The Peace Corps Dream

At one time or another I've thought about joining the Peace Corps so this dream didn't come as any sort of surprise. In my dream, I'm in the Peace Corps in Surinam. Everyone speaks Surinamese which is curiously very much like English. New farming equipment is coming in courtesy of Taco Bell and I have to make sure everything goes smoothly. Instead of boating it in, the gear lands on someone's house. Luckily no one dies and no one complains. We decide to piece it together with instructions downloaded from the internet. We are missing many pieces but then we have a magnificent dinner. The end.

The Kinks Dream

I had a dream I was a band member of the Kinks during the 1970s. Sometimes I was Ray Davies and sometimes I was Dave Davies and sometimes I was an anonymous keyboard player (Nicky Hopkins?) who took marching orders from Ray but not Dave. I was never Mick Avory or Pete Quaife. We seemed to be singing "See My Friend" and stuff from Muswell Hillbillies a lot. We were also chimney sweeps and sang and danced like the chimney sweeps in Mary Poppins but the chimney sweeps of Mary Poppins were like a rival gang across town. One day, I was singing a Kinks song in a green field that looked like classic English countryside and it was very windy. Someone held their hand out to me and when I took it, I woke up.

One Week Left!!!

I should've posted this here earlier but it's on the other blog. 11 x 14 C-prints for sale! Make an offer.

Take a Step Back

I don't why people don't. I drove that sign and helped install it. Pictured: Randy and Swain.

Color-coded closets

I read a post about how to color-code your closet and then I had a really bad nightmare about melted crayons and fingerpaints in my closet.

The Chef Dream

I had a dream where I ran a catering truck on a movie set. Now we're getting somewhere. The movie was an indie teen drama and one of the lighting directors was telling me to open a restaurant so I did. The restaurant turned into a movie and it all blurred together after that.

The Dead Dream

I had a dream where most of the dead people I know were in it. I supported the idea that everything matters.

The Dead Dream

I had a dream that was populated by all the dead people I know. Sort of predictable. They all told me that everything is bullshit. I nodded with most with them because I basically did not want a fight. Towards the end of the dream, I said, "Well, that's what you think."

Beleeb It

It's completely true. I have a photo show in July. What should I show?

Update: Really tho: If you're serious and want to help, check out the photobucket gallery. It's all lo-res. I have all that stuff hi-res dude. I think there is room for eight BIG photos.

Happy Spring

It's daffodil time. Wow, that storm was something else. What are your favorite parts of Spring?

The Black Feet Dream

I had a dream where I was on vacation with a large group of people in a wilderness sort of place, ostensibly for a wedding or a reunion of some sort but I never did completely figure out why I was there. The people I was with were mostly strangers but we were there for purposes, one of which was to have fun, and so we made fast friends. It must have been in the 1960s because the motel we were staying in cost only $17 a night. I had a roommate and we split the costs. The dream was unusual in that it spanned several days within the one dream.

Someone organized activities most of which I participated in. One activity was a softball game which I don't remember well. We also had an ultimate frisbee® game which I enjoyed very much because I'm very good at it. Another was the group meals and lending a hand in their preparation. Much to do was made of my being vegetarian (mostly vegan) and it was often a topic of conversation.

Another activity involved a van ride along a lovely creek. At some point, the van got stuck on a rock and we couldn't get it loose. We decided to rest in a shack on an island in the middle of the creek. While we were sitting in the shack admiring its features and construction, someone drove the van on top of the shack and the shack tipped over into the creek and began to fill with water. We got out easily because the creek was so shallow.

One day I decided to go for a walk and ended up walking all day around the creek and there was a lake and I walked around that and went for a swim. When I returned that evening, I noticed my feet were black from sunburn. "Oh no," I thought. Some of the the black washed off under a hose and my feet were beginning to blister. They didn't hurt very much.

At the group meeting that night, one of the leaders asked that I give a presentation to the group and show my blistering feet. I was to warn everyone that they shouldn't walk around all day without putting sunscreen on their feet. When everyone came close around me to inspect my feet, I woke up and noticed that my actual feet were very warm and almost sweaty under the covers.

