Dreams From Last Night VII

No high school dreams here, though one person that I knew from high school and still keep in fleeting contact with did turn up. The first and perhaps only dream I remember started out strangely and took many shifts over it's course, never losing the weirdness. First thing I remember, there was someone stranded on a tropical island. A large tropical island with many people on other parts, but somehow they were stranded, they may have been injured, but I'm not sure if my mind isn't adding that detail after the fact. Regardless, I may or may not have been part of a crew that was sent to rescue this person. Our ship was an old wooden sailing ship, and why not? We couldn't get too near the beach because of the rocks, but we sent a row boat over. Well, they found the person easily, and sent part of the away team back to the ship to report and to guard it, and the rest of us (I think) stayed on the beach with this fellow. After that, it got kind of really weird and nightmarish. I noticed, that some of our people had just up and vanished. We were frequently going back and forth from the ship, and there had been a large fire we started at night, but now... people were missing. I didn't like it one bit.

And so the first setting shift occurred. No longer was there a possibly injured castaway nor a sailing ship. The beach was replaced by a house. Not a scary, dilapidated old manse, or a rundown abandoned house. No, it was a bright cheery modern house. Single level, well-furnished, a nice place to live. Except there were still people missing. My friends were missing. Eventually I discovered that the wall behind a series of couches opened into some sort of maze. I think it was at least vaguely extradimensional (whatever that means), but I seem to recall that the walls became permeable rather than opening, and the rooms in the maze were connected almost randomly. In any event, it was here that I discovered my friends. I was quite glad, even more so when I managed to find my way back out with my good friend Mandy. Now, thinking I knew the way out, I advised her to wait out here while I went and found the others. I entered the maze once more. I found a group of people and told them I think I found the way out, but we agreed that if we waited in what we thought was a central location, the others would eventually find us.

This seemed like good sense to me, so we waited. I played a guitar to pass the time. I played far better than I play in real life, of course, and I was completely absorbed in my playing. Next thing I know, I'm out in the living room again, and only Mandy is with me. I panic, as one might expect. I recall thinking that maybe if you stand still long enough, the maze teleports you elsewhere, but I even in the dream that sounded stupid to me. I tore at the couch cushions, and the closets on the wall trying to get back in but to no avail. At this point the order of events becomes confused for me. I was still playing the guitar, and a friend of mine (the one from high school) come into the room and asks me what I'm doing. Naturally, I don't think about the tearing up the living room of this house, but of the playing and I say something about how he can still play bass in the band or something.

Then Mandy and I wandered outside and talked to some people, all the while I was still playing. We wandered back in to the living room, and finally I stop playing, and Mandy wanders into a different part of the house. I was absolutely terrified. I didn't know if she would disappear again or not, and I couldn't follow her, as I was paralyzed with fear and indecision. Then, at last, I got a message from my friend Ginny, saying that she was sorry that they were taking so long getting food and they were on their way back now. The sheer amount of relief I felt cannot be adequately expressed in words. Then I saw my dear partner Rachel walking past the window to the door, and I very nearly lost control. I ran to the door and greeted her by throwing my arms around her and nearly crushing her with enthusiastic hugs. She seemed equally happy to see me, and I was glad.  The entire experience had been a terrible ordeal for me, although, apparently, I didn't always recognize it. I was so very glad to have them all back.

There were other snippets of dreams, but I believe I will leave them out this time. I don't feel like writing anymore, after I've written and remembered all that. The emotions are too strong. When I think about the terror I felt at the thought of losing my friends, and my partner, of my own inability to act, and of the things that I should have done (like check on Mandy) and the horrible realization that I cannot be sure that what I saw at the end was truly the return of those important to me, or some horrible trick of the maze or the house.... Maybe I should let it go. "It was all just a dream," but then again, the emotions and their effects are absolutely real.

