"Interesting" characters, part 2
3/13: This dream was a little jumpy from the beginning. It seemed this week and last week, the girl dreams kept piling up, and in one of them, I was in a basement of a house belonging to a character who had a striking resemblance to Aimee Teegarden in her mid-20s to early-30s...or was it Elizabeth Banks?
Last night's dream, however, took place in a Japanese building (shouldn't have told that dream about a Sonic game that could've worked in the '80s...), then suddenly changed to a studio audience where this girl with medium-long brown hair in her 20s stood up. The next scene cuts to her room, and I couldn't remember what was going on.
The next scene cuts to the den in her house, as to what she was wearing--a light-blue T-shirt, a white miniskirt and black Chuck Taylor All-Stars (hi-top). I couldn't tell if she had any socks on, and it appeared she practiced ventriloquism, as she had a dummy in one arm of her recliner. She also had wavy brown, emo-like hair. She didn't have any piercings (not that I know of), but she seemed like a friendly person (I think). I guess this is what I get for listening to That's What You Get and Misery Business by Paramore way too much, eh? :lol::doh:
I couldn't stop thinking of her when watching two of my favorite films, The New Guy (2002) and Matilda (1996), though. Though I applaud seeing "interesting" characters in dreams, I'm starting to think this is a replay of the '90s when I had vivid dreams when I was younger. Hmmm...until next time, WM86 :)
"Interesting" dream characters, part 3
6/3: After yet another epic fail (someone I didn't expect winning the Showcase on The Price Is Right, a painful loss on the GSN game show Catch-21's bonus round when the top prize went up from $25,000 to $50,000 (one guy stopped at $6,000--AND THE NEXT CARD HAD HE CONTINUED ON WAS A 7 OF CLUBS--AND HE COULD'VE WON $50,000!!), and a woman in her 20s winning on the funny ABC reality game show Wipeout--all with me taking those events way too seriously like a concerned person), I expected a dream to go too fast, but instead, I get mixed results: in one scene, there's a current-day Honda Civic parked...or trying to find a parking space in a California city-like setting...but inside, there's this young man that appears to be in his 20s and was a big fan of the Long Beach, CA-based band Sublime and was trying to listen to his iPod and probably wasn't paying attention. And you know what's worse? He had a female passenger with him, most likely his girlfriend. I don't know why he dyed his hair red, but that's not what the late lead singer did (I learned on MidiDelight.com when searching for MIDI versions of their songs by fans of the band and Wikipedia a few weeks ago in the band's article that lead singer Bradley Nowell died May 25, 1996 in a hotel room of a heroin overdose), I don't think, and I probably wouldn't know because I didn't hear any of their songs growing up in the '90s and becoming an adult in the 2000s (I'm 23 right now), or watched any of the band's music videos on MTV, either (I watched a little of the channel growing up, but didn't fully watch any programs until 1999). I also learned that Sublime uses certain music types for some of their songs (one of their songs on their 1992 album, 40 oz. to Freedom, DJs that I'm listening to in MIDI format by a fan, for example, is inspired by "dub").
The rest of the dream made no sense, as I remembered something on the '90s cartoon Doug that Mr. Bone (voiced by Doug Preis) yelled that had me shouting something like a dream I had in June of 2006 that I'd rather like to forget. :( (*cues up Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles "game over" jingle...*)
I'm starting to think that reading James Lafferty's or other young actors' biographies on fan sites on the Web are causing dreams like this, especially when a favorite singer or band is involved. I've never really had a dream about a band before, either (but I've had one dream of Avril Lavigne around 2004, though...I've had dreams of musicians before, but not bands). There were a total of *2* female characters in this dream--both having brown hair, and I think brown or hazel eyes. Either way, I'm starting to like the musicians and bands these young actors these days like. I still have to respect them and the hard work they do on TV shows and movies, although I don't like villains, people with bad attitudes, or violence in TV and movies that much. Perhaps I should consider a career in Hollywood (I'm still learning how to write a screenplay)?
