Dream - The computer message board, and what lay beyond
On Friday, December 12, 2008, probably around 1:00-3:30 AM, I had a dream about seeing an odd message on a message board, and then my mind going through it, through the computer and through the system to the computers on the other side.
In the dream, I was looking at a message board that had a white screen, with the messages in a box centered in the screen. I came across a thread, a set of messages, that was different. The box was different and was missing some columns, and the very top edge of it was cut off by a line separating it from a site/message board logo/title area at the top of the screen. Looking at the thread's only message, I deduced that it must be the first message from a new user, although the column showing the post count was missing and some things must have been left off when the user created the post, causing some glitches in the software.
I think I was going to reply to it, commenting on the situation rather than the message contents, but I ran into some trouble of some kind. I tried to go back to the original message, maybe just hitting the Back key on the browser to do so, and the screen came up showing the box for the thread but with a default colored background in the box, with the box having blue and gray diagonal smears across it instead of just the normal blank white background, and no thread contents.
I think I tried to hit the Back key again and seemed to get physically lost in the computer system on the other side, seeing and being physically present at a big aluminum cast or machined cooling fin array mixed with other things. It was so large that it seemed industrial, roomsize, but it may have just been because of my perspective. I was getting worried about things falling further apart, and I seemed to be falling further into darkness and the deeper innards of the massive computer system on the other side.
Falling deeper into it, I saw a tall refrigerator-size panel that said "Cray" on it. Evidently they used Cray supercomputers. I pressed the Esc key on my keyboard, maybe a few times. I was essentially operating blind on my keyboard, though sometimes I could see a little of it, or get a sense of it. I think I may have come back briefly to the computer screen showing the default background in the thread box, and then I was in a darkened room with various things and equipment in it, and a little boy was standing in approximately the center, apparently in front of a camera and pulling up and holding in front of him a big piece of cloth or perhaps very large sweatshirt, with just his head sticking up over it. The cloth/sweatshirt had printed on it the thread box, though apparently an empty messageless one, but without the colored background. This seemed to be a last-ditch attempt to provide a proper image, since the equipment itself seemed unable to do it.
Then I was back at my computer, which was on a table, perhaps a card table, in a large room that seemed more industrial, like possibly a garage, maybe even a commercial garage. My brother had come in and I called him over to see what they were doing, laughing a bit about it. I think the image on my screen still showed the colored background. Evidently the picture on the cloth hadn't made its way through yet, but I wanted to show my brother the little boy holding up the cloth anyway, and I drew my brother back into the computer system with me to show it to him. The little boy was there as before, finishing pulling up the cloth with the image, trying to straighten or smooth out the edges. I think someone was off somewhere in a darker area several feet to the side this time, to his left and a little to the front, maybe a girl around the same age, and they were talking a little bit about what was happening.
In the dream, I was looking at a message board that had a white screen, with the messages in a box centered in the screen. I came across a thread, a set of messages, that was different. The box was different and was missing some columns, and the very top edge of it was cut off by a line separating it from a site/message board logo/title area at the top of the screen. Looking at the thread's only message, I deduced that it must be the first message from a new user, although the column showing the post count was missing and some things must have been left off when the user created the post, causing some glitches in the software.
I think I was going to reply to it, commenting on the situation rather than the message contents, but I ran into some trouble of some kind. I tried to go back to the original message, maybe just hitting the Back key on the browser to do so, and the screen came up showing the box for the thread but with a default colored background in the box, with the box having blue and gray diagonal smears across it instead of just the normal blank white background, and no thread contents.
I think I tried to hit the Back key again and seemed to get physically lost in the computer system on the other side, seeing and being physically present at a big aluminum cast or machined cooling fin array mixed with other things. It was so large that it seemed industrial, roomsize, but it may have just been because of my perspective. I was getting worried about things falling further apart, and I seemed to be falling further into darkness and the deeper innards of the massive computer system on the other side.
Falling deeper into it, I saw a tall refrigerator-size panel that said "Cray" on it. Evidently they used Cray supercomputers. I pressed the Esc key on my keyboard, maybe a few times. I was essentially operating blind on my keyboard, though sometimes I could see a little of it, or get a sense of it. I think I may have come back briefly to the computer screen showing the default background in the thread box, and then I was in a darkened room with various things and equipment in it, and a little boy was standing in approximately the center, apparently in front of a camera and pulling up and holding in front of him a big piece of cloth or perhaps very large sweatshirt, with just his head sticking up over it. The cloth/sweatshirt had printed on it the thread box, though apparently an empty messageless one, but without the colored background. This seemed to be a last-ditch attempt to provide a proper image, since the equipment itself seemed unable to do it.
Then I was back at my computer, which was on a table, perhaps a card table, in a large room that seemed more industrial, like possibly a garage, maybe even a commercial garage. My brother had come in and I called him over to see what they were doing, laughing a bit about it. I think the image on my screen still showed the colored background. Evidently the picture on the cloth hadn't made its way through yet, but I wanted to show my brother the little boy holding up the cloth anyway, and I drew my brother back into the computer system with me to show it to him. The little boy was there as before, finishing pulling up the cloth with the image, trying to straighten or smooth out the edges. I think someone was off somewhere in a darker area several feet to the side this time, to his left and a little to the front, maybe a girl around the same age, and they were talking a little bit about what was happening.
posted by Stephen at 10/01/2009 02:48:00 AM
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