Lately I've been writing about horror movies, in a way to compliment my Hallowe'en Marathon lens. After spotlighting one of my favorites - A Nightmare on Elm Street - I decided to do my top ten list of the best vampire characters in movies. It came out of WIP late last night, so I started browsing through some of the groups I had joined recently, on the hunt for some good lensroll content. Again and again, I kept coming across great movies lenses by Orthia.
She has some really fantastic top ten lists, where she features movies that you wouldn't normally think of, but that really do deserve to be on somebody's best list. My favorite was the "Apocalyptic Top Ten", but I of course had to add "Horrific Top Ten" to my lensrolls.
I liked her top ten vampire movie list so much, that I featured it right on Top Ten Movie Vampires. While I stuck mostly to new titles, she's got all the classic favorites. I really enjoyed reading all of this Giant Squid's top tens. If you like movies, or lists, I highly recommend them.
Meanwhile, I've been doing a lot of lens polishing. A good habit I suppose, but it's really my way of putting off writing the text portions of my next lens to be. In school friends and teachers always told me that I should go to college to be a writer. It wasn't until I was ready leave high school that I realized how much I actually hate writing. Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you enjoy it, I guess. Too bad nobody told me to go to culinary school. I love to cook. I could have been running a restaurant by now. I should sue my guidance councillor. Maybe I'll just add more recipes to the Mommy Menu.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
15 Lenses and Counting!
I've just created my personal lensography. I'd been putting it off, then decided to put it together because I wanted to link to it in my latest lens The Top Ten Move Vampires. I didn't realize how many lenses I had under my belt until I viewed them all together that way. The list seems rather small compared to the number of lenses I have planned on my To-Do list. I have another Top Ten lens in the works, and when it's complete, I will add them both to my lensography.
As soon as it's no longer a Work in Progress, the first thing I'm going to lensroll is the Great Squidoo Groups Lensography. It's a great spotlight on some of the best groups on Squidoo, and my new destination when I'm looking for groups to join. Running a group efficiently and making it useful is just as important as creating good lenses. Far too few people take it as seriously as they should. But, like lensmaster rwoman says, the cream rises to the top.
As soon as it's no longer a Work in Progress, the first thing I'm going to lensroll is the Great Squidoo Groups Lensography. It's a great spotlight on some of the best groups on Squidoo, and my new destination when I'm looking for groups to join. Running a group efficiently and making it useful is just as important as creating good lenses. Far too few people take it as seriously as they should. But, like lensmaster rwoman says, the cream rises to the top.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Parodies are Fun!
So awhile ago I decided to write an entire lens about A Nightmare on Elm Street, as a complimentary page to my Hallowe'en Marathon. I had originally intended on making it a Squidflix lens, but I couldn't figure out how to get into the workshop, so I gave up and just started a regular old lens.
After writing and picking images and action figures and links, I poked around looking for good content to add to my Discovery Tool. When I searched keyword Freddy Krueger, I found the most hilarious lens! Freddy Krueger & Jason Voorhees: Best Friends Forever is a clever back story about horror films' greatest villains. It's a bit silly in places, but all around it's a good laugh and a nice tribute. I particularly like the chapter about the Crystal Lake high school prom - it's priceless. I was a little surprised to discover that the author was a self proclaimed QueenOfTheGeeks. I would have guessed a guy for sure! Not that I believe in gender stereotypes. After all, who just wrote a guide to Freddy Krueger films?
After writing and picking images and action figures and links, I poked around looking for good content to add to my Discovery Tool. When I searched keyword Freddy Krueger, I found the most hilarious lens! Freddy Krueger & Jason Voorhees: Best Friends Forever is a clever back story about horror films' greatest villains. It's a bit silly in places, but all around it's a good laugh and a nice tribute. I particularly like the chapter about the Crystal Lake high school prom - it's priceless. I was a little surprised to discover that the author was a self proclaimed QueenOfTheGeeks. I would have guessed a guy for sure! Not that I believe in gender stereotypes. After all, who just wrote a guide to Freddy Krueger films?
