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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.

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Children!

       I dreamed that I had three children running through the house knocking things over, talking back and just being general pains-in-the-neck. The terrible thing about this, the part that made me wake up in a sweat, was that they were mine and I couldn't send them home; they were home!
       I then had a relatively normal nightmare where I dreamed someone was out in the front room yelling for help, and I couldn't wake up to go to help them. I was (dreaming) fully awake but unable to move. How do I know I was dreaming, well, the bedroom isn't painted purple like that. I'm also pretty sure that there aren't any big white spotted leapards on N's dresser. For some reason I couldn't wake up out of this one, though.

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Thursday, December 27, 2007

Holiday Dream, WoW Inspired and Support Your Troops Inspired as well.

       I dreamed I was sitting in the back yard, looking at our tree, (yes, we decorate a tree in the back yard, I'm allergic, so it can't live in the house) when suddenly snowflakes explode around our heads and we are each in our own little private snow storm. Unlike the WoW snowstorm, though, this is freezing cold.
       I started running around trying to keep warm and dry. The snow built up behind where I was running, giving us a racetrack shaped oval of snow with my footprints in it. N was running right behind me for a bit and then decided to run in the other direction so she wouldn't be getting snow in the face.
       I finally realized that we could 'right click' on the snowflake icon and dismiss the effect. At the same time I wondered how I'd gotten inside the video game, and wondered: what in the world was I supposed to use to right click with?
       I had another dream, this one about driving into a strange city, and, after being thoroughly turned around, I drove into a warehouse like office building until I found myself in a hallway too narrow to continue. I got out of the car and wandered on foot until I found myself arriving "just in time" to sign up for a tournament.
       The tournament involved creating a character and advancing through the levels until you were high enough to participate in a sort of arena match which took place on a real miniature stage, with real terrain and holographic projections of your character for the audience to watch. The terrain was made up of a sort of plaster hilly country with electronic components for the buildings and towers. It was very impressive, and a little bit confusing as I seemed to be in FPS, watching in what I call Over the Shoulder mode, and then you could look over into the tank and see the entire battlefield at once.
       I then had another dream in which I was being interviewed and made a speach about how important it was to make sure that we were a team, all fighting for each other, and making sure we took the fewest casualties and that no one was left behind. I don't remember the exact words, but the emotional content was intense. I was sad that the interviewer seemed hostile to us, and not to the policies that had led us into conflict in the first place.

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Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Pirates, Plymouth and Plumbing

        I was at some sort of public park, with some pirate themed festival going on. There was a ship on rails in a shallow moat, three masted with people dressed as pirates aboard. The ship made a circuit around an island that looked a lot like Tom Sawyer Island at Disneyland. Both MS and JR were there, dressed as pirates. They asked me to come aboard. I volunteered to climb up to the top of the rigging, and did a bit of fire eating for my part of the show. (I have never done fire eating, ever, and can barely juggle torches as it is.) I was there on the main mast, blowing fire 10 feet into the air and snuffing the torches in my mouth. I was trying not to lose my nice pirate hat.

        When the show was over, the Stage Manager wanted a group photo, but not including the people whod been invited from the public. I was coming down out of the rigging and managed to get in the first shot, then dropped to the deck and was in the second shot as well. The SM was incredibly upset and had me thrown out of the back stage area. While it was only me goofing around I felt bad about it and went back to the guard to be let back in to turn in the juggling torches, as they belonged to the show. The guard told me hed been instructed to hold me up so they could get ready to beat me up.

        I only wanted to return the props and leave an apology, I showed him the torches.

        OK, but hurry up or youll be in trouble, unless you know karate or something.

        Brown belt, but not karate.

        Hurry then, I dont want anyone getting hurt on my watch.

        I went in and put the props on the SMs desk and left a note apologizing for goofing around and ruining his photos.  This was a huge anxiety producing dream, especially since I was behaving in a very un-me-like fashion.

        I went back to sleep after trying to figure out what that dream was telling me, and immediately found myself facing a highway patrol officer at my front door. It seems someone had abandoned my old Plymouth on the freeway. I pointed out to the officer that I hadnt had ownership of the Plymouth for a couple of years.

Dad came out with me. Hed recognized the car and had the HP come and pick me up. I didnt have any keys, of course, because I had sold the car. The car was open, and the spare key Id taped to the top of the glove box was still there. . We drove the car and it was in pretty bad shape, barely running. I asked the highway patrol officer if he could try to find the real owner, as I felt odd about taking the car to Mom and Dads house without his permission. The Highway Patrol officer said the car had been there long enough to be considered abandoned and the legal owner was unresponsive.

