The Weblog Review

This site has four posts. That’s it. September 9th, September 12th, September 13th, and November 14th – these are the days Jeff, the author, has posted on his weblog, Spaulding Bogosian.

For starters, I don’t know what or who Spaulding Bogosian is either. I tried Googling it, but only came up with a comment or two that Jeff, the author of this site, had left on a movie review website. Jeff lives in New Jersey, after some time in New York and a stint in the Midwest. He’s a stay-at-home dad for three boys. Moreover, once he gets on a soapbox, there’s really not much you can do to get him off – this is a great reason for him to have a weblog.

Design-wise, the site is hosted by Blog*Spot, and features one of the several popular Blogger templates. Jeff uses the pink version of this two-column layout. He keeps the information in his sidebar very limited – a link to his Blogger profile and his archives, listed by week and by title. Each post is very wordy, but to break up the monotony of so many paragraphs, Jeff throws in a picture of something that can somehow be tied to what he is writing – a dad (perhaps the author?) and three boys dressed up for Halloween, Martha Stewart, an indescribable image that caused me to laugh out loud, and my personal favorite, Dr. Sue Johanson from The Sunday Night Sex Show.

He covers topics that a lot of people can relate with. Thanks to his current lifestyle, he can easily write a humorous comparison to his life as a stay-at-home dad with that of a typical stay-at-home mom. It’s unquestionably worthy of note to read the take of a man’s opinion on so many things related to women, like most of his four posts are wont to do.

Obviously, the site is just getting off the ground. Once Jeff begins to post on a regular basis, I think traffic will increase for the site. As soon as that happens, it will be interesting to read the response to some of his opinions. Jeff does a good job implementing humor into his expressed opinions, but it’s the kind of humor that could easily offend some people and, on the other hand, just really crack someone up.

It’s hard to rate a site this early on in the game. From what I did read, I can see this site will be a hit once it finds it’s niche in the blogging world. Like I mentioned earlier, once Jeff starts writing consistently, there’s definitely an audience out there for him.
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The first thing I noticed when I got to this blog was it was WordPress hosted… I personally love WordPress, so this started off nicely. I don’t quite understand the title, but that’s fine as I realize this is a blog dealing with ambulances. (This I learn before reading a single post.)

As I read I learn that Nee Naw is what the blogger (Mark) refers to the ambulance service. Apparently Nee Naw is British slang for an ambulance, based on the phonetic pronunciation of the siren’s noise by a child. Simple enough. Mark blogs about his work in the control center, based on notes he keeps while he works. There are some interesting posts — who knew that being an Emergency Medical Dispatcher could be so interesting?

The layout is one of many that have been created for WordPress, and it looks beautiful. The simple black, white, and green go together well and all the pages match wonderfully. There are no plugins to speak of, except for the search bar that is default with some WordPress layouts. This is nice… simple is good.

This is a really good blog, in my opinion. It’s interesting, informative, dramatic, and gorgeous. Plus, there are absolutely no ads to speak of. I do believe this is the first blog I have had absolutely nothing to complain about, and it would only be fair for the review to reflect such.NULL

The first thing I noticed when I clicked on the URL for this site was that there’s a Google search button covering part of the title of the most recent entry. It’s also a Blogger blog with one of the default templates… There are so many of these it seems. At least it isn’t Xanga or LiveJournal. (No offense if you have a Xanga or a LiveJournal, but please do us all a favor and get something else.)

The next thing I notice is the fact that the author is very opinionated. As far as blogs go, this is a good thing… there’s nothing more boring than reading a bunch of indifferent blogs that all seem to just post links rather than any sort of substance. I’ve got to give credit, even though I don’t agree with many of the opinions. There’s a lot of cussing which may get some people a little uptight but overall the entries are worth reading (so long as you aren’t easily offended by foul language).

Let’s move onto the template. I have several times stated my dislike of Blogger templates, but this one actually took me a second to realize it was a standard. This is good… I don’t like it when I dislike the blog solely based on the template. However, a standard template it still is, with lots of links to check out. The links are good, it shows that the blogger at least changed that part of the template (because it’s also annoying to see the Edit-Me links in the sidebar… that’s a dead giveaway that the person hasn’t taken any time with their template!).

There are actually extras on this blog… not too many, but some. There’s Google ads, which I suppose they’re trying to make money with, but they aren’t exactly well taken. There are also ads for Amazon.com… two instances of ads on the same page? From different companies? That doesn’t really win any points. Other plugins include “___ of the Day” type things, some of which appear below the blog entries, off to the side, which struck me as a little odd. However, the animal of the day is very cute.

