c9 | Entries tagged with dream

Two dreams I remember distinctly this morning.

First, I was in Starbucks with my reusable Frapuccino cup (size Venti, but I always order smaller and often receive extra anyway; I also receive a ten cent discount every time!) and on the shelf I saw another smaller reusable cup with a post-it note inside in my handwriting. The note said something about the cup being lost, and I knew that the cup was actually mine, that I had forgotten it there. So I grabbed it and headed for the cash carrying both that I already owned, even though I've only ever purchased one. I think there was something else about pricing too but that's faded already.

Second, I was a Senator at some level, in a boardroom with several others who were the "real" senators - serious, bribe-taking, partisan US-style senators. I don't think of Canada's senators that way. Anyway, I don't remember what triggered it, but I ended up in some confrontation with them and was basically quitting in ultra-dramatic fashion. Claiming that I wasn't like them, it was obvious they wouldn't let me stay, they sucked, etc. At the table were someone who looked like George Smitherman, someone who looked like Arianna Huffington, and several others who I don't remember or never figured out who they were supposed to be.

Far more dreamage than I usually remember, so I thought I should write them down quick.

Dear Sir or Madam:

Further to the information you provided in Form 2 of the Canadian Space Agency’s Recruitment Campaign evaluation process, we regret to inform you that your application will not be considered further.

In completing Forms 1 and 2, you provided information in each of the following topics: Experience, Expertise, Education, Certification and Language. Based on the evaluation of the information provided, the Pre-selection Board has retained the top 2,000 candidates presenting the best results for further consideration in this evaluation process. Unfortunately, your application is not included in those 2,000 files.

We would like to thank you for your interest in the astronaut recruitment campaign and the Canadian Space Program, and wish you good luck in your future endeavours.

The Astronaut Recruitment Pre-selection Board

Two thousand?! I'm not even in the top two thousand?! Goddamn overachieving Canadians. :)

I'm kinda pleased with how my cover letter turned out, so I thought I would share. Try to find the cutesy thing I did to amuse myself, since I figure this is my last involvement with the Canadian Space Agency. (answer at end)

All my life I've wanted to be involved in the space program. As a child in British Columbia my room was plastered with space shuttles, rockets, planets, and stars. I was forced to leave one wall blank white just so my mother wouldn't feel claustrophobic entering my room.

The Canadian Space Agency sits at the intersection of three things I hold very dear to my heart: space, Canada, and the importance of space sciences to understanding the world around us. The opportunity to become a part of this incredible enterprise is one that I could not pass by, and one which I know in my heart I would stop at nothing to help make it successful.

I know that CSA needs strong scientists to ensure that missions are a success, and I have followed the achievements of our previous astronaut candidates with interest. But I worry that CSA also requires communicators, and this is where I would excel within the team. We are surrounded today by strong conflict around climate science, evolutionary science, peak oil, and many other game-changing events for our civilization, but our decision-makers do not have the scientific backgrounds required to separate fact from fiction. CSA and its partner agencies around the world help with that endeavour, and astronauts form a large part of the public face of that effort.

As a Canadian astronaut, I would work tirelessly to bring both the excitement of discovery and the potential for innovation to the public. I work with students every day in my adult education classes and I love nothing more than to see their faces light up with the thrill of understanding technology and learning to better their careers and their lives. Science has brought us incredible improvements in our way or life and our ability to learn about our planet and our universe, and that thrill is needed more than ever as we confront new and greater challenges to our health and the health of our home.

I see my role as being a challenger to the status quo. While governments and corporations each seek answers by looking inward and by reacting, our scientific exploration must look outward and must by nature travel in unexpected directions. Our astronauts are not just cogs in the mission machine, matching this component to this module. In fact, our astronauts are the human face on the CSA budget, the excitement on the scientific journal article, and the inspiration for thousands of Canadian children to pay attention to science and bring their own accomplishments to our country.

To this end, I bring extensive teaching, team management, and communications experience to your team. I am trained and certified in teaching, communications, and team management (see resume for details). I regularly have to transcend language barriers, bias and prejudice, and learner competency levels to ensure requirements are achieved, deadlines are met, and clients are happy with their classroom experience. My experience with defusing conflict and ensuring clarity of communication can only add to the success of CSA and my team.

Not only can I teach, but even more importantly I can learn. As a technical trainer, I am regularly called upon to learn new technologies even before general release of the product, and then effectively design and deliver training to a highly technical audience with specific timelines and requirements. My client evaluations show success in this endeavour, with satisfaction scores averaging over 95%.