I still couldnt figure out how this wasnt stealing. Dad agreed to take title to the car, as he had really missed it. I gave him the number of the Performance Plus near my home that had done all of the great work on the motor when Id last had the car, and they actually agreed to send a mechanic over to work on it in exchange for some computer work.

I found myself wondering how the car had not been towed if it had been declared abandoned. It was one of those dream obsession moments that would play over and over again until we noticed the house was getting very damp and warm.

I looked into the AC de-humidifier closet, and the reservoir, which normally drained into the bathtub line, was full to overflowing. I called a plumber to come out, but Dad wanted to call Sears to fix the AC unit. I finally convinced him that the AC unit was fine, and that it was the drain that was blocked, probably with old cat hair.

The plumber arrived, a very sweet looking blond woman in bib overalls and a khaki shirt. I really enjoyed watching her work. It turned out that I was right; there was a wad of cat hair blocking the drain, as well as an old sock, which Dad admitted had been rolled up as a cat toy for their last cat.

In talking with the plumber we discovered that we had met, she had been a birthday party dancer for my 30th birthday many years ago. Although it was reasonable that I would remember her, I was surprised that she remembered me, or more accurately remembered the two women whod arranged to get her into the birthday celebration and how nicely wed treated her, dinner and drinks on us. (Apparently that wasnt all that common during her career.)

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FF

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Random Encounters

        I had a dream that went all over Southern California, from Mission Bay in San Diego all the way up to Chapman College near Las Angeles. I was boating in SD, and fell into the bay. A boat full of water skiers stopped to pick me up. I got talking to one of the women on the boat; she had a thick English accent and a polka dot bikini. Hard to resist that combination. We ended up back at my car, and I agreed to drive her home. She changed in the front seat outside of a Cask and Cleaver where we had dinner. She managed to not flash too much flesh, but certainly enough to be interesting.

        Dinner was entertaining, she went on and on about how spicy American food is, especially in California, all the while eating pretty much plain steak and mashed potatoes. She managed to slip off to the restroom and when she came back she had put her hair up in a sort of bun, very elegant looking.

        We took a stroll out onto a pier and watched the sun set, then back on the road.

        She lived in an apartment with two couples. We sat on opposite sides of her futon visiting with the other couples, I heard a squeak behind me and looked over the back of the futon to find a red and brown long haired tortie cat. She looked up at me with bright green eyes. I blinked a kitty kiss and chirruped at her. She sat up surprised. I scooped her up and brought her out on the couch, setting her down next to me and scratching her head and shoulders.

        Everyone looked stunned.

        She never lets anyone touch her!

        Unless theyre asleep.

        Shes a big sweetie, I said, and let her go. She stood up, stretched, looked around, gave me a kitty kiss and sat right back down huddled up against my thigh.

        The cat approves, you have to keep him.

        Or he has to keep the cat, the English girl said. We talked for a bit more, then the TV came on, attracting everyones attention but mine and the cats.

        I stepped outside and walked out onto a balcony that overlooked a narrow bay. There were small boats in slips all along the line of condos or apartments. I walked back through the apartment, saying my goodbyes, left my number with the girl, then got in Little Red and drove home to my empty house.

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FF

Friday, December 14, 2007

Reassigned to the High School

        I dreamed I went back to work at my old High School (Where I did work for 11 years.) I returned in much the same fashion as I left, no notice, just report here, your jobsite has been changed, call if you need help moving your office. I was not prepared for the mess I found my former office in (given that the former office doesnt exist, thats not a surprise.) I was fortunate that I happened to be wearing the schools colors for it was also the first day of registration and the place was crawling with students. I went to the staff meeting; there were a large number of folks who were quite happy to see me, as I was to see them. I suddenly felt like I was not quite home again, and things would never feel quite the same way as before.

        I think knowing that I could be reassigned on a whim was going to always be part of my experience here. While I was glad to be back, I told the drama teacher that I would not be working 16 hour days like I had in the past. I would be glad to help out, but I wasnt that young any more, and had gotten used to getting a full 8 hours of sleep each night.

        The dream was non-surreal, normal seeming, I almost couldnt tell I was dreaming dream. If the layout of the site had actually matched the layout after the recent renovations, I might have never figured out I was dreaming. The fact that the old office existed, full of junked computers and old monitors, was enough to flag the experience as a dream early on. Still, I let the dream play out, anxiety and joy mixed, reality and desire warped into a pleasant alternate reality for a few minutes.

