 6 foot tables arranged in a T shape.


Graduate project
I'm in a fairly small room sitting at a conference table with a man, who's slightly older than myself, and a female grad student. She's got long blond hair and is wearing a blue jumper. Along with the other man, I've been tasked to help the woman with the project she's working on. She starts describing it to us, and despite not knowing any details about her work I'm able to make some good educated guesses and point out some things she missed. She's really impressed and says so; I don't do well taking compliments, but I remember how important it is to accept compliments well and try to say something accepting, yet humble.

Now it's another day, and I'm once again sitting around a conference table with them - though this time we're in a different room. I'm distracted by something and having difficulty following the conversation, but I start to tune back in when we get off topic and start to talk about hobbies. It turns out she enjoys cycling, and she's got a race at 8AM tomorrow that she invites us both to. It sounds interesting, but I decline since it's early in the day and some way from where I live.

Now we're talking about why we're working on this project. It seems that a company approached the woman and asked her to work on it, and the man and I were assigned to help her because the project will help our respective companies as well. The woman is being paid well for her work; he and I are just receiving our normal salaries, and our companies are the ones receiving the extra pay.

Now we're talking about the nuclear power plant in her hometown. She describes how the plant made all its own frosted class and built a main building with a very unusual low sweeping design. It's really attractive, and it actually has one wing that's a very nice art museum, one of the nicest in the area.


Secret stuffed animal
I'm doing some kind of secret agent stuff. Someone shows me a fairly large stuffed animal, a shiny white bear in a sitting position, and asks me if I notice anything special about it. I don't, so he shows me the tag, showing me that it was manufactured in <country with a name starting with G>, and that it was smuggled out at great risk. An agent couldn't do it - they'd be recognized - so it had to be done by the friend of a friend of an agent so it couldn't be traced back to us. I don't recognize the country, so I ask for more details. Smugly, he tells me that it's right next to Malta. I'm still confused - isn't Malta an island? Is this country nearby? He replies that it *touches* Malta. I think about it for a minute, then ask him if the two countries share the same island, and he says they do. I'm stunned - how could there be this little country that no one knows about?

Now I'm with a couple of other people, including Mom, in the baggage processing center in an airport. It's a huge space, poorly lit, with counters and conveyor belts running everywhere, both at waist height and overhead. Now we're pushing some tiny (maybe 2sqft) rolling platforms with stuff on them down an aisle between two counters. They're just on casters, so we're bent over pushing them - it's really awkward. Mom is in front of me, and she comes to an abrupt stop when her little cart hits a coil of orange extension cord that got knocked onto the floor. As we're trying to get her past it, a security guard wanders past. I'm a bit worried that he'll question us, but we all do a good job of looking like we belong and he walks past us without question.


Fragments:
I'm in a classroom helping people try to make a video for a celebration. There's something about blackboards vs whiteboards, and something else about an inflatable Big Bird.

I'm having lunch with a black guy I don't know. Later, I'm talking with a friend who's gushing that a really really famous lawyer is in town. As I talk more with her, I realize he's the guy I had lunch with, and she can't believe it and is terribly jealous.

Something about trying to set up resource access with two other guys who have signed up.

Something about loading kids in a minivan.

Tower game
I'm playing what seems to be a 3rd person 3d platformer, climbing levels and avoiding obstacles. There aren't any enemies - the environment itself is the challenge. Each level seems to be shaped roughly like a square doughnut, with a large hole in the middle through which lower floors can be seen, and is sloped gently up. Seen from the side, the floors in the tower would seem to zig-zag upwards. The floor and walls are white, and other objects are fairly muted colors. Now I'm on what I assume to be the top level - behind me, I can see a hole leading to a lower level, but in front of me, at the far side of the doughnut, is what looks like a control room. (My quickly jotted notes indicate I was playing with a friend, but I can't remember anything about that).

Now I'm still playing a game on these levels, but now I'm controlling a marble, rolling it downhill in the levels, trying to avoid the obstacles and the hole in the middle. Now I'm watching someone else play. She jumps her marble into the large open space in the middle, but amazingly hits some invisible springs and bounces across the hole, reaching the far side in record time. I'm really impressed and want to know where she learned that and what other secrets this game might hold.

