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Fermius Firefly

A Dream Log, whenever I remember the dreams I've had.

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Location: San Marcos, United States

Fermius is a pen name drawn from a series of short fiction I wrote when I published the small press magazine Stellanova (on paper.) I play RPG games to escape from my daily grind as a technology wage slave for the state of California. I eat out a lot in order to do my part in supporting our increasingly service level economy. I am butler to 2 feline masters. If you ask them they will tell you I'm not very good at it, late with dinner, don't have enough hands with brushes in them, and sometimes I even lock them out of their office.

Friday, April 27, 2007

Retirement Dream

        I had a monstrously detailed dream that had almost no plot. I was at a High School Dance recital at my new work place. It was so crowded that we were sitting along the walls, trying not to block the exits. I was sitting next to some of the other staff members when a puppy came in and licked my hand.

        After the last number, the techs couldnt get the house lights on, or the stage lights, so they had to use the spotlights for their curtain call.

        I made my way to the director afterwards, and offered my help for her next production, explaining that Id had several award winning tech crews when Id been at the Mount. As we were talking I saw a student climb up a ladder to remove some gel frames, she didnt have gloves, and though the lights had been off a few minutes they were still hot. She jerked back and the ladder started to tip over backwards.

        Slide down the rails! I shouted and ran over to slow the ladders fall.

        The girl managed to slide down about two thirds of the way and the ladder crashed into the folding chairs in the house. She managed to ride the ladder down. She was still about eight feet in the air and clinging tightly to the ladder rails.

        Hang on, well get the ladder upright and you can climb down.

        She was actually only a couple of steps from the bottom of the ladder, which were now in the air. I selected the four largest kids, had one help me foot the ladder and had the other three go to the top of the ladder.

        I found that I had to explain the process of walking something up. Let gravity be your friend. We tipped the ladder back upright and the frightened tech stepped off. 

        The director was grateful that no one was hurt. She admitted that she could use some help. As I explained that Safety First was my tech teams first rule, followed by If you build it, they will come. The mood lightened a bit. I got into telling other crashing stories, and complemented the tech crew on their sets and decorations, my own weakness I admitted, being addicted to box sets that could be set up and taken down in short order, frequently we only had 4 weeks to mount a show.

        We try to have nine, or twelve weeks if I can get it.

        We always had two school wide productions, two semester class final productions for each drama class, and a student written and produced One Act Festival. I could tell there were some student writers in the tech and dance group, as there was lots of excitement over the One Act idea. And that was just the drama department. You have to remember, though, we had thirty six hundred students.

        Thats bigger than our whole town! said one of the dancers.

        Youre supposed to be resting! I heard a familiar voice calling to me.

        B and D, still in their Ren Faire garb gave me hugs.  I introduced them as photographers, actors and former students of the Mount, where I worked.

        They explained that they were at the Faire and had decided to surprise me, only to be surprised that I wasnt home. As they were leaving town they saw the signs for the HS dance recital, and guessed that if I worked here, I might attend.

        Great detective work. I was surprised, and happy to see them.

        I thought you were retired!

        Just working part time - keeping the media center going.

        Though he might be our new technical director, the drama and dance teacher chimed in.

        Just dont break him, hes supposed to be resting. B seemed genuinely worried. We have to take him away for food, I bet he hasnt eaten today.

        Im starved, chorused around the room.

        D and B stayed to help our students strike their set and we were out of there and off to dinner in short order. The students were funny, very obviously conspiring to make sure their director was seated next to me and not B, whod gone to my car to bring me my leather jacket.

        See, Technical Director, she showed them the stitching over the pockets.

        As a hold over from last nights dream, Little Red was still a sort of recumbent motorcycle, just fully enclosed. The students were interested in how it worked and how two people could ride in it, trying to coax their teacher into going for a ride with me. I ended up driving over alone to show D & B where the restaurant was. The owners had opened the place up just so we would have a place for dinner after the recital; their own two children were part of the cast.  We were early so D & B and I got to sit and chat while the kids played video games or went outside to pester the ducks.

        Except for Little Red, there was absolutely nothing out of the realm of the ordinary in this dream. It was very much an alternate universe, or future, hyper-detailed dream.

Ad astra per technica,

FF

Little Red, the Sled

        I dreamed I was driving Little Red through some sort of check point. Id packed everything I could fit and that I thought I would need into a 5x8 trailer and was towing it North. I had purchased my sisters old property and was planning on razing the ruins of her old home and hand building my own.

        It didnt seem odd to me that I was driving Little Red prone, on my belly, and the steering wheel had been turned into a couple of steering handles that kept getting caught in my mustache until I finally ripped the corners of my handlebar moustache right off so it wouldnt interfere with driving. The tow hitch was right between my feet and I could feel the heat of the battery between my knees. The whole thing was about 9 feet long and only about three feet high. Little Red was essentially a recumbent motorcycle.

        I got pulled over for detailed inspection and I couldnt seem to convince the inspector that the trunk really was the size of a picnic basket, the rest was all battery. They had absolutely no interest in the trailer for some reason.

Ad astra per technica,

FF

Monday, April 23, 2007

Dreamy Hollow

        I dreamed of a valley, though really it was too small to be a valley, but too wide to be a mere stream bed, I suppose I should call it a hollow, or perhaps a glen. I found myself running down the hillside, then jumping across a stream, then running up the other hillside, checking behind the sparse trees for others, then running back down the hill and jumping the stream again. The ground under the trees was firm, but with a layer of deep moss. The stream was a meandering silver thread that spread in some places to six or more feet across, its bottom was covered with smooth round river stones, almost like a cobblestone road, and little rainbow trout milled about, scattering when my shadow crossed the water ahead of me. Im sure they scattered when I jumped from the other direction, but Id already cleared the little stream and left the poor panic stricken fishes behind.

