Thursday, April 29, 2004
After having driven into work, and seing a lot of police activity, it is only fitting we end the day at work the way we did.
Anyway - rewind a little. It turns out that some people at work decided to get a few Rubik's Cubes. Cute. Also, I saw a miniature version of Hungry Hungry Hippo, and some old electronic game. Well, Shaun and I were not to be undersold. So, we ended up getting a couple of mini (1:43 scale) RC cars. Also, a old Connect Four game. heh.. Anyway, that turned out to be the start of a new office fad. Anyway, one of the remote cars got placed next to a few figurines, and someone broke out their camera phone. Well, I broke out my digital camera, and hilarity ensues. Below are some of the shots, and a link to the album.
[album]
Entry: 153 Posted by kelly @ 02:10 AM ET [Link]
Friday, April 9, 2004
I should have written this out earlier, but here goes.
The other night, I had a very strange, but interesting and detailed dream. It really wasn't about anything, but rather the surroundings and setting that was most intriguing. Normally, I remember my dreams, but they fade quickly, but this one stuck pretty well. So, still having no idea what it was really about, here are the things I remember from it:
The setting is in some sort of office building. I do not work there, rather I am some sort of customer for someone inside. Before entering, I take note of the surrounding area and relative sizes of the buildings. (Note that in dreams, this is the sort of thing that gets twisted and mangled the most - perceptions of reality and relative differences). So, I take note that there is a shorter building right next to this one, and a taller one not much further away. Once inside, I take the elevator to the 16th floor. Inside, I am talking to someone, don't know who, but the setup is like a tax advisor or something of the sort. I feel an acceleration upwards while I am talking to the man. I look out the window, and see the building next to me moving down. After a bit, I see its roof. The acceleration increases. I notice that we pass some sort of rafters, thinking that the whole building is some sort of large elevator. Then, there is a huge burst of acceleration, and I see the roof of the taller building. This is where I just stop talking and stare out of the window in awe. The man seems relatively unphased, and understanding to my predicament.
After a little time passes, the upward movement stops, and we start moving downward again, into freefall. This is when the sinking feeling sets in. After I start seeing the rafters again, knowing we are in the building shell once more, the movement slows quickly to a stop.
Somehow later, I realize that the entire building is some sort of artwork, or more like an engineering showpiece where the entire building core shoots upwards into the sky, and falls back into place perfectly while tenants inside go about their business. Inside are only higher-level tenants with positions of master or better (yea, whatever that means - dreams are weird).
Back into the elevator, my curiosity is peaked. There are only buttons for levels 14-19. I suppose that 1-13 are left blank for the mechanics of the building. Also, above that, there are two more buttons separate from the rest. 23 and 29. They are also labeled, but I did not take note as to what they said. I press 29. Elevator goes up, and when the doors open, gravity is suddenly all out of whack, and I fall towards the front of the elevator. I find my way out, kind of falling out of the door, and find myself in a large clear acrylic tube, letting sunlight in, but distorted enough that you cannot make sense of anything on the other side. It was kind of like looking through an inverted glass of water, while all the while, gravity inside is all out of whack, and you kind of float around inside, and are subject to being pushed around by gravity streams. At the other end, it is capped like the bottom of a glass. After bumping around inside of there for a while, I realize the elevator door is closing. This is really cool and all, but too freaky to let the only means of escape get away. I quickly press the button and the doors open - thankfully it did not go down. Once I crawl inside, the doors close, and gravity is returned to normal. Freaky.
Then, I can't help but press 23 on the way down. It opens up into a little room, about the size of a broom closet, but tall. Inside, there is a terminal embedded in the wall. Yes, quite like a holodeck, but it didn't do much. There was some text and reading on the unit, and I felt kind of let down that it wasn't much after the last experience. But then, I am immersed in audio and visual spectrums that just open up the room into what seems a vast expanse. The sound and visuals are like that which demonstrate how perception can be tweaked into making you believe just about anything. So while it didn't act like a real holodeck, it was an amazing demonstration of engineering perception.
After leaving the building, I remember sticking around to watch it do another one of its launches into the air. Then, I woke up. Perfect timing, and perfect enough that I was in a state where I could remember it so vividly and for so long. It meant nothing, but it was like a day at Disneyland!