From watching Marc Garneau on Challenger and Roberta Bondar on Discovery making Canadian history, to seeing Steve MacLean on Atlantis and Dave Williams on Endeavour continuing Canada’s and humanity’s achievements, I have dreamed of bringing anything and everything I have to the Canadian Space Agency and the Canadian Astronaut Corps. I look forward to seeing further successes for CSA, and I hope to one day be a part of making them happen.

Sincerely,

Cameron MacLeod

If you spot an error, then I'm screwed, because it's due at 9pm eastern and I'm going to be out of the house until after that. God, I hope there's nothing stupid in there. :-)

* I included all the different Space Shuttle names in my text in non-space contexts. The only one I couldn't do without it being awkward was Atlantis, so I included it by name in my final paragraph.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is recruiting two new Canadian astronauts. I applied (along with over 5000 others) and I reached the second stage! (this was not too tricky)

Stage two however is a little bit harder. Especially with a crappy GPA and no orbital mechanics experience. *sigh*

At least I can try to regain some ground with my cover letter. But what can I say that beats a super-Physics PhD who's also a pilot? (no stealing, primary_suspect!)

oh my GOD I have only 120 pages left but I have to SLEEP!!

(I expect more Harry Potter dreams tonight)

I had a friend who was friends with "someone brown" as our friend Ashif would say. Then one day something changed and I saw them walking, and one was wearing a purple scarf or shawl, which I took to mean something significant. When I asked, they said it meant they were dating.

Later I was speaking to this person, who was now Claire from Six Feet Under. I was a photographer, and had given some pictures to her and her new lover. She wanted some replaced or something, and she said that I should give some photos now because "he's planning to sex it up three nights a week" due to his schedule. I realized that I took some sexy photos as well, nudes and partial nudes. She asked if I was going to use some of them -- I think for a separate project -- and I said no, probably not, because the explicit photos weren't really doing it for me any more.

Next, I bought a video game for cheap, but then gave it away and it reappeared at home. When it reappeared the price tag was full price ($109.95) and I was scared that Vinny would think I wasted so much money on it. When I picked it up it wasn't a game, but rather a controller or possibly just action figure type toy, except it was a gun or device, not a person. It came from Michael Ignatieff's campaign and there was a radio on saying encouragingly that it was a very different idea. Then I found the competing thing from Bob Rae's campaign. Except the name on it didn't match -- in one spot it said John Gerald Bobrae, and in another it said Bob Barney. I was convinced that Bob Rae's real name isn't Bpb Rae, but the disparity confused me.

Later Vin and I are in a different condo, and a cleaning lady comes to the door. Vin says "Mexico!" then slightly embarrassed says "Mexican." *weak smile* She just smiled in a rolling-her-eyes kind of way. She asked us to move our giant sectional sofa so she could see if there were stains in the carpet underneath, and when there were a couple she took an entire section of the carpet away -- it was already in the right shape to just remove the two stains and the carpet in between.

I started to look closer at the wooden section of the floor that was beside the carpet, and then my alarm woke me up.

Last night's dream had me serving as an officer on the Battlestar Galactica. It was awesome. My position was not clear, but I did get to almost see a hot pilot's ass in the shower. I didn't though. Nothing truly exciting happened, but one of my men needed a blood transfusion for some reason from Chief Tyrol, and ended up in sickbay recovering. Someone else recommended to me that Tyrol needed a promotion:

"You know what you have to do. You need to Huether* Tyrol and get him out of lockup."

I agreed, so I went to Admiral Adama with the Huether sweater, and asked his permission. Adama basically ignored the question and told me I could find Tyrol in the brig. This was meant as approval / reminder that I didn't need permission to promote him. That's where the dream ended.

* "Huether" is the name of a very old hotel in uptown Waterloo, but in my dream it became the name of a rank or promotion that could be received by a Deck Chief. It was represented by a grey sweater with a bit of decoration on the lapels -- very naval.

Now this is a contest I really would love to win:

There is one (1) grand prize package available to be won. The grand prize package consists of the following:

A one (1) time payment equal to the declared winner’s university, college or trade school tuition for a one year period, up to a maximum value of $10,000. Proof of current tuition fee must be provided prior to this portion of the grand prize being awarded. If the declared winner cannot produce proof of tuition, a $5,000 Future Shop gift card will be awarded in place of the one time payment;

A one (1) time payment equal to the declared winner’s rent or mortgage for a twelve month period to a maximum of $850 per month. Proof of current rent or mortgage payment must be provided prior to this portion of the grand prize being awarded. If the declared winner cannot produce proof of rent, a $5,000 Future Shop gift card will be awarded in place of the one time payment;

One (1) year’s groceries paid as a $5,000 gift card valid at the grocery store of Future Shop’s choice, based on the declared winner’s place of residence;

One (1) annual transit pass or a gas company gift card for a maximum value of $2,000;

