Archive for August 2008

• 100 Most Common English Words: How many can you get in five minutes? I only got 55. Pooh. [Link: Dawn]
• How to Feed the Innovation Pipeline.
• Digital Image Resources on the Deep Web: Hard to find digital images…
• The Secrets of Storytelling [Link: Copyblogger]
• Hated sentence diagramming in school and don’t think I benefited. However, the activity helps some that learn better through this process.
• What are you chewing? Check out the brand name pencils.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Wired looks at history’s greatest gadgets.
• Comics Curmudgeon: Comments on and analyzes the latest comics… funny snarky stuff.
• Weird Olympic images with humorous captions.
• iPhone Magic Tricks: Creative!
• Fantastic Contraption: Indeed! An online physics game where you add wheels and
• Recycle electronics at a spot near you.

Jojo Cruz stunned the casual games world with her Jojo’s Fashion Show entry. After a runaway success, she returns with her daughter Ros in Jojo’s Fashion Show 2: Las Cruces hopes of capturing fashionistas’ hearts again with the latest fashions.

So you know, Las Cruces most references the mother daughter clothing line — rather than the city — team in plural as Spanish turns Cruz into Cruces. Well, three years of high school Spanish comes in handy after all! It only took 20 years.

For those not familiar with Jojo, the game doesn’t quite fit the time or business management genre. Maybe we need a new one for reality games as more hit the casual games runway including Hell’s Kitchen and the latest Go-Go Gourmet: Chef of the Year. We learn about the latest fashion trends ranging from Bollywood and Foxhunt to provocative and military. Every style comes with a description of the types of shoes, tops, and bottoms that make it that style.

Working behind the scenes where few see the frantic activity of designers dressing up the models, we must make do with our existing clothing inventory to send models out in the styles in which they need to appear. A style appears above each model and we must dress them up to match that style as best as we can with what we have available. I can’t always remember what makes a style based on the inventory I have, so I click on the style to review it again. Thank goodness for this feature.

Let’s say our male model needs to dress up athletic style. Shirt, check. Shoes, check. All three pairs of pants fall under military style. What to do?? Well, either just pick one and pray the shoes and shirt will score high enough to get you three or more stars or take advantage of a power up (bonus) if you have shuffle, which lets you change the inventory. Later on, you can earn power ups that will dress up the model for you. You’ll also be able to accessorize to boost that je ne sais quoi.

Stylin’ new features in Jojo’s Fashion Show 2: Las Cruces include men’s clothes, male models, and a photographer. The photographer brings a new game in between runways where we hunt down the model with the style that fits the one you must match. Once spotted, you need to aim (no cutting off the head or feet) and snap the model. Nice idea, but dull after one round.

On occasion, the Show Climax feature enters the show giving you multipliers of 2x, 3x or whatever points for your outfits. So score 1,000 on a 2x Show Climax and you score 2000 instead. The other one, Double Time, has you spraying and praying because you must throw on an outfit with less time than normal and pray it makes a winner.

Jojo’s works well because you can’t predict what will score 500 vs. 1200. You’ve seen fashion (Academy Awards, for one) that looks horrendous that experts (so they call themselves) praise. Sometimes, pulling an outfit together with a limit inventory creates a style that you wouldn’t put on your pet and it scores one of the highest. That’s fashion for you… anything goes.

Jojo’s Fashion Show 2: Las Cruces brings you more of the same with a couple of enhancements. You feel as if you’re attending the same fashion show with new clothes and maybe a few neat touch ups. Some will think the original is better while others see the follow up as an opportunity to get more of Jojo. No matter which side you’re on, Jojo is an original … period.

Download Jojo’s Fashion Show 2: Las Cruces.

You’ve probably read or heard many experts say that keeping your clients costs less than obtaining new ones. A Bain and Company study reports that boosting customer loyalty by 5 percent improves your profits by 25 percent at the very least and can go up to 95 percent. You can’t ask for better numbers than that.

I’ve been fortunate that 99 percent of my clients use my services a second time. While maintaining strong customer relationships helps keep clients, remember that marketing should always be a part of your job as a freelancer. Overbooked or not, I must keep on marketing as projects end, clients move projects in-house, or a business closes.

