Uncategorized

Bad night's sleep, horrendous recalls. This is what I can remember for the first part:

Bxcxgds. EWRaf asgdsgkldj blaskfj? Adgldskgj!

I woke up at maybe around 2:00 or 2:45 and was couldn't fall asleep due to various things on my mind. So I worked on some things until 3:30am and tried to go back to bed. Still took me a long time to fall asleep, but at least this recall isn't complete gibberish:

I hiked up a mountain. It was at times forested, and at times dry rock -- totally different climates. At one point, I came across a boulder. It wasn't particularly immense or unique-looking, but it felt overwhelming, as if there's a really dense gravity field to it, and it feels like I'm thisclose to it all the time. It actually felt a little like the dreams I'd have when I have a fever.

I'm not sure if I reached the top, or how long this went on. Eventually the dream fades, and I wake up.

I am visiting my friend T's house, which is way too sitcom-looking. In this world, he is apparently a costumed superhero, and he is freaking out because he thinks someone will discover his secret identity (Paranoia is definitely his thing in real life). So we go through his house to process "evidence" of his secret life:

• First bit of evidence is, somehow, leftover meat in a casserole dish (lol, what?), which my advice is to not leave that shit out or it'll spoil. That settles T down a little.
• Second bit of evidence is a board game that's titled something ridiculous like "I'm Secretly a Crime Fighter" (lolol, whaaat?), in which Dream Me rationalizes something like owning a Monopoly board doesn't make me a tycoon. Wise words, Dream Me. Wise words.
• Third piece of evidence is the severed human head of a criminal he has in his freezer (lolololol, wh-- *record scratch* wait, what?). Apparently, Dream Me already knows about this; as T is opening up his freezer, I tell him I don't need to see it, just don't keep it in your freezer anymore. I also Dream Know that T kept the head in a plastic bag.

So now, my subconscious gets a conscience (ha! ...too soon after talking about freezer remains. I got ahead of myself), and it took form of an argument between Cartman and Kyle Broflovski about morals.

Then shit got REALLY weird.

My view zooms in to Kyle's face, to the point I can see the individual pimples. The pimples, who talk in Al Gore voice, are conferring with one another to stop their host body because his morals are being swayed. So now, the pimple choose to infiltate Kyle's mind, which resembles a blue room with a computer on the floor.

Two pimple-people (hehe), a male and female dressed in tight black outfits and harnesses like rejects from a Mission Impossible remake, has snuck in, and are attempting to upload a virus into the computer/Kyle's mind. But Kyle's consciousness materializes inside himself to stop them; first, he stomps on the head of the pimple-man (symbolism alert -- also, what is up with me and head violence that night?), then pokes a hole with his fingers in the pimple-woman's side, causing her to deflate like a balloon before she could hit the "Enter" key. Mind-Kyle looks over her while she says something to appeal to him -- it seems to work, because Kyle hits the "Enter" key himself to upload the virus. The dream fades before I can find out what happens next.

Note: There was, at one point in all this, a screen where I'm equipping items to slots like I'm playing an Flash RPG game, and having trouble deciding whether getting the bonus in X is better than the other. But I'm not sure/remember where THAT little scene fit in. I dream in video game way, way too much,

This is after I woke up from my first dream. I recited "if it's red, I'm in bed" with great difficulty before simply falling asleep.

I'm walking in a somewhat active park with someone, and we drove my car there. It began pleasantly enough, but then the person I'm with starts to feel not as well. I say something along the lines of "lets go back to my car and turn on the AC"; but instead, like the actions of a rational human being, I put her in a shopping cart and scoot her around. I find this hilarious after I wake up, for very ironic reasons aside from the thought of pushing an unconscious adult around in a cart.

We go to the boardwalk of a pier, which actually reminds me of Navy Pier in Chicago. And, like the real Navy Pier, it was ridonkulously foggy. It is starting to get dark at this time, and the streets lights are starting to turn on. We are heading towards Lake Michigan (or, in the dream, a random ocean), and to my left, I can see a giant, jade-colored tower with golden lights rising out of the fog in the waters. I couldn't see the base of it due to the fog/mist; but the way it is situated, it looks like the fog is some sort of a portal, and the tower is rising out of it since I can see the water line, and it is all clear. (Note: Now that I'm awake, I realize that it is very similar one of my favorite pictures I took of a tower in Chicago, which actually did kind of look like it was rising out of the fog -- hey, an excuse to use the attachment feature! -- though, not at this of an extreme as my dream).

