Category Archives: Navigating

I sure hope this is what SxSW is like

I’m getting ready to go to SxSW, so I’m packing and picking up things in my apartment. I go into the kitchen to straighten up and put the dishes away. I pick up the large cast iron frying pan and discover that the metal has dissolved and oozed all over the counter. I’m irritated with myself because that pan should have lasted a lifetime.

When I arrive at SxSW I go down to the hotel lobby to wait for some friends. I bring with me a bed pillow that I hold by the edge of the pillowcase, and I carry a pair of tan boots in my other hand. (I’m wearing shoes.) Sitting in the lobby as people start to arrive, I realize that this whole pillow-and-boots combo is going to be a bit awkward to carry around with me all day. I make some excuses to run back up to my room so I can drop them off.

My room is actually in a cabin on the edge of the event space. To get there I have to walk across a beach, which is where all the events will be held. The weather is warm and sunny, and I think “this is a great place to hold a conference.”

The cabins where I’m staying are in the woods on the edge of a fairground. The fairground is a bit seedy, like a combination of gas stations, trailers, and improperly maintained carnival rides. I stop in a gas station convenience store to pick up a few items, one of which is a pink dildo. (If you must know, it was rubbery.)

I use the dildo as a pointer during my talk, beating it against the table when I want to make a point. Very effective!

Time Travel Technology

Friedman and I working on a project involving time travel. We have developed technology that enables us to send people back in time. However, once they’re in the past, they have no way to communicate with us. To get them back to the current day we have to go and find them in the past, which is difficult.

As a result, we are concerned about rogue agents going back into the past, getting lost or feeling isolated, and then taking actions that would damage the timelne. We are trying to develop a way for people in the past to communicate with us in the present. We’re exploring options like having them carve messages into stones in caves.

I test out the system by going short distances back in time and sending messages to the future. When I’m in the past I run into past-Friedman who has no idea what’s going on and keeps asking what I’m doing. I tell him I’m from the future but that isn’t a satisfactory explanation to him.

Navigating a city park

I walk over to the window across the hallway from my apartment. I want to go out onto the roof. The window turns into a door so I can to outside. When I’m out there, it isn’t a flat roof that overlooks the tops of shorter buildings, the way I’d expect. Instead, it’s a grassy hill that slopes down into an outdoor park. When I look to the other apartments, I see that instead of windows, they all have sliding glass doors, like we’re in an apartment complex in the suburbs.

I walk down the hill past picnic tables. It’s warm and sunny out. I walk for a ways through a park, then decide it’s time to head back home.

I see that I can cut through a path across a college campus to get home. As I’m walking, I come across a staircase that will take me up to a skyway. I start to climb the stairs but discover that they’re folded up as a security measure, and I slide back down. As I’m standing there looking at them (and marveling that they close up) the steps fold down so I can climb them. I take this as an invitation and begin to ascend.

As soon as I make it to the top of the stairs, an alarm sounds and the stairs close up again. A gate comes down from the ceiling and I am trapped inside the skyway.

Lost in a Hotel

I am traveling with a very large group of people, including some of my extended family. The hotel we’re staying in has labyrinthine corridors and I’m lost.

The rooms are not numbered in sequence, and each room has two numbers. The first is a regular 3-digit number, but the second is a 6-digit number, like 62-2324. I know what room I’m looking for, but all the rooms have a very similar combination of numbers, so it’s difficult to determine at a glance which room is the correct one.

The hotel has posters and display cases for medical objects and paraphernalia. Near my hotel room there is a poster that shows a man from three different angles: front, side, and a three-quarter view. The differentiating thing about this man (and I assume the reason he’s been captured on a poster) is that on first glance he appears to have a faux-hawk, but upon closer inspection one realizes that he has a vagina on his head.

As I navigate through the corridors I try to find this poster again, both because I know it is near my hotel room, and also because I want to point it out to my traveling companions.

My new project

A large group of people from Razorfish decide to secede and spin off a new company, and Bond decides to merge with them. The new office is small and very cramped. It seems that it was previously some kind of scientific lab where plants were studied, as there’s a lot of soil and the lighting makes it feel like a laboratory. The desks are very small and close together, like study carrels in a library.

I can’t find my desk and I spend a long time wandering through all the rooms looking for it. Eventually I find a very dirty room, way in the back, that no one else seems to be using, and I decide to take a desk there. I find Nate and ask him where all my boxes of stuff are, but he’s harried and overwhelmed and can’t help me.

I’m concerned about what we’re going to name the new company. I don’t want all the former Razorfish executives to take over and not give the Bond people a say in the new brand.

