All DJ Entries

Morning of December 19, 2014. Friday.



Firstly, I am in some sort of group of mostly unknown males (not relevant to real life). There are two rows of perhaps seven or eight facing each other. It seems to be on King Street, though the front (northeast) apartment is much bigger. I seem to become angry and punch most of them extremely hard. This seems to at least partly be because each and every one of them is being condescending to each and every other, sounding more and more ridiculous, like a perpetual comic strip but with no comedic elements.

After seemingly several minutes of this, I become slightly lucid (becoming more lucid over time). I have an awareness of an affirmation set and decide that instead of eliminating these people, I will heal them (including “fixing” their brain by bringing it into its most natural resonance somehow). I vaguely sense a “correct” oscillation and harmonic resonance inside their heads when I put my hand on the top of their heads and eventually place my hands on all of their heads. The effect is similar to feeling the vibrations when placing your hand on the body of an acoustic guitar when a chord is played.

I heal their wounds and cuts as well. However, because I reach an apparent overly energetic stage which is supposedly “too powerful” to use directly (with my palms, for example - where the energy seems to emanate from), I need only lightly touch them with the back of my hand to restore them to their healthiest state - otherwise my power may cause them to “disintegrate”. I do not recall this event being like this in past dreams, as I formerly used my fingers and palms.

From here, I walk out with a few (unknown) people. The porch roof is extended out more over the front yard than in reality (almost like a large lower awning) which seems frustrating relative to being able to fly out and up as soon as I want. As lucidity is dawning on me a bit stronger, I decide to fly out into the world. As I fly swiftly and efficiently, even deliberately over a longer sequence of telephone lines and power lines (which seem somewhat out of place and randomly going at an angle from the buildings and sidewalks), I notice how incredibly clear and visually defined my dream’s environment is. It is so well-rendered, I am amazed to a nearly breath-taking pleasure on the imagery alone; even more so, because it does not seem reminiscent of a real location. It seems to be near an industrial area of whatever town it is now meant to be. I notice a few buildings, a forest in the distance, and a few parked vehicles here and there, including a semi near a warehouse.



I feel fantastic as I look down and about over the scenery. At one point, I see a pile with old books and magazines, but mostly atop a taller pile of just debris, at the end of an alley, which appears to be a public dumping area. The pile is almost as high as the two-storey possibly abandoned commercial buildings on each side. I land near the top of the pile and pick up what seems to be an old “Alvin and the Chipmunks” comic book (it may be an association with an old instrumental my father wrote and performed as well as the name of where we lived at one time in Chipmunk Coulee). There are three bats on the cover (which may be related to a short-term comic strip I did as a boy about three “rock star” bats in the early 70s based on an earlier recurring dream). I tell myself that because I know I am dreaming, I may be able to actually read the entire book. However, I mostly only seem to focus on one odd phrase, which is “Poly Calep” and seeing that distracts me from my plan to read the whole comic. Perhaps this is a name of one of the characters.

From here, I am still aware of the people that had been at the meeting walking around not that far from where I am. However, I decide to enjoy more flying. I am able to again maneuver just slightly above power lines for a fair distance (which used to be problematic in dreams in my youth) without getting tangled. Oddly though, the power lines go up at an angle the farther I fly, but I still directly remain parallel to them the entire distance.

From here, I find myself back at North Monroe Street, which is usually rare to dream of. I have not been there since early 1968. I notice a few people standing around near the outer hall to the west, where my older brother Earl lived at one time. I go with my wife (who had apparently been standing in the hall) into the apartment, which seems larger and much longer to the east. Of course, I plan on having a nice romantic interlude to see what can physically occur. At this point, my dream is almost entirely under my conscious influence in every way other than the “extra people” that annoy me somewhat (which is typical of this type of lucid dream until apex lucidity is reached). We walk past three bedrooms where I can see a person’s feet sticking out from under a sheet on each bed. As we continue to walk, a male relative (Kevin M) ends up following us as well. Just as my wife and I are able to get into a bathtub (which is perpendicular to the direction we are walking), which is already full of nice cool water, he is still behind us. However, as my wife and I begin to sit down in the water (already suddenly unclothed by mental will alone), I slam the mostly opaque bathtub’s sliding door (much like the setup from King Street) so that we are then isolated from all public perspectives. (I suppose that he could have technically still opened the sliding door, but this does not really occur to me at any level of thought so does not happen.)

