"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

[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? ;)