I got blogrolled at Ancient Hebrew Poetry. Being called “delightful” is nice. But I’m kinda jealous of the guy that got called “fearless.”

This just in. In my research I discovered an early usage of gender-neutral pronouns in English:

If you love somebody…
If you love somebody…
If you love somebody…  
Set them free (Free, free, set them free…)

Source: Sting: If you love somebody set them free

Somebody let the folks at TNIV Truth know about this. By the way, if you love somebody, don’t follow the advice in that song.

I decided to fast from blogging for a few days. So why am I sitting here writing this post? This is an appropriate time to present one of Lingamish’s Notorious IX Commandments of Blogging:

VIII: Balance

Blogging is an obsessive activity performed by obsessive people. It consumes our life and we’re glad. But when you start thinking about blogging at inappropriate times, like when you’re kissing your wife, or your kid wants to sit on your lap but the laptop got there first, then it’s time to pull back. Or when you find that you do things so you can blog about them. Or you’re blogging about blogging. Face up to it, chump. You are a loser with a capital L and it’s time to take a break. Start setting time limits. Or refuse to blog on Sundays. Get some balance. I know. I’m perpetually imbalanced. But on the other hand if you’re not obsessed with what you’re doing, why are you doing it?

Source: Lingamish’s Notorious IX Commandments of Blogging

Eclexia has wondered several times if I’m serious or joking. The answer is yes. I’m always serious and I’m always joking. That can get me in trouble and has recently damaged some of my online relationships. My wife thinks I get away with it in person because people can see me smiling. So maybe I need a picture on all my blogs of me smiling? Ghastly thought! How about instead I’ll agree to be more careful and you’ll agree to not take me too seriously. I tried to tone down my rhetoric and John’s response was “I liked the old Lingamish better.“

Withering Fig has plugged the Grasshopper Greek series a couple times. Thanks, man! His daily Round-Ups are a good way to keep your finger on the pulse of Internet Biblical studies nerdiness. Subscribe to his feed. You’ll be glad you did.

lingalinga turns 1 on August 2. One month, that is. During that time it has morphed into a place where I talk to fellow bloggers about blogging. Lots of link love as well. And a few things too weird to put on my main blog. After a month, lingalinga has been viewed more than 1,000 times. The technorati authority went from zero to 14 with a rank of 465,230. Yeehaw! This has been a lot of fun and I plan to keep it up. The best day was 101 views because of the post the truth to summer’s lie.

Wayne has just posted a gem of a post on the need for Bible translations to have natural English: translation problems poll results (cont’d):

“If something sounds unusual it is normal for people to try to figure out some meaning from the words which makes some sense to them. This shows us why it is so important to use wordings in English Bibles which are sanctioned both by English syntax and the rules of the English lexicon. We must pay as must respect to the rules of English as we translate into it, as we do to the rules of the biblical languages, as we study the biblical texts to try to determine what those texts mean so that we can translate their meaning.” (emphasis added)

Yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes! An implication of this truth is that a translation team should always have a poet (like Wayne) as a member. Such a person is just as vital as a Biblical languages scholar. If it ain’t natural, it ain’t accurate.