Thread: SD-1: Nephanim

April 24, 2011

At the Career Fair

I went to some kind of stadium for a career fair. I decided that the most productive way to spend my summer was through some kind of internship, so that’s what I hoped to find. When I got there, I received a phone call from a celebrity whose name I didn’t recognize, and she gave me this long speech about what a terrible, useless person I am. By the end, I wanted to throw my phone at the wall, but I knew that wouldn’t solve any problems, so I threw a potato chip on the floor instead and stomped on it. I hung up on her. An old woman beside me said she enjoyed this particular celebrity’s music, but she agreed that the phone call was rude. I didn’t understand how she knew who I was talking to. I was about to start looking through the career opportunities, but then I realized I hadn’t brought anything… I needed several copies of my resume and a generalized cover letter. I had no choice but to leave for the time being. I started feeling really anxious and wondered if the celebrity woman on the phone had been right about me…

The dream jumped. When I returned, I had a brilliant scheme to make a profit off the career fair. I was going to buy things from vendors and sell them to others at double the price. Everything worked out perfectly – except I wanted to sell orange hats, too, and I needed fifty oranges to make those… As it turned out, orange slices were really easy to find, but not whole oranges. I wandered the stadium aimlessly. Mike Palarz asked me a question about the single-ended Laplace transform of an exponential function, and I directed him to our textbook. I thought he was talking about a decaying exponential at first (which we already talked about in detail). After I walked away, I heard him tell someone I was a jerk.

Namebots from Brazil

Nicole and I were playing Minecraft. A bunch of Brazilian players kept asking for protection on their dirt and cobblestone houses. There were a couple of Brazilian players in the group who were a little more reasonable and built interesting structures, so I was nicer to them. Nicole got angry at me for being polite to what she thought were “namebots.” I tried to bring to her attention how difficult it would be to create a bot that behaved exactly like a person. Not only did these two players converse with us (in English), they also went mining with me. It didn’t seem plausible that they were botting the whole time. I supposed they could be botting when we weren’t around, but they were usually offline during the night. I started coding something in my head to allow people to purchase protected regions of given sizes with gold. It wouldn’t require the assistance of an administrator unless they wanted an off-standard size.

Shadow Being's Seal and Zombie Quarantine

I was helping Nicole purify a building of zombies. While we did this, we heard a powerful crack in the air. It left both of us feeling nauseous. In order to determine the cause, I teleported to Castle Mountain, the source of the disturbance. It was a plateau surrounded by a relatively flat expanse of forest. Three sorceresses in black robes stood together, holding hands. A fourth lay dead on the rocks at their feet. Billowing shadows in the shape of a man stood behind them, slowly sucking out their energy. I knew I couldn’t just sit and watch this. I went up to them and sent a spike of energy at the shadow being. It recoiled, but it didn’t leave. Instead, it turned its attention on me. I reached into my mind to release an explosion of energy, but I found myself powerless and frozen. At that instant, a thick crack rolled across the landscape. The shadow being had the power to seal off magic… Then again, I knew I could handle this. I forced the shadow being’s seal out of my body and regained control. At the heart of a mountain of unraveling spikes of energy, the shadow being was torn apart and scattered into the air. I crossed my arms when it was gone. Such a creature was no match for me. The sorceresses thanked me, and I went back to help Nicole.

The dream jumped. We took advantage of the fact that the zombies were terrified of skeletons and human bones by chasing them around with skulls. Nicole’s mom threw a skull down the hall and put all the zombies around it in a panic. We managed to lead them into two connected halls which were isolated from the rest of the building. It was important to keep the zombies separated from the uninfected… Otherwise, they would turn into zombies, too. I saw Austin shuffling down some stairs in one of the hallways. He was inside the zombie quarantine, but I didn’t think he was really turning into a zombie. It looked like he was just mocking the awkward way the zombies walked. Everyone agreed that it was best to lock him in with the zombies, just to be safe… So that’s what we did. I whispered a quiet apology to my brother.

The dream jumped. As Nicole and I lay in bed, we heard a slow groan coming from the zombie quarantine. I thought that was odd… I had moved all of the remaining zombies to the showers temporarily to let them wash up. I guessed we missed one. Nicole asked how many zombies had been real. All but one were… I didn’t specify which was the false zombie, but Austin may have been fine after all. A bunch of women walked out of the bathroom in their undergarments. Their bodies were still slick with water. Many of them smiled at me as they passed, but I met them with indifference. The male zombies recovered or died much faster than females; as a result, we were left with an entirely female zombie population.

“I have to put them back in their quarantine. They could still be dangerous,” I reminded Nicole. I crawled across the bed to take care of the zombie women.

Thought-Driven Car

I was driving a small car with my mind. Everything was fine until Nicole complimented me on how well I was driving.

“No!” I shouted. “Don’t talk about my driving yet! It’s really hard to control consciously!” As I said it, I scraped against the side of a jeep on our left. I swerved to the right into the next lane. Fortunately, it was open. I figured my best bet was to exit the highway, take a side road for a few miles to get my driving back on autopilot, and then come back to the highway. As I was exiting, however, I crashed into the back of another car. We slammed into a tree which fell over and hit another car, which caused a four car pile-up. I dropped back against my seat and covered my face with my hands. Driving this car was probably the biggest mistake of my life.

The dream jumped. I was in a room with Nicole and two other people. One, a woman with long brown hair, reminded me that our objective was to blame everything on the other four people involved in the accident. We had to somehow make it look like they had been responsible. Considering I rear-ended the first guy, I didn’t see how I was going to get out of that… But I didn’t necessarily make us hit the tree, so maybe we could pin the blame of most of the damage on him. I started to feel as though this plan might actually work. Nicole and I went to sit by a pool. Her dad came over and told me not to worry about the crash. Whatever happened would happen, and it was too late to stress myself out over it. I thanked him for his support. He also reminded me that I was going to graduate in another year.

“Do you know what that means?” he asked.

“…Greater expectations?”

“I already have high expectations of you,” he said as he shook his head. “It means it’s time for you and Nicole to get your own place.” I nodded. The thought of more financial responsibility made my heart thump just a bit harder, but I told myself it would work out. Everything always worked out.

25 Labs Remaining

Omitted.

Lennon's Mom Helps with Homework

John Lennon’s mother was in a mental hospital modeled after my parents’ old house in North Carolina. She spent her days teaching college students how to make random knickknacks. I had to write a paper on something for psychology… With her help, I finished the paper in around an hour. I didn’t understand why she was hospitalized… She seemed to have a fairly firm grasp on her mind and the ability to function normally. When I told some people about her, they were just frustrated that they hadn’t gotten her help with their papers. I showed them a couple of metal tubes that would transport them quickly from our school to the mental hospital.

April 25, 2011

Went to bed late, woke up early.

Playing Portal 2 with Joe

I invited Joe Beaumont to play Portal 2 with us. We set the game up on the floor of my parents’ living room and asked him over Facebook if he was interested. He said he would be there in five minutes. During this time, I went with Nicole and my dad to a misty lake. I had to leave a book in the car so it wouldn’t get wet, but most of the car was wet, too.

