Happy New Year!

A few hours early.  May your 2009 be filled with happiness, peace, friendship, resolutions not broken, and a president who is not a moron.

Ever notice that.... #2

Some people who drive vans, big pickup trucks, and big SUV's (all of which get really bad gas mileage to start with) drive them in such a manner as to increase fuel consumption even more?  Driving fast, accelerating fast, weaving in and out of traffic, that kind of stuff.

Yeah, I'm talk to you, idiot in the forest green Suburban somewhere near Waterbury, CT.

Ever notice that.... #1

brushing your teeth right before bed makes the morning breath worse?

The simple pleasures of life

There's no doubt the holiday season in recent years has become more and more materialistic.  As was proved to The Grinch, "maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store.  Maybe Christmas means a little bit more."  Even if you don't follow a religion, the holiday season is a time to be with friends and loved ones, to reflect on the year past, and to share warm wishes and festive thoughts with people in general.  I've found that the best moments don't come while unwrapping boxes, but from the little things that don't have to be bought.  Here's a partial list of some of my favorites.

• New socks, especially nice thick wool ones.  This is the ultimate and the first thing that comes to mind.
  
• A quiet moment with someone special
• Getting together with old friends
• Doggy or kitty lovins
• Puppy skunk breath and needle teeth
• A child's laugh
• The first glass of egg nog of the holiday season 
• Watching someone open a present from you

Breaking from tradition

The House of Edgar Shotts and Dykehead Caledonia Pipe Band is certainly one of the top bands in the world today.  They've won the World Pipe Band Championships fifteen times since 1948, and have placed in the top three every year since 1993, including five wins.  Shotts is a dominant force that attract top quality players from all over the world, and are always contenders for the top prizes.



It was very surprising, therefore, that they pulled off this stunt at the Worlds this year.  In the last tune of the medley, every piper turned around 180 degrees to face the audience instead of the center of the circle.  Turning around will inevitably lead to a decline in unison playing and lower marks from the judges based on the technical performance, but perhaps riskier is being marked down for doing something different.  The band broke no rules except tradition, which can be quite strong in its own right.  For a contending band to do something different that would jeopardize the chance of winning takes courage and confidence. 

Shotts Pipe Major Rob Mathieson has called for reform of the pipe band competition format, pointing out that we are really the only musical groups that perform with our backs to the audience and judges.  It makes good musical sense to have all the musicians in view of each other, but not very good entertainment sense to block out the listeners. 

Perhaps something like the arrangement in this concert, where only the pipe major has his back to the audience.  That's the St. Laurence O'Toole Pipe Band from Ireland in concert in Pittsburgh, PA in November 2007, by the way.  The majority of the musicians are facing out and everyone can see the one who is directing.  It makes better sense to me, but trying to get the pipe band world to accept it, or any change to "the way things have always been done," will be a slow process.


In case you're wondering, Shotts finished fourth in the medley and third overall at the Worlds.

I found it!

I was poking around my classroom today, trying to find a gizmo for the whatchamacallit, and I got to thinking about some of the really absurd things we Americans (and others maybe?) say when we're looking for things.  Some are blatantly obvious, some are hyperbolic statements, some are just asinine, but none lends any value to the search. 

• "Where could it be now?"  And just who are you expecting to answer?
  
• "I just saw it."  Well, no, probably not.  If this were true, you would have found it.
  
• "I can't find it anywhere!"  This is just an unfinished sentence.  It should be "I can't find it anywhere I have looked."
  
• "I've looked everywhere."  Obviously not.  If you had, you would have found it. 
  
• "It must be somewhere."  Um, yeah.  It can't be nowhere, now can it? 
  
• "I've looked high and low."  Any chance it could be somewhere in the middle?
• "It was in the last place I looked."  Well duh!  This is true by definition, unless you keep looking after you find it.
  

These come from a human's requirement to babble incessantly and not look like a moron.  Especially if there are multiple people looking, saying things like this make the initial searcher seem like less of an imbecile.

People are funny.

Good old Maine

Winter is officially here.  Well not officially because it's not yet December 21, but for all intents and purposes it is.  At 3:15 this afternoon it's 16 degrees F (-9 C).  Good and cold, that's the way Maine is.  Looks to be a good winter if it's this cold and not even Christmas yet.

The Secret Life of Teachers

It's a parody, but it's not far from the truth.  We watched this in the teacher's lounge, of course; where else?

Random Piping Video

In August 2008, a new pipe band competed for the first time at the World Pipe Band Championships.  With Roddy MacLeod as pipe major, the Spirit of Scotland Pipe Band boasted a very impressive lineup of pipers with something more than a dozen gold medals won by band members. 

This morning I found a video of the band warming up before the MSR contest (maybe the Grade 1 qualifier?) at the Worlds.  It's interesting to watch, and they playing ain't bad either.

Those crazy Canadians

After the Baltimore Colts became the Indianapolis Colts but before the Cleveland Browns became the Baltimore Ravens, Baltimore had a brief stint as the host city of a team in the Canadian Football League.  They were to be called, of course, the Baltimore Colts, but the NFL prevented that because there was already a team called the Colts.  Nevermind the fact that the two teams played a completely different sport in completely different leagues; the NFL didn't see that.  The first season they played in Baltimore they were known as the CFLs, the second season they were the Baltimore Stallions, won the league championship (the Grey Cup), and the third season they moved to Montreal and became the Alouettes.  But I digress.  The point of this paragraph of Baltimore history is to emphasize that I know a little about Canadian football.  It's similar enough that you can watch a game and have a good idea of what's happening, but different enough that the details can be really confusing (can anyone explain the rouge to me?).

So anyway, another big difference (apparently) is the player celebration after scoring.  I stumbled across this one today, and it is without a doubt the most bizzare football scoring celebration I have ever seen.  Your thoughts?



Those crazy Canadians!

Random piping video

As I've noted before, there are a ton of piping videos on YouTube. The last post was not about one of the gems, but this one is.

Angus MacColl is one of the leading solo pipers on the competition circuit today, and is always near the prize list.  Many of the top players seem to have a specialty, and Angus' is the 2/4 march.  There aren't many who can really bring out the nuances of the "question and answer" phrasing while keeping the flow of the tune, and Angus has this down; it makes his marches really zing.  This video features Angus playing three marches, Arther Bignold of Lochrosque, Mrs. John MacColl, and The Highland Wedding.  As a note, the first two tunes were written by John MacColl, one of Angus' relatives.

Angus MacColl (unable to embed, sorry)

2009 Competition Thoughts

The 2008 competition season has been over for barely a month, but I'm already gearing up for 2009.  I've decided to make 2009 my big push to try to get up to grade 1, which means in general a winter full of piping.  I've been rocking the practice chanter quite a bit and have already learned some new competition tunes, but I've only played the actual bagpipes once since my last competition.  They need a break and a bit of maintenance, and I'll be firing them up again shortly after Thanksgiving.

My goal is to have four tunes of each category ready to play for every competition, so I'll be practicing quite a bit more than I have been just to keep the tunes fresh.  I've learned a new MSR, and will have another on the way between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I was tooling around on my practice chanter last night and recorded the new MSR.  Through the magic of YouTube, you can enjoy it too.  The tunes are the march Mrs. John MacColl, the strathspey The Shepherd's Crook, and the reel Major David Manson. 



This is the first time I've actually heard myself play, and it sounds better when I'm actually playing it!  The big thing I notice in the march is my doublings are a bit clunky, and playing Mrs. John MacColl they need to be much more refined to keep the tune from losing flow.  That's one winter project.  I also need to clean up the strathspey and get the phrasing more consistent.  The reel is pretty good but I need to clean up the fourth part; it kind of loses the flow.  These are all really challenging tunes, and I'm impressed with myself for playing them this well so soon after learning them.

