All DJ Entries

I just started my LD training again after a long break and literally got a Lucid on Night 1. Not only that, but I made decent progress.

"Day in the Park"

I was having some internal dialogue with myself and then I was thing about my homie the other day had something in his smoothie that did not make sense like a rock or something. I became lucid in the most chill way, like, "Heh, yeah, sure dream, sure."

I stayed calm and put my training to use. I walked through a park that children were playing through. I touched this blue plastic surface that had spider webs on it. In order to help with stability, I was narrating my every action and it was working! Unfortunately, I got distracted.

I was thinking about how I was in a dream and how dream spiders could be super scary which kinda stopped me from touching the object. The dream ended shortly after because my monologuing stop too.

I also started with touch. Ideally I'd like to start with sight, then sound, then touch, lol.

Overall, I'm really happy with that dream. That was such good progress, and if I can continue the grind, it will only get easier from here. I stayed calm and began stabilizing the dream. Perhaps it would have ended soon regardless of if I got distracted, but I like to think that if i maintained my focus through the whole cycle, I could have successfully stabilized. I remember when I couldn't stabilize a dream.

Gotta remember to take a deep breath, start with sight, and definitely do more focus meditation.


Additionally, I've been thinking about just how many of the 928 days since starting my most recent DJ I've been really giving LD practice my all, and at most, about 33% of it.
about 8% of THAT was actually lucid; 31 Lucids / 347 dreams recorded. 31/928 total days. Lucid dreaming, like any skill, requires consistency. My adhd makes this difficult. I will really try this time, however. I've been diagnosed and prescribed, though my Adderall is still on delay so no medication yet. Hopefully I can hold out until it arrives though. I can't use it before sleep since it makes you too awake, so unfortunately i'll be on my own in a dream either way. That's why the meditation will still be useful.

Lucid dreaming was one of my hyper fixations, and that allowed me to focus a little bit more on it than other skills. However, as my ADHD gets more severe and depression takes a bigger toll on my life, I've found it hard to continue, much less be consistent. However, even the uneventful Lucid dreams I have bring me great joy, so that also helps fuel me to seeing this to mastery.

So, this is why, despite "5 years of trying", despite knowing so much about how to induce lucid dreams and what lucid dreaming practice entails, I have little to no actual experience in the dream world; A lack of consistent, high effort LD training and day time practice.

A lot of disjointed scenes and images. Then I am on a mountain slope, watching animals fight. One appears to be a tiger. I am armed with a sword, and I wonder if it is sufficient to protect me against a tiger. Then the tiger walks past me. It is not threatening, but I can feel the power it has.

I made a DJ Google form template. It was getting annoying to manually record the data I thought to be useful in a DJ, so I made a google form that I think works pretty well. It will even generate a sheet i can use to make graphs based on the data.

This will allow me to see how much of my journey i am really spending at my best. Hopefully you find it useful. I'd Link screenshots but I can only figure out how to add only one picture :/

Title - Morning Data
Description - Data collected upon awakening.

What is the date?
(put in date)

What was the dream?
(write the dream)

How vivid was it?
(1 - 5 linear scale)

Was it Lucid?
(Y/N)

How was sleep?
(1-5 linear scale)

How long did you sleep for?
(duration in XhrYmin. Start and end times. I can do this because I have a fitbit, but rough estimates can also work.)

What tech was used, if any?
(Write down the technique used, if any. checklist.)

Title - Evening Data
Description - Data collected just before sleep.

How Many RCs were done today?
(1-10 linear scale. I know more can be done but linear scale only allows for 10 for some reason.)

How many PMT goals were hit, if any?
(1-4 linear scale. I do Prospective Memory Training from time to time so I added it to the form incase I do it.)

If meditation was practiced, how long was the session?
(short answer, probably in minutes.)

