Recent DJ Posts

Starting the competition off strong by having zero recall day 1! Guess I shouldn't have had that energy drink at 6PM! It was darn good though...oh well. Sorry Team Rabbit!

Edit: Just kidding. Competition doesn't start 'till 8PM tonight. I'm good!

12/16/13

A Fool and His Grenade Launcher
It is dark outside. I am leaning up against an old broken down car. I realize I have fallen asleep. That's not good since I am supposed to be on watch. The city we're in is teaming with zombies and strange mutant creatures that would kill us without hesitation. My boyfriend Josh is lying in a sleeping bag right near me sleeping peacefully. I am completely non-lucid and unaware of my waking life. My name is Isabell. I watch Josh as he sleeps. I wonder if I should tell him the full truth about what I am, what is inside of me. No. I can't. He would leave me alone. Alone and cold, I can't face the idea of being left alone.

I hear a sound from the other side of the car. I peek out of our hiding place. The moonlight is enough to reveal there is a man standing in the street beyond our hiding place. I am even able to identify who it is. It's Alex Mercer. Josh and I have actually been making a point of staying in the relative vicinity of Alex Mercer. He tends to keep the number of zombies and mutants in the area to a minimum, and if he has noticed us staying near him, he has ignored us. I sit back down, I figure this doesn't require me to bother Josh. Alex will surely continue to not notice us or ignore us. But it seems my movements have awakened Josh anyhow. He sits up and looks at me he asks what is up. I tell him it's nothing. I just heard something and it is Alex Mercer. He still has two more hours before his turn. He lies back down and I lean back against the wrecked car, gazing at the stars. The sky is clear, the only sounds are the quiet movements of Alex out in the street.

I jump a little when Josh suddenly sits up. He says he has it! I ask what. I don't really want to hear his answer. Usually when he says that when he has a notably stupid idea. Of course I can't really complain since it was one of these stupid ideas for him to come with me when the Outsiders had started hunting me. I wish he was back home and safe, though that would mean I would be alone now and I desperately need Josh to keep my heart safe. Without Josh I would be nothing more than a... no... I'm not going to think about that. Josh says he has a great idea. I ask what. He says we'll get rich and then get some really secluded place to stay hidden, a safe and comfortable place. I tell him good luck with that. He looks through the window of the wrecked car towards where I saw Alex. He says Alex will make us rich. I tell him to go back to sleep... he's clearly not thinking straight. He says Blackwatch has offered a huge reward to whoever can kill Alex Mercer. I face palm. I tell him sure, just sit there and give Alex a dirty look for a while until Alex dies of boredom. Now go back to sleep.

I look back to the stars again, not paying attention to Josh rummaging in a pile of stuff we've collected. He pulls out a grenade launcher. He says he has this covered. Get the reward, set up a defendable hideaway with everything we could need. He says he will be able to provide a better life for me then, when we don't have to keep moving and running from the Outsiders. Now I'm a bit alarmed. I tell him to put that thing down, adding that he must be crazy. He says no, I saw what it did to that mutant... the grenade penetrated the mutant's armor and exploded on the inside, tearing the thing apart. I tell him to put that thing away now, I'll not have him running off on some suicide mission. Besides, it's safer with Alex around... as long as no one does something stupid and pisses him off. Something stupid like firing a grenade at him. Josh says it will work. He starts to go around the car and into the open. I grab him and pull him back. I tell him to not try it. Seriously. Don't do it. He looks into my eye for a bit and then goes back to his sleeping bag. He says if I feel that strongly, he'll think of something else. He sets the weapon on the pile of stuff and lies back down. I watch him for a bit longer. He shifts uneasily and then gets up again. He says he has to take a piss. He sounds annoyed at me. Oh, well. Better he be annoyed than have him run off and get killed by Alex Mercer. He disappears between two buildings to do his business behind a dumpster.

I look back to the sky. All is quiet. But Josh is taking too long... could something have happened? Zombies or mutants this close to Alex? It would be unexpected, but not impossible. I am about to follow him into the alley. I ready my energy. I am loathe to use it, dark energy. I hate the way it makes me feel, and it adversely affects the area. But if Josh needs me to use it to save him, I will. I start towards the alley when there is an explosion behind me, out in the street where I saw Alex. A Blackwatch attack? They're always trying to blow Alex up, always failing. I peek out into the street. Now it is silent. Blackwatch has never tried just one attack... Something inside of me feels cold, it's dread.

