These Dreams..... (sung like "Heart"'s 1986 hit song)

Honest Injun:

Ask Mark for validation: I have to carefully monitor what I watch on TV, what I see, do and talk about during the day, etc, because I WILL dream about it with the next night or so. It's not so much the things that I think about for a period of time, but images (such as commercials on TV, billboards, or any other object) that I might briefly GLANCE at during the day. Within the next couple nights, I will be revisiting those "flashes".

Besides the fact that a very active brain will have exponentially more dreams than a non-active brain, I have other factors that make me dream more than the average person. (Yes, there are *lots* of non-active brains out there!  Many of those that don't suspect that they are non-active actually qualify for that category, too!)
Another factor would be early childhood trauma.  I was born with severe clubbed foot that took years of extreme surgeries and physical therapy to marginally correct.  People that experience early childhood trauma - whether it's physical or mental trauma (or both!), will have much earlier memories, and more dreams.  As an example, I can remember the minister's wife rocking me in her arms, and rocking me in the cradle in the church nursery - when I was 18 MONTHS old.  I remember it so well that I can draw detailed pictures of that scene.

I had nightly nightmares for MANY years.  My mother threatened to kill me if I woke her up because I was crying as the result of having a nightmare.

(Trust me when I tell you that she really meant it. Her first cousin is a serial killer, her brother served 6 years in prison for armed robbery, and there are a LOT of legally-confirmed still-practicing thieves in my family, my current and still-living mother, GRANDMOTHER and uncle are not excluded from that number.)  

There are several times that my mother would have honestly killed me when I was a child, but she knew that she doesn't have the mental wherewithal to do it and get away with it. (Translated into layman's terms:  She's too stupid to get away with it!)  At least she had enough sense to know that much!

(She also refused t0 buy me a chemistry set when I lived at home, because she told me that I would blow her AND the house up - and I would do it on purpose.  Come, now!  Why would a 'loving', doting mother say such a thing?  Answer:  'Loving' and 'Doting' are words that nobody that has **EVER** met her would ever use to describe her!  But - that's a different saga for another day.)

Leading up to the dreams:
Have I told you about my dreams? I do ''conscious dreaming' (also called 'Lucid dreams'), which means that I have conscious control about how I want to handle a dream if it 'gets too rough'. I can choose from several defense mechanisms:

1) I can wake up, go to the bathroom, and when I go back to bed, I can 'pick up' the dream right where I left off, without changing a single detail.

2) I can wake up / go to the bathroom, and when I go back to bed, I can select a different 'ending' to the dream than the original ending of that same old dream.

3) I can go 'into' or 'out of' the dream, and either watch it in the 3rd person (like I'm watching a movie), or I can enter the dream and play an active part.

4) I can 'play chess'.  I can watch the dream in '3rd person', and if I keep getting lost in the same maze, for example, I can say, "Alright!  I'm tired of this crap.  You've had this dream MANY times.  THIS is the way out of the maze.  Then - like I'm playing a SIMS game, I can pick myself up by the collar, and plop myself outside the maze, for example.

5) If the dream gets too rough too quickly, I can terminate it right then and there, and not deal with another second of it.

(All those things come from the fact that I had nightmares as a child, and my mother honestly threatened to kill me if I woke her up at night because I was scared.  Her first cousin is a famous serial killer. Trust me when I tell you that she wasn't joking. So.,.... in 'Sybil-fashion', I had to develop a defense mechanism that I still use to this day to help MYSELF through the problem.)

I have at least 3 - 5 dreams every night of my life. Now, because my poor little brain has nothing better to do when I sleep, I have been going back over the past 30 years and dreaming re-runs. 

Re-run dreams are not at all new to me, but the way I am dreaming them IS new to me. I go back and pick up an old dream, but this time, there is exponentially more detail in each dream! I am now redecorating dreams! People that were once shadows, for example, how have faces and names. If something in a dream was plain concrete, it is now beautiful green marble, and the dream remodeling list continues! 

My dreams - and the lack of sleep - occurs for the same reason that small children can have bad dreams if they watch TV before they go to bed (they are still actively learning. Their neurons are still growing and developing.)

Learning and maintaining new skills (reading music, knitting, using GIMP and Blender software, and much more) are keeping my poor little neurons developing at the same rate as a small child. 

That, in itself, is probably a huge piece missing out of the puzzle, and it should explain a lot! :)

- Michael

HO HO HO .... or.... BOOOO !

(Depending on my mood at the moment!)

Today (early October), I was waiting in line at a local Schnuck's (St. Louis, MO area grocery store chain) pharmacy behind a little boy - less than 5 yrs old - and his mother.

It soon became apparent to me that this little man had visited one too many large Halloween stores, such as Johnny Brock's or Spirit.

He turned around, looked at me, and oh-so-gently, touched my forearm. I moved my head to look down at him, and he JUMPED out of his skin, and stammered, "HE...HE... HELLO, SIR!"

I answered my curious little fan with, "Hello, little buddy! What's up?"

At that point, his mother turned, and told him, "Oh no, don't touch (me)!" I told her that I know that I don't look like the average Ladue, MO resident, and that I understand his curiosity.

