The Weblog Review

After reading a few entries and the raison d’etre for tabulae I wondered what I had stumped upon. The first entry describes tabulae as: “We mean this as a technocratic, elitist, politburo-style weblog.” I was expecting to read the intellectual masturbations of a bunch of self proclaimed “elitists”. I was however, pleasantly surprised.

What I found instead was an intellectual, in-depth, but very readable political discussion. (Ultimately good writing always wins me over…) It reminded me a lot of “Inside Washington”. Go figure.

With world events being as they are, it was interesting to read what political writers had to say about the many serious issues facing the world. The journal centres around the political analysis of four different authors (although most entries are only by two of them). Most entries are well documented with supporting links for further illumination or examples/evidence. I believe they do their homework.

tabulae is well designed and functions well, although a -top- link near the bottom of those long scrolling pages would be nice!

A taste of the politics:

“Unfortunately, I must now advocate against war. I’m switching sides. In an ideal world, a preemptive war seems good, but, this is no ideal world. I think this administration is too incompetent to succeed. I think them to secretive to present our case to the world. I think them too simplistic to engage in ‘nation-building’ afterwards, especially with no allies. But most of all, I think them too willing to go ahead without consulting and informing the populace, and I will support no war that the people are not behind. Sure 70% want an invasion, but how many want an invasion if it takes 200,000 troops and 20,000 casualties. We are victims of our recent success, as now the people assume future war will be as clean as the last three. I think they are headed down the path of Vietnam, which paralyzed our f.p. for a decade afterwards. To again paralyze the US, in a similar post-Iraq decade of self-doubt would be far worse leaving the despot be. ”

A great metaphor (or is it a simile?):

“Over beers the other day, a friend of mine said that Bush acts like that kid on the softball team, who, if you don’t play by his rules, packs up all his stuff and leaves. Of course it doesn’t help that this kid owns the best bat, most of the gloves, and the only ball that still has laces.

After some reflection, I amended this story. Bush is more like the kid (who has all the best stuff) that, if you don’t play by his rules, takes all his stuff away…and then beats the hell out of you with his baseball bat.”

And even though they poke fun at two things close to my heart (hockey and Canada):
“I agree with Woodrow. Therefore, we here at Tabulae are declaring a one month moratorium on discussing the Bush Administration. I don’t care if then invade Canada and nationalize the NHL. We are not talking about them here for rest of the month of January. Loyal readers who like to get their Bush bashing will have to wait until February 1 to get any of that here (yeah, I know it’s not quite a month). “
I found tabulae to be a surprisingly enjoyable read. Surprising because who knew you could enjoy reading about politics?

I don’t think this is a blog for everyone. However, I’m sure most readers will appreciate the well written insightful political opinions that tabulae shares. Well Done. Don Cherry for Prime Minister. tabulae in 2004!
tabulae

Sugarcoated Bulletproof Marshmallows Smug-Face seems like a huge name for this blog, so I’m going to call it Sugarcoated for short. As Karene [the writer of Sugarcoated] does note, too much of something definitely can make one sick. Sugarcoated is a bright and pretty blog, but it seems to be at the expense of content and ease of navigation.

There seems to be exactly one entry on Sugarcoated. I could find no link to archives of any kind. After searching for a little bit I found a link to something called “Ka’s blog,” which I think must be Karene’s real blog, which is at Blogspot. So when the blog is called up, the Blogspot banner and all come up in the frame. It doesn’t really look very good with the rest of her design. According to Karene’s Blogspot blog, the blog has been in existence since September of 2002. Unfortunately none of the links to her older entries work – I get an error page instead. The only entries accessible are from Christmas through the present.

Warning: Sugarcoated is a religious blog. Karene posts religious poetry and songs and content, interspersed with pop song lyrics. Some of it might be her own poetry, but I’m not really sure. There is hardly any real content, other than Karene letting us all know that she’s a good religious girl.

In addition to the problems with her archival links, and my confusion over finding blog content, Karene explains her navigation on her main index page. If you need to explain to people how to navigate your blog, the navigation is too clunky. And the navigation at Sugarcoated really does need to be explained – it’s confusing.

For the most part, the content of Sugarcoated lies within the extras. Karene is part of an extensive group of cliques and rings, and wants you to rate her blog here and at Bloghop. She’s got ads and lots of buttons so you can link Sugarcoated, links to her favorite blogs and links to other sites of interest. And she’s got a tagboard, and a pop up window that tells us what Karene’s current cravings are that also brings up a huge Geocities popup ad.

I will not visit Sugarcoated again. I’m not interested in what little content Karene does have, and the navigational errors are enough to drive away anyone.

i spilt caramel on my pink skirt

Bingobowden!!!!!!

Is that not a cool name for a blog or what? Even if you don’t know what it means, it kind of sounds fun. The author actually chose the name for his blog because a person he knew in school was named Bowden, and Bowden’s father was a bingo caller, and he put the two together and liked it so much he named a band and his weblog after it. Probably the most original weblog name I’ve ever heard.

