End of Semester School Dream

****** Dreamt April 22-23, 2008 ******

I was in class in the Geology building on campus. I've had a couple classes in that building, so nothing was particularly striking about that. I'm not sure what class was being taught, but the teacher was Dean Mathias - the guy who's teaching the game development class I'm currently taking. Dean went around the room passing back an assignment, on which I scored "+15". What that meant in my dream, was that this was an on-going assignment where we turn it in, he scores it, gives it back, then we do some more work on it and he scores it again, adding points...this, apparently, would go on several times.

At the end of class he called for the assignment to be turned back in so he could score it again, but I hadn't done anything new on it! I panicked. I rushed up and asked him what were the new things we were supposed to have done on it, and he said we were supposed to have been filling in several answers about how to use Secants and Cosecants as he was lecturing about them during class. I was really worried, 'cuz I hadn't been paying attention in class, so I asked if I could turn it in late. He told me that if I brought it to his house no later than that night, I could still receive full credit. I was SO relieved!!

I then proceeded out of the building, which seemed to lead into the HPER building, and I headed to some class I had there. I think it was supposed to be a theater class, but when I looked in, everybody was doing yoga. I kinda sneaked in and watched for a few minutes, then decided it was too weird and left.

Suddenly it was the next morning and I was going to class when I realized I'd forgotten to bring my assignment to my teacher's house!!! I was stressing big time. I figured he'd probably be out street racing, 'cuz my teacher (in my dream) was a really big car guy. I headed to a neighborhood in Syracuse where a friend of mine used to live and, sure enough, there was a whole ton of tricked-out cars getting ready to do some street racing, but I couldn't find Dean! I asked some people if they knew where he was, or where he lived (something I probably should have found out before I agreed to bring my assignment to his home the night before), but nobody seemed to know. I woke up right about then, quite panicked about needing to bring that assignment to my teacher, I started to get out of bed in a rush when reality set in.

****** ******

I HAVE CREATED PHYSICS!!

After several weeks of plugging away at it, I have created Physics!! And yesterday another member of my group created rain!! ...We feel we're dangerously close to becoming supreme beings.

For the utterly confused, I'm in a Game Development class, and these are components for the game we're working on. It's a physics-based side scroller, and I'm not really sure how fun it'll end up being in the end, but it'll be kinda cool, at least.

The final version of the game doesn't need to be finished until NEXT Friday, but we have a major milestone that NEEDS to be reached by this Friday, so we've been working overtime lately. Yesterday I was up at 4:30am to work on it, I continued working on it until 11:30am when I went to work, I stayed there until a little after 5:00pm when I went home grabbed a bite to eat and headed back up to the school, and I was there until 11:30pm. But right at the end, my physics started fully working, so it was all worth it!! I now have fully working gravity, collisions, and joints...if you'd like a real-world example of these three things in action, simply run into a wall and then go limp. Actually, it'd be difficult for you to observe these if you're the one running...maybe get a friend to do it. Better yet, set up a video camera and record yourself doing the experiement...then send me a copy.

'80s Bash at Harry & David

Here's another dream for the "Whaaa??" category...

**** Dreamt April 14-15 2008 ****

I was at the Harry & David store in Park City, but the store was MUCH larger than it really is. In real life, the store is quite small, but in my dream it was pretty huge and also, a restaurant. For those who may not know, Harry & David is a store that specialized in fruits, nuts, and chocolate-covered fruits & nuts. Yes, it's kindof an odd concept, but if you're ever in the Park City area, bored out of your mind while the women-folk you're with are shopping at the outlet malls, let me recommend swinging by Harry & David...they give free samples!!

ANYWAY, so I was at Harry & David, and there was a big '80s party going on. Everybody was dressed up with huge hair, tons of bracelets, leg warmers, and jackets with far too many zippers on them. The lights were dimmed and there was a projector showing classic '80s music videos. I was having a great time with all of my friends (none of whom I recognized as ACTUAL friends in real life). We were talking about how much fun the party was and how it was JUST like high school, when suddenly I realized, "Wait! This isn't just like High School at all! I wasn't in high school in the '80s...I wasn't even in Jr High in the '80s! And since WHEN has Harry & David been a restaurant?!?"

Very rapidly the acceptance of the ridiculous that seems so natural in dreams faded and I awoke to find Olivia Newton John's "Let's Get Physical" playing on my clock radio. How my radio got tuned to an '80s rock station is beyond me!

******

Interpretations welcome!

"Halt Die Klappe!"

So last night my trying-to-sleep roommate texted me to "Halt Die Klappe!". I, of course, don't speak German, so it seemed like an absurd thing to text me, because if it was instructions of some kind, I sure wasn't going to be able to follow. Luckily another roommate was in the room who claims to know some German, and he told me it meant "Shut up!". I thought surely that can't be right...if anything my roommate would have just said, "be quiet", right? Nope, I looked it up today on multiple sites and all of them interpretted it as a harsh way of telling a German to shut up (several of the interpretations included swear words to define its more precise English meaning).