It's the building to the right. God, I love Chicago.

To my right is another giant tower, only this one is more marble white, and, due to its proximity, I can see the base (which featured columns -- lots and lots of columns). It's situated right in front of a grass quad. It's at this time my friend wakes up. I tell her she overheated (not as in a fever, but as in the cooling fans didn't work), and I figured the ocean breeze would help. I guess even Fake Chicago has winds colder than death. There was a Video Game College to our right in front of the white tower, so we decide to go in and visit.

Inside, it is pleasantly lit. It looks like a hotel in terms of hallway/room layout, but the actual rooms feature wooden bunk beds like the dorms I've been in. The guy who greets us is a tubby, modern faux-hippy wearing a green shirt half a size too small, dirty orange hair in white-people dreads, and just-as-dirty-ginger beard (not a missed MILD cue alert for me, by the way: it's a very, very specific red that I'm noticing). The dream fades while the dude talks at me.

The dream picks up again, and I'm back in the same busy park, only I moved backwards in time and it's the afternoon again. I'm next to my car, and it is parked on the street in the same spot as I "knew" from before. In terms of location, if I keep going straight, I'd eventually make it back to the pier again. To my right is a row of dirty apartment buildings; it's similar to the row houses you'd find in San Francisco, only if San Francisco just gave up and started downing whole gallons of ice cream each night.

To my left is a grassy patch, with a large oak tree (the trunk is maybe a 1.5-meters wide) at my 10 'o clock. Just a bit past the tree, but more to my immediate left, is a decently sized park basketball court that features 4-5 rows of bleacher seats and chain-linked fences. Two of my housemates, E and S, are there, but they are complaining about the gutters around the court being overgrown with weeds. So now, in my mind, I make some sort of weird plan to insert a grate through the sewers where the roots are, cement off the opening while leaving a slight opening, then pulling the weeds out as they grow through the limited opening. Somewhere during the planning phase, I somehow actually do it.

The dream fades; and then it gets a bit noteworthy.

I wake up, and but it's not time for me to get out of bed yet, so I just lay there for a bit. I recite my MILD mantra just in case, but I still have the park dream with the basketball court fresh in my mind; so my mind begins to wander a bit about playing basketball. I thought about playing hoops with my friend DR. C!!! (FYI: it is required by law that you tell his name every time due to reasons)... the wicked crossover move I had in middle school... fantasized a bit about what if I was back in high school and I retained all my current abilities... being athletic enough to dunk the ball from the foul line... and suddenly, I wake up again. Apparently, I dozed off while thinking about basketball, only I don't think my stream of thought ever "broke," thus my mind was still busy doing the basketball equivalent of masturbating while my body slept. I'm chalking this up to some sort of WILD, or perhaps a very, very brief step towards LD?

I drift in and out of sleep a little more, but nothing else happened.

Part one is a short one because part two is much, much more vivid. But anyways, I continue use of my MILD mantra before dozing off.

I'm watching basketball on television in a living room at what I feel like is my parents' house (I'm the only person in this dream). I'm also aware that I'm cooking something in the adjoining kitchen, so I'm not completely engrossed in the game.

In the basketball game, I know it's the Boston Celtics against the Miami Heat -- two teams that I root against. A lot of sequences involve LeBron James guarding Jason Terry (for the 99.9999% of you who don't watch the NBA, if this was a chess match, this is like watching a world-class chess player defending against a carrot), and Jason Terry is doing frustrating Jason Terry things that is frustrating because frustrating people is how frustrating Jason Terry frustrates. He's over-dribbling, driving into crowds, doing useless spins, putting up contested fadeaways... only it's all somehow fucking working. Seeing how I dislike Miami marginally more so than Boston, I root for the carrot despite my objections as a basketball fascist.

Anyways, I remember that I have a pot of broth on the stove; and when I go check, the broth is bubbling (but not going nuts). I manage the heat a little, and then I wake up.

The odd thing is, when I woke up at whatever dumb time it was, I got this overwhelming sense of melancholy about missing my parents, watching basketball, and cooking -- except that I stayed over at my parents house, watched basketball, and helped cook dinner that exact same night.

My MILD mantra before going to sleep now is "If it's red, I'm in my bed." I'm worried it's too catchy to do what it's supposed to do. ANYWAYS...

Dream one has me in what looks like a steam-punk/apocalypse world (no real visual proof other than I just know), and my home is the remains of half of a jumbo plane. It's night time, and I'm sitting by a fire cleaning/fixing some sort of a tool or machine. (Edit: I now remember that I have a red bandanna with a flower motif around my head. Missed MILD cue alert!)