I am on my back and my wife sits on me in the cool water. The pleasure is quite augmented; a very clear sense of wetness and warmth (against the refreshing coolness of the water) and enhanced physical pleasure as well as spiritual unity and oneness. The only unusual distortion is that Zsuzsanna has tiny curly black hairs that create a narrower curved line going up and around her hips and back up towards her abdomen, somewhat like a doubled mirror-imaged harp design.

After several promising WILD attempts failed for no good reason over the last couple weeks, I was afraid I was headed into another dry spell. Then last night, when I wasn't planning to lucid dream at all—having only seven hours to sleep before getting up early for a busy day—I had spontaneous lucids all night during the few short periods I managed to sleep at all, and had to sacrifice even more sleep writing up my notes promptly (as a matter of principle). I should have known better to drink that big mug of coffee before bed on a night when I was likely to be prone to anxiety anyway, but now I can report that caffeine + anxiety make a great lucid trigger!

I went to bed at 12:30am. Knew I needed to wake at 7:30 and intended to go to bed earlier, but I never find it easy to go to bed before midnight unless I'm sick or already exhausted. Woke at 2:30am and realized that the coffee was a mistake: I was now wide awake. To counter the insomnia I started doing counting and deep breathing, basically just like my WILD practice but without the intention to LD. I counted to fifty, one number for each full breath cycle, then left off counting and did the breathing only. I'm not sure how much I actually slept—it felt like I spent a long time in a transitional state—but it was 3:45am when I woke up fully again, this time after slipping spontaneously into the very briefest of WILDs.

Brief WILD: The transition was really interesting, because there must have been a point when I was already asleep, but I still thought I was awake. I know I was confused about this because I was under the impression that while lying in bed I was selecting and leafing through fantasy-game themed magazines from a low shelf that was just to my right, apparently in the bed with me. Of course in waking life there is no such shelf set up in my bed nor any magazines of this kind within arm's reach, distinct evidence that I had dreamed the whole thing. But as I was flipping through through the magazines, I was also well aware that I was in the process of trying to fall asleep, and I even noticed a curious phenomenon: when I closed my eyes, I could still make out blurry forms and colored shapes corresponding to the content printed on the pages I was reading. This made me think that reading through closed eyelids might be a great technique for encouraging REM onset, because it was stimulating pictures to form in my mind. A great technique indeed if you can do it while you're already dreaming! But I didn't realize that at the time.

Eventually I felt the onset of that bodily dislocation that suggested I was close to a WILD transition, and encouraged it. Sometimes I levitate, sometimes I rock or rotate, but this time sinking felt more natural, so I let the sinking sensation grow while thinking, "Down, down," until I felt that the transition was complete. Then I easily "got up" out of bed. However, I still didn't have much control of the dream body, so I discovered that I couldn't stand or walk yet. Instead I collapsed face down on the floor and had to crawl. This didn't alarm me, because I often lack full motor coordination right after the transition. The environment was recognizable as my bedroom but still very murky. My mind felt incredibly active and clear, by contrast—probably because I was barely asleep.

I remember thinking distinctly, "Oh good, I haven't lost it"—meaning the ability to WILD, given that my last few attempts have gone nowhere. I crawled toward the bedroom door and remembered my task, "Fairy tales." Then I paused, realizing that I would need to improve my integration before trying to leave the room, as my WILDs tend to destabilize if I try to rush things. I thought, "Time for some clean-up"—but alas, there was no time, as I woke promptly at this.

Such a disruption was not unusual, as my early WILDs are normally strung together by multiple DEILD chains (for some reason this seems to be almost the only time I can successfully and instinctively DEILD, so I've never even counted those DEILDS as distinct dreams; instead they end up seeming more like segments of the same chained WILD). Unfortunately, I could tell at once that this time I had woken up too fully to DEILD, and even though I held very still and sought a way back into the dream, I could feel that I had surfaced past the point of re-entry, so I got up to write this. A bit disappointing, but not overly so as I have to get up insanely early tomorrow for a full day of activity, so no time to write more without cutting into sleep.