I look from my hiding place and see what I feared. Josh is out in the street waving at me. He yells at me that I should have believed in him. Alex Mercer is history. He comes towards me slowly. The moonlight reveals his I-told-you-so grin. There is movement behind him. I look beyond Josh and I see something surprising. Alex Mercer is in two pieces! His top half is about three feet from his bottom half. Then there's more movement. The two halves are moving, coming slowly together. I motion to Josh to hurry. He goes even slower, spreading his arms out like he's some kind of victorious hero. I point at Alex, who is now merging back into one piece. He looks and seems to freeze for a bit, unable to believe what he's seeing. I motion to him to hurry. He starts running towards me. He's too far away! He circled around a building to sneak past me and my objections. But he is almost here! He has almost reached our hiding place when a taloned tendril pierces his chest. I have a split second to see the stunned look on his face before he gets pulled back the other direction. Pulled back to a seriously pissed off Alex Mercer. I have no choice but to use the dark energy to get him back. I call on the energy, I feel it rising inside me. I stand up to get Josh back... but he's already gone. Alex has already consumed him. But so fast?

I drop back out of sight, collapsing to the ground beside the wrecked car. The dark energy subsides, replaced by an icy coldness. It's so cold. Josh is gone... why did he have to be such a fucking idiot?! Why couldn't he have just listened to me?! What the fuck was he thinking?! Blackwatch has hit Alex with volleys of missiles and grenades and rockets and it has done nothing! What is one stupid explosive going to do?! I'll tell you what it'll do! It'll PISS HIM OFF! It'll just piss him off... Damn it, Josh... you IDIOT! I'm not really angry at Alex... what else would be expected after Josh... that damn idiot... had literally blasted Alex into two pieces? Of course Alex is going to fight back. Nothing else would be logical. Why did Josh have to be so stupid? I am angry at Josh for leaving me to go on what he should've known was a suicide mission. He was really all I had. What would I do without him? My mind continues like that, I find I am crying. I am relieved that I still can cry. The darkness wouldn't take over immediately. Maybe it won't. Maybe I can resist it. Maybe I can...

I am distracted from my thoughts by movement right in front of me. I look up and see Alex is standing right in front of me, looking down at me. Shit... I curse at myself. I was so caught up with Josh being gone that I had forgotten something really important. When Alex consumes someone he gets the memories of the person he consumed. Josh knew where I was hiding... so of course Alex would know that now. I had needed to depart from the hiding place immediately and disappear into the night. Easily done in the night, but I hadn't moved an inch. And now it's too late. Well, at least I don't have to worry about the darkness consuming me, Alex will take care of that... I just lean back against the wrecked car, close my eyes, and wait. I don't really care what happens. Not a good sign. I find myself hoping Alex will hurry up and kill me before darkness fills my heart. Then I will never have to feel the cold. But nothing happens. I open my eyes and he is still there looking at me. Um... what happened? Is the darkness somehow visible and making me look like an oddity? Now I am just staring back at him. The moonlight is reflecting off of his eyes in a hypnotic way. Just look at those eyes... I shake my head quickly... what the fuck am I thinking?!

I am clearing my head when Alex finally does something. He puts his arms around me and lifts me up. I wonder what he is doing. I keep my eyes closed, but I feel us moving quickly, sometimes it feels like flying. This goes on for a short while and then it seems we are inside someplace. We go through a couple more doors and then Alex carefully lies me down on what feels like a bed. This is very confusing. He would know I was with Josh, so why am I still alive? I hear Alex speaking. He says since Josh isn't here to watch me he had brought me someplace that should be safe from the infected. Infected? Does he mean zombies and mutants? They had seemed like monsters. I'd never considered maybe they were sick or infected with something... Alex says he knows I tried to keep Josh from attacking, and he had assumed Josh was Blackwatch. Josh wasn't Blackwatch... though he had been dumb enough to think they would honor their reward even if he had succeeded. So Alex doesn't plan on killing me after all. It's cold, and I shiver. My sleeping bag is back at the hiding place. I feel Alex lie down beside me, close to me. Close enough that I feel his body heat. I feel him put his arms around me... all six of them?! No... four of those "arms" are tendrils, but those are warm, too. I am feeling warmer. I want to ask Alex why he seems to be helping me after what happened with Josh. But I am also very tired. Before I can manage to ask I fall asleep, a nice and peaceful sleep, and wake up in bed.

