Bingobowden!!!!!!
Is that not a cool name for a blog or what? Even if you don’t know what it means, it kind of sounds fun. The author actually chose the name for his blog because a person he knew in school was named Bowden, and Bowden’s father was a bingo caller, and he put the two together and liked it so much he named a band and his weblog after it. Probably the most original weblog name I’ve ever heard.
The author; 22 year old, engaged to be married, Stuart from the U.K. admits that his blog “was meant to be a place where I point you in the direction of some interesting sites or stories, and ocassionally make some valid points about politics, the news and all that other clever stuff that goes on in the world”. It does that very well, but there’s a lot more to it than just that. His September 6th entry about trying to find trousers and shoes when your 6’4” and wear a size 14 shoe is hilarious. There are times when the author does write about personal issues as well, his Sept. 22nd entry about his relationship with his father for example. He is also trying to start up a record store, and seeing that idea develop is very interesting. Stuart is a prolific writer, since the start of his blog in February there are only a few times when he doesn’t update frequently. One of the fun parts of reviewing weblogs is reading one from the start and seeing it evolve overtime. The author documents most of the issues he comes accross with his blog and how he overcomes each one. As an American, reviewing this blog was kind of educational as well. I got to find out what the terms; “buggery”, “prat” and “quid” means.
Bingobowden is a very well set up blogspot site. No broken links at all. The archives worked well and are easy to navigate. I really think that is one of the most important things in any blog.
This site also has a guestbook and one of those guestmaps which I think are really neat and I seem to be seeing a lot more of. There’s a fairly thorough “about” section that the author adds to occasionally, and a comments system.
All in all, this is a very well written, well kept, entertaining weblog. It pretty much has everything you would want to see in a blog. I enjoyed my time there and am going to keep tabs on it hoping to see that Stuart gets his record shop business going. Four and a half stars, check it out.