Back at the house, we met up with Joe. He was clearly excited to play. The opening cinematic sequence had nothing to do with the storyline… Random characters were introduced and then killed. The last one alive screamed at the end. I found myself running around in a sewer. I came across a black coffin. When I wasn’t looking, an arm reached out and pulled me into the coffin. When I regained consciousness, I climbed back out. I was a skeleton with a golden collar around my neck. Looking down at my skeletal hands, I wandered toward the exit, but a three-headed dog blocked my path. It snarled at me as I approached. Fortunately, I was able to hop across a couple feet of flowing sewer water onto a narrow walkway that was just out of the dog’s reach. As I came closer and closer to the exit, the dog seemed to reach further, but it was unable to touch me. I crouched and crawled through a narrow tunnel to freedom. I knew I needed to get to the surface…

I saw green and blue pipes in an opening in the wall. Instead of climbing into either of those Mario-style like I originally intended, I hopped up a series of red sewer mushrooms to a white portal. There were goombas in my way, so I had to stomp two of them in the process. When I walked into the portal, I saw a minigame information screen reminiscent of Mario Party. I added Joe to the game at long last by pressing two buttons on his controller. The minigame was simple; we just had to alternate between pressing A and B to make our spaceships fly faster. Mine turned into the older, white-haired version of Symphony.

Piros the Third in Diamond Armor

I was playing The World with Piros the Third. As he walked beside me in his golden armor, he complained about its durability. It occurred to me that Piros always used the suit of armor with the lowest durability just because of its aesthetic appeal. I sent Nicole a message in-game.

“I just realized… Piros uses gold armor. Imagine him wearing diamond!” I was sure he would be several times stronger.

Do you have Portal 2 on PS3 or computer because I currently have no one to play the co-op with.

Originally Posted by MadMonkey

Do you have Portal 2 on PS3 or computer because I currently have no one to play the co-op with.

I don't have the game, unfortunately. Nicole and I might get the chance to borrow it from someone soon, though.

April 26, 2011

Sibling Dispute and Artificial Friends

I was living in a huge, three-story house with my parents. My dad was very particular about the lighting in the house. Certain lights couldn’t be turned off, for example – only dimmed. He made us adjust the lights downstairs whenever he used the bathroom upstairs. Austin kept throwing crumpled bits of paper at me. I tried to take them all from him, but he just keep finding more. He was making a mess of the house… My dad heard us arguing and warned us to shut up. Our fighting just escalated. Because he thought the drawing of Symphony I use as my phone’s internal wallpaper was stupid, Austin decided to change it. I snatched my phone back before he could. I also stole his wallet. I threw it in the garbage without taking any of his money. That didn’t stop him from accusing me of stealing the money…

My dad came downstairs to find piles of shredded paper on the floor and Austin digging his wallet out of the trash. There was no evidence that Austin had been responsible, and I didn’t bring up my accusations, so everything got pinned on me. I reminded Austin that I hadn’t actually taken any of his money, and he had his wallet back. With a scowl on his face, Austin began explaining my “inappropriate relationship with a robot” to our dad.

Scamper's Training, Snow Plows, and Circuit Construction

I was standing in the foyer of my parents’ old house in Texas. Scamper learned to stand on a silver ball and flip light switches with his nose. He couldn’t quite get them to turn off, but he could certainly turn them on. My whole family was impressed. My dad stood by the light switches, pointing at them and demonstrating their use for Scamper’s benefit.

Afterward, Dad took me and Austin outside to show us a pair of tiny snow plows in the front yard. In the event of an emergency, he said we would take those to safety first, then come back to the house to help other people. I didn’t understand why the snow plows were so important… We got in the car and started plugging things into surge protectors – one on each side of the vehicle. I built a circuit across the two sets of sockets with resistors, capacitors, an operational amplifier, and a bipolar junction transistor. The feedback network really confused Amar for some reason. He thought everything was in series…

When it was done, Betts came over to the car and asked if Amar did all the work. He said yes. I played along with their joke, but I thought it was in poor taste; I had clearly done most of the work. After she walked away, Betts apologized for what she said to me and made it clear that I did very well in constructing the circuit.

More of Nicole's Pictures

Nicole showed me a series of pictures she posted on 4chan after I went to bed. I hoped there were none I would get upset over… The pictures showed her in skinny jeans and a strange, fluffy shirt with blue and green feathers. The shirt hugged her body, but it still gave her plenty of room in the bust. None of the pictures showed her face. I noticed that many of the pictures didn’t seem to include her at all. They were just images of Eric’s bedroom… I wondered if I was missing something important.

I had a similar dream back in October and again in November.

Austin Thinks I'm Ugly

I was sitting on a tiny patio with Nicole and Rob. We talked about how my brother always thought I was ugly. I reminded them that he looked quite a bit like my dad. Austin would never admit that, though. Rob mentioned something about similarities between me and my dad, and I got confused; I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to say originally.

Random Divine Punishment

I lived in a society dominated by a group of powerful deities. We existed in fear of a long list of unforgivable sins, but the gods enforcing these sins were our greatest worry. They began a tradition of choosing people at random each day to punish for their sins. Their idea of punishment was unspeakable torment followed by slow death. No one was safe from their wrath – not even the most devout of worshipers. I fell to my knees and whispered a prayer for my safety even though I knew it wouldn’t change my fate.

The Mask and the Curiosity Shop (Lucid)

As I went back to sleep, I started wondering if I would actually have time for a nap. It seemed that I had been in bed for the better part of an hour already. Once my alarm went off, I would have to get up. These thoughts were interrupted by a sudden sensation of rolling. I knew I was imagining it, but it was convincing enough that I considered what I would do if I rolled out of bed and hit my head on my desk. My body rotated so I was being pulled backward and upside-down off the side of my bed. I heard a girl arguing with Till. Apparently, he wasn’t treating her well enough or giving her enough attention. I opened my eyes and saw her walking over to my bed. She smoothed out the wrinkled bedsheets. I wondered what I was doing, but I reaffirmed that I had entered the dream state.

Omitted.

I floated around the room, examining various objects in attempts to stabilize the hazy dreamscape. There were shelves built into the walls all over the place, and they housed a number of books and knickknacks. I found a pink, rubber creature with a long neck and little tendrils sticking out of its body. When I opened my eyes wide to stare at it, I found that my vision became clearer. I squeezed the toy in my hand, paying careful attention to how it felt. After setting it down, I dropped to the ground and started walking around. Till gave me the dumbest look – like he didn’t know where in the world he was. I weighed the pros and cons of trying to leave my dorm building and finally decided to try it. I figured I would try to meet up with Symphony and head to the Monolith Gardens.

When I opened the door and stepped into the hallway, I noticed a weird, purple mask made of rubber on the door opposite mine. The mask seemed to stare at me.

I woke up in bed. Till was still asleep. I figured I would need to get ready for class soon, so I sat up and grabbed my dream journal to write dreams down. I wrote out everything except my lucid dream. I wanted to get that one down quickly, so I typed it up on my phone instead. I accidentally saved and exited the text editor before I was finished, so I had to reopen it to complete the entry. To my surprise, I got a message about “storing and erasing content.” The dream was gone. I looked through a number of files on my phone in search of the missing dream entry, but it was nowhere to be found. Worried that I would start forgetting things if I didn’t recover it soon, I contacted Verizon’s support line for a quick answer. That proved futile, as one might expect… I was connected to a virtual reality help desk, and a three-dimensional model of the Curiosity Shop owner from Majora’s Mask started talking to me about photo security with Verizon.

“Everyone knows you take a lot of pictures of your woman,” he explained. “You’re probably worried they’ll end up on the internet for all to see. Well, worry no more – with Verizon, all of your pictures go through a quality checking system to make sure they’re appropriate for public viewing. If they’re not, the photos are marked as private. You can omit pictures from this system by marking them as private yourself.” I frowned. Throughout this explanation, the help desk application wouldn’t allow me to select any specific help options. I was glad it was finally done. I started looking through various help topics… In the middle of all this, I realized I was probably still dreaming. There was nothing to worry about; I hadn’t even written the dream down. I looked down at my hands as I stood in front of the Curiosity Shop counter. They basically looked normal at first glance even though I knew I was dreaming. I gave them a little more attention and realized they were much longer than normal. I turned around to leave the shop, and the dream became unstable. I fell through darkness. When vision returned, I was on my bed, supporting myself with my hands.

