Home » Discussion Forums » Blog Post Discussion » Playing the piano again
| Playing the piano again [message #11693] |
Tue, 17 February 2009 18:43  |
 b_twin_1
Messages: 2594
Registered: September 2008
Location: Victoria, Australia |
Senior Member
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Robin's Playing the piano again hehe
I've got a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel ~ Blackadder
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| Re: Playing the piano again [message #11698 is a reply to message #11696 ] |
Tue, 17 February 2009 19:24  |
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| Robin wrote on Tue, 17 February 2009 19:12 |
So, how's the flute coming? :)
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LOL!!!
Robin wins this round.
I'll be ready for the next! :p
[Updated on: Tue, 17 February 2009 19:24]
Smooshes!
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| Re: Playing the piano again [message #11699 is a reply to message #11693 ] |
Tue, 17 February 2009 19:25 |
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Julia
Messages: 531
Registered: October 2008
Location: Library School |
Senior Member |
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[ATTEMPT 3]--Double aargh. I've written this twice, now. Computers are very annoying-- I started replying over half an hour ago! sigh--
[ATTEMPT 2] -Aargh! I am typing on my laptop, and above the left arrow is another arrow key, which goes back a page, and I constantly hit it when I am going for the shift key... and so, while the page back button is very useful when I want to, say, go back a page, it constantly, without fail, jumps underneath my fingers whenever I am trying to type something, and I then lose the whole thing. Sigh-
ANYWAY...
[ATTEMPT 1]
Hope your hands recover[/hand recovers] quickly. General brilliance [as usual]. Refraining from commentary on reference librarians.
Oh, but WAIT-- did I miss some crucial chapter in the "About Me" section here, or on your old website biographical info page? You were an ambulance driver? And moreover, you were an ambulance driver but not an EMT?
Now, as I type, it sounds vaguely familiar, as if you may have mentioned it once and then I forgot. But that generally isn't something easily forgotten: "You know, Robin McKinley... brilliant and wonderful author, lives in England, married to Peter Dickinson, keeps a blog, grows roses and things, has two astounding and adorable dogs, rings bells and things-- oh, and she used to have a motorcycle. And she wears pink All Stars. Pretends that she isn’t good at things like keeping a blog or ringing bells or piano playing, when in fact she is quite accomplished at all three? Is very awesome? Oh, and I think she once said something about driving an ambulance too.”
At any rate, I didn’t realize that one could simply be an ambulance driver- I thought that if you are an EMT, you just get in the ambulance and drive yourself over, or have another person drive, so that if necessary you can tend to whoever you are going to help, …. So I guess it makes sense, then. Never mind.
Oh well. At any rate, hooray for piano playing gladness!
:)
[Updated on: Tue, 17 February 2009 19:49]
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| Re: Playing the piano again [message #11700 is a reply to message #11698 ] |
Tue, 17 February 2009 19:39 |
skating librarian
Messages: 570
Registered: October 2008
Location: Vermont |
Senior Member |
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Jodi, I'm curious about the cat not letting you practice the flute ... does it rub against it as you try to practice?
That's my excuse for never quite getting the hang of the penny whistle. One of the cats would jump up into my lap and bump her head against it whenever I tried to play.
Is this the hand which hurt last fall (is that when it was?)?
Speaking of homeopathy, in his column this week a local homeopath reports that to avoid colds one should get a minimum of seven hours of sleep a night. EIght is better.
Lovely reason for me to insist on sleeping as much as I want!
"Winning a war is like winning an earthquake" Jeanette Rankin
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| Re: Playing the piano again [message #11701 is a reply to message #11700 ] |
Tue, 17 February 2009 19:43 |
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| skating librarian wrote on Tue, 17 February 2009 19:39 |
Jodi, I'm curious about the cat not letting you practice the flute ... does it rub against it as you try to practice?
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That's just Susan's excuse for me. ;)
Kippy flees the room when I bring out the flute. I'm pretty sure she hides under the bed until it's back in the case.
