Life Tips

I was born and bred in Fort Worth. I’ve lived in the Dallas / Fort Worth area for my entire life except for the six years I lived in Washington, DC. So all my favorite teams are the ones from here including the Texas Rangers, Dallas Cowboys, Dallas Stars and the Dallas Mavericks. I stuck with all of ‘em through great years and forgettable years. When folks kept saying the Mavs were a joke and never contenders, I reminded them of the Mavs’ good years in the ’80s with Mark Aguirre, Rolando Blackman, Roy Tarpley and Brad Davis.

Thanks to Donald Carter for bringing the team to Dallas. Thanks to Mark Cuban for turning them into champions in a short 11 years. The Mavs almost did it in 2006, you know?

Meryl's Dad in USAF Uniform

Dads. Happy Father’s Day to all the involved dads out there who play catch with the kids, take them to school, help them with homework and be there for them. I’m lucky to be married to one of those dads. My dad (in loving memory) was one, too. We played catch many times, he took me to lots of Texas Ranger games, he embarrassed me on my way to school by waving at me while taking his morning walk and he was always there for me.

Best advice for the week: How to deal with criticism in one single step: “Don’t care. You’re not going to please everybody.” Even the nicest people have a few non-fans. You can produce the most beautiful work product and your boss, editor, client loves it. Someone, somewhere out there will hate it.

Brain food…

• How to Create a 5 Step Facebook Marketing Strategy for Your Blog: This one is doable for just about everyone.
• The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Taking a Vacation: Not just for entrepreneurs… Americans, too. My husband had been doing a lot of research on human resources stuff for his international company and Americans are sorely behind other countries in benefits and other areas. I challenged him by asking questions like “Maybe we have a better salary? Maybe we have a lower cost of living?” He had solid answers for all of them.
• 10 Reasons I Don’t Answer Your Email: I reply to most emails. The ones that don’t get a reply often fall into one of these 10.
• 3 Steps You Can Take to Reduce the Firefox 4 Memory Leak: Memory has been a Firefox problem for years. I had two tabs open and Firefox managed to hold on to 1,000,000K of memory one day last week! Bad, foxy, bad.
• World’s Worst Freelance Advice: Write what you know… seriously. If I followed that advice, I wouldn’t write about cars, Billiards or buffaloes.
• Book Marketing Q&A: Q&A worth listening to or reading.

For fun because we’re allowed…

• 10 Coolest (and 5 Worst) Father’s Day Gifts: My husband would love that Corvette Wall Shelf.
• 8 Weirdest Dog Breeds Ever: Some of these look familiar as they’ve appeared in movies and TV shows.
• Praha Opening: Choreography in a Skydive Arena. Very cool. Yes, watch to the smooth ending.
• 12 Funny Signs Found at the Beach: Some not safe for work.
• 15 Coolest Pictures Taken at the Right Time: I have one of those (not on Oddee, mind you). I captured a lightning bolt by the Washington Monument. I’m not a good photographer, but am proud of the picture that I have it on the wall in my office.
• Neon Movie Signs: Wow.

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The Mavericks make me extra proud to be a Texan. Not because they won, but how they won. Last time the Mavericks made it to the finals was in 2006 against Miami Heat — the same team they beat to win this year’s finals. It’d be easy for the Mavs to taunt them and play up on the revenge angle. They didn’t. I grew up playing and watching sports. It turned me into a competitive and driven gal. It also showed me how easy it was to get angry and want revenge on the opponent.

Mavs Man at Kids' Elementary School

Miami players LeBron James and Dwayne Wade mocking Dirk’s illness. Actions like that can easily rile up the opposing team, but Dirk and Mavs remained cool.

Mark Cuban. You know the guy is brash and always in your face. Throughout the finals, he stood in the background and shone the spotlight on the Mavs instead of himself. This is the guy you least expected to let Mavs founder and original owner receive the championship trophy, but he did. Cuban stood by while Donald Carter accepted the trophy. He also cut back on blogging and tweeting during the finals.

