Everything You Want To Know About Rachel 

Or maybe just what she feels like saying at the moment....

Q: So, Rachel is...who?
A: Rachel is an writer, student of belly dance and movie fan seeking a living wage & like-minded aliens for spiritual growth, resource sharing and spontaneous fun. Once that's accomplished, she'd like to move to communal land and propagate bliss while moss farming.

She's lived the first 20 years of her life on the East Coast and has lived the second 20 on the West Coast. Shown here, the lovely Rachel (age 3) multi-tasking while working on her world domination plan.

Q: Does she have superpowers?
A: She has a B.A. in Theater Arts from UCSC and an M.F.A. in Fashion Textiles from the Academy of Art College, SF. She applied for, was accepted to and attended the 1989 Clarion SF/Fantasy Writer's Workshop in Michigan where her teachers were Thomas Disch, Karen Joy Fowler, Octavia Butler, Spider and Jeanne Robinson, Kate Wilhelm and Damon Knight. In 2002 she took the sex educator training program from San Francisco Sex Information and volunteered with them through the end of 2005, staffing a weekly shift on their switchboard. She's also been a Certified First Responder, not a bad plan in earthquake country.

As you can imagine, she knows a lot of stuff. Weird stuff. Some people who've lived their whole lives in front of a TV set mistake this knowledge for superpowers, but Rachel tends to think they just mistake some of her entirely purple outfits for some sort of superhero uniform.

Q: What's with the purple?
A: Yes, Rachel has a thing for purple. There were years of trauma in her youth, when every admission of liking that color was met with "oh, like Donny Osmond..." and she kept her purple to herself, but not anymore.

Q: Is Rachel some sort of SEO/marketer person?
A: Nope. She's just a person who took Seth Godin's statement about hoping that Squidoo would let 100,000 people quit their day jobs really to heart, as she didn't have a day job when she first found Squidoo. She enjoys being able to write at home in her favorite fleecy pants and slippers every day, and thinks it's really cool how Squidoo is slowly but surely paying her rent and living expenses. Read her profile in SquidU to learn more about her general attitude towards what she does here.

Q: And the "illustrious" part?
A: That's how anything sent snail-mail to Rachel from her parents is addressed.

Can I Build A Lens For You? 

Lensmaster For Hire

Several people have contacted me asking if I am available to build lenses for other lensmasters, and the answer is "Yes!"

Five percent of my lenses have spent 300 days or more on Squidoo's top 100 list, and another ten percent have logged 100 or more days (so far!)

In April 2007, my lens on Updos for the Prom, Weddings or Just Everyday hit the #1 overall slot and How to Make Your Own Fairy Wings earned that lensrank on Oct 31, 2007!

With the March 2007 payment, Squidoo reported the top three most-profitable lensmasters for January 07, and I was #2. With the December 2007 payments, it was announced that I was the highest-earning cash lensmaster.

In September 2007, I was selected as a "Giant Squid" in the first-ever group of lensmasters to be honored with this designation that indicates a large body of high-quality lenses.

I offer graphics creation, title and tagging optimization, relevant retail product selection, advice on joining and using groups, content editing and recommendations for content development. If you operate multiple web properties, I can optimize your lens so as to compliment your sites and offer advice on maximizing your cross-traffic. I don't build for a quick fix, I build for the long-tail and believe in "evergreen" content.

Lens basics assembled by someone else: $100
Time saved and topical focus achieved: priceless.

(note that's a little less than half of what some other lensmasters are charging)

Contact me

My Squidmercial Bit 

Long-Tail Lenses 

topics which entertain, inform and endure

Tribal Tattoos

This lens will show you the history of tribal tattoos and explore the modern stylizations of these designs.  Get information on the tribal tattoo styles of Borneon, Polynesian, New Zealand, Hawaiian and other forms of tribal tattooing. If you li...

Japanese Tattoos

Japanese tattoos are known for their full body styling, bold lines, historic patterns and traditional images.  The techniques for tattooing that developed in Japan used hand tools, and it wasn't until the mid 20th century that machines first cam...

Make Your Own Fairy Wings

The most essential part of any fairy costume or persona is a great pair of wings. Fairy wings are good for costume parties, conventions, gatherings, street fairs, parades, Halloween, May Day festivals, stage plays and rainy days. This lens will show...

Dragon Tattoos

Whether it's a Japanese dragon swirling down an arm, a medieval dragon battling a wizard across an entire back piece or a tribal dragon design wrapping an ankle, these mythological creatures are represented in all the major tattoo styles. If you like...

UpDos For Proms, Weddings Or Just Everyday

The term "updo" is sort of modern verbal shorthand for "doing a hairdo that's up." For some, updos are quick and easy.  For others they are battles waged with hairpins and spray. This lens offers advice for finding and doing y...