Dreams From Last Night VI

Last night, I had some odd dreams, with the high school themes strong once again. The first I can remember involved attending a foam fighting event I enjoy called Ragnarok. I seem to recall that my unit was the only one on the field, for some reason or other, and we decided to pick up things. Trash and the like. We did so, and I wandered away for some reason, and when I returned they had already begun to leave. They had gathered my things, but as I followed them I picked up many things that they dropped, including a good deal of my gear. I was highly annoyed, by this. I also overheard a couple people not in my unit discussing picking things up, because we had helped out. I returned to our camp and talked about this with people, and I discovered a few people I knew from high school were in the unit when they are not, really. Of course, in the dream I thought nothing of it. After that I left the camp again to meet two other people I knew from high school, who were new to the event, but on the way the tone shifted. No longer was I at Ragnarok, but I was on a space station of some sort. There was some discussion of anime going on, but the main thing I  remember is that a person that I met when I moved to Ohio (after college, mind you) was there. I talked to here, with the people I knew from high school. Funnily enough, all of us were wearing sweatshirts with my high school's mascot, including the person I didn't attend high school with. I asked her where she got it, and she said that someone had given it to her because they both liked Dawson's Creek. One of the girls who went to high school with me then informed me that the person who gave her the shirt was married to another person I didn't  meet until I moved here, and referred to them by name. I accepted this, and we continued on to our destination.

I woke up at some point, and in the shadowy area between sleep and waking, my group went to a bar on this space station, prompting the bartender, a stereotypical 19th century prospector/Old West character robot, to voice complaints about giving the rest of the staff the night off moments before. In walked a robot that appeared to be a version of Bender from Futurama though in a "chibi" style, who ordered "champeanutbutter", I laughed at the concept of peanutbutter flavored champaign aloud, and thus woke myself up fully, ending the dream entirely.

Another dream I had involved being back at high school, never being able to close my locker. I did, however, receive some strange awards for championing soda pop, or something. The two main memorable parts of this dream were first, a girl I didn't meet until college was there, and second, the unexplained corpses outside the school. The girl is actually so much younger than me that we weren't even in high school at the same time, and didn't attend the same school, but of course, dreams don't care. I went to talk to her at her locker and she told me she was moving away. I was very disheartened by this, and asked her if she still had my phone number. She said she didn't think so as she was walking out of the school. I followed her and gave it to her. Her mother was in the parking lot waiting, and she told her mom to wait a minute while I gave her my number, and then they left. Now, for the corpses. So, as I was trying to go back in so I could go to class, I realized that there were emergency vehicles all over the parking lot. Now, I had memories of there being two dead bodies on the blacktop before, and so I was entirely unconcerned with this development. Well, not entirely unconcerned. I walked towards the door, and they had the bodies laid out in the middle of the sidewalk, uncovered. This was profoundly disturbing to me. I overheard someone saying they needed to figure out why they died, and I recall thinking that they froze to death. How I came to this conclusion, I don't really know, but I decided to go to a different door to enter, because I didn't know if the emergency crews would let me pass, and more to the point, I didn't really want to see the bodies any closer.

Dreams From Last Night V

My sleeping pills are generally good for giving me bizarre dreams. And last night was no exception. The first I recall was rather cinematic.I don't recall having an active role in it at all. There was a man in a rather odd outfit, some sort of protective suit. He was protecting a small group of people from harm from some nebulous and unknown threat, but he went for a run, and a young boy helped him gear up before hand. When he finished and returned, he sat in a diner that the boy, a woman, and another man were in. The boy moved to take food to the protector man, but the other man called him to himself first. I understood the second man to be kind of the leader, though not by any virtue I could see. The protector man then stood and sat at the table next to the leader man, and the woman and boy served the protector man first. The leader man didn't seem to like this and commented that the protector man "smelled bad", presumably from running, and he needed to go to a different table. Unfortunately, that's as far as the dream went, but I think it's a good seed for a later story.