Omitted.

Bank Robbery Book Drive

I went to the commons for lunch. After I sat down, one of the employees sprawled out across three seats, resting her head on the table. She smiled at me.

“Hey, pale boy,” she said. I smiled and greeted her in return. I thought it was a strange thing to call me, but I supposed it was accurate, at least. A man nearby spoke up to get everyone’s attention for an announcement. He was leading an investigation of a bank robbery, and everyone on that side of the commons would have to remain seated until they narrowed down their suspects. I watched the investigation unfolding out of curiosity. When I looked around, I realized it was really just some sort of book drive. A couple of people I recognized were sitting at tables near the east wall of the commons with humongous books. For example, I saw an almanac that was easily four feet long and three feet wide. There were also triple-fold presentation boards set up everywhere, and two of them had She Likes Todd printed on them in bold letters. I saw Nicole and Rob sitting on that side of the commons and wondered if Rob had seen the references to his band.

When I left the commons, I took off my shirt and left it behind. I didn’t really need it. People gave me strange looks when they saw me walking around shirtless. It was too cold to walk around like that – even if not in public. As I headed outside into the cold, I woke up.

April 27, 2011

Rabbit-Dog and Vegetables

I rode the bus to Nicole’s house, got on another bus, rode it around town, and got back off at the same place. Even as I did this, I didn’t understand my reasoning. The bus only took me four blocks south of her house and four blocks east before looping back around, so it was a distance I could have covered on foot for free. I ignored the thought; I had already paid for the bus ride, so there was no point criticizing myself for it. I picked up my winter coat on my way off the bus. As I approached Nicole’s house, I saw a black man standing with his wife on the other side of the street. A swarm of thirty or so children ran across the street and surrounded a dog. They gave the dog treats and praised it until it decided to follow them back to their house. The real owner of the dog was standing right in his yard. He shouted at them for stealing his pet. Another dog started sniffing around in the yard… It found what looked like a giant rabbit. I stopped, staring at the rabbit creature. A rabbit wouldn’t be that big. It looked like it could potentially be something dangerous. When the dog sniffed at it, though, the creature stood up, folded its ears out, and barked. It was just a strange dog. The dog owner and I shared a laugh.

The dream jumped. I was eating dinner with Nicole on her deck. Neither of us could finish our food. I took our dishes inside, but on the way, I realized I hadn’t eaten even half of my bowl of vegetables… I couldn’t just throw those away. I set that aside so I would finish it. Nicole’s kitchen had been replaced by my grandma’s kitchen. Naturally, my grandma was doing the dishes. A bunch of relatives were gathered around, watching her. I had to reach over the side of the sink my grandma was on to put my dirty dishes in since everyone was in my way.

Total Crap Wins the Contest

As I walked through a faculty meeting at my school, I overheard a professor complaining that the selection for a certain award was terrible. He claimed that great essays had been denied while “total crap” received award money. I had a feeling I was in that “total crap” category, but I couldn’t help it… The writing assignment had been to rewrite someone else’s story. The story I was given was about a child named Ben with super powers. I went up a staircase and found Chelsea in a classroom. When I saw her paper, I realized it was much better than mine, but it didn’t get the recognition it deserved. I wondered if she would laugh at me when they reassigned my award to someone who deserved it – like my sister. She seemed happy with her story even though it didn’t win.

Pong, Power Lines, and a Tree House

Nicole was playing a glitch-ridden implementation of Pong. Sometimes, even though her paddle was obviously blocking the ball, it went right through and counted as a score for the computer player. She let me try, and I had the same problem. The number of balls increased as I improved at the game, but every once in a while, the glitch where the ball went straight through the paddle would reset the score. My record was seventy to zero before it reset.

We were transported into a Pong-based MMORPG. By improving various skills, one could construct safety nets to catch the ball and bombs to destroy the enemy’s nets. I accidentally jumped back into one of our safety nets, inflicting ninety-three points of damage and tearing it apart. The opponent slowly pushed us further and further back until we exhausted all of our safety nets.

The dream jumped. I was climbing a tree to untangle some power lines wrapped around a branch. The insulation on the line was intact, so I wasn’t worried about getting electrocuted. Nicole and Symphony climbed up the tree after me, and we sat together in a small tree house. I presented them with warm cheeseburgers. To be honest, I wasn’t sure where they came from or whether or not I actually intended to eat them, but I didn’t see the point in wasting them. Symphony didn’t eat hers. I started mixing this pink, soapy foam in a white bowl. It began oozing into a liquid form and expanding itself. I knew it was only a matter of time before it spread to the whole tree house.

Electronics Laboratory Exam

I was in my electronics laboratory. When the lab assistant handed back my most recent lab report on oscillators, I saw that he hadn’t given me points for the prelaboratory work even though I went to painstaking effort to complete the analysis. I was going to ask him about it, but he gave us all a speech about trying harder next time – and then he told us to put everything away for our final exam. I was a little confused; we weren’t supposed to have an exam in this laboratory…

Orange Shapeshifter and Q the Raccoon

I was playing a game someone bought Nicole for her birthday. This strange, orange creature with the power to transform into various things was leading an invasion of a corporate office building. They destroyed a section of the wall near the roof. Someone climbed up the side of the building to catch them, but the orange creature transformed into the missing wall. I could still see his eyes. The two creatures accompanying him hid behind the orange wall. Their hunter, a raccoon named Q, climbed onto the ledge in front of the wall with a spiked club in one hand. It didn’t take him long to figure out what was going on. The orange creature transformed into a miniature airplane and flew away from the building, snatching the club from Q.

“Bring it on!” Q the raccoon shouted. “Swing, batter, batter!” As the orange plane swooped around, it held the club back with one wing. It struck as it collided with the raccoon. Amazingly, the club just bounced off and fell through the air. The orange creature crashed through the gap in the wall and skidded across the floor. I realized there was no practical way to fight Q… The best thing to do was run. Taking control, I transformed into an orange motorbike and rode out of the room with my allies on my back. We ended up in a two-dimensional environment with a bunch of barricades. It was organized like a maze. I transformed into a rocket ship to increase our speed as I navigated the maze to the best of my ability. We didn’t run into any dead ends. My dad saw what I was playing and asked if Nicole was going to get mad that I’d played through so much of the game without her. I didn’t understand.

Nicole came back as I was blasting off into outer space. She was amazed at how much progress I’d made. The game must have been an RPG since we leveled up as I flew toward the moon. I thought it was weird that the orange creature was only level four after all this time.

Stigma and Research

I was in my psychology classroom, but I was sitting in Karl’s usual place. Ben-Zeev talked about the stigma of psychological disorders and how it impacts research. For example, he said that a diagnosis of a psychological disorder might impact the way the scientific community views someone’s findings. To see if we understood, he asked us to explain why. I suggested that the researcher’s colleagues might minimize his findings if they played into the stereotypes usually associated with disorders of the mind. In addition, I proposed the possibility that his colleagues might read too much into his findings, trying to overgeneralize the relevance of his opinions to other people like him. Simon was sitting behind me, and he raised a hand to counter my suggestions. I don’t remember what he asked, but it was a good point. I explained that I was simplifying things a bit, but it was easy to see how a diagnosis could impact the spread of research results in some way. Ben-Zeev thanked us both for our opinions and said he agreed. As the professor went to the front of the class, I noticed a guy next to me blowing on the back of my head. I gave him a weird look, and he just laughed. When I leaned back in my chair, he started blowing at the guy next to me.

