Nightmares

I just had a nightmare. It was somewhat more intense then the ones I get occasionally. I don't remember my dreams normally and this one is quickly fading. I remember that it was scary and that the nightmare figure was something like (but not exactly) Heathy Ledger's Joker. We'll call him Clowny.

I know that Clowny did something evil and was now threatening me with it. Which leads to the two things about the whole experience that really disturb. First, I was sitting on the steps at my front door, marking this the first dream/nightmare I can recall in my home. Normally, they are either in some nameless dreamscape, or they're set in a surreal version of my childhood neighborhood.

Second, I remember being paralyzed, which I understand is common for some night terrors. I struggled to wake up and ran head-long into the typical sleep paralysis that keeps everyone from thrashing around constantly in response to our dreams. Normally it shuts off before you wake up, but in this case it lagged behind waking by a few seconds. Waking from a nightmare, a few seconds seems a lot longer.

I got up, moved around a bit in an effort to shake the cobwebs from my mind, even going so far as checking my email. I went back to bed and just felt claustrophobic. Now I'm avoiding it (for a few minutes) because I really don't want to go back to sleep, but I'm desperately tired. I know this because I'm having trouble typing - I keep going back to fix typos.

Hopefully this post has purged my mind sufficiently to go back to sleep. Time will tell.

(and my goddamn shoulder is aching too)

What If The World Could Vote

The Economist, a fairly conservative (in the traditional sense, i.e. not reactionary) magazine has a voting tool that divides the world into "electoral colleges" modeled after American states. Then they got people to vote.

If the rest of the world got a say, who would get elected? Obama, by a margin so large it's almost unbelievable (8482 to 18). Yeah, it's super-unscientific, so what. It's just a cute little web application.

If Obama wins the real election (I hope he does, but I'm to much of a cynic to think it's a sure thing as long as Diebold has a say), I hope he doesn't squander the huge amount of hope he's generated. Even if he doesn't succeed at change, I hope he at least makes an effort. That was Prime Minister Martin's biggest flaw. He talked change for years and then didn't do anything when he became Prime Minister.

Good luck America. I hope you know what you're doing.