Buh

So... I still can't upload my images onto the school's server. I have no earthly idea of what I'm doing wrong, and the thing is due in about 20 minutes. I already submitted it via e-mail, though. I thought that, after five or six hours of tinkering around and getting error messages, I wasn't going to have a breakthrough before midnight. Oh well. I'll talk to my professor soon, so at least he can help me figure out what was going wrong. 

Tomorrow is going to be epic. GALL has planned a live version of Snake in the middle of campus tomorrow. We've been collecting apples for the past few days, and...well, it's gonna be amazing, okay? The GALL rules for Snake are as follows: get apples and don't touch yourself. Squee, I'm excited :D 

I've also got a whole load of work to do tomorrow. 

I showed my Chemistry professor my little "hidden talent" this morning. I accidentally used the back of a lab sheet to write simultaneously with both of my hands--normal and mirrored. He mentioned it to me before class and said that he had a hard time writing backwards. He was shocked when I said that I did it with both hands, so I demonstrated. We played on the whiteboard before class. 

Dinner was very good tonight. I'm still hungry, though. Yay almost-midnight! I'm gonna go shower, maybe get a snack, and then go to bed. Mm-hmm. G'night, all.

Lucidity At Last!

I know I've written about my "dream journal" and my fascination with dreaming, particularly lucid dreaming. I've been working for over a year now to achieve lucidity in my dreams. Finally, for the past two recalled dreams, I've been able to reach a lucid state. 

They were both dreams that involved me being in a situation where I thought that my life was in danger--both times I was being chased. Suddenly, I would think to myself, "I wish this would stop!" and then, "Then why don't I make it stop? I'm dreaming." 

Then I'd be really excited and I'd calm down, and I'd have a strong urge to wake up and open my eyes. After becoming lucid in the first dream, I couldn't control how I woke up. I thought it was exciting that I was able to reach that state, though, so I was happy. 

This morning, I was having a dream that reminded me of a hybrid of "I, Robot" and "I Am Legend." I was part of a small group of people who were roaming around and trying to hide from giant robot things that would storm the area and kill people. They would trick us and chase us down. They came out in the dark and in the day, and we would lock ourselves up. There were a lot of other details in the dream, but it isn't necessary for me to elaborate on them at the moment. 

Eventually, we were in a dark underground cavern. One of the robot things came inside and was chasing us. It had almost caught us when I reached lucidity. I held on for a little bit longer than last time, trying to keep the dream from falling apart around me. The robot and all of the people disappeared, and I was standing in the dark cavern by myself in perfect silence. I looked around, trying to bring my dream back, and then I was standing in a completely black environment. I could still picture the reddish rock walls of the cavern, but I don't think I could keep them. Since I'd lost it and didn't think I'd get it back, I just decided to open my eyes. I wasn't sure if I was still lucid or if I'd come back to reality and was just remembering what I'd dreamed. Now that I think about it, I wish I'd kept my eyes closed and tried to do something besides just standing there. 

I'm absolutely fascinated by this sort of stuff, so I've got myself worked up and all excited about going to sleep again. I think I'm getting better at it each time because I'm realizing what's happening, and maybe I'll be able to go lucid and stay asleep tonight :) 

Oh, that's right. I DID do something productive.

I said I did something productive, and I wasn't lying. I decorated my cereal box with my Sharpie. For a long time. It's Fiberlicious!

I also drew a zebra on the barcode. Filled in all the letters, even the fine print. Traced all the cereal in the bowl. Gave a guy some glasses. Gave a guy a top hat and mustache. Gave a woman a stuck-out tongue and an earring. It was a fiberlicious good time. 

Told you I was productive today.

Whew.

I really need a Vicodin right now, but that's okay. I can explain.

I just got back from the first GALL meeting of the semester. There weren't very many people at all, which was sad. Mike was there, and we painted him. Mrs. McCranie would be so proud--I'm experimenting with lots of new media! Spray paint and wood, tempera and human skin (Or was it acrylic? Either way, it's staying on my poor jacket.)... What's next? We planned a few things, though I didn't share my idea just yet. 

I was riding in the elevator from my Latin class today, and I thought it would be interesting just to tape colorful paper circles to the walls and ceilings. With two people in the elevator, it could probably be done in a single ride. Bathrooms would also be an option, yet they're larger and have higher walls. It would take a bit longer, and it might be awkward  I think the entire Computer Science department covered in red dots--a computer virus--would be fun. That would be really hard to do, though, because the basement where the Computer Science department is located is actually pretty big. 

Being on the floor painting, though, was not good for my hip. Oh well. It was fun. 

This is going to sound really random, but I'm getting good at mixing up a bunch of weird foods and having them come out to taste pretty decent. In the dining hall today, one of the servers asked me if I wanted some pork. I politely declined, and he wanted to make sure. I declined once again, and he asked me if I'm a vegetarian. I nodded, so he offered me some mashed potatoes. I decided to take some mashed potatoes from him, even though I really didn't want them. Then I mixed in some salad dressing, some peas, some carrots, some green beans, and some garbanzo beans. It sounds repulsive, but it wasn't bad at all. I also had a slice of toast slathered with apple butter. I just realized why they weren't serving peanut butter this week. I mean, I've known about the recalls, but I've been eating my peanut butter cereal and my jar of peanut butter. I forgot about the salmonella and chunked down a whole load of the cereal, but I didn't get sick. I've eaten more of my jar peanut butter than I'd like to admit, too. So I'm okay. It just didn't dawn on me that they weren't putting out the peanut butter because of the recall. Seriously, people, I'm not usually that slow.

