My little guy, who turned eight yesterday, will be in third grade next fall — in the latter half of his elementary school years. Years ago, I started a tradition in writing a letter to my children on their birthdays reflecting the past year. I showed my daughter several letters on her 16th birthday as a way to connect when we went to breakfast for her birthday. But I think I’ll give all of the letters to them on their 18th birthdays. (Unless you have a better idea.) So daughter gets hers next year.

Eight is a great age. Still young enough to be adorable, like cartoon and other movies tween boys typically don’t watch (He asked to see The Wizard of Oz and Aunt E gave him the DVD and we watched it together. 12-year-old brother didn’t join us.) and doing crafts like Pearler Beads. It won’t be long before I’m a mom of “older” kids who don’t do the cute stuff anymore. I try to make the most of every day of his life and his siblings’ too. They’re only a certain age for one year, kids for 18 and adults for way more than that.

Mazel tov, William and Kate.

Brain food…

• The Sad, Beautiful Fact That We’re All Going To Miss Almost Everything: If I can’t get into a book, I dump it. Too many books out there, on my shelves and in my Kindle to waste time on the unworthy ones. I also went through my wish list and deleted a bunch of books with this thinking in mind. [Link: Elisa, my sister -- yes, that would be Aunt E]
• The top 9 lessons I wish I knew when I started my business: I’m grateful I had my meryl.net email long before I started the business. It’s also sad because I’ve used it as my primary email for so long because lots of spam come to that account. I’d love to wipe out and change my email address (while keeping meryl.net, of course). But I’d have to forward all messages to the new address and spam will follow.
• Letter to Beginning Writers: Applies to all writers. [Link: BubbleCow]
• 6 Ways a CRM Tool Can Help a Freelancer: The hard part… finding the right one.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Don’t Just Polish Your Nails — Geekify Them: Takes patience and tiny fingernail brushes.
• Video Game Alphabet Pattern: Lemmings! I spent hours on that game. I feel like a geek failure as I don’t know all of the games.
• 12 Most Bizarre ‘Royal Wedding’ Merchandise: Why would anyone want a life-sized picture of Will and Kate on a fridge? Crown jewels? Prepare to LOL.
• Better Book Titles: “This blog is for people who do not have thousands of hours to read book reviews or blurbs or first sentences. I will cut through all the cryptic , and give you the meat of the story in one condensed image.” [Link: Elisa]

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Football fans, welcome to Dallas-Fort Worth and places around and in between! First, sorry about the cold weather. It happens when you have Green Bay and Pittsburgh headlining the game. So what can we do? Here are the answers to all your “North Texas” questions and myth crushers from The Dallas Morning News.

Photo by flickr user John Pozadzides

Technically, Cowboy stadium is in Arlington, not Dallas. Oh, not the one with the cemetery. That’s in Virginia. It’s Arlington, Texas where the 2010 MLB American League champions Texas Rangers play. Dang proud of ‘em even if they didn’t win the World Series.

You’ll also find a couple of amusement parks where I spent many summers there including Six Flags and the water park that has changed names many times.

Although Arlington is an entertaining city sandwiched between Dallas and Fort Worth, naming the teams “Arlington” just doesn’t work. Sorry, Arlington.

On top of the identity confusion, did you know that official Super Bowl merchandise say, “North Texas”? Bland, isn’t it?

“Where are you from?”

“North Texas.”

“Where’s the Super Bowl?”

“North Texas.”

Good news is that weather reports predict temps in the 50s on Super Bowl Sunday. I’d say that’s cool. Maybe not South Florida warm, but it’ll do.

I haven’t seen Texas Stadium except while driving on I-20 to my hometown of Fort Worth. My seven-year-old has (camp field trip), my cousin from New York has (Cowboys – Giants game). I just don’t pass that way often and when I do, I’m on my way to hang out with my family in Fort Worth. I did catch a Cowboy game at the old stadium. Neat experience. TV works just fine for me especially with the high priced tickets and parking.

