The Weblog Review

“The Emo Diaries” is a confusing site… I don’t think it is meant to be understood by the “outside world,” only to be a place for the author’s expressions.

The most confusing thing? The author writes frequently about someone named Sarah, yet the posts are signed “Sarah.” Same Sarah? Different Sarah? I’m confused.

But intermixed with the somewhat garbled descriptions of what I assume is high-school life are some of the most thought-provoking song lyrics or poems I’ve seen online in some time – and that’s where I see the true value of this site.

A good example: “you know how people laugh too loud (you know how people hug too hard):::i’m teetering:::daydreamer:::i’m so sorry:::for your arrogant trust:::i have none-i wish you had some-or the decency to look at me:::so scared:::don’t ask for an opinion:::i’ll tell you what you want to hear:::i’m too young:::but not for that”

It makes me want to hear more. It’s honest, but it’s got some serious quality, too.

As far as the design of “Emo Diaries” goes, it’s simple and seems to be incomplete, but could be nice. White and orange text on a black background works well; the background image of what I think is Epcot Center adds to the “magical” feeling of the song lyrics. But the links still say “Sample Link” from Blogger’s template and nothing was done to move the blog’s title down below Blogger’s banner ad, so the ad covers the title.

Overall, the lyrics make this site worth visiting, but it’s not easy to find them. What I’d most like to see would be this site splitting in two – a journal blog and a lyrics blog, with the lyrics blog indexed for easier finding. And that lyrics page would definitely be a must-read.hemophilia217.blogspot.com

w4 … weblogs @ danbeverly.com is an interesting title. Considering I had never heard of Dan before I didn’t quite know what to make of the site.

It turns out that it is just one part of his “Web Showcase” as he calls it. The blog has very little content unfortunately with starting in late October and there hasn’t been a recent post since the end of November. However the writing is very good and aimed at a specific group of people. As you may have guessed based on the category this site is in – he targets other computer people.

His blog, from what I can tell, is to help him and others with consulting. Be it from a full on project or something trivial it should be covered here.

Unfortunately the best part to read on his site isn’t the weblog, but his articles he has written. They are informative well thought out pieces that should be read.

The design of the site is a blogger template. While I agree with the idea of a template for those who cannot design or code; someone with his skills should have an originally designed site. Even if it was the basic layout that his articles are in – it would still be different.

Overall I was impressed with the writing, but not the site. There is not enough content for me to say that this is a must read, and the infrequency of the posts also makes it hard to try to convince you to read it. I will say that it is worth checking in on once a month or so to see if a new article was written (this is about how much time is spent between articles). The site has a lot of growing to do, but in a good way. I hope when the site does evolve into what it could be, Dan re-submits so we can see the differences.
w4 … weblogs @ danbeverly.com

Lionel Set Loose is a three table Blogspot template site. It’s white with black type. Sure it’s easy to read because there’s no color, but it’s boring. And when I arrive at a site that looks boring, I’m not particularly excited to read it. I did find an explanation on one of the side bars about this – apparently it’s some sort of bug, but it’s fixable if you click the link to skin the site. Unfortunately, in trying to skin the site I encountered an annoying plethora of pop up ads and it’s not immediately obvious that I skinned the site at all. Instead it looks like I was thrown into an older version of the blog at a different location. Finally I figured it out and went back to the original URL. Reading a blog should not be this much work.

Lionel, an engineering student in Kuala Lumpur, is the writer of Lionel Set Loose. Lionel writes about his day-to-day in a really engaging way. I was on the floor laughing about Lionel going on a raid of the just emptied dorms for leftover booty, and Lionel’s entry about going to the dentist had me squirming. And can I just say how hilarious his entry about the American tourists was? What I’m trying to say is that I like Lionel’s writing. It’s interesting, has good flow, and his grammar and spelling are generally pretty good.

I’ll be honest: I like the purple colors of the design in the skinned site. But I hate the red used to outline the boxes and for the headlines, and the dark purple used for the text can get a little hard to read after a while. The thing with the site skins needs to be fixed – halfway through my blog reading the skin reset itself back to white and black and I had to go through the hassle of re-skinning the site. The only other thing I noticed is that archives only go back to September, but October through the present are all on his current blog index.

Lionel keeps a log of the changes made to his site, and also has an About Me page, a little Idiot’s Guide to Lionel Set Loose type of page, links page, and a guestbook. It might be a nice idea to install commenting for each entry, as some of the entries could generate a lot of discussion.

Skinning errors aside, Lionel Set Loose is an interesting blog. I would definitely go back for another read.

lionel set loose

Rock and roll news with humor. You gotta love that.

This weblog’s very first entry puts the most accurate description I could possibly think of out for the readers right away. Simon, the author and creator of this weblog, describes this has “part fanzine, part diary, part pointless meanderings about music”. That’s exactly how I would have described the outcome of this weblog, with the exception of the word pointless. This weblog is anything but that.

Simon covers everything from the on-again/off-again romance between Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake to the constant shenanigans Michael Jackson throws the public’s way.

Its humor at its finest, as well, with lines like “the Mickey Mouse Clubber with the smack whore’s wardrobe” used to describe Christina Aguilera. Pop stars are often a target of Simon’s sarcasm and the butt of the majority of jokes at this site, but they’re well deserved and very funny to say the least.

The layout to this site isn’t the best I’ve seen, but the text is readable and that’s the main thing that’ll keep people coming back with this author at the helm. The past two years of archives are maintained on a weekly basis, and the site is updated on a regular basis. There are tons of links to other music-related weblogs down the sidebar as well.



For anyone that’s hooked on Top 40 music or has even the least amount of interest on what’s going on in the music industry, this site is a must add to your list of bookmarks. Simon gives you the links you need to keep updated, and also gives you the witty remarks about each link to keep you just as entertained without even leaving the site.

no rock and roll fun

The Cartoonist doesn’t really say much at first glance. Coffee cup, a blue streak, and the words “Cartoons. Advertising. Raumpatrouille. OS X.” I fully expected a bizarre mix of news links to cartoons, advertising, programming, and Raumpatrouille [something SciFi-ish].

The writer, Ralf, does provide links to things related to his promise. I also found links to many other things as well. I can only find entries dating back to September, so it’s a rather young blog.

Normally I’m not a big fan of news blogs, but Ralf has some funny links. In addition, this is not strictly a news blog because Ralf posts the latest cartoons he’s drawn. It’s the best reason to visit the site — Ralf is very talented.

I may pop back to The Cartoonist from time to time, but I doubt I would become a regular reader. If you have an interest Raumpatrouille, it might be the blog for you.

The Cartoonist