dream!
the flip side of reality
sunday, april 22, 2007
up the rail, grabbing teak
i'm on a boat, rather large, with a group of people. the water is warm and shallow, and not long after we leave the shore i dive into the water in order to test out a device, or a theory, or just for the pleasure of jumping from a boat into the water. kind of silly; i can't swim as fast as the boat was moving, even in light winds. they swing around to get me, and hauling myself up over the rail feels just like doing in in the supernova, swimming up fast, pushing my momentum through on the rail, and grabbing the teak handrails. in the process, a tether i was connected to SNAPS just like that, and it ends up being a good harmless alarm to us that our safety equipment was not ready to do its job in time of need.
saturday, april 21, 2007
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friday, april 20, 2007
lame meeting prep
I want to buy a small corner of my backyard (looks like the Original Ladytrap - I would be talking to Janice)... a little square of dirt that seems to be unowned. Turns out it is, she just hasn't done anything with it.
Trying to set up a giant phone/video conference. As usual, not a lot of luck on that front. It guys scurry around while Reuben tries to open documents with Open Office, and others are testing printers. It's a madcap scene, and I no longer care. I have a bunch of resumes to share at the meeting; most are online but our illegal workers are handouts... I rethink this plan, not wanting to expose them.
thursday, april 19, 2007
birthday plastics
I get involved in the building industry-- lots to learn!
I'm in a darkish room full of people. Various toilets are spread out throughout this room full of people and tables and food vending machines and a film playing on the wall--no privacy. It's not fun to poo and then walk around to find TP. Some of the toilets are actually electrically heated or air-blowing butt dryers.
(Happy birthday, Simon. Welcome to Chicago for your Underwriters Laboratories class: Plastics: Specifying and Evaluating Materials for Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Applications!)
wednesday, april 18, 2007
lunar action
cat escapes, runs down street.
I'm on the moon, and giant robot machines clear roads and plains from rugged terrain with giant 1000-barrel machine guns. I gotta defend myself from them. It's in the original Ladytrap, Wendy is there.
tuesday, april 17, 2007
the failed dedication and ultimate crumbly demise of the lakeside prishna temple
I'm driving late t night to a college somewhere, or sleeping while another drives. We can think of the next story as my dream in the car...
* * *
This is a story from India. A narrator tells us of the ruins of a city near a lake in the mountains. The inhabitants of this city built, as their last great monument, a giant concrete temple (looked like a condo building from Mexico) called Prishna or something like that. Rather, they began to build it but It collapsed, and from the remains of the seven bodies inside we have some clues to the lifestyle of these people.
These seven people, maybe a family, traveled from their home city to visit the lake and temple. After boating on the lake a bit they went up inside the still-in-construction building, unlucky victims to its collapse.
My family and some friends go to visit this or another lake. We take to a wide black rowboat with a pointy bow. There are seven of us, far too many for the size of the craft. When we set off (with Mom rowing) it's okay, but when the wind and waves pick up I worry that we will swamp the boat and sink it. We make our way (with difficulty) to shore, and by this point there's no point in trying to stay dry (we're all soaked anyway) so I jump in the water (ahhhh, it feels so good. Delightfully warm, too) and go for a large paddleboat. Two friends get on and I paddle us around.
Let I'm up inside the condo/temple in construction and a long-haired monk stands at the edge of a very high wall that leads to the very bottom, maybe twenty stories below. He has been selected by his fellow monks as the martyr, a suicide monk who is to give his life for the good of his order, and maybe for the success of the building. I watch him in mild horror as he says his prayers and prepares to take the leap. But at the last minute he decides not to do it and walks away, in just a little bit of shame.
It's up to you to decide if this seals the crumbly doom of the new temple...
monday, april 16, 2007
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Adam lives in Chicago. I play the drums again.