"Interesting" dream characters, part 4: Arrogance edition
6/10: Man, this is like déjà vu all over again. Epic fails in Wipeout and Catch-21, in a replay of last week where after all this, something related to James Lafferty's tastes in music took center stage in a dream I had last Wednesday (one in particular, Sublime, was a band from 1988 to 1996). Except here, it's a woman in her 20s with blonde hair wrecking everything by yelling her disgust at someone arrogantly. I read this blog called "Game Show Kingdom" this morning and read the results for The Gauntlet (Real World/Road Rules Challenge): The Duel and checked the pictures of the winning team (the blog said that Evan and Rachel won the $100,000) on the show's official site. I sensed arrogance and cockiness in both pictures... :(
Last night, someone on Wipeout who was just a little too cocky won $50,000 (these three sisters who were 18, 20, and 23 were on the show when this happened - first time in the show's history) by scoring the upsets of the middle and younger sister in the WipeoutZone. The younger and middle sister were picked on by the cocky contestant, in which one of the two hosts said, "That is so rude!" during the 6-person qualifier (the Dizzy Dummy round) when he secured himself a spot in the WipeoutZone and started dancing inappropriately, causing me to think ABC would be fined by the FCC, which explains why I had the dream as explained above.
I'll admit it. When it comes to books I'm writing, I can't create an effective villain or antagonist. Everyone else in Hollywood today has no trouble. I just can't seem to get off the ground, and I just don't know what to do.
I'm pretty sure yelling bad, damaging things like the dream character from last night is not what Lauren Conrad did on The Hills, either. I don't even think she was like that, either. I've had dreams of women characters, but none like this. As much as I can't stand arrogance or shouting matches in real life or on TV and movies, it's a point of no return for me in dreams. And if that wasn't enough, waking up cautious the next day is even more painful than the dream itself! Ouch...
"Interesting" dream characters, part 5
6/17: After an almost near-epic fail of a day (the usual of arrogance and scandalous people on TV that were very upsetting) marked by bad thoughts of arrogant people, loud rock music, serious issues, Whammies, BANKRUPTs, and Double Overbids, I felt like I was going to explode because too much stress and pressure were put on me.
It all slowed down a little when I watched an episode of The Bold and the Beautiful where Pam and Donna Forrester appeared on The Price Is Right, but only Donna was called down to the green podium. The music cues were out of place, and when Drew Carey entered through the big doors the "come on down" music ("Walking" is its official name--this is used when Rich Fields calls a contestant down to Contestants' Row) was still playing. The stress kicked in when Wipeout came on later that night on ABC, as disaster struck for me. It looked like a girl with tattoos was going to win the $50,000 in the WipeoutZone. Unfortunately, her run would be short-lived; one of the fastest contestants (a male!) posted a time of nearly 6 minutes with time to spare to win the $50K, scoring the upset.
As I ended the night, the dream I had took place in a building when all of a sudden, these two women in their 20s show up with dyed hair. But here's the kicker: One of the two girls had the same clothes as the dream character with a striking resemblance to Jessica Stroup wore just last year in a dream I had of a shopping mall!
This marks the second time ever that I've had dreams of dream characters using Manic Panic hair dye on their hair (usually a female character) to get someone's attention. I'm still wondering if the dream character wearing the dark clothes is the same dream character from 11/20/2008 with a striking resemblance to Erin Silver from the 90210 series (teenage years from the new CW series), but this time with dyed red hair. The other woman in her late teens/early 20s had a purplish-like color hair dye. I don't get how I got this dream, but recently I've been trying to retrace my steps to figure out how I got dreams like this at night. Whatever it is, it must be...intriguing...and beautiful... :huh::):P
Too much Sonic and Vectorman = Jessica Stroup dreams?
6/18: Wow...after I tell about my dream of the two women in their 20s with dyed hair coloring (red and purple), and thinking that the person with the red hair was probably the same one resembling Jessica Stroup from a dream that happened November 20 of last year, THIS had to happen. Back-to-back vivid dreams, but I'm feeling less cautious now.
