Archive for October 2007

Ah, I love Halloween. Such a fun day. Although it’s steered away from its original meaning, it gives us all (at least in the U.S.) an excuse to have fun at the office, school, and wherever. Received an email from a friend contains photos from a company that goes all out in decorating cubicles.

My little one gets to wear his costume to school today. He’s Leo from the The Little Einsteins. Not many people will recognize the character. He also has Rocket with all four of the characters, so you can see he looks like Leo complete with red-hair, glasses and orange stripe on the black shirt.

The other son is the scream ghost and the daughter is a pirate. Paul has a Big Bad Wolf costume that is a hit with the kids and I finally got myself one, Daisy Duck. It may be too warm for the wolfie costume as the high for today is supposed to be 80.

Steve Bass of PC World posted two entries with links to various Halloween fun. Poynter also has Halloween-related links.

Check out the monster pumpkin at Wall Street Journal.

Here’s a YouTube video of a pumpkin carving itself. Took a lot of time and patience! Showcase of pumpkins.

I created meryl.net articles as a place to put longer articles and reviews that can be of value for a long time. However, many blogs use articles as entries. So I’m debating whether to combine the two or keep them as is. Some people subscribe only to this feed, some to both, and some only to articles.

Thus, I come to you since the content is for you. Eliminating articles would clutter the clutter and clean up the navigation. On the other hand, it could make it easier to find the more useful articles. What say y’all?

People ask whether to capitalize Internet, web, or net, and which of the following to use: e-mail vs. email, tradeshow vs. trade show, and web site vs. web site. No one likes an indefinite answer, but it’s up to you or your organization. To ensure consistency on such thorny words, most editors rely on a style guide.

If you don’t have the luxury of cooking one, there are a few excellent resources for your use. Many editors reference the AP Style Guide and Chicago Manual of Style. For citing another source, the MLA Handbook does the job as well as the aforementioned two books. Strunk & White’s Elements of Style is an oldie that continues to find new fans after over 85 years in its existence.

For geeky words, you might find a better resource in Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications or Microsoft Computer Dictionary. Here’s what the former says about E- words:

In general, avoid forming new words with ‘e-’ (for electronic) unless you know your audience will understand. Some words that may be appropriate in certain circumstances are ‘e-commerce’ and ‘e-money.’ ‘E-mail’ and ‘e-form’ are acceptable. Use lowercase and always hyphenate for clarity.

You can pull content from a few other guides and add in your own modifications to come up with what best fits your cooking style. Of course, keep readers in mind when creating the guide.

The following lists more guides and resources:

• APA Style Guide is a popular style guide especially with colleges and universities.
• Jargon File, the online version of The New Hacker’s Dictionary.
• Writing for Multimedia’s Terminology.
• BBC News Style Guide for radio.
• GuardianUnlimited Style Guide is for writers and editors.
• Web Style Guide for web sites.
• New York Public Library’s NYPL:Style Guide for web sites.
• AMA Style Guide from University of Washington that lists the most frequently used entries. Medical professionals tend to rely on this one.

The next part to tackle is physical conventions. For instance, when starting a new paragraph, do you indent or use a double hard return? What font size, face, and style will you use for titles? Will the titles be capitalized or in sentence case? This is similar to a cookbook. All the recipes are formatted the same way. Even CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a recipe since it ensures formatting consistency.

Throw all the selected style ingredients into one pan, or in this case, one document. The style guide should be organized to make it easy for your writers can find what they need.

Finally, put it where everyone can access it. It doesn’t have to be a book. It can be a one or two page document. It’s a living document that you can continuously revise. Hey, even a blogging tool or wiki can help manage it.

The hardest part? Getting everyone to follow the new guide.

Not too many entries ago, I wrote an entry on how much to charge for writing. Since then, I’ve come across a few helpful articles on the topic. It’s rare that you’ll find actual rates outside of Writer’s Market and an $100+ ebook. Too many factors and variables can affect the quote.

