Nazrax

Sci-fi rewatch
I'm reading a rewatch on tor.com by "krad" of some scifi show that seems kind of familiar. It has some characters I recognize, including Stargate's Jack O'Neil and Carter and Galaxy Quest's Fred Kwan. krad likes the early seasons, but says it kind of goes off the rails in later seasons.


At my parents'
I'm with my family at my parents' house. It's a raised ranch [like we had when I was a kid], and we're all downstairs. My older son is sitting at a table playing a game about pterodactyls while the rest of us are mingling.

Now I'm heading upstairs. Near the top of the first flight, the stairs become incredibly narrow - maybe six inches - and I remember moving the wall to make space for whatever's on the other side, but I don't remember it being THIS tight. I can see my sloppy drywall work near the corner. I'm almost through, but I'm stuck, with both walls pressing on my upper chest. I should be able to use my arms to pull me past the sticking point - I'm not *that* stuck - but for reasons I don't understand, I can't seem to get my arms out. The only reason I can think of is that bending them is flexing my muscles, making them too big. I try to straighten them out and finally manage to get them out. I feel so weak, like I've already exerted myself a great deal. My stepfather is coming up behind me and asks if I need help, but since I've got my arms free I tell him I think I'm OK, I'm just really tired from doing <something> earlier in the day, and manage to pull myself free. I don't understand how my parents can use those stairs, since I have a fairly small frame and my stepfather is a lot taller and a bit wider than I am.

Now we're all upstairs. I'm helping Mom dish up. My son is asking us if we want to play his game, and I decline since it's almost dinner time. I do a quick headcount and realize my third daughter isn't here, then I catch sight of her out a window. I'm going to call to her, but then I realize she's already coming inside. I wonder where we're all going to sit, but Mom says to sit anywhere we like. I hate open-ended stuff like that, but before I say anything else she tells us that she and her husband are going to be sitting in the recliners in the family room, so I feel better.

Downtown at dusk
I'm walking around the downtown area of a large town at dusk. I'm not too sure where I'm going, especially because the roads come together in many odd intersections. Now I'm in a parking lot, at a small building, buying a parking pass. It comes as a tiny cylinder, about the size of the first segment of my thumb. Now I'm back at a different parking lot, hoping I haven't been ticketed yet, finding it odd that the pay station was so far away. I see a parking attendant wandering around checking for the parking passes, so I hurry to get mine in place before he arrives, looking my car over to see if he's already been here and left a ticket. I end up greeting him as he comes over, explaining that I just got back from the parking office as I show him the cylinder I'm carrying. He makes a comment along the lines of "I wish you hadn't told me that. " I'm afraid he's going to ticket me, but he goes on his way.

Now I'm standing outside a hot dog stand, holding a hot dog, looking at their condiments. The "stand" is actually a small building. To my right is a large "window" with a counter; to my left is a whole wall of condiments in largish cylinders set at an angle into the wall. Now I'm elsewhere, talking to someone about my hot dog. They ask where I got it, and I tell them it was <name of burger place>. I explain that even though it's a burger place, they sell hot dogs too.

Now I'm back at my car, getting ready to leave, since I've done everything I needed to; but then I realize my tent is still set up. Given how dark it is now, it's going to be a pain to take it down. Now I'm clambering around in the back of my car, trying to make room for the tent.


Hungry Schlock
I'm watching Schlock, Ebby, and Chisulo. They're discussing getting to the food court, but it's late at night, so everything is closed. The food court is past the gallery, and they're worried about some of the things they've heard about statues and lasers. Now I see them in the food court, wearing their heavy assault gear, glowing slightly. It turns out that there are statues placed around the gallery equipped with heavy-duty laser weapons, hot enough to come close to melting off their suits. They didn't try to stop them but rather just ran all the way through. Schlock is asking whether anyone got some good footage when a statue takes a parting shot at Chisulo. Ebbby gets some great footage, but when they examine it they see that Chisulo has a really strange look on his face, sticking his tongue out, and they all say "Ewww" and decide to use the lower quality footage that someone else got. I think how silly it is to put a food court behind lethal defenses.