Ben-Zeev showed us a cartoon depicting the stigma of psychological disorders. I wasn’t really paying attention, though, because I knew class was almost over. After this class, the course would be finished. I wondered if I would have music class after this… Ben-Zeev thanked us for our participation and eagerness to learn over the course of the term and offered us granola bars and other treats on our way out. The sweets were gathered on a table by the door. I took a granola bar and started eating it on the way out. It was made of rice and sprinkles.

Christmas Tree of Love and Tacos

I met Nicole for the first time on a school bus. She and I were sitting across the aisle from one another. She needed make-up to fix something on her face, and for some reason, I had some make-up in a bag. She sat with me while I let her use it. While she was doing this, I accidentally told her I loved her.

“What?” she asked, giving me a bothered look.

“Nothing…” I muttered. A moment later, I pulled her into my arms and kissed her. She pulled away in shock. I kissed her again. This time, I pulled her around to the other side of the seat so she couldn’t escape or pull away. She had to push me to get me to stop.

“I didn’t expect that…” she finally said, putting a hand on her lips. She waved her arm in the air. “Excuse me! This guy’s creeping me out!” The bus driver looked at me in one of her mirrors and frowned.

“Can you move forward a seat?” she asked me. “You’re distressing that nice young lady beside you.” I knew I had no choice, so I complied. Nicole didn’t speak to me the rest of the way, but I kept apologizing for what I’d done. I suspected she would never forgive me.

The dream jumped. I found myself in a bathroom somewhere. Assuming I needed to go, I walked over to the toilet. I saw buckets full of urine all over the place, some of which were connected to drains so they would empty out. I didn’t understand why anyone needed urine buckets – why not just use the toilet? I was glad to get out of there…

I ended up in the dining room of my parents’ old house in Texas, except there was a couch instead of a table. I put up a Christmas tree with an enchantment designed to make Nicole fall in love with me for five years. Incidentally, it would also allow her to get free tacos every Wednesday as part of a program sponsored by Anonymous and Adult Swim. I thought it was weird that Adult Swim was advertising anything directly related to 4chan. Nicole’s mom got angry at me for getting the enchanted Christmas tree. She thought I was just putting up a normal tree.

April 28, 2011

Worms in the House

I found a worm on the floor in Nicole’s kitchen. At first, I didn’t realize what it was… I kept prodding it with a fork because I didn’t want to touch it. Nicole came into the kitchen and announced that she had just found a worm in the bathroom; it was then that I identified the wriggling creature on the floor. I scooped it up with the fork and threw it over the fence into the parking lot for the apartment complex next door. I asked Nicole what she did with her worm, and she said she flushed it down the toilet. I almost felt bad for the worm…

GLaDOS' Tests

Chelsea and I stood in front of three small TV sets. GLaDOS had taken over the TVs and trapped a wasp inside. Apparently, Nicole was that wasp! We could only choose one TV. If we failed to pick the correct one, Nicole would be killed. Chelsea and I tried feeling the TV screens to see if we could figure out where the wasp was hidden… I knew it couldn’t be in such an obvious place, though. I spun the TV in the middle around, broke the back of it open, and peered inside. Indeed, a wasp crawled to the opening, seeking light. Chelsea reached in and caught it. I pulled out my phone to take a picture of her holding the wasp. It was our evidence to GLaDOS that we had saved Nicole. GLaDOS was unfazed by our success. She sent me a message describing the details of our second test. I told her I wasn’t interested.

War of Time and Flueck's Festival

I was with Nicole’s dad on a bus. He was playing an online game based on the Wheel of Time series called “War of Time.” The gameplay consisted of traveling between planets, terraforming them from nothing, and building civilizations. Every world started out as a blank slate of darkness. As I watched him starting a new civilization on a small planet, a farm caught on fire and burned the farmhouse beside it down. He got angry at the game and quit. Phil asked if I had a knife with me. I wasn’t sure – I hadn’t seen my pocketknife in a while. Nevertheless, I found the knife in my pocket. I raised an eyebrow when he told me he needed the knife to open a water bottle. Instead of cutting it open, I set the knife down on my leg – which I figured was a dumb idea, even if it was only for a moment – and opened the bottle by hand. He was amazed that someone could open a water bottle without a knife.

The dream jumped. I was helping Alexander Flueck give a presentation advertising a festival that would take place on April 26, 2012. People followed us for hours on our way into the countryside for the chance to hear about the event. When they discovered that it wasn’t taking place for another year, many of them shouted at me and left. I realized I should’ve made that clear from the start – but Dr. Flueck insisted it was alright. They chose to follow us, after all. We asked the remaining audience for funding and volunteers. The festival wouldn’t be possible without their help, I assured them. After the presentation, Dr. Flueck thanked me for my help. I got in a car with Nicole’s dad. Austin wouldn’t get in with us because he didn’t think he could fit in the doorway. We insisted it was definitely big enough… He walked over to an orange car, then started punching and kicking it. I convinced him to get in the car on the other side – where there was apparently more space – so Phil wouldn’t get angry.

Guessing Names

I was playing a game in which I had to guess the names of people and words in a certain sequence. No hints were given. The person in charge would then read off the correct sequence of answers. It was extremely difficult to score even one point, obviously, because the game depended entirely on chance. The girl next to me was amazed when she saw that we both wrote down “Magda Searus” in the same slot. The man reading the answers announced that it was a correct answer. Since she recognized the name, I knew she must have read the Sword of Truth series.

“Yep, I’ve read all the books,” I said. She pulled out a bible.

“She’s my favorite holy figure,” the girl explained. I grimaced. The name must have originally come from religious mythology, I decided… When I recognized another term the announcer read off, I saw it earlier in my list. I gave myself a point for it, but I overhead him scolding someone for doing just that – giving themselves points for answers that were out of order. I crossed my answer out with a black marker so I wouldn’t be disqualified. As we neared the end of the game, I counted a total of six points on my score card. Since there were ten answers in this round, that was an incredibly high score. Although we would play several rounds before deciding the winner, no one was likely to catch up with me.

New Violin and Hunting Santa Claus

I went to the store to pick out a new violin for Symphony. The employee I asked about affordable violins led me to the mechanical pencils instead.

“Here we are,” she said. “Pens.”

“I said violins.”

“Yeah,” she repeated, “pens.” I shook my head and walked away. We had passed some violins on the way, so I knew I would be able to find them.

The dream jumped. The same employee took me to a field where a small hut had been constructed. There seemed to be a river valley just beyond the hut. Several people were living there, but their bedrooms were all underground. I helped them sort out stacks of meat slices and gave some to a person trapped inside the hut. Once day arrived, I searched the interior of the hut for a violin with no luck. I got trapped in a closet of some kind because a heavy crate fell in front of the door, preventing it from opening. I managed to lift it out of the way and escape.

The dream jumped. Chelsea, Nicole, and I were hiding behind a boulder in the valley. Santa Claus stood below us with an army of elf soldiers and a bag of toys at his disposal. We planned to steal a Christmas bow from him. Altogether, we ambushed the elf army. We were quickly joined by others who wanted Santa dead. Before he died, Santa fell to his knees and gave me a look of pained betrayal.

