Language

Welcome to meryl’s notes blog (this here place you’re lookin’ at) in Plano, Texas. We’re honored to be a stop in Pesi Dinnerstein’s WOW! Women On Writing Blog tour. We’re giving away a copy of A Cluttered Life: Searching for God, Serenity, and My Missing Keys! [affiliate] Read on to see how you can win.

About Pesi Dinnerstein: Pesi Dinnerstein (a.k.a. Paulette Plonchak) has written selections for the best-selling series Small Miracles, by Yitta Halberstam and Judith Leventhal, and has contributed to several textbooks and an anthology of short stories. Dinnerstein recently retired as a full-time faculty member of the City University of New York, where she taught language skills for close to thirty years.

She has been an aspiring author and self-acknowledged clutterer for many years, and has spent the better part of her life trying to get organized and out from under. Despite heroic efforts, she has not yet succeeded; but she continues to push onward, and hopes that her journey will inspire others to keep trying as well.

The Joy of a Good Verb by Pesi Dinnerstein

I’ve never liked verbs very much.  Adjectives have always been more my speed.  How things look and feel and smell are generally more interesting to me than what they do.  Whether someone sips or swigs or guzzles their coffee concerns me less than the fact that it’s steaming hot, creamy beige and mocha-flavored with a hint of vanilla.

Most of the verbs that are part of my daily life are not particularly exciting.  I drive from here to there; I return a phone call; I lose my keys — I find my keys — I lose my keys again; I unload the dishwasher — I reload the dishwasher; I water my garden; I steam my vegetables; I try to remember to breathe.  It’s all necessary, but pretty boring.

I would certainly rather spend my time in the presence of a flaming orange sunset or an iridescent ocean wave.  Hanging out with an adjective is so much more satisfying.

However, a few years ago, something shifted.  As I was writing A Cluttered Life and thinking about all the things that make my life unmanageable, I couldn’t help but notice that my world was becoming more and more crowded with adjectives and the objects to which they were attached.

Then, one day, an old friend came to visit.  She had never seen my house in quite the state it was in at that moment, and her eyes opened wide as she stepped through the front door.

“This place feels very . . . stuck,” she said, expressing many layers of meaning in  that one well-chosen word — which, interestingly enough, just happened to be an adjective.

She was absolutely right.  My home was stuck; my things were stuck; and I was feeling increasingly stuck myself.

Suddenly, it occurred to me that what I needed were a few dynamic verbs to help me break through my own inertia.  The ones I was currently engaged with — observing, reflecting, writing — were not creating much movement in my life.  The situation clearly called for action.  Organize; fold; file; recycle; throw out — do something!  I immediately put the book aside.  It was obviously time to stop describing my mess and start dealing with it.

And, then, a strange thing happened.  When I returned to the manuscript, I found myself dissatisfied with many of the chapters that had seemed perfectly fine to me before.  Now, they felt stuck as well.

So, I began to delete adjectives and add verbs.  It was painful at first, but, before long, light and air seemed to flow into my sentences — and I could feel the manuscript beginning to breathe.

But change is not easy to hold on to.  Although I’ve come to appreciate the value of a good verb — in my life as well as in my writing — I continue to prefer the comfort of a friendly adjective.

And when I take my morning walk tomorrow, I probably still won’t notice the running and skating and bicycling going on because, once again, I’ll be too busy enjoying the beautiful, brightly colored, deliciously fragrant world around me.

About Dinnerstein’s Book: Insightful, unsettling, and wildly funny, A Cluttered Life: Searching for God, Serenity, and My Missing Keys (Seal Press) is the story of Pesi Dinnerstein’s quest to create a simple and orderly life—only to discover that simplicity is not so simple and what constitutes clutter is not always perfectly clear. When a chance encounter with an old acquaintance reveals the extent to which disorder has crept into every corner of her existence, Pesi determines to free herself, once and for all, of the excess baggage she carries with her. Along the way—with the help of devoted friends, a twelve-step recovery program, and a bit of Kabbalistic wisdom—her battle with chaos is transformed into an unexpected journey of self-discovery and spiritual awakening.

