The Weblog Review

I have a special place in my heart for all things French. Call me a Francophone if you will, but when you spend all of High School and college with French as your language you grow to like it. (And hate it at the same time, I might add.)

With this said, the first thing which drew me to Continuez-Moi was the French title. While this has not always been a good way to find a quality art experience (like the time I ended up at a Je Suis France concert with out knowing what to expect, an error I will not repeat the second time I see them), Continuez-Moi comes through in the clutch.

First off, the site is actually Continuez-Moi Deviner (which means “continue to guess me” in French), which appeals to my soft, artsy “I’m-going-to-go-sip-coffee-at-a-coffee-shop” side. Clever, witty, and French. But the name is not the only nifty thing to be found on the site. The Weblog itself is your slightly-above average Journalistic weblog, which is always refreshing. Granted, this is no bluishorange.com, but very few Weblogs are. On the other hand, the writer is very competent and provides the reader with posts that transcend mundane everyday life. Yes, you get to think some with this weblog rather than finding out the writer ended up doing two loads of laundry as opposed to one.

The layout provides an interesting aspect to the site, as well. For those of us viewing with a large screen resolution, you might want to resize it so that the table of contents is just to the right of the pictures on the left side. Regardless, it is an interesting design with a good color system and great images. It works well as a nice and compact site.

The Weblog has the usual “Bio,” “Pictures,” “Links,” and “Contact” section as well. What is unique about this Weblog, however, is the inclusion of the writer’s MP3s. Yes, the author doesn’t just write a Weblog, she writes music. This is an interesting first for me to find a Weblog with the author’s music also included in the content. I found it quite refreshing and enjoyed most of it (her musical tastes being similar to my own and all).

So, in summation, Continuez-Moi Deviner is an easily above average Weblog that will entertain a wide variety of folks, looks good, and reads well. Not only that, but the author isn’t a bad musician, either. This site is definitely worth a look.

Continuez-Moi

Saying I don’t follow the political arena isn’t exactly accurate. I do know who “won” the Presidential election in ’00, but that’s as far as my Democrat or Republican roots are sewn. That didn’t stop me from thoroughly enjoying and getting a great deal of knowledge from the Rhetorica Press.

For starters, the design was something I really liked. While the layout used is a simple one, I liked it. The unnecessary graphics or obtrusive colors that often hinder the appearance of a site were nowhere to be found. Instead, you find the color combination of white, black, and a teal green – calm, but yet bold colors.

The typical entry consists of a link to any number of various outside news sources. Then, Dr. Cline follows that up with either a direct quote from the linked article and more often than not, we’re treated to short synopsis of his opinion regarding the issue at hand.

Andrew Cline, the webmaster and author of this weblog, has a PhD in English. This fact alone should tell you that the writing style is impeccable. Even the political numskull, like me, is able to follow along, easily grasping the thought that Dr. Cline is trying to convey.

This weblog certainly isn’t for everybody. You won’t connect on much of a personal level with Dr. Cline, but that doesn’t seem to be the approach taken with the Rhetorica Press journal. You will, however, come away from reading the site with more knowledge in politics than you had before you visited.Rhetorica:

Most of the weblog entries begin with the title of a song and who sings it, which I’m assuming this is what Amber’s listening to while she writes in her weblog.

From time to time, Amber will do what she calls “social logging”. This is a concept of comments, opinions, or just casual blurbs aimed directly to specific people that Amber knows and reads at her website. I’d never heard it called anything like “social logging” before. Amber does it from time to time, but certainly doesn’t go overboard with it.

Her posts are very well written. Everything revolves around the typical teenager’s day, but Amber spares us the drama of all the “he said, she said, but then he said that I said” business and just updates readers how school is going, what’s going on in her life, and just general musings.

The chosen layout colors of this site are certainly bright. That was ultimately my first thought when this weblog loaded on my screen. At first, I thought it was a bit much, but it eventually grew on, and I realized the fluorescent pink, red, and orange were a nice dynamic contrast to the white background that’s used through the rest of the design. The font is quite small, but there’s always the option of making it bigger through your browser’s tools. I tried this, but due the stylesheets that were used, the lines of text ran together making it just as difficult to read as the tiny text.



