Email going around with this. “At 5 minutes and 6 seconds after 4 a.m.,on the 8th of July, this year, the time and date will be:

04:05:06am on 07-08-09

“This will not happen again until the year 3009.” You can say the same for the ones coming in the next three years:

05:06:07am on 08-09-10 (2010)
06:07:08am on 09-10-11 (2011)
07:08:09am on 10-11-12 (2012)

It’d be cool to have one of these birthdays.

• 7 Ways to Build Your Author Brand Online
• My Favorite Book Covers of 2008: Fabulous list. Can’t begin to pick one.
• LinkedIn: 22 Ways to Dominate: Link with me, if you haven’t already.
• How to Succeed (or Survive) as a Writer: PDF slidepack of F+W Media Editorial Director Jane Friedman’s two most popular talks from 2008-2009, plus a handout on surviving publishing in the 21st century.
• 10 Books for Mothers Who Write: I read Letters to a Young Poet when I took art in college. I don’t even remember the book — just that I read it. Maybe it’ll resonate more with me now.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Buildings don’t always fall down. They fall over.
• 10 Life Lessons from Star Trek presentation
• The Sea Pig [Link: shelleyryan]
• Collection of Independence Day covers from New Yorker
• When fireworks go wrong. Proof that fireworks aren’t toys.

I started writing a post about Twitter this morning. Then I realized, the post would work for one of my clients and moved it there. My clients come first, which makes it harder to produce high quality blog entries for my own blog.

And I am not about to abandon this place after nine years.

So how do I balance blogging here and blogging for clients / publications when our audience is the same? Not all of my clients have the same target audience, but a couple do.

That’s one reason why I don’t blog as often. I share good and fun finds on link Fridays. It looks like y’all like ‘em based on your feedback. Thank you!

So what to cover when you blog elsewhere?

1. Put you in the post: When blogging for clients, you may not share your background and experiences as much as you can for your own blog.
2. Share stories and experiences: Right now I am sharing a story of my struggles to blog here and there while maintaining high standards.
3. Make lists: Favorite / top tools, applications, etc.
4. Interview an expert: I am sure there are experts who fit your blog better than your client’s.
5. Write how to / tutorial: Some tutorials I do won’t fit client pubs. I do how tos on other sites, but it’s the topic that can make a difference.
6. Update entries: Most likely, you can’t update your posts on a regularly basis that you publish on client’s blog or web site. Update entries refers to lists and information that will receive regular updates such as List of Twitter Chats, Information Visualization and Presentations.
7. Discuss personal beliefs: Most likely client doesn’t want you to post such things (unless that’s what the blog is about). This can also be a show of support to nonprofits, struggling countries (Iran and Darfur) and so on.
8. Share lessons learned: Here’s a great opportunity to tell a story. Be creative!
9. Review new tool, app, web site, book, product.
10. Respond to another blog post: Instead of leaving a comment, use it as an opportunity to write a new post.
11. Share problems: Struggling with something in your business or personal life? Share it. Maybe it’ll help you find answers or readers will have ideas.
12. Ask questions: Turn a blog post into a discussion topic. Kick it off with your entry and pray comments come. Or post the questions in Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn and add the answers to the blog post.
13. Observe life around you: Something is bound to inspire. Or maybe you can tie it with a lesson.
14. Talk about a conversation: I have fascinating conversations and discover new things on Twitter and other social networks that would make a great post.
15. Answer common questions: Do you receive similar questions? Post your answer and now you can send people to the post when they ask the question. People often ask me how to become a writer, which inspired the post.

What other ways or topics can you find inspiration for your blog to keep it alive and first-rate when you blog for others?

ShortURL to this post: http://tr.im/qvhR

Sun. June 28th: 50% off on Battles of Norghan

Mon. June 29th: 50% off on Crazynoid

Tue. June 30th: 50% off on Boulder DashREpisode II: Jive-n-Cave

Wed. July 1st: 50% off on Smiling Bubbles

Thu. July 2nd: 50% off on BoXplosion

Fri. July 3rd: 50% off on Jet Ducks

Sat. July 4th: 50% off on Solitaire Studio

• Best Sites for Used Cars: Daughter has driver’s permit. Not gonna get her a new car. If anything, she’ll inherit hubby’s car once he gets a replacement.
• Star Trek does opera: Khannnnn! in Italian.
• Emo Babies: Not emo as in wearing black, but showing their feelings and emotions. Very cute.
• Wanna See a Kindle 2?

I love participating in Twitter chats. These bring together intelligent individuals with a common interest yet each one adds something unique to the conversation. I’ve already covered how to join Twitter chats. This post looks at the process of participating in the chat.

#journchat set many of the standards that other chats have adopted. While official standards don’t exist, it becomes clear what works and what doesn’t work after you participate in enough chats. These guidelines capture the practices that lead to productive and fun chats.

