Recent DJ Posts

The Gym Kitten
I'm at my childhood home laying in my parents' bed.
I have a longhair black kitten. Reminds me of Oreo a bit.
Kitten is very cute. Sleeps a lot.
At one point I went downstairs into the kitchen.
It is accurate to how I remember it in waking memory.
A bit unorganized, dirty.
I'm standing by the shelf left of the fridge (where there were often fruit flies from uneaten fruit).
There is a plastic container of frosted cookies that have been picked over. Half cookies, cookies eaten out of order.
Later, I'm at the gym. It resembles the gym I frequent in the present day.
The kitten is still with me. It is laying on one of the benches on its back.
I have an ACME 5-piece package but I can't recall what was in it. Maybe a container like a lunchbox.
The 4th piece of the set might have been a type of ink-pen, "nothing ink" and it was a golden tube-like object.
I had a toothbrush, and remarked that I didn't need something from the pack due to that.
Recorded at 5AM, just after sleep cycle 4.

Crashing the Banquet
I'm in a banquet hall at a round table.
Reminds me of the reception from KB's wedding, but don't think it was one.
My brother A is there with his wife K. He is wearing a somehow formal version of an Ace Ventura shirt, with the buttons undone.
My friend D is also there, and he tells me I look hot.
There was some discussion about whether I was going to attend the event (while I was already at the event).
I eventually decided to attend. When I come to this conclusion, I'm in a sitting room that reminds me of my ex H's.
Since I am going to attend, I will need to go home and change.
I get up and leave.
Later I am in a palace-like building. It's like my previous rental home, except big and fancy.
My girlfriend S' mom is showering in the bathroom, which is open and around the corner to the bedroom I am in.
I wander over and accidently see her, but don't make out any detail. Embarrassed, I worry about whether she noticed me.
Then I'm driving my car now down a snowy highway road.
I start to lose control of the car and spin out.
The car spins very fast and I try to stay calm.
When the car stops spinning, I am in a neighborhood reminiscent of a childhood one.
I haven't hit anyone or anything.
A man approaches the car and I feel his bad intent.
He starts to flip the car. I notice the car is now a white van.
A couple other men help him.
I get upset and try to yell at them, but I can't. I get frustrated.
I get out of the car and try to confront him, but I can't move or yell.
The man gets into the drivers seat and starts to drive off.
I try to chase and yell but I just create mumbling noises.
There is a box that has some kind of monster in it on the driveway nearby. Maybe a large scorpion.
Recorded at 7AM, 33% through sleep cycle 6.

non-dream dream semi-lucid lucid FA / AP


I am watching a Steven Seagal action movie with Riverstone and it has sex scenes that are basically porn and I feel a bit uncomfortable. The porn turns violent, which makes it worse. When a villain is caught, he is threathened with revenge sodomy and then some lady has a ganga bang on a pool and she is turned upside down on the water and is unable to breathe. The movie is also quite immersive and at some point I am actually in it. I am some business man that is the main target of some terrorists/ gang. They attack me in the lobby of a building and I run for dear life to an elevator and almost get killed by a rain of fire. But I manage to slam myself against the wall on the right side of the doors and just get a few non-lethal shots while the door closes in.
I am not enjoying this dream at all, so I suddenly change scenario. I get out of the elevator as myself and the building outside is some kind of pavillion under preparation or renovation for some event. There are ladders and plastics all over. I spot Jaime sitting on a ladder. I come to him and say "Hi, I know you." He seems puzzled, like he sort of recognizes me, but can't really remember from where and when. I tell him my name and he gives me a big smile. Says that I look a bit different and he wouldn't recognize me if I didn't identify, but of course he remembers me. He says he missed me so much when we went to different schools and lost each other contact. Says he loved me and it was really tough for him. I am happy that he says it and I confess it was mutual. He comes down the ladder and invites me for a walk. There is some market outside the pavillion. We talk about this and that, we are so happy to be together again. Then we stop at some lady selling homemade belgian waffle cookies. They look yummy, but are 1,5€ each and I tell her it is too expensive. I understand anything homemade and artisanal is more expensive, but think that is excessive. But Jaime buys 2 cookies and I guess one is for me.

At home, in Alhandra. I'm in my old childhood bedroom, with my present day cats. There is another cat on the balcony of the room next door and it is peaking through my window, barely stable on its ledge. I recognize it as my neighbor Carla's cat (although she never had one in RL). A chubby turtle cat with a mutation that gave her four ears. I wanna be sure she is safe and wanna show Riverstone the mutation, so I open the window and allow her to come in. She is friendly but not a big fan of being held. So I let her walk around and my 3 cats seem to be ok with her. But soon after Buddha goes nuts and mounts her, despite him being neutered. I think she must have really strong pheromones. Luckily he can't really do anything but he is annoying her a lot. So she finally let's me pick her up and I go to the kitchen with her in my arms to show her to Riverstone. I then decide to take her back to Carla. My father joins in, saying he also has stuff to take to her. I notice he his just wearing a shirt and underwear and I insist he should get some pants, but he refuses. He has a bag with a small vase with a plant and a couple of herb stacks. He comes with me down the building staircases, but then wonders "Shouldn't you put on some shoes instead of coming with your slippers?" and I say she lives just a couple floors below, why would I bother? And he replies "But didn't she move to the single house of her grandmother down the street?" And I remember she indeed moved to her grandma's house. But then I also wonder if he knows that, why would he go on the street with no pants on? Anyway, we reach the second floor and the apartment on the right side of the hallway has the door open and I hear her voice inside. I don't question anymore where she lives. We go inside and she is having a party with friends. I think it's her birthday. She is surprised that I have her cat and then looks a bit uncomfortable with my dad and his gifts. I look at the supposed herb stacks he brought to her and I see only grasses and yellow oxalis with no nutritional or medicinal value and I wonder what's his thinking.

The dream scene is at the cookie factory, I'm riding in a car going west down broad, it's raining outside and everyone is wearing snow outfits. I look to my right and see there's a homeless man flailing around in garbage, it looks like a stream of water has come out of nowhere and is dousing him, it almost looks like he's being electrocuted. We're driving further down and are now surrounded by bars on both sides with people dressed in snow attire walking around outside, it's still raining.