5:50am: up and writing again after two more DILDs. Both times I thought at first that I was awake in the house, but instinctively realized that I was dreaming.

DILD#1: As soon as I realized I was dreaming, I remembered my task, still determined to carry out my "Hansel and Gretel" experiment. I was already deep enough in dream to feel well-coordinated, so after getting lucid I went immediately to the kitchen and grabbed some bread from the counter. It was the end of a baguette. Last time I tried this the dream destabilized shortly after I left the house and started dropping crumbs, so this time I decided to begin more cautiously by starting the trail of bread crumbs while I was still inside the house. I walked from the kitchen to the living room, tearing off pieces of bread and dropping them on the floor. Meanwhile I was thinking to myself with amusement, "Oh man, I'd better really be dreaming. If we wake up tomorrow and it turns out I've left bread all over the floor, my husband is going to say this lucid dreaming thing has to stop!"

But I was sure I was dreaming, despite the stability and lifelikeness of the environment, so I asked myself how I could tell. I thought it would be a good moment to test the differences in self-perception between dream and the waking state. No sooner did I turn my attention to my body than I felt it—yes—that subtle tingling in the limbs that I have always associated with dream. The sensation used to be extremely prominent, especially earlier in life when lucid dreams occurred only rarely and spontaneously, but now I hardly ever notice it unless I pay deliberate attention. Unfortunately, this re-orientation of focus on my physical senses meant that I began to notice something I was hearing as well: the sound of my husband's breathing in the bed next to me. This reminded me of my body asleep in the bed, which promptly woke me up.

Upon waking, I could still hear the breathing just as I had in the dream, but with one peculiar difference: in the dream, the sound was distinctly coming from my right, but when I woke up I remembered, of course, he is sleeping to my left. Perhaps the discrepancy can be explained if I was sleeping on my left side with my left ear against the pillow so only my right ear could hear clearly? I forgot to take note of my position when I awoke.

DILD#2: After going back to sleep, once again I was doing stuff around the house under the impression that I was awake when I noticed once again: am I dreaming? Yep, pretty sure I am. Okay, well, back to work then. I remembered that I had taken the bread from the counter in the last dream, briefly worried that I might not find any more, but casually "expected" to find another loaf and sure enough it was there. I started dropping crumbs while I was still inside the house again, then went out the door to the back patio. I was still anxious about destabilization (I have tried this task several times before and haven't gotten very far, and tonight's previous episodes demonstrated that waking up abruptly was indeed a hazard) I so thought, okay, I'll just walk around the pool in circles and continue dropping crumbs until the dream shows some receptivity.

So I began circling the pool counterclockwise, dropping crumbs as I walked. When I reached the area just behind the pool I noticed the place where I had encountered "Boneface" in a previous dream and wondered if anyone would be waiting there, but no DCs were visible. However, the dream was starting to respond: already I was no longer circling the pool but on a path, walking through an environment that no longer resembled any place I know in waking life. The path led me through a dense suburban neighborhood, but I saw trees in the distance and figured a forest must be out there somewhere. I needed to reach the forest to proceed with the "Hansel and Gretel" plot.

I continued dropping breadcrumbs as I walked along the path, but then I remembered—hang on, if I'm doing "Hansel and Gretel," then obviously I can be Gretel, but I'll need a Hansel! I tried to summon him, calling out "Hans! Hans!" and "Little brother!" The dream responded promptly but unexpectedly: a little dog showed up, with long wavy fur in brown and white patches, and started trotting along with me. It looked just like a toy spaniel, but smaller, about the size of a chihuahua. I shrugged and figured, "Okay, good enough." Maybe he would turn into a boy later on, or if not, whatever. (I've always been able to summon animals easily, but have less success with human DCs, so the results weren't that surprising.)

To get more into the spirit of things, as we continued to walk along the path I started singing a song about our journey—how we had left our parents' house because there wasn't enough food, and hoped to find some in the forest. (I just realized a discrepancy in the story: if food is so scarce that they have to leave home lest the family starve, why are they wasting bread by dropping it on the ground? Or is that why mom wants to kick them out, the flagrant bread wasters!)

