Vox Lucens

I tend to be a bit of a grammar freak. Bad grammar, lack of punctuation, mis-capitalization, and any number of other potential linguistic lapses bother me. For that reason, a good deal of blogging - not to mention IMing - can cause me serious consternation. This is a subject I have written on before.

But there is one simple reason I like following grammar’s rules. They are the tools of effective communications. They make combinations of words precise in their meaning, elegant in their style, and effective in message. Rules of grammar are pointless on their own; they exist only as tools of communication.

It is with that in mind that I state, quite truthfully, that I appreciate folks that correct my grammar. But sometimes I get stubborn…and sometimes I think about small stuff WAY too much.

Take my recent post reviewing “Expelled.” In my long-winded introduction, I referred to the movie “Red Dawn” and its negative effect on my gastrointestinal stability. And more than one person noted to me that I used the word “nauseous” when I should have said “nauseated.”

You see, the word “nauseous” to me seems almost onomatopoetic. I can’t say it without feeling the sound go up through my nose and make my sinuses swirl, making it profoundly appropriate for the idea it is attempting to communicate. “Nauseated,” on the other hand, sounds clinical and clean, something you would find on a hospital chart - making it grammatically correct, but inadequate for powerful communication.

Now, I must admit that I first used that word thinking it was correct. It was a grammatical mistake. But now that I know that, I’m stubbornly refusing to change it.

And yet, in spite of my stubbornness, I am bothered by my stance. More people commented on my grammatical gaffe than commented on the content of what I had to say. So this I must ask myself, in the attempt to improve my communication ability: Is my attempt to use the best word distracting from what I’m really trying to say? It seems that blogging would be an excellent chance to use the most compelling word over the most correct one, but communication is about connecting with your audience - am I writing for a bunch of grammar mavens?

Communication can be a strange beast. Ah grammar, how do I love thee?

(Thoughts on good grammar, and critiques of my grammatical structure, are welcomed in the comments section. This rant is brought to you by a very long day in which every creative shred in my being has been taxed to the utmost.)

Today I went to the Charleston Air Expo pretty much on a whim. I spent well more than twice as much time in traffic as I did at the show, but I’m glad I went.

Just going on to a military base brings back so many memories.

Today I finished up my photo editing and delivered the CDs of pictures for Nathan and Jessica’s wedding. I wanted to put up just one more of the pictures that, after editing, made it to the list of my favorites.

[Thanks to all who visited my site this afternoon and bore with the "test" post--and even commented on it! I am experimenting with FeedFlare, and discovering that this server is incredibly slow.]

I’m going to do something new for this blog, something I don’t think I’ve ever done before–a movie review. It isn’t often that a movie sticks out as being either so good or so bad I actually want to write about it. (Red Dawn would be an exception, on the bad side, but I can hardly even think about it without feeling nauseous, which is not conducive to blogging.) The fact that this concept is rather foreign is probably obvious by the fact that I’m filing this post under “Humor (?)” and “Inspirational,” neither of which really fits.

All introductory comments aside, let’s cut to the chase: Expelled was fantastic. It was thought-provoking, brilliantly produced, and highly entertaining.

Now don’t get me wrong. I am a proud member of the “young-earth creation” crowd, which, if one is to go by this movie, is apparently a kook fringe of society. I tend to think we’re a little more stable–and intellectually honest–than that, so perhaps the vilification took the path of water on a duck’s back, but let me say at the outset that this is no creationistic manifesto.

In fact, it’s not much of a manifesto at all. Ben Stein’s bent towards intelligent design is purposefully obvious, but the point of the movie is not to persuade you that intelligent design is the truth. It’s designed to open the door to a rational debate on the subject–something that has not happened for decades. And that is the first reason I liked it. This 90-minute film recognized the inherent limitations of the persuasive quality of 90-minute films, and still made a profound point. While no one is going to be persuaded to shake their firmly held evolutionary beliefs because of a documentary, they just might be willing to think things through after it.

But the even better reason I liked this movie was the sheer brilliance of its production. As a student–and fan–of effective communication, I could not help but marvel at the elegance (if I may use a Dawkins-esque word) of the documentary. From opening scene to closing credits, it was built around one tantalizing extended metaphor that gave life to the overarching point of the movie. And underneath that extended metaphor, every element of the film, from the cinematography to the backdrops to the abrupt cuts to 60’s-vintage black and white reels, provided the foundational building blocks to the actual dialogue.

No, I’m not going to tell you what that extended metaphor was. I’m hoping, if you haven’t already, that you’ll go see this film and find out for yourself.

My friends in the creationist crowd, if this movie is successful, you and I need to be ready to do our part. We need to be ready to provide the evidence of the Creator. It’s out there, but it has been suppressed in public life for years–and if this movie can serve as a tiny crack in the dam of the establishment, we should be ready to pour through that crack with all the science and logic at our disposal. But let us remember, in the long run, that this science and logic is not the end game; our end goal must be to point all who see us to our Creator. This movie won’t do that…but it just might give you and me the platform we need to impact someone for eternity.

And to think, just the fact that Ben Stein called Richard Dawkins on the carpet would have alone been worth the price of admission.

Sanity and sleep were both at a premium this week, but the results were well worth the effort.

The weekend (sort of) started early with a bit of a dream come true–I got to hear Chanticleer live in concert on Thursday. They don’t call themselves “An Orchestra of Voices” for nothing. Their blend and harmony was even more sublime in person than it is in some of my all-time favorite CDs. And the variety of music that they can sing is unbelievable. From Palestrina to Barber to English folk to American gospel…they can do them all with equal brilliance. Check ‘em out–here are some of my favorites.

On Saturday, I went up to Columbia and judged the mock trial competition of the Classical Conversations group. It was for a middle school group, and these 13-14 year olds did a very good job. A ton of potential in the offing, and I got to share some of my own trial ad experience.

On Sunday I found a new deli experience.

For those of you that have followed this blog for a while, you may remember my post on Brother Mahagoub’s death. I am overjoyed that Remember will now be supporting his family–you can read my update on Ambassadors: The Family of a Servant.

Today I found this little guy.

And tonight I’m going to see Expelled.

With all the photography stuff I’ve been doing lately, I’ve done a ton of online searching for free tools to do things I need done. If you’ve ever tried that, you know that there are about a million “free” options that don’t give you what they promise–a demo, perhaps, or a limited version, or just plain nothing, in a few rather blatant instances of false advertising.

But you search far enough, and you will probably find what you need! At least, that has been my experience. Here are the tools I’ve found to be very helpful–and do exactly what they promise.

• Visualizer Photo Resize. You ever had to e-mail a ton of photos–each of which is a huge file? This handy little program will batch resize them, without altering your originals, and save the resized versions in the directory you indicate. E-mail away!
• Lupas Rename 2000. All cameras have naming protocols. My D40 saves everything as “DSC_[number].” It is possible to change the naming protocol, but that’s a pain. This tool will allow you to take a whole directory and rename it according to the protocols you choose.
• Picture Shark 1.0. I’ve been thinking about watermarking my online pictures for quite some time. It’s not complete protection from photo theft, but it helps. And this program works admirably, with a little fiddling, giving the results you can now see on my online pictures.

Anyone have other suggestions on freeware?