First of all, my dreams pretty much never make any sense. When they do make sense, I can still subconsciously tell that they are not quite dreams. I also very rarely can remember the subject of my dreams, unless I write them down. Which I pretty much never do, because I rarely care enough to actually record what is going on in my dreams. Nevertheless, I’m going to write about one of my sleep paralysis experiences, because that is something that I can still remember quite vividly because I had never had it happen before, Now, if you’ve also had sleep paralysis, you would probably remember that it is something that you don’t really forget because of how alarming and jarring it can be. This experience I had happened before I had any clue about what sleep paralysis was, like I had literally never heard of it and had no idea it was something that existed. 

I don’t remember how long ago this was, I don’t remember the context of the day, and I don’t really remember what happened afterwards. I just remember “waking” to a loud ringing noise in my ears, and I tried to turn over. I couldn’t move at all, I could move my eyes around, but that’s all. I tried to speak and couldn’t move my mouth to form words. I couldn’t move my limbs either, though I could still look around the slight darkness of the room. There’s a street light outside of my window at my parents house, so there is pretty much always some form of light coming into the room. I kept trying to call out, or convince my limbs to move, but I couldn’t. My senses were locked into the current situation, and as much as I tried to fight it, the ringing and paralysis of the body did not go away for what felt like forever. I looked to the corner of the room eventually and saw a shadowy figure, something that is apparently common for sleep paralysis. Eventually, I was able to begin regaining control of my limbs and the ringing in my ears stopped. I had to look up what the hell happened, right after it happened. Due to my sleep schedule, I had sleep paralysis a couple more times after that. Most notable after an international flight, where my sleep schedule had been completely reversed. Though by this point, I already knew what was happening and that I could simply move my fingers slightly and eventually I would snap out of it. I don’t believe in the supernatural, so no shadowy figure can convince me to be anything other than one of the many strange things that the human mind is capable of producing while under stress. 

I had so many tattoos, more than the single one that I have on my waking body, midnight sketches of things I don’t quite remember. Most of this dream is shrouded in murky swirls and vague half-imaginings, one image fading into the next, indistinguishable unless actively focused on and sometimes not even then. And now I am getting another tattoo, adding two pirate-themed dioramas to my back and side. I don’t remember the tattooist or the pain of the needle, but the tattoo shop’s room was walled in sand-colored paint. Like dreams tend to do, I was then in a new place with no ready explanation or knowledge of how one scene bled into another. This place I had never seen before, and all of the details are nothing but blurry colors—burgundy, charcoal, mahogany— in the background. My dorm’s RA is managing a booth of dark wood paneling, wine glasses hanging from their bases from the ceiling. He washes a clear mug with a rag in his hands, over and over again, the dim light catching in his cherry-colored curly hair. The tattoo parlor didn’t give me the wrappings I needed to keep the raw flesh protected, so I approached my RA. I ask for the wrappings and he gives them to me for free, though I worry about pricing. But when I ask, he just says that he wants to see my new ink. I don’t want to take my shirt off in front of other people milling about in the periphery of this public space, but it doesn’t matter because I wake up. 

Or maybe the dream shifts again. 

I don’t remember the next bit. 

“Write about a dream you have had. It could be a recurring dream, a vivid dream, or even a dream that you make up. Be sure to describe every detail that you can remember from your dream.”

ds106 Assignments: Dream It…Write It!

So this was a dream I had a few nights ago, or at least, a figment of a dream I had a few nights ago. I tend to dream a lot but have little to no memory of them besides the vague impression that I did indeed dream. It is a strange thing to not remember something, but know—feel—that it happened. But I thought it was very fun to try and describe the strangeness of dreams as it’s not easy, done very often, or much like real life at all. I tried my best to describe the potentially indescribable, or at least the usefulness of the sleep-world when so much of prose is about the wake-world. I definitely had fun and hope if nothing else it was an interesting read. 

One of the many iconic parts of Bob Ross’s Joy Of Painting is his palette. He has very specific colors and knows how to use them in his art to make a cohesive product. Colors are something I wanted to try and focus on in this piece as this dream had a very particular pallet. But I also didn’t want to come out with the boring names of colors, does Bob Ross have boring names for colors? No. He has specific names for each shade and so that is part of what I tried to emulate.

I would say the most prominent dream that I remember is when in 6th grade I had just seen the Hunger Games. So naturally, every person that was in my 6th grade class was in the hunger games arena in my dream with me. Spoiler Alert: I won. But it was down to me and my 6th grade crush and he sacrificed himself. Anyways, That is a dream that has reoccured about once a year since 6th grade, coincidentally after I watch the Hunger Games franchise. Weird right?

Now if I were Bob Ross on the other hand, would I dream about trees? or nature? maybe even colors?

