Happy Easter!

I hope y'all have had a wonderful Easter Sunday. It was a beautiful day. Today as I've reflected on our Savior's life and atonement, I thought of a favorite hymn of mine, Savior, Redeemer of My Soul (Hymn 112 in the LDS Hymnal). It's not very well known, but I love it. I first heard it in this arrangement by Rob Gardner, which is absolutely beautiful. The song starts at 2:14 (this was the best recording I could find on Youtube). I hope you enjoy it.

Friday's Fabulosities

Today was quite a good day, even with the wintry weather. It was snowing this morning when I left for school. I retired my umbrella of twelve years near the end of my mission, and promptly lost the new one I got, and I haven't replaced it, so long sentence short, yes, I have no umbrella. But I was alright. As I waited at the light to cross the street somebody came up with a big umbrella and he shared it with me. How nice was that! Super gentlemanly. He wasn't going as far as I was, but he shared it until we went our separate ways. AND he knew about linguistics and actually said it was a useful major. Who does that? That was Friday fabulosity number one!

On a totally unrelated note, as the semester has gone on, more and more people fail to attend Spanish class at 8...or they show up quite late. Today at the beginning of class there were three of us. And Profe. That's impressive, isn't it? I think six or seven more people came. It was kind of bizarre. Maybe the weather didn't help. It was also strange because it was all guys and me for quite a while...and there are more girls than guys in the class. It's okay. I just hope everybody shows up on Monday for our final fiesta!

Second fabulosity: for editing, we went to Special Collections in the Library and got to look at some pretty cool stuff. That's been the most enjoyable editing class I've had all semester. We saw records from as far back as 2000 BC...that one was a small matchbox sized piece of clay. Then there was papyrus and animal skin and turtle shells and metal sheets and paper and such. Original transcriptions of sections of the Doctrine and Covenants, as well as other books, first edition Book of Mormon, really old books where you can see the lines drawn on the pages so the monks can write straight, etc. It was pretty great.

Third fabulosity: I took my Spanish OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview...I think) and my interviewer was really nice and I think it went well overall. I told the story about me falling in a trash can on my mission. It wasn't smooth, but he got it in the end. Anyway, IT'S DONE! And that just leaves the written final on Thursday.

Fourth fabulosity: I took my last editing test other than the final. And yesterday I finished all my assignments so I'm feeling pretty good about that. Soon it will be over and I'll only have painful memories. Haha. Jk. If I hadn't have taken that class, I wouldn't have written my awesome paper.

Fifth fabulosity: I made cookie dough cupcakes. They're pretty good. You just add frozen cookie dough to the cupcakes and it all cooks nice, so it's kinda like having a cookie and a cupcake in one. I'm sure they're really healthy too. Want some? Come on over.

Sixth fabulosity: the word fabulosity. It's the noun form of fabulous. I like it. I made it up...but then found it out on the internet already. So it's semi-legit.

Happy Friday to y'all. Hope it's fabulous!

Fools' Friday

Ah, yes, April 1st, a day of fabulous trickery. Fun, isn't it? How many false pregnancies, engagements, and relationships were announced via Facebook today? How many people actually smelled the scratch and sniff Daily Universe today? (My roommate did. I didn't.) I think April Fools' Day is kind of fun. It's fun to hear the tricks people have up their sleeves. And I do love Google. I remember their trick from 2008:

Gmail Custom Time

Gmail's sign-in page and a banner at the top of each Gmail inbox announced a new feature, called Gmail Custom Time, that would allow its users to "pre-date" their messages and choose to have the message appear as "read" or "unread". The new feature uses the slogan "Be on time. Every time."

Around 11:00 p.m. EST March 31, 2008, on the newer and older version of Gmail, but not in the basic HTML version, in the upper right corner, next to Settings, a link appeared labeled, "New! Gmail Custom Time". The link led to a 404 error until April 1,^[6][7] when it led to the full Gmail Custom Time hoax page.^[8] Clicking any of the three links at the bottom of the page brought the user to a page stating that Gmail Custom time was, in fact, their April Fool's Day joke.

Google wrote that the new joke feature "utilizes an e-flux capacitor [a pun from the movie Back to the Future] to resolve issues of causality." Fake testimonials were given by "beta users"; one example is, "I used to be an honest person; but now I don't have to be. It's just so much easier this way. I've gained a lot of productivity by not having to think about doing the 'right' thing."

The feature only allowed for ten pre-dated emails per year, claiming that any more "would cause people to lose faith in the accuracy of time, thus rendering the feature useless."

(Wikipedia)

I rather enjoyed today's as well. http://mail.google.com/mail/help/motion.html

Did you get tricked today? Did you pull a prank of your own? Do tell. And have a happy April 1st.

Confessions of a Descriptivist

Okay, this is my paper for my editing class that was super therapeutic to write. And my group members who edited it really enjoyed reading it. It's a four page paper so if you're not up to reading something that long, that's totally okay, but I wanted to share it. I think I'll feel so relieved when my teacher reads it. :) Haha. Anyway, happy reading to you.

