Children's Crusade

In light of not having anything more interesting to talk about a lot of the time, I've decided that this blog will be home to some of my dreams. The ones I can remember and don't involve having sex with anyone who reads it anyway.


Last night:

kids at a pool, middle school age. boys and girls both, lots of them, enough to fill the pool almost completely. they're not swimming or anything and i'm one of the kids. i'm asking everyone why they're not doing anything, what are they afraid of, what's wrong with them. suddenly, the police come in and want to talk to some of us, mostly the boys. they capture some of us, but some run off and they give chase. they take about ten boys and chain them together, handcuffed at the wrist. one female cop starts to handcuff me, with two others standing nearby. i'm shouting at them to tell us what we've done wrong and why we're being arrested. they ignore me. the female cop isn't being quick with the handcuffs and isn't reading me my miranda rights. i ask her why not and tell her she should. if she doesn't read them to me by the time she gets the handcuffs on, that's illegal. she gives up, can't seem to figure out the handcuffs. she gives me over to her captain, so i start shouting to him, telling him i haven't been read my miranda rights. he ignores it at first until the handcuffs are almost on, then i say again that what they're doing is illegal without reading me my rights. he stops and it suddenly dawns on him and he says, 'that is illegal', but doesn't read them anyway. i say, 'yeah, it is illegal, you know how i know? because i'm fucking intelligent!" he handcuffs me and starts to lead me away. out a glass door and into a school hallway we go, with the ten chained boys about thirty feet ahead. i see the boys suddenly start to slink away, pulling their small hands through the handcuffs and leaving the cops holding a long chain of empty handcuffs. they run and the cops give chase. i wiggle my own hands out and run down a side hallway and back through the pool room. the kids who weren't arrested are still there, talking in the pool. they see me and say, 'here we go again'. i ignore them and run past.

the rest of the dream takes on a running commentary about this police crackdown on half a dozen school kids for unknown reasons. i hear a news broadcast. for the next few days, the kids who got away in the first 'raid' are on the run and the subject of a huge manhunt. some of the broadcasters sympathize with the police, calling the kids delinquents and runaways, some of them sympathize with the kids, saying they're trying to get home and don't have a reason for why they're being sought.

i see a girl, middle school age but older than she looks. she's running between buildings, alleyways near the school. there are plants and bushes to hide in and she's darting from place to place, trying not to be seen. there are windows everywhere in the buildings, so she can't stop for very long. she comes to the end of a long alleyway and finds a corner in one of the buildings. she crouches behind an air conditioning unit and against the L corner of the building. she can see the road from where she is, but she's hidden in shadow and bush. she rests there for a moment, panting heavily, catching her breath. a police car cruises by. she seems to be in the suburbs; there are homes everywhere. another police car cruises by, slowly. suddenly, there are trucks on the streets all around her, being escorted by intimidating police cruisers and swat vans. the trucks have city sanitation decals on them and some of them are equipped with the green recycling cages on the back. the convoy of trucks nearest her passes by with a police cruiser following behind moving backwards, keeping up speed with the trucks. the police man driving it goes too far off the road trying to drive backwards, so overcompensates the other way and ends up having to turn around. when he does turn around, it causes the cruiser behind him to stop for a minute to turn his wheel towards where the girl is hiding. he casually looks over to her, catches her slightest movement and accelerates over to block her escape. as soon as she catches his eye, she darts up and between the buildings. she knows they're right behind her on foot. she runs out into the road, not bothering to look both ways, and towards the sidewalk on the other side. she dodges one officer who is trying to intercept her and the another fires a taser at her. she avoids the taser, but know she's going to be hit. she charges the officer with the taser and grabs the officers wrist, bending her arm up towards her face. the officer grapples with her and fires the taser once more... into his neck. the girl turns and runs, dodging another officer on the sidewalk.

Aperture!

I finally realized what it is and how to change it properly. Sort of pathetic, seeing as I've had my camera for around eight months now. All it took was a 90 second tutorial on youtube. Maybe I should become bored out of my mind more often. It's the only time I think to learn anything.

With my newfound knowledge, I left for downtown Greenville and spent an hour or so taking repetitive pictures with different settings and times. It was a learning experience and there was an enormous improvement over the night pictures I took while in Myrtle Beach. I took quite a few photos of churches downtown, of which there is no shortage. For such a devout atheist, I seem to gravitate towards religious imagery pretty regularly.








































Predictably, I was stopped by the "man" about thirty minutes or so into my foray. I was taking pictures of the Academy St. bridge when I saw a cruiser speeding towards me, two lanes opposite my sidewalk. The flashing light on the camera caught his attention and he zoomed across to me, pulling up alongside. I waved to him and was about to ask him what the trouble was when he nodded and saw that I was taking pictures.

"I saw your light and thought you might be trying to flag me down."
"Nope, just taking some pictures," I responded, knowing that wouldn't be the end of it.
He almost started to pull away but suddenly stopped again and leaned towards me, "Hey, have you-"
His radio cut him off, but all I heard was, "...suspect last seen wearing..."

"Have you heard anything that sounded like gunshots?"


I'd heard what sounded like a car backfire about ten minutes before, so I told him this and pointed him in the direction of St. Mary's Catholic Church. He nodded graciously, gave me a hearty thank you and then zoomed off in that direction.


Even if all my pictures sucked, I can sleep well knowing I aided in the capture of a dangerous villain.