The Weblog Review

Life with Rashed is a new blog, and it looks like Rashed still hasn’t quite figured out what he wants the site to be. Of course, I don’t really know if Rashed is the author, there is no bio info or author email, a personal pet peeve of mine.

The site looks nice, with pleasing tones and the ability to change the colors in the skin by pressing a button. There are a lot of images, and for the most part they are clip-arty. Just about every post has an image.

It could be this is a first effort at blogging and websites, and Rashed is having a good time with it. There are some flash movies on another page, and an empty forum. Presumably the link to register allows you to comment in the forum, but this wasn’t clear.

The writing is all over the place, and I’m not really sure who the audience for this blog might be. There are surveys completed by the author, some poems and random thoughts. Particularly bothersome is the post on smoking saving folks from cancer. Someday Rashed may find a better direction for the blog, but for now, it comes off as a project and not as thoughts from an individual. There’s nothing of interest here for me.NULL

I know this is a blog, but since the author’s name is WDKY, I immediately thought ‘What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger’ was a blog for a radio station. I then noticed this is a London blog, and since I assume their radio station naming conventions are a little different, I figured out (along with looking at the bio) that it isn’t a radio station, just a middle aged guy that is having troubles being single.

I’m never crazy about the white or colored text on a black background, but in this case it works well. I liked the boldish text with the justified margins, mainly because of the increased line height of the lines of text, which makes it easier to read.

The best part of the blog is the writing. I chose to read “What Women Want?” expecting to get riled up at sexist comments but pleasantly surprised at some wandering, unresolved thoughts. At least the guy is honest, he doesn’t have all the answers and he’s okay with that.

The post on “F*ck duties and taxes” was again a surprise. I expected a political rant and instead got an experience of buying a $10.95 t-shirt that came out to $67.12 with the shipping charges.

I liked this blog a lot. That is why I read blogs, for the unexpected.NULL

When I first read the title of Bertha The Earthtruck I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what this site was going to be about. I thought maybe its about a car that had this weird nickname, maybe it was about a woman the author knew, or maybe it was just some words thrown into a hat and pulled out at random to make me spend over five minutes wondering what world I would be entering when I read this site.

The first thing that caught my eye was the mini description of the site below the title. The author calls the site a BLOOK – a combination of a book and a blog. And because it is so, he suggests that if you are a new visitor you read the archives in chronological order (meaning very first post to today).

The blook as we will call it is the story of Mark’s life in the 70’s. Ok, maybe not THE story, but a definite chapter in that big of a book. We start off with Mark and his friends pondering a trip for all the sporadic reasons to just go on a trip. Looking back they aren’t the best of reasons, but they are the reasons that started this trip, and that is all that matters.

The design of the site is very simple and clean which helps to keep our interest in the blook. There is no unnecessary clutter, and this further keeps our interest in the blook at its max.

Two things I should note before I finish this review up. One, I can’t stand book or movie reviews that give you all the details before you even embark on the journey. Because of this, you won’t get any more details of the blook out of me. Two, it is very rare that a blog can actually captivate an audience by requiring the posts to be read in order (by default they are anyways), but more specifically read the archives in order. Mark has done this, and done it well.

The only thing that is preventing me from giving this blook a perfect score is that it is a blook. Oh who am I kidding? I enjoyed this story so much and I cannot wait for more. Remember how I spent over five minutes wondering what world I would be taken to? Yeah, I was transported to a different time, one in which I wasn’t even a part of and yet I was right there with Mark and his friends. What about Bertha you ask? Well she was an ex military ambulance that they all rode in to begin the journey.
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Initial impression was clean layout, a ripped out notebook page on a wooden background. The text is clear and easy to read and the links work. You see a book on the top right hand sidebar so making an assumption that it’s the blogger’s book was the right call. The title of the blog itself “Doing a Decade: Exploring the Seventies” makes me think of a blog that has the author reminising about the 1970’s, their life, loves and overall view.

Whilst reading through the blog, I found the writing style of the author was easy to follow, although at times I felt myself reading through the entries a bit faster in order to find something that interested me as an individual to the entry. I didn’t find much that did interest me, although the entry about the brine wells nearly got a peek out of me. Various entries relate back to things in the author’s past, but for someone who was born at the end of the 70’s, a link or two to the relevant website might have been helpful (e.g. a link to Loggins & Messina).

The blog itself is fairly new. The template used is one that isn’t very commonly used, but suits the blog and content. All up there are 13 entries, so it is hard to tell how this blog might develop.

I believe that this blog is going to be drawing in a somewhat middle aged crowd, only because for someone younger, I found that I didn’t know what the author was talking about and with no reference points I think it’s a bit hard to follow.

The reason I gave this blog a 3.5 was because of this, as well as there being a lack in the “about” page, or any links on the blog that might have pointed to something a bit more about the writer or relevant entries would have been nice.NULL

I noticed that Mark was a writer from the beginning by simply checking out his about me area. Then it hit me… I am going to be writing a review for a writer… I immediately did not feel like I was qualified to do this. Being the computer geek that I am, my written ways are not always best. Please forgive me if I botch this, but keep in mind our differences.

The site was pleasing to the eye and was not your typical blogger site. It is a book. A non-traditional book, he calls it a blook. It is a tale of his past being recapped in today’s society. He has visited many of the places in recent years that he had many years ago and tells about the recap. All from the onsite of Bertha (Bertha is the bus that took them for their trip).

This weblog takes you through a period of his life in the ‘70s. him and his friends traveled for a destination. They might not have known exactly where they were going, or why they were going there, but it is the trip that made it worthwhile. He takes you through the exciting times and the ugly times… He also throws in a couple of technical updates, which update the reader on something he left out or forgot about.

The “Blook” is very intriguing and pulls you into to reading through the posts in chronological order as he has them laid out down the right hand side of the blog. You begin reading and it appears that you are reading about a flashback… Then you get a few more posts in and realize what you are reading.

The design is simple and elegant, and fits the tone of the blook.

I would conclude by simply stating that Mark is a writer and is very good at what he does. This blog is simply a narrative of his travels in his younger days recapped through older eyes. I enjoyed the site and feel that everyone should take a stroll over and read awhile. He has some very loyal readers who check back frequently to read the latest chapter of his blook. They leave their comments and beg for more. I rate this blog as a 4.25.
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