12/18/10 - Rocket Boost
Dream Non-Dream Lucid

I was at my house with a bunch of other people, and I could sense it was turning into a nightmare. Apparently, some creatures were trying to get into the house.
I decided to leave and change the dream altogether, so I went out to the screened back porch with Will. I told him to focus on being weightless and he started levitating. I grabbed his hand, crouched, and jumped high up. We broke through the porch roof, but I felt like we were going to fall, so I gave myself a boost and shot flames out of my feet to shoot us up higher. We went far out into Earth's atmosphere, and I contemplated going to the moon, but I figured I'd do it another time and dismissed the idea immediately. I focused on landing safely, so I turned off the "rocket boosters" as I referred to the flames from my feet, and we began hurtling towards Earth. It was really amazing to look down at, there were colors rushing everywhere and although I seriously doubt it would really be like that, in the dream it was very realistic. I slowed us down by willing gravity to let up a bit, and we ended up gently floating back down to the ground... specifically, my back porch. Epic fail...

My cat, Patches, woke me up at like 7:30. So early!

10/19: I'm not sure why I'm thinking about something I dreamed about in 2001 and 2007, but like dreams I've had of James Lafferty before in 2007, it's left me cautious or unable to get a grasp on life the next day.

The last thing I remember before getting this dream the first time around in fall 2000 or spring 2001 was hearing this song being sung in a Jamaican accent at the end of a Steven Seagal film from 1990, Marked for Death. Then in this dream I see this country road with this fake board game on the floor that's based on the film Scream. I suddenly hear a young man screaming and wonder if it's someone in the van or is it the electronic game board. I wake up the next day (a Sunday), wondering who that was making that screaming sound.

The same dream happened around six years later after having an epic fail of a day in college (someone crying because someone wanted to do something and she wanted to do something else the day before, getting handed a loss in a game in class and the other team went nuts because my team lost, getting an unexpected friend request and group invitation on Facebook all in that order), my mind when I went to bed on February 15, 2007 wanted to make my bad day even worse. This time the screaming sound was different and sounded like the loudest scream heard in the Cruis'n games (the '90s arcade game series - USA, World and Exotica) from a male/female driver in traffic or a stalled computer-controlled opponent when you crash into them that sounds like a child (and the car you hit suddenly flips over or goes flying halfway across the screen if you went too fast). The dream made no sense a few scenes later and acted like the dream as explained above, except this time everything quieted down and I was in the passenger seat of what looked like a GMT800 (GMC Yukon), going for a ride down the country road again, and this time the driver resembled a young man in his 20s. I wake up at 5:30 am the next day, and all I could think of was someone I knew in high school and unable to get a leg up on life, and the next day in the computer lab, I go to Wikipedia and manage to put a name on the dream character, resembling Devon Sawa from films such as Casper and Final Destination (the first one). Maybe it was trying to tell me to get away from stressful situations?

Wow...I really don't know why that WILD didn't work. Everything was set up right, I woke up to the alarm and did a WBTB that felt like exactly the right amount of time, and then I went through the WILD just as I had when it succeeded last...only this time, rather than envelope me and pull me into the dream, all the HI and sensations and all that just faded away all of a sudden. I tried just shifting positions and then going back through the process, but that still didn't work. After an hour or so of trying I just decided to get some sleep and not worry about the dream...but it was really strange that it didn't work that time, seeing as everything was in place.

However, I do recall one normal dream from last night, and in the spirit of maintaining good recall, I'll write it here.

My brother-in-law and I were assigned to run the projectors in a theater for the re-release of Avatar. Not all was normal, though...the projectors were two trucks, and we were using computers, not film, as the source media, not to mention we were stationed close up to the screen, off to the left, rather than from the very back in our own little projector room.

About half-way through the movie, both computers froze up. We couldn't get them to do anything. My brother-in-law went to look for help from someone in the theater building, and I went to look for help by driving around outside. This actually was the majority of the dream; me just driving around, looking for help, when the traffic was absolutely insane. No one followed the road rules, and when there was construction on the road, sometimes the road would be closed and I'd offroad to go around it, only to look back and see that the road had been opened the whole time! It was the most frustrating drive ever...eventually I had to give up and head back, only I couldn't find a freaking parking spot! Someone had taken mine while I was out...and of course for the re-release of Avatar, the lot was full anyway. I ended up taking down a 'No Parking: Fire Lane' sign and parking there ()

On my way back inside, I ran into several people that I know. I don't remember what all they asked me about--just random things about real life--but I tried to answer fast and get back inside.