Now I'm standing on the lowest floor along with an older couple. We walk out some automatic sliding doors into what seems to be a mall. We turn right and start walking, but a young man dressed in a polo shirt and slacks comes running out of a nearby store carrying a pair of sewing-machine-sized boxes and gives one to each of the older people. It seems these are something the store has been working on for them and they just finished, and he didn't want them to have to come back for their stuff.


Night security
I'm joining night security, and a "lawful rogue" (I have no idea what that means) know-it-all wants me to practice quick-drawing my sidearm. I don't yet have a holster, so it's in my pocket - worse yet, it's in my left pocket, and I'm right-handed. I reach in and grab it, trying to pull it out, but it gets stuck on my FitBit. It takes me way too long to get it out, and I'm somewhat embarassed, especially since this jerk is so good at it. I put the gun back in my right pocket and try again. I do better this time, though I really need a proper holster. He's still not impressed with my performance - I'm supposed to cock the hammer in a smooth movement as I draw it, and I only got the hammer half-cocked. As I'm drawing, I realize that the name of my gun is Vindication. I try again and manage to draw and cock in a nice smooth movement. This time, the name is Cross. Now I'm sorting through a baggy half-full of various calibers of bullet. Some of them have gotten flipped around, so I'm putting them back in all facing the same way so I can reload more quickly if I need to.

Now I'm going through this place - kind of "creepy industrial / laboratory" setting, underground, with large, strange devices on the walls - with the know-it-all and another man. A creature - possibly a griffon - shows up and engages us. It has access to both physical and elemental attacks, and I'm lightly wounded. I have to sit it out while the other two finish dealing with it. Despite his attude, the know-it-all is actually really good.


Out-of-order elevator
We've been vacationing at a hotel/condo, and it's time to leave. I'm pulling a wheeled suitcase through the elevator lobby, and I stop when I see a sign on the elevator doors saying that the elevator is under maintenance because you can only push buttons to go up, not down. I'm confused because I only just took a large load down in the elevator; I can't imagine having to do it by taking the stairs. Now I'm at the bottom of a stairwell, carrying a small carryon, going back up. I know I could probably take the elevator, but that sign has me concerned and somewhat confused, so I'm taking the stairs instead. Just in front of me is a small British woman carrying something, climbing slowly. I think about offering to help - partly because it's polite, partly because that would be the fastest way to get upstairs - but in the end I'm too shy to do it.

Conversations at school
I'm in an office in a school, looking for a (drawing) compass for my daughter. I'm poking through a really strange chest of drawers - each drawer has a strange lip on top that prevents it from closing unless the drawer above it is open, so I'm moving from the bottom up, closing each drawer as I open the one above it.

I happen to look up from the drawers and out the door, and I see Mr. Jackson walk by. I've wanted to talk to him, so I get up to chase after him. Now I'm in the foyer of the school catching up to him. A lot of people are around (unusual for a dream), so I'm having a hard time moving quickly. I call his name, but he keeps walking as if he didn't hear me. I call his name again, and he turns around - except it turns out to be a woman with long blond hair (I could have sworn I was chasing a man with short blond hair?!?). She turns back around and walks off.

Now I'm walking through the school again, and I pass a wall with some huge displays. They're showing some kind of slideshow; some of the images aren't really appropriate for public viewing, and I'm surprised they're showing them here.

Now I'm back in the foyer, standing next to a freestanding desk, talking to my sister-in-law about a switched extension cord she has. I look at it and see that the outlets on it are rimmed with copper, which I think is very odd - and probably not safe. I look again and see a wide, shallow rocker switch on the side with two outlets - but it's also odd, since it looks like anything plugged into it would sit on top of the switch.

Now I'm talking with someone else. I pull out my phone to show him a picture of the extension cord, but all my recent pictures are of a giant outdoor event with LOTS of people. I don't remember what the event is, and I'm surprised that I can't find the extension cord picture since I took it so recently.


Fragment: I'm coming back into my bedroom at some terribly early hour. To my surprise, my wife is awake, and we talk briefly.

