Words With ScrabbleScrabble, Words With Friends, Lexulous

by geofones

6 Tips for Se Friendly Web Design

Here there are some tips for designing a web page SE friendly.

1. Choose the name of the URL based on the keywords – put 2-3 keywords separated by hyphens, NOT underscores. Search engines see hyphens as dividers and ignore underscores.

2. Insert a title for your web page. It should have around 60 (max 64) characters with spaces; some of the search engines will cut your title at this length, so keep it short. Put the most important keywords at the beginning. Try to not repeat words in title, if it is necessary only one word twice (maximum). You could insert plurals and different forms of the same word (ex: consulting, consultant, consultants). Check to see which form you should use (use Wordtracker or ask your SEO specialist).

3. Insert a meta description. Some of the search engines read it, as long as your web page is not listed in DMoz. It should be a concise description of your web page, not longer than 200 characters with spaces.

4. Insert a meta keywords tag. Don’t count on it, because most of the search engines do not use it. It should have between 10 and 20 keywords (max 900 characters with spaces) which describe your web page. These keywords should appear on your web page at least once. Do not repeat a particular word in the keywords tag more than three times. The search engines will penalize you! Use synonyms, misspellings and capital letters.

5. Create the content of your web page looking at your web page through search engines eyes:
– search engines download for reading only first 100k of the page – so INSERT the most important keywords at the top of the page
– use the keywords in H1/H2 tags, format them with Bold or Italic, or in links; this means that they are important
– search engines do not read java script – so DO NOT OUTPUT TEXT THROUGH JAVA SCRIPT
– search engines do not read images and flash elements – so images with text on them are useless. DO NOT INSERT images and flash elements at the top of the page. If it is necessary, add images with relevant ALT text. DO NOT USE FLASH INTROS.
– do not repeat a keyword many times in the page content. If it appears twice is enough. The keyword density should not be greater than 7-8% otherwise your web page will be penalized for spamming.
– the download page time is an important factor in SEO. Try to reduce the number and the size of the images and multimedia files as much as it is possible. The total web page size should be less than 30K (which means 8s downloading time on 56K connections). Reduce the number and size of CSS files – best – use 1 file with a size – take care at the broken links!

6. Do not use redirect pages except if they are SEO friendly, check online tools to find details about 301 redirection.

The Friendship Song – “Friends are Quiet Angels” is available for download and as a Personalized Gift CD at www.weddingmusiccentral.com A while back we got an e mail with a saying that started with “Friends Are Quiet Angels”. As songwriters, we couldn’t pass up such a great idea. We knew it would make a beautiful song and tribute to friendship. “The Friendship Song” expresses feelings for a special friend not only in words, but in music, and beautifully sung by Molly Pasutti. Now that we’ve discovered YouTube, our staff members, Jaimie and Drew put together this video for us. Even ‘man’s best friend’ got in the act! We hope it moves you as much as it does us. Please comment. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks, Gloria and Barbara © 2007 G. Sklerov & B. Rothstein All rights reserved “Friends are Quiet Angels” Friends are quiet angels Who lift us to our feet When our wings have trouble remembering how to fly They stand by us and give us the strength to try Friends are quiet angels Who somehow make you see The light that’s in the darkness before the dawn All at once the journey’s not so long But it’s the laughter and the fun Sometimes the feeling that we’re one All the tears we cry together you and I That will keep us heart to heart as time goes by Friends are quiet angels Who fill your life with grace Thrilled to share your joy when a dream comes true And on this special day I’m blessed ’cause I can say I’ve found a quiet angel You’re a special angel I found a quiet angel in you

Video Rating: 4 / 5

by @thewtb

Sympathy Words: Tips For Finding The Right Words Of Sympathy After The Death Of A Loved One

When someone you love has passed on, it can be difficult to find the right sympathy words to say. You’re grieving your own loss, but also know that their family is in a great deal of pain. The words of sympathy you want to convey may seem empty. However, it’s important to express your sympathy to your friend or loved one, and you can find examples of sympathy words at ObituariesHelp.org Show they know you care about what they’re experiencing. Sympathy words can stand out in the mind of a survivor long after the sharp stab of grief begins to fade.

If you need to write sympathy words, but are unsure where to begin, consider consulting a book or website like ObituariesHelp.org for ideas. There are a wide variety of sample phrases, ideas for sympathy cards, and even entire sample sympathy letters available online. You can use these examples to generate ideas, and then compose the sympathy letter that you’ve been imagining. This tip is especially useful if you find yourself stuck as to what to say, or if you’re experiencing anxiety about writing a sympathy letter.

