An Interpretation

I know that there are an infinite amount of ways to read into things - dreams in particular - and that that's why astrology seems to work sometimes, but I'm going to try and analyse the dreams I posted about (in terms of symbolism, catalysts, etc).

The first dream about the club and my super-smooth dancing abilities:

The people: Luke was most likely in it because I had worked a 'close' with him earlier that night, however the fact that Carly was in it too is much more intriguing. I've only seen her a handful of times since highschool ended over a year ago, the most recent at the gym, and as I mentioned she doesn't know Luke in real life, so it wasn't because he was there that she was. Which must mean that I associate her with dancing or clubbing. Because I haven't had a conscious desire to see her, and I never had a crush on her for the three years of school we had together. She does dance professionally, I'm now remembering, which makes a whole lot of sense! That I only remembered this information just then is a bit strange. Maybe I should think with my subconscious memory all the time!

My beguiling "completing the triangle statement" is something that I still haven't figured out. Love triangle is the first association which comes to mind, but I love neither Luke nor Carly so we can rule that out. Maybe it was because when I joined them the shape the three of us made was a triangle. But it couldn't be that simple... could it?

The incredible dancing abilities might have sprung from my belief that I actually can dance pretty well, but only when I'm by myself or after consuming a few drinks of a alcoholic/high sugar content nature. But they could also represent a feeling of increased confidence derived from enoying myself and prospering in a new environment (new uni, new uni course). I'm like a beautiful butterfly shimmying out of it's discoball coccoon.

This has gone on for longer than I intended! So I think I might save the second dream's interpretation for another time.

Dream on,

Dale. :)

My Dreams

My memory of last night's dreams is fading quickly so I'll try to get this down as quickly as possible. I think the first one involved me being at some sort of dance club with Luke (who I'd worked with last night) and Carly from highschool who I wasn't ever really that close to. I joined them (despite the fact that in real life they don't know each other) and made some statement like "I'm completing the triangle". I remember because it seemed like such an abstract thing to say, and because they laughed when I said it. Soon after that I abandoned them (I think a song that I really liked came on) and headed straight for the dancefloor, which I proceeded to set on fire - in terms of how good my dancing was, that is! It was as though I were a professional dancer (or a contestant from So You Think You Can Dance) because some of the moves I was doing I didn't even know existed before the dream!

The second main part was completely different - I was with my younger brother Mark and we were looking out to sea. What we saw was rather scary. There was an ominous black cloud, seemingly made up of thousands and thousands of little black flying things. The dream me thought back and remembered hearing about the devastation that some black swarm caused the next town over, so I beckoned to Mark to run back into the underground house/shelter thing that we could access from the beach. But we didn't make it in time. As we got to a playground just before the entrance, the black swarm engulfed us, and despite our best efforts to hold our breath and not let them into our bodies, we failed. They left shortly after and Mark and I wondered if we'd been poisoned or something along those lines. I don't remember exactly if there were any side effects, but that's all that I can recall from that dream. This second dream is very similar to a book by Michael Crichton called "Prey". I'd kind of forgotten about the book, well at least I thought I had. So my dreams brought back to my consciousness the memory of reading that book and how much I enjoyed it. I'll probably go and borrow another Michael Crichton novel soon now.

So those were my two dreams!

Dale.

Thinking Time

Lately I’ve become a night-shift worker. They kind of eased me into it, without me realising, and now all I seem to get are close shifts. “They” are McDonalds, and the result of what they’ve done has led to small changes in my life. I now get a lot more tired and lethargic during the day (I don’t finish until 1-2am) and have the odd siesta to compensate, and also I’ve found that my social life has suffered too, as I often work Friday and Saturday nights.

I don’t really look forward to these late-night shifts, but once I’m there it’s not so bad. Usually there are nice/funny people working with me, and later on in the night when it’s quiet – and I have to sweep, mop, empty bins, wipe tables, etc – I have a lot of time to think. I quite like this time, because I can reflect on things that have been happening in my life. The monotony of my tasks puts me in some kind of zone, where I don’t need to think about what I’m actually doing, it just happens, and this allows me to... get lost in my mind I guess you’d say. Lately I’ve been using this time to think of things that have happened to me that would make good stories or one of these journal entries – like the man on the tram, my friend who’s coming down to visit on Friday, the homeless guy I gave two dollars to, or a holiday I could be going on with somebody awesome. These things tend to make the time go by faster.

The strange thing about it though is that I’m not sure whether I would retreat into my thoughts if I didn’t have the late night shifts in which to do so. I suppose the reason for this could be traced back to my extreme laziness (I could think about things more deeply if I put my mind to it, rather than being forced to because there’s nothing else worth doing), and the induced coma-like state that commerce bored me into last year. Having said that, I realise my mind needs retraining, especially if I’m going to give this writing course my all this year. I’m glad this has dawned upon me, because it’s about time I became more proactive than reactive.

I’m working again tonight and tomorrow night, so there’s a lot more thinking time ahead. I just hope I don’t forget all the interesting/potentially brilliant ideas that come to me!

