The Weblog Review

This site looks very fun. I love how everything pulls together. It looks girly in pink but a little more sophisticated with the martini glasses and shoes. The colors themselves I think are great. I wanted to see what was in store.

The author, Kelly, seems very smart, but doesn’t fill her blog with things that would go right over one’s head. Due to her age, many of the posts are about school. I was able to relate to many things that she was saying. I even copied and pasted stuff that I thought was cool, like the posting of what Earth would be like if it was scaled down to 100 people (check out February). There is a few rants and rarely a boring post. A lot of the posts are about relationships, whether it be with friends, relatives, or boyfriends. Although sometimes the posts had a serious side to them I could almost never see what Kelly was thinking or feeling – it was more of a storyline.

I can only see the design as it is right now but there are several posts about the design changing. I have a feeling that designs change often with Kelly. However, I do really enjoy the current view. There really is a theme going on. As I said before, the design was fun.

This blog, although not required, has an about section. It does give highlights to what Kelly is all about, but even with her postings, I still don’t know the real Kelly. This isn’t exactly a requirement, but helps to understand things a little easier.

I really enjoyed reading Kelly’s blog. There were a lot of interesting posts about college life. I would recommend this blog to anyone in the 17-23 age category.Stumbling Upon Serendipity

When you open “I Am What I Am”, you find a layout that matches the title. It’s not overly fancy. It’s not super technical. It’s not anything hugely special. It just is what it is. I expected a site that took the form of whatever it was and gave little credit to what others thought or expected. It appears to be written by someone who is a self-proclaimed “bytch”, which could go one of two ways. Either this author is pushy, irate, and irrational, or she’s someone who appears to be a “bytch” because she does what she wants to do and expresses what she wishes without taking into account what others may think or feel regarding her life. Obviously, I’m hoping for the latter here.

I started out with the “About Me” page, which I must say I was severely disappointed with. I wanted to know who the person behind the blog is, not what she reads, her favorite hobbies, or what her taste is in relation to the arts. I want to know the basics. I want a glimpse into the person who’s inner most thoughts I’m reading. I want to know what type of person I’m reading about and who they are at the base of their being. I want information to tell me whether I have anything in common with this person or not. I want information, not a basic run down of what she likes in areas that don’t really tell me anything about what type of person she is. She gets an “F” for her “About Me” section. Let’s hope it gets better once I start reading.

I do enjoy the numerous links in her postings. It gives the reader brief look into the fellow bloggers in her life and the places she’s been. Whether it’s her fiance or a bar the author has visited, it fills the reader in with someone deeper than the author’s words. The graphics also give the site a nice look and break up the monotony of the writing. And I do mean monotony. Although he first few minutes I spent on this site were interesting, it was only due to the fact that I am far, far away from NYC and it was interesting to read about the hot spots, recommended bars, the social scene, and things of that nature. But the blog turned into a basic rundown of “where I went and what I did” without too much to really dig into or enjoy.

The author has SO much going on in her life that I want to know about!! She just started a new job, she’s working on an independent film, and she’s getting married! I had to dig a month into the blog to discover this knowledge! Girl, you need to blog about this stuff! This is what readers from all over can connect with you on. Throw in the NYC stuff to give them a taste of what they don’t have if they live somewhere outside of NYC, but I really think you need to change the focus of your blog. I want to know more about who you are, as opposed to where you go and what you do. For instance, I’m assuming that the “E” you mention and link to is your fiance, but it took me forever to find something that confirmed this assumption.

The weblog is well written and easy to understand, it’s just not all that interesting if you read blogs to get a glimpse inside an actual person. This is more about what there is to do and where there is to go. Interesting if you live in New York or are planning on taking a trip there. Since neither of these apply to a southern gal, I wasn’t all that impressed. The author doesn’t go into who she is and barely scratches the surface of what she thinks about regarding the links she posts.