I feel like half of his wisdom may even come from dreams he’s had and that is how he can relate painting to everyday life…..just a food for thought.

One night, I woke up on my side, on the edge of the bed. I felt something behind me, on the other side of the bed. My bed started shaking violently and the “presence” behind me started pushing me off the bed. I felt like I couldn’t move my body no matter how hard I tried. Everything felt heavy. Since I couldn’t move, I shut my eyes. I then felt a hand on my shoulder and it started shaking me and whispering “wake up.” I opened my eyes to see a black shadowy, alien-like figure in front of me. It didn’t have a face. It kept shaking me trying to get me to wake up. I felt confused because wasn’t I already awake? I started to hear a loud buzzing noise in my ears. All of a sudden, my bed stopped shaking, I no longer felt like I was being pushed off the bed, and the alien figure disappeared. There was one final banging noise and then the alien figure just turned to dust and disappeared. I finally could move my body again. I then woke up for real, in a panic, and out of breath.

So I have experienced a few vidid dreams in the past, and usually they were nightmares, but occasionally I will have this amazing dream where I am back in Okinawa, Japan.

It always starts with me on the plane, I wake up from my sleep and tell my sister that I am so surprised I slept the 14 hour flight. Suddenly, we are back on the streets in American Village, and we are heading to the beach. I can smell the saltwater. I tell her that I want to eat sushi and she insists we stop at the grocery store first. I agree because I want to pick up snacks and a coffee. On our way there we run into old friends that used to live on the island with us. They take us back to our old house and so much has changed about the neighborhood, but I can still picture the way it used to be. And at this point I realize I am dreaming and I wake up.

The dream only feels like it lasts a minute but it feels so real.

Dream it…Write it! (2 1/2 stars)

For this assignment it said to recall a dream or make up a dream that you have had and to write about it, explaining what happened within the dream in as much detail as possible. Below is a dream, well nightmare that I used to have when I was younger. I think I stopped having this dream once I reached high school.

The dream starts off during the night with me and my family enjoying family time together watching tv. Then all of a sudden, we hear a loud “crack” or “bang” and the power went out. We are all scared, so we decide to go and hide. But at some point, while we are trying to hide, we see light coming from multiple flashlights through the windows and yelling from outside of the house. In the process of hiding I lose my family and am left to defend myself as we have no idea what is going on outside. I decided to hide up in the attic of the house in this corner that was blocked off by boxes so that it would be hard for them to find me. As the nightmare goes on it always comes to the point where I hear the people enter the house and start destroying things and checking every room. As they start to get closer to the attic door, I am in a panic. I hear the door open and as they are searching, looking to see if anyone is up there, I was just thinking, “Please don’t find me, please don’t find me.” But eventually they find me and that when I wake up. I always hate when I have this dream because I wake up like, “Holy crap, that felt so real.” When I would wake up, I would feel like I was actually there like it had actually happened but then I would realize that it was just a dream. This dream used to occur often but not too often when I was younger, and I have no idea why. I really don’t understand why it would be a reoccurring dream, especially with how terrible of a dream it was. 

1.) Writing Assignment – write about a dream you once had (Secret Agent Theme)

I once had a random dream I was a spy parachuting into the White House in Washington, DC. I obviously did not want to get caught so it was an intense dream. This was a few years ago by the way. The mission or goal that I remember was to capture the president and I also just really wanted to check out the inside of the White House and see the confidential stuff I am not allowed to see. I the use my invisible cloak just like the one in Harry Potter so no one can see me. Police and security officials are everywhere trying to look for the intruder (me) and I am just walking around curiously. I don’t remember much of what I was looking at so bare with me its a dream its hard to remember everything. I then find myself in the Presidents office and take my cloak off. I wanted to capture president Trump but before I even did I was captured randomly then immediately woke up. It’s really fascinating and mysterious where my mind goes when I think about it. Really random dream but as I was looking at what a secret agent dream meant online

I have this recurring dream. It’s The Zombie Dream. And, strangely, it’s not a nightmare. Just a dream that I have every few months. The fine details change (though I can’t remember them, I just know that they are different), but it’s always the zombie apocalypse, I always survive, and I’m never afraid. Sometimes I’m with other people, and they die, but I never do. Even if I’m being chased, I always get away. I’ve been outside, and in different buildings, though never anywhere familiar. I don’t ever know what the vector for the infection is (but I know it’s a disease), and it’s always undead zombies, not rage zombies. And it’s just really not at all upsetting. I’d consider that my subconscious is super self indulgent, except that I’m never killing zombies, just surviving them and not being afraid. i don’t even ever have a weapon.

Honestly, it’s one of the nicer dreams I’ve had.