How much effort was put into today's practice?
(1-10 linear scale)

(makes more sense to put here)

non-dream dream semi-lucid lucid FA / AP

There is an alien invasion. The aliens are gigantic, measuring from 3 to 10+ meters. They aren't many, but each one is strong enough to destroy a ship or a tank and they also have some spaceships that go around shooting at people. I meet a random person on a subway, where people are taking cover and he says he has a secret shelter and invites a group of around 10 strangers to join him there, if we managed to reach it. We do reach it and we survive about 200 days there, with occasional incursions on the surface. One day, it seems someone decides to use nukes and there is a bright explosion not far from us and we die. Or so we think, but then we wake up back at the beginning of it all and we get again to the same shelter but with a couple new people. Once in the shelter I ask others if they remember that we are reliving this and they say yes, so then I explain it to the newcomers and say we probably have to figure out a way to stop the explosion so we don't keep coming back. But nothing happens exactly like the time before. For example, last time I naturally rose to the leadership position because I had good ideas. This time a bunch of them decided to elect a new leader and I realize they never liked me. But I am ok with it, I agree we need new ideas this time. Among the things that have changed in this timeline, is that some humans made an alliance with the aliens, so there is some level of normal existence at least for some. There is also a road near us that wasn't there before and a bunch of crazies straight out of Mad Max come race in this road with weird vehicles. The group decides to try to befriend them, I think it is dangerous and will expose us, so I stay away and ready to leave at the first alarming sign.

The earth is now invaded by a secondary type of nocturnal aliens and they hunt humans specifically when night falls. Whenever they are close and getting ready to hunt, they emit a sign, like a shine in the sky with a shape of a four legged predator. I am now staying with my parents at mom's apartment on the 4th floor. It's kinda safe if we shut down all windows and shutters and stay silent all night. But my dad is out and about with some other dude preparing some ground level house with glass doors for some experiment. We go there and try to discourage him and say that whatever it is it won't work, but they are really convinced they can make some kind of trap for the aliens. To calm down my mom, I tell her we already died and came back and we are probably going to die again at any moment, so why not use this opportunity to actually learn more about the aliens and try to defeat them. I then spot black smoke coming out from our chimney and ask mom if she left something on the stove. She isn't sure. We wish good luck to my dad and his friend and we run back home, afraid we accidentally started a fire. Fortunately it was just some soup my mom forgot on the stove that burned up. I shut that down and turn to other domestic preparations for the night, like taking our clothes that are hanging outside. Unfortunately my cats are all sneaking out through the window and jumping down to the ground below for some reason. I don't freak out as usually I do, because they've done this so many times in dreams, I now have confidence they won't get hurt. My concern is when they try to come back, usually by climbing up the balconies below and try to enter through the window that we have to keep closed. They aren't at risk from the aliens but they will put us at risk if they start making noise outside. So my mom goes out and says she'll catch them, but I am worried because it is getting dark fast.

In Czech Republic with Zilla and other friends, revisiting Lednice. We are leaving the Inn we're lodged at and we want to walk to the castle as I did last time I came. I suggest we walk through the woods, but my friends spot what seems to be a cable car and suggest we try it instead. They go straight to the entrance but I say we need to buy tickets at the booth first. They ignore me, so I go and buy tickets. When I reach my friends, some girls pass in front of us and argue they reached there first. We disagree and we keep fighting to get in the front, but meanwhile a long line forms behind us. Then we realize it's not a cable car but some aquatic tobogan tubes kind of thing and there are actually 4 departure points, so we can go into one, the other girls in another and other people on the remaining ones. I suddenly don't wanna go, because I see it is apparently a bit of a rough ride. But my friends insist. They take their seats in the tobogan thing but there isn't space for us all, so someone attaches like a buoy to the main boat for me and some male friend. It hardly carries one person, let alone two. Also, it doesn't look safe at all, but they keep saying it will be fun.
Then somehow we're at the castle already. It looks bigger and more beautiful than what I recall. We enter it and there is a really lively environment inside. People are dressed in modern day clothing but kind of reliving medieval times. There is a tavern inside the castle and tables all along for people to sit. Not what I expected to find. I am intent on going down the catacombs where I saw a dragon robot last time, but it is again closed for visitors. It is blocked by a board announcing the menu of the tavern. My friends offer to go check it out by sneaking behind the board. I beg them not to. I stay on the look out and then I mess up by bumping into the board and making it fall down with a lot of noise that attracts everyone's attention. As I try to put it back up, I see my friends returning and taking a peek to see if the path is clear, but then an employee comes to help with the board and they hide again. After some attempts and it keeps on falling, she gives up and lays it against the wall. Meaning my friends are now exposed when they come out and everyone is still looking at me. So I go for a walk around the place trying to divert attentions to me and away from them.

