St. Expedite – the Patron Saint of Nerds.

Today marks the unofficial feast day of St. Expedite – the patron saint of emergencies, examinees and everyone who needs a quick solution to their problems. Touted the “The saint for real time solutions” and “The Patron saint of nerds”, geeks and hackers have also more recently claimed the saint as their own. 

St. Expedite: Patron Saint of Nerds
Feast Day: April 19.

A very obscure figure in the Roman Catholic Church, almost nothing is known about the life of St. Expedite. He is typically depicted as a young Roman centurion squashing a crow beneath his right foot and often pointing to a sundial. St. Expedite is too pagan to be a proper saint, yet despite attempts to quash the status of his sainthood by the church, he is too popular to simply toss away his statues, as time and again St. Expedite comes through for people in need.

The legend claims that in 1798, a Parisian group of nuns received a crate with the words "spedito" stamped on the side, meaning “rush with haste". However, at that time, crates were usually labelled with the name of the saint on the outside; for instance, St. Joseph would have "Joseph" etc.  Upon opening the crate, the nuns discovered either a beautiful statue of a saint or the deceased body of a saint who had been buried in the Denfert-Rochereau catacombs—the facts as to the contents of the crate are a little shaky.

Those who sent the crate had simply stamped "spedito" on the side (and, if it were a corpse, the necessity of a quick delivery is logical), and no other paperwork was provided. The nuns either assumed Expedite was in fact the martyr’s name or took it as a divine sign and hastily “christened” the statue (or corpse) "St. Expedito", or St. Expedite. They invoked the name of the Saint in prayer and were amazed at how quickly their prayers were answered. The news of this saint who cheerfully dispensed swift miracles soon spread rapidly throughout the Catholic community.
A similar fable exists and has gained popularity about a crate delivered to the Chapel of Our Lady of Guadeloupe in New Orleans.

However, some meagre evidence suggesting the possible existence of the real St. Expedite: a commander of a Roman legion in Armenia who converted to Christianity and he was beheaded by the emperor Diocletian in 303 AD.

It is fitting that St. Expedite is the patron saint for people who need things done in a hurry, as our motto at Expedite Publishing is to provide “fast editing” (usually for those people rushing toward a deadline!).

And in honour of this feast day (as it is our first) we are offering 25% off all editing and proofreading for the month of May. Simply quote “NERD” in the subject line, and send your document to submit@expeditepublishing.com.au
Happy Writing!

More information about St. Expedite can be found at: http://saintexpedite.org/index.html

Weird Word of the Week

I'm sure some of you have an obstreperous child in your home on occasion?
obstreperous\ob-STREP-uhr-uhs\adjective:

1. Noisy or unruly.
2. Resisting control or restraint in a difficult manner

Like lumpy potatoes?

This week's issue of new scientist features satellite images of what Earth really looks like - and it is not the gorgeous sphere we all imagine. In fact, it is more like a lumpy potato.

Click here to check out the new geoid map:

Earth is shaped like a lumpy potato - environment - 05 April 2011 - New Scientist

The Higher Education Bubble

I stumbled across an article this morning that a colleague from many moons ago had posted on her facebook page. It delved into the conundrum of the “higher education bubble”, poised to burst due to the overvalued nature of higher education – just like the housing market did not so long ago.  Peter Thiel, Paypal co-founder and all-round money-making guru, offered some insight into this:

http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/10/peter-thiel-were-in-a-bubble-and-its-not-the-internet-its-higher-education/

Sadly, he’s pretty much on the mark. But this is not a new concept. In 2010, Glenn Reynolds, writing in The Examiner, conceptualized "the higher education bubble."

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/higher-education-bubble-poised-burst#ixzz1JH6JKPHF

Over the recent years, I have also begun to wonder whether kids today are just expected to go to University – whether or not they have any idea what they want to do!

Something that spurred this thought was a conversation that I had with my mother-in-law. Termite damage permeated through a large chunk of her TV room in about 2008. Luckily for her, she doesn’t watch too much TV and has not been too put out by the fact that the renovations have still to be completed!

These days, it is difficult to find a decent builder, plumber or other tradesman. Is it due to a shortage in people undertaking apprenticeships? Or are the same numbers of people undertaking apprenticeships, but the demand is higher now as the population grows? Or is it that there are too many people enrolled to pursue a useless higher education degree, thrust upon them as they leave their protective high schools?

The current tradesmen are flooded with work - in Brisbane, at least - to the extent that people, like my mother-in-law, are waiting upwards of two years to have some basic work completed on their house!

The Rudd Government, in 2010, proposed to ensure that 40% of Australians aged between 25 and 34 years will have bachelor level qualifications by 2025. In 2006, the figure was just below 30%, and 32% in 2008, Australia-wide. The new projection is a huge figure. Furthermore, they want almost 50% of these students to have attained a Bachelor's degree.

