Monthly Archives: September 2007

Putting on a play

I’m with a group of friends and we’re putting on a play. We’re setting up the stage. The play is going to take place in an old train station that’s been converted for the purpose.

My job is to paint a refrigerator door to look like a roll of Bounty paper towels. I’m drawing the Bounty logo and coloring it in with markers. I’ve got a big area of red colored in and I’m working on the green, but the green paint isn’t adhering as well and I have to go over the area repeatedly.

We put on the play several times. I have a monologue and I sing a song.

Afterwards we all have dinner in the theater. I try to sit next to Susie but she keeps moving around with her baby.

Activities are easy to plan

This is my third apartment with the same back yard area.
I found a psychologist who helps you pick activities.
It’s easy to plan.

The Great Dane and the Elephant

I’m vacationing at a resort in South Carolina with Evan and Josh. We picked this resort because it’s dog-friendly.

We’re hanging out by the pool. There’s a commotion because we think one of the dogs had an accident in the pool. I’m apprehensive about who’s responsible.

It turns out it was the fault of a Great Dane and an elephant that somehow got into the pool. We all laugh about that.

Personality of typefaces

Richard and Chloe are living on a hill in San Francisco. It’s an old building with an old landlady, but the rent is cheap.

They’re having a party and I keep going to check up on the guests. Everyone has a dish in their hands and we’re running out of dishes.

I’m talking to one of their neighbors about the personality of different typefaces. I say that the character of an era or an age comes out in the way they use typography. Type isn’t just superficial styling.

A/B Testing

I am working for a new company that has a product kind of like Amazon.com. JP recommended me for the position. They’ve hired me to improve the usability of the product, I’m supposed to be their user experience expert.

I go out to lunch with some of the executives on my first day. I tell them that we’re going to do A/B testing to evaluate the changes we’re making. I explain how this will work, using Amazon as an example.

I tell them several times that the product might get worse instead of better. I describe how Amazon uses A/B testing to evaluate how new features help them sell more products, but that each additional feature makes the page harder to read and less visually appealing. I’m trying to tell them that even if we make the site more appealing, they might see an initial drop in sales.

I keep talking about this as we walk back to the car after lunch. I get my things out of the trunk of the car.

Riding the bus with my father

I’m riding a bus in Minneapolis with my father. It’s cold and the streets are snowy. We take a strange route that goes up a one way street and then doubles back on another one. In my dream the street is Lyndale Ave. (but it isn’t really.)

Then I’m riding the bus with Scott and trying to explain to him how the bus route goes. I can see it on a map and we’re actually driving it.

I’m trying to make plans with Mike S. via text message to see an upcoming show. I tell him the names of the bands and the dates.

Japanese Restaurant

I’m eating with a big group of family members at a Japanese restaurant. We have to wait a long time for a table. While we’re waiting, some of us visit the sauna. After we get out of the sauna the restaurant gives us clothing to wear. I put on some shoes and some earrings along with a robe, and I’m trying to figure out if I can steal them and not get caught. I figure I can always say I forgot I had them on if anyone asks.

My family has two big tables in the restaurant. We eat a huge feast and I pay for it with my AMEX. When we leave and are driving around Minneapolis, I’m afraid that someone from the restaurant will see that I’ve stolen the earrings and shoes, and so I slip them off so no one will see them.

Hotel Room Party

I’m having a big party in an expensive hotel room with Jai. Security keeps coming up to the room and I’m afraid that they’ll bust us for smoking pot. An enormous black security guard storms into the room and I look over to the counter where the pot is located, but he doesn’t see it.

We call to reorder drinks. There are bottles of scotch and vodka on a shelf. Toby arrives with a poor family.

I use the toilet and I am afraid that I haven’t flushed. Jai goes in after me and the toilet overflows and I’m mortified. We have to call a plumber to come up and fix it.

When thought is made perceptible

From A Cognitive Theory of Dreams by Calvin S. Hall:

A dream is a succession of
images, predominantly visual in quality, which are experienced during
sleep. A dream commonly has one or more scenes, several characters in
addition to the dreamer, and a sequence of actions and interactions
usually involving the dreamer. It resembles a motion picture or
dramatic production in which the dreamer is a participant-observer.
Although a dream is an hallucination, the dreamer experiences it as
he does any perceptual phenomenon. Scenes, people, objects, and
actions are experienced as though they were impressing themselves on
the senses from the external world. The world of dreams, it goes
without saying, is a world of pure projection.

