I very rarely dream, or at least I wake up with no memory of them. However, the last several days, I’ve been dreaming a lot. I can usually stay up late at night reading my books, but lately, sleep has overcome me quite quickly. Almost as if something is sucking me into a state of sleep. I have done a little research here and there in the past on dreams and even read a book on sleep research done by a neuroscientist. There are some theories on why we dream, but the truth is no one knows for sure. Dreams tend to be fleeting, so I wanted to document them here. I don’t want to dismiss them as random thoughts or assign to them any meaning that may not exist. I simply want to acknowledge them because they are a part of me.

In one dream, I stopped in Ventura on my way back from somewhere. I walked into a massive lobby with tall ceilings. One side was completely open to the outside and was on a cliff overlooking a rocky ocean shoreline. There was no one in the lobby except a strikingly handsome Asian guy. It seemed he worked there, but we never exchanged any words. It was sunset, and the sky was taking on orange and red hues before becoming purple.

In another dream, I was at the top of a hill that I had to walk down to get to the car. I did this once, and the second time I walked down with my mom when she ended up being the driver. We were supposed to wait for my partner, but then she ended up driving off, and the only way to get back was to make a big loop back. We somehow thought we may as well do some shopping while doing our loop. I remember waiting in line at a store and thinking how nice it was that there were no ghetto people around (sounds awful, I know).

The next dream, I was driving on the 10th floor, and next to me was an old friend Amy, and she appeared to be crying in her car. We drove separate ways, and I arrived at the circular driveway in the lobby and left my car for the valet (all of this on the 10th floor of the building). This lobby was also open on one side, and there was lots of sunshine coming in. I left my car for the valet and walked towards the other end when I hear horrible screams and running behind me; I turn to see people scrambling and dropping to the ground. There was an active shooter. I turn to hurry ahead and then see a man holding a machine gun staring back at me and raising his gun in my direction. I rush to hide behind a column as he opens fire. I am unscathed, and he doesn’t pursue. I can’t remember what happened in the moments after. The next memory is of my sitting in the board room I was supposed to be in, and everyone was shaken up.

I did not have Japanese news playing in the background today, but instead, I listened to the sound of rain. I wanted to just sit there doing nothing else but staring out the window and listening to the rain. I’ll need to do some catching up this weekend as I didn’t get as much done as I would have liked today, but it was worth it since we haven’t gotten too many storms this year.

To share another one of my quirks, I will tell you that I was watching a Japanese news channel while working today. I needed some background noise while I concentrated on work. If I put on anything I can understand, it can become very distracting, and listening to music has the opposite effect for me. If I listen to classical music, I end up giving it my undivided attention. The other reason for putting on a live Japanese news channel is that I admire Asian culture in general and Japanese culture in particular. Their work ethic is legendary, and needed some inspiration on that front.

Today, I am grateful for my parents getting the first dose of the vaccine against Covid-19. They are my biggest worry during this pandemic, and finally, I can breathe a little easier. They will need to go back for their second dose in a couple of weeks, but at least the process to get them protected has been set in motion!

I watched a few short documentaries on the evolution of the internet and read a couple of articles on the subject. It’s fascinating to read about the internet of things blooming across the globe, and it made me wonder if we are witnessing the birth of a planet-wide neural network. As if the planet’s consciousness is awakening. What will future generations have to say about will generations centuries into the future think of our time. Will this be a new Enlightenment? Will we be like the explorers looking for new trade routes? We are definitely the pioneers of this cyberspace, but instead of searching for existing worlds, we create them.

We finally have a set of storms moving into the region with the first one having occurred yesterday. We took advantage of the break between storms and ate some takeout food at the park since we still can’t eat a restaurant. It was probably the coldest lunch I’ve had as it was quite chilly, but at least the sun was providing a little bit of warmth that made sitting outside just tolerable enough.

I was at Target and found myself looking at the packs of mechanical pencils with nostalgia. I world almost entirely using a computer and other electronic devices. I have always preferred writing by hand, but even that I have digitized using an iPad and an Apple Pencil. These mechanical pencils had me thinking of another era in which I was a student and completing assignments the old-fashioned way. When I was a student, I remember thinking how technologically advanced I felt by using those mechanical pencils instead of the old wooden ones.

I started reading a new science fiction book, and I welcome the opportunity to be transported to a different world. It gets my mind dreaming of a united human society with no major conflicts and focused on space exploration. I wonder what it will take to eventually unite the world, atone for the sins of the past, and move forward as caretakers or our humble planet and explorers of worlds beyond. We painstakingly study the history of our differences and the catalysts of our conflicts. Still, it’s hard to find a similar analysis of how different cultures and nations forgive each other and become allies. I’m actually quite curious about researching and finding literature on the history of our coming together. What has it taken to get us to where we’re today, and how can we further improved.

*just some random thoughts that crossed my mind.