The dream felt very stable but I knew I couldn't be in very deep because I was having trouble with the song: rhymes weren't coming easily, like they do in deeper dream, and my melody was very simple (The Hobbit was on TV last night, and my song ended up with a similar tune and rhythm to the "goblin town" song from the movie, though naturally with very different words). When I got to the end of a line and couldn't find a rhyme, or even a suitable word, I just sort of hummed over the blank spot and kept going. Improvise! So I sang a number of stanzas in this haphazard way, dropping the bread in smaller and smaller crumbs since I was getting near the end of the loaf, while little Hans the dog trotted beside me on his tiny legs.

Finally we made it to the edge of town, and there it was ahead of us! The forest! Would we go in and find a gingerbread house, a threatening witch? I was looking forward to what we might discover. But I felt sorry for Hans and wondered if he might prefer to be carried. I picked him up and put him on my right shoulder (he was so small). No sooner had I perched him there then at once I clearly and distinctly heard a voice saying my name in my right ear—it was my RL name, and it woke me up. This happened immediately after I put the dog on my shoulder so I had the impression that he had been the one speaking, but the voice was clearly a woman's and, as far as I could make out, it sounded like my own voice.

Anyway, that woke me up past DEILD recovery so I got up and wrote again. It's now after 6am. Nothing like a short night before a busy day in which I have absolutely no time to spare for dreaming to really bring on the LDs, eh?

24.08.2014

Drums recorded in my reading. (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I guess this would be a silly nightmare, but oh well. This is what happened in waking. Yesterday I got an order from someone for a psychic reading, and he was pretty much disrespectful and it felt it was making fun of it. He requested for me to not have the music on during the reading. Upon awakening, he received the reading and was very happy with it (even though there were tough thing for him to hear, I am glad he accepted it lol) We live in a house and we have a 2nd floor rented, and the neighbor likes to play the trumped and the pipe bag and he is a bit annoying lol. So here was the brief "nightmare."

I was in my computer wrapping up my work and sending all the readings to my clients. As I played the reading from this client that did not want music, I could only hear drums, and not my voice at all. I was like what the heck is going on... and this guy did not want music and he is going to think that I put rock in my readings instead of a soft spiritual background music.

I was upset because I thought if I had music playing, it would have recorded instead of the drums, and my voice would be heard as well. I started to wonder what to do and I figured that the best was to channel all the information again and start the reading over, but I was upset because it was a long reading.

(Ahhh, so this is my first fully-aware lucid dream and I am so excited!

I'd been trying to WILD that night with no previous sleeping just to see if it would work. I also very briefly looked at the DILD technique (like literally around 5 minutes). Either way, neither worked and I woke up in the morning completely dreamless. Either way, considering that I had got some sleep prior now I half heartedly tried WILDing again. It did not work again, however...)

... I can't remember anything about my dream before this point but the first thing I remember was checking my left hand and realising I had 8 fingers*. I started to become lucid but this world seemed so real! I was laying in my bed at my Dad's house and it all looked so... in place*. I checked a couple more times and sure enough, although the numbers kept changing, my hands kept sprouting extra fingers!

Not sure what to do, I tried turning on the light and sure enough, the switch did not work. It was at this point that my Dad began to speak. I was sure he said something about me waking up, which made sense since I was in my bed and it did seem to be morning. Either way, I opened my door and there he was. I said hi to him and my step-mum, taking note of the fact that there was an extra door in the hallway*. Up to this point, I had been considering shouting something out loud to the world in order to attempt to change it in some way however I didn't since I was worried this might not really be a dream and also, if it was, that my dream-dad might do something weird if he heard me. I told him I was going to go in the shower, hoping I could speak whilst drowning out the noise then, but he told me to stay put for a little while.

Going back into my room, I decided to take a look at one of the books on the shelf. I picked Harry Potter in the end. Opening it, I can't remember what the words on the pages actually said, however there were poems, at the bottom of the pages, written by the author to her dad. The letters d and q were highlighted in a bold, bright orange colour on each page as well. I also noticed that it looked like someone had drawn on the pages, writing their own poems on the pages as well*. Scrolling back through the book, the highlighted letters were no longer highlighted. I was also aware that, downstairs, my dad seemed to be letting someone into the house.