Here are six easy ways to hold on to your clients:

1. Listen. Sounds obvious, but freelancers might not understand the client’s request and start working on the project without understanding what the client said. It’s OK to ask for clarification. Better to ask and get it right the first time than produce something off target and have to do it again.
2. Ask for feedback. After working for a client for a reasonable time, I ask for feedback letting the client know it can be short or long — whatever works for the client as I don’t want to take up the client’s time. I ask one yes/no question and one open-ended question: “Are you happy with the work you’re getting from me?” and “What can I do to better serve you?”
3. Ask what the client wants. When starting with a new client, I ask for samples of what he/she likes so I can incorporate that into the content. A client couldn’t provide samples (they were in a language I didn’t know), so I asked for details such as word count, formatting requirements (headers, bullets, etc. acceptable?), quotes allowed, and so on. Something worked because he was pleased with the article.
4. Handle mistakes with grace. You and I are human not machines. We make mistakes. I believe how a person handles those mistakes can make a big difference between success and screw up. You could not charge a client extra for the added time to fix something, provide a discount on the next invoice, or simply apologize and move on.
5. Think of your clients. If I see a PR opportunity that fits my client, a comic strip pertaining to the client’s interest, or some other valuable resource — I pass it on to my clients. I want them to be successful and have all the knowledge they need.
6. Thank your clients. Every year I send a handwritten note to every client. Yes, it means serious carpal tunnel for my southpaw, but we don’t see enough handwriting anymore. My handwriting isn’t special, but it’s more personal than typewriting.

Ready to see your profits to soar over 25 percent? Listen well and watch out for opportunities such as customers asking for a new service or a product that your business should and could handle — get on it! How do you keep ‘em happy?

Go-Go Gourmet returns reality TV-style as Ginger heads for an international competition against fellow chefs from seven countries in Go-Go Gourmet: Chef of the Year. We learn the story through the usual comic strip style images with dialog bubbles. Most of us will never participate in the Olympics, but this gives us a little taste of it as Ginger represents USA.

Unlike the typical time management game, we do more than just fulfill orders (judges’ orders instead of customer orders). We must hunt for the needed ingredients, use appliances, cook or bake the food, and deliver the pretty dish to the judges.

Judges’ faces pop up on the screen with their dish requests. The ingredients and instructions appear below the judge’s face so you can cook up a storm. Now, you may juggle two, three, or even four orders at once. While the blender runs for one dish, you might put together another dish and throw it in the oven.

Chefs earn points for their work and mini-games provide opportunities to gain more points. The compare scenes game contains ingredients while the other scene is barren. The ingredients appear on the bottom of the screen for your placing into the barren scene to make it match the other scene. The game is stubborn about accepting the first ingredient. Things improve after the game wakes up.

Another mini-game has players hunting as many of the same ingredients as they can and fast. For example, find all of the onions in the kitchen before time’s up. Succeed to win more points and get ahead of the competition.

On occasion, a judge offers a bribe… well, not officially. But if you serve the dish fast enough, you earn bonuses such as time freeze, which stops the clock for a short time. The faster you serve a dish, the higher you score with ten points being the highest possible score. Go-Go Gourmet: Chef of the Year offers hints by showing you the location of the ingredients for a few moments.

As Ginger wins rounds, she also gets new outfits that give her an edge whether it’s making the judges more patient, helping her move faster, or earning bonus points for dishes. She also picks up souvenirs and recipes you can print and try.

Upon completing all the rounds for the country, Ginger travels to the next one where the scene reflects the country’s food and culture. Go-Go Gourmet: Chef of the Year gets harder as you advance to a new country.

The opening story has a typo as sauté turns into saut and the scenes move too slowly with the constant opening and closing of the curtains. Clicks don’t always take forcing players to repeatedly click until Ginger gets moving toward the clicked ingredient. The problematic clicks can make the difference between coming in first place and finishing third. Because of the clicking issue, the game looses half of a star.

Go-Go Gourmet: Chef of the Year demands a lot of fast clicking and moving. Fingers will get a workout. Nonetheless, the game will please fans of the addicting original with its added components, recipe and ingredient variety, and challenge of competing with other chefs rather than just a race against the clock.

Download Go-Go Gourmet: Chef of the Year

One hour ago, I walked my youngest of three and his older brother to the school bus. They headed for their first day in kindergarten and fourth grade. While one kid went off to his first day of elementary school, the oldest headed to high school for volleyball practice and starting her first day of high school.

I sit here enjoying the silence not knowing what to do with myself though plenty of work waits for me. It’ll take a few days to return to the swing of things and follow a regular schedule. I can’t help but recall the the birth of my youngest and my excitement about the first day of third grade (I don’t know why I remember that particular year) that I took out my newest dress and shoes the night before.

Birth. Infant. Toddler. Pre-K. Man, I graduated high school 20 years ago this year! And here I am the mother of a freshman. I can’t be old enough for this can I? Where did the time go?

Despite new beginnings, I don’t feel different. Things just come and you go with the flow. But that’s not how it goes when I start working on the first assignment for a new client. That makes my stomach flip as I want to please the client. Be the more work I do for a client, the easier it becomes.