I walked to class, unsure of what the new semester would bring. I sat down, a seat or two away from any other student, just as social norms dictate. Class began. I had no idea that the adventure I was embarking on would change my life, that I would depart from my conservative linguistic perspective and embrace a liberal stance.

It all began in that class, ELang 223, Introduction to English Language. From day one, I knew I had found something I would love. How could I not? Who knew that the silly little thoughts and concepts I had considered as a child were actually studied by scholars? Who knew there was another dimension to English besides literature and the grammar concepts I had so diligently enforced in high school?

My friends knew too well that I was poised and ready to pounce like a tiger to point out their slightest errors in spelling and grammar. How many times had I corrected their e-mails and speech? Weird, not wierd. Definitely, not definately. Here are the pictures of Jeff and me, not Jeff and I. Yes, I had done my part to educate my poor friends.

And it didn’t stop there. My teacher mistakenly wrote grammer instead of grammar—what was the world coming to? The local newspaper never knew how I ridiculed it for its daily errors. (Really? Shouldn’t you check to see which team won the game?) The poor souls who dared misspell a word on the chalkboard at church could only pray I forgave them without comment. To some, I was a savior; to others, a nazi. Some offered apologies in advance, some asked for my help, some tried to make as many mistakes as possible just to bother me. I was known as the Grammar Queen, Grammar Gestapo, and Grammarian. A friend gave me a book that reminded him of me, entitled Between You and I: A Little Book of Bad English. My reputation as a stickler for accuracy in English usage spread. My teachers recognized my ability to catch usage errors. When students were required to have a peer edit their papers, my teachers recommended me. It seemed I was destined to become an editor. My only concern was the frustration I would surely feel with the world’s increasing stupidity.

But then I enrolled in ELang 223. I soon learned two new words that became very important to my life: prescriptivism and descriptivism. What was a prescriptivist? One who prescribes? I had only heard prescribe used in the context of medicine—what was this new meaning? One who orders or dictates, one who enforces the rules. This described my life exactly. I had been a language doctor going around handing out grammatical prescriptions to everyone—I now had the proper terminology to describe my life philosophy.

Then what was this mysterious descriptivism? What was a descriptivist, and more importantly, why would you want to be one? I had never before considered describing what was happening in language. I just wanted to fix it. As I learned about phonetics, morphology, and semantics, a whole new world was opened to me. I learned about the processes that language undergoes to arrive at new uses. I started noticing them in everyday use. I got so excited about my new knowledge that I shared it with whoever would listen.

I taught my roommate who always said sherbert instead of sherbet that she was only participating in the phenomenon of segment addition. I explained to my friends who consistently used Jeff and I when Jeff and me was actually correct that they were only victims of hypercorrection. Suddenly it was far more important and interesting to note unusual usages and to determine what was happening than it was to correct them. I carried a notebook everywhere and wrote down what I heard. I was becoming a descriptivist.

Serving a mission in Louisiana solidified this change. There were so many different things happening in the language. I wrote them down, thrilled to hear such unique expressions. After a while, they even started slipping into my own language. I asked, what time it is? and metathesized ask to aks. These utterances startled me. They worried me slightly, but mostly, I was delighted.

I came home from my mission and readjusted to the more conservative language. I decided to try my hand at editing again. I enrolled in ELang 350, Basic Editing Skills. The semester started out well. I was delighted by Brother Gardner’s humor. His comments of “We are the saviors, really, of the world,” “Please don’t tell people I called the Chicago Manual of Style scripture. I mark it, I cross-reference it, but I know it’s not scripture,” and “Ten points for Gryffindor!” excited me. On the first day, he brought up the big debate of prescriptivism vs. descriptivism. I thought I could balance the two, having spent considerable time on both ends of the spectrum. The first weeks of the semester went by uneventfully. I did my readings and assignments faithfully, enjoying the opportunity to review the rules of punctuation.

It didn’t take long before the descriptivist within me started whining, however. Why does that issue matter? Nobody does that in the real world. I found myself in inner turmoil. Did I really want to be an editor? Did I want to correct and improve written language every day? Did I want to adhere to usage rules? Or would I rather study what was happening in spoken English?

I considered the pros and cons of each path. I studied my class texts in the process. Amy Einsohn described copyediting as being like “an English exam that never ends: At every moment, your knowledge of spelling, grammar, punctuation, usage, syntax, and diction is being tested.” That didn’t sound very pleasant, even with her reassurance that “you’re not expected to be perfect” (4). I appreciated the maxim of the editors of Chicago, “Rules and regulations such as these, in the nature of the case, cannot be endowed with the fixity of rock-ribbed law. They are meant for the average case, and must be applied with a certain degree of elasticity” (xiii). It comforted me that even the editors of a major style guide recognize the need for balance. But could I continue this balancing act?

The words of Alan Williams continually echoed in my mind: “Indeed, the day that an editor picks up a manuscript without some sense of anticipation is probably the last day he or she should be at work” (4). I realized that I don’t feel that anticipation. Editing is just not my passion. I don’t look forward to editing. I do it because I can—I have the ability. But I don’t truly enjoy it.

