• Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views




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    1. Stuck in Traffic, Crazy Highway

      by , 03-21-2014 at 12:39 PM
      Recalled another dream.

      03/21/14

      6:30 am non-lucid

      Another dream about cars. I'm driving to church (?), but I get stuck in traffic and am unable to get off the exit in time, so just keep going, all the way down to the city. The dream landscape is similar to my other dreams in which I drive to the city and am trying to get home. In fact, as I'm thinking about how to get home as my dream self, that landscape comes to mind.

      I'm upset about missing church, but feel like it's unfair to be judged because I tried so hard, but there was just so much traffic and it was so complicated turning myself around.
      Categories
      non-lucid
    2. I'm late!

      by , 03-11-2014 at 07:40 PM
      I wake up after what seemed to be ages sleeping and look at my watch. ''Oh shit this can't be true'' - I think while realizing that it was 19:00. I get up and start doing things. ''Nothing to do now''. I look at the watch again but now it's 16:00. ''Hum, sure I looked it wrong before''. I wake up.
      Categories
      non-lucid
    3. Nov. 25 Dream Journal: 25 cent arcade

      by , 11-26-2013 at 12:01 AM
      I was playing a fighting game through an arcade cabinet. It is definitely the SNK classic Samurai Shodown (the spelling irritates me too), but some new version that doesn't exist.

      I insert a quarter. I think I'm playing someone over a connection, and the clarity and authenticity of the sprites is a little amazing for a dream (or maybe I just played that game way too much). But what really struck me now was that it felt more like I was playing the game than watching me play the game, and I'm reacting to the screen. The "other" guy won because he exploited a glitch to score the last hit.

      I insert another quarter. The game characters switched to guys from another series for some reason, and it's more of me playing a game (but not in the same feeling as playing the game here, but like watching me play).

      Dream two had me needing to go somewhere with 10 minutes, only I keep doing dumb things like making wrong turns or getting into dead ends.
    4. College Exams

      by , 08-31-2013 at 02:02 AM (The Dream Magic Experiment)
      8.30.2013

      I was back to school. I was in my hometown. I was preparing for exams. Printed something, my schedule. Quick bathroom bath and dump. I took a car or vehicle to school. I checked my schedule while on the way.

      I arrived, and mom caught up to me to give me my schedule. I asked my seatmate to hold my schedule while I get the schedule from mom (I know, it's confusing). I went back and found that my seatmate thought it was my exam paper and proceeded to pass it forward (even though we haven't started yet). His other seatmate was about to pass it along when I picked it up from his hands.

      'Woke up.' I heard the radio say that it's already 8 a.m. I panicked. I thought I was gonna be late for my exam. I thought, wait, is it the second day of our three-day exams? I checked the clock and to be sure, it's almost 8 a.m.! Then I thought about the exam 'yesterday.' I can't remember finishing taking it or even taking the two other exams that day. Did I just go home and forgot about the rest of the exams? I don't know.
      Categories
      non-lucid
    5. Finding my shiftiness friend fortuitous on facebook...

      by , 07-15-2013 at 08:25 AM
      I saw a dream about a close friend of mine, that [in real world] She had an appointment with me and she didn't come and also hasn't answered my angry messages yet...
      In dream I was angry... fortuitous I saw her activities on "facebook" and I understand that she now can answer my messages and she doesn't do this
      It was interesting that she also like some post of mine looks like it's a contradiction.

      Updated 07-16-2013 at 09:30 AM by 11901

      Categories
      non-lucid
    6. Lost and will be late to Vote

      by , 06-06-2013 at 10:42 AM
      4:28am

      I was trying to get to the voting booth on time. I needed to vote even though I had voted yesterday - one of those two day elections. I knew voting closed at 5pm, and it was almost 5. I was lost. I was moving further and further West, away from the city, but unable to figure out how to turn around.

      My kids were in the car with me. I thought of them as my kids, although I only saw one in this dream, and he looked nothing like my real life kids, but in this dream, I did not question it. There was chewing gum stuck to the radio, which didn't look anything like the car radio does either. And there was something wrong with the outside front of my car, though I don't know what - I got out at a light and tried to fix whatever was wrong.

      My husband materialized. I asked how he found me despite my being lost, he did not explain, and I did not ask again. He said he could drive. I asked, don't you have a car you got here in? He said no, but then I thought maybe we would get back here for his car after the election. Though I seriously doubted we could get back in time.

      The kid wanted milk. He wanted to know if the juice box contained milk. We said, no juice. He said that he wanted milk not juice. In fact he seemed to already be drinking juice. My husband pointed out there was milk in shopping bags in the car, but the milk was in gallon containers, so not ready to drink.
    7. Mon Dec 24 (2:48-11:39)

      by , 12-25-2012 at 01:48 AM (Glieuaeiel's DJ)
      Cat Surgery

      I walk into the basement to find an unfamiliar young man sitting with some of my parents. He's holding one of our pet cats, while my dad holds the other. [IRL: The other cat died, actually, about a year ago.] The other cat (a white one) gets away from dad, so I go after it. Evidently something is being done to the cats which they don't like, but which is good for them. Eventually I find the white cat and bring it back downstairs.

      Now the stranger is sawing off the cat's front paw with a hacksaw. My parents assure me that this is a necessary surgery, since the cats' paws never healed right from that time they fell from a great height. I remember that event; it was somehow my fault. [IRL: No such thing has ever happened.] Despite my parents' assurances, I still think that this operation will probably kill the cats. Which is a real shame, because I think this first cat in particular had a long, eventful life ahead of him, in spite of his limp. The man finishes with the first cat, and we give him the second one.

      Later, the first cat jumps up onto the couch next to me. I'm shocked to see that he has both front paws back already, and they don't seem to be paining him at all. Do cats have some kind of regenerative ability?

      Manual Roller Coaster

      Right up ahead, my sisters and I see the entrance of a big covered slide. We dive right in; I'm last. It's a sort of man-powered roller coaster: the idea is to crawl through as quickly as possible. Visibility isn't so good, so sometimes a sharp curve will take you off guard. Then suddenly I reach a long downward segment that I can just slide straight down. This is a blast! A bit later, I accidentally run into my sisters, who apparently just ran into each other. The youngest one apparently tripped because of an unusually long, sharp turn (something like 720 degrees), and then we all crashed right into her. Still, we extricate ourselves in moments and continue the ride.

