Squid Pings from JasonE

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• 

  The new (and improved) “Where Do You Squidoo?” map is ready!

  jasone 11:07:59 pm on June 29, 2008 | 0 | # |
  Tags: JasonE, Squidoo lensmaster map, Where Do You Squidoo

  It’s time for me to hang the colorful plastic flag streamers, bring out the marching band and put the inflatable purple gorilla on the roof:

  The new map on the “Where Do You Squidoo?” lens is ready!  Please visit and add yourself to the map (if you haven’t already).  If you have already added yourself to the map, you’ll hopefully be relieved to know that I have imported the information from the old map into the new one, so your information and links haven’t been lost.  (Thank goodness for backups!)

   

• Coming Soon: A New “Where Do You Squidoo?” Map!

  jasone 01:25:04 am on June 26, 2008 | 0 | # |
  Tags: JasonE, Squidoo lensmaster map, Where Do You Squidoo

  The mapping website that I have used up to this point to host the “Where Do You Squidoo?” lensmaster map has been down (it appears to me) quite frequently lately, which is a real shame, because I had really been happy with its functionality and the way that it displayed a smaller version of the updated map within a Text module on the “Where Do You Squidoo?” lens.

  So . . .  I decided earlier this evening to import data from a semi-recent (May 17th) backup to a new map, which will be hosted by ZeeMaps.com. If you have tried to visit the lens or if you added a “pin” to the map after May 17th, I apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused you!

  Click here for a special sneak preview of how the new map will look.

  More details coming soon . . . Remember, you heard about it here first!   ;-D

   

• Two Funny (But Nearly Invisible) Lenses

  jasone 02:50:36 pm on May 17, 2008 | 0 | # |
  Tags: funny LOST videos, funny Squidoo lenses, JasonE, Jim Gaffigan, LOLcats, R-rated Squidoo lenses, Squidoo feature suggestions

  You have probably seen the LOLcat pictures (like the one pictured below), in which the punchline is that cat appears to be operating some kind of cat-sized, invisible vehicle.

  

  I have two Squidoo lenses (about funny “LOST” parodies and bloopers and about food-loving comedian Jim Gaffigan) which I think are entertaining, but which don’t receive many visitors–hence, they are almost invisible on the Web. I think the reason for this is that (wanting to err on the side of caution) I have given them an “R” rating. Although they don’t contain much that would actually make your grandmother blush, the humor in them is the kind that you would see on any given night on a late night talk show or on Comedy Central.

  I don’t think the dire warning that “This lens has been flagged as having adult or mature content” that one must click through to view these lenses is keeping the teeming hordes of potential visitors away. Instead, it’s probably merely that the search engine crawlers are indexing the “Adult Content” warning page, since–not being human–they are unable to click through to “read” (index) the actual lenses.

  This “Adult Content” warning page doesn’t (currently) contain any keywords that are relevant to the content of my lenses, BUT (and this is a potential feature request for Squidoo) what if, when giving my own lens an “R” rating, I were to be presented with a text box into which I could display the text from my Introduction module or into which I could type some other custom text, which would allow me to present to visitors (and to search engines) a brief, keyword-rich (but sanitized) description of the lens within the “Adult Content” warning page. A further enhancement would be to permit me to select (from a canned list) reasons why I have rated the lens “R” (similar to those newspaper movie guides for parents); such as because it contains “strong language”, violence , et cetera. This way, visitors would be able to decide for themselves whether or not they wanted to continue through past the “Adult Content” warning to view the lens and the the search engines would also have something unique about it to index.

  Anyway, it’s just a thought . . .

  

  I can has cheezeburger?

