MobyD - Celtic Music, Puns, Science Fiction, Photos

1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic by 9 people | Log in to rate

Ranked #698 in Me, #83,712 overall | Donates to Squidoo Charity Fund

Check Out My Lenses

Lensmaster Fortunalee got me interested in Squidoo in October 2007, and I've been busy creating and improving lenses ever since. Things really got going in April 2008 when I began making lenses about Celtic music, and there have been a few surprises since then.

Another photographer was kind enough to take the photo of me at the Portland Pirate Festival in September 2007. Yarr, me hearties!

Squidooing 

The first lens I made in October 2007 was about science fiction author Spider Robinson. I made a few other lenses, mostly about authors over the next few months. One of the earlier lenses was the Bushisms Video Showcase which didn't get a whole lot of attention until after the 2008 election.

I was up to around 27 lenses in April 2008 when I got the idea to do a series of lenses about Celtic music. I'd created my 50th lens in late May 2008. At the time, I was more interested in the pun possibilities of that lens being the 23rd in my Celtic music series - "23 Squidoo." I knew a lensmaster needs 50 quality lenses to be a Giant Squid, but I wasn't sure what the quality criteria were, so I didn't think too much of it and just kept making lenses. I think I had 59 by the end of June.

Giant Squid

Someone was watching, obviously, and thought my lenses were up to snuff, because in early July one of the Giant Squid organizers, Robin, left a note on my Spider Robinson lens congratulating me on becoming a Giant Squid. I was both surprised and pleased. Also, it struck me as somewhat ironic that my online nickname is taken from the name of a sperm whale. Sperm whales and giant squids don't always get along in the ocean. But as Kurt Vonnegut said, "So it goes."

Being named a Giant inspired me to keep making more lenses, paying attention, as I like to think I always have, to quality. I found a lot of helpful lenses that showed me ways to add HTML, different modules, etc. to make better lenses. And I started visiting SquidU more often.

Top 100

Sometime around mid-August 2008 I realized if I tried, I could get to 100 lenses by Sept. 30. I branched out a bit from Celtic music for many of them, but my 99th lens was for the Irish group Patrick Street, and the 100th lens was for Irish/American fiddler Liz Carroll. They were published on Sept. 24.

Early in the morning on October 7, 2008 I got an email from Giant Squid organizer Bonnnie informing me I'd made it into the Top 100 Club. I'm certainly happy about that, but I'm also pleased I made my own goal of 100 lenses by Sept. 30.

Lens of the Day

lotdExactly one month after finding out I'd made the Top 100 Club, my lens on Spoonerisms was named Lens of the Day. It had been moving up in lens ranking before it was named, and this will of course give it a big boost. Many folks left comments in the lens' guestbook, with several including Spoonerisms of their own. The lens eventually achieved a lensrank of 114 overall on Squidoo.

A Second Lens of the Day!

Just in time for St. Patrick's Day, my Celtic Music: Lenses lens was named Lens of the Day. While the Spoonerisms lens didn't crack the top 100 lenses, this second Lens of the Day did. It shot up to 106, then 17, then was at 12 and 13 for over a week. I added a couple of new Celtic music lenses to my total number of lenses (Celtic Music: Kim Roberston and Molly's Revenge). That meant adding a module each to the LotD lens. It pushed it up to the number 8 position for a couple of days.

Since getting into the Top 100 Club, I haven't pushed to make as many new lenses. As of early April 2009, I had 120. I've made more than 20 lenses since getting into the Top 100, but I'd also decided to eliminate some of the Celtic music video showcases by putting videos into the associated performers' lenses. I've probably done that about ten times. I've done a lot of revising of existing lenses, mainly to make them more colorful with the use of colored backgrounds and borders. Some of my book and music lenses have been revised to link to Amazon through my Amazon Associates ID and or my affiliate ID for CD Baby.

Maggiemusiclogo-transI also created a series of 16 lenses for the independent folk music label Maggie's Music. They are on another account started by Maggie Sansone, the label's founder who is also a wonderful hammered dulcimer player. She'd spotted the lens I'd made for Bonnie Rideout, one of the performers on Maggie's Music. As part of that set of lenses, of course I made another lens for Bonnie Rideout.

Other places where I can be found 

My Lensographies 

I've created groups of lenses in several topics and created lensographies so you can check them out. The one for Celtic music was named Lens of the Day for March 16, 2009.

One of a Kind 

Here's some lenses that don't fit into lensographies but are certainly worth a look.

Very Helpful Lenses 

These are lenses that others have made that I have found very helpful in my own lensmaking efforts. HTML and CSS are essential to making lenses that stand out.

Holiday Lenses 

Lenses for the Christmas/Solstice season.

