I need a stiff drink

I probably won't get one, though.

Today had two highlights. One was my Information Search & Retrieval or something like that class. The teacher is Scottish, so I like to listen to her talk. Only it turns out that for about 45 seconds I was dead asleep in my chair with my chin on my chest. So embarassing, but it was in the afternoon and the room was hot, okay?

Anyway, after the lecture we had our practical, which was called "Meet the Reference Section." Did you know that it's possible to find answers to things without using Google? Crazy. Anyway, she gave us this list of questions and a hint of the books we might find the answers in, and sent us to it. For your reading pleasure, here they are:

1. Who is 8th in line of succession to the British throne?
2. What is a eutrophic lake?
3. How many stories high is the Empire State Building?
4. With which design movement is Charles Rennie Macintosh associated?
5. What are the particular characteristics of the Irish bagpipe?
6. What is the origin of the phrase 'to get the sack'?
7. What is the address of the National Library of the Czech Republic?
8. What is pegmatite? Is it a laundry aid, a new type of glue, or a kind of rock?
9. When did the volcano Popocatepetl last erupt?
10. What is a 'little gentleman in black velvet' and how did one kill a king?

And because I worked hard to get these stinking answers, you're going to get them too:

1. Lady Louise Windsor, daughter of Prince Edward. Only I'm confused as to why she isn't HRH Princess Louise, like Prince Andrew's daughters are. What's that about?
2. It's a lake w/a high concentration of dissolved nutrients or minerals, which leads to excessive algae, which leads to lack of oxygen, which leads to the fish dying. Sad.
3. 102 stories. So don't lean over the edge, kids.
4. Art Nouveau, and the book I found this in (The Design Encyclopedia) is awesome.
5. The only difference between the Irish bagpipe and the Scottish bagpipe is that the Irish one has a single tenor drone instead of a pair. There--now that won't be driving you crazy next time you hear an Irish bagpipe.
6. This is from 17th-century France, when the boss would hand a fired workman the sack that he normally kept his tools in, and that was his signal to hit the road and use his sack somewhere else.
7. The address is Klementinum 190, 110-01, Praha 1. Remember that.
8. It's a rock. Hard to care much about rocks.
9. 2004.
10. A mole. King William III's horse tripped on a molehill & the king eventually died from the injuries. So all the people who hated the king drank toasts to the "little gentleman in black velvet." You must keep in mind, though, that these people were likely drunk by this point.

So, there you have it! I now know where to find the answer to any question! Maybe you should as me a question every now and then to keep my skills sharp or something, with the rule that I can't use the Internet.

Highlight #2 was my first night of Concert Band (out of) Practice. I spent the first 30 minutes thinking, "Oh my sweet mother of pearl. What was I even thinking? I can't do this! They're all gonna laugh at me!" Turns out it's been 8 years since I've sight-read anything, and I can totally tell. Plus it was all this really fast complicated music and the lighting in the room wasn't that great so it was hard to even see some of the runs, much less play them. Plus there were about 10 million flutes there, so we were all out of tune and didn't know what the heck we were doing, except for the ones who did, who kept shooting fearful glances back at the rest of us & then at each other.

But then it slowly started getting better, and I started enjoying myself and not worrying so much. Turns out the director does all the hard stuff in the beginning, because the regional competition is next month in Northampton, and then we get to play fun stuff like Christmas songs and show tunes and things for the rest of the year.

So I think I'll go back next week, heaven help me. And I'll be getting copies of the music so I can practice the crap out of it without anyone else hearing the mistakes and the blue language and the sounds of my flute being thrown out the window. Maybe I'll even go to the student union next week after practice and get a nice Sprite or something while everyone else drinks, since that seems to be a very important part of the Concert Band Experience, or something. Also it turns out I'm supposed to give them 28 quid, which I guess I will also do so that I can be a Band Geek again.

Posted in: England