2022-11-01:
+ walking to my car after (work? in a school?) I notice that some thugs back up their car directly in front of mone on the street (about 50 feet away from where I'm standing) and completely box me in, there was a car already on my rear bumper. I recognize it as a trap and turn around immediately and head back to my building, where I think I should call the police. While there (or before?) I'm trying to pick up a lot of different food/groceries and have trouble getting them all into my hands at once

+ on a bus heading down Ced. street at Euc. S2 (gets off)? starts walking down E

+ on a terrace at my (new place?) with L (wife) standing on the dock where it meets the river, looking into the clear water [DS!] I see a big shallow boulder right next to the edge, perspective shifts to standing in the river looking at the dock and I want to apply some red/white stripped hazard tape on to the dock to mark the location of hte large stone so that nobody tries to dive/jump at that point. While doing so I notice another very large shallow stone, and again want to mark off its location with hazard tape. I look across to another outside area along the water which is a rocky coastline, and a bear is there, I notice it is painting the wooden boards along the hillside and I think this is good but I had wanted to claim that area earlier to be ours. It moves into hailing position looking at me and I wave my arms and shout a greeting, it's now not a bear but a large rough looking man like Andre the giant, and he calls back that it's "good to exercise your quadraceps". I that there's no chance now to claim that area, it would be a conflict with that guy.

non-dream dream semi-lucid lucid FA / AP

Sleeping in my bedroom with a friend who's staying over. We're at my old parents house, in my parent's bed, because it's bigger for the two of us. My mom is sleeping in the couch or not at all. Then I wake up very early morning and my dad is laying behind me, I have no panties and he is penetrating my anus. I feel totally disgusted and get up in a jolt and punch him, saying that it was the last drop. My friend wakes up spooked. I make a scene dropping all my anger on him and saying I am no longer treating him as my dad and that I lost the last ounce of respect I had for him. I go to the bathroom to wash myself. Meanwhile my mom heard some noise and woke up and came to see what's up. I hide in the bathroom and don't want to tell her. My friend doesn't know what to say and my father comes up with some excuse. Anyway, the dawn comes, so I pretend I just woke up early and I am preparing for school normally. After I get dressed, I go to the kitchen to have some breakfast and through the open window enters a raven. At first I try not to scare it away but then he makes sounds as if he wants some help, so I grab some food and approach to see if he wants. Then I notice he has a broken jaw and a broken beak and looks awfully thin. Was probably hit by a car and is in pain. I pick him up and take him to my bedrooms' balcony. I look for some box to put him in but all I find is some pillow. I drop him on it and tell him I will be back soon to care for him. I think about calling the wildlife protection services when I cross paths with my mom in the hallway and she is with three male and a couple female brazilian teens from her evangelical church (when she attended church). The guys come from the bathroom where they were washing hands and the girls have a tiny kitten in their hands and they are all saying they adopted him and she begs them not to abandon him when he grows up. They seem a bit overwhelmed with the long term commitment. I see my dad again coming out of the kitchen and wanting to make amends with me and I yell that I'll never allow him to touch me again and he may stop expecting us to have any sort of relationship. My mom hears this and she doesn't understand what's going on. Thinks I am being harsh with him and makes a sympathethic look towards him. I still don't wanna tell her what happened, just say this is how it's going to be from now on.
[Note: my dad was always a bit of a creep, but I have no conscious memory of him abusing/raping me, despite my dreams about it]

I'm watching Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid movie. At the end, when I think they died I get the message that they actually never die and that there are multiple films after this one in which they always come back miraculously from their apparent death at the end of every film. I am surprised and happy to know it. The I am actually the lady who is their lover in the film and I am at home waiting for them. I casually tidy up the house which has some active fires from some small explosions that took place earlier in the movie and then I start putting food in a fridge. When they return, I scold them but I really feeling happy that they are alive.

My usual stack of supplements...Valerian, Melatonin and 100 Mg of 5HTP. Lots of dreams, some quasi-lucid, but not quite. Archetypal images of alligators and figures trying to intimidate me. I reached a state of near-lucidity as I confronted one threat. I may kick up the 5HTP tonight. 100 mg seems to be a threshold dose.

