Barrow-Down Dreams - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Diamond18 · 06-12-2007, 02:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the guy who be short

Mac should be fond of algebra...

Fond, perhaps, but not easily impressed.

alatar · 06-13-2007, 02:59 PM

Bare with me...like a melting icicle, this post eventually comes to a point.

Sleep escapes me, but dreams rarely do.

Never been much for sleeping. Back in the day, three hours a night was efficient as long as once a week I could catch a power nap for 45 minutes. In the college years this was done in deserted hallways having a bench or two consecutive seats on which to crash. Even with that, still, one eye was always open as you just never knew.

Much older now, and now I wouldn't mind sleeping a bit longer, but the opportunities are few and far between with the kids. Five contiguous hours would be excellent; 5-7 hours in 45-180 minute bites is more the norm. Still, things change, and lately we've been on the upswing.

A typical night has me sleeping on the couch with the youngest. She's been a challenge, and we've (obviously) stood on our heads (while juggling) to keep her asleep and from waking the others. Anyway, she sleeps on one side of the couch, and I sleep half-seated with my feet between her and the edge so that when she wakes up, I know it. Keeps her from hitting the floor. Also keeps me from sleeping deeply.

After that, lately around 3 AM, me and the little one seek out my wife, who may or may not be sleeping in the master bedroom - she may have had to deal with one of the others and nightmares, wet beds and the sometimes coughing fit.

From then I may sleep to sunrise - or not - when I give up and get up to start the day and the coffee.

Side effects of sleep deprivation: being constantly tired (duh!) and being more prone to hallucinations. I've learned to deal with both. On the bad nights (like when I've seen every hour of the clock), I try to skip out on intense activities the next day like brain surgery as you just know you're going to make a mess of it. Oops! The hallucinations are like being color-blind - you know that you're seeing something differently than everyone else, but you learn to work with that version of reality, seeing grey and saying "green" (or, more like seeing a Balrog and saying "box."). The hallucinations aren't really vivid - just for a fleeting moment you see something and, given a million choices, your brain calls it wrong at first glance. Anyway, but that's more like waking dreams in some way, but I've not had any that involved the Downs, and so I digress.

One benefit of being awakened multiple times during the night as one tends to remember more dreams. If you wake up, you remember the last dream that you had. If not, the dream gets overwritten by the next one as you cycle through REM sleep during the night. And if you’re lucky, you can wake up, sort out the last dream a little, add some ‘better’ ideas, and fall back asleep, having front-loaded the imagery. Upon waking again after the next REM cycle, you can have had an even better dream than the first time. Or not.

Another effect of days with no sleep, at least for me, is that I tend to get emotions. Not emotional, as on any normal day I have few to none (they were surgically removed at birth during an experiment gone awry), but emotions. These, to me, are a stranger experience than seeing a car floating through the air. Suddenly I'm sad while watching all of the people leave the warm comfort of their last hope to march out to their freezing deaths, as seen in 'The Day After.'

It’s completely fictional, but at that moment, I care.

Odd, that. Best guess is that my anger towards Peter Jackson regarding Gandalf in the Return of the King Extended Edition was due to momentarily acquiring emotions. Argh! Anyway, so fast forward (or backward if you consider 'now' to be the current time) back to the Downs, back to when the amnesty went into effect. I had been reading some of the uglier posts. Briefly fell asleep, and had one of many dreams that concerned the Barrow Downs, and this one stuck out.

The main detail - I'll skip the list of cameos and description of the setting and surroundings - was that there was a poster, who in my dream was represented as having three heads. Where the face should have been there were…more like wolf, or werewolf heads, as you could see the brown hairy snouts protruding from the nose area, and it wasn't like you could see them if you looked dead on the person. It was only when he/she/it thought that you were looking away that these ghost-like three heads were visible. And it were if the pseudo somewhat visible head inside the three virtual wolf heads shook like it was a video projection from a shaky lens. I felt myself shuddering, as there was more to this person than was apparent. Something was wrong. Sickly dead wrong, as this person sought to cause despair. Dressed well, as so for all intent there seemed to be no problem, but there were the teeth, the sharp teeth of a predator which you could only see when you weren't supposed to.