      At the end of the ride, there are a bunch of computers. You can type in your identification and it will tell you how long it took you to go through the ride, and how you compare to that day's other participants. I got 611th, which I think isn't too bad. Then I talk to my sisters, and it turns out the youngest one got 609th. I hadn't expected her to do better than I did! I'm a bit put out, but good for her anyway.

      Exclusive Buffet

      I'm eating dinner with some classmates at a big restaurant. We're having an important conversation, when suddenly someone comes out on the stage at one side of the room. The person talking to me has his back to the stage, so I try to shush him so I can hear what the woman on stage has to say. I realize I seem a bit rude, but surely he'll understand. A few other actors come onstage, and they start performing a play.

      I have only a moment to feel surprised before a bulky, intimidating man comes up to our table and starts taking away our plates, whether or not we're done with them.

      "I'm sorry," he says firmly, "we're closing now unless you're part of the club." He has a bit of an accent.

      I remember that this place serves a buffet until 8:00, when the actual fancy dinner starts. You have to pay extra to be part of that, or something. And now it's 8:00, so we have to go. On the way out, some of my classmates snag something from the dessert station at the buffet. That's a little rude of them, since technically we're not allowed to eat anything from here anymore. Good thing I got my dessert earlier. Outside on the sidewalk, I hear some other classmates complaining about not having eaten a full dinner because there was nothing good at the buffet. I'm glad I avoided that problem by eating plenty, even if the food was pretty unremarkable.

      First Day of Classes (LUCID)

      I get up later than usual and hurry to find breakfast. I pass one of the dormitory suites, where apparently someone has set up a small continental breakfast. Interesting, to see such a business here. I get some food there. Then it's time to find my first class.

      A lot of time has passed, so when I go back into the hallway, I see a gigantic line of people coming out of the suite's main entrance. It goes all the way down the hallway and down a staircase. I'm glad I missed the line, but suddenly I realize that so many people in line means these are probably the people who get breakfast immediately before heading to class. So I have very little time to collect my things and find my class. I hurry down the staircase, trying not to jostle the line of people too much.

      [about 6 classes later . . .]

      My next class is titled something like "Practice Session." My guess would be that that refers to a free slot for me to practice my instrument, but that doesn't make much sense, since I'm not a music major and this is not a conservatory. But in any case, I have to find the classroom, which is called the MUSIC room, appropriately enough. But the name "MUSIC" is actually some kind of alphabetical index of where to find the class. Like, I need to find floor M, then hallway U, etc. I suppose the music department thought they were very clever when they designed this room numbering scheme.

      I'm hurrying down a surprisingly dark corridor, feeling rather lost. I think I'm on the right floor, but I can't find "U" anywhere. Suddenly, I come upon a library, where my orchestra conductor is talking to some of her students. Well, it's good to find other live people here, but I don't really want to talk to her right now, so I avoid them. Consulting my class schedule again, I realize that my next class isn't even in the MUSIC room. I've had about three other classes in there today, but this one is somewhere else. That's a relief, until I realize that the room shouldn't just disappear if I don't happen to have a class in it right now. But I don't have time to worry about that; I have to find this other place.

      It strikes me that today has been an inauspicious first day of classes. I had been hoping that after last quarter (which was very stressful) I would have learned something about avoiding stress and staying calm--but alas, it seems like I have not. Especially since I seem to remember that I skipped most of one of my classes this morning because I had to finish an essay that was technically due last quarter.

      My map has a sort of sticker on it, labeled with the name of the place I'm looking for, but it's way out in the middle of nowhere, and the map doesn't show any route to get there. I'm not convinced that's the right place, so I wander around some more. Then I realize I'm just pretending that it's not the place because it's much farther away than I expected. I should just suck it up and go there, even if it will take a while. Looking at the syllabus for this class (which is a small, staple-bound book with a brown cover), I notice that there's even some advice printed on the back cover: the professor says we should leave for his class within ten seconds of the end of the previous class if we want to make it to his class within ten minutes of the alleged start time. I start walking, but then I realize I'm not carrying a backpack or any school supplies at all. And I have only fifteen minutes until class starts. I might make it on time if I keep walking there, but I'll definitely be late if I go back to my room first. I wish I could just "Accio" my school supplies so they catch up to me while I'm walking. Of course, that's just wishful thinking--

      --but then I realize that I'm dreaming! Sweet! Okay, I can fly back to my room, get my stuff, and fly to class, and still be there with time to spare. So I set out to do just that. [On my way to class, I lose lucidity.]

      The route to class turns into a dirt hiking trail. I try going straight to the classroom, but the path leads under a giant boulder, and I discover that there's not enough clearance for me to squeeze through. Backing out, I make my way around the boulder instead. There are two young boys jumping around on the rocks, shooting at each other with what I identify as laser guns. One shouts at the other, "Mister, show me your ID card!" Clearly, they're imitating the adults from around here, the security guards that watch the entrance to the secure facility in which my class takes place. Okay, I should try to find the guardhouse so I can gain entrance to the facility. There's a small wooden cabin across the road that looks promising.

      Inside the cabin, I find the teacher for my class. In order to pass the gatehouse, every student has to sign a contract. All of the contracts are hand-written (by the professor), and I can't read mine at all--it's totally illegible. But one by one, all of the other students are leaving the gatehouse to go to class, and in desperation I finally just sign the contract.

      The classroom seems rather like an art studio. There are a lot of heavy-duty tables spread around the room; some of them are pushed against the wall like booth seats at restaurants. It is at one of these latter tables that the professor is sitting, and he invites the class to gather 'round his table while he explains what we'll do in today's class.
    8. Mon Nov 19 (11:24-7:07)

      by , 11-22-2012 at 05:33 AM (Glieuaeiel's DJ)
      Wing Women (6:30)

      A group of girls is talking to me in a side room. At the end of the conversation, they form a semicircle around one girl in the middle and ask me a question: something about adding up all of their ages and dividing by five. I realize that what they're really doing is trying to tell me that the girl in the middle is really cute and I should really consider dating her, because it would make her happy. Reflexively, I smile in response to the friendly gesture, and I actually think my smile turns out to be a nice one. Then the other girls go back to the main room, leaving me with the cute girl.

