Thread: Task of the Month for August 2014

Originally Posted by KestrelKat

WOW that was fun. I haven't been lucid in a whole month or so. I tried WILDing and this is what happened:

Tasks: Howl's Castle and Word in a Different Language

Spoiler for Teh Dream:

I'd woke up in the night, and decided to try WILDing again... I closed my eyes, relaxed my body and my breathing, and envisioned walking along a mountain ridge...



It wasn't long before I had started dreaming; I wasn't aware of that fact, though. I was simply walking along this beautiful mountain ridge; the Big City was to my left, and the sky was blue with a few wispy clouds. I had the impression that I was supposed to be doing something, and then I saw a man in colorful clothing; I realized it was the Face, and looked down at my hands: I was dreaming!

I walked up to him, remembering the TOTMs, and asked, "Where's Howl's castle right now?"

He simply grinned, pointed ahead of him (which was to my right, over the mountains), and I grinned right back at him. I jumped off the ridge and started flying in the direction he'd pointed. I passed a few landmarks I recognized from my dream map (an aspen forest and a small hut).

Then I heard the familiar sound of Howl's Castle (that clip starts with the sound) and descended to where I then spotted it. I banged on the door, and yelled, "Sophie, are you home?!"

After a few seconds, the door opened, but it was Zukin inside the castle, not Sophie. Oh well, that worked just fine.

I went inside and looekd around; the room was different than it is in the movie, but I spotted a fireplace to the left, and approached it. "Calcipher?" I asked, and the flame blinked at me.

"Yeah, what's it to you?"
"Is Sophie home?"
"No, she's out learning to fish with Howl. Romantic, isn't it?"
I grinned. "Oh. Well, can you tell me a word in a different language?" I asked, suddenly remembering the other task.
Calcipher flickered a bit and at first didn't say anything. For a moment I thought I might be losing control, because things started to fizzle out a bit, so I touched the hearth, rubbing my hands along it. I thought about putting my hand in the fire, but I figured that would be rude to Calcipher.
He finally answered: "Berzzit."

"Berwhat? Can you spell that?"
"B-E-R-Z-Z-I-T."
"Oh. Berzzit. What does that mean?"
"It means when you wake up and are so groggy that you walk into the doorframe on your way out of your room." Oddly specific, there.
"Huh."

I turned from Calcipher and looked around the room again. The door through which I'd come was closed again, and Zukin had disappeared. I went to the door, and opened it: Still mountains, where I'd entered. I closed it again, and looked at the dial. I knew what everything was supposed to look like because I've seen the movie so many times, and so I knew what to expect. There were five colors though, instead of four, on the dial. It was currently on green. There was also a black, blue, yellow and orange. Naturally I turned it to the orange.

I put my hand on the door handle, closed my eyes, took a breath, not knowing what to expect on the other side. I hoped it was be cool... I opened the door, and opened my eyes.

Boy was it cool. I stepped out into a small clearing in a forest of pines. I turned around to look at where the door was. I was expecting to see a small hut of some sort, but the door just stood on it's own.

I turned back to the clearing, and noticed there were kittens and platypuses all over the place. The Face was also there; he was sitting in the grass, playing with a kitten. "Where are we?" I asked, sitting next to him. He didn't respond, only played with the kitten some more. I picked up the nearest platypus to me, and held it in my lap. I got so distracted with playing with the animals that I lost lucidity and mindlessly frolicked in the clearing with the Face. There may have been other activity beginning with an F, but I can't remember too well... ;D

I love that word - Berzzit. I feel like if we keep hanging out any longer we are going to develop our own distinct set of language/code words (what do we have so far? Gokee Genjerman, loopzoop, stickyface, pineapples, and now berzzit)

Originally Posted by Queen Zukin

I love that word - Berzzit. I feel like if we keep hanging out any longer we are going to develop our own distinct set of language/code words (what do we have so far? Gokee Genjerman, loopzoop, stickyface, pineapples, and now berzzit)

Don't forget fribblety-splat!

Originally Posted by Queen Zukin

I love that word - Berzzit. I feel like if we keep hanging out any longer we are going to develop our own distinct set of language/code words (what do we have so far? Gokee Genjerman, loopzoop, stickyface, pineapples, and now berzzit)

LOL yeah we'll be speaking in tongues and creepin' people out soon enough.

And thanks, ThreeCat!

Completed Advanced task 1........ (The hard way) I mean, A wing is a wing but what an ordeal to get it...


8/20 ............... Night of the Twisters...........