I woke with the feeling that there was a wolf loose amongst the sheep that graze the green pastures of the Downs. A virtual wolf, looking to kill, to mindstomp, and soon it would begin stacking up prey, like (I presume) in the werewolf games where each morning brings bad tidings. Said nothing at that time - but due to those darned emotions I actually considered this to be some evidence that there was a problem. So I said nothing, and watched and waited, but found nothing. But still...

...just can't shake the feeling that there’s a wolf about.

Legate of Amon Lanc · 06-13-2007, 03:47 PM

Well, it's definitely worth attention. Maybe it has some sort of, you know, prophetic quality to it, especially considering the way you put it. I mean, you could never know. Although on second thought maybe not. Prophecies are generally introduced. In our case, I would expect the Barrow-Wight Himself, or maybe even Professor Tolkien to appear before you at the beginning, standing amidst seven stones and with seven stars in his right hand, with a blue-glowing sword coming from his mouth; saying: "I am The Hobbit and The HoME, the beginning and the end. And what thou seest, write on a thread and post unto the seven forums which are at the Barrow-Downs; unto the Books, unto the Novices and Newcomers, unto the Movies; unto the Fun and Games; unto the Translations; and unto the RPGs; and unto the Announcements."

If you haven't seen anything like this, then I guess it's okay. Otherwise, I won't like to see some events that will have to take place (like losing one third of the threads and one third of the members and similar). But anyway, logically in the end the Three-Headed Wolf you saw as well as the Pseudoprofessor (who will appear soon after the Wolf deceive us), will be banned and cast into Mount Doom...

Rikae · 06-13-2007, 06:25 PM

Alatar...when exactly did you have this dream? It's quite disturbing....

Bêthberry · 06-13-2007, 07:04 PM

Be werrry, werry scared!

This sounds like some kind of prophetic utterance for Mac's new WW game. Or alatar has taken to channelling Mac in his dreams.

If al isn't playing in the game, I'd be very cautious about contact between him and the other members playing it.

And I note in passing that we don't have a warg or WW icon yet.

Rikae · 06-13-2007, 08:51 PM

I think you mean Legate's game...

er....

Bêthberry · 06-13-2007, 09:03 PM

lol!

Er, I mean, *gasp* The horror, the horror, it's spreading!!

No way I'm getting involved in that game, no sirree, running about as far away from it as the Downs allows. Even if it is a way cool RPGish type game and I am a great fan of CoH.

Sorry, Legate (temporarily) of Amon Rûdh. This is just too freaky. *glares suspiciously at alatar*

alatar · 06-14-2007, 08:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rikae

Alatar...when exactly did you have this dream? It's quite disturbing....

Don't know the exact time, but it was sometime between the beginning of the year and a few weeks ago.

Don't want to get too specific, as, of course, I have a completely logical explanation for the said dream, and that being that it is just complete and utter nonsense filtered through sleep deprivation-induced emotions. I cannot reason otherwise.

Shhh! You don't know who's watching!

That being said, I've always thought it interesting the images that appear in dreams (i.e. what prompts truly random things?), and how, upon waking, we interpret these midnight menageries like internal Rorschach movies.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

*glares suspiciously at alatar*

I would not recommend glaring this way - or any way - otherwise.

Lalwendë · 06-14-2007, 08:49 AM

I think you just need a >hug<

alatar · 06-14-2007, 08:59 AM

I think you mean "a nap." That, and something to combat the paranoia.