Either way, after checking my hands a couple more times, still a bit in disbelief, I covered my mouth in my hands and shouted into them the first thing that came to mind - "Take me to the beach!". When I opened my eyes, I was still in the room but gravity seemed to have flipped 90 degrees, with the floor in front of me and with me standing on the wall. I tried again and everything went black. It was at this point that a little bar at the bottom of my vision appeared, kind of like the progress bar on a YouTube video. Wanting to try again I rewound a little way backwards before closing my eyes and promptly waking up.

(Dream Notes!

* - It was only after waking up that I realised I had been looking for 6 fingers as a sign of real life, as oppose to 5. Turns out I apparently can't count in dreams >.>

* - There were, looking back, actually quite a few things wrong with this scenario. First of all, in real life, I had fallen asleep at my Mum's house, not my Dad's. Second of all, my bed at my Dad's has been moved to the other side of the room, but in the dream it was still in the old position.

* - I wonder what would've happened if I'd gone into this "extra" room? Maybe I would have seen something dark and secret?? :O

* - I can't actually remember what the other writing said although I remember there being arrows pointed to the poems, like someone was trying to add something onto the end of them?

)

Date: 30 Jan

Pre bed: 400val, 45 mg B6

Wbtb: 1/3 latte

Overall impressions: vividness high, recall below average, pre wbtb recall close to zero

DILD: I am walking down the corridors of my school (DS) and we are supposed to have another class in a different classroom, so I don't know in which one we are right now (DS). I go to the where the teachers' room is and enter. It turns to a classroom from another part of the school and I examine the faces of the kids sitting there to determine if I'm in the right place. I see this small boy who has the features of my classmate as if he is 1st or 2nd grade and that jolts me into lucidity. The room is full of kids and I closely look at their faces trying to identify and expecting to see all of my classmates here (as in trying to recreate the past accurately). Most importantly, I am trying to recall and see exactly where is everyone sitting. There's a guy that looks like _ and _tells me that he sits alone, which I doubt, knowing he sits next to another guy. I start calling out names of particular classmates while trying to determine if the seating is correct.

For a second I think I see a doppelgänger of a classmate. I look at the first desk where at least according to a vague memory _ may be sitting or a dream memory, I have dreamt of that room so many times that my dream memories are also partially accessible and get mixed with real ones. There's another girl that doesn't belong here so I move her to the side leaving only _ here and contemplating. The teacher is about to begin the class, but with me acting so commandingly she seems to pause. I make an announcement that the class won't start until I identify and arrange all the classmates and continue looking around. As I stare at this classmate, I finally remember that I wanted to try to read a book and tell her to give me something to read. She hands me/I notice a paper notebook on the desk. I'm slightly uncertain if this will work, as I may run into some school materials. Anyways, I start browsing the notebook paper pile and get my hands on some sort of book. I try to read the title, which is a mix of words that don't make sense and I make an effort to understand what the book is about - something about hands, there is an illustration at the front cover and it looks like some sort of karate manual. I find this pretty cool and look forward to learning karate from this book.

If I'm not mistaken, I take another look at the front cover title and try to reason it out but it changes again as I try to assign some meaning to it. Then I begin browsing the pages and read one of them. The text stabilizes and I read the first sentence with great effort, but I get the meaning without actually reflecting too much on the words. It's a Mongolian story about one of their leaders. I browse more and every couple of pages there are beautiful manually drawn pictures, that look like little paintings that show what's happening in the story. He was supposed to participate in a horse racing in the village. I see a picture of the place after the race, empty now. I look at couple more pics but it's hard to memorize them all, then do back to the front page and title that I am still trying to figure out. Now on the cover is a very peculiar drawing of a house attached to a sleigh or whatever that thing is. The part of the title talking about hands now refers to bamboo and the act of practicing with care. I keep wondering about the title while the dream fades away.

(Side note: It occurred to me yesterday, lucidity works best for me when I'm focused on a specific task, as with defusing nightmares, and that's probably something I could put to work for me more. So before going to bed today, I tried typing out one of my dream goals with the heading Task of the Day.)

I was flipping through the just-released final book in a series, the Wheel of Time, when it occurred to me that this series already ended. I get online to explain the discrepancy, and there's some explanation that this new book is an optional epilogue with bonus materials and illustrations and so on. I realize this is a dream. My first instinct is to just continue with what I was doing anyway, but right afterward I think, no, what I was doing was boring. There is no way I am going to waste a dream sitting around my IRL home on the computer. (Although come to think of it, a dream computer could probably do some interesting things too.) That decided, I immediately set out to perform the task I set for myself. (Successfully remembered!) The first step is finding a doorway or other way of changing scenes, so I head for the door.