The most memorable was act 3 of the dream of a scene in a desert or a road and another woman in her 20s with brown hair driving this car whilst Bring Me to Life by Evanescence was playing in the background. I think it must have been a scene from a movie with a female protagonist. The two movies I saw late 2008 after I had the dream on November 20 when I had DirecTV, The Hills Have Eyes 2 and School for Scoundrels (a 2006 remake) did NOT have a car like the dream I had. It might have been an exotic...I couldn't get a make or a model.
I don't really have a problem with Jessica Stroup in general; when I saw her in The Hills Have Eyes 2, my jaw just dropped. I learned on Wikipedia that she started modeling at age 15. I think that there is nothing that she can't do. I believe she's going to have a lot of Academy Awards and Oscars before she retires.
Lately this week, I've been playing Sonic the Hedgehog 1 and 2 and Vectorman 1 and 2 under the SEGA Genesis Collection on my PS2. Either these 16-bit classics are causing dreams like this, or it might have been something I ate recently. I couldn't get the girl's name in this dream or the girls from the previous one last night, either. Interesting...
Back in the '90s when I owned a SEGA Genesis, I didn't own any of the 2 Vectorman titles. I owned all of the Sonic titles, except for Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Flicky, and Ristar (it was developed by Sonic Team, and some of that game's sound effects come from Sonic 3 & Knuckles, released in 2 halves of 1994 (Sonic 3: February 2, 1994; Sonic & Knuckles: October 18, 1994). I started playing Vectorman in 2001, however (only the first game was up there), when the game was released as part of SEGA Smash Pack Volume 1 for the SEGA Dreamcast.
I also learned that Vectorman was the Best Game of 1995 according to Electronic Gaming Monthly. The game uses rendered 3D graphics, similar to Nintendo's Donkey Kong Country series back in the 16-bit days when the SEGA Genesis and Super Nintendo were king. Some people have said that Vectorman was SEGA's answer to Nintendo's Donkey Kong Country series, too. Out of the two (the sequel (as in Vectorman) was released in 1996 around the same time as Sonic 3D Blast), I liked the 1995 game better. Its music is catchy and gets stuck in your head for days...especially the ocean and underground vault levels. Sometimes it pays to reminisce the '90s...:D
"Interesting" dream characters, part 6 (Jake Sandvig, Penn Badgley)
7/8: Even MORE déjà vu...this is like a replay of 6/3/09. Like that Wednesday, it was the same thing: epic fails everywhere (couple in their 20s shared $50,000 after winning on the WipeoutZone final round portion of a special episode of Wipeout, graphic episode of Criminal Minds, cute girl in her 20s winning on Jeopardy!, etc.), and then a chilling, upsetting story on Primetime: Crime involving the murder of a young 19-year-old woman in Texas over two years ago that made me lose it (the perpetrator is serving a life sentence while his accomplice was sentenced to 8 years in prison for tampering with evidence).
After unsuccessfully battling my inner demons while I watched the last three shows (Wipeout, Criminal Minds, Primetime: Crime) in that order, yet another vivid dream comes--and I think it was stemming from a flashback to 2004: dreams where MTV takes center stage. This is probably what introduced me to James Lafferty, but I didn't know who he was until 2007. Some of their ("their" as in MTV) original programs were shown, and it looked as if the cable went out, until I saw this one girl in her 20s with red-orange natural hair and brown eyes...dressed with a military motif (dressed in camouflage all over). This is where the channel tried to go out until I walked over to the TV and fixed the back of the reciever. After this segment that looked a little like True Life, a movie came on that same channel with a dream character wearing the same clothes that Ross Patterson wore in the 2002 film The New Guy! I couldn't tell what happened to him (or the girl in her 20s with the camouflage) because I woke up.
I'm not sure what to believe: an epic fail-level bad day resulting in ending the night with a weird feeling or feeling very nervous or upset, or reading more about Jake Sandvig or Penn Badgley (or seeing their pictures on their pages of the Internet Movie Database) that is causing dreams like this. I also can't believe I had to write all this down while I was watching Live with Regis & Kelly and Rachael Ray and about to watch The Price Is Right. I just hope endless thoughts of Jake and Penn don't keep me from watching this Earth Day episode of The Price Is Right with, of course, Drew Carey...
