Oh, just dreaming about zombies and murder March 31, 2009

I have two weird dreams that I haven’t yet posted. The first one is from 3/3/09. I’m just going to write verbatim from my (tangible) dream journal since it is then filled with “I-just-woke-up-confusion” that makes everything better.

“Tatiana and I lived together. We had a cat. A delivery man (our age) came and brought us a bunch of stuff- like laundry to fold, groceries, doc martins (?!) … my cat and I could communicate, just basic stuff, but honest telepathic “this guy scares me” (cat) sort of things. Earlier in my dream I remember being outside in the middle of a forest with my class in front of a girl’s house, and the girl ended up confessing that she killed another girl. Then I remember being in this park that was like a giant pit (or bowl shape in the ground) and trying to sit up at the edge. It was autumn. Suddenly where I was sitting turned into a bathroom and I was playing with my hair (long hair for some reason) when I turned around and there was a group of about 15 Mormons standing and praying on these zigzagging stairs above me. Their eyelids weren’t closed all the way and they looked like zombies. Then one of them accidentally messed up his thoughts and said ‘When you’re wet, I’m gay.’”

whhhhatt???

The next dream is from 3/14/09

“Tatiana and I were at a beach with 2 guys- characters in a Ray Bradbury novel- but it wasn’t a regular beach because it had a back wall. Tatiana and I dove in and went so far that we almost hit the back wall. We yelled to the boys to come in, but they said they couldn’t and got Ray B. on the phone to vouch for them. I ran up and grabbed the phone to call the number back, and found out that it was just a hot-line for actors where you explain to the operator who you wanted them to pretend to be.” In my other dream that night: “I was living in this big, old house in like the 16oo’s with about 50 other people. Our house was under attack though, by a group of people who wanted to take over our land. We were under attack for three days. They’d be behind every door to the outside (which happened to be a lot) and it was impossible for me to escape. On the third day, my friend (a girl my age) and I decided to hide out in the basement. We went down the stairs, around and around in this giant spiral that wasn’t just stairs, but the general path we were following. We hid there for three weeks (don’t ask me how). When we surfaced, we found that the other people had taken over our home. But we found a man from our family who was hidden behind this big cut out with a sword out in each hand just walking up to the enemy and slowly stabbing them. We followed him for a while. End of dream.”

Told you they were weird.

During my nap this afternoon I dreamt I was pregnant with 12 babies. It was in the early stages, so they were just tiny zygotes (nerd) and I was at the doctor having them removed. When I told Tatiana at lunch, she told me that it is only possible to have 8 babies with one egg. Interesting.

Overall February 17, 2009

So I’ve decided that I am no longer making “promises” or even bringing up when I’ll update this thing. I makes it more of a burden than I’d like my blog to be. I really do like posting – and I will continue to, I’ve just been busy – and will continue to be.

Since about a week and a half ago when I last wrote: my hair is shorter, I’ve learned more about various topics, I still haven’t developed my first roll of film (I don’t really like driving, esp. alone… this seriously limits my motivation for trips to the drug store)… and I’ve been dreaming less because of not sleeping long enough. I did record a dream on my phone again a few days ago. I’d write it down now, but I’m currently in the Library on east bank (I can never remember, Walter or Wilson?) and I don’t think I should play any recordings in here. However, last night I had a dream: My family and I were on this island. We were climbing up this pole/tower thing in the middle of a jungle basically making a walkway around it out of branches and vines as we went. It was also like we were wrapping a may pole or something. Anyway, it was very high up and scary, but by the time we got to the top, we saw that there was some sort of little sparkling spiderweb-y chandelier type thing hanging from the top of the tower. I can’t really think of a better way to describe it, but it was beautiful. After the wrapping the tower, I went back to Willie’s apartment on the island… his place was on the middle of the main street and super colorful. The front was basically a garage door painted in probably 10 different bright, “tropical” colors. I had left the door unlocked when I had left earlier, and apparently the monkey that was kept across the street had crawled out of his own place and into Willie’s. Huh. Thats all that I can remember…

The next couple of blogs that I post will be postings for my New Media and Culture class. We need to post six in all relating to the material we discuss in class. It is all pretty interesting, so I’m just going to incorporate it into this existing blog rather than make one specifically for the class.

I want Chipotle.