All of the external links that the author has linked to – mainly other weblogs – are listed in the right hand column. However, the URL or the title of the site isn’t available, instead there are almost 50 “X”s listed that lead to a different site. While artistically, it does add a little something to the site (perhaps mystery?), I found it to be slightly annoying as I was trying to find an about section, or something more to this site than just a weblog.

Amber does do a lot of web design. As I browsed through her weblog, I found several links leading to other sites that she’s responsible for. A shrine for the anime character Cowboy Bebop and a site devoted to making desktop wallpaper were two that I found to be the most eloquently designed and easy to use. Amber does have top notch design skills.

Overall, this is absolutely a site worthy of visiting. Amber posts often, and she does a nice job maintaining her site. I’d put this weblog in a category for people 16-21 to read, but it’s still one I would recommend checking out at least once.
Nuclear

What is an asiliat exactly? Hmmm….sounds a lot like a well developed bowel complex I think. Could it be a religion? A book club? An elite group of stamp collectors? Highly classified gardeners who mow government lawns perhaps? Should someone be proud of being asiliat or should their actions be frowned upon in today’s society? What happens if you’re non-asiliat? Was Elvis asiliat?

Well I don’t know, there isn’t any such definition of the word on the website. But whatever it is, being asiliat doesn’t sound too bad because this blog is brilliant. Don’t let all the cute cartoons on the main page fool you into thinking this will be a cute blog by some 16 year old girl because under all that is a hilarious guy who goes by the name of LoSir.

Enter into the world of LoSir where stories about work are plenty and motorbikes are mentioned often too. This I think is one of the most enjoyable blogs I’ve read in a while. The author comes across as a down to earth person with lots of real life(“RL” as LoSir refers to it) issues just like everyone else. You can’t help but sympathise with the guy as he writes lines like “More than once have I picked up a piece of clothing, admired it, only to have a friend or worse, the sales, lean over and tell me ‘It’s for girls.’” and “I’ve been crazy before, but I’m a little girlie-man when it comes to rain.” Just what the world needs for sure, another feminine man.

However, the black-grey-white motif of the site is nothing close to womanly. The site works best in IE which means those who use other browsers like for example Opera will have to switch browsers to view this site in it’s full glory. I’d also like to suggest to invest in a commenting/guestbook contraption of some sort so people can provide some feedback. The design is simple and boxy, lacking the finesse the actual blog has mastered, but I think content definitely overrides any quibbles about the appearance here.

While you’re there you should take the time to check out the other sections of the site containing pictures complete with commentary of LoSir at parties, baby pictures and pictures of cars and motorbikes.

So I liked it, I thought it was very entertaining and I’d definitely go visit it again.
being asiliat

The first thing that I noticed on stevenhasty.com is the design. I like it. There is an interesting photo packed against the left side, underneath which is the menu, and the archive list. The very last blog entry made is on the right side. To get to the posts before the very last, you have to go to the archive entry for the current month.



The page about Steven reads as if he was writing it hastily, but still come off as an easy read, and really serve to let you know what kind of person Steven is: “Straight W.A.S.P. male, dissinter, pessimist, teetotaller, non-smoker.”



The writing is highly disjointed. The same post will talk about school, his website, and anything else that seems relevant at the time, but that’s not a bad thing at all. It winds up coming across as if Steven were talking to you, and he’s known you forever.



There are a few parts that seem as if they’re a little on the inside joke side of things. But not to worry, most of it is completely understandable, and there isn’t a single post that I saw that was more than maybe one forth inside joke.



Overall, the site was fun to read, and the design did nothing to hinder me. The content was slightly geared towards a certain type of audience, which could hurt the general appeal of the website, but not all that much.



Content: 3

Design: 3

Fluidity: 4



Overall: 3.5lousypoetry.net