The Weblog Review

“The Mermaid Tavern”. Upon entering this blog, I was greeted with a banner at the top of the page, with several little colorful mermaids going across it.

This was the only thing that caught my eye as far as the appearence of the page. The rest of the page was just one of those simple boring templates that for some unknown reason, seem to be so popular these days. However, to the right hand side, is a small section with some info on the author which I enjoyed reading. As the saying goes, “don’t judge a book by it’s cover”, is very true in this case.

The author of the blog is a grad student obviously with a great sense of humour. She has had her blog running for a little over a month now. I read her posts on her main page , then went into her archives. I will be totally honest, at first I found her entries a bit boring. But as I continued to read, the more I began to smile. The author would tell a joke or a funny story in each entry. I didn’t find all of them funny, but a good majority of them. One of my favorites was one she wrote about the “cookie monster”.

SHE WRITES…

An inside source tells me that Mr. Cookie Monster is especially partial to chocolate chip cookies, though he has been known to partake of the oatmeal raisin ones now and again. And the milk! We mustn’t forget that, like Santa Claus, the Cookie Monster likes milk with his cookies. Besides, why do you think internet websites are always asking if you’ll accept cookies? Think about it! The computer just wants you to be happy like the Cookie Monster. He knows what’s up.

That is just an example of what you will see on her page.

Some people may find it a good read and some may not. Everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion, and everyone has their own taste.

The writing is very clear and easy to read. It’s well spaced and not all crammed together. Maybe in the future, she will spruce up the look of the page a bit.

All in all , it is a good read and will make you smile/laugh. Sure to brighten up your day. On a final note, I think the author has the potential, to make her blog very outstanding in the future. I wish her all the best.The Mermaid Tavern

The first thing that came to my mind when I saw the name of the blog was suspicion. Celebrity blogs have a tendency of being fake and/or proxy ones. My suspicion grew when I saw that this one was hosted on starblogger.com. TWR has already reviewed Britney Spears’ Blog which also happened to be hosted on Starblogger.com and which was fake for certain.

Even for a fake blog, there is hardly anything worth visiting. The blog started in May 2003. We are greeted with entries as to how Debbie loves Eminem, and all of a sudden there is one entry full of expletives and hate for him. Then the next entry says that the blog was hacked, but the previous entry is never deleted! Now anyone remotely connected to blogging is aware that one can edit/delete previous entries without remotest of complexities.

Even if we ignore that, after five entries in May, the next entry is in October. So much for proper frequency. Again the same pattern follows, two really loving entries later we have another hateful post. Then again the ‘hacked again’ thing.

After October there are all of two entries. One is January; this one is attacking her haters. And the next one is February, called ‘Jewish Parody of The Passion’ this one seems to be a mass spam-like entry in all starblogger blogs, you can see it Britney’s , Eminem’s and Friends’ Blogs at starblogger.

The design is the common Movable Type grey-on-white. No tweaking has been done to the design at all.

Going with the tradition of starblogger blogs, this too is highly non-recommended. I counted the total number of entries: – Eleven. Even if you want to waste your time, I am sure you would have better things to do than visit this blog.

Debbie Mathers : Eminem’s Mom

Between the Hedges was not what I was hoping it would be. It was not about gardening. Nor was it about hedgehogs. Nor was it about anything along the lines of a normal news/link blog.

Does the stock market interest you at all? Wall Street perhaps? Do you own shares in a multimillion dollar company? Have you lost money due to an incompetent stock broker. Does seeing “NASDAQ” send shivers of delight down your spine? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you would find Between the Hedges interesting.

For the rest of the common blogosphere, it’s utterly boring. It’s obvious this blogger is writing for a specific audience, that being people with a very particular interest in trading shares and wanting opinions on the goings-on therein.

Out of morbid curiosity I took a peek at the first entry and found the following disclaimer which mentions amongst other things “…The positions and strategies discussed on Between the Hedges are offered for entertainment purposes and are in no way intended to serve as personal investing advice…” I’d personally like to know where the entertainment lies. I read a handful of entries and found exactly the same thing in each one – nothing that interested me – and I gave up in frustration. There are no links to anything newsworthy, no political statements, no fart jokes, nothing. Very dull. Purposeful, but dull.

