Wishing I Had Control In Dreams That I Realize I'm Dreaming In

I thought that I'd open today with a little bit of hilarity that I found in my profile pictures on Facebook. :)

I watched Inception with a friend tonight (great movie, check it out if you haven't already (are you living under a rock?)).

I've spent many a night in fantastical worlds of my own creation and the one skill I would really like to master is lucid dreaming. Which apparently is an incorrect statement according to Wikipedia, which says that lucid dreaming is simply having awareness that one is dreaming. Which I do. All the time! What I really want is the ability to have some sort of control in my dreams.

I'm the type of person to really really really wish that magic and all that jazz was real. It'd be the coolest. I'm convinced that I, of course, would be an awesome mage and that life would just be more exciting if there was this added aspect. So naturally, being able to do these things in my dreams would be nice since any magic that might have ever existed in our world has died ou...disappeared (don't want to say die; could still be out there :/). However, I've never been able to do anything extraordinary. Any time I try to do anything consciously, pesky sleep paralysis seems to kick in. Now that I'm really thinking about this, it makes perfect sense. After all, magic is supposed to be controlled by force of will; you have to be determined enough to manipulate matter or whatever (matter manipulation would seem to only fall under conjuration and I have no idea what kind of magics might really be possible). Anyways, I'd say that anytime I try to control a dream, I am usually playing along with the situation; I guess you could say more of an active observer. Therefore, rather than launching a zombie away with telekinesis or something, I try to run or do something superhuman. In other words, I try to control entirely physical actions. Usually when I try these things, my movements are sluggish or nonexistent and it's like I'm fighting against some trapping field around my body. Sleep paralysis. So I guess the next time I'm lucid dreaming, I best being working out my mind rather than my body and see what happens...

On the subject of dreams and zombies, I'll let you in on a lucid dream I had once. I lived in a house called Strawberry Fields my sophomore year of college and that is where this particular dream took place. There were others holed up in the house with me and we were basically scavenging the surrounding area and just trying to survive. I'm not sure who the others were beyond the fact that I knew that I knew them. Anyways, one day a zombie gets through our defenses and gets in the house (THANK GOD IT WASN'T THE MOAN AND ATTRACT OTHERS TYPE OF ZOMBIE!!! or maybe it was and I woke up before I could find out...) and I am left to deal with the problem. No gun handy? Weak sauce. So instead, I think "I know! Punch it!" Only the worst possible thing happened. The damn zombie caught my hand right in it's teeth! (So never aim a punch at a zombie directly at it's mouth. Suckers can catch!) Of course, this is when others show up and we are able to get rid of the bastard, but now I'm gonna turn. And I wake up when I (or someone else, can't remember) have to take myself out for the good of the gang. (Would totally do it. Actually, probably would have done it back when the zombies showed up. Took a quiz once that said I had like 2% chance of survival. Done.)

Finally, since we are sharing life with each other, (across time too, if you think about it; kind of neat) I want to share something a little more concrete from my day to day. And today is...

SMART ASS!!! I was first introduced to this game by the neighbors across from my parents' house. It's actually pretty fun and a very quick game to learn. There are three main card types: Where am I?, Who am I?, and What am I?. There is also a bonus card type called Hard Ass. On each of the main cards there are 10 clues. The reader gives the clues one at a time until one of the other players correctly identifies the person, place, or thing being described. Catch is, you only get one chance to answer. Whoever gets the answer correct, or if no one answers correctly then the reader, gets to roll the die and move. The Hard Ass cards have bonus questions for those lucky enough to land on a Hard Ass space. There are a few speed bumps along the way, but that's pretty much the gist of it. You play until one player reaches the Ass's ass and wins. So if you can get the chance to play, don't hesitate. Each game moves fairly quickly and it's worthwhile. And educational too if you care about that sort of thing.