Goodnight for now

This was fun, but now it's done;
another semester has begun.

And though it seems I've lost my dreams,
I'm lacking the time is all it means.

Lunch lockdown

I snuck out of high school during lunch to eat off campus on a rainy day. When I got back, I found that all the entrances were locked down with Taiwanese style roll-up metal doors - all except thee entrance where they were checking for lunch passes, which I didn't have. So strange... it wasn't like this last time. As I walked over the peak of the main bridge, I saw the silhouette of man at the main entrance looking at me So, I looked for a way to sneak in.

Finally I found a small door that was locked on the outside, but had people going out occasionally. So I stood outside the door and waited for someone to come out. They came out, and I went in before the door closed. Unfortunately the door went into the back of the gym, where I wouldn't be able to leave easily without being noticed. I figured if I was holding my umbrella and wearing my street clothes, walking like I knew what I was doing, the gym teacher might assume I was doing something I was supposed to be doing. I used a secret passageway in the locker room to get to the other side of the gym.

Underground hackers

I'm standing on a ledge, talking to an old Taiwanese man. Suddenly I find that I'm losing my balance, slowly falling backward into the abyss behind me. I reach forward for something to grab, but it's all out of reach. The bricks I'm standing on are breaking away from the wall. The Taiwanese man watches me helplessly as I fall. The wall in front of me is covered in books, lots and lots of stacked books, which I reach out and grab onto when they're closer to me. The stacks of books just collapse and fall, only serving to slow me down. After falling for what seemed like a minute, I finally caught myself, stopping only a meter from the ground.

Looking around, I see that I am very far underground now. I crawl over the books on the ground to a doorway to my right. It's open, and I go in. A man and a woman are playing some sort of poker game with playing cards at a game table. I ask them what they're playing, and they respond with a name that I've never heard of before. "Watch, and you'll pick it up," he says. "Do you want to play next game?" "Sure," I respond. I pick up a news paper near me and glance at it. There's an add that boats about its illegal internet servers that can't be found or shut down by authorities, along with a call for hackers to join the group. Its location is listed as far, far below a catholic church on a street in New York City, which was located above us.

Klondike boat ticket

Walking back to my old BMW in the rain with my friend, I notice a yellow card on the hood. It's a $400 ticket parking in a spot that requires a permit. :( That's not good. I'm not particularly upset, but that's still going to put a good hurt on my finances. I can't afford to have this happen again.

We go off to do a live action role play with Megan, Emily, and a large group of other people. We set off on boats going down a river. Megan is somewhat obnoxious, so Emily ties her to the mast of the boat. She can't get out, but realizes that being tied the boat doesn't put any restrictions on what she can say or sing. So she immediately goes back to her normal self. Eventually we finish, and she's let free. I wasn't on the same boat as her, so in the dressing room, she tells me all about it.

We join the main group of actors. I start searching for my klondike bar in the toy box. I can't find it, but spot a Toblerone bar and reach for it instead. Can't reach. But then the girl behind me yells, "I found it!" She hands it to me. It's cold, but starting to melt. I ask her "妳先要吃一口嗎 (do you want a bite)?" She takes a bite of the corner. I take a bite out of another corner. It is the Most Delicious Thing EVER. My eyes roll up and my legs almost give out from under me. So good. "這個我要冰 (I've got to put this in the freezer)", I tell everyone, but feel bad for just giving one person a bite, when there were lots of other people in the room watching me. "Does anyone else want a bite?" One after another, they all say yes. At the end, not much of the klondike bar is left.

Staying to babysit

Lynette and I were just leaving my 5 story house that I rent out to Taiwanese students. We walked down the flights of concrete stairs that formed triangles on the way down. My house is so trashy looking... all concrete, dirty, un-patched holes in the walls, rotting wooden doors, peeling paint, tenants' names spray painted and crossed out above the doors, etc. A few tenants are standing outside their doors, looking very pretty. Some of them who are part of a team have painted their team name in sparkly blue paint with a stencil above their door. The two young kids I'm babysitting are running around.

We reach the bottom, walk through the dark front room, and push open the rickety screen door, stepping out into the night. The breeze and fresh air are wonderful. We hold each other, not wanting to go. "Maybe I'll just stay here tonight and help you babysit the kids," she says to me. I respond enthusiastically and give her a big hug. "I would love that!" We walk back inside together, happy as can be.

Dream train

Lynette and I are in the subway, except this time the subway is different. Every subway stop leads into to a different dream of mine, some fun, some scary. I look at the map on the wall and see the animated pictures of the different dreams that are playing out at each stop. I consider the possibility of sending her into a scary dream, just for fun, but decide against that. I'm going to let her decide where she wants to go.