1. Let participants know how to submit questions: Some moderators ask for questions before the chat, during the chat or both. Different moderators have different submission preferences. It helps to receive questions in private rather than during the chat because people might start answering.
2. Announce topic before chat: Most Twitter chats have a topic for the conversation. This keeps everyone on the same page. Tweet the topic before the chat so everyone knows.
3. Announce guests before chat: Guests add to the chat by sharing their expertise. Letting participants know about the guest allows them to watch for them and follow them. Some twitter apps like Tweetchat let you enter a Twitter ID to highlight that person’s tweets.
4. Tweet chat reminder: People get busy and forget. It’s OK to tweet reminders along with the topic and guest ID. It helps grow your list, too.
5. Begin chat with rules: New chatters join, experienced chatters forget. It keeps everyone on same page.
6. Identify who chat targets: #Editorchat, for example, is for editors and those who work with them. It doesn’t mean you can’t join if you don’t fit, you can observe.
7. Start with introductions: Moderator can encourage specific information such as “Tell us who you are and what you do.”
8. Stay on topic: Of course, it’s OK to laugh and make a joke about a comment. In fact, Timberry said, “A wise competitor once said: I don’t care if you stand beside me on the pier fishing. There are plenty of fish.” adarowski followed up with, “You didn’t push him, did you? :)” Gave us all a big laugh.
9. Play nice: Accept it’s OK to have a difference of opinion, just be nice and courteous about it. If we all agreed all the time, it’d be a boring conversation.
10. Listen: Moderators and guests take the lead. We all have something to contribute. Listening ensures you stay on track and avoid dominating the conversation.
11. Block spammers: Several spammers invaded Twitter chats. Everyone blocked them and stopped it. While this rule could say “Don’t spam,” generally the spammers aren’t really part of the conversation.
12. Begin questions and answers with Q1, Q2, etc.: This helps people connect the answer with the question. I admit it — I forgot a couple of times.
13. Add the chat name to tweet: If you use Tweetchat or Tweetgrid, it will automatically add it for you. Otherwise, add the name with # or else the group will miss your comment.
14. Watch the pitching and promoting: Several chats ask to save the pitches for the last five minutes of the conversation.
15. Take unrelated tweets out of chat: Go to the Twitter browser or DM the person. It’s hard enough to follow a chat without having irrelevant and personal comments cluttering the stream.
16. Warn friends: Some people don’t like it when their twitter stream fills up with a bunch of tweets from a person participating in a chat. Many folks enter a chat saying, “About to join chat. You might want to put me on www.twittersnooze.com.”

What else works or doesn’t work when it comes to chatting through twitter?

ShortURL to this post: http://tr.im/twitterguidelines

• Try your luck in the casino to earn and spend points
• Adventure and escape puzzles
• Mini games and wedding crisis levels
• All-new “Choose a Story” - your decision could affect the path of the game

Try Dream Day Wedding: Viva Las Vegas.

Sun. June 21st: 30% off on Farm Frenzy 2

Mon. June 22nd: 30% off on Farm Frenzy -Pizza Party!

Tue. June 23rd: 30% off on Alex Gordon

Wed. June 24th: 30% off on Beach Party Craze

Thu. June 25th: 30% off on Magic Ball 3

Fri. June 26th: 60% off on Nanotron

Sat. June 27th: 60% off on Lucky’s Puzzle Carnival

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Darth McVader: This link is in memory of my dear friend Glenn.
• The Stapler Caper: Adorable wordless children’s book that encourages children to write the story. YouTube video tells more. Disclaimer: Creator is a dear friend of mine. Heard great story about a kid who hated writing. He actually produced an incredible story using this book as a tool. Wow.
• Tilt-shift Photos of London: Just makes me wanna get there ASAP! I love the UK and am eager to visit there as one of my first stops on the other side of the world.

Your logo is the proverbial “calling card” for your business. The appearance, style and design of your business logo will be responsible for the all-important first impression to a potential customer or client.

Understanding the importance of your business logo, you may wonder what you should have and what you should include within the design of that logo. This article provides tips and pointers on what type of logo you need to have for your business enterprise.

Logo as an Iconic Representation

When you are considering what type of logo will be most suitable for your own business, you can learn a good deal from those very successful logos that have really proven successful over time. Some logos have become so widely recognized that they are iconic.

Examples of iconic logos include the Coca-Cola logo, the Starbucks logo and many other logos that have been around for a long time that have become a part of the consciousness of consumers from all parts of the world.

You can take tips and cues from these logos when it comes to the decision making process associated with your own business logo. For example, these logos have common factors and elements that you can translate into your own logo design efforts.
For example, these iconic logos have clean and clear design concepts, have basic color schemes and convey a sense of what the business is about.