        I jumped the stream five or six times, running up to the top of the hill on each side, trying to find people who I knew were hiding in the trees. I could hear their voices, but never did find any one. I kept thinking I saw movement, but it never turned out to be anything but the shadows of leaves.

        I fell back to sleep this morning, and before I did I heard a sound like the screeching of owls in my head.

        I then dreamed, but it was not significantly different from my earlier dream, just later in the day, so the trees cast longer shadows. I did wake shortly after I noticed a bridge a few hundred feet down stream from where I was searching.

Ad astra per technica,

FF

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Musical, Picnic, Insect Panic

       The first dream I have any recollection of was a musical. The subject is now gone, the lyrics forgotten, but I still have the impression of people suddenly jumping up onto tables at the book store and singing and dancing. I know there were police involved and girl scouts gift wrapping books. Not much else remains.

       In the next dream, that I remember, I was at a picnic with several generations of family. There were three flattish areas on the side of the hill the house was on. The young kids were running up and down the hillside, mostly at the flat area at the bottom of the hill near the driveway. They were flying paper airplanes off the hill and chasing them down into the yard.
       The moms and dads of the kids were up on the nearly flat spot on top of the hill, they'd taken their lunches and walked up to the shade of the trees where they could watch over their broods.
       The grand parents and childless aunts and uncles were on the patio behind the house. They were about two thirds of the way up the hill. They were minding the grills and sitting near the coolers under the patio covers and sun shades.
       I was out on the hillside, making paper airplanes and throwing them up in the air for the kids to chase them. One of my fellow adults asked me if it wasn't time for me to join the patio bunch. I said I'd be there in a bit, I still had a soda and a handful of chips in the crook of a tree near by, there were still a few sheets of advertisements left to make planes out of yet. The adult just shrugged, headed back to the shade of the patio.
       "He's not done playing with the kids yet!" he called out to N.
       "OK, I've got more soda for you when you're ready!" She yelled over to me.
       "Thanks!"
       "I'll get it for you, Uncle!" One of my nephews started racing up the hill, soon joined by several other kids.
       The adults looked panicked. I laughed when they brought back sodas for everyone, but forgot mine. "When do you think we'll have to stay at the old people's table?"
       "Not until you're ready for it."
       "Why aren't you at the old people's table?" one of the younger nephews asked, his older sister elbowed him.
       "Ease up, girlie girl, that's a fair question. Sometimes I do sit over there, sometimes I sit up with your parents, sometimes playing with you guys is fun, I'll get tired long before you do, though, so don't expect this to last all day."
       "Unless we're in the lake!"
       "Well, that's the lake, my belly fat lets me float all day long, you know."
       I shook my belly fat in both hands to a chorus of "gross" and "Ewww!" and general laughter. Soon waters and sodas and lemonades were all consumed and the pile of paper airplanes was large at my feet. I started tossing them up in the air for them to chase again.

       The last dream I remember before waking up was much scarier, the feeling of hundreds of small insects, like ants, crawling all over the carpet and sliding glass door to the bedroom. The insects weren't normal insects, and they were making a lot of noise. I didn't want to sit up in bed and see them, so I just lay still sensing them moving around and, well, chanting, I think. I tried to call for help, but couldn't. I felt them start climbing up the bedspread at the foot of the bed, their scouts running across my toes. I started sweating and shivering at the same time. I finally did wake up and sat up, just managing to stifle a yelp. Thank goodness we didn't have one of our seasonal ant swarms going. (At least, not in the house.)