A memorable Super Bowl: I was 11 days from my due date with my oldest child when the Cowboys won the Super Bowl in 1994. Boy, it took a lot of energy not to jump up and down. Folks were surprised I didn’t go in labor during the game.

Brain food…

• 10 Ways to Make Editors Fall in Love with Your Work: Michelle Rafter shares advice from Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) editors.
• Four reasons why the sales growth of e-books will be slower than industry executives think: Michael Hyatt is one of the most reliable resources on the publishing industry.
• The Problem with Memoirs: Harsh, but lots of truths. [Link: Rachelle Gardner]
• Yes Virginia, You Can Over-promote: Sometimes I’m perplexed. I’ve seen folks like the person described in Lori Widmer’s article. Yet, they’re getting results. I aim to help others, get to know ‘em and occasionally point to my work. I think results could be better, but I’d never promote myself like this. And I’ve unsubscribed to newsletters from people who send too much stuff.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Typography Art: Darth Vader and Typographic Maps. [Links: Bitrebels]
• Browser History Timeline: Eric Meyer updated the timeline. I remember my first browser: Mosaic from Internet in a Box.
• United States of Awesome and United States of Shame: Texas rocks wind power, but fails high school.
• Intel’s Thrilling Chase Movie: How long did it take to create this extremely creative film?
• 7 Videogame Characters Made out of Bottle Caps: Starring Blinky and Mario.
• Gamer Wedding Cakes: Glad we stuck with a traditional one even if we liked playing games. These are cute, though, especially “Game Over.”

A two week break from school and work is just right. Neither too much or too little, but it’s enough to snap your schedule as you don’t go to bed or wake up as early. I managed to sleep until 8am a lot of the time — unusual for me.

Well, I had a great start and a disappointing finish this week. I’m all over the place… so I’ll just hand you the links and get out of the way.

Brain food…

• My Freelance Writer’s Manifesto: Right on, Carol. Preach it!
• Excuses, Excuses: While I see the writer is trying to be funny, really you shouldn’t complain about editors (or any client) in public even in jest. What do you think?
• ArchivedBook: Browse old Facebook updates without scrolling down through old posts for pages and pages… (Details from Tech Tickle.)
• The Big Question: Where to look and not to look for writing jobs outside of low paying ones (read: content mills).

For fun because we’re allowed…

• Sh*t My Kids Ruined: Instant stress reliever.
• Worst Video Game Names Ever: No wonder I haven’t heard of these and you know I’m a gamer girl.
• Damn You Auto Correct! These give you plenty of reasons to turn off autocorrect. It has a way of sneaking on you. I wrote a message recommending Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers. Autocorrect changed it to “Outports.” Not funny, but I’ve seen my share.

P.S. The non-Collector’s Edition (read: cheap) of the latest from the awesome series Mystery Case Files: 13th Skull is available. I’ll be playing that one soon.

How was your first week of 2011?

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Or is that the quiet before the storm?

All of the kids get out of school early today. I’m trying to finish up my work so I can make the most of winter break. It’s been an overwhelming two weeks filled with anxiety. I try to tell myself to take it one day at a time and one to do item at a time. Then, celebrate each completed item. Normally, this works well. I guess when you haven’t even done the annual letter that you send to friends by this point, it’s not a good sign.

I’m one of those who tends to be the first one sending out the holiday letter. Haven’t even started it. That’s because I had to prioritize my list. My friends won’t fall apart if they don’t hear from me, whether it’s late or not this year. That goes for blogging, too. I enjoy blogging and sharing my experiences with you, but I had to sacrifice it because of priorities.

Yes, like exercise, people tell you… make time for it! Make time for blogging! Make time for this. Make time for that. Enough make times and you’ll have to take things off your list or change the priority into low ones.

By the way, exercise is one of my higher priorities. It affects my physical and mental health.