Sympathy Words Show Support and Acknowledge Grief

Keep in mind, however, that your sympathy message should still be friendly, personable, and show your unique personality. Your loved one needs your emotional support and friendship, not empty sympathy words. If you have a favorite memory of the deceased, a funny story, or an appropriate quotation to share, add them to your sympathy letter. Your sympathy words will hold a touch of your unique personality, making them something to be treasured for years to come.

Take the time to acknowledge the recipient’s grief. This may well be the hardest thing they’ve ever endured, and they may not know where to turn. Don’t wait for the perfect words – instead, meet them where they are. Use simple, honest language to show them that you care, and that you’re there for them when they need you. Your sympathy words, while they may seem imperfect to you, are sure to show your love and support.

Sympathy Words of Faith and Secular Words of Sympathy

If you know that the recipient of your sympathy messages is religious, it may be appropriate to include a relevant scripture, such as Psalm 23. If you know the deceased’s favorite passage, this would also be appropriate to share. After a loss, many are able to find solace in their faith. You can also offer to pray as appropriate, whether for the bereaved family or the deceased. The survivors are sure to appreciate your spiritual and emotional support.

If you know that the family member left behind was not a religious individual, or if you are unfamiliar with their specific spiritual beliefs, you may want to find a secular sympathy card. He or she has lost a loved one and may be angry at the deceased, at the world, and at God. Now is not the time to share your religious beliefs. Instead, use sympathy words that are friendly and comforting, but nondenominational, to avoid alienating your loved one in their time of grief.

Following Up with Sympathy Words

If you are close to the surviving family members, consider following up with more sympathy words a month or so after the funeral. By this time, the initial shock will have begun to fade, and they may be wondering where to begin rebuilding their life. Many of their acquaintances will have lost touch, unsure how to speak to the survivor. You can offer your support by sending a simple sympathy message letting them know you are thinking of them and available to chat. This small gesture will mean more than you can imagine – after all, grief doesn’t end after a few weeks.

You can use these tips to write sympathy words that are both personal and appropriate for the occasion. Consult reference sources like those at www.ObituariesHelp.org, but be sure to include unique personal touches. Include a religious reference if appropriate, and follow up after a month or so to show your love and support after the funeral. By following these guidelines, you can write perfect sympathy words each time they’re required.

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by Dru!

Tips for playing Scrabble

Scrabble was invented by an unemployed American designer named Alfred Butts, who got  tinkering with a word game in 1933. Primitively called  Lexico, Butts gradually developed the game over the next five years.

If you are  sick of with losing, here are some tips to assist you amend your game.
Don’t utilise “baby” words. By this I have in mind do not get using words like “cow,” “the,” “sun,” “go!” These words are worthless and worth very, very few points. The only time to employ these, is if you have reexamined all possible words. I mean you want to have looked for and picked at your brain for those prominent words you remember from schooling. If you have done all of that and are yet clueless, so go ahead and lay down your three point word.

Placement on the board is essential. For certain, the squares that double and triple your letters and words are the to the highest degree desirable. But there are other ways to double your letters and words when those squares are not useable. Play as much of your word against a word already on the table as you can, adjoining as many letters of both words as possible. That doubles every letter in your word, or at least as many tiles as you are able to line up.

Another tip in playing Scrabble, is to spread out across the board. More often that not, when watching people play scrabble, they constantly seem to fuddle all of their words up onto one side, or one corner. This is ok for a while, but eventually you don’t have any room to play off of words, and your option becomes very throttled. Instead of doing this, try to do words evenly across the board, this will allow for a greater choice, and you will end up with big and better words.

Scrabble helper is a great tool that will obtain words from a given tiles even a blank tiles. 
The next tip is to look out for utile words. I was in a book shop the other day and they had a poster of horse anatomy on display – a veritable gold mine of potentially utile words. Simply browsing through a good dictionary is an diverting and useful practice session. Invariably hold a dictionary in the bathroom and when you are engaged on nature’s business, open  every which way.

Don’t let your adversaries view your tiles. You may consider it isnt a big deal, but if it comes down to a two or three point game, letting an opponent see a tile can end the game.  E.g., you are playing to 300, and the score is you 292, and the opponent 275. If the opponent watches you have an “E”, and an “E” is worth few points and so the opponent knows that whatever they do, they shouldn’t play a word that would assist you in using your “E.”.

Try to use all your tiles up foremost at the end of the game, and don’t get left with high grading tiles in your hand. These count against you at the ending, and are added to the score of the person who finishes foremost.