James Lafferty: 2 years later
7/16: Wow. My first James Lafferty dream in 2009, and the first time it's happened in the summer. This happened around the first and second acts of the dream. It took place a few years later, when I had moved into this nice house/apartment, but I keep thinking it was a shopping mall. Either way, I saw a man in his 20s with dark brown hair that might've had a striking resemblance to him, wearing the same clothes as the character in the shopping mall or department store dream on November 2, 2007, as back then was talking to a woman in her 20s with natural red hair and glasses...except this time, the man in his 20s had a hairstyle similar to the YouTube video I watched of the highlights of the 4th annual One Tree Hill charity basketball game held every year from 2004-2008 in Wilmington, North Carolina in a gymnasium at Cape Fear Community College. The hairstyle was just like the host's prior to Season 5 of OTH (early-to-mid-2008) as seen in the video clip on YouTube...or was it very similar to the one Nathan Scott's already had throughout Seasons 1-4?
...or was it looking at stuff that was related to the actor using the Internet Wayback Archive Machine? (fan site, Internet Movie Database actor page, Wikipedia article) As I'm watching Jessica Szohr from Gossip Girl, a show I used to watch on the CW in 2007 (but rarely do now thanks to Top Gear on BBC America and SuperCars Exposed on SPEED) be interviewed as a guest on Rachael Ray (it's a rerun from 2008), I'm just wondering how the dream of James Lafferty happened in a bright scene while listening to Adrift by Jack Johnson on the album Sleep Through the Static (Heh, that's funny...watching Jessica Szohr on Rachael Ray while thinking about the dream I had of James Lafferty while listening to Adrift by Jack Johnson).
During the time the L.A. Lakers played in the NBA Finals this year (and won--finally after 6 years!), I had constantly thought about him and Lauren Conrad, who are big Lakers fans, as I found out on his biography on the Internet Movie Database and a news story via Google.
...or was it me trying to play basketball and use an Arby's sandwich wrapper as a ball to throw into the trashcan used as a basketball goal (which I successfully threw in the trash/goal)? Either way, I'll never know what really happened.
Japanese people and Plinko chips...what's going on?
9/21, 22: After dreams of looking outside my window to find a cityscape (looks like the dream from May 13, 2007 just loves to repeat itself), I have a record 2 back-to-back lucid dreams. The one on Monday was probably a sequel of the December 6, 2006 dream with samurai in a crowded room. I also tried writing about the dream yesterday (9/22), but had really bad thoughts and couldn't write anything down. This time instead of the crowded room, it took place in a leafy area of Japan (the Monday dream) until something crazy happened and I woke up unexpectedly.
Tuesday's dream was a little darker than the Japan dream. I'm at CBS Television City, studio 33 where The Price Is Right tapes their shows, and I pick up this Plinko chip someone dropped (a pink disc with the dollar sign that makes up the TPiR logo (Barker and Carey eras)). It also looked as if while the studio was empty, the Plinko game board was still out. I really thought that after the dream of James Lafferty I had on July 16, the dreams were going to stop...but I was wrong. The lights were dark on set, but I still remember the red seats for the audience, however. I've seen this every morning on TPiR when I have the chance. I've seen other shots of the Studio 33 audience and the chairs they were sitting in on Card Sharks, Family Feud (1988-94), Wheel of Fortune (1989-95 days), and Press Your Luck (1983-86).
Don't get me wrong, I love game shows recorded at CBS Television City, and still a loyal friend and true to TPiR since 1989, and still remember when the Barker turntable had green floors. I also love what they've done to the new turntable which Drew Carey now calls home base, as well as the Showcase podiums; though some people have said that the blue displays are hard to read. Instead of the classic "eggcrate" displays, the readouts are now computer screens, and the lights on the Contestants' Row displays are now LCD screens for Season 38 (2009-10).