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Friday, April 20, 2007

Theater of the Damned

       I found myself in a mixed crowd of ordinary and ordinarily dressed people, and extraordinary persons, all of whom were dressed in everything from Medeaval to Edwardian garb. I've never seen so much velvet and brocade in one location. As we milled about in a large courtyard, I had the feeling that we were actually being herded or prepared for something, that put me on my guard.
       The theater opened and we made our way inside, we were carefully mixed in our seating arrangements, never more than two or three of us ordinary folks together in a row, and never more than five or six in a block. I thought that was peculiar, and started to notice things about the costumed guests. One of the things that I noticed is that they seemed cold whenever I bumped against one. There was a musty odor about some of them. I could swear that a couple of them couldn't, or at least didn't, blink. Their eyes lacked a certain sheen of wetness. I communicated my unease to my seatmate, but she seemed mesmerized by the handsome vampire looking fellow seated to the left of us.
       I noticed that several dozen of us ordinary folks were also looking mesmerized. The Edwardian fop next to me didn't appeal to me, but it was obvious from his conversation that he thought he should. I pointed out that it's a kilt, not a skirt.
       "But it's not plaid!"
       "Welcome to the 21st century."
       "Oh! My." He seemed to take in the thick socks and combat boots for the first time. He turned away and didn't say anything more, for now.
       I heard the sound of curtains opening behind me. I was now fairly certain that this was some sort of trap to catch us more ordinary folks. I turned around, and looked into the projection room that was opening up behind us. The technician made no effort to hide his vampiric nature, and looked quite surprised that I'd been able to avoid the hypnotic lights and music in order to turn around.
       I smiled a huge smile at him. He reflexively smiled back, revealing large fangs. His had flew up to cover his face when I pointed my finger at him and whispered "bang." His eyes grew large and he hurried over to the other side of the projector.
       I turned back to the stage as the main curtain drew open and I saw myself standing there, in ruffled shirt and silk and velvet and brocade. "Now that's a good trick," I thought. The illusion passed as the performer bowed and then righted himself to reveal a white-haired man of otherwise indeterminate age. He was, despite the white hair and red velvet coat, exactly unlike Santa Clause.
       He proceded to go on about being able to defy death. I leaned over to the woman next to me, "If they try to bite you, poke them in the chest with this." I pressed a long sliver of wood into her hand. "T-Rex, we need more, please."
       T-Rex slipped out from under my seat with a pair of bags attached to his harness. He crawled under the seat in front of me and vanished. I watched the performer on stage. He was sitting at a chair surrounded by Tesla Coils and book cases. He touched both metal pads on the arm of his chair. I tipped one of the coils so it was behind him, and a lightning bolt tore through him.
       It didn't kill him, of course, as he was already dead, but it did create a nice burned hole through him. A hole that was already healing. There were gasps from the audience and he covered up the hole in his chest with his coat.
       "An illusion, quite, shocking, no? I will have to have a little talk with my, wife, about setting up the furniture properly." He looked at me and I could hear him in my mind.
       "You are in our world now, there is no help from yours coming."
       I smiled my huge smile again. "I'm glad we're in your world, because in mine I could never have done this." I decided not to mention that T-Rex had opened up a nice large conduit to my world and I was fully aware that I was in the dreamlands.
       A hole opened up in the floor beneath my kilt, and T-Rex jumped out, dragging a gun case behind and with two bags full of old fashioned stakes.
       "Oh, My!" the fop next to me stood and made his way out into the aisle. T-Rex raced under the theater seats, slapping a stake into the hands of every ordinary person in the row as he went. (Talented cat, it must be those extra claws.)
       "I told you there was something different about this one!" came a shout from the top of the aisle behind me. The technician in the booth slipped around the projector and turned on the hypnosis lights again.
       I tossed a spray of holy water into the beam and there were gasps from the ordinary folks in the room who could now see their companions for what they were. There were also jets of gas from many where holy water had contacted undead flesh.
       "That can't work, you don't believe."
       "Ah, but you do." I stated flatly back, locking the barrel of my .306 in place with a click. I hastily dug a handful of hollow points into a stick of wood to fill their points with slivers.
       "You deserve to be one of us!"
       "Perhaps, but none of these deserve to be dinner."
       "You know you can't shoot me with that."
       "Yep, that's why I'm handing it to her." And I passed the rifle to the woman on my left, who'd already dusted a couple of vampires around her. I took her stake in exchange.
       "Blood and fire!" The vampire on stage started to turn back into me, then began to shift into a winged form.
       "Shoot him first." I whistled for T-Rex, I wanted to get him out from under foot before the real melee started. "Welcome to the 21st century."
       A shot rang out. Then I realized that the woman didn't know anything but look through scope, pull the trigger, and I had to show her how to operate the bolt. I used some form of telekinesis to keep the vampires away while I showed her what to do. It only holds four rounds and one in the chamber, she'd have to reload. I knew there was a larger clip for it, but T-Rex hadn't brought it.
       "Aim for the flying ones. We'll handle the ones on the ground." I told her. She was still partly mesmerized, but was responding to my commands. I knew that T-Rex had gotten stakes to nearly everyone, but I also knew that the undead were still likely to take a few of us with them. T-Rex vanished and then returned moments later with more vials of holy water. I sent him to put one in the lens slot of the projector.
       The hypnotic cone spraying across the middle of the room seemed to sap the strength of any human that entered it. I was using my phantom arms to keep the vampires away from my rifle shooting companion. I found that I was not even able to jab the stakes into the vampires, though I could hold them at bay, and fling them around. Others had to make the fatal jabs.
       The hypnotic cone suddenly changed to a bright cone like a shaft of sunlight. I shouted out for everyone to make their way into the cone of light.
       Violent and scary dream from that point on, lots of injuries, limbs ripped off. T-Rex could teleport small (stake and vial sized) objects about a meter or so. He got really good a popping up a vial of holy water directly into the path of a charging vampire. I really don't think they were prepared for such a talented familiar. (Or perhaps they'd never fought against a foot high creature who could pad silently a full speed under rows of theater seats and show up nearly anywhere.)
       The cone of now 'Holy' light weakened any vampire or undead who stepped into it. Interestingly, my own telekinetic abilities were also damped by it. I had to step out of the cone to make use of my ability to grasp and move things. It was like having a second set of arms and hands that could stretch to anywhere I could see.
       Being outside of the cone made me a target. Having an extra set of arms gave me a bit of an advantage, and seeing the vampiric 'What just grabbed me?' expression was priceless.
       Once we had the upper hand T-Rex and I opened up a portal home, and, though it wasn't home for everyone, it was safer than being here, where I could tell there would never be a sunrise, and we would always be hunted. We moved the injured across first, my magic hands lifting them under the shoulders and lowering them through the hole. I could only evacuate the injured between shoving vampires back into the aisles and down into the orchestra pit. Or, my favorite. T-Rex would flip a vial into the air and I would shatter it, then I push a vampire through the resulting cloud of vapor. Steam and screams and vampires running away or turning into gas and fleeing. I wished we had some lighters, but perhaps it was best that we didn't, burning the place down around our ears might not have been a winning strategy.
       The battle continued, and I knew it would continue a long time. I didn't think that I could jump through my own portal, so I was going to be stuck there it seemed. T-Rex arrived with more ammunition and I filled the hollow points with wood slivers as my rifle woman kept shooting. The theater was empty, at last, but I could hear large numbers gathering outside. I used my abilities to pick up as many stakes as I could, moving them into a pile close by once my cargo pockets were filled. T-Rex made another trip and brought back a couple of bags of more stakes, and he pulled through a long steel shaft with wooden points on both ends.
       "Where in the world did you get this?" Then I recognized the steel shaft as a length of pipe that had been stored in our garage for many years. I wondered why I'd kept hold of that.
       I still don't know who made the wooden points for it, but was glad to have it, seeing as how I didn't seem to be able to use a firearm. I wasn't sure the dream logic would allow me to stab a vampire either though. I also woke up wondering where T-Rex was getting vials of holy water, I mean, who would give holy water to a witch's familiar? If you steal holy water, is it still holy? Who broke up all the scrap lumber into pointy stakes? Who makes panniers for a cat? Why can't I hit things with a firearm in my dreams?

