Thread: Task of the Month for November 2008

Hey everyone! It's good to finally be somewhere where I can access the internet on a daily basis...therefore I have a fair number of "saved up" task of the month attempts to share. A lot of these attempts were part of very long, high-level LDs, so I won't post the entire dream (check out my DJ if you would like to read those), but just the task-relevant parts. Oh, and I mainly focused on the advanced task of walking the yellow brick road.

Attempt #1...FAILURE (11/17/08...actually the majority of this dream pertains to the yellow brick road...so here it is):

"...I snap back into a more heightened awareness and decide to leave the house, do my LD prep and attempt my dream goal of following the yellow brick road (DreamView’s November task of the month). As I exit from the front door, I notice everything man-made is the front yard is made of very finely finished (mahogany?) wood – columns, tables, even the floor (driveway) itself. As I walk then I do my LD prep, first saying “this is happening in the here and now, this very moment” (I find this incredibly helpful in boosting mental clarity). Then I rub my hands together, shout “increase lucidity now!” and “increase clarity now!” The combination of all these things is very impressive and as a result the dream is amazingly clear and vivid. I remember to remember a recent memory, but I’m not sure if I succeed or fail at this (I can’t recall the memory I would have remembered), but I proceed as if I succeed, since I don’t dwell on it. To complete my LD prep I focus on the dream scenery and marvel at how I can create such a world from my mind. At this last point, after jogging for a while, I find myself outside of the all-wooden area and am in a heavily landscaped area with stone blocks and a view out onto a tremendous city.

I decide to get down to business and find the yellow brick road. I say to myself, “I know with 100% certainty that the yellow brick road lies around the next corner” to build up my expectation. So I turn the corner and…nothing, just the same type of scenery. I’m frustrated but keep jogging around, trying to think of another way to get there. Somewhere along the line I decide to take to the skies and fly. Not long after I’m airborne, I spy a bridge with some people on it. I descend onto the bridge near two girls, one blonde and the other a darker-skinned brunette with a large face that I recognize as an acquaintance from high school (her name escapes me at the moment). After I land I ask them if they know where the yellow brick road is. The blonde is quick to answer, saying something along the lines of, “Oh, I’ve been there many years ago, but I forgot where it is now.” I ignore them and fly off once again.

The next scene I can remember, I find myself in a partially-indoor harbor of some kind which is surrounded on 3 sides by walls. I walk up a central platform and once again marvel at how vivid and clear this dream is. Then the visuals begin to fade. Luckily, I recognize this quickly, and save the dream by spinning. Back on the platform, I notice a boy standing next to me who I recognize as someone who was one grade behind me in grade school. I ask him if he knows how to get to the yellow brick road. He says he doesn’t, but his buddy does, and he points to another boy a few levels up behind an open window along one of the harbor walls. So I fly from the platform over to the friend, landing inside the opening. This is also a boy that I went to grade school with, but I can’t remember his name. After I ask him about the road, he points and tells me I need to get on the raft that’s just about the leave the harbor.

Following his instructions, I fly down to the waiting raft, but the captain, a white-haired Aussie with an attitude, tells me I’ll be killed flying around like that. Out of respect, I land on the solid ground next to the docked raft before I board on foot. Right away we are off, floating in a very narrow and controlled channel. We take a left out of the harbor and continue on the narrow channel. Once we are completely out of sight of the main harbor docking area, another boy grasps tightly onto my hands under the captain’s orders, locking my wrists together. The captain then says this is a necessary precaution for his own protection. Despite my feeling of bitterness, I go along with it, at least until they can take me to the yellow brick road.

Eventually we dock up and disembark where the channel ends. We continue walking on foot through another corridor. After some minutes pass, I decide I can’t stand being locked up like this anymore, so I thrash wildly to get the kid off me. This proves very hard, and he won’t let go. I am even more frustrated because I realize that since I’m lucid this kind of shit shouldn’t stop me from exercising control over the dream, but yet it does. Shortly after I have this thought, I awaken."

Attempt #2...PARTIAL SUCCESS (11/20/08):

"...I then head over to the side gate and remember to try my goal of following the yellow brick road. I expect to see it behind the gate as I open it, but this doesn’t work. I walk out onto the street and keep trying to conjure the yellow brick road but fail each time. DCs are everywhere at this point, but not really bothersome. I fly around for a while but I have a harder than usual time doing it. Mostly I fly Superman style, but my movement is consistently slow and it’s harder to gain altitude. Without any concrete goal in mind at this point, when I see some panthers walking toward me on Green Ridge, I decide to fight them. My memory of the fight is hazy, but I either defeat them or it’s a draw...

