Task of the Month for July 2014

Unfortunately they have been hunted for their fantastic fur. Completely amazing animals - and so I can quote something from the respective thread in my sig on over into a spoiler:

Spoiler for more platypus :

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Originally Posted by StephL

Yeah - platypuses are fantastic - quite endangered - they need extremely clear water for finding all their food.
You can sort of adopt them, pay money for the in captivity breeding program - and then you are allowed to go into a basin and play with the females*, and cuddle and feed away - they really seem to love it!
And these adorable beaks - they are all rubbery!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6QHzIJO5a8



They are very cool indeed - here a little collection of platypus special-effects:

The first scientists who encountered the odd-looking platypus believed someone had sewn together the body of a beaver with a duck's bill as a joke. The animal appears to be an unlikely mix of the bill and webbed feet of a duck, a beaver-like tail and the fur of an otter.
They are also one of the very few mammals to lay eggs.

Platypuses are amphibians native to freshwater lakes and streams in Eastern Australia and Tasmania. Males average 20 in (50 cm) and females are about 17 in (45 cm) long.
*Males are also very venomous having a spur on their hind foot that, when released, can kill a medium-sized dog and severely incapacitate a human. Hence they miss out on the cuddle fun above - poor guys.

Platypuses are mainly active at night, using their electroreceptors on their sensitive bills to navigate. They also use the bills to turn up soil for food.

These animals can swim well in water and are carnivorous bottom-feeders scooping up small crustaceans, larvae and worms from the floor. A platypus will store the food it scoops up in cheek pouches to consume on land.
They do not have teeth, using bits of gravel to help crush their food.
The platypus stores fat in its tail to help it survive when food is limited.

When on land, their webbing retracts and the claws are more pronounced. They walk awkwardly on their knuckles to protect the webbing.
Platypuses live in burrows they dig near the water's edge. Burrows can be very complex and up to 100 feet long.
A baby platypus is very small and helpless. They stay inside the burrow for nearly four months before they learn to swim.
Platypuses spend nearly 17 hours a day resting in their burrows.
A platypus bill is flexible and feels rubbery to the touch.
Platypuses have two layers of dense, thick fur that helps them stay warm underwater. Until the 1900s, the animals were often hunted for their fur. When swimming, the platypus shuts its eyes and ears. They usually remain about two minutes underwater before they come up for air.

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http://www.booboos.biz/rawImages/Perry_the_Platypus.jpg

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Originally Posted by StephL

We could make a recipe thread - but I actually answer to you for extended platypussic greetings!

Spoiler for platypus:

http://i1339.photobucket.com/albums/...ps158c11ce.jpg

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//glomps on Platypus

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Originally Posted by Schmaven

That is an amazing platypus! It looks like its flying through the air, completely dry except for a small wet patch by the bill. Just want to rub its chin!

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God it's ACTUALLY one of my life goals to cuddle a platypus. I've loved them since I was in 2nd grade. But there are none here in the USA ; A ;

Quote:

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Originally Posted by StephL

Unfortunately they have been hunted for their fantastic fur. Completely amazing animals - and so I can quote something from the respective thread in my sig on over into a spoiler:

Spoiler for more platypus :

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OH MY GOD I THINK I LOVE YOU.
I've never met anyone who knew as much about Platypuses as I do!
Don't forget that they have no teets like most other mammals; they secrete the milk through glands on their bellies, and the babies suck it off the fur, which gets soaked in the milk.
Also WHERE IS THIS MAGICAL PLATYPUS CUDDLES PLACE?
I NEED TO FIND IT.
My life goal. I can seriously die happy if I can say I got to touch a real platypus.
Hell, I'd even willingly get stung by a male if it was the only platypus around.

Healesville Sanctuary | Zoos Victoria

http://www.zoo.org.au/sites/default/...?itok=od8wrhK8

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Originally Posted by StephL

Healesville Sanctuary | Zoos Victoria

http://www.zoo.org.au/sites/default/...?itok=od8wrhK8

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I'm already planning my next vacation around this, ohmygoodness.
LIFE GOAL, HERE I COME!

:gab:

Awww... New dream goal added :smitten:

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Originally Posted by KestrelKat

That sounds awesome! I can definitely feel you, because there are some things that only my Oma makes, and I love them so much. Thankfully, I've gotten all her recipes from her this past winter <3 Does anyone have the recipe for that fried item your grandma used to make? It would be amazing if you could make it for yourself! Also, welcome :D

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Yes, I have the recipe, but never as good as what you had as a kid when your grandma made it. :(- I have all her recipes too. It is amazing how this lucid dream made me realize I love it more than potato chips, which is so true in real life too!!

