Language

“What the …? Julius Caesar?” OK, I used St. Patrick’s Day last week so it’d appear before the actual day. Easter and Passover (Eastover? Passter?) are not until next week. OK, so the Ides of March as mentioned in Julius Caesar comes before St. Patrick’s Day, but I was outta ideas. Since we’re talking Roman dates, this could be the XIX edition. So is this my Seinfeld post for the month where I talk about nothing?

Brain food…

• Wordoid: Creative naming service for product names, web sites, domains and whatnot.
• PaperRater: Not just for college students. Free resource to help students improve their writing. (Writers, too!) [Link: BitRebels]
• How I’d Negotiate with Clients Wanting oDesk “Features”: Great response to one writer’s experience with oDesk.
• Book Summary Template: How to Get the Most from a Book: While it’s best to pick a few books and read them often to better grasp and implement new knowledge, some of us like to read a variety. This template will help you make the most out of a book.
• How Writers Can Manage Federal Income Taxes: Don’t. Shoot. Messenger. Also, 5 tips for filing your taxes easily.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• The Lost Art of Handwriting: Embroidered email designs. Who knew such embroidery and email could be moving.
• Intranet Secrets: Who knew the intranet could be funny?
• Evolution of Tech Companies’ Logos: How did I ever miss Apple’s original logo? First I’ve seen it.
• Sketch a Move: I’ve seen something similar where you draw the move and the car follows your drawing or maybe it was a robot? [Link: Mark Hurst]
• Paradoxymoron: Cool painting of bookshelves by Patrick Hughes. [Link: Mark, too]
• Paris 26 Gigapixels: Take an interactive trip around Paris. No plane ticket needed. [And Mark again!]

Ah, I got nothing today — no stories, nada. Just lots and lots of work since I had a few appointments not related to business. At least, it’s been beautiful and sunny all week.

Brain food…

• Bite-Size Edits: “Bite-Size Edits takes a text, chops it into pieces, and serves those pieces randomly to editors. Players get points for editing text, for providing useful comments, for helping to get a text completely edited.”
• Using Web Tools For Creating and Managing Contracts: Important topic. I had one client (I had worked with him before without problems) who failed to live up to his part of agreement and I had no contract for it. (I know. Shame on me.)
• How to Make Better Decisions: “Accepting ownership of consequences and balancing responsibility with your own personal goals lets you overcome stress, enabling you to making empowering decisions.”
• I wish I would have known: Answers from 11 top freelancers: Focus on designers, but applies to others including writers. I wish I would have known that my inability to use the phone like everyone else would be a big barrier to getting clients. But reflecting on my life and career — the path that got me here was the best route.
• The Five Best Mispronunciations I’ve Ever Heard: I love malapropisms every since I learned about them reading The Rivals
  . They’re fun. They inject humor in a conversation. Just heard one on NCIS this week: A character from another country said in reference to Kennedy shooting, “…shot from the book suppository.” More discussions over at Nathan Branford’s blog.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Cool and Unusual Business Card Designs: I love these round ups. Such creativity! And 10 free orange business card templates.
• 15 Entertaining Toilet Paper Designs: Notebook paper for writers. That’s productive!
• 15 photos that are real, not Photoshopped: My heart fell into my stomach looking at Dean Potter on tightrope walk in Yosemite.
• Cool Cupcake Creations: Tasty! Glad I haven’t seen these locally… they’d be tough to resist!
• Another 12 Unfortunate Logos: Aw, c’mon. How do you end up with these logos? Logo work isn’t something that’s done in five minutes and usually involves at least two people. Someone HAS to catch these!

Congratulations to George Angus for winning Laura Cross’ book tour contest! Y’all can still win a book from Elisa Lorello. Interesting that it’s President’s Day week. My 5th grade son has to do a report on Gerald Ford.

Brain food!

