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28/07/2011

Safety on Guy Fawkes' night

How well do you know the special British celebration named "Guy Fawkes"?

The first time I went to England in the month of November - normally I used to go during summertime - I discovered the Guy Fawkes celebrations.

It was very intriguing as in my country, although we didn't start to celebrate the Halloween yet, we celebrated the Day of the Deads and All Saints Day. So, between religious events and the things I was in England, there was some kind of difference as big as the Channel that separates our countries.

Lensmaster Becksta built a page that provides you with tips for enjoying a safe Guy Fawkes night. However, instead of just putting together a few tips, she made it a very intersting read!

So, I highly recommend to check out Safety on Guy Fawkes' Night.

Posted by Squidoo Angel Prosperity66

All About the Piccolo

Today, I blessed a lens that relates to the use and the story of the piccolo, a type of flute.

I've always loved music courses at school because they allowed us to play with instruments and, one of the mandatory instruments of the time were flutes. You know, those standard wooden flutes, soft as the wind...

Therefore, when I came across the All about the Piccolo lens made by lensmaster Flutestar123, I was brought back to those memorable days when we used to imitate our music teacher, who was a former opera singer and who taught us how to play the flute.

If you like flute and, more particularly piccolo or want to learn how to play piccolo, I suggest to take an eye to All about the Piccolo.

Posted by Squidoo Angel Prosperity66

07/07/2011

Lens Indigestion - Strange Traffic Drop

Browsing Squidoo's Summer Fun category looking for bless worthy lenses today, I've got my (un)fair share of indigestion.

What have Squidoo's standards become? I spotted a so-called giant having built a lens that looked more like a trash-can than like a lens built by a newbie... though this lensmaster is a giant - and an old timer who has also power to decide on what's good and bad on Squidoo. I mean, this lensmaster is like me: an angel... who'd bless outstanding lenses. However, what's this lensmaster's notion of what's outstanding when one sees what's their own lenses?!?

I've also spotted a bunch of spam (almost all checked lenses were spam), plagiarized lenses (hoho... I thought we had some kind of duplicate content filter that would be triggered during the publishing phase whenever one would use duplicate/stolen/plagiarized content on our pages? Seems that it doesn't work at all. Or not entered into action yet :(

Have I been assigned the worst category on Squidoo? I don't think so, I hear so many angels who complain about the huge range of junk, spam, TOS violations, and the like they happen to see on their angeling duties.

Everything, from the one who copies/pastes their own store content, what they want to promote through Squidoo, but don't even take the time to rewrite their texts or add pictures/graphics/images, in order to make it attractive and, therefore, worth entering the payout category (as those lenses are related to hot keywords and might very well enter tier 1) and, therefore, prevent quality lensmasters from getting decent earnings to the one that violates the TOS building Squiddon't lenses, to those who simply don't care at all and just build keyword stuffed lenses hoping to rank high in the SERPs; I think I've been given the great advantage to start the day with an horrible indigestion!

On the other hand, I also noticed that since I posted my sincere and honest thoughts about the giant programme last week and that I disagree with it, traffic to my lenses dramatically dropped. I already spoke about it, but not on a public post.

As a matter of fact, how could someone explain how a lens that has 75,000 monthly searches; which sites on Google page result 1, 3rd position - no other lens before mine and before page 2 - doesn't get at least 1% of the monthly searches in traffic

I mean 1% is a really low share of the traffic if my lens is on Google's page 1: I've already had my sites on Google's page 1 and they got at least 10% of the traffic, though keywords didn't bring in 75,000 visitors!

Unless people reject Squidoo pages as a whole when they search on Google, there's definitely something wrong with those results! And I made a decision on analyzing my 5 best ranking lenses and study their evolution in order to learn why this can happen. More particularly when a similar lens sits for weeks on a higher lenrank although it gets less visits than mine and isn't listed on Google's page 1.

Ah well... let me share a few lenses that were bless worthy those days:


As usual, I'm going to ask you to pay those pages a visit: you won't regret the time you'll spend reading them and admiring their beautiful layout.

01/07/2011

Everything Is Going to Be All Right

My moral's raising; I feel really better since I made my decision on not renewing my giant status. And this allowed me to do a few things yesterday afternoon after that crucial step!