So, four tunes in each category.  Here are my selections, with tunes yet to be learned marked  *.
2/4 March
- Major Manson at Clachanstrushal
- Mrs. John MacColl
- Millbank Cottage

Strathspey
- The Shepherd's Crook
- Maggie Cameron
- Cabar Feidh*
- Tulloch Castle

Reel
- Major David Manson
- Thompson's Dirk
- Dr. MacPhail's Reel*
- The Rejected Suitor

Piobaireachd
- The MacFarlane's Gathering
- Black Donald's March
- The Massacre of Glencoe
- Sir James MacDonald of the Isles' Lament

6/8 March
- The Dundee City Police Pipers
- Cameron MacFadyen
- John D. Burgess*
- P/M Donald MacLean of Lewis

Jig
- Alex MacDonald
- Donella Beaton
- The Curlew
- Duncan the Gauger

Hornpipe
- The Man From Skye
- Duncan Johnstone
- Bobbie Cuthbertson*
- TBA

I have a lot a work ahead of me!

Schadenfreude

Happiness at the misfortune of others is the English translation of the title.  Ever watch someone hurting themselves or doing something stupid that just makes you laugh hysterically?  You feel bad doing it, but you can't help it because it's just so darn funny.

This is video that inspired this post.  I watched it about 7 or 8 times I think, and it only gets funnier.



This reminded me of another video that earned the same reaction from me.  I feel like a bad person for laughing, but I just can't help it.

Random Piping Video

A search of YouTube for the word "bagpipes" turns up thousands of hits.  If you sort the results by date posted you'll find dozens of new bagpipe videos posted just within the last few hours.  There's a bunch of crap out there, but there are also some real gems.  This post is not about one of the gems. 

Below is a random piping video.  Watch it, then read below for my comments.



This guy is actually not a bad piper for a street musician.  There's many who are terrible (like this one), but this guy's technique is actually pretty good. I didn't recognize the first tune, but the second tune (starts at 0:16) is a standard 6/8 march called The Piobaireachd of Donald Dubh.  He plays it pretty quick and his expression is a little round, but his technique is solid.  What bugs me about this particular piper is his transition between tunes.  It sounds like he stops the first tune in the middle of a part and plays some birls and stuff (with a big choke) before launching into the second tune.  I hate it (hate it, hate it, hate it) when pipers just stop in the middle of a tune; if you don't know the tune, you shouldn't be playing it in public!  That's one of my primary  pet peeves about piping in public places: play passable passages between pieces (wow, that was alliterative).  If you're playing in public, you should have enough foresight to pick a tune to play after the one you're playing now, and you should be able to pick it a part or so in advance. 

So on the overall, nicely done piper fellow, just make sure you finish those tunes and work on decent transitions!

GPS is a cool gadget

Greetings from N 44 01.246 W 70 58.441!  That's where the Garmin eTrex Legend HCx tells me I am right now, +/- 25 feet.  Somehow it can still pick up a signal indoors.  I've been using this gadget a lot lately for geocaching, which for those of you who don't know is a terrible under use of resources: using a multi-billion dollar government satellite network to find tupperware containers hidden in the woods. 

Ain't technology grand?

More funny things

You know I like funny things... here's another one.  I can't believe I didn't think to put this in the last post about clean funny humor!





And the inflationary language is a classic as well!

The Mysteries of Piobaireachd Vol 2: Addendum

The last post in this category was about the story behind a few piobaireachd tunes, and I just heard another that I had to share.

A highland village near a loch relied heavily on the men of the village to catch enough fish to get through the winter.  In one particular year the old men were to old to fish and the young men devoted their efforts to catching young ladies instead of fish; the resulting tune of the hardships of the village is "Scarce of Fishing."

What do you get...

When you combine a weekend in January, piping workshops with 10 gold medalist instructors, the North American gold and silver medal piping competitions, a sponsorship from Newcastle Ale, and a bunch of pipers from all over the country, include the Keydetpiper and Kaypiob?

Why, you get Winter Storm, of course!

The science geek in me

This web comic came to my attention; it made me laugh. 

And in case you're wondering, oh yeah, I'm a geek.

A really big one.

My civic duty

I just did.  It was kind of fun.  I walked down to the local American Legion hall to cast my ballot with a friend during my free period this morning, and the whole process took about half an hour.  The line would have been shorter later in the day, but we arrived just before the polls opened so there was a bit of line.  I've never cast a ballot in a presidential election before, so I'm pretty excited.  Nothing left to be done except wait to see how things came out.

Your civic duty

Enough said... do it!

Some funny (looking) guys

I like to laugh.  Pretty much anyone who has met me know that I like to laugh, and I like to make other people laugh.  When I was younger telling dirty jokes was one of my favorite things to do, and though I enjoy tossing around a slightly off-color quip now and then I like to think my comedic taste has become somewhat more sophisticated. 

There are some people who are really funny.  Stand-up comedians like Robin Williams, Richard Pryor, and Eddie Murphy are really funny, and some of what makes them funny are their liberal use of colorful language.  Search YouTube for any of those guys, just be warned that the videos are very NSFW.  Behind the swear words are, however, really funny things.  It's true the swears are gratuitous, but they add shock value, and even if you remove them what's left is still pretty funny.  A current comedian who tries for the same effect is Rodney Carrington, but I really don't think he's funny.  Remove the bad language and what's left barely qualifies as communication.

It's possible to be a stand-up comedian and still present a family-friendly act.  Like him or hate him, Jeff Foxworthy doesn't really swear in his acts and what he has to say is pretty funny, even if it is somewhat generic comedian subject matter (sex, rednecks, wife, redneck wife, kids). 

In my opinion the really funny people, the comedic genii if you will, are the people who can talk about perfectly normal and ordinary things and make you really laugh.  I heard this little gem on the radio today, and I think it's brilliant.



Yes, that's good old Andy Griffith there, before he was Sheriff Andy Taylor.  Nothing in there is inappropriate or even a little controversial; there's no reason I wouldn't listen to that with a six year-old, and it's hilarious.

In my opinion the best example is what follows, and I think it's one of the funniest things ever been recorded.  Again it's completely clean, kid-friendly, and nothing short of brilliant.  I challenge you to find something funnier that you'd watch with your grandparents.  Ladies and gentlemen, Abbott and Costello!

The Mysteries of Piobaireachd Volume 2: The Story

Piobaireachd is one of the forms of music that is quintessentially Scottish.  It's the original music of the GHB, played by lone pipers before anyone ever thought to make more than one piper play at the same time.  It's sometimes referred to as the classical music of the bagpipes, and there is a lot more to a good piobaireachd than just playing the notes.  This series of posts will highlight some of the mysteries of piobaireachd, and why it's such a unique style of music.

Another reason that piobaireachds are so great is that each tune has a story behind it.  Sometimes the general story can be deduced from the name ("The King's Taxes"), but a bit of research can usually turn up some really interesting stories.  Here are a few of my favorites.

The castle of Duntrune in Argyllshire was at one time a stronghold of clan Campbell.  Legend has it that the MacDonalds invaded and captured the castle while the Campbell chief was away, but the MacDonald chief had to return home for some reason.  He left a small detail to hold the castle which included his piper.  The Campbells returned and retook the castle, killing all the guard except the piper.  They lay in wait for the MacDonalds to return, and the piper maintained a vigil on the ramparts, looking for his chieftain's boat to come across the loch.  When he saw the boat he struck up his pipes and played a tune the chief would recognize, but slightly different to indicate something was wrong.  The MacDonald chief interpretted the warning correctly and turned the boat around.  The piper received a punishment worse than death: his hands were cut off so he could never play again.  He subsequently died from his injuries, and the tune he played has come to be known as "The Piper's Warning to his Master."  This story was thought to be just legend until excavations at Duntrune unearthed a skeleton with its hands cut off cleanly at the wrist, leading to speculation that maybe there was some truth to the story.

