Of Vandals and Zombies...

Dream #1
*** Dreamt August 15-16, 2012 (approximately 3:00am) ***

I was visiting my old work, which was now a total dump! When I worked there before it was an office building full of cubicles and computers. Now it was an old warehouse which had been converted into a machine shop. It was cool to see several of my old co-workers, and they asked if I could help build an old car engine with them. I said I would, though I don't ever remember actually building it. I was a little worried about my car, because due to limited parking, I had double parked behind a friend of mine.

When we were done for the day we headed outside and I saw that the front wheels had been stolen from my car. Upon closer inspection, I realized it wasn't just the tires...my car had been stripped! The doors were gone, the engine was gone, I think the front seats were gone. I'm unsure how I initially only noticed the wheels, but the whole thing was really practically just a frame with back wheels now.

Luckily I had my bicycle (I don't know where this came from, since I'd driven my car there), so I started home. I was somehow talking to people who weren't there as I rode my bike. I asked my buddy Corey if he was still working at that shop and he said he was and that he could come pick me up in the morning if I wanted since I no longer had a car.

I thanked him and my other buddy Eli started fist pumping and stuff because he was so excited that I was going to be working there again.

Then I woke up.

*** ***

Dream #2
*** Dreamt August 15-16, 2012 (approximately 7:00am) ***

I was in my parents' house with at least 4 other people...I don't know who they were. We'd been watching the news about the zombie virus that was spreading and we were getting pretty freaked out. This virus was different than the normal zombie virus, because you could still be a normal functioning human and all of the sudden just get uncontrollable urges to bite people and spread the infection. And that's what we were facing, because at some point we realized that one of the guys there with us had the virus.

Of course, the only treatment for the zombie virus is to kill the host, so me and 2 of the others were planning to kill this guy. He was freaking out, 'cuz he kinda knew we were going to have to kill him, but he wasn't sure, and was crying and panicking and shouting and stuff.

The 2 others told me to bring the infected guy downstairs and they'd join me in a sec to help finish him off, so I brought him down there and he was freaking out and suddenly bent over and bit my arm. For some reason I found myself unable to use my arms and legs so my only recourse was to bend down and bite him back on the crown of his head, and I bit him HARD.

He snapped back, shocked that I'd bitten him, and I looked down and saw that his bite on my arm somehow hadn't broken skin. He paced around the room a few times, shouting about how I'd bitten him WAY harder than he'd bitten me, then he bit me again!! So I bit him back again, and again he got very mad and shocked that I'd bitten him. I grabbed a chair (apparently my arms were now working) and was keeping him at bay like a lion-tamer. I told him to wait there and that I'd be right back.

I ran upstairs to find out what was taking the other 2 guys who were supposed to be helping me kill the zombie, and they were just standing around in the kitchen watching TV. I was SO mad at them. They apologized and said they'd forgot, so we headed back down to kill the zombie guy.

Then I woke up.

*** ***

I know! I haven't posted on here in FOREVER!! A big part of the reason is I haven't been remembering my dreams like I used to, also I'm lazy. But last night I had two crazy dreams, each of which I remembered rather vividly, so I thought I'd make a blog entry for old times sake.

(Not) My Dream Job

Lately I've starting having rather vivid dreams that I remember quite well in the morning, so I'm going to blog them while it lasts.

*** Dreamt Nov 25-26, 2011 ***

I was in a parking garage, getting ready to head up to my dad's office. He was going to try to help me get a job at his company, so I was there wearing a suit and tie, ready to go. I took the elevator up to his floor which was REALLY high-up...I'm not sure how tall, exactly, the building was, but it would probably be considered a sky scraper.

When I got to the right floor, I got off the elevator and found that the interior of the building was EXTREMELY reminiscent of the 4th floor of Old Main at USU. It was rather cramped, with low ceilings and narrow corridors. I went down the hall a ways and found my father's office. I poked my head in and he had a TINY office that was just FULL of stacks of papers. I started feeling claustrophobic and nervous about being there, but he seemed happy enough to see me.

He pulled himself away from his mass of paperwork and started leading me down the hall to someone who'd be over the hiring process. At this point I was feeling extremely anxious about being there, but it didn't last long because it made me nervous enough that I woke up.

*** ***

Updates, Office Hockey, and New Extreme (well kinda) Sports

Wow, it's been quite a while since I've written anything on here!! I guess my daily 90-120 minute commute has made me second think frivilous time consuming activies like blogging. The new job is great, but it, coupled with the commute, has also led me to a much stricter sleep schedule. Most nights I'm in bed by 10:30pm now and up before 7:00am!! I don't know if that EVER happened at BkE!

My crazy schedule hasn't interupted my crazy dreams, however, just my writing about them. Here's a wacky one from a few nights ago...

