So in this dream, I was watching some sort of Rainbow Brite show, or movie, or video game - it kept switching. It was an updated, revamped version of Rainbow Brite for a new generation, and it was rather dark: the villains were scary looking, it was set in some huge dismal castle, and even the "hero" characters were older and more serious, though they still had the whole Rainbow Brite color names and motifs going on. It was like the Castlevania series crossed with Rainbow Brite.
I was talking to whoever was there with me about it, comparing this Rainbow Brite to the older cartoon version from the 80s, where the villain was some goofy looking guy with a mustache as opposed to a giant behemoth with horns and fangs, and the characters were all little kids with color names and not these brooding teenagers. I don't remember much else about this dream, other than watching this incarnation of a little girl pop-culture icon, and thinking that it was a lot more child-appropriate when I was a kid.
*****
OK brain, what's the deal? Rainbow Brite? Really? I want some sort of refund.
I think the worst part was that I knew enough about Rainbow Brite to describe the way that the characters had changed.
-Matthew
Friday, May 1, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
April 30, 2009: Short Gross Dream
This was a pretty short dream. I don't remember what happened, but I somehow put a huge staple through my thumb. This was painful enough, but pulling it out was somehow worse. After I pulled it out, for some reason the two puncture wounds were exaggeratedly huge, to the point that I could see the bones in my thumb, though there was no blood. I noticed that dust and dirt were getting into the gaping wounds, so I washed them out with water - very painful - and put a bandaid on each hole. I don't remember much after that until the dream ended.
*****
I actually have these kinds of dreams a lot - where I get injured and the wound is ridiculously huge, and I can see all kinds of bones and guts and stuff, but somehow it's not that serious and I'm not bleeding to death. I just get pretty grossed out is all.
-Matthew
*****
I actually have these kinds of dreams a lot - where I get injured and the wound is ridiculously huge, and I can see all kinds of bones and guts and stuff, but somehow it's not that serious and I'm not bleeding to death. I just get pretty grossed out is all.
-Matthew
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
April 29, 2009: Nude Printing and Awkward Car Rides
The earliest part of this dream that I can remember was set in my workplace. I was in my office, sitting at my desk, when an old man came in, wanting to use the inkjet printers in my office to print his digital work. He was thin, tall, with bushy white hair and Colonel Sanders-esque facial hair, garbed in jogging gear and a sweatband. He stood in the doorway and began to disrobe; then he walked, naked, over to the printer, much to my astonishment and dismay. I was frustrated and not sure how to proceed; I walked over to tell him to leave. For some reason there was a soldering table in the print lab, so I was distracted by this and forgot about the man. Everything worked out though, as the man soon disappeared and I forgot about it. However, I did find a sock lodged in the printer.
Later, I was wandering around the campus and came upon a family who was interacting with some school staff and faculty. There was a mother and father, and three daughters; the oldest daugher, aged 18, was a student at this school; the middle one a teen; the youngest was eight or so. For some reason I was a family friend, and they welcomed me warmly, especially the daughters, who considered me as a brother.
Suddenly the dream was set ten years later, and I was travelling with this same family on a road trip in their van. The father was driving, the mother was in the passenger's seat up front, the two older sisters were in the middle, and I was sitting in the back seat with the youngest daugher, who was now in her late teens. She had inched over to sit practically in my lap, and was whispering her true feelings for me (which couldn't wait until a less awkward time and place apparently). As she whispered into my ear, she used our chance closeness to try to kiss me. The entire time I was sure that the father was going to look in the rear-view mirror at any moment and explode furiously at the unfortunate misunderstanding, and so I was awkwardly, conflictedly, trying to fend her off.
We eventually pulled into a grocery store parking lot; "dad" pulled up to the front of the store and parked in the fire lane. Everyone piled out, but only the mother and father headed toward the store's entrance. Meanwhile a meter maid pulled up and, rather than writing a ticket for the van parked in the fire lane, boxed us in so that we wouldn't be able to drive off while she called the police, who would themselves write the parking ticket. The father came back, and rather than being upset about being boxed in and getting a ticket, was upset that we were losing valuable time because we had to wait for the police to show up and give us a ticket before we could leave. This is about where I woke up and the dream ended.
*****
I have no idea what the hell a naked guy printing means, other than me being uncomfortable.
I like how my dream about some nymphet coming on to me in the presence of her parents plays out about how you would expect in some sort of generic movie scene.
Not much else to say about these dreams.
-Matthew
Later, I was wandering around the campus and came upon a family who was interacting with some school staff and faculty. There was a mother and father, and three daughters; the oldest daugher, aged 18, was a student at this school; the middle one a teen; the youngest was eight or so. For some reason I was a family friend, and they welcomed me warmly, especially the daughters, who considered me as a brother.
Suddenly the dream was set ten years later, and I was travelling with this same family on a road trip in their van. The father was driving, the mother was in the passenger's seat up front, the two older sisters were in the middle, and I was sitting in the back seat with the youngest daugher, who was now in her late teens. She had inched over to sit practically in my lap, and was whispering her true feelings for me (which couldn't wait until a less awkward time and place apparently). As she whispered into my ear, she used our chance closeness to try to kiss me. The entire time I was sure that the father was going to look in the rear-view mirror at any moment and explode furiously at the unfortunate misunderstanding, and so I was awkwardly, conflictedly, trying to fend her off.
We eventually pulled into a grocery store parking lot; "dad" pulled up to the front of the store and parked in the fire lane. Everyone piled out, but only the mother and father headed toward the store's entrance. Meanwhile a meter maid pulled up and, rather than writing a ticket for the van parked in the fire lane, boxed us in so that we wouldn't be able to drive off while she called the police, who would themselves write the parking ticket. The father came back, and rather than being upset about being boxed in and getting a ticket, was upset that we were losing valuable time because we had to wait for the police to show up and give us a ticket before we could leave. This is about where I woke up and the dream ended.
