cellphone gun

I was watching a movie based in downtown Palm Beach. A guy had some elaborate scheme to murder an ex-girlfriend using elementary school students. The students each had cellphones that fired bullets when in camera mode.

When she walked down the hallway of the school, the guy fired at her with a cell phone. The bullet did not penetrate her skin, it was so small.

The guy tried to get the kids to fire, but they refused. He started grabbing cellphones and firing, but to no effect. He gave up, and they agreed to go eat dinner at their old favorite restaurant.

Transition: I' m at work, just finishing up a graveyard shift. It was a huge Target with a data entry center attached to it in the back. I found some notes that I wanted to organize into an instruction manual. Howard Stern was there, keying away. He was down on his luck, apparently.

Beach house

I was watching an Andrew Lloyd Webber presentation on TV where they performed two of his plays simultaneously, and the music went together.

I was staying at a beach house. There was some argument about money, and who was allowed to stay there when.

Later, looking out a 2nd story bedroom window, I saw dark clouds and a wide water funnel in the distance. There appeared to be military jets flying out of the funnel.

marshland peanut farming

Brsd Pitt starred in a movie where he was wandering through some swamp land. He came across a peanut farm. The farmer let him cross, provided he did not steal anything.

Pitt ended up stealing something of value and getting chased into the swamp by hired hands.

Transition: Pitt is being interrogated by the farmer. The farmer is talking about his Jung rating.

"You mean the psychiatrist," asked Pitt.

Transition: Pitt is hiding in the swamp water, swimming away quietly while the farm hands searched for him. Pitt made some alligator sounds to scare them off.

Check

I was hanging out with some co-workers on the second story of a brick building in New York City. Someone shot an arrow threw the window, with an envelope attached. It was a check to me for $3,714 -- I had forgotten to collect some rebate from a local auto dealership for purchasing a car. I was grateful and happy for the cash.

I ended up driving through Queens and Harlem, taking pictures. There was this extremely steep hill that you had to shift into 2nd gear and lean forward in order to keep from flipping backwards. I got to the top and made a left ...

... transition -- I'm out of the car and walking on top of the hill. I walked over to a slide -- it was a white, plastic slide. There were sideshow carnival clowns at the bottom of the slide. I took a ladder down, and pointed out that the slide was broken.

Transition -- I'm outside a golf-course in Tamarac, Florida with the co-workers. They want to play a round and then get drunk afterwards. They ask me if I can be the designated driver for the van they're going to rent. I do not commit.

G. showed up, and we hung out.

Dream: Stop

My father's driving the car. My mom's in the backseat, and I'm in the passenger seat.

We're driving up to an intersection. The light is red ... then it turns off. There are dark clouds in the air, so I assume it has something to do with that.

"Okay, power went out," I tell my dad. He keeps moving forward.

"Stop," I say.

The lights come back on, and it's red. "Okay," I say to myself. He slows down.

The lights start flashing yellow. He picks up speed.

"Dad, stop," I say.

He goes into the intersection. Three lanes of traffic, each way. These cars also have a flashing yellow, and they're not stopping either.

"Okay, gun it," I tell him.

We have enough time to get past the first two lanes, but there's a car in the third lane that's speeding up. We won't make it.

My dad stops the car in the middle lane. My mom is yelling. I'm sitting there, watching the traffic rush towards us, looking for a solution.

Dream: Nuclear Hill

I was at a military base with some friends, touring the site. Somehow, someone accidentally activated a countdown sequence for a nuclear weapon to explode.

We climbed the top of a grassy hill. The commander in charge looked at us and said, "This is where it is. It's right below us."

I went ahead and slid down the other side of the grassy hill. The commander was yelling at me when I got to the bottom: "Don't stay there!"

A few of my friends followed suit. We started laying down, throwing sand on top of us.

Transition: we're inside a room at the base of the hill. G. was there now. We hid under a blanket as the explosion went off.

Someone who looked like my friend M.D., but with longer hair, opened the door. There was nothing but bright light outside. I felt the radiation strike the left side of my body. Before he opened it wider, I yelled, "Close it!"

He did.

I looked at G. and said, "Well, we've all been irradiated now." Shook my head.

***

A few minutes later, we were leaving the shelter. The commander had given us the all-clear. There was fine dust particles in the air -- fallout?

G and I hopped in a dark green Jeep with a top and drove through the nearby forest.

The blast must have been a dud, since there was no scorching on the ground, and the trees were all standing.

Dream: Programmable Organic Robots

I dreamt about college students in a world similar to our own, except there were these voice-programmable organic robots. These robots assisted the students.

A football player wanted to sleep with this redhead robot, but his verbal commands caused her to just sleep.

An engineering student seduced another robot that looked like Scully from X-Files, and they ended up getting married.

Happy Birthday, Dad

I saw my dad in a dream this morning. He looked a little different -- his face was fuller, and he had a bigger build, ala Ronald Reagan. We talked in English and Portuguese. He was in a genuinely good mood. We met at some fictional apartment/house I was living at in New York, and then went out for a walk, then a drive. We discussed current events and work.

His birthday is this week.

