The Point of Dreaming

Lately, I've been having incredibly strange and very vivid dreams. Now, for most people this would be weird, I suppose, as anyone I've ever asked always admits to having bland dreams, if they dream at all.

I admit, I have browsed through books with titles like "The Meaning of Dreams," which list items or circumstances you could dream about and what they really mean. I even have one on my shelf. Whether they are true or not, I have received criticism for reading these books, much less owning them. I have been told that it isn't "Christian" to read these books, and that they are like perusing the horoscope section. I can see where that idea could spring from, and I suppose there are better things I could be reading, but at the same time I wonder why, in the Bible, it says that people have dreams in which God speaks to them. Or they dream about things that tell them where to go or what to do next.

What changed between the times when the Bible was written and now? I would say that it is okay to interpret your dreams if you do it under the direction of the Holy Spirit, but how do you know when it is God and not your own ideas? I have even heard that some people, for example the Muslims, come to Christ through dreams, instead of through missionaries or other more "conventional" ways - these are people who have never heard of Christianity. That, to me, is a pretty powerful indication that dreams are useful for something - that they mean something, at least some of them do.

But how do I know which ones are blazing signs and which ones are nothing but my brain firing off randomly? Or are they all important? Anyone out there have any ideas? Or is there anyone out there at all?

Thoughts pertaining to the misadventures of Desmond Miles, or why I am (possibly) leaving Assassin's Creed 1 unfinished.

Okay. I admit it. I am a noob. A total, idiotic, inept noob.

Whew. Good to get that off my chest.

Seriously though. I need to finish this game. I've been playing for what, two years??? And now the second one's out, and we all love Italy. I want to go to Italy. I'm tired of Acre. Jerusalem is pretty, but there are too many guards. Damascus is too hot looking. I want the cool air of a different part of the Mediterranean on my pixeled, mannified face.

Why haven't I finished this thing yet? Oh yeah.

I got tired of doing the same thing over and over again for each target. "Talk to this guy, follow this guy, steal this map, etc." NINE TIMES. That got really old. Yeah, good thing I was only doing the bare three per target for the last three missions. Skip those informer ones. Ugh. "Hurry, I dropped these flags. Go pick them up. Oh, and while you're at it, these people were chasing me. Kill them too." Hmph.

I was tired of hunting down those stupid flags too. I know they weren't necessary to finish the game or anything, but hey, on the 360 they give you these lovely little things called achievements, and those have points, and that makes you cooler when you have points. And we all want to be cooler. Except when it has you running around the middle east looking for about five hundred little pieces of cloth hidden in nooks and crannies. That's not cool at all. Oh look, there's one on the top of that cathedral. Hrm. Nah. I'll go this way instead.

*drowning* Okay. It is apparently against the laws of nature to be able to exist in water in this game. Must I die every time I come near a seawall or dock or boat? Even fountains manage to kill me if I fall in them. Turns out those warning labels depicting people drowning in buckets aren't so far-fetched.

*two hours later, after attempting the same fight for the seventy-third time (yes I counted)* I am not very good at combat in general (come to think of it, this sad fact spans across almost the entirety of my gaming experience) and when I am not running for my life I am dying. Usually outnumbered and surrounded by about twenty guards. This particular battle is extraordinarily difficult. To me.

The thought that millions of people managed to finish the battle, and finish the game keeps nagging at the back of my mind. Cody finished the game. If he can do it, I can, right?

Actually, no. There are lots of things Cody can do that I can't. Finishing this game, obviously, being one of them. For the first time in my life, I found myself crying over a game. How hard should this be? I mean, come on. It's just a game. There has to be a way.

Restart. Block. Dodge. Counter. Dodge. Cou-oops. Apparently there are some strikes that cannot be countered. Ouch. There are some that can't be blocked either. And now six of them are hitting me at once. Yay.

Oh look. I'm dead again.

Sorry, Robert de Salle. I won't be killing you today. In fact, I don't think I will ever be killing you.

You see, I have this thing called the strategy guide, and while it is pretty useless in telling me how to defeat you, it gives me the general gist in what happens if I theoretically manage to remove your evil deeds from the world.

Actually, it only sort of tells me. Apparently the folks at Prima believe in this thing called spoilers. Hrmph. Well I have the interwebs, and they will not lie to me.

Oh my.

Erm.

Yeah. Part of me wants to finish now. Just to see if this is all true.

But I can't.

Robert de Stupid and his armored goons won't let me.

Now for the big question - to let wounded, beaten, exhausted, stubborn dogs lie? Or to keep beating all those horses I killed plowing through roadside patrols?

Now I know why there is this huge pillar set up for girls who are actually GOOD at games to stand on and be worshiped by all basement-dwelling males. And also why there's that whole pile of charnel at the bottom where they throw the girls who aren't good at games in so they can laugh at them and use them as basis for stereotypes like .... like... ugh. I can't say it. You know what I mean.

I'm just going to go lie back down now and contribute to the idea that girls can't play games.