Dream Journal

So lets us begin with a dream I had the other night. We'll see if put down on paper it ends up being as interesting as it feels in my head. As with many of my dreams, it starts ambiguously.

Always as though in the middle of a story, where the protagonist is "Me" but with other details that either get worked out as the dream goes on or already assumed. In this case, the day with the family had been spent at Disney World (but a DW that doesn't really exist). The park was nearly closed and the rest of the fam had already headed back to the campground. I was returning to a previous ride (and new prototype simulator we had ridden earlier) to retrieve my big mug of water (I should point out that when I finally woke up I drank like a fish). Sure enough, it was still sitting at the now darkened ride, with the ice somehow still unmelted (yes I remember these details). At this point I realized that I was kinda behind the scenes and there didn't seem to be anyone around to stop me. So I did something uncharacteristic and snooped around. Before long I came upon a part of Disney that were apparently shooting TV shows and movies. I walked around, being ignored as folks hustled and bustled past me, seemingly unaware of my presence. I don't remember any of the shows...they all seemed like generic Disney Channel mush.

I came upon a movie set. The scene looked like a romantic set up, with a male and female in each other's arms in a passionate embrace. I don't really remember them, but the set...marble floors, big spiral staircase, fancy chandelier. While I stared at the layout, someone cleared their throat behind me. I turned, fearful of being caught where I wasn't supposed to be, and there was a woman. Statuesque, dressed stylishly and professionally. She had shoulder length blonde hair. She looked with a stern look on her pretty face, alternating between glaring at me over her glasses, and looking down at her clipboard. At this point, I would like to say that sometimes in my dreams there is dialogue and sometimes things just happen with an automatic understanding of what is transpiring. In this case, without the actual conversation occurring, I explained how I had come to be there. I apparently did so in a comically bumbling yet charming enough way that she decided to let me stay on the set and watch. She was apparently the producer of the movie. We chatted between takes and soon shooting was done for the night. I somehow managed to ask her to dinner (proof that this is a dream) and she said yes, but warned that her sons were with her. They turned out to both be teen/twenty somethings with rugged good looks that made me more nervous than I already was about the prospect of a date with a successful, intelligent, confident, and attractive woman.

We settled on a BBQ place in Fantasy Land that was themed around the 3 little pigs. Apparently even in dreams I have a sick sense of humor.

The dream then flashes forward. Apparently I had been dating this woman for some time, but the shine is off the apple. I'm stressed because she seems to find constant fault with me but at the same time I feel like she likes keeping me around as a whipping boy. We have just had a date that I felt went really well. She seems in a great mood and has been rather affectionate but she has to return to work for a night shoot, so we get picked up by a studio van. Some of her crew are with us and I have gotten to know them over the course of our relationship. She decides she is in the mood for some PDA and asks me to kiss her. I do, and the kiss quickly moves to hot and heavy. Then, just as suddenly, it becomes passionless. I feel like I am doing all of the work. Something feels off. Suddenly she clears her throat and I realize that the sound doesn't come from her lips. I open my eyes and look and see that I have been kissing her fingers, covered in latex. Somehow she switched part way through...around the time that I felt things change. She is upset, of all things, about the fact that I close my eyes when we kiss. She berates me, telling me that if I really cared, I would keep my eyes open to look at her. She rants a bit and I get a very "last straw" vibe from her. We arrive at the studio and she quickly gets out, giving me a goodbye that has finality to it.

I'm stunned. It seems so out of left field and I begin to get upset at her for not bringing this up sooner. I think about my closed eye kissing...and that part of why I did it was that I have actually had girlfriends feel weird about open eye kissing in that it made them feel weird to be watched. One of the crew tries to comfort me. Surprised that she did that in front of everyone. And kind of giving me the "She's a stone cold b-word" speech. Now the dream takes a turn.

The crewman and I suddenly get grabbed by some producer for another show. We try to explain that we aren't actors, but she shuttles us off to be extras in a scene anyway. The scene takes place around a pool. There are several attractive women around the pool in bathing suits. At this point, my lucid brain thinks that this is the part of the story where I meet someone new to replace they lady that just dumped me. Suddenly there are gunshots and two women fall into the pool. Without thinking I jump into the pool. The first thing I see is a shotgun floating past me. I grab it without thinking. I then look down to see the crewman I was with swimming towards someone. Figuring he has that taken care of I see another body with some blood clouding around her. I grab her and return to the surface. Everyone is congratulating the crewman and I. And the ladies who fell in, despite the blood, seem fine.

