Bluegrass class, library fire drill, Master's business
I spoke with a fellow classmate who is also going for his Master's comps and he gave me some good advice. A former classmate of ours told him that it would be good to type up your notes from the classes that are part of your Master's committee and that's a good idea! Stuff from last semester or last year is old and may not be readable. But I think I'll take it a step further: I will go over the articles/books from those courses and type up some "new notes" to save, almost like half writing the exam paper. I am a slow typist and need to type up the sources and some of the information in advance -- then at least part of it will be "copy and paste." It makes sense if you have to do 3 papers in 48 hours!
I was going to go into McConnell Library when I came upon a crowd standing on the soggy lawn around it (as we've had a lot of melting snow and warmer temperatures the past few days -- I'm WAITING FOR SPRING). It turned out it was some kind of fire drill. But I only stayed around 15 minutes. And they were still standing there! Someone, a young male student, suggested there was a pipe bomb or something way back in the library, as we didn't see even a hint of smoke-- it'd be detrimental to the entire college if some student were fool enough to burn the library down. It has some books not found anywhere else, a number of places to meet and talk over classes, or study quietly, all a real neccesity in a university. I hope it turns out to be nothing major.
For my "Appalachia in the Media" class I had an interesting assignment : go listen to a Bluegrass band. It wasn't exactly a band in the little store on Main Street, but a jam session of a whole bunch of people with various and sundry instruments, such as the dobro, guitar, banjo, bass fiddle, etc. Most would associate the fast strumming banjo with bluegrass music, but many other instruments are also involved. And this group even had a woman mandolin player! It was overcrowded in this small coffee shop (which they say was going out of business because of the 'Starbucks' close by on campus), and there were a few "younguns" walking about. But the music was interesting, and I didn't stay for all of it so that someone could get my seat -- a whole lot of people were standing in back!