So many late nights this week watching basketball and working on a freelance project. Lots of good things to read this week:

5 Most Common Web Standards Misconceptions
I love the first item: Web Standards = Validation. Just because your site is valid, that doesn’t mean it’s not crap.
Core Principles for Rapidly Attaining Creative Flow
Some simple techniques for achieving “a state of focused concentration”. I find it hard to stay focused some times; I need to try some of these.
A List Apart: Issue 255
As usual, A List Apart delivers two solid articles: Findability, Orphan of the Web Design Industry and Sign Up Forms Must Die. While I don’t really agree with the thought that all Sign Up Forms Must Die, I think Luke Wroblewski brings up a lot of interesting points.

The Secret To Google’s Success: Free Beer And Sushi
So you’re telling me that I just have to tell my job that I will work better with beer and sushi? Yeah, I’m sure that would fly.
Decision or Bug?
Can you imagine actually being able to use pixels for font size? I guess we can dream.
Grid-Based Design: Six Creative Column Techniques
Six creative techniques for making your grid design extra special.
10 Tips For Your First Email Campaign
Ugh, just thinking about HTML emails makes me want to cry. At least this article discusses the non-design factors when preparing a campaign.
Farnsworth.
Wow, they call all of their clients every week? That’s pretty awesome.
The thrill of launch
This is a great article for two reasons:
1. It was really interesting to read about the hectic day that Clickpass had leading up to their launch. (I know the feeling)
2. I think that OpenID is going to be really important this year. With services like Clickpass making it easier for developers to add OpenID to their sites, I am hoping that OpenID will really take off this year.

Weekly Link Round-Up #24