*****
I have no idea what the hell a naked guy printing means, other than me being uncomfortable.
I like how my dream about some nymphet coming on to me in the presence of her parents plays out about how you would expect in some sort of generic movie scene.
Not much else to say about these dreams.
-Matthew
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
April 28, 2009: Birthday Lucid Dreams
In last night's dream, I was at my old house in Washington. It wasn't long until I realized I was dreaming, so I went outside into the night and started flying. I looked up at the stars, picked the brightest one I saw (which was part of the little dipper for some reason), and flew towards it with the intention of traveling across interstellar space to the distant solar system. However, no matter how hard I tried I couldn't fly much faster than a car can drive, so I gave up on that endeavor; reaching a distant star at roughly 60 miles per hour was out of the question in the time span of one dream, let alone thousands of years. I set my sights lower (literally), and decided instead to fly down to a random building that was along my trajectory.
As is the case in my lucid dreams, I was able to phase through the walls of the building, which was apparently some sort of upscale apartment complex. I wandered through one of the doors and met a bewildered man, who, after overcoming his shock, expressed indignation at my barging into his studio. He was apparently some sort of journalist for a noteworthy publication, though I'm not sure how exactly I knew this. For the most part I ignored his displeasure at my intrusion; I forget what exactly I said to him, but it was some sort of indication that I was a government official, which pacified the man.
Suddenly I was Optimus Prime from the Transformers, and I had to leave the man's apartment, transform into a truck, and drive down the highway to chase and battle some Decepticons. Later I met up with more Autobots, some of which had been seriously injured in the fight. For some reason in my dream version of Transformers, being Optimus Prime meant that I was invincible; any damage done to me would be immediately healed. Right before I woke up, I reasoned that the ambulance transformer would also have that ability. This is when the dream ended.
*****
As cool as flying is in my dreams, I'm finding that I have some sort of governor limiting my speed. As I mentioned before, it seems that my brain has rules that it may allow me to bend, but not break.
Time limit is always a factor in lucid dreams; as soon as I realize I'm dreaming I feel rushed to do something with it before I wake up. I usually spsend my time exploring whatever world my mind has created. It's actually amazing how I can do something unexpected, like pick a random house and walk (or fly) right in unannounced, and my mind can keep one step ahead of me and have setting and characters prepared for me to interact with; and yet, there are clear limitations, as apparently I can't leave the Earth's orbit and fly to distant stars.
-Matthew
As is the case in my lucid dreams, I was able to phase through the walls of the building, which was apparently some sort of upscale apartment complex. I wandered through one of the doors and met a bewildered man, who, after overcoming his shock, expressed indignation at my barging into his studio. He was apparently some sort of journalist for a noteworthy publication, though I'm not sure how exactly I knew this. For the most part I ignored his displeasure at my intrusion; I forget what exactly I said to him, but it was some sort of indication that I was a government official, which pacified the man.
Suddenly I was Optimus Prime from the Transformers, and I had to leave the man's apartment, transform into a truck, and drive down the highway to chase and battle some Decepticons. Later I met up with more Autobots, some of which had been seriously injured in the fight. For some reason in my dream version of Transformers, being Optimus Prime meant that I was invincible; any damage done to me would be immediately healed. Right before I woke up, I reasoned that the ambulance transformer would also have that ability. This is when the dream ended.
*****
As cool as flying is in my dreams, I'm finding that I have some sort of governor limiting my speed. As I mentioned before, it seems that my brain has rules that it may allow me to bend, but not break.
Time limit is always a factor in lucid dreams; as soon as I realize I'm dreaming I feel rushed to do something with it before I wake up. I usually spsend my time exploring whatever world my mind has created. It's actually amazing how I can do something unexpected, like pick a random house and walk (or fly) right in unannounced, and my mind can keep one step ahead of me and have setting and characters prepared for me to interact with; and yet, there are clear limitations, as apparently I can't leave the Earth's orbit and fly to distant stars.
-Matthew
Monday, April 27, 2009
April 27, 2009: Two Shorter Dreams
The first dream that I remember was rather short and simple: just my friend and I playing some sort of video game at his house, hanging out and chatting. Nothing else much happened until the dream ended shortly thereafter.
In the second dream, I was at the school where I work, walking around in the main building of the campus. I was accompanied by a girl that I don't know in the waking world, who was apparently my co-worker. We had to go down to the end of the main hallway to a seldom-used stairwell, in order to flip a circuit breaker in the basement. About the time that we finished doing that, I realized I was dreaming. The girl and I walked back up the stairs and out into the main hall, but there was a huge crowd of students impeding any traffic through nearby doors or down the hallway. The lucid dream ended abruptly, before much in the way of lucid dreaming could be done, when my alarm went off.
*****
Not much to say about this short selection of dreams. Frankly I'm surprised that I've been having dreams and remembering them every night since I started keeping a journal.
-Matthew
In the second dream, I was at the school where I work, walking around in the main building of the campus. I was accompanied by a girl that I don't know in the waking world, who was apparently my co-worker. We had to go down to the end of the main hallway to a seldom-used stairwell, in order to flip a circuit breaker in the basement. About the time that we finished doing that, I realized I was dreaming. The girl and I walked back up the stairs and out into the main hall, but there was a huge crowd of students impeding any traffic through nearby doors or down the hallway. The lucid dream ended abruptly, before much in the way of lucid dreaming could be done, when my alarm went off.
*****
Not much to say about this short selection of dreams. Frankly I'm surprised that I've been having dreams and remembering them every night since I started keeping a journal.
-Matthew
Sunday, April 26, 2009
April 26, 2009: Camping Trips, Police High-Jinks, and Nostalgic Memories
Look: Labels for the dream posts! Now you too can just skip the crappy ones and go straight to "sexy." When I start running into more common themes I'll add more labels.
