Month: January 1970

When I first opened The Impulsive Buy, I was pleased to see clean lines, easy to read text, and a fitting header. This reviewer feels that there should be a whole museum dedicated to shopping cart art, but I swore to myself that I wouldn’t be partial because of it. The blog is done with Word Pad and it is simplistically fitting for what it sets out to convey to its readers.

The blog’s Disclaimer states, “The Impulsive Buy is dedicated to providing quasi-reviews about various consumer goods.” Many of the reviews are of those products that look interesting, but you hope that you never actually allow yourself to purchase. The products that are reviewed are across the board. From Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pop-Tarts to The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Presents America (The Audiobook) I won’t mislead you, most of the reviews are on food.

The reviews are all interesting in their own right. Each one seems to have its own background story. There is a nice tally of facts at the end of each review that offer the items price, the rating the reviewer gave it, and the pros and cons. The author is apparently an English major, but not the kind that is a stickler for impeccable grammar. Each review is an easy read and you really do learn something about the products that get time in The Impulsive Buy’s spotlight.

Again the layout is simple. You can search by Month, category, or just peruse the products that catch your eye. There were no special features that made the site stand out. The personal touch given to each review would land this blog in the humor section. However, I think a “Review” category would be a better fit. The entries are humorus, but with some of the odd products reviewed I think they could have been a tad funnier. Again this is only one reviewers opinion.

All in all the site is a good read. It is sort of like a personal blog that talks about products. Within each review you tend to learn more about the author than the product, but that’s not a bad thing. I really liked the weird items that were reviewed. Should the author focus entirely on those out of the ordinary items they may carve themselves a new niche.

Item: The Impulsive Buy
Purchase Price: FREE!
Rating: 3.25 out of 5
Pros: A witty way of looking at items on the market.
Cons: Could use some fun extras and a bit more monthly reviews.

The Impulsive Buy

Wow. Other than the occasional mention on the “Real Sex” series on HBO, I was not aware that such a thing as a ‘latex fetish’ existed. Boy, does it ever. And the latex subculture appears to be enormous.

3xL is a site run by a 30-something man from Copenhagen who started this blog back in 2002 as a way to tell his wife about his fetish. He says in his “About 3xL” section, “…at that time, I just didn’t have the guts to let her in on my big secret. So my goal was to learn more about myself and my fetish for rubber, so I could gain some self esteem and speak freely about the subject to my wife.” She knows now, and he said she’s even tried it herself. Ah, true love.

The site has a black background with white type and is a bit busier than I normally like. By ‘busy’ I mean, lots of links, a blogroll, sponsor ads, photos, and other links for latex movies, gallery and news among others. The busiest page is the main page, but 3xL (meaning the three “L” words, Love, Lust and Latex) has a knack for arranging this massive catalog of information with flourish. When you visit the “Latex Links” page, it does get a bit click heavy because the hordes of links are first put into categories. But hey, I’m sure the latex folks out there appreciate this. After all, there is a lot of information to go through.

I have to say that this is the first latex-themed site I’ve ever visited. And I’m happy to learn that the German Fetish Ball has just concluded. (It makes me wonder if the fetishists will only socialize with their own ‘kind’ at these things. The Latex vs. the Foot Fetishists? Is it West Side Fetish? I’m rubber, you’re glue…?)

At any rate, if you like latex, you should definitely add this site to your Favorites menu because it is an impressive undertaking.
3xL : Lust, Love & Latex!

“Ducking for Apples” (A country girl in the city) Those were the headlines I saw when the page first loaded. When I first heard the main title, the first thing I thought of was Halloween. So I really wasn’t sure what kind of a blog I would be faced with.

The template was yet another one of those original, familiar Blogspot templates. The layout was very simple.

