Review Bunker is a review blog where the goal is simply to review everything. Below are the latest reviews. In the About section you can read more about this blog and it's author. Comments are always appreciated, so if you've got something to say, please feel free!
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My dog’s breath smells. It seems to be a pretty common problem, with a few solutions. Luckily, he’s young and his isn’t the most offensive dog breath I’ve encountered, so I am hoping it will be an easy problem to erase. My veterinarian advocates brushing his teeth - but I am not quite at the point where I will willingly wrestle him to the ground to clean his teeth. For now, I have decided to try a few of the many breath freshening treats designed for dogs, and hope that his breath clears up before it gets worse. My first purchase in this quest was a package of Dingo Dental Stix found at Walmart for about $1.50. The packaging boasts, “with the power of baking soda!” - and promises to clean my dog’s teeth as he chews on the rawhide/chicken sticks.
One built-in benefit of these treats is the fact that they are treats - every time I give one to Phoenix he excitedly carries it to a safe place (usually under the bed, as seen here), and gives his full attention to devouring it. Unfortunately, he eats these treats so quickly that it seems the chewing process might not be helping to clean his teeth. I have been feeding him one stick every day or two for the past week, and he loves them as treats, but the question is, have they helped his breath?
Honestly, it’s not easy to get your dog to breath in your face when you want him to, and I don’t have a scientific method for measuring the smell, but as far as I can tell - his breath is actually a bit better than it used to be. It certainly isn’t minty fresh, but that really isn’t a requirement for a dog, and I am pretty happy with how well Dingo Dental Stix have seemed to work. If nothing else, Phoenix definitely enjoys eating them. For a cheap solution that seems to work pretty well I am happy with the results, and I hope to find that his breath continues to improve if I continue to buy these treats.
One of the downsides with the Dingo Dental Stix is, if your dog is a bit sloppy like mine, a few bits of the treat might be left on the carpet after he is done eating. Also, the unnaturally bright green color of the treat is a little off-putting, I certainly wouldn’t eat one, but my dog doesn’t seem to mind - let’s just hope he isn’t allergic to green dye.
Dingo Dental Stix: 
4/5
4/5
Do you have any recommendations for freshening my dog’s breath? Have you ever tried brushing your dog’s teeth?
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For Valentine’s Day, Crystal and I celebrated by dining together at East Moon Asian Bistro here in Fort Collins. We had reservations at 8:30 pm, and therefore had almost no wait time once we arrived at 8:15, despite the crowded waiting area. Never having been to East Moon before, I was a bit surprised at the small size of their dining area, but our table was large, not squashed in with other tables, and seemed private enough, despite the abundance of people seated around us. This restaurant would likely benefit from a larger establishment - but as it is, it does feel quaint. I like the modern artsy decorations found in East Moon, a nice break from the cheap (and dare I say corny?) decorations often found adorning other Asian restaurants. The lighting is nicely done, a bit moody but not too dark, and I found the atmosphere to be very pleasing.
Our service was moderately good. There were a few minor communication difficulties with the staff. Our waitress seemed very high strung, yet somewhat cheerful and energized at the same time. This combination caused her to speed through everything, including taking our orders. It was entertaining to watch her go, but her hurry did cause her to make a few minor mistakes. For example, Crystal ordered a virgin Piña Colada but instead ended up with a normal rum-included drink. Luckily, the alcohol was not very strong, and the drink tasted just fine, but I think we would have rather paid the cheaper alcohol-less price. Despite this, we decided to not bother our waitress with the problem - she was likely too hurried and singularly focused for us to catch her attention anyway.
The food turned out quite well. We ended up ordering some sushi as a starter, we were also served a house salad with our entrees, and we each ordered something somewhat unique that we had never tried before off of the menu, just to try out a few new things. Unfortunately, neither of us happened to have our cell phones or cameras with us, so I was unable to take any pictures of our food or the restaurant for this review. If I return in the future, I will make sure to get a few pics to share.
We ordered two six piece sushi rolls, an Unagi Maki (eel and cucumber) and an East Moon Maki (shrimp, avacado, and cucumber), very reasonably priced at $4.50 each. Both types were tasty, but as I am not a sushi buff in any respect, I can’t say much about the quality compared to other restaurants.
