Comfortdoc on Squidoo

It is with great sadness that I have to report that the inspirational Dr. Randy Pausch has lost his battle with Cancer. He died on July 25, 2008.

Dr. Randy Pausch was one of our featured SuperHero Project Lenses, for his head-on, straight-forward, entertaining and motivational approach to facing the diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer. If you don’t know, he was the Professor who delivered the inspirational “The Last Lecture” that was turned into a number one best selling book.

I had a strong feeling that since his personal web page hadn’t been updated in nearly a month, that things were not going well. I had been checking for updates since making the SuperHero Lens.

I’ve updated all three lenses that I have for Dr. Randy Pausch to reflect the sad news. This includes the SquidWho lens on Randy Pausch for and the SquidLit lens on the Last Lecture the Book.

We have lost a great spirit and great teacher in the passing of Dr. Randy Pausch, but his legacy will live one.

My thoughts are with the family.

A new group was launched this week, the Squidoo Activists. The activists are much like the Giant Squids and the Squid Angels (except we don’t get cool mini graphics next to our names…yet)

The Squidoo Activists grew out of the Squidoo SuperHero Challenge brainstorm of Squidoo’s Non-profit Organizer Extraordinarie, Anne Reidy.

Many of the members were invited to participate as Squidoo Activists because of our participation in the SuperHero Challenge or because they have demonstrated an interest in promoting charity work on Squidoo.

The primary goal of the Squidoo Activists is to do even more for charities using Squidoo.

Visit the Squidoo Activists lens to learn more.

Taking a different look at things today, I’ve updated the We Can Solve It lens and the Al Gore – SuperHero with his challenge to the Nation speech from yesterday. The Al Gore – SuperHero lens was created for the SuperHero project to spread the word about the We Can Solve It Campaign.

In his speech Former Vice President Al Gore called for a “man on the moon” approach to the solving the problem of global warming. He challenged the nation to take bold steps towards solving the climate crisis.

You can view excerpts from the speech or the full speech on both lenses.

I am glad that I am finally going to see Mamma Mia this afternoon. I need a bit of escapism in these dark times.

I was surprised to see that I currently have three lenses in the top four at the top of the SquidFlix, the Squidoo co-branding that allows you to critique, review and rate movies.

My top SquidFlix lenses are

1. Ever After – A Cinderella Story
2. Mamma Mia! The Movie
4. We love Disney’s Enchanted

Mamma Mia will be coming out on Friday. I can hardly wait.

Top of Non-Profit

I also happened to discover that my SuperHero lens on Amy Jaffe Barzach and the Boundless Playgrounds is the Number 1 in topic for Non-Profits.

I was a bit surprised when I checked the Dashboard today to discover that I have four lenses in the Top 100! Considering that there are over 500,000 lenses, I am very happy.

Two of the lenses are from my Grief and Loss topics that have slowly been rising in the lens rankings over time:

Loss, Grief and Bereavement

How to Write a Condolence Note

Two of the lenses are ones that I created for the Squidoo SuperHero Project and have been featured as lenses of the day:

Dr. Randy Pausch – A Superhero

Amy Jaffe Barzach

I had to take a screen shot to mark the occasion, since it may not happen again (for a while).

I am hoping that the lens rankings are all sorted out now. I don’t believe it is a fluke.

The Favorite SuperHero Lenses have been chosen and are ready for viewing on the Favorite Squidoo SuperHero Project Lenses page.

The Favorite SuperHero Lenses are the lenses created for the SuperHero Project, submitted to the SuperHero group and voted for by visitors and lensmasters to the Squidoo SuperHero Project lens.

There were so many great Superhero lenses submitted to the Superhero group, that the top three lenses in each category are featured on this page.

Today the Superhero lens Amy Jaffe Barzach was named Lens of the Day. I am very honored to have the first winning lens from the Superhero Challenge.

The lens focuses on her efforts in creating Boundless Playgrounds. It was my 11th Superhero lens, submitted at the 11th hour for the Superhero Challenge.

Boundless Playgrounds is the first national nonprofit dedicated to helping communities create extraordinary barrier-free playgrounds where children, with and without disabilities, can develop essential skills for life as they learn together through play.

With this honor comes the added recognition of being the first of five winners of the Superheroes challenge for charity.

Even better, as one of the winners of the Superhero challenge $500 will be donated from Squidoo to help the next playground be built.

Now that all of the SuperHero lenses have been submitted for the challenge, you have a change to vote for your favorite SuperHero Lenses.

Winning Lensmasters will get to display a cool SuperHero “Favorite” Badge to display on their Superhero lenses. It is a way to recognize all of the hard work that the lensmasters put into the SuperHero Challenge.

Voting for your favorite SuperHero will be kept open for one week after the SuperHero Challenge ends on July 1, 2008.

You have until July 8, 2008 to Vote for your favorite SuperHero lens.

Here is my final list of SuperHero Lenses, along with the Charity of my choice. The lenses are listed in alphabetical order.

Bono
Benefiting – One – http://www.one.org/

The Elders
Benefiting The Global Elders – http://www.theelders.org or the Nelson Mandela Foundation http://www.nelsonmandela.org/).

Al Gore
Benefiting We Can Solve It! – http://www.wecansolveit.org/

Yoko Ono
Benefiting Instant Karma: Amnesty Internationals Campaign to Save Darfur – http://www.instantkarma.org/InstantKarma.html

Dr. Randy Pausch
Benefiting – Professor Randy Pausch Honorary Fund at Carnegie Mellon University http://www.cmu.edu/giving/pausch.shtml

Patricia Quigley and Susan Retik 9/11 Widows Live Beyond the 11th
Benefiting – Beyond the 11th – http://www.beyondthe11th.org/

Christopher Reeve – Superman, SuperHero & Super Human Being
Benefiting the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation – http://www.christopherreeve.org/

Sadako Sasaki
Benefiting – Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – http://www.wagingpeace.org/

Mattie Stepanek
Benefiting – Muscular Dystrophy Association – http://www.mda.org/

Marianne Williamson
Benefiting – The Peace Alliance – Campaign for a Department of Peace – http://www.thepeacealliance.org/

It’s been a lot of fun creating the various lenses to highlight even more of the people and/or organizations that I admire.

I just discovered that the Squidoo SuperHero Project Lens has been named the Lens of the Day for June 30, 2008. (So far it’s hit the dashboard, but not the LOTD Blog.)

Needless to say I am rather excited that my efforts to promote and help the SuperHero Project have been recognized.

I hope that the LOTD status will help bring some recognition to the project.

Who knows, maybe someone will be inspired to make 5 lenses before the July 1, 2008 deadline for submitting charity lenses.