Here are the 10 business lessons from the Dallas Mavericks:

1. Let actions do the talking. The Mavs didn’t mock or smack talk. Rather than talk up a big game, do your best work and let it speak for you. If you make a mistake, correct it and apologize instead of making excuses.
2. Operate as a team. Yes, Dirk is the star of the team, but he had off days especially when he had a fever. The Mavericks already knew how to play like a team, so it came easy for them to carry Dirk’s load.
3. Work hard. Dirk stood out because he worked hard and practiced for hours. When the team used to practice in a public fitness center while American Airlines Center was under construction, Dirk would stay after practice was over and keep shooting baskets until a member asked him to leave. [Source: The Dallas Morning News letter]
4. Share credit. Mark Cuban let Donald Carter hold the trophy first.
5. Show restraint. When the game ended, I wasn’t sure it was over as the Mavericks walked around or exited the court. They didn’t celebrate by jumping around and rubbing it in. Even fans showed restraint in not destroying city property while celebrating.
6. Trust your team. Coach Rick Carlisle found a balance in coaching an experienced team by trusting the players. He also gave ownership to the players such as letting veteran player Jason Kid run the offense.
7. Shut out the noise. Ignore what’s irrelevant. Focus on what needs to be done.
8. Speak up. Coach Rick Carlisle spoke up twice when Mark Cuban was having one of his “moments” during a game. Cuban did.
9. Keep fighting. The Mavs made big comebacks in a few playoff games. The Lakers had a 15-point lead and the Mavs came back to win. The Mavs did it again in Game 2 in Miami.
10. Adapt as needed. Carlisle benched players even though they were instrumental in previous games.

What other lessons did you pick up from the NBA finals? What are some examples of these business lessons in action? What’s your most memorable business lesson?

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I’m sure you haven’t been keeping tabs on how often I blog or noticed fewer blog entries lately. Most people don’t for most blogs, email updates and websites. We get so much information that we don’t stand by wondering where the latest update is from so ‘n so.

It pangs me not to keep this blog updated much lately. But then I remind myself that I’d rather deliver nothing than something useless to you even if it affects search engines.

You don’t need a reminder of the advantages of consistent updates and blogging. What about making time for it? All the experienced bloggers tell us to make time for blogging and to stop making excuses that you don’t have time.

I do that for family.

I do that for volunteering and giving back.

I do that for clients.

I do that for exercise.

I do that for sleep.

If we “make time” for everything we want to accomplish, soon we’ll find ourselves losing sleep and overdoing it to the point that our brains feel overloaded. Speaker and author Jill Konrath wrote about this in The Year I Lost My Brain and How I Found It Again. Then today I read the top five regrets people made on their deathbed.

Multitasking is not always a good thing. It divides your attention, thereby sacrificing the quality of the two or three things you work on at the same time.

Oprah is right when she says, “Live your best life.” And that means sacrificing blog entries. If I work to accomplish all the things I’d like to do, it’d sacrifice at least one of the above and that would not be living my life. I’m not going to put off things just to make something happen.

I don’t want to regret not spending more time with my kids at every age. I already wish I had spent more time with my daughter who was growing up while I still had a corporate job and less flexibility. By the time my boys came along, I had the flexibility and fewer regrets.

In the past year, I’ve made time for things we hadn’t done together as a family. We saw the Harlem Globetrotters. We went to the State Fair. We went to the city’s International Festival. We went to the Texas Tornado hockey game. We went to LegoLand.

What will you make time for? What will you let go? How are you living your best life? How do you feel about blogging regularly or inconsistently?

On a popular weight loss show, a contestant weighing over 500 pounds kept repeating, “I have to lose my dad. I have to lose my dad.” While I’m not in the contestant’s shoes needing to lose almost 300 pounds — the amount his dad weighed — his statement shook me. His body language, his face, his words all revealed he was feeling paralyzed.

Photo from sxc.hu user vivekchugh

This “it’s too big of a goal” thinking can overpower people in all parts of their lives. Many set big goals and objectives thinking of only the result. Then reality hits when they see how much work and time it will take to reach this big goal. Paralysis, delays and procrastination follow until they stop trying and fail to reach their goal.