Its seems that the Australian government is in favour of more people holding degrees. Is it wise to keep creating more and more university spaces?

Check out this blog from the AGE last year - it has some interesting feedback from their readers.
http://blogs.theage.com.au/thirddegree/archives/2010/04/uni_for_the_masses.html

It appears to me that degrees are being handed out a dime-a-dozen. It’s not to say that these students don’t deserve their degrees – I am sure they worked very hard. But there is now a lot of very highly educated unemployed 20-somethings moving back home, desperately applying to any job for which they are likely overqualified, simply because there just isn’t enough positions available for them to fill!

Does Australia need more people with university degrees or should we start to focus more on vocational education and training courses?
 

Please tell me your thoughts…

Want to Use Adobe Photoshop - Just for a month?

Adobe are finally giving in to subscription-based services. For as little as $29 a month, you can subscribe to Adobe and use the various software for as long (or as little) as you like! The catch is, however, that your rental payments don't pay off the purchase of the software.

If you are a webdesigner, or graphic artist, then this is obviously not for you. However, this a great option for those people who just occasionally need to use it. I know plenty of people in science who buy the software to create a few graphics for a manuscript, and then never use the software again!

A monthly subscription lets you use the most up-to-date software for just a fraction of the price. And given that they have had two new releases in the last couple of years (they are now up to Adobe CS5), this is probably a smart move, rather than having to constantly upgrade to newer software!

Well done Adobe. It's about time your software become more afforable!


[chart: Digital Inspiration]

Its versus It's rule: it's an easy one to follow once you understand its usage.

It's versus Its.

One simple rule: use the conjunction when you mean: it is. Otherwise, it is (it's) just "its".

Examples:

• It's a strange world out there.
• Its bark is worse that its bite.
• It's a clever dog that can scratch its fleas.
• It's time to come inside.
• I can never tell if it's going to rain.
• Put that remote control back into its holder.

Even though it is the remote's holder, the "it" in reference to the remote does not take a possessive apostrophe.

Feedback!

I have had some great feedback via email. If you would like to leave feedback on the wall, please do so! Just click on the title of the particular blog and it will redirect you to another page where you can leave comments! I would love to hear from you!

Carrie Bradshaw: Have you ever been in love?

Answers Mr. Big: Abso-F*****-lutely!


Weird word for the week: This one goes out to all "Sex and the City" fans....
Tmesis \ tuh-MEE-sis, TMEE-sis \noun:
1. Stuffing a word into the middle of another word.

Examples:

"Wel-diddly-elcome": Made famous by Ned Flanders from "The Simpsons"

"Legen-wait for it-dary": Barney Stinson's catch cry from "How I Met Your Mother"

"Ri-goddamn-diculous": Anchorman


And of course the famous last line from the first episode of Sex and the
City, which I won't post ;-)

Other, less-famous examples:

a-whole-nother
un-friggin-believable
la-dee-freakin'-da


If you think of others, please drop us a line!
Happy Writing!

Is it "three years experience" or "three years' experience"? Using Possive Apostrophes; Tip #1

Over the years, I have been asked by people to help them proofread their curriculum vitae/resume. One of the most common mistakes I have found is the misuse of the possessive apostrophe, particularly in regards to "years of experience".

There are two ways to indicate your experience on your resume:

(1) X years of experience
OR
(2) X years' experience

"Year" is a noun to describe a period of time. "Years" is a thus the plural form of the noun, therefore it takes an "s" as part of the word. The experience belongs to the year or the years

To help understand where to place the apostrophe, I have outline several examples below:

If you have had experience for one year, it would be:

(1) one year of experience
OR
(2) one year's experience


If you have had experience for two or more years, it would be:

(1) two years of experience
OR
(2) two years' experience

In contrast, if you were to use the noun, "decade", which means 10 years, then you would say:

(1) 10 years' experience
OR
(2) a(one) decade's experience

This is because in example (1) you describe ten years whereas in example (2) you are describing one decade.

If, you were describing 20 years, then you would say:

(1) 20 years' experience
OR
(2) two decades' experience

In this case, example (2) is describing "two decades" and not "two decade".

Happy writing, and for all those people out their job-hunting, don't forget this tip and make sure you proofread your work! First impressions are important, and the first impression you make on your future boss is via your resume! Keep it neat; keep it error-free!


For more information on resume proofreading and editing, visit: www.expeditepublishing.com.au/personal.html
More tips and tricks can be found at: www.expeditepublishing.com.au/free.html

Confucius Say.....

One of my favourite photos of erroneous English - except, its not erroneous.... just unfortunate!

Confucius say, "If you are in a book store and cannot find the book for which you search, you are obviously in the.....