      Despite being pretty sure of what I was just told, I'm still nervous about asking her on a date. We exchange a few awkward half-glances and half-sentences, then she asks me if I want to go to the parking lot. It will be quieter out there, so that's probably a good idea. We go back to the main room and find some friends trying to arrange rides home. One of them, a first-year from my college, has a small four-seater. Someone goes off to find her so we can ask her for a ride. Meanwhile, I realize that it's raining out here. I stack my belongings into a pile to protect them from the water. Another guy from my college, in the year above me, shows up. He's a pretty big guy, so he might not fit into the car with the rest of us, but I figure I should ask if he can come anyway. While we're waiting for the car's owner to arrive, I mention something about the rain, and the guy points out that I have a sports jacket in my pile of stuff, so I should just wear it, 'cuz that's what it's for. I suppose I can understand his frustration, because formal jackets are used nowadays only for fashion, not for utility.

      The car's owner shows up, and I ask her if the guy can fit in the car with everyone. "He really can't," she responds. "I mean, look." The other passengers are loading in their musical instruments, including a cello and a double bass. They're taking up a lot of room already. I slide in my viola case underneath the others, then look around at all the passengers we're trying to squeeze in. I think we might all be able to fit.

      Morning Dash (6:30)

      I've invited a guy over to my house to work on a homework project. When we sit down at a table to work, I start asking him to help me fix some parts of my personal appearance, like my eyebrows and my hair. He gets angry and leaves.

      Mom asks me to help her pack lunches for my sisters. I consider it for a moment, but then I decide that I have too much work to do this morning to help her with that. I tell her as much.

      Later, I'm mostly packed to leave to catch the bus. Then my middle sister comes into the kitchen and starts talking about something interesting. A few minutes later, I look at the time and let out a yelp. I ask Mom if she thinks I can still make it to the bus on time, and she says she thinks so. I run out the back door and down the hill. When I look over my shoulder, I see the bus on a road behind me. It'll be going around the hill, so I have a bit of time before it reaches the stop, but I have to run as fast as I can. On the way, I get a little confused about where the bus stop is. I'm running along an unkempt path through the grass, with only two parallel lines of dirt to indicate that vehicles come through here. Then my sisters come running in from a side path. "That's the path Mom always uses," I call out to them, laughing. Then we find the bus stop. The bus is waiting for us.
      Tags: car, crush, late, music, rain
      Categories
      non-lucid
    9. Mon Oct 1

      by , 10-01-2012 at 04:53 PM (Glieuaeiel's DJ)
      [I've decided to start including some timestamps: when I got in bed, when I got up, and when I recorded each dream.]

      In bed from 11:18 to 9:05

      Beware Lava 3:29

      The eldest competitor first learned to channel a long time ago. An image of burning matchsticks appears. Then the matchsticks burn almost all the way to the point where the person holding the matchstick would get hurt, and the fire gets blown out. That's what happened to his ability. But he's still part of this competition. He's competing against two of his own students, both female. They start in separate, nearby rooms in a Minecraft world, underground. I'm playing as the teacher. He walks around the halls and sees that the doorways of the rooms of his students are blocked by collapsed ice. He's competing with them, yes, but he still feels like he should be nice to them. Back in his original room, he finds a back passageway that he can open using his ability to conjure fire. It leads into the room of one of the students. Then he shoots more fire, but he quickly realizes that it's getting out of control. The student in the room doesn't yet even know he's there, so he'd better warn her.

      "Run!" he shouts. Without waiting to check that she does, he drops the wide bucket of water that he was holding. That water is an important resource, and he can't allow it to warm up. Heat is dangerous, here. I start trying to conjure some ice by first pressing 1 to select fire, then Enter to conjure a ball of fire in my hand, then 2 to switch to ice, then blowing on the ball of fire to freeze it, then throwing the ball of ice into a pile on the floor. All of these different buttons are tripping me up, and it's not going very quickly. Suddenly he notices that he forgot to freeze one fireball before throwing it on the floor. It's probably warming up all of the ice balls, making them completely useless. The air in the room feels very warm, and when he picks up the bucket of water, it's warm, too. The floor is especially warm, which probably means that there's lava rising below, melting the ice out from under his feet. It's time to get out of here. There's not even enough time to gather up what few supplies he has. He just runs--back into his original room and over to the far corner, then out with the pickaxe and start digging furiously. To where, he doesn't know. He has no supplies, so he's basically starting over.

      An announcer starts speaking over the top of the video, something along the lines of, "Will he survive, alone, without resources, in the dangerous world into which he heads? Find out next time on 'Impossible Minecraft Campaigns!'" Meanwhile, the man is thinking that this was only the first of three episodes, and he's worse off than he was at the beginning--so it's unlikely he'll even survive the next one.

      [This dream seems to be partially inspired by the dream incubation (?) I did before going to bed. I imagined myself in a forest, chopping down a tree, when I realize I'm dreaming and then start throwing fireballs everywhere, starting a forest fire. The heat was an important part of the scene, although it was supposed to be awesome, not terrifying, like it was in this dream. There was even a time where I imagined holding a fireball and then blowing on it to turn it into a ball of ice. So it seems like the dream incubation did something, although it was very indirect, and it didn't trigger lucidity.]

      Group Hug 6:38

      [I don't remember the main plot of this dream, just a side plot that I probably remembered due to its uncomfortable nature. My middle sister has always been trouble.]
      Spoiler for Group Hug:
      Candied Brazil Nuts 9:03

      Dad and I park in the driveway and go into the house. A serial killer has been living in here, so we expect there will be a lot of bodies. And yes, there are. A lot of movie stars. There's a living movie star with us now, a young (black) one, and it's tragic to watch his face as he sees all of the bodies. He knew these people. It occurs to me that I'm paying attention to the fact that he's black, when really it shouldn't matter. So I stop thinking about it.

      After tidying up a bit, Dad and I get back in the car to head to the picnic. Taylor Swift is on the radio: "We are never ever ever getting back together." Except it's not actually her song--it's a rap song that uses the same chorus. Man, that's what frustrates me about rap. They borrow melodies from classical music and from good pop songs and they just reuse them without adding anything.

