Bonnieland

April 2002 Dreamlog		KEY: The top entry for each day is dream. Below ----- is real life.
April 30	I was playing an RPG where all of my characters had to find horses and mount for a particular scene. Once my characters were lined up one of the game's animated sequences took over. I was amazed that they had the colors of the horses right, starting with Quicksilver, who was white. The line of horses went down a rocky place into a big valley. We had along some bomb creatures to use as bombs. I reflected on the fate of these creatures. We weren't suppose to mistreat them or anything, because that would be inefficient, but because the creatures were "bombs," they necessarily ended blowing up, which did seem cruel. They looked something like big round hedgehogs with diamond-shaped quills. My brother's '31 Cadillac came up the driveway with a black-haired man in a cap at the wheel. I thought he looked like my character Lino. I took a picture with my digital camera, because I had been telling Donna about my brother and his Cadillac, and I wanted to show her. The Caddy's left rear tire looked a little low; also it was steaming and fizzing all over the driveway. The black-haired man got out, and I saw he was my brother. "So you dyed your hair for the scene?" I asked. Then he took his cap off, and I saw that his hair wasn't dyed after all, and I felt embarrassed. "So are we driving the Caddy down to the golf course?" I asked. I wasn't sure if it was a golf course we were going to; it was the place with the bomb creatures. "No," he said. I decided I'd better get another picture. Then I realized I was up to 14 on my digital camera, which meant I only had a couple shots left. While I was debating whether to take a picture a couple of men with American flags got in the Cadillac. I was sorry I hadn't grabbed the shot when I could without these strangers in it. I heard my uncle's voice, and hoped he would get in for the shot, but he didn't. I tried to take a picture, but suddenly couldn't find the button on my camera. When I finally found it the flash didn't go off. I followed the Caddy as it pulled out, trying to get another picture. It drove along really slowly, joining a parade. There were lots of flags, and a great troop in pale blue army hats. The parade went into an enormous warehouse, and I followed. But I couldn't spot the Cadillac among the fantastic vehicles I saw there, one with a clock face for its grille.
April 29	We were thinking of going for some breakfast, but Jen said she had to have breakfast first and I'd have to wait. It didn't matter to me as I wasn't hungry. Then we were roleplaying an investment game. I was a guy named Mel, a goofy telemarketer type who suddenly wanted to make a big investment. Jen was going to sell him an expensive property. "The voices in my head told me to take the plunge," Mel said. Jen gasped. "You hear voices?" "You know, like that inner voice thing. Don't you ever have internal dialogue?" "Certainly not," said Jen. Then she told me, "I'm not dealing with this psycho. Call the whole thing off." I was a bit shaken, and resolved never to let her know about my inner voices. Then she asked me whether the deal would've fallen through if she hadn't pulled out. "No," I said. "Not unless he'd gotten shot when he was flying about in his bird morph." Jen was a little unhappy about losing the big deal, then.
April 28	We had a hand-held game that gave you building projects. When it went into pause mode the game played a Sylvester and Tweetie cartoon, only in this one the cat and the bird were on the same side against the forces of big government, or something. Deb complained that the game's projects used to dovetail with things going on in real life, so that the building projects were useful, but now it seemed to be going through the same old projects again. She was building another deck, and as I looked at the work in progress I really didn't see that this addition was going to do any good, as it was right over the floor. I said I'd take a look at the game and see if I could program it to be responsive again. Life might be a game, but why does it have to erase your memory when you reset? -------- The graphics project is a bust, I think. I can't seem to make any improvements in the way the character looks, and the costumes I've come up with are pretty lame. So I guess poor Thermeon will have to remain green and splotchy. Maybe I'll go back to the drawing board and try sketching some costumes. Ran my usual course after the rain. Saw a pair of Canada geese with goslings for the first time this year.