As an entree, Crystal ordered Shitake Mushroom Duck, and I ordered Saigon Soft Shell Crab. Both entrees were pricier than most of the menu at about $12-$13 (most other entrees didn’t exceed $10 for dinner). The Duck dish was very tasty, with a lot of duck meat, and good mushrooms. The Soft Shell Crab was a bit odd, as it was fried crab meat which had been mostly shelled, but not entirely, so I had to be careful not to eat pieces of shell but still find all of the delicious crab meat. The crab was laid on a bed of very thin cold noodles (not sure what they are called), salad, and vegetables, which all seemed somewhat decorative, but rounded out the meal at the same time. The chile-lime sauce that came on the side of my crab meal was really tasty, but only in tiny proportions, as it was very spicy. We had both entrees substitute fried rice for steamed rice, and the fried rice was basic but delicious as well. Both meals were presented very nicely, with their own style, including unique serving dishes and food arrangements. We didn’t end up eating any dessert.
Overall, our dining experience at East Moon Asian Bistro turned out well, despite my ‘interesting’ entree. I definitely didn’t leave hungry, and as an added bonus, Crystal was presented with two pink roses along with the traditional fortune cookies and check once we were done eating. The atmosphere was inviting, and unique, and the staff was cheerful and definitely tried hard to serve us well. I hope to return to East Moon at a later date, to try their rendition of more familiar (and less expensive) dishes.
East Moon Asian Bistro (Fort Collins, CO): 4/5
4/5
Have you ever eaten at East Moon? What did you think? What’s your favorite Asian restaurant? How about your favorite Asian dish?
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One of the most useful tools that I’ve been introduced to since starting work in the web development field last year is a simple little Firefox extension called MeasureIt. I have used this extension extensively for the past few months, and although it is simple, it has helped me tremendously with my web design work.
What the MeasureIt extension does is add a button in the bottom left corner of your Firefox browser, which can be clicked at any time to enable ruler functionality. Once you’ve enabled MeasureIt, the contents of the browser are frozen, and your mouse becomes a pixel ruler. Clicking and dragging the mouse creates a box highlighted in blue, and a popup attached to the top right corner of the box tells you how many pixels tall and wide your box is. This information has been invaluable, as I no longer have to guess and use trial and error for placing elements on a web page.
The one flaw that I’ve found with MeasureIt, and I am not positive it can be considered a flaw necessarily, is it’s behavior when the browser is refreshed. I will often use MeasureIt to determine a pixel amount, make a quick adjustment to my code, and then refresh Firefox in order to see the difference, without toggling MeasureIt off. Instead of maintaining the ruler overlay, the browser returns to normal functionality, which wouldn’t normally be a problem, but MeasureIt’s button stays “on” instead of switching to “off.” This causes a problem if I need to make another quick measurement right away because I have to toggle the extension off and then back on before getting to use it again. What I would prefer more than anything else is to have the ruler overlay maintain it’s control, even after a refresh, until I toggle it off.
Despite the one minor flaw that I’ve found in my use of MeasureIt, I can’t help but give it a great rating, as it has saved me a ton of time and made my job a lot easier.
MeasureIt Firefox Ruler Extension: 
4.5/5
4.5/5
Have any other really useful web development Firefox extensions I should try out? What do you think of MeasureIt? Know of something better?
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This is a “blog feedback” post. To learn more about my blog feedback category, please visit the Blog Feedback section. Below are a few reviews of other blogs. I would like to thank the blog owners for submitting their blogs for reviews.
Blog #1
Top Quality Men’s Suits
http://qualitymenswear.wordpress.com/
First Impressions: Is this a store or a blog? A quick check of the About section tells me that this appears to be a blog published by a store. Very simple layout, and a pretty generic-looking header. It took me a bit to decide whether this was a legitimate blog, or just a portal for affiliate programs, or something else. It seems that this blog actually does offer advice and information about men’s suits, a very specific niche, but a legitimate blog nonetheless.
Aesthetics: There is nothing really very complex about the layout here, and it certainly isn’t necessary, but as usual, I would suggest a better header. The fact that there is a title section and then a header is also a bit odd, I would probably eliminate the title section as well. If possible, make it more clear that this is the blog for eshopone - right now the bottom of the header looks like an ad.
This blog makes good use of generic seeming pictures of models wearing suits, but they certainly fit the content, and they help define the topic of each post. The use of a few low quality images does seem to cheapen the value of the posts they are attached to, maybe try not to use any low quality images in the future.
The sidebar is nice and neat, without too much clutter - the only things I might remove are the spam counter, blog stats, meta section, and social bookmarking section. You also should probably move your search box to the top of the sidebar, to make it obvious to users who might look for it immediately.