I finally joined Amazon.co.uk - it had to be done, but I never took the time to fill the application. And, while browsing this store, I found a myriad of absolutely adorable strawberry themed things. These are going to soon be featured on my main site. Ah, the pleasure to look at all those cute accessories and write about them...

Yesterday afternoon was also the opportunity to start my Squidoo account clean up.

I deleted the remaining work in progress lenses I built - I'm planning to move them on to one of my sites or a blog I'm planning to create.

I deleted a few too low ranked lenses, those lenses that never get any significant traffic. One will be rewritten and posted on one of my sites, the others will just sit in a file on my computer. I have any plans to rebuild them.

For one or two weeks, I'm going to study three former "ever.com" lenses that have been converted into Squidoo.com lenses and make a decision on deleting them if they don't pull any more traffic; or keep them if their traffic raises by mid-July. If there's a significant change (and there's already one minor change), I'll keep them in my account. To say the truth, I hope that there's no significant change and that I can move them on to my main site. They will work very well on there!

Because I mainly build seasonal lenses, starting in August, I'm going to closely check my Halloween lenses, and get rid of the low traffic drivers and transfer them to my main site too. Then, in October, I'll do the same with my Christmas lenses; in January with the Valentine's Day lenses, etc. This way, by next year, I'll have a very clean Squidoo account, bringing me a stable small monthly income. 

As said earlier, having a shorter account will allow me to save time in updating my lenses, and probably even split my current account into several ones. Let's say that I'd have one Halloween account, a Christmas account and one general celebrations account in addition to my existing Squidoo account that would host my history, about me, general lensography and angel lenses.

I think that my lenses will have better results in niche accounts than in just one that's absolutely not related to a single niche I've built.

I'm also taking some distance with the forum where a new hot debate is going on and threats have been made... Oh my. How happy I am to put this so-called "community" on the place it should be!

A community where everyone's supposed to help everyone and where those who know how to do things and pretend to share their knowledge always keep 50% of their knowledge for themselves so that they make sure to always keep the top spot. Ah well.

Leaving Squidoo aside of my online life doesn't mean that I won't do my angel duties with conscience! And here are a few lenses for you to check out. You may consider them as not outstanding but in my opinion, they were worth a blessing, whether because they actually are great or just because they're outstanding and that they should inspire you when building lenses - warning: I said "inspire", not "copy". Thanks for them!


30/06/2011

Why I Won't Reapply for Giant

I've been thinking to that giant renewal since Friday. I haven't slept for a few nights, I'm knocked down to say the truth. I devoted a lot of my time to the Squidoo community and seeing the way I'm treated, makes me sad. 

It's a first time for me as I'm not accustomed to sharing my state of mind and very few things actually touch me deeply. I mean things as trivial as those, of course.

Not so long ago, I made a post in SquidU stating why I loved Squidoo - yep, loved... in the past. To be honest, today, I don't believe a single word I wrote at that time. And would really like to remove that post because it was what they wanted us to think and believe. Not the truth.

Oh, well, after all, Squidoo is just Squidoo. Nothing more, nothing less. Not being a giant any more won't change anything in my life. 

I can live without Squidoo and I can live without that giant status. After all, the only thing that's important, is the way I consider myself. Not the way unknown people consider me.

If they're stupid enough to believe that, because I don't have a "giant" badge, I'm not interesting... good on them. They aren't worth my interest.

So, last night, still awaken at 3:30 AM, I made my decision on not reapplying.

Here are a few motives that helped me making my decision:

1. I've already worked hard for making giant and 100 clubber and don't see the point in reapplying for something I earned the hard way and that they're literally stealing from me: giving is giving, taking back is stealing! I know, this is a childish expression but it speaks the truth.

2. I just can't fill this application form: questions don't match my culture, my personality and my mentality and I do NOT allow Squidoo to force me to change my mind and adopt another culture. After all, Squidoo's filled with worldwide members and should respect everyone's culture and modesty.

3. If I reapply for giant, I feel like I'd be ready to agree with whatever Squidoo comes up with even if it's detrimental to the entire community. So, let's say that, tomorrow they require from us to pay a $50 monthly fee to keep our accounts active, are we going to all be OK? Me... I won't, for sure!

