Battle of the Shire websites: Plantagenet vs. Toodyay

Hi again

Today I have been comparing different Shire homepages. Of the five that I looked at, the Shire of Plantagenet and the Shire of Toodyay were the two that were, in my opinion, the best. I am going to answer a few questions that will show which areas of the sites were stronger than others.

ROUND 1.

How “attractive” do the home pages look?

PLANTAGENET

To start with, the Plantagenet website looks good, it looks professional. The colours that are used look good together . Everything is set up neatly and orderly. Overall I would say this is a very neat website that is set up very well.

TOODYAY

The Toodyay website is not as good in appearance as the Plantagenet site. This site does not look quite as professional, and the colours do not go with each other as well as the Plantagenet site. The three pictures on the main page do not look like they have been placed there in any order, with one over-lapping the other. Although this site is OK, I would say it is not as good as the Plantagenet site.

ROUND 2.

Can you find the name of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO)? If so what is his/her name and was it easy to find?

PLANTAGENET

The CEO for the Shire of Plantagenet is Rob Stewart. This was fairly easy to find. From the home page, it takes only two clicks of the mouse to find out who the CEO is.

TOODYAY

The CEO for the Shire of Plantagenet is Graham Foster. This was also relatively easy to find, although perhaps not as easy as the Plantagenet site. Again, from the home page it takes only two clicks of the mouse, but the Plantagenet site has worded it so that it is easier to find.

ROUND 3.

Can you find information about a library, its opening hours and services?

PLANTAGENET

Information about the Library was a little bit more difficult to find than the name of the CEO, with three clicks to get to it.   The Opening hours are a little bit confusing and are not as simple as they could be. It is open from 11am – 5pm on Tuesday and Fridays, 2pm – 5pm on Wednesday, 11am – 6:30pm on Thursday, and 9am – 11am on Saturdays. It is closed on Sunday and Monday.

TOODYAY

Information about the Toodyay library was very easy to find, being only one click away. The opening hours are a lot better and simpler than the Plantagenet library, being open from 9am – 5pm Monday – Friday and 9am – 11am on Saturday.

ROUND 4.

Find out where on the site the information about fire break regulations is placed.

PLANTAGENET

After much searching, I did eventually find this, http://www.plantagenet.wa.gov.au/pdf/2011-12_Firebreak_Noticev2.pdf. This took quite awhile to find and I had to use the search bar. I would say that it could definitely be in an easier place to find.

TOODYAY

Like the Plantagenet site, it took a while, and a search bar, to find this http://www.toodyay.wa.gov.au/council_services/fire_emergency_services.html
This could also be in a different place to make it a lot easier to find.

ROUND 5.

Does the site advertise local/community events if so then record the information for the next one that is due to take place.

PLANTAGENET

Sadly, I could not find anything that says when the next event will be. This obviously says that it does not advertise events. I think it would be a very good idea to include this.

TOODYAY

This was much easier to find than in the Plantagenet site, mainly because it actually existed. The next event that is supposed to take place is the Festival Of International Foods.

ROUND 6.

How easy is it to navigate (find your way around) the website?

PLANTAGENET

This was fairly easy to navigate, it had a site map so that you could see where everything was, and a search bar in-case you cant find what you want. As for the menus, they were also pretty easy, and could be followed through without too much difficulty.

TOODYAY

This site was also quite easy to navigate, with a few exceptions. Even though it was not quite as easy as the Plantagenet site, I found my way around without any hassles.

This not-so-epic, Battle-of-the-Shire-websites battle ends with the Plantagenet site reigning supreme, but only just. Both websites were good in the sense that they both provide a lot of information about the Shire that they are representing. I think both are good but in the end the Plantagenet site looks that little bit better, and is slightly easier to use.

Changing the Walls on our House

Hey Everyone

This is a post about what we have done to our house in the last few months (it would have been quicker but distractions and other jobs kept coming up )

Basically we replaced the outside walls of our house and change them from Fibro to corrugated tin. We had to replace a few ant-eaten beams in the walls along the way, and we also had to replace a few of the stumps under the house.

Here are the before/after shots:

The colour of the tin is called Woodland Grey, and all the downpipes and things like that we painted Oyster-linen.

Well that’s what we have been doing for the last few months (among other jobs)

Two Career Paths

What I did

Today I did a bit of research into four different career paths that I would be interested in. Of the four, I chose two that I thought would be both different but interesting. It was kind of fun doing a bit of research on these careers and I found out a bit of new information about them. These are the two careers that I chose.

Musician

The job of a musician is to entertain people and audiences. Professional musicians must practice a lot. It can be hard to make a living being a musician so most have another job as well.

Here are some things that a musician must have.

An instrument and the ability to play it;

Ability to concentrate for long periods of time;

Ability to play to a beat;

Ability to work long hours;

Good communication skills

There are other things that a musician needs as well, for more information you can go to this website. http://www.therealmusician.com/

Here is a video about being a musician.

Graphic designer (cars)

To be a graphics designer, it is important to have a bachelor or master’s degree in product design or automotive design. It is also very beneficial to have a high level of academic achievement, due to it being a competitive field. Courses such as industrial design, electrical engineering, mathematics, environmental science and computer-aided drafting are required for Car Designers.

Car designers can be required to work long hours and be put under pressure to meet deadlines.

Here is a video about a graphic designer for Holden.

Instructions for Replacing Acoustic Guitar Strings

Hi everyone! This post is for all those out there who want to learn how to replace guitar strings. I wrote these instructions for a task that I was doing for my TAFE course. Well go and get your old guitar and click here to get started!

My favourite Story Of The Week

Well I have read a few online stories this week, but my favorite was definitely this one. I like this one because it is funny and it points out some of the strange things that we do everyday. I know it is not really a story but hey, it’s in a book! I hope you like it as much as I did.

This is the story.

Story Ideas

I have just done a bit of thinking on what I am going to write a story about.I have a few ideas but I will only write two of them.

My first idea is to write a story about a trip to Halls Creek that my family and I did. I think this would be a good idea because the trip was fun and I have some good memories from up there.

The other one is a story about ideas to write a story about (think about that for a bit!). This would be an appropriate story topic to write about because I had some problems with thinking of a story!

I think these would be good story ideas and if anyone has any suggestions then please comment.