There are so many amazing resources on the internet; somehow, every time I come across another one, I'm surprised and delighted all over again.

Over on Ask MetaFilter, someone was asking about filmed versions of Macbeth, and one of my favorite folks at MetaFilter, The Wrong Kind of Cheese, posted a great answer:

I was letting my random iTunes playlist randomly pick songs for me, as I like to do, and suddenly I heard a Barenaked Ladies song I'd never heard before: "Conventioneers."

(It's not that uncommon for me to get a great new CD and copy it into iTunes and then not actually listen to the whole thing, instead just waiting for songs to turn up in my playlist.)

I love Kij Johnson's writing. I first read At the mouth of the river of bees, and then I asked for and got The River Bank for my birthday. She writes wonderful stories, and she writes them beautifully. "26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss" is simply amazing, perfectly crafted and deeply surprising and delighting.

And every now and then I remember she has blog-like things and various bits of online presence, and I go check to see what she's been up to.

I've been watching reruns of Cheers lately, and I've been repeatedly surprised and delighted by the guest stars and character actors; some are early appearances by actors who have a few years to go before their big break, others are Broadway actors making occasional TV appearances.

I have a collection of bird calls in my iTunes library (the Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs), and I love to include those tracks in my random playlists.

The other day I was listening to some songs, and the recording of king eiders and common eiders came up.

It was fabulous.

The recordings at Cornell Lab's All About Birds aren't quite the same, but they're still wonderful:

A few months ago, I launched the first few pages of my latest website, The Democracy Habit. In the midst of a constant flood of terrible news about the country and the new administration, I wanted to share info and encouragement with folks who might not have developed a habit of contacting their representatives or speaking up in our democracy.

I grew up learning - mostly in social studies classes - that we should participate in our democracy.

Ask a Manager is one of my favorite sites these days; I love the experience and compassion in Alison Green's answers.

Over at Ask MetaFilter, LionIndex located a wonderful quote:

I was so lucky to get to see the latest Wim Wenders film recently: Perfect Days.

I love Wings of Desire,  and so many of his other films are on my list, especially Alice in the Cities.

But I'd seen the trailer for Perfect Days, and I was really looking forward to it.

I just loved it.

As with so many things I love, it inspired me to go find out more about some of the things it showed me - for example:

Like a lot of people, I'm alarmed and disgusted by the illegal actions and general contempt of the current US government.

When I get worried about something, apparently one way I cope is building websites.

My latest is The Democracy Habit. It serves two purposes (always a bad idea, but an apt reflection of my diverse interests):