4. HQ tends to more and more consider lensmasters as their employees... Sadly, those lensmasters don't get fixed monthy wages to justify the treatment.

5. Several threads have been opened yesterday, in which "new giants" claim that they have been granted the status once again. So, let me sum up: a very small team of 2 community organizers carefully checked thousands of lenses for quality, duplicate content, copyright violation, spam, etc. in only 5 days (if they took the weekend off, it would mean only 3 days!!!!)? 

I'm really surprised to learn that it didn't take more than a few days to separate bad apples from the good ones! Wow! It's better, quicker and more effefctive than Samantha would have done in Bewitched!

I'm sorry but 5 days weren't enough for all those lenses to be deeply and carefully checked. Even so, I know giants who have their accounts filled with legit AND illegal lenses... 

This new giant programme looks more like some kind of alibi for some unknown future.

I've made a list with my personal thoughts regarding this mess. In this very long list, I could only place arguments against my application.

However, yesterday, there was a post on HQ's blog that made me see things differently:
  • Not being a giant any more would allow me to split my account into a myriad of different ones: one account per niche I have built. 

  • Losing my giant privileges by the end of the year will also reset the famous - and infamous - 9 outbond links limit on my account. This means that, by the end of the year, I'd rather stop updating my lenses. As, if with this limit I happen to update my lenses, they'll get locked! Which translates into... having more time to dedicate to something else...

I already deleted all my work in progress lenses as well as a few low performing lenses. I will continue deleting low ranked and no traffic lenses. This will clean up my account and leave me with a more accurate view on my work. It will also ease the process to split this account into several ones.

I thought HQ wanted us to be active in the community. This giant programme change will have me stop being active on Squidoo because I'll lose my privileges. Opposite effect, then...

I'll just check new lenses looking for bless worthy ones because, and unless they revoke my status, I'm still an angel on Squidoo.


To sum up my Squidoo membership, I'd say that, I devoted a lot of my time helping people in the forum with critiques, helping people in Fresh Wonders with critiques, suggestions, tips, etc.


Fresh Wonders is becoming a place for some to drop links and go away, doing what they wanna do, leaving us with links to check, vain suggestions, waste of time. Critique Me section of the forum is also more a place to drop links and certainly not speaking our mind as it seems that honest opinion isn't welcome.


I also volunteered for angeling during the first quarter of 2010; how much time did I spend on lenses, checking them for duplicate content, checking proper graphic credits, proper module edition, etc. I remember, checking the daily digests - which I quickly called "daily indigestion" - took me three hours per day! None of these hours were never paid! I didn't want to be paid for this, but consideration would have been welcome right now... seeing the conditions of the new giant programme.


And Squidoo has become more of a place to promote ourself than an actual helpful community.


No, instead, their thankfulness translates into taking back my status.

As said earlier and posted on HQ's blog: I've never thought that, one day, Squidoo would chase me away. 

There is definitely an ocean between us.

29/06/2011

Random Thoughts Giant Smack Down - Take 3

I'm still undecided as to whether renew my Giant status or... not. To tell the truth, I'm more inclined to not renew it then renew it as I think that Squidoo's standards regarding quality lenses have been dramatically lowered while mine haven't changed - or have even been increased.

These days, I've witnessed many things that shocked me and made me angry. A recent lens of the day that was just filled with posters and links to Yahoo and NO personal content at all, praised as if it was a gem. The community organizers who acted to make ding impact (angel's thumbs down) lower than ever, even asking for us to overlook junk, refrain from dinging dingable lenses, to the point that we should think doing something wrong when reporting a TOS violation, spam or else. Yeah, let spammers, cheaters, liars, losers the benefit of the doubt. 

What about those who ethically work on Squidoo, devote their time mostly on their free time and for free, who abide by the rules and get never, never, NEVER thanked for their dedication but, more often than not, get smacked by new rules?

Nobody talks about them. They're even kept away from speaking their mind, censored in the forum, banned if they dare to insist, obliged to move their freedom of speech to Facebook or Twitter.

What's my problem with the new Giant rules?

Well, let's say that, at the time I applied for Giant and 100 Clubber, we had to have 50 or 100 outstanding lenses. Not that I mean mine were outstanding, but at least, I've always built lenses with content I personally wrote, graphics I carefully chose and credited. 

