Last night, I was in a grungy hall with a iron cage at either end. There was a young boy in front of me. He was straining against a metal chain coming from each cage. The chains were attached to collars around the necks of two demons. The boy had to keep tension on the chains to ensure that the demons didn't escape their cages and kill him.

Village Road Guitar

A lot of my dreams involve snow.

Last night, I was in a small, snowy village. There was a huge event going on, and here is what I think it was:

There were lots of us gathered together, and at some point, we all started racing each other through and around the village's buildings. I was in a small grey skimmer sled of some kind. I was viewing myself drive from a third-person perspective, almost like a videogame. At one point, I was desperately trying to get into a concrete culvert, as it was the next point in the race. I had to try several times to key a switch with the front of my sled, but finally a tunnel opened and I could pass through.

I can remember some vague village-wide controversy after the race. It involved me and some other guy my age. I think we were trying to capture or injure one another. At any rate, it took both of us all our cunning to outsmart the other.

Whatever happened, I was next walking down a snowless gravel road, with trees on either side. I was with a group of peers, and I think we were trying to find something that had been left on the road. From time to time, we stopped and took group pictures.

The next thing I knew, I was on a huge balcony in a gigantic metal, concrete, and glass building of some kind. There was a huge crowd of people just sitting on the balcony and conversing with each other. I knew most everyone there, and music was being played to us over speakers. I had a guitar in my hand, and was trying to show a friend of mine a song I like ("The Modern Leper" by Frightened Rabbit), but was failing horribly at synchronizing the chords and melody. After awhile I gave up successfully showing him, and moved on to mope and practice a bit. Then I got the melody back, and started successfully performing the song.

After a bit, I got bored of it, and so resorted to absently picking in harmony to the music being played above us. Just then, a real-world girl from my college turned to me and told me that I "play amazing." I grinned sheepishly and sidestepped the praise, gloating inside at my greatness.

I turned away and awoke.

Casino Zombie Parachute

This past semester, my life was so devoted to school that my dream blog and even my dream life suffered. I went to bed late, got up early, and was occupied for an entire day before doing it again. Furthermore, I was so stressed I either didn't dream much or couldn't remember anything I dreamed.

However, now I am on Christmas break. For me that means the relaxation to be able to dream again and remember it. So here goes...

Last night, I was off for an afternoon drive to Dayton, TN. In the real world, I shot a video promo for a small school there, and so in my dream I decided it would be nice to visit again. However, I guess I misjudged the time of day and the distance, because when I got close it was nearing dusk, and I knew that nobody would be around to chill with me. Nevertheless, I thought I might as well just stop in and take a look around, having come all this way. But then I missed my turn. As the road wound through the mountains, I looked for a place to turn around. The road kept winding with no possible alternatives, and so I soon crossed an intersection and saw a sign that said "Dayton Casino." The road was lined with bright green lights, and everything looked very ritzy. As I continued, I found myself behind a slowpoke 4WD vehicle. He eventually pulled over, and I swung my car around for a u-turn. As I blasted away, I heard him call to me that there were often policemen in a roadside RV checking traffic speeds. I slammed on my brakes just before coming to a red light at the same intersection I had passed earlier.

I waited my turn and then pulled forward, reaching a fairly good speed as I decided to abort the school visit and go home instead. Just then, I felt a huge bump and then heard a terrific scraping noise behind me. I looked over my shoulder, and saw the same 4WD vehicle from before narrowly missing my rear fender as it careened down the road in a shower of sparks. I sighed to myself and put on my blinkers, pulling over to survey the damage.

When I got out of my car, I looked around and realized that I was in my old childhood neighborhood. I looked back behind me, and saw a stocky young man standing over my fender. I had ended up next to a tree. I ran over and saw to my dismay that there was a young girl pinned under the fender. We hoisted back the twisted metal, and the young man gasped as we saw the girl's face. It was squashed and bloody. I ran back to my car to get something and cautioned the other guy that, should the girl be disturbed in the least, she would most definitely die. I looked back and saw him accidentally stumble over her in his haste to get away. The girl tipped onto her side, and the guy gently put her back. I was not impressed.

When I got home, I saw glanced at the TV and saw a commercial playing for a movie called "12:14." Apparently, it was a film based on my mishap that evening, and was the sequel to the film "11:14." I thought it strange that I had been so influential as to merit a movie, but then I realized that there was more to the trailer. It told a tale of an accident that lead to a zombie attack. I surmised that the producers had taken their liberties with my stories, and so I left the house again. I got in my car and drove, but at some point I got out because there were people on the side of the road. One of them was the girl that had been injured by my fender. When I tried to talk to them, the girl started gnawing at the neck of an older man that was there as well. Directly after, he started walking around catatonically, and I immediately realized that the zombies portrayed in the film about me were real. As the zombies converged on a third individual, I hopped in my car and left.

Somehow, I came to a school. I went into a classroom, and saw that everyone was going crazy. There was a large remote control being passed around, and it was dictating the behavior of people in cages. I was disgusted with this kind of behavior, and so I left to go outside. Somehow, I then got involved in a vehicle-based zombie hunt, and so I drove around with some other people trying to find zombies. At some point, I heard someone mention something about elephants, and so I asked them to clarify what they meant, but nobody answered. The search for the person talking about elephants soon became more important to me than the search for zombies.

Eventually, we came to a car that was parked in a vacant lot, with forest around. At some point, it had already become daytime, and there was a sparse forest around us. I recognized a few individuals in the car, and asked if any of them had mentioned elephants. One guy in the back said that it had been him. He said he had been referring to a bag of elephant sprinkles he had in his had. I took them and looked at them, and decided my search was over. I disbanded from the rest of my team as the people in the other car started taking pictures of each other.

