w00t w00t w00t

waverider37 had a lucid dream.

After weeks of trying I've finally had success. I was driving home, and casually noticed that my tripometer said 441 kilometres, which meant I was nearly out of petrol. (Usually it lasts roughly 400.) I saw a bunch of emergency vehicles outside my neighbours' house, the majority of them SES, but I did see a bunch of girls from my high school on the back of some that looked suspiciously like fire trucks (but weren't), and they were all in their school uniforms except Megan who was in a paramedic uniform.

So I pulled up in my driveway, intending to get on over there and see what was the matter - my neighbours are elderly, and I like them - so I jumped over a puddle - and I floated. I quickly realised "Hang on. This doesn't happen in real life - I must be dreaming!" To convince myself, I jumped straight up, and I jumped high and slow, and landed softly. I tried seeing if I could fly, by jumping up and flapping my arms, but I started to lose speed at the apex of my jump. So no flying for me. However, I immediately put to use my new found skill of jumping high and slow by getting all the tennis balls off the roof, from where I had hit them playing various sports, both real and made-up. Once I was done, I smiled, and did a bit more jumping -

- and then I woke up. Or so I thought. Mum woke me up, asking me hurriedly before she left for Melbourne, whether I had made up my mind about going to Queensland for my holiday this year, and whether I could transfer to a KFC there for the duration of my stay. Angrily (because I had been woken up from my best dream this year) I looked on my computer for the results (why the flaming computer?!?) and I angrily texted her - they had just left - saying "Firstly, I'm not going. Secondly, Ashlee's not coming either" (that's my girlfriend) "Thirdly, I've told you and told you, I can't transfer to the KFC in Queensland." (Which is true.)

And then I woke up, this time for real. (To make sure, I looked at my clock twice.)

Last night brings my tally up to one lucid dream, ever. But it's a motivation, because lack of lucid dreams has been a bit discouraging. However, I'll carry on.

The best things in life are free, as I've found out tonight.

Since 4pm, I have variously eaten two-thirds of a pizza, gone on a 3 mile walk with 45 pounds on my back, gone for a cruise with my girlfriend, climbed a tree in mild weather, watched the moon reveal its bright beauty, played video games and watched DVDs, and drank a frappé.

It's now nearly 1am. For the last hour and a half I've been blogging about my day. Obviously, I'm feeling pretty fucking special. I have spent a grand total of $AU3.95, in cold hard cash. Obviously I've spent more on electricity and petrol, but everything else was basically free. I feel relaxed, at peace with the world. I can forget about my shitful job cooking chicken, and can remember instead a job I'm getting on a farm near here. I can forget about my friends moving to all four corners of the state, and can remember instead all the friends I appreciate now, as they're still here. I can forget that my mouth is dry, and can remember I drank an iced coffee a while ago and there's apple juice and the ingredients for a chocolate float in the fridge.

I'm happy now. Be proud.

Day 6519 | Day 6523 | Day 6525

Well, I made it through the week from hell.  I've barely written any academic papers in the last two years so I'm really out of practice.  Over the last two days I've put in about 12 hours on writing papers, one about the Spanish-American War and the other about the role of women in 18^th Century Chinese Culture.

I've only memorized another half line of The Raven which makes me kind of disappointed. On the other hand I haven't forgotten any of the first half in the last few days so hopefully I've found a good strategy to memorizing it. Epic poetry is one of the oldest forms of literature and I've found out why. Language is so flexible that as long as you have the meter and the plot of the story you can get away with only knowing the nouns and verbs of the poem. All the connecting fluff like adjectives and conjunctions, while important, is quite easy to improvise on the spot. Even then, though, I'm still amazed at the idea that people can memorize entire epics like the Iliad or Gilgamesh.  Maybe I should write a node about it once I'm done.

A bunch of girls I know from the other side of the building invaded my room to watch Pride and Prejudice.  It has Donald Sutherland and Keira Knightly in it so it gets at least two stars by me just for that fact.  I am a diagnosed sufferer of the just friends syndrome but the way I figure it, I get the be the sensitive guy who watches chick flicks.  The conversation over the movie was interesting though; apparantly awkward guys are attractive.  Who knew?  It wasn't a terrible movie though, it just moves a bit slowly.  Sort of like how plate tectonics aren't boring, it just happens slowly.  Very slowly.

I have to wonder about daylogs.  I like writing them even though I know they don't really have any substance.  To be honest I don't really like that they add to my writeup count; it feels like cheating to me.  I simply write these sort of as a review for myself of the last few days and then to share with anyone who's interested.  Almost like a blog though much, much, much less pretentious.

I really hate blogs.  I don't know exactly why but it has something to do with people elevating their egos and opinions, portraying them as facts, and surrounding themselves with sycophantic yes-men.  That's mainly why it rubs me the wrong way that one of my courses requires me to write a weekly blog post.  That and the fact that it makes me feel incredibly hypocritical.  It's like this but a lot less anonymous. . . and graded.

I arrived at my college about two weeks ago, as a freshman. Pursuing a High School ambition, I entered into the conservatory's program in Design Tech. And now I want to leave. I want to leave the conservatory's program for Theatre Tech.

The conservatory aims to prepare me for a professional, lifelong career in Theatre Tech. I am not so ambitious: I wanted to learn only bits and pieces, while trying to figure out what my true major should be. Theatre Tech's is a great place to learn things: art things, carpenter things, electric things, costume things, sound things. Theatre Tech's a great place.

I don't want to live my life sewing curtains or drawing sets, no matter how much I enjoy sewing curtains and drawing sets

I want to help people and the earth. I want to teach impoverished communities, or help restore nature preservations. I only chose my present major because I did not know how to become involved in this things. I only did not seriously consider them, because I did not want to approach my parents, who idealise an immediate college degree for me.

This semester has already been paid for; it is too late to change my major. I want to change my major. I don't want to change my major, I want to take a year off. I want to take a year off, and find out what I want to be doing. I have spent the last year wasting time. Wasting time, when I could have found what I want to do. What do I want to do?

What should I do?