Now in order to make Giant, lensmasters don't need more than 25 lenses. The motive being that in the past we could have built 50 or 100 lenses but may have sold or deleted them. Hahaha! Rolling on the Floor Laughing My Ass Off! --> Any lensmaster who cares about their Giant or 100 Clubber status never sold their lenses or never deleted enough lenses to not have enough to keep their status.

And even so... what prevents HQ from removing their Giant status from accounts that don't have at least 50 lenses????? There's no need for new guidelines neither for forcing us, existing Giants, to reapply!

Oh, but newbies are so disappointed to not be able to make Giant under 50 lenses! Well, we also were newbies at one time. We also had to wait until we were able to build 50 lenses. We're still alive...  It takes times to learn to create great lenses. 25 lenses aren't enough for them to make outstanding pages. The Giant club will be filled with a bunch of junk - as if the current number of junk wasn't enough!

With the new Giant club, only outstanding lenses will be taken into consideration and lensmasters who are the best writers will be granted the status.

Hahaha! ROFLMAO once again! What about those that are HQ's or community organizers' friends? Are they going to be rejected? Don't lie to me, please! Copycats, idea stealers, copyright violating lensmasters (and there are a few that are known for doing so but lick the boots so much that they just can close their eyes on their behaviors and accept them), well known cheaters, those that bet on Squidoo's popularity game, etc. are they going to be rejected with their lenses that violate the TOS multiple times? 

I'm pretty sure they won't. And will certainly post when they'll get their new status! Just to prove my point!

Believe it or not, but although I'm not a bragger neither a self-licking lollipop, even though I'm not the kind of person who'd praise her own work and even if I'm unable to tell HQ why I want to REMAIN a Giant and which lens of mine I consider worth a Lens of the Day, I have respect for myself and am really worried about seeing my name associated with cheaters, TOS violating lensmasters, spam and junk producers.

When we see the level of quality descreasing day after day on Squidoo, we definitely wonder why we would remain Giant, 100 Clubber of whatever new status they came up with! 

And, because I worked hard, with English as a third language, building what I thought were and still are, quality lenses, I feel insulted.

This was my rant of the day... See you later for another post. 

And in the meantime, if you wish to see what I consider quality lenses, then, I urge you to check out these outstanding pages built by first quality lensmasters on Squidoo:


27/06/2011

Squidoo Smack Down - Take 2

There are days I'd like to not have been on the Web, keeping my computer turned off, enjoying some garden activities instead of maintaining my stomach ulcers. Days when I'd rather be blind and not see things that shocked me so much that the cold person started to burn so much that I had to take a cold shower as well as a grog - or two - just to calm down.

After the Giant smack down, I had to see THIS and THAT! As if the smack I got right on my face on Friday wasn't enough for a weekend!

While on my angeling duties, I came to a lens that was filled with stolen content. Yes! STOLEN content! Stolen content is content that's taken from another website and not credited! And that is one of the many Squidon'ts! Seems that Squidon'ts don't bother anyone on Squidoo these days.

Moreover, Squidoo TOS requires from us to use only UNIQUE content when building lenses. This means that content taken from another website, properly credited is a big NO-NO!

Third thing that thrilled my attention was that the lens looked like most lenses made by a highly respected lensmaster, who has a thing to create lenses that look like a luxury magazine or a real store... and, at first sight I thought "Oh, she built a fantastic lens!". Then a second look taught me that it wasn't "her" lens but a lens made by someone else who I reported a thousand times to HQ since January 2010 and whose Squidoo accounts should be locked for good for multiple TOS violations - especially stolen content.

I definitely lost my mind when I saw high level lensmasters signed the guestbook! It seems that even angels blessed this abomination!

I made a post about this in the forum, got a few interesting answers, one that questions the angel programme and makes me wonder why I am a Squid angel and why I waste my time looking for bless worthy lenses, recognizing great work when I could just bless garbage and praise sh... It would take less of my highly precious time!!! in addition, I volunteer for angeling, after all, I'm not paid for being honest and having ethical practices, am I? Why do I devote my time?

I mean, everything cited above makes me seriously question my devotion to Squidoo and makes me feel like if I lost four years of my life.

I eventually went to bed at 2 AM and had hard times falling alseep.