• Wordnik: Make word lists, comment on and tag words, record pronunciations, etc. [Link: Michael C. Cordell]
• Value of School Visits: Enjoyed reading this author’s story about visiting schools. This is one reason why I wish I’ve authored a children’s book. I think it’d make the visit more entertaining for the kids when I speak to them about people with differences. Several school visits have made a big difference in how the kids view people who sound different from them. Apparently, after I spoke to my son’s first grade class, they treated him like a king. That’s why I do it. For my kids. To avoid the second grade incident with my daughter.
• Why Google Buzz Is Brilliant and Deadly to Social Media 1.0: Incredible insight I had not considered.
• How to Write Effectively for Twitter and the Social Web: Collection of resources sorted by categories.
• The BS Litmus Test: My first priority is to always keep my current clients happy because really — the easiest and best clients are the ones you already have. I’ve already weeded out the ones where I didn’t enjoy the work. It’s also easier to keep the current clients than go looking for new ones that may not be a good match. I know what my current clients like and don’t like. It takes time to figure that out with every new client.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• 100 Cupcakes Game: Guess what game each cupcake represents. Brilliant. And great artistry.
• Slightly off-color joke: An author passes a bookstore…
• 20 Funny Examples of Graffiti and 10 Funny Pie Charts [Links: Jason Pollock]
• 12 Most Controversial Video Games: These are NOT the kind of games I cover.
• A Brief History of Pretty Much Everything: Hope they recycled all that paper.
• How Those Famous Websites Have Evolved Throughout the Years: I found Amazon in 1995, I believe (when it was just a bookstore). The screen shot is definitely not the oldest. [Link: bkmacdaddy]

Al Kaplan, 1953

My dad passed away two years ago. Today would have been his 79th birthday.

Nominate a favorite social media book.

If you receive this post by email, please tell me what’s the best time of the day you’d like to receive these. It used  to go out in the mornings, but I felt overwhelmed by emails in the morning and thought late afternoon / early evening would be better. It doesn’t mean that’s the best time for you. Just reply and let me know. Thank you for reading!

Brain food…

• How to Read a Non-fiction Book: If you want more — The Little Book to Your Well-Read Life is the best book I’ve read about reading books.
• Musings on a Memoir, a Movie and a Two Billion Dollar Story Model: I’ve added Open to my must read list and viewed the captioned trailer of Edge of Darkness.
• 8 Blogs About Book Covers and Book Design: I confess. I never read The Phantom Tollbooth because of its cover. I just finished reading it. I’m glad I waited to read it until now when I am a bigger verbivore today than when I was a kid.
• Product Launches Should be a Big Deal: Don’t let post title fool you. It’s an excellent critique of a Microsoft presentation. Great lesson for the presenters in all of us.
• Publishers: Why Are You Creating Huge Followers for Those Who Might Soon Be Putting You Out of Business: Excellent read from Christina Katz on the partnering (or not) of publishers and authors. I’d love to know what you think. I’m still listening, learning and assessing.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• 12 Most Creative Candles: When I was a kid, I made egg candles from a crafts book I had. Probably the only thing I tried.
• 10 Interesting Edibles from the Fancy Food Show: Interesting is the right word.
• How to Use a Semicolon: A comical look at ; [Link: Writer's Digest]. You can also take the Twitter spelling test.
• Movies in Longshot: Comics with dot characters.
• Australia and Stupid Tourist Questions: Should we bring cutlery? [Link: Andy Hayes]
• Replacing World Landmarks with Souvenirs: Clever [Link: Mark Hurst]
• SimplyNoise: White noise for when you need it.

My maternal grandfather died on this date in 1987. My favorite memory of him was siting in his living room and listening to him tell a story about his life in Poland before he came to the U.S. in 1925 at age 18.

A little administration. You may know I have game reviews and news happening in this blog, yet separate. If you’re a subscriber, you have different options for subscribing to the content here. Here are the subscriptions:

• meryl.net: Includes both meryl’s notes blog (this one) and The Game Zen blog entries.
• meryl’s notes blog: Entries from this one only; no games.
• The Game Zen: Entries from the games blog.
• Bionic Ear Blog: Entries from the deaf blog.

Please vote for your top 25 books on writing.

Brain food…

• 25 Brainstorming Techniques: Not your usual suggestions [Link: Steve Borgman].
• The Writer’s Creed: Short, sensible and simple advice [Link: BubbleCow].
• How to Write a Great Query Letter: An Example That Worked
• Ten Things Every Journalist Should Know in 2010
• Is Freelance Writing More Stable than a 9 to 5: I know I’m lucky because I’m married. Hubs has the corporate job with the benefits while I enjoy the benefits of freelancedom [Link: Lori Widmer].