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FF

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Alternate Reality, Future?

        I had a pleasant dream where I was at a night club visiting with a former student, now in her mid 30s, who seemed genuinely happy with her life and how things had gone since shed graduated. We had a delightful visit, no stress and many happy memories. We had a couple of drinks together, introduced all of our friends to one another, and discovered that we had some things in common and those of us who danced a little danced a little.

        There was none of the usual dream surreal content (other than me in a night club) and the evening drew to a perfectly normal close and we all went our separate ways after much hugging.

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FF

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Convention Babes

        I dreamed I was in some sort of meeting hall with lots of booths with booth babes handing out fliers and printed freebies. I have no idea what the convention was for, though. I would try to look at my swag, but always looked too late; I'd already dropped it in the free tote bag. The tote bag had a company logo on it, but I didn't really recognize it. The logo looked a lot like the pattern on Princess Tiger Lily's shoulders, kind of a black and grey Atari logo.

        I started chatting with some of the booth babes and a couple of them gave me their cell phone numbers. I was also handing out cards with contact information on them and samples of the photographic to imaging content we provided. (I guess I was working with a computer art/production company.)

        Now I can hardly draw my way out of a paper bag, and my photography relies as much on luck and a quality camera as skill, but there I was, handing out CD ROM business cards for a dream company that provided just those services. I must have been their tech support person. I certainly was not a particularly effective sales presence.

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FF

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Guild Recruit

       I dreamed that N and I were asked to join a guild at a Ren-Faire type event. The signing "bonus" was a kilt and a belt with a couple of large leather pouches hanging from it. The kilt was very much like my utilikilt, only thicker, it seemed to be made from wool. The belt pouches were huge on the inside, not unlike the pouches you might find in an on line game like World of Warcraft... Yes, WoW has invaded my dreams in much the same way as Diablo II did. This particular dream wasn't otherwise obviously WoW inspired as the reality features were very high, including the dust and grit of a Faire site, and the noise of the crowds and competing bands. Still, those pouches... very much like the way I was thinking of taking care of encumbrance in Spare Parts, which is inspired by UFO Defense and Diablo II as well as WoW.

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Friday, December 07, 2007

Clever Title I Have Now Forgotten, Dream Slump, Duct Tape

        I woke up this morning with a two word transposition of a common phrase stuck in my head that would have been a perfect title for this dream, or even a collection of dreams. Can I remember it now?

        No.

        It seems that the recent changes in my medications are somewhat messing up my ability to recall my dreams. (Or it could be the increased pain that drives them out of my head, Im not really sure.) It seems to me that a title would help me remember the dream, but the dream was so fantastic, for a change, that I figured the dream would help me remember the very clever title.

        A clever little plan, which failed.

        Of course, it is possible that I only dreamed that I had a fantastic I must remember this dream, and dreamed that I came up with a clever word transposition title. Kind of like when I dream that Im reading from a book that I wrote. (I havent really written the book. Yet.)

        At least I remember there was really cool music and an odd beeping, which later turned out to be my work cell. Id left it on and the battery warning decided to let me know that. I wonder why the low battery always seems to happen around 3 AM and not during the afternoon or in the morning when everyone is awake.  Ive only let the thing run down on its own a few times, but it seems to always be between 1 and 3 AM. Usually, though, such an interruption wakes me from a dream and I have a chance to recall it. Not lately, though, I seem to be in a Dream Slump.

        There was multi-colored Duct Tape in one of the snippets from early in the evening. I think I was making a duct tape wreath with duct tape holly berries and duct tape ribbons and bells. Thats actually a pretty nifty idea. I may need to stop at the hardware store tomorrow and buy some colored duct tape.

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FF

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Tin Man Inspired

I watched the first part of Tin Man on the Sci-Fi channel. It is amazingly produced, but the performances are a little bit stiff. Not a problem in my dream, however. I was treated to a mangled rehash of the show, this time with many more characters running around. Im not really clear on what role I was playing in the cast, but I was running around, crashing through the ice and running from the flying monkeys along with the rest of the cast.

Later in the morning, after medicating the fluffy Ember kitten (ugly eye infection), I had a dream where I was surrounded by petite brunettes with curly hair like Ns. I was trying to find N amongst them, but it seems that none of them was her. I finally gave up and just sat down and whistled for her. I should say I tried to whistle, because I couldnt whistle. I started to have an asthma attack, so that made whistling even more difficult.

I woke up, really having the asthma attack. Oh and really not whistling, either.

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FF