City under attack
I'm in a car with Pete - he's driving. We're driving through a sparse coastal city heading for the coast. Now we're driving right along the coast. Looking out my window, I can see a fence just beyond the road. Beyond the fence is a nice smooth beach and some clear, light blue water. Ahead, in the near distance, I see our destination: a break in the fence and a road that goes down into the water. I know there's something we need to pick up that's next to the short strip of road before the water.

Up ahead, I see a handful of low "sky scrapers." As I'm looking at them, a strange plane flies over them. I think it looks like a short SR-71 with canards near the front of the pointy part - but the outline of the canards is very rounded, like an oval got shoved through the fuselage. As I'm watching, I see missiles drop from under the plane and shoot forwards, heading off to something behind us and to our left. I cry out, and Pete asks what's wrong - he didn't see it. I point out the plane, and he tells me I must have been mistaken - until it lets loose with more missiles. A couple more of the same kind of plane show up and start attacking whatever it is.

I try to call my wife to make sure she's OK, but the phone just rings and rings. I realize my phone is out of minutes and I'll need to buy more before I can call her. Now I'm at some kind of kiosk with giant buttons trying to buy more minutes, but the machine isn't cooperating with me.

Fragment: Something about a couple of women, identical twins, who are dragon hunters.

Island resort
I have an aerial view of an island. It's generally oval-shaped, and it has a very pointy mountain range running straight down the middle longways. Now my wife and I are climbing the mountain, getting close to the top. I still have a 3rd person view - I can see both of us as if from a camera hovering 15 or 20 feet from us. From this perspective, I can see that the mountain is smooth and shiny - I think it may be built out of Legos. As I'm walking along a path, I find a spot where a channel has been cut out of the wall to my left, and there's a glowing, pulsing square on the ground at the bottom of the channel. I step onto the square and am immediately launched upwards and over the mountain's peak.

Now I've got a 1st person view. I've landed safely on some kind of giant umbrella-shaped something and am now in some kind of plush island resort. People are landing on this thing every few moments, squashing it each time. I think to myself that I'm really glad it's here - I'd be pancaked otherwise - but that I had a pretty good suspicion that it would be. After all, it would take days (or even weeks) to walk around the foot of the mountain, so going over it like I did makes a lot of sense.

Now I'm further into the resort area. Everything is bright and sunny; small pools dot the area; and buildings (of which there are many) are fairly small "huts" with whitish walls and fairly dark brownish thatched roofs.

Now I'm on a roof. This place is pretty nice. Things are a bit slow, but I like that, and I'm thankful we made it.

Now I'm out on the water (on a boat?). I'm amazed at how smooth and clear it is. I can see the sea floor with almost no distortion. It's so beautiful I make a comment aloud about it, and I end up talking with someone near me about how amazing it all is.


Fragment: I'm working with some coworkers trying to create a custom Docker container, but we're having trouble baking in API server password.

Tiny downpours
I'm a passenger in a vehicle, sitting on the right side of the car (maybe second row in a minivan?). As we're crossing a bridge over a river, I look out my window and see a tiny storm cloud (maybe 30 feet across) pouring down rain and moving rapidly along the river. I can see where the air is darker due to the rainfall, and I can easily see where the rain is churning up the river as it hits. The cloud passes over our vehicle, and we're in it for just a couple of seconds before it passes. As I'm thinking that that's the strangest cloud I've ever seen, another one does the same thing. I start fumbling to get out my cell phone to try to take a video if another one passes, but by this time we're almost across the bridge.

A haircut for my wife
I'm with my whole family in our van. My wife has just parked in a crowded parking deck, but we're not parked well. The cars on either side of us aren't parked well, and we're in at an angle. I can't see how we'll get out of the car.

My wife is actually the only one who needs to get out - she's here for a haircut, and the rest of us will be staying in the car while we wait. She gets out of the car - I don't see how, and I'm confused since I'm not sure how she could even open her door - and climbs the wall of the parking deck in front of me to get to the next level where it's easier to move. I'm very impressed with how easily she did it, but I don't think it's very safe and I'd prefer she not do it again.

