“Let’s Eat Grandma!”

Well, that’s what I though of when reading a couple of blogposts today. It’s taken from a page that I “like” on Facebook: ‘Let’s eat Grandma!’ or, ‘Let’s eat, Grandma!’ Punctuation saves lives. Yes, I also “like” The correct usage of “You’re”, “Your”, “There”, “Their” and “They’re”, just like I probably would click the “Like” button of I find a fanpage on the correct usage of “new”/“knew”, “right”/“rite”/“write”, “where”/“were”/“we’re”, “its”/“it’s”, “sue”/“sew”, and “to”/“too”/“two”/“2”. And yes, I also think that people legal age and up still using an eloquent text speak should grow the fuck up – YOU LEARNED HOW TO SPELL IN PRIMARY SCHOOL! (*cough* pardon me my French and high volume).

Just for the sake of it, I think I should mention that primary school up here includes the 9th and the optional 10th form, and that part of the tests when concluding this is dictation; it’s one of the five compulsory tests (at least when I finished the 9th form back in 1999). You would think that somewhere in between nine and 11 years of school, depending on whether or not you’re taking preschool and/or the 10th form, would equip you to spell correctly, right?
Oh, and did I mention that English isn’t my first language? All things considered, I believe it’s my third (unless we’re talking formal classes – then it’s my second. In that case I should know Latin, too, but that’s not the entire truth).

This is why I agree with many commenters of the SciFi/SyFy Channel post that it’s frustrating and demeaning that SciFi should be spelled SyFy because some big-shot thinks it will attract more people. Frustrating because it alienates the actual core viewers, demeaning because it seems that others wouldn’t know how to spell “science fiction” or its abbrevation to save their lives (at least in the eyes of those responsible of the name change). Either you’re a nerd/geek (supposedly) or you don’t know how to spell.

Honestly, I don’t consider myself a nerd/geek in the world of science fiction (for my non-Christian/atheist friends/acquintances/readers: stop giggling – I call upon my constitutional right to have as many “invisible friends” as I want to), but I do believe that I know how to spell. In six different languages (some with dialects/accents), even. If I don’t know or am insecure of the spelling of a word, I’m usually able to deliver a qualified guess (in up to nine different languages, I dare say). I do enjoy my occasional fix of Star Trek: The Next Generation (or should I just say ST:TNG), but I feel that the joke is on me if I have to go to a channel calling itself SyFy to get that fix. Actually, as it’s spelled out, the litteral meaning of it in my language is a no-go within sewing!

Anyway. While reading the comments, I came across a link to another post about taking nicknames or common abbrevations as the official name. Well, I don’t think that’s necessary, either! The story about YMCA officially becoming The Y seems off to me as it’s an abbrevation of an abbrevation! Just like the abbrevation KFC would be meaningless without the full name – Kentucky Fried Chicken (nope, the Chicken isn’t Kitchen Fresh!).
Just to illustrate it (albeit with an extreme example), I’d like to quote the Danish comedian Thomas Hartmann in the role of the (eco)stoned hippie, Buller: “Your real name isn’t what you’re nicknamed. If that was the case, my mom’s real name would be Fat Bitch.”

Coming to the article about the people protesting against how the English language is spelled, I see their point and partially agree on Eddie Izzard’s “that’s trying to cheat at scrabble”. Still, I’m not sure that that is necessarily the reason why there’s such a huge part of the American population who have trouble learning to read, write, and spell.
To be frank, I know I wasn’t in the back of the line when it came to linguistic talent/intelligence. Yet I can’t help but thinking that if I am able to juggle two handfuls of living, non-fictional languages (with dialects, silent letters, and odd spellings and pronounciations) the way I can, then why is it so difficult for natives to handle what may be the most popular dialect of such a common language as their one and only language? And speaking of sewing – should sewing or sueing have the right to be spelled sooing?

Knowing a language and appreciating the crowd you already have seems like such simple and easy things to do in my optics. Not that you have to be able to speak Shakespearean English, quote the King James Version when quoting the Bible, actually UNDERSTANDING the KJV (there are other more understandable versions), or settle for a crowd that isn’t there – but if you’re able to communicate, be it with white trash trailer park lingo or in Old English, and if you have a crowd big enough for everything to go splendidly, then why not concentrate on developing on that basis?

Well, that’s just me thinking out loud. Thank you for reading.

Sources
Deepwell Bridge: A Nerd-Rage Rant! Subject: Spelling lessons
I hope you know what you’re doing…: I’m Legally Changing My Name to B-Phone.
Slate Magazine: What does KFC stand for now? by Seth Stevenson.
The Spec: Enuf is enuf. Enough is too much (originally from Associated Press).
Eddie Izzard: Being Bilingual (“Dress to Kill”).

Last Brock of the season – catching up on Brocktour 2010

If you want to cut the latest and go straight to the last of the Brocktour, click here.

