Saturday, March 06, 2010

Poem for Saturday and Blossoms

Life Is But a Dream
By Lewis Carroll


Boat, beneath a sunny sky
Lingering onward dreamily
In an evening of July--

Children three that nestle near,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Pleased a simple tale to hear--

Long has paled that sunny sky;
Echoes fade and memories die;
Autumn frosts have slain July.

Still she haunts me, phantomwise,
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.

Children yet, the tale to hear,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Lovingly shall nestle near.

In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die;

Ever drifting down the stream--
Lingering in the golden gleam--
Life, what is it but a dream?

--------

The bulk of my Friday morning was taken up with writing a review of one of Star Trek: The Next Generation's few true stinkers, "The Quality of Life", a dreadfully written pro-life allegory with sexist dialogue piled on top of over-the-top, out-of-character behavior by most of the regulars. (I am really glad Troi is largely absent and Riker largely makes sense, because Data -- and to a lesser degree Picard and LaForge -- are huge disappointments.) The bulk of my Friday afternoon was taken up with picking up Adam from school and driving to his yearly checkup, where he had to get two immunization boosters plus the H1N1 vaccine, which means his day sucked much more than mine. (He is now five inches taller than me and finally a few pounds heavier too, heh.)

The bulk of my Friday evening was taken up with dinner with my parents, which began late because Daniel called from the Metro to tell us that he had returned from the DC robotics regional and needed a ride home just after we arrived at their house. (The carnivores had hamburgers, the vegetarians had excellent Chinese not-chicken from Whole Foods.) The bulk of my Friday night was taken up with watching the Disney Alice in Wonderland, because we are going to see the Tim Burton version on the Maryland Science Center's IMAX screen in Baltimore on Sunday and wanted to watch this one first. (It's as disjointed and on weed as ever, no rival for the book despite some lovely animation, but I never realized before that the Cheshire Cat is played by Winnie the Pooh and the Mad Hatter is played by Tigger, so that was fun.) Here are some final photos from the US Botanic Garden a couple of weeks ago:















And here is Jon Stewart's Chatroulette piece from last night with Katie Couric, Diane Sawyer, Keith Olbermann, Brian Williams, plus Jason Jones playing Wii Butter Churn -- completely not safe for work or young children!

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