Having no immediate purpose, I decided to walk on a nearby trail I saw. It looked like the trail had seen better days, and a modern wooden boardwalk with railings had been constructed over it. To me it looked like the old trail had a more direct path, and so I opted to walk down it. As soon as I stepped foot on the trail, a young, unkempt guy about my age asked if he could join me. I said that it was fine, and so he started telling me about his frequent visits to the trail. As we kept going, the boardwalk above got lower and lower, and so we had to crawl. We turned over, and started using chickenwire above our heads to pull ourselves along. He started talking about how he loved to come and do this course, since it always had a certain challenge with its wealth of obstacles. I realized that this pathway was basically a military obstacle course, but kept going.

Eventually we came to the end of the course. Right before it ended, there were two unique obstacles we had to pass. The first was a steep hill with a rubber strip inserted into the path. My newfound companion went first, struggling down it but eventually reaching the bottom. When I went, I bounded down with ease. He congratualed me and I graciously accepted his praise. Next was a game of bowling in the muddy trail. However, this game was different. There were three orange bowling balls. We had to use one of them to hit the far one, without hitting the closer one. The other guy went first, and failed, hitting the closer ball by accident. When I went, I missed the close one and hit the far one, completing the game successfully.

As we walked past the balls, we came to a forest path, with a grassy hill on one side and a pond on the other. As I looked up the hill on my left, I saw buildings through the trees and realized that this was a path I often visited. In my dreams, I sometimes come to this place, trying to find a real-world mountain cabin that my family sometimes goes to. However, in my dreams, my cabin is always hard to find. I asked the guy if he would like to help me find an alternate route to our cabin and the pond that is right beside it. He heartily agreed, and so we set out on our search.

Eventually, we turned a corner, and saw a pond that looked suspiciously like the one I was on the hunt for. As I took a close look, though, I realized that this wasn't the pond I was looking for. Although it was beautiful and inviting, there were people there that I didn't know, and a waterfall at the far end that I knew my pond didn't have.

We decided to go back the way we came and climb the hill. It ended up being much higher than we had suspected, with several switchbacks in the trail. At one point, I looked back and saw a woman walking with a girl. The woman had a sign on her that said "Carrying Letter." I assumed this had something to do with urgency surrounding the zombie hunt, and decided I didn't want to have anything to do with her. We continued up the path, and the guy with me suggested that we look over a ridge in the distance. I walked through the yard of one of the buildings nearby, and realized that it was actually a recreational vehicle. I climbed all the way up to the ridge, and saw that there was a wall at the top. I climbed up it and looked through a window at the valley below.

I was astounded.

It turns out that we had been climbing for a very long time, because the hill had ended up being a mountain, and as I looked over the cliff, I saw the ground several miles below. We were so high that I could see the countryside spread out magnificently beneath me. It seemed to be in the form of a very large, bowl-shaped valley. As I inspected the earth, I saw a tiny pond. I took a closer look, and saw a familiar road leading up to it. I excitedly turned to my friend to tell him that we had found the pond, but as I did the way fell away beneath me. I scrambled to get back, but toppled over the edge. I looked down at my chest and, to my relief, saw that I had a ripcord for a parachute. I pulled it immediately, and somehow floated back up to the ledge. I looked around for my friend, and heard him call to me from inside the RV. I softly opened the door and walked down the hall to see him sitting on the toilet. Not wanting to waste any time, I told him I was leaving and that he had better come with me.

As I left, I saw a small village of RVs in front of me, further up the ridge. I picked my way up the slope, and in the meantime, busied myself with putting my parachute back in its bag. Eventually, I looked back behind me to see if my friend was coming. I saw a figure and waved, thinking it was my buddy. Immediately I knew I had made a mistake, because the person yelled and started running after me. I guess the owner of the RV heard us and had come outside to see what the commotion was about. I didn't want to let him find out. I turned and sprinted to the rocky cliff in front of me. I couldn't run as fast as I wanted to, and so I got on all fours and grabbed clumps of grass to help pull me forward. As I galloped past the last few trees, I put my foot on the edge of the cliff and thrust myself forward into the void. I turned downward, and saw rocky outcroppings and ledges rush past underneath me. After a few seconds, I grabbed my ripcord and my parachute billowed out above me.

I gradually began losing consciousness, but did notice my pursuer falling next to me. He pulled out a machete and chopped of both my arms as we floated down the cliff to the inviting ground below. I guess one of his machete chops missed me and instead hit my parachute, because I resumed freefall. As the ground rushed up, I saw a small me-sized hole and aimed for it. I hit right in the center and tumbled head over heels down into the abyss. As I continued getting more and more groggy, I hit the bottom. I looked around me and saw an earthy tunnel. Behind me there was an orange snake, which I quickly dispatched with a handy nearby shovel. I decided the tunnel wasn't safe for me, and somehow armlessly clambered back up the shaft above me. When I reached the top, I toppled onto the ground, exhausted and alive.

I woke up.

Winter Flight Fright

Last night, I was a student pilot, about to take my first solo flight. However, the aircraft was quite unconventional. It was effectively a huge treehouse with a rocket engine underneath. However, I was getting ready for the trip, readying the machine and double-checking everything.

