so I was part of a movie set. someone who was a relatively wealthy independent film maker was making some flick that had scenes in a bowling lane as part of the surreal experiences. we were filming at the right hand end, the high-numbered lanes. this was in the valley somewhere, maybe reseda or maybe san fernando itself.

I and a bunch of other people were all decked out to be "bowlers". most of the other folks there were just folks picked up as extras but that whole routine was boring to me, sitting around for hours in a bowling lane doing nothing. there was a low platform on a couple lanes about 20' out where the director could sit and a camera. I was on there, and when I was about to jump down, the director said watch out -- too late as I landed, bowling shoes and all, on the lane that was under 4" of water. disgusted, I want back to the approaches - they were too, and then to the bowling circles where the others were. I looked back and saw that there was a little ridge, covered in blue duct tape, that was holding the water from spilling over. a few lanes down, it went up the approach so only the lanes were underwater, and much farther down, everything was OK and they were allowing some open bowling.

my work was some generic blend of the last couple or three jobs. it was in Oxnard near my mom's house. across the fields, where the fish & chips is, was instead a store that was like a benevolent cross between the Pleasure Chest and Good Vibrations. I was living at my mom's house, with Karine, and the dogs. the only difference was that the back gate was wrought iron.

I was walking next to the good vibrations place and jack was there. he showed me, rather diffidently, this thing that looked like the "monster mouth" mini-glowstick holder, except made from blue cardboard. he asked me if I knew what it was. I didn't, really, but I said I did. then I ate it. he wasn't very pleased with me. he explained it was some sort of device for safe oral sex. I laughed. I said, :look, dude, in the first place, you are married, and in the second place, I won't sleep with anyone I distrust so much that I need a protector for oral sex:

I went back to work. I sat in a well-list cubicle hell with grey partitions. four people sa per cubicle and the partitions to the aisle were half-height. I stopped by where heather was and tammy was there too. I was surprised as I thought she was away at an art internship. she said, :no, I'm back, this is temporary: but I didn't really get it. I went to my own space and did work.

I was in Japan, in some quiet grove with these ladies dressed in the traditional manner. they were sequestered; it was like they were the Japanese equivalent of nuns. I was there to learn some of their disciplines.

one of them was music, and I was trying to learn this really weird lap harp. as I examined it, the strings were really about a 3/16" split bamboo. anyone who didn't know how who tried to lay such and instument ended up with their fingertips in ribbons. then, music came from the outside.

it was the Blue Danube and I tried to play along. it hurt. and the overtones that came out were the weird minors Japanese like in their harmonics. but I couldn't do it. one of the ladies took over and played along. it was eerie. the music from the outside didn't have the harmonics and it clashed, but still sounded mystical. my consciousness gently overlaid hat of the lady's and I realized this hurt her fingers, too.

then I woke up and realized it was the clock radio playing.

I had two dreams this morning. what was weird was that I kept jumping back from one to the other.

in one dream, I was on like a school bus with others and we were travelling along Market (right near where it crosses Clayton) in San Francisco. behind me were two friends (Karine and Leslie?) and they had planned ahead for the ride. Karine had crayons and colouring books and Leslie had colour pencils. the bus seats were not like regular bus seats but has little tables that made me think of a train.

I wanted them to share, especially Karine becuase I was really hungry and I wanted to eat the crayons as well as colour with them.

I dreamt that I went to dinner with Karine and her friend Chris. actually I think I was at a separate table with someone else...

anyhow when the check came, I paid for it. Karine and this other person sort of held their breath, since Chris almost always grabs the bill and won't even let others see it. but we sort of looked at each other and she gave me an almost imperceptible nod.

I had to explain this to Karine after we were done. that was when I realized, when the check came, I had been drinking an after-dinner coffee, quite naturally. oh shit, I'm detoxing from coffee right now, that will fuck things up I thought. but there was still time so it wasn't so bad.

I was with a large group, possibly a ship's crew like the Enterprise. but this crew was co-workers, and maybe also some of the ambience ambulance folks. we were masters of the universe. we built entire worlds... the process was the same as software development. the build process was cumbersome.

Eric Stromberg didn't like the way I built the stars and planets. I used symlinks in a place that he thought was wrong. while I was still in bed asleep, he called a meeting to explain to everyone the more proper way to do it. it took him a while though to erase the white boards. they all had narrow castiron bars in front of them and he had to erase around them.

he started to explain how we needed to move the stars to the right place after we built them and I woke up. I was too groggy to even pay attention to everyone who was there and I blew up at him. how could he be so stupid, I said, to think about moving around something the size and weight of a star, once it was built.

we argued for quite some time and as I woke up and calmed down more I realized that there was quite a bit of merit to much of his methodology. it would allow us to convert towards assembly line type of production. then I considered the developers who worked on this stuff, and my heart sank. he was showing me how we would move everyone to be working along this big U-shaped table-thing that looked like it used to be a restaurant buffet, and I asked, are you sure this is simple enough to win over a bunch of dead heads and bikers? this made him laugh as he finally realized why we had the process we do.

I was at karine's parents' house visiting. the house in my dream had nothing to do with their real house. her mom was away but she and her dad were there. it was late night.

karine and I were in her parents' bedroom. there was only a little light on, behind me to my right. I wa sitting at the foot of the bed. there were papers spread about me, and a bathroom scale. I was drinking some water and didn't know where to set it, and then I realized that's what the bathroom scale was on the bed for; to provide a place to set things like water glasses. I guessed that the papers were cleared each night when her parents went to bed.

I opened a drawer and looked, and amongst other papers there was an ad cut out of the paper. it was the words (no picture) to the ad my mom had found right before she died, which showed a guy lifting 500 pound weights with his dick. it was probably the last time I saw my mom lose it laughing. the ad was old now, brown with age. as I looked at it, I realized, it was a spam.