A single-row character select screen gets juxtaposed over the top of my "vision," as if I'm quick-selecting something in the middle of game play. As I browse the portraits (which are in DOS 256-color again), they are associated with my actual friends. Towards the right end of the screen, the portraits are grayed out; I guess in this world, friendship is an achievement you unlock.

Each individual friend has their associated stats according to Dream Knowledge. Sadly, my dream is not vivid enough for me to see detailed stats. But I do get a general associated sense of it according to certain traits. There are at least 10 characters, and I "know" there's more if I scroll to the right. But these are the ones I could still remember:

• My friends B and K, brothers who power lift and play organized football in real life, have really high Strength scores. I also Dream-Know that their abilities are offset by low their movement rate, which I lol'ed at because I guess I'm just a dick.
• Girl-R and Boy-R both can cast spells (Looks like I associate artistry and creativity with magical ability. Or maybe just people whose names starts with R.), while Girl-R also shares the ability to charm animals with Girl-J.
• Boy-R, I should also note, is the Ken to my Ryu in real life, and that carries over in this dream in terms of "knowing" our stats are similar.
• Sten from Dragon Age was there. No, I don't know him in real life. Go home, Sten, you are drunk.
• Boy-J has rogue-like stats, possibly because he's shady. And he'll flaunt said shadiness, which makes him all the more shady.
• Poor, poor A. In real life, he's slightly taller than me, but possibly twice my weight -- but he doesn't have the physical abilities of B and K. He'd go down in the initial wave of a zombie attack.

And wouldn't you know it, the second I think of being attacked, my camp is raided by the Mohawked raiders from Fallout (they have red pants. Missed MILD cue alert!), only my vision is obstructed by the character select screen -- which has now taken over my entire "screen" like the overlay in Steam -- and I can't seem to find a way to hide it again. That's karma for A, I like to think.

ANYWAYS, so I'm running around blind, and my vision would flash red (possible missed MILD cue alert) on the edges like a FPS as I keep getting shot. I know I'm also doing a lot of damage to them (also, I'm dual-wielding pistols -- flashy, but not terribly effective), only none of them are going down, and I'm reloading a lot even for dual wielding. I fall back to a part of the airplane, and I know I'm not going to be able to hold off the raiders for long like this. In which my brain -- my asshole of a brain -- goes "lol! Know what would suck?" and plays that scene from Robocop.

Well, I guess it worked, because the raiders are now focused on poor Murphy (who materialized in my dream JUST to suffer a horrible fate). I theorize that there's a sidequest in Fallout New Vegas that references this, so my brain went there. Either way, the scene abruptly ends to the sweet sounds of gunfire and torture screams.

We're skipping dream two because that's Willy's time. There was a missed MILD cue in there, and I will also partially hint that towards the end... well, has anyone seen those troll-ish Photoshop images where they take the inside of a lotus flower pod and superimpose it over someone's flesh so it looks like there are tiny ho-AHHH, FUCK, I JUST GOT A MENTAL IMAGE. NEXT DREAM! NEXT DREAM!

Dream three was barely there, and all I can recall was that I'm on my motorcycle (edit: my motorcycle is red. Missed MILD cue alert!) on a highway next to a forest, and the weather is gray and shitty. And all I have for dream four is that I knew I had four dreams.

Before going to bed, I practiced MILD -- I noticed that the color red is a recurring theme, especially when it is on a person, like clothing or hair color -- and practiced making that a cue. As you'll see, I dropped the ball.

Dream one had me in a Baldur's Gate-esque world, but the "graphics" are updated to at least 2010 standards, a la Dragon's Age -- which, by the way, I'd throw gobs of money at an updated Baldur's Gate. Anyways, my party and I are settling into a wooden house in the city, and we are turning in for the night. The house we are in had two rooms (which I never saw) to the left and right of the entrance in the "main" room, which sinks a foot lower and features a hearth in the middle middle (so it actually has a bit of a Warring States-era Japanese design). Straight across the entrance is a ladder that leads up to a loft area (which I'll get into detail later).

