Comfortdoc on Squidoo

Yesterday I shared some of the information that I gathered for our upcoming trip to Disneyland to create the Make it a Memorable Disneyland Christmas lens. These lenses were inspired by the final week’s challenge in the Holiday RocketMoms to write a lens about your favorite place to escape for the holidays.

This post is thee second part of our pre-trip to Disneyland series is a new lens with some of the Tips for a Magical Disneyland Christmas. They are a series of tips that we’ve gathered over the years to making it a more memorable and hopefully a bit less stressful time at the “Happiest Place on Earth.”

Some of the tips we’ve discovered over the years for making a holiday trip to Disneyland include:

• Tip: Stay at Disneyland for More than One Day
• Tip: Ride the Special Holiday Attractions
• Tip: Eat Healthy Foods for Breakfast
• Tip: Bring Your Own Snacks and Water
• Tip: Never Pass up the Chance to use the Restroom
• Tip: Check out the Ride Restrictions and Ratings

These tips are only a few of the ones that I’ve included to make make a Disneyland Christmas experience less stressful, more enjoyable, a bit easier and even a bit less expensive.

If you have more, be sure to share them on the Tips for a Magical Disneyland Christmas lens.

Be sure to see the Traveling to Disneyland at the Holidays? Make it a Memorable Disneyland Christmas so you can take a virtual trip to Disneyland.

For many, Disneyland is one of the most magical places there is. During the holiday season, it becomes even more magical.  If you have a chance to visit Disneyland for the holidays you are in for a special treat. Every year they decorate Disneyland for the holidays and put on several special events and rides.

The Visit Disneyland for a Memorable Disney Christmas lens features information on the rides and events that make the Holiday Season at Disneyland such a magical time. It was inspired by the final week’s challenge in the Holiday RocketMoms to write a lens about your favorite place to escape for the holidays.

I created the Visit Disneyland for a Memorable Disney Christmas lens also as a way for people reading it to experience a virtual Holiday Trip to Disneyland so even if they can’t make it to Disneyland for Christmas you’ll experience a bit of the Disney Magic and maybe even get a bit of a feeling that you’ve been there.

Disney’s Magical Holiday Season

This year the holiday season at Disneyland runs from November 13, 2009 to January 3, 2010. Some of the special holiday events that occur at Disneyland in Anaheim, CA include:

• Sleeping Beauty Winter Castle
• Believe in Holiday Magic Fireworks
• Haunted Mansion Holiday
• A Christmas Fantasy Parade
• It’s a Small World Holiday
• Disney Electrical Parade

The Princess and the Frog at Disneyland

This year to coincide with the release of the new film, The Princess and the Frog, Disneyland is also featuring special events over the holiday season that run from from November 6, 2009 to January 3, 2010. Find out more by following the link below:

• The Princess and the Frog

Here’s hoping that your holiday trip to Disneyland is a memorable, magical one.

P.S. Be looking for part 2 tomorrow when I share many of the special Disneyland tips we’ve discovered visiting Disneyland at Christmas.

I am very pleased to report that the How to Prevent Getting H1N1 Flu or Swine Flu has been nominated in the 2009 Giant Squid Awards under the category of Best DIY How-To Lens Nominees for the year. It is quite an honor. Earlier in the year, this lens received one of the coveted Purple stars.

Understandably, the How to Prevent Getting H1N1 Flu or Swine Flu lens has gotten steady traffic since I created it in the Spring to get some decent information out about keeping yourself and your family safe from getting the H1N1 flu.

You can vote for my H1N1 Flu lens in the Giant Squid Awards any time until Sunday December 20, 2009 EST by visiting the Vote Now for the 2009 Giant Squid Awards lens under the Best DIY How-To Lens Nominees section.

Thank you for your support.

Johnny Depp - a Mad Hatter

Alice in Wonderland – 2010 is the highly anticipated release from Disney redone as only Tim Burton can do.

The film, due for release in March 2010 features an all-star cast that includes:

• Johnny Deep
• Mia Wasikowska
• Helena Bonham Carter
• Anne Hathaway

You can watch the new trailer on the Alice in Wonderland – 2010 lens. I have one daughter that is ready to see it and the other one who isn’t sure.

Johnny Depp really looks like he has taken on the Mad Hatter Character and is truly creepy.  One thing for sure is that this version of Disney’s Alice in Wonderland is going to be a lot darker than the original one.

Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore debut their Celebrity Pledge today on the Oprah Winfrey Show featuring more than 50 celebrities making a pledge from Eva Longoria Parker pledging to “plant 500 trees this year to help our planet,” or Diddy pledging to “turn off the lights” to Josh Groban pledging his support of the arts.

They hope to encourage everyone to take the pledge and support in coming President Barack Obama. As Ashton wrote in their press release:

“The Presidential Pledge is a platform for people across the nation and throughout the world to make a first-person commitment of service to our new president, articulating a specific intent or action to become an agent of positive change.”

