The Weblog Review

“Screw what the world thinks, be confident.” This motto is something more people should live by and is how this writer tries to live. Chel, pronounced “Shell” is a twenty-something woman from Florida who has got to be one of the most inspirational bloggers I’ve seen online. Yes, people share with the world their lives, the happy times and the sad times, but from reading this site it gave me a clearer vision on what it’s like for a person’s life is like when dealing with health problems their whole life.

The site has a nice layout that can be viewed in weblog format or just by post at a time. Even before I began reading the blog, the site gave off a sense of spirituality and peacefulness, which I wouldn’t expect from the context of a site whose context is about one person’s everyday struggles with her health.

Chel mainly shares with her readers her life and updates about her health issues. Her main health problems are depression and Spina Bifida. In addition, she writes about what she’s done that day, her cats and boyfriend. What makes her site strong is just from reading through her archives you get a strong sense of who she is.

There’s so much more to this site and is great if you’d like to read something more on a intimate level and learn about how depression and/or Spina Bifida changes a person’s life. This site is a definite 5.
Bliss

Welcome to Trendy To The Max, a site about every single possible detail of Tina’s 18-year-old life. Well make that everything about her day and nothing really much about the girl herself, as I searched through the site trying desperately to find out a little about this teenager before I started reading the blog. Obviously not trying to give too much away about herself (which I find strange in sites where they talk religiously about their day) all I know is that she’s 18 and from Missouri, and maybe that’s all I really need to know?



The site layout isn’t too bad, very simple, and easy to read though I found the green background with orange writing a little sore on the eyes after 10 minutes or so. The blog is an endless stream of entries, 3, 4 even 5 entries per day which means a week can take up a fair amount of room thus the site ended up being rather large on the content side of things. Trendy To The Max is however archived weekly, so I can’t really make too much of an issue out of this, but perhaps this should be changed to bi-weekly to help keep the size of the blog to a more readable limit. Also capital letters, why does it seem like they don’t exist on some sites? Is this fashionable? I find it terribly annoying.



The blog itself is a tad confusing, perhaps you need to be a long time reader to follow it, but its almost like its too personal, as names crop up, not to mention odd comments which have absolutely no meaning if your a first time reader like myself. Be that as it may, she does make for some brief areas of interesting reading and every now and then after reading a blog I shake my head with agreement.



Overall I can’t help but feel more could be added to this site. A bio, some links, and perhaps a little less green wouldn’t go astray. I don’t feel compelled to want to go back and read it again, its like entering a movie that’s half finished, you really can’t get into it without knowing how it started and quite frankly I quickly got bored.

trendy to the max

Scott Pinto’s Ego must really be
grossly oversized if he expects
anyone to return to his site more
than once. I tried in vain to find
something of interest. A glimmer of
wit in the N.A.Q. (never asked
questions) did give me hope, but
alas it was unfounded. Even the
“funnies” section isn’t.

The design isn’t so bad as to be
atrocious, but it’s pretty darn ugly all
the same. And Scott, if you’re such a
kickass web developer, would it be
too much trouble to set up your
tagboard so it doesn’t scroll
horizontally?

I wouldn’t be so presumptuous as to
judge a man by his blog, but don’t
bother stroking Scott’s ego by visiting
his. To be blunt, it’s just plain dull.Scott Pinto’s Ego

“I have lots to think about but nothing
to say.”

So proclaims the sub-heading of
The Rock Pool. I would beg to differ,
however. I think Simone has plenty
to say, although I’m not sure who her
intended audience is. While reading
through this blog I became
increasingly of the opinion that she
writes more for her own benefit than
for the entertainment of others.

This is not meant as a criticism,
simply an observation. Simone’s
writing is, for the most part, lucid and
intelligent. It’s just that I had a hard
time really getting into this blog, and
getting a feel for her life. There are
too many insular references and
assumptions of the reader’s
familiarity with what has gone before.
I will hazard a guess, and suggest
that perhaps this style has been
adopted because Simone knows the
vast majority of her audience are
friends and regulars.

And there’s nothing wrong with that.
It does mean, however, that I cannot
recommend The Rock Pool to the
casual reader. The site itself is well
designed, complete with obligatory
biographical and gallery sections,
but it just wasn’t for me. And I would
suggest that, unless you know
Simone personally, it probably isn’t
for you either.The Rock Pool

Kerry is a gifted teenager who has been writing her blog since May of last year. She claims to have been tested as cognitively gifted, and indeed this is reflected well her many entries which describe her daily activities in details becoming of her. Living in a small village, she writes under the name of Guppy. In her own words these are “small, very vulnerable fish. As a species, they’ve been through a lot. In the beginning they were free and adaptable, but then they got domesticated, and now they have to be kept in bowls or tanks.”



When one sees this blog for the first time, it is not quite clear what the relationship is between the beautiful Ventura clockwork that appears at the top of the page and a Guppy. However, what does immediately impress the reader is the quantity that has been written. There is tons of stuff covering just about everything imaginable in the life of this dynamic teenager.



It is quickly apparent that Kerry is one who can write about everything without any problems. One imagines what it would be like actually being in the same room as she, her talkativeness being translated into volumes of text. She loves to write, that is for sure. Sometimes it can get a little long-winded and too specific, but the spontaneity of her writing style makes up for this potential wordiness.



The design of her site is simple and straightforward. There are the usual standard links available at the top of the page for: archives, bio, site, village, etc. For someone as young and dynamic as Kerry, one would expect brighter colors, as her choice does not really reflect the intensity of her thoughts. One notch darker text would make it stand out better. Also, the separate days and links are difficult to stand out clearly enough. Considering the length of some entries, this would be a nice visual breather.



Kerry does a good job and brings well to light the daily life of an American girl growing up as a teenage Guppy, breaking away from domestication, and discovering the world outside the fish bowl of her life.Most Definitely