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My family doesn’t have a drop of Irishness in our blood — that we know of, anyway. But that never stopped my dad and me from wearing green on March 17th. Dad went the extra mile by wearing a dark green suit to work with some silly button like, “Kiss me, I’m Irish.” Obviously, he liked to have fun and I am sure some folks today would say the button is harassment. No matter, count on my wearing green.

Brain food…

• 8 Must-Have Twitter and Facebook Add-Ons: Oh yes, add-ons go beyond browsers and blog apps. The article forgot to point to the scripts (all use Greasemonkey), which can you find by searching userscripts.org. Facebook Purity explains how to install scripts for other browsers.
• Synopsis Tips for Writers: Excellent short post. [Link: BubbleCow]
• 10 Turnsoffs Keeping Readers from My Blog: These are the unwritten rules I tend to follow… at least, I hope I am.
• 10 Amazing Life Lessons You Can Learn from Albert Einstein: Not a single one has anything to do with relativity.
• 33 Writing Terms You Should Know: When WIP on an ms, be sure to stick to DL while following GL [Link: BubbleCow -- awesome resource... follow @bubblecow!]
• Research Tip: Finding Crutch Words: Do you keep using some words repeatedly? I try not to, but with all that I write… it can be tough. Current challenge is to avoid that and which. Not easy! [Link: @elizabethscraig]
• Top 100 Sites on the Internet: Very cool interactive graphic. [Link: @kirstinbutler]

Image from jimbowen0306 / CC BY 2.0

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• 10 Coolest Foosball Tables: Aww… My husband just has an ordinary table.
• 70+ Examples Of Beautiful Night Photography: Breathtaking… [Link: Ruhani Rabin]
• 40 Outstanding Mascot Designs: I’d love to have one… but not sure it would fit this site’s brand. Or what. My favorite mascot: Fort Worth’s TCU Horned Frogs. I found many horned toads in my backyard while growing up. [Link: bkmacdaddy]
• Junkyard steampunk Yoda: Serious, I am.
• 5 Browsers and the Modes of Transportation They Resemble: Pretty darn accurate.
• Top 10 Japanese Etiquette Mistakes: I love reading about cultures and etiquette even though I never get to try them (or avoid them). I learned about #2 from my husband and I have used it.
• Friday Funnies: Words Shape Your Existence: Great way to kick off weekend (and Spring Break for some of us). [Link: @alexkaris]

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!

Image by erjkprunczyk via Flickr

I can remember being big on the Olympics back to 1976 watching gymnastics and pretending to be one of the Romanian gymnasts with a friend of mine. We even made our own banners with the country on it. Then when I went to basketball camp in 1984, I went to the TV room to catch whatever I could. Well, to my surprise, my younger two kids took an interest in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games and I let them watch it even when TV watching time was over. I think I finally understand Curling.

What are your favorite Olympic stories or memories?

Brain food…

• New Tools for a New Writing World: Lists some free and low cost classes for freelance writers.
• I’ve Got Rhythm, I’ve Got Writing, I’ve Got My Work, Who Could Ask for Anything More? Great title and greater post.
• 9 Best Websites for Designing Your Logos Online for Free: But really… no substitute for professional design.
• On word counts and interesting books: Of course, word count isn’t a priority in writing a story… but it helps in goal setting and when working with a publisher.
• 11 Ways to Get People Addicted to Your Blog: [Subliminal message: You like it here. You will visit here daily. You will tell others about it. You will smile now.] [Link: Simon]

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Top 10 Worst Figure Skating Costumes: Heh… I was thinking the same about the ones mentioned from Vancouver 2010.
• 15 Funny and Creative 404 Pages: More goodness.
• 12 Coolest Sheets and Blankets = Good times in bed.
• 10 Unusual Clocks.

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]

My oldest and only daughter turned 16 on Wednesday. Now I don’t have to schlep her to school when she wants to go early. When she was younger, we captured her on video saying that she didn’t want to drive. Of course, that changed and she was itching for her birthday to arrive.

That’s me next to her car. The first day she has everything she needs to drive the car to school… and it snows. So I took her and posed with her car for posterity. I’ve yet to get a picture of her and her car together. I will! It makes sense that this happened… considering the story of her arrival.

She was born in Alexandria, VA, on a night when we had snow and ice. AND Dallas-Fort Worth — where first time Grandma and Grandpa lived and waited for us to call when I was about to have the baby — also had ice. Yet, Grandma walked in my hospital room four hours before my daughter arrived. She lucked out in catching a late plane just before it pulled away. The airline staff said, “Hold up! First-time Grandma coming.”

If you’re like many of us — stuck at home because of the snow — it’s a great time to play some games.

Brain food…

• Generating Likeability Through the Mail: I am a big believer in handwritten notes. I loved reading this unusual example. Who can you write a thank you note to right now? [Link: Bob Burg]
• How to Respond to the Most Overused Objections in Social Media: No more excuses, people!
• 51 Questions That Will Take Your Book from Good to Great: Excellent questions to ask those who take a look at your work.
• How to Launch a Book with No Traditional Media Like Seth Godin: Best bet: Think far ahead. Start building relationships before you do the proposal.
• C-level Social Media Ignorance: Do you know what your marketing and PR folks are doing in your company’s name?
• Would You Consider Self-Publishing?: The process in a neat package from a conversation with a publisher.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Game Board Storage Art: Brilliant! But I don’t think I have enough wall space to hang up half of ours.
• Coverspy: Tweeting a book by its cover. Twitter account that spies on what people seen on the New York subway are reading and provides their basic info. Another vote for Kindles and Nooks not taking over the reading world. I discovered Gilmore Girls a few months ago and am making my way through all the seasons. One thing I love about it is seeing what books the book-loving characters are reading.
• Valentine Day Movie Posters: Red hot love via creative graphic design techniques [Link: bkmacdaddy designs].
• Moleskine art: Being a southpaw didn’t gift me with the ability to draw beautiful and creative work like these talented folks.
• The Awesomeness of the Best Google Custom Logos: Google was brilliant in coming up with creative works of its logos and now many join in.
• 23 Grossly Unnecessary Upgrades to Modern Products: Fake items, but valuable lesson.
• 31 Cool 404 Error Pages: Ah, seen many a funny 404 and here are more.