Fragments
Something else about wandering through a shopping area.

Three older women walking on a driveway. It's bright.

Edge of Tomorrow
Something Edge of Tomorrow related, involving my two eldest daughters, something about a large warehouse, and being outside on a driveway.

Later [after waking up and going back to sleep], I have another Edge of Tomorrow dream. I'm standing by a hole in a wall, looking into a burning building. Two men are with me, both of whom know of my power. I need / we need to get to the other side of this burning room and do something with what look like a couple of VGA cables. Both of the other guys get cold feet and go off to work on some other part of the plan, leaving me to face the fire by myself.


Missing credit card
I'm in a large store, checking out. The counter is piled high with stuff, and I've already paid for some of it with my corporate card. After talking with the cashier, I've decided that it's OK for me to pay for the rest with my corporate card as well, so I pull out my wallet to get it - but I can't find it. I look in all the pockets, under all the other cards, in the money pouch, on the floor, on the counter, but I don't see it anywhere. I'm getting more and more embarrassed, and he's starting to get impatient. Thankfully, for most of this time there wasn't anyone in line behind me, but a guy finally comes up holding one or two things. I think that the cashier is going to check him out quickly while I'm still hunting for the card.


Hidden beard
I'm using a hand mirror to look under my jawline, to see a place I usually can't see in the wall mirror, to make sure I haven't been missing any spots while shaving. It turns out that I've got a short, narrow beard running all the way around that I'd never noticed before.


Congested on-ramp
I'm driving on a two-lane on-ramp at a huge interchange, on a bridge that's rising higher as I go. The left lane of the ramp is really backed up. I'm concerned that the interstate itself may be backed up and think I should probably check Waze; but I convince myself that it'll be fine once we merge and don't bother.

Driving to go camping
I'm in the van with my family; my wife is driving. We're on the way to church, going a way that's very familiar to dream-me but that's not real. I realize that, even though it's early in the morning, my phone is about to die and I forgot my backup battery.

Now we're driving next to a pasture. I see a couple of horses doing something that looks odd, and I eventually realize they're mating. Now we're driving through the field, dodging around pairs of mating horses that are *everywhere*. Eventually, we also see pairs of horses standing on their hind legs hugging each other, and I have an "awww" moment.

Later, I'm walking around in a parking lot. I walk next to a tanker truck with a large cab and know that it's Mike D's vehicle. Now I'm in a largish tent-like structure, getting ready to camp. I've got a bunch of large lidded plastic tubs stacked around me containing all my supplies. My brother-in-law is nearby getting his own stuff set up. I see Mike on the other end of the tent, sitting on something he's already erected. Unfortunately, he forgot his hammer, so parts of it are flapping around. I start digging in one of my boxes trying to find mine.

Now I'm pondering where to set up my tent. I've got our 10 person tent, and I'm worried it might not fit in this place. I'm by myself, so I consider offering to share it with my brother-in-law so I can use his space as well as my own.

Now I'm talking with Mike. He's showing me an odd gizmo he has that helps with cooking rabbits, comprised of a couple of "legs," each with a small platform and a skewer at the top. I assume you skewer the rabbit, rest part of it on the little platforms, then drive the legs into the ground around the fire so the rabbit is held above the flames. He cautions me that the skewers are spring-loaded. I carefully find the button on one and push it, and it springs out a good 6 inches, looking like a long, really sharp needle. I make an exclamation of impressed surprise.

Work meeting
I'm in a meeting with Miguel and some others. They're discussing a problem which seems simple to me, and I try to keep suggesting a solution, but they're all arguing so much they can't hear me. Eventually, I get my point through, and they consider it.

Later, I'm talking to Tom. He says he wants to talk more about it and suggests an 8AM meeting for tomorrow. I think that's too early for a meeting, but I agree to it since it's Tom.