Tips For Getting The Best Aramaic Tattoo

Aramaic tattoos are gorgeous and meaningful, they look fantastic with tribal motifs and they are definitely unique! Every day at Aramaic Designs we hear from people who say they have wanted this Aramaic tattoo for years, whether they are expressing a deep religious conviction in their flesh, commemorating a joyous event, or memorializing a loved one. How irredeemably tragic when a symbol with so much value to the wearer is not only botched, but permanently scarred into their bodies! Worse still: how common it is.

No need to panic. It doesn’t take feats of strength to ensure you get the perfect tattoo. Read on and you’ll be set:

First, Read Up On Aramaic Aramaic Resources

Chances are, you already know something about Aramaic or you wouldn’t be looking for this tattoo (although, even if you don’t, Aramaic looks pretty cool, so who could blame you?). Nevertheless, the surest way to get the perfect tattoo is to do your homework. For instance, did you know that Aramaic is not just one language, but a whole family of languages? Only one of those languages is “the language of Jesus,” so if your faith inspired you to get this tattoo, you’ll want to perk up. The following sites are clearinghouses of information on all aspects of Aramaic, followed by the contents of the Aramaic Blog and the Aramaic Wikipedia article, just to be sure that you’re set:

Second, Know Your Translator

Don’t be shy, interview your translator! This goes just as much for volunteer translators and even for stock tattoo design ebooks or packages: if you’re going to put this on your skin, you need it to be accurate, and it can only be accurate if the person doing the translation knows their stuff. Ask the following questions for starters:

1. What dialects of Aramaic can you translate? How do you know them? (A clue: if they claim to be a native speaker of the language of Jesus, they just threw up a whomping huge red flag. No one alive today is a native speaker of the dialect Jesus spoke.)

2. How did you learn Aramaic? What are your credentials/experience?

3. Is the person you are speaking with the actual translator?

4. Are there any restrictions on what you can translate? (Clue: if they will only translate individual words or “translate” specific documents like Bible verses, that indicates that they don’t know Aramaic grammar. If they don’t know Aramaic grammar, the “translations” of single words are probably straight from a dictionary, or from the Aramaic New Testament if it’d a Bible verse. Save yourself the money, those are available free online or, for the same price or less, you can get a real translation elsewhere.)

5. The biggest red flag of all: Anonymity. If your translator hides behind anonymity, how can you verify anything they tell you? What recourse do you have if they pass you a bad translation?

Check Twice, Bleed Once! Get A (Free) Second Opinion

No matter how you got your translation, find someone reputable and have them look it over. This is especially true if you bought your translation: you’ll want your money back if it’s wrong. Steve Caruso, translator for Aramaic Designs, has been offering free Tattoo Translation Verifications since before he opened his business, way back when he ran AramaicNT.org alone. Just email him at aramaicdesigns@gmail.com with the following information to receive your verification:

1. The translation image.

2. The English you were looking to have translated, with any relevant grammatical information such as gender.

3. The script and Aramaic dialect you requested from your translator. (Different dialects can be mutually unintelligible, so we need to know the dialect you were looking for or it will take twice as long to check.)

4. The translator you received it from. This is essential because it’s through tattoo translation verifications that Steve keeps track of the good guys and the bad guys in order to warn your fellow customers.

You may also be able to find a Rabbi, Syriac Orthodox priest, native speaker, or professor wiling to double-check your translation, but be sure to ascertain that they know the dialect you were looking for. If you were looking for Old Aramaic, neither the priest nor the “native” speaker would recognize it.

Last of all, you can always pay another translator to check for you. Better to check twice, bleed once!

Tips to Transform your Scrabble Game

Alright, so your mother-in-law, a PhD in English Literature, has challenged you, a lowly salesclerk at the local bookstore, to a “friendly” game of Scrabble. Sound like a hopeless case? Certainly not! More than just a rivalry of vocabularies, Scrabble is a game of strategy. Equipped with the right tricks, even a child could give your mother-in-law a run for her money!

This article will give you five proven tips guaranteed to transform your Scrabble game. Whether you are a novice to the game, or looking to increase your skill in order to compete in clubs or tournaments, a little practice with these techniques will bring instant results!

Tip #1: Two-by-Twos

Experienced Scrabble players agree that the first key to success is memorizing the list of acceptable two-letter word combinations. This sounds harder than it really is. There are only 96 two letter words, and you undoubtedly know 23 of them. (Some lists include 120 two-letter words, depending on which dictionary you refer to. The 1998 Chambers Dictionary, as well as the Chambers Official Scrabble Words qualifies 120 words, while the Merriam Webster Official Scrabble Players Dictionary includes only 96. A good word of thumb would be to decide at the outset of a game which dictionary you will be using. I’d focus on the list of 96 words, as they are universally accepted in almost all dictionaries.)