06-13-2007, 02:59 PM	#2
alatar Doubting Dwimmerlaik Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Heaven's basement Posts: 2,466	Bare with me...like a melting icicle, this post eventually comes to a point. Sleep escapes me, but dreams rarely do. Never been much for sleeping. Back in the day, three hours a night was efficient as long as once a week I could catch a power nap for 45 minutes. In the college years this was done in deserted hallways having a bench or two consecutive seats on which to crash. Even with that, still, one eye was always open as you just never knew. Much older now, and now I wouldn't mind sleeping a bit longer, but the opportunities are few and far between with the kids. Five contiguous hours would be excellent; 5-7 hours in 45-180 minute bites is more the norm. Still, things change, and lately we've been on the upswing. A typical night has me sleeping on the couch with the youngest. She's been a challenge, and we've (obviously) stood on our heads (while juggling) to keep her asleep and from waking the others. Anyway, she sleeps on one side of the couch, and I sleep half-seated with my feet between her and the edge so that when she wakes up, I know it. Keeps her from hitting the floor. Also keeps me from sleeping deeply. After that, lately around 3 AM, me and the little one seek out my wife, who may or may not be sleeping in the master bedroom - she may have had to deal with one of the others and nightmares, wet beds and the sometimes coughing fit. From then I may sleep to sunrise - or not - when I give up and get up to start the day and the coffee. Side effects of sleep deprivation: being constantly tired (duh!) and being more prone to hallucinations. I've learned to deal with both. On the bad nights (like when I've seen every hour of the clock), I try to skip out on intense activities the next day like brain surgery as you just know you're going to make a mess of it. Oops! The hallucinations are like being color-blind - you know that you're seeing something differently than everyone else, but you learn to work with that version of reality, seeing grey and saying "green" (or, more like seeing a Balrog and saying "box."). The hallucinations aren't really vivid - just for a fleeting moment you see something and, given a million choices, your brain calls it wrong at first glance. Anyway, but that's more like waking dreams in some way, but I've not had any that involved the Downs, and so I digress. One benefit of being awakened multiple times during the night as one tends to remember more dreams. If you wake up, you remember the last dream that you had. If not, the dream gets overwritten by the next one as you cycle through REM sleep during the night. And if you’re lucky, you can wake up, sort out the last dream a little, add some ‘better’ ideas, and fall back asleep, having front-loaded the imagery. Upon waking again after the next REM cycle, you can have had an even better dream than the first time. Or not. Another effect of days with no sleep, at least for me, is that I tend to get emotions. Not emotional, as on any normal day I have few to none (they were surgically removed at birth during an experiment gone awry), but emotions. These, to me, are a stranger experience than seeing a car floating through the air. Suddenly I'm sad while watching all of the people leave the warm comfort of their last hope to march out to their freezing deaths, as seen in 'The Day After.' It’s completely fictional, but at that moment, I care. Odd, that. Best guess is that my anger towards Peter Jackson regarding Gandalf in the Return of the King Extended Edition was due to momentarily acquiring emotions. Argh! Anyway, so fast forward (or backward if you consider 'now' to be the current time) back to the Downs, back to when the amnesty went into effect. I had been reading some of the uglier posts. Briefly fell asleep, and had one of many dreams that concerned the Barrow Downs, and this one stuck out. The main detail - I'll skip the list of cameos and description of the setting and surroundings - was that there was a poster, who in my dream was represented as having three heads. Where the face should have been there were…more like wolf, or werewolf heads, as you could see the brown hairy snouts protruding from the nose area, and it wasn't like you could see them if you looked dead on the person. It was only when he/she/it thought that you were looking away that these ghost-like three heads were visible. And it were if the pseudo somewhat visible head inside the three virtual wolf heads shook like it was a video projection from a shaky lens. I felt myself shuddering, as there was more to this person than was apparent. Something was wrong. Sickly dead wrong, as this person sought to cause despair. Dressed well, as so for all intent there seemed to be no problem, but there were the teeth, the sharp teeth of a predator which you could only see when you weren't supposed to. I woke with the feeling that there was a wolf loose amongst the sheep that graze the green pastures of the Downs. A virtual wolf, looking to kill, to mindstomp, and soon it would begin stacking up prey, like (I presume) in the werewolf games where each morning brings bad tidings. Said nothing at that time - but due to those darned emotions I actually considered this to be some evidence that there was a problem. So I said nothing, and watched and waited, but found nothing. But still... ...just can't shake the feeling that there’s a wolf about. __________________ There is naught that you can do, other than to resist, with hope or without it.

