More sleepless dreams

I see a spinning planter (it looks like an inverted pyramid set on a cubical base.) The planter spins faster and faster and then inverts and becomes a brown cloth wizard's hat. The hat is being worn by an old, dark skinned Dwarf with white hair. The Dwarf removes the hat and there is a smaller, rust red hat under it. This hat has a braided tassel. The tassel has a frayed end that moves closer and closer to me. The end turns black and becomes hair. The hair is the pony tail of a shrunken head. The head turns toward me. It has bright white paint markings over it's eyes and the lips are pulled far back from the teeth. It is turning to the left and it's jaw protrudes grotesquely forward. As it comes to face me I see that the upper jaw is broken away from the teeth to the eye socket on the head's right side.

And so I open my eyes...not because of the imagery (shrunken skulls with shattered jaws are VERY tame compared to what I sometimes see) but because I'm tired and the head just stopped and hung there staring at me and I didn't want to wait it out to see what was coming up next.

Garmin Nuvi 205 additional information

The reason for this post is that Garmin lists the nuvi 205 as not being Geocaching friendly. I just got the opportunity to use my nuvi 205 for Geocaching and it worked nicely. The only complaint I would have is that the navigation icon covers the geocache icon as you get close to it.

So here's how easy it was:

1) Grab your .loc or .gpx file from geocaching.com
2) Use Mapsource (free software) to load the entire loc or gpx file onto your nuvi
3) Use the Nuvi to navigate to the cache
4) Once you're close go into the menu and select Tools, Settings, System, Usage Mode and change it over to "Pedestrian"
5) Return to the main map and then change over to the 2D map view

Suddenly the unit goes into a detailed mode that gives you accuracy to within a few feet. The only problem (as I stated above) is that the "vehicle" icon is kind of big. If someone could create a "geocaching" vehicle icon (A simple cross hair with an arrow at it's extent to indicate direction of travel) it would be perfect.

Also, the Nuvi 205 has a nice feature that allows you to set multiple "via points." I set a geocache that was most distant from me as my destination and then set each geocache between me and there as via points. The nuvi will automatically work those via points into your travel plan in the most efficient order based on your route preference (faster time, shorter distance, less fuel, off road)

All in all I would say it's quite suitable for Geocaching despite what the web site says. Don't forget though that if you're going for multiple caches you'll want to switch that Usage Mode back to Automobile before heading from one cache to the next. Otherwise the unit thinks you're on foot and will keep telling you to do silly things like cross the street to the left hand side and will weave you through all sorts of side roads and places you wouldn't really want to take your car.

A dream without a dream

There is a white coffee cup with a wide blue band around it hanging from the string under a sun hat. The hat is pink and has a white ribbon around it. There are real roses woven into the ribbon. One of the roses has a hammock strung from one edge of a petal to the other side. Laying in the hammock is an Emperor penguin. It is lying on its left side facing away from me with it's beak pointing upward in relation to it's body. The penguin is reading a book with very old leather binding.

Ok, so now that you're totally confused here's what's going on. I experience two phenomenon. One is very rare and is called hypnagogic hallucinations or hypnagogia. The other phenomenon that I experience is constant and is called "closed-eye hallucinations".

Basically put I have extremely vivid hallucinations that manifest immediately whenever I close my eyes. Sometimes these hallucinations are full sensory hallucinations with sound, smell, etc. but they are usually just visual. They are very vivid and rapidly evolving. The scene I described above evolved in the span of 10 seconds or so.

I think they are interesting. I think they tell me something about myself as I tend to just let them run their course and do not try to affect them with conscious direction. I just close my eyes and enjoy the ride. My wife, on the other hand, is somewhat disturbed by them. As such I don't generally discuss them and have given up the habit of describing the evolution of the scenes as they are happening. Still I think that some of them are interesting enough to share so that's what I'm doing. From time to time I will post here with descriptions of these scenes. As they are immediately available to me I should have no excuse not to blog regularly.

