Seaching for sheet music and a shutdown

Late yesterday I decided to stroll back onto the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) website after not dropping by for about a week and a half. I wanted to once again check out the latest uploads to see if there was anything that I might like.

As it usually takes a while for the main page to be fully downloaded and displayed on my browser, I read some other webpage on another browser tab in the meantime. When I returned to the tab where I had the IMSLP page loaded, I was momentarily surprised to find not the usual wiki-looking main page but just some plain text displayed on the screen. At first I thought that I had typed in the wrong URL. But no. There it was on the address bar, http://imslp.org.

Finally after recovering sufficiently from my initial confusion to read what was on the screen, I was shocked to realize that the website was no longer there. It turns out that the website's project leader had received legal threats from a classical music publishing firm regarding some uploaded material that was in public domain in Canada (where the IMSLP server is located) but protected by copyright terms in certain countries. In order to avoid the expenses of dealing with the issue, the project leader decided to simply shut down the site.

I tell you I was downcast after that discovery.

I love playing the piano and always look forward to the challenge of learning something new to add to my so-called repertoire even if it takes a long time since I rarely have the time to practice nowadays. (I reckon that if I got to practice daily, I'd be able to learn a new piece every one or two weeks, depending on the difficulty of the piece. But as I actually get to snatch about three hours of practice every two months--more or less, depending on how hectic things are at work--that rate is down to about one new piano piece a year.)

So it became a habit of mine to stock up on music pieces that I wanted to learn sooner or later. I naturally began looking for music books and sheet music in bookstores here but was only met with disappointment when I found that bookstores here generally don't stock up on classical music books or sheet music. Music stores that had shelves of classical music books were rare as well. I'd come across a store that labels itself a music store only to find musical instruments (mainly guitars and electronic keyboards) and pop sheet music. Classical music here seems be an extinct commodity.

Of course, it is an entirely different story abroad where there are many good music stores stocked with good classical music. I would come across one and upon entering, I'd feel like a kid let loose in a candy store with a blank cheque. But then, I can't afford to travel often and I can't stay forever in one country when I'm a resident in another.

This lack of a local reliable source of classical sheet music is the main reason why searching for new music on the web had been an on-and-off obsession in the past few years--especially after locating a few good websites with sheet music still in public domain.

And IMSLP happened to be one of those websites for the past several months.

Sigh. This feels like Sam the Record Man store closing shop all over again.

Editing papers

One of the many things I have to do at the end of each term here is to read and edit my thesis advisees' papers. As we often accept students to be our advisees based on what they will be working on for their thesis, I get students who vary in terms of writing skills as well as their capability to do quality work.

The most disappointing are those who simply have poor English writing skills. Their English grammar is atrocious while sentence structure is poor and at best awkward. I immediately recognize these types when after reading the first few opening paragraphs, I notice that I've made a dozen corrections on subject-verb agreement and verb tense. Often, they write sentences that mean something entirely different from what they mean to say. Or worse, there are sentences in which I can't figure out at all what they're trying to say. These are the students whose papers we teaching staff often call "hopeless", the ones whose papers I feel like rewriting entirely but know that I shouldn't or else it will no longer be the student's own work. In these cases, I make corrections on the first few paragraphs and simply tell the student to check the grammar for the rest of the paper. Or if I'm in a patient enough mood, I make corrections on the entire paper, by which time the paper is filled with slashes, arrows, carets and admonitions to "Rewrite!" written in red gel ink.

The more frustrating types are those who are pretty much capable of writing well in English but who are just lazy or don't care much about turning out quality work. These are the ones who write the shortest of explanations and descriptions, don't pay attention to indention or spacing between paragraphs and make careless mistakes like typographical errors. (Actually, I already notice this poor regard for quality when they present their thesis work to me and I can see that everything has apparently been done and put together haphazardly.) Obviously they simply slapped together ideas into a paper and didn't proofread before submitting the paper to me for my review and comments. Sometimes I end up giving the student a short sermon on how poor work will not likely be tolerated once they get a job and that even so, they should make it a habit to pay attention to quality this early.

Of course, the most satisfactory are the students who can both write acceptably well and do quality work. It is especially pleasing if the student has not received exceptional grades for his/her coursework but has still shown through thesis work that he/she carries out tasks with care and dedication. Every detail in their thesis work and thesis paper indicate that everything was thought out carefully. And although they still make mistakes in writing their thesis papers, these are the types with whom you can discuss making improvements at a higher level and not worry about not seeing the final draft before they make a final copy of their thesis paper.

Naturally, one would always like to work with students of the third type above. They cause the least headache at stressful times like these. But it is nevertheless rewarding to work with the other types and do your best to guide them in the hopes of helping them be better prepared for a career after graduation.

How's that again?