At one point, my instructor came out to help me, and gave me a flight bag and a bunch of paperwork to fill out. Since I was so inexperienced, I needed a lot of help with the papers. For example, there was one paper, the weight and balace form, that also had some other weird information needed. I had to fill out all the reference airspeeds for different phases of flight. I remember seeing the slow flight airspeed and trying to figure out how to find it. My instructor told me that it was on the back of the paper. I had to look through a lot of terms to find it, but finally I did. I also had to write out the total distance of the trip, which I think ended up being around 6,347 miles.

At some point I finished my paperwork, and was getting ready to be on my way. However, just then, I heard a noise off the balcony of the treehouse airplane, and I looked over the edge to see a girl I like and one of her friends. They were just walking around, but I guess somehow they got invited on the flight because they had some suitcases and eventually were hoisting them up to me. I scurried around for a bit, judging the weight of all the luggage with my arms to ensure that we weren't overweight. As I did this, I took a closer look at my ship. It had two bedrooms and a bathroom, and my copilot was putting luggage and clothing away. Another thing I noticed was that it was winter, and while there was snow on the ground outside, the roads were clear. It was a fairly dry winter day.

As I sat back down at the flight desk, I tried to secure the flight bag by looping some rings on the straps through hooks attached to the underside of the desk. I also looked behind me and saw that this particular aircraft had some accommodations for children, namely some wooden steering columns that kids could pretend to be pilots with. At that point, I realized that I needed to start my taxi down to the runway so I could take off. But first, I needed to make the call to the tower. I wasn't able to reach them on my radio, so for some reason I decided to jump down to the ground to do it. I then did so. On the way down, I realized several things: my instructor was on the ground, yelling at me to get moving or else I wouldn't make my flight, I had the radio in my hand still and it was flashing with red and green lights, and a car was driving up. Just then an invisible force picked me back up, as a suburban drove over the spot where I would have lain moments before. The force swung me all the way up onto the main platform of the aircraft, and I resumed readying myself for the trip.

The next thing I can remember is sitting in some sort of control room inside a building. A bunch of middle-aged pilots were talking about air routes, and I overheard them say that the city of Atlanta was a mere 19 miles away, while my hometown of Kelowna, British Columbia was something like 50 miles away, over the mountains. They were talking about how this flight was really boring and kind of lame, and I felt a little bad, because I thought I remembered loving the trip.

That's it.

Student Survival Shake

I had a greatly bloggable dream last night, but I got lazy and didn't write it down right away. As a result, I have forgotten a large amount of what happened. However, I can still remember a little bit. It is as follows:

Last night, I was on a tour full of young students. We were touring some place with a large group. Many important things happened, but the only one I can remember now is that, at one point, a student walked up to me. I don't know who he is in reference to the real world, but in the dream, he was a friend of mine. Everyone was very relieved to see him, for he was apparently in some sort of grave danger and had managed to survive. He was wearing a black baseball cap and diamond earrings. He was a little bit shorter than me, but was fairly fit. As he walked up to me, he reached out his hand, a huge grin on his face. I grabbed his hand in both of mine, enclosing it in a hopeful grasp.

That is all I remember.

Bathing in Bed

In my dream last night, I was hanging out with another dude in a bathroom. This sounds strange until you realize what we were doing. Then it gets stranger.

It turns out that this was actually an alternate history of my time at Southern Adventist University. In the dream, I had just received my room assignment for the residence hall, and it turns out that the dorm was much to full. Since my roommate and I were inconsequential people, they sent us to the overflow area, which ended up being the bathroom.

Our new room turned out to be a very large handicapped stall in the lavatory. At the time of my dream, we had already set everything up, including the couch, desks, and computers. However, as soon as we were all ready to live, we received word that we could move into a recently vacated residence room.

The End.

Kings

Last night, I dreamed that I had been called in by my dentist. They said that I had to have my crown removed and replaced, because of a bonding mistake they made. As we talked, I could feel my crown getting looser and looser. The dentist said the operation would be incredibly painful. I said I didn't mind, but my parents were getting really upset. Then my alarm went off like three times.

Hmmm.

My dream was somewhat hopeful last night.

Wedding Ski Artillery

This is a dream I had a few nights ago. I have been kind of busy lately, so I only got this one posted now:

Last night, my dream opened with me being part of a very strange wedding that happened to take place in the gymnasium of my old high school. Before the wedding started, there were a few people showing up, and they were having a good time. To my disapproval, they began drinking alcoholic beverages, and throwing the glasses on the floor, where they shattered loudly. I felt that someone had to clean up the mess, so I went hunting through the back hallway to find a broom. Somebody reprimanded me, and so I decided to go pick up the glass pieces by hand. When I got back, however, someone had already gone ahead and cleaned up all the mess. Just then it was time to start the program. All the groomsmen (there were about 10) and I ran around the edge of the audience, around some curtains, and burst out onto the stage. Then, a large number of bridesmaids did the same. There was some commotion, and then members of the wedding party were picked at random to go out and usher special guests to the front. A couple others and I were selected, and our first guest was Johnny Cash. I remember thinking this was odd, since Cash is dead, but we found him anyway and pointed him in the right direction. Next, we went after Tom DeLonge. He was exactly as I expected: half jerk, half nice guy. After we collected everyone, we ran back to the stage. As we did, I looked down and realized I was wearing nothing but my boxers. I was somewhat uncomfortable, but instead of worrying, I just hiked them up a bit and continued to trot up to the front. When we got there, the bridesmaids ran to the back of the gym and escorted the bride to the stage. Then, she summoned a large fabric balloon of sorts (which I presumed contained her husband-to-be). Everyone started chanting, and the groomsmen pulled up on the fabric, while the bridesmaids pulled down on the other side. A twisting mass of ropes began to pull apart in the middle, and I could see the groom inside. Just then, I put my hand in the wrong place, and my finger got stuck in the treacherous ropes. It kept getting pulled higher and higher, and I kept thinking that I was going to either lose my finger, ruin the ceremony, or both. However, I got it free just at the right moment, and the next thing I knew, I was on a ski hill.