My friends and I go into a bar, it was Owen Moo Mason, a server brought us into a dimly lit room that was mostly red, we go to sit down at a table but there's already food where Owen is going to sit, I make a joke about how he had called in already since he was hungry. We sit down and I think we take a picture, I had picked up a random white puppy and took a picture with it. A group of people come in to the room, I think they were seniors in high school, and they were dressed up in fancy outfits like they were going to a dance. It felt like it was close to Christmas and people were going to some sort of Christmas ball. I crossed my legs and looked at the kids, noting one gentleman had an intricate red jacket with gold buttons down the middle, I think he may have been wearing a top hat too. They take pictures in the room, I make a joke that they should take a picture of me and I turn around and grab the little white puppy off the floor and hold it in my arms as someone takes a picture of me but I can feel the puppy squirming in my arms so I let him down.

I awaken in another dream, in my mind we had done the dinner and then went to another bar, but I didn't remember because I thought I had gotten too drunk (could've brought myself into a lucid if I had retraced my steps instead of assumed in was not in the capacity to remember), I'm lying on a mattress on the ground with a blanket, I look around to see my friends all asleep in similar fashions. There's a horror movie playing on a television and it's freaking me out, Moo wakes up and sees that I'm wide awake, I think he was shocked I was awake after I had been out for a while.

Another dream I'm running in some sort of kids' competition, there's a bouncy house and there are adult volunteers cheering people on, at some point they announce the winners.

I am in my literacy class. In that class we all have nicknames made up by the teacher. My nickname is Poly sci. The teacher is talking to me about "poly sci" and "mono sci" and how poly means many and mono means one.
It is the same dream. A few of my classmates are opening late Christmas presents in large boxes. I don't feel jealous that much. We go to the school library, but it's the library that was in my Elementary school. One of my friends is there with a box full of cookies. I ask her if they taste good and she says that they do. I take one and eat it. It is blueberry flavored. My other friends take cookies too, and I wonder why they have chocolate cookies and I have blueberries.
We are back in the classroom again, sitting at tables with atlases. My dad then walks up to me, and I start yelling at him. I am extremely mad at him for some reason. Once I am finished yelling at him, I see my mom in the distance shaking her head, and my friend seated next to me, a surprised look on her face.
I am at my house, a different dream. The plot is that there's something going on with people getting fed a poisoned drink. I am in the basement, and a man is trying to talk to me. I start walking towards the stairs when he collapses, dead, against me. I ask my brother who the culprit is, and he tells me something about the maid from the book/movie "The Help". I walk upstairs and hear the doorbell ring. Seconds later I can hear the man outside the door talking, telling me that he is going to break into out house. I wonder if I should hide and tell dad. At the last second I race around into the garage and tell dad. (Although I wonder if I should talk to him because of how mad I was at him before.) Dad slowly walks to the front door where he tells me that he recognizes the man at the door as one of his friends.
My mom is telling me that my cousin is sick again. She seems angry at him because she is talking in an irritated voice. She tells me that my cousin is worried about his later careers (he's only eleven!) Apparently he is lactose intolerant and people don't hire lactose intolerant people. Then my Aunt buts in and says that he was worried about his careers because of "The Rummage." I know she is talking about the rummage we had last summer. She says that the rummage was "the king".
I thought it was kind of cool that I remembered my anger at my dad from a completely different dream. Hopefully it's a sign of being more observant

Dream 1 - Murloc hunting
I remember hunting murlocs (from WoW) with a dwarf who had a gun. He would shoot them and the whole dream kind of felt like a video game. I remember trying to kill a murloc before it reached me, it was running down these stairs and I was firing at it through these iron bars. It then rounded the corner and leaped at me and killed me (though it was like a video game death and I wasn't really connected to the feeling of dying).

Dream experience: 2 (video game)
Dream awareness: 1 (disconnected)

Dream 2 - Supermarket
I remember standing outside a supermarket which didn't resemble any I think I've seen in RL. There was a pedestrian crossing nearby and lots of cars going past. I was waiting for my friend Olly who had taken my backpack to the bag drop zone where you apparently leave your bags while you shop... Now that I think about it, this place kind of resembles the airport O_O. While waiting I looked around as I had heard the sound of a Morepork Owl hooting somewhere. I saw behind the window of the 4th floor in a nearby building an owl. It was just sitting there and I thought it may be stuck inside. I pointed it out to a couple people. My friend arrives back and I think we cross the crossing but I don't recall what happened after that.
Next thing I know is that I'm heading to the bag drop area and I need to go take a leak. I head to the men's room and I have bare feet, I have to avoid puddles of 'water' ... I was pretty aware at this point as I ended up focusing in on the details of the floor to avoid the watery areas reflecting light. I saw some stairs heading up and figured that there would be less water on the ground.

Dream experience: 4 (vivid, good hearing)
Dream awareness: 3 (average recall, body awareness, some detail)

Dream fragment
I remember reaching into a cookie jar that resembled the one my parents had when I was a little kid. The cookies in it were the same as the ones I had found in the kitchen cupboard yesterday except there were 2 types. 1 was exactly the same as the one in real life, the other was the same type but much larger and flatter. I vaguely remember eating a big cookie and it tasted nice .

Dream 3 - Raining
I was talking to someone else who had started no PMO, I think it was my friend Daniel. He had told me about how it had affected him and all that. I then confessed to him that I, too, had started no PMO. I said that I had been on it for 32 days, and showed him the Brainbuddy app I was using. I felt like his entire reaction to this was kind of off. Like he wasn't reacting the way he should have been. The scene seems to change.
I remember being in my bed in my parents house which exactly resembled the room I'm actually staying in. I was rolling around and fantasizing and trying to resist the urges of NoFap, until I realized that I was in this state. I immediately stopped myself and knew that I would need to bring myself to my senses and get out of my bed. I willed myself to sit up... I opened the curtains to my right and peered outside. The deck was right there (in reality the deck is a few metres to the left and doesn't reach my window), it was raining outside and my dad was sitting at a wooden table eating breakfast. It didn't occur to me that this was particularly weird. I opened a window and got his attention, we said good morning to each other. He said "it must be beautiful in there", referring to how warm and cosy my room was and how cold and wet it was outside. Even my windows had fogged up a bit from the heat and my room just felt warm.

Dream experience: 5 (vivid, interesting, odd behaviours of characters)
Dream awareness: 4 (vivid, good recall, good detail, attention to character behaviours)

Notes: I need to reflect on how I rate dream awareness and I think I may do it to the 5 'layer's of lucidity. Whereas with dream experience I think I'll just go by how much I enjoyed the dream on a personal scale. I managed to get my recall back a little bit, I think tomorrow night I'll be able to get the standard clarity back and from there I'll work on getting lucid again.