In a tone which indicated that he meant no harm at all, the little boy rationalized his behavior by answering his mother, "Oh, I had to check to see if he is real! It IS Halloween, you know!"

I know I must have cackled at his innocent observation. The kid thought I was a Halloween prop!

But then again, in the middle of July, in a mall, when I had my beard bleached white, a little girl asked her mother, "Isn't that Santie Claus?"  (When kids asked me / their parents if I was "Santa Claus", they thought it was much more formal and polite to call me "SantIE  Claus" rather than "SantA Claus"!)

Her mother seemed very embarrassed, and said, "Oh, no! He is just some ordinary white man! Leave him alone!"

The little girl had enough of her mother's disobedience and she jerked her hand back from her mother's grasp, pointed her finger in her mother's face, and said smartly, "Watch your mouth, young lady! You never know when he's watching!"

I had to absolutely cackle!  Then, I bent down and gave the brave little lady a quick squeeze and a peck on her forehead! That inspirational individual should have turned 19 this year, and for YEARS after our meeting, SWORE that she met Santie Claus in a St. Louis Mall one hot July afternoon!!😂😂

- Auckland

"Stress Relievers" and 'Time Served'

Alton Brown (Food Network) says that the only unitasker in your kitchen should be a fire extinguisher. All other gadgets in your kitchen can have more than one function. I live in Ladue (St. Louis), MO.  Almost every home in this area has a grand piano.  Rather than to serve only as a status quo, that piano in your house can actually serve to relax and center you, AND keep your brain sharp, rather than just be a heavy weight to hold the house down when the next tornado comes through!

If an acoustic piano is unfeasible  buy a digital PIANO (different from a digital KEYBOARD, a digital piano should have 88 weighted keys.)

I come from a family of legally confirmed thieves (they are in my IMMEDIATE family), and prison time has been served for armed robbery. My mother's first cousin is Donald Leroy Evans, a serial killer that served time in prison in Mississippi before a fellow inmate cut his throat and killed him in prison in 1999. He was SENTENCED for the killings of 3 people, but charged with the killings of 12 people. In every murder case, the authorities don't leak out ALL the information to the public. They keep a few major details to themselves. In that manner, when a suspect talks about these details, the interrogator KNOW that this suspect most likely committed the crime, because these particular details were not released to the public. Donald knew enough facts about other serial murders - 58 other cases! - that even though he wasn't tried for a total of 70 murders, he most likely committed those, too. (Look up "Donald Leroy Evans" anywhere on the internet. He has his own Wikipedia page, and several other webpages.)

My Ex once told my mother "When I can't keep up with Michael's brain, he gets upset with me!" My mother responded to him by saying the only thing that was the truth in her LIFE, "You'd better be glad that Michael uses that brain for GOOD instead of for BAD, like the rest of us, because if he didn't you would be gone, and nobody would know where to find you!" The buggy look in his eyes, and the agape mouth on his face that ensued was camera-worthy, and priceless!

Music, my friend. Music. Not just listening to it, but playing it yourself on an instrument.

Music has kept some big, bald guy named "Bubba" from making me his permanent Bitch in prison, making me bring him his meals, light his cigarettes, and satisfy his nasty needs while the others look on. (Said activity might be fun OUTSIDE the institutional walls, and on equal turf, but in this environment - where HE has all the control - NOT SO MUCH!) he he he

Caution: (Insert announcer during drug commercials on TV):

"Using music may increase your rate of nightly dreams, it WILL improve your memory and brain, in general, music will calm and center you, and - Mark can vouch for this one - it will make you scream impromptu - out-loud in public!"

(Don't give me that crap about 'I don't have time to do that." Ask my mother - my GRANDMOTHER - my UNCLE - and my cousin Donald Leroy Evans about 'time' (served). Their perception of 'time' will most likely be different than mine, because I used my 'time' wisely to center and improve myself. Those folk that I just mentioned. Not so much! :)

Click your heels together 3 times, sweetie. The answer to your problem is closer than you think. It is already within you, and it could already be within your house, too!

(You could also try a SLOW walk through the Missouri Botanical Gardens, especially the Climatron during this time of the season.)

- Michael

My first Beard Contest win! (Hey! It's a personal triumph!)

This is the half-pipe cap - with a Van Dyke mustache and goatee printed on it - was in my little prize package for winning my portion of the Beard / Mustache contest at The Grove Fest on Manchester Ave. (St. Louis) this weekend.

After I got my little bag of goodies, I had not yet 'looked in the bag', and Mark asked me, "What's in the bag? What did you win?" I answered him, "It's not about the trinkets. It's all about
the win!"

He looked in the bag, and found this cap, and instantly claimed it as his.

But....but.... Even though the design on this cap is a fun, simple little nod to the mustache / beard fan base, and it is a bit weak compared to what I wear on a daily basis, and Mark would like to THINK that he is an adventuresome soul, I think it is still a bit too far outside his comfort zone for him to actually wear it, so I think I'll be getting it back.

"Comfort Zone". Could somebody please tell me exactly where that is located? And while they are assisting me, can they well me where this "Over The Top" place can be located using Google Maps or GPS? This is a rhetorical question. I know where those things are located, and they are closer than we think. They are in the minds of people that surround me.

- Michael