“Don’t you believe in the Christmas spirit anymore?” he asked. His beard was matted with Kringle blood. I touched a finger to my lips, then placed it on his cheek. His whole body rotted away from the skull downward, corrupted by my touch. He left behind a bow, his clothes, and some kind of stake. I realized I already had a bow – I had used it in the fight – but this one was better anyway. Chelsea was shocked to learn that the stake was made of solid gold. Santa respawned every Christmas, she explained. Between then and the next winter, he was chased by treasure hunters who eventually killed him and collected his rare items. The golden stake was only supposed to show up every six years. Chewy insisted that he needed it for his Santa collection, so she gave it up. I noticed it had a crack in it anyway.

April 29, 2011

Today's my birthday! Maybe I'll have a (shared) lucid dream tonight as a birthday present from myself.

Signals and Systems Final Exam

I arrived to take my signals and systems final exam. Last night, my professor announced that the test would be open notes (and therefore no longer worth worrying about), but when the test began, he announced that we were only allowed one page of notes. I hadn’t prepared a comprehensive note page since I didn’t think I needed one. I quickly looked through my notes to decide what I needed reference material for the most. I was torn between tearing out a synchronous motor example and a page on the procedure for analyzing power flow. I just couldn’t decide… It didn’t occur to me that these were power systems topics. Morrison warned us that there was bound to be a question on motors, so I kept those notes handy. The first two problems were straight from the midterm. He literally scanned each of our graded exams, reprinted them, and attached them to the test so we would have to correct our mistakes from the last exam. I was careful to fix everything I did wrong on the first exam. I didn’t want to lose points for the same thing twice, after all…

For the third problem, I walked up to a stand with a bunch of meat in numbered packages. I didn’t seem to be in the classroom anymore. A set of instructions posted on the wall explained that we were testing a new medication in two forms. First, we would have to take thirty doses of the medicine in meat form. Each was supposed to be taken with water. Instead of water, they had a container full of apple juice set out for us. I found a number of the first ten doses (they were labeled, but not sorted), but the first dose was surprisingly hard to find. I helped some other people get doses two through eight, so they gave me the first dose. I realized they had been holding it to keep other people from finishing the exam. I couldn’t believe what a hassle this treatment was… I didn’t know if I’d have time to finish even though I got a head start on most of the students.

Claire Lovrack stopped the first treatment at dose eleven and went to a pharmacy counter for the second treatment. When asked if she was done with the first treatment form, she said she was just trying a little of each. I wanted to explain the scientific pitfalls of that line of thinking, but I kept to myself. I only reached about dose fifteen before I began to have second thoughts about all of this. It wasn’t a practical treatment at all. If I used the time required to complete treatment as an excuse, I could probably get away with stopping early. I reasoned that they must have thought about it when they set up the test. Anyway, for a dream, this was getting really long… I didn’t understand why that thought felt so important.

who kut u and God of Death

I was Sawada Tsunayoshi. Nicole and I went to “who kut u,” a shady-looking barber shop in a questionable neighborhood. It was pretty nice on the inside, at least. Nicole talked to the women at the front desk about something. I was surprised when she asked me to follow her. The woman looked like Neluna. I sat down in the back of the shop with her, and she gave me a consent form to sign. I hardly read any of it – I figured Nicole would have known if there was anything suspicious in the form. To my disappointment, the black-haired woman explained that she was going to dye my hair black at Nicole’s request, and it would cost $4 extra because my hair was dyed recently (it wasn’t). I had already signed the form, so I figured there was nothing I could do about it. The woman cut my hair first, then took me over to a sink and rinsed my head in cold water. I saw Ryohei fighting his way past a group of men in white coats. He screamed my name. Seeing him, I became alarmed… It wasn’t possible. He was supposed to be dead! The men in white coats dragged him away.

“Nicole, we have to leave immediately,” I warned her.

“What? Why?” she asked. I quickly dried my hair and walked over to her.

“Haven’t you noticed people who are supposed to be dead walking around?”

“I guess I have… Why?”

“This is the land of the dead. We’ve been brought here somehow.”

“The Netherworld…” she gasped. I grabbed her hand and led the way into a hall in the back of the shop. We went up several flights of spiral staircases before reaching a door with a six-headed snake on the front. I had to touch my Vongola ring to a plate on the wall to open it. When I did, we were sucked into a portal.

I found myself hovering in rainbows. An altar before me held a ring as black as death. When I put it on my finger, I became the God of Death. One of the barber shop employees followed us into the portal. He refused to accept me as a god. I vowed to make him my friend. My vision turned into a set of bar lines with notes falling through them. Miniature versions of me, Nicole, Ryohei, and Kyoko flew around, catching the notes. The barber kept throwing more down at us. I got frustrated with him and froze time. Being a god wasn’t what it was cracked up to be…

“Hey… Where’s Lambo?” I asked Nicole in suspended time.

I saw myself step out of a cylindrical chamber in some kind of laboratory. I was five years old. Lambo hovered in a clear fluid in a giant tube beside me. At the future level, I knew this was how Lambo sent us to the underworld. I watched my child self leave the building, pursued by a five-year-old version of the angry barber. He seemed to retain his future knowledge, so he planned to kill me before I could become a god. Young me got in a tiny car in the parking lot and drove away. The barber stole a toy motorcycle. I drove down Roosevelt in the slow car… It had a maximum speed of twenty-five miles per hour. Naturally, people were honking at me for driving so slow. There was heavy construction for a stretch of the road. The barber rode on wooden planks across hot tar to get in front of me; he beat me home. I went straight to my room and found a five-year-old Nicole waiting. The barber attacked both of us. He bent my arm back until I promised not to join the mafia.

Compensation Checks

I spoke with a corporate executive in front of Nicole’s house. He offered me a job, so I accepted. When I went inside, my mom informed me that Sony had agreed they were the reason why I didn’t get the job. I would receive compensation checks every two weeks for the next three months. We agreed it wouldn’t be nearly as much money as I could’ve made if I was actually working.

Adjusting Pitch inside Umineko

I was inside an Umineko game. I had to adjust the pitch of my voice so Nicole could hear me.

I forgot most of this dream when I woke up.

King of Snap, Dream Wisher <--- This guy's back!

I was helping Nicole, Alex, and an older man look for Richard Rahl and Kahlan Amnell. We roamed a valley full of metal train cars. The older woman told us about her life on a slave farm. Other women – more attractive ones, she assured us – would get shipped off by train to serve warriors or nobility in distant lands, but they didn’t seem to want her. During a cold winter, there were several shipments of nothing but clothes; the women left on the farm believed they were ugly beyond compare because no one would order them. One day, however, a large percentage of the captives escaped with the help of Queen Autumn. Nicole didn’t seem to remember doing this. In any case, these abandoned train cars were housing for those slaves sent across the world. Graffiti and vulgar messages on the outside showed what the men thought of their female commodities. We found a strange acronym: IRA7EYMBNAD. I stared at it for a while before I realized what it meant.

“I’ll ride anything for $7, even your mom, but never a ****,” I read aloud, pointing to each letter to make it clear.

“That’s terrible,” Alex sighed.

“Well, as bad as it is,” Nicole reminded us, “we need to go find Richard and Kahlan. I think they’re in the mountain.”

“With the enemy?” Alex asked in disbelief. “They’re dead if that’s where they went. Atlas Corp has everything locked down.”

“She’s right,” I confirmed. “They’re close. I can sense Richard.”

“Why didn’t you say something sooner?” Nicole asked, frowning.

“Prophecy said you had to figure it out. I was just playing it safe; I knew you’d get it.” We shared a faint smile. I had known Richard’s whereabouts since we came to the valley. The old woman stayed behind to search for survivors in the slave camp. We marched toward the mountain fortress nearby.