Now she's back in the car with us, explaining that the plans have changed, that she's going to meet Sue at the hair place so they can get their hair cut at the same time (In the dream, I know the name of the hair style Sue is going for). Since this level of the parking deck is too crowded, we're going to move higher in the deck so Sue can park near us.

Now we're on the roof of the deck, and it looks like we're the only car up here. There's some kind of tower over on the edge of the deck. Now we're in the tower, heading to the top - the hair dresser is up there. I remember that we left all the kids except the baby in the car, but I'm not too worried about them. My wife is going to take the stairs, but I see an elevator to my right. We decide to split up and meet at the top. Now I'm in the elevator, and I think my wife made the better choice. It's tiny, green, and doesn't have a button panel. Around the upper edge of the walls are strangely shaped lights which may or may not be buttons. As I'm pondering things, the doors open and I find myself on the top floor. I get out, confused about why it moved but thankful that I wasn't stuck in an elevator I couldn't figure out how to work. I see my wife coming up the stairwell near me and rejoin her.


Giant snake
I'm at home, doing some house maintenance while standing on a small platform that juts out from one of the windows on the front of my house. I look around and see a giant snake on the driveway. It's probably as big around as a car and a lot longer.

Now I'm standing on the lawn in front of my house. I've just tried a few things to get rid of the snake, and it's moved from the driveway to the opposite side yard, but now it's just "sitting" there watching us. I consider getting my gun to shoot it, but I'm worried that if my aim is off I could hurt someone else. I comment that I wish we had a shotgun, since it would do more damage to the snake but not be as dangerous to others nearby, and my wife says that they're not *that* expensive and we should get one.

Now my wife is back from her shopping trip, holding a brand new shotgun. At first I think she got it from Costco for $500, which is more than I'd wanted to spend (not to mention I didn't know Costco carried shotguns), but then I realize I'd misunderstood her, she'd gotten it from <store> for about $250. As I'm looking at it, I realize the tip of the gun is orange and exclaim that she got a toy gun, but she holds it up so I can see that the tip is, in fact, black and that I'd somehow seen it wrong. We discuss what kind of ammo to use - I think we should try bird shot, since it's the safest, but she thinks we should use buckshot to make sure we kill it, and that it's still safer than a normal handgun bullet for bystanders.

Now I'm walking around inside my house collecting the things I'll need before I can shoot the snake. My second daughter is helping me. I get my eye and hearing protection, then realize I've forgotten something and somehow get from the second story to the first by dropping through a wall?


Video for a show
I'm in a bed, under only a sheet, talking to a woman I don't know. Now I'm watching a TV show and fiddling with something on my phone - they want their viewers to send in videos of something, and I'm trying to figure out how to take one. Now it's later in the day, and I realize I missed the deadline to send in my video. Oh well.


Fragments:
Something about singing a hymn.

Something about a closet in a basement.

Buying a fan
I'm at Home Depot shopping for a new ceiling fan. I decide on what I want and go to find a cart. As I'm getting the cart, I see a guy I know who's also getting a cart. We greet each other but end up going to different places in the store. Now I have the fan box in my cart. The supporting hardware I need for it is upstairs, so I head towards an escalator.
Now I'm upstairs with the escalator at my back and electrical in front of me. The ceiling is probably 50 feet up, and the electrical hardware is hanging around two large columns. There's some automated mechanism to try out the fans, so I use it. Now my new fan is mounted at ceiling height between the columns, so I have to look straight up to see it. I realize that, even though I thought it was a three-bladed fan, it's actually a four-bladed fan with one blade missing. Also, the other blades are attached to the motor by some kind of swivel mount, so as the thing is rotating, it's wobbling all over the place. I find a rotary switch nearby and play with the speed of the fan, trying to get it into a stable configuration. I know I'm just wasting my time since I'll be putting this fan back and getting one without a missing blade, but it's a fun challenge.
Now I'm looking at the switches for sale. I see three that would fit my needs: a paddle switch with no ornamentation, a paddle switch with a kind of "bunch of grapes" design molded onto the top and bottom, and something else. I kind of like the grapes one.