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Map of the U.S.A.: Texas rocks… but then Hugh MacLeod contradicts himself with Marfa, TX. So if it’s all true… USA sucks?
• Why It’s Better to Pretend You Don’t Know Anything about Computers
• Helping J: We have a wonderful discussion about some of our favorite movies — many not smash hits that you may have missed.
• Say No More: The Banned Words of 2010: Disagree with “teachable moment,” but ready to rid of the rest.
• Recipes from a Web Worker Kitchen: Can’t deal with brain food until you fuel up first.
• 25 Cringeworthy Sites We Love to Hate [Link: Andy Hayes]
• Letterheady: Shaun Usher collects real letterheads. I enjoy browsing the collection. He’s also behind Letters of Note.

Congratulations to Dawn Herring for winning The Last Will of Moira Leahy! Never fear… Thirsty is still up for the winnin’. Also, please vote for your top 25 books on writing.

Articles full of brain goodness…

• Oxford Word of the Year: 2009: I had to unfriend someone on Facebook who abused the “Join this Page” button. Other terms listed include hashtag, sexting and Obamaisms.
• Copyright Essentials for Writers: It does matter. For example, if a pub puts your article into a book, you could get paid for that — but not if you sell all rights [Link: Jessica Strawser].
• 10 Productivity Tools for Computer Addicts: I use a couple of them and others I won’t use because they’ll just hook me in and take me away from work.
• How to Identify and Deal with Different Types of Clients: Covers just about every kind of person I’ve met.
• Why Do Great Writers Steal: Good info on how to steal without plagiarizing.
• 50 Books You’ll Want to Read in 2010: Still trying to get through my list from 2005! [Link: Bubblecow]
• The Most Powerful Two Hours You’ll Ever Spend as a Storyteller: Larry ain’t kidding. I’m gonna do this someday.

For fun because we’re allowed…

• Postcards From Yo Momma: A repository of modern day material correspondence [Link: Allison Winn Scotch]
• 35 Incredible Digital Painting Tutorials: Wow. I wish I had time to try this as I can’t draw worth a darn.
• The 15 Coolest Weapons from Sci-Fi Films: Ha! I guessed Lightsaber would be the big one and it’s #1.
• Steampunk Art and Gear: Why is it we’re suddenly seeing steampunk everywhere? [Link: Calista Taylor]
• Masters of Paper Art: Whooaaaa… stunning is right [Link: Kristin Butler].
• Bio-Diversity: Leaf art… like you’ve never seen it [Link: Mark Hurst].
• The History of the Internet in a Nutshell: I used BBSes. (I appeared in the BBS Documentary.) I met the Internet in 1993 using Mosaic and then moving on to Netscape Navigator by 1995.
• Texas Footwear Fail: We certainly don’t want to keep taxes beautiful…

• Novice Authors Must Promote Themselves: Fabulous and insightful article that every writer oughta read [Link: Rachelle Gardner].
• 8 Tips and Resources for Managing Your Business Finances: I rely on QuickBooks for my business and MS Money for balancing the accounts fast [Link: Freelance Switch].
• Tips for Writing a Long or Short Author Bio for Magazine Articles: I try to update my bio on a regular basis and create a short, medium and long version so it’s ready whenever I contribute an article.
• Beast Books: a sign of times to come: Shorter books created faster.
• 69 Free (or low cost) Tools to Improve Your Website: From @thegrok’s good buddy and mine.

And the fun stuff because we need to have fun!

• Etsy Loves Pet Costumes: Fave: Dog Marley.
• Showcase of Designs Optimized for iPhone: Wow. Looks like full-fledged sites. Not enough to get me to switch from BlackBerry though.
• 15 Designs Inspired by Tetris: Who knew a video game can inspire such designs? It looks like a natural.
• Artwiculate: Twitter-based Word of the Day competition. Learn a new word and have fun doing it!

Yeah!!! Did that sound too happy? I think summer would be more valuable if we stretched out the school year and have two to three week breaks at a time. Then, older kids would miss out the opportunity of having summer jobs or doing special programs. Eh, it’ll never change.