Our party seems to be pretty big, as Dream Knowledge tells me that others in our group have settled into other houses nearby, and that I'm sharing a house, hostel style. Of note, two of the people I'm teamed with are a married couple in their late 20's-early 30's, and they are both pleasant spellcasters wearing robes. The wife is in a red robe with green trims (missed MILD cue alert), while the husband is in a navy robe with yellow trim. I think the husband resembles a classmate as well from middle school, who I want to say is K, that I never really was friends with, but hey, whatever you say, Dream Logic. It also appears that the town/city we are in is a little bit hostile, because there was an exchange where we are strategically planning how we should assign rooms (i.e. if we are ambushed in the middle of the night, where should we sleep so we are best prepared), and I say something like "don't worry, I'll sleep anywhere and decide what class I'll be based on that."

I'm now suddenly climbing up the stairs to the loft -- I'm staying there, apparently. The loft area is surprisingly modern looking, including working electrical lights and a sliding-pane window. There is also a private bathroom in the corner. It's also a little messy, with a ton of clothes hanging on hangers all around the wall, and some piles of clothes strewn here and there. There's a giant bed in the middle (bigger than a King-sized bed) that takes up 75% of the available space, and there are some heavy-looking covers. In short, I would absolutely live in a place like this in real life.

I also notice an adorable kitten in the loft, so I reach down to pet it. It's an orange calico kitten, and is really affectionate and playful. After playing with it a little, it lays on its back for me to rub its tummy. It's a trap. The second I do, the kitten snaps like a bear trap to love-bite/claw my forearm. I find it even more adorable at how cat-like this cat is, and after freeing my arm, I call out to the others to come see. I demonstrate by placing my hand on the kitten's tummy again, who reacts exactly like I expected. It's visibly trying to gnaw my arm (and it's soooo cute while it does), but it's just so small and tiny that it barely managed to draw blood (Red blood on my arm. Missed MILD cue alert).

It still "hurt" though, so let that be a lesson: Cats are pure evil, no matter how cute they are.

ANYWAYS, the scene changes, and now I'm alone in another house in the same town. I'm in the kitchen area, because there's a modern looking stove and fridge to my left. There's a small wooden table and two chairs against the wall, and the entrance is in the wall to my right. Straight across, by the fridge, is another doorway to a darkened room, and I emerge from what appears to be the storage/stable. It's dawn, and I'm aware that I'm in red plate armor (missed MILD cue alert), and my weapon of choice is a grey-white claymore. I'm pretty happy with my gear. I'm also alert, and as expected, I'm ambushed by assassins posing as villagers. I dispose of the first attacker, who is dressed like a villager from Might and Magic VI. I think I cleaved her, but she "disappears" with no blood, like I'm in a PG-13 movie. Another attacker runs in from the side, and I turn around and backhand him. Bloodless murder is the most morally-cleanest murder.

At this point, I get agitated at all these assassins and yell out "I know what's going on. Just show yourselves." To which, maybe 8-9 people dressed as villagers meekly come out. I pan, "What am I, Abraham Lincoln?" (lol at my own brain). It's at this point that Dream Knowledge reveals that these villagers need my help. The dream fades at this point.

Dream two posits me at my high school during an assembly in the gym. The dance club(?) is putting on a swing dance routine. For whatever reason, I think something like, "I can do the Charleston," and just like that, I'm suddenly part of the dance routine. I wasn't sure what the Charleston is before I Googled it, by the way; but apparently I'm rocking whatever swing routine my dream calls the Charleston on the dance floor. The "dance" evolved into a 50's rockabilly concert, and I'm now dressed like the band during the Enchantment Under the Sea dance. I'm also playing a red Epiphone Riviera (which I theorize I was able to identify so vividly because it's an actual guitar I have. Also, missed MILD cue alert) on a pretty modern looking stage. Everyone is doing the Twist. The dream fades.

The dream picks up again with a snow theme. The following happens, but I lost track of the order of which came first:
-I'm outside in the snow (pretty sizable amounts -- the snow blankets the field), and Garfield (from the comics) is laying down in the snow next to a snowman (snowcat?) of himself. He's saying/thought bubbling/captioning something like "perfection is the origin of stress." I don't know if those are wise words or dream gibberish.

-I'm upstairs in a room (it resembles a room in my brother's house, actually), overlooking the driveway. I'm worried that the snow is going to make it hard for my mom to drive, even though she hasn't driven in years. But when I look out the window, I see that the roads are cleared up, and there's only about half-a-foot of snow (a snowplow is seen leaving my vision frame). The driveway isn't cleared yet, but I see tire tracks on it, which leads me to believe that the roads are accessible.

I wake up, and I was really expecting it to be snowing in real life.

I woke up from having to go pee. When I crawled back in bed, I decided to practice reciting "I'm going to be dreaming" mantras for WILD practice. It usually takes me a really long time to fall asleep, but I think I was out within seconds. So that endeavor didn't go as planned.

