What really bothers me is the attached hate. I usually delete these notes before I have to puke.

Today, I started thinking about making a Squidoo lens about this ignorant junk. Should I?

Here’s one example of their attempt at humor (all capitalized, of course):

” JUST LEARNED THAT OBAMA IS GOING TO IMPOSE A 40% TAX ON ASPIRIN!
THE REASON GIVEN WAS ……BECAUSE IT IS WHITE AND IT WORKS!”

Hmm…only white people work, huh? Have they noticed that our president is a black man?

Am I missing something?

Another one from today:

“BAIL ‘EM OUT?”

“Hell, back in 1990, the Government seized the Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada
for tax evasion and, as required by law, tried to run it.

Now we are trusting the economy of our country and our banking system to the
same nit-wits who couldn’ t make money running a whore house and selling whiskey!”

I don’t get this one at all. Isn’t it the banking system that failed us and now comes running to the government for more failures funding?

Can anybody explain the reasoning behind all this?

Maybe I’m not smart enough and need to study more in these great lenses by smarter lensmasters:

The Most Important Squidoo Lenses For American Politics Today

The feedback from my first customers is 100% drooling:

Chef Keem’s Espresso Sea Salt Caramel Truffles are the best candy these folks ever tasted. Or so they tell me.

Check out my Squidoo lens about this fine confection and see if you’d like to order some for yourself.

Espresso Sea Salt Caramel Truffles – my best candy ever. Ever.

What’s your image of God? Does He look like Santa? An old guy with long hair pointing His finger from the clouds?

What if we’d let go of these silly images and started thinking like adults?

Hmmm…the launch of my TWTTRSTRM coincides with the Super Bowl…fizzle, fizzle…ffft…

Does God look like Santa in a robe?

I’ve realized my diminishing ability to play, when making new Squidoo lenses. There’s always the thought about “monetizing” this and that and what else might they buy. It’s aggravating!

O.k. – I need money. I need to create some kind of compensation for spending all that time on the web. I’m sharing myself, I give away info that others can use, I should get paid for it. Absolutely.

What disturbs me is that this kind of mindset begins to creep into everything I do. Maybe I need a break.

Incidentally, Squidoo released the new TWTTRSTRM tool – perfect for a discussion on my topic.

What if we’d forget about making money online for one week, and focused only on writing from the heart?

I made a bunch of Squidoo lenses on some of the people I admire and who in turn inspire me. Now I collected all these portraits of outstanding folks in a new lensography:

Chef Keem’s Amazing People Lensography

Maybe you get inspired as well when you visit…

These brutal realities of war are daily occurrences for many thousands of our fathers, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters in Iraq and Afghanistan.

How can we possibly enjoy a peaceful Holiday without a mere thought or prayer for our troops?

How can we possibly form the right thoughts in our minds without being thoroughly informed about the realities of life for our loved ones in arms?

On this Christmas Eve of 2008, I made a Squidoo lens with war videos by Casey Porter. He took it upon himself to show us what’s really going on in Iraq, by letting the soldiers and images speak for themselves.

Watch these videos! It’s the least you can do for our troops – as a Christmas present.

Stop the loss – Iraq war realities on video.

This is a very good recipe. In fact, it’s the most popular dish on my Alaska lodge menu.

A thick halibut fillet is breaded with a special mixture of tortilla chips, nuts, and spices. Then I fry it to a rich brown on both sides, and finish it in the oven.

I serve this moist and tasty, hot, sweet and crunchy piece of fish on a Mango Jalapeno Mayonnaise, and garnish it with a few squeezes of a Chipotle Aioli.

Wanna know how to do this yourself? (Yes, you do!)

Hot and Crunchy Halibut Recipe

Are we willing to ask for help when we’re in a difficult situation? What can we offer in return?

We’re not talking about help with lenscrafting, HTML, or such things. We’re talking about issues outside of Squidoo – job, extra income, counseling, repairs, moving, etc.

Can we build a community of friends who are brave enough to confess to their real troubles? Can we help out each other with these problems?

The second (equally important) part is – what can we offer as compensation for any help received? How can we pay you back without having to spend any money? (Which we don’t have in the first place!)

So, this could be an exercise in courage, creativity, and community (tribe) building. A Squidoo bartering service, of sorts.

I made a lens about this effort. Wanna take a look and participate? Right here, if you would.

This lens will present the 2008 top ten most popular keyword searches on Yahoo!, as seen through the minds of top Squidoo lensmasters. Find out what we wrote about Britney Spears, WWE, Barack Obama, Miley Cyrus, RuneScape, Jessica Alba, Naruto, Lindsay Lohan, Angelina Jolie, and American Idol. You might discover interesting tidbits you didn’t even know you were searching for!

Top 10 Yahoo! Keyword Searches 2008 – as explored by Squidoo Lensmasters!

Noooo! It’s a bad idea to cook nekkid. I have the scars to prove it.

I cook professionally for only 2 months out of the year – during my Alaska lodge job from mid-August through mid-October. The rest of the year I take care of my agave nectar and specialty chocolate business, without much actual cooking involved.

I got burned in Alaska, which is better than a grizzly-mauling but scarring nonetheless. Dumping wet rice from the china cap into the boiling water creates a splash. That’s why I have a receding chest hair line, although I was wearing a t-shirt when it happened.

Point is, proper chef’s clothing is important. (Unless you consider hot oil burns the “cool tattoos” of the culinary trade.)

My new Squidoo lens about the sturdy and the fashionable in the chef apparel department gives you great tips on where to shop for a happy cook.

For Christmas? You bet.        Chef Wear and Cooking Clothes