Donald Mor MacCrimmon had a younger brother with facial ticks, which earned him the nickname Squinting Patrick.  Poor Patrick was murdered by his foster brother, and Donald was not happy with this.  His clan chief advised him to wait a year before exacting his revenge, hoping the time would cool his anger, but it didn't.  After 12 months Donald and a band of men rode to the village on Kintail, where the murderer was known to live.  He went from door to door demanding the murderer, but no one in the village would give him up.  Donald then had the doors nailed shut and set fire to 18 houses in the village, resulting in the death of several of its inhabitants.  As the village burned, he played a tune called "A Flame of Wrath from Squinting Patrick."

Email me if you know other good stories and I'll add them in a follow up post.

Previous Mysteries of Piobaireachd Posts
Volume 1: What's in a Name?

End of the season reflections

I recently completed my last competion of the year, and it's time to look back.  This was my second year in grade 2, and it had some high points and low points. 

I won't recap all of my solo competitions from the year; you can peruse the gory details yourself on the solo recap page.  There were high points and low points, and I came away with a fair amount of hardware, including my first AGLs in grade 2.

After two years, I've decided to leave the Graham Highlanders.  This is for several reasons, mostly the distance to the band, but also because I want to really focus on my solo competitions for at least a year.  As to future band involvement, I'm sure I'll be back with a band soon, but I have no thoughts as to which band or when.

Speaking of solo competitions, I've decided that 2009 will be my big push to get up to grade 1, and there's a lot of work I need to do for that.  I'll be hitting the exercises hard over the winter and trying to learn a bunch of new tunes for next year's competitions.  

There is a new development as well.  Although I won Piper of the Day at the Maine Highland Games, I will likely not be returning to defend my title.  That's because I'll be organizing and running the solo piping and drumming competitions there.  I'm taking over from Ross Faneuf, who has run the solos since about 1999.  I have some ideas for things I'd like to do, including an increase of the number of grade 1 and 2 pipers.  If you play solos in any grade, August is a great time to be in Maine!

As to instrumentation, I'm still playing my 1940's Hendersons, and I plan to continue that.  They have done very well by me, and I've been generally very pleased with the performance of my Kron Medallist chanter, especially once I fitted it with a Higgins reed.  I've also come to be the owner of an early model MacLellan chanter, which I've played a little but needs a nice reed.  I have a feeling that the right reed will make that chanter nothing short of spectacular, and I'll be working on finding a match for it.

As to the noncompetitive piping, I'm going to try to cut back.  By this I mean gigs like weddings and funerals.  The extra money is nice, but it takes a big chunk of my time (usually weekends) and dealing with the "This is where I want you to stand and this is what I want you to play" gets old.  I played a lot of gigs in August and September, and I've realized there's a limit to the amount bagpipes I can talk with people who know nothing about pipes.

That's all the piping stuff on my mind for now.  Have a good one!

Competition Journal 2008 #8

The results from my solo piping competitions.

Anne Arundel Highland Games, Crownsville, MD October 11, 2008

Event: MSR
Judge: Chris Hamilton
2/4 marches submitted: Major Manson at Clachantrushal, Hugh Kennedy
Tunes played: Hugh Kennedy, Arniston Castle, Thompson's Dirk
Result: 3rd
 

Event: Piobaireachd
Judge: John Bottomley
Tunes submitted: The Massacre of Glencoe, The MacFarlane's Gathering
Tune played: The Massacre of Glencoe
Result: 4th

Security Recap

A few days ago I wrote about taking bagpipes through airport security, and as promised I'm reporting in with the results from this weekend.  The first time I went through security was at the Portland International Jetport (PWM) in Portland, Maine, and the screener called her supervisor over for a bag check.  The supervisor looked at the screen for a minute and said "Bagpipes?"  Turns out he was a firefighter for 30 years and has heard his fair share of pipes.

The return trip through BWI was far less eventful.  I don't think there were any confused looks, but I was preoccupied with the change in my pocket that set off the metal detector so I didn't really get a chance to look at faces.  By the way, I've gone through security before with change in my pocket and it didn't do anything.  Guess it just wasn't my day. 

Scopes and barrels?

I was once stopped at airport security while traveling with my pipes; the x-ray technician said it looked like the case contained "a collection of scopes and barrels."  I understand the description, but I still have to crack a smile at the situation.  As mysterious as the instrument may look when disassembled, it's unlikely I would be trying to bring a high-powered sniper rifle onto a plane as a carry on (even though this particular event was pre-9/11), but even so I imagine it's better they examine unknown objects before the explosion rather than after.

Now that I think about it, that was the first time I had taken my pipes through security.  I've done it many times since, and while I've never quite been accused of carrying a firearm on board again, I have gotten some strange looks.  The highlight of my airport security experience (have to make it fun somehow, right?) is trying to predict the reaction when my pipes go under the x-ray.  I've seen a bunch of raised eyebrows, some furled foreheads, a few that call to the supervisor and say "Hey, can you take a look at that?", those that ask me what they are ("Oh cool, can you play them for us?"), and occasionally I'll get no reaction.  About a third of the time they'll search the bag..

So the reason I'm thinking about security at the moment is that I'm packing a suitcase, flying out tomorrow for the Anne Arundel Highland Games in Crownsville, MD.  I'll keep an eye on the security folks and let you know what the reactions are this time.

The Mysteries of Piobaireachd Volume 1: What's in a Name?

Piobaireachd is one of the forms of music that is quintessentially Scottish.  It's the original music of the GHB, played by lone pipers before anyone ever thought to make more than one piper play at the same time.  It's sometimes referred to as the classical music of the bagpipes, and there is a lot more to a good piobaireachd than just playing the notes.  This series of posts will highlight some of the mysteries of piobaireachd, and why it's such a unique style of music. 

One of the best things about a piobaireachd is often its title.  Tunes were traditionally written to celebrate or mourn a person, commemorate an event or battle, announce the gathering or movement of clans, or make a general commentary on life.  As such, each tune has a unique story behind it and the names are often very descriptive.  Here's a list of some of my favorite piobaireachd names, in no particular order.  Tunes that I play are marked with an asterisk (*).

• The Unjust Incarceration
• The King's Taxes
• The Red-Speckled Bull
• The Rout of the MacPhees
• Lament for the Only Son
• The Blind Piper's Obstinacy
• Lament for the Dead
  
• The Massacre of Glencoe*
• The Finger Lock
• The MacKay's White Banner
• Scarce of Fishing
• Lament for the Union (the Union being between England and Scotland)
• The Vaunting
• A Flame of Wrath for Squinting Patrick
• The Bicker
• The Bells of Perth
• Too Long in this Condition
  
• The Glen is Mine
• The Little Spree (A spree in this context refers to a drinking binge.  There are also tunes called The Big Spree and The Meddling Spree)
  
• The Old Men of the Shells
• The Desperate Battle of the Birds*
• A Piper's Warning to His Master

These are my favorite piobaireachd names; do you any others you like? 

People read my blog!

Wow, what a surprise!  I did a random Google search this morning for my internet handle Keydetpiper, and I was quite surprised to see my post about my tour of Charlie Kron's bagpipe shop linked to in the Bagpipe News blog.  I feel like I'm famous now; at least it's nice to see that there might be a few people reading.  I invite comments, it's encouraging!