The best way to learn is from experience and learning about the process of coming up with a quote. I edit graduate theses (edit, not write it unlike those term paper mills).

The first time I landed a thesis editing project, I charged too little. It far took more time than I expected. The second time, I quoted a better rate… but still short of what it should be. By the third time, I had it figured out plus I had a backup in case a couple of rounds of editing turned into 30 revisions.

The following sites explain the process of coming up with a quote (some are general articles for different service-based business and some are specific to those in the writing business):

• WorkZ
• IttyBiz
• Nolo
• About Freelance Writing
• Absolute Write
• Instigator Blog
• Will Write for Chocolate
• Associated Content
• Writing World

The fascinating Greek myths often become the subject of games, videos, and movies. The unique characters and their adventures contribute a powerful ingredient for entertainment. Heroes of Hellas effortlessly blends match three (keep reading — it’s not just another one) with the myths into a fine storyline beginning with someone stealing the scepter of Zeus.

Now what makes Heroes of Hellas different from the zillions (maybe not quite that many) of match threes? For one, instead of a typical square grid, the grid appears in honeycomb style with hexagon shapes. With the honeycomb-shaped grid, you go in different directions in making a match instead of just up and down, and sideways. Here you can go six directions. The grid’s outside shape changes with each level as you travel through Ancient Greece and Hades to find the scepter.

Along the way, you earn help from the heroes. Their help is what most refer to as a power up. Zeus, of course, is the first and he shuffles the grid when you need more matching objects. The others have special powers that do different things: Achilles can destroy rocks that block your way. Jason opens a path. Once you discover multiple heroes, you get two heroes per level plus Zeus.

Lightning-style and extra time power ups and coins show up on the grid for more support. Anytime you have two matching items nearby with a power up or coin in between, you can make a match. Heck, you can make a match of two power ups and one object. You still need at least three items and in this case, power ups are like jokers or wild cards in that they work with anything.

The objective for each level also changes. It can be that you need to clear the gold tiles behind the objects, release the jewels from the grid by helping them make their way down to the bottom of the grid, or both. With the grid changing shapes, the changing heroes and the change objectives, the game can turn monotonous especially since you’re on the clock through all of this.

While the game only comes in one mode, it offers three difficulty levels: easy, medium, and hard. In playing easy level, I run into trouble by level four. Some reviewers believe the game is too easy — I differ. I may not have needed the heroes’ help in the first few levels, but needed them in later levels. Several levels took at least five tries before I conquered them.

One thing that drives me crazy is slipping up and missing a hexagon or two. People who have a hard time navigating with a mouse won’t like this. Heroes of Hellas requires careful mouse movement and tile selection. You must keep the mouse button pressed while you select the tiles — instead of just click on each one. This is a good and bad thing. It’s harder to keep the mouse down and select, but it’s faster. To keep clicking might get tedious. Maybe the next edition — if there is one — can provide this as an option.

I also like the music and music isn’t one of the more important features in a game for me. Somehow this catchy music grabs me along with its sound effects. You can also earn wallpaper with scenes from Greek myths by playing a mini-game. The mini-game enters when you earn a hero. Here you need to move puzzles pieces where they belong by swapping two pieces at a time. For those who don’t like puzzles — you can skip the game, but it means no wallpaper for you.

Regular players of match three games may recognize features here and there from other games. Heroes of Hellas incorporates the features nicely to create an all-around fine match three package.

System Requirements: Windows

• Windows ME/98/2000/XP/Vista
• 400 MHz or faster processor
• 128 MB RAM
• Hard drive space 40 mb
• Video card: 16 MB VRAM
• DirectX 8.0 MB or later

• SalesDogs Diagnostics: What type of salesdog breed are you? What kind of team do you have?
• Stationery Movie Quiz: Guess the movie from office supplies.
• Good Keywords: Free software for finding the right keywords. Also has a keyword primer for beginners.
• Get kid gift ideas by checking out Dr. Toy’s Best Products of 2007.
• We keep our lawn (front and back) as simple as possible. That way we don’t use up much water or resources to keep it in good shape. LessLawn provides tips on building a low-maintenance lawn.
• The 100 Tools Freelancers Can’t Live Without

Immersing yourself into the blogosphere and social networks keeps your finger on the pulse and helps you connect with others. A feedreader helps you quickly scan articles, blog entries, and site to keep you updated. However, they can be a time killer and easily overwhelm a person.