Really, really good for my ego. ;)
Smooshes!
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| Re: Playing the piano again [message #11709 is a reply to message #11697 ] |
Wed, 18 February 2009 01:20 |
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Diane in MN
Messages: 2729
Registered: October 2008
Location: Twin Cities, MN, USA |
Senior Member |
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| Susan from Athens wrote on Tue, 17 February 2009 18:21 |
And right now in Athens we're having the Bodies exhibition - those bodies specially preserved and displayed in interesting ways. A bunch of people I know and whose opinion I respect found it enlightening, illuminating and fascinating, but I am just not sure. My natural curiosity is fighting my natural squeamishness to a draw. Any opinions anyone.
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That exhibit was here a year or so ago and I really wanted to see it, but shamefully never made it to the science museum. Some friends went and liked it a lot. If the advertising pictures were accurate, the exhibits would have looked more like models than like people, so squeamishness might not kick in.
I'm not generally squeamish, but I completely understand about the rat. We were supposed to pith a frog in one of my college biology courses and there is no way I could (or would) have done it. Wouldn't do it now, either, and I hope today's students are doing virtual dissections of computer-generated frogs.
"The point of books is to have way too many but to always feel you never have enough . . . " Louise Erdrich
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| Re: Playing the piano again [message #11714 is a reply to message #11697 ] |
Wed, 18 February 2009 11:10 |
Jeanne Marie
Messages: 320
Registered: October 2008
Location: Kansas City |
Senior Member |
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| Susan from Athens wrote on Tue, 17 February 2009 18:21 |
right now in Athens we're having the Bodies exhibition - those bodies specially preserved and displayed in interesting ways. A bunch of people I know and whose opinion I respect found it enlightening, illuminating and fascinating, but I am just not sure. My natural curiosity is fighting my natural squeamishness to a draw. Any opinions anyone.
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I went to see that particular exhibit twice, once in New York and once in Atlanta, then saw the original exhibit from Germany called BodyWorks when it was in Dallas. I felt that both those exhibits were very well done, very enlightening and very profound - I was pretty deeply moved by the New York one, which is the first time I had seen it. I didn't feel it was gory, and my squeamishness wasn't engaged at all. My dad went tot eh Dallas exhibit with me, and he wasn't grossed out either, which he had been really worried about.
There has been a lot of controversy around exhibits of this type. I first heard about them at all because of two articles in Discover magazine, about 1 1/2 years apart. The articles dealt with 1) the original German exhibit, which was designed by the man who invented the preservation technique (plastination, in itself a very intriguing technique...) and then 2) with questions about how the cadavers in the Bodies exhibit were obtained. The Bodies exhibit company cleared their name, but there have been subsequent cadavers exhibit companies who have not been as scrupulous, and there's been concern in some quarters that the cadavers were obtained by illegal or immoral means. There was an exhibit of this type which came to KC last year, and it in particular was dogged by this type of controversy - and, investigation after the exhibit had already left turned up the disturbing news that the legal channels for obtaining cadavers had NOT been used by the company in question (Bodies Revealed). So, in my mind, there's lots of "on the one hand...on the other hand" about all of it.
On the one hand, I found the exhibits I saw to be very well done, thought-provoking and extremely interesting from a scientific point of view. On the other hand, the German exhibit in particular does have an slightly "funhouse" kind of quality to it. The cadaver displays are done in a more light-hearted and playful fashion that the Bodies: The Exhibition displays, and some people no doubt find this to be troubling. It didn't bother me so much, because I think the human body is fascinating and funny all at the same time.