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
A One Sided Debate
I was browsing around on Squidom, and I came across a HeyMonkeyBrain lens by lensmaster sarahjjac, about parents getting away with letting kids die in hot cars. I'd been waiting to come across a lens to put in the "Lens that made me cry" section of my profile, and finally found it. Although I didn't truly cry, I did cringe - a lot - and hugged my baby fiercly after I read it. Apparently, in the US, being stupid isn't a crime. Even when being stupid results in the death of a child. People who leave their kids in the car on hot days don't get charged when they die, because they claim they 'forgot' that the child was even in the car with them. Who does that?? That's the kind of lapse that should last 30 seconds, at best, not long enough for a kid to bake in the sun.
Leaving a kid in a hot car to die IS neglect!! is such an important debate - although how anyone can side with the offending parents is beyond me. As soon as I was done participating in the Duels, I immediately lensrolled it to my Professor Baby series. I'm a big believer in criminal stupidity. People seem to forget that just because someone is charged with a crime, doesn't mean that they will go to jail. People tend to sympathize with negligent people whose stupidity and disregard for others results in harm and death, because they could see themselves getting into such a mess, and would hate to go to prison for it. I think that everyone who 'accidentally' harms someone should have to go through the legal system. A judge decides whether what they did - and how sorry they are for it - is terrible enough to warrant a prison sentence. That way, everyone has to be responsible for their own actions.
"I forgot I had my baby with me" my arse! If the baby sitter did it, you bet your left eye they'd be rotting in a cell, because the parents would see to it. So who's responsible for getting justice for a child when it's the parents who screw up? Apparently nobody! If you think this is an outrage, I highly recommend heading over to sarahjjac's lens and putting in your 2 cents. She's provided a lot of angles and queries to really drive home her side of the scale. It's my favorite HeyMonkeyBrain to date.
Leaving a kid in a hot car to die IS neglect!! is such an important debate - although how anyone can side with the offending parents is beyond me. As soon as I was done participating in the Duels, I immediately lensrolled it to my Professor Baby series. I'm a big believer in criminal stupidity. People seem to forget that just because someone is charged with a crime, doesn't mean that they will go to jail. People tend to sympathize with negligent people whose stupidity and disregard for others results in harm and death, because they could see themselves getting into such a mess, and would hate to go to prison for it. I think that everyone who 'accidentally' harms someone should have to go through the legal system. A judge decides whether what they did - and how sorry they are for it - is terrible enough to warrant a prison sentence. That way, everyone has to be responsible for their own actions.
"I forgot I had my baby with me" my arse! If the baby sitter did it, you bet your left eye they'd be rotting in a cell, because the parents would see to it. So who's responsible for getting justice for a child when it's the parents who screw up? Apparently nobody! If you think this is an outrage, I highly recommend heading over to sarahjjac's lens and putting in your 2 cents. She's provided a lot of angles and queries to really drive home her side of the scale. It's my favorite HeyMonkeyBrain to date.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
A Match Made in Heaven
So I was reading a lens by Susan52 called Why Not Turn a Blog Post into a Squidoo Lens! and little light came on. One of my other blogs is about beadwork and the creative process - something I started to showcase my work and talk about beading and artists that I admire. I started thinking about it, and discovered that I could, infact, turn it into a lens! I spent some time taking new photos of my most inspired pieces, and put a together a lens called Inspirational Beading. It's image heavy, which is good in a way. If it was a really wordy lens, I might still be working on it and not the other lenses I want to do by the end of the month! It was really fun though, and I got to take a look back at some of my older beadwork, remembering where I was when I made it. Now I can share it with other beaders.
On a sadder note, my first lensography, from my Recycle It! series got a 3 star rating. I guess it really wasn't wordy enough? I had meant to add some more text and recycling tips, but I didn't think it was that bad. Perhaps I'll read up a little more on lensographies!
On a sadder note, my first lensography, from my Recycle It! series got a 3 star rating. I guess it really wasn't wordy enough? I had meant to add some more text and recycling tips, but I didn't think it was that bad. Perhaps I'll read up a little more on lensographies!
Friday, September 12, 2008
Playing Catch Up
The last few days have mostly been about catching up on tasks that I've been neglecting. I've finally finished adding the backlog of bookmards to Delicous, and have move on to Stumbling things I've been meaning to StumbleUpon.
I did manage to get started on the Recycling Lensography I had been meaning to make. Although it needs work, I published it anyway. It's pretty simple and straightfoward, so there's not a lot missing if anyone visits it. I would just like to add some text about recycling in general, when I get the chance.
Well, back to work...
I did manage to get started on the Recycling Lensography I had been meaning to make. Although it needs work, I published it anyway. It's pretty simple and straightfoward, so there's not a lot missing if anyone visits it. I would just like to add some text about recycling in general, when I get the chance.
