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.

Michael is my much older brother. I’m such a nice little sister, ain’t I?

Anyway, we have about four more weeks before school begins. I love the Pajama Diaries (I’d so buy the book if it existed. Jill Kaplan (which happens to be my maiden name) is a mom who works in a home office as a freelance designer.

I can relate to many of the strips especially this one. We didn’t put our younger two kids into programs all summer, just the first month. So it’s been an adventure having them home. Though I have the advantage of being able to turn off my cochlear implant for instant silence, I prefer the silence with the cochlear implant on plus it lets me listen for doorbells and potential crying.

• Travel Etiquette: I enjoy reading about different culture rules and norms. Now if I could travel and put them to use… One fact I learned: when offering or taking a business card from an Asian (I’ve heard this from someone from Korea, China and Thailand), use both hands not one.
• Pump up your Twitter background with clickablenow: You’ll need to add a plugin or take some steps with your browser to add the clickable links. I tested it with Chrome and Firefox. Thanks to @mashable for mentioning the service and @clickablenow for the free service.
• Domparison: Comparing domain name prices.
• 25 Book Blogs: I always tell authors to seek out blogs that cover their topics. This will get you started. Blogcritics also reviews many different topics of books.
• UK government gets guide to Twitter: Here’s the Cabinet Office blog entry with the links to the guide’s various versions.
• Business.Gov: A Recommended Resource For Future And Current Small Business Owners

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Manuals Online: Can’t find your manual? The User Manual Site may have it — it has 300,000+ manuals for over 5000 brands. You can always go to the manufacturer’s web site for manuals, too.
• 50 Greatest Trailers of All Time: Not captioned, of course.
• Computer hardware poster: One poster my daughter won’t have on her wall
• There, I Fixed It: In honor of my brother who thinks he can fix anything.

More fun reads than biz reads as I recover from surgery and can barely handle the heavy-duty thinking.

• 10 Golden Lessons from Steve Jobs [Link: Pamela Poole]
• Series of articles on how people use a computer with different disabilities (look to the right for more) [Link: Laura Carlson]

• Test My Brain
• RunPee: OK, admit it. You find yourself needing to go in the middle of a good movie, but can’t decide whether to suffer a little longer or go now. Wonder no more. Next time you go to the movies, check RunPee to find out the best times to go.
• Top 10 BBQ Blogs: What kind of Texan would I be if I didn’t mention this? [Link: Michael Kogon]
• 9 Video Games That Went Too Far
• The 10 Commandments, in TXT Spk: #3: No OMGs [Link: RaToTheBec]

(moment of silence) Thank you, soldiers.

• The Role of Get Rich Quick Merchants: Complete with fab New Yorker cartoon.
• Best Entrepreneur Books That You Never Expected
• Useful Tools: Straight out reviews of web apps and tools without the editorial or anything else.
• How Freelancers Might Save Publishing
• Why People Don’t Follow Back on Twitter: Are you breaking these Twitter Commandments? [Disclosure: I wrote it]

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Awkward Family Photos: No ’splanation needed.
• Wireless Keyboard Wall Graphics: Ah, geek art.
• Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest: Ah, dizzy art.
• Research Paper Glossary
• Top 10 Movie Misquotes
• Incredible photo of the sun… not just the sun…

Survive tax day, I hope? Accountants and CPAs can breathe easy now even with some clients filing extensions (which you have to do by April 15) — at least, they don’t have so many to do at once.

• MyThings: Organize receipts, warranties and user guides in one place — free.
• The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks: “Love” it.
• Latest on WWD: Find the Right People to Follow on Twitter, Getting Started as a Web Worker, Web Worker Careers: Coaching (more careers coming — what web working careers do you know about? Add them to the comments so we can cover ‘em all.).
• Readbility: Make the web more readable (I wish it would have less gray text on white background and it’d be a heckuva lot better!)

