01-16-03 @ 11:25 am EST

(Hey look! It's a normal entry! I wonder if any negatory people will stick around to read THIS and see what I USUALLY post in my journal...? Dare I hope...? Will they have anything positive to add...? Nah...)

I found this neat little download that changes image files to ASCII art. That's art using only keystrokes--letters, dashes, etc. Coolness! I remember that one of the very first things I ever saw online, back in 1996-7 in college, was ASCII art based on characters from The Lion King, and I thought that was SO awesome. Sorry for all the Eighties-Speak here. I took a picture of my brother and Rayne--my...um...niece, I guess...and converted it for Ma. She was impressed, even if I had a crap of a time getting the stupid printer to work... I still need to fiddle with the dimensions and such a bit, since it seems to cut things off or warp the pictures, so I'm not entirely sure how to work the thing yet. :/ Maybe later.

I had some awful dreams again last night but they've faded by now...I do remember that Ma had converted the dining room into a computer room, and it was a lot more spacious; it was like being in a big cabin at Camp Daggett, I think. (Long story. Remind me sometime to post a Camp Daggett entry, will you? It will be a FUN AND POSITIVE entry!) All wood and windows etc. And there was space for both computers. Mine still sat where it is now, but hers was to the left. I sat at her computer space and the desk seemed high but I really liked that spot, and I told her that I wanted MY computer there, because "it's closer to the TV!" It just made me feel a lot homeyer...um...homier? Whatever.

Then I discovered that I had a pet hamster I'd been forgetting to feed... :( ...why do I keep having that dream? Just a few nights ago I dreamed that suddenly Katchoo was back and I had been forgetting to hold her for a few nights! Her cage appeared in front of the couch and out she jumped, just as spunky as ever. *sigh* Anyway, in THIS dream, I think it was a dwarf hamster...and I had not been feeding it, watering it, or anything for ages, it seemed...it still had some stale food, but it was the water I was worried about. I hastily pulled out its waterbottle and took it to the bathroom to dump out the contents. And...this foul, hideous blackish gooey water came SPEWING out. You seen the "human soup" episode of CSI? THAT was what it looked like. I was so horrified that my hamster could have been dehydrating, or worse yet, could have been DRINKING this filth! I was so ashamed of myself. I immediately started trying to clean out the bottle to refill it, but there was just so much filth coming from it... :(

This reminds me of two things: my "forgotten pet" dreams, of course, and once more, that "Charnel House" dream. Perhaps I feel I'm forgetting an important responsibility, and I do feel I am, several, in fact. Like the corpses in the Charnel House dream, the filth coming from the waterbottle reminds me something I should be confronting, can't help but confront, but it's so unpleasant that I really don't want to. I wish I knew why things keep popping up as they do. It must be important, as my dreams have been so weird and stressful lately.

There was more, but I'm too lazy to bother remembering it.

Well, I'm getting very cold...our thermostat has been acting up nonstop lately, usually when I'm alone...Dad accused me of sabotaging it. **rolls eyes** Whatever! Like I want to sabotage the furnace so I sit here and freeze all day...plus I have to take my sleeping pills now...and work a bit on a Chronicle or so...so...tar, I guess.