Sidenote: This dream made me think of my favorite pencils when I was growing up: The Blackfeet Indian Pencil. When I was in second or third grade, my teacher had us selling them to raise funds for the Indians. I liked the pencils so much, I did my state report on Montana, and also wrote a book report about the history of the Blackfeet Indians. As some commenters noted here also, the pencils were great for left-handers. I would imagine there are still a few of these pencils at my parents' house.

Marble Cemetary

Somewhere there's a good gallery of this. I still have a gnarly gash on me leg from climbing the fence.

Just the Photo Innit

The blogger PR was a letdown.

The Inertia Dream

Often I dream that I can't walk or run because my legs won't move. I try to run and I keep leaning forward to run but nothing happens. I end up on the ground thinking about my physicality and gravity. People run up to help me but it's no use. Usually I am not afraid of anything. I am just trying to show that I can walk or run. And then I wake up and my legs are just there horizontal under the covers. I can only imagine how much my legs were twitching in my sleep. Actually I've been told.

One of these days

I want a new camera. Any donors out there? This is Twin Guns.

The Compounded Error on the Interview That Never Happened

I went to a job fair and one of the myriad recruiters there liked me and handed me a flier for a corporate sales job. Most of the real jobs and all of the fake jobs at the job fair were corporate sales jobs. I went home with a few leads for just that sort of job and I need a job so I might as well look into it. Just as I was writing an email to this company thanking them for the 30 second interview, they called me about their orientation meeting and interview the next day. The woman asked me if I had the address and I said hold on a minute, I've got the flier. I read the address there to her and she said ok, do you need directions? Well, no, I can find it.
Google Maps® gave me a pinpoint on the map where the address was and sure enough, I'm there three minutes after the appointed time -- only, the address wasn't there. Indeed, after asking two doormen (always get a second opinion), I was sure the address did not exist. I called the contact number on the flier and instead of giving me the correct address, I was given another intersection to go to, not too far, and some landmarks to look for... only I heard the intersection wrong. I had to call again. Do I really want to work for and with these communication dunderheads?

The Kneecap Dream

I had a dream where I lost both of my kneecaps. Where my knees should have been there were round flatnesses and some redness not unlike what mastectomies must look like although probably not as dramatic. (I am not going to look them up on Google.) I could still walk normally and there was no pain. My dream took a turn towards a coffee party with strangers where we talked about light fixtures. I finally mentioned I had lost my kneecaps and my comrade at the time said I should look for them and she would would help me. We were in the city at first but in a few moments we were out in the country on a dirt road. My companion finally pointed at the ground and there they were: two lumps on the ground like biscuits without enough leavening. They snapped back on like Mr. Potato Head® parts but without the pegs. I looked up to thank my guide and perhaps inquire how she knew where they were but she was gone. I woke up.

Our Founding Fathers Never Said "In God We Trust"

Occasionally I peruse the right-wing blogosphere much like my internet friend, Roy Edroso. Tonight I happened upon Dennis Prager's pap about how the TV cameras would not show the official U.S. motto, "In God We Trust" behind President Obama during his SOTU speech because the "left-wing media" views it as an "anachronism." He then goes on about how the country was "founded to be a God-centered, God-based country with a nondenominational government. And that is what those chiseled words affirm."

"In God We Trust" did not appear on U.S. currency until the 1860s. It was not made a motto until 1956, and I daresay, it probably was not on the wall of Congress until that time. To mention this little peeve and then conflate it with the founding of the country is ludicrous. Some of the founding fathers were Christian, but most of the famous ones, Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin, were atheist or agnostic. The jury is still out on George Washington, as it could be argued, he may have been agnostic privately. They were the ones who made sure that "God" and "Christian" never appeared in the Constitution.

Prager's attempt to rewrite history is what is anachronistic. I should add that because "In God We Trust" is printed and chiseled on all of our cash money and most of us see some of that every day, most of us won't miss not seeing it over Biden's and Boehner's heads.