Ally (the author) is a self employed lady from the “United Kingdom”. She has only had the blog running since July of 2004. Ally’s entries consist of her job, her family ,friends and just everyday life. On a couple of those entries, she has written out phone conversations which she has had. One with a caller who apparently had a wrong number, and a conversation she has had with her mother via telephone. In their own way, I found those two entries fairly amusing, therefore showing Ally’s sense of humor. I am really not sure if they were meant to be amusing, but that’s the way I saw them.

As I stated earlier, the blog has only been around since July, so there really wasn’t that much content to go through. But however, I did enjoy what was there.

She has several links on the right hand side of her page. There is one particular link titled “the crew”. I clicked on that first and it was little pieces of info about each member of her family, her husband, friends etc. I found that one link especially to be quite interesting. It is not something you usually see on your everyday blog. However, I was somewhat disappointed to find that a few of her links were not in working order.

In my opinion, this is a blog worth checking out from time to time. Ally has a way of writing her entries that will keep you interested. As her blog progresses in time, I am sure she will fix up her links and maybe do some work on her design. Because of the non working links and because of the newness of the blog, I am giving it a score of 3. But in the future, if she would like to re submit it, I think it has the potential to get a score of a 5.
ducking for apples

So, this is a good read.

Written by a a proud feminist Mom of a belly-pierced teen diva who’s turning out just fine, thank you, I Am Dr. Laura’s Worst Nightmare talks about a variety of subjects like her favorite restaurants in Santa Cruz, her teen daughter (like any mother would), modern parenting (her definition of) and music. My initial thoughts were Thank God, it isn’t a blogger account!, but that’s just me. Delving a little deeper, I found myself laughing pretty often, especially when she talked about her daughter and Dr. Laura in particular.

Now, this blog hasn’t been in operation for very long–about two months. But the content produced so far is quite intriguing and downright funny. She’s pro-Kerry, and talks about politics a lot. She even has a counter that tabs the cost of the war in Iraq. Works kind of like the national debt counter and moves about as quick. She also has pictures, and the blog design itself is Movable Type. Really clean and easy to read.

Of course, she rails Dr. Laura. And that might be one of the most interesting points. She doesn’t seem to be able to stand the Doctor, but finds herself agreeing with her on some points. Example: spying on her daughter’s blog. According to Dr. Laura, this behavior is only warranted if you feel that something is really wrong with your children. However, this blogger checks on her daughter’s weblog in a now and again routine fashion, citing the reason to make sure Molly and her peeps haven’t set up a meth lab somewhere on the property. Fascinating. I’m glad I didn’t have a weblog when I was thirteen.

All in all, I give this blog a 4 out of 5. The design is great, the read is fascinating, and when she develops more content over the coming months, I’ll be curious to see how her blog has taken on more definition. Good job.I Am Dr. Laura’s Worst Nightmare

Redemption Blues is offered as a personal journal, and helpfully lists the meaning of the title for you to ponder on – which you will if you take the time to delve into the six months of available archives. The author, Chameleon, has also taken the time to provide a link to the short story she has written of the same title, although, of course, I am not reviewing that, and shall leave that to you, dear reader.

The blog itself is very well written, and contains many posts relating to daily occurences in the author’s life – the post pertaining to the wiseness of her four year old son sticks out in my mind, as do various commentaries regarding the political and social situation in Scotland, of which I am fortunately well-versed. This by no means should be taken as meaning that you may have to have some prior knowledge, I only point it out as a subject that could be interesting for you to learn more of, and what easier way than through a real person’s experiences?

There are a smattering of evocative personal photos in the sidebar, lending a little more to the whole experience, and the lay-out is quite simple and clean. As mentioned previously, there is a link to the short story of the same title, and I’d recommend taking a look, if only to check out the highly descriptive style.

I enjoyed the read, and would encourage those who can understand “big words” to take a dive into the archives. This is most definitely not a blog for those who who type in text speak. Overall, I enjoyed the writer’s style, and did have a few things to mull over after I’d finished perusing. Very thought-provoking.

Works well in both Firefox 0.10 and IE 6.

Redemption Blues