Lets post something interesting, as if someone was reading this...

Yeah, I know, not many people read this. Less comment. I get whiny in it at times. Meh. Snu.

So, here's something a little interesting. How much of today's "popular" fiction, that is the fictional stories, scripts, plots, game ideas, and ideas in general, start off with a dream? I mean a real dream. Fell asleep and saw images in your head, dream.

I can honestly say, about 50% of the things I come up with are from my remembered dreams. I'm sure there's other dreams equally good that I don't recall, but they're locked in my subconscious somewhere, being accessed but not directly. Quietly influencing my likes and conscious imaginings. At least I really hope I have more dreams, I'll be seriously depressed if I know I hardly dream at all.

But, I'm really curious about this subject. We extol and praise creators of fictional stories and likewise for having amazing imaginations, for putting it all together, but how much of that was brought to life without a conscious effort? I'm not saying that makes the creations any less works of art, I'm just really pondering. How much do dreams affect our everything?

For example, H. P. Lovecraft's work (notably the Cthulhu mythos) was largely influenced directly by his night terrors. Bad dreams that he didn't wake up from as clearly as many others do. These things he dreamed, that he imagined without meaning to, later on became a great work of horror stories. These stories went on to inspire others, sometimes even into "starhood." These stars of today's horror creation (stories, movies, etc.), drew inspiration from a man's stories, which drew inspiration from his bad dreams. All this, all these ideas, all this fandom, from a series of dreams.

Lovecraft's example is surely not the first, definitely not the last, and scarcely the only one. I hope to someday follow this example. As such, I'm starting a dream log. It will be on a different blog (probably my old LiveJournal account), where I'll post every detail I can remember from my dreams, when I remember them. I've long wanted to write more fiction based on my (night) dreams, nightmares, and daydreams, and it's about time I started doing something about that.

Reinvoking the Gaming Spirit

So lately I've just been hit by the major urge to game, even more! I've been playing Aion more lately (as I wait for the next round of beta tests on City of Heroes - more on that later), and actually enjoying it without feeling a grind or stressed over repetition. I canceled my subscription for Warhammer Online, as I wasn't playing it anymore and the people I rejoined to play along with weren't really available much anymore, so there went the play time. I still play City of Heroes, and one of the newest powersets to come out for playing is really exciting, a "Wanted" style version of wielding dual pistols. Complete with cheesy (and shiny!) effects. Now before I'm tagged as a hypocrite (because I hated Wanted, although that may have just been because of Angelina Jolie), let me state that the movie was put into a "realistic" setting, with all the physics-breaking nonsense gun-play. City of Heroes/Villains is intentionally supposed to be housing cheesy, unreal, laws-of-physics breaking, just-about-anything-goes type stuff. "Curve the bullet!" works in that setting, not in the movie's.

But just when you thought I had enough as I vest my free time into 2 separate MMO's (I'm neglecting Guild Wars, but it has no sub fee so whatever), I'm starting to debate over whether to get a Playstation 3, or an Xbox 360. I have friends voicing their opinions on both sides of the arguement. Blu-ray versus more co-op, stability vs. slightly better graphics, Cheaper to upgrade hard-drive vs. more co-op. Well.. it's just easier to highlight the pro's and con's of each here::

Playstation 3

1. Blu-ray player
2. It has Demon's Souls, Infamous, Heavy Rain, God of War 3, and the better version of Silent Hill: Homecoming
   
3. Free network
4. Internet ready right out of the box
5. Easy and cheap to upgrade hard drive
6. It has the better controllers
7. I have friends also with a PS3
8. It makes me want to try MSG4 and Siren: Blood Curse
   

Xbox 360

1. High-def (but not Blu-ray, still top graphics though)
2. Cheap network with more people on it (more co-op)
3. It has Crackdown, un-bugged Bayonetta, Saints Row, Dead Rising, maybe Gears of War 2.
   
4. I seem to have more friends who play on XBL than PS3
5. More co-op.

It's 8 to 5, technically, but the extra co-op makes for a larger point in itself. Thus, I am stuck. The other games I'm interested in are available on either platform so they're not part of the equation. I could afford both but it would be a shame because I know in the end one system will get more play than the other, instead of being a 50/50 split.

It... It's a really tough decision. I might end up getting both the way it's looking. Hopefully if I do that, I'll be able to keep the usage near-even. Even amid the MMO playing on the computer. Wow I'll have a lot to play...