Make it happen. It can be anything you need to change or do. Lose five pounds. Write 100 words. Work on the project for five minutes.

Change Overwhelming Goals into Doable Ones

A more doable approach is to break the big goal into smaller, more manageable goals. This doesn’t mean ignoring the big goal of losing 200 pounds, earning your first million or serving your 10,000th customer. To turn these big goals into bite-sized goals, set smaller goals of losing 10 pounds for this month, earning extra $100 a week or finding two new customers this week. As soon as you reach this smaller goal, bump it up. Thinking smaller and accomplishing those little steps will give you the satisfaction and motivation to continue.

You can apply this approach to many situations with these steps:

1. Identify what you want to change or accomplish.
2. Create a bite-sized goal that brings you a step closer to what you want to change or accomplish.
3. Reach goal? If yes, go to the next step. If no, go back to step two and try again or modify the goal to something more reachable.
4. Celebrate and up the goal.
5. Repeat steps two through four until you reach your big goal.

Start with Five Minutes

Instead of thinking “I need to write an 800-word article,” start by writing 100 words or writing for five minutes. Continue this process, building your way up to the big goal of the 800-word article. This approach of small steps cuts the chances of your giving up.

This do something for five minutes approach works great for when you’re not in the mood for working on something. Do it for five minutes and see what happens. For email addicts, close your email application for five minutes. Increase the time as you adapt. For web-based email, try using a different browser that you never use when you need to do something on the web. Make it a rule that you can’t open the web-based email application on that browser.

I’ve had a few days when I didn’t check email between first thing in the morning and noon. That’s HUGE for me. It took a while to make it happen, but I started by closing my email app and switching to “Contacts” in Gmail so I’m not staring at the emails waiting for me. I have good days and bad days when it comes to checking emails less often. It’s progress.

I check email obsessively on days when I want to hear from someone. That desire for a little connection is one that changing email habits won’t cure.

I picked up this philosophy from the the short “One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way” by Robert Maurer.

How did you make it happen?

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Whoops. I didn’t publish links last week! Guess what… the sky didn’t fall. Sometimes we can’t blog. It happens. So there are more links than usual because some of them are the ones I saved from last week.

Best quote in ages: “Never compare your beginning to someone else’s middle.” This comes from Michael Hyatt’s blog post, Avoiding One Great Temptation Every New Dream Faces. It’s easy — especially for writers — to dig a big hole for themselves. A friend publishes a book and announces another on the way. {Green} Another colleague writes for bigshot blog. {Green} Writer has 20,000 Twitter followers. {Green} [Fill in something another writer has accomplished that made you jealous.] {Green}

It happens to me. It’s hard not to compare yourself to someone else who does the same job you do. Writers are kind of like snowflakes. It’s hard to find two with the exact same careers. Sure, Patricia Cornwell and James Patterson have published tons of books in a similar genre. But how they got there is different. They do other things, too.

People may be jealous of you, but they’re not going to admit it.

Green is for recycling, the color of my eyes and the rockin’ Dallas Mavericks’ old uniform. What else is green?

Brain food…

• Lower Your Printing Costs Up to 70% Without Changing Printer: Downloaded and installed. This lightens the ink. It’ll take some time to figure out what works best.
• Using Twitter to Support Your Business Social Media Strategy: Twitter does baseball. OK, I tried to do something different…
• 5 Lies Unpublished Writers Tell Themselves (and the Truths That Can Get Them Published): I’ve mentioned this many times include in my most recent real blog post on writer worthiness… writers are a business and that includes marketing.
• You Have to Suck First: When my kids complain they don’t understand something or they’re not good at it, I tell them they have to practice first and that’s what homework, studying and sports practices are for.
• Because Accidents Happen: Top 10 Doo-Dads to Keep Your Gadgets Safe: Love my BlackBerry Otter Box. Initially, I was afraid to order it because I thought it looked clunky and more for men. Well, I got many compliments and love the thing! I don’t use the clipholder. [Link: Erin Margolin]

