Month: January 1970

Opening this site I realized that it was done with the dreaded Blogger “Scribe” template. The template continually reminds me of someone’s Last Will and Testament or something a treasure map would be drawn on. After cringing at the template I saw a photo of a middle-aged woman and assumed that this blog would fit into the “Mom Blog” category. After reading only a few posts, I would be pleasantly surprised that I was wrong.

Laurie Anderson is the author of Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans. She describes herself as a “eternal optimist,” and in her blog she proves that a middle-aged woman who has been divorced for twenty years can still get her groove on. Laurie does an excellent job at writing many of her posts in story form. It makes you feel like you are reading a book as opposed to someone’s personal diary. Many of Laurie’s posts were witty and fun to read. They reminded me of the stories that the “crazy aunt” in everyone’s family tells.

Design wise the modest Blogger template is okay for now. Since many of the posts are about the great city of New Orleans, it would be nice to see a theme that includes in some way “the city that never sleeps.”. I see beads, Mardi Gras masks, and Anne Rice dancing in my head. The “Scribe” template is just such a downer, and the author’s posts are full of enthusiasm and charisma. Laurie is just too colorful to have such a drab looking blog.

It seems that Laurie has just started this blog. There were only a month’s worth of posts to read. There were no extras on the site other than a counter that was hard to read and a few misplaced buttons. I little bit of personalization could go a long way. However I always tried to remember that in many cases less is more.

I would recommend this blog to middle aged women who think their lives are over for one reason or another. Women who have not remarried after a divorce, raised their children, and all of the sudden feel like there is no longer a need to wake up in the morning. Laurie knows how to have fun, and she is also good at writing about it. I am assuming that this is the author’s first stab at blogging. I have a feeling that she will catch on fast and make her blog her own as soon as she figures a few of the blogging extras out. The quality of writing gives this blog great potential and something tells me that the author of Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans will never be short on stories to tell.

Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans

My, my. What a pleasant vista greets my eye at BusyMom.net! A pastel green background and a textured header with a blue sky and a pink daisy. This place looks good enough to eat.

This is the diary of a 40 year old mom of three who also works as a nurse. No wonder it’s called BusyMom.

There is a link to a list of 100 things about the author that is fairly informative, though as of this writing, the list only has 83 things on it. Better title it 83 things! 🙂

The entries themselves are almost always quite short. They maintain a lighthearted tone and range in topic from snippets and links to things she has read on the net, latest gadgets she is coveting, the occasional joke, and anecdotes centered around one or more of her children. Here is an example of her writing style:

September 25, 2004

“Eeek!

A bug or a centipede on the floor (on a patterned rug)! Thinking quickly, I grab a cup to confine it so Busy Dad can do whatever he does with such things. I bend down to take a look at it through the glass and I discovered that the world is now safe from an Arby’s curly fry.”

I enjoyed her writing, and so must many others, as she has numerous commenting readers. Always a good sign that you are doing a good job. And she has been writing since April of 2003, so she gets points for longevity ( in blogosphere terms, that IS longevity!)

The only thing that I was not impressed with was the overloaded sidebar. Google ads (ick), search, recent search, recent entries, scrolling blog list, buttons, (one flashing) clog up the lovely page. She even has a list of her Netflix picks ( the first one of these I have seen)… cute, but is it necessary?

Other than that, I had a nice visit and would recommend this site for a quick and pleasant read from a Busy Mom.

Busy Mom Blog

A pretty pink daisy awaits you as you enter this blog. The entire blog is primarily pink and green, easy to navigate and follow. It has way too many links in its sidebar (including the ever-present and grating Ads by Gooooogle and not one but FOUR “Your Ad Here” adbrite ads). As if those are not enough to clutter up a sidebar, there is a large blogroll, archives, “search this site,” credits, previous posts, logos, web rings…the list goes on.

The only thing that made no sense to me in the sidebar was the “Recent Searches” category. I assume these are things people who visit the site have searched for, but I really don’t see the need for this. Perhaps that is just me and my need to see less mess in a sidebar–it’s hard to say. However, even with all of this stuff (read: clutter), the site’s pleasantness is not lost among it. That’s a good thing.

I truly enjoyed the time spent at this blog. So do a lot of other people because you can tell this is a very trafficked site. I liked Busy Mom’s writing style (especially the family’s conversations that she relays). Check out a funny conversation called “Oh Great.” Or how about ‘the talk’ she was going to have with her daughter but her son seemed a more imminent target in “Wait, that answer didn’t follow my script.” Busy Mom has been writing for quite some time and it shows.