non-dream dream semi-lucid lucid FA / AP

At my paternal grandma's house, fighting with the front door that I think is locked but at the minimum touch just falls out of place. My aunt Ana comes by, very distressed and says I should try again to close it, but only after she goes outside for a bit. She goes outside and warns me about my cousin Cris who is apparently causing mayhem inside, with threats to her parents and whatnot. Then some shadowy figure passes by me and I think it's her, but it is actually Duarte. He doesn't even say hi to me, just seems to want to avoid our family altogether and also heads outside in the semi darkness of dusk, to stand alone and quiet. Then my uncle is in the kitchen, quietly avoiding talking about it when Cris erupts from inside the house and heads outside to lash out on my aunt. I try to rationalize what is going on and say to myself they just need to talk. Then I go to the living room to meet my mom. The corridor light is off and the living room is also in total darkness. I feel goosebumps because of the ghost at the end of the corridor, but knowing my mom is in there calms me down. I enter the room touching around blindly, and hear my grandma's voice. She is clearly hallucinating, talking about some past job and arguing that she can do some task. I am not sure if I should tell her the truth or play along, then my mom suggests that I should pretend, so I sit down on the floor besides the sofa where she is laying down and I put a hand on her body, and play along with her story, making up replies to whatever she says.

I'm in a world where people of different tribes are ruled by fear of some thugs who took control. Every month or so they select one tribe and ask them to offer a bunch of people to sacrifice. From that group they usually only kill two, but it depends. If people volunteer, then maybe they don't pick others. This time is my tribe's turn and I am part of the group who volunteered to go. I have managed to convince them to actually start an uprise. All of us are willing to die for it, but we want to succeed, so we contact the leaders of other tribes before going. We don't manage to get even one to join us, but I am convinced they will if we start something and show them we can win. When we're there, we're almost caught conspiring but we manage to pretend we're just preparing for our sacrifice. The guy who almost caught us, has a huge crush on me and I know he will not let me be chosen, but he hints that in exchange he will probably be able to keep me as a slave for himself. I wonder how I can use that to our advantage on the day of our revolt, but it isn't clear. For now, it allows me to get closer to him and he takes me to see the location and stage of the sacrifice event, so I use the chance to study details that might be useful. One thing I notice is that a big storm is coming and might wreak havoc the next day, helping us. On the day of the sacrifice, our leader decides to offer himself and he leads the way. Then he kills the guards and starts the fight. The storm had happened at night and left damages in a dam nearby. So we sent someone to blow it up and it breaks apart. The water floods the district where the dominant tribe lives, killing and scattering them. These images are broadcasted to everyone else who then joins us in the fight. We win at the end.

With my mom attending some conference in a big tent in some exotic place. People from all over the world and it is all in english. I ask if she understands what is being said, and she says it's ok, but I can see she is making a big effort to follow. It is supposed to be about facing climate change and adapting as a society but soon I recognize the speakers and realize it will be a bunch of disinformation and new age BS about changing consciousness and moving to other dimensions. I tell her that, but I think she knows and doesn't care. I cope with the first session, but at the break, I go outside to breathe deep and I am amused at the kind of people who are there. There is a group sitting on top of a wall focusing down on a rock trying to make it levitate. Just for fun I tell them "try me" and then I start levitating. Unlike what happens in other dreams, they actually gasp and are shocked. They immediately know it wasn't their powers that did it, so it could only be my own. Soon I am surrounded by every attendee, begging me to share my secrets and how I developed my powers. But it doesn't happen, because we're attecked by some white planes that look more like disks. People say they are chinese planes but look more like spaceships. They drop some kind of bombs that bury in the ground and implode colapsing everything on top. The ground seems to dissolve in big pixels that and then dematerializes. People run in all directions and just nearby is the city limits. It also gets attacked and entire streets and the subway system collapses pixel by pixel, as if it is a simulated reality being deleted. I am getting tired of running and remember again that I can fly, so I shoot up and land in some other city area by the sea where people seem unaware of what is happening on the other part of town. I need to know where I am, so I pick up a map from some tourists and see a bunch of islands with Tenerife marked in one of them.

Walking in the backyard of my old house. I come across a garden, which I apparently planted. It has been covered to protect it from frost. I look at the garden, and it reminds me of a dream sign. I do a nose pinch RC, and find that I can still breathe. I think I do another one to be sure, and then realize that I'm dreaming. I decide to go look for Synthos, I think. I try to fly, and might even succeed in getting off the ground, but then I seem to lose the dream.