I got back in to discover that the computers still weren't fixed, and no one was able to help us fix it. The audience was starting to get angry, so we went at the computers ourselves this time...by opening up the hoods of the trucks and messing around with the engines.

I don't remember ever actually getting the darned things fixed, but oh well. I won't have to run any more theater projectors any time soon

I was at home sitting on the couch in my living room. I was drawing up something for my school project. Concept art. I didn't like how it was turning out at all. I decided to take a break. On a hunch I did a RC… and found out I was dreaming! Awesome, a spontaneous RC leading to lucidity!

Now that I was lucid, I decided to do something with the dream. I went out on the front porch and jumped off, flying for a short distance before landing, I took off again and flew some more. I was trying to think where I wanted to go. I would just let my subconscious guide me to where I need to be. I tried to open a portal… nothing. I did an additional RC to be sure I was dreaming. I was. Hmmm… maybe I did need a destination. I wondered where I could go. I thought I would drop in on MoSh. We didn't have anything planned, but I could still drop in. I tried again to open a portal. Nothing. Damn… this was getting annoying… I landed on the ground to think for a few minutes. I found myself confirming that I was in a dream state by pinching my nose and breathing. Still dreaming, still lucid… So what was going on?! I decided to go to the moon. I focused on opening a portal to the biodome. I focused as much as I could… nothing. Wow… this could really suck.

I went back into the house to think a bit. I did another RC just to be sure I really was in the dream state… and I found out I was definitely dreaming. So why couldn't I open a portal? I could fly… I got another idea. I went to a closed door to my bedroom. I stood there beside the door and visualized it as leading to the biocome, picturing the green trees and grass around the koi pond. When I got the vision as clear as I could I opened the door… fail. All I saw on the other side of the door was my own messy room. Crap!

I went back outside as I tried to think of what else to try. I wondered if this could be another Templar trick… the Templars had nullified my powers again somehow… did that mean they were lurking in the area with some horrible torture all prepared for me? I looked around quickly but I didn't see anyone. I was alone in the desert. I pushed thoughts of the Templars out of my mind. Getting paranoid would do no good. I looked into the sky and I saw the moon up there.

Ok… so I would just fly to the moon. That seems like the hard way to get there, but if it was the only way I'd make it, I would definitely try.

I took off flying again. I flew towards the moon, straight up… but I couldn't really get anywhere… I could hover and fly a bit, but I couldn't get very far off of the ground. Wtf? Damn! This was so frustrating! I kept trying to fly until the frustration of it all finally woke me up.

Wow...I was so close to WILDing again. All was going fairly well, but not perfect. I woke up later than I meant to, didn't make it as far in the attempt on the floor, but when I got back in bed I was getting quite close to being there. The HI were growing more realistic and frequent, and I could feel myself getting quite close to sleep. Then...

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!!!

Ugh...try again later, I guess

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Well, all you people out there who think you may have turned off your alarm in your sleep, I have solid proof that it is quite possible to do!

Other than that, my dreams really accomplished nothing. I was too worn out to stay conscious of mind very long, and I think that continued all through the dream, preventing me from becoming lucid.

As for retelling this dream, it's a bit difficult for me to accurately place events in a timeline, since so many things were happening at once and I was in a very deep sleep so as to not be conscious of my surroundings, really. But I will try.

The first thing I remember is finding myself in a very large house with tons of stuff all around. Since I saw a friend there, I naturally attributed the place to him. Outside, there were huge trailers just filled with items of every sort. I was told I could do whatever I wanted with what I could find. Being a techie guy, I naturally headed right for the electronics. After some digging, I found one of every console system Nintendo has ever made. NES, SNES, N64, Wii...the whole shebang.

So I took them all inside and cracked open the cases. Then I wired and cut and soldered them all together to fit as one multi-platform device inside a modified Wii case. My friend and I then tested it out, and although we had controller troubles at first, before long everything was working no problem. I remember playing Star Wars Episode I: Racer for the N64 with SNES controllers

At some point, the doorbell rang. As it turned out, the person who had arrived was an online friend of mine that I've never actually met in real life, but he said he was in the area and decided to stop by. (Even though I wasn't at my own house, somehow he knew where I was ) It was great actually getting to see him and spend time with him, but before we could do too much, my watch alarm started going off.

