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]

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Meryl Evans

Talk about jam packed week. I’ve done so much writing that I’m tapped out with nothing to share. I don’t want to waste your time with mindless babble. Oh, the Texas Tornadoes refers to the minor league hockey team. Family going to watch them play courtesy a generous client. (The only local client, but we met online.)

Brain food…

• Plagiarism is Not The Sincerest Form of Flattery: This is scary. Writers read a lot. So it’s plausible that ideas stick in our heads that by the time we pull them out, we think they’re original not recalling the origin of a source.
• IBM AbilityLab Voice Transcription Manager Research Project: [Link: Deborah Edwards-Onoro]
• 10 Tips on How to Find a Job the New Way: Everyone should know this regardless whether straight out of college or a long-time corporate vet. I think it was monster.com that I used in 1995 when I was looking for a job back home in Texas. Though few used it, that’s now how I landed the job. How? Word of mouth. Someone referred my husband to several companies and he connected them with me.
• How to Grow Your Reader Community with an Author Blog: Start before the book ever comes out.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• All-TIME 100 Greatest Toys: Barbie? That wasn’t my kind of toy. I preferred (still do — add flying objects, too!) remote control cars.
• Most Popular Fonts by Operating System: Still waiting for Comic Sans to be just “sans.” [Link: Bitrebels]
• 12 Funny Animal Fails: lol! (Or should that be wof — woofing out loud?)
• 12 Hilariously Ironic Signs: Hey, nobody’s erfect.
• Playable Angry Birds birthday cake: Made with a lot of patience. [Link: Mark Hurst]
• Don’t You Want Me: Atomic Tom video — how many ’80s movies can you find? [Link: Mark, too]

Image from Riesma Pawestri

I wish I could say this is stating the obvious — it’s not. People continue to miss out on opportunities because of something they said anywhere online. This applies not only to those looking for jobs, but also freelancers and those in current jobs. Future clients, customers, employers, agents and publishers WILL check up on you before they consider signing you.

This applies to interests including political. Now, we all have a right to support whomever we want running for office, but how we handle ourselves in supporting or not supporting a candidate can affect whether you get a job or gig. A financial service placement firm reported that a candidate lost out on a job because he posted a negative note on a candidate’s Facebook page.

Whole Foods Flap

I wish I had more details. Would the employer overlook a positive post? Was the negative post one of those shooting off at the mouth without any supporting facts? If the job was an executive or C-level one, it probably would not matter as Whole Foods CEO John Mackey wrote a Wall Street Journal Op/Ed that left many loyal customers seething. Mackey posts the full details on his blog. In short, his opnion went against what many of Whole Foods’ customers believe in.

Topics That Might Bug Folks

Would you want to hire someone who complains about family, marriage and illnesses, or posts about a drunken night ora frustrating editor? Most of us have done regretable or silly things in our lives, especially as youngsters, but they don’t belong online if you want to have a chance of landing a job, contract or gig.

Oh, you only send it to close friends and family? Even if you can trust them, are you sure they won’t accidentally forward it or accidentally spill it to the public? Remember landing the job at Cisco tweet? Or the Fedex insult?

Rule of Thumb

When you write anything electronically, do the Mom / child / employer check

Would you want your mama or child to read about your drunk night? Would you want your employer to read that you can’t stand X candidate? Would you want your client to see you whine and complain about life in general? Do you want an editor to see how difficult you are as a writer?

If necessary, reword them to ask “How would you feel if you read that a prospective peer or employee did X?” Maybe the reality will have a greater impact.

Recruiters, hiring managers and other folks know that many folks share too much about themselves online. While someone might keep that out of her professional life, that has no bearing on the message she sends. If you need to talk to someone, do it offline. Also, watch what you text on your phone because people can forward those too.

What stories have you heard about people who lost opportunities as a result of improper online posts?

We have an interesting dialogue happening that started with Diana’s Describe Your Ideal Job entry, which addresses how to answer such a question in a job interview. Stu Kopelman responded with logical points believe there is an “ideal job.” How many times have you been asked, “What is your dream job?”

Even if you document a dream job on paper, will you be happy every day in that job? Unlikely. Heck, you could work in your dream job for two different companies and end up being happy in one and miserable in the other. It’s not just the responsibilities and the day to day activities that identify a job as enjoyable or miserable. It’s also the environment, mentality, morale, and management styles.

When all the factors are positive (job role, management, environment, and so on), there will be days when you’re frustrated or angry. The happiest marriages and parents who love their kids all face bad days. Everything in life has a “bad” to it. But does that mean it’s not your dream spouse, dream family, or dream job? Not at all. It’s like your body — it’s going to have its bad days no matter how good you take care of it.

Now that I am full-time with meryl.net, I’m loving the job and experience. I’ve had a few down times, but they don’t last long and I handle them well because I love the overall work I’m doing. I just read a commentary from Robert Ringer in Early to Rise, it’s not about the negative situation, but how you handle it. Here’s an example Ringer used:

“…tabloid headlines were screaming that New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza was gay. Piazza did only one interview, and said to the interviewer in a calm, straightforward manner, ‘I’m not gay.’ No anger, no hysteria, no scowl. As a result, the story died in a matter of days.”

It’s like “fighting fire with fire” or “adding fuel to the fire.” If Piazza had come back in defensive mode with all sorts of rantings and ravings, you can bet the tabloids would’ve run with it for a little longer. If Clinton had simply apologize for his “relations with that woman” instead of denied it, perhaps it would’ve quickly died away.

I’ve gone to talking about the ideal job to handling negative situations. We encounter criticism no matter how good we are. I remember the first time I was slaughtered in my blog, I was in shock. Not mad, but in shock that someone thought this of me. But then I stepped back and reminded myself that we all have one critic in our life no matter who we are. Accepting it rather than fighting it is a lot easier on the soul.