September 16, 2014

---

I was in some sort of large aircraft. there may have been something about an air battle at some point with smaller craft. I was fighting some bad guy. I don't remember the battle much, but I do know that it was an epic one.

After I defeated the bad guy, he turned into The Face, and we floated on this massive ship/mansion thing. He was changing the world by making is so we were floating on just water, and there were hovering land masses in the shapes of animals, covered in grass and trees. Beyond them, in the far distance, were some mountains. I couldn't tell if they were on the ground or also floating, because they were far enough away that the curvature of the world made it so I couldn't see the bottom of them.

For some reason, the floating animal-land-masses were giving me a weird vibe. I didn't like it there, I could feel something just a little off about the whole place, and so I took off flying from the balcony The Face and I were standing on. We may have been talking, but mostly he was just showing me how he could change the world.

I flew over the water and to the mountains. Once I got closer, I saw that they were indeed just on the water, not floating. I flew over the mountains (which, as it turned out, were more just large hills) and saw a large plane behind them. Beyond the plane I saw a large city (the Big City on my map). From here I could see that I was on the side that is along a river.

I flew into the city, and something made me look down at my hands. I had a weird sort of there-but-not-there second thumb, and so I knew that I was dreaming! I was already flying, and so I just sort of went up further, to the roof of the building next to me. It looked like there was some sort of fancy dinner party on the roof, and I flew up to a table. I had the Patronus task on my mind already, and didn't want a repeat of the last attempt, so instead of trying to find a wand, I just picked up a butter knife and called it good.

I turned away from the dinner party with my butter knife in hand, and looked into my own wavey, slightly distorted reflection in the mirror-like window-covered wall of the building next to this one. I yelled, "Expecto Patronum!" and there was a blue-ish purple-ish and somehow also orange-ish glow from the end of the knife. I made myself focus on a happy memory, which happened to be a time in Austria with Zukin, when we were hiking. I yelled, "Expecto Patronum!" again, and this time there was more light, and a shadow of something large on the windows of the other building. I focused on the blurry shape and realized it was Mewtwo.

Fuck Yeah.

I watched my badass patronus fly around, then dismissed it with a smile. I was pretty happy with this lucid dream so far! I thought of what other task I could try, and remembered the fortune cookie one. That was the other one I was pretty excited to try.

I fly back to the dinner party, and found the bar tender lady at the edge of the roof. I first asked for something to drink, and got some bubbly in a dainty glass with gold flecks around the rim. I landed on the roof and milled amongst the people, sipping my drink, and then I went back to the bartender lady. I asked for a fortune cookie this time. She grudgingly said, "Alright, fine," and reached under the bar, handing me a fortune cookie. I grinned and stuck it in my pocket. I had the feeling that I should wait to open it. That I should first fly down to the ground level of the building. I hovered around the front entrance, hoping to meet Zukin. Lowe and behold, I opened the door to find her waiting for me in the lobby.

"Hey Zukin! I'm lucid right now! We're in a dream!" She just kinda stared at me. "Can you remember any of the lucid tasks this month?" I asked, hoping that my subconscious mind could give me a hint on the other tasks, all of which I keep forgetting, even IWL.

She stared at me again, shrugged, and then said, "Let's go to the bathroom. I gotta pee."

I put my drink down against a wall and followed her to the bathroom (STILL not remembering the flushing task. And what a hint I'd given myself, too! I actually had to check the forum and then laughed at myself for not getting it). I watched her go into one of the stalls, and sat on the sink while she used the toilet. I took out my fortune cookie, and took it out of the wrapping. I inhaled as I cracked it open, and was surprised to see a rather large, folded piece of paper inside. I unfolded it, and there was a lot of text. First, a whole bunch of rather large numbers (large for a fortune cookie, that is) and then some random words, and more numbers. I realized the numbers and words kept changing when I looked away, so I tried not to take my eyes off the numbers and words as I got out my phone, hoping to write them down. Silly me. Lucky thing is, writing things helps me remember them, so I remember many of the numbers and words I saw. It was something like this:

87 69 899 99 99 99 56 72 12

Money
Moshy

88 54 23

Honey
Honey

And then more words and numbers. Lots of them. It was weird.

I laughed, and Zukin came out of the stall. "What's so funny?" She asked, washing her hands.

"This fortune. You know we're in a dream, right?" I recently read a book that described a method for inducing shared dreams, and this is what I was trying with her. I just found out she likely wasn't even asleep when I had this dream, which may be why it never worked... "This fortune is on crack, look at it. It keeps changing." Even as I passed her the paper, I could see that the numbers and words were changing, though the format was always the same. always the same amount of words and numbers, always in the same place and with the same number of digits or letters.

She looked at it, shrugged, and said, "huh. That's kinda weird."

We left the bathroom, and I found my drink again. I liked having the pretty glass in my hand, since it made me feel posh. I tried telling Zukin again that this was a lucid dream. She stared at me again and then smiled. "Hey, how about let's go to that place I took you before, that garden thing?"

I didn't remember the place she was talking about, or having been taken someplace by her even, but I shugged and said, "Sure, why not?" I had already done two tasks and it could be fun! And if I was going to continue trying to share the dream with the real Zukin, I had to stick with the DC Zukin.

We went out of the building, and met one of her friends. It was a man, but I don't remember much more about him, I was mostly focusing on Zukin at this point. Which I'm glad I did, because she started being a fucking ninja. She was doing back-flips over walls and climbing lamp-posts like it was nothing. I jumped to follow her, flying, but couldn't fly for a moment. I looked down at my hands again to reaffirm that I was dreaming, and this time I had a there-but-not-there second middle finger. So weird! Anyways, once again assured that I was still dreaming, I jumped again and started flying to follow Zukin. Her friend was also flying, slightly behind me. I knew this was still not the real Zukin, because she wasn't flying. Flying's her thang in a lucid dream, so I figured if it was her, she still didn't know we were dreaming.

So I am flying after Zukin as she ninjas her way to this big half-indoor, half-outdoor garden. In this garden, there is a pool-sized hot tub surrounded by tropical plants and trees, with a huge rock at one end of it. There are about ten people in the tub right now, all toward the end without the rock on it. I land on the rock, and look back just as Zukin does a flip over the edge of it to land next to me, and her friend lands behind her, and then run past us both, jumping into the water. I think he had stripped buck-naked as he ran.