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Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Brick House Ghost Story, FPS Department Store Rescue

       I dreamed I was in a new house, or new for me anyway. There was a huge domed front room, all brick work. There were large wooden beams across the vaulted ceiling, and there were large skylights, classic arched top windows around three sides of the upper half of the room. The fireplace wall was at least forty feet high. I can't say what the place was used for before I turned it into a house. This place was also a little old looking. I expressed a concern about the decorative brick work so far above the ground (Perhaps the wall was now more like 60 feet high.) I was looking at the brick ledges and step patterns above the fireplace when I saw a brick shift. There was the hint of a little girl in yellow climbing the brickwork.
       I mentioned to N and C that they should step back in case a brick got dislodged by our climber. They thought I was crazy, but stepped back any way. A brick came sailing down and crashed on the stone hearth, shattering. Both women squealed, but no one was hurt.
       The debris from the brick vanished without trace. There was an old dimple in the stone where the brick landed, and just next to it was the little girl in the yellow victorian dress. She faded away after pointing to a brick ledge where I could see a dusty rag doll.
       "All right, then, no climbing on the brick work."
       "I wouldn't go up there even on a ladder," N offered.
       "I can take a hint."
       I came back in the house with several 10 foot 1"x2" boards. I nailed them together with a long nail on the end. Carefully, I built the thing four high, in place, and hooked the rag doll and brought it down. I carefully dusted it off and offered it to where I knew the little girl was watching. She appeared and hugged the doll, then vanished, I think for good. I felt another presense, an odd combination of old man, guilt and young boy.
       "Your secret is out, and you couldn't have known she'd go after the doll. What you did was wrong, but not murderously wrong. Go, play nice with your sister. Make it up to her."
       The presense faded as well.

       While N was getting ready to go to work, I kept falling into a dream where I was alternately playing an FPS computer game, and then living out the game. FPS game scenerio was some sort of Department Store Rescue. The player had to move from the top of the department store, rescuing the people who were trapped in the various departments and shepherding them to the first floor where you could get them out of the building. At that point you could go into the basement to take on the alien creature that was animating all of the electronic equipment you had to fight on the previous levels.
       The brunette woman (who admitted that she might love her cats more than her husband) I met at the vet's office was there in the pet section. When we made it out the front of the store her husband was there, and decided to join in the hunt for the alien in the basement.

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Sunday, April 15, 2007

Waterslide, Tidal Surge, Alternate Home Town, Erotic Dream, C is for Computer and other Classroom Horrors