However, when I woke up in the morning, I wasn't stressed, almost happy. I watched TV instead of turning the computer on... Don't know why, some unconscious protection of my spirit?

Any way. I finally opened my computer, read the news while drinking my fourth cup coffee, then went to... Squidoo to find out that the Lens of the Day was just a list of movie titles, countdowns and posters.

Now that is a wonderful lens!

Where have Squidoo's high standards gone???????

Is there all what it takes to get awarded: building a lens with movie titles, countdowns and posters?

What a weekend!

Smacked down on Friday... Knocked out on Monday. What's the programme for the rest of the week?

I wonder - and fear - for the future... After all, it took only three days to have me down.
Heart attack. Beep, beep, beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! I'm dead!

See you... for more (bad, worse?) news.


Posted by Squidoo Angel Prosperity66

25/06/2011

Feeling Demotivated with Squidoo's Changes

It's been a while that I haven't posted on this blog. I have to say that I'm quite demotivated with all the Squidoo changes these past months and totally smacked down with the new Giant programme.

I'm a 100 Clubber on Squidoo;  which means that I worked hard in the past to build 100 outstanding lenses. Well, I thought I was a good lensmaster, I thought my work was worth a special status. I thought... Oh well. They just put everything in question and I feel smacked down. 

The new Giant programme has entirely changed and we have to reapply to get a status that we worked hard to get in the past. I'm really demotivated because of this. First, they took my oustanding badge back; it looked like a shield, it was a very classy badge, that they replaced with a horrible and silly looking so-called "monster badge". Yeah, monster... for a monster, that is a monster. There's nothing more horrible than that!

As for the new changes to the Giant programme, here are a few of the motives behind it:

Quoting Megan, from Squidoo HQ:

The Giant Squids is a club. You have to earn your way in, and you have to work to stay in it.

Ok, I worked hard to earn my way in, I have to work to stay in the club - why would I work when you always come up with demotivating decisions?

"It’s about access, reputation, and acknowledgment that you are part of a group of the best writers on Squidoo."

How can I even believe I'm a good writer when you require from me to reapply for a status I already earned the hard way? You question my status and at the same time, want me to think I'm a good writer. There's some kind of contradiction here, hm... Worse: if I don't reapply, I won't be considered as a good writer any more!

Quoting Robin, community organizer:

"The positives are that once we get through the renewal process, we'll have a club full of great writers.who are active, inspired, and inspiring within the community".

How do you want us to be positive when you question our earned and deserved status. How do you want us to be gladly Squidoo-ing when you demotivate us so often?

Quoting Fanfreluche, a lensmaster:

"I suspect this new system is also a disguised way to get ride of some bad apples".

How are they going to get rid of some the bad apples? How are they going to select the good lenses in the millions of existing lenses? Are the community organizers going to work 24/24 and 7/7? Are they going to take drugs to stay awaken? Or are they going to "greenlight" and award the status to everyone, just like they did before, when the number of Giant applications became so huge that they weren't enough with 2 people to check the accounts in three days?

Quoting Bonnie, community organizer:

"We feel strongly that the new changes will benefit the entire community".

How is this going to benefit the community? We're supposed to agree but we didn't receive any detail, explanation, apart from promises that HQ's not sure to be able to keep.

"...a lot of people have either gone below 50 lenses (in which case they can apply for Level 25) or they haven't logged in for years. By renewing a Giant is showing us that they are an active Giant who logs into Squidoo and keeps things updated and fresh".

I'm sorry but I don't want to refill a form to prove that I'm active: my lenses are constantly updated, I log into my Squidoo account every day. The system knows it. It's easy to find out who hasn't the minimum lenses required and those that never log into their account.

And then, the form to fill - that doesn't match my culture and my personality: they ask me why I wanna be a Giant... perhaps because I'm already one?

They also ask me to praise my own lenses: I'm not a self-licking lollipop and love all my lenses but it is NOT in my culture to shout it at the world. I do NOT nominate my own lenses for LOTD or purple star and certainly do NOT bless them either, once again, judging my own work is NOT in my culture

Squidoo members come from all parts of the world and HQ should take it into consideration.