The second dream I recall, I was at my paternal grandmother's old house, or one very like it, and my cousins, among others, were there. I was also conscious of a change in timeline, as the old garage (of which I have some amusing stories), was still standing, but I knew that it was going to be gone and I seemed to be the age I am now, as opposed to younger. However, a severe storm had whipped up and we all, had taken refuge in the clubhouse that used to stand behind the driveway, itself an anachronism that I didn't think about. In real life, it had been a free standing wooden structure five or so feet off the ground. In my dream it was much the same, except there was a zip line across the driveway (which would later be a river gorge, but I'm jumping ahead), as well as a lower level that consisted of a castle-like stone structure. Why we took refuge here instead of inside the house or in the basement is beyond me.

However, that is where we took refuge. Now, when I say we, I mean myself and apparently, a bunch of the action figures and toys I had when I was a kid, or toys that I might have liked as a kid. Also, fictional characters, including, notably, one Victor Trajian who you might have seen mentioned in my writings.

In any event, the storm passed and I took the zipline across what was now a river gorge, for some reason. The garage's roof had collapsed, I noted, confirming my knowledge that it was not long for this world, but otherwise things seemed alright. I went to the main house and did some things I don't recall, but it came to my attention that one of my cousins intended to do me harm, for some reason. So, I retreated to the zipline to find Samus Aran waiting for me on the other side. She crossed to me and told me something I don't recall, and then crossing the zipline came the teenage mutant ninja turtle, Leonardo. He told me that he was no longer a teenager (and he did look older, to be sure, and resembled the costume from the old movie from the early 90s, though aged and scarred), he also told me he was an agent, an assassin if I would,  like a true ninja. He swung one of his swords, but I had a wooden sword of my own from somewhere that I was able to parry with. Samus, however, came to my rescue and drove him off. I wisely said to her that I was sure that was my cousin who meant me harm, and he would surely be back in a different guise. I said something regarding the importance of family, and embraced my protector, even in her bulky armor, and assured her that she was part of my family.

Again, an interesting seed for a story for later use. I rather like it.

Dreams From Last Night IV

The theme of my dreams was once again revolving around high school, and high school activities. The first I can recall involved me returning to high school, to get my diploma because, apparently. I flunked phys. ed. (I actually did well in P.E., because I participated and junk.) Other people who graduated with me were there, and they were certainly having more problems than me, as many of them had also failed Health Education. How is beyond me, but, anyway, my high school gym teacher Mr. Gaddis, had not come in yet. It appeared late in the school year, and when Mr. Gaddis arrived, same as he was eight years ago, he said to me that I was lucky because he wouldn't have time to do Health, but I could make up P.E. no problem. So I sat in on a class, that wasn't at all P.E. like. It was in desks, and apparently, in a hall way. The dream rapidly shifted tone, and there was some sort of race relation issue going down. I'm not entirely sure on what was going on, but it seemed that some people of color were organizing and protesting, and I, being the person that I am, joined them, as did several other Caucasian people in the class. The details of the problem elude me, and it didn't seem to be an issue with the school, the students, or the class or faculty. At some point also, I had my head combed with one of those nit combs, and it produced a full comb of large, bloated, multicolored mating pairs of fleas... not lice, fleas. Red and white were the primary colors of these fleas, but there were some black ones and some brown ones as well. At this point, I decided it was going to be easier to just shave my head (an act which I have considered doing lately, sans the flea infestation). In reality, humans aren't particularly good hosts for fleas, but dream logic doesn't care. I recall little else from that dream except that I began watching or playing some sort of horror movie or game that involved a Predator from the film series of the same name.