Locked up little girl

I'm a cute little girl with wavy blond hair in a light purple dress, around 8 years old. While exploring one day, I touch an object that transports me into a different world where animals and humans can talk. I'm not welcome here. I'm quickly caught by this nasty old lady who locks me inside a room inside her house. It's a sitting room of sorts, located on the side of the house with a gigantic glass pane window. I watch the old lady outside as she prowls the grounds, using a spy glass to look for intruders or other people to capture. A rabbit wearing glasses is by her side, who is also on the lookout.

I decide to find a way to break out. I can't go through the door - it's magically sealed. I feel around the room in case there's a magic spot that will transport me out, like the one that took me into this world in the first place. After searching for several minutes, I touch a spot on the wall that transports me to the other side of the glass window. Now I'm outside, feeling somewhat vulnerable. I try to sneak around the other side of the house, but a black bird sees me and starts squawking like mad. The old lady arrives only seconds later, grabs me by the arm, and slams me back into the room where I was before.

After a few minutes, I decide to try again. I touch the magic spot on the wall and am transported back outside. I'm spotted by a hare walking on its hind legs, who immediately lunges for me. "Oh no," I thought to myself, "not again." However, to my surprise, the hare held me and quietly said, "come with me." He pulled me into the house through the door next to the glass window. "My gosh, what are you doing?!" the hare asked me, then saying "you need to be more careful! Let's get you out of here."

Suddenly several little Taiwanese girls entered the hallway through the same entrance, all wearing the same red school uniform. I immediately hid my head behind a curtain that was hanging over a window looking into the next room. The girls were of course infinitely curious about who this person was hiding behind the curtain. They pulled at the curtain, but I held on tight. I very much did not want to be seen, because they would know who I was and would probably tattle. Several Girls flooded into the opposite room, and I knew they could see my face. The girls on my end finally got the curtain free from my grip, and I buried my face deeper into the corner near the window. I knew they could see me anyway. But for some reason they didn't react. I look in the reflection and see that I seem to have temporarily, for that instance, turned into a tall, thin white guy. Weird. The hare said, "alright girls, clear out," and they each left, one by one.

The hare started discussing with me the escape plan. He used a magic eye to show me around the front of the house. It looked and seemed like we were really out in front of the house, but our bodies were still inside. "There is a ledge out front that you would think you could crawl below and stay out of sight, but with that magic spy glass of hers, she'll see you anyway." He told me a lot, but in the end, he just instructed me just to stay with him. We left. Sneaking and running through this way and that, he led me through a maze of different paths that all seemed a blur to me. At last, we arrived in a small grassy clearing behind the house at a tea table. He instructed me, "here just touch this, and you'll be back home." I put both my hands around the tea kettle, and sure enough, it happened. I was back in my own home, reflecting on what had just happened.

Casting a patronus

I'm a new student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The school isn't quite the same as was described in the books, but still has similar characteristics.

I'm on the top of a tower, having a long conversation with a girl walking around doing errands down in the town below. As long as she stays in sight range, we can hear each other loud and clear. She skips around as she moves like she couldn't be happier. She eventually moves out of range. I can't talk to her anymore, but I still have an important message to tell her! Then it comes to me... I'll use a patronus! I remember from reading Harry Potter's book that they would sometimes get a message from members of the order using a patronus. I decided to give it a try. I tried to remember the things that I had read from when Dumbledore's Army was practicing, and gave it a shot. I pointed my wand forward and yelled expecto patronum! Nothing happened. Hmm, maybe my thought wasn't happy enough. I raked my mind for something happier to think about, but not much came to mind. expecto patronum! Still nothing. I probably said it too fast, was holding my wand wrong, didn't wave it right, or didn't have a happy enough thought. Or all of the above. I adjusted how I held my wand, this time extending my pointer finger down the length of the wand. My wand was weird in that it has a knob... an egg-shaped piece of wood on the end where you hold it. I try several more times. Finally, a wispy blue mist emits from the tip of my wand. -sigh- How frustrating. I realize what a novice I am at magic.

Suddenly someone else's bright blue patronus appears by my side in the shape of an overly-large male human head. The amount of detail is incredible. I can even see the whiskers on his face. "You can't speak for yourself, can you," I ask it. It jerks back for a moment, as if thinking, and then changes into the form of a female professor. In the professor's voice and words, the patronus explains to me how it can only relay messages that have been previously been uttered. Oh, so thats why you can use it to send messages... it can repeat what you tell it.