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Originally Posted by StephL

Wow - well done - grandmothers are usually rather advanced! :wink:
Congratulation - what a first post - welcome along!

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Thank you!! I always get my grandma, dad or my grandpa and they are all deceased. I have been trying to use them as a dream sign, but not yet been successful. In this case I was lucid before I met my grandma also. Though it helped me to stay lucid longer this time :-)

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Originally Posted by LolaTheLoner

I've tried it, but that seldom works to get me out of SP. I've tried changing my breathing pattern in all different kinds of ways, even holding my breath, but doing so takes ages to pull me out of it and usually makes it worse in the process. Only one thing I've ever tried works consistently. I can usually manage to take control of my right foot and shake it back and forth enough to jar myself awake. This doesn't always work, and it still takes quite a bit of effort, but it's better than any other technique as of yet. Why my foot is the only thing I'm able to move is beyond me.

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And speak of the Devil.... After a long nap dream in and out of lucidity several times I got SP for the first time in months, Not the usual lead blanket thing but I started to wake up and forced my eyes open and just barely saw light and closed them part way again and looked for my fingers and finally found long pencil thin crooked dream fingers I could wiggle but I could barely move my hands and said, "Dang Lola, She would mention SP" And managed to hold it over into a short DEILD but not long enough to accomplish much.....

PS: Does that full moon up there mean anything to you, It means "Lucid Time" to me :yddd:

Awesome lucid! I didn't quite do the task I feel, maybe somewhat in the hazy void part but like the basic completion, I don't want either wings yet. I feel that not taking any wings (I really only achieved the basic earlier in the month) will keep me motivated to do more TOTM attempts. Finally one of my recent vivid dreams became lucid! Similar calm, highly lucid, exploration like my grassy sea lucid and right after seeing the closest thing I have seen to a grassy sea: I just watched Gravity for the first time last night and there is a scene where you see a grassy vegetation growing up out of a large body of water. When I saw that scene in the movie IWL my heart fluttered emotionally with the memory of the wonderful lucid dream it so much reminded me of and it must have inspired another awesome LD. I think it solidified the point for me to slow down and explore all of the wonder right around me. I have also had similar experiences IWL.

Spoiler for earlier non-lucid, perhaps helped me get lucid later:

One of my earlier dreams was very vivid. At the end there is a squirrel that got into a house with a gathering or party. After trying to lead him out an open door, I was able to catch it but it reached back and bit my hand. I moved my hands further up his body to the base of his head to keep him from biting me again. All I could see from the injury was what looked more like a bloody scratch. I woke with the thought that the squirrel biting me should have made me lucid. 2nd bite or threat of bite later got me lucid.

Spoiler for Non-lucid beginning of dream:

I am on a trip again, a common theme. My family and I are heading to quarantine area where they are going to apply some treatment to everyone via spray in the room so that no one carries any diseases into this foreign country. In a seemingly semi lucid moment I put my arms around this beautiful woman who takes to it kindly at first but then pushes me away. I sit on the floor apparently wearing a baseball cap as my view is slightly obscured looking upwards. Two cute kids are playing with me as I sit there. My wife is sitting on a ledge above on the perimeter of the room and a guy next to her is apparently stinky and she makes a face. I asked my wife where our son is. She didn't seem sure and didn't seem worried. Doors to the room opened up to let everyone out and transport trolleys are coming in and I'm the last one still in there and the doors closed but I'm able to scurry my way to the door and open it and go out. It is a beautiful countryside with
green hills reminding me of where I was in 1993. Lots of people hanging around outside but no wife and son. I just wait knowing they would know where to find me. People are sitting at an outdoor table talking while most others mingling much like a party but it is daytime, outside and of course in the beautiful scenery. I see a group walking down the road maybe they are with them up that way.