The principal thesis of this paper is that these images of a
dream are the embodiment of thoughts. They are a medium by which a
psychological process, cognition, is transformed into a form that can
be perceived.
Although images are the only means by which ideas find
sensible expression in dreams, other media such as words, numbers,
gestures, and pictures are employed in waking life for making one’s
thoughts known. When thought is made perceptible, it is said to be
communicated. Unlike the communications of waking life, which may
have an audience of millions, the audience of a dream consists of
only one person, the dreamer himself. A dream is a highly private
showing of the dreamer’s thoughts.


Hall, C. S. (1953). A cognitive theory of dreams. The Journal of General Psychology, 49, 273-282.  Abridged version in M. F. DeMartino (Ed.). (1959). Dreams and Personality Dynamics (pp. 123-134). Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.

Original Accomplishment Bracelet

Chris B gives me a handmade beaded bracelet as a gift. The bracelet says "Congratulations on your original accomplishment."

Job at Facebook

A number of former Razorfish people I know have accepted jobs working for Facebook. I’m skeptical that this would be a good move for them, but then I visit the Facebook offices and I realize they might be on to something. Facebook is moving into a new space and I realize that they will soon become something really big like Yahoo or Google. It seems like an opportunity to get in while the company is still young, and I start thinking maybe it would be a good place for me to work.

My mother takes a job working as the executive assistant to Mark Zuckerberg. She’s surprised at how different working for him is from the other jobs she’s had.

Onset Object Model

I’m in Minneapolis working a on a project with David F. The girl I met at MIMA is there to help us.

The room is set up like a party, there’s refrigerated cases with beer and wine. She doesn’t want anyone to drink. I open up some white wine anyway.

She keeps asking about an "Onset Object Model" and whether we have one or not. I don’t really understand what she means.

I’m rearranging the stuff in the office, moving people’s personal belongings and things they will want to take home with them to a different table. I want some more wine.

Jennifer Aniston is there complaining that her hair looks like shit. I tell her that she was Rachel and had the iconic hairstyle of the 90s, in an effort to make her feel better.

Eating lunch on the job

I’m working on a project with David F. He’s fast and good at his work. I want to check his work over when he’s done but I don’t know how. They’re trying to teach me how to review it.

I need lunch but I’m afraid to go get it. I tell my boss I’m not going to go and he laughs and tells me to go eat.

I print out a menu. The place I go has a line of people waiting. My boss tells me I’ll be fighting a line at 3pm.

There’s a family in front of me that is taking forever to place their order. I yell at them to just order.

I listen to the advice and just have a salad.

When my boss calls I say I can’t come back yet.

Information about my shoes

A woman with heavy arms is standing by the side of a pool. She asks me where I got my shoes. My shoes are over one year old but I still remember where I got them. I turn to a page in my notebook, and it already has information about my shoes on it. I had written down the information about the shoes for someone else. I’m surprised by the coincidence.

Jurassic Technologies

I have a green-screen iPhone. There is a green-screen command line interface that sits underneath the regular menu interface. I talk about how the iPhone interface is really just like a hierarchical menu. The iPhone has a stylus touch sensor thing like on the Treo, but it’s in green and really pixillated.

I’m speaking at a conference and my mother is in the audience. She helps me get dressed. I’m wearing a long black dress that I’ve hung dangly earrings all over, kind of like ornaments on a Christmas tree. I try putting on a pair of long purple and turquoise socks with the dress and my high heels, but I decide that’s too much.

I give a presentation about an old computer system that was used by the phone company. The computer was intended for operators to use when they answered questions from callers. It operated using microfiche. Some of the dangly things hanging from my dress contain pieces of microfiche. As I’m headed up to the podium I try to add one more earring to my dress, a brown beaded number, but a woman stops me and tells me it’s better without it.

In my presentation, I show a video where I walk down a long dark alley to get to a garage. The alley is dangerous and there are giant rats running across it. At the end I get to a normal suburban house with a garage in the back, where the computer is located.

