Blogs about evangelism from Pew Pew Laser Blog

Vindication!

After years of, I present to you, vindication! Reprinted directly from the daily Common Errors in English Usage email:

historic: an historic vs. a historic

You should use “an” before a word beginning with an H only if the H is not pronounced: “An honest effort.” It's properly “a historic event” though many sophisticated speakers somehow prefer the sound of “an historic,” so that version is not likely to get you into any real trouble.

2 comment(s).

Stuck in a Rut?

May I suggest reading something you wouldn't otherwise read? Last year I read several books that were well outside of my standard literary comfort zone of science fiction and web development. Here are the most stimulating books that I read over the past year:

• Outliers. Yes, you've probably heard about this book already - even Weird Al Yankovic has read it. But have you read it yet?
• The Science of Fear. The idea that the millions of years of evolution leads to poor decision-making skills for the modern world has encouraged me to re-evaluate several kinds of decisions.
• Bad Astronomy. Want to give your kids the right answer when they why the sky is blue? Read this.

Of course, you don't have to buy these books solely on my say-so. Do what I do - check them out from your local public library.

Unclaimed Property.

I received a letter from a "private investigator" saying that, for a mere 20%, they could recover a pile of money that was being held for me. Phf! They wanted to keep one fifth of my money? I think not. I was pretty sure I could find this money and recover it myself. (The husband performed a similar bit of fiscal conjuring about 5 years ago via some government website.) And I was right.

Oregon and Washington state (and many others, I'm sure), hold money in trust from refunds, lost payments and the like. There are websites where you can search for your property and get the paperwork to re-claim it:

• Oregon State Unclaimed Property Search
• Washington State Department of Revenue Unclaimed Property Search

I found several claims available for some family and friends. Take a look for yourself. Don't spend it all in one place.

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It's Only PST Sometimes.

Some of you already know this, but surprising portion of you need a reminder. To whit: it's only P.S.T. sometimes. (The same for E.S.T, C.S.T and M.S.T of course.) P.S.T. stands for Pacific Standard Time, and it is only in effect from Nov through Apr.

It's P.D.T. (Pacific Daylight Time) the rest of the year - such as now. Therefore, you can't go throwing around P.S.T. all year. If you must specify a time zone, play it safe and simply say Pacific Time.

Wil Wheaton Would Turn His Flash Off.

There are only a few reasons why an event or attraction will declare "no flash photography":

• Safety of performers
• Enjoyment of guests
• Flash light might damage items on display
• Protection of intellectual property or copyright (rare)

You wouldn't want anyone to get hurt because you've blinded them, right? You don't want to be "that jerk" in the audience, do you? Take a couple minutes now and learn how to turn the flash off on your camera.

In many of these cases, your pictures probably won't turn out well, even with the flash firing. The effective range of the flashes on most consumer level cameras is, at best, 20 feet. Visualize that - that's roughly the length of a car. If your subject is any further than that, and you don't have a tripod, you're wasting your time. If you must try for pictures anyway, please turn your flash off and don't ruin the show for the rest of us.