I pass a place that raises collies apparently, the dog breed. I strain my neck to see and a dog runs up to me to jump or bite me...ah dog dream sign (One of the dream signs I thought about during WBTB...I'm dreaming.. fades and I clench my eyes to try to reenter the dream. It probably never ended, probably just the void, it's hazy but I can see a little bit and I think of the task of the month and I start to visualize an elevator...nothing at first but then a big red button appears and I press it and at this point it is more like I am visualizing an elevator door opening and seeing the elevator car and stepping in.
I can feel myself going up up up in what feels more like an open-air elevator car and still hazy. I am not satisfied with experience due to the lack of visuals. I think that I wake up but wait remember always check when waking up. I do feel that I'm still in a dream, an FA, laying in bed. I get out of bed. I'm in a hotel room with strange striped wallpaper. I end up face down on the floor and struggle to crawl up to the wall to lift myself up. How tricky the transition is to an FA. Try to stick my finger through my palm and it indicates that I am awake. No! I am sure that I'm dreaming so I look at my left hand and there are five fingers. But, I have a small appendage or extra little finger sticking out to the right of my left index finger going out from a spot about 3/4 of an inch down my finger. I think again of the elevator task...a hotel should be perfect. I go through two sets of doors to exit my hotel room but before I close the door I take one
more look at my hand and it looks just like before surprisingly...five fingers with a little extra one. The hallway of the hotel is awesome it looks maybe 1920s!! The walls are adorned with a beautiful rich dark wood paneling up and down. I go down to one end of the hall and there's a short flight of stairs up straight ahead, maybe 5 stairs and I start to go up and I think this wouldn't be the way to an elevator but at the top I see there's a small opening or space and there is a small door not more than a foot and a half tall . I go back the other way down the hall past where I came out and circle around to the right and I see a man and a woman in an open area with curtains that are opened. It looks like an opium den and/or a brothel. I keep going then I come to an opening in the hall there is a weird creature or boy sitting on the floor with his back to me. I decide to turn my back to him...out of sight out of mind. I continue down another hall and
walk past this man who had first looks like a guy in a suit and tie. Still not seeing an elevator I decide to go back to the man who now looks more like a bellman , an old fashioned one. I asked him if there's an elevator here. He says that the elevator will be ready in 1 to 2 weeks. I then think perhaps I can teleport to one of the neighboring buildings it seems like I'm in a big city downtown with lots of buildings back at the early part of the century from everything I see in this hotel and the way that guy is dressed. I'm amazed how vivid this dream is and how beautiful everything is. I ask if there's another building around with an elevator. The guy says that actually I can ride their elevator but I just have to sign a waiver. I ask him where will it take me. He says it will take me up to the top. I ask him what is there? He says the tree. I say the tree? Is this construction, unfinished? No he says it is solid. It used to house our Communications
department(?). I follow him towards the elevator down the hall that looks like a maintenance corridor and I'm having trouble standing up straight. I am leaning heavily as if I will fall to my left down a stairwell but I am hanging on to some bars or pipes that line the right side. It seems like the guy I am following is growing impatient at how slow I am. I'm in a dilemma. I'm not sure if I should let go and have faith that I can walk straight or keep going while holding on. I think it's okay if I fall it is just a dream but I might lose the scene and my path to the elevator. I also I think that I could teleport. I got probably 20 feet down this hall hanging on before I finally woke up for real. Still very cool lucid scenes and I wake up smiling. My day practices up until yesterday were focusing on doing the elevator task next for whatever reason. Yesterday I thought I started incubating the idea that I should meet up with Dreamer first, but next need to incubate that a bit more. Might have gotten to that task if I had ever completed the elevator one!

Elevator AGAIN, still non lucid. I was looking for my leather sandals, found them around the corner in the elevator

I will put the platypus-cuddle on my dream-list as well now - strange I didn't do that instantly after watching the video I spoilered...

Great dream fogelbise - you are hard on yourself here, I feel - but if it leads to more lucids to not be content so easily - you go!!
Elevator ready in two or three weeks - hehehe - then there will be a new task! :D

Edit: @fogelbise - it should be rather easy to summon our hypnotic elevator - we've visualized it quite a bit including the tall building. Next time I'll look out for it! And then there would be an opportunity to simulate the whole procedure, maybe - the auto-suggestions for more LDs. With or without the book - but I heard of people, who can read texts in their dreams - RareCola (name correct?) for example...