Dream two plopped me in a situation where Dr. Who (Matt Smith version. I'm team Tennant. This confuses me.) is having a witty argument with some other dude in a chic suit and vest. There is a problem with space time or whatever the dire situation is at the moment, and I vaguely recall the argument is about how much crappier the Doctor's TARDIS is compared to the other guy's device. I think the other guy called the TARDIS "it's a time tomb" derisively -- not the biggest burn, but it's the one line I remember.

ANYWAYS, something something, because now they time-materialize the other guy's machine into what looks like the garage in my old home in Canada. Dream Knowledge tells me that in the room next to it is some sort of walk-in closet (I recall a lot of clothes hanging in the room), and there's Mallory Archer and a really old man in a wheelchair (he's someone's father based on Dream Knowledge), and Mallory is just berating the old man because she's drunk. The scene switches back and forth between the Archer scenes and Dr. Who scenes (though they are in the same universe), and I know whatever situation it was is being resolved.

I wake up, and regret the life decision to watch the Archer Top Gun remake on a loop before going to bed.

I attempted keeping a WILD mantra going for dream three, but my brain turned into a five-year-old and kept asking what Archer's first name is. I kept thinking "Sean?" even though I know it's not right. Clearly, my brain refused to let me sleep, so I hop out of bed.

It took me all of 15 seconds after deciding I'm up for the day and leaving the warmth of my bed that my brain goes "Lol! His name was Sterling."

In dream one, I was in a city in the evening, possibly dusk. I think I was part of an envoy visiting a city; Dream Knowledge tells me that my group represents the historical lost Loulan Kingdom. Since I have little to no knowledge of actual Loulan culture, my brain just used a combination of Nepalese and Indian culture instead. I'm also not an official citizen of Loulan in this dream, but rather I tagged along with them as a sanctioned visitor.

The setting of the city we are in resembles Elizabethan architecture, but with a little more of a fantasy twist. It was a little vague at first, but slowly, the city resembled the city tile set from the game Neverwinter Nights (NWN; a game which I played the shit out of). I think the more I made that connection, the more the city took on that look. And that's when I became aware of our hired guard/guide.

So, background context: I played NWN alot on a RP-based player-made module, and one of the characters I played was an Autistic/Schizophrenic, or at least versions of the disorders based on my poor understanding of them at the time. I played this character long enough that he evolved to be the premiere fighter in this world, which made communicating with this character that much more frustrating because on one hand, he's a lovably difficult guy to talk to; yet on the other hand, you know he can murder you into bits on a whim.

ANYWAYS, D&D-masturexposition aside, yes, that character appeared in my dream. He was just another random guy at first, but my theory is that once my brain decided that the setting resembled NWN, it started filling in the gaps until suddenly, I realized who I'm looking at.

Two takeaways for me: 1) I think there was a point where I had the realization along the lines of "hey, I created you." Hopefully, this is a breakthrough to being able to question dream realities, because 2) I'm not sure how, but my POV shifts and I possess/become this character.

So, background/nerd masturbatory exposition two: The guards in the NWN module I played were designed to be ridonk OP as a way to keep a gaggle of maxed out characters from creating pure chaos during events. So of course, during OOC periods I'd go fight these guards just to see how fast I die; but I eventually figured out the right combination of gear, and proceed to massacre cities after cities with my guy -- because, y'know, GTA made me do it.

So ANYWAYS, I think brain memory kicked in; so for whatever reason, next thing I know, I'm fighting the whole city in my dream now, and somehow, I think I was the victim. The rest of the envoy was nowhere to be found. I wake up as the city burns around me.

Had a horrible night's sleep, and for most of the first parts of the night, I can't remember a single dream.

However, I woke up at around 1:00 or 2:00-ish to use the restroom, and when I got back in bed, I decided to practice WILD (or what my current understanding of WILD is) for the first time. I think "this will be a dream" on repeat, and got distracted by various thoughts and ideas. Next thing I know, I woke up again at 5:00-ish. Fell asleep. Woke up again 7:00-ish when my alarm went off. Ugh.

I knew that I had to leave by 8:00 for work, so I have some snooze time available. I keep drifting in and out of consciousness -- one moment I'm thinking about falling asleep, and then next thing I know the snooze alarm is going off. This goes on a few times until it's 7:40, and I have to get up and do all the morning stuff for work.

