Saturday, February 02, 2008

Poem for Saturday

Sonnet
By John Masefield


Flesh, I have knocked at many a dusty door,
Gone down full many a midnight lane,
Probed in old walls and felt along the floor,
Pressed in blind hope the lighted window-pane,
But useless all, though sometimes when the moon
Was full in heaven and the sea was full,
Along my body's alleys came a tune
Played in the tavern by the Beautiful.
Then for an instant I have felt at point
To find and seize her, whosoe'er she be,
Whether some saint whose glory doth anoint
Those whom she loves, or but a part of me,
Or something that the things not understood
Make for their uses out of flesh and blood.

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Stayed home all day feeling terrible -- I only went out to pick younger son up from school so he didn't have to walk home in the freezing rain, which caused a two-hour delay in opening schools this morning. Wrote a review of "Up the Long Ladder", a Next Gen episode that is really, really not worth rewatching. Read on LiveScience about how all blue-eyed people have a common ancestor, and, because I had just read a review of a book about how parents can prevent their children from intermarrying by Aish HaTorah's Fundamentalist Rabbi Kalman Packouz, my first thought was, gee, obviously some Jew married out (or more to the point, some non-Jew married in) because I know lots of blue-eyed Jews. It sounds like the genetic switch is likely older than Judaism but I get really pissed off when some Reform Jew from Oregon who has now decided that feminism is the scourge of Judaism announces that my parents should have found a way to break up my marriage and marry me off to a proper Jew.

Friday Fiver: The feelings that I feel
1. What are you set on?
If you mean what am I determined to do, it's see the ocean next summer. If you mean what do I have enough of, it's 2008 calendars.
2. What do you have to do right? Teach my kids to express themselves and take care of themselves.
3. Have any kids? Um, yes.
4. Are you patient? Not really. I can wait for good things, but I can't stand being trapped doing something boring or unpleasant.
5. Friday fill-in: I know if I put my mind to it ______. I know if I put my mind to it, I can stop procrastinating.

The Friday Five: Soulmates
1. Do you believe you can have more than one soulmate in life?
Yes.
2. Are you with that soulmate now? One of them, yes. *g*
3. If not, how long did your relationship with your soulmate last? ...
4. Do you still think about your soulmate, if you are not together? ...
5. If you're not together, do you think your soulmate still thinks about you? ...

Fannish5: Name five songs (or whole playlists, if you want to get ambitious) that you associate with particular fictional characters.
1. "Jubilee"
by Mary Chapin Carpenter with Voyager's Kathryn Janeway.
2. "See With Different Eyes" by October Project with Harry Potter's Severus Snape.
3. "Full of Grace" by Sarah McLachlan with The Lord of the Rings's Boromir.
4. "I Miss My Mind" by Russell Crowe with Master & Commander's Jack Aubrey.
And to prove that I suck:
5. "Days Like These" by Janis Ian with Dawson's Creek's Joey Potter.


Degus in the National Zoo small mammal house. I love this photo because it reminds me of our late gerbils Aragorn and Boromir.


They live in rock crevices in the mountains in Peru and Chile.


This is an elephant shrew. They live in Africa and eat insects.


An armadillo. All species are native to the Americas and are actually expanding their range due to a shortage of predators.


The zoo's golden lion tamarins live outdoors in the trees of Rock Creek Park in the summer, but move indoors in the winter when it gets too cold.


Newborn blind mole rats less than 24 hours old!


And an adorable meerkat. (Is Meerkat Manor coming back, or has Animal Planet permanently replaced it with Orangutan Island?)


Had dinner with my parents -- having no sense of smell makes even crab cakes unenthralling (yeah, I know, crab for Shabbat dinner, heh, don't tell Rabbi Packouz), then came home and watched Flash Gordon where I had the very wrong thought that Dale would be much hotter with Flash's mother than Flash himself and wondered whether we're being set up for a second season with Ming's children at war with each other (I'm all for Queen Aura but I don't think we're going to get that yet -- her little matching terrorist beret and coat cracks me up). Rewatched "Harmony" because I so love John with his Spidey sense tingling and Rodney and the Bad Seed bonding. Then watched "Outcast," the episode in which John has the worst best hair ever -- I must admit I didn't enjoy it as much as "Harmony," which scares me, because it implies that I miss Rodney when he's not there, heh (he tried to go to the funeral and they wouldn't let him leave! Awww!)

Spoilers: The sci-fi storyline was pretty predictable until the end, when instead of being Blade Runner it turned into Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Ship in a Bottle" (I wasn't sure until that last scene that the girl knew she wasn't human, I thought she might be Rachael, even through the Battle of the Terminators). Two things totally made the episode for me, though: Rodney complaining to John that there was no fighting in Blades of Glory at the very beginning, and oh man I am SO bummed we don't actually get to see Ronon watching the movie. And Doug Whitter as John's brother! Graham's reaction to John's explanation that he knows Ronon from the Air Force is completely priceless, too. And wow, this is the most I've talked about Dawson's Creek in an entry since the series finale, so I had better shut up.

Have a lovely Imbolc if you celebrate, or a lovely Groundhog Day if it applies!

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