To think, Just yesterday S and I were discussing the fact that sometimes we have dozens of dream segments but can only remember a few. Last night was one of those nights, here are the highlights, or all that I can remember, anyway.
       Waterslide to the drying room at the bottom. I thought is was going to go into a jungle and join a river. Instead you had to get out of the water slide and walk around to a ladder and climb back up into the starting room. At the bottom of the ride was a grey carpedted area that allowed you to dry very rapidly. During part of the dream I was having trouble hiding my erection. My black and white bating suit was just a bit to thin and tight to hide myself. I found myself wishing for the old fashioned bloomer short style bathing suit.
       I then dreamed I was in a bus traveling home from a show. The water at the beach at San Onofre was rising, the waves were about 2- foot high with really bad choppy form. There were still people out their trying to surf in it. Our bus was struck by a wave the height of the hub caps, and I could see larger still coming in. I tried to convince the bus drover to turn the end of the bus to the wave so we wouldn't be turned over sideways. The bus driver didn't want to do that. We were struck on the side and fortunately the bus was floating enough to be pushed sideways off the road and into the brush along side the freeway. We still tipped over, but slowly. I pushed open the emergency hatch and helped the students out onto the top (formerly side) of the bus. I had to dive under the water to release the bus driver's seatbelt.
       I then dreamed I was walking around my old neighborhood, where I came to street that I'd never seen before. (The road has always come to an inexplicable dead hend there when I was a child.) I headed up the hill. There was a house sitting out on a protrusion of rock and soil The squat cylinder of yard overhung the sidewalk a couple of feet. It was completely encased on the exposed sides in a metal jacket that was sitting on a thick steel or iron plate (about 30cm thick) I walked under the edge of the cylinder and around the other side. There was an electrical co-generation plant, insulated with the same sort of sheet steel. At the top of the sidewalk was a covering.
       The covering turned out to be a room. The sidewalk went directly into some sort of collection room, mostly 60's and 70's era Barbie Dolls and GI-Joes. (The full height dolls.) There was also a large number of painting and other restoration supplies. I turned around because I figured I was on private property there. I closed the door behind me. On the way out I realized that I had a box of paints and paint brushes, the paint I used for war game miniatures. Some one stopped and asked where I'd gotten the paint brush.
       "Comic Gallery, back when they still carried GW stock. They can't afford to do that any more, they don't sell enough of the line to qualify as a distributer any more."
       I could tell they didn't believe me, whether about the GW or the paintbrush, I couldn't tell.
       I made may way across the street where there was a hidden sidewalk that lead up into a small culvert. At the end of the culvert was a road. I climbed, with some difficulty, as I had to put one leg up on the road (The pipes I tried to use as a foothold halfway up didn't stick out of the hill far enough, and I didn't want to take my shoes off to stick my toes into them.)
       I made the climb and walked up into a park I didn't know existed, either. There was an ice skating rink on the left of the road, I could feel it leeching the heat out of my left side as I walked past. Ice skaters were waiting in line to go down into the rink. One woman yelled at me for cutting in line.
       I pointed to my skate-less feet. She quieted down and I walked on the open path (no line here at all) over a small hill. There were ball courts for handball, basketball, tetherball and some sort of four-square as well as tennis courts in the distance. There was a soft rubber track woven through all the different courts, with small clusters or individuals running, walking or jogging around the park.
       I was dumbfounded. Where had this been all the while I had been growing up. The area where this was located had been a rocky canyon. Mom and Dad hadn't said anything about a park being built recently. I asked a jogger how long the park had been there.
       "Been coming here since I was a kit in the Seventies" was the answer.
       I started to realize I wasn't in my world any more, and had somehow crossed over back when I'd come up the street that had just been a stubby dead end when I was growing up (In an apparently different Seventies.)
       This caused me to roll over in bed and place my hand on a tiny pert nipple. I burbled something soft in the woman's ear, and realized that it wasn't N like I thought it was. I compared the firm breast and tiny nipple to N's, I must have done so out loud as there was a disgruntled sigh. While still caressing the woman, I explained that I love N and she wasn't going to be able to change that.
       N came in, simply asking us to make some room for her, as she was very tired.
       N crawled over the other woman to kiss me good night. The other woman kissed N also, then N hugged her edge of the bed and went to sleep.
       We continued to snuggle, now that it was clear that N wasn't concerned about us.
       Woke up and had breakfast with N and the Dance Macabre Women, then came home for a nap (trying to sleep out this sinus infection.) I almost immediately fell into a dream where I was working on my computer, trying to configure connections for a Video Conference with an author of a Children's book Somename "Oppie" I don't remember now, it was obviously a pseudonym. I got the connection to HR working and then a woman came in to get me to go with her to a classroom to meet a teacher who wanted some hints on how to optimize her classroom for her health issues.
       "Like my ergonomic keyboard to help with my hand pain?" I asked.
       "Your hands hurt?" the woman asked.
       "Yes and feet." I responded.
       She extended her hand and took my hand in hers. The pain faded away from both my hands and my feet.
       "Thank you, how'd you do that?"
       "I need you to help at CH, come quickley." She led me away from my office, I tried, unsuccessfully, to get her to let me go back and put some socks and shoes on.
       We drove over to CH and I took my laptop with me in case L called for more help with RH's Video Conference. Once in the classroom I could immediately see some things that needed to be adjusted. I managed to come up with an ergonomic keyboard. Pulled the tupperware container out from under the monitor to lower it to the proper height and moved the teacher's desk lamp to a position where it would light her reading area without spilling light on her monitor, eliminating at least one source of glare.
       I suggested hanging a couple of sheets of construction paper along the fluorescent fixture above her desk, that way the light would still make her corner fairly bright, and the reflection would be off of the monitor.
       The teacher asked about the network speed. I plugged in my laptop and connected it to the projector in her room. I hooked into the gateway and we could see the teacher and students at RH waiting for their Video Conference to start.
       "Impressive."
       "Their waiting to talk to Something Oppie about his book."
       "We just finished reading that book!"
       I asked L if this class could sit in on the Video Conference.
       "Sure, I can hear you but not see you."
       "I'll see if I can round up a camera, I'm on my laptop at the moment." I turned to the kids that were gathering at the foot of the screen. "Say hello to Ms G's class, they can hear you but not see you."
       "Hello Ms G's Class!" the kids shouted.
       Ms G's class waved hello back to us.
       I asked the teacher to pass out 3x5 cards and have each student write a comment or question for Mr Oppie. I told her to collect them and pick the three best ones, we would make a spot for Mr Oppie to answer their questions.
       I saw they had a document camera. I turned it towards the class and took off the diopter. The image was very clear.
       "Sweet." I connected the docucam to my laptop and amazingly the USB camera driver figured out how to talk to it.
       "I see you guys now!" L came around to where she was on camera, the kids all waived to one another.
       Mr Oppie checked in, and L introduced him to Ms G's class and I introduced him to Ms R's class. He thanked us and said hello to L and I personally. He was a friend of mine, KLM, who lives in Yreka.
       He answered the kids questions and presented his book, reading dramatically from part of it, generating lots of laughs. He then answered questions. At the end he pulled up a book of poetry and short tales I'd written 'C is for Computer and Other Classroom Horrors' and asked if anyone had read this book. Several hands shot up in both rooms.
       "Well, Mr F there is the author of this book, and I know he'd love to read to you some time."
       "Thanks K."
       "No problem, share the glory."
       "You guys can have me out any time, I work for the district so I'd be happy to come around if you want."
       Ms R, who I'd just finished setting up some room optimizations for snuck up to me with a copy of my book and a sharpie. "I didn't recognize you from the picture on the back, but it is you, isn't it?"
       "Yes, shall I inscribe this to you, or the class?"
       "I bought it for the whole class, please, if it's not too much trouble."
       As L was bringing the Video Conference to a close and the kids were saying good-bye to KLM, I autographed a copy of my book for Ms R's class.
       L came back on the camera, "They have a classroom copy over here, too."
       "I'll stop in the next time I'm there."