"What's that?" My two friends asked.

"Oh, that's my wake back to bed alarm. Since you guys are here, I'll just turn it off and do it some other time."

I looked down at my watch and saw the time displaying the proper hour and minute for when it should go off. Then I pressed the two buttons on the side to disable the alarm, and it stopped.

There was a lot more to that dream...soldiers and trying to escape and relationship issues...but it's all a jumble in my head. I can't remember how it connects, though I know that it somehow did seamlessly go from one thing to another, never mind whether it made sense or not. I think what I wrote was the most important part of the dream anyway, though.

I finally remembered to pick up a new watch, so the alarm works fine now, but apparently that didn't change its effectiveness all that much...at least it's rather funny how that worked out

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Wow. I don't know what happened last night. All I remember as far as dreams go is 1) Winning an iPod shuffle from MacDonald's, and 2) Watching the Matrix, or at least it was supposed to be the Matrix, even though it was actually nothing at all like it. No lucids, no complete dream memory...and I remained still and calm when I woke up each time! Somehow I just really messed up with that one...oh well, I guess I'll just keep plugging away. Sooner or later a dry spell ends, right?

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

I'm not sure how I didn't go lucid last night. My guess is that everything was just so normal, and my dream memory just barely bad enough to keep me from reality checking in full, that I never even noticed the possibility that I was dreaming

See what I mean in these two dreams I recalled (I was able to remain still when I woke up and think about the dreams this time!)

Dream 1: All was as normal as could be; I went about my day as I would go about any day. That kind of makes a long story short, because the dream was long and vivid, but hey, it was normal, so why waste time on that stuff? Anyway, at one point, I stopped to tell my brother about lucid dreaming. When I got to reality checking, he was kind of confused. "Why would I ask myself if I'm dreaming when I know I'm not?" "You want to ask that when you are in a dream. The only reason you ask during the day is so that you'll remember to in that dream." After that I had to leave and run some errands, and the normalness returned, but I kept thinking about reality checking.

So close...but not close enough.

Dream 2: My mom was telling me how she had been unable to get to sleep lately. "I don't have that problem anymore." I said. "I just put myself into sleep paralysis and I go right to sleep!" "Oh really?" She replied. "How do you do that?" "Well, it's simple." And then I went through the process, mentioning the possibility of lucid dreaming with the WILD method.

Honestly that's all I remember from that second dream...it wasn't very clear to begin with. But the fact that both dreams have a lot to do with lucid dreaming tells me that I'm close. I had other dreams, too, (I just couldn't remember them because I slept all night long instead of waking up three or four times as usual) and I wouldn't be at all surprised if they had similar content. I guess today I better beef up my RCing and see what happens!

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Well, I feel stupid! But at least I had a couple dreams last night!

I went to bed with headphones and an MP3 player set to a lucid dreaming MP3 called 'Lucid Spike', which begins with a 20-minute silence to allow time for falling asleep.

I'm not exactly sure what happened, then. I had a dream, in which I was going around in this huge building that a bunch of large, square rooms. At the middle of each end of the square was a hallway that led another such room. Down each hallway was a door on either side that led to a smaller conference room with no more hallways. Everyone I know or have ever known was in that building. I was going through all those rooms, finding people that in real life I need to talk to, accomplishing business with them, and then moving on to the next person. Suddenly, I realized something. "What the heck? Where'd these headphones come from? I didn't put these on!" And I woke up.

At least, I thought I did. I was laying in bed, with the headphones still on and all, as it should have been. But I didn't reality check, and I didn't realize it was a false awakening. I just tried to be still and get SP.

Then I woke up for real, and the headphones were gone. I was like, "Ok, that's weird, I was wearing headphones, and both them and the MP3 player are nowhere. This must be a dream!" So I reality checked and was disappointed to find myself to be awake. That didn't solve the headphone situation, though. I leaned over my bed and found them to be on the floor. When I saw that, I suddenly remembered waking up and for some reason I threw it all off the side of the bed. I wish I knew why I did that!

But for whatever reason, I ditched the MP3 player, which was supossed to help me become lucid, before it could even play anything, and then had a false awakening in which the presence of the MP3 player made me think it was real and not go lucid!

Figure that one out...