Aquarium beds
I'm in a building with large circular "aquariums." Inside them, people are lying on "beds" that are connected both to the ceiling and floor by many thin wires. It's some kind of "sensory replacement" experiment. I watch them move around, somehow "driving" the "beds" as they play a game. As I'm standing outside of one of these glass enclosures, a girl inside comes over and demonstrates how to "bang" simple communication in case tech goes wrong. Another girl is jealous of whatever prize the first girl won - a sandwich? She's just got a lollipop. I recognize these girls - I've seen replays of this match before and realize I must be slightly in the past. I ponder what would happen if I tell them who will win; then I wonder if I make something up, maybe it'll change who would win; but I tell them nothing.


Fragments
I'm walking down a hill that's been terraced into parking lots. The white van is at the very bottom. Now I'm trying to drive it out, but I'm having a lot of trouble controlling it and nearly hit other cars a bunch of times.

Something about going to England. My family is on vacation, and they've been sending us to England and back. This will be the third trip just in this vacation. It's been neat, but also a huge expense.

Gathering downtown
I'm using Waze while driving in a city. I'm unsure about following its directions due to how much it likes using left turns, but it's OK because all the one way streets make it easy. I end up parking some distance from my destination. I'd been planning to take the bus the rest of the way, but it's really full and I'm carrying a box, so I decide just to walk. On the way I see Chris and Jeff and wave to them. I happen to catch a bit of their conversation and call out an insult about Jeff's getting old.

Now I'm waling into a large hotel. An imperious man at the door directs me to my inlaw's gathering. Now I'm in a smaller room with a bunch of people, talking. A random guy comes in and we need to help him with something. I leave the room with him. Now I see my father-in-law talking to the imperious guy, so I show them the way to the room. When we get there, the doors are closed with an "only open in case of emergency" sign on them. I stop, confused, but they open to reveal an older man I don't know. He says he's fiddling with the doors to figure out how to keep out people who don't belong.

Now we're wandering around the main space which is a Christmas shop. We're looking for a certain kind of ornament, but we can't find it. I say it may be because the store won't restock until people get back from Florida in the spring.

Rescue trebuchet
I'm playing a game [maybe inside one?]. I'm standing on a cliff looking over some desolate land. A ways in front of me, some people are trapped in a station wagon that's suspended above the desert. I somehow rig up a trebuchet, then test it. The test projectile gets near the car, but doesn't hit it. Once I get it tuned, I'm going to launch myself.


Vacation reservations
I'm walking into a building while on vacation. It's mostly deserted, but there's a lady at a table asking if I want to make an appointment to go to the department store. The earliest time slot she has is eight AM the following morning. I decline her offer and keep walking, since I'm actually here to look at a selection of capes. Unfortunately, the selection is terrible, so I just leave.


Reporting tool
I'm at work, reading a ticket from one of our infra guys talking about upgrading some kind of reporting tool we use. He's not happy about it, since the new version is more expensive and under a worse license. He wonders if there's an open source tool for it. I wonder if the one I used years ago, the Apache project starting with B, would do the job. Before I can look it up to get the name, I'm pulled off on something else.


Fragments
I'm in a parking lot at night with my family and our pastor. We walk towards the road, since our cars are actually parked there. We talk as we go, then go our separate ways.

I'm at a table with my wife and brother-in-law. He doesn't seem to notice us as he talks to his father, asking what it is that I've done that makes my children obedient. Mine come when called; his ignore him.

I'm in a house, going back for something.

Sharing an office
I'm in the office I share with Scott M. It's not a large room, and we both have a lot of stuff. The door is in one corner of the room. On the same wall as the door I have a table covered with computer stuff, some of it half built. On the wall left of the door is my desk. Underneath it are at least three computers. The network jacks are under my table, so network cables go across the floor both to my own computers and to Scott's.

As I'm doing something, I manage to disconnect Scott's network. I reconnect it, but I'm worried that something important on his computers may have shut down, so I go over to his desk to try to log in. I know he gave me his password for cases like this, and I take a moment to remember it: SnakeOil. I try to log in, but the password is rejected. Uh-oh. Now the login screen shows a failed login attempt. I try a couple of variations, and the computer gets tired of my repeated attempts and automatically reboots. I realize that would have solved the problem of any services that got shut down when I unplugged the network cable, but it still leaves the login failures. I wish I could log in successfully and clear it, but that's just not going to happen.