[quick entry placeholder, haven't transcribed the voice notes yet]
+ LD #271 DILD LUCIDD Infiltrate a lady's (gymnastics?) team practice, pretend I'm the maintenance guy for the building, they ask me things, I try to BS/put them off, brief ST, they catch on to me, and I make an escape, try to fly away but they're holding on to me, I mange to break away and get away

early:

+ I need to drive a large truck and trailer in reverse gear into a parking garage to (unload/load) some items with another vehicle on the other side of the garage. The cab is white and large and tall. I think this is a very large truck. I get up inside and begin driving, but the brakes don't seem to work [DS!!]. Next thing I know, I've backed up all the way up on to a hill outside (on a ski/snow hill?).

+ [vague] I was with my [deceased 1st] wife, [nothing else remembered]

later:

+ swimming in a public pool. Walk out into the pool area, including a 90 degree turn to the left heading to the long, narrow pool area. I'm in the water and putting on mask (under water) [MEO #1]. I hear and see FrFshr, recognize his voice and his face, and I do not want to speak with him, I swim by him a couple of times and manage to avoid detection

+ LD DILD LUCIDD #272

in a large open area after coming in from an outside area talking with a group of young people [don't remember the opening/beginning part well]. People are walking around. See a very tall woman. I think unusually tall. I'm really amazed at the clarity and vividness and detail of the scene. I get lucid from the location being very vivid (and not waking). Confirmed with nose pinches. There is an information counter here and I ask for instructions to <something>. I have to ask several times as I don't hear/understand the answer from the woman sitting there. The instructions are to go downwards and inside. I take a flight of stairs down to a platform overlooking a huge open area below me, hundreds of feet below and spreading far and wide before me. I jump/float down to a middle level platform, and notice how I land feather-light on me feet, no jarring at all. I look over the ledge down to the next level very far below, lots of people are walking around down there. I jump down now as well to the bottom level, it's a really far fall but and I move fairly quickly down but land very very softly on my feet again. Look around, there are a lot of old people like old women, and I tsk at my dreaming brain for trolling me and not providing beautiful people. Find an attractive younger woman, engage with her, she's enthusiastic, dream fades
[MEO #1]
... and then I'm back in the scene, at least semi-lucid, and look for some more people to interact with, find one, brief encounter, then the dream fades

+ Later: ST scene [MEO #2] Cartoony-style graphics

+ Some sort of team, we're in competition with them, in an outdoor but covered area with large (playground-sized) pipes running diagonally up to the roof. Someone asks me to perform, I (sneeze?) and feel a huge pile of snot land on my upper lip, I ask for a handkerchief to wipe it off, but my agent abandons me at this point and goes with the other team and will promote them instead of us, I feel betrayed

non-dream dream semi-lucid lucid FA / AP

I get lucid while at some old building and I admire the intricate details of it and feel the textures of wood and other materials. I feel like this place is absolutely identical to some place I have been in RL, but in actual fact I don't recall any instance where I have been at this building, at least not in this life. I walk into a large balcony, don't know what to do next, so I just observe and think about it a bit more. Then I see a beautiful tree with pink flowers and I feel like making rain such beautiful flowers from the sky. But instead, I just make it rain, normal water. Then I float down to the open ground below and I get surrounded by people of different african tribes coming out of nowhere. They seem startled by something. At first I think it is of my powers, but then a couple white ladies erupt through the crowd and they come dragging a tiger which apparently is unconscious. That seems to be what was making everybody nervous. Unexpectedly, the tiger regains consciousness and everyone runs in panic. I run to the tree. Then I remember tigers can also climb trees. As I struggle to hop on the lowest tree branches, and not exactly suceeding, I feel the tiger behind me and that dreadful feeling that I am about to die. Then I remember I am just dreaming and I can do anything. So the tiger becomes a beautiful lady, completely naked and a bit feral, but harmless. She does climb the tree and I manage to join her in a flat area between tree branches which makes a very solid platform. I get aroused by her simple beauty. I touch her and she likes it. I kiss her and give her pleasure. Then she retributes.

BT ~22:45
final waking: ~05:30
out of bed ~06:30

No recall instantly on my mind, it took some delving/digging, but the memories then came

+ arrive at an orchestra rehearsal late, other players wonder why I've come at all because my part is really boring, just holding a bunch of whole notes

+ my [deceased 1st] wife is playing <instrument related to mine> in the orchestra, she's young and attractive, she's sitting in her spot in the orchestra group and is holding the instrument in her hand. I think how these instruments are closely related and one person who plays one can at least get a sound out of the other

+ flood on the bathroom floor. I'm looking down and at the intersection of the floor and wall I see a large amount of water, and a bunched up pile of rubber gasket. This was a deva vu as I'm pretty sure I saw the same scene earlier in the night. This time I reach down and pull out the rubber gasket, which unblocks thet water and it seeps into the floor. I think this is also bad as the water in the floor will still damage the house. I'm looking down the row of where the water was before and see (white PVC pipes?)