Now I don't take offense to my arian roomie, because - as stated before - I don't speak German so a harsh phrase in it just sounds like gibberish to me (although I was a tad annoyed that he didn't just open his door and say something, as it was several people being loud). But it got me thinking about curse words. Now language itself is a very odd phenomenon if you think about it...this odd collection of sounds which somehow have meaning to us, but swearing is extra-odd. The concept that certain sound combinations OFFEND us is really kindof mind-boggling. What is it about these words that offend us anyway? It's obviously not the actual meaning behind the word, 'cuz there's a non-swearing way to say the same true meaning behind every curse word I can think of.

Is it bad to swear in another language? I guess it's the same bad-ness that is if you swear when you're by yourself. I've heard it said that the reason it's "bad" to swear is that the offender is exhibiting a loss of self control...but what if you say a swear word NOT in a moment of anger with no malice AND it's in another language...it's completely meaningless to you and your audience...that's not really bad, is it? But then if that's the case is it bad to simply SAY a swear word in your native tounge if you're by yourself (so as not to offend anyone) if you're not saying it in anger and are just saying it for fun? lol. Anyway, just some random thoughts that came from an evening of keeping my poor, sleepy roommate awake. ^^

Drunken Nights With No Hangover!!

This past week I've had 3 (THREE!) nights where I dreamt that I was drunk. It's not a recurring dream per se, as the circumstances change in each dream, but definately a recurring theme. Now not ever having been drunk I don't know what it really feels like, so I don't know how accurate my dreaming representation of it is...basically I just feel really relaxed and kinda dizzy. It was actually kinda nice, lol. Don't worry, I'm not gonna go out and buy a liter of Jack Daniel's or anything...anyway, I think I'd be more of a Scotch man...there's just something sexy about scotch...not sure what it is.

AAAANYWAY...The question in my mind is, 'WHY do I keep having dreams in which I'm inebriated?' Back when I read the "The Outsiders" I had LOTS of dreams in which I smoked, but smoking is a big topic in that book (and EXTREMELY romanticized), so it doesn't surprise me that it was on my mind, but why all these dreams about being drunk is beyond me. My only conclusion is that I had the dream once and it was just a weird random thing, but then I kept thinking about that dream, so I dreamt about it again, and now it's sorting of turning into a self-perpetuating theme of my dreams.

Oh well...I guess I can't complain, they're not "bad" dreams, and I get to experience something that I'll never get to in real life...even if it is only what I imagine it would be like.

Academy Awards Party 2008...er...2007?

Last night was the 80th Annual Academy Awards (which took place in 2008 but award movies that were released in 2007...I think the academy would refer to it as the 2007 Academy Awards, but I think it's safer to just stick with "80th Annual..."), and we had a great party!! If you didn't know about it, sorry. If you did know about it and didn't come, you missed OUT!! Go ahead, feel bad!...I'll wait. All of you people who said "Nah...I don't really care about the Oscars" or "It sounds interesting but I think we'll pass" or other similar responses, you need to talk to those who attended...it was FUN...I'm not gonna throw a lame party...I mean c'mon...it's me!

There were oscar quizzes, ballots so you could vote for the nominees, yum-tastic hamburgers cooked on the grill, and even cookie salad!! ...yeah....you'll have to ask Thad about the cookie salad.

Much like "No Country For Old Men", our roommate Michael was the big winner last night, winning two fabulous prizes; one for taking 1st in one of the oscar quizzes AND one for tying for 1st in the oscar ballots. Other winners included Thad, Jared, & Jennae.

After last night's experience I think next year there'll hopefully be a bit more enthusiasm for my Oscar Party (at least from those in attendance this year), and I guess we'll have to make a special, full ballot (instead of just selections from the "major" categories) for Thad. Here's a big thanks to Michael, Jennie, Thad, Laurie, Jennae, Ben, & Amanda who all had a good time and helped make the party a success! Oh and, again, if you did miss out, make arrangements to swing by and eat some of Thad's Cookie Salad...please.

Betty the Harddrive (2003-2008)

After several years of faithful service, Betty the Hard Drive passed away Thursday night due to complications from Alzheimer's disease. Just a child by human years, Betty recent celebrated her 5th birthday. Betty stuck by her master's side through 8 apartments and 24 roommates. She loved to run, to memorize things and, towards the end of her life, to skip. Last November, Betty became very ill with the onsaught of alzheimer's and we thought we may lose her, however, with the prayers of friends and family, and the help of I.T. consultant S'ven Haderlie, she was able to stay with us these past four months.

Despite her undying loyalty to her master, Jared Garlick, it is believed that Betty was an evil Harddrive, and is more than likely now burning in hell.

Betty the Harddrive is survived by her Motherboard, Betty the Motherboard.