The Weblog Review

He comes to us every few years, creates lots of stir in the media, and disappears back into oblivion after a while. Opinions are widely different, ask three average people on the street, and each one has a different outlook on him. No, I am not talking about El Ninio, I’m speaking about Michael Jackson.

Current controversies, falsified reports, babies dangling over German balconies, and all the other things aside, Jacko has never really left us. If not in chipped juke-boxes all over the land playing “Thriller”, we find his spirit on this weblog, called MJ News.

It’s all about Michael Jackson, and the layout proves it. Lots of graphics made download times a major issue for yours truly’s review, and had it not been for the mostly exceptional content I’d have left the site alone, never to return again.

Luckily I did not, and discovered a wealth of information, news-bits, and opinion, able to make even my hardened, Iron-Maiden-loving, Metal-album-touting, heart feel for Jacko. Speaking about news-bits – those, together with other clippings, make for a large amount of content on MJNews. Some may prefer to use news search engines, but for Jackson fans out there, this blog is a great resource.

Speaking about Blog. Purists may already gather outside my house waving “ye mighty pitchfork” at me for calling this website a blog. It’s not. Well, not fully, at least. Besides the blog content, we also find discussion forums, a mailing list, and polls at MJNews. Microcontent publishing goes digital community, and pretty well executed at that.

Michael Jackson fans of the world unite – and MJNews might just be the place to do so.MJ News

As I first entered the realm of Stacey George, I took a deep breath. At first glance, StaceyGeorge.com looked like everything that a good blog should not. The layout was boring, almost corporate. The first post was taken directly from The Friday Five. You catch my drift.

Yet I am glad I stuck around to read the rest of the site. Stacey George’s posts are personal, tracking the daily events that go on in her life. We read about how her son is sick, what she thought of the Grammys, and how there is no runnning water. These posts only seem to skim the surface of her life. To make up for it, however, Stacey George has a subtle sense of humor that will make you laugh out loud when you least expect it. She also is a wonderful photographer, often including shots of her day in her posts.

The overall design is composed of a simple forest green/black/white montage, easily readable and as mentioned before, easily boring. Perhaps the reason for this is that she includes her resume on the same site, and so wants to maintain a professional aura. My suggestion would be to seperate the two. You cannot have true freedom expressing yourself when you are tied down by corporate expectations.

The blog, however, is also home to some great artwork, all courtesy of Stacey George. There are illustrations, pages from her sketchbook, and photographs she has taken. If nothing else, visit these sections of the site. They’re well worth it.

To sum this up, I believe StaceyGeorge.com has the potential to become a great blog. The style of the writing and of the site itself needs some work, but as Stacey says herself:

Wake up, eat, do your job, come home, eat, be with people you love, get enough sleep, do it again. That’s all there is to it. The rest is drama we create.

I’ll be looking forward to some repeat visits.Stacey George

I am pretty sure there’s a website out there, that shows bloggers how to make a blog. If I ever find the site, I’ll find the owner, and I’ll have him or her flogged for hours. Ladies, Gentlemen: it is not enough, to take a blogskin, slap it on a Blogger site, write a “100 things” list, and start blogging your life to have an interesting ego blog. And there seems to be a misconception, too – there is no law in the world that forces you to use purple and rose as your dominant colors if you are a female blogger.

Never the one to judge a book by its cover, I started digging deeper into “Are the Stars Out Tonight”, ignoring for a while the choice of colors, beginning with “feather boa”s Top 100. There’s only so much to be learned from such a list, but as the interested visitor, I am, I now know, that she is a 21 year old, British, bi-sexual glockenspiel player, with an IQ of 174 and size 32B breasts. Did I really need to know this much?

Reading through her journal, I’d discover more about feather boa. One of the cooler things about her blog is a cast list, handy for understanding the who-is-who in her writings, I perused it quite often. The entries are, expectedly, very personal and ego-centered, and cover vomiting after a a night out as well as heart breaks, the dating world, and what else ever a 21 year old girl could find interesting.