I am assigned to work on the JCPenney project. Our work seems to involve digging a large trench and finding artifacts in the dirt. Most of the items have been wrapped in newspaper, and the date on the paper is 1982. My mother is there to help me dig, and I find many pieces from my childhood, like items that used to sit on bookshelves in the basement, or knicknacks from the living room.

Airport Story

I’m at the airport waiting to check in to fly from New York to Minneapolis. I wait in a long line to check in and get my boarding pass. Once I’m through the line I realize that I’ve forgotten something at home, so I keep my bag with me.

I drive home through streets with a thick sheet of ice on them. The car slips and slides across the lanes.

When I get home I frantically pick out some clothes to wear. I have a whole closet full of pants and sweaters in different colors, but it’s hard to pick out new combinations that match with my shoes, and I wind up wearing the same things all the time. I choose a couple of different outfits and race back to the airport.

When I arrive at the airport I check my watch; it’s about 5:45 and the flight leaves at 6:05. I dash down a long hallway, like in a hotel, and get to a junction where I need to follow the signs to my gate. The sign pointing to Gate 6 leads to a door, and when I open it I see that I have to go down a long flight of stairs. I look around to see if maybe I’ve gotten the directions wrong, but it turns out I have to drag my bag down the stairs with me. I’m super annoyed about this.

I return to the gate and ask if I can still check my bag before the flight leaves. There is another man in line ahead of me and he’s still checking in. His last name is McGrane too even though I’ve never seen him before. When I hand over my frequent flyer card to the gate agent he looks at it and says it doesn’t look any different from the card belonging to this stranger. I respond “It isn’t, except the name.”

Coffee Shop + Bic Pens + Abortion

I’m living in MInneapolis and I walk to work through streets lined with little shops. I stop to buy coffee at a place I’ve never been to before. I order an iced coffee and pay for it.

As I’m leaving the cashier comes over and says that I haven’t paid enough money. I become extremely irritated with her and make a big show of getting more money out of my purse. I dump everything out of my wallet onto the counter and start counting out dimes and nickels to give to her.

When she asks me why I’m so annoyed, I get really embarrassed. I tell her in a soft voice that I’m pregnant. She can’t hear what I’m saying and she asks me to repeat myself, and so I say it again in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear. People turn around and seem shocked. I’m so humiliated by this that I grab a few quarters and hand them to her, and then grab my stuff and dash out of the shop.

When I get to work I have an RFP for Bic pens to work on. My office is in a big cubicle farm and I wander among the cubicles to get to the office supply area so I can get some different Bic pens and pencils. I return to my office and make an appointment at the doctor for that afternoon so I can have an abortion.

I walk through the hallways to go visit the doctor. Along the way I run into a man who I know from the past, maybe someone I knew in high school. I’m too focused on getting to my doctor’s appointment to talk to him, even though he repeatedly tries to engage me in conversation.

When I get to the doctor’s office the receptionist tells me that my appointment time isn’t until much later in the afternoon. I get agitated and ask her if there’s any way she can fit me in earlier. I am eager to get this over with.

To kill some time before my appointment I go next door to a cafeteria. The guy who I ran into in the hallway earlier is in there having lunch, and I have to talk to him anyway. But it’s difficult for me to find anything to talk about, since I can only think about how badly I want to have an abortion and I don’t want to tell him that.

Live Action Text Adventure Game

I’m playing a live version of a multi-player text adventure game. It takes place in a large convention center or a space with a number of rooms. The goal is to find and collect certain objects and then remember what their purpose is in the game. For example, there’s a tube that lights up and I am supposed to remember to give it to someone at the proper point in the game. I’ve obviously played this game a few times because I discuss with some of the other players what the purpose of each item is.

Then the game turns sinister. I wind up trapped in the space with people who are trying to kill me. I have a family and there is another family that we’re in combat with. I try to steal some medical supplies from a pharmacy, like I need some gauze and tape.

A little boy

I’m walking through a fancy three-story apartment. It’s almost more like a museum or a private club than a home. It’s not fussy, the decor is very modern and sleek. At first, the apartment seems impossibly large to me, but after I walk through it a few times I start to see how all the rooms fit together, like I see things from a different perspective. For example, I might see one room when walking in one direction, but then when I come back another way I realize it’s right next to a different room.

I do a load of laundry, but I only put one or two undergarments in the machine. When I come back later, they have been removed from the washer and put into the dryer. I think my father moved them.

