Early or Perhaps Belated Christmas Present

This is but a dream snippet, but the only part I remember. I remember recalling more of the dream earlier in my battle with the snooze-alarm, but as with all my dreams.....they get lost pretty quickly.

I was looking around the house for something, and having a great time doing it. I recall knowing what I was searching for, but at this point I don't.

When searching, I got to my wife's closet and was looking amongst the things on the top shelf when I found a sort of roll of what I thought looked like very-thin insulation. It was a very small roll for insulation....but it was sort of pink in color and kind of fluffy. (I twas only about 8 inches wide and the total length of it was about 2 foot long)

As I unrolled it I noticed that it smelled like tuna, so I took a bite. It was apparently some sort of dried tuna rol, but it wasn't quite like jerky. It tasted wonderful, and I stood there for a while eating it.....almost forgetting about the search I was just on and trying to figure out why it was there.

I'm not sure if I decided in the dream, or after I woke that this was probably a present that my wife had gotten for me last Christmas because this closet was one of her hiding places. (though she always hid things on the floor)

I'm not sure the dream went much past this.....but I know there was a lot more before...but the discovery of the rolled Tuna made me almost forget the prior search.

Not much of a dream......but my dreams are so few and far between I take what I can get!

This is really just a snippet of what might have been a very long dream, but it is all I can remember. (please recall that I never ever remember my dreams....no matter how hard I try)

Last night I was driving in my car, and I believe I was on my way home. The road I was on was not a familiar one though and it was night time.

I was pretty much on the road all by myself, though I had the sense that it was a multi-lane road which would normally have other cars. But as I drove, things began to impede my travels.

First, my glasses became very fogged.....I was struggling to keep them fog free by rubbing and wiping the condensation away. I was able to stay on the road even though I was very distracted. (in fact, there was no memory of radio or passengers at that time)

I then found there was something covering the windshield. I sort of recall that it looked like snow, except it also looked like a bed blanket. It only partially covered the windshield in front of my face, but I was able to peek over to the right and see past it...but it then moved slowly over to the right to the point where I could only look to the right of it and see the edge of the road going by.

It was getting dark, and I was basically watching the grass to road interface and keeing the car just on the road. I came very close to hitting a telephone guide wire and when the road took a few twists and turns to the left I almost left the road. (or made me slow down)

I then remember that I had one of my daughters in the car. It would change from Kim to Kristen fr some reason...and it would seem I had both in there, but I remember looking around and seeing only one.

They were not worried about my driving, though I seemed to have a consern about staying on the road and getting us home w/o accident.

The windshield was still blocked, but as I started to feel OK about my driving, the car began to lose power. It was as if the fuel was running low or had water in it....the car began to skip and studder.....but I pumped the peddle and it just kept going.

I never did make it home, or to any road I knew.....I simply woke up. It seemed sort of like an "Old man and the sea" sort of struggle....though I never ended up with the fish. (and I guess he didn't either)

What does this mean......you've got me. Life is a struggle I suppose...and I suppose I was "winning" this one.....

Not a dream, but a joke

Sorry for the lack of dreams lately, they have been too boring, personal or work-related. In this intermission, I offer you this joke:

Always follow your dream, unless it's the one where you're at work in our underwear during a fire drill.

- Unknown

Water world

I'm in a building which houses several companies including my own (my last job). I'm there on a weekend and some of these companies are having holiday parties. I walk into one of the rooms, and it is full of kids playing games with water tables. There are sinks lined up against the wall with tubing contraptions that feed the water tables with rivers and boats. On the other wall are piles of presents for the kids to open later. I think, this would be a cool company to work for, my kids would love it.

I wander through this building some more. I walk through this hallway, which is lined with large slabs of rough cut granite. There are small rooms which are open to the hallway on one end and then narrow to a slit about 6 inches wide about 10 feet away. There is a shower head on one side of the wall, but no drain. The water from the shower flows to the other side of the room and out the slit in the wall. I peer out of the slit to see an open foyer below with a pool. These showers actually form a waterfall for the pool. I'm transported to the lower level and can see that several of the showers are running. This level is low enough so that you cannot see the people showering above. I think this is a really novel way to incorporate a necessary function with design art.