06-13-2007, 03:47 PM	#3
Legate of Amon Lanc A Voice That Gainsayeth Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: In that far land beyond the Sea Posts: 7,431	Well, it's definitely worth attention. Maybe it has some sort of, you know, prophetic quality to it, especially considering the way you put it. I mean, you could never know. Although on second thought maybe not. Prophecies are generally introduced. In our case, I would expect the Barrow-Wight Himself, or maybe even Professor Tolkien to appear before you at the beginning, standing amidst seven stones and with seven stars in his right hand, with a blue-glowing sword coming from his mouth; saying: "I am The Hobbit and The HoME, the beginning and the end. And what thou seest, write on a thread and post unto the seven forums which are at the Barrow-Downs; unto the Books, unto the Novices and Newcomers, unto the Movies; unto the Fun and Games; unto the Translations; and unto the RPGs; and unto the Announcements." If you haven't seen anything like this, then I guess it's okay. Otherwise, I won't like to see some events that will have to take place (like losing one third of the threads and one third of the members and similar). But anyway, logically in the end the Three-Headed Wolf you saw as well as the Pseudoprofessor (who will appear soon after the Wolf deceive us), will be banned and cast into Mount Doom... __________________ "Should the story say 'he ate bread,' the dramatic producer can only show 'a piece of bread' according to his taste or fancy, but the hearer of the story will think of bread in general and picture it in some form of his own." -On Fairy-Stories

06-13-2007, 07:04 PM	#5
Bêthberry Cryptic Aura Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 6,003	Be werrry, werry scared! This sounds like some kind of prophetic utterance for Mac's new WW game. Or alatar has taken to channelling Mac in his dreams. If al isn't playing in the game, I'd be very cautious about contact between him and the other members playing it. And I note in passing that we don't have a warg or WW icon yet. __________________ I’ll sing his roots off. I’ll sing a wind up and blow leaf and branch away.

06-13-2007, 08:51 PM	#6
Rikae Mellifluous Maia Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: A glade open to the stars, deep in Nan Elmoth Posts: 3,489	I think you mean Legate's game... er.... Last edited by Rikae; 06-13-2007 at 08:54 PM.

06-13-2007, 09:03 PM	#7
Bêthberry Cryptic Aura Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 6,003	lol! Er, I mean, gasp The horror, the horror, it's spreading!! No way I'm getting involved in that game, no sirree, running about as far away from it as the Downs allows. Even if it is a way cool RPGish type game and I am a great fan of CoH. Sorry, Legate (temporarily) of Amon Rûdh. This is just too freaky. glares suspiciously at alatar __________________ I’ll sing his roots off. I’ll sing a wind up and blow leaf and branch away.

06-13-2007, 06:25 PM	#4
Rikae Mellifluous Maia Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: A glade open to the stars, deep in Nan Elmoth Posts: 3,489	Alatar...when exactly did you have this dream? It's quite disturbing....

06-14-2007, 08:49 AM	#9
Lalwendë A Mere Boggart Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: under the bed Posts: 4,737	I think you just need a >hug< __________________ Gordon's alive!

06-14-2007, 08:59 AM	#10
alatar Doubting Dwimmerlaik Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Heaven's basement Posts: 2,466	I think you mean "a nap." That, and something to combat the paranoia. __________________ There is naught that you can do, other than to resist, with hope or without it.

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