it's like the eye of a duck

Last night I slept like I'd been cold-cocked.

And I dreamed that I slept like I'd been cold-cocked, waking up in the middle of a fencing strip, groggily wondering where I was supposed to be and wondering how I'd managed to score any touches at all while sleep walking.

Dream shifts to my sleeping leaning up against the window of a train or plane, while trying to brush pine needles off my face. Am told that the pine needles were spritzed onto the window and that the windows weren't actually open (Spruce Spray? Christmas-in-a-Can?)

Yummy as phad thai is maybe I don't need to eat it that late?

• 09:40 Had cracked dream last night re: living in arctic w/out fabric or foils. Wanted vinyl, could not get. Piles of DVDs though.
• 12:32 Day almost half over. Time flies when you're juggling 4 things :/
• 14:00 To tuck or not to tuck; that is the question: tinyurl.com/mk5ezs Whether 'tis better to be comfortable or risk sloppiness. Thoughts?
• 14:01 Me, I prefer not to tuck unless the shirt is so long/huge that I look underdressed if I don't.
• 15:09 Shin stitchy. Will need to do something other than walk to clear head between code fugues today.

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It's down to the last week (I fly out Saturday) and I'm mostly good.

Physically, I feel ok. Adding some yoga to stretch my back has made a noticeable difference, and I'm still doing the foot/leg exercises every time I practice. My endurance is improving, and my clubmates say I've improved as well. I'm trying to believe that without letting it go to my head!

Mentally I've been trying to take the attitude of "make them work" to the strip every time, 'cos my habit of holding back (to conserve energy) until I'm 3 touches against isn't working :P I'm definitely not going in with the overconfidence of my last competition - the way I figure it, everyone in TX next week had to qualify same as me, and I barely slipped in under the rope. I'll be lucky if I win even one bout in pools (though I admit I really want to!)

Nah, most of my nerves are about getting there and having my equipment in order. I've had nightmares (really!) of either forgetting my equipment, breaking it, or forgetting/breaking it and scrambling to get it fixed before strip time :P

In reality, everything is working, but I'm regretting not getting there 2 days before I fence rather than 1 - I'm going to have to play in the airport/fly half the day, check into hotel, go straight to the venue for weapons check, eat something and get back to the hotel, hopefully to be asleep early because check-in the next morning opens at 7(!) and I'll need to get up in time to get dressed, eat something (assuming there's anything available), and get to the venue in time to check in and warm up (aaaaa!) before actual fencing starts.

Oh, yeah, and I'm parrying in my sleep again.

It will turn out well.

• 09:50 Awakening to tired/pain. Getting back in the saddle, yow yow yow...
• 09:51 Did have interesting dream where I was urged to start DJing again. With vinyl, no less.
• 17:57 I'd check my land-line messages more often if I didn't get so many telemarketers.

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I had a dream that I went boating with friends.

Not my first dream about boating with friends (which is weird in itself because I've never boated with friends, not even a little bit) but definitely the first where the speedboats had no propellers, but were harnessed to little (comparatively) Loch Ness Monster-things that we dug out of the mud (think Uruk Hai). Friendly like slippery puppies the size of Volkswagen bugs.

I thought this was so cool and fun that I was determined to impress a girl I had my eye on by taking her out on a boat ride with a mini-LNM. Alas, when we got to the dock, it was winter and deserted. Even the lakeside cottage was depressing, painted a sad avocado green on the inside, with dust in the sink and bare cupboards.

Analyze all you like - frankly I think this one is random neurons firing...

Gacked from ragdoll:

( LeStrange wants me dead, Malfoy just wants me )

Via misia: A Mormon missionary beefcake calendar (link ok for work). I can't tell whether it's serious or not, but I think I read some gay erotica on a similar theme once....

Brain sprain: I dreamed last night that I was a Bryan Ferry impersonator, only to be shamed off the stage by the real thing during my screechy rendition of "More Than This" because his suit was (of course!) better than mine.

Whatever I ate before bed last night, I shouldn't 'a...

Last night I dreamed I had a beautiful Spanish main gauche. I was wiping it on something while standing near a clear, bubbling stream and there were trees, everything was gray and green...

That's all I remember.

Damn, it was a sexy weapon....

Ok, this is a strange one, strange enough that I can tell (does posting count as telling?) it before breakfast without fear of it coming true:

I embarked on a great journey to Pennsic War, the biggest event on the SCA calendar. Yet, it didn't take the form of packing my car and roadtripping, oh no, far too mundane for my convoluted mind: it was through a series of underground tunnels through wildly different rooms and buildings. It was almost like a cross between "The Wizard of Oz" and the London Below of "Neverwhere" with all of the characters met and unexpected places.

Some rooms were vividly colored, others were quite plain and empty; some had parties going on with lots of crazy people (one person I ran into twice, like I was time traveling, running up behind them in a corridor and vice versa in the same place later - yet not); some contained people working on various projects or eating dinner or whatever.

When I finally got to Pennsic it was the end of the tunnel, into the daylight, a huge rolling field of tents and cabins and strange burrowing pygmy marmosets like prarie dogs (I've never been to Pennsic but I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as a prarie marmoset :P) In all, fun but completely unrealistic.

Interesting that my mind chose to pin the "trip to Pennsic" label on this, as I've been thinking that finally making this huge event might be fun now that I know enough people likely to be attending. Not sure if it will be feasible anytime soon (not the least reason because I don't know how to camp), but this dream was an interesting remix of the current back of my mind.

There, that got your attention :P

I found this article about lucid dreaming at Sleephacks.com. Some of the material here is good, some is questionable, some is rather overwrought - lucid dreaming is fun but I'd hesitate to recommend it over reality :P I'm also not completely convinced that it can be induced at will, though I admit that what they're calling the NILD technique has coincided with most of my lucid dreaming in the past.

I've always been able to remember at least some of my dreams, including lucid dreams. Most are less interesting for their content than for the rich sensory overload, the "you are there" feeling that is so strong sometimes I'm up for a couple of hours before I realize I'm remembering a dream, not something that actually happened: I'm talking smell, touch, surround sound, full Technicolor in addition to being aware that I'm dreaming. This came in very useful during a nightmare once, when I decided that things were getting out of hand and made everything melt. I've never been able to control what I dream about, but it's nice to be able to control whatever my subconcious throws at me :P

For me lucid dreaming is usually precluded by sleep paralysis an interesting little trip of it's own) - don't know why that is so, but it's been my experience. It doesn't happen often, but the trigger seems to be following a week or more of not enough sleep (5-6 hours a night) with a nice weekend morning where I have time to wake up, read a bit, and drift back off. I'm aware I'm going back to sleep, I feel my limbs stiffen, but my mind remains alert, and then it starts to invent things....

I find this subject interesting because I'm constantly amazed at the inventiveness of the human mind, even at rest, and at the confusion between reality and fantasy that can happen in dream states. And while I don't subscribe to much of the standard "new age" dream symbol interpretations, I do think dreaming is our mind's way of "doing overtime" and sorting things out while our constantly vigilant concious self is resting. IMHO if you're remembering your dreams, it's because you need to for some reason, even if it's only to inject some novelty.

So, anyway.. interesting article, make of it what you will. If you have lucid dreams, have fun with 'em, and if you actually get anything in this FAQ to work, let me know! I'd like to work in some virtual fencing practice :P