Something that’s occasionally mentioned in pop culture is "a happy place". No, this isn’t another reference to the infamous G-Spot or anything. Have you ever seen the movie "Happy Gilmore?" In order to golf good, Adam Sandler’s character has to imagine himself in this paradisiacal setting where his grandmother has wine, his girlfriend is always hankering for sex, and this little midget... sorry, "little person"... is running around with a tricycle or whatever. Basically, it’s an image to put into your head as a means of bringing calm, contentment, happiness, etc.

This illusive "happy place" serves other purposes, I suppose. Today, while hanging out at Spooge’s house, I was listening to some music (Pink Floyd, of course). I closed my eyes to further enjoy the music, something I do quite often. Now, I’m not going to claim that the music brought about a new sensory experience for me... I’ve had this same thing happen to me at numerous other times, the first that I can remember was back at my brother’s wedding... but I quite literally forgot where I was for a few moments. Where did I go?

Okay, after two paragraphs, I finally got down to the what I really intended to start writing about ten hours ago. My "happy place". Well, sort of. This is where I go when I need to calm down. Or, at least, it’s where my mind goes, which is essentially the same thing. Imagine a large tunnel... huge... easily several hundred feet in diameter. It’s generally circular and blue, though it changes forms when the mood sets in; it could be lined with tannish pillars and lined with velvet carpet, or arches with a green mushiness on the floor-area (yes, mushiness... like a big river of cotton). Once the walls were covered with fire and waves of flame were spitting out with a really cool effect that I think was reminiscent of my days of playing Life Force for Nintendo.

In this tunnel, I find myself either piloting or taking the form of some sort of flying vessel. It has a pretty simple engine assembly, with two wings and a forward nose assemblage. Below this vessel is a sort of "box"... it looks like a covered mining cart... and the two are attached by four ropes or cables. This entire vessel is speeding through the tunnels at pretty high speeds The tunnel itself seems set up pretty much at random, with twists and turns that are never the same. Sometimes it goes it huge loops, other times it’s just wavering back and forth or up and down.

Usually I get completely immersed in this "happy place" of mine and everything’s just peachy keen. It’s similar to the podrace scene in Episode I, or the airships in Final Fantasy III (except indoors). But there are times when I feel like I want control of the tunnel (strangely, I never take control of the vessel), and this often leads to new patterns in the tunnel curvature. But, unfortunately, it also leads to a complete loss of control, as the vessel will often tumble through the walls of the tunnel (it’s non-corporeal, reminding me of Tron). I’d try to get the vessel back into the tunnel, which usually causes it to shoot through the other end. This can go on for a few moments until everything stops, gets back on track, and continues on.

And every now and then, there are little thingies flying through the tunnel... sort of like those After Dark Toasters, except they were usually just random shapes. That’s just a random thought to go along with the rest of these random thoughts.