This really isn’t a bad blog, in fact if you get past the cussing and the ads it’s pretty good. There are a few too many plugins for my taste and the language is a little harsh for me, but other than that I wouldn’t mind recommending this site to some people I know. Some people won’t like it, but I think even more people would agree with me that it deserves a 4 out of 5.NULL

The first thing I’d like to say about this blog is that I’ve been waiting for it to come up to be reviewed. It’s not that it’s a blog that I’ve ever read before this review, but I just liked the title. I know, I’m easily won over, even though this IS a Blogger blog.

However, I was surprised when I got to the blog. As I said, it’s a Blogger blog, and I typically don’t like those, but every now and then there’s a blog that’s absolutely gorgeous. This blog has an It’s Happy Bunny template, and I love the sarcastic (yet adorable) humor. Networkchic has to get points for having a Blogger template that I actually like.

Her posts tend to be long, which is something I personally like. She describes the blog as being creative writing, and while it could be described as personal as well it’s very moving. Although I’m slightly amused at the “Nekkid Thursday” picture posted (go ahead and check it out, it’s nothing much really), most of the blog is deep and thoughtful. I can tell that the blogger is someone who really takes the time to think about life before writing those thoughts down. And there’s a poem (which I’m assuming was written by her), and I love poetry. Overall, the entries all score points with me.

The “extras” are mainly just Blogger standards, with a few spare things thrown in. She’s got links, her Blogger profile, archives, and some statistical things. I’m not too fond of the Bravenet counter since Bravenet is infamous for causing popups, but I didn’t experience any so I’ll let it slide this time. 😉

In the end, this blog is pretty good. I don’t know if it’ll make it onto my personal blog favorites list, but it’s definitely worth checking out. It’s not the best blog out there, but it’s far from being average, which I don’t typically say about Blogger blogs, but this one definitely gets the stamp of approval.NULL

In her own words, Dr. Deborah Serani is “a psychologist who specializes in trauma and depression”. She’s using this weblog as a means of sharing information she’s studied and to provide others with a place to gain some useful information about issues that “impact the human psyche”. Right off the bat, I realize that this weblog will certainly not be for everyone. If I wasn’t reviewing it, I think the author’s bio would be enough to clue me in to the fact that this wasn’t going to be a weblog that is simple to read. In this case, that’s okay! This site isn’t for everyone and the author undoubtedly knows this.

By reading the site’s very first post dated in July 2005, I learned that Dr. Serani knows what she’s talking about. With her work and educational background, this weblog is written by someone that’s spent years and years studying the history, reasoning, and effects of all different kinds of psychology. Before I could even make a reference to Tom Cruise and his expertise in psychology, Dr. Serani writes a post and includes a suggested reading list for Cruise. While the letter focused on the serious side of the spectrum, it was enjoyable to see the author using her research to tap into pop culture from time to time.

Several of the topics that Dr. Serani covers are subjects that are constantly being discussed in today’s media. With articles titled “Body Image and Self Worth In Women” and “How To Choose a Good Therapist”, there’s valuable information available to those looking for it. Once Google picks up on this site, I have a feeling it will become even more popular.

One of the posts I found most interesting is the “Questions & Answers” interactive post. She allowed visitors to leave psychologically related question, and in turn she would answer them. This post received an overwhelming response, and it will be interesting to see if she does it again. Her post about Chromotherapy was also a unique post, as was reading about her experience as a consultant on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

I’m not a fan of the layout for several reasons. It’s a Blogspot template, or at least started out to be one. The author has added about 30 different buttons/links at the bottom of the layout that really give off the impression that they were just thrown there with no rhyme or reason. Sometimes, there are images that are thrown into a post that end up breaking the layout or overlapping another image. Personally, I wouldn’t call any of this “bad”; I would just credit it to inexperience with HTML and the specific Blogger code. Then again, Dr. Serani is a psychologist – not a web designer. As with the majority of the weblog layouts I’ve seen, this one has a center table for the entries, and a side column full of links to the archives, author’s bio, external links, etc.

Dr. Serani has done a lot of research before writing the articles she posts on her weblog. She ends each article with a list of sources she’s used to validate everything she’s written. Her information is the real deal, not something that’s just coming out of an uneducated-Tom-Cruise-like person.

While, as I’ve said, this weblog certainly will not be for everyone, I found it more interesting than I thought I would. I have a slight interest in psychology, so it was enjoyable and at the same time educational to read more detailed information about different aspects of the field from someone as experienced and knowledgeable as Dr. Serani.NULL