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Friday, April 13, 2007

Scrawny Body, Scrawny Beard, Scrawny Women

        I dreamed i was a scrawny teen again, this time the salient feature was a long brown spike of a beard. My sideburns and chops were all trimmed short, much like now, but my chin hairs were about 8 inches long and a reddish brown color. In the dream I thought it was cool, the dreamer thought it was goofy.

        The rest of the dream I was getting frisky with a couple of slender babes with a clothing allergy. The dream me and the dreamer me both enjoyed that part.

Found poetry that somehow related:

As fairland she beaverville

My choice, no doubt

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Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Convention,The Earth Moved

        This mornings dream was a convoluted convention dream, part movie style (watching from a series of camera positions) and then POV participant style. I was at an after party at a convention. The party was quickly turning into an orgy of sorts. The cameras seemed to be following a young woman, with Sandy Duncan haircut and a gold silk shirt and matching pants, very pajama-like. She made her excuses and left the party with me. We wandered the halls a bit , talking about various Science Fiction stories and shows, until an earthquake hit.

        The Hotel loudspeakers came to life, advising everyone to stay in their rooms. There were shots from outside the hotel showing the large cracks forming in the plaster façade. We bounced around a bit.

        I offered to escort the woman back to her room. She admitted that she didnt have one, which was why she had originally ended up at the all night party. She just couldnt stay there, though.

        I offered her the other bed in my room. After sizing me up for a bit she accepted. We made our way out of the hotel and over to my hotel. It was difficult, as we had to run up some stair cases to get over to other staircases. This seemed to go on for quite some time.

        By the time we got to my room we were both tired. We ended up sitting across from one another, she fired a six-pack of Champaign party poppers at me, and then I fired a nerf gun, a full eight darts, at the mirror on the wall behind her bed.

        There then came the spraying of whipped cream and eating it off the other persons elbows, then cheeks, then I sprayed her nose and tickled it with the end of my tongue.  She then sprayed my lips, and kissed me after pulling the cream into her mouth.

        I shot a dollop of whipped cream on her neck, and she unbuttoned her top a bit so I could get to it easier. The next dollop was on her clavicle, hers on my earlobe. We didnt end up sleeping in separate beds after all.

        This isnt like me, she tried to explain.

        Its exactly like you, if it wasnt, I wouldnt want to be with you right now.

        What happens after this?

        Three more days of the convention, youre welcome to crash here, no requirements, no expectations other than staying out of my stuff, and Ill stay out of yours.

        Even this? She pulled out on the waistband of her silk pants.

        Well, with permission.

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Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Crashed on an Alien World, Music

        I dreamed and there was music in the dream.

        "I've got a ticket to waaagh!

        I've got a ticket to waaagh!

        I've got a ticket to waa-aa-aagh!

        I've got a ticket to waaagh, and I don't care!"

        Too much time reading the War Hammer threads on one of the boards I frequent.

        In addition to the music I was loading sleeping bags and sealed plastic boxes full of food into a large outrigger equipped canoe. There was a pair of masts and a couple of sails that were going on last. The masts were sealed hollow titanium honeycomb, very light and strong, we could use them as masts or as poles if we were in shallow enough waters. I know we also had enough food to last a couple of months if needed; there were plenty of fishing supplies and hunting gear as well. I didn't recognize the person who was traveling with me, they were bundled up in some sort of fur lined parka with the hood up.

        I wasn't dressed for freezing weather, but seemed to be quite comfortable, if not a bit warm. Some of my other companions apparently originated in much warmer climates.

        When I climbed into the canoe, I noticed that the outriggers were covered with solar electric cells, as was the small cabin roof. I pulled up the anchor and several well-wishers pushed us out into the ocean.

        I checked the GPS and we started away from our island. We were going to navigate to the islands we could see over the horizon, just to see if they were better than the one we'd crashed on. After that we would spiral out looking for larger land masses. So far we hadn't had any contact with others, but we had a beacon in orbit (thus the GPS, at least when it was over the horizon) and I figured it would only be a matter of time before someone found us. We needed to have a viable settlement if it was the Imperium, and something defensible if it was anyone or anything else.

        I checked the radios and we put up the masts and sails. The boat raced over the surf, bouncing a bit until we hit open water and the swells were much lower. At that point our speed increased even more. I checked the GPS, we'd already made a half dozen kilometers in just a few minutes.

        Off the starboard bow we spotted a large animal, it had a neck that stood a good 3 meters out of the water with a tiny sharp toothed head on the end of it. I didn't see any others. It watched us with some interest, and then swam parallel to us for a time, its head held just above the surface. We pulled away from it.