Comment and win: The prize: winner gets a copy of A Cluttered Life: Searching for God, Serenity, and My Missing Keys!. For a chance to win, please leave a comment about clutter, getting organized, changing your vocabulary or whatever comes to mind after reading this post (other than you wanna win!). You have until 11:59pm on January 31, 2012 to qualify for the drawing. The unbiased and robotic Random.org has the honor of picking the winner.

School is officially out on Monday. We had to make up two days due to the FIVE snow days we had this year. Although I like the school year schedule, I’m glad it’s out for a little bit as the kids need a break. No more nagging about homework and studying for a couple of months. Nonetheless, wish school would be year around with more breaks instead of one long break and two medium ones. But I know that’s not efficient for a lot of reasons and summer gives kids a time to take part-time jobs, go to camp or do special programs.

What’s one of your most memorable last day or last week of school memories?

Brain food…

• 10 Modern Dilemmas Twitter Presents on a Daily Basis: Thanking for tweets is a big one. I tend to limit that to DM or if it’s something different, I’ll do it in public. Don’t want to add noise to stream thanking for my own stuff.
• Words We Don’t Say: Hugo Lindgren shares a list of words and phrases left by the previous editor. Words You Don’t Say: People wrote in sharing words they never want to read again. The one word I always change in every article I edit… “utilize.” I think that’s my ultimate cringe-worthy word.
• B2B Fail: Confessions, Apologies, and Questionable Motives: Did you get a bunch of “Are you taking on clients?” emails? Me, too. The story behind that…
• Nurse reveals the top 5 regrets people make on their deathbed: In the past few years, I’ve been making an effort to live my best life so I don’t have these regrets.
• Top Ten Myths About the Brain: All those characters conking their heads and forgetting their life? Myth. Writers, find another gimmick. [Link: Diana Adams]

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• 10 Amazing Ultrasound Photos: I think the rock it dude is really doing the I love you sign.
• The Value of the National Spelling Bee in the Age of Spell Check and Predictive Text: My almost third grader is the only one of my three kids to learn how to write cursive in second grade. It used to be covered in third grade, but with so much more material to cover and the use of computers — they changed when they learn cursive. I’m just glad schools still teach it. I hope the handwritten note never goes away. I get chills whenever I come across something my dad (in loving memory) wrote as he had a writing style that I always knew was his. Actually, every member of my family does except me.
• How to Make Harry Potter Butterbeer: The weather grows warmer and the last film comes nearer. I actually made this for my family using this recipe. The whip part was the best. I stirred the whip into the drink, but just didn’t quite warm up to it. Very easy to make.
• Douglas Adams … on Kindle … how meta is this? [Link: Esther Schindler]

My older two kids have a quirky schedule in the next week as they start taking final exams in 6th and 11th grades. The 2nd grader gets to have fun with an end of the year party and no finals. But 3rd grade is going to be serious business as it’ll be his first year of taking state tests. It won’t be long before he won’t get to do the fun stuff and not have finals.

Then summer begins. I’m not a fan of summer break because of the inconsistent schedule and work disruptions as camp and activities start later and end earlier than school. Of course, I’ll spend time with the kids — I just can’t spend it the entire summer and I like my quiet time and consistent schedule.

Brain food…

• Why I Don’t Count Followers, Mentions, Google Alerts, or Blog Hits Anymore: I try to ignore stuff like this and Klout scores. But sometimes you can’t help it and you wonder what you’re doing wrong.
• Getting Ready for “The Help”: Storyfix deconstructs “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett. I loved the book especially since it changes points-of-view and the main character wants to be a writer. Just a great example for writers even nonfiction ones.
• Why I love writing: my 25 reasons: Did this guy peek into my life? Good reminder especially on rough days.
• 5 Free E-Books Every Writer Needs: A great selection from Jane Friedman.
• Taken to the Cleaners: Clients hire you for your expertise. For example, I’m a writer — but I share expertise beyond general writing advice. It’s up to the client to decide whether to take the advice. Key is to explain the why, don’t just say “I recommend doing this.”

