Squidlog

In early September I was one of a lucky few who were appointed to serve the Squidoo community as a SquidAngel. Now there are many great lenses by other SquidAngels who came before me about what exactly a SquidAngel is and what they do. In a nutshell, SquidAngels have special powers to give lenses a boost in lensrank by “blessing” them. On the other hand, particularly spammy lenses get a “thumbs down”, resulting in a drop.

It is notable that there are no strict guidelines in determining whether or not a lens should be blessed or dinged. This accounts for the human factor in the lensrank algorithm. It is up to the individual Angel to apply their own quality standard. As a result, a rich diversity of lenses and topics have a fair chance of getting a blessing.

To help interested lensmasters figure out what makes the individual Angels “tick” (i.e. “bless”) I created the Who’s Who of SquidAngels residing at www.squidoo.com/angels-r-us.

It is also a showcase of some of the HTML and CSS tricks I’ve learned from my fellow lensmasters. The coding effort was immense for someone who doesn’t really know what they’re doing.  AlI the graphics were custom created as well. All in all it took me over a week to complete this lens, probably in excess of 50 hours work. I cannot really recommend building lenses like this on a regular basis, but for this project I wanted to make the lens extra special and unique. But when it was finally ready - instant gratification!

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After reading about the Virtual Concert Contest by the Squidoo Activists my first reaction was to pass it off. I’m swamped with urgent matters all vying for my attention. Yet the seed was planted, and within an hour or so the music that has been playing in my head since the day I was born was getting louder than the call of duty.

Oh well, just my luck that The Beatles are just about the most talked and written about rock group of all time. What could I possibly contribute that has not already been rehashed a hundred times over by minds far more brilliant than mine?

But hey, it was going to be a virtual concert, it could be anything I wanted. And like probably most of my comrades, it pains me that we will never see The Beatles come together for a real concert this side of eternity. What’s more, January 30, 2009, will mark the 40th anniversary of the Beatles’ final live performance, the famous Rooftop Concert atop their Apple Corp. building in London’s Savile Row. So, there it was; my contribution to the Virtual Concert Series: The Last Beatles Concert EVER!

I hope many fans will join me in celebrating and remembering all the joy and emotions The Beatles have brought to our lives.

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