As a chairlift hoisted me into the icy heavens, I noticed that the slope wasn't fully covered in snow. There were a few patches of rock peeking out from the white side of the mountain. When I got to the top, I turned my snowboard downhill and began carving my way to the bottom. The closer to the bottom I got, however, the more patchy and wet the snow got. In some places, there was much more ground then snow, and I only barely made it down. When I finished the run, my mother was waiting to pick me up. She immediately began telling me that I had to apply to get provincially subsidized medication. I began to argue with her, saying that I wasn't in need of any medication, and we continued on this way until I realized that I had left my sister on the ski hill. My mom consoled me, saying that Bryn had called her from the top, telling her to leave without her. I acquiesced, and we continued driving. As we putted along, I saw what looked like an airstrike off in the distance. When we got closer, I realized that it was a howitzer, shooting at the rocky hills to proactively cause predictable avalanches. We got closer, and another howitzer around the corner was also pelting the frozen landscape. One hunk of icy snow landed right beside us, and was barely rolled out of the way before a semi passed us. We decided it was a bit too dangerous, and so we pulled the vehicle over and got out on the side of the road.

We walked up to a small group of people manning the artillery, and they greeted us warmly. It seems that they were a group of evangelicals that happened to all have the task of de-avalanchizing the countryside (I should also probably interject that, at just about this time, I got the impression that we were in Oregon). As we watched, the group kept both meeting us and pelting the land with their explosive rounds. While this happened, I peered at each of them intently. Many of them looked strangely familiar, but I couldn't place when or where I had seen them before. Then, in amongst all this, we suddenly (and silently) grew very close emotionally. As a couple thunderous avalanches tore their way down the hill and through a close grove of trees, we all gathered together and began singing the Christian song "Into my Heart." Then, one middle-aged man (presumably the minister of this strange group) began to have a sermon of sorts, while out of the ground a bowl-shaped formation of rock began to rise. We circled around it, and as the pastor ended his talk, everyone in the group thanked us for being there and becoming such good friends with them. Then I awoke.

Sniper Coffin Christmas

During act I of my dream last night, I was a WWII-era sniper, picking off enemy forces around an old, decrepit church while peering down the sights of my rifle. As I made my way to the sanctuary area of the church, I successfully downed foe after foe. With bodies falling down all around me, I entered the sanctuary.

Suddenly, I was a fat pastor. I was attempting to figure out how a very special coffin in a modern-day church worked. The coffin was quite versatile. It had a removable top portion, and could be lowered a set distance into the ground. I tried to test it out, but my body couldn't fit inside, and so I passed it off to a nice, trim lady. She successfully fit in by turning on her side, and we lowered the coffin down. Then she got out and we surmised that we now knew how to work the thing.

The very next thing I remembered, I was in my old bedroom at home. It was apparently Christmas day, but I hadn't really been given many gifts, so I was perusing my other possessions. I pulled out a large, beautiful audio mixer that I had previously bought. As I admired its radiant glory, I experimented with mixing various audio signals from some pieces of equipment. However, I was interrupted. My mother walked in and told me that we had to go meet some friends in town right away. I left my equipment in my room, and followed her out the door. In town, we met up with our friends, exchanged pleasantries, and then I began to fantasize about the Alesis Micron, a small (but powerful) synthesizer I have had my eyes on for a long time.

The end.

Ouch

Last night, I dreamed of complete and utter rejection.

Yellow Boat Murk

I guess there's just something about water, because all I remember from my dream last night is that I was frantically trying to get a boat into Yellow Lake, BC without tipping it or something. At some point, I fell into the water, and then I opened my eyes to see where I was going. However, the murky depths scared me, so I quickly snapped my eyes shut again and shot to the surface for a deep breath.

Underwater Shark Arrows

I dreamed I was in a huge room filled with water, machinery, people, and sharks. The water was very deep, and while it didn't fill the room to the top, it was probably a good 100-150 feet deep. Nearly everything in the room, including me, was underwater. Close to me, there were pumps hard at work churning the water into a violent froth. A little bit farther off was an underwater observation deck of sorts, where people were looking out through the gargantuan expanse of the room. Off in the distance, I could see heavy metal stilts supporting platforms on the surface.

At some point I exited the water, and stood beside an inlet of sorts that had a backflow of water from the main area. I got there just as someone was scolding a child. As I listened, the scolder reminded the kid that sharks were not to play with, and one had to be very careful with them. They explained to him that the more you touched a shark, the more they became susceptible to the heavy toxins in the water of the backflow, and that their skin then merely fell off them, leaving the shark to die in a bloodbath. Literally. I watched as the carcass of one such unlucky animal slowly sunk to the depths, spewing clouds of red liquid as it descended.

Then, I decided to jump back into the main body of water and see what the observation platform was all about. I swam down as far as I could, but when I got right to the edge of the platform, I ran out of air. Then, because I wanted to live, I frantically began to paddle back up to the surface. It was too late. My vision began to fade, and I instinctively started trying to breathe, drawing in huge gulps of water.

Then, I either died or was saved somehow, because I found myself within a group of eager, happy children as we bobbed in the water. My sister Bryn was there, and seemed to be in charge of the children. However, she commissioned me to take over for a bit, so I could teach them how to swim, because we were going to try to get to the observation platform so they could see it. So I began to take over, teaching the kids various maneuvers they could use.