There are two guys there who are dressed like sitcom characters from the 60s, sitting in lawn chairs in the yard. One is a black guy in a hat, who’s smoking a joint. They explain to me how the computer would pull up different responses to questions when an operator responsed to a call.

The computer is laughably bad. I comment that no one apparently gave any thought to the types of questions that people would be likely to ask when they called in.

My presentation runs long and when I’m done, most people have left for lunch. The people who are still there clap and say it was great. I start to remove the earrings from my dress.

One of the technicians is a tall curly haired guy wearing heavy glasses. He comes over and says that my presentation was great. I find him attractive and I’m trying to figure out how to give him my business card, when he throws his arms around me and says "I’m available!" He kisses me but he’s a bad kisser and smells like cigarettes.

Eating alone

I’m at a party at Bistro Laurent Tourondel. Hyo is there and I’m trying to avoid her, but she’s there with a bunch of people and I’m there alone.

I go into the bathroom to put on makeup. I put a lot on.

I go out and sit at a table by myself. She and her friends are sitting at a table across from me, eating and laughing. I eat from a large bowl filled with pearl onions and capers. Then I walk out on the street and try to hail a cab.

Coffee Dates at the Mall

I’m in a mall where there’s a big McDonalds with about 8 or 10 lines that are all at least 6 people deep. I’m on a date at the mall and we go out for expensive coffee drinks. I like the guy well enough. He says the next time we go out we’ll have coffee at McDonalds. While we’re standing there talking I see Harry waiting in line out of the corner of my eye — I feel a shock of recognition. My date asks who I’m looking at and I decide I don’t want to get into it, so I say I thought I saw someone I know.

The next night I go out on a date with someone different, but we’re in the mall again. We’re standing overlooking a railing on the mezzanine. My date notices my hearing aids and then shows me that he has them too. He pulls one out and I comment that we wear the same brand. He passes it to me and tells me to be careful, but I just laugh and say I know not to drop it. And I don’t. I can feel myself falling in love with him, I want to be with him so badly.

My date comes from a large family and I go to meet all of them. One of his sisters is getting married. It’s chaotic, people everywhere, all grabbing and laughing and yelling. I wonder if I can marry into this family because I don’t have siblings. Bob Lord is helping me clean up in the kitchen, it’s a huge mess. We’re talking about people making video resumes, he tells me that’s how everyone applies for jobs now. I say I’ll never get a job again because I could never make a video about myself. Bob and I are very friendly, there’s no awkwardness. I have all my cosmetics in a plastic zip-lock bag, and I’m afraid I’m going to lose it. The father in the family comes through and tells us to throw out everything that’s unnecessary.

The Pope and the Queen

I’m in a large building like a mall, and I want to take the elevator down. Pope John Paul II and Queen Elizabeth are taking the elevator and they won’t let anyone in. I run down a series of ramps and watch the elevator go down. I’m waiting to see them come out when the elevator opens.

Engagement Rings

I’m having dinner with Jeff from "Curb Your Enthusiasm." We’re discussing our relationship and he pulls out an engagement ring and puts it on my right hand. I act all surprised and excited, but really I’m not sure. The ring is hideous, it’s black and reminds me of coal. It has a piece of metal that sticks out over my fingers, making it hard to move them around when I’m wearing it. The diamond is tiny and stuck inside a pocket in the metal. I try to find a way to tell him politely that the ring isn’t my taste, but as I’m talking the ring starts to disintegrate. He apologizes and gets me another ring, this one more traditionally styled, but also with a tiny diamond. But really I’m just unsure if I want to marry him.

I go into my mother’s safe deposit box to find a ring that she used to wear. The safe deposit box has her jewelry drawer in it. It’s guarded by a bitchy asian man who doesn’t want me to take anything, but I tell him it’s my mother’s box and he leaves me alone. I’m looking for a gold ring that has vertical strips of gold down the front. I find a ring that looks similar, until I realize it has roman numerals on the front of it.

I’m walking with my mother and John to do some shopping. My mother is all bundled up in her warmest winter clothes, even though I tell her it’s at least 60 degrees out. She says she’s afraid she’ll get cold. John calls "time and temperature" from his mobile and says it’s 80 degrees.