For fun because we’re allowed…

• Line draw bike art: If you ever wondered how Superman or George Washington would look riding a bike, wonder no more…
• Star Wars and Disney Mashup: Had to share in honor of my dad’s memory. The kids loved hearing him talk like Donald Duck.
• New York Movie Map: Can you find 91 movies — all taken place in New York — in this poster?
• 10 Funniest Badly-Translated Ads: KFC isn’t finger-lickin’ good. They will eat your fingers off in Beijing.
• How to explain social media to your spouse: Tongue in cheek goodness. [Link: Jeff Hurt]
• 20 Funniest Captcha Art Pics: Some not safe for work / kids.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Meryl Evans

Something about my brain helps me stay organized. I like things to have an assigned spot because I know where to look for them when I need them. A cluttered room turns my brain to mush and weighs me down. I can’t focus in a messy area, so it’s a good thing I have a private home office space where I spend most of my day and kids’ stuff aren’t welcome. (Kids and spouse, however, are always welcome.) My house isn’t cluttered, but it doesn’t take much to make me squirm.

I’m the same way about my computer, its folders, its screen space. My filing system hasn’t changed much from the first time I settled on one.

Desktop

While modern versions of Windows do a better job of using a similar system and helping you save files to the Documents-type folders, some apps continue to post files wherever they like or in its own folders under Application Data. Some web browsers send downloads to the Desktop, which eventually clutters it.

My Desktop currently has two columns of icons and I make sure it stays that way as the Desktop has only frequently used apps that don’t start without my help. For example, I don’t need the anti-virus app on the desktop because it always runs. I also don’t need Adobe Acrobat on the Desktop because I rarely start the program. When I do, accessing it from the Start menu is fine. Usually, I click on a PDF file and that loads Acrobat. I use shortcut keys to run Word, Excel and other frequently accessed apps. Those don’t appear on the Desktop.

Yes, I use all methods for opening apps and files. Start, Desktop, Quick Launch, shortcuts. Everything has its place and I try to avoid having duplicates such as Word on the Desktop, Start and Quick Launch. It appears in none because I use a keyboard shortcut.

Three Rules for Writing Work Documents

1. All content in the Documents folder. This applies to everything, not just writing work. Content includes Word, Excel, backups for money apps, text, web pages, pictures, pdf, smartphone backup files, videos, music, emails, family tree and cookbook files. This makes backing easier when it’s all under one giant folder instead of all over the place. Windows has improved this by creating a Library of My Pictures, My Documents and My Music. Each time I load a new app, I check the options to make sure it saves all data files somewhere in Documents instead of Application Data.
2. Folder for work. All business work goes in the “Freelance” folder.
3. Subfolders in work folder. Each client gets a folder. If a client has clients, I create subfolders for the subclients. For example, I do content work for B2B Company that includes writing emails and landing pages. B2B Company has its own clients. The work I do for B2B Company is mostly for its clients and sometimes B2B Company itself.

Folder System

The folder system looks like this:

Documents

• Freelance
  • B2B Company
    • Marketing Automation Company
    • CMS Company
  • ePublisher Company
    • Computer Hardware Company
    • Health Services Company
    • ePublisher Marketing –> I do content for the client, but I make sure the subfolder has a different name.
  • meryl.net: business-related, blog and guest blogs I do for others
    • Receipts
    • Blog posts
    • meryl.net archived –> When I create archives for old stuff, I give them a unique name as I try to avoid having two folders with identical names. Sounds trivial, but makes a difference especially when searching.
• Emails
• Education: volunteer as I often volunteer for schools and school work – both as a student and educator
• Finance: Quickbook and Money original and backup files.
• Pictures
  • Family
    • Kid 1
      • 2000-2005 (from early to pre-digital camera days when I had fewer digital photos)
      • 2006
      • 2007
      • Repeat for all.
    • Kid 2
    • Kid 3
    • Husband
    • Me
    • Print: I have professional printers print select photos. My photo printer does a nice job, but not to the same quality as professional services. I have family albums (real ones complete with plastic pages) and people look through them all the time. When I download new photos, I put the ones I want to print in this folder for the next time I order prints.
  • Friends
  • Others
• Music
• Textfiles: This is the personal version of “Freelance” folder that contains stuff related to my kids and non-business content.