A young boy about 5 or 6 is walking through the apartment with his father. He is very well-dressed and wearing expensive sneakers. I talk briefly to the father and then realize it’s time for me to go. I notice the boy has disappeared and I keep an eye out for him as I’m leaving.

As I reach the exit, I notice that the boy is in the bathroom, and he motions for me to come and help him. I’m a little hesitant, but he makes it seem urgent. The boy has pooped in his pants and needs me to help him clean it up. I tell him that his father will come down and deal with it, but he insists that he needs my help immediately, and that all I have to do is take the poop out. His pants are lying on the floor and I walk over to inspect them. I grab some tissues and remove the feces and flush them down the toilet.

False credit card charges

I’m out to dinner with Jai and another man and woman. The meal is friendly but I have a feeling like something is going on behind my back. It seems like Jai is cheating on me or has a relationship with these other people that I don’t know about. I feel uneasy because I don’t know what’s going on.

I leave the restaurant and walk through a series of hallways until I get to a large room that seems to be part of a research center. I find myself on top of a mountain made of office supplies, like file folders and paper products. I try to get down the mountain but I wind up on a ledge made of folders and I can’t get off. I lose my shoes along the way. I have to ask a man working there for help getting out of my predicament, and he just comes over and plucks me off. My handbag is left behind.

It turns out that I have been a victim of identity theft and credit cards have been opened in my name. Jai has opened an American Express account and has put several hundred thousand dollars of charges on it. He’s done this with his new boyfriend. I’m furious, absolutely filled with rage that he would do this to me. I scream at him but he doesn’t seem to care.

Someone at the research institution has also opened a credit card in my name and has put some charges on it. I cancel the cards and get Amex to reverse the charges, which apparently causes some problems for the researchers. They come and accuse me of messing up their plans, which seems ironic and backwards to me.

Federal Reserve Bank

I am visiting all twelve states that have a Federal Reserve bank in the order in which they joined the Union. And I am using a mode of transportation that is appropriate for both the state and the time period when they became a state. I use a boat to visit Washington state and an airplane to visit the Virginia/Washington D.C. area.

In Virginia the hotel is under new management. I don’t recommend it. The new managers are jerks and not inviting to customers. I stay there but I’m angry about it.

I hide in the hotel room in the closet, but I get caught.

Subway from the UWS

I’m in a library and a boy is flirting with me. I’m not sure about him but he’s persistent.

I go with him to his apartment. It’s on the outskirts of town (aka the Upper West Side.)

I get there and I can see his apartment like it’s an architectural
drawing, or a floor plan like the Sims or a dollhouse, an omniscient
view. The look of it is very modern.

His (ex) girlfriend still lives there, it turns out they used to
live together. She has moved all her stuff into another part of the
apartment, but they are still living together. He tries to tell me that
it’s okay and I should just ignore her, but this situation is obviously
stupid. He comes off as sounding like an asshole and I realize I was
right to be suspicious of him.

I leave and plan to take the subway home. As I am walking I realize
I have lost my white coat, but then I realize I have lost my green
backpack, but then it turns out that only my wallet and keys are
missing from the backpack. I have no money and no way to contact anyone
because my cell phone is gone too, so I have no way to get home. Then I
realize that I have the metrocard I just used and I should be able to
get back on the train.

The subway station is sort of like a mall. The main corridor ends at
an elevator and there is a sign like a mall directory that explains
where to go. I am trying to take the 1 train back downtown to my
office. I am reading the sign and trying to figure out why it says I
have to take the L or the G to connect to the 1, when I know the 1
should just go directly from the UWS.

College Campus with iPod

I’m walking through a series of rooms and hallways on a college campus, while listening to my iPod.

Jane’s husband is cheating on her, and I think to myself "at least they don’t have kids." He leaves for eight weeks to go on a "job hunt" that I think is suspicious.

I stop to look through a sale rack of cheap formalwear. The dresses are all ugly.

I see a posterboard with a sign talking about a homemaker in Minneapolis that killed herself very young but her family did not understand.

I can’t find my way back to the room where Kevin is. Kevin is condescending and dismissive. So I just walk the hallways with my iPod.

Campus Job

I am a student and I have a new job on campus. I go into the cafeteria where people have set out some cookies and coffee for snacks. Paying for these is on the honor system, so the cafeteria has set out plastic tubs where you’re supposed to put your money. I put $1.25 into a tub for a biscuit. Then I decide that I want a different cookie that only costs $1.00. I go back to the plastic tub to get my quarter back, but I look around while I’m doing it, worried that someone will see me and think I am stealing.

