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Word of the Day

I've seen, and been inspired by, many "photo a day" projects, so I thought I'd try one myself, with my own little grammarian spin: create a photo using a Word of the Day gadget on my Google homepage for guidance and inspiration. And what better day than January 27, my thirtieth birthday, to begin such an undertaking? (Okay, maybe new year's day, but I was too lazy to bother then.) This project is also to help keep me thinking and creating images the way DGrin's Last Photographer Standing contest has challenged me to do--a challenge I've found really enjoyable and creatively stimulating. Wish me luck (and perseverance) in this endeavor!
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    May 5, 2008 (Day 100) Fustian: pompous or pretentious language The word in the image is one I didn't even know until some time last year, and when I learned what it meant, I got a little angry. You see, folks in the newspaper biz are taught to write with the assumption their readers have a sixth-grade reading level. It's a general rule of thumb. So when this word popped up in two newspaper articles in two different papers within a few days of each other, I had to blink. I looked up the word, which means "everyday occurrence," essentially. Commonplace....Are you kidding? Stupid journalists. If it's an everyday occurrence, call it that! What the hell are you doing using a pompous, puffed-up word like "quotidian?"...It obviously still irks me. Nothing against the word personally, mind you.I futzed up the focus and blew the highlights on this, but I'm just too drained to care. Things are hectic. I have so much to wrap up in these next couple days. I almost didn't shoot today, but I really wanted to hit the 100-day milestone. Especially since I'll be on a two-week hiatus coming up.When I hit day 30, I began to doubt I'd make it to day 100, much less day 366. But there it is. 100 days. Man.
    May 4, 2008 (Day 99) Disparate: fundamentally different; also, composed of dissimilar elements I'm just out of ideas. Too distracted trying to make sure I have everything I need for Scotland. Departing in four days, and it still doesn't feel quite real. It never does until I land.
    May 3, 2008 (Day 98) Sub rosa: secretly; privately; confidentially Returning a bit to where I began with this project, something a little darker and deeper. I'm including below the roots of the word from Dictionary.com that swayed my mind to something a bit more visually sordid and salacious:"Sub rosa comes from the Latin, literally 'under the rose,' from the ancient association of the rose with confidentiality, the origin of which traces to a famous story in which Cupid gave Harpocrates, the god of silence, a rose to bribe him not to betray the confidence of Venus. Hence the ceilings of Roman banquet-rooms were decorated with roses to remind guests that what was spoken sub vino (under the influence of wine) was also sub rosa."I confess I immediately thought of that scene in American Beauty and saw it in a whole other light. I find the above absolutely fascinating. It makes me think of plots and intrigues, and I wanted to use the word as the title of a novel somehow.I will likely never shoot something like this again because it made such a mess. That's corn syrup with food coloring. Sticky and a pain to clean off, both skin and floors.