The Weblog Review

Tarred and Feathered is not what I expected it to be. I expected it to be a rather funny and witty site, though all I found was a stereotypical blog by a teen female.



Upon reading the site I was trying to figure out who exactly Hanna is. I figured that she was in high school, but what year? With no about section apparent, I just had to read on to guess. As I am reading each post, I am getting more and more frustrated that there isn’t an about section. I really want to know where this person is coming from, yet I am not sure. Is she one of the popular crowd at school is she the science geek type? I don’t know.



So I am all finished reading the first page of her blog and that was it. I know there are archives somewhere as the first entry on the page doesn’t read like it was the first post. But again, there isn’t a link to the archives. Archives are very important I believe in letting the readers know more about the weblog. With out them, some jokes are not funny; some mentions of things don’t make sense. Archives are very important.



The design of this site is very basic, red background, white background for the main text area and black text. There is nothing fancy here, and from the other design parts, I wasn’t expecting it to be anything out of the norm.



I think the author of the site needs to add an about section and link her archives as soon as possible. The design could be improved, but it is not needed to do improve the blog itself.

Tarred + Feathered

To be quite honest, I had no clue when entering this site, and no clue when leaving. Ok, that is a little extreme, but it is close.



The site has a nice picture of Alice from Alice in Wonderland up at the top. I guess this ties in with the Advice from a Catepillar title. Below that is a standard three column layout all done in two different shades of pink. I never thought pink could work for a site, but for some reason it made this site work. Maybe it was because of the black background, or maybe because it wasn’t a “pretty pink site.” I don’t know.



The weblog itself got better and better as I read it. At first I thought the author was someone who was high on his own being and was placing judgments on things, but soon after that thought, I realized he wasn’t. The more I read of this site, the more I liked. I really was trying to get to understand the author, when suddenly I ran out of posts to read. I think that some of the archives were not working but that could be a Blogger thing.



I noticed that there wasn’t an about me section, rather a learn me. This section was very confusing and provided no insight about the author as far as I could tell. About me sections need to be there for the readers. It is an easy way for readers to figure out if they will make a connection with the author or not.



Over all it is a very good site to read. I really enjoyed reading this site, and I know that I will read it again.

Advice from a Caterpillar

With a name like Paranoid Ramblin, what is one to expect? Is this going to be about how something thinks differently of everything that is said or what? That is for you to decide.



Upon entering the site I noticed a blog template whit some slight modifications. This design works well for the author, though I would suggest widening the blogging area. It is rather quite narrow and could easily be stretched.



The blog itself is rather entertaining. It is about a 19 year old and the daily life of him. There isn’t anything to out of the ordinary that he is posting about; however he does point readers to some very good links. I was glad to see that the links were to things of interest, rather than just linking stupid things.



Overall I think the site is a very good read and has a lot to offer to everyone.

Paranoid Ramblin

This is an outstanding site. A lot of people are complaining of sites not being as good as they used to be or sites don’t compare to this site. Well this site is a site that people should be compared to.



Upon first entering the site, I noticed a completely original design. I have never seen a site that looks as smooth as this one. And it should look good considering the author is a graphic design person. The only flaw I found in the site was the blog area was too narrow. I like the blogging area to be wide, not narrow. To me, getting 3 maybe 4 words on a line is to small. However, this doesn’t detract from the weblog itself.



Every post to me was very entertaining. It was almost as if the site was a teacher that I enjoyed attending class for. Every post was interesting and stimulated my thinking. Some posts made me laugh very loud while others just had me thinking.



If you have an hour or so to just browse a site, this site is one you should look at. Besides the weblog, there are many other sections which I found to be of interest also.



Overall the site is a knock out. Everyone should be reading this site if they aren’t already. I cannot recommend it any more.

Cynthia, Inside

It’s a common tradition to have soup when you’re sick and have a cold or just are home being lazy on a cold day. There are a ton of different kinds of soup from the classic chicken noodle to vegetable to beef stew to pea soup. “The Joy of Soup” is a weblog dedicated to soup and everything associated with it. The Soup Lady runs the site and since the site is fairly new, it looks like it will be a tasty site.



The site’s layout is your basic Blogger template which is okay. But go beyond that, her site’s pretty informative. She posts about soup in the news, like a little story about Campbell’s soup now being offered at McDonald’s. There’s something you don’t hear about everyday. But it makes me wonder if there will be a lawsuit about someone getting soup and spilling it on themselves and claiming the soup was too hot?



You’ll also find recipes for soups, I mean how can you not have a soup site that doesn’t have recipes? So far she has baked potato, cabbage and a few others. I noticed she also posted a reader’s recipe for sauerkraut soup. When I began reading the ingredients for some of the different soups, it got me all hungry for a nice, hot bowl of soup.



She also discussed some different cooking books which she has and what she liked about them. And as strange as I found it since I don’t regularly cook or even open a cookbook, I found this amusing when she was discussing one book she had,



“Aside from the intriguing recipes, the amount of information contained in the book is astonishing. The stench of junior high Home Ecomonics [sic] hangs heavy here as the difference between a hot oven and a quick oven is explained.”



I have no idea what the difference if between a hot and a quick oven.



She later notes there are chapters which discuss specifically carving and pickling. How many pages can you go on about just pickling??



The site also includes some handy links to refer to if you want to know more about soups and other types of food and recipes.



I liked this site not only because it’s helpful to those who like cooking but of course to those who LIKE TO EAT! There are definitely some useful sites and information which anyone who enjoys cooking would like. Plus it’s just plain interesting. This site will definitely get you craving for a bowl of hot soup of whatever flavor your little heart desires. I’m quite tempted now to go into the kitchen and make my myself some soup!



Soup, I must say is a very underrated food.The Joy of Soup