My Journey to Giant Squid

What did I learn... First, I was directed to the lens GiantSquidTips on Twitter by rms. It's a Twitter kinda' thing and there was a Tweet that spoke to me.

Oct 1, 2009 @ 12:23 pm
Today! Go to your first lens ranked higher than 2000 and add a new module to it.

I was like, Oh, Oh, I have a lens ranked higher than 2,000. The excitement ended there. Gosh, it was my crazy Chad OchoCinco lens. This lens is flooded with a mess of modules. I was sure that he would soon do something crazy and I would add another module. So, I gave up on that idea. I then went and looked around at some other Giant Squid tips and it happend again. BevsPaper, aka Bev Owens, had a tip to add the About Me Module. That's it! I had seen this module on other lenses. This module caused me to experience module envy. However, at the time I was just too busy with lens building basics and very nervous to write anything about me. Well let me tell ya, my OchoCinco lens is lookin' sweet with an About Me module. I am sure if he knew, he would request it to be changed to an All About Him module. He's just an all about himself kinda' guy. Anyhow, back to my day. My first day of school ended with some great image links from GrowWear, aka MiMi GrowWear.

One of these links took me to Squid Art Too by tagsforkids. I found my introduction image there. Tagsforkids is a Squid Art genius. Go on, take a look. You will find some great lenses full of very silly Squid images.

Thank you for a great first day. I love Giant Squid School.

I ended day one by posting two lenses that I had published. When I logged on today I had a few comments from a_willow, aka Michelle Willow. First I had misspelled a word. This normally happens to me when I have a word spelled correctly but it is the wrong word. Not this time. I need to stop editing in the module.

I had other comments about module titles, removing Wiki modules and writing my own words. Oh no, not more of my own words. The words are there they just have a hard time getting themselves correctly from my head to their new container. After adding some new stuff, in my own words, I had module order issues.

I needed help with my module arrangement. luvmyludwig, aka Crystal Touchton, and a_willow had so many helpful suggestions. I love how easy it is to move modules around. I am so much better at this than the writing stuff and it sure helped my poorly arranged lens.

I ended the day with a very special comment that I received. It said something like my ideas were nice but I should get someone who is not illiterate to write the lens. That was a very helpful comment. I was sure the lens had problems but I was not sure what the problems were. Another helpful Giant Squid School tip is ask questions on the SquidU Forums. I posted for help and all my SquidU peeps came to the rescue. They helped me correct the many problems with my lens. Many thanks to all the SquidUers that helped me. Wow, I had a lot of lens cleaning tasks today.

I am so glad tomorrow is the weekend. School is out for the weekend, isn't it?

School was out for the weekend. Everything, was very quiet on the Giant Squid School playground. So, I caught up on my assignments. Okay, so I tried to. I should have cleaned up my eCard lenses... but I didn't. I have a good excuse for this one. There is a weekly lens challenge. My personal goal is to complete all lens challenges before the next one is assigned. This first assignment was to write a lens about a holiday book. This was great because I immediately knew what I was going to write about.

I love SquidLit lenses and started to put together my secret lens. Well, I got slap happy and started to write all kinds of crazy stuff. I wrote so much crazy stuff that I had to create a separate lens. Dang girlfriend, buckle down and focus on the task at hand. Anyhow, my newest lens is 'Twas the Morning of Our First Rocky Mountain Christmas. I guess everyone can now figure out what my secret lens was going to be about. Holiday book lens here I come!

I did it, I did it! It's time to celebrate. I published my first assignment. We were to write a lens on a holiday book. The book I chose was 'The Night Before Christmas'. This may come as a big surprise but my lens title is none other than, The Night Before Christmas. Not real creative but just straight to the point. Maybe that is something I need to work on. I think a short and sweet title is often the best but how about some creativity. GOSH!

I also worked on updating older lenses and adding stuff to lenses that have not been published. I kinda skipped school today. I get carried away reading other peoples lenses and then I do not have time to work on my own. I'll be back at school tomorrow.

What did I do today? I fiddled with some published and some WIP lenses. I made a new WIP but did not add anything to it. I finished a lens that was a WIP. It's just another lens in my eCard series. I spent lots of time reading lenses made by other Squidooers. Blah, Blah, Blah...

It seems like after I create a few lenses that strain my writing abilities, I am spent. I must rest my writing abilities because soon it will be... LENS CHALLENGE FRIDAY. I need to just spend some time relaxing before the new challenge. This is a warning to all of my Giant Squid Challenge competitors, I am an expert at relaxing.