Above the snacks there is a big signboard. It’s like an old-fashioned chalkboard, with two long legs connecting a large area for notices. I accidentally bump the sign but I catch it before it falls over. I try to steady the sign but I can’t do it. The signboard doesn’t have any horizontal supports on the legs, so I am trying to balance the whole thing on the vertical bars of wood, which aren’t very wide. When I look up at the board, I realize that the sign itself isn’t solid. The board is rippling with movement, so as I am trying to steady the bottom, the top is still in motion, almost like a flag. A gruff older man comes over and shows me that I have to push a small button at the bottom of one of the legs to make the sign steady itself. The button is like a tiny metal pushbutton, not much bigger than a pencil lead. Once that button is pushed the sign becomes rigid and I can balance it on the legs. The man says that steadying that sign is something I’ll need to be able to do on my own if I want to keep working there.

I’m waiting with four friends by the elevator. One of them is getting married to Suzanne Vega. The elevator isn’t working so we discuss some alternate routes. We’re trying to make our way through the space, but there’s a sense that it’s dangerous. One of the boys I’m with falls down a hole, and I think he’s dead.

I’m driving around in a van with a couple of people. We’re talking about negotiating a contract. There is one section that we keep reviewing over and over that doesn’t make sense. It has something to do with candy bars and french fries. The driver pulls into a parking lot and I tell her to try and hide the van where we won’t be seen. I think that if we can wait for other people to leave, then we’ll be able to figure out what the contract says.

German Department Store

I’m in some part of Eastern Germany and I am going to a department store. The store entrance is located at the end of a dangerous-looking and rundown alley. There is a big sign in 1920s style Bauhaus typography that lists the store directory and shows which items are on which floors.

It seems that instead of entering on the main floor and going up, everyone takes the elevator to the top floor and then works their way down. There is a group of young men who are all running down the alley to get to the elevator. I follow them.

I get into a really old, scary elevator with two boys who are about 13 or 14. When the elevator starts I am thrown up against one of the boys. It feels something like centrifugal force. I struggle against it to move away from the boy and go back to where I was standing, but I can’t break free. I’m terribly nervous because I think the boy will perceive my leaning against him as a provocation. Instead, he shows me that I  need to stand against a different side of the elevator, perpendicular to where I was standing earlier. I sink against the wall and am now standing between the two boys.

I think we are going to the top floor, which is the 14th floor, but the elevator lets us out on the 13th floor. I start looking around for the way up to the top floor but I can’t find it, all I can find are escalators and staircases that only go down. The department store has an Art Deco feel, lots of shiny black lacquer and chrome.

I pull a shiny new gold coin out of my pocket and look at the back. It has a design of flags and swastikas on it. I think to myself that it must be terrible to be Germany and have made the mistake of putting swastikas on your money, and then even though the symbol was later seen as being evil, to still have to have it on your coins because there was no way to pull the money out of circulation.

Lost Dog/Burned Laptop Crisis

I’m going to Libby and Russell’s country house, and I’m bringing three dogs, including Sputnik. Russell is driving and I sit in the front seat, but then I’m really embarrassed since Libby should sit there and I move to the back seat. While I’m moving I lose the dogs and they’re running around in a park. I’m terribly afraid that I have lost Sputty because she’s not wearing a collar.

While I am looking for the dogs I set my laptop down on a hot grill. The bottom gets singed and there is a brown burned spot on it. The computer still works but the screen is all messed up, the colors are weird and it doesn’t refresh properly. I wonder if I can bring it back and say that the battery is bad.

I am relieved to find the dogs and I gather them and my laptop up. I am supposed to go with my family, Helen, and Alison to see a woman give a talk on psychology. I get everyone into a big minivan. We are supposed to stop and pick up Alison but we don’t. When Helen asks me where she is, I say I forgot because I was too caught up with the whole lost dog/burned laptop crisis.

We get to the facility where the speech is taking place. The woman is giving it twice. It’s not a very good talk, she’s not a good presenter and she’s not very good with her computer. I then go and visit with a man and my mother and John. My laptop seems to be working again.

Stolen spare change

I’m working at a new web company that has taken over a whole set of apartments in a building. Thomas is working there too and I go over to see what he’s working on. It’s nice to see him. We might be a subsidary of GE.

We’re giving tours of our offices/apartments. My desk from my apartment at home is at the office. After the tours I notice that all my spare change from my change jar has been stolen. I feel irresponsible for having left it in there, I should have known better.

I’m standing at the wardrobe my mother had when I was a child. I’m folding sweaters and putting them in piles categorized by color.