I am grateful I have had the opportunity to learn how to edit. It allows me to improve my own writing and to help friends and family with theirs. I know from first-hand experience how much work editors do, and I have a greater appreciation for them. I know I couldn’t pursue a career as an editor, so I have a great respect for those who do.

It is hard to believe that just four or five years ago I was firmly entrenched in prescriptivism. I have undergone a great change and now see language in an entirely different way. I no longer think of language usage as right or wrong, but simply as the way it is. This change has surprised some of my friends. One of them recently corrected something I wrote that could be considered ungrammatical. I knew I could defend what I had written, but instead I just smiled. Things have certainly changed. The inner Grammar Queen has forfeited her throne to the Descriptivist.

Works Cited

Einsohn, Amy. The Copyeditor’s Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate

Communications. 2nd ed. Berkley, CA: University of California Press, 2006. Print.

Harper, Russell David. “Preface.” The Chicago Manual of Style. 16^th ed. Chicago: The

University of Chicago Press, 2010. xi–xiii. Print.

Williams, Alan D. "What Is an Editor?" Editors on Editing: What Writers Need to Know

About What Editors Do. Ed. Gerald Gross. New York: Grove Press, 1993. 3–9Print.

Tribute to Jimmer

Okay, this is my tribute to Jimmer, Michael Jackson style. Sung to the tune of Thriller. Thanks for the Emerys, we'll never Fredette.

Jimmer Thriller

It's close to tip off and something awesome’s warming up the floor

Under the spotlight, you see a sight that makes you want to roar

You hold a sign showing all your gre-at admiration

You start to cheer as you see him with your own eyes

You're super psyched

'Cause this is Jimmer, Jimmer night

And no one's gonna save you from the man about strike

You know it's Jimmer, Jimmer night

You're fighting for a win against a Jimmer, Jimmer tonight

You see him coming and realize there's nowhere left to run

You see the ball bounce and wonder if you'll ever see the sun

You close your eyes and hope that this is just imagination, yeah!

But all the while you hear the sneakers running up behind

You're out of time

'Cause this is Jimmer, Jimmer night

There ain't no second chance against the man with fifty points, yeah

Jimmer, Jimmer night

You're fighting for a win against a Jimmer, Jimmer tonight

Emery is stealing the ball, the whole team is making their threes

There's no escaping BYU players this time

(They're open wide)

This is the end of your life

They're out to get you, there's Cougars closing in on every side

They dominate you, can you see that number on the board

Now is the time for you and I to bleed blue together, yeah

All through the night I'll show you who’s the player of the year

I'll make you see

That this is Jimmer, Jimmer night

'Cause Jimmer can score more than any player on the floor

Jimmer, Jimmer night

So let me bleed true blue and show you

Jimmer, Jimmer, Jimmer, Jimmer here tonight

'Cause this is Jimmer, Jimmer night

Oh, Jimmer can score more than any player on the floor

Jimmer, Jimmer night

So let me bleed true blue and show you Jimmer, Jimmer, ow!

(He’s gonna Jimmer tonight)

Raining threes across the land

The ending hour is close at hand

Emery steals again the ball

Look at those numbers on the wall

And whosoever shall be found

Fouling Jimmer in the town

Must stand and face the swishing sound

He makes the extra points abound

It’s the Jimmer tonight, ooh baby

It’s the Jimmer tonight, oh darlin'

Jimmer night, baby, ooh!

The Cougar spirit’s in the air

The blue and white of yesteryear

And screaming fans from everywhere

Are closing in to have their share

And though you fight to stay alive

Your body starts to quiver

For no mere mortal can prevent

The power of the Jimmer

Free rice

So in my Spanish class, our teacher offered extra credit if we went to freerice.com and answered questions in Spanish and got up to 1000 grains of rice. Freerice.com is cool because you answer a question right and it donates 10 grains of rice to starving people. Ten grains times a lot adds up eventually. So I signed up and started going. It got a little boring after a while on the Spanish though because I was on level ten, the highest level, and it repeated the same words over and over...I tried going to different levels but it wouldn't stay that long for very long so I kept having to go back. I've tried some other things. English vocab is kind of challenging too. The math one is really fun. I've been doing that tonight. Basically freerice.com is awesome. It stimulates your brain, is really easy to do, and you're feeding the hungry. How fabulous is that?

P.S. I'm up to 20,000 grains of rice. :D How much do you think that really is?

Locked out

Today I forgot my keys. This isn't normal for me. Hopefully it doesn't become a habit. I think I'll be okay. But anyway, I got home and hoped that one of my roommates would be home. I rang the doorbell but nobody came. Dang. So I went down to our other door and tried it, knowing it was probably locked, which it was. At least it was warmer under there than it was just out in the wind. So I texted two of my roommates, asking if either would be home anytime soon. Didn't get a response. So I called the one I thought should be home or close to home because it was too early for her to have class and her car was home. She didn't answer. Dang it. So I sat down and looked at some homework. Fortunately, a few minutes later one of my roommies texted back and said she was home and the door was unlocked. Turns out both of them were home, but one didn't hear her phone or the door, and the other was in the shower. Seriously? It takes a special person to get locked out when people are home.