You know how sometimes people say something without thinking. (Reader's Digest is filled with such anecdotes.) Or in the case of most Filipinos, say something in English without realizing what it actually means. Here are just a few instances from my own experience:

• Years ago, my family invited my beloved piano teacher over to lunch at an exclusive restaurant after which we returned to my grandparent's house to chat. Since my elderly grandmother and my piano teacher's mother grew up in the same town, the two were eagerly exchanging stories about friends and relatives. Then my piano teacher asked my grandmother how she was related to so-and-so who also came from the same province. When my grandmother replied that he was a distant cousin, my piano teacher exclaimed, "Really? I thought he was your nephew or something. I didn't know he was that old!" [My piano teacher instantly clapped a hand over his mouth although my grandmother didn't seem to have noticed anything wrong with what he said.]
• I read in a newspaper probably a little more than a year ago this article about a well-known broadcast journalist who had just given birth to her and her husband's first child, a daughter. The brand new mother was being interviewed about her experiences as a first-time mom and the article actually quoted her as saying, "Malunggay is an excellent source of mother's milk." [And all the while I thought she was advocating breastfeeding. Haha.]
  
• Just earlier, I saw on television a local talk show hosted by another prominent broadcast jouranalist. As the current show focused on the recent explosion in Makati, a couple of victims of the blast were invited over for an interview. One was a lady who appeared to be in her early 30s and had suffered a few cuts on her left hand and arm. She was recalling (in English) that she was in Glorietta 3 with a friend when the explosion occurred. When asked in which direction she heard the noise, the lady replied, "I heard the blast come from my behind." Now, that's proof that the tragedy was not due to a bomb but rather by a "gas explosion"! [My guess is that she literally translated "galing sa likod ko."]
  

Final grade reactions

Like I mentioned previously, I'm just about done with the current school term. The past week has been spent giving final exams, grading final exams and computing final standings. And so it was with great relief that I finally posted the final grades of my students in the various courses I teach.

Since I post the grades on the corkboard nailed to my office door, I can overhear my students' reactions to their grades as well as to their classmates' grades. Often what they say add to the little entertainment I get each day at work--one of the few things I enjoy about these end-of-term periods. You get those who go absolutely hysterical when they learn that they had just about passed the course. I can hear exclamations of disappointment from those whose standing went down due to a poor final exam showing. Some obviously scan the entire list to see what the others got because I can hear a few wonder aloud who it was who got that unbelievably high score in the finals. Or else some are aghast to see that many failed the course. (I believe these are not my students but rather those who are planning to take the course in the future and want to get an idea of how easy or difficult the course is.)

What I dread though are students who received a failing and come into my office to beg me (which is against the University code, by the way) to give them a passing grade, often asking me to give them some extra project to do to make up for the deficit. I get a multitude of reactions as well when I, of course, refuse to change their grades. I've had one, like many others in the past, look totally downcast and eventually break down in tears as she left my office. On the other extreme, a few bounce in with smiles on their faces and bounce out almost just as cheerfully. I suppose these students make going through college as some kind of a game: take a course and see what happens. Most though, after listening to why I can't change their grades (an unnecessary explanation if you think about it) or else seeing what contributed to their failing grade (often extremely low scores in the exams or quizzes), appear to accept their fate more calmly and with a heavy sigh leave the office. A few take a more optimistic outlook and look forward to re-enrolling the course hoping to do better.

When you're feeling blue, just watch the cockatoo

This video made my day. I first came across a link to a shorter version in a recent blog post at the Mental Floss website before looking it up at YouTube. The description of the video there reads:

Snowball is an Elanora Cockatoo that dances to the Back Street Boys. He came to the Bird Lovers Only Rescue a couple of months ago and is a joy. Visit us at www.birdloversonly.org

Music is truly a universal language. Even animals "get it".

P.S.
Oooh...it turns out that this is my 100th post here.

Monday treats

The school term is winding down and I'm nearly done with giving lectures to my different classes. More and more of my time at the office is now spent grading quizzes, recording scores, double checking my class records and making exams and less on preparing lecture notes and presentation slides. In other words, things are not as hectic as they usually are--at least for the time being before there are once again exams to grade and grades to compute.

Anyway, since I normally have a class at 1pm, I would go out to buy lunch as early at 11:30am to beat the lunch crowd, But today having given my last 1pm lecture last week, I remained at my desk longer than usual before leaving to buy lunch at nearly 12:30pm. I got myself a chicken fillet sandwich with coleslaw and dalandan juice from KFC and two Mister Donuts chocolate doughnuts. One of the doughnuts turned out to be a surprise: it was sprinkled with cinnamon. Yum yum. I had not tasted cinnamon for ages. (The other was rolled in crushed peanuts.)

Then later in the afternoon, I heard the excited voices of some our younger staff outside in the hallway. After popping my head outside my door to see what was going on, I learned that ice cream was being served at the office kitchen. A couple of our instructors were celebrating their birthdays and were treating the rest of us to ice cream. There was palitaw as well and I got some to bring home for desert after dinner.

The cat on the mat

For a long time now our house has been used by a few cats in the neighborhood for hanging out. We have two cats of our own but they appear not to mind sharing their territory with strangers. Lately, there's this cat who apparently enjoys lying down our front doormat. I've noticed that he stays there nearly all day during weekends (I'm at work during weekdays so I don't know if this is true on weekdays as well) and only disappears around sunset, perhaps to go hunting or have dinner at his real owner's place. I've seen him around before, particularly sleeping on top of a pile of newspapers in our garage but I suppose he feels freer to roam around our backyard now that we no longer have a dog.

Anyway, I decided to take a picture of this visitor of ours earlier today and here it is. He's got a funny expression on his face because he was apparently annoyed when I woke him up as I approached to take the picture.