The second dream I can recall involved two of my close friends from high school, one of whom is still my close the friend, and the other who was killed in a car accident our sophomore year. I was with the first of the two, Brent, in Chicago, doing something I'm not clear on the details. Later, he was working at a McDonald's and I was helping him (in high school, he really did work at Mickey D's), then we were driving on south, and we came to a gas station that was very similar to one in the town I grew up in, after going down a stretch of road that was very similar to a town that was nearby. A major difference, however, was that there were a lot of strip malls and the like around, which was not at all like those little, rural towns in southern Illinois. However, it was in one of these little strip malls that I ran into my other friend, Jimmy. Somehow, a conversation regarding the secret service happened, and he told me that there was a secret service headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. And I said yeah, there's only one in every state, and you won't find them in Detroit (ha-ha!) or Lansing, because they want to remain... secret. All of the problems with this are entirely obvious to me in the waking world, but again, dream logic.

The conversation then shifted to a device he was building in Minecraft, as part of a particularly famous server of let's players, that he was evidently on. He was building a mock up in real life out of Lego bricks. I thought this was incredibly cool. He showed me what he had done, and explained what he planned to do, and where he was having trouble. I, as well-acquainted as I was with the group he associated with, gave him advice on who to seek advice from, erudite wisdom of the highest measure. It never occurred to me in the dream, that he, being a member of this server, was far more qualified than I to judge who he should or should not solicit the help of, based not solely on skills, but scheduling, projects, other obligations they might have, etc. In short, in my dreams, I am apparently, a pompous ass.

A Question or Two

For you, readers.

I've been trying to produce daily content here, and for the most part I have. But I'm at a cross-roads here. The prologue of my story is finished. It needs polishing and rewriting, but the basis is complete. So, I'll put the question to you. Do you want me to continue posting first draft pieces from this story, and any random bits and bobs I write in the mean time? Or would you rather have a more focused, finish product, and I will post other things on a daily basis?

If you want the latter, what do you want me to write? More fantasy, sci-fi, poetry, non-fiction? I do have a few ideas regarding literary analyses, and other such things percolating.

The issue I am seeming to run into lately is that with my video projects, I may be spreading myself too thin, creatively, and I might need to focus my efforts. I am still writing at least a thousand words a day, and my writing time is not infringed upon. Even so, if I feel as if I might need to focus on a single writing project. Buuuuut.... that seems to go against the general spirit of this endeavor.I want to explore as many avenues as possible. I do spend a lot of time during the day goofing off and working on neither writing nor videos, nor other obligations. So, that's why I've put it to you.

Tell me what you think.

Dreams From Last Night III

Last night's dreams were not bad. Worth telling, however. The first I recall, I don't recall much. My brother and  one of his childhood friends (who was a very small child indeed in my dream), made a horrendous mess in my parents' upstairs bathroom. They, apparently, poured... olive oil all over the floor. So, I was, naturally upset by this, and it seemed to be my birthday or something, so I was making them clean it. The friend, whose name was (and still might be, as far as I'm aware) Adam, was not being particularly helpful, and I was angry, so I told him he had to go home. It was quite cold outside, snow on the ground and all that. I felt bad about making him walk in the cold so I wanted to invite him to play with everyone else outside instead. The most logical thing, of course. But, he, in his reluctance, had hidden in my partner's tablet, so I was chasing him around, 16-bit style, trying to ask him to come and play with us. Meanwhile, my brother had gotten the other people there to pester my brother about getting me to make the cupcakes I was, apparently supposed to make. Quite strange indeed.

The other dreams I recall were both basketball related. When I was younger, I didn't much care for basketball, I tried out for the team in junior high, but didn't make it. I was short and not very coordinated or athletic at the time. I'm still short, 5'4", and probably still not very coordinated or athletic, though probably slightly more so than I had been, but I digress. I started enjoying watching basketball, and even shooting around a bit in my late teens and early twenties, but never anything serious as far as the playing went, and with basketball season around the corner, I've been watching a bit of it lately.