Observations: I had this dream the night after visiting the Charles B. Wang Center at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Outside this building there is a waterway that trickles water through many long steps from one fountain to another.

Live Journal Posts As I Dream

I guess I have been sort of worried about not being able to remember my dreams, so I suppose I actually had a dream that pulled all that together.....in a strange way.

I laid down to sleep (this is in my dream) and as I did I tucked a tablet PC propped up on the pillows above my head. As I slept I was going to take notes about that I was thinking/dreaming of.

I began this work right away, scrawling notes in. (apparently the PC had handwriting recognition as I did not have to type)

About 10 minutes into it, I realized that my two dogs were not making notes, and this frustrated me. For some reason I thought we had agreed that we would all take notes, so I poked at them to wake them up and remind them.

Mikey simply rolled over and had nothing to do with me....Elijah got upset and growled, but stood his ground and refused. I tried to ask them for input so that I could type it in, but they simply closed their eyes and went to sleep.

I was frustrated and typed in a long paragraph about this and put my head back down again.

Some time later a cat came into the bedroom and jumped on the bed to sleep. The cat looked familiar to me (for some reason....because I don't have a cat) but I was worried that the dogs would be territorial. But they could care less and just kept sleeping.

The cat however seemed to pick-up on the Journaling routine very quickly, and instantly started making entries. This actually bothered me because the laptop was laying very close to my ear and the cat was scratching the entries in with her claws and it was keeping me awake....so my entries then became about the cat keeping me up......and the cat complained about my complaining about her. (it was a regular dueling banjo's situation)

The alarm went off and I woke. (for real too)

NOTE: I typically wake before the alarm, and I might have awoke to a state with regret that I had again not remebered a dream....and in my half asleep state simply conjured up this story about how I might enter my dreams in real-time. I have no clue how or why the cat came into the picture.

Don't Break the Ice!

I'm on a team with 2 other people that I seem to know, but not in real life. We are supposed to walk across this huge field which is made of 2 feet wide blue cubes all wedged together. They are suspended about 30 feet in the air. The cubes are not quite lined up together height-wise and some are looser than others so it is like crossing a rock pier except suspended in the air. The first team across the entire field wins of course. We start crossing and then there is a break in the cubes where you'd have to jump about 15 feet to get across. There is no way that we can jump that far, so I told the rest of the team that I was going to go back, climb down and walk to the other side. This would mean taking penalty points but I didn't see anyway around it. I wasn't going to try jumping across a 15 foot span with a 30 foot drop. My other teammates start getting angry with me but one follows me down. By the time we reach the break, we look up at the suspended cubes and the other teammate is still yelling at us that we need to jump. He said it wouldn't hurt if we fell. The floor is a gym floor covered in interlocking black rubber squares, somewhat padded, but not enough in my eyes. Then the teammate above leaps off and lands flat on his face with a huge thud. I turn away, not wanting to see the aftermath, but the other teammate runs over to him immediately. I start walking the other way, imagining the blood and mangled bones and wishing that it didn't happen. Miraculously, they come running up to me to show me that he is alright. Now, he gets angry with me for walking away. I start to apologize for walking away and that I didn't mean to desert the team and I feel terrible. I wonder how it is that he isn't hurt. Perhaps I'm in the Matrix...

Observations: This cube setup is very reminiscent of the game Don't Break the Ice and also this build-your-own arch from the Ecotarium in Worcester MA.