Why is this word list so valuable, considering you only use two tiles? Knowing the two letter words helps you to build parallel words, enabling you to count your letters twice for each word you form. This dramatically increases your score! This skill is absolutely essential when the board is “closed,” (meaning that there are no wide open spaces to build new words in), as well as at the end of the game, when you must empty out your rack.

Memorizing this list only takes minutes if you associate each letter with the number of words it forms, (for example, there are 16 “A” words, 5 “B” words, etc.). Going through the lists and becoming familiar with the lesser known words is usually all it takes to commit the list to memory. It’s nice to know there are a few words that don’t require vowels!

The 96 words are: aa, ab, ad, ae, ag, ah, ai, al, am, an, ar, as, at, aw, ax, ay, ba, be, bi, bo, by, de, do, ed, ef, eh, el, em, en, er, es, et, ex, fa, go, ha, he hi, ho, id, if, in, is, it, jo, ka, la, li, lo, ma, me, mi, mm, mo, mu, my, na, ne, no, nu, od, oe, of, oh, om, on, op, or, os, ow, ox, oy, pa, pe, pi, re, sh, si, so, ta, ti, to, uh, um, un, up, us, ut, we, wo, xi, xu, ya, ye, yo.

Tip #2: “Racking” up Points by Anagramming

The difference between an average and an advanced Scrabble player has to do with the number of options a player can find in a given rack. Don’t just find one word and give up—keep moving those tiles around. There may very well be a better option than the one you find initially. Even if you end up using the same tiles, one word may score a higher value than another based on the location of the bonus squares. In addition, you may opt for one word over another because it is harder for your opponent to build on. For instance, if you have a hunch that your opponent has an S you should avoid laying down a noun, as this would allow him/her to “hook” on, scoring points for both words!

Tip #3: Keep it Hot

This hint may seem obvious at first, although there’s a bit more to it than first meets the eye. As you formulate your options on the board, focus on the “hot spots,” or the squares which award you double and triple the value of your tile and/or word. Use these squares to even better advantage by building parallel words, allowing you to use the bonus square two times (once for the horizontal word, and again for the vertical.) This is where that list of two-letter words comes in handy, particularly the words that contain high-scoring letters like J, Q, X, and Z. For example, the word “ex” used in a parallel position where the X lands on a triple would score at least 26 points.

The other side of this equation is that you must be careful not to make these hot spots available for your opponent! However, if you have a great word that opens up a triple, don’t throw it out the window. Weigh up your score against what your opponent may likely get. You may still come out ahead. Who knows? Your opponent may even pass up the triple, giving you a shot!

Tip #4: The Q—boon or bane?

No doubt about it, the Q is one of the most difficult tiles to play; therefore, it demands attention. There are a few tricks that can help you turn the Q to your advantage.

First of all, it’s advisable to commit to memory a few Q words that don’t require a U. Yes, they exist, and they are worth a lot of points, besides! So, here is your second (and final, for now) list of words to memorize: qaid, qanat, qat, qindar, qintar, sheqel, tranq, qoph, qwerty, faqir.

The words “aid” and “at” are particularly helpful for those looking to dump a Q, and this goes for your opponent too! Take care not to lay down either word if you suspect your opponent of having the Q on his/her rack, particularly at the end of the game! (I know this from sad experience; this oversight cost me an important match!)

Whatever you do, don’t hold on to Qs for more than a turn or two, hoping to draw a U. (This also goes for holding onto Us in case of drawing a Q.) Try to get it off your rack as soon as possible, as you lessen your chance of playing a good move when you’re only using six of your tiles. And if the game is close to the end you may want to consider trading it if there aren’t any options on the board. You certainly DO NOT want to get stuck with an unplayed Q at the end of the game, as it automatically adds 20 points to your opponent’s score.

Tip #5: Plan for BINGOs

Our last tip can be quite satisfying once it is mastered. It has to do with creating BINGO words (words which use all seven tiles) and is remarkably easy, once you know how to do it. Start by sorting your rack according to common word endings and save these letter combinations. One of the most valuable sets is “ING.” This takes care of three of your letters, and it’s much easier to form a four or five letter verb that works with “ING.” Voila! You have a BINGO! Some other common endings you want to watch for are -ed, -er, -ier, -iest, and -ies. I’ve even used -ation to good advantage. Un- and re- are good letters to set aside for word beginnings. Laying down your first BINGO is almost a rite of passage in the Scrabble world.

Now you are prepared to take on that grandiloquent mother-in-law; put that palaverous brother in his place. With practice, you may soon be able to join the ranks of the real Scrabble champions.

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