Subject: My answers! + Questions of my own
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Posted on: 2016-05-26 04:19:00 UTC

Do you read/write while listening to music? If you do, do you read/write with a specific genre?
Never while I'm reading (see the question about books and hallucination; I often do the same thing while listening to music and my mind picks one to focus on), unless the story mentions a song which I don't know well, in which case I'll look it up and listen to it while or before I read the next passage. While writing, sometimes but not usually; it's a bit distracting. At the very least, the music seeps into what I'm writing. Sometimes one of my characters will actually listen to, sing, or dance to the song I'm listening to (e.g. every story I wrote in middle school). So I tend not to listen to music, unless I badly need inspiration (e.g. the horror story I wrote while listening to Metallica's "Master of Puppets" on repeat. It has the same mood as the song, and some of the same phrasing as the lyrics).

However, I need a certain level of ambient noise in order to focus on writing, so if I'm home alone I'll put on hard rock, heavy metal, or anything loud and energetic with lyrics that are unintelligible or don't create a world I can get distracted by (Rammstein's my current favorite thanks to TOS. And yes, Jay, I know there are other German metal bands in the world, but most of the other ones I like have lyrics I know well).

When you read a book, do you pretty much fully hallucinate (can't think of a better word) and forget that you're reading a book? (Like, you don't realize you're reading words. You just have the pictures in your head)
Sometimes this happens, yes. Pictures and these pseudo-sound things which don't sound like sounds or the memory of sounds, they're just the sounds thoughts makes in my mind (there are textures that work the same way. Also mimic-emotions that are shadows of what the characters are feeling. Taste and smell are less common). And not just when I'm reading a book, it also happens when I'm writing, when I'm texting or otherwise sending messages, when I'm thinking about something (although in a less orderly way), and even when I'm listening to music or talking on the phone (just pictures, no reading-sounds). Because of this, I like watching movies or other kinds of video/animation much less than other media: I can't see my own images or my thought-sounds, so I sometimes get the unnerving impression that I'm not thinking, like my mind is turned down, even when I'm thinking very hard to follow the plot or the themes.

Do you dream in color?
Yes, and in all five senses, although I remember sight the best.

Do you remember your dreams?
Yes, but not very well or with any consistency. I remember them better if I write them down, mime writing them down in the air, or otherwise repeat key points to myself.

Do you have recurring dreams?
No. I've dreamed that I have recurring dreams, though. I had one dream where I thought I knew what was going to happen because I'd had the dream before and therefore could control it, but when I woke up I realized I'd never had the dream before and had zero control.

Sometimes I have recurring characters in my dreams, though, all boys. (Girls are either me, generic, or one-time. I'm sure I've had dreams where I didn't have a gender, but if something is missing in my dreams, I don't notice it at all and in my memory default to whatever generic is for that thing.) The most notable of these was a series of three dreams when I was about nine years old where I was this superhero guy. He had that standard superhero tight-fitting suit (which never itched, for some reason; I bet that was one of his superpowers) and cape, both red. Over the course of the dreams I learned that he had many enemies, my same little sister, and a girlfriend named Rebecca. The worldbuilding was decent, but the plots were pretty pointless -- much like my writing in fourth grade, come to think of it.

When doing social things, do you sometimes need a break?
Only if I'm doing social things for really long periods of time or if it's early in the morning. I definitely need time to myself, but I don't usually need to interrupt socializing to do so. I think of myself as a mild introvert or an ambivert, although personality quizzes often tell me I'm more extroverted (I hate personality quizzes; I'm not sure why I take them).

Which school subjects come easily to you?
Math, Spanish (my foreign language), and Acting. History isn't easy, but it's fun, so I work on it in my spare time, so when I get to class it seems like it's coming pretty easily. English (writing, analysis) is the same as history, but it comes a little easier than history (or else I've worked on it more in the past; I can't tell at this point). Visual art is the opposite: it comes easily to me, but I have almost no interest in it, so my drawing style is almost exactly the same as it was in sixth grade, the last year when Art classes were mandatory. Science used to come easily when it was just about analysis and basically structured the same way as history, but now it's also about understanding all these weird processes and that part only comes sort of okay. It'll probably be even worse next year when I take Biology. Music is in the middle. P.E. is dead last. Socializing (which I was graded on in elementary school and still think of as a subject) used to be dead last, but I've (laboriously) developed some habits that make it more natural and even enjoyable.

My Questions for You All
Do you ever dream you're someone other than yourself?
Do you ever dream you're a gender other than your own?

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