Thank goodness for rich relatives

My family and I are driving around in Toronto in a car that is only a 2 seater and the kids and the luggage are stuffed in the back. It is roomy enough for them as there is a large space under the hatchback window for them to sit and play. We are trying to drive to Doug's cousin Allen's house but then remember that he has moved and we don't know where his new apartment is. Suddenly we see that we're being followed and realize that they want us because we've stolen the car that we're in. We drive faster to avoid these people but then the kids start asking to go to the bathroom. I suddenly remember that there is a another cousin that lives nearby so we quickly drive to their house. The address is a building on a city street, so we all hop out, run across the sidewalk, run inside and shut the door behind us.

I'm amazed at the beauty of this house, it is immaculate with tall ceilings, white walls, floor to ceiling windows, and perfectly polished medium-toned wood floors. In the foyer to the left of the door, there is a large table with a centerpiece that is a six foot long ceramic canoe used as a vase. The inside of this ceramic piece is colored from very pale blue to a deep cobalt blue. Inside are an arrangement of fresh flowers that reach three feet above the vase. We are greeted by Doug's cousin who looks like Kate Hudson with curly light brown hair and a warm smile. She is extremely friendly and happy to see us even though we came unannounced. We explain that we just needed to make a stop and also mention that there are people chasing us. She tells us that we're welcome to stay as long as we like. I ask, what do you mean by as long as we like? She says, since you're relatives, you could live here if you wanted, it's a family house. I ask, Permanently? for free? She says yes. I say, sure, let's look around. I start thinking that this would mean relocating to Canada and all the logistics of it but then I just let the house take me away.

Now, this house or rather building is huge and takes up a whole city block. The kids quickly see other cousins that they know and they bring them to the movie theater. I tag along behind them to see what it looks like. There is indeed a huge theater with about 10 rows of seats, a red and white striped curtain and a popcorn machine. The guy running the popcorn machine says that the peanuts are slow getting roasted, but the popcorn is ready. The peanuts are roasting in their shells over an open flame grill. I see him filling up bags of popcorn for the kids and he also has french fries and gravy. I think this is a weird combination, so I try a piece. It is actually quite tasty, but I didn't think Adam would like it because it would be too soggy. Next thing I know, I see him eating a bowl of them and enjoying it. I guess he likes this place. There are about 20 kids and they settle down for their movie, so I wander around some more.

I go up the stairs and am amazed by the beautiful architecture. There are windows along the round winding staircase and skylights above. Sun is streaming in from all angles filling the stairwell with radiant light. The railing of the staircase has two shiny metal bands that curve in a wavy upside down U shape. I look at these bands from above and think that this would make a great photograph. I want to run back to the car and get my new DSLR camera, but not just yet, need to explore some more. I finally get to the other side of the building and there is personal travel agency there. There are large light blue tiles walls with the tiles emanating in a stretched polar pattern from the lower left corner. The sign for the agency over the counter has a retro-looking map of the world in the shape of a football. Here the floors are shiny black tiles.

I walk back to the front of the house convinced that this is the place to live. I look out the window to see that the people chasing us have gotten a hold of our car, which is now clearly a silver Lotus. Someone from the house starts chasing after them on a skateboard. I don't feel too bad about losing the car or our belongings because we can get everything from this house.

Observations: This mysterious Kate Hudson-like cousin is probably Allen's daughter Lara who also lives in Toronto. In real life, she is not independently wealthy but she is nice as can be. I woke up from this dream at 8:05 AM already late for work!

Hail to XKCD

Here is the original XKCD comic.

A living memorial

I'm on a bus with a bunch of people, heading out to a gathering which I know is a memorial service for Carl Paul (in real life, Carl has been gone for over a year and a half). We arrive at our destination which is in a park with a large gathering tent. I take a seat in a white plastic folding chair. Everyone is dressed a bit like hippies, it is a beautiful day and the air is warm. We see Carl alive walking around greeting everyone, wearing his tan leather jacket with the fringes in front. I think that it is strange that he is here, as if he knew he was going to die soon, and wanted to get everyone together one last time. We are all seated as he walks around with papers to hand out to people. I stand up to help him, because I know he must be weak, but he shoos me away. Finally I get my papers and I realize that they are individually addressed and that is why he refused help. Along with the papers is a small box. I open it and there are two items inside, presumably things he wanted me to have after he was gone. One item is an old HP calculator, which I believe to be more valuable than my own HP 32S. I am really touched by this gesture as I know how dear this calculator must have been to him. The thought crosses my mind whether to hock it on eBay or keep it for sentimental value because I wouldn't really use it. I quickly think that this is an inappropriate thought to think at a memorial and try to get my mind back on the service.

