Susan’s comment hit a nerve… enough to make me want to change my personal goal. As this seems to be a challenge about habits, then breaking probably my worst habit seems like a good shout. (Not that exercise isn’t an important habit, but blah blah something something rest days.) So I’d like to change my personal goal to be: No mindless phone browsing while watching TV.
This is gonna be tough. 
To be explicit about my waking life personal goal - i’ll claim the points for each day I don’t read ld4all or do any other non-work related web surfing.
Am I right in thinking we start this coming Saturday?
I don’t know what the effect giving up the Internet for the challenge will be. It’s possible the effect on my sleep will be that I have no recall at all. If that happens, I’ll take that as an interesting experimental result, and won’t be disappointed about getting a low score in the challenge.
yes, we will start this saturday 
anyone who would like to join between now and then is welcome 
even if you are not up for the lucid dream workshopping part or getting a high score, you can still help us with our group goal to find a certain amount of a certain every day object in our dreams!
Week 1: The Great Library
the challenge begins! if you havent signed up yet, you have until the end of the day, as points will start to count tomorrow.
the theme of this challenge is The Great Library. here is where our story begins:
[spoiler]you find yourself walking down a narrow entranceway toward a door. the light is dim, but you can just make out the sign on the door that says:
LIBRARY
this sounds like the right place to be, so you reach out and grab the rough bronze handle, and with a small tug the door creaks open and light streams into the entryway. you take a moment to adjust to the light and then enter a majestic room with light falling in dusty columns from high arching windows. the walls are lined with shelves upon shelves of…
you blink. the shelves are empty?
“ah”, says a voice. “welcome, welcome to the great library!”
you turn to see an old librarian, clearly a librarian from head to toe, from glasses to sensible tweed jacket. she bustles out from behind a desk and clasps her hands in worry. “only… you are a little early; we dont open for another three weeks.”
“um”, you begin. “sorry for the bother, ill come back another time, maybe once you get the books in.” you turn to go.
“yes, yes”, the librarian says, and you hear her hesitate. you turn back. “about that…” she begins. “you wouldnt happen to have any?”
“books?”
“yes, books. we, ah… seem to be in short supply.”
“i dont have any on me,” you reply.
“oh, of course, no, so sorry to bother. im sure we will find some by opening, its only a matter of time…” she trails off.
“you mean you don’t have any books? any at all?”
“well we have some books.” she huffs, and then hesitates again. “…two. we have two books.” she gestures to a low shelf by the entrance that you hadnt noticed coming in. two books are prominently displayed on book stands. you walk forward and the light gleams against the gold foil lettering on one of the books. you recognize something in the title.
“theres The Book of LD4all on the left”, says the librarian. “mighty good reference book, if you had to have only one.”
you step toward the other book, with the blank cover, and pick it up. it feels pleasant in your hands.
“and that one there is a bit of a nuisance”, the librarian continues. “you see, we dont know what it is because no one…”
you open up the book and are surprised to see your name on the inside cover.
“because… no one… can open it”, the librarian finishes, and then stares.
you flip through the book. it appears to be a journal and planner. each day is marked out with a checklist and some writing space. the back section of the book is filled with pristine, unused sticker sheets. there are little gold stars, smileys, trophies, and more. you flip back to the beginning and turn to the first planner page. You read the date at the top:
Sunday, August 18, 2019
“thats tomorrow!” you exclaim. you notice the librarian has sidled over and is looking at the book over your shoulder. her eyes go wide.
“oh! but this all makes sense now!” for the first time you see her smile, and she claps her hands in glee. “yes, the library is saved! or, it will be.”
“it is?” you ask.
“yes. and you are the one who is going to do it,” she says, punctuating her words with a gesture. “its all very simple. this is a dream library, we need dream books, and you my friend are a dreamer! you dream the books, and i collect them here. this is going to work!” she nearly bounces with excitement. “imagine if we had just a few dozen books by opening… that would be respectable enough! even a dozen books would be something!"
