Has anyone here had a lucid dream?

Apparantly you can condition yourself to become aware that you're dreaming, and subsequently control the dream world. So far, whenever I've realised I'm dreaming, I've woken up straight away.

I've been reading this:

http://www.wikihow.com/Lucid-Dream

and this:

I'm trying the dot on the hand thing, I really hope it works.

So if you have been able to, is it because you tried, or did it just happen? How much were you able to control before you woke up?