I finally got lucid again as well! :giraffe:

Not much - like so often I start with jumping in the air to start hovering and hover along over a street with people. Then the undress thing comes to my mind, so I hover there, horizontally maybe 3 m above ground - and rip my clothes off and shout "Ha!!" to get people's attention. It's funny - they look up and with a satisfyingly shocked expression, most of them. I revel in the fact that I can be completely exhibitionistic since it is a dream. It feels truly liberating - a quite strong and very good feeling! I then aim for a taller house where I suspect an elevator, but I don't make it there. I wake up mid-hover and without the help of a beautiful naked stranger - be s/he from here or not - that wasn't so optimal but otherwise I'm quite happy!

I tried SSILD last night arround 4am. I fell asleep after round 2 and WILDed on accident. Sounds good right? No! I was standing in front of a lake and yelling at a tree, that he should move because he distracts me from my SSILD technique :bang:

Got the naked one... again...

Spoiler for Dream Excerpt:

I was in this giant Lego city. I don't remember exactly what made me lucid, but I was. I somehow remembered the TOTM, so I decided to get naked. My clothes suddenly disappeared. I went to go find a DC. I found this Lego guy that had an elephant head. I ran up to him naked, and he kept trying to look away.

Spoiler for Rated PG-13 for Nudity and Graphic Stupidity:

"Look at my penis!" I shouted. I then accidentally hit him in the face with my junk. He started running away. I tried to run after him to apologize, but he ran into his house. "Well, that's done."

Full dream.

^^ That's the thing about the naked task, once you start undressing you can never stop. It will haunt you for lds to come! ;).

I know I had a dream where I got naked, but I'm pretty sure it was very low level lucid or even just a nonlucid. I just vaguely recall thinking "Oh TOTM, time to take off my clothes." But just a shadow of a thought of a memory... bleeeh

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Originally Posted by KestrelKat

//glomps on Platypus
God it's ACTUALLY one of my life goals to cuddle a platypus. I've loved them since I was in 2nd grade. But there are none here in the USA ; A ;

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Platypuses (or the males, rather) have venomous spines on their feet. Apparently, the effects of being kicked are "excruciatingly painful."

We know, ThreeCat! But thanks for the warning - they have only the females out on the cuddling for money misssion. But since they really seem to like it - sexual dimorphism is backfiring on the males here, I'm afraid to say! :wink:

I got lucid once by noticing that I was nude in public and somehow coming to the conclusion that hence this was a dream. But it went rather sexual after that - but with closing my eyes, which was basic task back then - well if my memory doesn't trick me too much here - I'm too lazy to look it up!

After a little sexy time LD, I was attempting to find Dreamer for the Bonus Task, but no luck. Not as good as the previous one, but will spoiler it if interested:

Spoiler for PG-13 LD Burlesque DILD Then Bonus Attempt:

7/14/14* My previous DJ entry was up there with my all time favorites. I just loved the setting and vividness. Tonight near lucid then lucid later. I'm in a parking garage. Guy pulls up in a car with a tarp over a big part of it. What do you have under there? He says he doesn't need to tell me. We need to know (am I police or security or something?). First thought=could be bomb! Then, it could be kidnapped kids...Sure enough dream comes up with 2 kids under the tarp. Some other guy struggles with guy that came in the car and also with the kids who are being brats. A relatively big tough guy nearby wants to stop me from intervening. "The three of us can take you," I start to say. He says some threats related to him not being afraid to go back to jail. I back off...wake=FA. I think to myself if I was lucid I could have knocked him around with TK! Tough guy and I are sharing a sleeping space now? I'm on couch and he crawls over me slowly...to go to the bathroom? I can feel him stepping on the couch in several places trying to make his way over me. I pretend to be asleep. When he gets back he seems to be cuddling me... Hell no, I think...uh...I need to go pee. I get up and say something like "gotta stop drinking so much water...gotta pee all the time (excuse)." I look back at him. He has this weird peeking eye?..One eye is slightly open but he is also snoring so I assume he is asleep. His feet are up on the couch and his upper half on the floor, face up. I head to the bathroom and I have to pull 2 doors together to lock it in a very loose fashion and I can still see out. While I am urinating I see a lady with a spotlight on her doing burlesque! I'm dreaming! I approach her. She changes to a different woman and then back. She is not really slender, dark hair and is in black lingerie. I think let's look around while doing a little dancing with her but I can't focus on the surroundings much. I start to have intercourse with the dancer lady standing up. Someone says "here's Mom" and a older motherly figure and an older fatherly figure show up. I take this as a test to my lucidity and think: no worries! I say "Hey mom, check her out" as I continue intercourse. "Hey check out these breasts" and I remove her bra..."nice breasts, right?!" Ok...let me get down to goals...I want to find Dreamer for the Bonus TOTM, but not here, not like this. I will teleport...closed eye
teleport. I say I want to arrive in a beautiful and vivid world...but perhaps I did not give it enough focus. I open my eyes and I am in a hazy storage room? There are stacked metal folding chairs in a few different spots. I look around a little while, but I am not seeing anything interesting and unfortunately lose patience. I try another teleport and instead of closing my eyes I clench my eyes like when I am trying to DEILD and I wake up or have a convincing FA of right where I'm at IWL...possibly FA because when I decide to roll over and check the time it feels like I am shaking off SP. Either way, awake.