***

A few weeks ago, Damian wrote about a dream which confirmed how he was in control of the outcome. The dream I had this morning reminded me of that -- for whatever reason, I chose to see my father the way I saw him, AND I recognized him even though he looked slightly different.

I think, in future Dream Seeker tales, I may use this notion of seeing loved ones who have passed away in dreams ... the person looks different, but is still recognizable. Instead of seeing their appearance, you see what they represent.

The First Enneagram Novel

I realized this morning that Damian and I had broken new ground when we wrote this book ... this is the first novel that uses the concepts in the Enneagram as an integral part of the story.

The Animalgram, which is a fictionalized version of the Enneagram, is discovered and used to by Joshua and Nehal to inspire (and trick) the world towards enlightenment.

Anyway, for all you Enneagram fans -- if you want to read a story that acknowledges the existence of the truth we all know and love, please take the time and read our book. You'll be glad you did.

Besides -- if you read that book in public, like at Starbucks, you'll get a lot of stares because of the controversial cover. That's always fun.

4/6/08 dream redux

More from that fantastic dream:

I was hanging out with a guy who used to host an interview show -- a Merv Griffin-type.

Next door was a family of Tibetan Buddhists -- one of the teenage sons has been possessed by something, and is planning on killing me and Merv. This particular part has been a recurring dream for me.

Anyway, we discover that the teenager is possessed by an Alien, and this Alien can transform the teenager from human to Alien form at will.

The Teenager/Alien was determined to get us alone at home at night.

I remember discussing the situation outside, on the street where I grew up ... I explained that I didn't trust the kid. We decided to leave him and go to a party. They Teenager/Alien's brother did the same thing a few moments before, driving off without him.

We went to a celebrity party. There was an old gentleman there that we struck up a conversation with -- he had a silver face and toupee. Maybe it was Destro, accepting an award that night.

I was digitally filming the proceedings. We went to a bedroom. Along the way, the Merv Griffin-type told me we were about to meet a 70's classic pop singer who Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera had copied. We go in; she was laying on the bed, covered by a white sheet, watching T.V -- ala Marilyn Monroe, except she was a red head. Merv interviewed her for a few moments.

Dream vs. reality

I awoke this morning from an adventurous dream (I'll probably get into that in another post) -- part of it dealt with creating a website called slimpicity. The website seemed to offer better search results than Google, easy to use search tools, and even jobs, like connecting bloggers with advertisers.

When I got home from work, I thought I'd see how my dream stood up to reality. This is what I found, brothers and sisters:


That's right, folks -- a weight-loss site!

To quote Ron Simmons: "Damn!"

I tried out slimple, to see if that would yield different results. Well, it did ... I got a spammer disguised as a Google Adsense addict:

Chase

I dreamt I was working for a technology firm in Seattle. I ended up traveling to Moscow, where I met two people from Bolivia, who were working there temporarily. The guy had been there longer than the girl -- she was talking about how winter in Bolivia happens in June and July. I marveled at this, and admired her winter coat that she had just purchased.

I was looking up movie times in Seattle, even though I wasn't there. Suddenly, I was there, at my office. The couple from Moscow were with me. Then, we were eating at a restaurant with some other co-workers. I was holding hands with the Peruvian girl, only as friends.

At another table, a girl turned away, but I recognized her as someone else from the office. I said, "Don't hide from me!" She laughed. Then, she said, "I thought we were dating."

I smiled and said, "Don't say that. Can't you see I'm holding hands?" We all laughed.

Somehow, the topic of me producing a television show came up ... we discussed how tough it was to produce something independently , and how Hollywood was notorious for ripping off good ideas from up and comers.

After discussing this, I ended up getting into some kind of mythical loop -- I'd be on the street. A beat-up Volkswagen van from the 1960's with it's rear squished in to the front would appear, and I would get shot. Every time this would happen, it seemed I was walking along, discussing the television show or movie with friends.

Finally, after a few times of this, I found an abandoned car door and held it up at the precise moment that the van would appear out of nowhere and I would get shot by someone in the van. After this, I ran, and told my friends, who were with me, to scatter.

A big burley, bald wrestler type (looked like Brock Lesnar), appeared out of nowhere and started chasing me.

I was one step ahead of him, but he seemed to be able to follow my scent. I ran into a shopping district ... went through a store, into a back alley that faced a canal, crossed the canal, went into the back of another store, came back across a bridge when the big guy followed me over, ran, ran, ran ... and all because of a TV show.

Story Synopsis: Captain Software vs. The Soul Patrol

Written by:	Damian Hospital
Edited by:	Damian Hospital and Tony Vahl
Date:
Full Story Available:	DailySkew Year Four: Fame/Fraud Matrix, Update #29, Pages 172 - 176

Plot

The story revolves around two people:

• a man named Captain Software -- a genius programmer with zero social skills. He doesn't take care of himself, has a notorious passive/aggressive manner, an explosive temper, and creeps out women in the office with gifts.

• A woman named Alexis, who is a Russian mail-order bride and drug addict. She bilks Captain Software for tens of thousands of dollars before finally flying over to the U.S. to be his bride. She cleans him up, and fornicates with the neighbors while he's at work.