At some point, I left the children to tour the platforms at the surface. It appeared that they were part of a residential showroom of sorts, showcasing the kitchens and furniture people could choose to place in their prefab houses. Each structure had the name of a different American state, and were scattered around the larger room.

The next thing I remember, I was in a line of cars, with a random female I don't know in the passenger seat. As we waiting, a crazed, frantic man ran up to us, beating on my windshield. He had an arrow protruding from his mouth, and he pulled it out, ready to use it as a weapon. I somehow developed the impression that he was evil, and that he was chasing us and wanted us dead. The female and I ran out of the car, past the line, and up onto a curving road above. The arrow man sprinted after us. When we were too tired to continue, he caught up to us and yanked other arrows from his torso, trying to stab us with them. I grabbed the one in his mouth an attempted to reciprocate, but failed as he snatched it from me, just as another grew out of his mouth to take its place. I had a feeling of doom and despair.

Then some unrelated random things happened before I woke up.

The Lost Dreams, Part 2: The Mountain

This is a recurring dream I have been having every once in a long while for years:

I don't know how it usually starts, but at some point it's always basically the same. I am with a group of friends, walking through a field, and we find ourselves trudging up a brownish, sparsely-vegetated mountain. The mountain has two humps on it, with somewhat of a hollow in between. I usually run up ahead or something, and in time we find ourselves on the top of the mountain. The main recurring part of this dream is the mountain. I have had dreams where I'm driving down it, running on it, or driving or walking past it in a wealthy neighborhood, with the mountain peeking up on my right-hand side.

I guess it sounds stupid, but the mountain became very meaningful to me. I remember that the first time I was on it, I felt that I had seen it before, and that it was really familiar to me. When I woke up, I really wanted to remember where it was so I could go there. It was a pretty cool place, with a great view and a nice area. At any rate, even though I haven't ever really been there, I still think my mountain is out there somewhere, waiting for me to find it.

Incoh

Hey, I'm not dreaming very coherently lately. Or memorably, for that matter.

The Lost Dreams, Part 1: My Demise

I am going to start periodically posting non-chronological dreams that I have had but never shared here. From time to time, when I am reminded of a particular dream that is especially important or meaningful to me, I will put it here. Here's my first try. It is the recollection of a dream I had several months ago.

I was sitting in a quiet room at a large wooden desk. It must have been years in the future, because I was middle-aged. I was busy with paperwork or something, when the door in front of me opened, and somebody walked in. They said something to me, and immediately I was racked with pain. I clawed at the desk as I felt myself slump sideways and fall to the floor. I could feel a deep, incredibly pervasive pain as I realized that I was in the middle of a heart attack, and that I was dying. As I lay on my right side, taking gasping breaths while my vision blurred, I could see under my desk, and was looking directly at the shoes of the person standing on the other side. They turned, and I watched them retreat through the door, leaving me alone as my life faded. I was filled with terror, and thought to myself that dying was much different than I expected. There was no calm, comforting music, no soft farewell from the world as I gently passed out of existence. Instead, I was perfectly conscious, fully aware of my surroundings and what was happening as I felt the last few drops of vigor flow through my veins. Then the end came.

I was troubled with this dream the following day. I'm sure that the feelings I had were exactly what is felt by every human being that dies a conscious death. My passing wasn't a gentle descent marked by a final giving up of the spirit. Instead, it was merely an intense yet feeble struggle and fight, while my mind worked hard to will myself to live. This scares me much more than the alternative.

I Killed Jack Bauer

Last night, I dreamed that I was at Fairmont Hot Springs. It was Fairmont Independence Day, and big celebrations were to be had. My grandma was there, and she had me drive her car down a hillside into the parking lot of an adjacent lodge. Then, her car transformed into my car, which immediately had transmission problems. I tried to get it to work, but it was no use. After climbing out and talking to some of my nearby friends about it, I decided to try again. I started ever so slowly driving away, and then I realized that I had the car in reverse, even though it was moving forward. I shifted into drive, and the car performed admirably. I parked it, and got out. Somehow I acquired a very tiny bicycle with only a front brake lever, and met up with my friends Michael and AJ at the edge of the pavement. There was a solid concrete ramp down a short hill into a green, algae-covered pool. Me and my friends took turns biking down the ramp into the water. Then, I was on a higher floor of the lodge, standing on the patio. I grabbed by camcorder and began to tape the sun as it was setting. When I turned to leave, the door wouldn't open fully. I noticed that someone was behind the door, so I asked who was there. I heard Kiefer Sutherland say "Jack Bauer," so I reached around the door, yanking him out from behind it. He had a gun, and so we wrestled around in a death grip for a bit before I jumped on his back. Somehow we made it down the stairs, around the building, through the pool, up the ramp, and to a parked car on the pavement. I somehow dealt a death blow to him, and rose up triumphantly as he collapsed. Then, I saw Kiefer's face peeling off, being replaced by that of Frankie Muniz of Malcolm in the Middle. Frankie jumped up, walked a few feet to my right, and took a seat on the hood of a parked car, grinning broadly as a few girls walked up and put their arms around him. That's the last thing I remember.