One (1) spring break trip paid in the form of a gift card issued by the travel company of Future Shop’s choice to a maximum value of $3,000; and

An electronics package consisting of – (1) one Panasonic 37” Widescreen Plasma TV, (1) one Xbox 360 Console, (1) one Apple MacBook Intel Dual Core 13.3 in. , 2.0 GHZ laptop (1) one Apple 60GB iPod Video with Color Screen, 1 (1) Apple AirPort Express wireless base station, 1 (one) Apple-Mac Retail Box, (1) one Canon PowerShot 5.0MP SD450Digital Camera, (1) one Samsung Portable DVD Player, electronics package. Approximate retail value is $6,000

Total approximate retail value of contest prizing is up to and will not exceed $35,000. All elements of grand prize are non-transferable, non-exchangeable, and non-refundable. Gift cards won are non-refundable, non-exchangeable and have no cash value.

If I tell you who's running the contest, I'm less likely to win. But it would be pretty neat if any of my friends won, so here you go. (Canada only, just to save you the click)

Last night I dreamed that I was joining a law firm. Even though the name was incorrect -- in fact it was the name of a local Kitchener firm I think -- I knew that it was

nihilicious' firm. I got set up in my cubicle on the first floor by the window where I could see guys playing soccer. I wondered where this other important lawyer was, but reaalized, "Oh, there he is, playing soccer and getting totally sweaty."

All the lawyers were played by 20-30-year-old white British men. Some hottish, some average. No accents, but they had that peculiar head shape that says Brit. I'm not sure what that means, I just know that's what my brain said.

nihilicous was not present in the dream, but he can pretend to have been played by some hot Brit if he wants.

When the soccer game ended, my office window was open so they said hello going by, and one stopped and shook my hand in a really weird way, saying I should play soccer with them. Then the captain of the soccer team came over and shook my hand weirdly too, saying that I should play soccer because my build looked about right, and when I responded positively I realized that his handshake had turned into him holding my right index finger in a way that would allow him to break it very easily. In a flash I realized that was his intent. Hazing ritual I guessed.

I ask if it had to be that finger, and he said it might as well be, it was probably the best one to choose. And that's when I woke up.

I'm never working for a law firm now: they're scary.

Current Mood: tired

22:30	leapfish suggests we go to bed before we're too tired
23:05	we go to bed
23:47	still awake
00:44	still (or perhaps again) awake
01:00- 06:00	dream about our CEO visiting the office on Thursday, except in the dream she was bringing all her executive team including my boss, and our office was a high school, and all my coworkers from Halifax were there, and I spent most of my time cleaning and vaccuuming, and I had the sniffles or something so I was supposed to be in this tiny isolation room thing but didn't want to be.
06:30	click "...and Kitchener residents are warned to be on the lookout for a black bear that was spotted in the city yesterday..."
06:31	[Snooze]

Not sure how it started, but last night in my dream I was on a rather long vacation. It involved being somewhere in Africa (the highways made me think of South Africa) but I was also somewhere else first (no memory of it) and then in Cape Breton visiting my parents afterwards. My parents don't live there anymore, but they did in the dream. We were in a hospital for some reason, and ended up having several relatives visit, one of whom is currently bedridden in home care for the last few months of his life. He was totally healthy and vital in my dream and I got to give him a big hug which is nice, since I probably won't see him again for real.

The travel was all on connecting flights. One morning in Sydney River at my parents', I realized that I had a flight to catch that was going to take me home. Not a flight from Sydney though, this was my final flight home from Johannesburg or somewhere. I needed to, in theory, drive back down Nova Scotia, fly back over to Africa, and then catch my final flight home. I had already switched to a slightly earlier flight with a travel agent too, so I considered if switching back (an hour or two difference) would make catching the flight possible. In the end I realized that I could probably get a one way flight from Sydney to Toronto and just forget about the long convulated journey originally planned. This was a very questionable tactic though.

At one point hurrying to an airport in Africa somewhere I was riding a motorcycle, but going too fast and was afraid I might fall. I also think there was a boat involved somewhere. Crazy.

I spent a good portion of last night dreaming about the professional development of my instructor team. Crazy.

PD is something that is neglected in probably a huge percentage of organizations. My company, despite being a technical and business skills training provider, is just as guilty. Instructors hardly ever get the opportunity to take a class, and most often have to spend their non-teaching time (and evenings and weekends, unfortunately) reading and teaching themselves topics so they can pass exams and teach new courses. See my previous rants on the subject.

Now we're doing something about it. We (the national operations management team, all four of us) have distributed forms to the different branches asking about their ongoing needs and where they feel they are missing instructor resources. We've also distributed similar forms to our Product Managers, the gang that stays up to date on everything going on with specific vendors, like IBM and Microsoft. Their forms ask about future needs (Windows Vista, SQL 2005, Notes 7.5, ...). That's how big we are: there's a person whose entire job is to know what's going on with Microsoft!

