Am I the only one that Blogger is denying access to permalinks? I'm trying to post a link to Duane's blog but alas, no luck.

C'mon Google, quit eating your non-dairy cheese blitzes and get to work on this problem!

(thanks to Sir Stoddart for the link).

It appears that the Eight of Spades has surrendered. It should be interesting what he has to say now that Saddam's regime is toppled. Aziz (to my knowledge) is the lone Christian in Hussein's cabinet and I think his story would be fascinating to hear. I would love to hear his justification for standing idly by while thousands of his own citizens were tortured and killed in the name of Hussein's regime. The only answer for that, I would imagine, would be fear for he and his family's lives. He made his bed though by joining the revolutionary Baath party in the '50's. Live by the sword and all that, y'know...

It'll also be interesting to see what will happen to him now that the U.S. has him in custody. Maybe he and Bushie will start a Bible study together.

Heh...Here's one more for Alanis to howl about. Apparently, about 60 University of Wisconsin accounting students were busted for cheating on their exams. They were supposed to work individually but ended up completing the test in groups.

The irony: The instructor allowed them to take the test home so that they could attend a presentation given by Sherron Watkins, the Enron whistleblower.

All together now: "IT'S LIKE RAY-I-AYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYN ON YOUR WEDDING DAY..."

I suppose I should interpret the dream lest misinterpretations arise...

For those of you interested, my company has recently informed me that my job is being phased out. I, however, will have a job with all of my benefits, pay and schedule. This job is a return to something that I have done before, but found it to be less than pleasing. I'm thankful however that I'll be retaining a job and not joining the poor souls in the unemployment line.

Nonetheless, it is a step backwards in terms of job responsibilities and duties and so naturally I feel that I'm kind of taking a hit in my professional career.

The other thing is the stress I feel at school. There are new responsibilities and reports every week with no breaks and yadda yadda. I'm also taking a bit of a hit in this new class. The comparison essay is not flowing the way the other ones normally do. But I know that these things can be and will be handled without a problem.

So I admit that I feel inadequate both professionaly and intellectually, both areas that normally I felt quite competent in. That and the fear of letting down my wife, family and friends. Thus me being inadequate on the stage for all to see. The only difference is, and this is the first time this has happened in my dream, is that this time I ran away. That really isn't like me and I think that is why I woke up with such a feeling of sincere disappointment.

Anyway for what its worth just chalk it up to the subconcious ramblings of a man's wounded pride. And please be in prayer for me to locate another job.

Weird dream last night, thought I'd tell you about it...

Somehow, I have secured the lead in a modern day "rock" opera of Romeo and Juliet. Karlene is the costume designer (I think) and various other friends are the cast and crew. Apparently its opening night and I have the great misfortune of not knowing any of the songs or dialogue (apparantly all of the songs are like cheesy Sesame Street kids raps, though it is not supposed to be geared for children). There are celebrities in the audience and all of my friends are backstage wishing me luck. I don't have the heart or courage to tell anyone that I have no idea what I'm doing, saying or singing. So I pull Karlene aside and explain to her that I dont know any of my lines, cues or songs. I tell her that she's going to have to get my understudy to go on, because there's no way I can perform tonight. "But they're all here to see you Bob," she explains, "The kids are all counting on you for this performance."

I apologize vehemently and with tears in my eyes, I sneak out of the backstage door and make my way to the theater snack bar for a gin martini.

Oh it gets better! It's showtime, the lights dim (I'm able to see and hear everything from the snack bar), and someone comes to the stage, grabs a microphone and announces the following:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the role of Romeo will not be performed by Rob Chapa," A gasp comes from the audience as the speaker sneers, "Apparently, two months of rehearsals were not enough for him to learn his part". At this point, a chorus of the loudest boos you have ever heard erupt from the audience. "What's more, Mr. Chapa has decided to sneak out of the theater instead of telling us directly," (more boos), "so if you happen to see him, make sure you give a big thank you to him from the cast and crew, for all his hard work and dedication. A chant of "Coward" rises from the audience and resonates through the building.

I down the rest of my martini and decide to leave the theater before the effigy burning begins. I get in my car (BMW G4, the dream just had to get better I suppose), and peel out of the parking lot, blubbering like a baby.

At that point I wake up, with a very profound feeling of disappointment. I hate it when the emotions felt from bad dreams carry over into real life, making it near impossible to go back to sleep. Nevertheless, sleep found me and it was peaceful for the rest of the night.

All you closet Josephs and Daniels out there, save your breath, I know exactly what the dream was about. I just thought I'd share it with you.

As Karly has already written, Friday was Sea World day. Manatees, Orcas, and Dolphins, oh my. I never knew looking at sea life and getting breadsticks stolen off your plate by ambitious sea gulls could be so expensive ($160 for all of us). We do get a yearly pass though with our 1 day admission, so it was probably worth it.

Best part for me was feeding the dolphins, I loves me some dolphins. I don't know why or where this love came from, but I'm pretty sure sitting around summer days, eating ham sandwiches non-stop and watching back to back episodes of Flipper on the local channel had something to do with it. Once in a while the two hour movie would air, y'know the one where a bunch of sharks infest the waters, and Flipper singlehandedly kicks all of their butts by whacking their ribcage with his super-strong beak. Hells yeah, freakin' respect, baby!

I was thinking, as I tried to fight seagulls off of my overpriced meal, that Sea World should give a $2-3 refund from the obscene ticket prices for every seagull you can bag. I know that I'm good for at least 20, 30 if I can bring weapons. Sadly, however they search you pretty good before you go in the fun park. Y'know, just in case Abdul McBoxcutter tries to blow up the Manatee exhibit I guess.

I think I'm getting too old for fun parks though, I nearly dozed off on a toilet...we'll just stop with the story right there.

It's been a busy week, with very little time to post so apologies are made to all two of my readers for not producing the voluminous quality you have come to love and expect. I'll try to do better, scouts honor.

I managed to survive the Pop Culture class and am now refining my writing skills in Com 101. It's not a bad refresher course, diagramming senences, subject/predicate, subect, verb, direct object, indirect object, all that fun stuff that I normally take for granted. The instructor of the course is the spittin' image of Dabney Coleman (my mutant power is to find the celebrity twin of everyday people, by the way) and he seems to not have prepared well for the class. He forgot to assign some work in the first week, and we spent the first hour of the second class copying the corrections down off of the overhead projector.

Now I know many of you are coughing *diploma mill* at this point but trust me, I would've gotten them all wrong anyway.

The first written assignment for our class, to my relief, was to compose a narrative. A quick scan of the archives of the blog and, voila, my first assignment, signed, sealed, delivered. Now we have to do a comparison essay. I was thinking about Machen vs. Fosdick (for all you presby bloggers out there), but I don't think that time will permit me to do the research necessary, I guess I'll end up doing Lion Voltron vs. Car Voltron...we'll see.

"Electros rule the dance floor now, sucka!"