The dream jumped. I was a guy named Aaron, but I used the name Whiffles so no one would know my true name. I was with three men trying to break out of the fortress. We dressed in suits and hopped in an elevator down to a casino. We weren’t supposed to be there; soldiers broke open the elevator doors and attacked us. Fortunately, we were able to fight them off. At the same time, my real self rode another elevator up to the same casino. When we got there, Nicole complained that none of the machines worked. I reminded her that we had more important things to worry about. We somehow ended up in a cavern with an underwater beach. The four guys from before caught up with us, and Whiffles insisted on leading us to Richard. We followed him single-file as instructed. I walked right behind him so I could kill him in a heartbeat if he did anything suspicious. My awareness oozed into his mind. I saw the King of Snap, the intergalactic conqueror, marching toward us and snapping. Nicole shouted the command to cut him down, but Whiffles pleaded us to follow him precisely. I understand that this involved magic, and it was crucial to heed his warning. We turned left and walked around the King of Snap. The King howled in rage, and a giant, white creature with dripping fangs the size of small houses and beady eyes stretched out of his back. It was large enough to break up clouds with its head. Whiffles transformed into a blue dragon and flew up into the air when the white creature spit a cloud of energy in our direction. He took the blow for us. With a crash, he landed on his back on the beach. The dragon man cried out in pain – but still, he urged us on.

We went to a black door at the end of the cavern. When I opened it, the spirit of Fisher Tiger entered my body. Fish people living in fear beyond the seal on the door fell to their knees, seeing me as their hero. Rather than going straight to Richard, I listened carefully to Fisher Tiger’s spirit. He guided me to an auditorium. I stood on the stage, faced the orchestra performing, and spoke in a booming voice. Their sad music broke off.

“Stop this at once!” I commanded. “There’s no need for mourning. Peace is upon us, my brethren.” Fish men all around me cheered. I pointed to a young soldier Fisher Tiger recognized. “You have shown courage in my absence, and you will be rewarded. I’m extending your service one hundred years – and with that comes the crowning of a new general.” I held up a crown. “Come with me to the ceremonial hall.”

We walked up to a statue of the fish queen, and the soldier knelt before me. I gently placed the crown on his head. The crowd watching us cheered.

“It is done,” I said.

“So you’re the one we’ve been looking for…” I heard Richard say. I turned my head and caught his raptor gaze. He didn’t see Fisher Tiger like the fish men all around us; he saw the true me lying underneath.

“The ancient wizards created a variety of dream-related magics,” I explained, rising. “You know all about the dream walker, but now we must confront the dream wisher.” I pictured the King of Snap in my mind. Although the dream wishers were typically females used for the pleasure of dream walkers, the King of Snap was a male. These dream wishers could also be used as a powerful weapon. Anyone who followed their wishes would quickly find themselves under the dream wisher’s control. I knew I would have to tell Richard Rahl about the dream warriors, as well, but that explanation would come later.

Minecraft Potato Chips

I was using Minecraft to make home-made potato chips. I dropped sliced potatoes on the ground, poured lava over them, and then removed the lava so the chips wouldn’t burn up. I also had to be careful about accidentally opening up a cavern full of monsters… I was certain that slimes were waiting behind the stone walls of the cavern. The timing was a bit tricky, but I managed to make six chips in one try. The lava cooked them to perfection. I sat at a table with Nicole and her dad to introduce them to my chips. They loved how the chips turned out.

Completely Uninterested

Omitted.

Another ACen in July

I was walking around at Anime Central. I saw a woman and her daughter in geisha outfits. They were both from Japan. It struck me as odd that the woman would let her daughter wear that… I also ran into Chelsea, who was cosplaying as a chocobo. My parents were there in normal clothes. My dad asked about my costume.

“Oh, this is my crappy version of Luffy,” I explained. It consisted of a red T-shirt, jeans, and sandals. I also had a yellow flag with a bear on it, but that had nothing to do with One Piece. “I would have a straw hat, but Regina has that.”

“I see,” my dad said. “I thought you were a Muppet.” I gave him a puzzled look.

“No way. What would that have to do with anime?”

“Do you and Nicole want to go to ACen in July?” he asked, changing the subject.

“They’re having another one in two months?” I shrugged as I considered it. “I guess they can afford it with as much money as they’re making…” We went through a revolving door. On the other side, my dad explained that Chelsea wanted to go, so he would let us use their hotel room.

Happy Birthday! I hope you do get a shared lucid dream that would be epic!

Originally Posted by MadMonkey

Happy Birthday! I hope you do get a shared lucid dream that would be epic!

Thanks! Everyone's invited to the party in my dreams.

April 30, 2011

Okay, so I don't remember showing up at my dream party, but at least I'm well-rested.

Emphasis on Vividness

I was telling people how I’d prefer to recall a few dreams vividly each night than to recall several hazy fragments. They gave me strange looks.

Train to the Depths and the Syndicate

Nicole and I were late in reaching the train station. We pulled up in two separate cars, but there was only one free parking space… The rest were handicapped. I parked on the grass since I couldn’t leave the car in the road. We barely made it to the train before departure. It took us deep into a forest, then underground. When the train stopped, Nicole and I kept walking deeper underground in the same direction. My parents joined up with us. We saw a silver corvette parked in the cavern. As we approached, we realized a black man was sitting in the driver’s seat with a gun. I didn’t hesitate to walk by him, but I was worried he would shoot me. We came to a large room that branched off into several directions. Most of the continuing passageways went further down. The others left me alone.

Omitted.

A group of four guys with swords came down into the room. I saw blue text hovering over their heads, indicating that they were part of a faction known as the Syndicate. They had a reputation as notorious murderers. I tried to teleport away, but I couldn’t set the destination properly with them hacking away at me. Symphony managed to get away at my insistence; I didn’t want them to capture her. When I died, I respawned in a wooden building. I was on a Minecraft server. The server announced my death at the hands of Krislek, one of the four swordsmen. Other people made fun of me for dying without putting up a fight. Someone who felt bad for me was going to give me items since I’d lost everything, including my camera – I was glad they wouldn’t be able to recover the photographs, at least – but he gave the items to someone else.

The Shadow Woman's Warning

I was in the basement of a ruined building. The Ikana Valley theme played quietly in the background. Nicole and I came across an old woman made of shadows. She sat hunched in the corner, facing the wall. She wouldn’t respond to anything we said. For some reason, she asked us for a bomb. It took two attempts for me to successfully feed the shadow woman a bomb; the first time, it just fell on the ground and exploded. Once she ate the bomb, she was able to see us. She warned me that I was going too deep. The music got louder.

“There are two great fields on the way here,” the woman whispered. Her voice was like a snake hissing. “To the south is the Great Eternity, filled with hills. To the north is the Great Existence. Jagang will wait there for you.” I saw a flash of a massive army camping in a field. They demolished much of the forest to make room for their camp.

“What does he want from me?”

“Everything,” the shadow woman murmured. She hunched over and turned around. She didn’t respond after that.

Originally Posted by Nephanim

April 30, 2011

Okay, so I don't remember showing up at my dream party, but at least I'm well-rested.

Emphasis on Vividness

I was telling people how I’d prefer to recall a few dreams vividly each night than to recall several hazy fragments. They gave me strange looks.