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Originally Posted by StephL

Edit: @fogelbise - it should be rather easy to summon our hypnotic elevator - we've visualized it quite a bit including the tall building. Next time I'll look out for it! And then there would be an opportunity to simulate the whole procedure, maybe - the auto-suggestions for more LDs. With or without the book - but I heard of people, who can read texts in their dreams - RareCola (name correct?) for example...


I finally got lucid again as well! :giraffe:

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I agree, the hypnotic elevator is perfect for this and congrats on yours!! :)

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Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

I know I had a dream where I got naked, but I'm pretty sure it was very low level lucid or even just a nonlucid. I just vaguely recall thinking "Oh TOTM, time to take off my clothes." But just a shadow of a thought of a memory... bleeeh

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Whew, With your dream at 14:05 and mine at 18:00 that gets me off the hook :P

This month's Bonus task is too good, This is my third time at it.. I'm not going to say who the DV girl was or I may get in trouble but I will say that if she can pee on a June Bug at three paces she will know...

6:00pm The thunder chased the cat under the bed again about 4:30pm and I thought it was a good idea too so I laid down on top of it and it seemed almost as soon as I closed my eyes I was drifting down thru a brown dust cloud and knew where this was going, It goes to a a place with a violet sun and funny animals and Godzilla and demons and all that...I started to come out of the dust drifting down to a pasture field with brown grass and a pond in the corner of it and live toy animals about and I stopped just inches off the ground and for some reason looked and I was wearing only flimsy blue running shorts I don't own and something wet and warm went up between my legs and goosed me but it felt really good, I looked around and there was a small live toy pony standing there,

The rest is over here http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/woblybil/

It's summer and Picnic foods are whats doing this, Like hot sausages with real mustard creating wicked lucid dreams...

:yddd:

Pleease Ophelia - give me wiiiinx for flying nude in public - see above! :fly:

Oh - and edit @woblybil: I only managed to pee on a secret military mission guy stowed away in a lower compartment of a tank yet.
And this cost me lucidity - I wanted to get abducted by aliens for advanced back then - mind-opened a hangar door and there was this tank then instead of an IFU. And I thought for some reason it would be less disturbing to go pee in there than out in the open, and the entrance led me to an upper compartment. That was it with lucidity then, when a dripping soldier came complaining to me. Approximately - but all documented..:rolllaugh:

Not on running bugs, yet, I didn't - nor on bugs while running myself - at least as far as I remember...
If you were convinced it was me again - go ahead and count it - going by "typical dream-content" - this is less common for me than schlepping stuff through the landscape - but typical enough! :wink:

Second edit: I didn't actually read your dream yet, woblybil - maybe I should go do that instead of guessing about...:D

@woblybil: That's some dream, there.
I'm a bit surprised at how many sex dreams I see around here, considering how rarely I have them.

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Originally Posted by KestrelKat

@woblybil: That's some dream, there.
I'm a bit surprised at how many sex dreams I see around here, considering how rarely I have them.

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Dreamland has no mercy, Wait until you see what some of these girls come up with.. :woohoo:

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Originally Posted by KestrelKat

@woblybil: That's some dream, there.
I'm a bit surprised at how many sex dreams I see around here, considering how rarely I have them.

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Ah - I have only very few dreams with sexual content - normal dreams that is. But for me, lucidity comes with a certain and often disturbing erotic tendency.
Something to actually take care to avoid getting tangled up in for me. What usually happens if I go for it, is that I wake up in the process - supposedly it takes some practice to do that and then stay asleep and stay lucid through and beyond it. This problem seems to be quite common, too.
So I actually quite dislike this since it tends to hold me back from my real lucid goals and/or aborts my LD...
Wait and see! :wink: