21 years ago today

Keep the Dream Alive
© 1986, 2003 Stephen Savitzky.

In the year of Nineteen Eighty Six, 
On an icy winter's day
The shuttle Challenger left the pad
And started on her way
The shuttle Challenger lifted off
With seven brave women and men 
In flames they died just ten miles high, 
And never came home again.

    Never came home again,
    In flames they died just ten miles high
    And never came home again.

And seventeen years later
Nearly forty miles high,
Columbia's wreckage wrote a line
Of fire across the sky
But long before the jetstream blew
Her trail of smoke away
We saw that it  marked a highway
We would travel again some day.

    (2003--02--01)

So never say that they died in vain
Nor stay on the ground afraid,
The stars are one step closer now
Because of the price we've paid.
And mourn for the shuttles that fly no more,
And weep for the friends we've lost,
But to leave the Earth will still be worth
Whatever it has to cost.

And fire no guns in last salute
But let the rockets roar,
And reach for the wide and starry sky
As Challenger did before.
And raise no earthbound slab of stone, 
To mark the place they lie,
But write their names with a shuttle's flames,
Ten miles in the sky.

And here's a toast to the shuttle crews
Who died for the dream of space
And all the pioneers who have
The sky for a resting place.
No grave nor tombstone do they need,
For their memory will survive
As long as we fly beyond the sky
And keep the dream alive.

    Keep the dream alive,
    As long as we fly beyond the sky
    And keep the dream alive.

    Keep the dream alive,
    Let the shuttles fly beyond the sky
    And keep the dream alive.

[ogg file] [Wikipedia article]

I could get used to this

It took me a little longer than I expected to move my motherboard and disks from its previous home in an Antec 2650 case to the new P150, but it was well worth it. The new case is nearly silent, except for a slight (and surprisingly high-pitched) whine. I'm impressed.

I've owned lots of Antec cases; this is by far the quietest. (Not quite the simplest to install hardware in; that honor probably goes to the 2650. It is pretty easy to work on, though.) And, as I said, quiet. This one's currently being shared between the office and the bedroom recording studio; I'll have to get another when I upgrade the office box, which is not only noisy but broken at the moment. I swiped half-a-gig of RAM from it to bring the recording box up to a full gig.

Wine, women, and song!

Well, two out of three, anyway. We went to San Francisco this afternoon to see the Lamplighters' production of Franz Lehar's The Merry Widow. It was stunningly beautiful -- the singing, the costumes, the music, even the choreography. I could have sworn the choreographer had at least a nodding acquaintance with folk dance, but she was there and said she didn't. She'd done her homework, though; the dances in the second act were a mix of actual Eastern European folk dance steps. The waltzing was a treat, especially after the fun I had at GAFilk waltzing with jenkitty and cflute.

And the music! Gods, the music! There are times when I really don't mind earworms. "Vilja" was just freaking gorgeous.

And we saw the last performance of this run, so you'll just have to wait til the next time they do it. Nyeah!