Review 3129

I like websites like “zazzafooky”. It’s fun and keeps you on your toes. It’s not the same posts over and over again, and never becomes boring to read. Reviewing this site was all too easy.

When the URL first loads, readers may be confused at what they see. However, once the cookies are reset, you’re met with a very nice design. It’s a two-column layout, and keeps the general appearance of the site very clean and tidy. The colors are bright, and the overall perception I got of the site’s visual aspect was a very fun feel. A webcam link, zazzafooky merchandise, links around the ‘net – all of these can be found in the sidebar, along with some other sites within zazzafooky.com. The “Who is she?” is she links explains where the heck zazzafooky came from, and also describes who the author is. While the author information isn’t detailed, it does give readers an idea of the type of posts they’ll be reading. I love the different catagories of archives – where else can you sit and read several posts that fall into a “vulgarity”?

The author, who calls herself TJ, writes very well. She keeps her entries in fairly small paragraphs, which is very nice when reading weblogs. Her grammar and spelling don’t leave me trying to figure out what exactly she means when she writes an entry. Each entry is like a little morsel of entertainment – sometimes it’s humor, other times the posts leave you re-evaulating certain aspects of your own life.

The first posts I read were the ten entries TJ lists under “Best of Me”. What’s a better way to start reviewing a site than by reading what the author feels are her best entries? After reading them, I could definitely understand why she picked them as the “best”, but have no clue as to how she was able to limit it to just those.

I like the posts that list just small tids and bits of her life just as much as I like the multi-paragraphed prose-type entries she makes. I like that she can write about every day experiences (her pets, her family, being harassed by security at the airport) and make them seem so enjoyable. I like the creativity in the weblog’s name.

I like that for the past several weeks, she uploads several music files for her readers to download. One week I can download the South Park version of Merry F***** Christmas, and the next I can grab Coat Of Many Colors by Dolly Parton. Why aren’t there radio stations like that, by the way?

This is a fun site. I don’t know how I haven’t found it in other blog surfing. In my opinion, it’s definitely one that you should stop by and give a read. I’m willing to bet that within five entries just about everyone is going to either be laughing or nodding their head in agreement to what they’re reading.

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Review 3126

I had to have a few tries at reading this blog to review it. Why? Because it’s so information dense. News blogs like these usually take a few readings from me before I feel I can write about them.

Initial impressions? Bioethics in relations to the female. This got me thinking that it would be quite a resourceful blog for those that are interested in bioethics. Me on the other hand, had a bit of trouble reading through the various entries and links in regards to topics.

There are various entries to this blog that raise eyebrows; the one that really got my attention was the “answer to welfare is marriage” entry. Most of these things I had no idea about, mostly because I do find the reading of such issues hard going, and partly because I’m removed from it, living in Australia means that things like this do not affect me personally.

The posts on the blog do correspond to the links to various news blogs & magazines, like the American Bioethics Journal, New York Times, National Public Radio (NPR), New Yorker and even to the British Journal of Psychology.

I believe that there is only one author on this blog, but I’m not sure as there isn’t an about section for the blog or anything relating to who writes it. Although the author does seem to be able to find different things to write about so that most topics covered will appeal to different audiences.

The target of this blog I believe is to educate women on the ethical issues surrounding various aspects of our lives. I believe that the author is trying to appeal to a vast audience with the varying topics covered. The links & news items all are well thought out and written. The blog is hard reading at times, but I found some interesting and worthwhile things to read about, after I’d gotten through all the posts that I felt were hard reading. I would say that going to this blog for all bioethical women matters would be more beneficial than going to yahoo and doing a search as the author has carefully chosen the topics and I believe has kept it focused on the issues that are current and quite relevant with the links to various other news sites for further reading.NULL

Review 3133

Seeing the title of “Antique Mommy” gave me the impression that this blog was about an older woman who’d had a child. I wasn’t far wrong in my initial impression. The blog is written by a 44 year old who had her first child, there seems to be no about me page, and the brief user profile that blogger allocates doesn’t really tell you much about the writer. Seeing this blog listed as humour did bias my judgement a bit, in so much as I was expecting the blog to have funnier content.

The only entry that mildly amused me was the “Part-Time Pet” entry and that’s only because I seem to have a morbid amusement with people that have phobias in regards to animals, which I can happily add I am one too! I do believe that this blog would be better placed under the personal blog category as I just can’t find the funnier content in there.