ANYWAYS, no dream recollection, but I did notice that in the in-and-out phase during the morning, there is/were that brief flash(s) of "wait, no, am I asleep right now?" thought(s). I can't tell if that was during sleep or consciousness, but I'm jotting it down to be safe.

Okay, too much internet.

I could only remember one dream last night, and it was a brief dream of Lil' Bub.

For those of you who don't know who she is, Google her; she's the tiny, adorable kitten with the tongue sticking out of her hilarious face. Specifically in my dream, she is from the picture where she is laying down, and her paws are folded in front of her so it looks like she's having a serious talk with you.

Now, in this scenario, she is gigantic, her head floats in the sky like the sun (maybe she WAS the sun), and she is staring right at me.

She speaks human in this dream, but I'm not sure what she said. She also sounds like she comes from a Saturday morning cartoon.

Anyways, I surrender, internet. You win.

I knew I had a couple, but I can only remember one dream. I'm surprised I could recall a dream based on how little sleep I got, much less one as vivid, though. Anyways...

I dream that I'm on a wooden ship, and I'm part of a guild or kung-fu school. I'm the senior-most student/member of our guild on the ship, and we are all dressed in light blue robes and white pants.

We are in the middle of being boarded by a rival guild/bandit ninjas, who is dressed similarly to us, save for more black in their motif. They are after something on our ship, and Dream Knowledge says whether or not they find it, they are leaving no witnesses. Shit just gots real!

At this point, they have breached the lower deck, and are surging up a flight of stairs, where two of my guild mates and I are defending the top. Everyone is fighting with oars (hence my theory we are on a ship), and using them like spears. It also happens we are all expert oar-fighters, which, I guess is a thing.

My guild mates are fighting their boarding leader, who is also their senior-most student/member. He's a smug bastard. Despite the numbers and higher ground, it's clear my guild mates are just being toyed with by that guy, who is fighting with one-hand behind his back.

I help where I could, but I'm also pre-occupied with their number two guy, who is a fat, grinning idiot who somehow made it past the stairs. He reminds me of the fat bad guy from Full Metal Alchemist. He somehow knows my every move, and all I can do is keep him at bay. Dream Knowledge tells me they have more guys near their level, and I'm the only guy on our side who can fight any of them one-on-one; therefore, it's imperative we hold them here. I feel crummy now, since my guild mates really wanted to help, but I dreamed them to be such pushovers.

I also fight their leader, who backhand-compliments me about being good for something something. What a dick.

My alarm proceeds to wake me at 5:30 to work for the next 15 hours. Death at the hands of smug dicks would've been more preferable.

I dream I'm on a bus going to a rundown mining town. The bus is relatively unremarkable, as most buses are wont to be. The seats are a little uncomfortable, and at various points, the interior resembles the cheap seats in an airplane; so now I'm cranky (both in my dream and also right now) because context: I'm going on a work-related trip to Buttfuck, Nowhere via bus, and I'm NOT looking forward to any of it at all.

ANYWAYS, the bus breaks down, and I have to go out and push. I'm able to push the tour bus by myself, meaning a) Brah, I'm totes burly! and b) Thanks for the help, everyone else on the bus. I'm also able to take in my surroundings at this time: The landscape is a desert landscape, with sun-blistered rocks and a whole lot of nothing. It reminds me of the mining town in Tremors, and wouldn't you know it, I'm now being chased by those desert worm things.

Now, the worm is coming at me at the speed of a pissed-off badger, while I'm inching along at the speed equivalent of, oh, I don't know, a guy who is pushing a bus by himself. Yet somehow, I manage to keep ahead. But eventually, I grow tired of this supposed "chase," and I turn around and kick the worm as it emerges from the ground. There was a brief moment of doubt where I was thinking "do I really want to stick my foot into its ugly maw?" That doubt disappeared when I soccer-kicked it into the sky. The dream fades, but my ego does not.

I next dream of being in the music video of Coma from Guns N' Roses. I am unaware if an official video exists, but in my version, it's just trippy lights that pulsate to a pleasant heartbeat rhythm. It's actually quite soothing. Weird thing is, I have no proof that I'm in the music video except for Dream Knowledge, but otherwise there really isn't any particular sign. This goes on for a while and eventually just fades.

The last dream I can remember has me in an amusement park at night. They are closing, and I'm trying to get to the exit. As I pass by the Merry-Go-Round, I get a thought along the lines of "hey, this is like the opening to that Silent Hill game," and my brain makes the executive decision to go "YEAH! I'm gonna freak you the fuck out!"