Detractors of this kind of exhibit feel that displays of human cadavers for anything other than serious medical research are degrading and de-humanizing. I don't agree - frankly, once we're dead, who needs the shall? Might as well use it to teach something, and not just to med students! The issue of how the cadavers is obtained is even more problematic for the exhibit detractors, and I admit for me as well. If someone wants their body to be used for these purposes after death, that's great - but, if they don't give their permission, if the families of the deceased don't have any say in the matter, I can see where people would be disturbed. In many cases, people who are in Chinese prisons are the donors, and there has been question as to not only pre-death-permissions but to how the individual in question met their end - naturally or via criminal execution? Nobody really likes to think about any of this stuff!
But, nobody really likes to think about death and what-ever-comes-after either. Which is one of the valuable things about the exhibit, in my opinion - it confronts the frailty and the beauty of the human body all at once. We are "fearfully and wonderfully made" but we are all going to die someday, and all that will remain is this earthly body...
The other issue I and a friend had with Bodies: The Exhibition in particular is that women's cadavers were not utilized until the display on adipose tissue (fat!), and then in the reproductive system room. The German exhibit was much more egalitarian. This could be simple supply issues (how many women in Chinese prisons?), but it also alludes to some prejudice about women's athleticism (not that I am one to talk...my cadaver would be useful for demonstrating adipose tissue too!)
So, there's my two cents...er, perhaps that's $1.50!! Anyway, Susan, if you do attend (and I actually recommend it), I'd be curious what you think of it!
Smiles,
Jeanne Marie
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| Re: Playing the piano again [message #11716 is a reply to message #11693 ] |
Wed, 18 February 2009 12:03 |
dances-with-needles
Messages: 38
Registered: February 2009
Location: Colorado, in the north |
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The worst case of tendonitis I ever had I got from playing the piano. I hate to say it, but my teacher told me that finger exercises daily are important for preventing hand injuries. I decided eventually that knitting was more important than finger exercises.
Someone directed me to google yoga for hands which brought me to a series of exercises that I found very helpful when I had been involved in holiday knitting and had very stiff sore hands. I use the exercises regularly to make sure that I get to do the things I want, Gardening, knitting, writing. While begging off of things I don't particularly want to do.
I am OK with anatomical drawings, and did fine with most of my anatomy class excepting dissecting cats. I begged off that one and I also refuse to kill an animal for supposed scientific purposes.
How do you get to be an ambulance driver without going through the EMT training? I don't know how it is in UK, but here you can't go on the fire trucks or the ambulances unless you have the training.
Dances
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| Re: Playing the piano again [message #11717 is a reply to message #11693 ] |
Wed, 18 February 2009 12:22 |
dances-with-needles
Messages: 38
Registered: February 2009
Location: Colorado, in the north |
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I forgot to say: type knitted digestive system into google. Not only is it stunning and anatomicly correct, it has the directions so that you can make one for your very own self.
Dances
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| Re: Playing the piano again [message #11742 is a reply to message #11714 ] |
Wed, 18 February 2009 20:25 |
kfoster2047
Messages: 138
Registered: January 2009
Location: Charlotte, NC |
Senior Member |
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It didn't bother me so much, because I think the human body is fascinating and funny all at the same time.
Oh my, yes. Not to mention all of the weird and wacky things we do with our bodies. Viewed objectively, both sex and sneezing are pretty darn hilarious.
Karen
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| Re: Playing the piano again [message #11745 is a reply to message #11693 ] |
Wed, 18 February 2009 20:54 |
skating librarian
Messages: 570
Registered: October 2008
Location: Vermont |
Senior Member |
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With regard to reference librarians ...
There was what in my day in library school was called the "reference interview", which involved finding out enough about how the person wanted to use the information to give them the right "answer".
For example, a woman with a white cane came into the library and seemed at a loss. So I went and asked her if I could help her find something. She said "yes, a carpenter."
I was NOT being nosy when I asked what she wanted the carpenter to do ... I was trying to find out if she wanted someone to do rough framing, finish work, etc. Her answer was that she wanted someone who could saw an inch off her cane, which was new, and too long. I told her that I had a saw down in the janitor's closet and that I would be happy to do it, if she would let me. So the answer to the question wasn't really the name of a carpenter ... because the real need wasn't for a carpenter, but for someone with a saw.