The blog itself is a simple blogger layout. Easy to read and navigate. The links all work as I had no trouble using the archive links at all. There are a few links down the bottom of the blog that relate to different sites and the usual blog list of friends. The good news is that there was no other clutter, which was nice.

Antique Mommy is sometimes amusing and sometimes not, I think the more the author writes in her blog, the more she finds herself and her own writing style, it’s nice to see the development through the entries.

But the blog is basically the journey of the author who is mapping her child’s life online. Some entries are funny, some make you smile and others seem like they are just entries of day to day happenings. It’s interesting reading as there are not many blogs out there that I’ve come across that are written by older mothers who are experiencing motherhood for the first time. I only gave this blog a 3.5 because I just found that it is quite like all the other mum blogs out there, except the different being the author is older. But still it is a worth a check out, see if you like it.
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Review 3129

Um excuse me, does anyone here know what the hell zazzafooky is? Is it a thing? Is it a place? Is it something all the cool kids are doing and I just don’t know about it? To many questions, and I have to get this review done.

When I first got to zazzafooky the design was missing. At first I thought the author just went back to simplistic times of websites in 1995. But then the first post said how that if the site doesn’t look pretty to click a link and it will be all better. Sure enough, click the link, and bam you have a well designed blog.

The design of the site at first looked similar to a blogmoxie design; however I didn’t see the bm link anywhere so I was impressed with the author’s ability to have a custom look. I then noticed a skin me feature, but unfortunately that doesn’t work. The blog is a standard 2 column layout and in the sidebar there are all sorts of goodies.

I quickly noticed the “What is she?” link and figured this was a good place to start. Turns out zazzafooky is a made up word that means crazy unexplainable and is a verb. I am now determined to shout out the word zazzafooky in verb tense sometime today. She then goes on to talk about how she studies quantum theory, but that won’t be in the blog. Instead it will be other personal stuff.

The first post that I read that I knew I was going to like this site was one about her daughter. Since the age of 4 the daughter has watched scary movies and laughed at all of them. That was until recently (3 years later) when she saw Jeepers Creepers and now the author won’t let her live that down. This post was entitled “Bad Parenting” but I laughed it up as “Good lesson, just took too long to get there”.

Other posts talk about her job, her living situation, her daughter and well pretty much anything you want to know about her. I laughed through most of the posts that were supposed to be funny and took in the more serious posts. I enjoyed the pictures she posted to accompany some of her posts as they gave us either a little more insight on the post, or proof on a previous post.

I don’t know how in all my years blogging I missed a gem like this one. I had a good time reading this site, and I think you will to. There is something here for everyone, which is very rare in a personal blog. The fact that TJ is able to keep me entertained and not bored with a personal blog is warrant enough to give it the 4.75 that she deserves.
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Review 3126

I knew right away what I was going to get with this blog by its name. Women’s Bioethics Blog is a pretty self explanatory name. For those of you who haven’t guess what this blog is about, let me give you another clue: it’s about women and it’s about bioethics and it’s all in a blog format. Oh and for those of you who don’t know what bioethics means: The study of the ethical and moral implications of new biological discoveries and biomedical advances, as in the fields of genetic engineering and drug research.

When I first got to the site I saw a pretty standard blogger template with a customized header. Finally someone got the fact that you can actually modify the blogger templates for your own needs. The blog is kept minimal so that you focus on the content. By this I mean that she doesn’t have all the hundreds of things in the side bar; instead there are just links, previous posts, and archives. At the bottom of the page she has a couple of other things, but nothing out of the ordinary for a blogger.

The posts are a bit to take in if you are not familiar with or interested in this topic. Being a sociology minor, I found a lot of her posts insightful and wish it was around while I was in class. While the posts themselves seem to jump around a bunch from topic to topic, there is the underlying principle of women’s bioethics.

This blog gets 4.25 from me because it has stayed its course. I was afraid this was going to be another advertising blog, but thankfully it was not. The posts are informative and some are very interesting. Personally I cannot see myself looking at this blog every day, but I now have a good tool in my toolbox for when I need to brush up on women’s issues. I suggest everyone check this blog out at least once so they can learn something they didn’t know already.
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