I also tried some veggie sushi today. It tasted like fish. It was tolerable, though. I liked the rice that was in it. The seaweed paper stuff on the outside just wasn't that good. I should've put some kind of soy sauce on it or something. 

I did other productive things today, I swear. I didn't just paint people and eat. I swear. 

I translated some of the Aeneid for class, and I also translated some Catullus (sight reading, just so you know :) ) for fun. 

I really should do some stuff for my classes tomorrow. I didn't have anything for my seminar class, and I didn't have anything for Chemistry. I GET TO RIDE TOMORROW. I'm excited. Sorry. Not. Did I have something due for CompSci? Not sure. I'll go check. 

I want oatmeal. Or some Gatorade. Maybe both.

Day off.

I came back to school on Sunday because I thought I might try to get some studying done. I did, in fact, read a little bit for my Latin class and get started copying the lines for my interlinear translation. That was about it, though. 

Last night, I went to bed around 11:30 (I know I'm lame.) and was dreaming something really nice. At 2:30-ish, there was a loud banging on the door. I had the room to myself last night because my roommates weren't around (I have no idea where they were.), so I had to get up and answer it. It took me a bit to realize that it was someone banging the crap out of our door, and then it took me a while to get down from the ladder. It was one of our suitemates who had locked herself out of her room and needed to come in through the bathroom. I was really confused, but that just made it even funnier when I woke up this morning and remembered it. 

I walked down to have breakfast this morning, and it was very good. I always love fruit in the morning. Then, I decided to cross the little bridge coming from the dining hall out toward the plaza where the big fountain is located. There's a steep path leading from the end of the bridge down to a little stream, then up the bank to a little bench. I decided to walk down there and sit on the bench for a while. I thought I was going to fall down the path at first, because it was very steep and full of holes. Everything was okay, though, and I spent a lot of time just sitting there listening to the water and birds. I also went out to do some photography, but I didn't really find anything or anyone I wanted to photograph. I worked on some dream analysis and wrote down the previous night's dream. I did some brainstorming for GALL because tomorrow night is going to be a brainstorming session and human canvas thing. I wasted a whole lot of time reading about Improv Everywhere's most recent "mission." 

If you haven't heard of Improv Everywhere, you should Google them. They're an improv group that causes scenes and does social experiments in New York. I think they're hilarious. GALL is basically a small-scale Improv Everywhere. I would love to travel to NY just to participate in one of their events. Maybe one day...

I'm so glad that classes were cancelled for today. I really should do some stuff now, though. I need to start translating before class tomorrow. Tomorrow I only have one class in the middle of the day, so it's almost as good as the whole day off. 

Everything But Chemistry.

I am, almost literally, doing everything except my Chemistry work. I'm eating carrots and typing this blog post. That should be enough for you right there. I was also on the phone with my mom for a while. I'm organizing my desk and trying to think of something to do with a nearly full can of spray paint. I went to the poetry slam and was one of the judges. 

Yeah, that was an experience. 

The whole thing was running late because there were no judges around, so a guy went searching around the entire room looking for a handful of non-poets to do the honors. I think they were really desperate, because I heard Mike say "Get Sam, she's in GALL." and I was thinking "Get me for what?!" 

I didn't think I'd make a good judge, and I told the guy that. Finally, he and Mike (not the Mike whose work I am currently avoiding, by the way) convinced me to do it. It was fun. All I had to do was listen, which I intended to do either way. I just had to add on a little writing and card holding. 

I'd really wanted to attend one of the slams before, but my chemistry labs last semester ended shortly before each one and...well, you're not in the mood for poetry when you get out of a lab at 10PM and feel hungry and unhappy. Now I guess I can go to them more often :)

Seriously, though, I need to study.

Oh, and two other people randomly popped in the room and asked me for CompSci help. I still don't know how they found me. I'm glad to help, though, even though I don't know what I'm doing either. I just happen to have gotten it to work well enough to complete the assignment and turn it in. I needed Stephen's help in office hours today, though. Office hours with Stephen are actually kinda fun, though (at least the most fun office hours I've ever been to, mostly because he's funny), and he was really helpful.

Study time. 

Er, yeah.

A guy just knocked on our door. I answered it, and he asked me if he could ask me a question about computer science. I gladly obliged, trying to explain to him how to save something while working in the VIM tutor. My only question is...how in the world did he know where I live? That creeps me out a little. Oh well. I was glad to help. 

I've really got to get working on my chemistry or I won't be able to go to the poetry thing tonight. Since I really want to go, I'm going to buckle down. No more computer science, no more blogging, no more Facebook, no more eating, no more cleaning, no more Latin... 

Just chemical kinetics. Brilliant...