Blue_Opossum

Morning of March 23, 2015. Monday.



My wife Zsuzsanna and I are in a car in an unknown metropolitan region, though it could be Brisbane. I believe she is driving though the scene is not rendered that fully or clearly - it is more like we are moving along within a light mist that is only implying travel by car. She is relating to me how a (unknown) younger female was caught sending stolen precious gems in the mail (diamonds, emeralds, amethysts, and rubies - which I become aware makes the acronym “dear”). Apparently, my wife is required to sit with other people and take some sort of government-related tests. The location and the building is all unfamiliar.

There are perhaps a dozen people in the large room sparsely seated at several tables. Although the scene does not really have that much of a scholastic setting or mood, I become aware that the people are working on one-page third grade math tests for the most part. This has to do with some sort of government-related assessment to see the potential of certain individuals in society. It seems that each test for each person is slightly different (possibly so that people cannot copy another person’s answer). Mostly, there are one to two-digit addition problems and a few multiplication problems. Most of the people are over thirty and seem to be quite challenged by (seemingly at first) third grade math. Every now and then I notice something different, such as something that resembles a “Wishing Well” newspaper feature. I am not involved in any testing - I am only there for my wife due to complete distrust of mainstream authority.

At one point, I notice that Zsuzsanna is sleeping on a table on her side due to the stressful environment. I walk to the other side of the room and talk with an older wealthy-looking lady working on a test. She seems over fifty. I tell her that I know that it is (generic) third grade math because of my long-term experience with teaching K12 mathematics (though mostly based on combined international standards). At this point, however, I do see a long division problem on her page where the divisor is three numbers. However, I notice that the dividend area is not a complete number and to the right of the digits that are visible is a long black bar filling out the rest of the area under the long division symbol. I tell the older lady that this is not “real” mathematics and that some additional seemingly simple equations cannot resolve to decimal values (even though they are implied to), suspecting that something is “wrong”, yet I do not become lucid at these impossible math tasks though which still can apparently be answered “correctly” (that is, without the “no solution” option). I get the impression that some test questions may be in octal, by which such as four plus four would then correctly equal ten. I contemplate that the government could easily trick people by not stating what base system is being used - thus playing on the general public’s ignorance of higher mathematics and thus no one would pass, which irritates me somewhat (even though the tests really did seem to be at primary level earlier on). (Looking back at this entry and including additional pertinent notes, I consider that it may vaguely have been inspired by a similar scene from “The Flintstones” from 1994, concerning the whole math test scenario.)

From here, I walk across the room and see Zsuzsanna sitting in an armchair and another (unknown) female is on her right and other females are standing. It seems to be a smaller open room off the main room. At first I think she may be ill and I see “blood” she may have coughed up, but it turns out that she has a bowl of tomato soup on her lap and the other female has a different type of soup, possibly celery.

On the other side of the main room, I start talking to someone (also in an armchair) who turns out to be a very young version of Don Knotts (deceased February 24, 2006). Another male on his left is also seated and seems to be a young Jack Gilford (deceased June 4, 1990). I am only slightly aware that they may be ghosts. Our conversation is very cheerful and friendly and with respect. I notice that other people are looking at me oddly as they apparently cannot see the two males I am conversing with, which I confirm by directly asking them if they see either of the two other males and their general response implies that they do not. In fact, Jack plays a prank on one unknown girl by somehow pulling her belt off so that her pants fall down. However, this seems ambiguous because she is immediately wearing different clothes. (The scene was likely due to a brief association with Simon Hunt, also known as Pauline Pantsdown, an Australian satirist). Later, I notice that a large television is on (to the right and against the wall from where we are). Jack makes some sort of comment regarding how he cannot understand what people are saying in movies anymore. There is something about Harvey Keitel being in the (unknown) movie. Earlier, there had been the sighting of a Barbara Mandrell album (odd, because I know very little about her and have not seen anything about her in over twenty years that I recall). There is some sort of confusion about the name in it being more like “(Barbara) Mandel” which shifts to “Harvey Mandel” (an American guitarist) in confusion with Harvey Keitel. “Mandel” may actually be a subtle play on “Mandelbrot” here.