Some people opt to do it the following way and it works. I had already created my system before this setup came about.

Library

• Documents
  • See above system. It’d fall under here except for pictures, music and videos.
• Pictures
  • See above system for pictures.
• Music
• Videos

I rarely use the search feature to find files. Yes, it takes a few clicks through folders and subfolders to get to the document I need, but I find them quickly. Without those subfolders, I’d be looking at a long list of hundreds of files.

How do you organize your many files?

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I always look forward to seeing what the new design will be on the elementary school Field Day shirt every year. Some great, some average and some blah. At first, I thought this year’s “Field Day is good” was bland. I knew it was a play off “Life is good,” but it didn’t captivate me. However, since then, it grew on me. My eight-year-old didn’t get it. Then the next morning, the newspaper had the “life is good” line in the article about Trader Joe’s and I showed it to him. (Yes, Dallas and places around Texas are finally getting Trader Joe’s!!)

I still have two of my favorite Field Day shirts. A couple of years ago, I caught a shirt one of the P.E. coaches wore and loved it. Then, I looked at the year on it thinking it was before my kids’ time at the school and couldn’t believe it. I could’ve had that shirt. How did I miss it?

The neat thing about the Field Day shirts is they sell for $5. PTA always sells them for as little as possible making only pennies (rounding to nearest dollar) because they want to make it as affordable as possible — not a profit. Huzzah, PTA!

Brain food…

• How to Minimize Interruptions When You’re Working: One of the reasons I’ve been efficient in my entire professional career is because of my deafness. Because of that, I never get phone calls. I think that’s where many waste time. OK, so I make up for it in obsessively checking email. I’m REALLY trying to cut back.
• 38 Life Lessons I’ve Learned in 38 Years and 15 Life Lessons They Don’t Teach You in School: Imagine what a better place the world would be if many of us read these and follow them — bosses, employees, family.
• How Many Times a Day Should You Check Your Email: I’m awful. But I’ve had some days when I force myself to ease up. I close Thunderbird more often and instead just do a quick scan on the BlackBerry for urgent ones. In Gmail, I switch to Contacts so I keep Gmail open along with Chat.
• Using Quora to Boost a Freelancing Career: I tried to use it this week to look up some questions and it felt overwhelming. The best thing to do is have something very specific in mind when searching. It’s too big for generic.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• 55 Hysterically Funny Smart Autocorrect Bombs: Warning — Lotsa cuss words and lotsa laughs.
• 10 Rejected Mother’s Day Gift Ideas: Smart move.
• The Anatomy of a Cupcake: Yum.
• 10 Most Amazing Flashmobs: Still looking to join one.
• Geek Zodiac v2.0: Me a samurai? Nahhh… Oh wait. Does this work like the Chinese New Year? You look at the previous year if you were born before the Chinese New Year? That would be astronaut. Eh… [Link: Bitrebels]

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In coming home from a long doctor’s appointment, I decided to take the tollway for most of the way to get home faster. I rarely drive on the highway, so you’d think I’d be more alert about the exit. Yep, I missed it. I caught the sign for the exit, but thought I wanted the next one. And, of course, it was further than the usual distance to that exit taking me a bit out of my way.

Photo from sxc.hu user maavi

How did I miss it? I had too much on my mind with paying attention to cars, looking for exit signs and noticing all the construction I hadn’t seen before. I had too many filters in my mind getting in the way of the one filter I needed — the right exit.

A Filter Problem

I use Gmail more than meryl.net email. The meryl.net email has been around for years meaning 100 spam emails come in daily. The email app does a good job of diverting spam into its dump out of the way. Still, spam messages clutter email on the mobile device, which makes it harder to identify good emails. Gmail relies on all of its users in creating effective spam filters, so I rarely see spam in Gmail outside of the spam folder.

Some of my regular email newsletters stop appearing where they should. They ended up in the trash despite having their assigned labels, which should’ve filtered them to the label folder. Gmail, why are you throwing away my good email? I studied the “delete” filters to see if something confused Gmail like my multitasking on the road did to the point that I missed the exit. Having used Gmail since 2004, the list of filter felt like a mile long. (It’s still long after the clean up, but it’s more efficient and updated.)

