Author: admin

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

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

It always a bit difficult to review a new blog as blogs tend to metamorphose through time thus acquiring a unique feel of their own. So, when a blog has just started out there’s not really much to write about except the few entries one might read and perhaps try a little foretelling as to where it’s headed.

One may also give advice as to how to make the blog more appealing if it the author really wants to get read (which is why the submit their site in the first place, isn’t it?)

Regarding Miss New Orleans, the blog has an overall good feel to it. Laurie Anderson is a 49-year old paralegal who says she’s been divorced 20 years and cracks a joke on that one. Good humor.

Her writing style flows easily and her entries range from pics to funny anecdotes and opinions regarding such things as driving, the Muppets vs Sesame Street (with a good line regarding pop trivia)a ghost story, family trips, bras and a girl’s night out… She certainly has good ideas.

It’s a nice place and it’s definitely going somewhere. Laurie strikes me as the kind of person who can entertain an audience with light-hearted posts that’ll make them smile.

The only suggestion I could give is the blogspot template. With so many free skins available, she can find another more interesting look for her blog. One that’s more in tune with the humorous style. Blogskins is a good place to start.

I can only give this blog a 3.5 as it’s so new. In a couple of months, she should surely get more than this.
Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans

My first thought when viewing this blog was, “Here we go again, another right wing political blogger!” A quick scan of this blog would bring me the now infamous “Red & Blue States Map,” and several Bush/Cheney graphics. The posts are contained in a simple Blogger template. The fonts and layout was easy to read, a few customizations, and lots of right wing links. Being a neutral reviewer I promised myself to act like Switzerland when reviewing this blog.

Leaning Right lists itself as a News/Links blog and that is very much what it is. Tony Mc, the author, only writes about 25% of the content of the blog. Much of that is him saying “Have a Right Day,” when signing off on his posts. I followed several political blogs this election season and Leaning Right is a carbon copy of so many of them already out there. It seems as though the author just regurgitates news stories that he read though out the day onto his blog. He does do a few commentaries on comments he receives or articles he read in which it was nice to read his personal opinions. I am always interested on what makes someone Right or Left. Who isn’t?

For someone who seems to be new to blogging Tony has all the basics covered. An easy to read template, a guestbook, and a counter are the first steps to creating any good blog. Unfortunately for right now at least Tony’s blog is just that, good. Due to the fact that there are just so many political blogs one has to do something different or original to make their blog great. To make his blog stand out Tony could tweak his template a bit, get more personal and not rely so much on links. He needs to attempt to find a nitch that hasn’t yet been found in the world of political blogs. However, if Tony simply wants to share the stories he finds interesting with his readers and sometimes make a comment on them he is doing that just fine.

Leaning Right is the same old same old when it comes to a blog on someone’s personal political agenda. It is very much, “this is how I feel so you should too.” If you like politics and you were for Bush in the 2004 election this blog may be for you. The only problem is that everything written, linked to, or reposted is probably something that you have seen before somewhere else. Tony Mc is getting the word out. He is blogging about his views and other online information that reflect his views or prove why the rest of the world should have his views. The problem is that an old brown sweater will always be an old brown sweater. Sure it’s comfortable and we wear it all the time, but after awhile it just sort of blends in with all the other brown sweaters. If Tony wants more readers he is going to have to sprinkle some glitter on both the right and left sleeves of that old brown sweater. If it stays the same it will just fade into the blog graveyard.

Leaning Right

The Disenfranchised Curmudgeon has a navy blue Blogspot template of the simplest style. Our author describes himself thusly:

“I am a Christian whose politics do not fit too well with…well, with nearly anyone. I am a Dad, a Computer Programmer, a Lawyer, and a dedicated homebrewer who was born a century too late, yet wouldn’t give up antibiotics in exchange for the wealth of Midas.”

His page has a minimalist approach, with very little in the side bar. Points from me for simplicity. Though I would suggest one thing. That he actually archive his archives. There is a spot for it. It’s empty. Right now, all the entries he has ever written are on one page. Makes for a long scroll. Too long.

He began his blog in December of 2003. He is not a frequent poster, but when he does write, his entries tend to length. And in more recent times, he has garnered a respectable number of commenters. A testimonial in itself. In the comments there are often quite long and detailed discussions between the author and his readers.

Now to the writing style. Our author tackles an impressive array of subjects, political and social. They are rarely light in nature. He describes himself as a disillusioned voter, conflicted, and well, a curmudgeon. The fact that he has decided to abstain from voting in effect sidelined his angst on many levels for me. It’s so easy to criticize when you are not in the game. The old argument that people can’t bring themselves to vote for the “lesser of two evils” grows thin. One runs the risk of getting stuck in the “whiner” category when you do not engage and commit.

I read extensively on this site, and found that he is cynical about American society, but it bothers him that he is cynical. This state of affairs produces overall a rather melancholy tone. While the writing is erudite, it also tends to be a bit convoluted, and occasionally, he forgets what his point was. I found myself at times working very hard to sum up what I had just read, and understand his point.

It is a true art to be able to focus one’s thoughts, and distill them into something laser-like and clear. But I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that he does take on some very weighty subject matter, and manages most of the time to avoid slogans and ranting.

I must indulge a comment on a pet peeve of mine. This author often refers to President Bush as “the shrub”. I find this kind of name calling infantile and distracting. It weakens one’s reasoned arguments to stoop to this kind of junior high mentality. I would be just as annoyed if I was reading Senator Kerry described as “horse face”. If you want to be taken seriously, dump the name calling.

This site would appeal to those who prefer complex arguments and detailed discussion. And I will say that the author is quite willing to engage his readers in said discussions, which are quite interesting to pursue. Curmudgeons aren’t ALL bad you know!

The Disenfranchised Curmudgeon