What is a piper's real job?

Playing the bagpipes is a great hobby, and for me at least it's a source of some extra income when I do weddings and things. I know of a few pipers who make their entire living by playing gigs and giving lessons (mostly lessons), get paid as a full-time piping instructor at a school or college, or run piping-related businesses (like the Tone Czar or Roddy MacLeod).  It's really hard to make a living just from competition income, since amateur competitions don't have prize money and to win prize money you have to be very good. 

So that makes many pipers who need a primary source of income, and as you might imagine the jobs pipers hold are quite diverse.  At the amateur level, I know pipers who are teachers, students, insurance adjusters, stay at home moms, electricians, newspaper editors, cops, fire fighters, computer programmers, military, cubicle-based paper pushers, opthamologists, nurses, bus drivers; the list is nearly endless.

I was in a discussion the other day about what some of the top-level pipers do (or did) for income when they weren't piping.  Here's a few I know.  Willie McCallum is an accountant for Glasgow University, and somehow still finds time to win every major prize in piping; Stuart Liddell is a piano tuner; the late Gordon Duncan was a rubbish collector; his brother Ian Duncan used to be a math teacher, and now teaches piping in a school; Colin MacLellan makes reeds and renovates houses; Lorne Cousin was a lawyer and now plays in a Celtic fusion band called Dram.  I'm curious about Roddy MacLeod; he's now the principal of the National Piping Centre in Glasgow, but what did he do before?  I also wonder about Angus MacColl.

Just some thoughts, trying to remember that the people at the top of the discipline are regular people and have regular people jobs, too.

It's a conspiracy!

I've constantly wondered at McCain's choice of a VP running mate since it was announced.  Sarah Palin has been the governor of the US' least populous state for less than two years, has views on scientific history and education that are questionable at best, and seems to have no sense of where her party actually stands on several issues (like this one), and has famously been ridiculed that the extent of her international relations experience is being able "to see Russia from my house." 

I thought (and still think) that McCain wouldn't be a terrible president, but with his choice of running mate I'm fairly convinced he's shot himself in the foot and there's pretty much no way he's going to get my vote.

But now I realize that McCain's hands were tied, and he actually had no choice in the matter.  There were bigger and far more powerful people pulling strings and aligning the dominoes to fall as they did: the executives of NBC.  They strong-armed McCain into choosing Palin, not for political or financial gain, but simply so they can have Tina Fey portray her on Saturday Night Live. 

The impression is better than pretty good, sometimes I'm not sure who I'm actually watching.  They have the same voice, inflection, gestures, and they both say things so crazy I'm sure no one can actually believe them.  It's eerie.

Just another day in piping...

This weekend was my most recent competition, the New Hampshire Highland Games.  It's the closest to my home, and also the largest games in the States that I will attend this year.  It's held at Loon Mountain ski resort, which is a really nice venue, and the games in general is very well organized and run. 

My solo competitions went reasonably well, with some high points and some low points.  The real story of the day though was the weather; after about 10:00 am it was a gorgeous late summer day.  Up until then, however, it was a gorgeous late fall morning, being far too cold for piping. 

So that's the story of fall weather in New England, beautiful afternoons with cold, clear crisp mornings.  I would have liked it much better if I hadn't been piping.  Whatever.

Competition Journal 2008 #7

The results from my solo piping competitions.
 
New Hampshire Highland Games, Lincoln, NH September 20, 2008

Event: MSR
Judge: Bob Worrall
2/4 marches submitted: Major Manson at Clachantrushal, The Clan MacColl
Tunes played: The Clan MacColl, Arniston Castle, Thompson's Dirk
Result: 5th
 

Event: Piobaireachd
Judge: Nancy Tunnicliffe
Tunes submitted: The Massacre of Glencoe, Black Donald's March
Tune played: The Massacre of Glencoe
Result: 1st


Event: Hornpipe/Jig
Judge: James Bell
Tunes played: The Man From Skye, The Curlew
Result: 6th

Event: 6/8 March
Judge: Chuck Murdoch
Tune played: The Dundee City Police Pipe Band
Result: 2nd

New Videos: 6/8 March and Hornpipe/Jig

Last night I recorded another video of me playing my pipes.  The lighting sucks but you get the idea. I made these videos in preparation for a competition at the New Hampshire Highland Games, September 20, 2008.  Before you say anything, I am aware of the fact that my room is a mess.

This is a 6/8 march entitled "The Dundee City Police Pipe Band."




This one is a hornpipe and jig set. The tunes are "The Man From Skye" and "Duncan the Gauger."

Random odd question

In doing a Google search to find a piece of information for a student assignment (how much hamburger meat comes from an average cow?), I found a result on Yahoo answers.  It's hilarious, odd, disturbing, and also deleted.  Too bad, because it might have been really interested to read the answer.

"Can you get mad cow disease from making love to raw hamburger meat?"

Dig a hole....

I stumbled across this website tonight; one of those completely useless but still kind of fun little gadgets.  It tells you the point on the Earth exactly opposite from you; in other words if you could dig a hole through the center of the Earth it shows where you'd come out.  Opposite from me is somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean off the southwest tip of Australia.  So much about digging to China!

Actually I should have realized you can't do that; the US and China are both entirely in the northern hemisphere, and tunneling through the center of the Earth would by definition take you to the other side of both the Equator and the Prime Meridian, so it wouldn't happen anyway.  Childhood dreams are smashed....

Keydetpiper.com back online

You may have noticed that keydetpiper.com was down for a few days, and I'm happy to report it's up and running again. 

Not to go into too much detail, but here's what happened.  It had been hosted at Yahoo, and they notified me to tell me that they were eliminating my service plan and automatically upgrading me to the next level; it's a nice way of saying they're raising my monthly fee.  I don't like that, so canceled my account with them and found another company to host my site.  Turns out I did things in the wrong order: the canceling should have come after the finding a new host, and because I did things the wrong way 'round it made it more complicated.  Instead of a seamless switch that no one would have noticed, the site was offline completely for about 5 days.  I finally got things worked out and I'm back, so I think everything is good.  Feel free to visit and see the new (old) site.

Random useless fast of the day

The remote control for my MacBook works even when it's in my pocket.

No wonder the US is in debt

I just watched a History Channel behind the scenes deal about Air Force One.  It was really interesting to see what goes on before the plane can take off, the planning behind the missions (not just flights, they're called missions), and all the logistics that must be worked out for the president to travel.  The show followed the plane, its crew, and the advance teams during a five day trip to Africa in February 2008, and even had a brief exchange with the president himself during the flight. 

Before I get to the title of the post, I'll start with some interesting things I learned.

1. All the food on the plane is purchased by undercover Air Force staff members in civilian clothing.  Nothing is delivered, so all the food that goes on the plane has been under the direct control of the Air Force since it left the shelves in the grocery stores.  To prevent tampering, everything is brought from the US; no food or water will be purchased while out of the country.
   
2. The plane has two real kitchens, not just reheating stations.  It has all the implements and tools of a standard kitchen, many of which (knives, scissors, etc) are not allowed on a commercial flight.
3. The plane is not actually called Air Force One until the president is on board.  If he were flying on a plane operated by the U.S. Navy, the call sign would be Navy One.  Just doesn't haven't the same ring.
   