      We get to the picnic and find Mom. She came earlier than us. She tells us that she meant to clean up the killer's house herself, but she had other things to do first. She didn't mean to leave us with the job. I'm not cross with her about it, but she seems like she's in a bad mood. Then Dad gets mad at me because I forgot to bring the hot dogs. I meant to bring the hot dogs, and I even planned out exactly which hot dogs to bring, but I forgot. One of my sisters tries to defend me by explaining this, but Dad says it doesn't change the fact that I forgot. I suppose he's right. My alarm wakes me up.
      Tags: car, family, gaming, late, sex
      Categories
      non-lucid , false awakening
    10. Thurs. Sep. 6

      by , 09-07-2012 at 05:33 PM (Glieuaeiel's DJ)
      Chess and Orchestra

      Five or six of us are outside, playing a chess game together. One of my friends from high school moves a knight into the middle of the board. As I look around to see what that move did, I realize that he's successfully blocking almost everyone else's pieces. That was a really good move. It's basically a foregone conclusion that he's going to win.

      After the game, I walk back to my room. On the way, I notice a lot of people I know are wearing orchestra jackets and walking in the opposite direction. Shoot, I forgot about the orchestra concert tonight! I dash back to my room and try to dress for the concert as quickly as possible. I have trouble finding my dress pants. My roommate is there working, and he asks me what I'm doing. I tell him that the back-to-school concert is tonight, since it's the end of the first week back. He says no, the concert's at the end of the second week. After a moment, I decide he's right. What a relief.

      Garden Path

      The Dragon walks along a garden path. There's a wall covered in ivy, and a foot-wide dirt track leading up to it. His wife is dead: apparently she committed suicide by slitting her own throat. But she positioned her body in such a way that he wouldn't realize she was dead until he was close enough to the wound that when he did see it, it would be traumatic. She was evil, you see.

      Housemates

      I and a bunch of my housemates from school are living together in a big house. Right now, we're playing a game. But I want to take a shower, so I go upstairs and get in. But the stall is really, really cramped: it's just a little triangle in the corner of a room, and the ceiling is low. I have trouble finding enough space to bring my arm from below my waist to above it.

      Later, one of my housemates' friends is in the house talking with me. He mentions sigmoid curves, so I show him my laptop's wallpaper, which I think is a cool example of the artistic use of those curves. "Oh yeah?" he replies. He shows me a graphic he's been working on with 3D rendering software. There's a sigmoid curve floating in the middle of a big rectangular room. There are spotlights all over the walls, directing beams of light at the curve. Clearly this project is an exercise in realistic lighting, because the reflections on the curve look really good.

      Math Aerobics

      On the third floor, there's a math aerobics class. On each count, you switch between an aerobic move and a math-related move. There's also a class being taught by Professor S, and I'm not sure which class I should be attending. Then I get stuck on the other side of the door. In order to get back to class, I'll have to walk all the way down to the ground floor and find another way back up. I don't remember how I got to the third floor in the first place, so this could be difficult. I just walk around for a while, letting my thoughts wander. Eventually I realize that I'm sitting in a chair, sipping a drink. That must mean I've arrived, since otherwise I'd still be looking. I stand up and look for the classroom door.
      Categories
      non-lucid
    11. Wed. Sep. 5

      by , 09-05-2012 at 03:25 PM (Glieuaeiel's DJ)
      Infiltration with Hank

      Hank Green and I run down the hallway towards the room that is our destination. My hands are clasped together with the index finger and thumb pointing out, pretending I'm holding a gun. We reach a T junction.

      "I'll take right, you go left," says Hank. We split up.

      I see a woman walking down the hallway towards me. I take cover and fire with my "hand-gun." I look away for a moment, and when I look back, she's not there. Just disappeared. I suppose that's what you'd expect an imaginary gun to do. I continue down the hallway until I reach a sort of open area. I can see over the top of some low walls into some rooms where lots of people are working on computers. They seem really focused. I would feel bad about running in there and disrupting them for the sake of this game I'm playing. I hesitate.

      Then I see the people in the room on the left looking over towards the room on the right (my target room) and smiling delightedly. Hank must have reached this side of the room. And they aren't annoyed at all! They must have known about the game, and agreed to it because they thought it would be fun. I look over to see what's happening in the right room. There is colorful, fish-shaped confetti flying in the air. The employees are standing around a spot on the floor, jumping up and down, and clapping. Uh oh. I guess they brought Hank down. I should have been in there to help him.

      Anxiously, I walk into the room. I ask a tall, dark-haired man what happened.

      Later, I'm walking back out of the building, escorted by the building employees. A guy my own age, someone I know, is ranting about a woman who works in this building. She was somehow responsible for ruining our game, and she's also the head of the elementary math education program, even though she hates kids. One of the employees starts looking calculatingly at the ranting guy, and I realize that she must be the woman he's talking about. Uh oh.

      Stealing from Nynaeve

      I "accidentally" run into Nynaeve and engage her in conversation. Meanwhile, I cleverly steal from her an important artifact. She'll be mad at me when she finds out, but hopefully I'll be ready for her.

      I hide the artifact in my locker. I also have a blanket and a cloak of hers, made with cloth of the same pattern. She's managed to take back the cloak, but in order to hide the blanket, I have to rearrange a lot of things in my locker. For instance, I add an extra blanket to my bed and put something else on my desk. A friend comes up to ask me why I changed the color of my blanket.

      Missing a Soul

      I'm late to orchestra, but before I can go, I need to save my game. But when I try, it tells me that I have no soul. I need to use a soul gem on myself. I try to do so, but when I resume the game, it loads a new chapter, sort of thing. There's a menu that explains the new scenario and a video in the corner where the bad guy is threatening to do something. I don't have time to listen to all of it, so I just click through the screen. I'll look back over it later. I also skip the first objective of the scenario, so I start in the middle of training something called an ADHD. I don't know what it is or why it's important, but apparently it's a creature used by the enemy that we can train to work for us. I'm able to rearrange the letters in "ADHD" in various ways before training it, and presumably that's important. But since I skipped everything, I have no idea how.

