My parents have three kids, four grandkids and four granddogs. Three of those kids would be my fault. The fourth is my 14-year-old niece who is exactly 18 months older than my second child. Like the rest of the US, I’m melting. Even the pool is too warm for me, and I’m one of those who needs it to be at least 95 degrees outside to go in the pool. It’s so hot that the nearby water park pour ice into its big pool.

Credit: http://alles-ausm-kopf.de

Drink lots of water and check on others who may need help especially seniors.

It’s so hot … [fill in the blank].

Brain food…

• Why I’m Loving Google+. Debbie Ridpath Ohi, author and illustrator, shares her views of G+. I’m still figuring out how to make it work for me. My problem is that I’m spending more time in social media and that’s not good because it cuts into other things.
• 3 Types of Savings Every Freelance Writer Needs. Very important especially when it comes to quarterly taxes.
• 8 Reasons Books Fail. Focuses on self-published books. Bad cover art is a biggie. I know … I know … don’t judge a book by its cover. An author who doesn’t put effort into producing a catchy cover expects us to invest our time to read it. I don’t think so.
• Memorial researchers get the cinematic treatment. Who says the annual report must be a snore? Memorial University doesn’t. LOVE it. [Link: Daphne Gray-Grant]
• How to Make Your Own Book Trailer. Excellent recipe.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Voice Actors: The Voices of Our Childhood Heroes. It always surprises me  when my husband tells me, “Hey, that’s so ‘n so’s voice.” I can’t fathom being able to recognize an actor’s voice. I can believe people recognizing the voices of family and friends — but famous people? There are so many.
• 12 Most Creative Origami Towels. I went on my first and only cruise in 2000 and I looked forwarded to my origami towel surprise every single day.
• The Real Cost of a Hogwarts’ Education. Have you considered room, board, uniforms, wand, accessories, books and all that? Yikes. And pet not included!
• Final Scenes in Movies. Can you guess what they are? Answers way down at the bottom of the post.
• Summer Nights from Grease in Lego Stop Animation Motion. I <3 musicals and actually know this song from Grease. Totally enjoyed. Even reflects every little move from the movie. Except, I think it missed Sandy crossing her arms. Legos don’t bend that way.

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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.

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My older sister aka Aunt E celebrated her birthday this week. Here’s to many more happy and healthy ones.

This week is the third year in a row that my sons will attend the Dallas Auto Show. My older son loves, loves cars. The younger one likes cars, but nothing like big brother. Part of it probably comes from his wanting to be like big brother. Older son loves Lamborghinis, Ferraris and Porsches. Uh oh. I can’t resist this upcoming cliché. You’ve been warned… “Oh, my.”

Bet we’ll have a couple of more model cars coming home to join the collection.

Struggling to make Springpad or Evernote seamlessly work with my process so I can stop relying on Gmail drafts and contacts for notes. Now that I have a tablet, I’ve been looking into this. Springpad requires having the web site open to edit or read notes. Evernote isn’t free. I have Gmail open all the time, so it’s easy to access drafts and contacts (I have notes in contacts). Downside is that you can’t view drafts on other devices. How do you organize your notes?

Brain food…

• What do newspapers pay? WordCount talks newspaper pay rates and shares resources.
• Emotionally intelligent signage on a box: Talk about thinking outside of the box. Brilliant.
• QR Code Generator: Other than the obvious, who’d use this? How?
• Top 100 Social Media Colleges: I love reading about colleges and checking out their programs… that is, until now. Oldest starting the college search thing. That takes the fun out of it. [Link: Mazi]

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Yarn Ferrari: Patience in action.
• Cover Letters from Hell: Love the side comments from the editor, too. [Link: Deb Ng]
• Star Wars If Dr. Seuss Had Created It: Guess who would say, “This body is old, but it’s all I’ve got. When 900 you, reach, look so good, you will not!”
• 8 Actors Who Look Exactly the Same on Every Movie Poster: Eddie Murphy, Denzel Washington, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Jackie Chan, Will Smith, Jet Li, Bruce Willis and Tom Cruise.
• Google Exodus: Hilarious video. In honor of the upcoming Passover and another viewing of The Ten Commandments (Affiliate).

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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]

Whoa, it be October! That means baseball playoffs begin and my team made it this year for the first time since 1999. That’s right — the Rangers and fans are partying like it’s 1999! I grew up playing sports and cheering on the Mavs, Texas Rangers, Cowboys, TCU and A&M. All teams have been up and down, but the Rangers rule them all in hanging around the cellar in the team standings.

I picked up my love of sports from my dad, the guy who’d have every Ranger game on. (You know baseball teams play a LOT of games… not like football.) Dad played football for his high school (James Madison) in Brooklyn, NY. I won’t bore you with this as I’ve collected lots of great links this week.

Need something fun to do and take a break from grind? Two awesome casual games have a new addition to the series! For the time management and Diner Dash fan: Cooking Dash 3: Thrills and Spills Collector’s Edition. For fans of mystery and hidden object adventures: James Patterson Women’s Murder Club Little Black Lies.