Thursday I have a presentation for my Intro to Design Thinking course. We have a group project to re-design the to-go coffee cup. Our new features include: a lid that slides closed to reduce that annoying splashing when walking, an insulated built in grip to no longer require a sleeve, a temperature sensing ink (it exists) to avoid burnt tongues and drinking cold coffee/tea, and a cup made from eco-friendly recycled paperboard with a renewable plant film liner that is a hell of a lot more compostable than Styrofoam (try 90 days versus 500 years. Seriously, why are we still using Styrofoam??) We’ve made a prototype and a power point and are pretty much ready to go.

Oh, and one more new thing: I’ve become re-addicted to iSketch… I used to play it when I was younger, then forgot about it, and now it is back in my life. It is an online chat/pictionary game basically using Microsoft paint and a chat box to play. Its great. I recommend it.

P.S. Feel free to comment. I’d appreciate it! You don’t need to have a blog to be able to.

In the castle… February 4, 2009

When I woke up this morning, 8:15am, I was running a little late. So I decided to record myself mumbling about my dream on my cell phone. I’m going to write it verbatim, and then clarify.

“Last night, uh, I was in some castle. And Willie was at some party that was at a castle, a pool party. Then suddenly he was a knight in a music video. It was ridiculous. Wait no, not a knight, haha a joker (jester). So I went to this castle to find him, and he hopped on the back of my horse because some one was chasing us, and we rode up the stairs in this giant stairwell, up and up and up and all the way across, to the other stairwell and to go down again and up and around and then suddenly it was Tatiana who was on the back of my horse. We finally reached the bottom where we were going to have a sword fight, or duel, and I wake up before we uh start. It is crazy and next to this wall covered in artwork.”

Translation/Elaboration: In this castle where Willie was, there were a bunch of people with him. Also, he had super awesome hair… can’t figure out how to explain it. Anyway, these stairs that I was so into explaining in the recording: it was essentially two tall stairwells on either side of the castle, connected at the top by a large hallway. Also, the art covered wall: the wall its self was a crimson red, with what looked like a hundred or so picture frames with paintings covering the wall.

Anyway, this weekend was fun. Work, party plus sleepover, Mediterranean potluck, sleep, homework, etc.

Today I had class for a couple of hours in st. paul. We watched part of a documentary about Maya Lin, the designer of the Vietnam War Memorial. Pretty neat; now I’m interested in seeing the whole thing. When I got home,  Tatiana made Annie and I egg salad sandwiches for lunch. mmm.  And from about 4 to 7pm Willie and I accidentally/on purpose took a three hour nap. Then it was chocolate chip pancakes for dinna… only that included a mini grocery shopping trip– turning dinner into an 11pm snack. or something.

Video of Willie flipping a giant pancake

tchüss!

P.S. finished my first roll of film…! (haven’t gotten it developed yet though.)

Cat shaped licorice January 26, 2009

I have a weird love for cat shaped German licorice. I just finished a bag of Katjes Katzen Pfotchen which are “paws” and delicious.  Now I am onto Haribo Katinchen. Chewier and cat shaped..  but also with bows around their necks and standing up like a person would. huh. But after this bag I will start my favorite… Katjes Kinder. Its harder and lasts longer. Why am I writing about licorice cats?

Anyway, I got asked out today. haha. I was at work (The Whole), putting up posters on the pillars with wallpaper paint. This guy a couple years older than me comes over and we awkwardly talk for a couple of minutes. He asks me questions, but doesn’t elaborate once I answer them… he just moves onto the next one on what feels like a checklist. Eventually he gives me complement, telling me he likes my shirt and that it looks pretty good on me. (Note to men: try and not say pretty good, to me it really makes it sound more like “adequate” than if you were to just say “it looks good”). He then follows up with asking me if I’d like to go get coffee sometime this week — it’s a nice gesture and I’m not trying to make (much) fun of him, it is just this end part that is so weird to me: I tell him that actually, I have a boyfriend that I’ve been with for a year now, so no, but thanks and I’m flattered. But then he just walks away. Not even a “thats cool, have  a nice day”… he just leaves.

Only thing I can remember from my dream last night is that I, along with three others, was hovering in a lying down position about a foot above a hilly road and flying down it like it were a luge. (no sled though).

Ah, early class tomorrow. spectacular spectacular.

A mishmash of the past few days January 22, 2009

I’ll get better at updating this eventually, I promise.

