"If you wind up a meeting you finish it; if you wind up a watch, you start it."

[beboots]

"Trying one's best is a good thing, but trying one's patience is a bad thing. A blunt instrument is dull, but a blunt remark is pointed." (seriously, what the hell, English? D: )

A cheerful little story for you guys, also courtesty of Bill Bryson's book "The mother tongue: English and how it got that way": 

Sometimes words are made up for a specific purpose. The U.S. Army in 1974 devised a food called funistrada as a test word during as urvey of soldiers' dietary preferences. Although  no such food existed, funistrada ranked higher in the survey than lima beans and eggplant. Pg. 77.

 

Status report!

I haven't finished either paper (I haven't even opened the file folder for my history one), but I now have 503/1000 words of my French paper written! :D That's better than yesterday... and is, in fact, like halfway done! (Plus editing time, of course, mustn't get ahead of myself...)

I also had my job interview today. It went... all right, I think. I have no idea if I gave a good enough impression or not. I showed up a bare five minutes early, because I parked my car too far away without realizing, then got lost on foot. Googlemaps showed the place to be right in the middle of an intersection when it was, in fact, down by the river valley, like ten minutes walk away. Go technology! :P So the hems of my pants were wet from scrambling through snowdrifts (I didn't have time to run down four blocks to get to the stairs that led down to the river, so climbed down. It wasn't steep, but damn was the snow deep), and my hair was pretty windblown by the end of it.

There were like a dozen of us applicants there. We were interviewed in groups, and while waiting the rest of us did the written portion... which were pretty much scenario questions - like "You are a barker, write your speech to entice people to come to your booth!" (Barkers = also known as those guys who run carnival games and call you over, like "step right up, step right up!") and stuff like that. We also had a group activity... which was my weakpoint. We were split into three groups, and each of us got a period photograph, and from that photo, we had twenty minutes to come up witha skit. It was crazy. I'm not sure I did too well... Ours was a photograph of a 1920s fair at Greenwhich with a hotdog vendor. I think we did okay... but the other groups did much better. :(

I think the interview went well, though. I hope that it will all work out.

On another note, my Habsburg history prof has been trying to encourage us to listen to classical music for the entire semester, telling us amusing stories about various composers - and of course the majority of what he calls "good" composers are from Central Europe. ;) In any case, because my brother was in the next room, chatting, I was like "GAH I need something to listen to... oh hey yeah classical instrumental music is supposed to be good for you to study to, right?" So I've been raiding youtube for awesome songs... and yeah, I've saved a bunch to my delicious. (Check it: http://delicious.com/Beboots/music ) They've really been helping, I think.

So what kind of stories was the good Professor Szabo telling us, about these composers? 
For instance, Heiden wrote the Austrian Imperial Anthem after seeing/hearing a crowd in England sing "God Save the King". He felt so moved that he wanted something like that for his own people. He, as an old man, was in Vienna when it was occupied by Napoleon and his troops. Now, the French really respected Heiden, and so he actually got an honour guard of French soldiers. They were so impressed with him, they requested that Heiden play something for them. Heiden, being a shaky old man by this time, sits down at his harpsicord... and plays the Austrian Imperial Anthem. ;)

Oh snap.  

Comments

[xlirealx.livejournal.com]

Aw, I hope your interview went well :) I'm sure you did just fine!

I'm pretty bogged down with papers too. I have 3 papers to write and 2 presentations to do in the next couple weeks. And my Art History midterm on Tuesday. Sigh...

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

Sometimes interviews go better than you think they did; so don't worry about it too much. It sounds like you did fine. :)

Classical music! Haha, I see you've saved Rob Paravonian's Pachelbel Canon rant. XDD Hey, besides Enya, also check out Loreena McKennitt. And, and:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzZVcP8XsTk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuZOVSL5woo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmeKI3r3LTw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W21USUhx7Bw&feature=related

:DDD Heiden! Oh, he must have relished that. XD

Good luck with the essays. :)

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Loreena McKennit for the win! <3 I have like four or five of her CDs. She be awesome.

You should also check out the Mediaeval Baebes. They sing in old english, latin, italian, etc.,etc., mainly older folk songs. They've put some of Shakespeare's stuff to words, as well as some older poetry. :3
Here's what I could find on youtube. (Apparently they have a new CD out that I haven't listened to yet...)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVKLo9YepUg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSH1HdfOtCI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pwXFVCsuvU&feature=related


And thank you for the links! :D

My teacher is full of such stories. He is full of awesome. He's also not afraid to offend people - he criticizes pretty much everyone equally, be they British, American, Czech, Hungarian, and is shamelessly joking about Austria being awesome. He's a sweetheart.

