I had an interesting dream just a few hours ago (I only assume it was that long ago, since dreams distort time) that I wanted to remember. This blog might be a perfect dream log.

Suddenly, I’ve been thrown into a dream marathon. In classic dream fashion, I’m also running against people on bicycles, which sounds unfair at first but I quickly realize it’s a dream (lucid dreams rock) and start to run like a Tyrannosaurus rex and outpace everyone without any effort on my part. I sadly wasn’t an actual T-rex, and craved coffee despite my initial goal of defeating the cyclists and extremely slow runners. Dreams never did allow employing of logic. So here I am, staring at “the coffee” guy, who is sitting at a table off on the side of the marathon road. I wanted to telepathically make him give me some coffee, but he ignored me as I decided to throw the entire race in order to practice my psychic abilities.

I “wake up” and wander to my living room, my mother telling me that the race had moved on without me. In anger, I make myself attempt to fly to the the next phase’s location of the marathon, but can’t pick myself off the floor despite awesome acceleration due to some kind of dream-enabled flight engine. The acknowledgement of the dream being lucid backfires and I wake up in my bed. I try to fall back asleep to finish the dream and find out what happens to Teague, as if I’m trying to finish a book or film that was just nearing its final chapter. No dice. Sigh.

I’ve written about one of my few concerns in life before on this malnourished blog: lack of living up to my potential. I’m no Daniel from the Christian’s Bible, but I am “a” Daniel, and I like to think I can interpret my own dreams, at least. I felt a strong sense of “you could achieve greatness if you didn’t waste your time vying for a prize that you fabricated” from this dream. It might also mean “don’t try to drink coffee,” but everyone knows that the black tar of pleasure is unavoidable.

I’ve begun to realize that the only thing I fear is myself(and God, if you want to be technical). I’m not sure if it’s a good thing to fear one’s self, but I do know that anything I dread ultimately can find its source at my own choice or thoughts. Perhaps others have learned this and known such a timeless self-identification for a majority of their mature lives, but I’ve never been an introspection adept and find this to be somewhat enlightening.

Randomly, last night on August 17th, 2010, a sudden headache happened and my eyesight took a change for the aquatic. I lost a precious, albeit taken for granted, feature of great peripheral vision, in addition to a quick little panic attack that assaulted my logic skills. This morning on the 18th, I can think clearly again, but I still have vision akin to “fisheye.” Okay, it’s not as dramatic as the picture in that photo, but I can’t help but focus on a very small area, whereas before I was very good at grasping an entire image with peripheral vision. I can only hope it goes back to normal soon.

Earlier today, I found a daddy long-legs spider hanging around inside my bathtub. I scooped it out like I would any other trapped multi-legged beastie and dropped it on the floor away from the bathtub area. To my surprise, it quickly ran into a corner between my laundry basket and the wall, right up into another web, where it perched itself in as if it had planned it all along.

I couldn’t help but feel that it remembered exactly where its old web was; I hadn’t thought of spiders being capable of navigation like this before, and was pleasantly surprised to see something so new(to me) about what I thought were simple creatures.

Once again, “lesser” creatures grow more deserving of respect in my world.

Every so often, I find myself staring at my hands, wondering what possible actions they are capable of. With these simple grasping tools of flesh in league with an incredibly complex brain, almost anything is possible. To think of a goal and aim to accomplish it is something both primal and fascinating. The raw ideas of our body, such as feeling hunger and sating it, are often taken for granted after one achieves these goals for the first time. Eventually, one finds themselves wanting to achieve goals outside of physical maintenance, and that’s what I’m thinking about now.

As one of my earlier blog rambles indicated, I intend to lead a very simple-yet-bland life. Unfortunately for me, this involves much more than a mere lamp-rubbing. I’ve found myself losing potential rapidly in recent years, beginning with my grades and continuing with my realization that I am genuinely horrified with change. I wanted to sit in my little comfortable hole and do nothing for the rest of my life, because maybe that’s all I knew when it came to “safety” as a sort of instinct. As a Homo sapiens I have succeeded thus far, but as a person I’ve yet to even awake from some kind of nightmare of inaction. I suppose that reflecting on this is a small step forward as something more than a mere intellectual beast, however, and I can only hope that I can further unlock doors leading deeper into the psyche of Daniel Teague.

As I added a pickle to my College Diet Special(hot dog with mustard; my recipe is insanely complex isn’t it?) I realized that pickles are essentially just salt in a different, crunchy form. You add it to foods to add a.. pickle-ish texture to your sandwich(hot dog in my case). It serves no real nutritional purpose.

Now I know there are a lot of grand ideas flowing around the world and scientists striving to improve humanity’s everyday life, but I like to start simple with my innovations.

Enriched pickles sound like perfect additions to the human race’s ever-growing bioengineering perfection. Somehow, I would find a way to pickle cucumbers in an aqueous solution that would saturate the cucumber with nutrients our body needs and loves.

Forgot to drink your daily amount of milk? Perhaps a fan of pickles but not your lactose intolerance? Grab a dairy supplement from your favorite green, lumpy snack. Need to boost your immune system as you rebel against society’s lust for syringes this flu season? Eat a pickle on your sandwich and laugh off that pesky influenza strain.

Of course, the most important factor of these “Nutri-Pickles” would be the retaining of its crispy, juicy texture and sour-yet-savory flavor. Only science and time will tell if this will ever be possible.

After seeing Avatar, a great sci-fi adventure, in theaters I came to realize that while the alien species of flora and fauna in the movie were fascinating, we as Earth simpletons have a very interesting array of life on our own, seemingly boring planet.

Nobody seems to find this orange that I’m peeling as strange, but when you look at it closely it could easily be in some other creature’s film being depicted as a wild, exotic fruit that only the natives know how to eat. A simple mouse with its large ears, sensitive whiskers and high-pitched vocalizations can perhaps be a super predator on a nocturnal planet, should the prey be smaller than it.

Life being appreciated more is a rare yet welcomed occurrence after seeing a movie, and I hope anyone reading this can see as I do in these matters.

Also, for anyone wondering what this alien creature with an egg sac is, it’s an earth-dwelling, completely non-fictional arachnid commonly called a “whip scorpion” or “vinegarroon” and “uropygid” to us science-oriented.

Yesterday, while preparing some lunch, I pulled my neck muscle behind my mouth. This wouldn’t be anything worth mentioning had I pulled a normally-used neck muscle, but this was not so. I happened to pull a muscle I figure only I could manage to, because I often have very strange, quirky motions in my daily life. It feels good to know that I’m one of the very few people in the world that have pulled this specific muscle in my neck.

On a related note, I’m very glad there doesn’t seem to be a way to pull your tongue muscle, as it is probably the most important muscle in the (my) human body.

I don’t really have a plan in life. I plan on just getting a job so I can move out and not be a burden on my parents, then just living alone somewhere and hopefully find some good internet service where I decide to stay. It doesn’t sound very glorious or even fun, but I like to keep things as simple as possible, and that includes my lifestyle.

I guess once video games become extinct, I can worry about what to do then. Until then, I’ll just play away and have the most complex life problem be my taxes.

Today I found a Starburst on the ground of the parking lot. Remembering the old advertisement that stated it was perfectly fine to pick up and eat it “as long as it’s still in the wrapper,” I went to pick it up.

It was open on the bottom half. Phooey.