I looked back at Zukin, and said, "I don't have my swimsuit on, hope you don't mind!" and winked, but then realized that, if I took off my clothes, my swimsuit was probably going to be on underneath, and if not, I'm dreaming so what the hell?

She said, "Ohhhh, skinny dipping?" and made a move toward me all seductively.

"Oh yeah," I said. I took off my shirt, and found that I did indeed have a swimsuit on. Except it was one from my childhood, which just magically seemed to still fit me. It was light blue with colorful plastic beads on it. I took off my pants, and noted a faded salmony colored bikini bottom. My body was a lot more fit than it is IWL, to my joy AND consternation.

I jumped into the warm water, and we both swam to the other end, taking a seat amidst the other people. I told her again that this was a lucid dream, but it started to fade. I let it fade, knowing that it had been a great dream. I swirled the water around my fingers a bit and dunked my head until the dream faded completely and I woke up 15 minutes before my alarm!

Dream - Lucid

I was sitting in a classroom, trying to do some work. I sat down in the front row, and this black guy who resembled someone I went to elementary school with who was sitting next to me kept bugging me. I kept telling him to stop. I'd get up and move down a seat, but he'd keep bugging me. I was getting frustrated.

~

I was at my childhood neighbor's house. They have a very big family IWL (they have 4 kids; 3 boys and a girl) but now, there were even more people there. There were two other little girls there as well besides their daughter, who was having a birthday that day, her 15th. Wow, I couldn't believe she was already 15.

The two other little girls, though, there was something different about them. They looked normal enough, but they were made in a Sim game; they were real, but they weren't. It's hard to explain. I don't even really understand it.

Anyway, I was going to spend the night there. I remember one of the other little girls, a girl of probably 10 or 11 with blonde hair was there. I think I was playing with her or talking to her. I knew how much the dad loved her. I couldn't imagine how terrible it would be if something happened to her. I don't really know why I was thinking about that.

At some point, I saw my dad walking around looking at something. I saw him and then I saw my mom. My parents were here! I was so happy to see them! They had not told me that they were going to be in town, but oh well. I was just happy that they were there.

~

I was working at the bakery. I had just gotten there. It was evening time, and I was supposed to get off at 8pm. All the lights were off for some reason; I couldn't even hear the humming of the cases or any kind of electrical appliance. Yet we were still open. Weird. I thought about how that had happened before.

I was working with Kaitlin, a girl that works there IWL. She had broken up this big sugar cookie that had M&Ms in it and put it in large sample cups, but kept it behind the counter. I thought maybe she wanted to eat it. I then saw that she had found all these cake orders somewhere, but I had no idea where they had come from. One was a box of all these different slices of different cakes. It was a "variety cake box" that someone had ordered. The box it was in was colorful and advertised the fact that it was a "variety cake box". There were two of these sitting up on the counter. I saw some cakes in plastic packaging on the floor behind the counter as well.

I then was by myself for a little bit because Kaitlin went to lunch. I kept going out from the back and picking up another sample thing of those cookies to eat. I was also trying to help customers, but I didn't feel like I was doing a good job. I then was on the phone, which was on the right side of the wall as opposed to the left, and it was an older guy asking me if there were any locations in Nashville. I told him I didn't think so, but I'd check. Normally, there is a laminated list of store names, numbers, locations, and phone numbers on the wall by the phone for reference. I was looking for it, but some new lists had gotten put up, though I don't remember what they were. They looked shiny and new though, very white with a fresh coat of laminate. I finally found the list, thinking that maybe there was an Antioch location, but alas, there wasn't. I got back on the phone with him to tell him there wasn't. He asked if I knew when there would be one built, and I told him I wasn't sure.
"Oh ok..." he said.
I then had an idea.
"Sir, what's your phone number? I can call you when I know one is going to be built." I knew this may be quite a long time from now, or never, but I offered anyway.
"Oh, thank you, sweety." he said, but his tone made it sound like he didn't want me to call.

I couldn't decide whether or not to ask him to clarify whether or not he wanted me to call, but I felt like if I did, I'd be annoying him, so I didn't say anything. I didn't hear anything on the other line, so I guess that was him saying goodbye. I hung up the phone.

I then heard a lady out by the counter saying that she was from somewhere I can't remember right now and that she was just looking. I was really tired at this point for some reason. I went out there and she was looking at the decorated cake book. She was a short, older black woman wearing a red vest like they do at Walgreens. Maybe she was a Walgreen's employee. I don't think I ended up helping her. I think Kaitlin was back now and she was helping her instead. I felt even more useless now.

I then was at Subway for a short 10 minute break. I realized that I was not on my lunch, but was still on the clock, and I had left the store. Oops. I saw Taylor, a guy I work with. He was there as well on his lunch. I told him I felt like I just had to get out of the store for a little bit.

Then, I was back at the bakery, and Patti, one of the decorators, was coming in. I asked her what she was doing. She said she was working 7-close. She didn't seem happy about it. I recalled a conversation I had with her about the new scheduling system and how it was going to interfere with her watching her grandkids in the evening (I really did have this conversation with her IWL). I thought to myself the nightmare is coming true.

Tuesday,3rd of September 2014

Moon Cycle: 54% Illuminated (First Quarter) in Sagittarius (8 days old)

Tarot Card of the Day: Two of Pentacles

Mayan Calender Date: Blue Galactic Hand


This DILD occoured in the latter REM cycles before a WBTB,using MILD.
The duration of sleep was approximately 6 hours from 11:45pm until 5:45am.
Manta used: "Tonight I will have lucid dreams, and I will remember them."


Colour code: Non - Lucid
Lucid


I found myself on the 3rd floor of a enormous brightly lit airport resembling Dubai International with my Mother and Russel Brand.
We are in transit, and Russel has just smuggled a small portion of drugs onto and off of the plane, mule style.
There's frantic activity all around us as we and many others wait impatiently for the two large metal lifts to descend through the transparent glass shafts to transport us to the roof, where the airport departure runway lays.

Suddenly the lights start to flicker and a piercingly loud siren sounds. I look up through wide adrenalized eyes at the transparent shaft where the lifts now shake, shudder and gyrate up down and side to side violently, with the people shrieking and screaming inside...presumably in pain.
Chaos erupts, and everyone begins to panic...many running around as a headless chickens would.