Content: As I previously said men’s suits is a very specific topic, but it seems that the author of this blog is well versed in the topic, and is offering some solid advice and knowledge about the topic. Some of the “sales” posts seem a bit too commercial for a blog that appears to be more individualistic - but are certainly nothing more than the stuff that comes from the “make money online” crowd.
Overall: At first glance this blog is a bit confusing and hard to unravel. Making the visual first impression better might help people know what they are getting into upon their first visit. Good enough content, and good niche.
Blog #2
Thoughts of a Blank Mind
http://blog.treiziethoughts.ws/
I was ready to review this blog, but noticed it has not been updated in over a month - so I will put it on hold for now, hopefully the author will pick it back up later, but we’ll see. On to #3…
Blog #3
Freelancer For Hire
http://www.kellybax.com/
First Impressions: I didn’t have to search for any information about this blog, as the whole description appears to be in the header. It is a bit of a long-winded introduction for the casual visitor, that might be better suited for an “About” section, but I guess blogger does have it’s limitations. Maybe try to cut down the info in the header if possible.
Things don’t seem to be well organized here - the sidebar isn’t in any way separated from the content, the ad below the header seems to jump out and clutter up things.
Aesthetics: I really don’t like this layout. The single solid color is overwhelming, and the lack of boundaries is a bit distracting. I would suggest a more customized theme, and header, if possible.
Your sidebar has so much clutter in it, that I don’t want to even try to dissect it. I would just suggest that you remove as much of the unnecessary content as possible - For example, I doubt that the google ad buried at the bottom will draw many clicks in it’s current position, so better optimizing all of the sidebar content would likely serve you well.
Content: The mix of blog promotion posts, freelancer tips, and other related content seems to work well here. The only thing that might need improvement is that some posts seem a bit too random - if you have people reading for only freelancer info, they may be turned off a bit by the off-topic posts.
Overall: Good content - lots of great freelancing information can be found here. The visual representation of this information could use a lot of improvement - perhaps a switch to wordpress would serve you well, and allow a lot more customization. Good luck, and keep up the good flow of freelancing postings.
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One of the three faithful readers I have here at Review Bunker, my mother, has recently had an experience that lent itself quite well to a review, and being the great mother that she is, she agreed to write up a guest review on her experience. Thanks mom, and here’s the review!
Last night my husband and I were invited to join friends for a pre-opening stay at the brand new Hilton Garden Inn in Laramie, Wyoming. It was a rare treat to stay in a previously unoccupied, state of the art hotel where we were wined and dined along with the family and friends of the developer/owner of the hotel. The food was incredible and included some of the best shrimp, oysters and scallops that I have ever had, some delicious lightly smoked and roasted beef, and many other delectable items.
We were given a private tour of the entire facility which includes a large, beautiful conference center. It seems no expense was spared on the creation of this Hilton Garden Inn. The kitchens have the latest technology which enables them to serve fresh, hot food to hundreds of people simultaneously.
Each hotel room is equipped with a flat screen television, microwave oven, refrigerator, coffee maker, and high speed internet hookups. The beds are dual-controlled air type mattresses and unfortunately it wasn’t until this morning, after a less than sound sleep, that we discovered how the controls work, and that a less firm setting would have been more comfortable. The shower had great pressure and even the shampoo and soaps that were provided were very luxurious. Some of the rooms have hot tubs in them and we were shown the presidential suite that has a large bath tub with a flat screen TV on the wall.
The hotel also has a well equipped gym with the latest and greatest in exercise machines. There is a pool and hot tub area with a fun giant mushroom water fountain that would be a blast for kids to play in, and a flowing stream of water that acts as an in-pool tread mill for swimmers who don’t want to actually do laps.
The staff all seemed very capable and excited to be working at such a fine hotel. It apparently took an enormous team effort to get everything in place with all the last minute details. Rumor has it that the management has a deep appreciation for the employees and treats them accordingly.
All in all, it was a very fun and pleasant stay and I would recommend The Hilton Garden Inn to anyone that will be visiting in Laramie, Wyoming for the next 50 or so years, as the hotel seems so well constructed that it will undoubtedly still be there. I would give our stay there a definite 5 stars!
The Hilton Garden Inn (Laramie, WY): 5/5
5/5
Thanks for the review mom. If anyone else has any feedback about The Hilton Garden Inn in Laramie, or any other Hilton hotels, feel free to leave a comment!
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