(later in same dream) "...I fly out of the maintenance shop and decide to try the other DreamViews task of catching a duck. I come to a big, open interior space somehow conjure a duck in the air above me, and fly up to catch it. It’s really easy, the duck offering no resistance whatsoever, which makes sense when I look at it and realize it was a wooden replica duck suspended in the air by a string." (I don't know if this counts or not...you be the judge)

(later in same dream) "...Yet again the dream fades and I spin to save it. The new scene I find myself in is a grocery store like Woodman’s. I ask some people around me how to get to the yellow brick road. An old Asian lady, pointing behind me, tells me that I need to fly through that display row of snacks to get there. Apparently it’s a portal or something. Sounds weird to me at the time, but I take her word for it, back up, and launch myself straight at this tiny row of snacks. As I meet them, either I get smaller or the packages get bigger, and I’m negotiating my way through what looked to be an impossibly small spot. As I’m flying forward my visuals blur and gray a bit, and I feel like I’m awakening, but the next thing I know I’m standing in an elaborate Japanese arena or coliseum built of stone.

The arena is packed with a raucous crowd, yelling at me while a female judge perched high up on a podium tells me I’ve been charged with trying to infiltrate the yellow brick road, Japan’s most precious national secret. I basically don’t realize what is going on and just want to keep moving, so I make some mega-leaps from platform to platform on the edge of the arena even as the mob tries to catch me. The dream fades again, but this time I feel like I’ve had enough and consciously decide to wake up."

Attempt #3...FAILURE (11/25/08):

"...Everything is crystal clear after doing this. Satisfied enough, I walk back inside, planning to use one of the doors as a portal to the yellow brick road.

While inside, I walk down the hallway to the front door and try very hard to expect to see the yellow brick road on the other side, but when I open the door it’s not there…all I see is my front yard. Disappointed, I stay inside, closing the door and trying the portal/expectation method on other doors in the house, to no avail."

So I kinda completed the basic task, though the duck really didn't really put up much of a fight. I'll keep trying to find that elusive yellow brick road for the next few days.

it'll count

Cool Do I get a badge then?

In a little while, it takes a while for it to get put up.

If I may suggest a few:
Beginner: find the famous painting of the dogs playing poker
advanced: play a game of poker with the dogs. Try and remember what cards you had
advanced: walk through a mirror. Where does it take you?
Thanks for considering

We already walked through a mirror, the tasks are chosen in a secret club that you have to have done the previous task to get into... or by me, which I feel like

Would you consider it though...?

Next month's task is already chosen. Sorry

I did the basic task... well its a starter!

I was walking along a wedding isle and i remember about the task, I suddenly became lucid, I was suppose to be some sort of bridesmaid, and i ran outside in search for the duck... I walked along a bridge next to a lake and I saw a duck just stuck in a hole, I think it was about to be eaten by a mole or badger or something wierd like that, I pulled it out of a hole and put it in a cardboard box i found in a recycling bin outside the church (I know wierd right).

It was bizzare.
MEGA bizzare.

Nice job.

Hi Guys!!

I havent been on here in awhile but returned

I will be attempting both tonight... Also I ended my dryspell =D and with my very first DILD

Attempt #4: SUCCESS!! (11/29/08)

With only 2 days left in the month, I finally completed the advanced task of the month Below is the dream in which it happened...it's bold where I actually complete my goal:

"...I walk back through the house and into the front yard. Despite my past failures, I decide to try to walk the yellow brick road (YBR) again. Since the expectation and the “politely asking DCs” methods have failed me, I resolve to DEMAND that a DC take me to the YBR. I find someone and demand that he take me there right this instant, but here some of the details are lost and my recall is fragmented. I know that someone leads me into this very tightly enclosed, claustrophobic office space. A receptionist directs me into an even smaller private office down the hall. When I walk in it is vacant, and I walk over to the corner, a little cubby with a glass window looking out onto the hallway. While staring out through it, I hear a noise in the main office area behind me. Hoping not to disturb anyone, I try to walk through the glass, pushing experimentally with my fingers first. Unfortunately I don’t have the willpower to accomplish this, though it is a skill I should work on in the future. So I’m forced to walk back through the private office before I can get to the hallway. As I walk through, a lawyer is talking to his client. I try to be discreet, but the lawyer notices me immediately and starts fuming, yelling at me about how this is a private space, I have no right to be in here, etc. I just ignore this pompous asshole and get out as fast as I can.

Somehow I arrive back at my front driveway. A little unsure of how to proceed in my goal, I just fly around for a while. As I am discovering to be the case, I have a very easy time moving side-to-side, but back and forth motion in the air is much more difficult. But as I’m playing around, I discover a technique that works for me: tilting my body forward when I want to me forward and backward when I want to move backward. Makes sense I guess, but I hadn’t tried it until now!