The third piece of the puzzle is the instructors. I want to know what they want to learn, not just what the company wants them to learn. That way I can help make it happen when possible. So I dreamed about that process all night.

And now I am SO tired.

I had a recurring dream last night. MOre accurately, I had a dream last night that I have had before. But it only occurred once last night.

I was trying to catch a plane at Heathrow (though it's my subconscious' version of LHR, it's not actually very similar to the real airport). It was a 747, but Air Canada (they don't fly those any more). I was very late, as in still in the cab approaching the airport when the plane should have been taxiing. Somehow I ended up making the plane (no memory of how) and got a seat that wasn't guaranteed -- maybe I was on standby? The seat was the very last one in the plane, right by the tail, but was still business class and very comfortable. Better than my business class seats last month, that's for sure. I was worried that the actual passenger was going to show up and bump me out of my seat, but must have dozed off because I was woken with a jolt when the plane suddenly moved. I thought "Hooray, we're taking off so my seat is safe!" As soon as I looked out the window I saw that we were just taxiing, but when the engines revved the plane instantly sped up, like a sports car would, rather than a however-many-thousand-tonne aircraft. We coasted up a hill, and then we all realized that we were going up a drawbridge that was open! We were clearly doomed to fall in the Thames, but the captain revved the engines again and we hopped over the water and landed on a road perpendicular to the bridge. Then (possibly a while later) we were moving fairly quickly and we had to go under a bridge, with the same magical-engine maneuver. This hop landed us on the left hand side of a highway, which amusingly now I realize was the correct side of the road in the UK but was incorrect in my dream. I found a bug in my dream! Anyway. We zoomed over to the correct side of the road, and then took off I assume. I don't remember anything after that point.

I think it's my standard "I'm going to miss my flight/train" dream, along with subconscious "what will you do then?" bits added on. I'm on the train to Toronto right now (will post this later, as there's no wireless onboard*).

* VIA has started offering pay wireless on their Toronto-to-Montréal trains in first class, soon throughout the train. I hope they eventually make it free and every train, at least in the commuting corridor. Would probably draw some more business from the "I blackberry while I drive down the 401" crowd.

Last night's dream had two distinct segments.

First, I was in a room with two straight friends and

leapfish, offering them blowjobs. They accepted, it was hot, etc. I don't really remember much about the plot, but I distinctly remember certain other (ahem) things.

Second,

leapfish and I were in some weird sort of courtroom. It was a classroom with desks, and we each sat at them. An unusual amount of time was spent organizing the classroom and figuring out which arrangement at the front made the most sense, and eventually we ended up turning all the desks around to face the back, and the judge and bailiff switched to that end of the room as well. Luckily, this left the classroom door right beside

leapfish and me, so we escaped. The rest of the hallway seemed to contain empty offices and rooms, kind of like when you tour a vacant office space. Carpeted and clean, but no furniture or whathaveyou. We ended up being naughty in one of the rooms, and a third-person-view told me that the judge noticed we were gone and was looking for us.

I know where the second part came from: I watched the first half of The Fugitive before bed. Not entirely sure where all the sex came from though.

I dreamed a lot last night -- one of those nights where you're certain you dreamed all night long, despite the unlikelihood.

1. Several vague dreams about a friends list person, involving sexy pictures being instant messaged. Note, this is someone I've never actually seen sexy photos of, nor instant messaged with.

2. I was in a casino with

leapfish and a couple we are friends with. Person 1 proposed, with high hopes, to person 2, but was shot down, and it was very upsetting to all of us. Also, both times I went to the bathroom it was like using a tiny washroom on a boat, and while peeing the whole room tilted ridiculously, like a boat on stormy seas (except it wasn't stormy, just a smooth tilt). Very odd.

Last night I had my first (that I recall right now) dream about an LJ friend. It's someone I've never met, and who is not really into boys, but in my dream I was way into him.

Somehow I walked in on him showering or getting changed, but only got a tiny glance at his body. I must have also been exposed, because I clearly remember deciding that I would not rest until I got a better look at him naked.

Later on, clearly things had changed, because I remember him telling me that he and

leapfish were going to go off and fool around, and then later he and I would be fooling around. Obviously this was not my first choice of arrangement, but it was OK.

That's when I started to wake up. I took the train into Toronto yesterday ad today to teach, and I was quite paranoid that I would miss the train, so today I was waking up pretty much every ten minutes (sometimes less!) starting at 4am. Not fun. Now I have to be energetic and happy at work, and I'm really neither. Bleh.

What does my dream mean, World Wide Web?

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30	31

pretty random

Entries tagged with dream

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