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Passover’s over!! Now what to do with all the leftover matzah? [Link: Robin Belkin and Lorrie Thomas]
• 24 Great Films Too Painful to Watch Twice
• The Vanity of It All: I love vanity plates — reading them and having them. Mine is boring: “Meryl” is all it says. With my name being uncommon and often mispronounced and misspelled, I thought it could use help. Besides, it helps me be a better driver knowing I have memorable plates (then again, if they misspell it — heh). [Link: George].
• Central Station in Antwerp: Instant smile. So what if Sound of Music is too sweet — admit it. It has songs that make you smile.

• In memory of Tim Russert. Joan Stewart points to this Slate article that shows how interviewers can prepare for interviews.
• 13 Emotion-based Headlines That Work
• Digg for Tech Communicators
• 100 Web Sites You Should Know and Use from TED. I accidentally found TED on cable and it was captioned! Recorded it and got a glimpse of some of of the amazing presentations from 2006. Shame they don’t have it for the other years with all of the presentations.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Test your vocabulary knowledge. For every answer you get right, you donate rice.
• TechCult: Twisted technology.
• China renames oddly named menu items for the Olympics.
• 22 “you got swerved” movies.

Skydiving was going to be today, but postponed due to weather.

Remember you can win prizes. Just read this week’s posts (click “Previous” after this message).

A game… worrying the movie makers? According to canada.com, Hollywood needs to keep an eye on this game’s mega release. I just don’t see gamers giving up movie watching because of a game no matter how popular it is.

Gamers have games they captivate them, but they still do their regular activities. Those who already spend hours gaming gave up on movies long ago.

Ever read a book or see a movie with a great beginning and a disappointing ending? What about vice versa? If a book starts off too slow or lousy, will you keep reading it? In the past, I did. But not anymore unless it’s for a gig.

Sometimes I luck out in coming up with a wonderful analogy for an article. When you write all the time, you don’t have the luxury of brainstorming creative approaches. It takes time to brainstorm, try different tricks like mindmapping, or flip through books related to getting ideas … time that you don’t have.

One easy trick does work that doesn’t take much time. You can do this after writing the article, in the middle… whenever. Come up with an analogy or theme that relates to the article topic. Unfortunately, that didn’t work well in this entry. So it’s not a perfect trick.

In this best advice response column about someone struggling to break through the glass ceiling, I used Superman to add color. Dorothy and her Oz friends appeared in When Good Newsletters Go Bad. A story on crisis management incorporates science fiction. The Wireless City 2.0 weaves in city planning through the years.

OK, so some ideas work better than others. Sure, I’d like to have every article grab the reader. I practice by writing often and digging for creative approaches while I work through the writing. Sometimes it pays and sometimes it doesn’t. What matters is the practicing and doing it often.

Doing this while blogging is hardest. I can’t spend too much time blogging. Occasionally, I come up with a post I’m proud of, but not enough. The good thing about blogging — whether it’s a good or lousy post — is that it’s writing practice.

This ending is nothing like Citizen Kane, The Crying Game, or The Sixth Sense. But they all have surprises near the end.

• SalesDogs Diagnostics: What type of salesdog breed are you? What kind of team do you have?
• Stationery Movie Quiz: Guess the movie from office supplies.
• Good Keywords: Free software for finding the right keywords. Also has a keyword primer for beginners.
• Get kid gift ideas by checking out Dr. Toy’s Best Products of 2007.
• We keep our lawn (front and back) as simple as possible. That way we don’t use up much water or resources to keep it in good shape. LessLawn provides tips on building a low-maintenance lawn.
• The 100 Tools Freelancers Can’t Live Without

• Replace “can’t” with “won’t”
• 15 ways to reclaim two precious hours
• Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations
• Innovation Tools contains resources for business innovation, creativity, and brainstorming.
• Library Journal reviews almost 7000 books every year including audio, video, and databases.
• Travel search engines for finding cheapest rates:
  • Farecompare
  • Kayak
  • Farecast