• If Only I Had Some Advice for Writers: I get questions like Rachelle does. Sometimes writing related and sometimes something else. When it’s writing, I point to this blog entry and this one prompted by a similar question. If you’re bold, send them to LMGTFY.
• Marketing Advice for Writers with Molly O’Neill: Mine — always make marketing part of your job no matter where you are in your project or career [Link: Greg Pincus].
• 5 Questions for Those Who Don’t Have Time to Market/Promote: See previous. No excuses for not marketing!
• The Press Releases of the Damned: Love this. I rarely predict things — but I called it on Palm’s Foleo. I had a better article on the Foleo ready for print publication, but Palm killed the product before the article was to print.
• How to Drive Traffic with Repeat Tweets: I repeat-tweet on occasion and it’s not a problem. Few people keep track of all your tweets and won’t notice unless you repeat yourself too often.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Broadway’s Next to Normal Goes Viral, the Twitterized version of the musical. Follow ‘em @n2nbroadway.
• 12 Funniest Wedding Cake Toppers
• Firekites’ Autumn Story Chalk Animation Video: I like the song and the animation fit well with the mood.
• Cardboard Sculptures: (Picture me: Jaw dropped, whites of my eyes peering)
• Grammar geeks unite! [Link: @kylejameson @lydiabreakfast]

• What Happens to Your HARO Response: “HARO?” you ask. See helpareporter.com. I read every submission I get. I can’t respond to them all, but I do let those quoted know when the article is live.
• ScreenJelly and Jing: Capture up to three (five for Jing) minutes of screen action and share. Both are free apps.
• What Language Is This? 5 Online Tools to Identify Almost Every Unknown Language and 18 Great Sites to Learn a New Language: I recommend LiveMocha. Disclaimer: I helped them with some of their web content.
• Plagiarism Checkers: 5 Free Websites to Catch Copycats: When I received my first editing assignment with a publication, the writer was lousy. In fact, calling him a writer is an insult to writers. And it turned out he plagiarized all of his articles. How was I to know considering the poor quality of his articles? I hope I never run into that again.
• 10 Ways to Jump Start Your Social Media Thinking: Love that Jason suggested imaging audience is blind or deaf. I’ve gotten pitches with links to caption-less videos and audio. Not hard to find out why these don’t work for me.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Which Crazy Writer Are You? Me wolf. No, really. Me Tom Wolfe. Ah, the life of a wall flower. You get to hang out with the most interesting people – radio DJs, hot rodders, hippies, Hell’s Angels, Wall Street tycoons, frat boys – and are completely happy putting them into the spotlight. You’re completely happy hanging back with your martini and your little notebook, jotting down all your little observations, in sight but out of mind. [Link: Jane Friedman]
• Cute as Hell Pet Community: cute as heck pets. Here’s my doghter.
• Oddee has lots of fascinatingly odd posts especially misspelled tattoos (what a place to misspell words) and the 15 ugliest products ever, which looks accurate. Odd… lots of chairs made the list.
• 43 Weird Things Said in Job Interviews: Ouch. Wonder if any one of these actually got the job aside from the meth lab one?

I’m very lucky to have a fabulous mom. Thanks, Mom.

• The Peacock Guide to Landing Pages: Amy mentions the Twitter bio. My advice is to add keywords important to you and your business plus a couple of fun facts about yourself.
• The Myth of the Sales Page: Right on, Sean! I’m not going to buy something after clicking a link that takes me to the landing page. This is exactly why businesses need to use different social networking tools.
• Effective Networking for Book Publishing: No longer can authors depend on publishers to do the promotion — unless your name is John Grisham or some other hot shot.
• An Open Letter to “New” Writers

• Free Music Archive: Yes, free and legal.
• Paintalicious – Thomas Allen’s Book Art Photography: “Blogzine of exciting contemporary art, showcasing an eclectic mix of underground artists, pop surrealists, emerging and rediscovered counter cultures.”
• My First Dictionary: Dick and Jane style wholesome pictures meet cruel world. For word lovers.
• &, the carrying case; &, the book and &, the tee: Who doesn’t love that gorgeous symbol? [Links: Havi]
• What NOT to get for the baby or toddler