The author; 22 year old, engaged to be married, Stuart from the U.K. admits that his blog “was meant to be a place where I point you in the direction of some interesting sites or stories, and ocassionally make some valid points about politics, the news and all that other clever stuff that goes on in the world”. It does that very well, but there’s a lot more to it than just that. His September 6th entry about trying to find trousers and shoes when your 6’4” and wear a size 14 shoe is hilarious. There are times when the author does write about personal issues as well, his Sept. 22nd entry about his relationship with his father for example. He is also trying to start up a record store, and seeing that idea develop is very interesting. Stuart is a prolific writer, since the start of his blog in February there are only a few times when he doesn’t update frequently. One of the fun parts of reviewing weblogs is reading one from the start and seeing it evolve overtime. The author documents most of the issues he comes accross with his blog and how he overcomes each one. As an American, reviewing this blog was kind of educational as well. I got to find out what the terms; “buggery”, “prat” and “quid” means.

Bingobowden is a very well set up blogspot site. No broken links at all. The archives worked well and are easy to navigate. I really think that is one of the most important things in any blog.

This site also has a guestbook and one of those guestmaps which I think are really neat and I seem to be seeing a lot more of. There’s a fairly thorough “about” section that the author adds to occasionally, and a comments system.

All in all, this is a very well written, well kept, entertaining weblog. It pretty much has everything you would want to see in a blog. I enjoyed my time there and am going to keep tabs on it hoping to see that Stuart gets his record shop business going. Four and a half stars, check it out.

Bingobowden

Random Thoughts comes to us care of Genny, who chose Blogspot for hosting her Weblog. The left-hand side of the page is occupied by a column of fire, with the appropriate flaming top, and includes three links to other sites (I particularly liked the Classic TV Lyrics), a Write Me link, and a short archive. I didn’t appreciate the flames, but at least the post area has a white background and large script, so reading the blog does not strain your eyes.

Genny’s introductory motto is “Do thoughts dictate feelings? prolong them? create them? Or is it the other way around??” Good question. Posts are longish, mainly about Genny’s thoughts and inspirations from her surroundings. She writes with ease, has an eye for detail, and seems a sensitive person. Go, for example, to her post of November 27th, 2002, which brought back memories from some of my own experiences. A nice, compassionate, if depressing, post.

Genny is out there fighting her own private struggle, just like so many of us. There’s lots on boyfriends and exchanges with boyfriends. But she can also be matter-of-fact with what I thought was a rather disarming twist. She says, for example:

November 2002 has been rather shitful. My grandparents have both been sick, my mother was diagnosed with skin cancer and my hairdresser is once again in the hospital and not doing well. In addition to this, I have been trying to land a job, any job and so every Monday, I find myself at the Labor Department faxing my resume all over the place, supposedly, but… I am starting to think I am faxing it to the black hole in our universe. Besides my brilliant skills as a Buyer, I am also an aspiring writer. I say aspiring because last week alone, 3 of my pieces were rejected by major publications.

I really connect to Genny’s style. She lays it out there, short and sharp.

Visit Random Thoughts. It may sound shallow and even breathless at times, but, overall, it is a warm Weblog, put together with care, and straight from a human heart. Genny, do something about that flaming template though.Random Thoughts

My first impression of unsung is that it was just…busy. At the base is the unsung logo background, and over top is layered a very blocked out collection of tables and graphics. The unsung logo in the tables blinks, which is very distracting. I didn’t know if I’d be able to concentrate on reading the entries, and worried that the site was all graphic, no content.

Fortunately, the writer does actually write. Dag, the writer, is mildly obsessed with the Sabres and blogs often about programming miscellania. In addition, Dag writes about his daily life and current events. Most of his entries are fairly short, and I’m left wishing he’d write a little more about what he’s going through.

It does take some clicking to get to any blog content at unsung. First, you have to get past the flash page, and then you have to read the introduction provided in order to figure out where you’re going. Of course, I found the introduction unnecessary since the site navigation links are located at the top of the page, and again just under the logo. My suggestion is to lose the introduction on the index page and have actual blog content there instead. Dag already has an About Me page, which is pretty informative. All of the links work and the only thing, other than just the general busy-ness of the design, I can complain about are the occasional spelling and grammatical errors. There isn’t anything too offensive, but they’re definitely noticeable.

There are more extras at unsung than I could name – 2 guestbooks, shoutbox, guestmap, word of the day, chat forum, Sabres schedule, lyrics section, a section of links useful for programming, Dag’s design/programming portfolio, little Emoticons in all of the blog entries, links galore, and a page specifically for humor. I visit a blog for the blog content, but others may find all of this more useful.

Unless Dag simplifies his design somewhat, I doubt I would become a regular reader. Normally design would not deter me from reading, but the flashing logo gave me a headache. Overall, it’s a solid blog.

unsung