Chris: good point, except the files are behind a password-protected "firewall" that I only open for a short period of time. And I've never left it unattended when I was logged in. (And besides, she'd have had to spend a lot of time searching for what she had wanted to steal; I had about 15 old presentations on there - all of which have now been "slurped" onto a flash drive and deleted from the desk top).

I suspect what happened was the other student gave her her paper (innocently, I think) as "Hey, here's what I did, you can use the same procedures as I used" and without realizing the student would just steal her data.

At any rate - it's over with. Student gets a zero, regardless of whether the other student was a dupe or a co-conspirator.

I'm surprised at how TIRED this has left me. Just worn out. I'm glad my exams are already written.

****

This week is a "slower" week for piano practicing - next Tuesday is my last lesson for this semester before a couple-weeks break between it and the summer session starting in June.

So to still get in some practice time (most of the lesson book stuff this week is pedal-work, WHICH I ALREADY KNOW HOW TO DO THANK YOU and not very complex stuff to play, I pulled out some other books I have.

Including the "Orange" John Schaum book (which I've talked about before). This is an older book, I think my dad got it in a boxlot at an auction shortly after we got the piano. It's always been a bit more advanced than however-far I got in previous lessons, but I could kind of noodle out a few of the pieces in there.

Well, in January I was disappointed to see how much my skill had decayed. (And I think one thing I've noticed, learning the piano at an older age - I "lose" stuff faster, and I don't progress as fast, as I did when I was a kid)

But I found that this week, I could play a few of the pieces in there (particularly the "Ruben and Rachel in Society" - a funny little pastiche-piece where the old folk tune is arranged to sound like Mozart, a Strauss waltz, Chopin, and Sousa, and a medley of simplified Strauss waltzed). I couldn't play them PERFECTLY - there were halting spots and mistakes - but I could play them BETTER than I could in January. Clearly better.

I also find that I can play the D major scale (I'm going through the scales, week by week, doing either contrary or parallel motion and then doing the blocked and broken chords and arpeggios - so I'm only up to D now) through pretty much perfectly without having to think about where my fingers go - both the "do I switch after 3 or 4 here" thing, or the remembering-the-sharps thing. So I guess I am beginning to learn, my hands are beginning to get more skillful at this.

You know, I realize another thing I like about learning piano: there are no short cuts to it. The only way you get better is to put your derriere on the bench and practice. And if you practice more, you get better faster. (It's FAIR. It seems like one of the few things in life that is FAIR right now - the harder I work on a piece, the better I get at it. It's simple but it's strangely comforting). You can't cheat your way to playing the piano well. And while some people may have more talent, there's probably a point where talent + not practicing = less talent + rigorous practice or even talent - practice < less talent + rigorous practice.

I don't know; it's nice to have something that feels fair in that way. Where my effort is rewarded by getting better. Maybe not concert-quality better, but better enough to make a difference to me. And also knowing that the "better" came about because I worked at it.