Fragment
I'm in a motel room with Keira getting both of us ready to go to the beach while we wait for the rest of the family to get back from their outing.

My recall recently has been terrible, so before bed I jotted down some notes about my waking day. It seemed to help

Hospital foodcourt party
I'm walking through a hospital. To my left is a wall made out of plate-glass windows; I see a bunch of guys dressed for an operation moving around. I see a bunch of women on exercise bikes reflected in the windows, and I think how odd it is to have a gym right across from the OR. Now I'm in an office talking to a guy. At the end of the conversation, he tells me to report to room B4-xxx to get started with my assignment. Now I'm walking through the hallways again, carrying a travel mug, and I'm wearing a dark blue nurse's outfit. I encounter my friend Peter who asks if I want to go with him to the food court. At first, I decline; then I realize it's 9:56 and the food court stops serving breakfast at 10:00, so I agree and hope we make it in time.

Now we're walking into the food court. I'm expecting to find a stack of trays by the door, followed by a stack of plates, followed by tray rails and food under glass roofs; instead, the entrance area has tiny square tables scattered around it, each with a plate or two of food and, occasionally, a stack of Styrofoam plates or bowls or a container of plastic utensils. Peter grabs a bowl from the table nearest the door and keeps walking through. I feel really self-conscious about the whole thing since it's so weird. I follow him, looking all over the place for the trays, but I never find any. On the far side of the entryway are the normal food warmers. I look around me for a stack of bowls to grab, but they're not as common over here as they were near the door. I think I see some, but as I get closer I realize they're already used and dirty. I finally find a clean stack and grab a bowl, then start looking for utensils. I find some on a nearby table, but the forks, knives, and spoons are all jumbled together, and a few of them look used as well. I pick through the collection to find a clean one of each. Now we're going through the line proper, and I'm surprised to see that we're passing desserts first - some kind of yellow cake catches my eye.

Now I'm sitting at a table across from Peter. On the table near him is a CD with a really striking label. I know it's a Stephenson audio book - I think it was Cryptonomicon - though in the dream neither of us can remember either the author's name or the name of the book. We talk about the contents of the book anyway. He says he understands now why, before he'd read it, I would only give vague hints about what went on, and he's glad I didn't give anything away.

Now I'm back at the dessert table. This time, it's a narrow 6 foot table with a selection of different chocolate desserts, most of which don't have much left on them. The people around me are dressed for a fairly nice party. A friend is with me, and (s)he suggests a particular dessert that's really tasty. It's chocolate, multilayered, and built on some kind of crust. I grab a spatula to get a slice, but I have terrible difficulty with it - I just can't seem to get my slice on the spatula, and instead end up sliding it all over the place, eventually somehow flipping it up-side-down on what's left. I'm feeling pretty embarrassed by this point and hope that no one is watching as I hold the plate so its edge touches my slice and just use the spatula to push/scoop it on.

Now I'm standing near a small temporary canopy. Under the canopy is a table with some fliers, but I don't look at them. I end up in conversation with some of the people near-by. The guy I'm talking to is talking about digital piracy at college and says that new students end up spending about the first 6 months out of every year pirating stuff before they finally start buying things. Later, he changes to talking about how they spend the first 9 months out of their college careers doing it. I'm surprised by the change, but he doesn't acknowledge it. I'm kind of uncomfortable and tell him that I may have done a bit, but not nearly that much. I realize that George Lucas is standing immediately to my left, listening to the conversation, and I hurriedly assure him that I never downloaded any of his stuff. We get in conversation, and I think that he looks different than I expected, taller and thinner (in hindsight, I think he looked like James Cameron actually looks).

As we're talking, he points out another guy in the crowd, identifying him as another really famous Hollywood guy. I look and realize that the guy he's pointing to is my neighbor. I had no idea he was famous! I just thought he was an average old retired guy. Now I'm moving between conversations. It seems that everyone I talk to wants to "introduce" me to my neighbor, and whenever I explain that I already know him, they're all jealous.