"They have control of the power supply!" a middle aged woman shouts at the top of her lungs, trembling in fear.
I can hear the poor souls in the lift crying loudly in agony for someone to switch the power off.
I echo their pleads and begin to shout the same.
"Turn the power OFF!!!!"

"Shut the f'ck up!There's nothing we can do....Run for your lives!",a security guard hollers.

I grab my quivering mothers by the hand and we begin to run toward a large convenience store where I catch sight of a green emergency exit symbol hanging overhead.
I notice that I'm unable to pick up pace and my stride length remains short as I attempt to sprint faster,albeit unsuccessfully. (Dreamsign)

The omnipresent bolt of lucidity strikes me, and an immediate calm percolates the entire dreamscape.
I turn to my mom and a she possesses a golden luster which radiates outward like some sort of halo. A modest smile creeps into the corners of her mouth. I feel a tremendous relief and give her a kiss on the forehead.
I remain calm and decide not to perform ant dream stabilization technique since my visual field is acceptably vivid*.
I examine the surrounding dreamscape. We stand in bright cavernous passage, with the beige tiles gleaming and shining squeaky clean beneath our feet.
Many empty craft and clothing stores line the left and right hand side, displaying their products through large square glass windows.
The emergency exit lay at the very end of the passage,inside a large convenience store.
A closed liquor store was located directly to my right,and outside stood a medium sized circular metal trash can.

I recalled the Task of the month and expected to find a fortune cookie beneath the trash can, which I did.
I unwrapped the small cookie from its thin transparent plastic cover and broke it in half to reveal a stone/tan colored piece of folded paper.
Unfolding the paper proved to be rather difficult and, to my dismay,revealed nothing but a blank surface.
Then, on closer inspection, strange symbols and words seemed to magically transcribe themselves onto the sheet...similar to the invisible ink scene in Harry Potter.
I could only compare the inscriptions having a resemblance to a combination of Greek,Arabic and Hieroglyphs.
Similar but not identical.

I discarded the paper and figured i'd try again, looking in the same spot.
Lo and behold I found second specimen, and upon opening I had the same experience with the magical emergence of the text.
This time it was in English.

"BROMIOIDE",I uttered out loud.(Pronounced BRO-MEE-OH-IDE)
I turned the sheet over, hoping to find a meaning.

As I focused on the opposite blank side "PZ33" slowly manifested itself, surrounded by a rectangular border
It then faded away as quickly as it appeared.
I began to chant the word and letter-digit combination out aloud in order to ingrain it into my pre-frontal cortex so I could remember it in waking life.

The story doesn't end there, an I continue into a fairly fun and abstract adventure,leading to an abrupt false awakening through a dream meditation...more of which i'll post in Part 2.

Very excited to have completed my first TOTM
Whoohoo!

I had a non-lucid dream attempt at the junk food task:

Talking with my friend at a grocery store, I ask her if she knows where they keep the really good cookies. She brings me to particular door in the freezer aisle, and top to bottom it has all kinds of cookies. I look for the one that has the most calories. Spotting a few that look particularly delectable, I check the back panel and see that each individual cookie has 800 calories. Not bad for a cookie that I can eat in 4 bites. Not sure which one I want, I pick out 3. Two to eat right now, and one for later. I grab the toffee-crunch, cinnamon-sugar, and chocolate chip, noticing how the toffee one has 840 calories. I want to pay for them before eating them, but the guy at the coffee stand ignores me, and all the cashiers are missing. Setting the cookies next to me on the counter, I open up one of the cash registers and try to ring people up fast so I can buy my cookies and eat them!

Fortunately these cookies do exist and I'm gonna eat one today when I go to work for practice. - They sell them where I work :-)

[12:00 AM]

I began the dream with my current roommate (big football guy) towards our apartment, and he remarks on how he's frustrated with work, but I don't believe I really care. I actually think I laugh (in a polite way ), and try and steer the conversation elsewhere (in a manner where I don't have to think about the conversation, and can just say uh-huh as we walk). I make it back to my room, forgetting all about my roommate, and find my sister there. We are about to go to sleep, and tell each other we're going to be lucid tonight. I manage to fall asleep in the dream, and wake up in the dream, where I see my sister already awake, sitting on the bed across from mine. I talk to her for a little bit before I just blurt out "I must be dreaming."

At this point, I don't actually have the sensation that I'm lucid- rather, I dreamed of myself dreaming and being lucid. I believe my sister was also lucid in this dream, and we actually met on the astral plane. She looks at me and then asks me a question; all she says is "birds?" and looks expectantly at me (earlier I had a conversation with HorseLime about what we'd ask the DC that represented each other in our dreams, and I think I had something similar with my dream sister). I think for a while, sputtering out a couple of words, and then settle on "net," as in capturing a lot of birds. She seems satisfied with this and her face begins turning blue. She has trouble speaking, and I think she is choking or not breathing in real life.

I began shaking my head violently in the hopes of waking up, and am back in the room "awake." My sister is again already awake, and tells me she was testing me. She is scared she'll somehow choke in reality, and wanted to see if I'd be able to help her if we could connect on the astral plane. Since our rooms are next to each others in the apartment, I tell her we should knock on the wall in a certain pattern to signal if the other needs help (we did similar things when we were kids, though generally as games and a 3-knock pattern for "911"). She says something along the lines of that being unnecessary, but I respond I am also worried about choking. I'm not sure what we settled with on that, though I do remember feeling happy I passed this test, and I did at some point have a Jesus-like imagery (perhaps I felt like a god).

My mind jumps to a third person view, and flashes around school kids in a privileged school. It was like watching an advertisement for this place, and a variety of different computer science terms were strung together as the ad was playing. My mind eventually jumped to the actual school, and I saw some of the kids who were in the ads. They had a rating system to determine who was the smartest, and I remember the kid who held this title was a tiny Latino guy. My view then jumped to a blackboard where class began, and the teachers (there were two) as well as a student TA began teaching about the use of variables. I got the vibe that this was a pre-algebra course, and that the school prided themselves on their teacher to student ratio. Regardless, the actual teaching was pretty much gibberish.

Later on I was taking a test with HorseLime. I don't remember what it was about, but do remember HorseLime's embarrassment for asking a teacher for clarification repeatedly throughout. I may have teased him about this.

- Fragment: At one point while I was asleep in the dream, I was a ghost chasing my sister like PacMan.

[3:00 AM (?)]

