Category: Uncategorized

Becka’s House of Glue is a blog that reminds me of my own blog. Only with more photos and comments and a header with a– what is that on the header? It looks sort of like a horse made out of twine, but… hey, you can never be sure. The most recent post reports that Becka, the blogger, will now be taking a few weeks off for her vacation, and that she may or may not give up working on her blog when she comes back.

After reading through more of the blog, I must say this: she had BETTER continue blogging! From rants about state stupidity to wondering how “My tub is draining slow” turned into “Come shove a poke stick down my sink, you hot tub of lovin'” when the maintenance guy starts working on the wrong bathroom, House of Glue is full of laughs. It’s only four months old (started back in March of this year), but already has enough rants and ravings to keep one entertained for an afternoon at least.

Layout-wise, House of Glue is one among many… except for the twine horse, which I still do not get… It’s a very plain layout; dual-toned background, normal cursors… It’s something flat to build dynamic laughs upon!

Becka also clues us into the origins of her blog’s name. “House of Glue” originates from a forum discussion that she had once upon a time about sniffing glue, but I’ll let you find the link yourself… after all, it will encourage you to read around her blog. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed. Becka actually started blogging back in December of 2004. Her older blog is Broken Roads, which House of Glue links to. This is nice, because now there is more to read! Her bloggy reads are to the right, and all of the links are in working order.

All in all, Becka’s House of Glue is a very nice blog. Layout-wise, it could use a little more sparkle. But content-wise, it’s got me smiling. Go on, check it out. Read the rants and laugh along. You’ll like it, I promise.Becka’s House of Glue

One thing is very obvious when you visit Easier Said Than Done for the first time. PINK (with a hint of green). Stereotypically I expected a blog full of kittens, makeup and other girly things (hey, I’m a guy). I was wrong.

Pausing to put the pink in place I started reading. The blog covers a variety of topics, all of which it handles with intelligence and some passion but above all honesty. Whether discussing the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, where her future is headed, or even just a quick update on her weekend, Nichole writes in a very friendly and readable way showing maturity beyond her years. Posts are well constructed, and where applicable she offers a few links to pertinent sites, always a welcome addition to a blog post.

The layout of the site is fairly typical, with a sidebar of links on the left, and the design of the site is nicely themed without being distracting. Even the Google Ads at the top of the pages are subtle, allowing the content to retain focus. The only suggestion I would have would be to remove the slight gap between the post title and the post itself (they seem a little disjointed at present), but it’s a minor quibble. Ohh and I mentioned the PINK, right?

Aside from the usual blog features, there is little else on the site – although she has just launched her own forum which I hope won’t stop her from writing for her blog.

Overall the one thing that makes this blog worth a visit is the content. It may not be anything earth-shattering but at least it’s well written and should appeal to most people.NULL

In Brazil, there’s a book on curious facts on almost anything you can imagine. I myself am very curious so I immediately thought this blog would be interesting as the book is. And it is.

With subjects that cover what the sounds animals do are called to the United Nations, the author gives very good explanations on a myriad of topics. There are great illustrations to a lot of the posts. Everything is well written and he mentions sources and links to websites that are worth mentioning. I would compare the author’s work to what Google™ Answers offers. And I mean it as a compliment. Basically, what R. Edmondson (and the name is about all you’ll find about the writer, since his profile lacks information) does is good research. The only thing is, you may not be interested to read about that particular topic –and I guess that’s why we ourselves look up things after all –but if you are, boy, you’re lucky!

A Blogger template is used and follows the trend (dark background, light letters), which is the only thing I found that didn’t appeal to me. I don’t know if you’d agree, but this choice makes it harder to read stuff directly on the screen. Other than that, there’s nothing wrong with using a simple layout such as this, since obviously here the content should matter most.

This is a very good blog. It saves you a lot of time if you are lucky to find something you might be interested in reading about and if you’re just a curious person, this is the right place to go.
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In her own words, Dr. Deborah Serani is “a psychologist who specializes in trauma and depression”. She’s using this weblog as a means of sharing information she’s studied and to provide others with a place to gain some useful information about issues that “impact the human psyche”. Right off the bat, I realize that this weblog will certainly not be for everyone. If I wasn’t reviewing it, I think the author’s bio would be enough to clue me in to the fact that this wasn’t going to be a weblog that is simple to read. In this case, that’s okay! This site isn’t for everyone and the author undoubtedly knows this.