4. The arrival of the plane is meticulously planned.  Air Force agents arrive at the destination a few days ahead of the plane and make arrangements.  They arrange everything from fuel to where the plane will park.  They mark the tarmac with tape to position the plane within a matter of inches.
5. The planes are immaculately maintained and thoroughly inspected before every flight. The exterior (some 17,000 square feet) is waxed entirely by hand.   
6. The president travels with many of his top staff, so he can call a meeting about nearly any topic at any time in the air.  The conference room on the plane can conduct a secure video conference with any government agency, and the room can be sealed and soundproofed.  There are also secure phone lines, fax machines and copiers, and broadband internet connections. 
   
7. Passengers sometimes make personal phone calls while on board.  How cool would it be to get a call from Air Force One?
   

Naturally, this is an expensive venture.  Flying a specially modified and very heavy Boeing 747-200 is not cheap to begin with, and traveling with the president makes it even less so.  Here's a bunch of factors that make it get really expensive.  All of these I understand and make sense from a security point of view, but still.

1. Air Force One has a twin; two jets are maintained by the Presidential Airlift Group, and both planes travel on every international trip.  They are identical in every way, right down to the gold-rimmed plates in the galley.  
2. Before takeoff, a ground crew sweeps the runway at Andrews AFB (Air Force One's home base) for debris, pebbles, and anything that might cause damage to the engines.  I guarantee this doesn't happen at a commercial airport.
   
3. Destination airports must have equipment as mandated by the Secret Service.  Anything that doesn't meet these standards, like emergency vehicles and flood lights, is airlifted from Europe and the US.  
4. Other methods of transportation, including the armored presidential limousines (yes, plural) and Marine helicopters (plural again) are brought along.  Air Force cargo transports fly these over before or together with Air Force One.
   
5. The president may choose to cancel his trip at the last minute, causing weeks of planning and millions of dollars of preparation to be spent for nothing.
6. Only fuel from trusted sources can be used.  Advance agents make arrangements for the purchase, delivery, and testing of fuel at the fuel stops, and the containers are sealed.  If the seal is broken, the entire tank is compromised and cannot be used on Air Force One.
7. If an airport does not have the facilities to safely store fuel, it will be brought from home.  For this Africa trip, seven fuel tanker trucks were flown out on cargo planes to refuel the two 747s before the flight home.  

Like I said, all of these things make sense when security is a serious consideration, but they seem excessive from a financial standpoint.  I suppose if something happened and they needed to switch to the backup jet, or the fuel was tampered with, or the host country provided old and unsafe ground vehicles, everyone would be saying "If only we hadn't made those budget cuts."  Just seems odd to me that the president to travel somewhere on Air Force One it takes a thousand people, weeks of planning, an additional duplicate jet, and three or more cargo planes just for a week out of the country. 

Tour of a bagpipe shop

I've been playing the pipes now for ten years, and although I've wondered how they go from wooden blocks to musical instruments I never really gave a whole lot of thought to it.  I assumed there was a lathe involved at some point, and probably some other machinery and a lot of time, but I stopped there.  I started wondering about it seriously when I saw an episode of "How It's Made" (season 5 episode 9) that featured bagpipes, but they can't go real in depth in a four minute slot.  It was pretty cool for sure, but not as informative as I would have liked.

While talking to a friend a while back, he said that Charley Kron loves visitors, and last Wednesday I happened to be driving through the area.  I gave him a call, he said "Come on by," and I got myself a personalized tour of a real bagpipe shop.  There's a lot that goes into making a set of pipes, especially the really nice pipes that Charley makes, and it was fascinating to see how everything came together.  He was kind enough to let me use my camera, so here is the tour I got.

 

This is the outside of the shop, an old industrial building in Dobbs Ferry, NY.  It overlooks the Hudson River about 3 miles south of the Tappan Zee Bridge, and is set back from the road a bit.  Wandering around in the hallways inside I found the entrance to the shop, and it's behind this simple door with the humble sign that the magic happens.

Walking into the shop, there are bagpipe parts everywhere.  I found Charley at a band saw in the back room, and he took me back to the back back room where he had blocks of African Blackwood drying.  All the wood he receives comes in blocks about three inches square and already cut to the required length.  It's also green and needs to dry before it can make bagpipes.  He starts by boring a hole through the center of each block, turning it down on a lathe into a rough cylinder, marking it with chalk to indicate the date, and setting it aside to dry.  The blocks will sit from two to four years before he works with them again.  

 

These blocks are spaced out on shelves while they dry.  Below are blocks that will eventually become  Medalist chanters, and they dry for just as long.  He said there are about 300-400 chanters drying in this pile, and another 500 or so on the left side.  

After an appropriate drying time, they'll move on to a lathe.  The wood shrinks as it dries, which means the center hole gets smaller and needs to be bored out again to the proper size.  As soon as the wood is machined it begins to change, so moving from one machine to the next must be done quickly.  Also a flaw or knot in the wood might not be visible until the lathe has taken off some wood, and depending on the placement it can leave the whole block unusable.  He has a bucket of blocks, drone tops and chanter parts that suffered this unfortunate fate.  Below are a few of the lathes he uses to do the boring, profiling, beading, and combing.  Charley made all of the tool bits himself.

 

Note the handle on this lathe; looks like a tenor drone top.  He bought the lathe for cheap but it needed some work to make it usable.  The lathe below was in the shop of the famous David Glen in 1900, and quite possibly for some time before that.  It has been making top-quality bagpipes for well over a century.

Looking around the shop, there are bagpipe parts everywhere in various stages of completion.  

 

Here's Charley in front of a computer controlled lathe that he uses to bore the pipes. 

One of Charley's famous products is the Medalist chanter, which he developed in conjunction with Jim McGillivray of Ontario.  I can speak to their quality; mine has done very well by me in my solo competitions.  I brought in my chanter and he took a look at the bottom; each chanter has a serial number engraved on it.  He looked it up in his chanter book and was able to tell me that he finished it in March 2006.

 

These chanters have been turned down to their final shape.  There are no finger holes yet, and they need a finishing coat of varnish, but that's the only work left to be done.  Just behind Charley are a few finished chanters that are ready to be shipped to distributors.  

Charley also does repairs, and he has a rack of pipes and parts that people have sent him for refitting and repairs.  He told me about a few of the projects he has and how he'll take them on.

Most interesting to me was to see the raw ivory he was using for his mounts.  All of his ivory was imported before the ban, so it's legal.  It's also difficult to work with since a tusk is hollow at the thick end, leaving a relatively small portion of the solid tusk available for machining.  Also a crack in the ivory will likely run the entire length of the tusk, making it all but unusable for bagpipe parts.  He also works with mammoth ivory, which is difficult to get unless you are the first to look through a shipment from your supplier.  

There's a lot more to it than I've let on here, and making pipes is quite a process.  Charley is a super nice guy and very happy to give a tour, so if you're traveling through the area I recommend you stop by and see what he's up to.  Well worth the few hours I spent there.

Maine Highland Games: Piper of the Day!

I just returned from a day at the Maine Highland Games, and in my solo competitions I seem to have come out pretty well.  The short summary is that I won the overall prize in Grade 2 piping, with a second place finish and two firsts.  Unlike my last piper of the day award I didn't take any photos or video; I didn't take either of my cameras.  The reason for that was twofold, first that there was rain in the forecast and I was there by myself, with no one to hold the camera while I played.  Turned out the weather was great; the sun was out almost all day and the rain held off until the drive home.  But anyway, here's a picture of me at home with my medals and trophy. 

You might say, "Hey, put down your coffee cup and show us the trophy."  Well, that is my trophy.  "Gee, what an odd trophy" is the first thing I said when I opened the box; there's actually nothing trophyesque about it.  It's a ceramic mug.  With blueberries on it.  I'm not saying it's not a nice mug, but it's more of a door prize than a first prize.  When I put it on my trophy shelf it will appear that I have good taste in pottery, which simply isn't the case.  I'm not ungrateful or anything, but it is an odd thing to win in a contest.  Oh well. 