I still miss Bob Barker, though, yet every time I see him on a talk show, I always burst out laughing at his deliberate witticisms...until that time Rachael Ray told him about the time Drew was on her show and talked about the bathroom incident on October 16, 2007 (that was actually intended to be the Season 36 premiere) of this contestant who was going to play Plinko...but she had to go to the bathroom! :P (She wins $20,100 in the game and makes it to the Showcase as the Top Winner, but she goes over ($62,000 for $61,488).) I'm watching Bob's early episodes of TPiR on DVD on my PlayStation 2, however. Some of the contestants from Disc 3 (1974-75? '76?) are a riot, too. I'll never forget how many times Bob was asked about a funny incident about a contestant named Yolanda back in 1975, and his cameo appearance in the 1996 film Happy Gilmore where he had a funny saying after kicking the crap out of Adam Sandler's title character. Whew, I'm getting tired. Until next time, WM86 :)
Female version of James Lafferty?
9/27: Wow. Two days before I remember the dream I had two years ago about James Lafferty, I get kind of a "two years later" dream with the same situation the dream character trying to be him recycled and reused, except here, it's a woman. One scene is late in the night, and then the next morning, these actors are talking to this beautiful woman in her 20s that seems to have the same eye and hair color as him, but a little smaller (James is 6'2"), but it seemed that her eyes looked more brown than sea blue. It seemed that for the first few seasons of One Tree Hill, it looked as if James had brown eyes rather than blue. It looked as if my dream was trying to emulate the greatness of 90210 and One Tree Hill, except during some sort of decision making progress, it looked as if the show Jessica Stroup plays in won, so the scenery took place in California rather than North Carolina...score one for California. Ouch. In fact, it looked more like The O.C. rather than 90210.
I'm not sure if there's a woman in her 20s out there in the United States who likes the same things he likes, as well as nearly have the same eye and hair color as him, be from the West Coast as well as be an actress, too. If there is, I can hardly wait for her to star in a show on FOX or the CW, or even in a movie once in a while. In fact, she might be cute for her age. I'd also like to say that this might have been one of the most pleasant dreams I've had in a while...nice California setting, everything. If there is an actress in her 20s who likes the same things as James, I'd like to know more about her, too. :)
Flashback to mid-August/Last night...
10/19: After yet another epic fail (missed out on a $250,000 win on Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (syndicated) when it's on a time where The Price Is Right is on CBS, missed a $25,000 win in Catch-21 and will probably never see those two things again, having to sacrifice Top Gear on BBC America for One Tree Hill on the CW for bad thoughts I had with the 5th Grader dilemma, etc.), I started to have bad thoughts of evil people winning...until I get a dream about people I met around 1994-95 on my last year at Henry Adams Elementary in Cary, NC that were now all grown up (I know that belongs on another blog... :embarrassed:) in their 20s and are taking classes at a college where I'm a student as well. I couldn't tell if it took place here or in California, but they greeted me when they saw who I was. I'm thinking an old friend from a class I was in from the last year of that school from 1994-95 (I was 8 or 9) was probably thinking about me, so that's why I might have gotten that dream. I was a mess back then from 1990-95 and still reminiscing on those days. Can't believe it's been 15 years...I wonder what he's doing now? It's been about 15 years since I last saw him. Memories of the '90s will not die, that's for sure.
Meanwhile, I couldn't stop thinking about this dream I had when I had to go out of town for a week due to an ailing family member...whereas the dream character was female (which has been happening a lot in my dreams), and I've dreamed of her about two times...in different scenes...she's a blonde with blue or green eyes, about 5'6" or 5'7", wearing a T-shirt and tan shorts with white and turquoise skateboarding-style shoes, and is in her 20s. She had other friends I saw in a dream that Tuesday when I was dreaming about Wipeout, and what I saw there did not look like the WipeoutZone.
Those two are intriguing dream characters, all right, but I'm still glad I remember the '90s after all these years. Perhaps the dream is telling me that I think I don't have time for anything, yet they want me to have more fun in life? Hmmm...
