Requires Authorization Beforehand

My morning train was delayed and the following explanation was announced to us...

"There will be delays due to an unauthorized pedestrian accident on the tracks."

Unauthorized, indeed.

Dream Journal #7

This is what I wrote at 3am…

I had a child with Emily
I met him went he was 4, we got along
Plus Emily and Jan were ok with it
It was at a party
I went to pee outside and I broke up a fight between two cats, night time
I made a soup that was sprayed on the yard
When I drove back to their place they sprayed it on my car
So then we, three of us, shot arrows at a target
While the entire neighborhood came out to watch

Discussion:
So in this dream I had a child with Emily, without sex, an immaculate conception if you will, I did not raise him nor had I seen him since he was born. Emily and Jan had been raising him without any issues of my abandonment. At this party I hung out with my four year old child, we talked and played around. I had to pee so I went outside with Matt. It was night and in the back yard there was an animal that looked like a raccoon however once it came out of the shadows I realized that it was just a cat. Another cat appeared and the two began to fight. I broke up the fight. Then there was a jump in time, not place. It was morning and I had made a soup which was now being sprayed on the driveway and yard. The soup wasn't coming from a specific place, it just appeared in the shape of a giant umbrella. I was standing under the umbrella-shaped soup spray, not getting wet. I went out in my car and when I came back someone sprayed my car with the same strange umbrella-shaped soup spray. In the front yard we began shooting arrows at a red and yellow target. I guess it was a site to see because the entire neighborhood came out to watch. This dream was far more detailed that I can get into with just words. Everything seemed so vivid and real. It was quite amazing. Oh and apologies to Emily, Jan, and Oliver. No offense was meant by my subconscious. I'm sure I just needed characters to fill my strange story so my mind used people from my real life.

It's all about the journey

"Journeys, like artists, are born and not made. A thousand differing circumstances contribute to them, few of them willed or determined by the will – whatever we may think. They flower spontaneously out of the demands of our natures – and the best of them lead us not only outwards in space, but inwards as well. Travel can be one of the most rewarding forms of introspection…"

-Lawrence Durrell


Tomorrow I start a new phase of my life, a job in midtown Manhattan. World, here I come...

Dropping Acid

This past weekend I was at my family’s house. It was Sunday morning and all four of us (mother, step-father, two sons) were home. My brother was inside practicing the piano and I was outside with my mom working on the pool. My step-dad was also outside trying to fix something. He walked into the cabana and within a few seconds he started screaming, a blood curdling scream (like how I imagined torture victims screaming). My mom and I ran towards the cabana door yelling “What’s wrong?!?!” He stumbled out wiping his face and glasses with his shirt, breathing really hard. He was able to say “Acid… acid on my face… in my mouth…” I sprinted towards the hose spigot and turned it on. My mom grabbed the hose and started running water over his head and in his mouth. By this point my brother was outside. I said “take off your shirt and glasses”. He was breathing hard. “Did you swallow any?” my mom asked (she’s a MD doctor). “I think so, just a little maybe.” I needed to find the bottle to see what the emergency directions recommended. I walked into the cabana and saw I was not prepared to retrieve the bottle. My eyes started burning so I jumped back out. My brother began opening the windows to vent the room. I ran into the house, grabbed a yellow rubber glove and my sandals, ran back, held my breath, and stepped into the cabana. Inside I could see a yellowish liquid all over the back wall and floor. The air burned my eyes and nostrils. I moved fast to the corner, found the white plastic jug on the floor, and brought it outside. It read: Hydrochloric Acid. Damn. The back said flush out with water and if ingested drink water and call 911. My mom was still drenching my step-dad's head and mouth. “It says drink lots of water. Did you get any in your eyes?” “No, I had my glasses on.” “How is your breathing?” “It’s tight.” My mom and I looked at each other both thinking: I hope this doesn’t start an asthma attack. When he had thorough rinsed his head, chest, and mouth out, I said “You should go in with mom and drink two big glasses of water, get your inhaler, and take a shower to clear out your airways.” Soon after he was in the shower my mom called a chemist neighbor. He said that water was the best way to clean up.

