#206 The Highwayman

#206 The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes
http://www.squidoo.com/the-highwayman

This is another summer school lens. The challenge was to make a lens about something using only 5 modules. Pretty shortly afterwards this was relaxed to possibly not include the intro and Guestbook, but I went with the more restrictive version.

It proved tricky as it wasn't possible to add everything I wanted. For example, the musical versions are absent and I focused entirely on the poem. Usually I avoid extensive CSS on Lenses because they can be very unpredictable (Squidoo's code filter plus browser differences occassionally equals a right mess!) but with this one it was the only way to assemble it.

If you are on Squidoo why not try the challenge yourself? Even if you aren't in the summer school, it's well worth it just for the practice.

A new badge & Squid Squad updates

I just got this in my inbox. As you can imagine, I am rather chuffed particualrly since the award was by voting from other Squid Squad members!

The Squid Squad did very well:
Every member going for giant who got more than 50 lenses made it
The Top 100 Team won the challenge with 221 lenses

Squid Squad MVPs:
Giant: hlkljgk
Top 100: tirial

My lens progress since the challenge has slowed. I have a whole set of lenses building up in WIP at the moment, because with working full-time I have written the content, but haven't spent the time in front of a PC to select the right books, posters and affiliates for the lens. There might be a few upcoming this weekend.

And of course there's still the summer school challenge: write a lens about someone you respect. Too bad I can't submit the lenses on Brunel or Bazalgette!

Lens #154 (Hamleys) and a time extension

#154 is now up, which is about Hamleys toy shop, the oldest toy store in Britain and probably the best. It has long been a guilty pleasure of mine, so I thought I'd share it!

The Squid Squad challenge has an extension on the deadline to the 30th June, which is great - gives us more time to make lenses. I'm not sure whether to reset my target to 200 or if that is frankly a bit ambitious, particularly given the other problem...

...Squidoo summer school. With great embarrassment I admit I suspect I am about to fall at the first. The challenge is to find a way to use their new Caption Contest Module. I'm useless at caption contests. I avoid them like a plague. Writing one myself is currently resulting in a very blank mind. Ideas welcomed here!

Edited to add: Why not? I made the 150 by the 13th June.

New Target: 200 lenses New deadline: June 30th.

Can I do it? Probably not, but I'm certainly going to try. And since I'm now on Twitter (Tirial_A) you can follow my progress there as well.