Before I get there, however, I get distracted: I realize I'm holding the t-shirt I'd taken off earlier in the non-lucid part of the dream. But although I hadn't put on another shirt afterward, I'm fully clothed now, which I think of as a convenient bit of dream logic. I remember a previous lucid dream where I'd tried to transform a shirt into something else, not very successfully, so the presence of a spare now makes me want to try again. I decide to just transform it into a robe, that should be easy, I'll just lengthen it and create an opening in the front. I see there's an opening at the front of the collar now, so I take hold of either side and pull as if tearing it, extending that opening to the bottom, seeing that it's grown longer as I go. I hold it up to look at it - it's got the shape I pictured, but it looks like a poorly-sewn costume, like something a child would make. It's got a piece of plastic sticking out of it, as if a price tag's been torn off, and there's a tangle of loose threads and frayed edges across the opening in the front. I tear that tangle off, then realize I'm waking up. (It occurred to me afterward that both shirts had been specific shirts I actually own IRL. Makes me wonder if I'd have an easier time if, rather than just the general idea of a robe, I'd aimed for something more specific. Still, though: a more successful transformation of an object than the last attempt.)

16.11.2013 4/4

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

Esse sonho foi bem longo e vívido, mas como demorei pra escrever, esqueci muita coisa. Eu estava jogando um jogo dos Simpsons e entrava nele. Lá eu estava em um navio atrás de alguns itens, resolvendo alguns puzzles. Depois de uma determinada missão eu encontrava um item que estava procurando. Parecia uma folha de sulfite, mas quando eu a segurava ela disparava um tipo de "raio" de uma das pontas que grudava nas coisas. Eu lembro que eu a testava disparando no teto e brincando de "Tarzan". Meu pai estava nessa parte do sonho. Minha mãe e o Cássio também estavam no sonho, mas não me lembro em que momento. Havia algo sobre uma festa e um banho, mas não me lembro mais. Dentro do navio, em uma sala com várias pessoas eu via um mural de acrílico com algumas coisas escritas nele. Eu tentava ler mas não conseguia entender nada.

I'm reading a book, but I don't know if I was the one who wrote it or not. It's about this guy in Alaska who's writing to his daughter in an email. Every now and then the letter breaks off to show what's happening with his daughter. I distinctly remember reading about her being in an alley about to be killed. At the end the guy gets really mad because he never heard from her again--he doesn't know that she was killed.

[Clearly, my brain ripped this one from Family Guy.]

Dream recall from today's naps.

Dream 1(fragments):

I was playing some video game with a story and i had to make some kind of decision in it, then i was interrupted by BSOD.

Dream 2(fragments):

I was doing some stuff in the room and there was relatively small house in the room, like an actual brick house, it's roof was a bit broken so i started fixing it, because it's a dream as i thought, and i was pretty strong, but didn't actually realized that i was dreaming.

Dream 3:

I was playing some 2D platformer game and there was alot of dragon characters, then somebody interrupted me and said about some new zdoom mod. I checked it but it looked like some mod of brutal doom, except with custom enemies, i noticed dragons were enemies too so i decided not to play it. I was then searching for some other mods and checking out some weapon mod.
After that i found some dragon related story and started reading it, after a while of reading i got distracted and found another site, which apparently had pictures of dragons from that platformer and story, lots of pictures, and descriptions. Then there were also two big and detailed pictures of a dragon with scales of red/maroon color, two pictures were same except for that in one of them... there were no wings. Then after a bit i got back to reading story and some person came surprised that i am reading stories and asked why i wont read books instead, i explained that's because books don't have Ctrl+F function(Dream Logic!) and then tried to show it, but my keyboard was set to different language. I had to switch it through like 50 different languages to get back to english.