I didn't open my eyes when I awoke, but am guessing it was around 3:00 AM. I heard the girl next door crying and yelling on the phone to her boyfriend presumably. I then had the following dream:

I was on the computer, chatting with Lisa Ann, successful porn star. She recently finished writing a series of books, possibly autobiographical, and I believe I was interviewing her. I don't remember my specific questions, but we seemed to have hit it off, and I got this notion that I was now her pupil. I was hoping for a recommendation with some porn competition, and thought I could ride her success to get a bit farther. At one point, I was on the toilet and I had her stack of books, wrapped in vacuum sealed plastic. I remember feeling satisfaction opening the books, and being amazed by how thick each book was (though the number 80 is floating around as the number of pages of each book). I finish using the bathroom and am aware she is downstairs. I want to thank her in person, as I was hoping for a blowjob. I go downstairs, meekly say thanks for all her help (which she responds, "sure, no problem"), and I leave quickly.

I'm later out on a field, where girls had to line up. Guys in succession were being picked, who then had to pick a girl, pull her pants down, and eat her out. I was waiting my turn, when this big guy who looked vaguely familiar was picked. He picked a girl I knew a while back, #059-354, and I was very grossed out by this fact. I start walking away but as I do so, the big guy decides to pick me up and throw me on the ground, though only lightly as a joke. I try and sit up, but he keeps stepping in my way, and then complaining that I am the one who is causing all this trouble. He finally lets me up, and we do a handshake (with a neat little slide of the palms), and go our separate ways. I didn't like him, but he must've thought we were friends.

As I'm walking I end up in a baseball lineup. I'm waiting in a very long line, and am probably in the 6th position before swinging. I was nervous that I would swing and screw up for the team. Ronald Weasley was standing behind me, commenting the same. I remember #740-9421 was able to hit the ball, and nearly got a home run but fell short. I finally made it to bat, and managed to get a home run my first swing. I was happy, and I began rounding this giant field (not a baseball diamond) that I believe was the same as my middle school field. The people in front of me stayed in front of me as I rounded the field, and I eventually stopped with them at this presentation on the other side.

People were crowding around, trying to listen to some man discuss racism. Eventually the crowd dispersed except for a guy I recognized from middle school dressed in a nice suit, and myself. Before us remained an old white man and Barack Obama, discussing the prevalence of racism. Eventually the white man stops talking, and Obama begins discussing a program that me and the other guy could join, called IO (as in input/output). The guy from middle school began making up a lot of excuses on why he can't do this, and Obama quickly disregards him and looks at me. I comment on the fact that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I would most definitely join this program.

We both then head over to a car, and begin picking up kayaks and placing them on the hood. I again think of a recommendation, and how great it would be to get one from Obama, as well as some great guy in computer science back in my school. After piling the kayaks I get into the car, and immediately feel choked. Part of the car was against my neck, pressing my head to the roof of the car. I loosen it up, lean the car back, and look around. Obama has now turned into a really old white man, and the car we were in was very dirty and unkempt. I don't think too much of it though, and notice a pair of headphones were strategically hanging off of part of the car next to my ear. The radio was playing through this, as well as the car stereo, and I heard snippets of a comedy show blaring out, very closely echoed into my ears from the headphone. Unfortunately I don't remember any of the jokes.

I somehow make it to the backseat and have a bag of trail mix like food. A girl enters through the side of the car, and the old man is sitting there as well (kind of like in the back of a limo, but still very dingy). I offer her some of the trail mix, which turns out to consist of nothing but grapes, raisins, and "watermelon" (it looked like flat sunflower seeds with a watermelon texture). She politely refused, and I pulled out one of the watermelons, which turned into a cookie in my hand. I found some chocolate dip nearby, and dipped the cookie, taking a bite afterward. The girl commented on how sweet that must be.

I managed to hit another Task of the Year item! This one's from the morning of 5/11/2014.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #209: Aladdin

I’m standing on a long stone pathway that cuts through the middle of a vast lake. People pass by me on either side, and as I watch them go, I think about my intent to have a lucid dream. It quickly dawns on me that one has just begun.

I look out over the lake,.seeing numerous Greek-styled marble columns sticking up out of the water. I take flight to get a better view of the water and it’s just as striking from higher up. I go up and up, preparing for some peaceful exploration, but I accidentally cut through some low cloud cover and lose sight of the lake. A flock of birds crosses in front of me and for no discernible reason, the frame rate of the dream briefly dips. I’m briefly amused that my brain seemed to have had trouble with that relatively simple scene.

I head back down through the cloud cover, regaining sight of the lake. I fly lower, studying DCs as I go. All of the flight finally reminds me of the Aladdin Task of the Year, and I land, mentally gathering the details of what I’m supposed to do.

First, summon that lamp. I try several behind the back summons, but I keep botching them. This is annoying me a bit, but I finally manage to get the sense of an object in my hand even though I can’t see it. I wiggle my fingers a bit like a magician and the lamp “paints” itself in from top to bottom as I watch.

I make my wish for a magic carpet, and immediately one scoops me up from underneath. I remember my first attempt at this task and again ask the lamp for a “delicious cookie”. Right away a cookie appears in my left hand and I don’t hesitate before cramming it in my mouth. It’s really good! The chocolate chips are just a little small for the “perfect cookie” but it’s still excellent.



I’m apparently stuck on a “delicious food” theme so I immediately wish for “delicious hot chocolate”. I bring my hand back into view to find it holding a china cup full of hot chocolate. I guzzle it down. It’s way colder than it should be and there are odd clumpy patches in it like it didn’t mix well, but still tasty. Okay, done!

I continue flying the carpet for a bit, staying about 10 feet off the ground. I come to a section that looks like the exit to an amusement park. There’s a woman waving goodbye to me and the other people as we leave. I don’t get much further before the dream ends.

Yet another near miss on Task of the Year! I really need to work on learning to close these. Lots of fun though!

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #193: Magic Carpet School

I’m part of a large parenting group that’s exploring a gloomy cavern illuminated by translucent pools of water. After quietly exploring this place for a while, we all wind up back at one of the mom’s houses. Somebody suggests that we do a group hug, and we all awkwardly move toward the middle of the room.

I notice that Andy Bernard from The Office is part of the group. He looks sweaty and awkward and I think, “Hey that guy who plays Andy Bernard sure looks sweaty and awkward in person.” I do a quick mental check to see whether this is a dream and decide that yes, it definitely is.