Here's what I did today: Delete lens, delete another lens, delete yet another lens... OMG! I deleted seven lenses. Why would I do such a foolish thing? To make a very long story, long... I created a lens about going green by sending holiday eCards. I was adding almost every holiday with three to eight eCard links. Then, there was this Squidoo rule that stated, one could not have more than nine links to the same domain. I was in link violation, decided to make each holiday it's own lens and kept them all holiday, going green, FREE eCards. A few day later, I decide to do this Giant Squid thing and now my lenses are too similar to be Giant Squid material. To make matters worse, I go to the Giant Squid Challenge Forum and saw comments like "...I don't see how they'd all be the same, if they were good". Well, listen up ladies, I DID IT! Right in front of God and everyone. No big deal. Luvmyludwig came to the rescue.

She encouraged me to make some changes and I did. I decided to keep my main lens about going green by sending holiday eCards. The individual lenses are not about going green anymore but will be more about the holiday. After making this decision I did not want to write about every single holiday on the planet, so I deleted them. I have lots of fixing to do but I love the way they are turning out. I did create a lens before I went delete happy. Hope I don't need to delete it.

News Flash: On days 40 - 43 I deleted this lens. It was an OchoCinco 2009 Lens. I just could not keep up with his silliness. So, I deleted all of the current news. He is just so funny all the time. It is a full time job just to write about him.

And on the eighth day... I don't think anything really happened on the eighth day. This was like the day of enjoyment and happiness. That is exactly how my eighth day has ended. And on my eighth day an Angel appeared. A luvmyludwig Angel, to be exact, and she blessed this rambling mess. OMG! I was blessed, I was blessed! I feel blessed. I don't really know what that means but I am very happy. Thank you, Oh Thank you, luvmyludwig Angel. My family thinks this is all very strange. It's like I visit another planet when I am Squidooing. Anyhow, did I mention that I was blessed by an Angel. Yep, well I guess it's time to move on.

What did I do today? I deleted one more lens so now I am at 30 lenses. I keep telling myself it's all about quality, not quantity. I really started fixing my eCard mess. Luv Them! I have only fixed a few but I know what they need to be when they grow up. Well, that's it. Oh one more thing, I was blessed by an Angel.

Image of Squid Angel by tagsforkids at Squid Graphics

Started off the day applying luvmyludwigs comments to my OchoCinco lenses. One comment was about doing Twitter stuff. OchoCinco loves Twitter. I need to get a hang of Tweetin'. She even suggested that maybe I should Tweet OchoCinco when I am done. What would I Tweet? Maybe my Tweet will go something like... "What's up my dude! Wanna see my lenses?" I'm going to need to work on this. I don't think that's what she had in mind.

Created a WIP or two. Didn't get to the eCards. It was Lens Challenge Friday. It's an About Me lens. We need to write about any personal vacation experience. NO! Not a personal vacation experience.

What have I been doing? Spent day 12 doing nothing but reading other people's lenses. On day 13 I started to get back on my game. I edited a few published and WIP lenses. I have a new goal, I hope to keep. I need/want to make two new lenses a week. I have the ideas but do I have the skills? I also am going to join the Rocket Moms Ning Thing. Oh boy, what am I getting myself into. One last thing I need to get off my keyboard. I have come to terms with the fact that I am not going to make a vacation lens before the next challenge. There, I typed it. However, I might still make it. It's just going to take a while. I better get to work or I'll never amount to Giant Squid.

Okay, so like I have been skipping writing about my journey for a few days. Well, here is my story this time. I am working on this one lens with my daughter. She is ten and Oh My God she just talks all the time. So like, I was making edits, and she was talking my ear off about these edits and I kept going uhuh, uhuh. I homeschool her so while we are schooling I don't think it would be a good thing to say, DO YOU THINK YOU COULD JUST KEEP YOUR MOUTH CLOSED FOR A SECOND? You know what I'm sayin'. So anyhow, I wasn't paying attention and I pushed the Publish button instead of the Save Draft button. I screamed, NOOOO! We are not done with the lens yet. Now I tell, miss talk all the time, that she better get busy because her big dreams of her mother becoming this Giant Squid thing is all about to go down the tubes. :) She shows fear, her mouth closes and she starts working and working and ... well you get the point. We still did not finish the lens but here it is. I am adding to this lens because I must be true to my diary but I am not putting up on any of the message boards yet. After that I became a RocketMom.