5:30am For the most part this dream was absolutely horrible and totally out of control except for the few minutes I devoted to a task.....

I was exploring a rickety old barn on a steep hillside with two other guys and a girl when the floor gave way and we fell down the hillside amid dirt and old fence posts, and then the wind blew the walls in and and boards,logs and junk rained down on us and we fought our way to the top just to have another twister do it all over again several times and finally in a quiet time I thought this could be a dream and looked at my hands and they were ok then then looked again and they had six fingers and I said "Yay" This is a dream and we can just fly out of this but first there's a task, A Task?,My kingdom for a task and I thought of the eye task and didn't like it much but I couldn't remember any others and kept checking my fingers with sometimes three and sometimes six so halfway up a hill under a destroyed barn I fished out my right eye but it felt gooshy and it got dark and I didn't like it so I put it back in and just bugged them both out and they popped out to the ends of the cords staring at the girl and she said "Holy Shit, I believe you, Put them back in" so I sucked them back in and stood there trying to remember another task but then another twister struck up top and tossed more logs and junk at us fighting to stay on top and finally I flew to the top and said "whew" I'm glad that's over and a guy said "Don't bet on it" and I looked around and there was like a whisp of smoke rising up in the distance and coming our way and I said "WTF, Lets get out of here" and flew down to the end of the barn and was jumping up and down on a beam left still standing and the girl found a riding mower and rode it up a bank on the other side of a fence by the barn and I said "It's over now, Lets go play" and checked my three fingers again and she said ok and flew over the fence landing on the wooden beam beside me then she said on second thought "I've had enough if this, I'm going home"
And I said you're probably right and woke up.....

PS: The girl in the dream was only by chance the same DV girl that pee'd in the pasture with me last month and I'm still not telling who it was, I'm not 100% sure myself .

Yay woblybil!!

Originally Posted by FryingMan

Yay woblybil!!

Y'know just turning a "Lucid Nightmare" around long enough to accomplish a task in it is a task in itself....

KestrelKat:

I'm on WBTB right now but I just completed both basic tasks! I've voice recorded them, will write them up in full tomorrow. Can't wait to tell you about how CanisLucidus bailed on me at the last minute during the banana bank robbery!

I completed both basic tasks in the same night: Full dream.
I had another LD later in the night where I unsuccessfully attempted the eyeball task. I'll have to write that one up later and post my fail here.

Spoiler for Foreign Word:

I focused my mind on my lucid goals now. Once again, I remembered Basic Task i - Ask a DC to tell you a word in a different language and its meaning.
I turned to CanisLucidus and said, "Hey, you need to tell me a word in a different language."
He looked amused by this request and gave a little chuckle before saying, "Titino." (Pronounced t'TEE-no.)
I said, "Okay, and what does it mean?"
He mumbled something that sounded like, "Magazine," but it may have been a cross between two words.
"What did you say?" I asked, to make sure I'd understood him correctly.
He spoke clearly this time and repeated, "Magazine."
I felt like I had more dream time left, so I tried to burn those words into my memory using mnemonic associations.

Spoiler for Banana Robbery:

I focused on recalling the next Task of the Month, and remembered Basic Task ii - Rob a bank using only a banana as your weapon.
I scanned the forest and saw a clearing leading to a town. I grabbed CanisLucidus' hand again and we ran towards the town. The buildings looked very dated, I would place the style around the 1920s. We walked past an old train station, and towards a building that I expected to be a bank. From the outside, it looked more like a post office, but I was sure this was the right building. It had a sign protruding from the side of the roof with a word that looked somewhat like 'bank' but it had too many letters. I spent a moment trying to correct the word with my mind, but I realised the sign didn't matter. The building looked closed and deserted, but I assured myself there would be people inside. We were about to walk through the entrance when I realised that I didn't have my weapon yet.
I said to Canis, "We need a banana!"
Canis seemed to have one already prepared, which he handed to me.
"You take the lead," he said. He seemed a bit nervous, but he was going to come along as my accomplice.
I didn't have any pockets, so I decided to hide the banana down my pants. As I concealed the weapon, the top of the banana peeled back a bit and felt squishy against my skin. I was amused by that, but I didn't pay it too much thought and went ahead with the task.
Canis and I walked through the front door. The building's interior looked similar to a modern gym/recreation centre. There were quite a few people around and I wondered if this would make it difficult to make a clean escape.
I looked around for a cash register, and saw a room that looked similar to a school admin's office. It had a sign saying 'Cashier', and underneath it was a silver plated sign that said, 'Quit Smoking Now' with the strikethrough cigarette symbol. I thought that was a neat little message from my dream, since I have been feeling really disappointed in myself for taking up smoking again recently.
Canis and I walked towards the cashier's window. There were 3 ladies on staff talking amongst themselves who didn't seem to acknowledge our presence. The woman who seemed to be in charge was around retirement age, and the other two were middle aged.
I realised that my banana wasn't quite concealed, so I stuffed it further down my pants. I overheard one of the middle aged ladies saying they'd spotted someone on the surveillance system carrying a banana. Somehow I knew they weren't talking about me, but it made me a little nervous, and the staff were making plans to search the building to find the banana.
I looked beside me expecting to see Canis still standing there, but instead I saw him halfway down the foyer, power-walking towards the exit! I couldn't believe that wimp was bailing on me at the crucial moment!
I called out, "Wait! You've gotta stay with me!"
He turned back and looked at me, and seemed like he was considering coming back for a moment, but he thought better of it and turned back around to make a dash for the exit, leaving me by myself! I realised I was going to have to go through with this robbery single-handedly.
Since the staff weren't paying me any attention through the window, I decided to let myself into the room. The inside of the room looked like a school nurse's office. There were 2 monitors set up in the room, one for surveillance and one for admin computing. The staff were still talking and didn't seem to notice me there.
I grabbed the banana from my pants and noticed the unpeeled part from before was dangling underneath and kind of getting in the way. I ignored that and pointed the banana at the staff.
I put on my most intimidating voice and yelled, "THIS IS A HOLD UP! GIVE ME ALL YOUR MONEY!"
The staff looked at me and looked at the banana. They considered the threat for a moment, but then they gave me a look like I was some kind of lame prankster who wasn't worth their time. They turned away and continued talking among themselves about other things, seemingly unfazed.
I tried to get their attention again: "GIVE ME ALL YOUR MONEY!"
They were still ignoring me, so I shouted, "Fine! I'm taking your money!"
I walked up to the cash register myself and opened it, and grabbed all the notes in a bunch. I looked over at the staff, and they still weren't paying me much attention. I could have easily walked out and got away with the money, but the thought occurred to me that these older ladies just seemed like volunteers, and I thought this money might belong to them. I felt kind of guilty, and then I thought to myself, dutchraptor is gonna think I'm so silly for paying the DCs this much consideration. But I decided to give the money back anyway, and I even spent a little while sorting the money out to make sure the notes were placed back in the correct compartments in the cash register.
I let myself out of the office and slunk away feeling a little lame before waking myself up.

Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

Technically I think that counts. It's up to you if you want the wings now or try again to your satisfaction..

I think I'll wait and try again for the bonus. I have a good feeling about this month!
I will happily accept my basic wings though!

Been focusing on school lately since it started for me this week, though I'm still getting spontaneous DILDs and I feel I should mention that the other night I had a sort-of vivid LD where I recalled one of the tasks as being you had to go to a bank and play the triangle.

So I headed into some random bank I summoned around the corner and stood on the banker's desk thing and started rhythmically playing a triangle. I was completely shameless, and eventually random people around the bank stood up on the desk with me and started playing along for the rest of the dream.

It was magnificent.

Finally got the eyeball one. Was worried I wouldn't get it in time.

I was in some kind of jail, right behind the metal bars. Okay, I should probably do something other than just fly. What were those TOTM's again? I racked my brain, since I hadn't even looked at the thread for like 2 weeks. The only one I could remember was the eyeball one. Okay, that one's not too hard. I pulled up my sunglasses that I was apparently wearing, and reached into my left eye. I kept telling myself it didn't hurt, and sure enough, with a little effort, it just slid out. I held it in my hand. Surprisingly, it was about the size of a baseball. I should have a little fun with this. I shifted my glance to the left, and the eyeball rolled a little to the left. I shifted to the right, and the eyeball rolled a little back to the right. It kind of looked like one of those novelty weasel balls rolling in my hand. Huh. I wonder if I can look through it too. Just then, a kind of ghost image appeared on the left side of my vision. It was facing an entirely different direction, like it was the direct feed from the eyeball to my brain. Okay, that's kind of creepy. I stuck the eyeball back in my head and went on.

Full Dream.

Finally got the basic done and failed the eyeball one a couple more times.

LUCID: I did a little happy smirk and thought of basic TOTM. I turned around and there was a girl sitting there by herself. I tapped her on the shoulder and asked her if she knew any foreign words. She was very shy and quiet and nodded her head yes. She kinda muttered something 'demeck' I repeated back to make sure I heard her clearly 'demeck' and she said yes. I told her good now what does it mean. I worried I was going to lose the dream again and it seemed to falter but I continued on. She mumbled some words that sounded like 'When the book comes off soon', I had to really try to put these together since she said these very quietly and said back to her 'When the book comes off soon?' and she smiled and shook her head yes. I said thanks and picked her up.