  -JasonE

   

• Tweets, Version 1.0: The Real-Life, Feathered Kind.

  jasone 11:47:32 am on May 15, 2008 | 0 | # |
  Tags: bird rescue, Karendelac

  Mother Nature has apparently determined that my wife and I should have a new avocation.  We’ve had several thunderstorms here during the past few weeks, which I think has unfortunately contributed to the ejection (and sometimes injury) of several young birds from their nests.  We have found two such birds in our backyard during the past week.  Thankfully, we learned that East Lake Veterinary Hospital is one place (in Dallas, Texas) that will take in all of the rescued birds and bunnies that folks like my wife (who I’ve always thought bears an uncanny resemblance to Snow White) and me (who becomes increasingly more of a Grumpy dwarf than a Prince Charming as I get older) suddenly find looking helpless in our yards. 

  While consulting the collective consciousness (a.ka. “Googling it”) for tips about what the heck we should do in this situation, I found on the second page of results for the search terms “wild bird rescue” the following great Squidoo lens, Bird Rescue, from my fellow lensmaster, Karendelac, who I recognized from her prior comment on one of my own lenses.  (Her lens, by the way, is currently ranked #1 on Squidoo in the “Animals and Nature” category and–get this: #4 out of all of the half-million pages on Squidoo.  Way to go, Karen!)  Karen–it turns out– is a very dedicated and experienced bird rescuer and an avian afficionado of the best kind–and if you have an interest in this particular subject–I urge you to check out her great lens.  Thank you Karen, for the informational resource that you have provided and the care that you have given over the years to so many of our feathered friends. 

  Incidentally, within her lens, Karen mentions the psychological benefit to the helper of rescuing and of providing aid to other living things–in this case, birds.  I agree with her that overall, the experience of rescuing a couple of birds this past week myself has made me feel more like Happy than his fellow dwarf, Grumpy.  (Hopefully my Snow White has noticed too.)

  “If [only] I could . . . talk to the animals . . . and they could squeak and squawk and speak and speak and talk with me.” (Leslie Bricusse, 5-time Tony-nominated songwriter; “Dr. Dolittle”, 1967.)

  Get well little birds,

  -JasonE 

   

• Tweedle-leedle-leet! Tweedle-leedle-leet!

  jasone 01:31:52 am on May 12, 2008 | 2 | # |
  Tags: brevity, micro-blogging, second post, tweets

  Just re-reading my first post. Not exactly a tweet, huh? More like a tweee . . . (takes deep breath) . . .eeet! My second post will be shorter. See?

  Sounding my barbaric tweet,

  JasonE

   

• What’s a “Squid Ping from JasonE”, and should I have that looked at by someone?

  jasone 01:14:51 am on May 12, 2008 | 0 | # |
  Tags: first post, JasonE, ping, Squidoo

  Ping! You’re it!

  On a computer network, (such as on the Web), a ping is a brief communication that you send to something (in particular) to find out whether or not it is out there and is responsive to the “Whasssup???” request that you have sent. The sending of pings can also be a way of determining whether or not ANYTHING is out there at all, or–if you decide to attempt to ping yourself–of learning the answer to the existential question: “Hey! Is this thing on? Testing, testing, one, two three . . .” Sending a ping can provide you with useful information about your intended recipients (such as what their names are or where they’re located) and (to some degree) whether or not you have an efficient and effective method of communicating with them.

  With that in mind, the “pings” that I’ll be sending out from time to time on this micro-blog will be both serious and humorous in nature. Many of them will be sent out to many people in general, although some of them may be sent out to specific individuals. Others may even be sent out to no one in particular (i.e., “Is this thing on? Testing, testing, one, two, three!”) The majority of them however, will be sent out with the overall objective of providing you with announcements, tips, questions, shout-outs, commendations, observations and other reflections about my online pursuits as a lensmaster on Squidoo and my life as a person in the real, three-dimensional world.

  So, if you’re wondering whether or not you should have this “Squid Ping from JasonE” looked at by someone, don’t worry. I think you’ll be fine. And if you’re wondering what I ate for breakfast this morning or what my favorite color is, don’t worry about that either. It’s not that kind of blog. Besides, this is just the first post. I don’t intend to cover cinnamon rolls or blue just . . . oh crud.

  Thanks for reading this post. I look forward to having you visit again here soon.

  Sincerely,

  JasonE

   

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