Lens Of The Day Picks 

I've had a few lenses get selected for the Lens Of The Day honor, and I'm proud that the Squids-That-Be like my work. I have a lot of fun on this site.

In August of 2006, there was the Travel Challenge and my lens Battle Born: Nevada Travel Guide tied for runner-up in that one and got co-featured as Lens of the Day.

In September 2006, my lens on how to Make Your Own Fairy Wings made LotD too! Ok, so I had something to do with it, but apparently, sometimes it's hard to choose just one.

The Current Book Pile 

The avalanche that threatens to fall over next to my bed....

Having had to make two reductive moves in a row, I got rid of a lot of extraneous possessions and sadly some books had to go too..... :-(

However, you can't keep a true book fetishist from getting new books so there's always something in the "to be read" pile. Here's what I'm either reading or about to read.

Angry Women (Re/Search ;...

Steel Beach

Naked Lunch (Harper Peren...

The Diamond Age: Or, a Yo...

The Secret Teachings of A...

Challenge Winning Lenses 

From time to time Squidoo has Lensmaster Challenges, where they pick a theme or topic and then have a contest for building a lens on that topic. I've had several lenses that have won or placed for their challenges.

The BoingBoing Lensmaster Challenge was in May of 2006, and my lens BoingBoing Goes BodyArt took first runner-up in that one. I won a book called Mad Professor.

My lens about Aldous Huxley's book BRAVE NEW WORLD outperformed other banned book lenses to win me ownership of the Banned Books Group.

In Sept '06, my blintzes lens won the new Food group September '06 challenge. Later, I adopted that group and it became known as "Chez*Squid."

My lens on author Nick Bantock was the Book Club's Nov '06 Pick.

If you've never tried building for a Challenge, I recommend it! It's fun, interesting and it can really let you explore just what you can do with a lens.

The Many Looks Of Rae 

Having a BA in Costume, I do tend to dress up or attend costume events more than the average human.

photo by Mark I Chester

Bondage-A-Go-Go, Hell-O-Ween event, SF

At the Forest Faire in Marin, CA

from Shelly and David's wedding

Dore Alley 2005 portrait by Mark I. Chester

Going to the Seattle Symphony, fall 2007

the Grab Bag 

just some of my fun lenses

The Weirdest Baby Names Ever

  In the quest to be more individualistic, parents are increasingly giving their children unusual names.  Celebrity baby names are often the weirdest.  If you'd like your new baby to have an exotic and unique name, this lens is YOUR gui...

Star Wars PEZ

STAR WARS PEZ Let your love of PEZ choose the Light or the Dark Side of the Force!

Stuff I WISH Existed

This lens is inspired by Lewis Smile and his Stuff We Wish Existed HQ!  He did a lens where he listed five things he wished existed, and I thought that was a cool lens idea. So, without further ado, here are five things I wish existed...

Vagaries, Whims and Fancies

va·ga·ry n. pl. va·ga·ries 1. An extravagant or erratic notion or action. [From Latin vagr, to wander, from vagus, wandering.] 2. an unexpected and inexplicable change in something (in a situation or a person's behavior, e...

Movie Remakes We Hate!

Hollywood seems firm in the belief that if something did well the first time, then it must be perfect to do again. However, redoing something with a bigger budget, modern movie stars and the powers of CGI does not always lead to an improved product.....

Rachel Goes To Rachel, Nevada 

My adventures in Area 51

In May of 2005, I got to go to one of the few namesake towns I have in the US: Rachel, Nevada. The town of Rachel didn't have a name until 1971, and then it was named after the first baby born in the area. Maybe 100 people live in the area, mostly employed on local clover farms.

It's also known as the famous and/or infamous Area 51. There is one small hub of UFO/alien-related business in the area, the Little A'Le'Inn Cafe.

We purposely went there to eat Alien Burgers and get some sort of merchandise. We got a couple of fantastic characters in the locals, both the staff and patrons who were there. Our waitress was what my mom would call "a pip." If you go, be sure to ask how they make the Alien Burger Special Sauce. The story is totally worth it. Oh, and the 25-35 mph gusts of wind weren't too shabby either.

This is a picture I took of a mural on the front of the Little A'Le'Inn.

Check Out My Latest HubPages 

In addition to my page building here at Squidoo, I'm also doing some over at HubPages. How that site functions is a bit different from Squidoo, but I've gotten good traffic exchanges between the two site and it's returning good earnings!

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...Are you talkin' to me?! 

comments, feedback and questions for Rachel

You know you want to ask....

spirituality great style you got here :) Posted March 30, 2008

relache Thanks, Helen! Posted March 17, 2008

Helensmrt Wow!You are great! I'm your fan! Posted March 17, 2008