I was particularly worried that I may have killed his IM client, since he uses that as part of his working-from-home workflow. If his IM client isn't running, he can't access his computer from home.

Fragment
Lots of small groups in a field, each trying to assemble something. I guide my group in assembling it in a different order than everyone else, and it seems to work well.

Burger restaurant
I'm with three or four guys, friends of mine. We're standing across the street from a huge burger restaurant - their building is just a huge light-blue cube. Near the door is a sign - a printed tarp type thing hung on the wall, advertising a few of their menu items. A regular burger is about $4.50. They also list double burgers, one pound burgers, and hot dogs, but somehow the prices for each of these items is covered by something else that's been stuck on top of the menu. Without my noticing, one of my group has gone off and come back with a burger, which he's now eating. I ask if he got it from this place, but he says that he went up the street to another restaurant. I decide I don't care, the prices can't be too bad, and this place looks interesting, so I go in followed by the rest of my friends.

Now we're inside. I grab a plate and a napkin, since it's a kind of buffet. I don't see any burgers in this part, but there's salad stuff laid out across many small tables scattered through the area. As I'm pondering what to get, I see one of my friends with a tray. That would make things so much easier, so I ask him where he got it and he points back to the table with the plates. Going back to it, I can see where the trays are supposed to be, but there aren't any now. I see a couple of employees walking around, so I ask one about them. She says there's a problem with the tray dispenser, but then another employee - a young woman - pipes up with a workaround. Going back over, I'm able to reach down into the tray hole, grab one, and pull it up and out. It's still wet - it seems they leave them in a warm water bath, but that if things are working properly they'll be dry before anyone picks them up. With my plate and tray, I return to the food. I'm still a bit nervous about the price and hope that I don't end up with a really expensive meal. The only price I see in this room says that extra toppings for your burger are one dollar for as much as you want. I reason that the salad is probably cheap or free with the burger, since they want you to fill up on the cheap stuff, so I start loading my plate with stuff that looks good.


Timezones
I'm in a living room with my brother in law, talking about time. My watch has somehow gotten badly off - I wonder if I forgot to wind it. We end up talking about time zones, and I suggest that it may be easier if the whole world goes to zulu time. He laughs, but I explain that I'm at least partly serious, then use a couple examples I know of to demonstrate what an incredible pain timezones and timezone conversions are.


Covert Op
I'm part of a team trying to pull off some kind of covert operation. In my possession is a picture frame, roughly eight by twelve, which is subdivided into smaller frames by an ornate silver border (five subframes, I think). I'm taking this to an artist who specializes in making paintings of people after they've died. This is a bit outside his normal realm, but since it belonged to a mam who recently died, we think he'll be OK with it. Now in the store, I'm explaining to the man what I need, and he agrees. I need to ask him to do a rush job and have it ready by Thursday (only a day or two away) when some rivals start to come in ( I see them through the store front windows before they see me). Now I'm in another room looking through at them. I rig something up with expanding foam and socks. They're superstitious and, fooled by my large wobbling blobs carrying what look like weapons, flee.

Since this place is important to our cause, I spend some time improving its defenses, making sure the guy isn't interrupted while he works on our thing. At some point I notice a little gallery of his handiwork, and I actually think it's pretty ugly, but that doesn't matter to the plan.


Fragment
I'm in a back room with some guys looking at some sites. Now there are more people in here and one of our elders is about to start some kind of lesson.

Conference aftermath
I'm at work in a huge conference room. People are setting up for a presentation. Later, after everything is over, most of the room is cleaned up, leaving only a couple of six-foot folding tables pushed together. I'm sitting with some guys, eating. At the other end of the table, a group of people sits down and starts to play You Don't Know Jack. I move closer to them to listen in.

Later, it's just me, Ben C, and Bob Ba. I end up splitting some gigantic wings and legs between us, getting rather greasy hands in the process. Later, I put a small car (toy car?) under/on the table for Bob to be his ride home. He'd been planning to take a different car, so my having this one for him actually complicates things.


