Category: Uncategorized

A nice, clean, well-organized blog, Travel the Home Exchange Way is written by Lois Sealey and is an excellent source of all things ‘house swapping.’

Lois began the blog in late 2004 and using two other home swapping sources (Home Base Holidays and Home Swappers Newsletter), she regularly compiles useful links and information on the subject. After a request from a reader, she began including photos of houses that are available for holiday swap. She also posts homes ‘wanted’ in certain parts of the world and lists things you should know before doing a home swap. I think any and all of this information would be invaluable to those looking into this type of vacation.

This is a very short review for this site, but suffice it to say more informational blogs like this are needed for niche markets such as the home exchangers. What a great way to get information and be able to leave feedback on your experience. Well done, Lois.Travel the Home Exchange Way

Doing Time intially sounded like a prison blog, an insider view, from a prisoner’s perspective. What you actually got was another basic template, plain black background, which I think works really well for site, especially since the writing is what draws you in. There isn’t much in the way of “about me”, but the links all work and some are quite funny.

The Trashman writes very well. His accounts, whether they be true or not, are very entertaining for the reader and wants to make you read more. For a blog that is fairly new (started July 2004) I believe this is a rare find. Doing Time stands out because it’s got the twist that many other blogs are lacking. It’s entertainment. Purely.

The purpose of the blog I believe is for the author to tell his humorous events in written form. He does it well. His latest entry Happy Valentines Day definitely puts a smile on your face, it will even elicit a laugh or two. His links to various other pages work, the one to Save Toby had me laughing very hard indeed.

I believe that the Trashman enjoys his blog as much as the reader’s like reading it. I’ve given it a 5 because of the uniqueness of the blog in it’s content. There are not many blogs that are both humorous as well as well written, thought out and stand out.
Doing Time

My initial impression of the Wacky Southern Housewife’s blog was that some work was needed on the template. Although the color scheme and idea was good, it looked a bit under-done. I decided to move on to the writing before I paid too much attention to the template.

I started to read the stories written by our author who simply asks us to “call [her] Scarlett”, obviously making reference to Gone With The Wind. I dug back to the beginning posts which start roughly a year ago and saw a slow transformation into the “Southern Housewife” persona that writes today. Initially posts were simple and about technical issues but progressively got better and funnier. The usual self-deprecating posts about the lack of readers litters the initial months but eventually things of substance were written.

The writing style is more like conversation than essays or short stories like many blogs but still nothing extraordinarily different from a lot of personal blogs already out there. Some of her stories are worth reading and are quite funny but the majority of them are the usual daily antics with her kids.

Overall I enjoyed the stories but felt they weren’t especially eye catching. Probably most noticeable to me was the template and lack of real order on the sidebar. I’m a “less is more” type of person so the random smattering of icons and buttons on the side seemed to distract me more than necessary. The writing has a lot of potential and probably only needs some simple proof-reading to take care of the flow problems that bothered me.

Scarlett’s blog is definitely a personal blog with you’re normal “stay at home mom” ranting.wackysouthernhousewife

From the title itself, I knew that this was going to be about Iran. Duh.

And I was right. After the first few entries I read, my hunch was proven right.

The entries itself aren’t really entries. They were bits and pieces of news articles and the links where it came from plus more articles and more links. But hey, it’s cool. The fact that this blog is out there to help anyone who needed some information about recent news in Iran is good.

The layout was alright. It was the usual blog template but I always believed that the words mattered more than the look. And this one wasn’t so bad. I especially liked the banner it had. Very strong and powerful.

Overall, I liked it. I haven’t really been current with the events and whatnot from Iran and this blog is very helpful. Regime Change Iran

This blog at first, appeared to be another boring “ramble pot” filled with the same old generic issues but, once I actually began reading the posts…..wow!

Wow, is all I could say because, for such a man of the world, he definately has no graphic design abilities. However, the writing is superb! Sanjay does most of the posting seemingly about his travels and observation of everything from art to Kansas City BBQ which by the way, is the best barbeque in the world!

Very interesting blog and fun to read, aside from the “F-Bomb” smacking you in the face now and again. The design is definately worth 1000 yawns because it’s obviously a basic Blogger template but, it’s clean.

Overall, I’d say that my probability of recommending this blog to others is very high because I really enjoyed reading it. I’m probably a little picky about design factors so, others may enjoy the “no clutter – no graphics” appearance. I think it’s got class!

BYLINE : Sam Ernesto