The Soul Patrol kidnap the wife, and wait for Captain Software to act. Instead, he chooses to install World Conquerer IV's expansion pack on his computer, and bitch to a friend via instant message.

The Soul Patrol finally end up knocking on his door, and taking him by force.

In the end, the couple are auctioned off to a rich German businessman. Sean Brown, who rarely attends auctions, observes from the back of the room, glad to witness the fat slob and his wife sold off.

Editors' Comments

TONY SAYS:

"Damian wrote an amazing story here -- it was ahead of its time, with it's descriptions of Captain Software being addicted to a World's of Warcraft type of game, and the slothful nature of a person who sits in front of his computer all day."

Memorable Quotes

"Can you believe this? Someone kidnapped my wife and wants me to pay $200,000 ... it simply is not cost-effective to pay that money. And I don’t even have that money to begin with. So they could keep her. I don’t want to call the police anyway...." -- Captain Software, IM'ing an online friend

“I’m about to take your fat ass down in one panel, bastard!” -- Sean Brown, while capturing an indignant Captain Software

Character Appearances

Captain Software (first)

Alexis Leostov (first)

Sean Brown

Maria-Antonia de Jesus

Eva Reichensteiner

Richard Wright

The Auctioneer

Toy Story sequel -- Only a Dream

"I just had to share this dream my husband had with you, Dace."

"Okay."

***

He was in a movie theater. The previews were playing.

On came this idealistic 1940's style cartoon scene -- field, trees, etc. It looked like old-time animation, except....

All of a sudden, you see the whole Toy Story gang, lined up in a row ala Lord of the Rings or Braveheart, advancing as they rode toy cars and vans. They're being drawn in the 1940's style, except, as they move forward, you realize this is 3D CGI.

Buzz asks Woody to clear a field of dead trees ... Cowboy Woody looks, and then Woody Woodpecker shows up ... he starts clearing trees.

The camera pans behind the advancing line, and you see singing trees in the distance, and birds chirping ... all with that 3D quality. A mix of old and new.

Thene the scene switches to a white-haired female senior citizen on a bear rug, on the edge of the forest, surrounded by toys. She's about to get up and leave, when a doll starts talking to her. It is at this point that the doll morphs into a more modern CGI looking character, as does everything around him.

At this point, it becomes clear that toys are no longer hiding the fact that they can talk, and have gone so far as to take over this place, bossing this senior citizen around. The doll orders the lady to stay on the rug. Then, the rug comes to life, and carries the lady off.

AWOL Baseball Coach Sloth

The Traveller's dream journal

11/3/2002

I dreamt of a murder that happened 30 years ago at a military outpost, near a beach. The soldiers involved, as I recall, went AWOL -- they used SCUBA gear and swam away underwater.


Another dream: a baseball coach befriended me -- I was of high school age.

I was on the team. We had uniforms like the Anaheim Angels. At one point, we sat in a circle while a David Eckstein-look-a-like talked about a local college that only had a bowling sports program. Apparently, our school was small, but we still played .500 baseball or better, year after year.


One more dream: I was helping the Sloth clean up his house and surrounding landscape before his parents returned. The Sloth didn't seem to care ... I tried to explain why he should care.

I remember draining a bathtub filled with clothes. Then I was outside, clearing off a grass pathway that ran up to the black bars of a huge natural park. I kept expecting the parent's car to pull up on the driveway, as I cleaned glass patio tables and piled soggy cardboard neatly.

"Melissa"

---

Written by:	Tony Vahl
Edited by:	Tony Vahl
Date:
Full Story Available:	The Velvet Mask

Plot

Melissa Danworth, a woman on her way to work in New York City, stops to give some money to a homeless man as she enters a subway station. The homeless man turns out to be the Dream Seeker, Dace Senoit, in disguise. He strikes up a conversation, and helps her remember a dream that changes her life.

Later, after work, Melissa decides to stop at her favorite Italian Restaurant, to celebrate what she has learned. The Realtor, disguised as a waiter, offers her the opportunity to get to know a wealthy businessman. After demurring several times, she finally accepts, believing that the earlier discovery was a sign for her to let go of her inhibitions.

The Realtor, after successfully arranging the meeting, gets on his cellphone and brags about his success.

Creators' Comments

TONY SAYS:

"This was originally a synopsis for a Dream Seeker TV show Pilot idea. Damian and I have always envisioned the Dream Seeker as an ongoing HBO-style series.

"I wanted to contrast the Realtor and the Dream Seeker -- how one is pushy and aggressive, and the other leads Melissa to a solution, leaving it up to her to decide how to react."

Memorable Quotes

“Hmph. Thanks, Melissa.” - Dace Senoit

"I don't know if I should thank you, or be scared." - Melissa

"Nothing bad will happen. I guarantee it." - The Realtor

Character Appearances

Dace Senoit

Melissa Danworth

The Realtor

Unnamed gentleman at the bar

Trivia

Tony grew up in Queens, New York. He's quite familiar with Queens Boulevard.

Tony and Damian are both Yankees fans.