For my next journal entry I’ll try to do another more creative piece rather than this self-contemplationary (which is now a word) stuff.

Trying to think of a catchy sign-off,

Dale.

So far...

In this journal entry I was going to talk about first impressions of my fellow classmates, but after thinking about it, I decided it wouldn't be the right thing to do. It's too early to pass judgement on people. I would hate to think that people would already have pre-conceived notions of what they think I am like and have classified as me as either uninteresting/friend-worthy two tutes in.

What I will say is that I am very much enjoying this course. Commerce last year... don't get me started. It was the epitome of dullness (looks like I'm starting anyway!). I had practically no motivation because of the course content. However this year I'm finding, already, that I look forward to coming to uni - the lectures interest me, the homework/study isn't a chore - and feel a more overall sense of contentment with everything. Going to work (at McDonald's) even seems less arduous. Now that is something!

Super-duper happy with my decision to change courses at this point in time. Now to get started on that fictional story... Not sure how I'll approach it in terms of style/structure and content (even genre!) but something will come. I'm not worried about that. Let's just hope what does come is good enough.

Finished rambling now!

Dale.

The Battle for Superiority...Through Toothpaste.

I walk into the bathroom and go about readying myself for bed. Part of this routine includes brushing my teeth. I pick up my toothbrush and make to reach for the toothpaste, but stop as the tube appears practically empty. I check the drawer and find that there is a new one, so I place it on the bathroom counter. Suddenly, inexplicably, I start to think about how it always seems to be me who does these changeovers and other chore-type duties. So I leave the new box unopened and use the old tube, just managing to squeeze out a sufficient amount of toothpaste. ‘Let him do it for once’, I thought, referring to my lazy younger brother. And with this decision began a strange type of war that only one of the sides was aware of – a war that I was determined to win.

The battle lasted a lot longer than I expected; apparently I’d underestimated my adversary’s sheer laziness. It wasn’t long before I became confused. That he’d rather squeeze out the tiny amount of toothpaste remaining (which required quite an effort) than simply open the new one and accomplish his goal much more quickly and easily, baffled me. Did he have some kind of aversion to opening new things? Surely not. I knew he didn’t have issues with waste, because frugality was definitely not part of his personality.
Soon I began to think that maybe he was in on this war, too, and that maybe he had been waging battle against me for a long, long time; possibly since birth. Then I thought no – he doesn’t have that kind of foresight or commitment. Or did he? Maybe he was smarter than I had given him credit for and he’d been playing me all along.

Day three drew upon us. It took me about 30 – 40 seconds to retrieve a satisfactory amount of toothpaste in the morning, and I felt that it would be physically impossible to get any more from it. But that night I walked into the bathroom and, glancing anxiously at the sink, saw the still unopened new box of toothpaste lying on the counter. I didn’t get it, and I was starting to grow despondent. I decided to make one last go of it, so I mashed the tube as much as I could, and managed to get something out of it. I brushed my teeth resolutely, and plodded off to bed.

To my sheer delight, the morning of day four brought with it sweet, sweet victory. My calculating brother had finally given in, and although he left the old toothpaste and the new box lying there and didn’t put them in the bin, I didn’t care because I had emerged victorious! It was a good day for me. The war had ended, and even if he didn’t know that he lost (or that he was part of it in the first place), in my mind I had won.

Looking back, I’m not sure if it was worth the effort, but it was just one of those things that your mind creates and you just continue along with unquestioningly. Whether or not my brother learnt anything wasn’t really important to me I don’t think. It was just a strange way of keeping me entertained while I was doing fairly boring, routine things.

* This story and some of my thoughts are part real and part fiction… I’m not that insane!

Rebirth.

So my blogging has come back to life again. "Big whoop", you say. "Dale contradicts himself all the time". But it has come back for a reason ("what do I care?" - well I'll tell you anyway!). I need to write three times a week for one of my units this semester, and blogging is pretty much the perfect way to get that done easily and quickly for me!

Whilst we're on the topic of uni, I've dropped a unit (film & video, it wasn't worth the effort/cost - basically I would have sucked), which means I only have to go on Mondays and Tuesdays now! It's good I tells ya.

Rushing through this quite a bit, but I don't have much time, Lost is starting very soon!

Here's a story I wrote for 'Writing for Professional Practice'. It had to be 50 words (Mine's like 56... don't tell anyone!)

Petrified, a woman ran hurriedly down a dark, shadowy alley. She looked over her shoulder, desperately hoping she'd escaped. She tripped - her heel caught in a drain. It was over, she was done for. Silence. Confused, she looked back towards her displaced shoe. There she saw her terrifying pursuer... Nibbling at some cheese stuck to the bottom of it.

Yes I tried to be funny, and yes I'm aware that it didn't work very well. But it got a laugh or two. At least I thought it did... I actually had a dream about it the night after, in which some really important person declared it was the best story in the class and that he loved it - that was a good dream. :)

That's all for now. You have more of my creative work to look forward to! How excited you must be! "Excited my ass..." - Oi! None of that thanks! :P

Dale.