April 27	I went to a junkyard and made a small purchase of car parts. As I tried to find the way out of the junkyard I found myself driving along the top of a tall sand dune with apparently no way to get off. The junkyard man waved at me to drive my car over the edge of the dune. Looking about to see where he expected me to go, I spied another dune some distance away. I figured that he meant for me to leap my car over the chasm between the dunes. But since I was already at the top of one dune, stopped, I didn't see how he expected me to get up the necessary momentum. But he kept waving encouragement, so I jammed on the accelerator and made the leap. Unfortunately, my car didn't reach the next dune but crashed in between them, and crumpled up. The junkyard man was amazed by my performance. "I never expected you to take off with such speed, to fly so far! I just expected you to roll down the side of the dune." So my car was wrecked because of a misunderstanding. -------- Ran half my usual course in the park. Saw cormorants, an egret, and people playing cricket. It was such a lovely day I saw on the bench in the back yard reading The Ill-Made Mute. When I finished it, I started Warchild. Last thing I did was start writing the first chapter of the sequel to Starfall.
April 26	I had a paragraph describing Thermeon's irritability as compared to his son's, and I wanted to write it down before it slipped away. The night before I had left my 2002 journal on the secretary beside the bed for just that purpose. I reached for it and looked for the date, but I was way into September and November and everything was already filled with writing. Then I realized that it wasn't the current year's journal, but and old one. I looked at the clutter on the secretary and reached for what I thought was the right journal, but I kept getting old ones, again and again. ------ When I woke the journal was right where I'd left it, and the secretary was quite neat, but by then I'd forgotten the paragraph, of course. I also had some music in my head as I surfaced into waking, but that dissolved too. I find it difficult to preserve the music from my dreams as I don't write music. I have to hum the tunes over and over until I memorize them. I used to have a keyboard connected to a MIDI program so I could pick out the tunes and preserve them as MIDI files. I really should set up the keyboard again, only there's no room for it in the house. My project for today is to improve the Thermeon graphics for my Great War and Duel games. I upgraded Iklo's graphics a couple days ago; then I had trouble testing them, because I couldn't get to the scene in the Great War where he appears. My own game villain laughed derisively at me a couple of times that day. I should've programmed some cheat codes. I made a variant Duel game with Iklo, but the new graphics didn't look so good because they had shaggy edges which showed up against the light background. Finally I got to the scene in the Great War, and found that he looked much better there, because the background is black. I couldn't defeat him, though. He killed me. The scream Ben had recorded for Thermeon's death sounded just fine. Anyhow, I want to upgrade Thermeon's looks too, as I didn't know how to convert from JPEG to GIF when I made his graphics, and his skin's all green and lumpy.
April 25	I took Dice to a big test for cats, which she failed, being frightened off of a precipice in one of the early rounds. She fell several flights down a stairwell in a shoebox. When I went to retrieve her I found her unhurt except for a possibly broken hind foot. So I took her home. It was Dice who had masterminded all of our money-making inventions, including the last one, a flywheel gizmo of some sort that was very popular, although it didn't bring in much due to the current econemic situation. Now she could invent something new. Did Neanderthal women have figures? ------ I did my usual three-mile run in the park, just making it between rain showers.
April 24	I am a disaffected knight who has gone to live with the Indians (Native Americans). When outsiders come to the village I'm told to keep an eye on them. They ask me whether I fled because I had foresworn my vows. I tell them no, I just didn't believe that some men should be bound in service to others (the feudal system).
April 23	1. My Grandma B. appears with flowing black hair to tell me the name of the little flowers that look indigo to your eye but turn violet in photographs. 2. Deb tells me that I must bake the huge model of an ear that's been sitting around. When it's done, all the little pieces have to be properly attached. There are gyroscopes for balance, and another little part called "Satan." I despair of getting all the pieces right. It's like a video game. ----- Saw one turkey in the woods.
April 21	----- I did my first survey of the woods this year and saw spring beauties, garlic mustard, and Jack-in-the-pulpit.