Brain food…

• Great Reminders for Writers from the Movie: The Prizewinner of Defiance Ohio: I never heard about this movie when it hit the theaters. Instead, I found it while looking for a movie to watch and it captivated me. Definitely one all writer’s should catch.
• SiteJabber: Consumer reviews of online websites and businesses.
• Manuals Online and Retrevo: Stop looking for the manual and get ‘em online. Well, some manuals aren’t available online anywhere like my Braun KF-187 Coffeemaker.
• Coordinating a book blog tour: Dotting your Rs and Crossing your… Rs: Worth saving so you can make the most out of them.
• Back to Basics: Why Am I Getting Rejected: Some of the time, it may not be you. Really. You can’t know what’s going on behind the scenes.
• How to Read Faster While Reading Well: Wish I had time to brush up on this as I’d like to read faster.
• Twitter Cheat Sheet: Excellent PDF file sorted in various categories. Not all are links to resources.

For fun because we’re allowed…

• How to Grow a Rainbow Colored Rose: Beautiful.
• Could have been love story: Facebook chat. Love the moral…
• Chewbacca’s First Day of School: That’s a keeper for his mom
• Rainbow Houses: 30 Pics: If I’d lived there, I’d need shades 16/7 (-8 to sleep).
• 10 Hilarious Looking Owls: Hoo knew they come in so many different looks? [Link: Paul Steele]
• Amazing Etch-a-Sketch Drawings: And all I can do is draw a box and weird shaped stick figures. [Link: Flipbooks]
• Carmen Sandiego IRL Win: “Years on the run have not been kind to her,” better half says. I LOVED playing “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” and watching the game show hosted by the awesome Lynne Thigpen. I have the theme song in my music player. Oh, and I was not a kid through all this. (Showing my age, aren’t I?) Well, actually, I was a teen in the first few game releases.
• Poet Venn Diagram: Brilliant. [Link: Guy L. Gonzalez]

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The Jewish New Year kicked off the Days of Awe at sundown on Wednesday, September 8. This year, I got an unexpected surprise of seeing family I hadn’t seen in a long time. My mom’s first cousin passed away and kids and some of their children and grandchildren came in town for the service. I’m sorry it took a passing for the opportunity to have a nice visit, but I’m grateful for the time spent with them.

Mom’s cousin was an amazing man who has accomplished a lot in his 90 years. (The panorama photo is from 1920 — the year he was born.) He was involved with many organizations and was one of the founding members of Fort Worth’s Van Cliburn Competition. He and his wife hosted contestants and one (Jon Nakamatsu) went on to win the competition. I had the honor of meeting Jon when he came to my parent’s house for a holiday meal.

My daughter, a high school junior, plans to attend college night early next week. She’s lucky because her school will have over 200 colleges visiting for the event. (Two of the local high schools host back-to-back college nights.) College night at my high school didn’t have 50 colleges. Maybe even 30 — but I can’t be sure. It’s an overwhelming and crowded event, but a great opportunity for the kids to start their college research. We’ve encouraged her to pick the schools that she’s interested in to make it easier.  College application adventures to be continued…

Brain food…

• A Sample Query Letter – that works! This is a good template to use as a guideline. Of course, adjust to fit publication and article. READ the publication before you query.
• Stories That Cross Borders and Boundaries: Tips for writing multicultural lit. While a memoir and not a novel, I’m in the middle of a fascinating cultural read in The Girl from Foreign. [Link: Elizabeth Craig]
• A Book About Writing That Might Change Your Life: Another one to add to my ever growing wanna reads.
• 10 Amazing Free Online Writing Courses: Grammar, tech writing, marketing and more.

For fun because we’re allowed…

• Silent Star Wars: If Star Wars was made in the early 1900s… [Link: Mark Hurst -- next one, too]
• Dancing at the Movies: Lose your blues… everybody cut footloose… love this video. See the comments for the movies.
• 12 Funniest “No Parking” Signs: You mean, I shouldn’t park here?
• Sleepwalking Soccer (Football) Goalkeeper: Bet he won’t forget to grab the ball from now on, right?

Share a family or college story.

Y’all know I love my books. They’re cheaper than gadgets (I love them, too) and reveal all kinds of wonderful stuff. My seven-year-old’s book shelves overflowed that I couldn’t straighten it anymore. His shelves were the culmination of Mom’s pre-children collection, big sister’s outgrown collection and big brother’s dumped collection.

He let go of many picture books (Aw, I’m proud since it means he wants to challenge himself with harder reading material) and then I reviewed his 250+ books to see what I wanted to keep. This task scared me as I feared I would hold on to too many. Well, I managed to select no more than 20. Proud of myself. Repeat with older son’s books. Survived again.

