Review Me Today!

On this blog I review blogs.  Some blogs review food.  Most food blogs at best are boring.  In the worst cases they are nauseating, with pictures of “food” that I wouldn’t feed my dog.  Of course, I don’t have a dog, but if I did, he wouldn’t eat it even if I would feed it to him.  Tonight, while perusing my Who Should I Review page I see a food critiques blog. I can’t help myself. I just know I will come face to face with a picture of pig slop, but I click anyway, and see this:

Uhh, Ok. I am not sure what to think about this. So instead of looking at the pictures I decide to read the words. And in reading I find that those people in Wisconsin are as strange as I think. Those long cold winters do something to your brain! But I bet they know how to drive in the snow !

So there are these three guys, who live in Wisconsin where the winters are long and cold. Lil’ Greg, Fluffy Jon, and the producer.  They are they are bored.  So being normal Wisconsin guys they start thinking, we like to eat, we like to blog, let’s make a blog about us eating.  So far so boring.  But then they put a little twist on it.  They ask you to send them food.  Any kind of food as long as it is prepackaged.  You send them food, they give a dollar to the food bank. Then they create a funny video of Lil’ Greg and Fluffy Jon eating the food you sent.

The name of the blog is Gimme Something To Eat . I watched a video of the guys eating a can of something called fried dace. It was certainly amateur hour, but it was also pretty funny. Then I watched a video of Lil’ Greg eating Weight Watcher’s Snack Cakes .  The video started slow, but when Greg started calling for a glass of milk it got pretty funny.

There are lots of pictures and some actual written commentary. The blog itself has a nice look.  I like the colors and the layout.  The  videos could use some polish, but what do you expect from a bunch of bored guys in Wisconsin!

The blog is still pretty new, but I think with some time this could end up being a very funny, popular blog.

Now I am on the look out for something really weird to send the guys to eat!

In earlier reviews I might have mentioned that I am not fond of blogger blogs.  I couldn’t think of any good reason, I just don’t care for them.  Well, I think I may have the answer to why I don’t like them, and what you can do to fix that.

If you have a blogger blog, your probably have a blue bar across the top.  The Blogger Nav bar.  Much like the red bar across the top of this blog. (But we are not talking about  my blog, and Today pays me to blog , so if they want to put a red nav bar on the top of my blog they can do that. )

But if you want to get rid of the nav bar, or only have it show when you want it to, Derya has a post on How To Hide The Blogger Nav Bar. 

Her post gives you a simple bit of code that you post on your blog, and just like that, the nav bar is gone. It gets even better. If for some reason you want the nav bar back, click on the link that you have put on your blog, and the nav bar is back.

I had a friend with a blogger blog try this and it works slick. Quick and easy and no more blogger nav bar.

As for the rest of Derya’s site. Well, if it hadn’t been for the Nav bar post I would never have reviewed it. The blog has only 4 posts, all written in early 2007. It is a blogger blog, and the theme is uninspiring. So unless you need to get rid of your blogger nav bar, don’t bother.

There is an old saying “pride goeth before a fall”. I think maybe sometimes I should contemplate old sayings more often. Especially before I am going to write a rant about how annoyed I am about people who don’t know how to drive in the snow.

I got a little nudge, when one of my commentors, someone who knows me very well, reminded me that there was a time when I was one of those timid snow drivers.  In fact, I learned some basic snow and ice driving the hard way.  Did you know that if you are on the freeway driving 65 mph, and you hit a patch of black ice and them slam on the brakes and crank the steering wheel real hard, you can do 360 degree turns backwards up the freeway?  I know this is possible, because I have done it.  I learned a good lesson that day.  Don’t slam on your brakes on ice!  But that was many years and many snow storms ago.

But just two days after I wrote my post, A Review of Snow Driving Tips , I was sitting in my car, in my driveway, watching the snow fall on the road. I have a great car for traction, but not for ground clearance.  There was about 5 inches of snow on the road, and it was coming down at a pretty good rate.  I wasn’t sure my car would be able to go through the snow.  But just as I was thinking “Am I being stupid?”, the snow plow came by and cleared the road.  That decided it for me, I was going to work.

Things started out pretty good.  I made it to the freeway and just when I was feeling pretty smug again about myself and my snow driving skills, the car started to slide, and slide, and slide.  On the freeway. I remembered not to slam on the brakes.  I remembered to keep my wheels pointed in the direction I wanted to go.  But I think I might have been overcorrecting. (Or maybe it was just really icey!)  So I would slide to the right, correct, and slide to the left. Right and left, over and over, but no 360’s this time.  Good thing there weren’t many stupid people thinking they should go to work in a snow storm, I had the freeway to myself.  Finally I get control of the car, but now I am starting down a hill.  A slick hill. Even when I barely touch my brakes, the car starts to slide, so I am going down this hill, gaining speed, thinking to myself, “the answer to your previous question is yes, you are being stupid! What made you think it was a good idea to go driving in this stuff?”  I spot an off-ramp up ahead, and I am thinking this would be a good time to get off the freeway, if I can just slow down a little bit.  Somehow I get a little traction, slow the car enough to make the turn onto the ramp, and find myself gently sliding to a stop at the intersection.   The side streets haven’t been plowed, and driving in the snow is easier than expected.  I make my way into a store parking lot, and  manage to park my car. I have survived!

I call my boss, she thinks I’m an idiot for even trying to come in. Oh well, she’s right.  I spend the next 2 hours grocery shopping and talking to all the store employees who made it into work before the storm started.  The roads look good, and I drive home, thinking of the post I wrote just days earlier…