Well, back to work...
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Out with the Ebay
Today I put together a new lens, but since I can't join any groups, add lensrolls, or do anything fun with it until it's no longer a Work In Progress, I decided to tidy up some of my other lenses. My Professor Baby series gets the least traffic - only 2 or 3 visits a day. It's a hard topic to promote, since I'm not yet a member on any parenting forums, it's not a very searchable topic, and there aren't that many other lenses about it. At least not that I've found.
I'm always looking for other baby and parenting lenses to add to my 'rolls, but most of them are about selling baby products, and have very little readable content. I did come across a really great lens today, though, called Breastfeeding Guru. It's a very long lens, and most of the product modules are nicely squeezed in between helpful content. It has no spamminess at all!
As I was looking over my Professor Baby Prenatal Calendar lens, I decided it was time to get rid of the sloppy eBay modules once and for all. I've come to find that they are totally useless for providing examples of items related to the lens content. Do a search for digital cameras, and you'll end up with cords and other junk that is most definately not cameras.
I'm sticking with Amazon from now on for my non-beading lenses. I liked Amazon modules better anyway, because you can select the thumbnail view, which places a nice row of 5 products that are centered on the page and take up hardly any room. And they (almost) never expire - a definite bonus if you don't have time to scan every single lens you make, everyday.
I'm always looking for other baby and parenting lenses to add to my 'rolls, but most of them are about selling baby products, and have very little readable content. I did come across a really great lens today, though, called Breastfeeding Guru. It's a very long lens, and most of the product modules are nicely squeezed in between helpful content. It has no spamminess at all!
As I was looking over my Professor Baby Prenatal Calendar lens, I decided it was time to get rid of the sloppy eBay modules once and for all. I've come to find that they are totally useless for providing examples of items related to the lens content. Do a search for digital cameras, and you'll end up with cords and other junk that is most definately not cameras.
I'm sticking with Amazon from now on for my non-beading lenses. I liked Amazon modules better anyway, because you can select the thumbnail view, which places a nice row of 5 products that are centered on the page and take up hardly any room. And they (almost) never expire - a definite bonus if you don't have time to scan every single lens you make, everyday.
Monday, September 8, 2008
The Best Lens Ever
Fellow lensmaster Susan52 posted this lens on Twitter: The Best Squidoo Lens NOT To Do. It's a pretty clever example of the worst kind of lenses, a way to show lensmasters that their Etsy (or CafePress, etc) showcase needs some work. Since I love sarcasm, and hate bad lenses, I have dubbed this 'The Best Lens I Have Ever Read'.
It's really quite brilliant, especially to those of us who do put a lot of effort in, and can't make good lensrolls because we can't find anyone who actually has anything to say about relevant topics. GrowWear really hit it on the head with this one, and I hope a lot of shabby lensmasters find it and get the point.
Sadly, there really is no teaching those types, most of the time. The kind of people who have been ruining the internet since the beginning are just multiplying today. No matter how strongly you suggest that "NE 1 4 cyber?" is not a sentence, or a realistic way to greet someone, they just keep doing it. Don't these people have parents?
It's really quite brilliant, especially to those of us who do put a lot of effort in, and can't make good lensrolls because we can't find anyone who actually has anything to say about relevant topics. GrowWear really hit it on the head with this one, and I hope a lot of shabby lensmasters find it and get the point.
Sadly, there really is no teaching those types, most of the time. The kind of people who have been ruining the internet since the beginning are just multiplying today. No matter how strongly you suggest that "NE 1 4 cyber?" is not a sentence, or a realistic way to greet someone, they just keep doing it. Don't these people have parents?
Sunday, September 7, 2008
SquidU - School or Cafe?
Well, I took Party Animal's advice, and stopped by SquidU for the first time in a while. I browsed through the Critique Me section for a bit. A lot of the lenses looking for input were quite religious, and I don't trust myself to give a proper review of them. I had to pass those by, but I did find a few gems.
My favorite was "How to Set Up a Snake Cage", something I wish I had read when I was snake-sitting for a friend a few years back. The lensmaster, RoundTrip, has written a lot of great tips and advice for snake owners. I was very impressed with the way he presented his Amazon modules. Instead of feeling like I was being sold something, I felt like I was being shown my options, should I ever decide to keep a pet snake.