*****
In the first dream, I was out on a camping trip in the woods with some friends and family. We were setting up tents in our camp site, when dark clouds above flashed brilliantly with lightning. I counted off the seconds before the loud, prolonged boom of thunder announced that the lightning was very close - practically right over us. I ran into my tent for shelter from a sudden downpour of rain. This is about all I remember of the dream before it ended.
In the second dream, I was in some sort of coastal town, driving an older Toyota Camry. After a while I was standing near the car and talking to a police officer; I don't remember if I had been pulled over, or if I was already out of the car and ended up talking to him. He asked if he could drive my car, and if I would accompany him; he said that he wanted to check something out. I agreed, and we sped off.
I was surprised at how aggressively he drove, swerving around corners and flooring the accelerator. When we got down to the beach, he drove out onto the sand, and began to peel out in circles, doing donuts and letting the car spin and drift as he sped around the beach. I was a bit confused, but it was fun, so I just laughed and enjoyed the ride. After a while he pulled up onto the asphalt and stopped, and we got out of the car. He asked me why the car had such trouble accelerating, and I told him that it needed a new gas pedal. The dream ended shortly thereafter.
I recall only fragments from another dream about a friend from my distant past. To see her again made me very happy - but as usual in these dreams, I struggled with the premonition that our reunion was to be short-lived. Sure enough, as always, the dream ended too soon.
*****
I'm guessing my dream about lightning and rain was influenced by a book I was reading last night, wherein the characters are caught in a blinding downpour.
I don't know what to say about the one with a police officer, who was driving my car around like a teenager on a snowy night in a grocery store parking lot. Maybe I don't understand driving conditions on a sandy beach, but I'd think we'd just get stuck in the sand doing tricks like that as opposed to participating in some sort of Tokyo drift: beach variety. I also like how the gas pedal was obviously the problem with my car's ability to accelerate. Duh, that's what you push to go faster!
I have dreams about this particular friend all the time, and they are always fraught with conflicting emotions. I feel an intense happiness to see her again, to talk to her and reminisce; but there is always a foreboding sense in these dreams that she is going to vanish at any moment, or that I'll wake up too soon. These are the crueler instances of lucid dreaming, when she'll just disappear and I'll know that it has all been a dream.
I don't know why I have these dreams, or why they bother me so much; I don't even think about this person in waking life until after I have them. These are the dreams that I wake up from and struggle between nostalgia and melancholy.
-Matthew
*****
In the first dream, I was out on a camping trip in the woods with some friends and family. We were setting up tents in our camp site, when dark clouds above flashed brilliantly with lightning. I counted off the seconds before the loud, prolonged boom of thunder announced that the lightning was very close - practically right over us. I ran into my tent for shelter from a sudden downpour of rain. This is about all I remember of the dream before it ended.
In the second dream, I was in some sort of coastal town, driving an older Toyota Camry. After a while I was standing near the car and talking to a police officer; I don't remember if I had been pulled over, or if I was already out of the car and ended up talking to him. He asked if he could drive my car, and if I would accompany him; he said that he wanted to check something out. I agreed, and we sped off.
I was surprised at how aggressively he drove, swerving around corners and flooring the accelerator. When we got down to the beach, he drove out onto the sand, and began to peel out in circles, doing donuts and letting the car spin and drift as he sped around the beach. I was a bit confused, but it was fun, so I just laughed and enjoyed the ride. After a while he pulled up onto the asphalt and stopped, and we got out of the car. He asked me why the car had such trouble accelerating, and I told him that it needed a new gas pedal. The dream ended shortly thereafter.
I recall only fragments from another dream about a friend from my distant past. To see her again made me very happy - but as usual in these dreams, I struggled with the premonition that our reunion was to be short-lived. Sure enough, as always, the dream ended too soon.
*****
I'm guessing my dream about lightning and rain was influenced by a book I was reading last night, wherein the characters are caught in a blinding downpour.
I don't know what to say about the one with a police officer, who was driving my car around like a teenager on a snowy night in a grocery store parking lot. Maybe I don't understand driving conditions on a sandy beach, but I'd think we'd just get stuck in the sand doing tricks like that as opposed to participating in some sort of Tokyo drift: beach variety. I also like how the gas pedal was obviously the problem with my car's ability to accelerate. Duh, that's what you push to go faster!
I have dreams about this particular friend all the time, and they are always fraught with conflicting emotions. I feel an intense happiness to see her again, to talk to her and reminisce; but there is always a foreboding sense in these dreams that she is going to vanish at any moment, or that I'll wake up too soon. These are the crueler instances of lucid dreaming, when she'll just disappear and I'll know that it has all been a dream.
I don't know why I have these dreams, or why they bother me so much; I don't even think about this person in waking life until after I have them. These are the dreams that I wake up from and struggle between nostalgia and melancholy.
-Matthew
Saturday, April 25, 2009
April 25, 2009: School Dreams
In last night's dream, I was again in a classroom, though the course was taught by someone who instructs at the school I work at as opposed to the school I attend. There was a rather small group of students in attendance, most of them girls from the Textiles class that the aforementioned instructor teaches, and we were all seated in a semi-circle with the focus toward the front of the class.
For some reason I had brought my computer to school; it was plugged into the projector and displaying everything up on the screen in front of the class. I was playing a computer game, and a few students were annoyed that I was projecting this game up onto the screen instead of doing something productive. So I quit the game and shut down the projector to free up the blackboard.
Suddenly my sister came in to provide a guest lecture of some sort. She was wearing a giant backpack that she never removed. She stood in front of the class, speaking to us and writing on the blackboard; however, we couldn't understand what she was saying, nor could we read her illegible handwriting in chalk. After a while I heard a baby crying, and I realized that the backpack my sister was wearing had a baby in it. I deduced that she was keeping the baby in there as to not be a distraction to the class, but I though that it was extremely inappropriate to keep a baby in a closed backpack. The dream ended shortly thereafter.