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the links! :D Have you ever heard Palestrina's stuff? There's a band called Chanticleer which sings some of his stuff. Also, there's a Scottish (I think? ^^;) band called Capercaillie which does some lovely songs. :)

Your teacher sounds amazing. :DD I love shameless criticism! Your class revolves around the Habsburg family?

[beboots.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard of them... but I'll have to check them out too! :D

Professor Szabo is awesome. He actually convinced the Austrian Ambassador to Canada to do a mini lecture at the University of Alberta, where we study. :3 He was pretty cool. Prof. Szabo seems to go to a billion consulate and ambassadorial things, and since he's been in Canada since the 60s, he has amazingly good English. He's one of those European polygots that speaks like five or six languages - German, English, French, at least, maybe Italian and Hungarian... or at least enough to get by...

The course I'm taking with him is History 310, History of the Habsburgs, which yeah, pretty much covers them from Rudolf I, the first Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor, until 1918 when the Austrian Empire became just Austria and a frillion successor states. He makes stuff like the 30 Year's War interesting and entertaining.

He also tells us about the sex lives of half of them. ;)

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

If his last name is Szabo... your professor is Hungarian, right? I'm so amazed at people who know all those languages--I wish I could learn so many. But it takes up so much time... I have one friend who knows English & French, and knows enough Greek, Latin, German, and Italian to translate. gah.

hohoho, that sounds great! Especially the sex lives. XP Defenestration of Prague?

[beboots.livejournal.com]

He's an Autrian of Hungarian decent living in Canada. He's epic. :3

Est-ce que tu comprends le français aussi? Si non, je pourrai t'apprendre! ;)

DEFENESTRATION OF PRAGUE FTW. After lol-ing about it in the textbook, and putting a sticky note there to mark the page, it turned out to be on the midterm... and I totally got that covered. That was the midterm I got 100% on. :3 (The second one, I ONLY got 19/20. :( )

Lol, I'm such a try-hard...

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

random question--but hey, was he living in Hungary during the 1956 Revolution? That event is one of those random historical things I love to read about, and I'm just curious. ^^;

Do not know French, but--me guessin: Do you understand French? If not, [something something] XDDDD

DEFENESTRATION OF PRAGUE is excellent! Congrats on the midterm, that is hardcore. :D ahhh, our midterms here, I don't bother thinking about the possibility of 100. but then again, they only look at letter grades, and they also curve test scores, so... :P

[beboots.livejournal.com]

If he was living there, he would have been like 10 years old. I don't know if he was. I know that he got his university degreen in Canada. He revealed his age when he told us he had a part time job at the Montreal World Expo in 1967. He apparently had a francophone girlfriend, and so that's when he began learning French in earnest. ;)

Yes, I do indeed know French. :) I've been studying it since kindergarten, and from grade 2 onwards, all of my classes (minus English) were in French. At least until grade ten, but then I still had all of my sciences in French. To this day, I struggle with big numbers in English, and I have no idea about English chemical names. D:

Oh GOD CURVES. D: Professor Szabo told us on the first day that he "believes in curves, just not on grades." Then he made a hand gesture. ;)

In all honestly, you don't get curves in English, History or language classes very often. Mostly because really, you know it or you don't. I'm eternally grateful that they don't believe in torturing their students in the arts faculty. D:

The curve freaks me out. I've only had two curved classes, though. I'm still in one of them: Psychology. The sciency first year one. D: I'm doing pretty good so far (like, 87%), but that's prior to the final exam and the curving. The other curved class I had, though, was Art History, last semester, because there was like 500 people in the class. I got an A+. XD I am immensely proud of this fact. Mostly it was because I came to class, kept up with the readings, and actually studied for the midterm and final. That was all that we had marked. 40% of our grade and 60%. It was stressfull, but it makes my GPA look so lovely... <3

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

I see. I suppose he might've lived in Austria at that time. Oh cool, a job at the world expo! :D

lol, sorry. I wasn't asking if you understood French, but I was trying to translate the French you'd written in the previous comment. ^^;

I like your professor! XDD That's like one of my section leaders--he was going to Canada for spring break, and one of my classmates said, "Yeah, I've thought about going to Toronto." And my teacher says, "No, Toronto's boring. Montreal has better strip clubs." ;)

I didn't get curves in classes until college, so sometimes I don't quite know how it works. I just figure that I have to do my best no matter what (which, I suppose, is sort of common sense :P).

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Oh, that French? I said "Do you understand French as well? If not, I can teach you!" (And the offer still stands. ;) )

Montreal probably does. Plus, Montreal has better character, as a city, than Toronto. Toronto grew too quickly, you know?