And just to whet your appetite a bit I'll close my eyes for a few seconds before heading off to bed.

There is a sloping grassy hill that drops gently into the bank of a river. The hill becomes the tip of a crocodile's tail. The crock starts to walk off to the left and swings its tail as it goes. The tail comes toward me and blocks out all the light leaving me in darkness. First a coiled cord appears glowing green like glow in the dark paint. The cord is then filled out into a telephone. The receiver lifts off the pone and points toward me. Then the ear piece starts to twist clockwise and the mouth piece twists counter clockwise as the middle is "wrung out." Blue and pink musical notes start to fall from the wrinkles as the handset is wrung.

And then I open my eyes to finish this blog and say good night.

Garmin Nuvi 205

For the most part this blog is just a ranting and raving spot for me. However, I sometimes run across a product or piece of software I really like and I figure I should share that with the one (maybe two) people who read this thing.

We just purchased our first vehicular GPS system. Because we don't travel a whole lot and don't have much money to spare we went simple and chose the Garmin Nuvi 205. I figured "GPS is GPS and I like the Garmin name." It turns out we made a fine choice and I couldn't be more pleased.

I would urge anyone who travels to get one of these units. You can always lend it to a friend or family member when they travel (just make them swear on something important that they'll remove it from the car EVERY time they leave the vehicle.)

Bottom line though is that this thing guided us through Los Angeles as if we had lived there for years. We found food, hotel, gas and shopping with absolute ease; we were redirected instantly when I couldn't fight traffic fast enough to make a turn; we took strange and unknown off ramps for puppy potty breaks with the knowledge that we would most certainly be able to rejoin the freeway; we knew when we could afford a leg stretch or meal because the ETA is constantly updated; it even encouraged us to save on gas with an "eco challenge" game that monitors your driving and rewards you with points for accelerating and decelerating smoothly, using cruise control and keeping your speed under 65.

We are doomed

I was at Wal-Mart about a week ago and was standing in line in front of a couple of "skaters." They had the long and grungy hair, loose clothing and they had the long and lazy drawl to their voices reminding me of Keanu Reeves in every movie he's ever done (but especially Bill & Ted)

So these two were looking at the candy and one of them asked the other "Should I get two of the regular size or one king size?" And the response was "The king size 'cause of the tax. It's only tax on one thing instead of tax on two things so it's less tax"

I was barely able to complete my purchase as I was concentrating on both not laughing out loud and also on not finding out if it was possible to slap the stupid out of them.

All I could think (once I could think again) was that we are doomed because these two will some day vote. But then again maybe they'll vote for reduced taxes for multiple item purchases...

Crafty Devils

What do 14 square feet of framed drywall, 36" of 1x3 lumber, 15 feet of 16 gauge galvanized wire, 38.25 square feet of cardboard, a kitchen table and two wooden chairs have in common?

That's what's required to keep our puppies confined to where we want them. It's amazing how crafty puppies can be at 7 weeks old.

I'm in charge here

I was at Burger King the other day (I must recommend their vegetarian burger as it's made with a morning star branded patty and sweet sauce. Quite tasty) and a woman walked in with a little girl who couldn't have been more than 5 years old.

Immediately upon entering the girl announced that she had to go to the bathroom and led the mother directly to it.

Once done in the bathroom they approached the counter and the little girl proclaimed that she was going to order for herself. She placed her order with the employee and then went to find a table while her mother ordered for herself.

When their food had arrived the little girl again had to use the bathroom and would not take no for an answer. Her mother told her to "just go" and stayed seated at the table. The little girl would have none of this and stood her ground until the mother relented and accompanied her to the bathroom.

Upon returning to the table and getting situated the girl decided she wanted to sit in a booster chair so the mother got up and got the chair and got the girl into it.

After this they were quiet for a while and my attention wandered until just before they left. That was when the mother, in response to something the little girl had asked, replied "because I'm in charge."

Something deep inside tells me that whatever that comment was in reference to that the little girl got her way in the end.