Dining hall experience
I'm in a dining hall with a friend. Before going through the line, we head to the restroom. Now we're in the restroom. It's huge, and there's a waist-high wall making a kind of "maze" to get to the urinals. We end up fairly close to each other. As I'm relieving myself, an attendant - female ! - comes by and does something under me. When I look down, I realize she's turned on a bidet, and there's a stream of water shooting up at me. I jump back in surprise and shock, and I feel pretty weird where it was hitting me. Now we're back in the dining hall, about to go through the line; but I realize I don't have pants on. I must have left them in the bathroom! I dash back that way to find them, and I look around as I do, but no one seems to have noticed me. I find them in the hall outside the bathroom, which I think is kind of odd. I return to the line and end up a couple of people behind my friend. This seems to be a pay-first dining hall.

Now I'm walking along with my wife, talking about leaving this place, describing the roads around here. I point to one nearby exit and tell her where it goes, then describe another one a level down which puts you on a road with a pedestrian lane running in the middle. I tell her that neither drivers nor pedestrians know what to do with it, that it's a terrible idea. She comments that it's the kind of idea Mrs Bo would have come up with.

Now I'm walking around downtown with her. I don't see a pedestrian lane, but I do see one for the trolley. We pass a strange storefront - black, but very strange architecture - and toke a closer look. It's announcing upcoming plays. As we're looking, I hear bells start to ring. I find the one nearby and realize it's some kind of remote gizmo that has dozens of copies across the city as part of a promotional from a music store. Eventually, my phone alarm [which sounds kind of like bells] wakes me up.


Fragments
Something about creating keyframes in real life somehow related to my second and third daughters. I'm working with three tracks. Two are easy, and one harder but still doable.

Finding Shoes
I'm in the garage, in my car, looking for some small dress shoes. As I'm hunting around the front passenger seat, my wife comes out and apologizes for whatever she said that made me think they're out there, saying she knows exactly where they are inside. She's holding a large trash bag. She turns around and says that she sees our third daughter standing on the table and gets a kind of deer-in-headlights look. I snap her out of it by telling her to drop the trash and GO!

Church Fragment
I'm at church, in a large wedge-shaped room. The service is over, and we're heading for a door half way along one of the straight sides (the left, if you're looking towards the point of the wedge).

Before bed, I read over some of my DJ and the current TOTM thread. I get in bed at 11:10, wearing my mask, and wake naturally at 1.

The construction site
I'm walking around the construction site next to our house, seeing what's here, when I spy a stack of poorly cut plywood. I remember advice about how constructions sites are *great* places to find scraps, so I decide to start my collection with this piece, then go look for the foreman to find out if it's OK to take and to find out where I can find more. As I'm walking, I look at the board and realize that it's already been stained. I have second thoughts about whether it's actually scrap or not and decide to head back to the pile I got it from. I end up walking under a big "tent" and jumping down a short steep incline caused where some of the ground angled down and some went straight. There's some larger machinery here under the tent. As I'm continuing to walk back towards the pile, a car pulls up nearby. I'm worried it might be someone who's going to take me to task, but it ends up being Josh instead. This is great! He's been a foreman before, so if I've done anything wrong he can vouch to the site's foreman that I'm an OK guy and didn't mean anything by it. Now a second car has pulled up, and I'm talking to a shorter middle-aged guy. He's looking me all over in a very detailed way that makes me a bit uncomfortable. Finally I ask him what I can do for him, and he says he's here to record the history of <thing> and needs both my scan data, which he's already collected, as well as the results of some surveys we need to take. There are a handful of trees around. I try to take a pouch filled with these papers and climb high to escape, but it doesn't end up working and I decide to come back down.


Mech pilot and superhero
I'm playing / experiencing some kind of game. I'm currently piloting a small mech. I've left the interior of the building and am now in what feels like a small control room. The room's power dies and I have to turn on my lights. As I leave the room, the door closes with a solid CLICK and I know the game is using the plot-point of power failure to make it so I can never get back in there. I hope I got all the items I'll need. Walking around the corner, I run into <?>. After talking with him, I turn another corner, getting ready to destroy the back half of the building. I see a door that looks like it should lead back into the now-dark control room, and I'm curious about it.