      Frags:
      • I pick my nose, and out comes almost a complete ring of dried boogers. This happens several times in fairly quick succession.
      Categories
      non-lucid
    12. Tues. Sep. 4

      by , 09-04-2012 at 08:44 PM (Glieuaeiel's DJ)
      Bottomless

      Towards the end of the women's choir concert, a soloist walks on. I don't recognize her as one of the members of the choir. Her first few notes have pretty bad tone, which I realize must be because she hasn't done any singing yet in the concert (so she isn't warmed up). As the song goes on, she doesn't get much better--although she does have a nice stage personality, so the song's still enjoyable. But eventually she stops and goes into the bathroom. It's kind of dark, so I'm not sure about this next part, but . . . when she comes out of the bathroom, it looks like she's not wearing any pants or underwear.

      Dreamer's Tales

      I'm reading from a random dream journal on DV. The writer uses a large, boldface font. The basic story is that he's incapacitated the leader of the bad guys, but he's still looking around for the rest of them. Then he realizes that in the time he's been looking, the leader may have woken up again. For all he knows, the leader could be standing right behind him, right now. The DJ entry stops there. I'm delighted to realize that I understand why: the sense of being followed is sometimes scary enough to cause the "Abort! Abort! Nightmare!" response. Overall, I'm impressed with this dream and with the way it was told.

      Revelry

      My dad is laughing about something he just heard from one of his friends. Apparently, that friend just received a call that his son was arrested in Philadelphia. As far as anyone knows so far, he got drunk with some friends, and they decided to fly over there to watch our state football team play an away game? Either way, it's hilarious.

      Gaps

      I'm writing in my dream diary when I realize that I'm running out of space: there are some more notes in the diary, below where I'm writing right now. I must accidentally have written on that page one time when there wasn't enough light to see what I was doing. I have plenty more stuff to write, though, so I need more room. I look back at the previous page and notice five or six blank lines on the bottom. I have no idea why I skipped those, but good thing I did! Now I have enough space to finish my entry.

      Accio Glasses

      I'm home between classes, working on something. When I look at the clock, I realize that it's way past time for me to be heading back to school. Class has already started. Even worse: I just remembered I have a worksheet due today. I meant to work on it during this break, but it completely slipped my mind. Hurriedly, I gather up my things from the room and start towards the door. I notice that everything looks a little fuzzy, and I realize I've forgotten to put on my glasses. I run back to the room in which I left them. They're all the way on the other side of the room, and my sister's sitting in an easy chair, reading a book. I suspect she's irritated about all the noise I'm making, so I try to make a joke.

      "Accio glasses!" I say, pointing my hand across the room. That way, she'll realize I'm in a hurry (since I wish I could just summon my glasses, rather than walking to them). Hopefully she'll also think I'm in a good mood ('cause it's a joke), and it'll put her in a better mood (since it's a Harry Potter reference). Anyway, my glasses case rises from its resting place and floats across the room to hover in front of me. It opens, and my glasses float out and unfold themselves. Bemused, I reach for them. But apparently they were expecting me to reach for a different part, because they helpfully dart a foot to one side, causing me to miss. On the second try, I grab them.

      Cast Iron

      I'm being chased by a wild animal, a bear or something. Right in front of me is an alley guarded by a cast iron gate. If I can climb over the gate, I'll be safe. But the bear is right behind me, so I have to climb quickly. Once I start climbing, my arms and legs suddenly feel like they weigh fifty pounds apiece. They get tangled in the gaps in the cast iron, and I know I won't make it up in time.

      I decide to try again. This time, I'm being chased by a gorilla with tentacles on its chin, like Davy Jones from PotC. But it's also farther back and I'm already halfway up the gate. I manage to get over in time. I watch as it runs up to the gate and starts climbing after me. Uh oh. I run to a door at the end of the alley, just a plain rectangle of wood, painted white. It opens inward, but the space behind is almost entirely filled by the door itself. I try to hold the door at just the right angle to squeeze around the edge, so that I can shut the door behind me.

      Presentation Day

      I walk into my English class, and the teacher says "Let's talk about [insert author here]." I'd completely forgotten about that reading. I remember him assigning it almost on the first day of class, but I thought he would remind us at least once before the day it was due! Apparently he expects us to keep track of everything we should be doing. Which is fine, except that I've failed that expectation. I'm supposed to have read an entire play, but I have no idea what it's even about.

      A small group of students goes to the front of the room to do their presentation. Sometime during the course of class, I accidentally scratch a girl's ankle.

      I wake up [falsely]. Taking a long, sharp metal stick, I go into the front hall and begin scratching the wooden floor, writing down my notes for the dream I just had. My sister walks by just as I finish writing the name of the girl I accidentally scratched. I notice she's looking at the name, and I'm worried she'll recognize it, or perhaps mistakenly associate the name with someone else she knows, who just happens to have the same name.
    13. Mon. Aug. 27

      by , 08-27-2012 at 06:22 PM (Glieuaeiel's DJ)
      Airport

      A bunch of my buds and I decided to go to the airport together. We've been delayed in various ways, so I'm relieved when one guy finally gets back with our boarding passes so we can head to our respective gates. I start speedwalking along a hallway. There's a stranger about to cut me off going around a corner (I'm squeezed between him and the wall), so I try to dart past him. The only trouble is, someone else tries to do the same on his other side, so we all end up crashing into each other and making a really awkward scene. I hurriedly apologize and start lecturing everyone about what a bad decision we both made there. The other guy apologizes also (as much to me as to the stranger, it seems), and I recognize him as a high school friend. But I'm desperate to vacate the scene, so I dash away again without saying hi. I feel bad about it, since I never got a chance to talk with him over summer break, either.

      As I walk through more hallways, I see a girl a bit younger than me trying out a kind of play microphone. From what I hear as I pass by, it changes your voice so you sound like a robotic alien.

      I reach a green tile ramp set into the middle of the floor; it's about twenty feet wide. I set down my things beside me and happily slide down it. There are lots of twists and turns, forking paths, and side hallways. I start to feel a bit confused about the layout of the airport. Once, I shoot off the end of a flat section and gravity doesn't work too quickly, so I crash lightly into a vertical wall a few feet farther forward. I'm frustrated that the ramp didn't work properly, but I'm not injured or anything. I continue going down. A girl comes sliding out of a side hallway, and I recognize her as a housemate right before we crash into each other. We both laugh about it. Behind me, I hear some people from the group I arrived with. They're talking about how it's later than they thought it was, and they were supposed to be at their gate quite a while ago. Upon hearing this, I realize that I'm not even sure what gate I'm supposed to be going to.