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.

Growing up in Fort Worth, we always had a day off from school at the end of January and received a free ticket for the Fort Worth Stock Show and Radeo. You didn’t have to go or use the ticket. I went a couple of times to the cattle and sheep barns to see the animals and to watch the rodeo in Will Rogers Coliseum.

Vote for your favorite books on writing.

Nominate a favorite social media book.

Brain food…

• Tools to record what is on your screen: Screenr is good, too.
• What Twitter Lists Say About You: Replace my name with your Twitter ID.
• Interview: Lauren Moran, Yankees’ Media Relations: Fascinating insight into working for pro baseball team. I’d love to work for a sports team.
• How to Better Engage Facebook Fan Page ‘Fans’: I still dislike the use of “fans” and would like to see this change to “members” or something similar.
• Myth Busting: Write what you know? Maybe… maybe not. See what Lori says.

For fun because we’re allowed…

• 10 Creative Shower Curtains: I love these! But I like my glass shower door better.
• 12 Most Realistic Lego Sculptures: Incredible. Legoclick gives Lego artists a place to share their work. The web site will blow you away. Check out the film — no words.
• Sleep Talkin’ Man: What a guy says when he sleeps.
• 12 Most Bizarre Things Ever Listed on eBay
• Leaf Carving Art
• 8 Unbelievable iPhone Stories

Sunday is my middle child’s 11th birthday. The biggest of my three babies, he weighed 9lb, 1oz and measured 21 inches long when he made his arrival one Sunday morning. This big guy (he’s the older of two boys) loves sports cars with his favorites being the Lamborghini, Bugatti, Koenigsegg, Aston Martin and Saleen.

Vote for your favorite books on writing.

Nominate a favorite social media book.

Brain food…

• How to Build Conversations in Social Media Using the 3 P’s
• 7 Ways to Add Flavour to Non-Fiction Writing: I’m reading The Blind Side by Michael Lewis, which is based on a true story. The story has captivated me, so I’m paying attention to how the author tells the story because I want to work on storytelling.
• The 7 Sins of Writing: Wonderful poem that focuses on online writing.
• Flex Your Literary Fast-Twitch Muscles Writing Twitter-sized Stories: And they pay! [Link: BubbleCow]
• Qualifiers … for People Who Don’t Like to Be Told What to Do: You’re the expert, but the client isn’t receptive to your ideas. So how can you work around that? Bob Burg explains.
• Are exclamation points unprofessional? I tend to watch my use of !!! even though I’m a friendly Texan. Research says that 32% use it to express thanks and friendliness! OK, that was overboard. I’ll stop now.
• Addictomatic: Search for your name, brand, competitor, stakeholders or anything and it’ll pull it in from many resources.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Star Trek phaser that works: In honor of my husband, the Star Trek fan who says he wants this for his next birthday.
• If You Printed Twitter… infographic [Link: Kristin Burnbaum]
• How to Good-bye Depression: This title is not a typo. Just read the full title, summary and reviews. Half-tempted to order it as a language lover. [Link: Mark Hurst]
• Dave Barry on the money, madness and misery of 2009: Yeah, the describes 2009 for me, too.
• Wedinator: Prime directive – Trashing your special day.

Related articles by Zemanta

• ‘The Blind Side’: When A True Story Is Hard To Tell (npr.org) I love the story so far and it’s been tough not looking up Michael Oher.

Yesterday was my husband’s birthday. I wish I could come up with some other way to say this, but it’s true though cliché. I’m lucky to have him in my life and that we grow together as we encounter new phases in our lives. We enjoy spending time together in simple ways such as our recent discovery of Gilmore Girls. What more can a gal ask for? Oh, and he remembers our special dates, too.

Please vote for your top 25 books on writing.

Brain food…

• The 20 Best Productivity and Personal Development Blogs: Glad to see Web Worker Daily on there.
• 7 Ways to Integrate Facebook into Your Online Platform
• Five Ways to Comply with the New FTC Guidelines for Bloggers [Link: Christina Katz]
• 52 Tips for Writers, from Writers [Link: Debbi Ohi]
• What Does Future Hold for Writers? Predictions for 2010 – 2020
• How I Sold 10,000 Copies of my Self-Published Book
• How to Make the Most of Your Social Media Time: By me.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Bizarre Japanese Candy: No, thanks. I’ll pass.
• The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog: Really.
• First-Person Tetris: The rotate feature drives my eyes crazy, but it’s a unique take on the oft-copied game.
• When Gamers Marry: The cakes you might expect.
• Forbidden Words à la Matt Groening: The Simpsons and Life in Hell creator’s view of tired words.
• Support Details: Anger management resource for tech support.
• Found him! OK, so White Snark and Reddit helped.
• 10 of the Dumbest Gadgets Ever Made: We’ve always dreamed of being able to carry remote controls on a headband… I don’t think so.

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.