+ Yogurt/burger joint. I'm standing at the counter of an increasingly crowded frozen yogurt place where you can also order burgers. I'm waiting for my chance to order from the worker and more and more people arrive, some of which stand in front of me, and I say "there's a line!" Some people are ordering burgers. I consider doing that but think that that will take longer. I eventually get my frozen yogurt (white/vanilla) and take it to a table. I see all the gaming (pool) tables all around me are occupied, then I notice that my table is a tiny/toy version, and I think my [current] wife will not be impressed with this toy version of the game. Then I'm playing a sort of fantasy hockey game with a lot of very colorful moving pieces, and where the rules are that I have to keep bringing back my puck back over the half-way line before moving it back into the opponent side. I take a number of shots on the goal. I recall a shiny purple color. [to be continued]
[continued] My wife arrives. Then a guy comes up to our table and wants to take some chairs. He's very aggressive. I think my wife doesn't want me to give him anything, but I decide that it's better to give him a couple chairs. "here, you can take these two, we're not using them" I say, look down, and see that actually our stuff (backpacks/coats) are draped over them.

+ [earlier, vague] with a bunch of guys who are aggressive towards homosexuals, including signs that read "no effeminate sitting [on the toilet]"

+ View a team of young people standing under a canopy about 40 yards away, they are working on a solution to some problem. then one of the team members is standing fairly close to me, I think I may recognize him

Dream Eleven (10.12.2022)

I had a dream that I was looking at a map of Russia. It didn't look like real life. Russia was divided into multiple parts that other countries were now ruling. I distinctly remember there was one part that was super tiny. Russia had retreated to a small section around Moscow. I got a weird sensation when I realized that was what that map represented. The dream glitched. My mom was sending me to the grocery store for her. I ended up in the theme park district but all the rollercoasters were by the road and impossibly tall. I was like "oops" and went inside SeaWorld. I promptly forgot what I was supposed to be doing and got in line for Mako.

early:

+ putting on socks which turn out to be very wide, colorful, all-toe socks that look like a jester's hat; a group of people is going up an external, half-story elevator on a building

later:
+ I'm arriving to a (new?) tennis club. There are people forming up into pairs to play. Up on a higher landing there is a giant who is severely deformed, he's looking for a game but nobody's playing with him he turns to leave through a door, I think that I should offer to play with him. Then we walk around a bit and I'm on a court with the giant. He's serving, and he does so by leaning over the ned and pounding the ball directly into my side of the court, I have no chance and I can't return any of his serves. It starts with me on the right side and trying to return forehand, then we move to the left side and I prepare to return backhand. I think when it's my turn to serve, what kind of serves I'll try to do.
I see my [deceased 1st] wife trying to make a diving shot, extending her racquet out as far as she can and diving to the ground. There's a young woman there with a bottle of wine, I think all the people here drink heavily, the club is just an excuse to get together to drink.


+ attending astronomy class at university: I have an idea (talking to?) the prof, and I enter the classroom, up at the front, around where the blackboards are, I see through to the planetarium mechanism that he'll use to project the stars onto the ceiling during class. I take my seat and start listening, the prof though is not the one I expected, I think maybe they made a last minute substitution. But he's talking about subjects that are not astronomy and I figure out that I'm in the wrong room. There is a test going on where the answers to the questions is simply an indication of how much you like the question. I move to another room, at the entrance there are men's & women's restroom doors, I take the 3rd door which leads to a small classroom. There are students already sitting, there are not many seats available, and there are no pairs of seats available, so my friend JoTy (company 3) won't be able to sit with me. I sit next to a guy in an open seat on the aisle. I wave to my friend (don't really see him) to show him where I'm sitting.

+ young guys discussing bad luck practices in a crowded bar setting, me planning to say something in French, walk by Zelensky who says something briefly, I keep going

+ talking/walking with real estate professionals (they ask if I understand the "in/out" principle, I say obviously I understand the words "in" and "out"), they explain why they don't work with kids: it amounts to a litmus test question that must be answered before breakfast, and the test is administered in a small separate house.