Memorable Quote

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Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was on television yesterday, as many other bloggers have pointed out. Thus I present a poem briefly quoted by Wonka towards the end of the film:

We are the music-makers,
And the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams;
Yet we are the movers and the shakers
Of the world forever, it seems.

– Arthur O’Shaughnessy, Ode

There’s more to this poem, and it’s highly suggested reading. Beautiful poetry.

In Other News

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“Then about an hour later, Ben Folds […] called me and asked me if I would perform on stage with him…. I asked Ben if he would be interested in producing a record with me. He said yes, so we’re going into the studio together in the spring and will assemble the record together.”

– William Shatner (link from Jerry Kindall)

At The End Of The Year

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The Mayfly Project 2002: Summing up my year in twenty words or less.

That’s not an easy task. Displacement, family, isolation. Self-love, friends and others. New job, income, no traveling. Start fresh again.

Now for my New Years Resolutions, which I haven’t thought out until now. I resolve to continue to be true to myself and to my friends. I resolve to try to be more tolerant of others. I resolve to be forgiving of others, but also of myself. I resolve to love more. I resolve to stop old habits. I resolve to keep in touch with my friends better. I resolve to be the master of my own destiny.

There. That wasn’t so difficult. Check back with me in 365 days.

The Band of Dans

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I just got back from seeing They Might Be Giants play live for the first time in several years. I haven’t been following them much since the last time I saw them. That last time was a New Year’s Eve concert in New York and to put it kindly, the band was a little off. Tonight’s concert was a completely different experience.

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Suspicious

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Conspicuously missing from Google’s holiday doodles is a December 26 drawing of the creatures (strangely all woodland animals, except for the duck-billed penguin (bio-engineering in Antarctica?)), feverishly mowing over other woodland creatures in the Woodland Creature Mall with scowling expressions in an attempt to return and/or exchange the gifts that didn’t quite meet their expectations.

Christmas Time Is Here

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I’m in Toms River and it’s snowing. I’m kind of surprised because I figured out here by the shore it wouldn’t be cold enough to snow.

I finished exchanging presents with Denise this morning. I think she was happy with everything she received in the last two days. I am, as well. Today and yesterday I received a CD/MP3 player, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More With Feeling script and songbook, a new pocketwatch, tickets to a They Might Be Giants concert this weekend to which everyone’s apparently already going, cologne, several DVDs including the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings “gift set” (including the bookends), some books, and some CDs. I’m sure I’m forgetting a few things at the moment, but more of Denise’s relatives just arrived so I should go be social.