When The Ten Commandments (Affiliate) appears all over the TV listings plus my sister’s and son’s birthdays arrive — it means it’s time for Passover. Indeed, Passover begins at sundown on Monday. It often falls on my sister’s birthday. Sometimes it lasts through my son’s birthday, but not this year.

I need to make this tweet from Rochelle Veturis my mantra: “Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere.” ~Turner. My oldest went to college night last night, and of course, looked at out of state schools. The only school in Texas was a small private school. I’m telling myself it will work out. It’s her job and I just need to stay out of it unless she comes to me.

What do you know? I woke up to this message from Seth Godin about college debt. Agreed. Do you care where I went to college? I think the only people (outside of family) who cared were the ones who received my resume for my first after college job. Beyond that, no one cared. I know some companies post in their job listings that candidates should have degrees from top schools. They also know they need to look at the whole person, not just what’s on the diploma.

Despite this, I take pride in having attended TCU (one year — yes, the school that won the Rose Bowl this year!) and American U (graduate). Actually, having spent about 10 years in the school’s speech and hearing clinic when I was a kid, I went to TCU longer than most. AND my mom took classes there while pregnant with me

Brain food…

• It May Be Your Fault If Your Client Doesn’t Appreciate All That You Do: You do such a great job delivering what clients need. And because of this, they don’t realize what happens behind the scenes. Isn’t that the reason they hired you?
• 10 Home Office Time Savers: Wow. I do most of these, so these tips work!
• Top Five Mistakes Writers Make at Conferences: Here’s a past post on what to do after the conference and why I shy from conferences.
• Authors Sign eBooks Electronically: I had wondered what could replace autographed books. Here’s your answer, but it takes more time than the pen.
• A Scroll to the Editor: We Love to Read: Birch Lane Elementary School took issue with NY Times’ article on the downturn of picture books. I’m a grown up and I bought picture books before I became a mom. When my almost 8-year-old cleaned his bookshelf, I gave away most of the books — but kept some. Just had our school bookfair. Managed to walk away spending less than $100. Whew.
• 20 Must have Android apps for every user: Have some of these on my Android tablet, but disappointed it doesn’t have a vibrate feature. Turns out, this isn’t a common tablet feature. iPad 1 and 2 don’t have it. Samsung Galaxy has it.
• 25 Must Have Firefox 4 Compatible Add-ons: I still prefer Firefox to Google Chrome and the others. But I try to limit add-ons to must haves because Firefox has one big weakness: memory hog.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• 10 Amazing Transparent Sculptures: Last set of links had a yarn car. This one has an cool car — literally.
• Bitter Borders Compilation: Sad and funny. At least, the staff has a sense of humor to get through this. [Link: Victoria Strauss]
• Google Exodus: Hilarious video. In honor of the upcoming Passover and another viewing of The Ten Commandments (Affiliate). Yes, I posted this last week. Worth posting again!

P.S. Of course, I want you to have fun. Since I had so much brain food this week, I figured I’ll limit the fun links to avoid overwhelming you.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Meryl Evans

So many conferences, so little travel budget. How do you decide? The last few conferences I’ve attended are sxsw interactive and Texas PTA’s, both in Austin, of course. (The only place I’ve been go outside of the Dallas / Fort Worth area is Austin in almost 10 years. Sad, I know.) Flying or driving to Austin is cheap. My local PTA took care of the costs and I shared a hotel room.

With sxsw, I also shared a room with Christine Tremoulet one year and my husband and our unborn youngest child went the following year.

I almost went to a writer’s conference in Oklahoma City, which also has cheap flights and a great conference price. Plus, several people I know are speaking and it would be nice to meet them in person. But I opted not to due to crowded schedule.

It’s not that I’m cheap. Because of my deafness, I don’t quite get the full benefit of a conference especially one that’s full of panels that converse with the audience. It’s like watching a tennis match that happens all around you. This approach quickly turns well rested eyes into tired ones. I came this close to going to sxsw this year, but backed off when I saw how much attendance grew since my last visit in 2003.

So then… how do you decide which conference to attend with overwhelming options?

klatsch n. “A casual social gathering, usually for conversation.” Source: The Free Dictionary AKA a meryl.net blog post centered on a discussion topic.

Image via Wikipedia

I enjoyed the two times I went to sxsw interactive in 2002 and 2003. I met a lot of folks and put many names with faces. I’m grateful I went to Break Bread with Brad as Brad L. Graham passed away recently. He was a warm person who welcomed everyone to his delightful event. I also played in Anil Dash’s KICK! in 2002. It’s like kickball where no one is picked last!