"Winning a war is like winning an earthquake" Jeanette Rankin
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| Re: Playing the piano again [message #11751 is a reply to message #11714 ] |
Wed, 18 February 2009 23:46 |
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Black Bear
Messages: 3216
Registered: September 2008
Location: Indianapolis, IN USA |
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[Moderator] |
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Re: Bodies and Body Worlds--this has been a pretty big kerfuffle in the museum world (of which some of you may recall I'm a part!  ) Exhibition of human remains is a very thorny issue on a number of levels, many of which you've touched on here, Jeanne Marie. Especially in the US, there have been a lot of discussions in the last decade or two regarding repatriating native remains from museum collections, and whether it's ever appropriate to display any human remains outside a purely medical context (IE the Mutter in Philadelphia.) It's arguable that the educational content of these exhibits is minimal--does one really "learn" anything from seeing a plastinated body that you couldn't learn from looking at an anatomy textbook? In which case, is it pure voyeurism (and is that a bad thing?) I don't really have a strong opinion on this one way or the other, especially as I've not seen either of the exhibits and don't have firsthand knowledge of how the stuff is contextualized. It was a popular paper/debate topic back when I was in museum school. But the primary controversy, at least as far as museums deciding to take this exhibit or not, did have to do with the issues of consent raised by the Bodies (Chinese) exhibition. I would have been interested to see Body Worlds, but don't want the Bodies folks to have a dime of my money...
"The time is always right to do what's right."--MLK Jr.
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| Re: Playing the piano again [message #11752 is a reply to message #11745 ] |
Wed, 18 February 2009 23:58 |
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L.R.K.
Messages: 1080
Registered: October 2008
Location: Sweden |
Senior Member |
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| skating librarian wrote on Thu, 19 February 2009 02:54 |
With regard to reference librarians ...
There was what in my day in library school was called the "reference interview", which involved finding out enough about how the person wanted to use the information to give them the right "answer".
For example, a woman with a white cane came into the library and seemed at a loss. So I went and asked her if I could help her find something. She said "yes, a carpenter."
I was NOT being nosy when I asked what she wanted the carpenter to do ... I was trying to find out if she wanted someone to do rough framing, finish work, etc. Her answer was that she wanted someone who could saw an inch off her cane, which was new, and too long. I told her that I had a saw down in the janitor's closet and that I would be happy to do it, if she would let me. So the answer to the question wasn't really the name of a carpenter ... because the real need wasn't for a carpenter, but for someone with a saw.
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Can't help being a bit curious here - I hope you don't mind - was the cane of wood? I think white canes here are plastic; at least I had/have (I suppose it's somewhere since I don't really throw stuff away) a foldable white cane and it was of hard plastic.
Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean, like butter that has been scraped over too much bread.
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| Re: Playing the piano again [message #11800 is a reply to message #11752 ] |
Thu, 19 February 2009 21:10 |
skating librarian
Messages: 570
Registered: October 2008
Location: Vermont |
Senior Member |
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The white cane in question was wooden ... we are talking many, many years ago ... in the 70's. I know that they make plastic ones today ... but I seem to remember that the canes the blind students I worked with in the sixties were always wooden.
Hmmmm. You've given me something to think about.
"Winning a war is like winning an earthquake" Jeanette Rankin
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| Re: Playing the piano again [message #11883 is a reply to message #11863 ] |
Sat, 21 February 2009 05:38 |
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| Diane in MN wrote on Sat, 21 February 2009 04:05 |
I've had dogs who liked to torment people who weren't interested in them by really wanting to be their friend, up close and personal and right now. Our first dog amused herself by making people who were nervous around her more nervous; she was so selective about this behavior that it was obviously deliberate.
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IMO dogs definitely have a sense of humour - some more warped than others 
Someone says "pie" and we all go on alert, like meercats. "Pie? Where?" - Blackbear
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