December 2010 Squid Angel Journal

During my first few hours as a Squid Angel, I visited 20 lenses that I had seen before and blessed them. I also blessed 10 more that I found while discussing issues with people on the Squid Forum. It was getting late so that was the extent of Squid Angel work on the first day. I won't bore you with a day by day diatribe of blessings. If more interesting things happen while performing Squid Angel duties, I'll update this module unless a new module is warranted.

Subsequent Squid Angel activities
It's been a few days now. I have been keeping a log of lenses that I have blessed. I missed a few, but I have almost all lenses that I have visited. I visited a number of them that were on my list from the beginning. Squid Angels who blessed me were visited, although I have a bit more work in this category. I also visited a lot of my favorite lenses. Many people sent me messages of congratulations and suggestions. These have been very helpful. I have done some Squid Angel work similar to my Squidoo Comment Quest. I find a comment or lens that is interesting. I then review lenses of people who also thought that the lens was interesting. That can lead to some really good content. Squidoo has an amazing amount of exceptional content. Note to self: I really need to improve some of my lenses. I have submitted my application for Giant Squid status. I still haven't published my 75th lens. The Squid Angel work is taking time away from my own lenses. It has been really fun, though, especially hearing from some many people. The really new Squidoo members are really appreciative of my visits. They have produced very worthy lenses. Keep up the good work, people!

More Notes on being a Squid Angel
I was very happy to receive a number of bonus points that I think were a result of my Squid Angel activities. I got my 100th "like" on a lens from a Giant Squid. I have blessed many lenses that were written by Giant Squids so they have reviewed my lenses in return. I am very appreciative. I have also been touched by the comments that I continue to receive from new Squidoo members. Thanks to all. I haven't yet updated this lens with the lenses that I have blessed. I don't know if I ever will, though. I have blessed about 250 lenses so far. I blessed 61 lenses one day which is my record. Other days have required me to travel for work so I have only blessed a few lenses on those days. Today is December 10 and I have blessed 27 lenses up to 10:30AM. I'm trying to bless more than 61 today. It requires a lot of reading, though.

Squid Angel Blessing Statistics
In one week of being a Squid Angel, I blessed 301 lenses. December 10 was good for 75 lenses. The next best day was 61 blessings. I only managed 5 on one day due to travel for work. I'll see if I can get more than 300 quality lenses blessed in the next week.
December 21 update
As of today, I have given 580 blessings in 18 days. That's just over 32 a day. I have a document that lists them all. It is a group of very good lenses, I must say. Many were written by Giant Squids, Giant Squid 100's, High Level Squids, Squid Angels and even newbie Squids. During my Squid Angel term, I have nominated about 10 people for the Giant Squid program. Good luck to my nominees! Stay tuned for more updates in the future. This lens has been blessed by a few Squid Angels as well, for which I am truly grateful. I will be adding details of the blessings when I get some time.

December 12, 2010: 37 lenses given a Squid Angel blessing.
This day was fairly typical for me during my role as a Squidoo Squid Angel. Rising at 6:15am, I made my regular morning coffee and ate breakfast. This isn't Twitter, so I'll spare you the details about my cereal bowl. I hit the computer keyboard at about 6:30 with my coffee. After a brief clean up, I was ready to start blessing lenses. I checked my email from the previous day. Several people had provided comments to me thanking me for blessing their lenses the previous day. I appreciate the notes.

I then went to the SquidU forum to look around to find some interesting lensmasters there. I made a short list. Returning to Squidoo, I went to the lens Adopt a family and read it. A great piece. Blessed! The lens also won a Purple Star Award so you know it is excellent.

For some reason, the first lens I blessed brought to mind another: What to buy if you are homeless, another Purple Star winner. This is a poignant lens written by an amazing person. All of Squidoo wishes her success in the future. I ran into this lens some time ago and was happy to be able to bless it now. I blessed another of Kylyssa's lenses.

I found a lens on an interesting way to add a nice table of contents. I blessed this lens.

Back to see lenses that nDee had blessed as she was a Squid Angel during the same month as me. Blessed. I saw some interesting titles in her list. I had visited a couple myself. I picked a couple from the list, read them and blessed them.

In addition to nDee, I found another current Squid Angel's journal of lens blessings by Ajgodinho. I read and blessed that lens and got more lenses to visit.

An analysis of the lenses blessed on December 12 show that 4 were public service oriented. 5 were Squidoo tip oriented. 5 were related to past and present Squid Angels or lenses expressing thanks for blessings. 6 were entertainment oriented. 1 was related to more energy efficient house building. The top 3 lenses of the day, based on memories sparked by titles only, are:
#1: Why Homeless People Don't Just Get a Job
#2: Vintage Print Ads That Wouldn't Fly Today
#3: Alcoholism Recovery

Squid Angel blessing tactics
The selection of lenses to bless is fairly random. I get ideas of whom to visit looking for worthy lenses from the SquidU forum. People who happen to comment on this lens usually get visited. Those who send interesting comments get visited. I check out the Lens of the Day. When I find a worthy lens, I bless it and return to the list of lenses published by the lensmaster. If I really liked the lens, I usually start checking their others. It's a fair bit of work, really. When I have blessed about 3 or 4, I'm usually distracted by the dog, cat or telephone. When I return, I may bless another lens if the lensmaster is really interesting or I'll move on. That's about it!