National Grammar Day: A Day of Communication and Knowledge

Happy National Grammar Day!!!!

http://nationalgrammarday.com/

So what if it's an arbitrarily created holiday? Grammar is worth celebrating!

Usually, I don't promote web sites that claim to know "correct" grammar with a cartoon as their mascot, and although some of the things on this website are pretty darn silly (such as their "Grammar Song"--yikes), it seems like this website seeks to educate people about appropriate grammar.

I studied literature, language, and editing in college. I am a trained editor. I see misspellings in menus, on signs, in books, on Facebook, and in papers and manuscripts all the time. It astounds me that some people can't catch missing letters or rearranged letters before sending their work to the press and sharing it with everyone.

Marital and martial are different adjectives--although I suppose in some unfortunate cases, they could both be true.

Public and pubic shouldn't ever appear in the other's context.

Your and you're are different. So are two, to, and too. And they're, their, and there. And its and it's. By the way, Word most often won't catch the wrong usages of these words.

People just don't seem to realize that their computers can't catch all the complexities and nuances of the English language. People, you still need to know English grammar in order to communicate clearly and effectively.

HOWEVER . . .

I sometimes wince when people jump to criticize or "correct" others' grammar, mostly because they are typically what everyone calls the scary "Grammar Nazis." Ironically, the grammar these Grammar Nazis so passionately enforce comes from another language and has been outdated for about fifty years. For some reason people keep clinging to old grammar. Catch up, people! The language train moves fast!!

The word e-mail has undergone changes within the last ten years from electronic mail to E-mail to e-mail, and some dictionaries have switched to email. Small change? Yes, but it's still represents a language change.

One thing I like about this Grammar Girl web site is that they have a Grammar Myths Exposed section. Here are just a few. (Bold denotes the myths from the web site.The italics are for my comments on the myths.)

1. You shouldn't start a sentence with the word "however." BULL!! And you can start a sentence with "and." Go and tell your seventh grade English teacher that for me, will you?
   
2. "Irregardless" is not a word. I am still learning to accept that grating sound, but it's true. Merriam-Webster has added "irregardless" to the dictionary. If you don't like it, don't use it. To be on the safe side, you might want to avoid using it in writing and formal conversations, but otherwise, you can feel guiltless in using this word.
   
3. There is only one way to write the possessive form of a word that ends in "s." Consistency is a huge concept in deciding this. Just make sure that whether you choose 's (Gus's pineapple) or s' (Gus' pineapple) that you are being consistent throughout the piece of writing.
   
4. Passive voice is always wrong. For those who don't know what passive voice is, go here. If you want to emphasize the actor (thing/person doing the action) then use active voice. If the direct object (thing/person receiving the action) needs to be emphasized, then use passive voice.
   
5. "I.e." and "e.g." mean the same thing. i.e.= that is (meaning a renaming or clarifying statement will follow); e.g.= for example (used for . . . well . . . examples of a concept)
   
6. You shouldn't split infinitives. This is an old, old, old rule from . . . wait for it . . . Latin. Yep, a completely different language with different rules and constraints. An infinitive is the basic form of a verb (in English with "to" in front of it: to abscond, to flounce, to canoodle). Latin is the origin of romance languages (not languages of love, although they can be romantic, I guess). In Latin, verbs are one word. It is impossible to split an infinitive in Latin. But this is English. They are two separate words. My personal policy for my own writing is that I write what sounds good. If it sounds better to split it, then I split it. Does it sound better to say, "to boldly go where no man has gone before" or "to go boldly where no man has gone before"? You decide.
   
7. You shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition. Again, a odd borrowing from Latin. I personally don't like hearing, "Where are you at?" Where already implies location, so "at" is superfluous. But people will use it anyway. Most of the time though, I'm fine with prepositions at the end of sentences. Winston Churchill (it's questionable if it was actually him or not) is often attributed as saying this about prepositions at the end of a sentence: "This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put." Again, go by clarity of communication.
   

There are at least a thousand more where these came from.

Guess what, people? Language evolves. Get used to it!!! There are some changes I don't like, but as long as a language is living (or used by native speakers), it changes whether we like it or not. Therefore, grammar rules change too.