Mission Spaceship Bereavement

It's days like today that make me really glad I now record my dreams. You see, last night I had what was probably the most deep, meaningful, and moving dreams of my life. Indeed, last night I actually thought I was part of a science fiction film. However, the problem I face with dreams like these is that, since they're so meaty, I have trouble remembering the beginning of them (which is often very integral to the story), and instead seem to just catch the end, like tuning in a few minutes before the final scenes of a really good movie. However, I try my best to rack my brain and force myself to remember as much as I can. Here's my attempt for last night:

As my dream opened, I was travelling a run-down, broken, nearly isolated highway. I had to carefully manoeuvre my vehicle, as there were huge drop-outs and missing sections of the road. This is all I remember of the very first scenes of my dream, and the next thing I knew, I was transported to the exposition of a compelling story.

My family had taken the place of another in the interstellar missionary spaceship pilot field. My father was the family spaceship pilot, and he had duties that included going to rescue people when emergencies were reported, as well as maintaining the ship to ensure it was serviceable. He had to go out on several missions a week, leaving me and my family at the missionary cabin we had been given for the duration of our involvement in the project.

I remember remarking to my mother one day about how much the kitchen in our cabin looked like the one back home, and she agreed. Indeed, it was a near replica of the kitchen in my real-world house today. I'm sure this has no effect on the story, but I dreamed it, so it belongs here.

One day, when I was walking around the premises of our house, I came upon an old man sitting in a pool of water beside a cliff. In front of him, a vast pile of logs were ever so slowly being pulled by the water over the cliff. With such a huge mass, though, they got all bunched up and were not moving too readily. I greeted the old man, and he beckoned me to him. When I got closer, he told me to try to get as close to the edge of the cliff as possible, so I could look down at all the logs tumbling down the waterfall into the depths below. I declined, worrying for my safety, but the man kept insisting. To keep him quiet, I acquiesced to some degree. I peeked over the edge, teetering on an especially unstable and slimy log. After I had risked my life to the degree deemed necessary, I pulled back from the precipice, told the man goodbye, and continued on my way.

It really, really bothers me that this next part is basically forgotten, mainly because I know it was so significant and emotional that it formed the meat of my story. All I can remember is that there was a substantial, tense mission rescue that I was part of, and I think it was involving a girl. Something happened to me during that flight, and it colored and changed my perception of the rest of the story. If it ever comes back to me, I will edit this post and re-write this section, completing the story. For now, however, read on, knowing that, within my dream, I had a deep sadness in my heart as a result of what happened here.

I was now back at my house, and my parents were having somewhat of an argument about the state of the mission project. It seems that my father was having some trouble keeping up to pace with the demanding schedule, and the previous pilot was having to fill in for him. The other pilot came back then, and joined our discussion. He explained to my father that he understood that it was difficult adapting to the pace of the project, and that he was only able to fully grasp it after two years of service. I remember looking out the window across our property, to where the mission ship sat on a small hill. It was somewhat bulbous, having a greenish-blueish-whitish color scheme. It had stubby wings, and a rounded fuselage.

Time skipped ahead, and I was an adult, watching a group of people that were working hard, bent over a wooden counter. They were laboring intensely, driven on by an excited young man. I remember him saying that they were preliminary workers for a film, constructing props, costumes, and other set pieces. I remember thinking to myself what an awful occupation this must be. Out of the workers, two in particular caught my eye: a teenage boy and girl. They were competing with each other, seeing who could complete which tasks first. As I watched the mayhem unfold, the leader shouted out a command, and the workers switched places, beginning on new tasks. I walked forward and was immediately drafted for duty. I was given a metal tray with moist beanbags on it, and was told to begin work. I cluelessly looked to my left for inspiration. The boy worker was busy as can be. I could see that he and the woman across from him were making great progress on their beanbags. I could also see that across from me was a kitchen suspiciously like the one in my childhood mission home. I then realized that our current task was shaping the beanbags into kitchen cabinets. Naturally, I thought this was impossible, but I could see the others making great strides at their projects, so I decided to start buckling down. I kneaded the beanbags, and the more I pushed them around, the wetter and more pliable they became. Then, the leader shouted at me that I was supposed to weld my metal tray to the table before getting to work. I tried to, and thought I succeeded, but my weld points just came undone. Not wanting to keep trying, I went back to my beanbag kneading.

Just then, I heard a shout behind me. I turned and saw my surroundings for the first time. We were in a fenced clearing, with low buildings all around. A small number of people ringed the clearing, and were all peering expectantly at the overcast sky. Then, a large booming, cracking, sizzling noise broke out, and I saw a gleaming white spaceship break through the clouds and come streaking to the ground. It altered its trajectory drastically as it came closer, and flashed across the field in front of me. Then, a speeding white car drove the opposite way, nearly getting blown to smithereens by the sheer momentum of the spaceship. Several people yelled in annoyance at the driver of the car, saying how he could have been killed. However, they soon disregarded him, turning to the ship. It majestically looped around the yard and came to rest behind the building across from me, and the people broke out in cheering.

Then something moved within me, and I began to sob. This spaceship had served as a reminder to me of all my years at the missionary project. I remembered people that my father had interacted with, those he had saved, and some he had lost. My sobs grew, and I wept uncontrollably, burdened by the weight of the losses we had failed to prevent. I cried so hard that I was unable to stay standing, and I collapsed. Several people loaded me up on a cart and started to wheel me away. Then, the teenage worker girl took over, and wheeled me over to a stream surrounded by lush foliage. She whispered soft words to me, explaining that she was tasked with comforting and protecting me. As I got myself under control, she told me that I was fully spent, and was going to die. As I feebly protested, she stopped me and described her solution. She volunteered to die in my place, and had already resigned herself to do so. I watched aghast as she got in the cart, leaning back with her eyes closed, and died. I was completely shocked and confused, spitting at the water of the stream in my frustration.

