Welcome to meryl’s notes blog (this here place you’re lookin’ at) in Plano, Texas. We’re honored to be a stop in Pesi Dinnerstein’s WOW! Women On Writing Blog tour. We’re giving away a copy of A Cluttered Life: Searching for God, Serenity, and My Missing Keys! [affiliate] Read on to see how you can win. … Read more
Travel. Love it. Hate it. I dream of going to London, Paris, Greece, Italy and other places. But then I think about all the work it takes to do overseas travel and the desire goes away… for a little while. Maybe it will be easier to do overseas travel when my life calms down — … Read more
Image by eyesplash Mikul via Flickr I’d love to read more stories like these two. They provide valuable insight in human nature, perception and more. The Executive and the Branch Manager The first lesson is in perception. I caught this nugget in a New York Times article [Link: Jack Scharff]. It’s a valuable lesson involving … Read more
I’m hooked on As Time Goes By, a British TV show starring the Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer. I’m also getting into British-based Prime Suspect with Helen Mirrin. Not only do I enjoy the repartee between Dench and Palmer, but also hearing the British accents. While I may not have good hearing, I can see … Read more
Photo credit tsevis Here is the article in its entirety as I’m running around trying to get stuff done before hand surgery and Thanksgiving. Grammar geeks rejoice. Shouldn’t we be happy he actually speaks English? Obama’s Use of Complete Sentences Stirs Controversy: Stunning Break with Last Eight Years by Andy Borowitz In the first two … Read more
Ever receive a link to a business web site where you can’t figure out what the company does? The home page sounds like something from the company’s fancy and non-sensical mission statement. Unfortunately, many companies rely on content from their business plan and other internal documents. I had a brief client who did this. The … Read more
I enjoyed reading Great Writing from a Small Child. When I read the post, my 5-year-old had written a poem. The requirements were the poem had to be about you and the end of every line must rhyme with dog. Can you believe not many words qualify? His poem: I have a dog. I like … Read more
Call me goofy, but I loved singing “The Name Game” as kid: Meryl, Meryl, bo-beryl, Banana-fana fo-feryl Fee-fi-mo-meryl Meryl! Yeah, yeah… I know how some immature kids like to use names like Chuck and Mitch. I’m sure you’ve heard your share. I’ve always been fascinated with names, how they came to be, and their origins. … Read more
TechCrunch reports that Microsoft calls its next operating system (the one after Vista) Windows 7. Mickey comments: I’d love to see them start using logical numbers again, but it doesn’t add up: Windows 3.1 (“Windows 3”) Windows 95 (4) Windows 98 (5) Windows ME/2000 (6) Windows XP (7) Windows Vista (8) Windows 7 (9?) I … Read more
I try to avoid using any variation of is because that turns a sentence into telling instead of showing. Is and was appear less in my writing, but they slip (the little stinkers) in on occasion. These tips come from my journey to do more showing and less telling in my writing. Before we dive … Read more