Watch the video at The Presidential Pledge lens, join the pledge to serve all mankind and decide what you will do to help the president and be the change that we seek.

I pledge to be a servant to our president and all mankind.

Because together we can.

Together we are.

Together we will be the change that we seek.

The Presidential Pledge

Then post What’s Your Pledge? on the Presidential Pledge lens.

I am happy to announce that I’ve been chosen to join the Squid Angels. Being a Squid Angel comes with a great deal of responsibility.

The job of the Squid Angels is two-fold:

1. Blessing Lenses – To find the best of the best Squidoo lenses to bless (and help their rankings go up).
2. Cleaning up Spam – To keep the top 100 lenses free of junk and spam (and help their rankings go down).

I take the duty of being a newly appointed Squid Angel seriously. You can follow along with the Squid Angel Blessings Log (Blog) lens that I’ve created to monitor the lenses that I’ve blessed during my term as a Squid Angel. See the other existing Angels and the rest of the new angels on my Blessings Log lens.

You can see the type of lenses that I have determined are bless worthy and the list of criteria I plan to use when looking for lenses to bless.

I am likely to adopt the mode of stealth angel, slipping in when you least expect it to bless a worthy lens.

World AIDS Day 1999 – 2008

AIDS has already killed more than 25 million people world-wide since it was first recognized in 1981. World AIDS Day is a day to focus attention on this pandemic that is affecting more than 33 million people around the world.

NIDA and AIDS.gov worked with Bloggers Unite to encourage bloggers to blog on December 1 on AIDS. Working together, everyone can reduce the stigma of this pandemic through words, voices and actions.

Focus on Prevention. Know Your HIV Status.

Since there is still no cure yet for HIV/AIDS the best thing to do is to focus on prevention and knowing your HIV Status. A unique campaign has been developed using text messaging to promote HIV testing.

Mobile phone users can send a text message with their zip code to “KNOWIT” (566948). Within seconds, they will receive a text message identifying an HIV testing site near them. This mobile phone service connects users with CDC’s testing database found at www.HIVtest.org.

Find out more about World AIDS Day at 20, 1988 – 2000.

One of my favorite quotes that reminds me to be thankful comes from H. U. Westermayer. He noted:

The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts.
No Americans have been more impoverished than these
who, nevertheless,
set aside a day of thanksgiving.

During difficult times like the ones many of us are living in now, it may be challenging to try and find something to be thankful for or a reason to give thanks.

The Give Thanks on Thanksgiving lens is a reminder of some of those things. It was also the main reason for creating a Month of Thanks Challenge.

You can Share What You are Thankful for in this Month on the Month of Thanks lens, the Give Thanks on Thanksgiving lens or post why you are thankful in the Month of Thanks thread in the Squidu forums.

P.S. I am also thankful that the charity work on Squidoo has not gone unnoticed. See today’s LOTD Blog Post.

The Month of Thanks Challenge was held over the month of November to give lensmasters a chance to be thankful, raise awareness about hunger and make lenses to benefit hunger related Squidoo Charities.

The challenge is being done to help us realize that even in the midst of everything that is going on, we still have a lot to be thankful. The month of November, the month of Thanksgiving is a good time to stop, take a moment and give thanks.

About the Challenge

We had a lot of great lenses submitted for a Month of Thanks and the five hunger related charities, over 60 lenses.

25 – Action Against Hunger
7 – Food for Everyone Foundation
15 – Heifer International
7 – Oxfam America
7 – Planet Gumbo

Topics ranged from serious, like the winning lenses for a Month of Thanks Feed The Hungry from pmolinero, to heart-felt like  Giving Thanks and Giving Back from Starving Artist (from Angelina) and even to “The Worst Lens Ever Made” (from Mortira).

The Winning Lenses

1. Feed The Hungry from pmolinero
2. Partnership For Safety from Big Jim
3. Action Against Hunger from Comfortdoc

Pmolinero plans to “donate $0.05 for every comment left on the Feed the Hungry lens from now until Thanksgiving, 27th of November 2008.”

Still Time to be Thankful

Even though the winning lenses have been announced, there is still time left in November to be thankful. You can Share What You are Thankful for in this Month on the lens or post why you are thankful in the Month of Thanks thread in the Squidu forums.

I am very thankful and grateful to all who participated in the Month of Thanks Challenge.

I had a lot of fun creating this 15 Squid Gifts lens. The lens was an idea that I came up with to celebrate lens # 100, but didn’t get it completed until I reached lens # 200.

Christmas Gifts for Squidoo Lensmasters and Squid Lovers was created:

First to honor reaching lens #200
Second to benefit Planet Gumbo and
Third and entry for the Month of Thanks Challenge.

If you have someone on your holiday list that is a Squidoo lensmaster or a Squid lover, there are 15 different categories of holiday squid gifts on the Christmas Gifts for Squidoo Lensmasters and Squid Lovers. You are sure to find something to please your favorite lensmaster or Squid Lover.