Now, rather than my dream go the direction I thought (and thus befriending one of the girls I helped save) I am instead accosted by a security guard. I suddenly realize that my fingerprints are now on the shotgun that the attacker had chucked into the water. From nowhere I produce a taser AND pepper spray, neither of which have any effect. The guard grins at me maniacally...it occurs to me that I have been set up...perhaps by my now ex-girlfriend...

And then I wake up.

My thoughts on tipping

I am generally a good tipper. Unless someone sucks, I am always at least 15% if not 20%. Now, certain things I don't understand why we tip...like bellmen. I mean, it's not like they carry the bags any differently than I would. And I don't know why we don't tip other jobs. Like some retail person who gives great service.

But recently, as I have been frequenting Waffle House, I decided to change how I thought about the ammount of a tip. See, if I go to Outback and get good service, I will be giving that person about 4 bucks for just myself. But if I go to Waffle House and get the same level of service, and I stick to my 20%, they may get a buck or possibly 2. So half as much for the same level of service. And if I went to someplace really snazzy, the tip could be as much as 10 bucks. But that doesn't mean the service was 5x better than my Waffle House girl.

So, I have been tipping based solely on service, not a %. I guess it's lucky for expensive places that I don't eat at those places. Because they won't get as much. I can tell you this, the ladies at the House, and the dude that delivers my pizza LOVE this new tipping system. I generally get my pizza in record time now.

Sorry Folks...John Galt you ain't.

So, John Galt, or Going Galt, has been popping up a lot lately. I myself have only recently learned of him. I should know who he is from back 17 years ago, when I was supposed to read Atlas Shrugged for a philosophy class. I couldn't get past chapter one. But I DID learn of him more recently, thanks to a video game: Bioshock.

In Bioshock, a brilliant industrialist builds a city under the sea and takes all of the world's most brilliant people there with him. The rule of the city is pure capitalism. To the point that NOTHING is free. Including the air. Everything has a price and you only get out what you put in. Of course in the game, everything collapses. Pure selfishness also breeds violence. Why spend a bunch of money when I can just TAKE what I want?

The game is HEAVILY based on Ann Ryand's novel, Atlas Shrugged. Still haven't read it. But from what I have gathered, basically all of the worlds biggest figures in business start disappearing. As a result, the world collapses. All because this guy, Galt, essentially organizes a strike. A strike of the producers and creators. All that is left are those that basically used those people. Most of us, as it were. These captains of industry were tired of being labeled villains and evil. So, as Galt puts it, they are no longer going to subject you to their evil. They left. And now no one is building anything new or running anything well. Collapse.

So, you have the novel saying the greed is what makes mankind grow. Then you have the game saying that greed causes decadence. And, right now, you have people (largely Republicans) evoking Galt's name against what the Democrats are doing.

Now, in the book, the Dems (and quite a few Reps, actually) effectively are the people that get left behind. They are the people whose existence is largely dependant on the 'successful'. And, honestly, there IS a layer of truth to this. My job exists (and many of yours) because someone else had the foresight and resources to start my company. They were good enough at what they do to grow this place up enough that they needed an IT guy. Here I am. I have no illusions about what I am. Without OTHER creators, I starve. Galt would not have me. Or if he did, it would only be to have someone that facilitated things for him.

The Reps have started evoking Galt. This is actually funny. Galt would have not taken many of them either. For one thing, the GOP is very socially Conservative. They are imposing morality. Galt was VERY against this. He believed that religion and the morality that surrounded it was false, and largely what caused the problems in the first place. Secondly, John Galt would be insulted that these guys are claiming to be "Going Galt". Because Galt DID something. He looked at a world that hated him (look at the wealth envy we have right now) and said 'Really? Well, I don't have to put up with that." So he took his toys and left. Problem is...people that blame the wealthy and successful don't realize that if the wealthy all left this country would die. Because the wealthy pay the VAST majority of the taxes. Forty some odd % of folks here don't even PAY taxes. Galt was willing to watch the world burn so that the over abundance of useless people and complainers or just people who don't appreciate things would be wiped out or at least learn a lesson. But the Reps aren't REALLY doing anything. They are basically pouting. And the ones pouting...Rush? Beck? If those people disappeared tomorrow the world would move on just fine.