Plus it’s summer time. You know what that means? It means I start watching Style, Food Network, Bravo type stuff with shows like Clean House and Hoarders. These also motivated me to dump a lot of stuff. I’m even trying to find a home for my precious Theatre World Annual collectible books. These I won’t just give away.

The local Friends of the Public Library is having its annual book sale this month. Debating whether to go. Do I really need to haul in more books? Of course, it won’t be 100 books — I don’t think I’ve ever bought more than 10 (used much restraint!).

Another openin’, another set of links…

Brain food…

• How to Simplify When You Love Your Stuff: When I came across this the day after the great Snave (read it backwards) book clean of 2010, I knew what to write about in this post.
• “No!” Is a Complete Sentence: Fabulous post from Anne Wayman. Y’all know how it is to say, “No.” But Do you continue on with an explanation or do you stop there? Lori Widmer refers to Anne’s post and adds another important factor — the client’s reaction. Put these two together and you’re golden the next time you need that n-o.
• Winners of Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest: “A whimsical literary competition that challenges entrants to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels.”
• 5 Reasons to Title Your Art: While focused on artwork, it can apply to many things. When I see “Untitled,” I move on and don’t waste my time with it.  [Link: Marcia Yudkin]
• Ultimate iPhone Apps for Writers: 30+ Productivity and Creativity Boosts: I still use a BlackBerry, but own an iPod Touch. I don’t know that I’d ever want to make the switch to an iPhone because (1) I type faster on hard keyboard than on screen keyboard, and (2) iPhone / iPod Touch has addicting time-wasting apps that having it with me all the time could be harmful to my time management efforts. (I don’t have iPod Touch with me very often.)

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• 12 Unbelievable Mosaics: These artists have unbelievable patience.
• Clients from Hell: Hope you don’t recognize anyone here.
• Over 15 Very Funny Posts and Other Links to Make You Laugh About Freelancing: See comments for a few more.
• Time’s Best Blogs of 2010: Lists a few that I love like Cake Wrecks, The Oatmeal and GeekDad. I discovered a few cool ones I hadn’t met like PostSecret, S___ My Kids Ruined, Information Is Beautiful (How did I miss this one when I have this info visualization collection?), Shorpy (Reminds me of browsing through my grandparents’ photo albums… just something about black and white photos from the early 1900s) and more.
• 28 Minimalist Movie Posters: I used to collect Broadway show posters. Actually, having the posters paid off as I held a Broadway-themed party and put them to use. Anyway, enjoy the neat tour of these minimalist movie posters — some excellent and some eh? Love Shawhank Redemption‘s poster.
• Login is not a verb: What do you think?
• Re-imagining four common products from 2010 as if they were designed in 1977: An MP3 player, laptop, mobile phone and handheld video game system. Geeks will love this tour of what a flash from the past would look like had these existed in the ’70s.
• Dream Chronicles: Book of Air (affiliate): Dream Chronicles games consist of breathtaking scenes and lots of challenging puzzles. The cheaper standard edition is out. This could be how I’ll spend some of my weekend especially since it looks like a rainy one.

How do you manage your book collection?

Tomorrow, my husband and our two sons will see the Harlem Globetrotters play the hapless Washington Generals. I went years ago with my dad and caught them on TV whenever I could. I enjoyed the antics and fancy ball-handling of Curly Neal, Twiggy Sanders, Sweet Lou Dunbar and Meadowlark Lemon. I remember when Lynette Woodard joined them.

Cool fact: “Globetrotters have lost 345 games over the course of eight-plus decades. However, with over 23,000 wins, the Globetrotters do own the best winning percentage (.985) in the history of professional sports.”

What are your favorite sports memories?

Brain food…

• Social Networking For Authors: Tips For Using Twitter Effectively: Not including this because it mentions one of my articles. It’s good stuff.
• Best Writing Advice (According to Writers): A nice variety of folks.
• Lorna’s Top Ten Movies About Writers: What do you think? I added The Shipping News.
• How to Scan Thousands of Tweets without Tears: Breathe… one step at a time. It’s one option for finding what you need.
• 10 Rules for Killer Business Cards: 80 page presentation with mostly photos. Great example of good presentations and business cards. But what’s wrong with business card promos? OK, you don’t want your business card to be used to help someone get their shoes on, but there are clever ones.

For fun because we’re allowed…

• 16 Creative Coffee Mugs
• 10 Geeky Ways to Say I Love You: How about, “01001001 00100000 01101100 01101111 01110110 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101.” (I love you in binary computer code).
• 11 Strangest How-To Books: I own How to Read a Book.
• 12 of the World’s Most Unique Stamps: My dad was a stamp collector. Even went as far as mail certain stamps to have them stamped by US postal service. I was interested in it for about 10 minutes.
• Pac-Man Art in Brooklyn: Be like Pac.
• 40 Conceptual Print Ads – Creativity with concept: The one time McDonald’s had me saying, “Whoa! Cool!” (Referring to coffee photo. The clown one just looks freaky.)

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.