Observations: Our minds often confuse the living and dead when we dream. I didn't know whether Carl had an HP calculator in real life, but he was the type of person who would treasure one. I tried to find the actual calculator from the dream, it seems to be an HP 38e, but I dreamt it was bigger and had more buttons. Of course, I don't necessarily have to dream of objects that must exist in real life!

Bowling on Twitter

I'm going bowling with some friends and have to walk downstairs to the bowling alley. I'm trying to get a foursome, and I ask my friend Noorul, but she declines and then I remember that she doesn't like to use those communal shoes. I finally get another friend Marty as the fourth (can't remember the other two). While we are bowling, I think I'm doing well, but the score keeps hovering around 9. I finally realize that the scorekeeper is doing it wrong, subtracting points instead of adding them. Finally after we correct the scores, it is around 110. After the game, I go upstairs to a computer cafe. It is full of people with dark red walls and law office lamps with the green glass shades. I sit at a computer and try to write a twitter post about bowling. I can't seem to come up with anything and it is hard to type and see the screen which is tilted towards me on a slanted wall. My boss is standing behind me waiting for me to put up my post. I try to explain that this monitor is screwing me up. I type and it doesn't comes out witty or funny, and then it gets too long, over 140 characters. Imagine twitter anxiety in my dream!

Observations: This dream happened after I replied to geekparrot's twitter post about bowling, to which she replied here. Here is the transcript:

geekparrot: I bowled my best game ever - 144. Hee.
moonfever0: @geekparrot Awesome, real bowling is so much harder than Wii bowling!
geekparrot: @moonfever0 Well I'm still waiting to get my Wii, but yea, ain't nothing like the real thing.

Flaming Snowball Fight with Father Roderick

Ok, so this entry might be a bit obvious....obvious to me as to where it probably came from. It comes from a dream I just had this past morning.

I was driving my car up a road that I had driven up many times. (though not one that I was at all familiar with in real life)

I came to the end of the road, which had turned into sort of a driveway. I noticed that it had not only begun to snow, but that the ground was suddenly covered with it. In fact, the car I was driving started to slip and slide as I drove it.

I ended up driving the car into a snow bank behind the house. (it was stuck) I got out and went into the house. Inside, the house was a very open concept.....but in this case, very, very open. So open that there was no furniture or appliances. In fact, I was searching for a place to sit and all I found were tables to stand against.

While in the house, I guess I was sort of jumped on by Father Roderick, the priest who created the Starquest Production Network (SQPN) and who produces the Daily Breakfast podcast. We started to wrestle and somehow ended up boxing....except we ended up battling it out inWii boxing.

Neither of us won, and we somehow transformed out boxing into a Wii snowball fight....which instantly became more real when we exchanged the Wii controller for real snowballs. The battle started in what looked like the Living room and moved out to the yard where there was plenty of time and snow to continue the battle.

I ran behind the house, only to find that my car was not only still stuck in a snow bank, but that it was now smoldering.....apparently ready to catch fire.

I tried to throw snow on it, but Father Roderick came around the building and started pelting me with snow. I tried to hide behind the car in the hopes that Father Roderick's snowballs would hit it and put out the fire.

He was in fact throwing very large snowballs, but they only put out the fire....but the car continued to smolder.

It was about this point that I awoke from my dream. As strange as it sounds, Father Roderick looked nothing like the real guy. In my dream he was very tall....but he at least did have a Dutch accent.


WHERE DID THIS COME FROM YOU ASK? Well, that is an easy one indeed.