A badly put together lens can feel like a high pressure retail shop. You can just tell that the staff are desperate to make a sale, and you can't enjoy shopping while they pester you with suggestions. I couldn't stand trying to sell things to people when I worked in retail, because I like to assume that people are generally smart, and I always felt like they were on to me. This feeling has followed me to Squidoo - I don't even list prices on my Amazon/eBay modules. So when I read something that seems to use Amazon like an image picker, not a sales pitch, I really appreciate it. RoundTrip did a great job of this - I learned something from every part of the lens.
On another note, I was pleased to discover that my latest lens Movie Classics: Hallowe'en Marathon was accepted into the group Horror Movies Central. I came across this excellent film group while looking for a home for Hallowe'en Marathon, but I hesitated to join. It's a pretty serious horror fan group, and I wasn't sure if my review of The Great Pumpkin would be a turn off. It turns out that not only did the group master like my lens, but thought it should be featured as the group lens of the week! It just goes to show that taking a chance can certainly pay off! After all, it's just the internet. Getting denied for a group request isn't nearly as terrible as bombing at karaoke or a job interview, is it? As a huge zombie lover, I'm thrilled to be a member of HMC - there's a lot of great lenses there for fright fans.
My favorite was "How to Set Up a Snake Cage", something I wish I had read when I was snake-sitting for a friend a few years back. The lensmaster, RoundTrip, has written a lot of great tips and advice for snake owners. I was very impressed with the way he presented his Amazon modules. Instead of feeling like I was being sold something, I felt like I was being shown my options, should I ever decide to keep a pet snake.
A badly put together lens can feel like a high pressure retail shop. You can just tell that the staff are desperate to make a sale, and you can't enjoy shopping while they pester you with suggestions. I couldn't stand trying to sell things to people when I worked in retail, because I like to assume that people are generally smart, and I always felt like they were on to me. This feeling has followed me to Squidoo - I don't even list prices on my Amazon/eBay modules. So when I read something that seems to use Amazon like an image picker, not a sales pitch, I really appreciate it. RoundTrip did a great job of this - I learned something from every part of the lens.
On another note, I was pleased to discover that my latest lens Movie Classics: Hallowe'en Marathon was accepted into the group Horror Movies Central. I came across this excellent film group while looking for a home for Hallowe'en Marathon, but I hesitated to join. It's a pretty serious horror fan group, and I wasn't sure if my review of The Great Pumpkin would be a turn off. It turns out that not only did the group master like my lens, but thought it should be featured as the group lens of the week! It just goes to show that taking a chance can certainly pay off! After all, it's just the internet. Getting denied for a group request isn't nearly as terrible as bombing at karaoke or a job interview, is it? As a huge zombie lover, I'm thrilled to be a member of HMC - there's a lot of great lenses there for fright fans.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Mind Your Manners
Today I was reading a new Squidoo blog - Squidoo Land - and found some great links to lens sharing places online. So I went to check out Lensroll.com and saw a lens entitled "Be a Good Squid". I thought that sounded pretty interesting, and so it was. The lensmaster - The_Party_Animal - has some pretty good tips on being an active member of the Squidoo community. Party Animal discusses the importance of responding to positive Guestbook feedback by visiting posters' lenses, and nominating things you like for Lens of the Day. I think I found my next pick, anyway!
The most ingenious part is the "One Hand Washes the Other" plexo, where lensmasters can leave their most visit-needy lens, assuming they will visit the last posted link as well. Naturally, I had to jump on board for that. Even before joining Squidoo, I was quite fond of 'telephone' or relay style games via web forums. It's interesting to see what happens when people participate in a chain-link activity. It's like chain letters, but without all the guilt and postage.
Well, I'm happy to say that I already do 99% of the "Squid Manners" - I guess it is about time I stopped by SquidU. I do love stumbling across Squidoo gems.
The most ingenious part is the "One Hand Washes the Other" plexo, where lensmasters can leave their most visit-needy lens, assuming they will visit the last posted link as well. Naturally, I had to jump on board for that. Even before joining Squidoo, I was quite fond of 'telephone' or relay style games via web forums. It's interesting to see what happens when people participate in a chain-link activity. It's like chain letters, but without all the guilt and postage.
Well, I'm happy to say that I already do 99% of the "Squid Manners" - I guess it is about time I stopped by SquidU. I do love stumbling across Squidoo gems.
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