Anyway, the layout of the blog isn’t offensive in the slightest, a lovely shade of murky “greenback” green and easy to read (if one can understand the jargon) though I was particularly annoyed by the millions of pop-ups generated from all the java applets on display.

Now, whilst I didn’t like this blog at all, I am aware that there are people out there who would like it and find it interesting and even a helpful resource. I will give it a 2.5/5 because it does what it sets out to do, which is providing information about the stock exchange in a coherent manner, but that’s about it.Between the Hedges

I wasn’t sure what to think about The Mermaid Tavern, as there’s no mention of mermaids, or taverns for that matter. First impressions of the blog weren’t terribly good as I geared myself up to wander through the content. It’s got an old blogspot template for it’s layout which is particularly uninspiring and lacking in the pull to capture the reader’s initial attention. I do believe that something more suited to the blogger’s personality in this case would definitely help the overall feel of the blog.

“The sense of the philosofairy is to never make sense.” You got that right! She doesn’t at first, but therein lies the appeal. I read with a growing interest, evolving from thinking the blog was a little dull and silly to finding it quirky (in a good way) and well written. It’s not a very old blog, indiejade only began The Mermaid Tavern in late February this year, so the reading was quick and easy… and surprisingly entertaining.

So who is the philosofairy? “indiejade” is all we know her as, and there’s a sparse sprinkling of personal information on the front page, though not really enough to quench the thirst for background knowledge that this reviewer had. So I wandered over to first entry which is an anthropological discussion on the people of Oregon and already we can already see the quirkiness come to the fore. Unfortunately there was no more background information about the philosofairy herself (apart from the fact that she likes Chardonnay) as I was hoping, but it’s a good introduction to her personality and her writing.

indiejade takes us through her life as the philosofairy and it’s an entertaining ride, filled with posts detailing the mystery of the manila envelope to thoughts on the economy. Each entry is delivered with a quiet sort of humour, which while it won’t give you the big belly laughs afforded by other humour sites, will certainly leave you smiling if not giggling just a tiny bit.

I’d have to say that this confusing little blog is fun and definitely quirky. I came away from it knowing that there is a very smart and funny individual behind the entertaining anecdotes and analogies. And it’s quirky. If there was ever a word to describe The Mermaid Tavern, it would definitely be quirky. 3/5 for the blog, plus 0.5 for the quirkiness. Thanks indiejade! The Mermaid Tavern

I have to say that first impressions of the site came not with the loading of the page, but with the title itself ‘The Mommy Blog’. I’m not a Mommy, and I honestly couldn’t see what there would be for me there if the whole thing was centred around being a ‘Mommy’. But I persisted. This is not the weblog of a typical stay-at-home Mommy, and this is reflected through the entire blog. In one form or another the weblog has been around since December 2002, and is well established with a personal theme, and a good set of visitors.

As I had expected the site mostly consists of personal entries – about her family, her job and random life events as and when they happen. The posts are largely well written and easy to follow – the author writes well, and this is a definite bonus for any blog regardless of the content. Her posts are however sporadic, varying both in terms of posting consistency and quality/appeal of content. Not every post held my rapt attention, but all in all it was an enjoyable and worthwhile read. I couldn’t help but feel that this weblog is going to be more popular amongst fellow working Mum’s, judging by content at least.

The design is beautifully done and is individual, really suiting the style of its owner. It’s a commonly utilised 3 column layout, content in the centre flanked on either side by various internal and external links. There were two main problems I picked up on however. The first being the method of skinning the site, which didn’t work the two occasions I visited this site – Bit of a disappointment, as I was curious about the alternatives to the main theme. The second is the section “I’m telling” which resides at the bottom of the right hand column – the method of showing recent referrals to the site was pushing the fixed column out. Admittedly not a huge problem, but it was a blotch on an otherwise pristine template.

I found the content well written I couldn’t with all honesty say that this was a blog I would visit on a regular basis. I do feel it has appeal, just to a restricted audience. It’s contribution to the weblog world however is an insight into the life of a working Mum, and this if expanded on a little more could really have potential. An interesting diversion, a potentially good 3.5The Mommy Blog