Flashbacks to 1992, 1995, and 1997
12/27: For the past few weeks, I couldn't stop thinking of dreams I had since childhood. There was this one in 1995 (first half) that had Asian dream characters and I vaguely remember it now. I think I had two more like this, but the Chinese/Japanese signs were actually someone's attempt at drawing the Magic # board on The Price Is Right, a pricing game known to scare the daylights out of me when I was little...except in the first one of the two, the design was HUGE! In the first 1995 one, near the end of it, people were singing nonsensical words! Ouch...
And then there's TWO from 1992 (second half) I couldn't stop thinking about! One was a girl dream, while the other was...strange. Probably got it after seeing Sonic the Hedgehog on the SEGA Genesis for the first time. Another one in 1993 (probably first half) had one of gameplay and after a "game over", a strange continue screen appeared.
Now to the 1997 dream (first half)...the scene was a mixture of scenes from the 1995 film Clueless, a scene from the 1995 film The Baby-Sitters Club, and some Hollywood-style red carpet, when all of a sudden (I think), these girls are fighting over some boy. I can't remember the next part very well, but I believe that it cut to a scene inside a building.
I don't know if I got it (I was 11) after seeing Jewel Staite in season 1 of Space Cases, or if I saw promos of a then-young Alicia Silverstone starring in the 1995 smash (as in Clueless, the late Brittany Murphy's very first movie...so tragic and so sad to believe that she's gone--I was shocked to hear the news of her unexpected passing last week) growing up, or other things I might've done during the 1996-97 year (I was 10 going on 11). Or did I get the 1997 dream after seeing Larisa Oleynik from The Secret World of Alex Mack? I'll never know the answer to that one 12 years later. Like I said before, it's nice to reminisce the '90s, dream-wise, and I'm probably curious to find out more surprises from my dreams from childhood. :)
Wrong Amanda? Plus, more interesting dream characters...
3/3/10: Sorry I haven't been on that often...my life suddenly got busier. Plus, I hadn't had the time to recap the last few dreams I got in the last days of 2009 with someone resembling Katie Cassidy pretending to be a Wilmington, NC resident, someone from my past around 1994-95, and then Avril Lavigne in a span of three dreams.
As I'm writing this, I'm listening to Jeffry McWild's stage (Fisherman From 7 Seas) music from the Genesis and the arcade/Saturn versions of Virtua Fighter 2 after a rough day, as well as some music cues from Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? (the $50,000, $100,000, $250,000 and $500,000 questions--that's how the money tree goes on the last four questions before the $1,000,000 one, which has a more epic cue on the U.S. syndicated version hosted by Meredith Vieira; the 2009 "10th Anniversary Celebration" version hosted by then-host Regis Philbin uses the same format).
Then came the week of January 25th. After listening to "Final Fantasy Adventure Amanda's Tear OC ReMix", a remix of a non-playable character (Jema in the Japanese version, Amanda in the U.S./European versions)'s theme from Final Fantasy Adventure/Mystic Quest, I was writing something and then thought I would have to make one of my characters a mysteriously alluring young woman after hearing According To You on Lopez Tonight on TBS (Turner Broadcasting Station) sung by an Australian singer named Orianthi, who played the guitar whenever the late, great "King of Pop" Michael Jackson was on tour. I started to have dreams with this OC ReMix playing in the background (Amanda's Tear), but no scenery.
February 15th was a downward spiral. After losing it after this contestant on The Price Is Right had the most horrible luck EVER (he also blamed an incorrect guess on the audience): get ALL 4 small prizes WRONG in Plinko, and then have his one chip land on one of the $0 spaces, I thought bad things (he also won the Showcase and I thought "excessive celebration" when Drew read the actual retail price of his Showcase). I ended up getting a dream of someone who looked like him. Ouch.
Right now, I'm thinking about a journal entry from mid-2007 when I tried to describe a dream character I named Amanda about 15 or 16 years ago. Turns out I might have described the wrong one. The Amanda in my dream from around 1994 or 1995 had brown hair, not blonde, so she might've dyed it when the "camera" cut to her and there were pink kaleidoscopic patterns (as I remembered what I wrote down in my Dream Journal three years ago) and she was making weird, strange straining noises like an evil spirit/beast possessed her. I think she might have blue or hazel eyes. I was around 8 or 9 when I got this "Amanda" dream, so my memory might not be that good...