I rarely dream. It happens so infrequently, I actually sometimes wish to have one! Most of my dreams are really short and confuse me. Sometimes the reason why they confuse me is because they are so realistic, I can’t remember if it didn’t actually happen or not. For example, one time I had a dream where I went downstairs and got the last cookie from the box. That’s all the dream was! I only know it was a dream because there was a cookie left when I woke up that day. However, the dream I am about to talk about was definitely neither short nor realistic.

So far in my life, I have (knock on wood!) only had the flu once, back when I was in 5th grade. I didn’t get out of bed that day, therefore I slept for most of it. That’s when I had this dream. Having it during the flu isn’t why I really remember it. I remember it because it was weird! First of all, it was long-much longer than any of my other dreams. It seemed to go on forever! Perhaps having the flu is why this dream is much longer than any other ones that I have had before. It was also weird because of the content of the dream. It was a random hodgepodge of things.It took place in Colonial America, in terms of clothing and atmosphere, but it featured the ghost of Martha Washington, who didn’t die until after the Revolutionary War ended. Martha Washington was another weird part of it. Her ghost sat in a rocking chair next to George Washington’s bed. Ghost George himself was lying in it. I distinctly remember waking up annoyed at the historic accuracy. Martha Washington, I learned when I had visited Mount Vernon the previous year, never went into his room after he died. Honestly, I think part of the reason why I remember this dream is also because of my annoyance at the historic accuracy!

The rest of the dream was very weird as well. I watched the dream through my own eyes, but I wasn’t actually a character in the story. Instead, the main character that I followed was a girl about my own age. I believe her, and a bunch of other colonial-looking, but apparently also not-colonial, people were trying to follow a mystery. I remember being very confused, not knowing what they were doing either during the dream nor when I woke up. I still don’t know, and considering this is a dream, I don’t think I’ll ever know! The only think I know for certain is that the girl saved a group of kittens. I think I remembered this well because then, and now, I love cats!

This dream was a wild ride for me when I first had it. Clearly, it has stuck with me for 8.5 years, and it still confuses me to this day!

http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/dream-it-write-it/

This week’s assignments are 8+ stars worth of writing assignments. Here’s what I picked:

A Letter To You As A Child (2 1/2 stars)- This is a letter to me at 16 years old. Take advantage of high school. Take advantage of having awesome teachers and friends and mentors around you. Don’t be afraid to ask and be creative, go out of your way to accomplish your goals and or to help your friends. Work harder than everyone around you, it’ll only help you in your future. Don’t give up volleyball and basketball, you’ll miss playing them. Don’t tear yourself apart over failures and criticism. Begin to thicken your skin, take all the criticism you can, then talk through them and learn from them. Don’t punch the dugout just because you don’t feel good enough. Your time and place will come to shine. Take more risks, go out of your way to be bold and brave in your conversations and relationships. Take any help and advice you can get, don’t ever become too arrogant to think otherwise. Soak up time with your parents and don’t argue over little details so much. They’re not important, quality time with parents is. Listen to as much music you can and watch as many classic movies with friends you can. Learn to appreciate time with people more and how to make the most of that time. Figure out a way to remember the good times. Take some more pictures, no matter how annoying it may be in the moment, memories are precious. Take pictures with friends and loved ones. Learn to forgive and love again. Grow in your faith and take it seriously. Don’t make the same mistakes I did, you’re so much stronger than that. Be the best version of yourself you can be, every single day.

Dream It… Write It! (2 1/2 stars)- One time I dreamed that I was spending the night with a friend. Before going to bed, we checked the door to make sure that it was locked. During the dream, I woke up to an intruder breaking into our apartment. My friend who was sleeping on the couch, suddenly got up and did a huge kick flip over the head of the intruder, and was able to hit him in the back of the head with a baseball bat, like a whack-a-mole. Meanwhile, I was fighting off hordes of ninjas who were pouring in through the windows, each wanting a piece of me and my friend. After we had vanquished all of the bad guys, we were left with one final task: defeat the Elder Dragon. We had to accomplish this by lobbing fire extinguishers at him from our roof and then shooting them with flaming arrows, causing them to explode. Pretty effective right?

Changing Fortunes (3 stars)- “It is fortune, not wisdom, that rules man’s life” This fortune is an interesting one. As a spy, much interpretation is required to decipher messages and clues. This clue was part of a mission to track down an international drug lord and bring him in for questioning. Taking his own knowledge and understanding into account, he quickly came up with the conclusion that the only way he would be able to come into contact with the drug lord. He eventually developed the idea to manufacture a great amount of fake cocaine and attempt to sell it for cheap to the drug lord. This ended up getting the spy a meeting with the drug lord, but what he did not expect was that while he thought he was setting up the drug lord for capture, the spy’s partners double crossed him. The drug lord ended up selling off information that he tortured out of the spy… Leading the fortune to still be true. The drug lord, influenced by fortune, outplayed the spy’s attempted wisdom.