For fun because we’re allowed…

• The Period Table of Storytelling: Wow! If you’re busy — don’t click on this until you have lots of time. You can order this as a print.
• Periodic Table of Swearing: Speaking of periodic table… obviously, NSFW. [Link: Bitrebels]
• 20 Awesomely Untranslatable Words from Around the World: Know a luftmensch? [Link: Michelle Mangen]
• Take the World’s Hardest Vocabulary Test: My brain is tired after studying the first few.

One thing about working for myself — no worries about April Fool’s pranks. But I do have kids and one in particular likes to pull stuff. Full alert! Here are some great April Fool’s office pranks [Link: Marc Harty] — fun ‘n safe. #37 cracked me up. What’s your favorite April Fool’s prank?

Legoland Discovery Center rocked. It blew away this adult who has seen many incredible creations. See a taste of MINILAND in the below Dallas skyline picture. That’s only part of it. It also had famous buildings from Fort Worth, my hometown.

A lot of GREAT stuff this week… so go explore.

Brain food…

• On writing: authors reveal the secrets of their craft:  Love Ian Rankin’s response to writer routines. “I have days when I do*bleep* all. I sit down at a computer, nothing’s coming, I’m having to tear each word out, it’s like digging for coal, and I’ll go: ‘No, this isn’t working,’ and I’ll just walk away.”  [Link: Kristin Bair O'Keeffe]
• The last freelance resource article that you will EVER have to read: Nice round up of apps and programs ranging from invoicing and legal to client management and project management.
• Champing at the bit: That’s not a typo. It’s champing, not chomping. [Link: Amber Naslund]
• Work Life Balance in the Home Office: I wear the same thing daily, so the clue to my kids that I’m at work is sitting in my office. It works so well that on a Saturday, my son asked, “Why are you working?” [Link: Alan K'necht]
• Freelance writing jobs: Top 10 places to find quality work: So many awful sites out there — good list to have as starting point.
• The secret to freelance work/life balance isn’t so secret: I’ve created a schedule and that makes a big difference to sticking with things. Need to grow “cheer team” to include writers.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• The Last Supper: 17 of the Best Parody Illustrations: Love the iPod / iPhone picture.
• 10 Real Cars Inspired by Cartoons: Donald Duck car = thinking of my dad. (He talked Donald Duckish to kids and his family spoiled him with a ton of Donald Duck stuff.)
• Cover Tune Grab Bag – “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”: This Beatles song is one of the few I can follow. This simple yet powerful video made me smile all over. [Link: Mark Hurst]
• Noma Bar’s Negative Space Illustrations: You’ve probably seen the young woman / vase picture. Here’s more. Neat, but my eyes have readjusting to do. [Link: Fred Schlegel]
• 3eanuts, Cinema Nutrition and WikiBomb: Three of the websites featured in 7 Sites You Should Be Wasting Time on Right Now. Who knew Peanuts could fall deeper into despair? Just cut the last panel in 3eanuts and it does. You’ll never look at movies the same way again after studying up on your cinema nutrition. Wikibomb captures Wikipedia pages before they’re taken down. In other words, Wikipedia vandalism vandalism.
• The Writing Process: Graph depicting the process of writing a feature. Just needs a ::headbang:: in there somewhere. What? You haven’t noticed a lot of writers walk around with dents on their foreheads? At least, I do [Link: Mridu Khullar]

You know March roars in like lion and goes out like a lamb? Not this time. It feels like the month whizzed by unless you’re in Japan. I’m sure it’s been a long couple of weeks. I’m thinking of the folks there every day.

The second Legoland Discovery Center in the US comes to Dallas. My family heads there tomorrow as part of a special preview for Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts. I can’t believe Lego built the second one here. Here’s hoping it’s a memorable experience for the boys. I’m sure they’ll be asking for this ‘n that as Lego wouldn’t have this place and no Lego for sale.

The youngest got his braces on this week. He got tired of everyone asking, “Why do you need braces?” Severe overbite in his case. That will be three braces for all three kids.