Personally, I feel like HQ is trying to punish me for the mistakes THEY did:
  • Allowing Giants to do whatever they wanted right from the start - no rules, no check, freedom and then, problems. The situation has become worse over years mostly because when you see that someone seems allowed to do something that's supposed to be a no-no, what do you do? You do the same, especially if you don't have a high respect for ethics!
  • Another mistake was to not DEEPLY check future Giant accounts because there were too many applications! Everybody and their dog have been pushed to apply for the Giant status! How can a small team of 2 people DEEPLY check 100s of different accounts filled with 50 up to 150 lenses?
Many lensmasters reapplied already. I'm still hesitating... Reapplying would mean that I agree with the new decision and that I'm ready to accept whatever HQ comes up with, even if it doesn't benefit me. Right now, I just can cite a childish quotation which says "giving is giving, taking back is stealing". And I feel like if Squidoo is stealing my Giant status.

Upstet, disappointed, smacked down.

Taking a break for the entire weekend. See you :)


05/04/2011

Having a favorite April Fool's joke?

I'm not particularly accustomed to anything more creative than a paper fish stuck on my back as April Fool's "joke" or whatever you call it. However, I found myself laughing like crazy when I head to Jeffryv's lens dedicated to... Aussies.

With Lens for Aussies, lensmaster Jeffryv found the best way for those in the Southern Hemisphere to read any lens without having to distort their body!

And I just couldn't resist blessing the lens.

Posted by Squidoo Angel Prosperity66

14/03/2011

How to Make a Ladybug Habitat

Another great lensmaster newbie - another one who's part of the Fresh Wonders group; which seems to be the nursery of Squidoo's best lensmasters - is this backyard fun lens that teaches people how to build a ladybug habitat.

Personally, I'm fond of ladybugs, they're the cutest insects I've ever seen and, when I was a little girl, I used to catch them and keep them in my hands - until I realized that the best way to care for ladybugs was to leave them in their own environments and just look at them.

In this excellent page, lensmaster Vikk Simmons is providing instructions to build a ladybug habitat, but that is not all! She also provides a lovely ladybug poem, information about ladybugs, the best tools to build this habitat, and even tells you what happens after the ladybug habitat's done.

So, if you want to spend a good time with the kids building a habitat for those cute ladybugs, I recommend to read Backyard Fun: How to Make a Ladybug Habitat; which is the most complete source for such a project!

Posted by Squidoo Angel Prosperity66

Troyes France: A Lovely Medieval City

Troyes is a splendid town located in the Champagne-Ardens region of France. Troyes is well known for it's strong historical background that dates back from Antiquity. The past of Troyes is so rich that it's almost impossible to highlight anything that relates to this marvelous town.

A brand new lensmaster known as TheLittleCardShop built a stunning lens about Troyes to which she added a bunch of breathtaking pictures in order to attract the eyes of her readers and make them want to fly to France and visit Troyes. 

In Troyes France: A Lovely Medieval City, TheLittleCardShop highlighted the super houses that date back from the Medieval times, she invites you for a walk in Gothic churches and cathedrals, as well as guides you through a tour of Troyes, one of the most beautiful Medieval towns in France. 


Posted by Squidoo Angel Prosperity66

24/02/2011

Teach a child to read with phonics

Michelle, aka pacrapacma is a brand new lensmaster who happened to learn fast how to build a Squidoo lens. She seems to focus her lensmastering on reading for kids.

This is where I try to introduce her purple star - angel blessed lens Teach a child to read with phonics. Personally I consider culture, knowledge and, therefore, learning to read, write and speak, should be free. Therefore, I couldn't leave this lens before sprinkling some angel dust on it. Education is something we can't live without and the lens is definitely worth the visit.

In this page, you're going to learn how to teach your child to read; you're going to get links to free resources to teach reading to your kids, how to have fun teaching how to read using magnetic letters (the lens comes with a bunch of videos; which makes the process to learn everything easier and entertaining), as well as a list with the best books to teach reading.

As with everything, when done in an entertaining and joyful way, learning how to read becomes so easy... and Michelle proves it.

Low Budget, Fun-Filled Summer Vacation

Last time I left my home town to go on holiday abroad was ten years ago. So, when I come to a page that provides me with ideas on how to enjoy hometown vacations, I read it carefully. 