My feedreader has over 400 feeds. It wouldn’t sound so bad if each feed contains four to five new entries per week, but some sites post over five entries per day. When feeds feed on your time, how valuable is it?

With numerous high quality sites out there, it’s easy to add feeds and find that your reader has way too many. You don’t want to forget about these sites, but you also know that it’s unrealistic to keep up.

Here are tips to help manage feeds without eating too much time of your day:

1. Have a goal in mind before using your feedreader. Are you looking for something to link to and write about in your blog? Do you need an article on a certain topic? When you meet that goal, close the feedreader.
2. Organize your feedreader by topic. If you write about geeky topics, it might help to break down topics by sub-topics such as hardware, software, programming, security, etc. Look at the kind of information you need and create categories for those needs so you search fewer feeds. When you need a laugh or a lift, you can refer to feeds categorized under Humor, Fun, or Entertainment.
3. Limit the blogs and sites you check regularly. It might help to create a separate folder for regular reads.
4. Use a feedreader with a search feature. You can’t have a category for everything, so search helps here.
5. Avoid using the feedreader to just surf (unless it’s a slow day and that’s what you want to do). This is a sure way to while away your time.
6. Delete useless feeds. If you discover a feed that hardly produces the content you need or want, delete the feed. You have plenty of other good ones.

For sites that provide e-mail updates, I subscribe because they come to me. I can easily delete the e-mail or scan it to see if I should check it out — I make the decision based on my current schedule and to do list for the day. Subscribing to their e-mail feeds reminds me to check the site when I can. Although, this tip might not work well for those who have inbox overwhelm.

The Pitchers: Sales

Let’s say you have a new baseball team in town and it’s almost time for the first game of the season. Your sales force is ready to sell a variety of package deals for the season. However, there’s a major stumbling block as they prepare to approach potential buyers. No one knows about the package deals or even the date of the first game.

No one tipped the local sports writer or the local TV news of the upcoming grand opening game. What happened to the marketing department? There’s no marketing research, no publicity, and no idea where to begin targeting sales. Sales will flop and will make the sales department look bad, but it’s marketing’s fault since they didn’t do their job.

The Batters: Marketing

Let’s switch and see things from the marketing team’s view. They do a grand job of posting banners of the first game in town. Marketing has pulled together piles of reports with data on the audience, their baseball attending habits, and game spending habits. Many people arrive for the game opener, buy a ticket for the game, and it’s successful.

Or is it really? The sales team is invisible. There is no one to build a relationship with the fans. No one has sold them packages for attending more than just the opener. Sales could go far beyond than one game. They could even help build relationships that go beyond the season. Marketing did a great job, but with poor sales the team may not make it and everyone loses. Where was sales when marketing promoted the event?

Who gets the credit? Who gets the blame? In the war for profitable bottom line, turf issues should be put aside.

Who’s on First?

Marketing and sales play for the same team in different positions. Marketing leads to sales by creating programs focused on direct marketing principles that are tied to the sales team’s success. Marketing puts together a multi-step game plan to ensure each interaction with prospective fans lead to more and deeper interactions. Using shared business goals as a driver, the two work to meet those goals.

Marketing and sales should constantly communicate with each other to ensure effective timing, clear understanding of the company’s message, and smoother handoffs. Sales can determine the target market by evaluating current and past sales. The results help marketing professionals sharpen their pitch so they can hook the right people.