Fixing Filters for Fitter Filtering

Time to take Gmail filters for spring cleaning. I remove every filter that deleted an email and clear many label filters. The only ones that remain — it’s still a bunch — are the ones most recently created. The nice thing about Gmail’s filters is that appear in the order they were created. So the top ones are old and go bye-bye.

When I unsubscribe to an email newsletter, I also delete the filter. But sometimes I forget. This cleaning helps clear those. I prepare myself for piles of emails showing up in the inbox after the filter wipe out. Anytime an email comes into the inbox, I either unsubscribe or create a new filter. It’s hard to let go of some email newsletters, but I tell myself that a cleaner email account is more important than subscribing to the email newsletter just in case I get around to reading it.

I’m paying attention to my actions when reading emails with several labels (email newsletters, for example). If I delete them every time, then I unsubscribe unless there’s a reason to keep them such as the rare coupon. If an organization sends too many emails, I see if they have another subscription option to get fewer emails or unsubscribe. (I don’t think any organization needs to send an email more than once a week aside from the Groupon types.)

Inbox, Spam and Domains

The only emails coming into the inbox are the quick ones that I read and delete in an instant from looking at the subject lines (Groupon is one). I also try to avoid creating filters with subject lines or @domain.com with no user name. For “@domain.com” filters, I limit those to clients from companies unlikely to have unrelated emails coming from their domain. For instance, if I had a contact at Apple, I wouldn’t create an “@apple.com” filter since it’s plausible I’d receive newsletters and notices from that domain. In this case, a filter with the contact’s complete email address works best.

I also bring back the spam folder. I had done away with it and told Gmail to send all spam to trash. But after the filter clean up, I want to check the spam folder for anything that slips through.

You can apply these steps to any email account with filters.

Results: The two email newsletters that kept landing in the trash stopped going there. I also have fewer emails coming in since I shed some of the email newsletters.

Next: Cutting down on checking email. I’ve been working on this habit all year and have improved a little. But I still check emails too often. The problem is that I need Gmail open most of the time so my husband can reach me through Google chat. I tried the chat window pop out, but it felt awkward. Even with the pop out, Gmail must stay open or else it closes the chat window.

Multitasking has its strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes when the brain or filter has too much going on, it can let something slip through. Choose your multitasking activities wisely. Sometimes it’s more efficient to focus on a single task than to do many. Or in Gmail’s case, clear the filter cobwebs so it can make better choices.

P.S. Instead of checking emails this morning, I wrote this blog post. Now let’s see if I can work for a couple of hours without checking email. (Oh, boy. Help!)

What tips do you have for managing emails more efficiently?

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Meryl Evans

It’s human nature for people to not look past someone’s speech to discover the person first. I know it because I live it. Oscar winning film, The King’s Speech, echoes this message. Zach Anner, co-winner of Oprah Winfrey’s Your OWN Show, reinforces the message that people with disabilities want others to see them as people first.

It’s happened many times in my life. People giving me all kinds of looks as soon as they hear my deaf accent.

Nod … Nod … Nod …

Saying, “What?” also stresses me because it gives  people another reason to think I’m less than intelligent. Of course, everyone says, “What?” However, add the accent to that and it sends a different message than a simple, “I didn’t catch it the first time.”

No wonder many people like me have “head nod syndrome.” We’d rather nod our heads to indicate we understand when we don’t because we don’t want to make trouble or risk others seeing us as inferior.

Eleanor Roosevelt said, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” While true most of the time, people with disabilities know that humans often judge the wheelchair, the stutter and the monotone voice before the person.

Qualifying for the Job

On Your OWN Show, Zach Anner mentioned that he didn’t want people to think he got this far just because of his wheelchair.  Some think people with disabilities get a pass to meet diversity quotas or some other reason. Although it can and probably happens, it wouldn’t happen repeatedly because we need to be able to do the job.