*****
Yay for school dreams. I'm sure they will be an almost nightly occurrence until graduation in a few weeks. I love how I give my sister no credit by assuming not only that she can't be understood, but that she'd be so negligent as to keep a baby in a zipped-up backpack.
There were a few other dreams last night, but I can't recall them.
-Matthew
For some reason I had brought my computer to school; it was plugged into the projector and displaying everything up on the screen in front of the class. I was playing a computer game, and a few students were annoyed that I was projecting this game up onto the screen instead of doing something productive. So I quit the game and shut down the projector to free up the blackboard.
Suddenly my sister came in to provide a guest lecture of some sort. She was wearing a giant backpack that she never removed. She stood in front of the class, speaking to us and writing on the blackboard; however, we couldn't understand what she was saying, nor could we read her illegible handwriting in chalk. After a while I heard a baby crying, and I realized that the backpack my sister was wearing had a baby in it. I deduced that she was keeping the baby in there as to not be a distraction to the class, but I though that it was extremely inappropriate to keep a baby in a closed backpack. The dream ended shortly thereafter.
*****
Yay for school dreams. I'm sure they will be an almost nightly occurrence until graduation in a few weeks. I love how I give my sister no credit by assuming not only that she can't be understood, but that she'd be so negligent as to keep a baby in a zipped-up backpack.
There were a few other dreams last night, but I can't recall them.
-Matthew
Friday, April 24, 2009
April 24, 2009: First Lucid Dream for the Journal
I was wondering when my next lucid dream would occur; they are usually more frequent.
Allow me to provide a quick note (and warning) about my lucid dreams. As soon as I realize I'm dreaming, I will try to take control it in any number of ways: I'll just sit back and enjoy the ride if it's an interesting dream; if not, I'll attempt to completely change the dream, its environment, the people, etc; I'll try to do impossible things, such as flying, walking through walls, etc; I'll respond with extreme violence to dreams about being chased or attacked; or, depending on who is in it, the dream can become sexual. So, read with caution, I guess - a lot of my lucid dreams are either violent or sexy. With that awkward caveat in place, let's proceed:
*****
I was in some sort of office building of unknown origin, peopled by unfamiliar faces. I was talking to a woman, about what I don't recall, but I quickly realized it was a lucid dream, and, well... Whatever we were talking about became even less important, as we dashed quickly into a nearby office and locked the door. This dream ended... later.
In the next dream I had, which was not so... lucid... I was walking around in a mall by myself. I received a cell phone call from my sister, who told me that mom's house was on fire and she had ran to a neighbor's house to call the fire department. I was irate that my mother would leave the house and all of my stuff to burn; I told my sister angrily that I would sue her and mom if any of my stuff was damaged.
Later, I was walking around in a large video game arcade in the mall, and now my sister was there with me. For some reason she had brought a cat with her, and the jittery feline was dashing all around the arcade and managed to get inside one of the game cabinets - a mini skee ball machine, to be precise. Luckily, since I used to work in an arcade, I knew how to open the cabinet (even though I didn't have a key), and though the customer playing it was upset that I had interrupted his game, I got the cat out. I made sure to hold on to the cat for the remainder of the dream, which shorty thereafter ended.
*****
One thing I've discovered about lucid dreams is that they tend to end soon after I become cognizant of the fact that I'm dreaming. I've also found that the more I try to focus on changing or controlling a dream, the more likely I am to wake up - I guess because by that point I've just become too aware, too mentally awake. It's an interesting phenomenon, the lucid dream: being conscious in my subconscious's world, as if these two parts of the same mind are indeed separate entities. In my case, I find that it is often a struggle to change dreams too dramatically, as if my subconscious has developed certain rules, laws, and boundaries, which in many ways reflect reality, yet in others are very strange. For instance, I often find that in lucid dreams where I start to fly, if I fly too high I hit a kind of ceiling, as if I've reached the limit of what my subconscious has created. Actually, the very act of flying, or walking through walls, is often challenging to do in the first place - it takes a few running starts, or requires intense focus - as if my brain is trying to obey laws of physics in its imaginary world.
Another intensely difficult thing to do is to completely change the dream. For example, if I realize I'm dreaming and I want to change the setting to somewhere else, I'll close my eyes in the dream and concentrate, and when I open them - more often than not I'm still where I was; nothing has changed. Sometimes I have to be content with smaller manipulations of the people, places, and things already present.
The second dream confuses me. I don't know why I would threaten to sue my mother and sister because they left a burning house to call emergency services and refused to stay and watch over my supposed belongings. However, the later part with the cat is reminiscent of most of my dreams that involve either small animals or babies. I always worry about them running away or getting hurt, so I feel the need to hold them, or put them in a cage, or make sure all of the doors in the room are shut so they can't get out. No, not put the babies in the cage... never mind.
-Matthew
Allow me to provide a quick note (and warning) about my lucid dreams. As soon as I realize I'm dreaming, I will try to take control it in any number of ways: I'll just sit back and enjoy the ride if it's an interesting dream; if not, I'll attempt to completely change the dream, its environment, the people, etc; I'll try to do impossible things, such as flying, walking through walls, etc; I'll respond with extreme violence to dreams about being chased or attacked; or, depending on who is in it, the dream can become sexual. So, read with caution, I guess - a lot of my lucid dreams are either violent or sexy. With that awkward caveat in place, let's proceed:
*****
I was in some sort of office building of unknown origin, peopled by unfamiliar faces. I was talking to a woman, about what I don't recall, but I quickly realized it was a lucid dream, and, well... Whatever we were talking about became even less important, as we dashed quickly into a nearby office and locked the door. This dream ended... later.
In the next dream I had, which was not so... lucid... I was walking around in a mall by myself. I received a cell phone call from my sister, who told me that mom's house was on fire and she had ran to a neighbor's house to call the fire department. I was irate that my mother would leave the house and all of my stuff to burn; I told my sister angrily that I would sue her and mom if any of my stuff was damaged.