I keep attempting to cast a patronus. Now other students are around too. The center of the marble column to my right vanishes, and I point my wand at the student behind it, which scares her. "那看起來很黑 (that looks really dark)," a voice says from behind me. I turn around to see a Hermione-looking girl behind me. I quickly put my wand down. A tall, thin professor behind me says in his deep voice, "yes, now is the time when all students are choosing to be light or dark." I know that they mean good or evil. I run to look for my best friend. I want him to be on the white side too, like I am.

The girl comes with me, and I continue conversing with her in Chinese. I start noticing that no one is wearing robes, but instead they are wearing sweaters of different colors. Where I had been, everyone had been mostly wearing white or black. I look down at my chest and see that I'm wearing a deep red colored sweater. As we walk out through the wide entrance of the building, I see for the first time several girls wearing sweaters with a mix of black and neon green. We leave the building and come to the top of a ledge. Looking over the rail, I see the next building over has four lines of students entering the building, one line for each sweater color, black, white, green, and blue. The blue line is shortest and is moving the fastest. It's probably lunch time. Instinctively I know that the blue line is mine, and I'm pleased that I won't have to wait so long.

Jenny's birthday

I'm in a gray mist; nothing is visible. Suddenly, a female voice calls out, "Erik!"

I'm at Jenny Jump's birthday party. It's being held in the front room of a nice house. The room is crowded, completely full of people, many of whom we don't know but just came with Jenny's friends. There is food and decoration spread out everywhere. Jenny and I are standing on opposite ends of the room.

We all start singing Happy Birthday to her, and just like always, everyone is horribly off key. The loudest and worst of them all is Miles. His obnoxious singing calls my attention to him, and I notice that he's standing behind Jenny, rubbing up against her. It's obvious that she doesn't like it and is trying to get away, but the crowd is so tight that she can't. Finally a few of her friends notice and give him a few hard shoves. He backs off, but doesn't take the huge grin off his face. The song finally ends, and Jenny is able to break away. When she moves out of the way, I can see that Miles is very aroused. :(

Jenny makes her way over to where I'm standing. We talk for a bit while watching Jenny's mom and her mom's friend bring more and more absolutely delicious looking deserts out. "Hey, this should be great practice for your wedding reception," I tell her. "Lots of people, delicious food. We can invite all these people to come. Well, minus all the ones you don't know," I say with a grin. She smiles. I look over at a cake that Tennyson just dug into. It's so moist that it practically just fell onto his plate as he sliced it. "Wow, that cake looks delicious. I'm going to get some," I tell Jenny as I turn around to take a slice.

Bathroom stall adventures

Sitting on a toilet in a dirty public restroom, I practically fill the whole bowl before I'm finished. While I was sitting, a man kept calling my cell, asking me questions about an upcoming anime convention that I signed up for. He got a bunch of info from me, then hung up. Then he immediately called me back twice, once for my email, and then again for my skype username. After he finished, I saw on my laptop screen that he had installed some windows software on my linux laptop that claims to improve the performance and efficiency of my computer, like by turning off power to the hard drives when they're not in use. haha, yeah right. The icons it uses makes it look like it was written in 1998, and how would windows software know how to do power management on my linux laptop? I leave my stall to find that there are no sinks to wash my hands in. So instead I go to another stall across the room. They're all equipped with hose spigots, so I use that to wash. The hot water that comes out surprises me.

I go home and find my two brothers there. Nathan is working on a project, and he's using a series of papers I wrote during college as a reference. I want to look at the first paper in the series, but he can't find it. I go in his room to look. His room is a mess. I see a second copy of my second paper, but not the one I'm looking for. I notice a copy of LOTR - Fellowship of the Ring lying on the floor with 3 bookmarks in it, two near the end, and one just barely into the book.

Family breakfast @ market

I'm buying veggies in the outdoor market in Taiwan. After buying a few things, I take my bag back to my family's round, wooden table, which is also in the market. It's covered with cereal boxes of every kind, and lots of other snacks. Most of the boxes of the same have been set together, so I take the initiative to distribute things around the table more evenly. My family arrives. Dad tells me, "we have to hurry. We're going to go help another family move soon." I pour a bowl of Cheerios, and we all start to eat. Since there's practically no room on the table, mom moves all the cereal boxes on to the long, wooden desk at the side of the table. John is eating Doritos cereal, and dad says, "you shouldn't eat that every time, John."

