There are a lot of great book recommendation threads on Ask Metafilter, and I have a long list of books highlighted there that sounded interesting. The Control of Nature came up in two or three threads, so I requested it from the library.
Late last night, I got to see the Dog Star.
There was this bright, twinkly object in the sky. It's hard to see the stars sometimes; the fog and the city lights hide them.
But this light was clear - and lovely.
I got my binoculars and stood watching it for a while. I was amazed that such a rainbow could appear in a tiny point.
Thanks to Stellarium, I was able to learn that it was Sirius. (Venus and Regulus were visible, too, a bit further east.)
It was lovely - a moment I want to hang on to, a beauty I want to keep.
I love the Internet.
I popped this into Google:
analyzing pop music structures
The results include a huge glossary from the Society for Music Theory's Popular Music Interest Group and the usual ton of other interesting-looking stuff.
Things timed out well with my consulting clients this year, and I was able to take the ten days or so around Christmas and New Year's off (almost completely - there were a few bits of work to attend to, but not much, thank goodness).
The problem with wanting to learn everything is that everything I learn makes me want to learn more of everything else.
I picked up some paperback Homer, both Odyssey and Iliad, at the big library book sale this year. Then, somewhere, I stumbled across a book called Homeric Moments: Clues to Delight in Reading the Odyssey and the Iliad. (I think I was just poking around in the library's online catalog.)
I really, really enjoyed reading Sue Hubbell's A Book of Bees, so I picked up A Country Year at the library.
I'm about two-thirds of the way through - partway into the "Winter" chapter - and I keep putting off reading more, because I don't want it to end.
Sue is such a lovely writer. Her voice is at once no-nonsense and filled with awe and delighted humility at the wonders of the natural world around her.
I had the great pleasure of seeing Sweeney Todd at ACT this week. It was actually my second time - I was so amazed the first time that I wanted to see it again. I'm glad I did (although I had a better view the first time).