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.