I can breathe under water

"In the following pages, I shall demonstrate that there is a psychological technique which makes it possible to interpret dreams, and that on the application of this technique, every dream will reveal itself as a psychological structure, full of significance, and one which may be assigned to a specific place in the psychic activities of the waking state. Further, I shall endeavour to elucidate the processes which underlie the strangeness and obscurity of dreams, and to deduce from these processes the nature of the psychic forces whose conflict or co-operation is responsible for our dreams." -excerpt from The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud.

A few weeks ago, a friend and I were walking down to English Bay to watch the Celebration of Light fireworks. We were a little late getting down there and as we walked towards the water we could hear that the fireworks had already begun. My friend said "Imagine those explosions were gunfire and we are in a war zone right now". For a moment I tried to imagine what it might be like to be in a war-torn country, where gun shots and bombs echo through the air on a regular basis. I felt lucky to be able to walk freely, to enjoy the fireworks, and to feel security in knowing that our beautiful city is spared from the threat of such devastation as Iraq has faced in recent years.

That night I had a terrible dream that I was living in a city that suddenly was under attack from an unknown force. I was talking on my cellphone with my mother, who was telling me how scared she was. Just as I was speaking to her, I saw a bomb fall out of the sky and explode right in front of me. I died in my dream, and felt my spirit floating into the heavens. I remember thinking to myself, "my spirit is still alive". Then I woke up. This dream made me recall the urban myth that it is a terrible omen if you dream your own death, and that you are supposed to wake up before you die. I have also had recurring dreams of being able to breathe underwater... was I a fish in a past life or something?

I've heard that symbols in dreams are signifiers of deeply embedded workings of the subconscious, so I wanted to look into the meaning of these dreams I've been having.

"To dream of your own death, indicates a transitional phase in your life. You are becoming more enlightened or spiritual. Alternatively, you are trying desperately to escape the demands of your daily life." - www.dreammoods.com/dreamdictionary

This analysis definitely rings true with my current situation because I recently quit my career in order to pursue my dreams. I don't particularly have any demands in my daily life, other than job-hunting, so the alternative explanation does not apply. I am not a religious person, but I like to think that there is some higher power, and that we do not just vanish into thin air when we die.

"To dream that you are breathing underwater, represents a retreat back into the womb. You want to return to a state where you were dependent and free from responsibilities. Perhaps you are feeling helpless, unable to fulfill your own needs and caring for yourself. Alternatively, you may be submerged in your emotions." - www.dreammoods.com/dreamdictionary

This analysis is also applicable to my current situation. Having given up my regular, full time paycheck, for the first time I am experiencing what it is like to constantly wonder where and when I will generate income. I like not having to answer to anyone and being able to charge people for my writing, which is what I love to do the most, but at the same time, I am daydreaming about being financially stable. I want to win the lottery, come into a fat inheritance, or however else people get tons of money suddenly for no reason. Who doesn't?

About submersion in my own emotions - people who know me well know that I am not one to divulge what I am feeling, especially to strangers. I tend to bottle things up a lot, because I prefer to be non-confrontational, and I don't like letting people in.

Dream analysis seems to be pretty accurate! Not that our dreams are trying to tell us anything we don't already know, but they can definitely shed light on what deeper concerns we might be harbouring and perhaps enable us to fix our problems, or just understand ourselves better.

YOU make me suicidal

Silly me to think that popular music would ever break from the trend of being formulaic and milking every tried and true trend until the bitter end. Case in point - Sean Kingston's 'Beautiful Girls'. The song that's blazing up the charts and infiltrating every radio dial is nothing new... a carbon copy of an old classic (Stand By Me), paired with some simple lyrics. The masses LOVE it! Of course they do, everyone loves nostalgia.

I'm so sick of new artists piggy-backing on the brilliance and success of classic songs by pandering to the general population's love for nostalgia. I thought that pop music might have been heading in another direction with groups like Black Eyed Peas, who I sort of detest, but that's just my personal taste, but at LEAST they were creative and ORIGINAL. Will.I.Am is practically a musical genius! And I LOVE artists like MIA who constantly keep us on our toes with innovation.

Sure, it was kinda cool and novel when P Diddy started sampling 80's classics, but now it's just getting tired. It's become a cop out... the easy way to surefire success. Come on people, please demand better, don't scream 'omg I love this song!' when shit like this comes on the radio. It is garbage. If you did even a smidgen of research on new music you would be flabbergasted at the wealth of great stuff out there. Some artists are actually creative! Some thrive on taking chances with new sounds coupled with intelligent lyrics! I sort of feel bad for those artists though... since at this rate, their brilliance will one day be raped by some money hungry, fresh faced pop star who can't wrap their head around the idea of being original and developing their own sound.

I love not camping!

After a recent camping trip to Harrison Lake, I confirmed what I knew all along, that I am, indeed, a city girl. The trip started off nice enough, as my group arrived at a camp site right on the sparkling lake surrounded by beautiful mountains and set up our tents and chairs and cracked our beers on the lakeshore. Some campers who had set up their base nearby came to say hello, and warned that half of their group had left that morning, after they had been assaulted by mosquitoes. I laughed and thought, ‘what a bunch of wimps! I don’t see any mosquitoes around!’ Flash forward to myself crouching in my tent the next morning, bladder about to burst, after making several attempts to venture out into the outhouse-free woods to find a spot where millions of the little blood-sucking vampires were not swarming and salivating at the thought of biting my exposed behind. Fed up and about to burst into tears of frustration, I jumped in the lake as a last resort, not realizing that standing water is a favourite hang out for mosquitoes. I spent the rest of the morning sitting by the blazing hot fire in the blazing hot sun, wearing jeans and a hooded sweatshirt drenched in Deep Woods Off, in an effort to prevent any new additions to my hundreds of bites, and vowing that that I would never again expose my sweet, alabaster skin to such abuse. From then on it would be hotels only, or at the very least, camp sites with outhouses!

I really like The View

As much as I would like to strangle Elisabeth Hasselbeck, as much as I shudder to think that a young person like her could be so old fashioned in her super-right-wing-Christian ways, as much as she gets on my nerves, that's how much I enjoy the fact that there is a popular American TV talk show that brings such controversial issues to the table as the Evolution/Creation in Education debate for discussion among the women from all generations and viewpoints.

This morning it all started with Elisabeth bringing some fun new toys to the table - a line of biblical action figures now available at Wal Mart! She was excited that such controversial items in our super-PC world would be available at such a mainstream distributor with a history of being extremely picky about their inventory. The fact that anyone should be taking moral cues from a monster such as Wal Mart is another story altogether, as is the question of whether or not Elisabeth would be opposed to any other religious characters being introduced into the edu-tainment industry.

I'm just happy that an open dialogue about these kinds of things is being televised into the homes of middle-America and I hope that everyone watching is intelligent enough to take all viewpoints into consideration and perhaps even understand the difference between personal beliefs and facts, ie the important separation between church and state. I also wonder whether the Jesus Campers have a cardboard cutout of Elisabeth that they bow to at the altar like they did with GW.

Jesus Camp is still my favourite movie.