Earlier that day I had dropped something off at Angela's house. (and it was snowing out when I did) While there, she showed me her house. (which did have furniture and appliances) She then showed me their Wii gaming system.

One of the games I played was Wii boxing, and one of the Avatar's on the game is of Fr. Roderick. (though I never boxed Fr. Roderick...I did play baseball with his avatar)

Where the flaming car came from....I have no clue.

OMG: Where did my car go?

First of all, I want to say that I am a person who rarely remembers his dreams. When I mean rarely, I mean NEVER. I tend to only remember my dreams the nights I wake up with a fever breaking.....and I am luck in that I rarely get sick.

So this morning on the way to work I suddenly remembered the dream I had the night before. I quickly recorded it to my MP3 player since I was in my car going to work. (and had no paper or pen handy to take the notes.)

Here is the MP3 recording of how I described it this morning. (In that recording, I seem to have a stuffed up nose, so please bare with me)

In the dream, my Brother in-law Billy was over to my house for some reason, and he was now leaving in a bit of a hurry. I think he might have been late for work, but I only guess this because he would eventually motor up the street toward Manchester.

But as he backs quickly out of the driveway, he is doing so in a semi-out of control manner. As he swerves down the driveway, he cuts toward the mailbox and hits it. But he does not hit it hard enough to knock it over. (note: For some reason the maibox in my dream is on the opposite side of my driveway,,,and I'm not sure what the significance of this is)

Billy straightens himself out, and continues to very quickly back out of my driveway.

For some reason I had decided to park my Honda Civic out on the street, to the left as I look out my driveway. Then to the right, up the hill, I have a pick-up truck which is apparently also mine. (It isn't my old white Dodge, but some sort of a blue F150 and it is parked a little up the hill.)

As Billy backs down the hill he strikes my Honda civic, and as he does I see that the Honda seems to "lock bumpers" with the van that Billy is driving a van. (I note that Billy does not own a van, but rather a truck of some sort.)

When I see the cars locked together, I bolt from the front door and begin running down the driveway in my underwear and bathrobe....screaming for Billy to STOP, and waving my arms to get his attention.

I then notice that he is dragging my Civic up the street...and within a second or two he would be crashing into my truck. Well, he did and he began dragging both vehicles u the hill with him.

When I reached the end of the driveway, I remember seeing the civic sitting around unused. In fact, I thought I saw the Civic "fall-off" the van and I decided to shower and take my time retrieving it.

So my shower seemed to take forever (my dream shower mind you) and by the time I got back up the street, the civic was gone. In fact, there was a crowd of people where the Civic was, and the car was nowhere to be found.

I walked further up the street, only to find more party people and little clues on where my car and truck might be. So no matter how much I searched, the car was lost.

I continued to walk up the street towards RT3A, but no car was to be found. (the crowds of people were having fun as I came up to them)

I never found the car, and woke up about when I made it to RT3A. I never did find Billy, or my cars/truck.

What does it mean...who knows. A more interesting questions to me is, how is it that I remembered this dream over any of the others I have probably buried in my subconscious.

(BTW: I think my verbal recollection of this dream is better than my write-up here. It might have to do with the fact that my eyes are crossing from lack of sleep as I type this :-)

Multi-colored pasta

I'm eating in a fancy house which is not mine and we are cleaning up the dishes. I'm supposed to put away the leftovers of the pasta dish, which was barely touched. The large round dish is full of spaghetti with different colors in each quadrant: green, blue, yellow and red. There is more green than any other color. In the center is a pile of shredded beef or pork. I try to pull some of the green pasta up but end up getting some of the other colors as well. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to keep these colors segregated or not, but I manage to slide the whole dish into the container. Then I'm at the sink, looking out the old white painted double paned window and see everyone playing outside in the green grass. I'm wondering why I'm slaving over the sink, am I a servant here or something? I go to take a shower which I know is in a closet of a bedroom. The closet is now filled with boxes and then I realize that it's been years since this shower has been used.