In any event, in my dreams, I was actually playing, with quite a few people from my high school, in what resembled my old high school gym. I was playing point guard, unsurprisingly, and doing acceptable work. The coach appeared to be a friend of mine who is quite a bit older than me, and has no connection to either my high school or basketball as far as I'm aware. He instructed us that our main shooter (a guy I knew from high school, who was a fairly decent basketballer) was doing it wrong, and he was actually a better shot with his left hand, but he couldn't get passed the "shoot with your dominant hand" thing. I also noted that he was favoring his left shoulder as if it was injured, but in the fuzzy logic of the dream I did not make the connection. The team I was on was mostly guys, and the team we were playing was mostly girls. I've no idea the significance of this, or if it's relevant, but I remember that fairly clearly. I also tried to be a team leader and get people doing what they were supposed to, but I don't know how that worked out, because I woke up shortly after.

The second basketball dream, was a bit different. Still on a team, some people were from my high school, some not. I was mostly passing and shooting. It seemed to be some sort of practice game, half-court and the other team... well, I don't really know if there even was another team, but we were acting as if there was. Anyway, the shots from many people, myself included were pretty bad. I was doing alright with passes and dribbles, and towards the end, I found my spot in the mid-range. Evidently, in my dreams, I'm not so good at the layups and inside game, but mid-range jumpers are my thing. Okay. Having hit my stride, I was pretty excited, and when the game/practice/whatever ended, I was talking with another person (who I thought of as the other guard, or another point guard, I'm not too clear), and the topic of my performance came up. He said something about everyone loving me, and I said "Everyone already loves me, what are you talking about? Who wouldn't love me?" after that gem, I got serious and said that he got more points than me, a statement which was backed up by someone else, but I said I thought I had gotten a few assists. (A stat in my mind that is more important for point guards than baskets made). After that, I woke up.

Dreams From Last Night II

(Possible Trigger Warning: Sexual assault)

More strange dreams. I only remember one with any clarity, but there are many fragments that I remember, mostly the sort of dreams that I am trying to wake up and struggling desperately to do so. Fortunately today, those were not as terrifying as they sometimes are, rather a minor inconvenience.

As for the dream I remember, it was very strange indeed. I don't recall how it began, but the earliest part I can recall clearly featured me in a sort of high school-like setting (as seems to be the case frequently these days, but that's a tale for another time), and an assignment to fill out a crossword grid with the names of people you know, and then use the names you wrote to replace names in sentences that corresponded to the numbers. Most of them were fairly normal, but the last I can recall, was a very explicit description of being sexually assaulted.To make matters worse, it mentioned Brad Pitt's role in Fight Club as a guideline, for reasons I can only guess.

At this point, the dream shifted, placing me in the role of Brad Pitt in a film that certainly was not Fight Club. Nor was it a film that I recognize at all, now that I am awake. But nonetheless, I was thrust into this action role. The first details elude me, but eventually, the person aiding me and I were to sneak into a Turkish embassy and... do something that was rather vague and unclear. I recall telling this person that we would need to complete a military uniform as a disguise, but first we'd go in and scope it out. We looked around the embassy, and then as we were leaving alarms started going off and guards... that did not look like guards at all, but rather slightly overweight, greasy blond haired computer techs with thick framed glasses, all of them identical, began searching for us. We casually walked out of the lobby, but as we did, we were recognized, and so began the chase scene, of course.

The person and I ran in different directions. The embassy apparently released dogs, but not attack dogs as you'd expect, but little yappy dogs. None the less, the dream became very video gamey at that point, and for some reason I had a gun. I tried to hide, but the dogs found me, so I had to fight my way out, and I found myself in a very upscale neighborhood, with lots of mansions and expensive stores, one advertising a hat for $537 (people say that in dreams, you can't recognize numbers, but I've never had that problem). I continued fleeing and found myself in a building that had a shower room, and decided to use it. There was a person in there already, who told me that they would take care of my clothes as well, and if I needed anything just ask. So, I took a shower, and when I exited, the building was filled with robots. Hostile to me, of course. Again with no warning or knowledge of how, I had acquired a rocket launcher, which evidently, had nuclear warheads, as I remember thinking that I was too close, and a few minutes later, my father, who was somehow in the building now, asked me what was going on, so I asked him for a first aid kit to heal my large dose of radiation, because video games.  I woke up after this, and I tried to recapture the dream, but I never really did, all the dreams I remember after are fragmentary and incoherent (as if this one /was/ coherent). I do remember my parents being in several others, however, but in varying capacities. I wonder if my dreams are ever not strange? I never remember them if they are!