*** Dreamt December 2-3, 2008 ***
I was playing roller-hockey with all my friends from The Office (yes, that's tv's The Office). In my dream, Jim & I were best friends and I may have actually worked at Dunder Mifflin. Anyway, we were all at this big roller rink, skating and playing hockey. Angela glared at us from the stands. Jim was REALLY good, and was telling me about the league he played on. Pam and I decided that she and I would join an adult beginners hocker league, then the following season we could join Jim's league. It seemed like a great idea, and we were all pretty psyched on it.

Then everything changed. I was the host of a television show the premise of which was that I'd go out and try new, exciting, or wacky extreme sports from around the world. The first sport I did was somewhat resemblant to ice dancing in that you and a partner of the opposite gender were on a moving skate and doing acrobatic dancing. It differed from ice dancing dramatically, however, in that you weren't on ice, you were on a long skateboard. Not only that, but while on the skateboard the guy was wearing one long snow ski, and the girl was wearing huge graphite spheroids on her feet. So this was how it worked: The couple is wearing these things and riding a skateboard together through an obstacle course, meanwhile they're doing acrobatic dancing, but the result of the footwear was that the girl had to jump or be lifted whenever the guy turned so she wouldn't be taken out by the long ski he was wearing and the ball-things on her feet made it so she could actually jump off the board and skid along on the ground and slide over obstacled and stuff. I actually tried it in my dream. It was tough.

Then I was whisked away to China to try another extreme sport: Synchonized Meditation. This sport had been popular in China for thousands of years, but only now the west was learning about it. Here's how it worked: A group of 2 or more people (usually wearing swimming suits) would lather vaseline all over themselves, then all lie in a big group on the backs RIGHT next to each other. Something about the vaseline made their mental connections more fluid. So all these people are lying right next to each other meditating, and suddenly all of them would move in perfect unison. Basically the idea was that you would mediate and become so "one" with the group, that you could sense the movements everyone else was making AS they were making them, so you could also make the movements. I was doing this episode from the Great Wall of China, and there were TONS of groups of slimely people all over the wall slinking around as groups. It was bizarre, but it was my show so I had to give it a go. Me and my host in China got all greased up and lied down side by side, but we were having a tough time getting synched up. We'd both move, but they were different movements. I guess I didn't have the knack for it.

***

What an exhausting week!

When I was a student at SDL I often wished I could work a few more hours each week to give me a little financial boost, but now that I'm working 30-40 hours each week, my GOODNESS!!! I had no idea how exhausting working full time and taking classes could be!!

Happily we're at another Friday, and I've got big plans. First I need to go to school...that'll be shortly...in about a half hour. Then I'll sit in class for 2 hours and try not to sleep. Next I'll meet with my project partner for one of my classes and we'll do homework for about 3 hours, and I'll try not to sleep. But THEN!! Woo!! Pumpkin Carving Party!! What I like to call, PCP! ..aw yeah...that's the good stuff.

I stayed up super late last night because once I'd finished all my homework I, of course, needed to find some ideas of things to carve. After scrouging around a bit I found 3 pictures on my computer that I converted into pumpkin carving patterns...if ya wanna see what they are, you better come carve a pumpkin at our house tonight!!

Tomorrow's also going to be a fun-filled day, as I am going down to West Point for a planning meeting for this year's pumpkin walk (where there's going to be a reporter from one of the local papers). Also tomorrow night my brother, my cousin, my best friend, and me are going to have a Halo 3 party! We're excited. In Halo 3 you can, apparently, have up for 4 people all playing through the story-mode of the game cooperatively...and that's always super fun! I'm a big fan of co-op play.

I can't believe it's already pumpkin carving time!! Such fun! Here's a pumpkin I carved 2 Halloween's ago. It took MUCH longer than I thought it would, and really didn't turn out a cool as I thought it would (considering how much time I spent), but I still thought it was a pretty good one. ...Good enough to share on here, at least. ^^

Persuing Other Opportunities...

The title of this post is the same as the title of the email I just sent to my boss and my current project manager here at SDL. As many of you know, at the end of last week I was offered (and I accepted) a programming position at Dupont Holographics here in Logan. I was so excited for the change, excited to work at a new place, excited to get out of the looming project that's just around the corner here at SDL that I've not been excited for, but as I just wrote and sent that email officially resigning from the lab, I've suddenly (and quite unexpectedly) become quite melancholy about the whole thing.

I've been at SDL my entire college career. It's kinda become my home...it's certainly been much more stable that my living conditions in Logan. While employed at SDL I started my college career, I graduated with my bachelor's, I bought my first car, and I've lived in 4 different houses AND 4 different apartments with a total of 29 different roommates. I've been through a lot while employed at the Lab, and it's kinda sad to see the era come to an end.

But "All good things...", right? In every way that I can see, this is a good move. I am excited for things to come and especially for the opportunity to get out of the "student employee" title that I've held so masterfully for lo these many years. It's been a long, good run, but the call of gainful employment that I've been ignoring since I got my B.S. has finally annoyed me enough to get me to answer. See Kendra...you just gotta keep calling for another year or two, I'll eventually answer the phone.