Train to the Depths and the Syndicate

Nicole and I were late in reaching the train station. We pulled up in two separate cars, but there was only one free parking space… The rest were handicapped. I parked on the grass since I couldn’t leave the car in the road. We barely made it to the train before departure. It took us deep into a forest, then underground. When the train stopped, Nicole and I kept walking deeper underground in the same direction. My parents joined up with us. We saw a silver corvette parked in the cavern. As we approached, we realized a black man was sitting in the driver’s seat with a gun. I didn’t hesitate to walk by him, but I was worried he would shoot me. We came to a large room that branched off into several directions. Most of the continuing passageways went further down. The others left me alone.

Omitted.

A group of four guys with swords came down into the room. I saw blue text hovering over their heads, indicating that they were part of a faction known as the Syndicate. They had a reputation as notorious murderers. I tried to teleport away, but I couldn’t set the destination properly with them hacking away at me. Symphony managed to get away at my insistence; I didn’t want them to capture her. When I died, I respawned in a wooden building. I was on a Minecraft server. The server announced my death at the hands of Krislek, one of the four swordsmen. Other people made fun of me for dying without putting up a fight. Someone who felt bad for me was going to give me items since I’d lost everything, including my camera – I was glad they wouldn’t be able to recover the photographs, at least – but he gave the items to someone else.

The Shadow Woman's Warning

I was in the basement of a ruined building. The Ikana Valley theme played quietly in the background. Nicole and I came across an old woman made of shadows. She sat hunched in the corner, facing the wall. She wouldn’t respond to anything we said. For some reason, she asked us for a bomb. It took two attempts for me to successfully feed the shadow woman a bomb; the first time, it just fell on the ground and exploded. Once she ate the bomb, she was able to see us. She warned me that I was going too deep. The music got louder.

“There are two great fields on the way here,” the woman whispered. Her voice was like a snake hissing. “To the south is the Great Eternity, filled with hills. To the north is the Great Existence. Jagang will wait there for you.” I saw a flash of a massive army camping in a field. They demolished much of the forest to make room for their camp.

“What does he want from me?”

“Everything,” the shadow woman murmured. She hunched over and turned around. She didn’t respond after that.

I listened to the Ikana Valley music (I am currently at that point in Majoras Mask ) while I read The Shadow Woman's Warning. It fit really well.

May 1, 2011

Easter Mail

I was in Nicole’s room. She pulled my laptop’s AC adapter out of the surge protector by the cord. In the process, she bent the outlet prongs. I straightened them out by hand while scolding her for being so careless. She had a magnetic case for her phone… The magnet inside was powerful enough that I could put her phone in one half of the case in my palm, hold my hand over the other half, and lift it off the ground just via the magnetic force.

We heard a loud noise outside, so I went to investigate. I followed the origin of the sound to the mailbox, but there was no one there. I even tried calling out in case the person had just walked away, but no one responded. The mailbox was stuffed with letters and Easter candy. More candy kept appearing as I pulled stuff out of the mailbox… Nicole and her mom had to help me clear it out.

Creative Inventory Assessment

I went to my music class on the final exam date. On the way, I saw Betts speaking to herself as though talking to the class. She was walking up a stairwell… I thought about letting her know that I was the only one in the class who could hear her – and even was having trouble hearing her muttering – but I figured I would wait until we reached the classroom. To my surprise, she took a set of stairs back down and went into the basement. She had picked a new classroom in the basement without telling anyone… Betts handed back a number of assignments. When the people sitting around me saw that I had perfect scores on everything, they started calling me names. I ignored them. When I got a paper back with “16/25″ written at the top, they laughed.

“Not your best work,” Betts sighed. “You did terrible.” I couldn’t believe she was egging them on. The girl next to me, Michelle, at least apologized for laughing at my expense. Since we had already taken the final exam, Betts gave us a creative inventory assessment to supplement our exams. There were only six students present in the classroom… It seemed a bit ridiculous to give us this chance to boost our grades but not the people who had gone to the correct classroom. The questions in the assessment were random and often confusing. There was one question about our teacher assistant’s name which had incorrect letters filled in to throw us off. We had to write with magic markers, so I couldn’t just erase the misleading hint. The test even included taste testing for a number of foods, including cinnamon rolls.

Michelle was missing a page of the assessment, but Betts and her assistant weren’t paying attention. I rapped my knuckles on the desk to make them look up, then pointed with my thumb at Michelle. Even if she was rude, I didn’t want to leave her helpless. After the test ended, I roamed Siegel Hall in search of sources of magic power. I ended up in the writing center. There was a tall cylinder full of magic energy on one side of the room, and two scientists stood in front of it. They were discussing ways to exploit its power.

The dream jumped. I was walking with Nicole on my parents’ street from when we lived in North Carolina. A group of girls walked by, and I found out they were singing Michelle’s song. We followed them down the street. They asked if I was gay. I explained that I had a girlfriend. I added that I had no interest in any of them, so I might as well be gay. One girl asked if I would be her “escort.” I didn’t see any problems, so… I walked her back to her house, pretending to be her boyfriend. I pushed her over onto a table in front of her parents. When I went back outside, I noticed Michelle standing in the group of girls. We started talking about her test results. She had already been offered a record deal because of the assessment. I didn’t get anything… I figured I must not have done well. I said I would buy her song. She wanted to buy one of mine, too, but I never wrote one.

The dream jumped. I was watching a stupid cartoon on TV about monsters. It looked like the same artist who did Billy and Mandy animated it. The show turned into a fight between three humans and a group of monsters in an underground tunnel. There was a cactuar man, a bear, a ghost, and something else… As the fight wore on, it became clear that one of the monsters had infinite health. They all turned human. I found a glitch to give myself money. Apparently, I was convinced that the woman we were fighting had infinite health because she had given herself billions of zeny.

The dream jumped. My dad was driving. He said the creativity assessment was a bad idea because it enabled kids to control their parents financially or through fear. If they became successful in the music industry as a result of taking the test, the parents would depend on them for the rest of their lives. On the other hand, if they failed the test, the parents would fear for their child’s well-being and give in to any demand. I observed that the kids who would manipulate their parents didn’t need a test to teach them how.

Freezing Urine

I was standing in Nicole’s kitchen with the door to the freezer open. I urinated inside it and closed the door. Nicole and her mom scolded me, but I didn’t see what was so wrong with it… I supposed it would freeze and get stuck to the walls of the freezer, but I knew I had done it before without anyone complaining. I promised to clean it with paper towels before it could freeze. I decided I’d better sanitize the inside of the freezer, too. I accidentally grabbed a bottle of cheese. Nicole warned me that I wasn’t supposed to use cheese to clean things. I ended up just wiping the inside of the freezer down with heavy wads of paper towels.

Release of Minecraft 1.6

I heard news that Notch had released version 1.6 of Minecraft. I was eager to try out his new mapping system. We were too busy to check his blog for an update, though.

The Aztec Boxes

Morrison was showing our class three cubes made by the Aztecs. On each face was a carving of an animal. The set of boxes was valued at over $200,000 – at least $50,000 per box. Because the boxes had wires running through them, they could be used for a variety of signal operations such as amplification, rectification, and frequency modulation. Two boxes placed together in the same direction would function as a diode. The whole set could function as a transistor. Most amazingly of all, it produced incredible amounts of energy, seemingly without a price. The amount increased as the frequency the boxes were set to was decreased. By the time the frequency reached 60 Hz, for example, it produced around eleven watts. At 10 Hz, it yielded 1100 watts. At 0 Hz, it gave nearly 11 megawatts! Because the DC power was so high, I figured it was more reliable, but as my professor pointed out, the boxes could be used to power a number of household items directly.