There's a number of other exciting developments from the day, which I will post more information about in the near future.  Aside from that, it's time to get practicing for my next competition... only 35 days until Loon!

Competition Journal 2008 #6

The results from my solo piping competitions.

Maine Highland Games, Brunswick, ME August 16, 2008

Event: MSR
Judge: Nancy Tunnicliffe
2/4 marches submitted: Major Manson at Clachantrushal, The Clan MacColl
Tunes played: The Clan MacColl, Arniston Castle, Lexy MacAskill
Result: 1st
 

Event: Piobaireachd
Judge: John Wassman
Tunes submitted: The Massacre of Glencoe, Sir James MacDonald of the Isles' Lament
Tune played: The Massacre of Glencoe
Result: 2nd


Event: Jig
Judge: Nancy Tunnicliffe
Tunes submitted: The Curlew, Duncan the Gauger
Tune played: The Curlew
Result: 1st

Maxville videos posted

I recorded the Grade 1 MSR competition at Maxville, and have posted the videos here in this YouTube playlist.  The rains came down and we didn't stay for the medley contest, or I certainly would have been uploading videos of that too.

Here are the Grade 1 results:

MSR
1. Scottish Lion 78th Fraser Highlanders
2. Toronto Police Pipe Band
3. Peel Regional Police Pipe Band
4. 78th Highlanders (Halifax Citadel)
5. Dowco Triumph Street Pipe Band
6. Windsor Police Pipe Band
7. Oran Mor Pipe Band

Medley
1. Scottish Lion 78th Fraser Highlanders
2. Toronto Police Pipe Band
3. Dowco Triumph Street Pipe Band
4. Peel Regional Police Pipe Band
5. Windsor Police Pipe Band
6. 78th Highlanders (Halifax Citadel)
7. Oran Mor Pipe Band

Overall
1. Scottish Lion 78th Fraser Highlanders
2. Toronto Police Pipe Band
3. Peel Regional Police Pipe Band
4. Dowco Triumph Street Pipe Band
5. 78th Highlanders (Halifax Citadel)
6. Windsor Police Pipe Band
7. Oran Mor Pipe Band

Next competition: Maine Highland Games

My next solo competition is one that I really look forward to, and I feel like it's the home competition.  It's not the closest one I'll do this year, but it is in Maine, and since that's where I live it has a different feel to it.  Last year I didn't do very well in solos, but this year I'll be practicing up and hopefully will come out better. 

Held at Thomas Point Beach in Brunswick, it's right on the water and a gorgeous venue.  It's about 45 minutes from Portland, 20 minutes from Freeport, and a good way to spend the day.  Come out and watch some solo piping in the morning, pipe bands in the afternoon, and athletics and dancing throughout the day.

We're hoping for a good turnout and good weather; hope to see you there!

Maxville wrap up

Got back a few days ago from our road trip to the Glengarry Highland Games in Maxville, Ontario.  All in all it was a good trip and a chance to hang out with my friends, but as always a few things went wrong and are listed below. 

Things that went wrong at Maxville:

1. I didn't get to play my solos.  My entry form didn't get there in time so I wasn't on the list. 
2. Glenn Brown didn't win the former winners' Gold Medal piobaireachd.  He should have. 
3. The kids camping behind us wanted to start a riot.  Or at least that's what they were chanting from midnight until 2:00 am after they returned from the beer tent. 
4. After a very nice day on Friday and nice morning on Saturday, it rained.  And it didn't just rain, it RAINED.  At least it waited until the Grade 1 MSR band contest was done, but that's small consolation.

I'm not bitter about any of these (except maybe #2), and I'll classify the trip as a success.  We heard lots of good piping, saw some friends we hadn't seen for a while, and had a good time.  Next time we won't be camping for reason #3, but I still thought it was fun.

Will Maxville happen???? The answer?

Apparently not.  Haven't heard back from the powers that be, and I'm still not appearing on the list, of competitors, so I'm assuming no.

Whatever.  They'd better not charge me for the entry fee!

Why do people clap at the end of a movie?

I've never been able to figure this out.  The act of applause, at least as I understand it, is to show appreciation for an accomplishment.  That's fine, I'm not saying the actors and crew of a movie shouldn't be recognized for their work, but it's silly to clap for them when they're not there.  Applaud them at the premier, where a good chunk of the crew will be present; applause in this situation is fine, encouraged (if the movie was worth it), and likely expected.  But clapping after seeing a movie down at the local cineplex on a Saturday night?  Are you recognizing how well the film was threaded through the projector?  How neatly the ticket stub was torn?  How well the butter was distributed on your popcorn?  While it's true those are good skills to have (if you work at the theater), and they are all important parts of your movie-going experience, they have nothing to do with the movie; you won't see the film threader, ticket taker, or popcorn butterer listed after gaffer, best boy, and key grip. 

How Many Clicks? #3

Here's another one: Jessica Simpson (she turned up in a headline on cnn.com about something or other). 

X-Files --> Billy Connolly --> Columbo --> Peter Falk --> The Princess Bride --> Christopher Guest --> Best in Show --> Eugene Levy --> American Pie --> Sean William Scott --> Dukes of Hazzard --> Jessica Simpson.

I rock.

Can anyone get there faster?

A new time waster: How Many Clicks?

One of my friends came up with this game, similar to Six Degrees from Kevin Bacon.  Pick an actor and start at the home page of IMDB.  Using only the mouse, get to that actor's profile page by weaving a tangled web from the links on the home page.  It's hard!  The movies on the front page are the new ones out, so you need to know who is in them and a whole bunch of other movies they've been in. 

I tried it twice this afternoon; results below.

1.  Mel Gibson.  I randomly chose this guy and it turned out to be really easy; Dark Knight is of course in the news now, starring Heath Ledger, who starred in The Patriot with Mel Gibson.  In my own invented notation it would read like this:

Dark Knight --> Heather Ledger --> Patriot --> Mel Gibson


2. Steve Buscemi.  Suggested by the girlfriend, this turned out to be much more difficult.  I had to sit down and sketch it out.  Here's what I came up with:

Dark Knight --> Gary Oldman --> Dracula --> Keanu Reeves --> Matrix --> Carrie-Anne Moss --> Memento --> Jorja Fox --> CSI --> Marg Helgenberger --> Species --> Michael Madsen --> Reservoir Dogs --> Steve Buscemi.

Pretty convoluted I know.  Can you find a faster way?  Suggest other actors? 

Will Maxville happen????

Maxville, Ontario is the home of the Glengarry Highland Games, which in turn are the home of the North American Pipe Band Championship contest.  It's without a doubt the biggest games I've seen on this side of the pond, and pipe bands come from all over Canada and the U.S.  It's huge and well-attended, and the beer tent is famous for the amount of revelry involved.  Normally civilized pipers turn into uncivilized hooligans, but that's a different discussion altogether.  It's interesting to see some tens of thousands of pipers, drummers, dancers, athletes, fiddlers, harpists, vendors, and spectators descend on this otherwise small and quiet little town in eastern Ontario, population about 3,000. 


Now I'll step out for a minute to say that the title of the post is misleading.  Maxville will happen.  There's no doubt of that, it will happen rain or shine. 

The real question is whether Maxville will happen for the Keydetpiper.  I registered for the solo piping competitions, and now that the order of play has been posted on the PPBSO's website, it does not contain my name.  I'm not certain that my registration arrived before the deadline.  It was mailed two days prior, but I have no experience with Canada Post, so I can make no guesses. 

