Review: Glen's Life

Greetings and welcome to The Magnolia Blossom Review. My little blip in the blogoverse where I take a few moments to highlight some of the outstanding blogs and the creative voices behind them that I’ve run across which I think deserve a few minutes in the spotlight…

Lots of people think they can write ‘funny’. They think that because they have 3 or 4 hilarious stories which always make people laugh they should start a blog and share those stories expecting that they’ll become an instant hit and they’ll be writing ‘funny’ for years. But ask any established comedic writer and they’ll tell you writing ‘funny’ is really difficult. And in the blogging world, where readers will leave a blog site the instant they get bored it’s even more difficult.

Because unlike writing political editorials, health & wellness articles, and other ‘Point A to Point B’ blog posts with the majority of readers fitting a certain demographic, writers of comedic blogs often must write in a way that appeals across the board because they don’t know who might drop by. This means that post after post, humor blogthurs must find ‘fresh’ typically mundane, run of the mill ideas and wrap them around humorous and plausible real life examples which appeal to a variety of readers all within the first paragraph and then they have to build on a theme (sometimes going off on tangents, but always returning to the crux of the post) all the way throughout a post which can be mentally exhausting.

And that can lead to comic burnout and the death of what was once a fabulous blog site because one can only tell those same 3 or 4 hilarious stories so many different ways. So finding a humor blogthur who keeps their posts novel and engaging week after week is actually a rare thing, indeed. And that’s why I’m pleased to say that for nearly a year now I’ve been following a humor blog called Glen’s Life: A Glen’s Eye View of the Funny Side of Life by Glen Staples, who also happens to be part of the behind the scenes action over at Real Bloggers United.  But this post isn't about RBU...it’s about Glen and his site which is continually crisp, constantly charming, and consistently brings ‘the funny’ all from a man’s point of view.  

Quick Summation: Glen’s Life: A Glen’s Eye View of the Funny Side of Life is a witty blog written by an Englishman who has a real knack for recounting the comedy in his everyday life as a father, husband, and a regular guy. He writes about things like how he deals with crazy school projects he helps his children with and about the romantic moments in his relationship with his wife that don’t always go as planned. Likewise, Glen often writes hilarious posts about how he thinks other people think about things which most people think aren’t worth thinking about. (Say that three times fast!)

And now for a deeper look…

1. Does the blog have a title with ‘standout appeal’?

Sort of.  By that I mean the main title ‘Glen’s Life’ is somewhat generic sounding and doesn’t pack a one punch, knockout TKO. However, the subtitle ‘A Glen’s Eye View of the Funny Side of Life’ does have that one-two zing a humor blog needs to have. (Honestly, I can just imagine seeing Glen sporting wings and flying high overhead as he looks down at the world below)

Blossom: .95

2. Is it well written?

Absolutely. As I said before, it’s difficult to continually bring the funny to a blog. And Glen does it with great ease and has a gift for spinning words in a way that is quirky yet altogether believable. It’s as if you’re sitting inside his head watching the wheels spin round as he tries to make sense of his children, his wife, and all the weird things we humans must do. What’s more there’s a relatively new addition to his site called ‘Breeze Van Santo’ (click here to visit Breeze's page) where Glen recounts the life of his alter ego, Breeze Van Santo, a suave, sexy (at least that’s what Breeze thinks) Hollywood stunt double who spouts his words of worldly wisdom about the important things in life…himself and women. I always find myself giggling whenever I read one of Breeze’s posts.

Blossom = 1

3. Is it neatly arranged so that it’s easy to navigate?

For the most part, yes.

Glen’s blog site isn’t a big ‘frills’ sort of blog. It’s not over laden with advertisements and widgets. Yes, he does have adverts. (And there’s nothing wrong with that! Heck, I have them.) But Glen has cleverly put them all on a unique page so that readers don’t have to deal with them if they don’t want to. I admire that because it tells me that he’s not blogging ‘for the money’ because if he was, those ads would be all over his site like some blogs I’ve visited.

But beyond ads, Glen does have everything he needs on his page in his Sidebar, which is a plus. Unfortunately his Sidebar is actually a bit heavy. Meaning the widgets/badges/buttons he does have on his site have pushed his Archives, Follow badges/boxes, Labels, and Blogs I Read boxes too far down the page. To get to the Archives…which, if you’ve read my reviews before, you’ll know I feel is second in importance only to the actual posts, I had to scroll way down the page. And I am a die hard believer that if readers like that first post, they’ll want to read more but they’re not going to want to search for the Archives.

As for the Follow/RSS Feed issue, it took me forever to figure out where Glen’s Follow buttons were. I literally had to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to find the Google Friends Connect box because it’s in the Footer. (Footers really ought to be relegated to housing only technical information because people rarely ever visit the Footer)

My suggestion, take it or leave it…make the site a 3 column site if at all possible. That way the widgets/badges/boxes Glen does have can be spread out a bit more so the page isn’t ‘side-heavy’. But no matter what, 2 or 3 columns, move the Archives up, up, up! And put those Follow/RSS Feeds boxes either right below or above the Archives.

Blossom = .90

4. Is it easy on the eyes?

Again, for the most part, yes. And I say this because I love the clean, simple set up of Glen’s site. But, believe it or not, the one thing that makes his site not 100% easy on my eyes (perhaps I’m just way too picky) is the stark white background. There’s something about all that white that literally hurts my eyes. And it's not just Glen’s site…it’s all sites with stark white backgrounds and dark print because I’m always seeing ‘ghost images’ in the white space.  It’s a funky optical illusion, for sure. But it’s a point to consider. So maybe change it to a soft gray or some other pale color. Of course, that is purely a suggestion.

Blossom = .95

In the end, Glen’s Life: A Glen’s Eye View of the Funny Side of Life by Glen Staples is a humor site for just about everyone.  It’s one of those ‘man sites’ a woman can visit because he’s always pointing out the fact that he’s still got a lot to learn about the female species. It’s also a place that’s perfect for guys, too, because he has a hilarious testosterone tinged opinion most all guys can relate to. It’s great for married people because he ‘gets it’ (‘it’ being the fact that a successful marriage needs a bit of ‘the funny’ every now and again.) And if you’re single you’ll get a kick out of reading about how married life and fatherhood can be fun.

Total Blossoms = 3.80