And just like that, I'm in the Silent Hill world. Well, shit. The dream fades pretty quickly after that, so I never encountered any of the horrible abominations that I knew were lurking around; but I was still feeling apprehensive the whole time. Dream Knowledge ALSO tells me that these monsters, had I been able to approach them without being noticed, has singing and dancing scripted into their AI behavior.

Dream one is fuzzy at best, but I distinctively know that I'm searching for something for someone in an urban setting. It's pretty gray and humid, and it may be raining. I also remember that the buildings are a bit old and dirty, 12-15 stories tall, and set up in a "U" shape so that is has an overbearing feel. The streets are also dirty, and it's quite populated. Whatever I'm looking for is around here. That's about it.

Dream two took a 180 turn, and now I'm in a grassy field on the edge of a lush forest. This is a much more peaceful world, and I knew that the forest is home to magical creatures like elves and fairies and talking animals and whatnot. In fact, the color is very lush and vivid, and I feel like I'm in the opening of The Last Unicorn; the second I realize that, a wizard's familiar emerges from the top of the tree I'm standing under and fires a ball of fire out of its mouth at me. I jump out of the way, and I somehow know it did that to get my attention/is testing me/just being kind of a mischievous dick; I also know it's trying to troll me, so no use getting angry and what a dick. This familiar has a Halloween theme going on; it's a very dark, purplish cat, only it's really fluffy instead of slender. It's flying on little bat wings, wears an over-sized witch's hat, and its tail is coiled at right angles at the end so that it resembles a square candy cane. It also has a smug grin on its face; but then, all cats are smug.

ANYWAYS, this cat compliments me on dodging the acorn it tossed at me (we both knew you clearly shot a fireball! What a dick!), and tells me I should go see its master. My dwarf companion, who, okay, is suddenly just there now, and resembles the dwarves that give you food in Golden Axe, warns me not to go. He seems to be very antagonistic towards the cat, but I'm really excited to go anyways because I think I know who the wizard is. There's a long build up to get going, but the dream kind of fades.

I'm in a Star Wars setting for dream three. I'm assuming playing Tiny Star Wars most of the night had something to do with this. There's a grainy feel to the vibe, so I know I'm in original trilogy version, but there's a bit of prequel trilogy details in there as well -- I know Jedi are numerous, and I think I'm on Coruscant; though the setting looks more like the Death Star. I do not have Force powers, am not piloting an X-Wing, nor access to a lightsaber; so this was kind of a gyp. I am, however, on the side of the Rebels, and I'm sneaking from Stormtroopers.

Sully, remember how I said I don't have Force powers? I lied. Because in my efforts to remain unseen, I am suddenly able to jump ridiculous heights and scale walls while defying physics and gravity, and Dream Knowledge tells me I did all these by holding the space bar like I'm playing Jedi Outcast. The Stormtroopers know I'm nearby, but they just can't seem to get a bead on me. I wake up before anything else happens though.

I'm in a school bus, and I think I'm back in middle school now. The bus is taking me home, only somehow we are driving around in a relatively rural area (i.e. country roads, crooked power lines, people driving pickup trucks if there were other trucks, etc.). I missed my stop a long time ago, but I'm not particularly concerned. A lot of the jerk kids I remember back in school were on the same bus, and as we get further and further into the rural areas, I kept thinking, "oh, you live in the middle of nowhere? No wonder you are such an ass." All apologies to people who live in rural areas.

At one point, I begin having a conversation with my old friend K. We were talking about careers, and he was telling me about a nice internship that works outside, gets in touch with the environment, and works with animals (all things I actually do love), but I catch on and say "wait, you want me to be a farmer?" K had a you-caught-me grin. So, to recap, my subconscious is insulting both rural and farming areas now.

We come across the side of a road, and there appears to be this Reality TV/Small Claims Court Election going on between a family. I don't know what the argument is, but it's a family of five, and the mother is suing the father over something while the host explains. The verdict is passed down in a really convoluted manner, like "we find the defendant being accused by the prosecution of the case to be correct in the blah blah blah," so everyone takes a brief second before registering that the father won. The rest of the family politely claps their hands, but the mother is visibly distraught. She approaches the host, but the host seems to reject her, telling her "I'm sorry, but you are only 15-inches tall," "and a soon to be divorced woman," she responds sadly. And yes, it's only about this time I realize the family are all tiny, and they are lined up each in their own tiny kennels.