I hope the younger two won’t need them again in the future. The older brother’s permanent teeth haven’t all come in yet and the latest round tried to mess with his teeth. Poor guy had to have three teeth pulled to prevent damage. Orthodontia has changed since I’ve sported railroad tracks. They put braces on kids sooner because they’re waiting until they’re older and baby teeth fall out can do more harm than good.

Brain food…

• 6 Strategic Approaches for Using Twitter: What I like about this infographic is that it covers customer relations, crisis management, corporate reputation management, event coverage, product promotion and sales and issue advocacy. Applicable to almost everyone. Key: Don’t wait until you need it to use Twitter. Start now.
• America’s 100 Best Small Companies: If you’d like to learn about how small companies succeed, these are a good place to start. Some known and some not known.
• 7 Different Types of Writing Gigs for Freelance Copywriters: When I spoke to second graders, first thing I asked was what kind of writers do they know about? Answers: book authors, newspaper writers, magazines. The usual. You know we can do much more and here are some ideas.
• Is a public post a quotable source? Due diligence in sharing information: Depends on the quote selected and where content posted. Newspaper, blog, testimonial, company website, Twitter etc. [Link: Arik Hanson]

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• 20 creative guerrilla marketing campaigns: I must live in a dull place or don’t get out much. Never see creative campaigns like these around town.
• 14 Funny Warning Signs: Thank you for noticing this notice. Your noticing this notice is noted.
• Angry Birds Papercraft: Made my own! No, I didn’t suddenly find myself with free time on my hands. Need to make ‘em so I could throw ‘em around when I get angry at the game instead of breaking my iPod.
• Magazine grammar fail: Eat, Ray, Love — that works, but they forgot the rest of the commas.
• Star Ways John Williams Tribute: Even Wookie captions! (Thank you, Corey, for captioning the video.) [Link: Lori Widmer]

In her Name Tales newsletter, Marcia Yudkin shares a disheartening Las Vegas Sun article about what happens to a company that chooses a name that resembles another company’s name. The story shows that anything can happen with a company’s name that even if the company does nothing wrong. The safest thing to do is not fall in love with one name or brand, but to have a few options and then research to see if anything comes close.

These resources help you with your naming and branding effort with a couple of what not to dos.

Articles

1. 5 Obvious Rules for Naming Your Product (That We Wish We’d Followed)
2. 8 Mistakes to Avoid When Naming Your Business
3. 10 Tips for Naming Your Company, Product or Service
4. 11 Ways to Play the Name Game
5. 50 Worst Company Names (Requires registration)
6. The Basics of Branding
7. The Best (and Worst) Business Names
8. Branding Dilemma: When to Use Your Own Name
9. Business Name and Tagline Generator
10. Create a Unique Company Name
11. Day2Day Activities: How they named their companies
12. How 10 Famous Technology Products Got Their Names
13. How they named companies – fact or fiction?
14. How to Create a Great Business Name
15. How to Create Company Names
16. How to Name Your Business
17. How to Select a Company Name
18. Hunt is on for world’s worst rebranding
19. Microsoft’s Zune Raises Ruckus in Hebrew — the reason you should verify your brand name in another language before selling it in other countries. Chevy Nova (no go) wouldn’t go over well in Spanish-speaking countries.
20. The Name Game
21. Naming Your Company, Product or Services [pdf]
22. Put Your Business Name to the Test and more from About.com
23. Tech’s Product Name Guru: Meet the man who coined BlackBerry, Azure and More
24. Think Search Before You Name Your Next Product
25. Wikipedia company name etymologies

Resources

1. Brainstorming domain names.
2. Brand Name Generator
3. Brand Naming
4. Building the Perfect Beast: The Igor Naming Guide to Creating Product and Company Name
5. CatchWord Naming Blog
6. Community Mottos and Nicknames. City names can provide inspiration.
7. The Funny Name Server
8. Latin dictionary
9. Name Tales
10. POP! Stand out in Any Crowd book.
11. Free Tools and Sites for Writers: Check the resources section for references.
12. Snark Hunting: The Naming and Branding Blog
13. US Patent and Trademark Office
14. Web 2.0 Name Generator
15. Writer’s Digest Flip Dictionary book

I thought about naming this the Aquarium edition in honor of the field trip I went on with my son’s second grade class this week where I loved seeing my son’s face as he was in awe of some of the discoveries. (Like in this photo.) However, Thanksgiving is a delightful holiday, perhaps my favorite because it contains no pressure and no stress. The only stress for some folks may be the cooking. There’s no shopping for gifts, sending holiday wishes and preparation outside of cooking like decorating the home.