By reading the site’s very first post dated in July 2005, I learned that Dr. Serani knows what she’s talking about. With her work and educational background, this weblog is written by someone that’s spent years and years studying the history, reasoning, and effects of all different kinds of psychology. Before I could even make a reference to Tom Cruise and his expertise in psychology, Dr. Serani writes a post and includes a suggested reading list for Cruise. While the letter focused on the serious side of the spectrum, it was enjoyable to see the author using her research to tap into pop culture from time to time.

Several of the topics that Dr. Serani covers are subjects that are constantly being discussed in today’s media. With articles titled “Body Image and Self Worth In Women” and “How To Choose a Good Therapist”, there’s valuable information available to those looking for it. Once Google picks up on this site, I have a feeling it will become even more popular.

One of the posts I found most interesting is the “Questions & Answers” interactive post. She allowed visitors to leave psychologically related question, and in turn she would answer them. This post received an overwhelming response, and it will be interesting to see if she does it again. Her post about Chromotherapy was also a unique post, as was reading about her experience as a consultant on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

I’m not a fan of the layout for several reasons. It’s a Blogspot template, or at least started out to be one. The author has added about 30 different buttons/links at the bottom of the layout that really give off the impression that they were just thrown there with no rhyme or reason. Sometimes, there are images that are thrown into a post that end up breaking the layout or overlapping another image. Personally, I wouldn’t call any of this “bad”; I would just credit it to inexperience with HTML and the specific Blogger code. Then again, Dr. Serani is a psychologist – not a web designer. As with the majority of the weblog layouts I’ve seen, this one has a center table for the entries, and a side column full of links to the archives, author’s bio, external links, etc.

Dr. Serani has done a lot of research before writing the articles she posts on her weblog. She ends each article with a list of sources she’s used to validate everything she’s written. Her information is the real deal, not something that’s just coming out of an uneducated-Tom-Cruise-like person.

While, as I’ve said, this weblog certainly will not be for everyone, I found it more interesting than I thought I would. I have a slight interest in psychology, so it was enjoyable and at the same time educational to read more detailed information about different aspects of the field from someone as experienced and knowledgeable as Dr. Serani.NULL

To be up front with this review, I don’t do very well reviewing weblogs of teenagers. I have nothing in common with the majority of them, and their lack of care for punctuation and spelling is enough to drive me crazy. Unfortunately, this weblog, called “Southern Comfort”, was no different.

The layout of the site is very nice. It’s hosted by WordPress, and I believe the template was one that is features on WordPress’s site as one of their contest entrants. I only know this because I look at them constantly for ideas on my own site. The light green background surrounding the white box that’s used for all the text is a very nice color, and matches well with the watermelon graphics used throughout the site. The author does a nice job of not cluttering up the sidebar with a bunch of links to every single site she’s ever visited, and that’s much appreciated by reviewers and random visitors to the site.

This is the author’s second go around with a weblog. In the first post of Southern Comfort, she mentions this, along with some brief autobiographical information. I enjoyed getting to know more about the person who runs this weblog. The background specifics always helps give readers an idea about the author that they may not gather on their own from just reading through entries.

The author, who is going through her mid-teenage years, shares her day-to-day experiences with her audience. She writes typical teen fodder: dreams and nightmares she has or forgetting her book at home and being unable to do that night’s homework. From time to time, she also fills is on her favorites in the music industry by celebrating an artist’s return or letting us know about her current favorite music album.

The apostrophe key seemed to be missing in action for a good part of this site, and I often had trouble translating a sentence or two that was full of spelling errors or slang I didn’t quite understand. These two things can really distract from the content of a weblog.

I’m less than ten years out of my own teenage years, but that doesn’t seem to matter. It’s still too large of an age gap for me to enjoy a site that is written in the same manner Southern Comfort.

This is a site that will probably only be enjoyed by those people that know more about the author of the site than a random reader does.

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