Later, I was walking around in a large video game arcade in the mall, and now my sister was there with me. For some reason she had brought a cat with her, and the jittery feline was dashing all around the arcade and managed to get inside one of the game cabinets - a mini skee ball machine, to be precise. Luckily, since I used to work in an arcade, I knew how to open the cabinet (even though I didn't have a key), and though the customer playing it was upset that I had interrupted his game, I got the cat out. I made sure to hold on to the cat for the remainder of the dream, which shorty thereafter ended.
*****
One thing I've discovered about lucid dreams is that they tend to end soon after I become cognizant of the fact that I'm dreaming. I've also found that the more I try to focus on changing or controlling a dream, the more likely I am to wake up - I guess because by that point I've just become too aware, too mentally awake. It's an interesting phenomenon, the lucid dream: being conscious in my subconscious's world, as if these two parts of the same mind are indeed separate entities. In my case, I find that it is often a struggle to change dreams too dramatically, as if my subconscious has developed certain rules, laws, and boundaries, which in many ways reflect reality, yet in others are very strange. For instance, I often find that in lucid dreams where I start to fly, if I fly too high I hit a kind of ceiling, as if I've reached the limit of what my subconscious has created. Actually, the very act of flying, or walking through walls, is often challenging to do in the first place - it takes a few running starts, or requires intense focus - as if my brain is trying to obey laws of physics in its imaginary world.
Another intensely difficult thing to do is to completely change the dream. For example, if I realize I'm dreaming and I want to change the setting to somewhere else, I'll close my eyes in the dream and concentrate, and when I open them - more often than not I'm still where I was; nothing has changed. Sometimes I have to be content with smaller manipulations of the people, places, and things already present.
The second dream confuses me. I don't know why I would threaten to sue my mother and sister because they left a burning house to call emergency services and refused to stay and watch over my supposed belongings. However, the later part with the cat is reminiscent of most of my dreams that involve either small animals or babies. I always worry about them running away or getting hurt, so I feel the need to hold them, or put them in a cage, or make sure all of the doors in the room are shut so they can't get out. No, not put the babies in the cage... never mind.
-Matthew
Thursday, April 23, 2009
April 23, 2009: Friends and School
I had a rather vivid dream wherein I was in a small, unfamiliar clothing store. In the dream, a friend of mine (whom I haven't talked to in a long time) was an employee at this boutique, and he was busy organizing the clothing on the racks. He looked terrible; he was obviously depressed, withdrawn, and downcast, glumly going about his tasks while avoiding interaction with the patrons. However, I was happy to see him, if a bit anxious, so I walked up and greeted him nervously.
I was concerned that he wouldn't be glad to see me, and with our initial contact that seemed to be true - he looked very unhappy when he saw me approaching. However, I made it a point to chat with him and find out why he had disappeared off the radar. The more we talked, and the more I observed him, the more I began to think that he must have developed some deeper mental issues that must have arisen since last I saw him; he had developed an extreme social awkwardness and discomfort in dealing with people as seen by his interactions with the customers in the store. For some reason, at one point, he was wearing an Phantom of the Opera-esque mask, though as dreams go, it quickly disappeared.
Through our dialogue I was able to get him to come out of his shell a bit, and after a while he was laughing and acting like his familiar self. Even so, he found a point to confront me as to why I hadn't contacted him in so long; to this I replied that I had tried in vain to keep in touch with him, but he would never return calls or emails. This is about where this dream ended.
The second dream was a shorter one, again about school. In this dream, the instructor had an announcement about test results, in which she reported that most people did well except for me, calling me out by name. I was left to fret about how abysmal my score could be that she would single me out. The dream ended shortly thereafter.
*****
Well recording dreams is turning out to be more of a bummer than anything humorous. I'll probably add tags so people can skip the unfunny ones.
I've had dreams similar to the first, about friends that I've lost touch with and yet there's something unresolved about it. I guess, subconsciously, I want to reconnect, make amends, and go back to the way things were with them. Oh well... I find it humorous that my brain realized how melodramatic my dream was getting, and, probably tongue in cheek, gave my friend a Phantom of the Opera mask. So emo!
And I've already gone over the reason for my school dreams. Finals are just around the corner I suppose...
--Matthew
I was concerned that he wouldn't be glad to see me, and with our initial contact that seemed to be true - he looked very unhappy when he saw me approaching. However, I made it a point to chat with him and find out why he had disappeared off the radar. The more we talked, and the more I observed him, the more I began to think that he must have developed some deeper mental issues that must have arisen since last I saw him; he had developed an extreme social awkwardness and discomfort in dealing with people as seen by his interactions with the customers in the store. For some reason, at one point, he was wearing an Phantom of the Opera-esque mask, though as dreams go, it quickly disappeared.
Through our dialogue I was able to get him to come out of his shell a bit, and after a while he was laughing and acting like his familiar self. Even so, he found a point to confront me as to why I hadn't contacted him in so long; to this I replied that I had tried in vain to keep in touch with him, but he would never return calls or emails. This is about where this dream ended.
The second dream was a shorter one, again about school. In this dream, the instructor had an announcement about test results, in which she reported that most people did well except for me, calling me out by name. I was left to fret about how abysmal my score could be that she would single me out. The dream ended shortly thereafter.
*****
Well recording dreams is turning out to be more of a bummer than anything humorous. I'll probably add tags so people can skip the unfunny ones.
I've had dreams similar to the first, about friends that I've lost touch with and yet there's something unresolved about it. I guess, subconsciously, I want to reconnect, make amends, and go back to the way things were with them. Oh well... I find it humorous that my brain realized how melodramatic my dream was getting, and, probably tongue in cheek, gave my friend a Phantom of the Opera mask. So emo!