Next Friday is Christmas Eve. The following is New Year’s Eve. I hope that you will spend time offline enjoying whatever you enjoy whether it’s eating Chinese food or attending midnight services. Ooh, that reminds me… I need to see if I have a jigsaw puzzle that I haven’t done. I do one every year during winter break.

All right, time to let you go tour the goodies and for me to get back to work.

P.S. In case you wondered, I took that photo in the ’90s when I lived in DC. I don’t have an eye for photography, but proud of that picture.

Brain food…

• Make Calm Your Default Setting: Bob Burg teaches an important lesson. Some hospitals don’t just ask you if your pain is 1 through 10 with 10 being unbearable. They show you a picture with 10 faces illustrating pain from a touch to monstrous. What may be a catastrophe for one person is an annoyance to another.
• Strategy Made Simple: I think most of us know that social media for business should have a strategy and plan. But not all of us have the resources especially one-person businesses. Ron Ploof shares a simple table to help you manage your social media strategy.
• Breathtaking Facebook Fan Pages: Breathtaking may be a little strong, but they’re impressive and provide lots of great ideas. Many are from entertainment industry, but scroll down for food, beverage and misc.
• All About the Excerpt: Key to convincing people to buy the book. [Link: Elizabeth Craig]
• 10 Ways to Beat Writer’s Block Fast: Not yet another writer’s block advice column. Has a couple of unique ideas.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• 15 Coolest Snowmen: Beware — a couple not safe for work.
• Bad Press Releases: 20 Worst Headlines Ever: Maybe not ever, ever… but pretty bad. [Link: Arik Hanson]
• 10 Most Powerful Tweets of 2010: Was Schwartz’ announcement this year? Anyway, anyone could do this type of post, but Twitter did a beautiful job. Keep watching Twitter’s Year in Review for more. [Link: Tim Berry and Liz Strauss]
• The History of Video Games (in song): I recognized Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” That may be no big deal to you, but this gal… does not have normal hearing
• 201 Mega Men: I woulda loved having this as a poster when I was a teen. What teen girl needs Kirk Cameron and Ricky Schroeder posters when you have adorable mega men? I guess I was a geek, huh?
• Amazon Provides a Dose of Humor: I had seen hilarious reviews here and there, especially The Mountain Three Wolf Moon Short Sleeve Tee. More gems hiding out there on the A to Z site.

How will you spend the last two weeks of the year?

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The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the first ‘one-deal-a-day’ website dedicated to indie and casual games:

Mon. March 8th: 50% off on House Racers

Tue. March 9th: 50% off on New Star Tennis

Wed. March 10th: 100% off on Space Spy – Free Game

Thu. March 11th: 45% off on Azada: Ancient Magic

Fri. March 12th: 65% off on Youda Legend: The Golden Bird of Paradise

Sat. March 13th: 60% off on Shaman Odyssey: Tropic Adventure

Sun. March 14th: 50% off on Hidden Identity – Chicago Blackout

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]

Game Music 4 All releases its first free internet compilation. It is called Here Comes a New Challenger. It is a compilation of chiptune, nerdcore, and VG musicians collaborating together as a tribute to video games. Get more info and download the album for free.

• The economy can’t be down games as video games immune to US slowdown. W00t!
• Video game sales soar in March. W00t again!
• EA extends deadline for Take-Two tender offer, lowers price
• Build your own MAME cabinet.
• The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies: Microsoft beats Nintendo and Sony. This stinks. What you think?

My husband treated himself (OK, so the rest of us like it, too) to an arcade game… the real thing. It has 42 games from the ’80s, much of what you’ll find on 1980 games.

Emulators make it possible for these games to make a return. Just be prepared… the graphics aren’t what we’re used to from today’s games.

I recommend those at work not to go to the site. It has a reference to adult games. While it’s just a link, the image shows a woman — not exactly something you want a passerby to see. Besides, why are you playing games at work?