Dreams: At a Fancy Restaurant

Note: this blog has been migrated to Medium, with the articles here available to preserve permalinks Please see this post at https://medium.com/@ianrbuck/dream-at-a-fancy-restaurant-be18b892ce6a

This dream probably represents two things I know about myself: my ignorance when it comes to certain social situations, and the fact that I get hungry easily.

So the dream starts out with +Kaelyn Olson and I going to a fancy restaurant for a date. We take a look at the menu and of course I have no idea what any of this stuff is, so I'm just shooting in the dark. When the food arrives (which doesn't take nearly as long as it would in real life) I still have no idea what it is, so I ask the waiter how I'm supposed to eat it. I'm about as clueless as Cuzco.

I think we know who is wearing the pants in this relationship.

I notice that I'm getting some strange looks from the other diners, but I try to ignore them and enjoy myself. Kaelyn and I talk and eat for a while, and then I became aware of the fact that my shoulders and back were pretty cold. I look down and see that I am shirtless. No wonder I'm getting funny looks. I wake up briefly and pull the covers up around myself (I was actually cold in real life) and go back to sleep.

Now that I have my shirt back on everything seems to be going fine. After we finish we go to some awards ceremony that's going on. We show up late, and try to find some seats. Before we can however +Liv Klemek runs up to us yelling about how she just won an Oscar!

We were really excited about this.

Liv told us that there was a buffet downstairs, so we all rushed down and got in line. Apparently Oscar winners still have to wait their turn. I think my parents were there as well. I was just about to dig into my big plate of food when my roommate's alarm went off and woke me up.

Now if you'll excuse me I need to go eat breakfast.

Dreams: Unique New York

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I had at least three distinct dreams; one had to do with a big space battle, another had UAVs and social justice, but I remember the third one best. +Ryan Rampersad will enjoy it.

So +Sam Ebertz and I were in New York City, just kind of wandering around. We eventually ended up in this alley that slowly turned into more of a tunnel. We came across a chamber with junk and spare electronic parts scattered around. Kind of reminds me of the garbage city from the movie Labyrinth.

As we were looking around the room Paul Miller came in behind us and told us that he had been living in this underground area hiding from the world for almost a year. He didn't seem to mind that we had found, and he even let me take a few pictures of him and Sam posing together and moving boxes around (why I wanted pictures of them moving boxes I have no idea).

Something like this.

When he expressed concern that he didn't have a USB cord for the camera I reassured him that my laptop has a card reader. When I whipped out my Chromebook he pursed his lips but didn't say anything.

As Sam and I were leaving (Sam hadn't said a word throughout the whole dream) we passed a vaguely familiar-looking homeless guy with long black hair, but I didn't get a good look at his face. Wonder who that could have been.

And if you didn't understand most of that, don't worry; it had to do with a very specific set of inside jokes that my mind conjured up just for this one dream.

Dreams: Everybody is in My Room

Note: this blog has been migrated to Medium, with the articles here available to preserve permalinks Please see this post at https://medium.com/@ianrbuck/dreams-everybody-is-in-my-room-ee0698d4b2fa

I tend to have rather odd dreams, and I love telling people about them. It had never occurred to me that I could post them on here as well. Plus this way if I start to forget details I can just come back and read it. I'll be writing up some of the best dreams I had in my childhood, but this one is from last night.

So I am in my dorm room, but the room is a bit different from real life; it is about twice as big as it should be (for those of you who know the layout of my dorm, imagine knocking out the wall between my room and Liv and Katie's room) and Declan (my roommate) had recently moved everything around. The beds were opposite each other, both lofted. My desk was still where it should have been, and the closets were up against the same wall the door is on.

It seems that my dream took place during finals week, because Declan was all packed up. Then my family showed up to help me pack my stuff, but I didn't want to pack all of my stuff yet. I have no idea how I got them to go away, but eventually they did. Then I went to bed.

When I woke up (still in the dream) I got out of my bed and immediately went over to my desk to check my tablet for messages. Then I turned around and realized there were two other people in my room with me. I did a comical "whoa!" and accidentally threw my tablet up in the air. Luckily I caught it. The two other people turned out to be Ashleigh and Tess, two girls who lived on my floor last year. They had apparently been waiting for me to wake up for quite a while, and they were busy eating doritos. I was mad at them for making a big mess on my floor, so I made them sweep it up.

I needed to change into my clothes, so apparently Ashleigh and Tess ceased to exist for a while. However, my room now had a couple of doors and they both had windows on them. And there were people outside who wouldn't stop looking into my room. At first this made me hesitate to change, but then I realized they were all guys so I mooned them.

After I changed a bunch of people were in my room, and they were all eating things and making a mess. I think they were all athletes. No matter what I did I couldn't get them to leave. I vaguely remember that I wanted to go and do something elsewhere, but I couldn't because there were a bunch of people in my room.

Then I woke up.

Assassin's Creed III The Betrayal Review

Note: this blog has been migrated to Medium, with the articles here available to preserve permalinks Please see this post at https://medium.com/@ianrbuck/assassin-s-creed-iii-the-betrayal-review-17fddee64c53

Oddly boring title page.

The Betrayal is the second episode of three in Assassin Creed III's alternate timeline where Washington finds a Piece of Eden, gets corrupted, and declares himself King.

Unlike the main game, these episodes do very little to try to be open-world, which makes them much shorter, but they also stay much more focused. I appreciate that, but when there is nothing but story that story needs to be good. Don't get me wrong, the premise is interesting from an intellectual perspective, but I didn't really connect with any of the characters I was interacting with. I guess the fact that I know that none of this really happened (even within the historical fiction context of the original game) doesn't help me to care about them.

This blacksmith was the most interesting person I met, and I only had one conversation with him.

As with the first episode, you gain a new power that pretty much breaks the game. This time it is the power of the eagle, which allows you to fly short distances and assassinate people from afar. Unlike the first episode, there isn't really a mechanic that acts to counter your new power, so you are basically unstoppable.

There was a pretty cool boss battle against Washington where you have to figure out when to use your two powers in order to get around his defences.

Unfortunately the game is still pretty buggy, and for me it manifested itself by not triggering the final cutscene when I finished, so I had to go back and fight the last battle again.

If you are really interested in seeing what things would be like if Washington had seized power, you can pick this up for $10, but it isn't an essential buy by any means.

EDIT: you can now read my review of The Redemption DLC.