And I've already gone over the reason for my school dreams. Finals are just around the corner I suppose...
--Matthew
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
April 22, 2009: School Dreams Again
In the first dream that I recall, I was at my dad's house for dinner. He had said something that really made me mad, so I told him off and stormed out. That's about all I remember of that dream.
While there were a few bits and pieces of other dreams that I can't quite piece together, the last dream I had before I woke up was about school. I was in lecture for a class that I'm actually taking this semester, and surprisingly most of the details were accurate: the instructor was the same woman, and the class was held in a room of identical layout; the only major difference was that there was an elevator in the classroom, directly behind my seat in the back left corner of the classroom if facing toward the blackboard.
Apparently my corner of the room was dimly lit, because I would keep reaching back and pushing the button to open the elevator door, and the light from within the elevator would better illuminate my corner.
Meanwhile, a girl in the class was complaining to the instructor that the assignments from the workbook were too difficult (again, surprisingly accurate); in this case, the instructor had given the wrong page number for an assignment so the class had all done the wrong homework. The instructor agreed that she would omit that one from the grade, but she stressed the importance of doing the workbook assignments.
About this time my corner became dim again, so I reached back and pushed the elevator button to open the doors and turn on the light. This distracted the instructor so that she called on me to give a explanation as to the importance of the workbook assignments. When I started to respond, someone else started talking at the same time; I guess we had the same name and were confused as to which Matt she called on. So this other Matt and I just started talking to each other, holding our own dialogue about the workbook.
When we finished, I looked about and realized that there were only about three students left in the class. I looked at my watch and realized that class had been over for two minutes, and everyone had been piling out. This is about where the dream ended and I woke up.
*****
I'm surprised that the dream was so accurate in depicting this particular class. Usually dreams with familiar themes such as school and work will be really off. Though the full-fledged elevator right behind my seat as a source of light kind of made up for all the other accuracies.
While there were a few bits and pieces of other dreams that I can't quite piece together, the last dream I had before I woke up was about school. I was in lecture for a class that I'm actually taking this semester, and surprisingly most of the details were accurate: the instructor was the same woman, and the class was held in a room of identical layout; the only major difference was that there was an elevator in the classroom, directly behind my seat in the back left corner of the classroom if facing toward the blackboard.
Apparently my corner of the room was dimly lit, because I would keep reaching back and pushing the button to open the elevator door, and the light from within the elevator would better illuminate my corner.
Meanwhile, a girl in the class was complaining to the instructor that the assignments from the workbook were too difficult (again, surprisingly accurate); in this case, the instructor had given the wrong page number for an assignment so the class had all done the wrong homework. The instructor agreed that she would omit that one from the grade, but she stressed the importance of doing the workbook assignments.
About this time my corner became dim again, so I reached back and pushed the elevator button to open the doors and turn on the light. This distracted the instructor so that she called on me to give a explanation as to the importance of the workbook assignments. When I started to respond, someone else started talking at the same time; I guess we had the same name and were confused as to which Matt she called on. So this other Matt and I just started talking to each other, holding our own dialogue about the workbook.
When we finished, I looked about and realized that there were only about three students left in the class. I looked at my watch and realized that class had been over for two minutes, and everyone had been piling out. This is about where the dream ended and I woke up.
*****
I'm surprised that the dream was so accurate in depicting this particular class. Usually dreams with familiar themes such as school and work will be really off. Though the full-fledged elevator right behind my seat as a source of light kind of made up for all the other accuracies.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
April 21, 2009: Yet Another Beowulf Movie?
The only dream I can fully remember from last night was about yet another movie adaptation of Beowulf. Actually, the plot had nothing to do with the actual Beowulf poem; it was about a mother who was forced to give up her child in order to hide it from the marauding enemy forces of an opposing tribe. That child would grow up to be Beowulf, a great leader who would go on to exact vengeance against the enemy faction. And it was set in contemporary times for some reason; everyone was wearing suits, like it was some sort of mob film adaptation.
I guess I was watching it at a friend's house, because later he gave me a ride home. Only he ended up dropping me off on the shoulder of the freeway out in the middle of nowhere. That's about where the dream ended.
*****
Whenever I dream about movies, they are always about as far off from the actual movie as they can get and still have recognizable features, such as iconic characters. The most common movies in my dreams are those from the Star Wars franchise, which are almost always about the prequel films. I started having them between the releases of Episode I: the Stupid Name and Episode III: Pretend This Trilogy Didn't Happen. The dream versions of these films, though having recognizable characters such as Darth Vader, are so horrendously bad that they are really uncomfortable to sit... through...
Oh.
I guess I was watching it at a friend's house, because later he gave me a ride home. Only he ended up dropping me off on the shoulder of the freeway out in the middle of nowhere. That's about where the dream ended.
*****
Whenever I dream about movies, they are always about as far off from the actual movie as they can get and still have recognizable features, such as iconic characters. The most common movies in my dreams are those from the Star Wars franchise, which are almost always about the prequel films. I started having them between the releases of Episode I: the Stupid Name and Episode III: Pretend This Trilogy Didn't Happen. The dream versions of these films, though having recognizable characters such as Darth Vader, are so horrendously bad that they are really uncomfortable to sit... through...
Oh.
Monday, April 20, 2009
April 20, 2009: Numerous Short Dreams
Last night and this morning I had quite a few shorter dreams, probably because I kept waking up due to someone hammering outside my window. Jerks. Anyway, here goes:
In the first dream I was watching some sort of TV crime drama, though when I "watch" things in dreams I'm usually involved at least as a passive but present observer. I only recall the tail end of this particular drama, wherein I witnessed two rather horrific events unfold. About all I recall is that the story ended tragically, and rather gruesomely, with one man being thrown in some sort of giant garbage compactor that operated, of course, by grinding and crushing with giant toothed gears rather than just flattening; and elsewhere, a woman exploded (in slow motion) due to, I'm guessing, a suicide bomb. This was about where the first dream ended.