My mom does all the cooking. And guess what? She says Thanksgiving is her favorite holiday. Her and Dad’s anniversary always falls around Thanksgiving. They married on Thanksgiving in 1955. Though Dad passed away in 2007, I sent her a note on her anniversary date. Mom appreciated the senitment. So if you know someone whose spouse has passed away, go ahead and drop ‘em a line on their anniversary date. Just because a mate is gone doesn’t mean you have to forget the date.

Just be with your fave people (OK, maybe Uncle youknow gets on your nerves — remember people don’t live forever and you don’t have to see them daily)  loved ones and relish the time together. For my family, add “watch the Dallas Cowboys.” Yeah, yeah… they lost in an exciting come from behind game. You gotta give ‘em credit for trying when their playoff hopes are long gone.

Brain food…

• How to Enchant Your Customer: I rarely link to popular sites and experts, but this one from Guy Kawasaki is a worthy read.
• How to Be an Original in a Blogosophere Polluted with Regurgitations: I’ve covered topics that many others have. One thing I try to do that no one else can… be me without focusing on me as my life is not that interesting.
• Six Dilemmas That Freelancers Face Over the Holidays: I take some time off. I hope you do, too. Gotta give that brain of yours a break and experience joy.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Butterbeer?! Oh Yes, Friends! Butterbeer!:  Sugarbear’s recipe looks simpler than some of the others posted. I must just try this. I wonder how using sugar free cream soda compares.

Tell us about your Thanksgiving.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Meryl Evans

No, not in St. Louis! Texas State Fair in Big D! Late with the links because of Blog Action Day and being exhausted from the fair. More deets in the next edition of links. On with the show!

OK, so you can barely see us... but gotta have the traditional photo with Big Tex

Brain food…

• Web Pages Are from Mars, Blog Posts Are from Venus: Short, powerful blog post on the difference between blogs and static pages. I never considered that web pages were men and blog posts were women
• Nine Quick Tips to Identify Clutter: I’m finally gonna get rid of that cookie decorator kit. I have never used it. I remember buying it at a big sale. Well, jolly good it did. Never used it. I hate wasting money, but it’s taking up space and will pay off more with a begone.
• How “Fun” Can Be Your Best Discipline Technique: So simple, yet tired parents may struggle to remember these things when they need it. (Goodness knows, I have selective memory… when I am in a situation, I can’t recall any of the tips.)
• 7 Ways to Keep the Sales Rolling in Your Small Business: Melinda Emerson, author of Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months, gives you seven ways to evaluate your marketing strategy’s effectiveness.
• 7 Tips for Work-Life Balance: Good reminders of what’s important. I’m lucky to have a the best partner in life in Paul, my husband. It does make a difference.

For fun because we’re allowed…

• Quotation Marks Fail: Grammar cops… get ready to wince.
• Exploding Dog Inbox Cartoon: Inbox zero… not the ideal way.
• Weird and Wacky Travel Signs: Sure fire way to laughter no matter how deep the doldrums. Seen any hitchhiking butterflies? Better warn ‘em it’s not a good idea. [Link: Paul Steele]
• License Plate Win! I love discovering and deciphering personalized plates.
• Do you have a flow chart? [Link: Guy LeCharles Gonzalez] Does your brand need a new logo? Use this chart to find out.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Meryl Evans

Today Big Tex starts welcoming everyone to the Texas State Fair in Dallas where fried food reigns. Every year since 2005, the State Fair holds a fried food contest where cooks submit their unique fried creations. Last year’s winner… fried butter. My cholesterol shot up a few points just from typing that. The Fair has presented fried Coke, fried cookie dough, fried PBJ and banana sandwich.