Observations: Yes, this one is pretty disjointed, but I really liked the multi-colored pasta. At some point I also got very angry and upset, but I really can't remember why.

Swimming upstream

I'm in a house with all of my fellow co-workers. We are working on an assignment where we are to explain why the water from the river next to the house flow up through the pipes and sprays from the top of the chimney like a fountain. There are no pumps and it is a natural physical phenomenon. I try to guess capillary action, but they say no because the pipes are about 6 inches in diameter. Then my co-workers figure it out and try to explain it to me and I don't understand at all. I keep saying "I don't get it" and feel really dumb.

Next, I find myself in the river next to the house wading across to get to some balls on the other side. I believe these balls are the magic key to the upwardly flowing water. I'm stepping barefoot through some wet mossy areas, and then I realize that the river gets deep and start to swim across. Suddenly, I see my 3-year-old daughter in the river as well and try to tell her not to go in too far because it is too deep. She doesn't listen, so I have to scoop her up and swim with her to the other side. It is hard to swim against the river, but I manage to get to the other side. I grab the balls which look like multi-colored tennis balls and then swim towards the slider of the house. There is no dock or anything, the river runs right up the the slider. I help my daughter up and then hop inside with the balls and my sloshing wet clothes.

Observations: My 6-year-old son is now in the habit of saying "I don't get it" all the time. Earlier that day I was left off the a distribution list for a list of problems from our customer and felt out of the loop. My solar system is also broken, spewing water all over the roof when the pumps are on (no magic there!).

Balancing on Tabletops for Dragons

I'm in a Chinese restaurant in MIT student center for a company lunch. It is a really fancy place with tablecloths and I was wondering when they upgraded their eateries from the old nasty Lobdell dining center. On each table is a small painted jar that looks like a hockey puck. I realize that you need to stand on them on one foot and they will turn into miniature dragons. I hop gracefully from table to table, not disturbing my coworkers sitting at them and balance on all the pucks. A dragon pops out of each one and I gently hop onto the next table.

The waitress said, why don't you try these? She puts an egg into a cup of coffee on a counter that is higher than the table and then another puck on top of some cabinets near the ceiling. I'm doubtful that I can reach the one on the high cabinet, but I do try for the counter. I'm worried about breaking the egg when I stand on it, but do it anyway. This time it doesn't pop, but I do manage to stand on the round floating object without falling. I try to swing myself up onto the top of the tall cabinet, but I hook my legs the wrong way and can't really reach it.

After we return to work, and there is announcement over paging system about the four different types of dragons that were there at the restaurant like a seminar class.

Observations: This dream probably comes from spending too much time the evening before playing Mario Brothers on the Gameboy and jumping on opponents. The whole dragon reference reminds me of the dragons in Harry Potter and the Secrets of Harry Potter podcast that discusses them.

Traveling with Father Roderick

I'm walking around in Amersfoort, the home town of Father Roderick, podcaster extraordinaire of Catholic Insider and Daily Breakfast fame. I'm following Fr. R around the rainy streets and we arrive at his home. It is different than what I imagined. I've heard his description of living on the 2nd floor (1st for the Europeans) of an old house and seen videos taken within his studio. This place is a one bedroom apartment in a building. When you walk in, the bathroom is immediately to the right and it is covered in bright red and white checkerboard tiles. His apartment is also richly colored in dark reds and decorated in a gypsy style. With us is a woman who he obviously knows well and they are talking and joking with each other at length. I notice as they are talking they are touching each other in an overly friendly way. I feel part of this group but obviously left out of this "special" relationship.

Observations: A few weeks later, Fr. R went into detail about priestly celibacy. He also mentioned at a separate time, that he is certainly not perfect and needs to work on some things. I certainly don't think that he personally has issues with keeping relationships with the opposite sex at bay. He is extremely friendly and charming and has a dynamic personality where I could see plenty of women falling for him.