I ask my mother about the ring. She says the ring I’m wearing was a gift from my grandmother when she graduated from high school. I ask about the other ring and describe it as having "twigs" falling on the front. She says I can have that ring too. I repeat several times that I won’t lose it, but I’m afraid that I will.

I’m unrolling a long piece of sticky paper or plastic. I unroll it across the room to where Harry is, he’s sitting and talking to some friends. I’m trying to keep the plastic from sticking to itself, but it’s difficult because it’s so long.

Dating a single father

I’m with Helen and we’re going to go trick-or-treating or somehow out on Halloween. I don’t have a costume. I look around in a suitcase and I’m trying to find something to wear. I’m afraid I’m going to be cold.

Scott appears twice in the same issue of the New York Times magazine, once in a shorter note about Squidfartz and once in a longer article. I want to tell him about the articles, but when I go back later I can only find one of them.

I’m dating a very tall bald man. We’re having dinner and he tells me that he has a young child. His wife abandoned him and the baby, and now he’s caring for it alone. His wife had a drug problem and he said she did a lot of coke and ecstasy. I feel uncomfortable about dating someone with a child to care for. Specifically, I wonder how he can be out with me in the evening, and who is caring for the child.

Riding the bus

It’s winter and the streets are all cold and snowy. I’m riding a bus with Marcelo. The bus has a fare meter like a taxi. Marcelo tells me that in the winter, near Christmas, you can just pay the driver whatever you want, you don’t have to pay what’s on the meter. I am anxious because I don’t have any money and I tell Marcelo I’ll have to borrow from him.

Marcelo hops off the bus and disappears, but he leaves his bag so I assume he’s coming back. Elliott gets on the bus and I talk with him for a while. I am working up the nerve to ask him to lend me money so I can pay the driver. The fare meter keeps going up and it’s already at $77.00. I’m trying to figure out how much is reasonable to give him, I think $60.00 seems about right.

Marcelo comes back and we get off the bus and go to a restaurant. We’re looking at the menu but we’re also trying to decide if we want to buy the restaurant. I’m looking for food that doesnt have wheat in it, but most of the desserts do. I settle on a dessert that is like a spicy Mexican pigs-in-blankets with a hot sausage.

Remodeled Home

I am with Josh R and we meet a kid who lives on Mayview Road, across from Immaculate Heart of Mary church. The kid is young and needs grooming advice, so we’re going to help him.

I say that as long as we’re in the neighborhood I want to go see my old house on Prescott Drive. As we’re walking we see a commercial being shot on a lawn on Crown Street. There are a bunch of animals in cages (lots of rabbits) and cameras and a crew.

When we get to my old house I walk around peering in the windows. The house looks very different on the inside, much more modern. I discuss with Josh and this kid whether it would be okay for me to ask to look around inside. Josh thinks it’s all right and says I should let him do the talking.

The new owner comes to the door, he’s on crutches and is a southeast Asian man in his 50s. I tell him I think about this house all the time and it would mean a lot to me if I could look around. I’m almost in tears I want to go in so badly. He says it’s fine  if we come in. I gesture at Josh and the kid and say they don’t have to come in if he doesn’t want everyone traipsing through, but he lets them in.

Inside the house is very different, it is like they’ve completely remodeled. The living room has been split in two, and one part has been made into another bedroom, and the other part has been connected to the kitchen. So the kitchen is much larger and has a counter island and a wood burning fireplace. The newly-created bedroom belongs to the man’s elderly mother.

I walk around the kitchen trying to get my bearings. It’s hard to do because the walls are so different, as well as the finishes. I try to find the spot on the wall where the yellow telephone was hung.

China Trip

I’m visiting China with my mother and a group of other family members. I can see where we are and where we’re going on a map.

We have a guide who is very helpful and polite, but also a Christian. I make a joke to my mother about how they have "Thank the Lord Jesus Christ" printed on everything, but I feel bad when he overhears me.

China seems to be all about finding cheap watches and sheets. Many of the watches don’t work. I am excited to find a Gucci watch that I would wear, but when I take it out of the package the whole watch face moves around inside the casing.

And coffee, they are always trying to give us bad coffee, perhaps because we’re Americans.

Someone on our trip thinks she can make a mandala like the monks do. She thinks it will be easy to just run the sand out.