On the dream front, the night of the 21st: hilarious. Started with my having on of those falling dreams… sort of; more like thinking a large (not fat, just weirdly large) man was falling backwards onto my bed. I shot up yelling “Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh!!” Scaring the hell out of Willie. But he also talked in his sleep that night… earning  major unconscious-boyfriend points: W- “I’m so glad I got to spend more time with you” A- “What? When?” W- “In my dreams”. Awww.

Other dreams that night: I was on a bus. So was a creepy guy. I got of on the next stop just to get away. Turns out I was in a town called either Gandolf (haha) or Rudolf (can’t remember)  in northern Denmark. I looked to the left of the dirt road I was walking on and down the hill there were these large grassy cliffs… in the shapes of mansions.  In another dream there were two lesbian couples playing Wii against each other outside my basement windows.

Annnd dream last night: I was an Asian girl (yeah, I’m not always myself in dreams, it just depends on my view point. I guess sometimes I’m not even technically in the dream) anyway, I was out to dinner with my Asian boyfriend. Oh, and in this restaurant there were only Asian couples. Problem in the dream was that when the temperature of the room wasn’t exactly correct, my boyfriend turned into a computer mouse. This happened to all of the men. Oops.

Lately I’ve been having to get up at 7am for class. I know, it’s not that bad, but the most consistent thing I did over winter break was to stay up until 3am and wake up at noon. My classes seem pretty interesting so far. I’m taking Design Merchandising and the Consumer, Intro to Design Thinking, New Media and Culture, Info for Mass Communication, and Danish 4.

I think the reason for my being asian in that dream has to do with reading Children of the Mind. One of the main characters in it is a Chinese girl named Wang Mu. I’m only 30 or 40 pages in, but since it is the 4th (and final book) in the Ender series and it starts off right where Xenocide ended, I’m already addicted to it. Oh! and yesterday was also Willie’s and my one year! Oh! and I got my lomo camera (Diana F+) a couple of days ago… I’m about half way through a roll and super excited to see how its turning out. It is a weird feeling to take a picture and think “Well, I guess we’ll see!” since I’m so used to knowing instantly with either digital or polaroid.

Toothpaste January 18, 2009

As far as dreams go, I can’t remember basically anything from last night. All I know is that I was struggling to hide a tape measure in the dirt… super exciting. Also, Willie told me that I said “toothpaste” in my sleep, and that when he asked me “what about toothpaste?” I responded with something like “I can’t talk about it right now… mumble mumble” (correct me if I’m wrong, Willie).

On the lomography side of things, I just received my Diana F+ in the mail two days ago, and my film yesterday. So she is all set up and ready to go and play. I’m thinking the first pictures will be at Monday’s dinner. Only thing is that with the inside evening light I’m fairly certain I’m going to have to have the shutter open for at least 30 seconds. I can’t exactly ask people to sit completely still in the middle of eating for that long.

Tangent number 3: School starts in two days. I wish I could even out my motivation over a semester… I’m always really excited in the beginning, reading ahead for the first week or two. Then by the end, even by the middle, I want to have nothing to do with it. Actually, I’m going to go look up the syllabus for my New Media Culture class after this. I want to see if I should read Snow Crash (assigned reading) now, or if I can go ahead and start in on Children of the Mind. See what I mean?

Are those baby dinosaurs in the storage area? January 17, 2009

I’m eager to post something, so I’m picking out a favorite from the dream journal Willie gave me in September. This one is from November 2nd.

It begins with me walking in this large, modern building with an older man. He says “elevator?” and I respond that they make me nervous and that I’d rather take the stairs. He steps through the doors marked elevator, and I continue walking down the hallway. Suddenly, the floor lifts, and a section of the floor I’m standing on (perhaps 20×15 ft) acts as an elevator… only traveling both vertically and horizontally. There are about five other people on there with me. We lift higher and higher, and fly further across. Eventually we reach this old, stereotypically Swiss designed train platform where we get off. We’re at school! Everyone’s parents are there and we walk to where our dorms are. Turns out Becca is in my dorm, along with Lorena. It is a six bed, two bath dorm. Only one bath is just a bath… not even with a shower head. I look into the full bath and notice that one of the room mates has decorated it all purple. I wander further in and see that there is another room hidden off from the bathroom, a storage room. Only this is, inside there is some pen with what looks like robotic, perhaps real, baby dinosaurs in it. What the hell? Oh, also, two of the room mates are older: around 38 and 55 or so. I went to class later that day, via hovering buses.