Now I'm with some other people in a downtown parking lot. Some of the people with me, as well as myself, are super heroes. A man comes running, breathless, to tell us that nearby is a bird with a shadow bomb. I'm the fastest, so I head off (fly?) to check it out. I find the bird in a hallway, hanging from the ceiling over a trash can. It seems to be sleeping. People nearby are oblivious to its dangerous presence. I carefully get the people's attention and instruct them to leave the area quietly and orderly, and they actually start to do so. Unfortunately, my father-in-law happens into the area, sees me, and decides to come over to see what's going on. I try to warn him away, but the bird wakes. It enters into a discussion with my father-in-law in which my father-in-law reveals that he's kind of bored. The bird says that he'll remedy that and drops the shadow bomb. Now I'm in a room somewhere. The bomb has gone off, and things have become very strange. All the light has a purplish glow to it, and I look like I'm covered in bruises. Even so, objects in this strange light also seem much clearer, much sharper. I'd never admit it to anyone, but I kind of like the effect. We'll figure out how to get us back to normal reality soon enough, so it shouldn't cause any real damage.


Trouble flying
I'm inside somewhere, in a very strange layout. I'm trying to fly and not having any success at all. A man arrives to help me out and runs me through some basic exercises. He has me lay down on the floor, on my back, spread-eagled, and then somehow will myself towards the ceiling. It works, and I start to rise. He's been flying (or at least hovering) the whole time. Now we're in another part of this strange place. He's otherwise occupied so I decide to try it again, but this time I can't manage to get off the ground.

I return to bed at 1:20 with a bit of SSILD, waking at 5:45.

Fragment: Something about a restaurant kitchen and a wide selection of nice knives.

I return to bed at 5:50 but don't actually fall asleep, and eventually I just get up.

I went to bed just before midnight and woke a little before 6.

Robot in the beach
I'm watching two people on a rocky/pebbly beach. One is a youth of maybe eleven or twelve. The other is probably late teens. The youth is nervous about what they're about to do, reiterating that they just CAN'T damage his mom's house. The teen reassures him that everything will be fine. The youth looks over his shoulder at his mom's house a few hundred feet away. It's built of stone, and it's four stories tall. Now the teen has started to use some heavy machinery he brought. It's a giant pincer that he's using to dig and shape the strange rocky beach. I start to see it shape what I think is the top of a head, and I wonder if they're trying to carve a statue of the youth's mom. Now my perspective changes to right outside the house. His mom has felt something odd and comes out to see what's going on. Now she's aware of slight vibrations in the ground coming from the beach. She looks at the house to see how it's holding up, and now I can see that it's made of stones anywhere from a foot diameter all the way down to pebbles and dust. There's no mortar holding it together, so the vibrations are gradually shaking out the small stuff. She sighs and starts to head down to the beach. Now I'm looking at the boys again. By this time they've gotten down to the waist of the "statue" and I realize they're actually excavating an ancient robot. The work goes quickly and soon the whole robot is exposed. They're very excited, right up until it shoots a salvo of four rockets from its back towards the house. The youth gets an "uh-oh" look on his face.

Paralyzed teen
I'm watching a group of friends, all late teens. One of them is a boy who's always been very helpful, especially when it comes to computers. Something's happened, and he's been paralyzed in both arms from the mid-forearm down. His friends are very sad for him, and a couple of them hold his hands (though he can't feel their touch). They're outside somewhere. Now I see them in a room. He's talking about the keyboard and mouse he was able to get that he can use. It's slow and annoying, but it's better than nothing. They start talking about some rating about how much precision you need to use a given input device. His new weird mouse is rated a six. A normal good keyboard is rated a twenty, and the Apple PerfectTouch keyboard is rated a forty. Someone comments that the white Apple keyboard look a lot better than everything else.