Here with help for all those first-time, or returning disorganized, cruise-goers is AvgSuperHeroine with Tips for Packing For Your Cruise.

Avg starts early with the basics, like making sure your passport is up-to-date and how to protect your finances, and continues through tips for bringing items you may not have thought of, and packing the cheaper versions of electronics you crave. She rounds out the lens with tips for packing clothes (I absolutely agree with fewer pants, more shirts), and offers some unique reminders to bring extension cords and make calling cards. Yup, some of MY Facebook friends are people I met on a cruise!

If you’re sitting back with a head full of tips that might make for a great magazine article, chances are good they’ll make for a great Squidoo lens too. Even if you’re starting with just a few well-learned lessons, posting them on a lens and updating regularly is a great start to sharing your knowledge and building your lens base.

There’s a simple trick for clearing this message and making your “hidden” lens appear properly published.

Your computer likes to cheat by saving copies of websites and referring to them as you visit them often. These images, and sometimes content, are stored in your cache (pronounced cash). To force your computer browser not to cheat, you need to clear your cache. It’s simple to do, should be done regularly, and is slightly different for each browser.

Firefox: Clearing your Firefox Cache
IE: Clearing your Internet Explorer Cache (these directions are for IE6 but the screenshots are similar for other versions)
Safari: Clearing your Safari Cache
Chrome: Clearing your Chrome Cache
Netscape: Clearing your Netscape Cache

As a matter of fact, clearing your cache can alleviate dozens of what appear to be Squidoo-related glitches. A good cache cleaning and computer restart can take care of wonky lens alignments, missing images, garbled text, and other weird website functions that are simply the result of a confused computer. Clearing your cache and rebooting your computer is always our FIRST recommendation for fixing browser glitches, including getting your computer to play nice and show your newly published lens.

PS – You won’t be able to see your lens live until you’ve published it, of course. And a lack of content may keep you from doing that. You can always sneak a look at what your lens will look like by clicking “Preview” in your Workshop.

Meet NeilTryAthlete. As you might guess from his name, Neil is crazy about triathlon, so much so that he’s already written several lenses on the subject. He’s a runner who’s had his ups and downs with the sport, but he keeps coming back. As he says, “My reasons for running? Fun, fitness, weight loss, charity, competition, sense of achievement, and of course freedom!” Learn more about him from his “about me” lens, Trying to Be Athletic – All About NeilTryAthlete.

Meet bibliopola, a lensmaster living in Turkey who introduced herself through the topic of Bridge; My New Hobby. Whether you’re a fan of bridge or not, likely you’ll learn something new about this card game and social event from this very interesting lens.

Meet SophiaStar through her “about me” lens, Theater, Voice Over, Choir Oh My!!. You’ll learn about some of the many incarnations of the performing arts Sophia is involved in and some of the roles she’s played. Make sure that you read “Why I Do It.” We agree, Sophia, it doesn’t get much better than that.

Meet RandomChuck, a new lensmaster with a great sense of humor. In About Me – Chuck you’ll learn about his hometown, what he does for a living and for fun, and how he’s enjoying Squidoo: “I can honestly imagine carrying my laptop everywhere with me so I can type up some spontaneous lenses… ‘cept in the car. That’s dangerous.” Yep, definitely a sense of humor.

Plethora_Reader has a goal and writes about it in My quest to read every Pulitzer Prize Book in Biography and History category. If you love books, you’ll appreciate that lofty goal and certainly will want to check out the book review lenses that are sure to follow.

These are only a few of the star students now attending RocketSquids university. Introduce yourself, check out their lenses, and watch this space for more, coming soon!

Related Reading: Don’t miss these New Lensmasters Seeking Adventure on Squidoo and these New Lensmasters, Bestselling Authors?. And be sure to check out all the kind and generous lensmasters who celebrated It’s Random Acts of Kindness Day!

We also put together a little Q & A so that you have a better idea of how So Crafty (and all of the Squidoo magazines) are a great benefit to lensmasters and Squidoo.

Q: Why did Squidoo start using magazines as part of their platform?

A: After a lot of planning, we came up a Squidoo version of the online magazine – one which favors and features lenses and brings with it a bunch of new traffic sources to Squidoo. We’re also focused on increasing repeat traffic, which is another area where the improvements we make can be quite significant for lensmasters.

So simply put, our magazines are designed to bring daily, repeat traffic from Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and magazine subscribers, continually building up an audience of interested readers through these social connections and with people who are interested in specific topics, like those in the crafting space.

Q: Who is a magazine subscriber?

A: Think of the Facebook fans (and the rest of the social networks we can connect to) as subscribers. Those visitors “Like” the Facebook page from any magazine lens or article, and every time we feature a lens in the magazine (or publish an article), those links go out to the social networks where people paying attention will want to click, comment, and share.

We have a handful of ways for people to “subscribe” to a magazine – Facebook, Twitter, RSS and email. So if Facebook is not your thing, you have a choice in how you follow the magazine. We’ve found that Twitter, RSS and email combined can’t come close to equalling Facebook fan counts or traffic. We’re very also excited about Pinterest, obviously.