Lament

A red sun rose over the trees,

And I saw the clouds in their rapid march east.

Propelled by the wind as it rose to a gale,

Their black forms did not crawl, but ran.

The howling of the wind grew ever louder,

Until I was sure that the tallest pines would bend and snap

From the force of the sound alone.

At last, the rain came, after a great bolt of lightning cracked the sky,

To open the floodgates of the heavens.

I wept, and the clouds wept.

I cried out in grief, and the winds howled in return.

But it was not in commiseration.

When the red sun rose again,

I saw that the rains and the wind had washed away,

All of the blood, and the remnants of the last battle.

But they did not wash them from me.

The storm was only to block the evidence of this tragedy,

From the view of those who came next.

And I realized, at long last, that I and I alone was the last piece of proof of what had occurred.

Dreams From Last Night I

                Last night, I had some very strange dreams. In one dream, there was a zombie outbreak. Given the prevalence of this idea in popular culture, I am unsurprised that I had this dream, especially when I was lamenting the dearth of good survival games that don’t involve zombies. That said, it started out in a completely different way. I was in some sort of diner or shop. I believe it was a diner, as there seemed to be tables and a long counter, however, it might have been a bar. Regardless, I was in a sort of back room, that might have been a kitchen, as there was a window looking out from behind the counter. I seemed to know that something was going to happen, because I was collecting various firearms and accessories. I heard the door open and crouched below the window. It seemed there were two women looking for me, and I had known they would be, hence the hiding and the gathering weapons.

                After a few moments, I heard them begin screaming and shooting wildly, and that was the signal that the zombies had arrived. I waited a few moments with bullets ripping through the walls around me, then I got up and entered the main room to help them.

                Either my shots were ineffective, or the zombies were not as easily disposed of as the popular films would have you believe, as even point blank head shots didn’t seem to incapacitate them. Seeing the futility of the fight, we fled, but I somehow ended up alone. I think I was trying to get back to the women, but I got separated from them or something, because I was wandering the streets alone at night. I was trying my best to avoid attracting attention. It was fortunate that I had a silenced weapon, to aid me in this endeavor, but again, even clean headshots didn’t really seem to affect the undead beyond staggering them a bit. At one point, a large truck drove up and down the street, its loud exhaust attracting the zombies. I used the distraction to my advantage and ran for a short while. I eventually came to a large farm with several pastures full of cattle, and I remembered thinking about whether or not the zombies would kill the cattle, or the virus or whatever other cause of the outbreak would affect them. I don’t recall much else about that dream.

                Another dream I had last night involved a sleep over and videogames. Kai and I had invited people over, apparently, though our apartment was much bigger and very different. The main thing I recall about this dream, is that I complained that someone else had laid claim to the couch I was going to sleep on, and I was irritated. Even in the dream, I wondered why I couldn’t just sleep in our bed, but I chose to share a couch with someone else anyway (what kind of apartment has like four couches, though?). But alas, even in my dreams, I am an insomniac, so I couldn’t sleep well, and eventually got up. There was something I don’t remember well about a cat, I was reading a story, but it was also happening in reality, or something like that, and then I decided to watch some let’s play videos. I recall seeing some LPers I enjoy collaborating on a new project, and I was tickled by the innuendos and sexual tension between them (because I’m mature). After that, I decided that I would play minecraft with my niece, because obviously, she was still awake, too. We played for a while, until she placed a bed in the nether and blew herself up because she didn’t want to play anymore. I don’t recall anything else of that dream, and I think I got up to use the facilities at that point.

