Star Wars Dream

A Star Wars dream is the pinnacle of dreams to remember in my book. Here is my dream from last night as best I can remember.

Obi-Wan is on board the Death Star and is somewhat friendly but cautious about the leadership. At some point, he realizes that Tarkin isn't just a politician but is evil and they fight and Obi-wan runs.

Now he is trying to escape the station. He has a group of friends including Han Solo and some other faces I recognized but can't remember. They are hanging out in the cafeteria dressed as Imperial officers.

Obi-wan sneaks through the Death Star and enters an office area and sneaks through the cubicles (these are like you'd see in any modern-day office). He will need a distraction to escape and communicates with his friends to be ready.

I (or my avatar in the dream) am following behind him, crouching through the cubicles.

He encounters a small teaching pod where the teacher is showing something incorrect (related to Christmas and different names for the holiday) so he corrects her and talks with the kids. Another teacher recognizes him after a while due to the security bulletins, so we must move on.

Cut to the distraction. Han Solo and friends are having a firefight in the cafeteria. Everyone is bouncing around shooting lasers and using the metal food trays to block the blaster fire. They are remarkably effective but every time they are hit it makes a loud clanging noise.

Cut to myself outside the movie watching it with some people. I remark that that they should make the Stormtrooper armor out of the trays, and could you imagine being inside that and being hit. It would be effective but extremely noisy. The people I'm laughing about this with are my Uncle Drake and then my dad.

Cut back to the movie. Obi-wan passes by the cafeteria observing the firefight and moves into the gift shop where there are 3 children looking around. I remember that these children had been cast and people were doubting their acting ability. They seem fine. After a brief time, they break into song and dance. It’s not a horrible routine.

We move on, and there's another room and now others are singing and we're in a full blown Star Wars musical and it's just awful. They ruined a movie that started off great.

Then I woke up and went over all this in my head multiple times before going back to sleep so I could remember it and share it with you.

Imperial Metrics

Be the change you want to see in our country.
In elementary school in the 80s, I was told I had to learn the metric system because the US would be switching over to it soon. Well nearly 40 years later, we still use the same random collection of measurement schemes and non-sensical conversions.
So I've finally gotten fed up. A couple weeks ago, I switched my phone, car, computer, and home thermostats over to metric. It's a bit of a learning curve for what a comfortable temperature is, but I'm adjusting and soon it will be second nature. And just today, Kathryne switched her phone temperature to Celsius. 1 down, 370 million more to go.


One person at a time. One measurement at a time. We can become the change we want to see... for the metric system. That's all I'm talking about. No other message here. 🧐😏😉

Matt's Hypothesis of Lost Things

When you lose an item and have looked everywhere for it (including the last place you looked) but just can't find it, if you will simply purchase a replacement item you are guaranteed to find the item within the next week.

2 3DS XLs = 6DSXXLs?

Exhibit A: We now have 2 Nintendo 3DS XLs, because Santa brought a game that Nathan wanted with the guarantee that we had the 3DS already. Come Christmas morning, we couldn't find the 3DS anywhere. After looking around for a week, I decided to just buy a new one (used, at a pawn shop). Fast forward to cleaning out the garage 5 days later, I open the only box in the garage that I hadn't opened in the last week and what do I find? Now we have 2 Nintendo 3DS XLs.

Now we can really fight over the volume

Exhibit B: The TV remote had been missing for weeks. We had to use the app on our phones. We looked under everything and in all the chair/couch cracks and cushions. I finally decide to buy a replacement and order one from Amazon. Less than an 4 hours after ordering, I stick my hand down in a chair cushion and come back out with the remote. The previous one had already shipped. So now we have 2 TV remotes. Always good to have a spare.

Matt's Corollary of Lost Things: The more times you invoke MHoLT, the shorter the time between repurchase and finding.* **

*More data is needed to determine the exact shape the the curve.
**Rather than the number of times, it might be related to the cost of the item.
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Lift Up Your Eyes

Most days in the afternoon, I take our 2 dogs, Lulabel and Angel, on a walk around the neighborhood. We usually go 1 ½ - 2 miles. About ½ way through, my right leg usually starts to go crazy. It feels tight in places and sometimes like it’s dangling loose. Sometimes I can adjust my gait or stop and stretch. Sometimes I just push through till it passes.

Lulabel and Angel walking by the creek

Today I noticed that I was staring down at the ground in front of me as I walked and fixated on the pain. I thought maybe I could just ignore it, and maybe if I looked up at the trees and sky, I could take my mind off of it by thinking of bigger things. An odd thing happened. As I lifted my eyes, my head followed, as did my back, rotating my hips, and relieving the pain in my leg. I looked around at the sky and trees and tried to think about bigger things than just each step.

Over the course of the walk, my eyes would drift down to the sidewalk, and I had to consciously raise them again. Each time, as my posture adjusted, I’d feel more at ease. What I had thought might be a mental solution to pushing through the pain by concentrating on the bigger picture, turned out to have a direct physical impact.

Feel free to draw your own life lessons outside of proper posture on a simple walk. But if you’re struggling with pain, it might not hurt to lift up your eyes.