In her very well done and joyful Low Budget, Fun-Filled Summer Vacation lens, LissaKlar provides us with a bunch of ideas on what to do for peanuts during the holidays.

She invites you in bike rides and walks, and provides you with biking accessory ideas; she recalls you that croquet can be a very funny backyard activity - an almost forgotten one!!! - and also lists some other low cost outdoor fun tools.

But there's more! How about getting an inflatable pool in the backyard and invite friends and family for a funny afternoon? How about a trip to a park where you can discover wild life or even a day to the local zoo (if you don't have a local park)?

And if, in any way, you still want to move from the house, you can pretend to go camping... in the backyard; you'll even get some ideas on how to do that!


6 Historical Landmarks in Mississippi

I'm not a traveller and I don't like to leave my home country. Because I'm afraid to fly, I'll never go to any overseas country, more particularly, I'll never get to see the Mississippi and other Southern US places; which, however, are all quite appealing.

For this reason, I take a lot of pleasure in visiting Web pages built after specific places in the world. This is one of those daily activities I particularly enjoy and, when a page is very well done, well detailed and includes a lot of interesting information, it makes me feel like if I would have travelled in reality.

This is what happened with tssfacts's lens 6 Historical Landmarks in Mississippi.

The lens is an account of her desire to live in an old plantation house, the realization of her dream to live in such a house and the discovery of the Mississippi state and its beautiful architecture.

All in all, this lens brings you on a trip into Southern US history and made me feel, for a few moments, like Scarlett O'Hara.

14/02/2011

Valentine's Day and Cupid Kisses

Today is Valentine's Day, a day that I dedicate to everyone as, for me, V'Day isn't just a celebration for couples, it's also the celebration of the love you have for your children, friendship, etc.

Squidoo HQ challenged all their angels to give Cupid kisses to the lenses they're visiting. I gave a few ones. Here are the lenses I blessed today:

If you're interested in Chinese Dynasties such as the Thang Dynasty:
 Chinese Dynasties|The Thank Dynasty

Perhaps do you admire Nelson Mandela or Mother Teresa?
 My Hero - The Person I Admire Most

Instead, you might want to dedicate the day to all women you know
 Women in Past and Present

However, you can have a preference for some famous warriors
 Attila the Hun

Or simply want to meet some unknown heroes - as heroes are often those that you wouldn't expect from them to be or simply don't want you to consider them as heroes...
 Heroes? They Didn't Think So

Do you need to recall all Post Office holidays of 2011? Here you are:
 Post Office Holidays
Do you have an opinion... thanks for sharing.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Posted by Squidoo Angel Prosperity66

12/02/2011

Bergen Belsen

As an angel on Squidoo, I'm also now in charge of the World History category. History is a passion and, therefore, I'll take pleasure from reading those lenses when I'll be looking for bless worthy ones.

And so, when searching for such lenses in the huge collection of existing ones, I found a gem I already visited long ago. It's built by mugshot, and relates to the camp of Bergen Belsen

Although 20th century history doesn't fall into my favourite period of history (my main focus is history of France from 5th to 18th century), like anyone born in the 20th century in my country, I grew up in the memory of WWII and, obviously, was taught the horrible things that occurred in this period. There are no words to describe my feelings regarding this.

Mugshot was certainly more touched than me with those atrocities as his grand father was one of the first British soldiers who penetrated Bergen Belsen in 1945. Although it seems that his grandfather didn't speak a lot about what he saw and felt, he, nevertheless, gave Mugshot the need to see Bergen Belsen through the eyes of the liberating troops. 

And he made a lens to share his experience in this (I cite Mugshot and agree with him) "infamous concentration camp".

Posted by Squidoo Angel Prosperity66

10/02/2011

Have You Already Been To Versailles Museum?

During my journey as an Angel on Squidoo, I discovered an outstanding lens built by lensmaster Michey and that relates to the Palace of Versailles.

Louis XIV is my favourite French king and, therefore, Versailles being his brain child, I stayed on that lens as long as I could - though, this lens has a sister that is also outstanding!

When you arrive on the page, Louis XIV welcomes you and invites you to visit his house. Then you discover the magnificent ceiling frescoes of the castle. Some time later, you visit the halls of this sumptuous palace as well as a photo gallery that displays breathtaking views from the inside of Versailles Palace.