Dream two gets bad. I'm in a mall plaza, near a large cell-phone kiosk like AT&T or some other large brand. A tall man and I have an intricate plan to rob someone that somehow involves me pretending to also be robbed at the same time. I look in my wallet, and I have a $1000 bill (Um... what?), so of course the plan goes awry and my partner decides to keep the money for himself. I got really angry, but before I could do anything, your stereotypical mall cop appears. I explain the situation (basically admitting our plan). The mall cop thinks for a second and says "I know what to do," then shoots my partner in the head with a gun. And of course the mall cop looks like Pepper Spray cop.

The scene shifts a little, and now I'm aware of being in an ad where they are shooting a commercial for a tea product or something, but it's blended into real ("Dream" real, I mean) life where the premise is the grandpa (who is also the "real" owner of the tea company) had to leave, and his adorable tells the rest of her family they can't start dinner yet, and she runs around the mall distraught, yelling for her grandpa to come to dinner. Dream me got a lot of dust in his eyes. The mom seems to know grandpa is okay, and says something along the lines of "if grandpa is gone, I get his car," while the rest of the family laughs, and the scene shifts to a parking lot you'd find in an apartment complex. For some reason, the mom turns into Rosalyn the babysitter from Calvin and Hobbes, and I realize I'm wandering around the lot having just finished watching a Calvin and Hobbes movie. I wake up at whatever ridiculous time it was, short hand my dream, and go back to sleep.

Dream three starts with watching Michaelangelo from the Ninja Turtles trying to flirt with a ninja girl he meets, but it also feels like I'm reading a book about this. The narrator explains that Michaelangelo thinks she is better handling Sais than Raphael (BLASPHEMY!), and they are scaling walls in the city while he keeps trying to impress her.

The scene switches to my brother's wedding, but he tells me to fill in for him. So now, I'm sitting at the groom's table like a panelist in a convention, and the bride and I are both dressed really low key -- I remember the bride is wearing flannel and jeans, and I have my legs kicked up on the table. At one point in the wedding there was the whole "this bread is the body of Christ" thing, and we have to dip our respective bread into a cup of water. I think my brother eventually made it in time, because the scene shifts to their house (which resembles a 60's style home) during Christmas morning, and I walk down stairs and say hi to my brother and his wife. It's at this time that I realize that my brother's new wife is now a weird version of what I feel should be an ex or someone I knew, although I have no idea who this person is.

I either wake up laughing, or laughed myself awake.

Hey, an entry that's in (relative) real-time!

I dreamed I was in my childhood home in Canada, during one of the more pleasant times. I'm in our living room with the fuzzy carpet, and I think I'm shifting between current me and the child me that would be appropriate during that time, i.e. I'd be my full adult height, but there was a moment when I'm scaling the couch like it was the Wall of Ice like I was 9 again.

I think either my mother or father was there, or some other parental figure that lent a sense of safety, though I never saw who it was. I just knew they were there. Either way, I suddenly am eating a plate of something sweet that I knew I really like, though the contents of it were not immediately made clear. As far as I could tell, they are solid, possibly some sort of baked bread treat? Doesn't matter, really, since I'm just happily enjoying the--

Oh my God FUCK jumping spider.

So, context: I'm usually cool with most creatures, but if a spider is in MY house, then they are the agents of Devil-Satan and pump not blood like you and me, but disease-filled goo that will permanently infect your home as a final act of fuck-you should you attempt to kill them. Again, no leap of logic here, but learning about spiders with R that same night probably caused them to haunt my dreams; but of all the much more pleasant things I could have dreamed about, my brain decided "No, it's gonna be spiders, because middle finger."

ANYWAYS, the spider is about the size of my palm, and is slightly more slender than a wolf spider. This type of spider is also translucent white with hints of red in their core, and Dream Knowledge tells me that not only do they drink blood, they'll turn completely red from it. They actually remind me a little of the Wraith Spiders from the Neverwinter Nights game, and this particular one wants my goddamned food.

I make a tactical retreat, but the spider follows me, and that parental figure is nowhere to be found. I go past the kitchen, into the formal dining room, get turned around, and head back to the living room again; another one of those Wraith Spiders is waiting for me. Fuck.

The new spider leaps up towards my plate, and I instinctively use my right hand to slap it away. I could feel and hear the impact, and was a bit like slapping a plastic spider toy away. The spider goes flying, but I know that now, aside from my food, it also craves revenge. Luckily, this sequence ends before I get my comeuppance.

Dream two was less spider-y, but much more vague and less memorable. As far as I can recall, I seem to be in an office setting, but I don't work at wherever this office is. Not sure why or what I'm doing there, but I woke up before I could do whatever it was I was going to do.