Breaking in

Jorge, Chii, and I are in a dark alley behind what looks like an old abandoned building. I excitedly tell them, "here, let me show you how to get in." There's a balcony on the 2nd floor with stairs leading to the ground. There's an outer door on the balocony that is locked, but instead I walk under the balcony and lift myself up through a hole that has broken though the floor. The others follow suit, and we're soon in the building. We then walk through mazes of empty building.

Eventually we find ourselves in a busy church building in Cary. Tons of people crowd the halls, and it's obvious that there is a lot going on. I crack open a door to the main chapel and see a lady in a cream colored dress with blond hair speaking for the baptism that is currently in progress. Jenny, who is out in the hall, starts going on and on, fretting about how the speaker is going to ramble on forever and go over time. We walk down the hall, and into the bathroom, where I show the others how to sneak into the baptismal font through a secret passage way in the ceiling. However, since there is a baptism going on right now, so we can't use it.

Signing the lease

I'm signing for a new apartment in an old apartment complex I used to live. Wayne, my old manager from the pizza place, is the apartment manager. He hands me the lease, and I sign it. After signing the lease, I quickly realize that I don't know anything about this place yet, and that I probably shouldn't have signed for it yet! I hold on to the lease paper and start asking him questions. "What floor is it on this time?" I ask him. "The 10th," he replies. Oh... I was hoping I could be on the 3rd floor again this time, or maybe even the second. I guess that rules out the possibility of being able to use the stairs very often. I haven't even seen this apartment. My dad goes outside and starts pulling my luggage out of the van. There's a green chalk board on the wall that has my monthly rent fee written on it - $650. "Wow, that's $10 more than last time." I justify it by reminding myself of how the prices of everything are going up these days, and it's only $10. The 5 is written poorly and could be mistaken for a 6. I draw over the 5 until it looks like a man's face with spiked hair pointing straight forward, so that it looks like a 5.

Waiting to see Alex

Alex is back in town, so I give him a call and tell him that we're going to head over to his place. Right now I'm at my grandparents' house at the top of the stairs, waiting for another friend to come over, because we're going to go together. Waiting and waiting, so bored... I find a 3-ring binder that is supposed to fit on me some how, but it doesn't quite work. I call Alex and tell him we're going to probably be an hour late, and then he comes over instead.

Germans take over blog

Today I'm writing in my dream blog, but the interface has totally changed. The interface looks like it has digressed 10 years, and is all in German. Very web 1.0 with oldschool forms, tons of radio buttons, and no styling except for a light brown background. Yuck

Paint matching

I'm at the mall with several friends, standing at entrance to a store similar to Target. They're handing out free flowers to everyone who comes into store. Perhaps the occasion is Mother's day, but isn't that already past? I pin it to my shirt with a toothpick, but doesn't stay up very well. Jenny needs me to get paint colors matched, because she's going to paint her apartment. She's given me a baby toy ball with colors to match from it. I split off from the rest of the group and find the paint section.

There are a few people at the counter when I arrive, but apparently they've just finished with whatever they needed and are just waiting now. The lady at the desk looks at me. "I need to get paint in these colors," I say, pointing to the ball. She leaves to the back, and I take a closer look at the colors on the ball. Each color is bright with silvery specks in it, obviously designed to attract a baby's attention. There's a shade of green, yellow, orange, and purple. I wonder how one could stand living in a room with these colors. The lady comes back with a match for the sparkly green, but it's a shade or two too dark. Still pretty good for having only relied on her memory. She heads back into the dimly lit back room, and this time I say, "I'll go back with you and bring this ball." She walks off through rows of shelves, all stacked with cans of paint, and I follow her in. She's a way off in front of me, but I can see that she is now being accompanied by Chii.

"Chii is here, huh?" I think to myself. I keep following at a distance, not quite sure how to react. I call out her name a few times, but she doesn't hear. I follow behind them through several more isles as they look for paint. Chii eventually breaks away from the paint lady and stops at the back counter. I walk up and talk to her. I really don't feel anything special as I see her, other than a little weird. We talk for a little, and then I leave. My sister Jennie is sitting nearby, and I walk up to her. I tell her, "Happy mothers day, or whatever it is today," and hand her my flower after wrapping it in some green paper.

Shark bite

"I heard you got bitten by a shark," I tell my friend Lance, a missionary in Taiwan. Everyone had been making a huge deal about it, but Lance kept saying "oh it was nothing." So, I decide to go and see what it was actually like. I enter his memory in my own body. Suddenly, I'm wading through the water in the ocean near the shore, with the beach at my right. The sea floor is incredibly steep, almost a 45 degree angle. A friend is ahead of me. The water is very clear, and I can see the line to my left where the sand turns purple, covered with seaweed, starfish, and other sea life.