In the second dream, the guys from Penny Arcade were working with South Park Studios on a movie deal. They were in the recording studio, putting together the soundtrack; however, there was a bit of contention over the direction that the score was taking: the Penny Arcade guys, specifically Gabe (and of course they were portrayed as their cartoon selves), wanted the music to be dark and eerie, whereas the South Park music team kept pitching lively, bouncy music with chorus vocals parodying those campy 50s radio and TV jingles. Gabe attempted to explain the direction he wanted the music to go by describing one of the monsters in the film: a gruesome undead beast. The music director nodded as if he understood, and said "how about this?" And proceeded to play the same kind of campy jingle music. Gabe and Tycho stormed out in a huff, and suddenly I was watching Fox News, where the ticker at the bottom suddenly started bashing on Penny Arcade. Here ended the second dream.
The third dream was one of my usual "school" dreams. I was in class, working on a project with a group, only I had no idea what the class, project, or point in time in the semester was. Later, we were taking a field trip, only my dad was driving and he missed the turn we needed. This is about where the third dream ended.
There were a few other bits and pieces of dreams throughout the night and morning, though I can't recall them right now.
*****
Sometimes my brain can get really creative; sometimes it gets creative in how graphically gruesome it is. I think I've seen enough disturbing scenes of blood and guts in my dreams to desensitize me to any movie or video game violence.
I'm not sure why I would dream about Penny Arcade, let alone a Penny Arcade movie being made by South Park Studios with Fox News taking interest. I suppose I did see an ad for Penny Arcade's video game last night, and someone on Facebook had one of those stupid images with characters in the style of South Park. And everyone loves Fox News...
My school dreams are always about like this, and never lucid unfortunately. These, I'm sure, do have very real psychological significance. I'm always dreaming that I'm failing classes, or completely confused, or taking a test and have no idea what the class is about. The variant of these dreams is that class is over for the day, and for the life of me, I cannot get my stuff organized and put away, so that I can leave and go to my next class within the allocated ten minutes. It's true that school is always on my mind, especially with finals coming up, but I get no reprieve even in sleep. Hopefully after graduation those dreams will become less frequent.
--Matthew
In the first dream I was watching some sort of TV crime drama, though when I "watch" things in dreams I'm usually involved at least as a passive but present observer. I only recall the tail end of this particular drama, wherein I witnessed two rather horrific events unfold. About all I recall is that the story ended tragically, and rather gruesomely, with one man being thrown in some sort of giant garbage compactor that operated, of course, by grinding and crushing with giant toothed gears rather than just flattening; and elsewhere, a woman exploded (in slow motion) due to, I'm guessing, a suicide bomb. This was about where the first dream ended.
In the second dream, the guys from Penny Arcade were working with South Park Studios on a movie deal. They were in the recording studio, putting together the soundtrack; however, there was a bit of contention over the direction that the score was taking: the Penny Arcade guys, specifically Gabe (and of course they were portrayed as their cartoon selves), wanted the music to be dark and eerie, whereas the South Park music team kept pitching lively, bouncy music with chorus vocals parodying those campy 50s radio and TV jingles. Gabe attempted to explain the direction he wanted the music to go by describing one of the monsters in the film: a gruesome undead beast. The music director nodded as if he understood, and said "how about this?" And proceeded to play the same kind of campy jingle music. Gabe and Tycho stormed out in a huff, and suddenly I was watching Fox News, where the ticker at the bottom suddenly started bashing on Penny Arcade. Here ended the second dream.
The third dream was one of my usual "school" dreams. I was in class, working on a project with a group, only I had no idea what the class, project, or point in time in the semester was. Later, we were taking a field trip, only my dad was driving and he missed the turn we needed. This is about where the third dream ended.
There were a few other bits and pieces of dreams throughout the night and morning, though I can't recall them right now.
*****
Sometimes my brain can get really creative; sometimes it gets creative in how graphically gruesome it is. I think I've seen enough disturbing scenes of blood and guts in my dreams to desensitize me to any movie or video game violence.
I'm not sure why I would dream about Penny Arcade, let alone a Penny Arcade movie being made by South Park Studios with Fox News taking interest. I suppose I did see an ad for Penny Arcade's video game last night, and someone on Facebook had one of those stupid images with characters in the style of South Park. And everyone loves Fox News...
My school dreams are always about like this, and never lucid unfortunately. These, I'm sure, do have very real psychological significance. I'm always dreaming that I'm failing classes, or completely confused, or taking a test and have no idea what the class is about. The variant of these dreams is that class is over for the day, and for the life of me, I cannot get my stuff organized and put away, so that I can leave and go to my next class within the allocated ten minutes. It's true that school is always on my mind, especially with finals coming up, but I get no reprieve even in sleep. Hopefully after graduation those dreams will become less frequent.
--Matthew
Sunday, April 19, 2009
April 19, 2009: First Post - Olympic Event Dream
As this is my first post, I feel that a brief introduction is in order. I will be recording my dreams on a (hopefully) daily basis for a number of reasons. Firstly, my interest in dreams, specifically my own, has led me to investigate ways to improve the likelihood of dreaming, and of specifically lucid dreaming (being aware of the dream as such). One of three factors which greatly improve both regular and lucid dreaming is keeping a dream journal. The other two major influences, for anyone interested, are to get enough sleep (8 hours or so) and to constantly question reality (believe it or not, making it a habit to stop and make sure you're actually awake will carry over into dreams, wherein lucid dreams are more likely to start).
Secondly, sharing my zanier dreams with friends, and in turn hearing theirs, has provided a wealth of hilarious, interesting, and sometimes disturbing stories to tell. So, we're killing two birds with one stone here as the old adage goes. And I guess my "number of reasons" for recording dreams was two.