                Finally, I had a dream that was perhaps the strangest of all. Kai and I were in the car driving, and she was being quite reckless. At one point, she had driven up on the sidewalk, as if this were totally acceptable, to avoid road construction. However, a combination of a sudden turn and hitting the brakes too hard caused her to spin out…. Through the plate glass window of some sort of department store, and clear on out the window on the other side. She regained control and we arrived at our destination, which was a gigantic shopping mall, which was also where we lived, apparently. The people from the department store pretty easily found us and wanted us to pay for the window, of course. Kai became despondent, but as always, I was not worried. My mother was also there for some reason, and sent me out to the car to get something, so that she could pay for our grocery bills.

                While I was doing this, I was also exploring the mall. There were all kinds of different things, including several McDonald’s restaurants. The roof of the mall was also, apparently very leaky, as the floor was covered in water from the rain. I ended up going out a direction that I didn’t recall going before and found myself near a playground and several restaurants. Outside there were no less than five McDonalds’ and a Pizza Hut. While two or three of the Mickey Ds’ were closed, the fact that there were so many was quite amusing to me (in the waking world, I wonder if this is not an indication of my disdain for consumerism and commodification). I wander around for a bit, until I managed to find the entrance I was familiar with, with the help of a person I met along the way. I made it to the car (I think), and got what I needed (I think). Then I went inside and met a couple old friends and told them about the hilariously large number of McDonalds’. While on our way back, we went out the door that was near them and I showed them, then we begin laughing at the number inside the mall as well (if memory serves, we encountered eight of them, counting the ones inside). Then we found another entrance, with an escalator going up, and a button on the wall. The button opened a secret passage… well, a not so secret passage anyway, as both the button and the sliding wall were pretty obvious, into... a McDonald’s. Looking down the hall, we saw a conveyor belt, leading to another escalator, and both were stopped. We decided to make our way back to where I lived, and so took the working escalator. It led us to a working conveyor belt, and we climbed off and appeared to be in some sort of maintenance area. A custodian asked us what we were doing, and I said we had gotten lost, which was at least in part, true. He didn’t seem upset, and engaged us in conversation for a few moments. I informed him of the escalator and conveyor belt at the other end of the line appearing broken, and he thanked me and said he’d look into it. I then took my leave and started out to find my residence. My friends had not waited for me, but I don’t remember much else about that dream.

                There are a few more fragments that I remember, but not really worth mentioning, so I will simply relate those to you. While I’m no stranger to weird dreams, most of them tend to take the form of night terrors, and while it can be argued that the first was a nightmare, it was not a vivid night terror by any means, so I will gladly take more nights where I have dreams like these!

Writing Problems

For the past few days, I've been writing 1,000ish words a day in a two-hour period. This is how a person gets better at writing: by writing. I need to produce content, and I need to produce a lot. I've got to Ray Bradbury it up over here. And that takes its toll, creatively. Given that writing is not my only creative task during the day, I need to be more organized about my writing. Large qriting projects require planning, and... well, I've failed at that.

This story I'm writing, for instance, is a very large project indeed. I cannot simply improvise. In fact, I have an overall outline of many major points. The problem with it is, I've been working on it for so long, that I've made so many little tweaks to the story in my head, that the outline I made years ago no longer really fits the story. It's an outline to a different story.

So, that's how I think I'm going to spend today's writing time. Making an overall outline, and starting to fill in the details, so I can get back on track tomorrow. I don't know how much content I will put out until I get it done, but I will certainly try to keep a steady flow.

Another New Beginning

Hello. After much deliberation, I've decided that I'm going to devote myself entirely to creative endeavors. I've tried writing, music, creating videos, and many other things, but I haven't ever really gotten serious about any of them.

Today that changes. I am going to apply myself to creating things, and I will publish them for all to see, even if they are not very good. ( I don't expect they will be.) Time to set forth on this venture, and to get cracking!