The Weblog Review

The average fifteen-year-old’s blog would have bored me out flat, but not Arend’s. He possesses fair writing skills, has interesting things to say, and presents himself quite well. Although like most teens he does whine, a bit, his whinings are actually winningly humorous rather than roll-eyes-irritating. Arend’s ‘teenage angst’ is intimately adorable, with a nice blending of maturity and youthful callowness.

The design of the entire site is black on white – clean and simple, yet classy. Personally I liked it a lot, yet sometimes the huge blank spaces dominating the pages seem to be too much. The blog itself has all the writings squeezed to the left side of the page in two narrow strips, leaving a universe of whiteness on 3/4 of the page. Not to mention forcing me to read with my pupils focused to the left and causing the person sitting on my left to wonder if I was casting surreptitious glances at him. Another minor complain – the font is a bit too small.

Arend’s details can be found in detail on the site, including a lengthy description of the things he carries around in his pockets. If you take the time to click on the text links within his blog, there are plenty of pleasant surprises(Doodles on his biology text, to name one). My favorite ‘surprise’ is his apparently ‘ambitious’ project to send love letters to anyone who subscribes. I did. I’ve never received love letters from a fifteen-year-old.

“Forget” is a light, pleasant blog. Despite his modesty, Arend has a flair for writing, and his blogs show a fine balance between sensible optimism and subtle self-detest, perhaps not atypical of his age. I recommend Arend post up some pictures of himself(or even better, drawings), because I for one felt like knowing him better after reading.

Forget

Just like the slightly cartoonish-sounding title of the site, the first thing that crossed my mind when I viewed it was ‘corny’. The background is a wall of bricks, and cartoon bulldogs, bombs and smiling faces are littered through the pages. Further exploration confirms this. If you’re wondering where ‘”THE” Experience’ of the site is, just click on the link directly under the heading. “When reality and my life collide, causing a big explosion.” The ‘big explosion’ is a whole page of dazzling, sparkling, twisting, revolving, exploding, eye-blinding, downright annoying graphics. Truly the ultimate experience. Scrolling further down, I discover weird polls and pictures of hairy men’s legs and a dog wearing shorts.

All said, the blog is written by a married man who has lots to say about, well, everything. Music, movies, writing, politics. The blog gives the impression of a man who has a sense of humor, albeit a harsh one and often at others’ expense(“People I Don’t Like”, “People Who Should Just SHUT THE FUCK UP”, “Who’s the Gayest Boy Band” and so on). The blogger, cpb, likes to swear a lot. I’d say one swear word per sentence, average. Even his poems contain a generous supply
of four-lettered words. There are lots of links, about half of them related to cpb himself. Here is truly a guy who thinks a lot. He needs three seperate links to contain his thoughts and opinions, filing them under “Random Thoughts” – what goes through his mind on a typical day, “Inebriation Notes” – what goes through his mind on an Atypical day, and “In My Humble Opinion” – about whatever is on his mind. Overwhelmed already? There’s more! His writings, his other sites, and then some. If you are looking for a strong and often unconventional view of things in general, and you don’t mind foul language, this is the site for you. On the other hand, if you are have a ‘politically-correct’ frame of mind, stay away. You’d probably not be amused by polls titled “Who is the hottest tennis bitch?”. And be warned (or be informed, if you like this sort of thing): there is a picture of topless women somewhere on the site.

The page is easy to navigate in, with a sidebar, plenty of links and all of them neatly organized. As mentioned earlier, the design is a little corny, but the words are easy to read. No complaints here.

There isn’t much information about cpb himself, but there are detailed descriptions of how the site was born and, generally, we get to know all about the things that piss him off, which are plenty.

Overall, the design of the page is fine, there’s more than enough information to keep readers occupied, and some of them are quite interesting. You might find yourself shocked, yet grinning guiltily. Sometimes it might be therapeutic to point at other people and laugh. Do that at “THE Experience”.

THE Experience

Within two minutes of browsing Chewy Goodness, I had laughed out loud, twice! The person behind the blog, Steve, is a very funny individual, describing everyday observances with a witty and sharp voice that is never too harsh or acerbic. He doesn’t shy away from all of life’s particular eccentricities and quirks, writing about the wastelands of late night TV, our cultural fascination with buttocks, and the time he peed in a pastor’s bed.



Design-wise, Chewy Goodness is navigable and easy on the eyes, despite Steve’s protestations of “rudimentary HTML skills.” The overall grayness of the blog can get a little drab, but it does nothing to hinder your reading enjoyment.



In short, go read Steve. And make sure to visit his “About Steve-o” page. The “artist’s interpretation” of Steve made me smile, and his self-deprecating list of personal information just further cemented my opinion of him as a very funny guy. This is a really great blog.
Chewy Goodness

Do some shopping, find out about when crustless Iron Kids bread is arriving at a store near you, what marathons are gonna be on tv next week … this is what you can find here at “Almost Ripe.”

Currently, there are not a lot of posts here, however from what was available to view, I think I got a pretty good idea and feel for the site.

“Almost Ripe” is ran by Ed Kaiser who is also the creator of GooShopping, a place you can go to if you’re in search of toys or memorabilia from movies, new and old tv shows and cartoons. In addition, he has “Almost Ripe” which is geared towards those with the same interests. The blog contains links to things going on and news regarding television, toys or anything “news worthy” related to the topics at hand. Like when your local Weinerschnitzel is giving away free chili dogs or when a new movie’s in the works.

The layout is a Blogger template which is okay. However, I think it could use a different layout, maybe something a little sleeker would work nice and be a little cleaner looking. But it currently is fine.


I think this site is at a good start and will definitely be going strong in a few months. It’s a good topic to have a blog about and it’s great for those who are into collecting toys and memorabilia.Almost Ripe

Almost Ripe is a blog about “Cartoons, TV Shows, Movies, Superheroes, Toys” and then some. It has a straightforward design that’s easy on the eyes and appropriately organized. Immediately, I clicked with the blog for I recognized the first game reviewed so I dug a little deeper, enjoying each little discovery as I found it. All manner of things pop culture are present here in this blog, from children’s music (go Wiggles!) to cult television classics.

Featuring a calendar of entertainment events available throughout the US (i.e., tours, movies, etc.), the site averages 5-6 entries each week. Since the site mostly focused on entertainment news, the majority of the posts are fairly short with embedded links to resources throughout the Internet; this is very useful if one wants to learn more about any given topic! There’s also an internal search engine, although when I searched for the latest entry, I wasn’t able to find it. Powered by Blogger, Almost Ripe features pop-up comments and links to individual entries. The blog’s writer, Ed Kaiser, is accessible via email.Almost Ripe