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.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Meryl Evans

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

It’s holiday weekend in the U.S. and many go to the movies. I’m sure most are seeing Star Wars: ROTS (Paul saw it last week), but those of us with kids are taking them to see Madagascar or Kicking and Screaming. My kids saw the former and said it was funny especially the penguins. I reviewed the meryl.net articles: Kicking & Screaming Children’s Books, and I think the movie is better without having seen it. Reminds me of a quote I read recently…

“Never judge a book by its movie.”

—J.W. Eagan

Colleagues and I were talking about Star Wars. If someone who has not seen any of the movies (you know… like my two-year-old), should he start with #4 (Star Wars) or #1 (Phantom Menace)?

After discussing with many good points thrown in, we agreed starting with #4 was best. Not knowing some of the “secrets” while watching #4 and #5 evokes a greater reaction than if someone begins with #1. I’d rather react to Luke and Laura’s scene without knowing the real story. Think about it. It’d be a different response than if you had known beforehand. I’m not providing details on purpose in case someone reading this hasn’t seen them … though I would think that would be highly unlikely.