      Well, that kind of takes the fun out of sliding. I get off the slide and fish my crumpled boarding pass out of my pocket. It's the smaller part, the stub that ushers usually take when you go into the theater. I hope I still have the other part. But whatever, gate information should be on this part as well. When I look for the gate, I'm horrified to see that the terminal is specified not with one but with FOUR letters, which seem to follow a complicated pattern of upper and lower case. This airport is far more confusing than I feared. I have no idea where that terminal is, much less how to get there. I'm probably going to miss my flight.

      Uncomfortable Music

      There's a concert coming up, and I still need to practice the music. I pull it out and start working, but it's the most uncomfortable music I've ever played. I feel like I'm engaged in spiritual battle with some demonic entity, and the music is feeding it, making it stronger. I decide to stop practicing before the music kills me.

      But now it's concert time, and I still haven't practiced. This is one of those orchestras where you only get a couple rehearsals and you only get the one concert, so if I don't do a good job on this concert, I may as well not be in the orchestra at all. So while we're all sitting on stage warming up, I try to get in a bit more practice. Realistically, though, it's too little too late.

      Climbing Rock

      One of the main attractions in this building is its indoor climbing rock. Its surface is rough but its shape is roughly ellipsoid, and its dimensions in meters are about 15 by 20 on the base, and 3 high. It's granite, or anyway some kind of gray stone. The sides are a bit steep, so the attraction is that it's challenging to get on and off of it, but once you're on top you can run around and play games with the other victors.

      I finally reach the front of the line, and I reach the top without incident. I don't have anything to do up there, though, so I just walk across to the other corner and try to find my way down. Turns out this side is much steeper than I expected. As I'm clinging to the rock, a building employee walks over and sticks something on my arm. I can't pick it up since I need my arms to hang on, so I use my forehead to try and press the thing more firmly to my arm. I'll look at it later. Anyway, I fiddle and shift around for a few minutes without making much downward progress, but then I notice that some "rungs" have been cut into this side of the rock a few feet to my right: rectangular gouges about two inches deep, spaced like the rungs of a ladder. I use them to get down, but then I start feeling like I cheated, and I start wondering whose idea it was to put rungs on the climbing rock, anyway. I see my old math TA standing nearby, so I ask him if there's a more legit way to climb down the rock in the place I had been trying to do it. He doesn't know, but during the course of the conversation I become convinced that for the sake of my own self-worth, I need to go back onto the climbing rock and try again.

      The rungs on the rock go all the way down to a hallway below the floor on which the climbing rock is located. I'm not allowed to go back up the rungs, so I'll have to find some other way to the floor above. There doesn't seem to be an elevator in sight, and I begin to wonder whether this building is designed to make it difficult to get back to that floor.

      I wander around for quite some time. In the process, I come across a darkened room with a bunch of merry-go-rounds or bumper cars or something spinning all over the place on the floor. I need to cross the room, but it'll be hard to do that without getting my shins severely bruised. Seriously, who thought this room was a good idea? I do some desperate dives and jumps and hops, and somehow I make it.

      At another time, I see something in the wall that looks like an elevator button, and I press it without thinking. A second later, though, I see that the windows in the sliding doors on this wall are showing me an underground tunnel, not an elevator shaft. This button must call a subway train. Horizontal transport rather than vertical. Sure enough, a train soon comes roaring up to the station. Ha ha, very funny, building designer.

      Finally I find some hallways populated by people, and I even recognize some of them. They're students from my university. I'm surprised to note that a lot of the girls look quite attractive. Isn't my school one of those where you're supposed to need a special pair of goggles for this kind of thing? Maybe that's not true! That would be cool. Anyway, I go into a room where some acquaintances of mine are having a baking party.

      Road Rage

      I accidentally drop a rubber duck behind a movie screen playing Finding Nemo. Damn it. I'm going to have to tow it out with my car. I get in and start zooming down the highway, swerving haphazardly between other cars and going just about as fast as my car can manage. Once, I start passing a car just as it starts passing the car in front of it. Meanwhile there's yet another car in the far left lane, so for a few seconds there are four of us cars driving side-by-side in a three-lane highway. I don't care. I'm angry. Eventually I decide it's time to turn around, so I pull one of those parking-brake 180s and shift gears without putting in the clutch. For a while I dodge traffic going in the opposite direction until I find myself on the right side of the highway, halfway between two lanes and tailgating both cars in front of me. One of them suddenly brakes, and I almost crash into it. That was a bit too close for my liking, so I try to give them a bit more space. But there are cars everywhere and I'm still trying to get things under control when I look up and there's a white screen with the word "Nemo" right in front of me and I swerve just enough to crash into the screen broadside, and the car comes to a halt. The rubber duck falls out, rolls behind the movie screen, and this time rolls all the way under the refrigerator as well. Damn it, now I'm never going to get it out!

      Party at Alex Day's

      Tonight is an orchestra rehearsal. It's the first one, but it might as well be the dress rehearsal, since we only get a couple of rehearsals before the concert. I decide I should wear concert attire, just to get used to it. I'm running late, so I resent the few minutes it takes to turn on my laptop and check my email to find the one where the conductor tells us what concert attire will be. By the time I'm dressed and outside, it's five minutes to seven. I can't remember whether rehearsal is scheduled for six or for seven, but in either case, I'm going to be late. I decide to go anyway, because even half a rehearsal is better than none when you only get two in the first place.

      Unfortunately, there's some car trouble. It takes a few minutes to work out, and then Dad and some of his friends give the car (in neutral) a push down the road. I start running down the road after it, trying to reach it before the road curves and the car crashes into the fence. I barely get there in time, diving into the car to cheers from the group still standing around my driveway. I dove too far, ending up in the passenger seat, so I climb back over to the driver side. I stick in the key and twist it, the engine comes on, and I turn the steering wheel. As I drive out of the neighborhood, I try to think of what else I need to do in order to get the car under control. Maybe I should turn on the radio?

      Later, I'm walking. I decide to take a shortcut through some buildings. It's a more direct route, but I'm not sure if there actually is a path all the way through. I go up some stairs, down some stairs, and through some arches. The buildings are made out of butterscotch-colored stucco (or plaster or something; I'm not sure what it's called). Suddenly I see an arch that opens onto an apartment full of people, including Alex Day and my sister! Alex invites me in, and we start talking. There's a really fun atmosphere at this party; I'm impressed. I wonder if Alex and my sister are dating. Just for fun, sometimes I answer Alex's or my sister's questions in Spanish. He invites me to stay, but I insist that I must be going: I've got places to be and work to do. My sister explains that Alex feels threatened by my productivity as a musician. Hmmm. Interesting.

