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

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).

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Meryl Evans

“What the …? Julius Caesar?” OK, I used St. Patrick’s Day last week so it’d appear before the actual day. Easter and Passover (Eastover? Passter?) are not until next week. OK, so the Ides of March as mentioned in Julius Caesar comes before St. Patrick’s Day, but I was outta ideas. Since we’re talking Roman dates, this could be the XIX edition. So is this my Seinfeld post for the month where I talk about nothing?

Brain food…

• Wordoid: Creative naming service for product names, web sites, domains and whatnot.
• PaperRater: Not just for college students. Free resource to help students improve their writing. (Writers, too!) [Link: BitRebels]
• How I’d Negotiate with Clients Wanting oDesk “Features”: Great response to one writer’s experience with oDesk.
• Book Summary Template: How to Get the Most from a Book: While it’s best to pick a few books and read them often to better grasp and implement new knowledge, some of us like to read a variety. This template will help you make the most out of a book.
• How Writers Can Manage Federal Income Taxes: Don’t. Shoot. Messenger. Also, 5 tips for filing your taxes easily.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• The Lost Art of Handwriting: Embroidered email designs. Who knew such embroidery and email could be moving.
• Intranet Secrets: Who knew the intranet could be funny?
• Evolution of Tech Companies’ Logos: How did I ever miss Apple’s original logo? First I’ve seen it.
• Sketch a Move: I’ve seen something similar where you draw the move and the car follows your drawing or maybe it was a robot? [Link: Mark Hurst]
• Paradoxymoron: Cool painting of bookshelves by Patrick Hughes. [Link: Mark, too]
• Paris 26 Gigapixels: Take an interactive trip around Paris. No plane ticket needed. [And Mark again!]

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.

• To call or not to call? Should you follow up with an editor after sending PR? Mixed bag.
• Why you want a Dwight Schrute in your office
• 115 Marketing Strategies for Small Business
• Make a Monitoring Dashboard to Track Online Conversations.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• 10 Plagues Wine Glass Markers: Wish I had found these before Passover started.
• The Ultimate Matzoh-Ball Game
• Kosher Coke is not just for Jews: Excuse me? No, the regular Coke tastes better than the one without corn syrup. Or maybe the fact we can’t get this in cans or smaller bottles is the problem because they go flat the minute you open them.
• LED: Easter Eggs: Happy Easter to those who celebrate.
• Easter-themed Rube Goldberg Machine. From the too much time department.

Can we expect showers to follow? To be continued…

• 27 Twitter Applications Your Small Business Can Use Today
• The Top Five Innovation Killers: Go on. I dare you.
• 10 Free Things for Writers: Contains stuff I hadn’t seen before reading this list.
• Angry Editor Rant: Want to know why things aren’t going so well for some freelance writers? This could explain why. [Link: Anne]
• How to Land a Writing Job: Another winner from Anne. She’s on a roll!
• Experience Design: Why pages are the last thing you need to worry about. Lovely presentation by Tim Richards.
• 175 strategies and places for link building. Step 1: Find time. A 17-year-old has more time than a parent of three with a full-time paid job and part-time job as volunteer.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Drawings by Craig Frazier. Words by You. Submit your captions.
• Super Mario Brothers Rubik’s Cube: And I can’t even solve the original — just one side.
• Passover Does Facebook: Hilarious.