He took a break to hand out our graded exams. I got a 56/60 on my music exam (even though that’s a different class) and a perfect score on Morrison’s exam. He also gave me an exam without a name printed at the top. I saw that the exam wasn’t complete… It wasn’t mine, either. The guy sitting next to me asked about a field trip. I vaguely knew what he meant. I told him the field trip would only take an hour, so he wouldn’t have to book a room anywhere for the trip. I was missing whatever Morrison was saying because of his questions, so I turned away from the student, dismissing him.

Originally Posted by Nephanim

I heard news that Notch had released version 1.6 of Minecraft. I was eager to try out his new mapping system. We were too busy to check his blog for an update, though.

Do you play the paid version of Minecraft? I usually play the free version, I just like to roam around in a sandbox like environment and I was wondering if the paid version is like that too, or if you have to play with a specific goal.

Originally Posted by Nephanim

I heard news that Notch had released version 1.6 of Minecraft. I was eager to try out his new mapping system. We were too busy to check his blog for an update, though.

Funny that you are having dreams about minecraft updates too.

Originally Posted by Queen Zukin

Do you play the paid version of Minecraft? I usually play the free version, I just like to roam around in a sandbox like environment and I was wondering if the paid version is like that too, or if you have to play with a specific goal.

Basicly you can do what ever you want. At night monsters come out so it is good to have shelter to get away from them. You don't have unlimited resorses like you do in the free version so you have to find ways of getting what you need like mining for ores and farming for wood and food. I think it is much more intertaining than the free version which is really just for building cool structures.

Originally Posted by Queen Zukin

Do you play the paid version of Minecraft? I usually play the free version, I just like to roam around in a sandbox like environment and I was wondering if the paid version is like that too, or if you have to play with a specific goal.

I have the paid version, but I've played both. There's a lot of freedom in the survival version, but like MadMonkey mentioned, you have to be mindful of the zombies and whatnot. A lot of servers have towns set aside with sufficient lighting to take care of that problem. Collecting materials can take a while depending on what you're looking for, but exploring cave systems is fun, too. Plus the creative version doesn't have redstone!

Originally Posted by MadMonkey

Funny that you are having dreams about minecraft updates too.

Yeah, it's proof that I play Minecraft too much. I've probably only spent about an hour in-game in the past two weeks, but it's still constantly popping up in my dreams.

May 2, 2011
(First Day of Final Exam Week)

Activate 2E

Nicole was having trouble with her computer. I explained that there were two engines in each of her processors, and she was only using one of them. In order to solve her problem, she was going to have to activate the second set of engines.

Noise Complaint and Repossession

I was playing Minecraft on a handheld device. I kept playing until I stepped onto a bus. The people on the bus seemed to resent me because of my massive stockpiles of resources on Minecraft. I tried to give them suggestions for increasing their productivity, but they wouldn’t listen. The bus drove around in a loop and dropped me off where I got on. Back in Minecraft, I walked to a house I built in the area. Although I certainly didn’t give anyone permission, someone had moved in with me. His name was Mike. I was immediately impressed with the detail in his decorating. The house looked very nice. Nicole came over, and so did Mike’s friend. He told us we should move the washing machine. It was built into the wall behind a book shelf… We decided to leave it there instead of risking a flood by moving it. Nicole, Mike, his friend, and I started playing a game with cards. Each of the cards had a word on it. It was something like Apples to Apples. Mike’s friend started making jokes about our parents… I was glad to see him and Mike leave. I reminded myself that I could just lock Mike out of the house. He didn’t actually live with me, after all. Nicole tried to use the bathroom in the basement, but there wasn’t a light installed in the room. I found a bulb that was loose right outside the bathroom, so I decided to screw it in. The glass was incredibly hot… I had to use a washcloth to protect my hand from the heat. Once we screwed it in, I realized that wouldn’t actually help… As soon as she closed the door, she wouldn’t be able to see. I kept wondering where we would put the shower. There wasn’t room in the bathroom.

The dream jumped. I was on my grandparents’ driveway. Some kids complained about the neighbors being noisy. When the police arrived to investigate the noise complaint, they said the music had been playing at over 300 dB. The cop chewed us all out for this because the music was at a normal volume. He started throwing basketballs and other things at Nicole just to annoy me. I threw them back at him, but my aim was terrible, so I missed every time. The cop finally left. My dad showed up in a long truck and ran Nicole over. The kids from before hid Nicole’s corpse behind a garden, but since I had witnessed her death, that didn’t accomplish anything. I screamed and cried with grief.

The dream jumped. I was in a detached train car. My house had been dismantled and sold as punishment for my involvement with the delinquents at my grandparents’ house. I knew I would have to find a way to raise money for shelter… Otherwise, Nicole would be forced to sleep outside in the cold. Something about that seemed wrong, but I didn’t understand why. I had forgotten about her death. I stepped out of the train car and wandered by a lake. There were blue Pikmin in the water, but there were just as many piranhas. I tried to fight the fish with my newfound army of Pikmin, but I just ended up losing most of them… I found some red and yellow Pikmin when I retreated to the shore, but they touched the water and disappeared. I was disappointed; I figured I could have saved them from drowning. I crossed a river full of piranhas and lost my remaining blue Pikmin.

On the other side, I found a stereo in a box. A price tag on the box said it had a value of $800. I took the sticker off and brought the stereo to a store nearby. The guy working there said he would take a look at it and let me know if he wanted to buy it. That would pay for a month’s rent!

May 3, 2011
(Second Day of Final Exam Week)

My recall's probably going to suffer at least one more night... I'll try to go to bed earlier.

Causal Drugs, Consciousness, and the Flutist

I was in a class led by Betts. She started talking about drugs. She told us that we should only smoke a little… I thought it was weird that she was condoning smoking but condemning everything else, but I didn’t say anything. As she erased the board, Peter Ryszkiewicz stood up and asked if Betts was going to talk about “causal drugs.” He and I helped erase sections of the board.

“No…” she said sadly. “Those are too boring… You know, long lists of side effects and everything.” She thanked us for our help, and we both sat down. She drew an amorphous blob on the board. Apparently, it was supposed to be a brain.

“Name some things associated with consciousness,” she said, pointing to the person on my left. He said something about thoughts. I reasoned that since we’re conscious in our dreams, I might as well say dreaming. When she asked for my input, that’s exactly what I said. She nodded slowly. “Interesting…” She came back to me after asking everyone else once. “Do you have anything else to say?”

“W… What? No… Nothing else really comes to mind,” I replied. There were already eleven things written on the board. I didn’t understand why she needed me to produce another answer.

“Oh. That’s too bad.” Betts sighed. “One out of ten isn’t so bad, I suppose.”

The dream jumped. I was in the same classroom, but it was packed full of people. A solo flutist had come to my campus to perform. He brought the worst runner on his school’s track team along to help with the performance. Whereas most of the track team members had to run eight laps around their track each day, this girl was expected to do thirteen laps daily in order to improve her coordination. A number of students from the other school came to watch, too. When the flutist started playing, I frowned. He was terrible. He squeaked his way through the whole performance… Nicole covered her ears before it was over.

Throughout this, the runner girl circled around the room with a tambourine for some reason. Every time she passed me, she looked at me for a moment. I wondered if I knew her from somewhere… In retrospect, this was probably Ray Demanti. After the performance, Betts and the soloist took bows together in the middle of the room. I found myself in the flutist’s body for a moment and gave an awkward bow. I quickly returned to my own body. Looking at the students gathered all around the room, I wondered why so many people had come all the way to our campus just to hear this amateur flute player trying to show off… The students had split into two well-defined groups – those from my school and everyone else.