I walk out of this living room into an elementary school classroom that’s in the middle of some kind of lesson. I pass through without interacting with any of the dream characters, wanting to get outside for a Task of the Year attempt. (The Aladdin’s lamp task with a magic carpet and three wishes.)

Leaving this classroom takes me to a second classroom and I start worrying that I’ll spend this whole lucid wandering through an endless series of grade school classes. I head for a wall, announcing that “This is a phase outside,” before plunging right through. I wind up in the void, but my hands and forearms are still brightly illuminated and clearly visible.

I rub my hands together and slowly the void becomes filled with a swirling field of stars. This fades into a scene from the Matrix that has the Youtube logo and controls underneath it, and I see that I am watching a video whose length is “0:98”. I briefly wonder if I went to bed wearing VR goggles or something and that the images are penetrating my eyelids. Scenes from The Matrix flash by and the image slowly rotates.

Now there’s a crackling sound and my vision fills with a series of strange characters that I can’t identify. I feel a sharp tug backward and I wait for the new scene to form. My vision reforms into… another elementary school classroom, this one a little bigger with an adjacent windowed playroom. I head immediately for the exit and I’m pleased to find myself in an entrance area. I bolt through a set of glass doors and now I’m outside.

Immediately I start attempting the lamp summon by “finding” it behind my back, but my hand just keeps coming back empty. After three failures, I’m really frustrated by this. On the last attempt my hand comes back with some little piece of dirty, wooden-looking junk about the size of a sugar cube. This time I pretend that this is the lamp but it’s just way too small. “Bigger… bigger…” and do a little magician-esque gesture. It plumps up nicely into a real magic lamp! It’s way too light to be realistic, but who cares, next step!

I rub the lamp, wishing for the magic carpet. I decide to be really specific, saying, “A magic carpet. Make it rolled up.” A simple little rolled-up rug appears on the ground. I immediately think, Why’d you ask for it rolled up? That’s just a pain in the ass. I expect the magic carpet to unroll and it does, so I quickly sit down. As I do, it lifts me up into the air and starts flying leisurely forward.

For my second wish, I quickly say “Delicious cookie!” and a tiny little sliver of cookie appears in my hand, like someone had already eaten most of it. I find this awfully stingy for a magic lamp but I stuff it in my mouth. It’s chocolate chip, not bad at all.

I think about how close I am to completing the task and the excitement gets the best of me. I get one last look at the roof of a one-story building as I float over it before the dream ends.

I don't remember much from last night, just a couple fragments. In the first, I found Cookie, a stuffed animal (a black-and-white cat) I've had for as long as I can remember, in my basement. I picked her up and hugged her really tight because I was glad that I'd finally found her (she went missing maybe a couple years ago IWL).

In the second, I was on some website where there was this competition going on. It was some sort of video game competition. People could vote for their favourites in different categories (favourite character, favourite game, favourite genre, favourite moment, etc.).

Good morning, everybody.

Dream #1

I was in a car with my mom and another woman. It was a grey day, probably a little drizzly. My mom and the woman were driving me somewhere, probably to the border of Holland. We drove under some small, arched stone bridge, like an arched bridge walkway in park.

As we drove to and under the arch, I realized that I really wouldn't be able to get into Holland. I didn't have a passport! I must be in Europe, I thought, if I was close enough to drive to the border of Holland. How did I even get here in the first place, without a passport?

I looked straight up to the underside of the bridge. It was rounded, like the roof of a tunnel. It may have been covered with bricks, or it may have been rough, grey stone.

When we got to the other side I saw a huge obelisk, like the Cleopatra's Needle obelisk in Central Park. But this one was so big I could barely see around the base, and I definitely couldn't see up to the top.

My mom and the woman must have been getting ready to drop me off. But I knew I couldn't go without a passport. But I was ashamed to admit to my mom that I didn't have a passport.

But finally I got up the courage to tell my mom. I was standing out on some wheelchair ramp, like I was in front of a building. When I told my mom, I actually started crying, sorrowfully, as if I was telling my mom something that had to do with some sadness or problem I'd carried with me all my life.

My mom and the woman probably walked hurriedly over to me to hug and console me.

Dream #2

I was in a gigantic, white building with my mom. The building was something like a museum. But it felt more like some kind of big box store, like a Sam's Club. But it seemed to be humongous, as big as a convention center. The walls were white, and the ceiling may have been glass.

My mom and I were probably here with a group of people, probably including our family members. But we were separated from them. We may have been looking for them or waiting for them. In the meantime, we decided we'd check out some of the exhibits.

I went into a small room off to the right. It was kind of dim. Along the walls were the museum-style diorama wildlife displays. I walked a ways into the room, all by myself, before actually looking at any of the displays.

I turned around, toward the entrance. One of the displays to my left caught my eye. It was apparently a display of some animal like an antelope. The antelope stood in some desert-like area at night -- the background sky was painted dark blue and purple.

But beside the antelope was a long, fallen tree-limb. And writhed around this tree limb was an enormous snake. The snake must have been ten meters long! But it wasn't scaly: it was slightly furry, like a short-hair cat.

I couldn't believe my eyes. So I got closer to the display. I was kind of afraid to: I thought the snake might actually be alive. The snake's skin didn't seem to be as pronouncedly furry as I'd thought. The snake was red, with occasional large, white spots, which may have had black outlines around them.

The snake also didn't seem to have eyes, or even much of a mouth. Its head was pointed down menacingly, but it almost looked like a sock puppet.

But what seemed really to have struck me about the snake was how vividly it was posed. It seemed menacing, alive, because it had been posed in such a dynamic way.

I looked at another display (which I can't remember now). I was again struck by the dynamism of the display. I began to get the idea that this room was all about displaying animals in dynamic, "action packed" situations. This was supposed to be a draw for kids, who had lately been neglecting the parts of the museum with the animal displays.

I thought this was a bad idea. In my opinion, the display I'd just been looking at was so dynamic, you could barely see the animal. And the purpose, I thought, of these displays was so you could really get a good idea of the animal's anatomy. So sometimes a still view was better.

I walked to another display. This one was lit. But it was even more dynamic and "action packed." It was apparently showing some desert wildcat attacking its prey. But the view was some kind of absurd bird's eye view.

The view showed the cat jumping toward some unseen prey. But the cat was posed so that it was almost perpendicular to the "ground" (which, in the case, would have been the back wall, although it seemed to be tilted down somehow). So all you could really see of the cat was its head and paws.