Actually this isn't entirely true either; Maxville will happen for the Keydetpiper, since I have obligated myself to play for my friend's drumming competition.  So the Keydetpiper will surely be going to Maxville, but the real real question is whether competitions at Maxville will happen for the Keydetpiper. 

I'll keep you posted.

One of those practice sessions

This morning I walked over to the science building to play my pipes for a while; it's raining outside and there are other musicians in the dorm so I went to my classroom to be a courteous neighbor. It was one of those awesome practice sessions where everything just felt right.

I played for I think about 90 minutes (I didn't have a watch with me and had only a vague idea of what time I started), and things just went right. I played for ten minutes and retuned the drones, then didn't touch them again. The fingers weren't perfect, but they were working pretty well. The pipes were comfortable to play and felt like I've had them under my arm for my whole life.

Part of that I'll credit to my new bag cover, made by TrueFit. This is only the third time I've played with it and I'll tell you, it's great. The idea is that if the bag cover fits the pipe bag exactly, it won't affect the position of the pipes, and the bag won't slip as you play. The top of the cover is made of a Spandex-like material that conforms to the bag, and the rear is made of a fabric not unlike denim that will keep the bag from sliding. The cover I was using before tends to constrict the drones so they fall in a real natural spot, but the TrueFit is great. I highly recommend it for anyone.

Ken "The Captain" Eller is a well-known and respected instructor and judge, and I heard him say at a workshop that there's a difference between practice and playing. Playing is when you just play through tunes, maybe a second time, but don't pay much attention to what's wrong and you play a lot of different tunes. It's not practice until you concentrate on what's wrong and think about fixing it, and it's not fun. Playing is a great time, but practice is not enjoyable: it makes you tired, sweaty, frustrated, and just want to quit.

What I played this morning was practice, not just playing. I played pretty much only my competition tunes, several times through each, going back to hammer out rough spots and making notes of things to work on with the practice chanter. I also recorded a few tunes so I could hear from a different perspective, and actually practiced both of my piobaireachds instead of just playing through each once.

So is practice enjoyable? Ken, I know what you're saying, about the difference between playing and practicing, but I demonstrated this morning that even productive practice can be fun.

Those little chores you hate

We all have those little chores that we just hate doing. It's not a big thing, just something small that is so hard to do.

For me, it's folding laundry. I don't mind doing the laundry, I like wearing clean clothes, but for some reason I really hate the folding part. It's not hard, it doesn't take long, I just hate it and I don't know why. Usually what happens is the basket of clean clothes gets dumped on the floor, and I'll use clothes from the pile until it's pretty much depleted and time to do laundry again.

That's my chore that I hate. What's yours?

Competition Journal 2008 #5

The results from my solo piping competitions.

Rockland County Feis, Stony Point, NY, July 20 2008

Event: MSR
Judge: Chris Hamilton
2/4 marches submitted: Major Manson at Clachantrushal, The Clan MacColl
Tunes played: The Clan MacColl, Arniston Castle, Lexy MacAskill
Result: did not place

Event: Piobaireachd
Judge: Duncan Bell
Tunes submitted: The Massacre of Glencoe, The MacFarlane's Gathering
Tune played: The MacFarlane's Gathering
Result: 6th

Competition Journal 2008 #4

The results from my solo piping competitions.

Glasgow Lands Scottish Festival, Northampton, MA, July 19 2008

Event: MSR
Judge: Chuck Murdoch
2/4 marches submitted: Major Manson at Clachantrushal, The Clan MacColl
Tunes played: Major Manson at Clachantrushal, Arniston Castle, Lexy MacAskill
Result: did not place

Event: Piobaireachd
Judge: Paula Glendinning
Tunes submitted: The Massacre of Glencoe, The MacFarlane's Gathering
Tune played: The MacFarlane's Gathering
Result: Break down (bass drone shut off during first variation)

Q: Where has the piper been?

A: All over!

It's true, I've been away for about the last month, and haven't posted anything to the blog for a while before that. For the regular readers (all two of you) I've made it difficult to read regularly, and I'm not going to swear to post more often because it's a promise I won't be able to keep.

Anyway, here's the itinerary of where I've been since school ended. There's a summary at the end if you don't want to read the whole thing.

Stage 1, June 13-June 17: Home. School's out, I'm excited and getting ready for a long road trip. Yahoo!
Stage 2, June 18-20: The Drive. Left Fryeburg on June 18, spent that night with a friend in Westbrook, CT, then spent the night of June 19 with my sister and brother-in-law in York, PA. Arrived at the parents' house in Finksburg, MD on Friday, June 20.
Stage 3, June 20-21: Parents. Played golf with my dad and generally hung out. The lovely and talented Kayla arrived for a short visit on Saturday evening (June 21).
Stage 4, June 22-27: Piping School. Departed on Sunday June 22 for a week of piping school at Shenandoah University in Winchester, VA. A great time, some new friends, and a lot of piping. My notion that Roddy MacLeod is a super cool guy were reinforced, and Colin MacLellan was also determined to be a super cool guy.
Stage 5, June 27-30: The Wedding and Visiting. Chris and Emily, two of my good friends from Fryeburg, got married in Grass Lake, Michigan. Kayla and I drove up on Friday afternoon and evening (~8 hours from Winchester). A really nice wedding, the first visit to Michigan for both of us. Left Michigan on Sunday the June 29, stayed that night with my friends Patty and Alan in Ligonier, PA, then back to the parents' house on June 30.
Stage 6, July 1-6: Hanging out. Mostly in Finksburg area, I did exactly as described. Cut the grass, played golf again, caught up with a few high school friends.
Stage 7, July 7-8: Virginia. Drove down Monday to visit Kayla for a few days. Went to Kings Dominion on Tuesday and were dominated by the new roller coaster, Dominator.
Stage 8, July 9-10: The Drive, Part II. Left from Staunton, VA on Wednesday and drove to visit another friend in Fairfield, CT. Continued the drive home to Fryeburg on July 10 (Thurs).
Stage 9, July 10: Fryeburg. 24 hours at home, just enough time to see the cat, do a bit of laundry, and shoot off a few fireworks (illegal in Maine). Note that this is the first night I've slept in my own bed since June 17.
Stage 10, July 11-18: Vermont. Band practice Friday evening at St. Johnsbury Academy, then hang out in St. J until Sunday afternoon. Sunday sees the beginning of an AP Summer Institute held at St. J Academy. This was a week-long workshop with a very experienced teacher of AP Physics. It was really worthwhile, a lot of good information, and a lot of good networking with other physics teachers in New England.
Stage 11, July 19-20: Highland Games. Stayed in St J for band practice again Friday July 18, then drove with Andy to West Springfield, MA. One night in a hotel, then on to the Glasgow Lands Scottish Festival in Northampton, MA on Saturday. Solo competitions, band competition, drive to Stony Point, NY for a night of camping, then a solo competition at the Rockland County Feis on Sunday.
Stage 12, July 20-21: The Drive Home. Drove from NY to Randolph, MA and stayed the night with cousins. Drove back to Fryeburg on Monday, arrived about 2:00 pm. Home at last!

Here's the promised summary.

Days since the end of school: 38
Nights spent at home: 6
Number of different beds: 15 (including one night of camping) in 9 different states

It's good to be home; I'll be here for about 10 days then off on another piping-related road trip. Whew!

New video: 6/8 marches

The other day I recorded myself playing three of my favorite 6/8 marches: Cameron MacFadyen, Pipe Major Donald MacLean of Lewis, and Mrs. Lily Christie.