Video Game Reincarnation

I am moving repeatedly through a space. I have the sensation that at various points I cease to exist and then am reawakened. After this happens several times it occurs to me that what’s happening is that I am a character in a video game, and I’m dying and then reappearing. I don’t have any sensation of pain or that I am being killed, just that as I am moving around the board, I eventually stop existing and then start existing again.

I fear that I will eventually learn that I am already in a body that I like and want. I don’t fear dying, what I fear is being reincarnated from a body that I liked.

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.

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.

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.

Checkout Button

I’m in a big cafeteria or grocery store, someplace with aisles and they’re selling food. I’m trying to design an interface to this physical space, so I’m walking through it and trying to document it.

There’s a big group of people who have to review the drawings. They’re really critical of it and I feel stupid. I’m annoyed and fighting back at them. One woman is particularly harsh and I start talking up my qualifications (which makes me feel sort of embarrassed.)

I realize as I’m arguing that I really have screwed up the interface. The whole top nav of the diagram needs to be revised. And I keep walking back and forth repeatedly across the physical space with different objects, but I realize that the wireframe just needs a big checkout button on the top.

With friends like these…

I’m looking around in an apartment that is owned by friends of mine. It has all sorts of neat "features" and I can tell it’s expensive.

Then all my friends turn on me. They’re older than me and they’re co-workers.

They’re trying to prevent me from winning an election or getting a prize.

The Black Plastic Garbage Bags Dream

I’m talking to Alex S. I’m trying to set up time to meet with Vincent so I can tell him that I’m leaving Razorfish. I’m anxious about telling him.

I read a column in Wired magazine that’s like a press release describing what different people are doing professionally.

I’m living in a 1 BR apartment that is dark and dirty. My uncle Ed needs a place to stay and I offer to let him stay at my place, but I warn him that it’s filthy.

There are two big rooms in the apartment. They are both filled up to the ceiling with shelves that are stacked with old computer monitors and black plastic garbage bags. When I look up they seem to go on infinitely, stacks and stacks of garbage.

I find myself thinking that I should not move out of this apartment, there is no reason to leave. I tell myself the apartment is perfectly fine, it’s a nice place, and it’s inexpensive.

Paging Dr. Freud!

Joe C. has installed these new devices at everyone’s workspace. They’re like a combination of a handle, a dildo, and a balloon. They inflate and you grab them and use them to navigate.

Joy and I are supposed to visit my church from growing up, Immaculate Heart of Mary. My father has died and we are supposed to attend his funeral.

I visit my mother in our backyard on Prescott Drive. I am happy and excited. I tell her that my dad is dead and now she can move to the city.

Then I feel terrible because I realize that I wanted my father to die. I made this happen.

Andrea’s Stereo

I’m in a big room, navigating through stuff on shelves. It all seems sort of historical and I ask Kevin if he recognizes any of it. It’s stereo equipment, like used for hooking up speakers.

I’m looking at Andrea’s stereo. Andrea and Susan are going to separate. Susan is pregnant again but they aren’t happy. I say that’s too bad, but I am secretly relieved because it validates my feelings that people aren’t very happy when they have kids.

In my dream I think "Hey this is just like when I’m dreaming and I’m navigating through spaces."

Joe C. wants to have a drink at 8pm. I want to tell him it’s too late. But I’ve lost my Treo and I can’t text him back.

Philadelphia University

I am arranging a visit to a design department at a university in Philadelphia. Some people from Boston want to come but they say traffic is terrible. I ask if they can fly. They talk about expanding the highway to 8 lanes.

When we arrive the head of the department is cold and imperious and tells us to come back later.

The staircases and escalators are like an Escher painting. I see my mother go down a staircase that’s between two escalators. I try to follow but my leg gets stuck. I cry for help. When I try to extricate myself I wind up hanging by my hands, sort of upside down. I ask a stranger if he will catch me and he says he will, but it turns out I can just drop safely to the floor.

We go back to the design department office. We’re playing Yahtzee to pass the time. Except it’s different, it’s not called Yahtzee and you want to get a series of 8. The dice still have 6 sides, though. I roll once and get some 6s, and roll again and get four 6s and a 5. I’m trying to decide what to do with that, where to put it.

There is a bathroom in the office that has been decorated by Sony Playstation. I remember seeing a similar one on campus and I assume Sony is branding bathrooms now. The decor is kind of ridiculous, all red, hanging mobiles of the Sony logo. I think about calling to see if they would do ours.

The department head comes back and we are all discussing what we’re going to ask her. I decide to ask about designing computer games. Do the principles of design remain the same? How do you account for game play and screen displays? I note that it used to be heresy to talk about screen "design."