I awoke.

I know that this was probably a very tedious, arduous read. But this morning I felt very somber as I shrugged the remnants of this dream away. It probably sounds very trivial, but I can remember more than anything the emotions caused by this story, and how they affected my heart during and after my dream. I was unable to fully describe how I felt. The recounting here is confusing and seems inconsequential. It probably leaves much to be desired, but IT'm going to be thinking about this dream for a long time to come.

The School Burglary Festival

I have been gone for a week, and my dreams have been so nebulous and confusing in the meantime that I have kind of neglected to post anything. So here goes:

Last night, I dreamed I went back to my old high school. For some reason, after 3 years of college, I decided I needed to brush up on some old-timey learning fun. So I signed up for all my classes, and on the first day, I had classes pretty much straight through. It was really weird going back to seemingly archaic learning methods. However, I did. When the school day was over, I remembered that I had parked my car out back. For some reason, even though my school was just around the corner from my house, I had decided to drive. I realized that, since all the gates were locked, the only way back home was to drive out through the back field and a big hole in the fence. So I did.

The following day was more interesting still. I only had one class, and it was some religion/math hybrid that I really didn't understand, and I left before the quiz could be handed out. Then I checked the weekly schedule on the wall, and realized that my sister Bryn was going to perform an organ concerto that afternoon. I'm pretty sure I attended and it was great, but I can't remember too well.

Suddenly, I was at another school. This one was a confusing mix between my college and the boarding academy I attended for my senior year of high school. My latest real-world roommate (Josh) and I explored the campus and reminisced about times we had experienced. Then, I had a huge bouquet of strange flowers that I left in the women's dean's office. I don't know what I planned to accomplish, but they quickly wilted, and so I reclaimed them before any more damage could be done. Me and Josh walked over to the other wing.

The next thing I knew, we were in a car, looking for something to do. I think we were quite bored, and so when we pulled up next to some senior student housing, of course we decided to break in, just for fun. We both pledged to do nothing especially illegal (aside from the initial break-in), and instead took it upon ourselves to explore all the rooms, leaving the lights on and the doors open. I came to a bedroom with an ensuite bathroom. I decided it would be hilarious to pee in their toilet and on their toilet seat. I then did so.

Then, the residents (two young ladies) came back. I heard them walking up the stairs, and so I jumped in the corner of a room across the hall. They walked past, and I rand down to the tiny garage where my roommate had parked his car. Thinking only of my own safety, I noisily opened the garage door and ran out onto the street. By then, the residents had heard me, and they shouted out hate-filled phrases after me as I ran around their house, trying to get away. I guess I had stolen some possessions after all, because I was dragging along a big plastic box filled with their stuff. They kept shouting at me through the window, and I kept running along, until I decided to do away with their belongings so that I could really run. I opened the box, and as I poured the contents on the ground, they became a strange green slime. Thinking nothing of it, I ran through neighborhood after neighborhood. As I passed several newly-constructed homes and communities, I noticed strange signs denoting that the houses' driveways had previously been grass, and now were covered in some type of eco-friendly asphalt that was supposed to look better. I remember thinking about how strange it was that these signs were bragging about such a thing.

I had little time to contemplate, however, because I then came back to the campus. My life immediately became half about the chase I had just endured, and half about running through a stately building, trying to evade a separate group of people who wanted me dead for something else. Some random lady was there too, and she got shot in the chest several times. I ran outside and found my family there, doing a tribal dance of sorts. It seemed there was a year-end festival going on, and so I joined the festivities.

Before I knew it, the dance had broken up, and everyone in attendance had joined a long line. Someone started a chant, and we all followed along, turning this way and that to show letters on our back that spelled some larger message about the school. After, we all gathered together, looking up at a huge screen. The A/V guys began to play footage that students had shot throughout the year, including a large amount of my footage.

Before I knew it, I was transported into the screen, and I started living out the video. I was on a boat, drawing closer to a rocky outcropping. As the boat got near, I could hear a sappy love song being played by an unknown, unloved 90s band. We stayed on the boat for awhile, and the band played the rest of the song. When it was done, the lead singer jumped onto a waiting jetski with his guitar, and left. Then, I climbed up the rock to where one of the band members was playing an electric cello. I took it from him and started trying it out, and before I knew it, the rest of the band had started up, playing the Christian praise song "Eagles Wings." I came to the shocking realization that this praise song was really just a secular love song adapted for church use. I voiced my concerns to Erroll, the chaplain at my old school, and he assured me that it was no big deal.

And then I woke up.

Nope

No posting due to reason 2. Sorry. However, my friend Matt Hadley has this really sweet photo blog. Check it out.

Everest Ice Plane

Last night, I dreamed about lots of snow. We were in some national park, and I think we were quadding around in some huge mountain ranges. Well, we looked up at some, and were remarking on their beauty, but then we started bickering amongst ourselves as to which mountain was Everest.

Needless to say, the next thing I remember is taxiing a large airplane through snowy city streets. The whole time, there was a friend in an airplane in front of me. My friend kept warning me of a constant barrage of huge ice slabs falling from the sky. At one point, one of them hit my plane, but miraculously it was unharmed.

Next, I cruised in beside what seemed like my grandparents' housing complex, and came to a stop. There were several feet of snow, and bunch of family friends were there. We played around in the snow and on the airplanes for awhile, and then more things happened. But that story is for another time (mainly because I can't remember it).

Nada

Sorry, but I can't remember anything substantial from last night's dreamscape.

