Reality Checks*:
Plugging my nose (has worked once in a dream)
Look at my hands, palms up (the only one [SO FAR] that regularly manifests in dreams and sets off DILDs)
Push fingers through palm (has worked once in a dream, and in that same dream I also phased my arm through walls!)

Dream Signs:
Seeing my parents or sister
Seeing my fiance but not my dog
Seeing my high school friends, usually in a school setting
The sky usually reflects the waking-life time of day (black at midnight, faint pink or blue at dawn, etc.)
Building interiors/exteriors and outdoor structures are usually scaled up (a four story swingset was a prominent feature in one of my childhood dreams)

Short-Term Goals:
Become lucid at least once a week, every week
Have a two minute lucid dream before Halloween
Be able to consistently stabilize after becoming lucid and just explore
Create persistent external dream characters, as well as a dream persona (sort of like acting out an RPG)**

Long-Term Goals:
WILD successfully once in 2018
Have a ten minute lucid dream once by the end of 2019
Stop becoming distracted in lucid and semi-lucids by "inappropriate encounters" unless that's my intent

Lucid/Dream Recall History:
I've had around 10-20 lucids in the past and lots of lucid/semi-lucid fragments. Even my longest lucids are usually pretty short though; my longest and clearest one was probably between 30-45 seconds. I really want to be able to improve this.
When I started out I had a lot of trouble with dream recall, but now I can usually remember between 3 and 8 dreams per night when I put in the work.

Current Technique:
Intermittent ADA as described in this DJ Entry "Lucid and Semi-Lucids: Weekend of August 17 - 20" (I can't post links yet)
Night meditation before bed
WBTB and then SSILD and/or MILD
Apple juice or herbal tea with honey before bed sometimes



*Side note: I think I've become kind of desensitized to even the phrase "reality checks" after reading so many articles and forum posts over the years. In that way it's kind of lost its meaning and significance to me, like they're just routines to go through (i.e. do X amount of things and you will be lucid). Instead it's helpful for me to think of these as vehicles for "The Critical Question/Critical Faculty" as LaBerge/Fox call it -- just my two cents!

**I just realized "acting out an RPG" is literally LARPing...or LDRPing I guess