The 2008 Olympics end. I miss not having the TV on waiting for me to catch the next game, race, or performance. My sons took an interest in the games, which was nice as we all rooted for USA, of course. I remember watching the 1984 Olympics from a Texas A&M dorm while attending basketball camp. Hated to see them end last night with the final blow out, but all good things…

Joanna Young has a new beginning of her own. She moved to a new home and had to take a long break from blogging (10 days). We’re glad to have her back in our community and hope she enjoys her new home.

Any new beginnings in your life? How do they make you feel? How do you deal with them?

The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the ‘one-deal-a-day’ website dedicated to indie and casual games:

Mon. Aug. 25th: 50% off on Blobyrinth: Maze Island Quest

Tue. Aug. 26th: 50% off on Engine Of War

Wed. Aug. 27th: 50% off on Puzzle Brainstorm

Thu. Aug. 28th: 70% off on Snoogles

Fri. Aug. 29th: 40% off on UNO – Undercover

Sat. Aug. 30th: 50% off on CycleMan

Sun. Aug. 31th: 50% off on The Magic Toy Chest

• 42 HTML email design resources: Trying to get a newsletter to look the same in all email clients is a lost cause (more in this post) — but you can at least make them appear decent.
• Community Mottos and Nicknames. Sure, most of us know Philly is the City of Brotherly Love, but did you know Fort Worth (my hometown) is “Where the West Begins” and “Cowtown”? Believe it or not, few of us wear cowboy boots and hats.
• Profiling Your Target Market: Shame on me… this place targets a broader audience than it should, but I’m OK with it and I hope you are, too.
• Wordle: Word clouds [Link: OnlineMarketerBlog]
• Making an Arguement for Misspelling. Yes, that’s how the Times spells argument — in jest, of course.
• Freelance Writing Success: Your Way or Mine?
• We Tell Stories: Six authors, six stories, six weeks.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Fly over the mountains. Watch out… people who get dizzy easily (me) might not want to do it for more than a few seconds. Let your cursor do the piloting.
• How elderly people see television remotes: At least, for the next 20 or so years. By then, us elderly folk will be pros and unafraid. Instead, we’ll be afraid of anything that’s not battery- or electric-powered.
• Cake decorators who follow instructions … literally. [Link: GoodExperience]
• Daddy is smart… hires a tiny art director. [Link: GoodExperience]
• In honor of school starting — Not on the Test. Lyrics.
• Gadgets on Discover.

I mentioned that my son’s medical program would interfere with my business because it required a big time investment on my part along with other things. Add to that managing the usual stuff like the other kids, work (or lack thereof), household responsibilities, on and on.

After two weeks of the program, I reached a breaking point. Like, the car ran out of gas plus it needed a serious washing as it looked battered and worn despite its young age. Thank goodness, my clients understood my availability. But that didn’t keep me from feeling bad about not working full-time.

So I had to make adjustments to my work and life so I could feel less guilty, prevent stress overload, and serve my clients as best as I could during this time. Here’s what worked for me:

• Email clients: I let them know of the situation and explained I needed to make priority adjustments. All of them understood.
• Take care of quick hits ASAP: One client sends me five minute editing tasks. So when she sends one in, I do it right there as it’s as fast as reading an email. Plus, it feels great to have one thing done.
• Exercise: I stick to my tennis drill and match schedule. I had to find a sub for one match, but made the rest of them. Thank goodness I have a sweet dog. She forces me to take a walk mid-day. If I don’t, then I’ll spend more time cleaning up after her than walking her.
• Listen to music: I’ve been listening to more music in the past month than I have in the past year. As a deaf person, I don’t have a passion for music like most folks do. But I’ve put in more hours on the road than usual and my car comes with an adapter that plugs right into my iPod. Furthermore, I discovered a iTunes lyrics feature that revived my enjoyment of music. The hard part… discovering new songs.
• Stay on track with the family: Although family is the reason I’m spending more time away from the office than usual, we still have our usual daily activities and goings-on. Gotta keep moving with those as they keep things consistent. Despite the unusual schedule, I managed to work on a jigsaw puzzle and played a couple of board games with my family.
• Cut out tasks where possible. I cut back on blogging and visiting blogs (I know… I hate missing out on community), but these will always be there. The web site won’t come crashing and my blog buddies don’t take attendance. I also limit my non-profit organization officer duties to urgent and time sensitive things. The rest can wait as I have all year.

Just thinking of the week ahead (last week before school starts) overwhelms me. Meetings, registration, several gatherings, meet the teacher, and on and on. I check my calendar to see what’s on the agenda for the next day. But then I pull back and focus on here and now while preparing for whatever comes early tomorrow.

How do you pull through stressful times?