Now I'm standing by a table with a stack of something on it, talking to Mom, explaining that I'd not only found out that my unassuming neighbor is famous, but that I'd also found out that my daughter's horseback riding tutor is actually a famous violin player and that <someone else I know> is actually a famous <something>.

Now I'm boarding some kind of train car along with a bunch of the other guests. Now we're approaching our destination, but I'm no longer in a train car but rather something that looks like a sports car on wheels. Small elves (they look like Christmas Elves) are somehow perched on the hood and trunk, and someone explains that they're there for security to make sure the guests stay safe.

Now I'm in a fairly small one-room building - call it 20x20 - that's got a few windows and a few shelves of books. Looking out the windows, I see that the building is set in the middle of a city road.


Videos at school
I'm in line in a bureaucratic office, waiting to talk to a woman sitting behind a counter. There are three women, each with her own line. I'm in the leftmost line with a couple of people in front of me. The middle line is about the same length, and the right-hand line is a bit shorter. Now I notice the right-hand lady doesn't have a line any more, and she's glaring at me. When she sees that I've noticed her, she beckons me over. Now I'm talking to her, and she's explaining that someone took my token and gave it to her, which means that she can't see anyone else until she's finished with me.

Now I'm outside in the parking lot, headed back towards the building. I see some friends from church and fall in step with them as they also head in. I see that their eldest daughter is carrying a large hardback book, and I try to get a look at the cover, but I can't make it out.

Now I'm wandering the halls looking for a bathroom. I make a right-hand turn at the end of a hallway and find a really short hallway with 5 closed doors coming off of it. Between two doors is a pastel blue sticky note reading "Women's Restroom." I realize that each of the five doors must have a single bathroom behind it, and that this whole little area is considered the women's restroom, so I quickly leave. Now I've found the end of another hallway with "Men's Room" on a sticky note. Even before I take the turn, I suspect that it won't be nearly as nice as what the women have, and I'm proven right when I find a dirty room with a sink and a toilet installed in a shower stall. As I'm standing there, another man comes in and waits for me to finish.

Now I'm wandering the halls again looking for my classroom. It's 9:32, so I'm late, and I hope the teacher doesn't notice or mind my tardiness. I finally find my room and go in. The room is set up with a bunch of tables in a U shape. The teacher is sitting with my son near the end of one of the arms, working on his violin playing, so I walk around the edge of the room and find an empty seat at a corner near the middle. Some of my nieces are there, and their pastel green fuzzy blankets and an assortment of toys are scattered on the floor nearby. I pull out a book to read while I wait.

Now I'm watching a video of a daredevil messing around on a roller coaster. Right near the start, he unbuckles himself, then as the individual cars of the roller coaster do a 360 rotation forwards (perpendicular to the direction of travel) he runs backwards so he stays in place, then jumps back into his seat. The voice-over to the video (female) complains about the damage he did to sensitive components on the bottom of the car when he stepped on them. I wonder why they don't just stop the ride and take him off, but the voice says something about how this is the first run, it took them a long time to get to this point, and it would cost them a lot of money to stop now.

Now I see him readying something with a bar and rope. He unbuckles himself again and gets ready for something. Suddenly the roller coaster car jumps up and back down in a split second, and the guy seems to be gone. The camera zooms out and shows the guy somehow harnessed under the car. Now he's in what looks like a small racing car, though I "know" it's still the roller coaster car he's been in the whole time. Everyone is racing around a small track. This guy has somehow hacked his car to change its behavior, so he's able to go faster and drive more dangerously than is normally allowed. It looks like it doesn't take hacks to make it dangerous, though, since the guy right in front of him smashes into a wall and breaks his glasses. The previous voice-over is gone, but the guy is now talking directly to me.

Now the guy is driving through an indoor checkpoint, and I expect that they'll shut him down. I can see a window in the right-hand wall that must have operators behind it. Sure enough, some small things pop out of the ground (I have no idea how they're supposed to stop him), but he exercises his control over the system to make them disappear. He does a couple of other things to show how completely he's infiltrated their systems.

Now we're walking together through the halls of the school, and he's boasting about how great he is. Now we're outside at the top of a second story stairwell. I walk down it, but he just jumps and lands safely. When I look at him again, he's changed his appearance so he looks like Abraham Lincoln, but with a mechanical right arm.