      I ask Alex if he knows any way though the buildings so I can finish my shortcut. He doesn't, but he tells me I should ask Kim (Nieuwenhuis). "Her apartment's just upstairs," he says. "I spent a couple of days up there a while ago. It's one of the happiest places I've ever been." Well then. I guess I should go up there.

      Just then, a group of girls run past in the hallway outside. They're laughing and running upstairs, and I think I recognize Kim among them. "Kim!" I call, hurrying to the doorway. But either it wasn't her, or she didn't hear me. No one turns around.

      In any case, I think I remember this place. I think I've been here before. If memory serves, I should be able to go down this hall and around a corner and--yes! I'm outside! It should be easy to get to the concert hall from here. But then I realize that I've left my viola in Alex's apartment, so I have to go back for that. Somehow I start watching a new video of his that's based on a pun on his name: Alex Day vs. Alex Night, or something. There's a bouncing ball that turns into a bounding dog that turns into two smaller balls that Alex throws that turn into one bigger bouncing ball again, and so forth.

      Frags:
      • Watching an online advertisement for a cosmetic skin product
      • Posting on the DV forums. I was glad when I realized I was doing this, because that meant I was actually participating in the forums beyond just my introduction thread.
    14. Sun. Aug. 19

      by , 08-19-2012 at 08:34 PM (Glieuaeiel's DJ)
      [I must have woken up after just about every REM cycle last night. Not sure how I pulled that one off.]

      Soiree

      Some of my cousins arrive for a function my family is hosting. They brought cupcakes--chocolate and one other flavor. They ask which flavor I prefer, because somehow the arrangement of cupcakes in the baking tin will reflect the seating chart for the event. I reply, "Probably chocolate."

      I've agreed to contribute to the evening's entertainment by playing a short (two page) piano solo by Gershwin. I know I haven't played piano in ages, but everything on those two pages looked sightreadable when I glanced over it a while ago. However, when Dad discovers my plan, inexplicably he freaks out. I guess he's really concerned that I'll embarrass myself in front of the relatives. It's annoying, though. In fact, Dad's been annoying me a lot lately. For instance, he's recently gotten it into his head that he should learn to play piano himself, and he expects me to sit down with him to prepare piano duets. That does not sound like fun at all.

      The previous group finishes performing, and now it's my turn. I figure the crowd is busy socializing, and they won't mind if I take a minute to look at some of the tougher chords. But to my horror, I open the music and discover a third page. What I thought was the end of the music is just a thin double bar! The third page isn't unplayable, but it has a lot of fast arpeggios over several octaves which will be very, very difficult to sightread. I probably should have taken a closer look at this. I start to feel uncomfortable about the amount of time I've delayed, now; the audience is probably getting impatient.

      John Green the Sponsor

      I've just finished TAing for today for a two-week class for math teachers in primary education. I and the teacher for the class spend a few moments calculating in percentages how close we are to finishing the class. It's towards the end of the second week.

      It's dark outside as I walk through the quadrangles on my way home. On the way, I pass someone who looks exactly like John Green! I didn't know he was in Chicago! But I pass him without getting the courage to ask for an autograph. Mere steps later I consider turning around to chase after him, but I don't.

      Inside a building, I run into one of my students from a previous summer math program. We talk for a bit, but we both have to be getting somewhere, so he leads the way out of the building. The building's door is rather heavy, and I feel bad that he tries to hold it for me. The pathway outside is narrow. I follow it into a smallish quad that's packed with people. I learn that it's called "Jones Quad," and it's a popular after-hours gathering place for students. I also know that I've been this way before. A girl from my house waves at me from inside a pack of her friends. I wave back--rather saucily, to my own surprise (namely, by lifting my left hand and repeatedly bending and unbending the last two knuckles of each finger simultaneously). Someone else waves at me, but I don't recognize her, and she makes a disappointed grimace. I run into someone else from my house and we remark upon how many housemates seem to be on campus tonight, despite the fact that it's the middle of summer.

      It occurs to me that the John Green I saw might just have been a very close look-alike to the famed vlogbrother. I decide that I should go find him again and look more closely. As I wander around, something weird happens with the lights and the music in the building, and I guess that must mean it's about to close down for the night. No one seems in a hurry to leave, though. When I come back a few minutes later, everyone's still there, though they leave soon thereafter.

      Back outside, I walk around a street corner and see a pizza place across the street. On a screen above the building, an advertisement plays. It's this same John Green guy. He's basically sponsoring the pizza place. I guess the pizza company must have heard about the Pizza John shirt and decided to capitalize on it. I still can't decide if the guy is actually John Green, though. It seems unlikely that he would do something so commercial.

      Locker Checkout

      It's the Saturday after finals week, and I'm trying to do my last bit of packing before going home. I've been storing some stuff in a locker on campus, so I head over to the building to pick it up. To my dismay, the building is locked. Apparently Friday was the last day to remove your belongings from this building. I spend a few minutes mentally cursing the idiot who thought that was a good idea, but then I decide I'd better try to do something about the situation. Using cleverness, I'm able to reach the first of my two lockers, which contains a fairly new car battery. I've been switching this one in and out with my car's old battery. Only, it seems like doing the swap would be a fairly complicated operation, and I can't remember ever having done it before. Oh, well. I must have known how at some point, and it's just been so long that it's slipped my mind temporarily. It'll come back, I'm sure. I put the battery in my backpack.

      Unfortunately, the second locker is definitely unreachable. I check the building's hours, and unfortunately it won't open again until long after I've left town. By that time, they'll probably have thrown out my stuff. "My stuff" includes my Tae Kwon Do uniform, so I definitely don't want this to happen. Then I suddenly notice a sign on the window proclaiming the location and hours of this department's interim office. It's open today! Until 4:00! I hurry in that direction, checking the time. It's 4:11. Just my luck. Well, maybe there will still be someone around. My mom hurries to follow me.