Fire Station Hotel

In the only part of my dream that I can remember from last night, I was working at a fire department office. It was evening, and we were sorting through all of the problems of the day before I was allowed to go home. Since I was done my work early, I was tasked by my supervisor with going into the lot out back and picking a random vehicle to practice driving. I guess the idea was to gradually get me to have experience driving every sort of vehicle we had. So I went to the key rack and got one for a suburban.

The only problem was that the aforementioned lot only had other people's vehicles, not ours. When I came back inside and protested that I couldn't find the suburban, my friend Alex took me on a search through the nearby hotel to look for the parking lot. Apparently, this hotel had a somewhat broken elevator, and we had to ascent for several stories before it went back down to the underground parking. Alex told me that we actually kept our vehicles underground, and so when we got far enough down, he told me that we were there.

When we entered the underground lot, all I could see was storage in every direction around me. I tried walking around some of it to find the suburban, but instead found myself in my father's cabinet factory. I didn't want to hang around there, so I turned around and demanded that my friend tell me where the vehicles were.

The next thing I know, I was on Facebook, reading posts by friends. One in particular caught my eye. It appears the rock band Anberlin had made an appearance on the campus of Southern Adventist University (the college I attend) while I was away for the summer, and had pictures of the event. According to the caption, they had been discussing with locals about what kind of O'Doul's non-alcoholic beer was the best. Then my alarm woke me up.

Cameras, Ponds, and Graduations

Last night, I dreamed I was on a trip. I did a lot of specific things during the trip, the details are super sketchy, so really all I remember is the fact that I was on a trip, and these specific instances:

At one point I was running this really nice camera during a performance in a gymnasium. The person coaching me kept telling me that I was doing it wrong, and for good reason, because I kept on messing up. As the play progressed, those on the stage were jumping off and getting towed over the audience and up to the ceiling on cables.

The next thing I can remember is being in a forest, trying to get the perfect picture of a small tree, while cropping my parents out of the frame. They kept walking right where I was taking the picture, and it was really annoying. I think I eventually did get the picture, but only after much painstaking effort.

Next, I remember driving down a road with my friends in the car, and stopping at a pond. The pond had these small islands on it, and me and my friends happily hopped from island to island, while some epic music played in the background. I jumped/fell it at one point, and was really happy because the water was really refreshing, even though it was somewhat dirty.

Things happened, but the only other thing I remember before my alarm startling me awake is being at a graduation at the school I used to attend. I was in the back hallway, and a man was snapping a picture of a framed photo on the wall. In the photo, my friend Guian was excitedly greeting a girl that I didn't know. I think they were both wearing graduation gowns.

Prevailing Orange

Last night, I dreamed all about weird things. Something was happening, and so I had to go from room to room in this labyrinthine house. Once I got to each room, I think I had to do something with the computer there before either lava filled the room or it exploded or something. It's pretty unclear.

Later, I was in a large supermarket, desperately trying to nab groceries that had yellow or orange packaging. A girl I knew but can't remember now came to try and help me, and started putting pieces of bread in a bag for me, while also helping some strangers on the other side of the aisle. We had a hot dog, and shared it, dipping it in ketchup on the plexiglas covering the bread bin.

Somehow I ended up in a theater, sitting beside my sister Bryn. Bryn was sitting directly behind some girl I used to go to school with, and thought that this girl had done her hair very nicely that evening. Bryn kept discreetly smelling the girl's hair. I caught a whiff of it from time to time, and it was a very nice smell, reminding me of several of this world's finest fruits. All the while, it was like we were watching a film, but my point of view kept switching from being a watcher in the seats to actually being in the film.

In the film, my other sister Alison was talking to a dance instructor about getting funding for a show that she wanted to do. All the dance artists were sitting on a swinging gate in their bodysuits, placidly listening to the conversation. One time when I was taken back to the theater, something significant happened off to my left, but now I can't remember what it was.

Suddenly, I was transported to a small, bowl-shaped valley where a spaceship was kicking up spray of a circular lake. Two spindly aliens were getting blasted by this spray, and were not too happy about it. They jumped forward when the spaceship turned around, a broke a hole in the windshield, somehow working their way inside. I then became Peter Griffin from Family Guy, but with an out-of body experience. I watched myself being thrown out of the ship, and then I walked around the edge, perhaps trying to find another way back in. The aliens inside tried their best to stop me, spraying my face with a cloud of orange gas. I struggled on further, trying to make my way around the edge (all this time, the ship was floating on this small lake). They blasted me with the gas again, and I fell down, succumbing to the fumes. I tumbled off the edge of the ship, but was somehow still coherent enough to beseech a group of strange, spidery animals on the deck to aid me in getting back on the ship. They entered the water and supported my body, lifting me bit by bit back up.

Then my sister Ali woke me up, saying I didn't have much time to get ready for church.

Dreaming out Loud

I'm starting a dream journal blog. I want to post every day of my life (for possibly ever) the details of dreams I was subject to the night before, so that I and others can check them out, see trends, and maybe share a laugh or two. They may be funny, they might be interesting, but I pledge they will be real. However, some rules will apply:

1. If I dream of sensitive topics pertaining to real people, as I do from time to time, I may change a guy's name to "Bob" and a gal's name to "Sue."

2. If I dream of intense, touchy personal subject matter, I will most likely abstain from posting that day. I'm sure you wouldn't want to read it, anyway.

3. If I can't recall any dreams, or if they are simply far too nebulous to explain at all, I will also not post on that day.

That's pretty much it! I hope this can be of interest to someone, but if not, I don't care. This is more for me anyway.