Texas Peach, peach's escape-purr

Texas Peach--Peach�s Escape
Reviewed by Violet

First impression: Very nice layout and one befitting the name of your diary! It�s nice that through the years, the layout has changed but the theme has stayed the same. Smooth transitions. Lots of things to look at on this page! Lots of things flashing at me. Kind of overwhelming at first.
3.8

Content: I feel like I have no business reviewing you, honestly. You have lived such a life. Grown children and now a little boy (I believe he�s 6 now?) and a new husband and a new job. Your diary is full of your �soapboxes�, but I for one, love them. Common sense is better heard on a platform sometimes! You�ve dealt with a lot in the recent years: you took such great care of your mother before she passed away; you�ve been jolted back into early motherhood with a young son; you have traveled to 30 states (about 25 more than I have, lol!); and you have had to switch from the culture of New Jersey to Texas, which is no small task. And, just so the readers know, Peaches is an adorable spaniel puppy!

The most striking thing about the content of your diary is just how open you are. There is an optimism there with a hint of melancholy, taking the reader through the big ups and downs as well as the little bumps that happen in your life. You met your current husband online, and from what I�ve read, the meeting came none too soon. Wow. You both had to get out of those situations! Your picture looks so very familiar: I feel like I�ve read another diary of yours at some point (but maybe not).
4.0

Layout: It looks like the original layout was done by a now defunct site, and I�m not sure who did the current one (you perhaps?), but I do like it. As I said before, even as the layout has changed, the theme remains the same. Your guestbook theme matches your diary theme which makes for a nice, smooth transition. You do have a lot of links on your index page, and they are a bit distracting: I might suggest you take all of the contact links (aol, yahoo, icq, etc) and place them on a separate page, linking from one common �contact� button. You could even eliminate the email/guestbook/tagboard links and put them under the common button. You also have a lot of scrolling and flashing objects on your page. The good news is, they don�t show unless you scroll down. Sometimes, they can be a bit distracting. Again, nothing seriously wrong here, but these are just some suggestions to make the page look a bit cleaner. The drop boxes on the left are wonderful. They save space yet provide your readers with instant access to more information.
3.8

Navigation: If someone can�t find what they are looking in your diary, they obviously aren�t trying! The only suggestion I have is to add a previous/next link to the top of each entry just like you have at the bottom. That could eliminate scrolling if the person wants to quickly go from one entry to the next. Archives are nicely set up, and there are links to entries from the same date one and two years previous, which is a very neat feature. Drop boxes and bold links are easy to find. Great job!
3.9

Errors: I didn�t see any errors at all! All other links worked, all images loaded quickly. Great job!
4.0

Honors: Pictures section; nice about me and who is who section, interesting Extra�s page, internet mood indicator, nice drop box links section, really interesting �one year ago/two years ago� feature at the end of each entry
.7

Contact: Notify list, AOL, YIM, ICQ, Guestbook, Tagboard, Email, Map . . . you�ve provided everything short of your home number, lol. It�s all here.
4.0

Favorite entries: *Where you talk about when your mother passed away; *Your well done biography page, and *Your entry about growing up and discovering the differences between sex and love.

Favorite quotes: "I am feeling so good about things right now. I even went through PMS last week without totally snapping!! Imagine that!!" Honestly, I had a hard time finding favorite quotes, because your diary isn't like that. It isn't one liners and zingers. It is more a compilation; something to be taken on the whole. And that is a good thing:)

Would I come back? Yes!
4.0

Total score: 3.5/4.0 + .7 honor points = 4.3/4.0 . Violet thinks you're terrific! PURR!

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