I had intended to record an MSR as well, and indeed played one, but due to a stupid mistake on my part I didn't actually record it.... I think I never hit the record button before I started playing, so when I actually did push it at the end I started recording instead of stopping. I got some great footage of me tuning, but none of an MSR. Ah well.

Anyway, 6/8 marches.

The Danger of Cell Phones

I recently found a podcast called "Skeptoid," in which skeptic and writer Brian Dunning picks a topic each week and then discusses it from a scientific standpoint in short episodes that run about 10 minutes or so. His topics range from alternative medicine to conspiracy theories to psychics, UFOs and ghost hunters, and from the title of the podcast you can probably guess the conclusions he draws. He also likes to take common misconceptions and lay the facts down; he's kind of like the Bad Astronomer in that way. In general, my opinion of the podcast is A+, great stuff that a lot of people need to hear.

However, in the episode I listened to this morning about cell phones on airplanes, I found points where I disagree. Read the transcript or listen to the episode, then come back.

As Brian points out in the podcast, a cell phone operates on a completely different frequency than any of the navigation or communication equipment, and in no way provides any danger to the operation of the aircraft. I'm not disagreeing with him on this point, not at all. However he mentions "those of us who hope to get this groundless ban dropped," and I'm not sure I'd like to see the ban disappear.

My reason has nothing to do with the science of the phones or anything, but sheer selfish human comfort. I don't want to hear other people on the plane blabbing on their phones from Boston to San Diego. There's a limit to the number of one-sided phone conversations you can hear without going crazy, and in the confined and inescapable space of a commercial aircraft that limit can be exceeded extremely quickly. It's true they may not pose a danger to the aircraft itself, but there is a risk to the blithering idiots who feel that everyone around them should know what is important to them. Hang up the phone, read a book or magazine, listen to you iPod, and wait until you get on the ground to call your coworkers and loved ones.

Which brings up another interesting point: why are mp3 players, laptop computers, PDAs, CD and DVD players, and anything else with a battery not permitted below an altitude of 10,000 feet? If your phone doesn't interfere with the operation of the plane, it's pretty safe to say that the small battery of your iPod doesn't either, especially since the device doesn't actually transmit anything in the first place.

I have an opinion on this, and the reason is indeed derived from passenger safety. Mind you this is not verified by any sources but it makes sense to me. Think about a plane flight. The times in the flight with the greatest risk for an accident are takeoff and landing, when the plane is nearest the ground. Also, accidents here have a chance for a fatality rate of less than 100% (I mean face it; if the plane develops a fatal flaw and drops 35,000 feet the safety briefing won't help anyone). So my theory is that in case something goes wrong the crew will need to give instructions, and they need everyone to be listening. I developed this theory while on a JetBlue flight; JetBlue has the nice feature of an individual TV and separate head phone jack for each seat. They make you turn off mp3 players for takeoff but if you're watching TV they can override the audio with the intercom.

So while the gadget ban may not be rooted in science, it is rooted in common courtesy and dissemination of information. My thoughts.

Videos

Over the weekend I posted a few videos on You Tube of me playing the practice chanter and pipes. Fun stuff, no serious competition tunes, just playing some good tunes.

First on the practice chanter, a hornpipe and jig: The Man from Skye and Alex MacDonald


And now on pipes, three jigs: Duncan the Gauger, Alex MacDonald, and The Braes of Melinish.

Download Firefox

The top ten reasons to use Firefox

10. It is the fastest browser out there

9. Firefox has a really good popup blocker

8. You can import your bookmarks from other browsers

7. The bookmark toolbar = really handy

6. Firefox has about 20% market share, and you always like to support the little guys, right?

5. Firefox has nearly 30% market share in Europe, and they know a lot more than we Americans do.

4. It's free.

3. Firefox is not made by Microsoft

2. Internet Explorer is terrible

1. Using a different browser than the one bundled with your OS shows you know what you like when it comes to the internet and are not a slave to conformism.

In any language...

So yesterday was my birthday, which was no secret for my students. I came into my first afternoon class and all the students had written "Happy Birthday" in their native languages. As the afternoon went on the other classes added to it, and the final product is shown below. How many languages can you identify?

Competition Journal 2008 #3

The results from my solo piping competitions.

Rhode Island Scottish Highland Festival, Richmond, RI, May 17 2008

Event: 2/4 March
Judge: Bruce Burt
Tunes submitted: The Clan MacColl, Major Manson at Clachanstrushal
Tune played: Clan MacColl
Result: did not place/break down

Event: Strathspey/Reel
Judge: Bruce Burt
Tunes: Arniston Castle, Lexy MacAskill
Result: 5th

Event: 6/8 March
Judge: Chuck Murdoch
Tune: Pipe Major Donald MacLean of Lewis
Result: 3rd

Event: Piobaireachd
Judge: Amy Garson
Tunes submitted: The Massacre of Glencoe, Sir James MacDonald of the Isles' Lament
Tune played: The Massacre of Glencoe
Result: 5th

Why bagpipes have a bad name

This blog post came to my attention this morning. I'd like you to focus on the video. If people like this are playing for the uneducated public in high tourist areas like Edinburgh, it's no wonder people don't like bagpipes. It's hard to tell anything about the guy's tuning from the video, but the playing, my God. Lots of crossing noises, not keeping to tunes, and I don't know what happened in Scotland the Brave, besides the obvious fact that it wasn't the same version I learned (since I learned to play it correctly). Ugh.

Stoopid People #1

So this came to my attention yesterday. If you're too lazy to click on the link, here's the basics.

A substitute teacher in Land O' Lakes, Florida (seriously, it's a real place, 20 miles north of Tampa) performed a brief "magic" trick for one of his classes, in which he made a toothpick disappear and reappear. He was later called in by his supervisor and told he wouldn't be able to take any more substitute assignments because he was being accused of ... wait for it ... wizardry.

I'd like to know where (and when) are we? Is this Salem, MA in 1692, the middle of the witch trials? Madrid, Spain in the 16th century, the Spanish Inquisition (which nobody expected)? I was under the impression that it was 21st century United States, where reason and common sense prevail, or at least no one seriously believes in witchcraft anymore. Am I wrong? Apparently.

To quote my source of this story Phil Plait, "Teh stoopid! It hurts!"

Time for a change

I picked up a few pennies as I walked down the hall this evening and I thought of my change jar. It's actually a tin, and whenever I have change in my pockets I'll dump it in there. It tends to accumulate, and periodically I'll take it somewhere to empty it. So with the change jar on my mind, after I dropped those two new pennies in I decided to count it. Why? Well, why not?

So I spread everything out on my coffee table, turned on the Red Sox game, and proceeded to sort. It took a while (from the 6th to the top of the 9th inning), but I got it done.


The grand total: $149.72

This immediately raises two questions:

1. How do I turn it into real money?
2. What do I do with the real money?

1. There's a few options here. I could check with one of the banks in town (there are two) to see if they have a coin counter, thus saving me the hassle of sorting everything again. It doesn't seem likely they'd let me do that since I haven't an account at either institution (they offer 0.25% interest on a savings account; do you blame me?). The other option is the Coinstar machine in the local grocery store. It's easy and fast, and I can apply it toward my groceries (like I ever buy them), but they take 8.9 cents of every dollar. It's true I'd still have $136.39, but I can think of better uses for the other $13+ than just giving it to a machine. Coinstar does have an option for free coin exchange if I turn it into a gift certificate, but I'm not sure I want that much money reserved for a specific store. So the answer to this question is still up in the air.

2. $149.72 is a lot of money, and I have no idea what it will be spent on. Maybe I'll post a follow up to let you know.