Now I'm watching another video. This one is talking about the difficulties of implementing democracy in old communist countries. The US is about to help this country run their very first elections, and the people have no idea what to do. Putin has come in to "rescue" the people, and it looks like he's going to get all the votes and will just roll them right back into Russia again. The US is incensed, but the people in this country are happy since they don't know anything else and are afraid of change. The report continues, talking about many liberties that have already been removed, including most of the file sharing networks. The reporter, a woman, has some kind of multicolored dancing "string" in her hand, and she shows it off, saying she found it on one of this country's old file sharing networks, that it's incredible and she'd have never found it or its author without the exposure the networks gave it and him, and how much harder it will be for this country's people to get exposure now.


Free boxes
I'm in our van, driving through some gates into a HUGE parking lot in front of a REALLY HUGE building. The lot is completely empty. Now I'm closer to the building, and a guy is walking towards us with a stack of flatpack boxes under each arm. I open the tailgate and show him where to put the boxes, sliding them behind one of the seats. He asks if this is enough, and I tell him it is, since we've got a bunch of boxes at home that we're in the process of emptying.


At some point in one of my dreams, I had a brief moment of knowing that I was dreaming, but it didn't impact anything.

Immersive e-book reader
I'm watching a group of 5 young adults exploring some woods. They find a device and turn it on, not knowing what it'll do. It projects what looks like a cone of blue lasers. The cone hits one of them and gives him a great desire to jump into the device. The rest of them try to hold him back and get him out of the beam, or to turn the beam off, but they can't seem to manage it. Finally, one of the girls, for whom this has always been a secret desire, decides to save him by jumping in herself. She's disappointed by what she sees: a dark blue, kind of cloudy, background with white text hovering on top offering a handful of options. It seems to be some kind of e-reader. Unfortunately, she can't move any more, so she can't select any of the options. Her friends end up setting something up for her so she's able to do some reading.

Later, another member of the group somehow switches places with her, but he has the same problems she did. Meanwhile, I've been watching the group as if looking down at a map. They're moving right to left, and a little up, aiming for the upper-right corner of the map. I know that once they arrive, they'll turn and head due left right along the top.


Undiscovered planet
For some time, a team has been tracking a new planet in our solar system. They've gone on site somewhere to take better observations, but to their surprise the planet isn't where it's supposed to be. In fact, it's almost directly opposite where it's supposed to be. They do a bunch of math and figure out that there must be a second new planet, a massive one, that they haven't discovered yet that's somehow throwing off this one's orbit.


Haunted house puzzle
I'm in a haunted house, moving through the hallways. Now I've got an overhead (maybe 3/4ths) view of a good sized room, and I'm trying to solve a puzzle. From my perspective, a red laser shoots along the top of the room from left to right. About two thirds of the way across it hits a nice padded chair and is stopped (no damage is done to the chair). There's a lever about half way along the wall, but it can't be approached because of the laser. Near the upper-right corner of the room is a portal of some kind, and there are a couple of other objects I can move. I think I see how the puzzle is supposed to be solved, but I also see what I think is a hidden solution. I'm right: as soon as I get everything into place, a thick stream of coffee starts to pour from the ceiling coming down right in front of the chair, which now has someone sitting in it. I explain to him that in a minute the coffee will gain life and start walking around in a humanoid shape. I do my best mad scientist laugh and then leave the room.


Kitchen improvements
I'm at home in my kitchen area [nothing like my real one, of course], waiting for something with my father-in-law. Now, our handyman has arrived and is finishing some work he'd started earlier. He's looking at some new shelving brackets he's installed near the fridge. He's really disappointed in how they turned out: they're all crooked and seem to be falling out of the wall. At first, we think it's just one that's messed up, but as we look more closely we realize they're all bad and are all worse than we first assumed. Now there's something about having to put something around the fridge to help with its airflow, except that my step father had already done something, and the handyman is so impressed with it he decides to leave it and to do the exact same thing to the fridge on the other side of the kitchen.