Dream 4:

There was some story, i had to visit some weird dark place that was like after carnival or something, i was talking to somebody about controlling people. Then i was back at home and i was reading some messages on PC, somebody was talking about dragons and there was picture attached to post of anthro dragon with blue and light-blue colored scales. Then i went to nap but ended up phasing between two different versions of the room(which is actually different room that mine) while in bed, one of which had some giant skulls.
I then wake up in my room and take off headphones, immediately my vision goes weird and i still hear sound(which were actually different binaural beats than which i was actually listening to...), but there's also high pitched sound and vision fades partly to white, then after a while it stops and goes back to normal.
Then suddenly some DC attacks me from behind while i am still in the bed, taking me by surprise. I react and punch him really hard, knocking him back, then i roar really loudly, right into his face, scaring everything out of him, and then i break his neck. Done with that i look around and notice room being different, the bed is in the middle and there's chandelier, i get up and shout some commands but dream suddenly quickly fades out, and i wake up.

06-09-2013 -- I think this dream starts out in the Goodwin's kitchen, but it is quickly turning into an odd cross between a restaurant and a warehouse. I think somehow it is Hewitt, even though Hewitt is neither of those. Shrug. The female manager in charge screams and yells at everybody, sticks people in new jobs with no notice and then curses at them and berates them for not being able to do the jobs with no training, and is generally the boss from hell.

I don't like it. In fact, I am rather against it. One girl is being yelled at, and she talks back and the woman fires her on the spot, and passes on several of her tasks to me. Thankfully I seem to know how to do them all, so I can handle it easily. Things get more hectic, more people are being yelled at, and another guy gets fired. I am given some of his tasks, and again can handle it easily.

During a lull in what is going on, I spend some time reading a kids book (not sure what, possibly one of Gordon's), and the witch catches me at it. She tells me to stop, acting incensed not that I would read at work, but that it would be a kids book, and I refuse. I tell her that I will read what I want, when I don't have anything else to do, and if she has a problem with it, I'll give her my resignation tomorrow. I'm now doing so much of the disliked jobs that I don't think she'll dare make waves, but I am not sure.

I am getting ready to leave for the day, when I get a phone call from the horrible boss, screaming at me some more, and I decide to tell it like it is, calling her a bitch, explaining how short-handed her department is, and explaining that if she fires me, she'll probably be fired tomorrow, because of how much work I now do.

My final tasks for the day are to move the bread racks and the elephants, and I put on my green elephant gloves to handle the task (one of those least favorite tasks that were passed on to me) while trying to soothe other employees who heard me talking on the phone, and are afraid I will be history. After I finish my work, I grab one of the full-size boxes of donuts, rather than the snack version we are supposed to take, and I head out the Penney-style exit, past all the trucks being loaded and unloaded.

Outside, a couple of dense employees (guys) are walking around talking about an issue with a truck while another guy is trying to figure out how to fix it. I dodge around them and get out of the way, but soon they have turned into Tony and McGee, and they meet Ziva in the parking lot. I show her my elephant gloves, and brag that I'll be out of the parking lot before she is, and there is some hint of a circus in the parking lot, as I head on my way.

I drive on home to BM's house, where I am in a back room with BM for a while, but not for any particular reason. Then we come out and JM is starting to scream at me, wanting to know why we were together, and also why I have already eaten when he is cooking a special meal, and it is almost dinner time. He also asks how school is going, but I am not about to tell him I may be fired tomorrow. Weird.

I was in a big lounge that looked a lot like a library I once went to a couple years ago. It was dark this night but it felt a little earlier than that because there was still some children awake at that time.

I was a volunteer at this place and my job was to take care of these kids and made sure they were reading their books. I probably had this dream because my father wants me to join some volunteering work with some other people at a local place. It's not something I'm looking forward to in this horrible city!

A few parents were here as well. There was a little girl who was supposed to read a paragraph from the book. As she started reading though, it felt like I needed to cry because these kids are growing up too fast.

I also don't have a kid.

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.

3-5-08

Dream (Mini LD):

This was a the end of a longer dream that I no longer remember. I found myself reading a sentence. It said something like, "If you want to do illegal drugs, go to ISM....." As I was reading it I suddenly remembered that that was one of the goals I wanted to do when I became lucid--to read a sentence. I was suddenly lucid now. I wondered if that counted because I actually was able to read that sentence, even though I wasn't really sure what ISM meant, but then realized that I hadn't actually read it when I was lucid...that reading it was what made me lucid. I knew I needed to try again.