Full dream below.

Aug 2014 basic TOTM complete and advanced fail again - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

You know, "demeck", like when an author's book isn't selling so it gets booted off the shelves.

"Oy veh, my book.. it's going to get demecked! "

Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

You know, "demeck", like when an author's book isn't selling so it gets booted off the shelves.

"Oy veh, my book.. it's going to get demecked! "

Ha. That would be a way to use it in a sentence, Webster here we come. Funny.

This eyeball task is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I think I have tried in 5 separate lucid a at least.

Originally Posted by 501

Ha. That would be a way to use it in a sentence, Webster here we come. Funny.

This eyeball task is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I think I have tried in 5 separate lucid a at least.

Sometimes those extra freaky ones are slippery like that. I tried the go to hell and drink with the devil task tonnns of times, even after that month was over. I could always get to hell, but the Devil would always split when I got there. What does tell you about how my subC views me? "Hahaha, even the Devil don't want you." Though my summoning skills are better now, so I should give it another go..

ANYway, point is, you can always keep trying. And maybe start with something less gory until you get used to it, like removing a finger. Then maybe your nose and an eyebrow. Couldn't hurt right? Well that's not true, it might hurt. Such great advice

Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

Sometimes those extra freaky ones are slippery like that. I tried the go to hell and drink with the devil task tonnns of times, even after that month was over. I could always get to hell, but the Devil would always split when I got there. What does tell you about how my subC views me? "Hahaha, even the Devil don't want you." Though my summoning skills are better now, so I should give it another go..

ANYway, point is, you can always keep trying. And maybe start with something less gory until you get used to it, like removing a finger. Then maybe your nose and an eyebrow. Couldn't hurt right? Well that's not true, it might hurt. Such great advice

The eyeballs were a natural for me, I'm so used to popping them out while playing "Faces in the mirror" In the mirror I can do anything they do in the movie "Beetlejuice" Including popping out the eyes while sticking out my three foot long tongue and making awful noises...
Oh-Yeah OB, I had a dream about your Avatar guy (Maverick) and played a dirty trick on him, I shrunk his head..
I hope it wasn't you

Had a short ld starting in the yard where the whole surroundings and the grass had a reddish tint. Recognized this was a task, though wasn't sure sure if it would count. Went on flying in the woods. At any rate, first ld with large scale color effects.

Ahhh!! The month is almost gone, my little devils' vacation is over and it seems that it must be used an unripe banana to rob an eye bank next to a castle painted on fire with some photoshop flames plug-in with a rare name...

How was it?

I finally got that failed TotM attempt posted in my DJ!
I'm excited to say that I actually successfully completed both the eyeball and Photoshop tasks last night, but I'll have to wait til later before I transfer them to my DJ.
For now, you can snicker at my silly fail and missed FA from August 21st:

I was in an empty carpeted room that felt like a school building. I remembered Advanced Task i - Pull your eyeball out and examine it. I was a bit nervous about this one, but I was determined to get the task done as quickly as possible because I felt like I didn't have long before I'd wake up. I tried to shake my head to loosen up my eyeball so it would simply 'pop out' like OpheliaBlue had suggested. This didn't work, and I realised I was going to have to go in manually. I tried to get my fingers inside the socket, but I just felt a lot of pressure, like I was pushing really hard on the skin outside. I tried squeezing and rolling my fingers around the outside to try to get the eye loose and pop it out with the pressure. This wasn't working either.
False awakening:
I awoke in my bed and found that I was actually poking the skin around my eye with my waking body. I thought to myself, "I'm glad I didn't go any further with that one!"
D'oh! I can't believe I missed that FA!

Full dream

I had a nice DEILD chain last night, and managed to get the two basic and one advanced TOTMs done!

DJ entry: DEID chain leads to learning a new word, robbing a bank, and plastocene eyeballs... - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

:-D

SammyTheSnake

Nice work, Sammy! I was starting to wonder how we'd ever know what to vote for this month without our neatly compiled Lucid Task Club suggestions!

Got another one, just for giggles:

I was now walking down a hallway of my college. Maybe I should start doing something productive now. I remembered one of the TOTMs that I hadn't done yet. I walked up to some random guy. "Hey, do you know any other languages?" "Yeah, I'm fluent in German." "Cool, can you tell me a word?" "No." He walked faster to get away from me and turned into a classroom. I followed him in.