        Small fish with wide fins sailed out of the water ahead of us, spraying to either side of our path. One of them misjudged its leap and landed with a wet plop in the boat. I picked it up; it was dark blue with an iridescent sheen running over its fur. The fin/wings were almost like a bat wing, thin leather with just the slickest little coating of fine hair. It didn't have eyes, at least not as we know them, there was a pair of us shaped ridges on its face, one looked like a filter mouth and the other was almost like an insect eye, hundreds of tiny glittering facets. I held the fish aloft head into the wind, it spread its wings and flapped, taking off and gliding out into the ocean. It tucked its wings just before knifing into the water without even a splash.

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Monday, April 09, 2007

Mesa Dental, Airplane Crash (With Puppet Arab Hijackers), Found spam Poetry

        I dreamed I was in a desert canyon, large mesas all around. There were ancient temples carved in the sides of the mesas, and there was an oasis on top of a couple of them. The shadow filled canyon was also an oasis, but only small shade loving plants grew there. There were lots of birds and lizards as well as spiders and scorpions. The pools contained small finger sized fish and a large number of water beetles.

        I resolved to climb the largest mesa and see what was at the top. I started climbing, going about halfway up and finding a cave to sit in. I heard noises, and though I couldn't make my way deeper into the cave I knew I had found a shortcut. I set out and climbed around a narrow trail until I came to another entrance, a large ornate post and lintel carved out of the rock of the mesa. I entered and followed the winding stairs to the top of the mesa.

        Once there I heard a familiar laugh. I ducked into one of the carved rooms. CC was there, casting dentures.

        "I'm temping for Mesa Dental, just this week!" she exclaimed in her normal happy manner. "What brings you here?"

        I had a flashback, I was on a plane, and there was some commotion. Puppets, in the Muppet or Crank Yanker's style, dressed as Arabs, had hijacked the plane. Unfortunately we were nearly on the ground before my comments that they were just puppets, and their guns were fake, were taken seriously. By then it was all I could do to break into the cockpit and subdue the real hijacker. The pilots were missing, so I jumped into the pilots chair and hoped I'd spent enough time playing flight simulations to put us down in one piece. I didn't quite make it. I pulled a little too much on the stick and our flare turned more into a stall. The wings cracked from the strain, but I'd managed to get the wheels down under us and we slammed into the hard desert, which, for a change of luck, was very flat. We half rolled, half bounced, to a stop at the entrance to the cavern. Things were on fire, the emergency air bags all popped, after we’d stopped. The slides came out, but the jagged edges of the wings caused them to deflate. Everyone got out, and there were remarkably few injuries.

We'd been making do at the oasis for over a week when I finally decided to climb up to the canyon's rim to see where we were. I tried to hide my frustration, I’d wanted to climb the mesa the first day, but no one wanted to split up the group.

        "Oh, an airplane, yourself?"

        "Alan drove me to his work and then I just walked over." She pantomimed walking and swinging her arms up high in the air.

        "Cool, do you think he'd mind giving me a lift home?"

        "Sure, do you want to walk back, or should he come and get us? You look kind of tired." I think she meant stinky and dirty, but she was being her normal polite self.

        "I'm going back down into the canyon to let some friends know where I am, can you call a couple of cabs to come for them in about half an hour?"

        "How many cabs?"

        "Oh, enough for 45 people or so, I'll walk back with you when they're safely off."

        "Oh!"

        I headed back down into the canyon to get the others.  I wasn’t even the least bit worried that the connection between the two places might not be permanent.


More found poetry:

The mine, volcanic,

Can't wait anymore.

Tired of being like that,

so carbohydrate;

blood clot snooty.

Kool, lets go!