MobyD's Soundings 

My Blogspot blog

This feed is from my Blogspot blog at MobyD's Soundings

If you're on Delphi Forums, I usually copy stuff from Blogspot over to
Moby's Soundings there or occasionally vice versa.

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Faerieworlds 2006 Photos on Flickr 

In July 2006 I went to Faerieworlds at the Secret House Winery in Veneta, OR. Lots of wings, great costumes, wonderful music and plenty of magical and enchanting stuff to buy.

Faerieworlds Banner by mobyd46

Faerieworlds Banner

Pixie Piper by mobyd46

Pixie Piper

Squeaky Green Man by mobyd46

Squeaky Green Man

Faerieworlds 2007 on Flickr 

Back to Faerieworlds, this time in costume.

P0002334 by mobyd46

P0002334

P0002339 by mobyd46

P0002339

P0002340 by mobyd46

P0002340

Portland Pirate Festival 2007 on Flickr 

The second annual Portland Pirate Festival took place at St. Johns Park in Portland, Oregon September 22-23, 2007. Pirates, parrots, and good music!

Portland Pirate Festival 09-22-07 001 by mobyd46

Portland Pirate Fest...

Portland Pirate Festival 09-22-07 003 by mobyd46

Portland Pirate Fest...

Portland Pirate Festival 09-22-07 004 by mobyd46

Portland Pirate Fest...

MobyD on YouTube 

In June 2008, the music store and website Lark in the Morning ran a video contest offering a $250 gift certificate as the prize. It was a good excuse to try out making a video using my Canon camera, try out editing, and post it to YouTube, so I did. I didn't expect to win the contest and guess what? Of course, someone else won. But it was fun making the video, and that's 99% of why I did it.

Re: Win $250 Gift Certificate from Lark In The Morning

MobyD46 playing "Old Songs Waltz" on Lark Bowed Psaltery PSA019.

Runtime: 1:00
175 views
1 Comments:

powered by YouTube

Online, But not on Squidoo 

My first website

When I moved to the Portland, Oregon area in 2000, my ISP provided space for a website. I used it to post some photos and some stories I'd written. I've concentrated much more on Squidoo since I joined, but there's still stuff on the website I think is worth sharing.
In and Around Portland
Two pages of photos shot mostly in 2000. I really liked going into the city on the MAX light rail. It's a great place to walk around. In the Saturday Market section of photos, there's one of Elizabeth Nicholson. I don't live in the same apartment shown. Back in 2001 and early 2002, the rent went up first $30, then nine months later it went up $49 so I moved a half-mile west. Less rent in the new place, not quite as nice, but away from an incessantly barking dog near the first place.
Portland Streetcar Opening Day 2001
Photos from the opening day of the Portland Streetcar. There's a picture of the parade in the Pearl District where the tracks went through open land. It's all built up now with fancy condos, apartments and shops.
Sundancer
Sundancer is a science fiction story I wrote several years ago. It was part of an idea I'd had kicking around in my head which includes the story of her origins. I still haven't written that part yet, although some of it has been done.

I'd original posted an eight-part version of the story, but wasn't entirely happy with the ending, so I rewrote the eighth part and added five more, which I liked a lot better and in time it led to a second story.
Sundancer's Fairy Tale
This story fills in Sundancer's return to Sunrise Harbor. It took an unexpected turn (for the better) when a fairy showed up. Fairies on Dahroona are little winged humanoids about the size of a Barbie doll or maybe a bit smaller. They were genetically engineered by the Dahroonans before they decided to adopt a simpler, lower-tech society. They have no magical powers, although Pixie is quite charming.

Let Me Know What You Think 

Don't forget to bookmark and rate this lens! You can do that following the comments.

TheGreenerMe wrote...

You have some great niches going for you! Your Celtic music lenses are great, very detailed, fun and informative!

ReplyPosted May 01, 2009

Rajays wrote...

Hi Rick, great to know you and your lenses better through this lens. Congratulations on becoming a new SquidAngel.

ReplyPosted April 07, 2009

CrypticFragments wrote...

I love Celtic Stuff and have a Celtic design gallery @ Celtic Creations as well as some Ireland related lenses. This lens has potential, just needs some organization and narrowing of topic.

ReplyPosted October 07, 2008

solarstories wrote...

Great lens! Makes me very interested in reading more of your stuff.

ReplyPosted September 09, 2008

0ctavias0fferings wrote...

I love your sense of humour, your lenses are excellent.

ReplyPosted August 31, 2008

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by MobyD

I'm very interested in Celtic music and have created a series of lenses about performers. See Celtic Music: Lenses (named Lens of the Day on March 16,... (more)

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