This year’s best taste winner: Texas Fried Fritos Pie (Texas chili with sharp cheddar inside Fritos, then lightly battered and fried.) The most creative winner is fried beer (beer-filled pretzel pocket). I’m not kidding. See the list of Big Texas Choice Awards winners since 2005. How about a healthy food contest to go with it?

I’d like to take my kids to the State Fair just once, but every year it’s just  too expensive even with free tickets for Sundays for the kids. Yes, I know — I’d be making memories. But it’s not easy to just pick up and go there.

Avil Beckford of The Invisible Mentor interviewed me. Here’s the part one of the interview and part two of the interview. I shared life lessons in hopes it will help others learn something from them.

Brain food…

• The Beginner’s Guide to Zen Habits – A Guided Tour: “Take it in small chunks.” A worthy one to bookmark.
• 50 Kick ass new guerrilla marketing examples: Great examples of how to look at things from a different perspective.
• New words, senses and phrases added to New Oxford American Dictionary: A handful of the newbies: BFF, bromance, cloud computing, hashtag, LMAO, social media, social networking, staycation, steampunk, tag cloud and TTYL.
• How to Build a Successful Business by Doing These 10 Things: Lists Sam Walton’s 10 rules for building a business, so you don’t have to read his mixed reviews book.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• The Lion, the Witch and the Car Seat: Readers get creative with classic book titles re-written for modern times. Example: “Pat the Bunny and Then Slather Your Hands with Purell.” (I love that this post is dated on my special birthday because I love children’s books.)
• 30 Impossible Scenes That Happened: AND caught on camera. Holy photos, Batman! The commentary on each one fascinates.
• Lego Minifig Generator: Create your own Lego character.
• 30 Creative Sport Logo Designs: Some not your usual mascots. One thing I like about minor league baseball — creative team mascots!

Here’s a question from The Invisible Mentor interview that I’d love to hear you answer: How do you nurture your soul?

I had planned a post using my trip, but I struggled to recover from my vacation all week. Although I didn’t think I needed a vacation from my vacation, my body thought otherwise. It wiped me out that I kept going to bed early and allergies took over. I had to modify my schedule to get things done. My body was probably in shock that I took the first real vacation in almost a decade that it didn’t know what to do when I returned.

The short version of the trip: Loved seeing and experiencing Boston while catching up with family in Nashua, NH.

Hope I get back in the swing next week… it may be tricky with holidays on Monday and Thursday. Happy Labor Day to all. And do take the day off. Everyone deserves a break.

Brain food…

• Make the Most of Your Memory: 10 Tips for Writing About Your Life: I ask family to fill in gaps when trying to recall a memory. People writing memoirs won’t get it perfect, but they can take steps to complete the picture.
• a brief guide to life: Trying to declutter and enjoy life more…
• Why & How Freelancers Should Exercise (from Fitness Expert Scott Tousignant): When I returned from Boston and Nashua, I felt out of sorts and had a hard time returning to my routine. While my exercise routine was off — I exercised for at least 40 minutes daily — maybe not what I usually do that day or as hard. The point was to do something and feel like I accomplished something.
• See How They Did It: 104 Social Media Case Studies: Not all 104 are on this page — it links to others elsewhere. Good resource for both B2C and B2B.
• Author Headshots: Also applies to any professional photos. I’m trying to schedule my family’s annual photos and get my professional headshots while at it because mine is from 2005. The hard part — finding the right tops for the family (we wear jeans) and for my professional photos. This part isn’t going well, but I might get some shots in my meryl.net tee (which I happen to be wearing in the photo).

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• 50 Best Websites 2010: According to Time. NO resource can truly name the best websites or best anything online… but at least, you discover a few goodies.
• Stay: From the 50 Best Websites. Wanted to bring this one out so I’ll have it for myself for the next time I travel. (By then, they’ll be 10 newer, better sites.)
• 12 Geekiest Fashion Accessories: Fun stuff, but I wouldn’t wear ‘em all.
• “Set” has the most definitions of any word in the English language: 464! Better make sure we clearly communicate what we mean when we use “set” in our writing.