I see the silhouette of a shark not far away from me, so I immediately call out to my friend, "Hey, there are sharks in here! Watch out!" It gets nearer and nearer, and finally latches onto my ankle. It doesn't hurt, but it's definitely attached to me. I move closer to the shore, hoping that if I get in a shallow enough area, it'll just let go. It doesn't work, so I start punching it. It doesn't budge, but I keep hitting it. Finally, I throw myself on the shore and tear my foot out of its mouth.

We're indoors again, and Lance is in front of me. I take a look at where the shark had bitten me. There is a small scratch down below my ankle, and... that was it. "He didn't even break the skin!" I complain. He gives me a look that says, "yes he did," and I take a closer look. Indeed, it was cut, but I respond, "it's not even bleeding! Why is everyone making such a big deal about this?" He replies, "I told you it was nothing."

Duct tape & shaving cream

"Do you want to help me with a prank?" Lynette asks me with a grin on her face.
"Um, sure... what's going on?"
"Well, it involves shaving cream, duct tape, and a door jam."
"Alright, I'm in," I reply, terribly curious about who this prank is going to be on and what exactly I just got myself into.

Biking off a cliff

I'm a missionary again, after having already gone home. Now I'm back in Taiwan for the second time. I'm trying to get to a house of a church member, using the subway to get there. After boarding the train, I review the way I need to get there in my head. I know roughly where their house is and roughly where the subway station I'm heading to is in relation to their house. But then I remember that they told me to get off at a particular subway station, which is in the opposite direction that I'm traveling. I have no idea why they want me to get off there... maybe it connects somehow or I remembered the location wrong. crap. Well, at least my subway card gets charged based where you enter and exit the subway, not which trains you get on or how far you go.

I get off at the next stop and get off the train. Conveniently, the train heading in the opposite direction has just arrived, so I board it. After some time, I realize that I have no idea what stop I need to get off at. I get off at the next stop to ask an attendant where I need to be going. I see a custodian and ask him. He explains that I need to get off at the Kaohsiung main station, and change over to the other subway that is at a higher level in the ground than this one. It has an entrance that is roughly ten minutes by foot away from the Kaohsiung main station.

I finally arrive at the Kaohsiung main station and see my two new companions who are there waiting for me. They have three bikes with them, one for me. I lead the way since I've lived here before and know the ares. I take us on a shortcut that goes through the mountain forest. Riding quickly through the forest path lined with small shacks and houses, I see a very steep hill up ahead that goes straight down for maybe 100 meters. I remember last time I was here, years ago, I rode my bike down this hill safely, so I go over the edge of the hill without even slowing down. I definitely should have slowed down. As my bike leaves the ground, I realize that this hill looks much more like a mountain cliff now, and that even going slowly down that hill would be quite frightening and dangerous. After soaring through the air for several seconds, my bike lands forcefully on the ground. While I should probably be dead on a destroyed bike, instead I landed painlessly on the ground on both wheels, still sitting securely on my bike. I watch my tires slowly deflate. When my companions make it down the cliff, I rotate my tires to let them see. The rubber had melted from the heat and force of the impact.

I remember from when I lived here before that there was a bike shop at the top of the cliff. I go back up the cliff, somehow effortlessly, leaving my companions behind. This is a breach of protocol, but for some reason since this is my second time, I feel like I should be allowed to go off by myself this time.

I arrive at the shack which once was the bike shop. The bike repair man is still there but has posted a sign on his door saying, "Temporarily closed down, if not for good." He's outside doing yard work, so I talk to him and ask, "你可以幫我修這個破掉的輪胎嗎？ (Can you help me fix my flat tire?)" He replies to me in Spanish, saying that he doesn't do this anymore. I reply, "哦, 生意不好嗎？ (oh, was business not going so well?)" After a long pause, I continue, "不然我可以走路到哪裡去修我的輪胎？ (Well then where can I walk to to get my tires fixed?)" I specifically say 走路 (walking), hoping for some pity and that he still has the tools and parts to fix it for me anyway, because I know the nearest place has to be pretty far from us.

Subway corpses

I'm in the Kaohsiung subway station at the Ecological District stop, talking to a Taiwanese girl, trying to explain how the subway's payment system works. It's very complicated and convoluted.

Eventually I leave to the lower level to wait for the train. Downstairs, there are tons of body bags piled up, to be drug onto the train when it arrives. The body bags are completely clear, and the bodies inside are not normal. Each body is the same, in the fetal position, skin very peach colored, fingers not very well defined, almost as if this is an adult-sized embryo that is still forming.