My brother got some fans from the house and set them up by the door way. Once the acid vapors had cleared we carried everything with acid splashes out onto the lawn to be washed. My mom hosed everything (floor mats, lawn equipment, gardening tools…) while my brother and I laid out the cleaned stuff on concrete around the pool to dry. Later on, I spayed the cabana floor with water and my brother swept it towards a drain. We left the windows open and the fans on for the rest of the afternoon to make sure the toxic vapors were completely gone.

Luckily, there were only first degree burns on the right side of my step-dad’s face. His mouth, lungs, esophagus, stomach, and eyes were fine. Actually, if he hadn’t been wearing his glasses there would probably be some eye damage. We were all very relieved that there was so little injury.

The acid had an affect on the copper pipes and on only some of the plastics. The copper pipes had a yellowish discoloration and the plastics looked a bit lighter and warped were the acid had been. Interesting.

During dinner we discussed how the accident happened. He had been reaching for the WD-40 next to the bottle of acid and accidentally bumped the bottle which slide off the shelf and dropped onto the floor. There must have been a pressure build up inside the bottle or maybe the lid wasn’t on tight (although it was one of those super-child-proof lids) and when it hit the floor the lid popped off, spraying acid everywhere. Why was there a bottle of hydrochloric acid in the cabana: to clean masonry. Apparently acid is one way to clean grout, stone, and concrete.

In the end everything worked out and only minor injuries were sustained however the situation could have been much worse. And for that, I am grateful.

Dream Journal #6 (guest dream from Matt)

Matt sent me his dream a few days ago. I thought it was awesome enough to post here. Take it away Matt...

You have all the intense & meaningful dreams. For once I have my own. 90% of my dreams I don't remember, the 10% I do remember are generally very mundane and boring (I'm walking around in the woods or I meet a girl i've never seen for lunch then wake up). So here it is...

I'm at a farm in the middle of nowhere. There is a farmer with his hot daughter. I ask the farmer if I can marry his daughter. He says no, but that I can sleep with her if I can cross the bog. [Scene shift] we are in a swamp/bog, it's covered in fog and small islands with dead trees and looks like Yoda's home planet from 'Empire Strikes Back/Return of the Jedi'. I'm on a small island with misty darky bubbling water all around me. The farmer is on one island and his daughter on another. The farmer is still wearing overhalls, no shirt, a straw hat and a pitch fork. He says I can sleep with his daughter if I can cross the bog to her without touching the water. I jump from island to island narrowly missing stepping in the bog. After a while I finally jump to the island she is on and then I wake up.

That sucks man. If it makes you feel any better I also never get the girl at the end either or if I do they turn into an ex-girlfriend and I wake up pissed off. Good luck next time.

NPR Observation

NPR uses music to separate segments. Usually it's just 5 to 10 seconds worth. Interestingly they never play songs or parts of songs that have vocals; it's always instrumental. When I first realized this years ago I found it strange, but now I know it’s because they want the only their voices and words broadcasted. Perhaps voices could be confused with their own or because words are loaded with meaning which would distract from the neutrality NPR seeks for segment separation music. Instrumental music isn't laden with human-ness.

Paradox

During a job interview I was asked the following question:

What is your greatest weakness?

The first thing that popped in my mind was:

Not being able to admit my weaknesses.

Oh Great Paradox! I looked over at the interviewer, saw the lack of humor in their eyes, and forced a generic response. But I could barely come out with one because I was laughing to myself. It reminded me of this lovely paradox:

This sentence is false.

When I first read that I nearly fell off my chair. Never before had I seen such a compact, self-referencing paradox. Even now I get a little jolt in my brain each time I read it.

Ms. Cat (poem)

Ms. Cat
I don't think you like me

Ms. Cat
I don't think we're friends

You'll never let me know this
But I can tell you just pretend

I keep you from the outside
I don't let you chew my shoe

I think you're just using me
To open your canned food

Dream Journal #5

A girl and I were walking down a street covered with about two feet of water. We both were wearing our bathing suits. On the side of the road was a big case with glass doors and a wooden back. I opened the glass door to take a better look. Inside there were little electronic components mounted on the back wood wall, wires connected them together. The device was playing music. Each electronic component had a switch or dial that would alter one part of the music when changed, like the melody or rhythm. We played with it for a while. Afterwards we started swimming in the shallow water. We played around and eventually started talking. She was from Kazakhstan (even had the correct accent) and told me about her country. We walked to her house and entered her backyard from an alleyway.

::wake::