Vox Lucens

Remember Free Rice? I find it absolutely amazing what ad revenue can do in today’s Internet world. Here’s another one: Search Kindly.

If you’re going to search, why not Search Kindly?

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?

As a non-profit executive, I love brilliant fund-raising schemes.

As a student of the English language, I love a chance to test my vocabulary.

How about both at once?

Check out www.freerice.com. Using ad revenue from the site, FreeRice will donate 20 grains of rice for every word that you choose the correct definition for.

Ingenious.

So far, I’ve gotten all of my Basic Seminar words right–licentiousness, concupiscence, and iniquity, for instance. But I’m ashamed to say I haven’t gotten all my legal words right. Did you know that a “droit” was a “legal right”? I managed to make it up to level 46 before slipping back down…

[HT: The Point]

For we are now champions.

Dorchester Presbyterian “Black Sheep” - Fall Volleyball Rec League Champions!

So I went shoe-shopping on Sunday, having run my trusty pair of Bates through the wringer over the past couple of weeks (and indeed, years).

They’ve lasted that long because I’ve taken pretty good care of them. I put enough time into polishing them that I am perpetually annoyed at how short a decent shine lasts. Especially when traveling, a decent shine goes in a huge hurry. And to put it back on requires amazing amounts of efforts (lots of wax, a soft towel, a ton of elbow grease, and matches).

And I’ve tried the easy touch-up methods, too. Brushes, soft cloths to kind of buff it up a bit, all have very limited effects. So when I get busy, as of late, or when I travel, I end up wearing very dull shoes, which comes very close to driving me insane.

Ladies and gentlemen, such is no more. When I chose the first pair of shoes in the Clarks Bostonian outlet, the girl took them to the front to polish them up a bit. One was slightly scuffed, and I didn’t feel like going through the aforementioned polishing ritual described above, so I really appreciated the gesture. Other than the scuff, they looked very tolerable, especially as compared to the dull pair I was wearing.

But when I walked up to the counter with the second pair, I was amazed at what she had done in the intervening moments. The shoes veritably shone–no more scuff, and the tolerable look had given way to a beautiful polish. And the girl held in her hand a very innocent looking sponge contraption. She took the second pair and prceeded to do the same thing.

I proceeded to the rack of innocent looking sponges and proceeded to read up about their magic. I was interested but skeptical; I have tried enough of these things that I figured it wouldn’t cut it. And yet, taking a look at the price tag, I decided that six bucks was worth the potential benefit.

And at home, having tested the magic on shoes both brown and black, formerly dull and scuffed, I am believer. That was six bucks well spent.