From: dicksilk@gmail.com   
      
   2020/02/28 Friday:   
      
   Strange wake-up phase this morning.  I thought I heard noises / conversation,   
   as if the TV were already on in the living room, but as I got up and walked   
   down the hallway, the sounds went away, until I came into the living room and   
   everything was    
   relatively silent.  I had the impression I'd been half-in / half-out of the   
   auditory phase of a dream as I made it to the living room.  VERY unusual!  I   
   also had a level 2 (maybe 3) (out of 10) vertigo spin going on, likely due to   
   my brain condition, and    
   as I sat on the throne, noticed a momentary sniffle, as if I had a cold, but   
   it too was gone by the time I'd finished working on my crossword puzzle for   
   the morning.  So now I'm here typing, and there were two or three dreams of   
   interest to report, so    
   here they are:   
      
   I had a dream involving a sort of nemesis from my high school and MTSU days,   
   Dr. Hutcheson, who (IRL, back in the day) seemed most focused on keeping me   
   out of having anything to do with the (mainframe) computer system at MTSU.    
   Our high school *had* a    
   user ID for students at that time, which involved a pair of teletypes, each   
   with its own phone connection (land line) that was used to dial up the MTSU   
   computer using an *acoustic* modem connection ("time sharing system.")  This   
   adversarial type    
   relationship carried on beyond my high school years and into my early   
   collegiate phase.  He seemed the primary obstacle to my ever getting into   
   computers, but in hindsight, it was really more my refusal to butt-kiss plus   
   my inability to work *around* the    
   problem (in a legal manner) that was the actual obstacle.  At any rate, Dr. H.   
   was in this dream, in a very brief flash, in which there were various (more   
   modern) computer components, such as servers, desktops, and the like (PC   
   equipment, from the '90s    
   and newer, rather than the older hard drive (platter & core!) systems from the   
   very early '80s and before.  In the dream, I somehow obtained some equipment,   
   but mind you, this was done as if in a passing thought rather than an act.    
   This was all brought    
   out more clearly in a follow-up dream scene where I was talking to his son (a   
   few years older than myself) but this was still time framed around 1980 (his   
   son was still young.)   
      
   Note:  in real life, I had a passion for playing "Star Trek" on MTSU's   
   computer system, even though they locked it up so that it could only be played   
   during hours when the labs (video terminals) were not available, so I figured   
   out how to get into one    
   lab and play my little heart out.  The 2nd or 3rd night of this, however,   
   there was a stakeout in place, and my friend and I were caught at the lab.    
   Specifically, he was in the hallway waiting for me to get in, and as I exited   
   the lab to let him in,    
   there was a cop holding a gun on my friend who was up against the wall.    
   "Where'd you get the nickle-plated cap pistol?" I asked.   
      
   It turns out that a lab assistant had been pilfering equipment, but that   
   wasn't figured out until *after* they had arrested me for "Trespassing on   
   State Property" — all I ever wanted to do was play Star Trek!  I bring this   
   up because the dream was like    
   an alternate version of all this real-life drama:  Apparently, in the dream,   
   the dreamer had managed to abscond with various pieces of computer equipment   
   (servers and the like.)  There was also a memory of telling Dr. H's son (in   
   the dream) of having    
   made off with various stuff "in the past" so that Son of H was discussing with   
   the dreamer, "You know that unit you told me you got away with?  Turns out it   
   was worth over $5000, which makes it a felony, and the felony carries a   
   10-year statute of    
   limitations, which means you can still be arrested if they catch you with   
   it."  I (personally) found this scenario exceptionally disturbing, and came   
   out of that dream feeling a kind of dread, as if I'd actually committed a   
   crime and was doomed to be    
   punished for it.  It wasn't until well after this dream scene had passed that   
   I realized I'd never taken anything and was absolutely innocent, and this had   
   all been what others typically refer to as a "bad dream."   
      
   Meanwhile, there was this 3rd person type dream where I (the dreamer) was more   
   like a camera perspective, but with a primary interest in the role of the   
   protagonist, a detective of sorts, who had, shall we say, a highly unorthodox   
   method of getting a    
   confession.  Apparently the detective had caught a thief (or some sort of thug   
   / antagonist) and brought him inside a box-type van (such as a moving van)   
   with the rear door wide open (such that the outside was of brighter daylight)   
   and squirted a fluid    
   all over the face of the bad guy.  The bad guy still wasn't confessing, so the   
   detective flicked open a zippo type lighter and lit the guy's head on fire,   
   but it was done calmly, as if "this oughta get the result needed" (although   
   nothing discernible was    
   spoken.)  Not unexpectedly, there was a bit of activity as the guy batted the   
   flames out around his head.  I had the impression the technique worked, and   
   the bad guy stopped giving the detective any more resistance, but the dream   
   ended at that point.   
      
   In a slightly tech-oriented dream, there was something similar to a   
   reel-to-reel tape deck (recorder / player) but it needed to be plugged into   
   some form of extension cable / conduit / pipe.  Here's the weird part:  the   
   conduit was turned "on" by means    
   of a green-knobbed spigot handle, like what one would use to turn on a water   
   spout outside one's home, only this knob was of a larger diameter, perhaps   
   4"–6".  Even more unusual, was that this power conduit was supplying WATER   
   rather than electricity,    
   so there appeared to be water rushing into / through / out of the device that   
   was plugged into it.  There was a sense of "WRONG PLUG!" (conduit / outlet)   
   such that I (the dreamer) had somehow plugged an electronic device into a   
   water outlet rather than    
   an electrical outlet.  There was some question as to whether or not the device   
   was actually working, along with the question of HOW could it be working?   
   along with the desire to shut the water off, along with the question of what   
   would be the outcome of    
   the device after having been flushed with water?  All these questions were   
   unanswered as the dream ended.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)