I fly around some more and somehow end up at a crowded mall or plaza. I enter a restaurant and see my grade school friend Mike G. sitting down in a booth with his family, waiting for their order to arrive. My subconscious probably inserted him into this dream because I saw him while doing a charity run the other day. Anyway, I run up to him from behind and begin shaking his shoulders (almost violently), commanding him to take me to the YBR. He seems annoyed, but tells me to enter a certain secret backdoor on the other end of the mall.

So I walk over to the door he described and open it. On the other side is a complete change of scenery. I’m outdoors and the landscape is a very barren desert with rolling sand dunes in the distance. A railroad line runs right in front of the door, and two workers are sitting there trying to look busy. I go up to one of them and demand that he take me to the YBR. All he does is laugh at me and tell me that the YBR is 8000 miles to the south. I despair at this and think that there’s no way I can fly there in time before I awaken. Luckily though, I hear the train coming down the tracks. I figure I can take the train to the YBR, so I hop on as it passes.

Time is condensed here, because the next thing I know I’m standing in front of this strange factory. I enter the main doors and realize that, at long last, I am there! I’ve found the YBR, but it’s nothing like I anticipated; I’m standing on yellow Lego bricks that are moving on a conveyor belt further into the interior of the factory. I stand on the bricks, letting the device take me forward into the great unknown. However, after a while something goes wrong: the bricks are no longer perfect rectangles of that golden yellow, but all kinds of odd shapes and all kinds of colors. On top of that, the conveyor belt switches direction, so now I have to walk against the direction of motion (like a treadmill). I struggle to maintain my balance, and eventually fall off entirely. As soon as I hit the ground, it seems, I am confronted by none other than Willy Wonka and a group of his oompa-loompas. He tells me that he is dreadfully sorry that his road malfunctioned and that he’ll try to get it fixed right away. Then he leaves, but one of his oompa-loompas stays behind. He comes up to me and asks me, “How long did it take you to get to the yellow brick road?” I reply, “about a month.” He says, incredulously, “a month? Most people take years to get here and have to defeat either the good or evil dragons to do so. It’s much more efficient to do what you did and just go the business route.” This statement amuses me greatly, but I notice I’m having hip pains and I awaken right then, unable to continue the conversation with this strange creature."

Very weird, but I'll take it!

It's quite amusing, reading this topic compared to the very first Task of the Month archive...

People participating have had no trouble shooting fireworks from their hands or changing gender but when it comes to catching a duck, everyone is suddenly held up by the sheer difficulty of it.

Ironic, no?

I finally got around to attempting this last night. Didn't quite make it.

As soon as I remembered the task of following the yellow brick road, I started flying around trying to find one. I was flying at the edge of a forest. I flew for quite a while without seeing one. Finally I did see a brick road. Only it was red. Since I was tired of trying, I decided to just follow the red brick road to see what cool things I might find even though I knew I wouldn't get credit. It lead into the forest. I passed trees and rocks and went up hills, but never saw anything really interesting or out of the ordinary. I guess it has to be yellow for that.

I finally got this one this morning. After a series of LD's, constantly waking up and getting back to sleep, I eventually remembered I had to look for a duck. It started with me waking up in bed and looking at my hands (as I've made a habit of doing). My hands were completely transparent. So, now aware that I was dreaming, I decided to head to the bathroom and check the mirror out as it's always entertaining. I looked in to see myself fairly normal except that I had no eyes. Then my face started to melt away and I thought it would be best to head off on my duck finding adventure. So I left the house and headed/glided down the street where I saw an old man in what looked like a hot dog stand. I tried to say "hello" to him but he just grunted back. Then I asked him where the ducks are. He perked up quite quickly after that, almost as if he'd been waiting to hear that question, and happily pointed towards a lake full of ducks just a few hundred metres away. So I glided down towards the lake and tried to get one of the ducks to come to me. One almost did, but turned back before it got to the shore. Then I realised that I shouldn't be worried about getting wet as it's a dream and jumped in the lake. As I surfaced there was a duck right in front of me. So I grabbed hold of it and petted it. It was so soft I couldn't believe it. After achieving this I went on to explore the bottom of the lake and found a shadow version of myself before waking up.

well I didn't make it for these tasks. I had 3 or 4 LDs this month but didn't
get them done.

will there be a december task?

Originally Posted by Swingdance

I finally got this one this morning.

Bit late.. It's December.

When will the new task be up? I wanted to try it last night but no-one posted it.

I was already said that the December task has already been decided, so now I guess we just have to wait for it.

Originally Posted by benTENDO

Bit late.. It's December.

When will the new task be up? I wanted to try it last night but no-one posted it.

I was already said that the December task has already been decided, so now I guess we just have to wait for it.

That brings up a good point. I think the new Tasks should be posted on the last day of the month. Otherwise there is that last day where no task get credit. I've completed a task on the last day of the month before, and it's frustrating that by the time you wake up it no longer counts.

If it were posted a day early then everyone could be trying for the new task on that last night of the month.