Thus shall I record my dreams. I will stick to an objective narration of the dream for the first half, then add any observations / questions / glaring discrepancies noted afterward. Also, please feel free to comment on the dream, discuss your own dreams of the previous night, or, as is tradition on the internet, express your dissatisfaction and question my sexual orientation. So, without further ado, here goes - last night's dream:
*****
I was in a church, along with numerous other people, practicing for what must have been some sort of Olympic event. The sporting event called for a single competitor to sprint about thirty feet down the length of an aisle between church pews, toward one of those small, circular exercise trampolines. With his running momentum carrying him forward, the competitor would then launch himself from the trampoline somehow sideways, to smack as hard as possible into an adjacent wall. The goal was then to fall to the ground and, from nothing more than the momentum developed by the aforementioned action, roll as close as possible to a mattress which was placed near the foot of the trampoline. As luck would have it (and as a television running replay videos would prove), I held the record for the event, by launching myself from trampoline to wall, and from wall all the way up on to the mattress itself, much to the delight of the crowd as I celebrated my unbeatable victory.
Indeed, for the remainder of the dream, various competitors, friends, family members, and celebrities would attempt to approach if not match my achievement, sprinting full-speed, bouncing with vigor from the small trampoline, lunging sideways to slam forcefully into the wall, only to fall to the floor and bounce, at best, a few feet toward the mattress.
Some competitors were rather innovative in their attempts to improve momentum, hoping to gain those few precious inches toward a higher rank. Denzel Washington, for example, had the tactic of flying an F-15 fighter jet at full speed in the direction of the trampoline; at the last minute, he would roll, eject, and the momentum achieved from such high velocity would send him bouncing from the trampoline to crash violently into the wall. Unfortunate for him my record was not to be broken, but he was persistent; he tried again later with another jet.
Needless to say, the nature of the sporting event and its lack of apparent rules (outside of hitting the trampoline and the wall and rolling to a stop) led to numerous bodily injuries, some collateral damage for the church, and two crashed fighter jets. And this is about when I woke up.
*****
I really have no idea where this dream came from. I can honestly say this is the strangest dream I've had, at least in a long time. I like that such a ludicrous Olympic event was held inside a church of all places: pews, parishioners, and all. And, as dream physics usually go, I'm not exactly sure how someone carried by their maximum running forward momentum can leap, bounce from a trampoline sideways toward the adjacent wall, slam into it, and still have enough momentum to roll to a stop about 10 feet away up onto a mattress. But hey, I did it, and I apparently hold the record. And the glaring problem of how an F-15 could fit into a church nave, let alone build up enough speed without destroying the church to do a barrel roll. I guess walls and roof and such weren't really there during that part. But hey, it inspired me to finally start this journal. I'll have to go back and dig up some other crazy dreams I had to fill in any times that I don't have one.
--Matthew
Secondly, sharing my zanier dreams with friends, and in turn hearing theirs, has provided a wealth of hilarious, interesting, and sometimes disturbing stories to tell. So, we're killing two birds with one stone here as the old adage goes. And I guess my "number of reasons" for recording dreams was two.
Thus shall I record my dreams. I will stick to an objective narration of the dream for the first half, then add any observations / questions / glaring discrepancies noted afterward. Also, please feel free to comment on the dream, discuss your own dreams of the previous night, or, as is tradition on the internet, express your dissatisfaction and question my sexual orientation. So, without further ado, here goes - last night's dream:
*****
I was in a church, along with numerous other people, practicing for what must have been some sort of Olympic event. The sporting event called for a single competitor to sprint about thirty feet down the length of an aisle between church pews, toward one of those small, circular exercise trampolines. With his running momentum carrying him forward, the competitor would then launch himself from the trampoline somehow sideways, to smack as hard as possible into an adjacent wall. The goal was then to fall to the ground and, from nothing more than the momentum developed by the aforementioned action, roll as close as possible to a mattress which was placed near the foot of the trampoline. As luck would have it (and as a television running replay videos would prove), I held the record for the event, by launching myself from trampoline to wall, and from wall all the way up on to the mattress itself, much to the delight of the crowd as I celebrated my unbeatable victory.
Indeed, for the remainder of the dream, various competitors, friends, family members, and celebrities would attempt to approach if not match my achievement, sprinting full-speed, bouncing with vigor from the small trampoline, lunging sideways to slam forcefully into the wall, only to fall to the floor and bounce, at best, a few feet toward the mattress.
Some competitors were rather innovative in their attempts to improve momentum, hoping to gain those few precious inches toward a higher rank. Denzel Washington, for example, had the tactic of flying an F-15 fighter jet at full speed in the direction of the trampoline; at the last minute, he would roll, eject, and the momentum achieved from such high velocity would send him bouncing from the trampoline to crash violently into the wall. Unfortunate for him my record was not to be broken, but he was persistent; he tried again later with another jet.
Needless to say, the nature of the sporting event and its lack of apparent rules (outside of hitting the trampoline and the wall and rolling to a stop) led to numerous bodily injuries, some collateral damage for the church, and two crashed fighter jets. And this is about when I woke up.
*****
I really have no idea where this dream came from. I can honestly say this is the strangest dream I've had, at least in a long time. I like that such a ludicrous Olympic event was held inside a church of all places: pews, parishioners, and all. And, as dream physics usually go, I'm not exactly sure how someone carried by their maximum running forward momentum can leap, bounce from a trampoline sideways toward the adjacent wall, slam into it, and still have enough momentum to roll to a stop about 10 feet away up onto a mattress. But hey, I did it, and I apparently hold the record. And the glaring problem of how an F-15 could fit into a church nave, let alone build up enough speed without destroying the church to do a barrel roll. I guess walls and roof and such weren't really there during that part. But hey, it inspired me to finally start this journal. I'll have to go back and dig up some other crazy dreams I had to fill in any times that I don't have one.
--Matthew
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