Like so many other ego-blogs, featherboa is, in a sense, a therapeutic activity. If you’re into this kind of thing, a deep dive into someone else’s mind, you’ve come to the right place, baby. For me, it always feels a bit like voyeurism, but this blog was at least nicely read voyeurism.are the stars out tonight

In the wide world of weblogs, it doesn’t really get much better.

The current design is very nice to look at it. The simple, conservative use of lines, boxes and as few images as possible really give the entire layout a very clean presence. Of course, Paige has the “About the Author” section which gives us a little more insight into her, a section devoted to “Vegan Recipes”, an obligatory “Links” section leading us to different weblogs she reads, and a couple of links directing the reader to Amazon.com where they can find out what Paige is reading or listening to.

On a personal note, I could effortlessly connect with some of her latest posts about starting her new job. Reading the way Paige describes learning everything you need to know at a new job and beginning to wonder if her new job is too good to be true are both situations I’ve experienced right around the same time she was writing about them, so I felt exceptionally drawn into this weblog.

While other readers may not find the same connection I did with specific entries, it’s simple to believe that nearly any demographic – male, female, younger, or older – will be able to relate in some fashion to the variety of posts Paige gives us about her daily life.

As I’ve said about The Book of Paige before, which still holds true three months after my last review of this site, the author only adds another entry in when she has something to say. Sometimes this is every day, but other times, there may be a few days between posts. Taking this route makes the majority of the entries more than just one or two lines long, but absolutely worth reading.

Aside from giving the world something to read every single day, I honestly don’t know what else could be improved upon. This is the second time I’ve reviewed this site, and honestly wasn’t really sure what else Paige could have done to make it stand out from being better then it was the last time it was reviewed. Being able to make such a close connection with the author gave me no choice but to give an even higher rating than in the past. Just as before, I would recommend giving this site a once over, because honestly, there’s no reason not to.

The Book of Paige

Reading the Book of Paige is like reading my own diary. This is one personal blog. Paige’s entries make her life sound so human; and almost anyone can relate to her past experiences. The self-deprecating moments in her blog (i.e. ‘Why I am an idiot’ episodes which can be found in her archives) puts a smile on your face, as it assures you that you are not the only one in the world to get bad days. Her writing is rather smooth and there’s a certain flow to her entries, allowing your eyes to just glide over the sentences. Paige is a very intelligent writer who doesn’t have any qualms on voicing out her thoughts, so you can expect really outspoken entries at times. I really love it when Paige sometimes teases the reader with entries with a really suspenseful head. (E.g. Entry dated 3 August 2002) It’s like eating while blindfolded. The anticipation! It’s fabulous!

Her site is rather well linked. There’s a good ‘about me’ page, which consists of basic details in Paige’s life (age not included. You NEVER ask a lady for her age, though you could probably catch a hint in Paige’s earlier entries), as well as some not-so-important information. For example: Paige is DIY-handicapped and spiders scare her to death. There are also the usual ‘link’ page and entries. Extras include links to her favourite books and music at Amazon.com, as well as a vegetarian recipe page to cater to lacto-ovo vegetarians like Paige. Bonus points goes to a good selection of links (e.g. Erotibonsai – A news article on a tree shaped like the more private parts of the human anatomy).

I love it when blog writers actually spend time on the blog’s design, even if the layout was not done by the writers’ themselves. This shows that they care enough about their writing to present it well. Paige’s layout did not create the layout but the design is very clean and, unlike most blogs, is rather tastefully done. There are almost no distracting elements in the design, so it’s pretty easy on the eyes. I would say that this design definitely suits Paige’s style of writing. I say, good choice!

This blog is a truly intelligent and delightful read, filled with subtle and sometimes cynical humour. It’s good for people who love well thought out entries and eloquent writing. One area of improvement is that she could probably add in an html code that enables a new window to pop up every time someone clicks on a link. The Book of Paige is updated once every few days so it’s a pretty good choice if you want to add this site to your regular ‘blog’ diet. Seriously, this is one blog which makes you crave for more. Once you start, you can’t stop.
The Book of Paige