On Friday, we had the last Rock Service of the season in Brorson’s Church. The band was Turnip Greens, playing a very Southern kind of rock; very bluesy. They were, IMHO, one of the few bands that have been radically different from the rest of the lot I have heard live at the Services. Sure, I can tell the bands apart when I have to, but most of them are ususally one big blur.

This was also the first time I have ever worn a portable mic in my life. I think this came from having to deal with a presentation with two exercise bikes in front of everything, the two guys exercising having to use the portable mics anyway. So instead of having to deal with the extra cords/wires/jacks for the usual prayer mics when pulling the (heavy!!!) bikes aside, we (who read the prayers) just took over the mics as soon as the presentation was over. And just so we’re clear – using portable mics for the two individuals reading the prayers is GENIUS; no having to think of how to hold up the prayers and tilt your head in order to be able to READ the prayers AND having the mic catching the sound properly. Just attach the mic as you did when it worked through dress rehearsal, unmute it (it would be stupid and highly disturbing to the rest of the crowd NOT to mute it throughout the rest of the Service), and wham-bam-boogie – vi kører.

Having Per the Reverend back as the preacher was a true gift. In spite of him being the preacher through Easter, I had almost forgotten how he looked in his cassock and ruff; he’s been off duty for the Rock Services of March and April, plus the monthly morning service in May – and I haven’t been able to attend the very few services there has been in between (there are few enough for me to actually spend a lot of time in Jerusalemskirken in between without missing out on much in Brorson’s; most of Brorson’s services are at the most monthly or annual, depending on the occasion, not weekly). Seeing that Jerusalemskirken is a Methodist church (where the ministers either look like smurfs when dressed in their blue cassock and white stole for their regular morning service or are dressed slightly more informal for their second Sunday service), Per in his black cassock and white ruff was a divine sight!

We had visitors from Herning, a town in Jutland, who left us this wonderful message:

Super good service!! We enjoyed it! You rule! And keep doing that! God be with you! With love Herning ❤ P.S. Hope you see this

Catching up on the last of the Brocktour, we had our last Service in Skt. Nikolai Church in Holbæk. In my opinion, it was one of the greatest Services of that tour. You could argue that it was because it was the last one, that it was the only one on Zealand (the rest being in Jutland), and the worst had already happened (you may remember me cursing over the confirmands in Løgumkloster over Facebook). But I don’t think those are the actual reasons why.

I remember a description given by one of the others; that the last couple of back rows in the church were confirmands with their usual hormones – topped off with Red Bull. Yup, you can only imagine the noise they were trying to make; you might think it would be Løgumkloster all over again. But first of all, Skt. Nikolai isn’t as huge as Løgumkloser. Second of all – as soon as they started making noise, the rest of the congregation (including confirmands, I believe) litterally hushed loudly at them – every time! – and they stopped. I LOVE them for doing that, hushing down the rascals! Love. love. love!

Besides that, we had the same arrangement with the Sacrament/Holy Communion as we did in Løgumkloster; seeing that at least Løgumkloster is one of the biggest churches around (Skt. Nikolai isn’t the biggest, but it isn’t small, either), we had two stations with two reverends each serving bread and wine. Besides our own Reverend (Per), we had three other Reverends coming in from the local and neighboring perishes. In Skt. Nikolai, I remember receiving it from at least one Reverend (if not the two of them) from the neighboring perish (Tveje Merløse Church/Perish) – and I was surprised by how sincere he was. Not saying that other Reverends aren’t sincere, but I think it can quickly become a habit when having to say “This is the Body/Blood of Christ(, shed for you)” a humongous number of times every so often – and this Rev was jawdroppingly sincere and convincing, not just repeating a line. That gave me a great, positive energy to go up and read out the prayers shortly after, and that was the best read of prayers of the entire tour, no question about it.

I think no matter how sick and tired I become of dragging things back and forth from different churches, setting up, taking down, etc., I’ll always end up going back on tour again – just because I end up remember the good things. If I get another chance of touring, I may just take it.

Welcome, I suppose…

… I should say, now that you’ve been unfortunate enough to stumple upon this desert of a blog.

My experience with blogging so far has been on Blogger.com, where I have several blogs of organized confusion – and a photoblog, which hasn’t been updated, respectfully put, in a while (same situation as in when Josh Groban promises to update his blog again “soon”: Stock up on canned goods if you bother waiting up – he’s been swallowed by Twitter!).

Personally, I’ve been swallowed by Facebook, and in periods by Twitter (that’ll be the periods you’re waiting around on Facebook, wondering where I went – if we’re connected, that is). But in the end, I miss a blog that is more of an organized blog than just combining status updates, photos, and Notes on Facebook. Face works more as a social networking site – as it set out as – to me. Not only is it a place where I can hear myself talk, rant, and rave more than usual, but it’s also more of a homepage to people who may not be connected to me on Face (but of course also to those who are). And it’s better organized. I love it.

Anyway. Welcome!