Bullying today looks nothing like bullying 15 years ago. While many of the things we know about bullying from our childhood years remain true, bullies can now follow their victims 24/7 using the Internet and cell phones. Bullyproof Your Child for Life quotes the National Girl Scouts Research Institute and Harris Interactive report, which states the number one fear of girls ages 8 through 17 is teasing. This topped war, terrorism, and natural disasters.

The media and parents also contribute to the increasing occurrences of bullying. We see more violence on TV, commercials, video games, song lyrics. Furthermore, many parents don’t realize they’re setting a poor example for their children. For example, Haber shares an experience in talking with a mother who approaches him in a coffee shop. She asks for help with her child’s reputation as a gossip. Haber advises her only to hear that he meets her friends at their table where she proceeds to gossip about a neighbor. Bewildering, isn’t it?

The book begins with details about bullying and why it happens. Chapter two offers tactics for dealing with a bullying situation. The rest of the book explores situations, what works, and what doesn’t work.

The rest of the book’s contents follow the coffee shop example in telling stories and offering clear and understandable advice without the jargon. Accompanying every chapter are stories related to its topic, which cover bullying in school, camp, sports, and online.

Books in this category of non-fiction where the topic is painful and not fun can easily turn into books for helping people fall asleep at night. Haber and Glatzer do a first-rate job of using the tone needed for this sensitive topic. It doesn’t get emotionally heavy nor does it scare the reader. There are a couple of grim stories in the book — rightfully so — and the authors follow up with details and support.

I also appreciate the chapter on special needs and disability harassment especially as a person who is deaf. The chapter gives greater focus on educating others to prevent them from bullying special needs children. It briefly goes into how to help a special needs child who is the subject of bullying. However, much of the advice throughout the book can help special needs children and work in most situations no matter where they occur.

Stopping a bully doesn’t happen overnight, but Bullyproof Your Child for Life avoids overwhelming the reader with its doable suggestions. While the book doesn’t require reading from cover to cover, it’s beneficial to read the whole thing once — it’s surprisingly a fast and easy read. Parents, educators, and adults working with children can refer back to find what they need and take action based on the advice.

• Title: Bullyproof Your Child for Life: Protect Your Child from Teasing, Taunting, and Bullying for Good
• Author: Joel Haber, Ph.D. with Jenna Glatzer
• Publisher: Perigee
• ISBN: 0399533184
• Date: August 2007
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 304
• Cover Price: USD: $14.95; Amazon: $10.17

Social networks can boost your business visibility and market YOU the brand. There are too many of them, and many are of good quality. We can’t force our friends and colleagues to join the same handful of networks. Some prefer these five, some prefer those four, and some prefer the other five — yet we belong to some of each. So what can you do without spending hours creating a profile on every one of ‘em?

1. Pick two or so general networks (i.e. MySpace and Facebook – yes, Facebook originally went after colleges and universities, but has since expanded to general population) that are neither business-oriented or oriented toward something specific (i.e. music, art, and media).
2. Pick one or two specific networks, which can be business-oriented or cover a specific industry or hobby that you interact with on a regular basis. LinkedIn and Ryze focus more on business networking while Flickr (photos), Buzznet (music), and Shelfari (book) focus on a specific thing.
3. Build a profile on your selected networks. Do as much as you can. It’s OK to do a little at a time with plans to complete the profile. Treat these as proactive networks.
4. Connect with friends and colleagues on your proactive network sites. Again, do a little at a time or one network at a time. Don’t drive yourself crazy.
5. Join other networks only when you receive an invitation. But on these networks — do the bare minimum. Join them, provide basic information such as your URL, and leave it at that. In other words, the minute you sign up — do all the work right there (five minutes or so) and never return until someone contacts you. Treat these as passive networks.

In a previous post, I linked to an article providing tips on saving time in your day. A few more thoughts popped in my head as soon as I pressed “Publish.” (There goes Murphy again!) — hence the motivation behind this post. Next: Surviving feed frenzy.