Wow, I said a mouthful...until next time, WM86 ;)
Teen/young adult dream characters (don't count them out just yet)
3/7: Could this be? No...and I think I found The Price Is Right's storage area where they keep their props when not in use when all of a sudden a fire alarm is accidentally triggered and then seconds later a loud, obnoxious horn goes off. From there, I think the dream was trying to recreate a scene from a Sandra Bullock film from 1995, The Net, but there weren't any computers in the dream, and here, it was a beautiful yet strange day.
I'm starting to think this is a repeat of 1/23, 2/7 and 15 where I've ran into strangely intriguing people in dreams. This is also the fifth time I've had dreams of people like this (oh, and the other two dreams with the girl resembling Katie Cassidy from the new CW version of Melrose Place doesn't count). The ones on 1/23 and 2/15 resemble Michael Trevino (and likely may be the same character, but different clothing), an actor I've never seen before on any CW show (but I have heard of him before via a 90210 fan blog around 2008 or 2009), while obviously the one on 2/7 resembles James Lafferty, but the eye color was different.
All of a sudden outside, I run into this young man in his 20s that looks nothing like James or Michael, and dressed like a fan of a rock or metal band or an extreme sports activist. He also had natural red-orange hair and I think hazel eyes. So I introduce myself and tried to call him "Stephen", but he gives a name I can't pronounce (I think it started with an O or a U), which obviously isn't his real name (I think). It got cut short when I heard crows outside my window...Friday sounded like an illegal street race that took a turn for the worst (gunshots and screaming and then police sirens all in that order). It was so loud, I couldn't get to sleep. I also don't think the countryside is a good place where either Drew Carey or Kathy Greco would keep stuff related to TPiR. Now I gotta see if I can watch this NASCAR race without falling asleep, because I'm still tired after waking up at 12:00 AM with the PlayStation 2 still on and waking up to the sound of loud birds at my window at nearly 7 AM. Until next time, WM86 :)
Virtua Fighter dreams? (Flashback to 4/8/01 - before my 15th birthday)
3/8: I can't believe I still remember this from 9 years ago...before my 15th birthday. I'm playing at a local arcade playing the actual arcade version of Virtua Fighter 2--managing to reach Jacky Bryant (stage 9)...and losing (when I was on a roll, winning the first two rounds). The computer actually stormed back and scored the upset of the character I was using. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough to continue playing this SEGA masterpiece from 1994. I wake up at 5:30 AM once the "game over" screen (and it was a LONG one!) plays. I went all around the building, hysterical that I lost the last few rounds, and when I came back, the Game Over screen plays.
When I play the arcade game for real, I can't get past Shun-Di (stage 3). I tried with Sarah Bryant (Jacky's younger sister) the last two times in the late-'90s and failed. The same goes for reaching Bark the Polar Bear (stage 3) in Sonic the Fighters. My only try was with Amy Rose (the pink hedgehog Sonic is always trying to run away from) and failing. Both of these times I end up getting Game Over because I don't have any more quarters. I bet if I see Virtua Fighter 5 in the arcade, I will try my best to put up a good fight AND get my revenge for what happened 11 or 12 years ago! Until next time, WM86 ;)
Blondes and brunettes fighting, Shane and Lita arguing; DJ Qualls?
4/2: 3/31 and 4/1 were TWO OF THE MOST CRAZIEST DAYS EVER!! After a wild adventure on 3/31 (that started with a contestant's big win from a Season 32 (2003-04) episode of The Price Is Right that found its way to YouTube), I ended up getting a dream about a school setting (likely a college filmed at a high school), when all of a sudden this blonde-haired girl knocks over what appears to be the brown-haired girl's shampoo, spilling it on the floor. There's pink cream everywhere.
"I will NOT allow this!" the brunette exclaims and then there's a cat fight. The coach doesn't consider disciplinary action against the students; instead, he lets them have at it. Unfortunately, the dream would be short-lived, as I woke up with a headache.
