Very alert readers will note that I am doing this entry much earlier in the day than normal. That is because I will be heading off to Vancoufur, the local furry convention, sometime in mid-afternoon (hopefully), so I have to do my writing a little early today.

As I mentioned yesterday, I will be at said convention all weekend, so odds are, there will be no posts for Saturday and Sunday. Sorry folks, but I am taking a rare vacation from my blog. Don’t worry, I will be back Monday with the usual semi-coherent drivel.

Also, as you will soon see, I am not doing my usual science reportage today. Sorry folks, I really wish I could do it, but I am super sleepy due to my sleep issues, and I just do not have enough of my marbles together to do it. I will have to catch up next week.

I had some extraordinarily detailed messed up dreams as a result of being in one of my tired periods, though. Here are some of the highlights :

• Being chased by a mad scientist who was trying to catch me to experiment on me, and who had a big gas gun that shot big person-sized spheres of knockout gas that he would shoot at people to subdue them. I dodged the spheres of gas as he pursued me, and eventually tricked him into firing into the wind, which promptly brought his own gas back onto him, knocking him out. Served him right.
• I kept seeing this giant (as in, a victim of gigantism) who I somehow knew in the dream was an expert at building things, and who kept building himself increasingly elaborate mechanical exoskeletons to help him with the problems caused by his disease. In the dream, I remember thinking how great it was that he was using his mind and his skills to make his life better, and I wished him well.
• At one point, I was traveling around the world via something called the Secret Railroad, which only certain people knew about and which could get you anywhere you wanted to go way faster than any other way of transport. You had to know a bunch of secret signs, gestures, and so on in order to get access to it, and you had to sign documents saying you would keep the secret and not show it to anyone. This was ironic, because I was traveling with a guide, who was the person who had told me all about it. Unfortunately, I don’t remember anything about how this mode of travel actually worked, except for a vague memory of something kind of like a very high-toned subway system. Too bad. I am kind of curious to know how the heck that worked. Dream magic, I guess.
• At one point, I had been given a thick wad of bills and notes written on notebook paper by someone (my guide? my roomie Joe? Dunno) and so I went to a bank to try to figure it all out. (Nitpick : I was in LA in my dream, but the money was clearly Canadian. ) I met with a very handsome and understanding bank manager, who showed me great patience while I emptied out the contents of my pockets and tried to put together the handwritten notes with forms ha had given me so I could access money in a bank account, and deposit the cash there as well. In addition to the money and the notes, there were these weird plastic fake-feeling slick things that were the size and shape of a one hundred dollar bill, but which looked more like a high security credit card, complete with a big hologram sticker. When the bank manager saw it, he rolled his eyes and said “Oh, that must be Wednesday’s edition. ” I think this was my brain’s impression of the new high tech plastic currency that will be taking over eventually. Anyhow, as I tried to figure out what to do, the usual dream confusion kicked in and I can’t ever seem to get my minds on all the notes plus the forms that need to be filled out at the same time. I just keep looking for things in my pile of stuff (which grows bigger all the time) and losing things and growing increasingly frustrated and embarrassed as I dork it up in front of this very professional and together kind of guy. At one point, while I am on the phone, the bank manager nudged me then dropped half a pill into my hand. I asked him what it was, and he just shrugged and smiled and said “Ask me when I get you home. ” And that was creepy. I then explained to him that I couldn’t take the pill because we aliens never knew how we would react to Earth drugs designed for humans. I think at that point in the dream I was a Tenctonese from Alien Nation the television series.

Sadly, that is where the dreaming ends. Just when I was an alien with a lot of money! Why do these things always end just when things are getting good? Oh well.

One last thing to share for today, a video for the British paper The Guardian which takes a rather novel approach towards depicting the modern world of social media and the rapid news cycle.

Namely, by showing an investigation into the Three Little Pigs and their grisly murder of the Big Bad Wolf. For those who don’t know, in the classic version of the fairy tale, after the Wolf discovers he can’t huff and puff and blow the third brick pig house down, he decides to sneak in via the chimney, but the clever third pig sees this coming and has put a big pot of boiling oil in the fire. You can figure out what happens to the wolf when he jumps down into the boiling oil.

Because classic fairy tales are harsh, man.

Anyhow, I thought it was a cute and attention-grabbing way to illustrate their point without actually delving into a real modern issue that might prove divisive or distracting.

That’s all. Seeya soon!