I am a bit nervous about the RocketMom thing. There are so many RocketMoms and they have great lenses. How do I know they have great lenses? I read them. I start reading them and then I don't stop. I love to read lenses. How will I ever become a Giant Squid if I spend all my days reading instead of writing. I started reading the many Walt Disney World lenses by EverythingMouse. My family loves WDW and it was great to think about our fun family vacations. Well, turns out she is a Squid Angel. I was blessed again. I can not believe it. Thank you EverythingMouse Squid Angel. Now the pressure is on to be a Giant Squid. How can I let my daughter and my Squid Angels down. I must keep on writing. What a great end to my Squidoo day. Now my big dilemma is what image do I use for this entry? I need a mural of a little girl with a sock in her mouth, the RocketMom image and a Squid Angel with Mickey Mouse ears. I bet tagsforkids never thought of that before.

Image is from Squid Art by tagsforkids

I have been so busy just keeping up with comments, reading lenses, joining RocketMoms, updating lenses, writing new lenses and more. I am in a Squidoo whirlwind. Well, during this whirlwind there was a new Giant Squid Challenge to create a Halloween lens. I started creating it and bang I hit publish again instead of save draft. I had to hurry and get it done. I was not sure how it was going to turn out but I am very happy with it. Now on to the next lens. Some days I am not sure if I will be able to create 50 lenses by the end of December. Oh and this lens was blessed again. Thank you so much Squid Angel MsSnow4a for your very kind blessing. I guess I better keep working the Angels are watching.

Squidaholic Image is from Squid Art by tagsforkids

I haven't announced it here yet but I will now. Here it goes... I'm a Rocket Mom. I didn't want to announce it until I was sure I could complete at least one assignment. Well, I completed it. Our assignment was to create a selling lens on unique gifts. Mine is all about unique Champagne Glasses. I love my lens and the Rocket Mom group. I think I will be able to do this. Plus my lenses count towards my becoming a giant squid. Gosh, it doesn't get better than this in Squid Land.

I didn't think I could make one Rocket Moms lens and then BAM! out popped another. Rocket Moms do Rock. I am living proof. I am so glad I joined the RMs. I am learning so much. I have some lenses in the works that will be ready shortly. I can now tell that I am going to make 50 lenses. I am a Rocket Mom and I'm Rockin' It.

Okay there is this charity cookoff thing that Squidoo started. They made this great lens template with a Turkey. I'm not much into cooking but couldn't resist the charity thing and that cute turkey. So I quickly created my lens and published it. OMG! I was the first winner. I am so excited. I love my charity, Operation Gratitude and am so thankful that they will receive a donation from Squidoo. It is great having an all charity lens and the little turkey is lookin' sweet!

I have been slacking off on this lens. I created a few lenses and had to finish them at break neck speed. I selected the Save as Draft button and they published. I would hate to have an unfinished lens published so I worked and worked. I have been making some money off of my lenses and I have over 1,000 visitors to all of the lenses in one week. This has been a very productive but hectic week.

I finished my horse holiday series, unless a Rocket Moms assignment calls for another. Anyhow, as I look back through my journey it was an emotional rollercoaster. You can just look at the images and see what I am talking about. I have one more lens to make to get to 50. Some make a special lens to mark the occasion but not me. I currently have 24 WIP lenses that need to be published. I have a group of about 5 that I have been working on for sometime now. I will finish them and then be over 50. My plan is to keep making lenses until the end of November and then except for challenges I will continue to correct my first lenses. When that is done I will make more. Who knows how many I will have before the end of the challenge.

I am at lens 50 and beyond. That does not mean I will make Giant. I need to edit my older lenses. Rocket Moms has a toy assignment for the week and I will be making many of those lenses. I didn't think I would be able to make 50 lenses. I am very happy.

I did it! After many nervous days I was notified that I am now officially a Giant Squid. I want to send a huge thanks to everyone that has helped me during this Journey. I have learned so much and I enjoyed every minute of it. I must admit that I have grown very fond of this lens. What a rollercoaster ride and I am both happy and sad for it to be over. It is now a lens of very funny and fond memories. Now what? Well, I am going to go for the Giant 100. As usual I must go and create more lenses.

Image of Pary Squid by tagsforkids at Squid Art

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Squid Angels for blessing this mess.

Thanks to the following Angels:
luvmyludwig
EverythingMouse
MsSnow4a
inkserotica
Jewelsofawe
mbgphoto
spirituality
Sylvestermouse
arncyn

Image of Squid Angel by tagsforkids at Squid Graphics