Take Practical Considerations into Account

In addition to taking a look at what other successful businesses have done in the way of logos, you want to clearly take in account practical considerations. For example, want to make sure that your logo appropriately conveys at least an indication of the products or services that you are offering through your business venture. A logo that doesn’t convey a sense of your business type will become ineffective in branding at best and a devastating error in the worst-case scenario.

You also need to ensure that your branding devices appeal and attract the specific market niche that contains the specific consumer group who will be most interested in doing business with your firm or company.

Simple Is Better

When selecting a logo design, keep in mind that a clean and uncluttered look is the best selection and the best choice for your operation.

With a clean, clear and uncluttered logo, consumers will more readily connect with your business. A quicker, sounder connection increases the number of customers or clients that your firm or company will do business with both in the short and the long term.

Know Your Industry

While you definitely do not want to copy another business’s logo design concept, it can help you to analyze what other businesses in your specific industry are doing in the way of logos, branding and related issues. Some themes are commonplace and suitable within a specific industry. Therefore, it likely will behoove your business to incorporate these themes into your own efforts at designing the most effective logo for your venture.

This is a step that a professional design firm will undertake as part of its own effort at developing the most effective and appropriate logo for your own business enterprise.

Final Lines

If you take the time and make the effort to consider the factors in this article, you will be in a better position to understand what type of custom logo will not only be the most suitable, but also most effective for your business venture. You will be laying the groundwork for a successful and profitable business, the groundwork that will serve you well not only today but as your business grows into the future.

The story told in Adventure mode makes little sense even though the game delivers most of it in small bites. So I won’t even go into what it’s about. I’m not sure myself. But the game more than makes up for it.

First, here how the Golf solitaire works: You take cards off the table that are one up or one down from the card in the pile. So if your pile card shows a king. You look for any open aces or queens (they can’t have a card on top of them). Let’s say you find an ace, put that on top of the king.

Now you need either a king or two. Keep taking cards off the foundation until you have no more moves. Then take another card from the stock pile and repeat. Clear the table for a perfect game, a goal you’ll need to reach in order to move on in some levels.

Every level consists of nine rounds of solitaire and has its own goals. You need to reach those goals by the time you finish the nine games. If not, you’ll replay the level. Otherwise, you move on to the next location (it’s that story thing again). Goals can be X number of perfect games, X amount of cash, fill purple meter within X minutes or make X moves in a row (without taking a card from the stock pile). You get cash for every play you make.

Of course, you’ll have power ups and barriers to keep Faerie Solitaire — but not so much that it becomes a confusing mess. Every now and then you’ll get a bonus card between 1 and 10. You can use these cards like you do when you take a new card from the stock pile except these won’t restart your “moves in a row” number so use these cards wisely.

Some columns won’t budge because they’re locked in by a thorn. To unlock the thorn column, you need to clear out the column that has a rose over it. Same goes for frozen cards. You need to clear the cards in front of the fiery one so you can use it to melt the frozen cards, which are always face down.

When you clear a column, you might find a surprise. It could be an egg or one of three elements that you need to evolve your new pet. Eggs appear randomly throughout the game. Finishing Adventure mode won’t ensure you find all the eggs. That’s where the replay value comes in. You’ll want to replay the different modes so you can uncover more eggs.

You can buy special power ups from Faerie Land and visit the Hatchery to hatch your found eggs. Once hatched, the creatures are babies. Each creature has a required amount of elements you need to collect to be able to evolve them. The creatures on the lower end require fewer elements than those on the higher end. It’s not clear what it takes to evolve a creature because I’ve collected the things it needs, but it’s not evolved right away. Nonetheless, it’s still a fun and cool feature.

Special power ups give you another undo (undo the last move), help your pets evolve faster, see the next card in the deck, reveal more cards on the table and so on.

I never once replay a level in Adventure mode. It was a breeze for the most part. The hard part doesn’t come in until near the end and when you unlock and play the five challenge levels. Now those called for a lot of replay until I could beat them. You can also replay any level.

The game had one annoying bug that comes and goes. When you start a new level, it needs to give you the objectives. Sometimes it pops up on the screen before you play and others nothing happen. You can always access the objectives by going to the menu. The game should let you view the objectives without leaving the game.

This is not a lazy game. Golf solitaire requires some planning ahead. Faerie Solitaire with its added barriers and extras calls for more strategy than a basic game of Golf. Although the graphics aren’t impressive and the story pointless, the game had me hooked for the entire weekend and it’s become one of my favorite solitaire games. I still want to play because I want to find the rest of the eggs. But beyond that, I’ll have to move on to another game — but that’s part of a reviewer’s job.

Download Faerie Solitaire.