“how do i dream a book?”
“well, there are two ways. you can dream them from the outside, just by seeing a book in a dream. or you can dream them from the inside, by being part of the story.”
“that sounds easy enough. a lot of my dreams are like stories”, you think out loud.
“it has to be specific, though”, she says. “its easy enough to collect the dream book for the library if the dream is about a specific real book. not just any dream can be collected for the library. but if we focus on a certain section of the library, i can collect any dream that fits. say, the science fiction section.”
“why science fiction?”
“because”, she grabs the Book of LD4all and gingerly opens the tome to a recent page. “the current quest! see, read this.” she holds the book in front of you.
you read the heading of the page out loud. “LD4all quest 129: aug-sept: pause time!”
“yes! see?” she says, snatching the book back. “pause time! very scifi. if you can do that, i can definitely get a book out of it for the library.”
“ok, what about other scifi things? robots? spaceships?”
“yes and yes, and aliens and superhero power suits. yes, this is the perfect place to start! now get out that log book, because if we are going to have a few dozen books by opening day then we are going to need you to be in top dreaming form!”[/spoiler]
The Great Library: Week 1: Science Fiction
its time to get back into shape to lucid dream, and fortunately the great library has provided you with a log book. in addition to writing your dreams, you can also keep track of the points youve earned for other things on a day to day basis.
this weeks special challenges are:
find a robot, alien, superhero, or spaceship in a nonlucid or lucid dream (each thing can be found once per person, many in one day is fine)
find a book in a nonlucid or lucid dream (you can contribute one per day. dream journals dont count because the library already has it.)
dream a science fiction dream (this is in addition to, and separate from, finding any of the four scifi objects. you can also contribute one per day.)
actively use a piece of futuristic scifi technology, in a lucid or nonlucid dream (can be done once total)
actively using a piece of technology means you arent just along for the ride in a spaceship, but are piloting the ship. you arent just talking to a robot, but programming the robot and giving it orders. it will be up to your judgement whether you think you have earned the points for this and any other challenge item.
here is a recap of the points you can earn:
[spoiler]1 point items:
dj entry
3 minute meditation (yep, just 3 minutes! you can do it!)
reality check upon waking (must be soon enough after waking that you are confident you would catch a false awakening)
your chosen 2nd reality check (decide in advance where else in your day or routine a reality check would be useful, and stick with it for all 3 weeks)
your chosen personal goal for waking life (decide in advance something you want to change about your daily habits that would support LDing)
find a robot, alien, superhero, or spaceship in a nonlucid or lucid dream (each thing can be found once per person, many in one day is fine)
find a book in a nonlucid or lucid dream (you can contribute one per day. dream journals dont count because the library already has it.)
dream a science fiction dream (this is in addition to, and separate from, finding any of the four scifi objects)
wonder if you are dreaming, think about lucid dreaming, or think about reality checks, but dont become lucid (once per dream)
2 point items:
short ld (includes just realization)
do a reality check in a dream (you get these points even if you dont become lucid)
3 point items:
medium or long ld (long lds are their own reward!)
actively use a piece of scifi technology, in a lucid or nonlucid dream
dream art
5 point items:
achieve your personal goal in a lucid dream
achieve the current LD4ALL quest 129, which is to pause time
have the longest LD you have had in at least a year
have your first LD[/spoiler]
how to keep your own log book
for this challenge youll be keeping your own log book so you can see at a glance how well you are keeping up good dreaming habits. you can use “stickers” to keep track of points if you like, or use letter abbreviations. they are all worth 1 point so you can use whatever you want, i just find it helpful to keep track of my progress if i use different emoji.
here is a sample week where i write in my dj every morning, remember my morning and personal reality checks sometimes, start out strong with my personal goal but start slacking after a while, see a few books , and have a science fiction dream by the end of the week.