Give it a rest, Grammar Nazis. You're making grammar intimidating and dry when we should be celebrating our grammar's idiosyncrasies and abilities!

Yay for grammar!!!

A Child's Wish Ten Years Too Late

When Tracy and I saw this bag of off-brand Marshmallow Mateys, which ironically is an off-brand itself, our inner children jumped at the chance to eat a bowl with tons of marshmallows. When Tracy poured the first bowl, we started to regret it.

Okay. This will be fun . . .

Superbowl: A Family Event

Tracy and I will probably always struggle just a little with sports in our home. I like sports, but having SportsCenter and several games on every day is boring for me but relaxing and fun for him. But one thing we have agreed on is no sports on Sunday. We agree that Sunday should be a day of relaxation, peace, meditation, and family unity. But he really loves sports. So we have compromised that he cannot watch sports on Sunday except the Superbowl, but we will watch the Superbowl as a family--and the Wulfs will either go big or go home with it (even though we will be home when we watch it--sorry, bad joke).

In our second year of Superbowl Super Sunday, Tracy made his first round of jerky with his new dehydrator. His carnivorous eyes glowed with excitement all weekend.



In my family, we have an inside joke. Whenever my mom made roast on Sundays, her friends could always tell because the smell lingered in her hair and on her clothes for the rest of the day. I felt the same was going to happen to me. I wish the internet could communicate and transfer smells and their intensities. Usually after I've been in a room for awhile, I become accustomed to that smell. The jerky smell never went away! It was a good smell but a strong one. Interestingly, I went to a baby shower later that day with 6 or 7 pregnant women. I didn't know whether they would crave the smell and sniff my hair, try to lick me in hopes that the flavor also transferred, or just barf on me. Luckily, my "smell-pretties" (as Tracy calls perfumes and colognes in his child-like way) seemed to cover up the smell enough. No awkward moments or barfing.

Now to the main event.

Look at all this food. No we didn't eat all of it--we didn't even put a dent in it. There were only two of us! But we wanted options, and we had many!



Thank goodness the Packers won; otherwise there wouldn't be peace in the Wulf household for a long time. During the football game, however, I found that convenient times to go to the bathroom or do other things were mostly during the game itself, so I wouldn't miss commercials. :)



I'm excited that we are creating our family traditions. The Superbowl is a common one, but it still shows that we are consciously choosing and creating our own.

Blogging

I read this fascinating article the other day about blogs--Mormon women's blogs to be more specific. I'll give you a few minutes to read it.

http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/01/15/feminist_obsessed_with_mormon_blogs

At first I felt an interesting mix of emotions.

I like this new-found respect for the thriftiness, happiness, and creativity of stay-at-home Mormon mommy bloggers, even if only for a momentary fantasy from a hectic work schedule. Even if some non-Mormon women only envy the happy family life portrayed in Mormon mommy blogs during what they consider stressful, "the grass is always greener" moments, at least others can recognize that family life can be happy. I believe that family is not the only way to feeling fulfillment, but I feel that it can be the most fulfilling endeavor in life through effort, love, communication, and compromise.

I also felt awkward that strangers would read the blogs of people they don't know and look at photos of kids they don't know. That's kinda . . . weird and creepy! I don't read strangers' blogs unless they have a legit business of some sort.

I'm sure that some of the Mormon mommies read this author's article and momentarily wished they had a career, a quiet and clean house, and no obligations once they got home, but then they, too, would realize that they just like daydreaming about it, that they love their lives, that they wouldn't trade what they have for anything.

To each her own.

New Year, New Me?

I see I have followed the same pattern as I did with my journal in high school. I remember it every four weeks or so and try to come up with a concise way to sum up my life's events. Who wants to spend hours writing about a month of school, work, and (back then) boy concerns? Likewise, who would want to read all summary on a blog? No one.

But there are just a few things I should share. NEWS UPDATE: Tracy and I have had so much fun visiting family and friends in Arizona. I have definitely been blessed with amazing people in my life. Unfortunately, my sister, Karen, who is expecting twins, celebrated Christmas in the hospital and might celebrate Valentine's Day there as well. She and her babies are still healthy and the babies are growing in her, but her body is advancing toward delivery a little too fast. And then my sister-in-law had surgery this past week. She seems to be recovering well, but taking care of four kids will be a challenge when my brother has to go back to work. We'll do the best we can to help, but we all have to return to work soon too. Sheesh!