There were also some cacti, like the big, stereotypical saguaro cacti, in the view. Their tops burst imposingly out toward the glass. They seemed more dynamic and "3D"-like than anything else in the scene. But everything in the display looked distorted and hard to see. I didn't think it was very effective.

I walked over to another display. This one was also lit. It was toward the back of the room, just around a curve in the room that went off to the left, as I faced away from the entrance.

This display barely showed an animal at all. The animal was, in fact, just a grey blur coming around the right side of a huge plant. I'd guess, from the size and color of the blur, that the animal was something like a big lemur with grey and black fur. But it may have been some kind of small wildcat.

The plant itself was maybe two or three meters tall. It may have been something like a yucca or an agave. But it was full and round, almost like a gigantic artichoke.

I walked out of the room, possibly because my mom had asked me if I was ready to go. But I didn't go with my mom. Instead I walked out to "catch up" with the friends I'd come with. I walked through a huge open space with a lot of people.

I headed into a room off to the right. The room was something like a roller skating rink. I found "my friends" there -- a few white men, maybe college students, tall, kind of big, wearing sweaters and baseball caps. The had a kind of arrogant look.

The men were all standing outside the rink, leaning against the barrier and looking toward the rink. One of the men said we were waiting for somebody to get back from somewhere. Once he got here, we'd leave.

The guy started talking about a ride in some other room. I now recalled, coming into this room, seeing in to some other room that had some kind of big amusement park-like ride in it. I may have seen a little Asian girl on the ride. It may have been something like a slide. It looked fun.

The ride now sounded so interesting to me that I asked the guy if he wouldn't mind if I went and did the ride while we were waiting for the other guy. The guy shrugged, kind of annoyed that I'd ask for permission. He said, "Do whatever you want, man. I'm not your boss."

I left the room in a hurry, ashamed for having annoyed the guy by asking his permission to do something. The room with the big ride was, I knew, off to the left. But I turned to the right, almost instinctively, to head toward the bathroom.

I passed a little dividing area that was waist high and had a swing-door near the right wall. The bathrooms were in a kind of empty space, just beyond which may have been a much bigger area like an amuseument park for little kids, possibly with some kind of ferris wheel in the center of it all.

Dream #3

I was "at work," sitting at a desk. My old co-worker, DC, came up to me from my right. He sat a chocolate cookie on my desk and said, "Here, you want a cookie?"

I looked at the cookie. It had a thin layer of hard, white frosting on it, like is sometimes on ginger cookies. The cookie looked good, but I knew I shouldn't eat it. So I shyly told DC, "Oh, no. I can't. But thank you."

DC was kind of offended that I'd declined his offer. He laughed and said, "Oh..." as if to let me know he thought I was being pretty arrogant, and that he'd do something sooner or later to put me in my place.

Good morning, everybody.

Dream #1

I was standing in some place like an art museum. I stood at the edge of two rooms, like I was in a third room or a hallway. The two rooms were separated from each other by a small divider. Both of the rooms were pretty wide and airy. But the walls seem to have been spattered with paint, mostly red, with highlights of yellow.

In the room on my right, hanging right next to the dividing wall, was a long, hanging-scroll type of artwork. I may have thought of it as a Japanese painting. But may have been more like an embroidery, with a lot of gold thread. It showed Buddha on the top of a mountain, meditating.

A little, Asian boy ran up to the artwork and began pushing at it. He was pushing at it so hard that the fabric was stretching, becoming gauze-like, semi-transparent. I was panicked that the boy was going to tear the artwork. But I didn't want to say anything to him.

I now noticed that the artwork hung by something like a paper towel roll, through which ran a little rod like a metal clothes hanger. As the boy was pushing, the paper towel roll kept coming more and more off the rod. I knew the artwork would crumple to the ground.

I still felt shy about talking to the boy. But I went and found an older Asian man, who I figured must have been the boy's father. The man was skinny, with coppery skin, a receding hairline, and a slim, square cut of dark, black hair.

The man seemed to have a little trouble understanding English. But once he understood what I was saying, he went after the boy. By this time the artwork had probably been pushed to the ground. There seemed to be smoke, more like the sweetish-smelling stage smoke, all over the place. I seemed to be standing behind waist-high stacks of boxes.

The man and I now stood in another room, which was like the frame of a burnt-out house. There was smoke or steam everywhere around us. But we may basically have been outside, on a kind of yellowy-pale day.

The woman was upset, possibly because the artwork had been ruined. She was telling me and the man that she would be fine.

I now saw from the woman's viewpoint. I told the man (and somebody else?) that I was going to go home and shoot myself in the heart.

Dream #2

I was in a living room with my old friend R. I sat on the floor. R sat either on the floor or on the couch. The room was kind of dim, and there was stuff, including blankets, cluttered all around us.

I had a huge cookie before me. It was maybe 75cm in diameter. It was white, and it may have had something in it, like walnuts or pecans.

R encouraged me to eat the cookie. He seemed to think I was being a bit too shy about it. So I took a piece off the edge of the cookie and ate it.

R now revealed that he had a huge, brown cookie with stuff in it like chocolate chips, but not quite. R had to unwrap his cookie from a clear cellophane wrapper. He began eating his cookie and bragging about how good it was. Something about this was supposed to make me feel bad, like he'd "tricked" me into eating my own cookie while he got to eat his cookie, which was better than mine.

I decided I'd test out R's cookie, so I grabbed a chunk of it and ate it. R looked at me like he wanted to kill me.

Dream #3

It was night. I was in the back of the car with a guy. I sat on the left side. The guy sat on the right.

The guy was kind of tall, heavy, with a rounding jaw and squarish head. He had a short, square haircut with red-brown hair. He wore a black leather jacket. When he spoke, the guy had an accent that sounded Russian to me.

The guy talked about the Federico Fellini movie La Strada. He mentioned a group of people who were in the movie, but more in a sense like the movie was a real-life environment, of which they were a part. They had come into this place as spies. They may have been from the FBI.

The guy said these FBI spies had had such a great time in La Strada. "If they were having such a good time there, why did they go back to America? Why didn't they stay?"

Something about what the guy said didn't make sense to me. It may have been that I'd thought that of course the guys would want to go home: they'd only been here to spy.

We drove past some building like an auto repair garage. The garage door was all clear plexiglass, and the lights were on in the garage. But a couple of guys were pasting a humongous map of the United States up against the garage door, to block the view inside.