By Dennis Lee
I'm thinking in bed,
Cause I can't get out
Till I learn how to think
What I'm thinking about;
What I'm thinking about
Is a person to be--
A sort of a person
Who feels like me.
I might still be Alice,
Excepting I'm not.
And Snoopy is super,
But not when it's hot;
I couldn't be Piglet,
I don't think I'm Pooh,
I know I'm not Daddy
And I can't be you.
My breakfast is waiting.
My clothes are all out,
But what was that thing
I was thinking about?
I'll never get up
If I lie here all day;
But I still haven't thought,
So I'll just have to stay.
If I was a Grinch
I expect I would know.
But I don't think so.
There's so many people
I don't seem to be--
I guess I'll just have to
Get up and be me.
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Had a much less exciting day than yesterday...had to go to the mall to exchange a gift, didn't have trouble parking, the lines were a bit on the long side but overall not as crazy as I feared, and I got to have bourbon chicken for lunch so not a terrible morning. In the afternoon I wrote a review of "The Royale", and it's just as well this episode came up just before a holiday when no one is reading retro Star Trek reviews anyway because there's almost nothing to say about it beyond "Wow, that was silly!" I was more excited by the news that penguin sketches by Robert F. Scott and Ernest Shackleton have been discovered in a Cambridge University basement!
We had dinner with my parents, who are going to my sister's over Christmas since her kids have no school and they can get in the bonding time they missed over Chanukah. Then we came home and watched Doctor Who, a.k.a. Enemy Within, a.k.a. the Eighth Doctor movie, and I loved it so much more than I was expecting even though I love Paul McGann from Horatio Hornblower -- I was never a Doctor fan growing up and no one told me how much I would love Grace, and the American setting amused me because of course he'd visit places on this side of Earth. Though I do have a bunch of questions, of which the biggest is, how come Grace and Chang aren't immortal if the TARDIS brought them back the way they brought Jack back? And is the Doctor joking when he says he's half-human or are we supposed to take that as canon, since everything in later canon would seem to contradict it? Most importantly...I always figured this movie must be when Gallifrey got destroyed, but it seems to have been alive and well -- is there canon in the novels or elsewhere about what happened to turn Nine into someone so alone?
These are some of the old timepieces at the United States Naval Observatory -- a ship's chronometer and hourglass.
This astronomical clock was made by Robert Molyneux and purchased by the Navy for Lt. Gillis's observational expedition to Chile in 1850. Now it is keeping Eastern Standard Time.
The railroads used to run on US Naval Observatory time, and various companies that wanted to advertise their punctuality adopted the trend of claiming the same.
Here is the official clock of the United States. This computer compiles the information produced by the atomic clocks...
...that are kept in this room: four hydrogen, nineteen cesium, if I remember correctly.
Apparently if you fire single hydrogen atoms at the same spot enough times, they'll leave a hole!
I don't remember exactly what this computer does vis-a-vis the others and I know the photo is hopelessly blurry, but we were making Time Lord and Master jokes when we found out there is a US Director of Time, hence the photo had to be included.
Friday Fiver: yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
1. If you could change your name, what would it be? I could change my name; if I had a perfect one in mind I'd do it rather than writing about it in a meme.
2. What is the worst name someone has called you? Jolly Green Midget, my nickname in elementary school.
3. If you could meet someone famous, who would it be? George Bush, so I could give him a piece of my mind.
4. How do you like to travel home? With someone else driving.
5. What kind of phone do you have? A T-Mobile MDA.
The Friday Five: Christmas Five
1. What is your fave thing about Christmas? Celtic holiday music concerts.
2. Did you believe in Santa Clause? If so, what was the best gift from him? This is the actual spelling of the question in the comm. I did not ever believe in Santa Claus, being Jewish, but I've received many great clauses in my time, particularly in run-on sentences.
3. Do you have a Christmas Tree? Ribbon, Angel, Star or ______ on Top? No, no, no, no and no.
4. Best stocking stuffer you got? My husband's grandmother used to send me handmade ornaments so I wouldn't feel left out when we were at his family's house for Christmas. She made me a needlepoint star.
5. Wishing for a White Christmas? Not really, since we're hoping to go to Mount Vernon and I'd rather not be stuck in the house.
Fannish 5: What were your five favorite things about your fandom(s) in 2007?
For purposes of brevity I'm going with Harry Potter as "my fandom." Some spoilers ensue.
1. The closure of canon with the publication of the last book.
2. Immediate fannish denial of the closure of canon and the contents of the last book, not to mention the fact that the writer could not simply leave canon closed but felt compelled to keep adding details left out of the books.
3. My favorite character "died" without leaving a body or any other evidence that he is, in fact, actually dead. It's like an invitation to write fan fiction.
4. My other favorite character: Alive, well, devoted to his wife and son, still hot (and according to the author not a homophobe).
5. The fifth movie was better than the fourth, my favorite of all but the third.
Winter arrives in an hour or so. Enjoy it!
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