      I enter my target building to find a stark concrete entryway with stairs going both up and down, and hallways going in a few different directions. For a moment I'm disoriented, until I remember that the interim office is in a basement room. I go down the stairs, which twist and turn a few times before depositing me in a hallway only slightly more furnished than the original one. Along the wall to my right, dozens of cardboard boxes have been haphazardly stacked. Incredulous at my good fortune, I run down the row of boxes until I find one that's been labeled with my initials: last initial first, then first. Opening the box, I find my Tae Kwon Do uniform, along with everything else that's supposed to be there. Well, that's a relief. But I should probably talk to someone before taking it, else they'll think I stole it, and I'll be in trouble when I come back next term.

      I continue down the hallway into the interim meeting room, which is actually a concert hall. That's kind of funny, but unfortunately I don't see anyone in the room except a female custodian up on stage setting up the ghost light. I turn back and try searching the hall in the other direction. I manage to flag down a dark-haired woman just on her way out the door. She seems to know me from somewhere, and it turns out she's coincidentally the one who's been answering my questions over email about Study Abroad. She tells me she's not the one to talk to about locker checkout. Fortunately, she says that the right woman to talk to is still in her office; it's right back there in the direction I've been going.

      Wading

      It's the day after finals week, but some of us are still hanging around to hang out. A girl from my high school class invites me to visit the forest with a group of friends.

      "What forest?" I ask. You'd think I'd know the forests around here by now, so I'm a bit embarrassed by my question. Oh well.

      She replies with the name of the forest, which I don't recognize. I agree to come anyway, and we head out. Soon after, we enter a restaurant on the outskirts of campus. While we eat, some housemates start planning what they're going to do to earn points for a big school competition which started today. For instance, apparently this restaurant (or the hotel it's a part of) is a sponsor for the event, so you get a points multiplier for eating here. I wonder why it was decided to hold the event after the end of Autumn Quarter, when there are so few people around. Vaguely I recall that it has to do with avoiding conflict with a big Study Abroad event happening in the middle of Spring Quarter, but that still doesn't explain why they didn't decide to do it during Winter. Oh well.

      We leave the restaurant. Most of the group is heading back to campus from here, but I take a different path, one that leads toward the forest. At some point, I'll have to cut across the grass. But the grass is actually flooded quite deeply with water. The water's clear, but due to refraction it's difficult for me to tell quite how deep it is. Would this be an okay place to wade across? Tentatively, I start lowering my foot into the water. But even by the time the water reaches the top of my knee-high waterproof boots, I still haven't touched bottom. I retract my foot.

      My friends are calling to me from across the water, telling me to go around the way they did. Yeah, their way was probably smarter. Meanwhile a boy from the group that decided to stay on campus is trying to tell me not to wade across anywhere, because it's all too deep. But I don't listen to him, and when I try the route my other friends suggested, the water's only about a foot deep.

      All three of us are in werewolf form (from Skyrim) with the silver pelt and claws of an Ancient Behemoth (from Heroes III). I splash up to them and I attempt a growl. It is rather feeble, and one of the girls giggles. I introduce myself to her, and she shakes my hand, although she points out that she thinks we've met before. "No doubt we have," I reply.

      Jumping Ahead

      My dad and I have been taking turns playing a 3-D platform game while one of my high school friends watches. The gameplay of this game is a lot like rock climbing. You have to move each arm or leg individually, trying not to put too much strain on any one of them for more than a split second. We're trying to get to the top of an outcrop that has a sort of half-enclosed tunnel zigzagging up its vertical face. There's this one tricky spot where you have to jump over a gap, but one of the most attractive handholds actually attaches to a section of rock that swings down on a hinge. It can really upset your balance if you're not careful. Also, in order to get enough height, you need this section of rock to stay in its upright position.

      I try it for a while without much luck, then hand it over to Dad. My friend points out that we don't actually have to go up this way; there's an easier place to ascend a little bit farther along this switchback. But I'm kind of stubborn, and I'd just like to prove that it can be done this way, even if it's not what the game's designers intended. Unfortunately, it proves to be a bit too much for Dad, and he falls off the edge to his (cartoon-style) death. That means we have to start over from the beginning of the level, which is frustrating, because I really thought I would get past that section on my next try.

      But Dad's bored of this level, so he jumps way ahead in the game to the last level he did on his own. That's his style: don't bother with continuity; as long as you finish all the levels eventually, you're golden. Oh, well. The level selection screen is itself a 3-D environment, and the levels are yellow dots lined up in a path laid out along the ground. He realizes that he needs to buy a new "computer," since he lost the old one when he fell. When he does, the dots change to yellow rings, rather than filled circles. Also, two new "assistants" run in from the side of the screen, get a powerup of some kind from his character, then run off again.

      He selects the level he wants. A bunch of enemies start running at him from all sides, so he starts beating them up using combos. Somehow he discovers a new combo--something like "knee in the face, punch, power kick"--which sends the unfortunate recipient flying backwards for about fifty meters. He encourages me to try it, but I have trouble until I realize that I'm doing a regular kick. For a power kick you need to hold down R1 at the same time. I feel a bit overwhelmed, but it's kind of fun once you figure it out. The animation's also cool because my character looks like a Star Wars bounty hunter.

      Later, we're part of a larger party in the middle of a battle, trying to help the weaker members level up. This involves passing around 5-foot playing cards from character to character, which we all hug to our sides using our arms. The cards also double as protection from enemy characters, so there's some strategy involved in how you distribute your cards. Unfortunately, I'm running low on cards right now, and a thickset, bald thug is advancing on me in a rather intimidating manner.

      Frags:
      • dictating to my dream diary in Spanish
      • other various false-awakening-dream-journal-writing
    15. Sun. Aug. 12

      by , 08-12-2012 at 07:26 PM (Glieuaeiel's DJ)
      Blue Angels

      I was supposed to go to a Blue Angels show with some friends, but we got delayed. We decide to head over there anyway. When we arrive, we see a lot of other spectators still there--apparently the show's getting started late, also. Only, we wait there for another half hour, and it still doen't start. The Blue Angels were a no-show! Later, I'm playing a game that looks a lot like Galaga, but you play as jet airplanes. There are two teams facing each other, and the basic objective is to capture the enemy flag and bring it back to your side. The controls are similar to those from Snake.

      Frags:
      • Something math-related.
      Tags: airplane, late, math
      Categories
      non-lucid
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