Q: What does being “Featured” mean and how does it benefit lensmasters?

A: When a lens is featured as an article, the traffic goes directly to the lens. We don’t change the lens URL or scrape any content — your lens remains 100% as it was content-wise.

If you have a scrapbooking lens and it gets “published” as an article, you’d show up here too: http://socrafty.squidoo.com/scrapbooking Being in the magazine index is forever, assuming you don’t opt the lens out of the magazine (being featured and later opting out means your lens is pulled from the lists in the archives, as well as the magazine search and browsing options.)

We’ve built tools for Stephanie, our magazines editor, to find both top lenses (based on lensrank) and “fresh”, based on newness and Featured status, so we can see all the great lenses by topic to feature. Featured status of course means not Work in Progress (or “WIP” as it is also known).

For So Crafty, our plan at launch is to feature 4 new “articles” per day. Of that, 2-3 will be lenses. The editorial calendar will adjust as time goes on and we learn what readers are responding too, what times/days work best, and so on. Our job will be to maximize the readership and the traffic patterns, so that you can keep making great lenses and get them seen in new ways.

Q: What does it mean to participate in a magazine?

A: The way a lens “participates” is by being in one of the topics that belongs to a magazine.  As long as your lens is in one of them and has a Featured status, your lens(es) are eligible to be featured as an article(s). You can opt-out, by lens or entirely, of course. Once again, if you opt-out, you obviously won’t be in the running to be featured. If you’re featured and later opt-out, your lens will disappear from the magazine.

Q: What do you have in store for us with the So Crafty magazine?

A: We plan on offering up plenty of opportunities for you to create new lenses and have them featured in the magazine. Easter is just around the corner — so, for example, we’ll put out a call for you to create new lenses by a certain date — all about Easter — which we can then show off in So Crafty.

Also, we want to put the focus on YOU, the crafters. So, we’ve created a Crafter Spotlight. We’ll feature one crafter each week. And to be considered, all you have to do is fill out this questionnaire: http://socrafty.squidoo.com/socrafty-crafter-spotlight

Paperfacets shares how to create a cute little Origami Box (complete with lid) using step-by-step instructions. Her easy to follow guided tour will help you produce a super neat product in no time at all. She even provides some great ideas on what to use the boxes for.

http://www.squidoo.com/make-an-easy-origami-box

Also be sure to check out some more So Crafty lenses like: Precious Metal Clay Tips and Tutorials, Tea Bag Folding | A Paper Folding Craft and Junk Journal.

Reminiscent of the Hippie and Beatnik trends of days gone by, Boho is an out of the box mix of comfortable styles and eclectic colors where pretty much anything goes and yet it all comes together to form it’s own classical look.

From the lens:
“It is a eclectic messy look that really seems to come together at the very last second and transforms into a very chic, yet classic look.”

Stop by Boho Style by lensmaster ScottiesRock today to learn more about this fun look and to see some classic Boho styles.

Have you got a favorite fashion style?  Have you made a lens about it yet?  What are you waiting for?

http://www.squidoo.com/boho-style

Related Reading:  Don’t miss these other great Lens of the Day posts; President Barack Obama Lapbook, Award Winning Children’s Books – 2012, and  Cinnamon Toast

In fact Squidoo has a topic for just about any Holiday & Celebration that you can think of and you can view them all right here: http://www.squidoo.com/topics/holidays-and-celebrations

This also means that you can get some ideas for a head start on your St. Patrick’s Day lenses, Easter lenses and even those Wacky March Holidays like Dr. Seuss’s Birthday!

So have have fun and if you happen to be in New Orleans today have a safe Mardi Gras celebration!

Got an amazing Mardi Gras lens? Share it right here.

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/persephonesharvest/2240200648/

This lens is loaded with fun activities, cute ideas and a neat project that will keep your kids checking the mailbox with anticipation.

Interested in learning more about President’s Day? Then check out some additional lenses or try making a President’s Day lens yourself.

http://www.squidoo.com/obama-lapbook

Related Reading:  Visit more of our most recent Lens of the Day lenses: Award Winning Children’s Books – 2012, Cinnamon Toast and Creating Realistic Geisha Makeup.

The list encompasses the award winning books from 2011 and the new ones that are coming up in 2012 including The 2012 Theodor Seuss Geisel Award winning book Tales for Very Picky Eaters which I want to pick up today.

So take a gander at the list, I guarantee you’ll find something you love to warm up your Kindle, Nook iPad or bookshelves.

Related Reading:  Visit more of our most recent Lens of the Day lenses: Cinnamon Toast, Creating Realistic Geisha Makeup and Parent Alienation Syndrome.

Cinnamon Toast is super easy to make and with the many choices of Cinnamon on the market today a fun recipe to experiment with. I used Tone’s Ground Cinnamon but would really like to try an organic version next.

So if you’re looking for a treat for Sunday breakfast try this nostalgic favorite.

Related Reading:  Visit more of our most recent Lens of the Day lenses: Creating Realistic Geisha Makeup, Parent Alienation Syndrome and My Life with My Valentine.