So, I say let's wipe Lacey's blog slate clean. Let's start over for 2011. I'll try my best to update and be clever as often as I can on my blog this coming year.

I haven't come up with my new, official resolutions yet, but I can report on my resolutions from last year.

1. Become more service oriented. This one is difficult to measure, and when is someone really done serving? Never, so this one must carry on through next year. But I feel that I have done more than I have in the past, so I feel that I can say I have improved in this goal. Yay!

2. Become more crafty. I have worked a lot on this one. Unfortunately, I give away all the things I work on before I take any pictures so I can't show them on here. Perhaps that can be my resolution for this year. Take more pictures!

3. Take better care of my body. (The typical goal.)Tracy and I have faithfully gone to the gym, and I have consciously added more vegetables to our meals. Otherwise, we still eat ice cream, cookies, and brownies basically at will. So, did we meet this goal? Mostly yes. At least we did quit in January like a lot of people.

I'll let you know what my new goals will be for 2011, but for now I am pretty pleased with my progress in 2010.

I have a feeling that 2011 is going to be an interesting and challenging year, but I'm excited for the ride!

Good Morning, Baltimore!

Earlier this month, I attended and presented at the International Writing Center Association/National Conference for Peer Tutoring in Writing Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. All of the Texas A&M University Writing Center's presentations (all 6 or 7 of them) went really well, and personally I was extremely pleased with ours.

Here are some pictures of some of my presentation with mostly me talking. (Sorry that two of the pictures are so huge!) We talked about using different writing processes and different strengths within our writing processes to help writers improve their strengths.




Left to right: Marissa Doshi, Hannah Hardin, Jackie Johnson, and me.

I learned a lot from all the sessions I attended, and I had a ton of fun with the amazing people I work with. Now, I'll show you what I did in my free time!

Yes, I sang "Good Morning, Baltimore!" and other Hairspray songs while I was there. At first my plan was to get pictures that coincided with songs from the musical, but I quickly abandoned that idea. I don't want pictures of rats on the streets or bums at bar-room stools. Here is the only picture that I think I can link to the musical. Try to guess which song...
If you answered, "Miss Baltimore Crabs," congratulations! You are "SMRT."

So although Plan A fell through, I have plenty of pictures of the harbor and fun people!

There were a lot of really cool ships at the harbor.

This one is from Norway that just made port in Baltimore. What a pretty ship!
Front view of the Norwegian ship.
The platform leading onto the Norwegian ship. They had a Norwegian office guarding the entrance and answering questions about the ship.
This is my attempt at being photographically artistic. Still the Norwegian ship.
While we were walking around the harbor, one ship seemed to come out of nowhere and started squirting water towards the docks. They played Pirates of the Caribbean music, but once there was a break in the music, they all yelled, "Everybody say 'ARGH!'" We all yelled back, "ARGH!"


Another ship in the harbor.
We went to the harbor several times.


Yet another attempt at being artistic.
Megan Dorth, Hannah, and me.



There was a street performer right next to the harbor. He is balancing on two skateboards with the wheels facing each other, four plastic cups, a wood board, a pipe, and his trunk. AND, he is juggling a bowling ball, a machete, and a lit torch.

This is my attempt with artistic water photography. Meh.
Fall does exist somewhere!


Overall, I really, really enjoyed the conference and spending time with such awesome people. I bet you never thought writing center work could offer these kinds of perks!

Disney Desperate Housewives

Sorry I haven't posted regularly. Life carries me away sometimes--I don't weigh very much. Plus, our camera and our computer must be having a fight because they aren't talking to each other. Pictures of us are on hold right now. But I can share this.

Ever since high school, this has been my favorite comic--ever!!


I thought of it today, Halloween. I don't know why. I didn't dress up as a Disney princess, although that would be awesome!! If anything else, it is on my blog for a record, in case my yellowed cut-out copy ever disappears.

By the way, I have to give a huge shout out to my older sister, who is going to have fraternal twins!!! We're very excited for her. She will be a wonderful, but tired, mother. :) Love you, Karen!