Even if you’re not a busy mom, you will enjoy hearing her stories, reading her thoughts, and sharing in just a bit of her life. Busy Mom Blog

The first thing I read at ‘Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans’ was ‘Heritage: 99% Cajun and 1% Attakapa (a cannibalistic indian tribe from Southeast Texas/Southwest Louisiana – draw your own conclusions). Political persuasion: agnostic. Favorite saying: My karma ran over my dogma’ so I knew this was going to be fun. And it was.

The author, let’s call her Esmeralda (her real name is Laurie, you’ll see why I’m being cruel later) has a wonderful good natured spirit. If more people were like her I’m sure the world would be a much better place to live in. She seems to have fun where ever she goes. Her stories are very funny, you’ll have to read a few, it should make you smile bigly. In one entry she refers to her friends as ’Brunehilda (not her real name) and I could not get a straight answer out of Shagundala (also not her real name)’. Ouch. And they still went out with you? –grin- She is always making up names to protect identities, she usually picks uniquely odd names. In another entry she is remarking how busy she is on Fridays at work, ‘What I don’t understand is, WHY ARE THESE PEOPLE WORKING ON FRIDAY AFTERNOON? Shouldn’t they be playing golf or drinking margaritas or cheating on their spouses? Where is their non-work ethic?. Heh. Non-work ethic! In spite of her blog only being around a short time she has a surprisingly vast amount of content. She really seems to enjoy blogging. Some of her other entries I enjoyed were ‘Carlsbad Caverns’, ‘Diamond’ (my personal fav) and ‘Necessity, the Mother of Invention’. She shares some really great stories, personal reflections and her take on life in her blog. She seems to blog every day so this would be a good daily read addition to your blogroll.

The design is pretty simple. She is using the Blogger template called Scribe. It has nice shades of brown and is very easy to read. A few of the graphics were missing giving me the ‘red X of death’, hopefully she can fix those. She includes a fair number of personal photos within her entries. You end up getting a good sense of who the author is and what she is like.

Overall a spicy Cajun good time. Certainly a worthy read, I’ll be back when I need a laugh or two.
Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans

My Eyes is done with TypePad and has the typical three column layout. There are a lot of pictures that caught my eye and the posts were not overwhelmingly long. Basically it codled the short attention span version of me. There was nothing in the initial viewing of this blog that stood out or made it different from all the other blogs I have seen. However, it’s clean layout was refreshing in a world full of blinky blogs that are full of java aps.

The author of My Eyes is a 22 year-old graduate student at the University of Cambridge in the UK. The blog is filled with sports commentary, life events, and gives an honest view on how someone from the UK feels about the US elections. Like several other UK blogs that I have read the author’s posts are witty, cultured, and full of complaints about George W. Bush. As an American Citizen I am proud to say freely that there isn’t anything wrong with that. Many American’s dislike bush too. The great part about reading blogs is learning that you’re not alone. I would like to assure the author that when it comes to his thoughts on Bush he is definitely NOT alone. In one of this last US election posts the author writes, “It’s all made me think I don’t really care about the US election anymore and I don’t think I shall be posting much about it from now on. Let them elect Bush if they want, they’ll have to live with it, unfortunately, so will the rest of us…”

As far as the quality of writing is concerned the author has a short and sweet approach. All of his posts are very much the meat and potatoes of his current events, thoughts, or life lessons. It was nice not having to read a three hundred word post to get to the point that the author was attempting to make and I commend him for that. The photos catch your attention and the text is worth staying around for. Yes, there are many posts about football and other sports, but in between those is some great information. I can sum things up by saying that the author is an Englishman, so whatever he writes sounds very intelligent. Even the references to The Simpsons. The blog contains a few of the normal extras. A clock, the bloggers local weather, and a Blogroll. All in all it has the basic building blocks of a blog that can convey what’s written as opposed to what’s seen.

This blog tells the story of a life. A life that without the internet and without the art of blogging I would have never known existed. I love to learn about new cultures and new views on the world. As an American I will admit that we do tend to get caught up in our own little worlds. Reading a blog like My Eyes will open up your eyes to the world around you. The view is far wider than the distance between your local 7-11 and the Denny’s up on Main St. Reading My Eyes will help you open yours.

My Eyes