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).

Last weekend was was one of my personal holidays - the annual Big Book Sale put on by the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.

I like to go on the final Sunday, which is dollar day - every book is a buck.

Past years, I've sometimes hovered around the $200 mark, which is a lot of books if you live in an already-book-filled apartment.

I had a chance to visit the Hungry i exhibit at the San Francisco Performing Arts Library and Museum recently. I really like the PALM - I saw "Kronos at 30" and "Maestro!," and I really wanted to see "In Character - Actors Acting." It's one of those terrific, almost hidden treasures you find in great cities like San Francisco.

The audio and video stations had some real finds - terrific songs, many by artists I'd never heard of, like Stan Wilson.

I stopped going to the movies a few years ago. Sure, I made exceptions for the Lord of the Rings movies, but for everything else, I've had no problem waiting for things to come out on DVD.

Going to the movies had become unfun.

The commercials were the worst - up until the phenomenally annoying MPAA propaganda bits; between those and the ads, I spent the first half of every movie in a state of profound annoyance. Mix in the cell phones ringing, the rude people talking throughout the film, and the prices, and I found the whole thing unpleasant.

Wow - I am really enjoying this book.

I've been a fan of Andy Hertzfeld since the early days of the Macintosh, and it's great to see the roles he plays in this story, and to get acquainted with Mitch Kapor, someone I hadn't known much about. (I love that Lotus was named for the lotus plant, a nod toward Buddhism.)