There was another group of guys standing around talking. I walk up and ask if any of them know any other languages. They all in turn reply no. Why do my DCs have to be so American? Then, a girl walked over to me. "Do you know any foreign words?" "Oh yeah, I know lots of them." "Cool, can you give me an example of one?" "Well have you ever heard of 'juh-kan-uh'?" "How do you spell that?" "Jicanon." "There's a silent n on the end?" "Sure, why not?" "Okay then, what does it mean?" As she walked away, she turned back and shouted "It means armed with a laser." A laser, huh? Sounds like a pointless word to me. Little did I know just how applicable that word would be.

Full dream.

Okay, DJ is up!
Here are the task excerpts.
I just realised that without context, it might sound weird that the dream begins with CanisLucidus in my bed, haha.

Spoiler for Eyeball task:

The first was Advanced Task i - Pull your eyeball out and examine it. I had tried and failed this one previously, so I was determined to get it right. I didn't doubt myself this time, I just dug my fingers straight in and pulled my eyeball right out. The room was almost completely dark though, so I couldn't see much. I got out of bed and focused on forming visuals like Sageous had suggested, and the room quickly became lit. I could see the eyeball now, which was still attached by the optic nerve. It was slightly bigger than it should have been and a bit cartoon-like, perfectly round, and a bit slimy.
CanisLucidus got out of bed too, and came towards me. I was a bit worried that he was going to bump me and cause the optic nerve to snap, so I held out my hand to get him to keep his distance a bit. He sensed my worry and decided to play a practical joke. He started teasing me by intentionally bumping into me lightly - not enough to do any damage, but enough to make me have to concentrate on holding onto my detached eyeball for dear life.
The optic nerve was only just long enough for me to see the eyeball, not to turn it around to look at myself, so I walked over to the full length mirror in my room. My reflection was very accurate, and I could see my eye dangling out of an empty socket.
Canis came up and embraced me affectionately from behind. There were some residual feelings from the non-lucid dream, but I got on with the task while he was holding me. He seemed interested to watch the task in progress.
I pulled my eyeball out further and watched in the mirror as the optic nerve drooped down. I wanted to look back at myself, but my vision still seemed to be coming from its usual perspective, so I closed the eye that was still in my head. My vision was sort of halfway between the two eyes. It wasn't coming from my head's perspective anymore, it was a little way out from my body, but not far enough to be from the detached eye, and it was facing off to the side in a different direction to where the eye was facing. I tried looking around and the feeling of movement was coming from the empty socket, but my vision responded from pretty close to the position of the eye I was holding. The edges of my vision were a bit blurred, and I couldn't quite get the angle far enough to see myself.
I opened my other eye again and the room went kind of dark. I popped my other eye back in, but it didn't help with my vision. The room was still dimly lit and I could see Canis standing there, grinning.

Spoiler for Photoshop task:

I decided to move onto the Bonus Task - Apply a Photoshop effect to your dream scene.
I told CanisLucidus, "I'm going to try making everything black and white."
I closed my eyes and opened them again, but nothing changed. I tried pointing my finger in the air and flicking it like a wand to remove the colours, but that didn't work either. I decided to move on to another effect instead. I had already tried increasing the saturation in a previous LD but it only had a minimal effect. I wanted to try again to get this right. The room was still very dull, so I had a good starting point to work with. I made a motion with my hand as though I was winding a round knob on a professional colour grading system. I turned it as far as I could with one hand movement, and the saturation of my scene increased significantly. I did this winding motion a couple more times and the colours in the room became more vivid each time. The room was still only dimly lit, so I decided to try bringing up the brightness as well. I held my hand out flat with my palm facing up, and raised my hand higher. The brightness of the room increased as I did this, and the image became grainier, just as it would if I was correcting a photo in waking life. I fiddled with another dial to increase the contrast slightly and get the picture looking sharper. There was still a shadow covering Canis' face, so I focused on that area and used a spotlight effect to light him up.

Full dream

I don't remember if anyone had pulled the optic nerve full off. Would the brain hang like an incense thurible?

Originally Posted by ~ Dreamer ~

This may be the longest I've ever been without wings. I feel so naked, don't look at me!

Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

Oooo, someone is a little barebacked *towelwhip*

Originally Posted by ~ Dreamer ~

I'll be whipping you back with my shiny wings soon, just you wait!

I knew this time would come!
Now that I have basic/advanced/bonus, let the whipping commence!

whips

and a for good measure!