Microform Abstract Art

Yes, I am indeed an artistic innovator. While I was slaving over decades of the Religious Herald Baptist newspaper one Friday night at the Southern Seminary library, a printing error on the microfilm reader gave birth to artistic inspiration.

This piece should sell for a few thousand for its creativity alone, don't you think?


And behold all those subtle details!

A Beautiful Thing

A sign of the times. Never before in human history have so many people said so little of substance all at the same time.

Remembering the Sega Dreamcast: 10 years later

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the U.S. launch of the Sega Dreamcast, the once great company's last console. It only lasted until 2001, but it sold a few million units and had a great crop of games despite its short lifespan. Ignored by most from its beginning, the little system that could finally bowed down before the hype of the PS2 and XBox. I do not exaggerate to say that it is my favorite video game system.

RIP Sega Gaming Systems!

http://retro.ign.com/articles/102/1021947p1.html

The (Un)Natural Revisited: "Chicks Dig the Longball"

Today marks 11 long years since Mark McGwire broke baseball's single season home run record in 1998. His record would in turn be broken by Barry Bonds in 2001. Both hitters' accomplishments would in turn be rendered meaningless (along with many other players' statistics and most of the MLB record book in general) by the ongoing revelations of steroids throughout the rest of the decade.

This was my original reflection from last year's historic tenth anniversary of McGwire's now infamous feat.

But this year I'll spare the melodrama in favor of a whimsical look back at this epically funny (now especially so) Nike commercial campaign:

"Chicks Dig the Long Ball!"


Yeah, the Nike girls might dig the long ball, but the only way Big Mac will be getting into the Hall of Fame is if Glavine and Maddux invite him to their induction ceremonies!

When the Obvious Hits You!

This is, quite possibly, the most random thing I have ever posted, but I just had to note this for posterity!

I was struck by the difference in how we write and how we speak. For instance, in the written word, we use the indefinite article "an" (rather than "a") before words that begin with a vowel. All words beginning with a consonant are usually preceeded by the indefinite article "a" rather than "an." However, in the spoken word, this precedent does not always feel natural.

For instance, I was typing out the phrase "a SBC history" (short for "Southern Baptist Convention"). Now, if I were to say "a Southern Baptist Convention history," there would be no problem. But should I attempt to say "a SBC history," I would end up tongue-tied. Saying "an SBC history" sounds much more natural. Why is this the case?

Because we do not pronounce the letter "S" with an a "s" sound! We actually pronounce the letter "S" with an "E" sound (short "e" + long "s", like "mess" or "best").

Weird...
Is that common knowledge or have I been blessed by the Grammar Muse? :-D

EDIT: My collegiate comrade, David Wickiser, advises me that written grammar really is based on sound. Thus, "an SBC history" really is the correct way to write it out, similar to "an hour" as opposed to "a hour." Thanks, David!