You'll learn many things about Versailles furniture and decorations, official rooms, the paintings, etc.

Obviously, during the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI, Versailles changed a lot and the restorations of the 19th and 20th centuries have also probably brought their share of changes but all in all, you'll discover the decor in which Louis XIV loved to live and you'll do it right from the home!

I invite you to pay Museum Versailles Decorations a visit, you won't regret it! 

Posted by Squidoo Angel Prosperity66

09/02/2011

Clever Weber Q Barbecue Comparison

As said in my previous post, the Summer fun category in Squidoo is quite empty and most lenses aren't bless worthy, therefore, I tried to find a first lens to bless in this category and found this nicely put together lens on Weber Q Barbecue comparisons.

The lens has been created by lensmaster dismantelrepair and is definitely an interesting overview of those Weber barbecues, smart comparisons and detailed information.

I hope that you'll head to Comparing Weber Q Grills? to check it out and comment on a lens that's really well done.

Posted by Squidoo Angel Prosperity66

08/02/2011

Homemade Valentine's Day Decorating Ideas

When I turned the computer on this morning, I had the great pleasure to see Homemade Valentine's Day Decorating Ideas was Lens of the Day.

It's been a long time that I hadn't a lens made Lens of the Day and, who ever the person who nominated my lens, THANK YOU VERY MUCH! 

Because it is a lens of mine, I won't bless it, of course, but I'll still be closely looking at all new lenses of the day in order to find the gem that I can bless, more particularly because the Summer Fun neighbourhood I'm in charge is quite empty and it's really frustrating to not be able to bless anything when one is a Squid Angel.

So, if you created a lens worth of a Lens of the Day status, I might come to check it out and sprinkle some angel dust on it... 


Posted by Squidoo Lensmaster Prosperity66

06/02/2011

I'm the Summer Fun Squid Angel and I'm Challenging You To Build a Bunch of Lenses!

It's been a while since my last post in this blog and I'm going to revive the blog because...

I'm the Summer Fun SquidAngel this time around. As a former angel, I already have an angel lens that I'm about to update so that I can let visitors know that I'm looking through Summer Fun categories for lenses worth to bless.

Summer's just round the corner and if you want to reach one of the top tiers and make plenty of sales, then I urge you to start thinking about building Summer related lenses.

Summer Fun sub categories are:
  • Summer Parties
  • Summer Vacation
  • 4th of July
  • Things to do this summer
  • Summer camps for kids
  • Summer Recipes
  • BBQ Recipes
  • Summer Drinks Recipes
However, summertime also includes a bunch of other holidays and occasions to celebrate:
  • Canada Day
  • Territory Day in British Virgin Islands
  • Heiva i Tahiti in French Polynesia
  • Flag Day in Curacao
  • Bastille Day in France
  • National Day in Belgium
  • Independance celebrations in Bahamas
  • Fisherman's Day in Marshall Islands
  • Confederation Day in Switzerland
And many more very special occasions.

There are sometimes up to 8 special days to celebrate per day during summertime, and you could build really interesting lenses about: 
  • The meaning or the history of these specific days, 
  • Tips to plan themed parties, 
  • Bake themed cakes, 
  • Prepare specific meals, 
  • Decorate the houses and yards, 
  • Craft and/or buy themed gifts, 
  • Create or buy greeting cards, 
  • Adapt local customs and traditions in order to organize parties, 
  • Buy and/or make costumes, and so on...
If you wish to get more ideas on topics to write about, you can get more info at http://earthcalendar.net.

Naturally, summertime doesn't stop there! 

You can build lenses on the type of flowers, veggies or else to grow during summertime.

You can build lenses on: 
  • Summer sports
  • Summer flowers
  • How to grow summer flowers 
  • How to grow veggies in summertime
  • How to take care of your garden in summer
  • Where to find summertime sport clubs, 
  • 10 hottest places to stay in summertime, 
  • 10 worst places to stay in summertime
  • Best selling barbecues
  • Top 10 summer drinks
  • Top 10 summer salads
  • Top 10 summer soups
  • Top 10 summer... whatever you wish!

And the list goes on and on... it's almost endless!

So, are you still here? What are you waiting for? Go build lenses!

Enjoy your weekend!