the same log in abbreviation form might start like this:
or you can write it out:
however you want! you can even make a spreadsheet checklist if that is your jam.
and finally, for items with more points you just use more stickers, for example if the next week I start having lucid dreams and other higher point goals, my log book might look like this:
make sure that you post your log regularly here and also tell us about your progress, your dreams, and whatever struggles you may have! you can hide your log book in spoiler tags once it starts getting long. also write your dreams in your personal dream diary thread in the forum, and link them from a post here.
and most importantly, find some books! the library needs you! right now it only has the two books it started with. The Book of LD4all (which, you realize, is open right now!) and your log book:
Books in the Great Library: 
the librarian requests “a few dozen” books. can we reach 36 books by the end of the challenge?
I hope I’m still on time to join!
Reality check place: my garden (I keep on dreaming about flowers…)
Daily goal: sit quietly every day, witnessing sensory perceptions and focusing on the stability of my waking reality (with the aim of transferring the same stability to the dream).
…and as my favourite alien would say on such an occasion: Dream long, and prosper! |/|_
yes, signups are still open for the rest of today (saturday aug 17)
welcome! 
it is good to have a nice round 10 participants! (11 is a good number too, of course)
I get to incubate space dreams for week 1? Lets go! 
Sci-fi book coming right up!
Ok, my Internet detox starts now – see you all in a week.
By a strange co-incidence, I’m going through some stuff in my life right now, so my dreams may be weird for other reasons.
First night wasn’t great, but I’ve fixed my sleep schedule. Tomorrow will be better. I did meditate before sleep at least.
Week 1
Sun - dj, morning rc, meditation
Quite a first night for me: had a dream with SF elements and dreamt of a house full of books. Unfortunately I left them all in the bookshelves… But I stumbled on a brand new copy of the Journal of Medical Anthropology!
[spoiler]Week 1
Sun: dj, morning rc, personal rc, sf dream, book[/spoiler]
congrats Letaali, james, and PremiumOtter for gathering your first points of the challenge, and Le Bateleur for finding us some books! (and making me want to rewatch TNG 
)
everyones log books look great, the librarian is pleased!
Books in the Great Library: 
Oh hey, points on the first day! I’m gonna switch up my format for this challenge since we have those awesome stickers! The claim section will break down the points in more detail.
dj entry
reality check dream a science fiction dream (Dystopian Fallout-like world)
actively use a piece of scifi technology (Voice controlled and secured doors)My “Stats so Far” will also be updated in format. It’ll collapse the stickers to daily entries with no explanation, but will still link directly to the journal entry as well as the claiming post.
Stats so Far:
[spoiler]Week 1: Science Fiction
August 18, Sun:
[/spoiler]
the librarian is pleased with Cornelia Xaos’ meticulous record keeping
“security lock voice encryption!” 
i love dream dialogue.
Books in the Great Library:
No SF for me tonight (where are you, Mon Capitaine?), but collected a new book and had a short LD.
[spoiler]Week 1
Sun: dj, morning rc, personal rc, sf dream, book, meditation, personal goal
Mon: dj, morning rc, meditation, book, rc in a dream, short ld
[/spoiler]
P.S.: Yes Obliverum, TNG is so good, I’m re-watching it ATM (which can definitely help with this challenge!). I love Patrick Stewart, I look forward to seeing him playing Picard again in the new series.
Second day was ok. I meditated and did WBTB, but dreams were fantasy instead of scifi 
I’m not sure if this is how the book task works, but you said I could either see the book, or experience the story inside the book? Well the latter happened as a made up LotR book was narrated to me in a dream. Not sure if that counts for the book task. Interesting story nonetheless. Would love to learn more about the Featherless Crow. DJ link
Edit: Took a nap, used a machine that took me to a game world, completely. So scifi dream and using scifi tech?
[spoiler]Week 1
Sun: 
Mon: 
[/spoiler]