Dreams are just fudged up reality. Is it correct? One of my best friend given me this subject. She just passed it as a thought for me, but I was long time wishing to write about it; write about dream. I am not believing, it is a fudged up reality; but it is some messages to us or strong feelings of inner mind comes as picture or some recent experience that lies in our declarative / episodic memory, while sleeping.

Let's start with sleep. I heard about sleep, if a person can sleep well without any disturbance by himself (except dream), he / she is one of the luckiest person. As we know sleep has different stages. It mainly divided into two distinct states known as non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM) and rapid eye movement sleep (REM). These two states occur in a roughly 90 minute cycle, which is repeated 5 to 6 times at night and include four stages of NREM and REM. Stage 1 sleep is experienced as falling into sleep and is a transition stage between wake and sleep. Stage 2 sleep follows stage 1 sleep and is the "baseline" of sleep. Stage 3 and 4 or Delta sleep, is the "deepest" stage of sleep (not REM) and the most restorative. It is delta sleep that a sleep deprived person's brain craves the first and foremost. Stage 5 sleep -- REM (Rapid Eye Movement Sleep): a very active stage of sleep, because if one is to watch a person in this stage, their eyes are moving rapidly about.

So, what time the dream happens? As I said earlier, sleep has different stages and mostly from stage 5 we are going to stage 2. In this stage the dream happens. Our brain becomes so activated that we start to hallucinate and have what we call dreams. Our eyes move down to mid-line, just as in wakefulness, and they begin to move sporadically, many times in relation to what we are dreaming. In effect, we are a highly activated brain in a paralyzed body. This paradoxical state will last 10-20 minutes and then we "fall" back down into stage 2 again.

Each person has different kind of experience in the dream. But each person are dreaming in different way. If your dream is from declarative memories, people with amnesia shouldn't dream at all, or at-least dream differently than others do. But remember, people with amnesia can retain the information in their memory for very few minutes or called temporarily. It's no wonder that dreams are so illogical and full of discontinuity. But for me, what I dreamt are the messages for me and most of them are becoming practical now-a-days. Still I can remember, one of my dream was very strong, and it was a repetition of the day's activity. Some of the actions, stuck in our memory, without our knowledge; in short can say about dream. When we are in the stage of REM sleep, the brain refreshes the content of this memory cells and it becomes flash as looks like in a screen.

It's a cool and lovely, romantic climate now. Rain.. that always drops some romantic feelings on my mind. It's raining since yesterday evening and I was on a drive to Ampang for "Crab dinner", even though it was heavy traffic. Wow, it was nice to me, and after the crab lunch at Kuala Selangor on November, in association with the trip of HP Photography Club, I was enjoying this very much. Oh! forgot to tell.. I got second prize on the last quarter Photography competition. Surprisingly, it was took on my old Kodak Digicam. I never expected, I would be the winner for the last quarter event. That made me too much pride. (:P). This time, I really procured a DSLR, Olympus with 2 lens kit. Hmm... this time, my first work out on the DSLR at office... I don't know how it is going to be come out.

After a good drive ( I love to drive, doesn't matter how long) and a good, lovely dinner; expected there won't be any more rains in the morning. But, morning was heavy shower. My aunty asked me, how you all are going to do the model shooting. I have a positive attitude. I said, we will make it indoor. Well.. the mean time, my friend too called up. How the program going to be conducted? I said, let's go to office and see. Can be make it as indoor shoot, till the rain stops. It was supposed to be conducted at KL Lake garden. We planned everything for that. But the rain hit a crucial play on this. Hmm.. models.. Don't worry, we have enough models in HP :). Since, rain played its role; the whole GCM came to know, some program was going on here; and they seen lovely chicks and lots of men surround them with their gear and kits. The security played his role there. He just wanted to shine there, that's it. He brought the "No photography" sign board and was threatening us. We know, nothing will happen; since we have permission to take the snaps there. Later managed to took him out with his role. We were the King on the lobby with our gear... ha ha ha...

Surprisingly, this time, everybody came on right time; except our beloved co-ordinator :D . And the models; as soon as they reached, started dressing up and makeup. That itself takes too much time; especially to girls. Men.. they only need touch up. What else? We started to put up our gear and was started to take the before section. Since indoor, I haven't had my flash for the DSLR. I mean, external flash. But my fellow colleagues helped me and I too tried some tricks to make good snaps. Hmm.. I have to improve my skills with lights. But, not bad as a beginner. I got very good snaps.

See the pics... Modelshoot

This year, as per Chinese Lunar Calendar, is Rat year, which is also known by its former name Wu Zi. There are 12 animal names; so by this system, year names are re-cycled every 12 years. This is Year 4706 by Chinese Calendar. Rat, which holds a place of honor as the first creature in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese lunar calendar. Actual Chinese New Year celebration will last for 15days. The initial day start with family get-together and such things. Later on many activities.