Many people with disabilities are harder on ourselves than anyone ever could be. Growing up, my mantra was “Keep showing them you’re just as good or better as anyone else.” Had I been born with hearing, I may not have had the successful life that I have. That mantra is what helped me work for what I have.

Oprah along with co-hosts of Your OWN Show Nancy and Carson were right to worry about Anner’s stamina. Oprah explained that doing a TV show is grueling work. Even Anner worried about that when he found out he was a finalist for the show. When I was a kid — like most little girls did, I wanted to be an actress when I grew up. Of course, I later realized it wouldn’t happen.  I never expected to have a career in front of the camera, on stage or on radio because I don’t have the speech quality needed for these jobs.

What about the whole “set your mind to it, make your dreams happen?” Even if I wanted to be a news reporter or in a front-of-the-camera job, it still demands high quality speech. I took speech therapy for years, and no therapy can fill in the key component that helps speech: hearing. However, I’ve been on TV and did a couple of plays. They were memorable experiences.

I also appear in BBS: The Documentary. Director Jason Scott asked if I would be offended if he added subtitles to my portion. I thought it was a great idea. In fact, Cupcake Wars sometimes adds subtitles for French pastry chef’s Florian Bellanger’s comments. Good for Cupcake Wars. The show didn’t let Florian’s accent stop them from using his expertise, which enhances the show.

It’s Business

I never considered having my own business and fell into it. I love the work. I love the clients. I love the diversity. Thank goodness for technology for making it possible and allowing people to see me as a business person first.

Marlee Matlin stars in the upcoming edition of The Celebrity Apprentice. It will be interesting to see how she handles business especially since people rely heavily on cell phones. I read somewhere that contestants must use the speaker phone to avoid legal issues. Well, if she’s like me, she’ll be sending text messages — if that’s allowed.  So it’s not just about her dealing with challenges, but also the rules of the show and the contrived situations.

An uncaptioned preview (Meaning: this is how I interpreted the preview without the words to go on) of The Celebrity Apprentice showed Nene Leakes fake signing as if she was mocking Matlin. Though negative, you have to give Leakes credit for treating Matlin like any other contestant. They mock each other all the time.

What challenges have you faced and how did you overcome them?

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My second child and older son turned 12 this week. Wow. Last year of the tweens. It won’t be long before he’s taller than me (5.5″ to go). E Since he loves to play video games, I’m sharing this article I found on his birthday: Factoids of the day: Game not over. The article highlights how games make us better. It’s all true, but we still need to limit video game time for kids or else they’d play all hours. Gotta get ‘em movin’!

The Challenger disaster happened 25 years ago today. I was in school, but I can’t recall how I found out. The only thing I remember feeling stunned while watching the explosion in front of a clear blue sky and seeing the looks on the family’s faces that looked neither happy or sad because they didn’t know what happened yet. AP asked Facebook readers where they were on this day. It’s a chilling read.

Brain food…

• 22 Social Media Marketing Tools: Apps for managing multiple social media IDs in one spot. [Link: Alan K'necht]
• Ten Useful Hacks to Make Things Happen: Another winner from Valeria Maltoni.
• If You Think Someone Is Mentally Ill: Loughner’s Six Warning Signs: I believe it’s important we’re all aware of these signs. Unlike sinus infections and diabetes, mental illness is an unseen illness — and a very real one that needs treating infections and pneumonia.
• Five great Gmail timesavers: I didn’t even know about Smart Mute, but then I don’t fall into too many group conversations — thank goodness.
• Thsrs: The shorter thesaurus.
• Kill Your To-Do List: Some people just need to dump to dos altogether and try this one. Be sure to check out the comments for more great advice.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• This is the web right now: Another winner from Oatmeal.
• iPad Game for Cats: Smart doggy!
• Social Media Guru Robbed after Using Foursquare: This is actually a parody of a very serious problem. I stopped using the service months ago after reading several true horror stories. I loved the service, but it’s just not worth the dark side of it… [Link: t2]
• 36 Facebook T-Shirts to Match Your Status Update: First it was Twitter tees… now FB. LinkedIn far behind? Nahh… too serious of a social network.