All that u need,

As rye as puddle,

To rectangle those volleyball

No eyeglass, everyone, augite

do reverberate whoever calico

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FF

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Sim Sensitive

       I dreamed I was rolling a 5x5x5 whitish sphere around in a fully rendered 3D scene. The scene had something to do with an old fashioned Loom and several spinning wheels. There were rich tapestries on the walls and patterned carpet on the floor. The carpet was swirling patterns of scarlett and brown with cream dots and lines. The tapestries were a sort of "Medieval Sims on Horseback chasing a Hart" themes, the sort of stuff you might see in a video game background.
       There were also rendered inhabitants, Simulacre of some sort. When they were no longer looking my way I was instructed to make the item I was rolling around a few hundred pixels larger and to let it come to rest in a group of marbles on the floor. The Sims that were in the room were a few boys, who'd grown tired of playing marbles and were now getting refreshments at the other end of the room, and a pretty handmaid who was working the loom. The Sims who were running the spinning wheels were not in the current scene.
       The purpose of our intrusion into the scene was to create a remote camera point that would give us a tool to move the point of view around the scene without having to interrupt the scene. The director had decided that we didn't have enough flexibility with our built in corner cameras and the ones that the program used to give us access weren't in the sorts of places, or able to give us the angles we wanted. I wasn't sure how that could be, as just about every spherical architectural detail could be used as a camera. It was then that I noticed that several of those architectural features had been covered with colored 'fabric' and golden threaded ropes.
       "The Sims covered the cameras?"
       "It sure looks that way, doesn't it?"
       The tool to change my camera point was itself a large pointer with a half pixel edge. I reached it down into the scene and impaled my little white pointer. I inflated it up to the size of a marble and injected a glass and cloudy fractal surface texture. I dropped it, and it sank into a cushion. I moved the pointer after it to pick it up, reducing its mass and then dropping it into the group of marbles.
       "Ut Oh, they've seen the pointer."
       "What? how can they see the pointer?"
       "Some of the Sims are 'sensitive' and can see our manipulation of their scenes."
       I thought that was pretty odd. But it suddenly seemed urgent to get the white marble out of the middle of the scene and hidden somewhere more secure. I had left its ambient light level higher than the background, so it was a little too shiny. I moved the curser arrow over to the cushion, hoping that the light and shadow from the slitted windows would provide a ready explanation of what the pretty Sim was seeing. (I knew we were not supposed to intervene in the Sim's programming blocks once they were set in motion.)
       I held the black and silver pointer arrow in the scene until the yellow-haired Sim handmaiden made her way over to the green cushion I'd used to test the mass of the marble. I then withdrew the highly ornate curser arrow from the scene and dropped it in behind her to pick up my marble.
       Unfortunately, I was very new at this, and I forgot to reduce the remote camera (the marble was serving that function for us in the scene) to a smaller or even half pixel size before I started moving it.
       Several young boy Sims spotted the flying marble, and though it was evident that they couldn't see the cursor arrow, the young woman Sim could see it, or was at least aware of it. Their shouts caused her to turn around and I lifted the marble in as natural a looking arc as I could towards the Loom. I started shrinking the camera and taking away its mass and color. I made it, dropping the pixel camera into the workings of the loom. I had to leave it the shape of a sphere a pixel square, because it wouldn't work as a camera if it was less than a pixel across. I switched to another tool and the cursor arrow switched off.
       The woman Sim called several adult Sims and they ran come into the room. I could see the communication bubbles and she'd done a very good job, in a low resolution way, of describing our object transformation curser. They stopped the loom and were trying to find the 'magic marble' in the workings of the loom.
       I told my mentor I was sorry for stirring things up, and asked if I could get the camera out of the loom by coming at it from underneath where the 'sensitive' Sim couldn't see the curser. I was told that was a great idea. My unseen mentor also apologized for not knowing that the girl Sim was actually sensitive to the tools of the program. She was too complex to just edit and had an integral role in the current plot, so couldn't be replaced. "We'll just have to be more careful."
       I was starting to think that some of the Sims were far more complex than we were giving them credit for, and I was wondering if they were becoming sentient in their own way. The search for the flying magic marble came to an end, the glowing pixel not being found. The Sims left the room except for the yellow-haired handmaiden. She scooped up the other marbles and put them in a drawer, then looked around the room, stopping to check the covers that had been tied over the various decorative spheres/cameras in the room. She stood in the middle of the room and slowly turned about, looking at everything as though trying to see into it.
       I used the curser from the room below to copy the material settings of one of the marbles, planning on dropping the settins onto my remote camera. The Handmaiden almost caught me. moving over to the drawer and looking at the marbles before becoming angry and rushing out of the room. The dream ended before I could put the rest of my plan into action.

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Saturday, April 07, 2007

Nude Beach Dream

       I dreamed N and I were both thin again. We were at a nude beach party. Being thin again is the only way I would attend a nude beach party. We were both expecting R to be there for some reason, but she wasn't.
       There were a few dozen people there, and we were mostly swimming in the pleasant warm ocean or building sand sculptures above the water line. N and C and A and I were all working on the tower from "Heart of Nightfang Spire", a D&D module I bashed to make a "Spare Parts" adventure out of. (Spare Parts is the name of the home brew RPG rules I run.)
       The conversation turned to how it would have been neat to have the full sculpture when the group was trying to figure out how to get into the place.
       I told them I wasn't planning on taking up sculpture to create game terrain, they would have to continue to look at my goofy maps and use their imaginations.

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Thursday, April 05, 2007

Infidelity, Stranded

I was at Felecita Park, helping N set up for her gig at the local Renaissance Faire. After the tent was up and bags were delivered to the proper corners I took a stroll out on the grounds to see who else was around. There were dozens of carnival rides and such, not what I was expecting for a Renaissance Faire. I ran into one of my former students who grabbed me by the arm and dragged me back to Ns encampment with an unnatural urgency.

When I got back N was bouncing up and down on one of her band members.

Ut-oh! I thought youd gone home.

Im glad I knew it was a dream.

OK, now lets get out of here, said my arm dragging former student. You can stay in our camp.

Thanks, but Im going home to sleep in my own bed.

Can I come over and use your shower?

I wasnt sure I could detach her from my arm even, so I was inclined to say yes.

I was then driving across a road that was partially under about 6 inches of water, it had a sort of sewer smell. I rolled up the windows and put the air on recirculate, but it didnt really help that much. I drove until I reached a place I didnt recognize, and the road had vanished into general swampiness. I tried to turn around, but there was no road behind me, either. The trees had even closed up over the path Id taken.

I stepped out of the car. I looked around, and when I turned back, the car was gone also. I had expected that a little bit, so wasnt too surprised. What was surprising was that I suddenly had someone I couldnt see clutching my arm again.

Even though I couldnt see who was with me, I knew I wanted to get them to safety. I looked around and chose a direction that lead to higher and hopefully drier ground. I figured if we could hold out until morning I would be able to find a trail or even a stream in the daylight.

I had the odd feeling of having been here before, so knew there were some standing stones a few hundred yards away that would provide good cover from the night air. There would also be enough dry wood and brush to start a small fire to keep the chill off.

It was very weird, walking through the forest with someone clutching my arm, stumbling along in the dark beside me, who I could not see, nor identify at all. I had the vague impression that my cling-on was smaller than me, had soft longish hair. I presumed it was N or some other woman.

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