Fuck!

What have we learned tonight, my friends? That you can be the only Government in a Westminster Parliament ever censured for Contempt of Parliament, that you can defend to the death Ministers who lie and present misleading documents to the House, that you can refuse to disclose the costs of your most expensive and controversial programs, that you can run the most secretive Government in memory, prevent Canadians from criticizing their Prime Minister, refuse to answer their questions, scorn our Constitution and Charter, and in return, you will be rewarded not just by being sent back to Ottawa, but returned there with a majority government.

At least there are a few bright spots. The NDP took a record number of seats, forming the Official Opposition for the first time, though they won't have much in the way of leverage faced up against a majority Government. Elizabeth May won her seat in the House, a fact about which I am thrilled. She's extremely intelligent and articulate, and is easily the party leader for whom I have the most respect.

Time to cross our fingers and see what happens in the next four years. Believe me when I say I'll be remembering which of the local pundits were stumping for the Conservatives when we see policy changes coming down the pipes. If worse comes to worse, as I fear it will, I suppose civil disobedience is the silver lining to the cloud of Conservative rule.

Viola lesson recap: Tue May 3 2011

It's awesome when your teacher gives you permission to suck, either explicitly or implicitly. In this case, it's the latter; no matter how little practice time I've managed to get in, I never get a guilt trip over it.

I feel like I've been either on the road or sick for all of the last three weeks, with the concomitant lack of practice having the expected effect on my technique. Nonetheless, we worked on left-hand technique that'd help me reach higher notes & lower strings more easily (elbow well to the right; palm angled well towards the fingerboard instead of facing you), tuning up my intonation on the C string, and bringing the fourth finger into play.

More practice.