Thing is...Galt wasn't a Rep or Dem. At best he was a Libertarian. He beleived it was a person's own responsibility to decide if they lived or died. That selfish rich guy has every moral right to be selfish. And that rich guy also has the right to donate his money to charity (yes folks, Rich people have been giving away billions of dollars of their own free will, forever). But he hated the idea that one man could force another go give away their hard earned resources by threat of government (which is what the Dems want economically speaking). He also hated that the government could tell a man what to do or how to live or think on a moral level (which is what the Reps want on a social level).

Personally I support the ideal behind Galt. I don't know that the outcome of the books is right. At the time it was written more companies were being run by the guy who started them. It was their brilliance (whether that be from creativity, cunning, charisma, or just hard work) that made the company what it was. Many of our mammoth companies now simply have the reigns handed over to some CEO type. For some, it is hard to tell what would happen if their CEO (and other higher ups) disappeared. If the entire senior staff of Microsoft left, and took every brilliant programmer at MS with them, Computers wouldn't suddenly shut down. We could keep using (and making) current product with none of their help.

Also, there is no telling how many new people could possibly step up. Some guy with great ideas that just didn't have the drive to surpass some go-getter. But with the go getters gone, he actually rises up. Also, we all know that not every boss is a capable "do-er". As an IT guy, I have worked for plenty of high ranking people who couldn't create a google account even with printed instructions. If THOSE people left to join Galt, they'd probably die. Mind you, Galt would be fine with that, as it prooves that didn't deserve to be there.

In the end, though, as with most things, I think the truth is probably in the middle. The 'best' way is probably that most of us need to realize that people that are rich OFTEN worked their asses off for it. And the rich need to remember that all those little 'poor' people are the ones working in their factories. The thing is, Government will NOT bring this about. All our current system is doing is playing us against each other. Tearing us apart economically and morally. Is it really fair to take money from me and give it to someone else? Can't you just teach your kids about Creationism at home and leave the schools alone?

But neither party wants you to think this way. Because the more you simply take responsibily for your situation and take CONTROL of it, whether it be working harder to get ahead or pull yourself up from a hole or taking social resposibility and donating your extra resources (time, money, goods) to those in need...if people do this of their own volition...they no longer NEED most of the government. Then all of those government powermongers are out of a job. better to keep you riled up, scared, and under their thumb.

Charles used to be in charge...now Sarah totally is!

I used to be a big fan of Charles in Charge back in the day. And I guess I still am. So much so that during our Super Hero RPG campaign I sent the players to an alternate earth. One of the players asked what event did or didn't occur that makes it different from ours (this is what happens in comics. An example would be in Red Son where superman lands in Russia instead of Kansas=Commie Superman). My answer? In that alternate world Charles in Charge continued being produced into the year 2000. It finally ended when Willy Ames (Buddy)was elected president. That Earth was then dubbed 'Earth CnC' (a joke on Earth C from DC comics).

Now, around the time when they changed the family out and brought in the Powells was around the time that girls started to be a bigger factor in my life aside from being annoying. Enter Charles in Charge; a show I regularly watched and it had two girls who were around my age. First you have Jamie, played by Nichole Eggert. She was the 'popular' one. And thanks to Baywatch, we all know that she turned out to be pretty hot. And then you had Sarah, played by Josie Davis. She was the bookworm and the quiet non-popular one.

Now, as someone who has always had an active imagination, I have always placed myself or a character I created into shows I like. In my head I have a character that is a member of the Watch from Discworld. For the show 'Chuck' I created a character whom is an assassin who happens to also be a long time online gaming friend of Chuck's. I have actually started a story where I inserted my character Jester into the JLU cartoon. It's just something I do.

So, at the time I actually would put myself (not a created character) in the show. And despite Jamie supposedly being the hot one, I always ended up liking Sarah. I would work in little scenarios where we dated and other sad things. She was the cute one to me. For one, she was taller. I like taller. Second, she was the smart one. Smart is a very underrated trait for women. Most models lose a great deal of appeal to me once they actually speak. Most of all, she seemed approachable. Jamie would never give a guy like me the time of day.

At any rate, I had a bit of a crush on her. Nicole Eggert goes on to be a hottie in Baywatch and the movie with the Coreys. And I never heard from my Sarah again.

So, I told you all of that to tell you this: Josie Davis is alive and well and is in fact HOTTER than Nicole Eggert. I submit the following as proof.

Love/Hate Obama

No I didn't vote for the guy. And I don't really agree with most of his political stances. And I think he is a bit green to be running the country. But I have also agreed with some of the things he has said. Or appreciated some statements (like his call out to all religions and non-religious folk). But this 'Stimulus' bill has me pissed.