But before I could, I woke up.

Superheroes (8:07)

To their surprise, a group of friends discover that they all have superpowers. The superpower is unique to the person. One of them can create force fields, which comes in handy when villains begin shooting energy bullets at them. Still, she barely gets up the shields in time, which makes her friends nervous enough to shout at her a bit. In the middle of a sentence, someone realizes that the villains just shot a "seminuclear bomb" at them. They all shout and panic, and the bomb goes off. From a distant perspective, you see a cylindrical shield appear around the group just in time to protect them from the blast.

Thinking they've succeeded, the villains approach the area of the ocean where the group of superheroes had been swimming. Soon after they reach the spot, the shield disappears, presumably releasing radiation poisoning into all of the villains. They all start making funny faces. I'm curious about how this movie is going to depict radiation sickness--it seems like something that would be difficult to cartoonify.

Autumn (8:07) (LUCID)

It's a beautiful fall day. I'm walking over the grass in a section of woods where all the trees are bare of leaves, and I'm not alone. There are dozens of people nearby, walking every which way, although I am traveling alone. I reach the crest of a small hill, but rather than walking down the other side, I keep on walking straight into the air. I suppose that must mean I'm dreaming, but I'm not sure I feel like doing anything about that.

On second thought . . . I do a reality check to get into the mindset of dream control. I still have to prove that I can exercise some kind of control over fire. I decide to try to use lightning. Looking at a nearby tree, I gesture at it somehow. To my surprise, with a flash and a bang, a bolt actually strikes the tree. It's on fire, now, but the fire is highly stylized. The tree is covered in a bunch of orange and black sprites--little crescent moons that randomly switch from left-facing to right-facing. I'm not sure that counts as actually starting a fire. I turn to another tree and try to hit it with lightning, too, but this time, nothing happens.

I give up on the lightning, and try to set the grass on fire with a sweeping motion of my arm. A ramrod-straight, paper-thin line of flame about a dozen feet long appears on the ground, but it doesn't interact much with its surroundings. I try to make lava from the foothills flow down through a nearby riverbed, but that doesn't really work, either.

Carefully, I look up at the clouds above me. I worry that without any trees or grass in my field of vision, the dream will start to come apart. The sky is pretty, but I look down again quickly. A little later, and without any apparent warning, the dream just stops. My vision's not black, per se, but I can't see anything.

Novice Author (8:07)

A novice author has recorded a video explaining the story behind her recent short book. She starts by reading something apparently from a writing textbook, about how it's a good idea to write the ending first, then pretend to get flustered by all the complicated detail and explain to the reader that you'll have to go back and tell it all from the beginning. I recognize that technique from a lot of the books I've read, and apparently the author does, too, because she looks up from the book to interject a short phrase meaning something like, "Just like they do in the classics!"

While the video credits are rolling, the girl's roommate comes into the room wearing a bathrobe. She's just trying to get her laundry from the machine, but as a joke the vlogger intercepts her, and in the struggle the robe comes untied. Eventually the roommate does manage to put on a pair of underwear. Then the vlogger's top comes off, too, and they sit down on the ground and start kissing. I'm pretty sure this is the first time either of them have explored this part of their sexual orientation, so, good for them!

Frags:

• A volcano goes off and we have to climb up a series of gigantic, cubical cliffs in order to escape the lava flows. The cliffs have a consistency similar to tofu. I take a few wrong turns.

Out of Order

The members of the adventuring party start singing. It's a very pretty song. I like it a lot. But I can't remember why they're doing it, so I flip to a different part of the book to try and figure it out. That doesn't answer many questions, so I flip around again. Now, before all of this, I'd been near the end of the book. But by the time I'm done, I've found a chapter back in the first third of the book that I don't remember reading at all. Oh, dear. I guess I must have skipped these chapters accidentally, when I was trying to find my place after setting down the book for a while.

LMMS

I open a new project in Linux MultiMedia Studio and start composing. The idea I have in my head uses the string section, so it would be nice to have some good samples for that. I remember that I configured a couple for a previous project [IRL: true], so I open that project and try to copy over the instruments. It works pretty well! Now I guess I should start thinking about how to use percussion. Should I use it to reinforce the string accents, or do they stand well enough on their own?