I told a story at Fray Cafe both years. (Here’s the story from 2002.) I participated in 20×2, one question in two minutes. The question: “What are you waiting for?” Well, I was proud of my entry because I was not good at creating such a video, but it got messed up when it transferred to the presentation computer. It messed up all the timing and animation. I was embarrassed and disappointed.

Oh, and I was almost eight months pregnant in 2003. I obviously enjoyed many memorable experiences I would never had without sxsw. Why wouldn’t I go and create more this year? And to make it harder, many freelance colleagues and a couple of clients will be there. OK, here’s why — but pprlisa’s list is the best!

1. It’s time to shake Austin. My last trip? Austin. The trip before that. Austin. About four or five trips to Austin and no where else. When you live in the great state of Texas, a lot of events tend to occur in Austin including PTA. I’m starting to think there are only two places in the world: Texas and Washington, DC, the only time I’ve ever lived outside of Texas.
2. I need to catch up on recorded programs before the DVRs explodes. Yes, that’s plural. I record almost everything. As a mom of three, watching TV makes you feel guilty — but not when you’re doing the laundry or exercising while watching it. Since my circadian rhythm will be off-kilter when Daylight Savings Time kicks in on March 14, TV is the best medicine — thereby, guilt-free.
3. I must stop daughter from getting tons of piercings. She’s wanted to add two more ears piercings for a while. No problem. Suddenly, the list grew and she wanted it all done during spring break. Dearie… let’s start with two. Besides that, she’s the kind who doesn’t take kindly to pain. More than two piercings will make her wisdom teeth removal experience look like a basic dental cleaning.
4. I want people to remember me as my photo. The photo that’s my avatar everywhere is from 2005. I don’t know if I can pull off a good hair day the whole time there. Curly hair has a mind of its own.
5. I need to avoid the temptation to buy more books. Oh, count on seeing plenty of authors hawking their books. I bought signed copies of  books by Lawrence Lessig, Cory Doctorow (I also sat next to him at Fray Cafe) and Rebecca Blood. My pocketbook is being too appreciative. Sadly, out of those three that I remember, I’ve only read one.
6. I have my Austin phoon shot. I went back in 2003 despite having the phoon shot from 2002 because I knew that as a very pregnant woman, I’d have no chance of retaining my balance. It was like a free pass.
7. I can’t tell a Fray story. Fray Cafe is no more.
8. I like torturing myself. Anytime I go into Twitter — I see a mention of someone going to sxsw. I love knowing who I am missing out on and torturing my soul so I can write the baddest and saddest poem ever. Either that or it’ll give me a good reason to stay off Twitter for a week and spend spring break time with the kids. Nah…
9. I have a bad case of overwhelmitis. sxsw has grown so big, it’d blow out my expensive cochlear implant batteries too frequently. Plus, it’ll be harder to plug in my laptop with many more folks in attendance all fighting for the few outlets. And sxsw-i has grown more than double. I’m an introvert on Myers-Briggs — it does not mean I’m shy … I’m not. It means being around large crowds drains my energy. Even in 2002 and 2003 when it was a nice sized conference, I collapsed at the end of the day and when I arrived home. I’m an ISTJ in case you were not wondering.
10. I have no chance in foursquare. The folks at sxsw are the type who use the location-based service religiously. I’m a sore loser Why do you think a telecommunications company is having to up its network service at Austin Convention Center? Because 95 percent of attendees connected to the Internet to tweet, blog, check in foursquare, etc.

Other sxsw Articles.

How do you decide what conference to attend?

Someone interested in breaking into information design contacted me to ask about the field, whether a degree or certificate would help, and the tools and skills used. It’s a very broad question as information design covers everything including print. But I answered the question from the online perspective and thought others may benefit from this information.

This field include information design, user experience, web design, publication design, graphic design, information architecture, etc. Looking at the Web sites and locating a nearby chapter in the following organizations makes a good starting point:

• STC (Society for Technical Communication) — www.stc.org
• UPA (The Usability Professionals’ Association) — www.upassoc.org
• SIGCHI — www.sigchi.org
• ASIS&T (American Society for Information Science and Technology) — www.asis.org/SIG/ia.html
• IA Institute (The Information Architecture Institute) — iainstitute.org

STC, for example, has different SIGs (special interest groups) that could also provide valuable information. But of course, you want to narrow down your interests before joining SIGs or else too much information will come your way.

The following sites provide conference proceedings:

• www.upassoc.org/conference/2007overview.html
• stc-on.org/id/
• www.stcsig.org/usability/
• www.asis.org/SIG/ia.html
• www.sxsw.com/interactive

What would you recommend to someone interested in the field? What do people need to break in the field? How valuable (or not) is a degree or certification? What area should the degree or certificate be in?

Thanks to Elisa Miller for her input into the response.