Not so much that it is being proposed. I mean, I disagree with most of it and I dislike that they are using this bill as a smokescreen to push through a bunch of government spending and non-stimulus related legislation. But that isn't what has me pissed. What has me riled up is how the President is calling out the Reps. for not insta-passing this bill.

Why am I pissed? Because the whole POINT of our system is to make sure we don't just ram legislation through. You know, checks and balances? So I am pissed that the guy leading the country thinks we should just rush legislation (that we will be paying for DECADES to come) without a bit of debate. This isn't a dictatorship Mr. Obama. And not everyone voted for you. Those reps you are calling out DO in fact represent people who think differently than you. It is their JOB to oppose you when you try and do things that don't represent the best interests of their voters.

Yes, a majority of Americans that voted picked you. But oddly enough most Americans DON'T support this bill. As of last week it was down to only 37%. That means that not only do people that didn't vote for you not like it. But so do a good portion of people who do. So quit trying to bully people into passing one of the most important bills this year.

if this is going to be how he does things....tattles on anyone that don't agree with him. Well, we are in for a ride people.

For the Band Nerds!

Yes, I was a 7 year band nerd (2 middle school, 4 high school, 1 College). Mind you, for two of those years in HS I dropped out of band half way, sick of the directors. I think I was a moderately good player. When I would go to band camp I placed ok, chair-wise. Heck, at the UF camp, I placed 3rd out of like 30. Band was probably the best thing about my adolecent years.

Anyway, for years, something has stuck in my craw about band. When you take band as a class, you are automatically expected to play in the marching band. I suppose this may have just been my school, so perhaps other band nerds can correct me. Anyway, this always bugged me. Just because I wanted to play an instrument does NOT mean that I want to march. Or to have every friday night of the entire fall taken up. Or have after school practice either.

I mean, when I took math, I wasn't automatically put in the math club. Taking PE didn't force me on to the track team. But somehow taking band=march. Heck, quite a few of my fellow band mates could play decently, but could NOT march.

Mind you, I loved it. When we did penalty box (a kind of elimination round of marching, were people are 'out' when they mess up) I was generally one of the last men standing(usually along with my buddy Michael). And away games are pretty much where I was able to get around 1st 2nd and 3rd bases. Which reminds me, I really could do with an away game right now.

So it's not that it was a bad thing for me. I guess the principal of it bugs me is all.

Cats and Dogs

A recent teasing of a friend about cats made me start thinking about them. And dogs. Anyone that knows me knows that I prefer dogs. I probably would never own a cat unless I had a SO who had/wanted one. Now, I don't really have a thing against cats. I just don't get them as a pet compared to just about any other non-social pet (by this I mean animals that would prefer to be solitary in nature).

To me, a cat cares little for its 'master' beyond itself. "Free food and shelter? Yeah I'll pal up with this person...WHEN I FEEL LIKE IT." Whereas a dog to me is more like a companion. Someone who wants your attention and affection, whenever it can have it. Someone who will protect you. Someone who actually likes you for you, not just what you can do for them.

Of course, I'm biased. My family (immediate and extended) always had dogs. My friends were dog people. At least until more recently. Then I started making friends with cat people. Weirder still (when it first happened years ago) was that some of these cat people were...men! When I was younger I had always equated men with dogs and women with cats. So much for THAT sterotype.

At any rate, I started trying to think of what traits in common these people had. Gender wasn't it. I could tease some of my cat people guy friends and say masculinity. But that's not really true. I could say upbringing (most likely), as in what they grew up with. But I don't actually know everyone's past like that. And the evil cynic in me wants to say that my cat friends are all too tied up in themselves to want a pet that requires attention and work. But that doesn't stand up at ALL, since I am a lazy sack and I had a dog.

Then, today, I saw a link. Superficial to be sure, but it holds true in my TINY world at the moment. It seems that my dog friends tend to be more conservative. My cat friends are all pretty liberal.

So, if there was actually a link, what would it be? Sghoul Brain GO!

Cat People: They see no problem with having someone with wealth/resources have their hard earned wealth taken and given to people who have done nothing to earn it, don't appreciate it, and may piss on you after it is given to them.

But, I can do this to 'my people' too.

Dog People: Have no qualms about having someone less privledged/powerful as them under their thumb, kissing their butts, and rolling over whenever they are told.

Seriously though...it would be cool to see if any kind of studies have been done about the psychology of chosing a cat or dog. Also, everything here is a generalization. There are cats that come when called, and dogs that ignore their owners.

What do ya'll think?