The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the ‘one-deal-a-day’ website dedicated to indie and casual games:

Mon. Aug. 18th: 50% off on Mirror Mixup

Tue. Aug. 19th: 50% off on 3D Poker Bandit

Wed. Aug. 20th: 50% off on Universal Soccer Manager 2

Thu. Aug. 21st: 60% off on Roidulous

Fri. Aug. 22nd: 50% off on Tri-Towers

Sat. Aug. 23rd: 50% off on My Little Flufties

Sun. Aug. 24th: 40% off on Chuzzle Deluxe I *love* Chuzzles!

The Dream Day hidden objects game franchise returns with Dream Day Wedding: Married in Manhattan, its fourth game in the series. Once again, the series introduces features that enhance the game. Sometimes a game in a series would receive new features that look like an ugly attempt to claim the game isn’t a rehash of the previous with a new storyline thrown in.

Oh, I’m not saying sequels can’t recapture their predecessor’s success with a new story, new sets, and new characters. Fans love getting more of the same. With casual games coming out with a new game on a daily basis, it takes no time for a game to look dated. In fact, I’m judging handheld games — the same category I did last year — and these categories have no new games. The games look and feel dated.

Back to New York. Dream Day First Home introduces the two story route. Dream Day Wedding applies this feature by giving us two couples from which to choose. Play one first and then play the other couple next time around. I run into a technical problem (fixed) with the first couple after almost finishing the game play, so rather replaying them — I switch to the other couple for a change of pace.

Dream Day games come with a Choose a Story, which lets players decide where the story takes them next by picking one of three options. At the end of a Choose a Story, players earn a Time Booster item. Remember the item as it won’t appear on the list of things to find and gain one minute when you find it.

Bluebirds also appear in every scene save for Wedding Crises scenes. For every five bluebirds found, you win an extra hint. The scenes — prior to a mini-game or Choose a Story — come with three hints plus whatever you earn in finding bluebirds.

Mini-games fit the game’s wedding planning theme perfectly. After finding all the objects for a level, you’ll get the wedding registry scene where you pick a gift to open that leads to either the Choc-O-Matic Fountain or Party Puzzle (seating chart) mini-game. Players need to turn metal tubes in Choc-O-Matic Fountain to ensure the chocolate can flow from start to end in every pipe or else guests won’t get their chocolate in the wedding. Not a good thing!

Party Puzzle brings something I haven’t seen appear as a mini-game. Each placecard contains a guest with one or two colors on the sides. The colors on the sides of the placecards must line up with like colors. One joker is available to help you out of a rough spot.

After completing one of the two mini-games, you play the apartment puzzle. The bride gives you, the wedding planner, a key to her apartment where you hunt down the list of things she needs. That list takes you through the next few scenes.

The apartment puzzle has no time limits, so explore the scene and figure out what to do. While you can press “Solve” if you get stuck, these don’t take a lot of work to figure out. Just look for clickable items or watch for the sparkles giving you a hint of where to look. Some items will go into your inventory so you can use them with other objects to make something happen.

Now that you have the list, move on to the next scenes to find them. Sometimes the bride will ring you up and announce she doesn’t need an item on her list anymore — saving you one item to find… IF you find your cell phone before it stops ringing. Clever! A surprise waits in some scenes. You find an item only to discover you’re stuck in a room and you must quickly find your way out in the Escape Puzzle.

The Wedding Crisis has appeared in the previous Dream Day games. In these scenes, players have less time and must dig through the messier and busier scenes to overcome a crisis whether the roses the bride wanted sell out or the bakery can’t do the wedding cake. Once the crisis passes, you design an item that will appear in the wedding and its album.

The scenes repeat often and the objects rarely change locations. The only things that change are the Apartment Puzzles and Wedding Crisis. However, if you play the game again to try taking a different route in the Choose a Story, you’ll have to work through the same scenes again. Considering I play one couple twice due the technical problem, it’s a pain as I feel like I’m repeating everything I had done the first time.

One more disappointing element — other than in the name and the logo, you wouldn’t know you’re in New York. It’s a wonderful city with beautiful architecture and great scenes — why bother adding “Manhattan,” if you’re not going to showcase the Big Apple?

Dream Day Wedding: Married in Manhattan takes a few pages out of its previous games and adds a few original ideas (Escape Puzzle, bride calling you, and Party Puzzle) while also copying similar features found in other games first (Apartment Puzzle) and finding a bunch of one item in scenes (eggs, arrows, etc.). Dream Day Wedding: Married in Manhattan still provides a pleasurable adventure for fans of the series. It’s also a good one for those new to hidden object games and may not challenge the seasoned players.

Download Dream Day Wedding: Married in Manhattan from your favorite game site:

• Big Fish Games
• Amazon