Sunday 27 June 1999

Sleeping into the day is a good source of dreams, and tonight I harvested two. They are both rather silly but were quite vivid. The first was set in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time epic fantasy novels. Most of the main characters were lined up to be photographed (!), but there was a commotion on the right flank where Perrin and Mat were, because a wolf cub was running between their feet and a raven tried to land on Mat's shoulder. That's all I remember, that and Nynaeve yelling. (This doesn't make sense unless you've read the books, but it was sort of funny in the dream.) The other dream, my in-laws got a visit from his father, who was 95 years old. The man seemed very frail, and when I shook his hand, his hand was actually shaking by itself (a very disconcerting feeling). But later, when for some reason there was talk about religion, the fellow got much more alive. From somewhere he produced a thick Bible with, of all thing, a section of music sheets in the middle. And as he took a guitar and started singing some old revival song, he actually seemed revived: His voice was strong and clear and his whole shape seemed years younger. Hey, I just tell it as I saw it. No offense to my atheist readers, which is probably all of you. Though a study mentioned in Psychology Today from an old folks home showed that those who were actively religious lived significantly longer than the others. You'd think it would be the other way around, that they would be motivated to move on to greener pastures, but no. For each year in the old folk's home, there was double the chance of dying if you were an agnostic. I think there should be more research into this, though I can't see what use it should be. Being religious to avoid death sort of defeats the whole idea, doesn't it? Oh, and about the in-laws. As you know (if this isn't your first visit), I am far from married. In fact, I am sort of adjusting to the fact that I will never be. And yes, I knew my in-laws in the dream, and no, I'm not telling here. No offense, but I don't have much sympathy for people who write online diaries of the style: "Oh, I'm sooo [insert major embarassing fact]. Oh, I hope Mom never finds out!" Because if you describe anything like your real life, you WILL be found out. Even if you use code names for yourself and others. It isn't search engines that is the most effective way of locating things on the Net, it is word of mouth. And doing an online journal is much like going to the second nearest town and acting out your most private fantasies on the main street. Sure, chances are that nobody knows you. But you can bet that somebody knows a friend of a relative of somebody who knows. And before you know it, you come home and find color pictures of your antics on your pillow along with a post-it note saying "we have to talk, cuddlycheeks".

Frogs are going extinct at an amazing speed around the world, even in places far from human habitation. One year they are there, the next they are gone. Ponder that, next time you find a frog pond. Of course, there ain't all that many princesses either. ... While idly clicking on ads to support the too generous crosswinds net, I happened on a genuinely useful place. [Edit: Not anymore. New ownership.] Learn2 is a place that gives simple instructions on everyday things, like registering a domain name or starting a barbeque. In short, the things they should have taught you in school instead of the names of dead kings and presidents. Nice.