April Fools' Day would almost become a disaster in uncontrollable laughter and then went downhill by the time Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains came on. A bad thought about Shane McMahon by the time I finished watching CSI (the original Las Vegas series--hadn't done that in a long time) last night led to one of the most vivid, intense dreams I might have had in my life...a remix of dreams I've had where there's a city skyline outside a window, but here, it was an office building. The powers that be didn't want me seeing what people resembling Shane McMahon and Lita were arguing about in the woman's office, so I had to show some Japanese businessmen what was going on outside the high-rise office, and all of a sudden I see some buildings that shouldn't be there (shades of downtown Raleigh, NC).
I think this was trying to show me a WWE fanfiction I could've written, but instead, the dream replayed a scene from something I tried to write in one of my books, when all of a sudden this kid with a striking resemblance to Gil/Dizzy from the 2002 film The New Guy shows up, scaring away the Japanese businessmen, unfortunately, by doing something that would've garnered a PG-13 rating in movies in the 2000s that nowadays get an R rating. If this was what the Shane and Lita look-a-likes were arguing about, I don't want any part of it. :P Luckily, there wasn't any bathroom humor in either one of these dreams. While I may not see what a blonde vs. brunette fight, "Shane" and "Lita" arguing, and a movie character's attempts at humor have to do with my life, for me, I have to remember a rule: the last week of March is the roughest and craziest ever. Until next time, WM86 ;)
Battle Arena Toshinden + dreams in 1998 and 2008 = how storybook characters were created?
4/21: Like the Virtua Fighter dream I talked about two posts ago, I suddenly remember a dream from around 1998-99 where I was in downtown New York at night after a scene where people pretending to be Eiji and Kayin from Battle Arena Toshinden (the first PlayStation game (PS1) I ever played back in Christmas 1996, but I didn't get the system then. I actually never owned a piece of PlayStation hardware until May 2004 (a PS2)) were fighting in a ring similar to Kayin's stage, which looks like Brooklyn in New York, at night. After seeing "Eiji" (outfit 1: white jacket with red two tone, white shirt, brown gloves, black pants and brown shoes) and "Kayin" (outfit 1: red-orange hair, silver jacket, silver shirt, purple gloves, silver pants and black boots), suddenly, the dream from under the Brooklyn Bridge "acts" like Sonic the Hedgehog (by SEGA!) with these platforms and bottomless pits, something that has never been in a Toshinden game. Speaking of Sonic, if he were to go up against either Eiji or Kayin, he'd lose the fight.
This would repeat itself 10 years later late-April to early-May 2008 when I had a bad day on either Wednesday or Thursday, but this time, it only showed me someone who dressed again like Kayin (outfit 2: blond hair, red jacket, black shirt, brown gloves, black jeans and black boots just like outfit 1, which can be accessed by highlighting him and pressing a certain button on the character select screen in the first game (PS1, SEGA Saturn and PC versions)) in a short glimpse. I think I got this after viewing one of YouTube user VendavalEste's playings of the first game all the way through with Eiji, Kayin, and a green-haired 16-year-old girl named Ellis (outfit 2 shows that Ellis has blue hair instead of green) on the hardest difficulty setting, in which the last boss is Sho, Eiji's mysterious older brother who has both him and Kayin's move-set combined.
Come to think of it, I think playing this game helped me get ideas for storybook characters 13 years later (two of the main protagonists, but unfortunately, they're both 20-something women). Sometimes playing games helps me create some fascinating characters. Games like this and the Street Fighter series inspired me to create Veronica, a 23-year-old Japanese-American makeup artist/cosmetologist/hairdresser hopeful (about 30% of the ideas for this character came from watching YouTube videos about makeup and hair), and Calandra, a 22-year-old Anglo-American (she's British) FBI/Interpol agent who moved to New York from England (about 30% of the ideas for this character came from watching police procedure shows like most of the CSIs and Criminal Minds, for example). I just wish they'd release a new Toshinden game for the PS3 and X360...and bring back characters like Kayin, Sofia, Duke, and Ellis. Until next time, WM86 ;)