Yeah, doing your best no matter what is good advice. :3 Do you know which college you'll be going to?

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's what it means. Thank you for the offer; I may take you up on it sometime. One of my friends who knows French laughs at my abominable pronunciation of A la recherche du temps perdu all the time. ^^;

I've never been to Montreal, unfortunately; but Toronto's huge. Reminds me of NYC, except cleaner and less hectic.

I'm going to Harvard right now ^^; I am so thankful to have got past that experience. Ugh, college essays. @_@

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Have you actually read that book? I got a headache when we only learned about the concepts of it in my French litterature class... D:

I've only been to Toronto once, and it scared me. But then again, I was only 8, so...

Yeah, Montreal really is awesome. :) There's this wonderful culture of bilingualism in the city. Plus, the people put the rest of the Canadians to shame for their friendliness. If you get a chance, go! :D

You're going to Harvard? Sweet! :D Seriously, though, if you put that on your resumé, people will look no further. "Harvard? You're hired!" ;)

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

No, I haven't. It's a tad intimidating--although then again, one of my friends made it through in English and partially in French, so I might give it a shot someday.

I definitely will. I've only been to Toronto; I figure I should visit more of Canada sometime.

Hahaha, if only. It's actually sort of awkward--we call the action of telling people about Harvard "dropping the H-bomb." And of course Asian people are all gaga about it. ^^;

[beboots.livejournal.com]

When you visit us, skip everything between the Rockies and, say, Winnipeg. There is nothing here worth looking at except West Edmonton Mall (biggest mall in the world, including biggest indoor waterpark, an indoor amusement park, a pirate ship, sea lions, a frillion stores, and, dubiously, biggest parking lot in the world).

Harvard is world-reknowned. It's like, the brand-name university/college.

Out of curiosity, what is the exact difference between american Colleges and Universities? I know that it's different from what we have, but I'm not sure how.

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

Haha, indoor waterpark? I'll be sure to stop by. ;)

I know, and that's what's so intimidating about it. It's like, la la nahhh I'm just an ordinary college student--but wait, Howard Dean's coming to visit? Al Gore's speaking? ^^;

Colleges generally refer to the 4-year undergraduate program, while university includes college within it, along with graduate schools, research, etc. But I try to refer to it as university in my LJ since I gather most people live in other countries where it's not called college at all.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Yes, a waterpark. Observe: http://www.westedmall.com/play/images/Waterpark.jpg
It is awesome. <3 You can also bungee-jump there, if you're so inclined.

Also, West Ed used to have two working submarines, right next to the pirate ship, and you could go on a tour around that area (which takes you like thirty seconds, walking, to cross). We used to joke that that's two more submarines than the military had. ;) But we have subs, now. Yes.

Oh, man, you must get awesome speakers... I'm jealous.

I see - yep, colleges are different here. Generally, universities are more prestigeous. Colleges can't offer nearly as many degrees. Or maybe no degrees at all? You can just take courses, to transfer credit to other institutions...? I don't know, actually. I'm getting my undergrad at the University of Alberta.

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

o____O My god. And bungee-jumping? How much spare time did the mall designers have? XD hahaha, have more faith in Canada. Can't beat the Mounted Police! ;)

We do, although I admit I haven't gone to as many as I could. Also, we have tourists. Like, (predominantly Asian) tourists who walk around the yard and peer through windows. I pity the poor sods who live on the first floor. ^^;

Ahh, there's an actual difference in prestige then. A lot of people use "college" & "university" interchangeably, but I didn't realize in other countries you might not even have degrees at colleges. Interesting. :D Hmm... isn't Alberta the province that is doing the best economically out of all the Canadian provinces? I'm trying to remember what I can from that coalition kerfuffle last winter.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Fo' sho'! (Both regarding the WTF value of the mall's planners, but also regarding the RCMP).

Oh, Alberta WAS doing well. Two years ago, we officially erased our debt (huzzah!), mostly because of royalties from oil, but then, with the economic downturn... Yeah, we're not doing so well anymore. But I think that we're still doing a bit better (a lot better) than the Maritime provinces, or even Quebec and Ontario, considering we have a fraction of the population.

People always seem to forget that after a boom, you almost invariably get some kind of recession. You can't "boom" forever, you know? D: Everyone always believes that THIS time, well, we know better, so we'll just continue like this forever... Not so!

[dayadhvam-triad.livejournal.com]

Erased your debt? That's pretty awesome!--not so glad to hear about the economic downturn, but oh well. ^^;

You have to go back and forth; the problem is people keep thinking, "Well, it won't happen YET," and then--well. >_>

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think that Alberta's already back in debt. So, y'know, not so good. D: What's the US debt at right now? Several trillion? ;)