11-02-02 - 2:54 p.m.

Hello.

John called last night, and we talked for two hours, but it seemed to both of us like about 10 minutes. Interesting. We mostly talked about the Enneagram and other personality type systems. We think he is mostly a 2. We know I'm a 5. I thought I was a 4, too, but now I don't think so.

Last night I had a multi-part dream. I can't remember all of it, but in one part I was in some kind of educational museum that was dark and set up as a maze and had weird exhibits. I remember this one old lady demonstrating something to me about genetics by mixing up some cards in some manila folders. I didn't understand what that was supposed to accomplish.

Then these people entered the museum who were there to test some new weapons for the government. They were going to test them on the museum visitors, of course, of which I was one. I was not very comfortable with this plan, but what could I do? Well, I mean, leave, I guess, but really. Plus there were quite a few of them. So they dispersed throughout the place and started testing, while the museum guests just sort of milled around and went about their business, getting tested on every once in a while.

There were two main types of weapons. One was a ray gun looking thing that basically vibrated at a certain frequency. The tester stuck the end of the gun on the testee's shoulder and pressed the trigger, and the testee's shoulder got vibrated at whatever frequency the gun was set to. The testee would then wince, look annoyed, and rub his or her poor shoulder. The other type of weapon was some kind of spray bottle that sprayed this stuff that was basically like water. I don't know what it was supposed to do, but somebody sprayed it at me, and nothing happened. In fact, a few people tested their ray guns on me, which were set at different frequencies, and nothing happened there either besides feeling the vibrations.

Towards the end of the dream the scene switched to a TV show in which various actors were participating in various sporting events which have no counterpart in reality. I was seeing the show as if I were there, although the scenes kept switching as if it were TV, and there were sports commentators behind me off-camera. Drew Carey was one of the participants, even though I never watch his shows unless it's by accident. I don't remember the other participants except for Patrick Stewart (you know, Jean-Luc Picard and that professor in the X-Men movie). He was in the water skiing event. I was impressed because he's 50. It was like snow skiing except that it was on water, and it was a race. There were no boats pulling them. I think their skis must have been inflated, and they had poles for some reason like snow skiers use. I suppose the current is what propelled them. They were on a river with a small waterfall every once in a while.

After the first race, the camera followed Patrick Stewart, who went off on his own, and the commentators interviewed him. After chatting a little, they noted that he was now in the experts' section of the river, and he told them that he was going to "fleettrack it," which I guess was their term for expert water ski racing, even though he was still by himself. He seemed very casual and jovial about it. He didn't even have his lifejacket properly fastened. He also didn't want to be told what was coming up next in the course. He wanted to wing it, I guess.

This might not have been a good idea because what was coming up next was a waterfall. Not one of those small ones. Apparently these water ski people jump waterfalls like snow skiers jump those gaps on the slopes, and the experts jump bigger ones. Well, the camera followed Patrick Stewart along, and the river got a bit faster, and it was obvious that a waterfall of some sort was ahead because the water was arcing downward. I think he started getting a little nervous at this point, or at least I did. But there was no turning back now, and over the edge he went. The camera panned over the edge with him, and whoa, that thing was huge! I've only seen Niagara Falls on TV, but this thing had to be at least two or three times as big, at least. The waterfall wrapped around to the left like Niagara Falls does (if you're on the right side of it, obviously), and it dropped into this enormous lake. I noticed that the water was all very blue, as if they had dyed it, although I don't think they had. And there was Patrick Stewart with his arms stretched out, sailing steadily to the bottom. I knew somehow that he would be okay (???), but I certainly didn't want to be him. Then I woke up with that image in my mind. It reminded me that it is very bad to make major, irreversible, unwise decisions. It also reminded me that I love big things, like the Grand Canyon.

That reminds me that there was a scene in the trailer for the next Star Trek movie in which Data is leaping out into space. Maybe that's where I got the idea.

Today I looked at some Enya fan sites and also found Megatokyo, which is an online comic. They made me halfway wish I was fanatical about something. Somehow I feel like it makes a person cool to be an expert on something frivolous. It also gives you something to say when you're congregating with other like-minded fanatics. Alas, I'm not one of them, and I can't seem to get myself obsessively interested in any one thing, at least not like I used to. Maybe someday.