The general design is eye appealing. It’s not overdone and is quite simplistic, which allows the reader to focus on the content of the entry. However, the site is overdone with a three column layout and it’s difficult to locate the archives in order to maneuver through them. One would expect to find the archives directly under the calendar for the current months entries, but you have to wade your way through the recent comments and the categories before you find the link you need. This site has all the information you could ever need regarding this woman and her life, but it’s tiring to wade through it all to find what you’re looking for. The design works, but it could also use some work.

Maybe I’m being too hard on this site, but it just doesn’t have anything that makes it stick out. There are no touching love stories regarding her and her fiance, there is little written about her family, you don’t really know where she comes from, where she’s been, or what life has dealt her. The author didn’t give me any inclination as to why she refers to herself as a “bytch” and she fails to fit either of my definitions in the first paragraph of this review. I see little more than a nice New Yorker who retells the events of her travels in the great city.

This is more a collection of links for those who are (or will be in) New York. I find it odd that a site entitled “I Am What I Am” fails to tell the reader who she is. She is a clear and understandable writer, she just fails to write anything really interesting. Don’t’ get me wrong, some of her links are interesting to read, but they don’t have little to do with the reader as a person. There are so many things going on in her life that people would love to read about, but she barely touches on them.

I want to know about the wedding. I want to know about the movie they’re making. I want to know about her relationship with her fiance, her friends, her life events, and what she thinks and feels regarding where her life has taken her and where she feels it’s leading her. I want to know more about the author and less about the area she lives in. This blog has promise, but the author would have to take it in a completely different direction. She would have to focus inward, as opposed to outward. Otherwise, she may as well retitle her site “NYC”.

i am what i am

Paper Covers opens to a black background with a cream and green color scheme. Boy Blogspot needs to give these people more choices! I found from reading the rather cursory ‘About’ page that our author is a Book Designer /Editor /Publisher living near Columbus, Ohio. This piqued my interest right away, being a writer myself. I was curious to hear about this mysterious world that all writers want to break in to.

I noticed that this was a fairly new blog, so I decided to start with the first post and work my way up to the present. Well, that turned into quite a project because Janice is a bit on the long winded side, with many of the entries extending to almost magazine article length. But I forgave her pretty quickly as I began to enjoy her writing style. There are a few almost lyrical posts inspired by everyday events in her life, along with some insightful information about the realities of publishing a book (June 16), that sent chills down my writer’s spine. There is a touching tribute to The Reagan’s long time relationship, (June 11, 2004) and a mildly humorous entry about trying to keep up with technobabble, (June 14). These are just 3 examples of the many subjects that she touches on throughout her blog.

All her writing is clear, readable and enjoyable. The multi-faceted nature of the entries kept this reader interested. She occasionally includes a photo in her posts, and with the exception of one or two entries does not overload her writing with links.

Speaking of links, she includes her favorite sites on publishing and parrots. All were in working order when I checked them.

This was a pleasant blog to visit, and I might be checking back from time to time to see what has captured her imagination that day.

Paper Covers

Paper covers – the title didn’t indicate anything to me. On reaching the site I was greeted by a straight forward easy looking layout. A blue, green and cream colour scheme with easy to read text. The design included a right hand panel with an about me section, previous posts and archives. There was a manageable links section to a variety of publishing, pet and blog related pages. The design is unfussy and uncluttered. I like that.

The simple design allows for easy getting around the site. However there isn’t a home page icon which is a drawback and you lose the archives when you enter a post through the previous post menu. However when in the archives there is a return to current posts links which is useful.

There is a comments facility which is used on and off and links and pictures throughout the posts which are in working order. All links open in the same window which is not a preference of mine.

The web log has posts dating back only six weeks or so, but the author, a self styled single middle aged woman with dogs, is a prolific blogger and has posted a lot in that time. Her banner suggests commentary on books, pets, culture, art, life, and death and so far she has come up with those goods.

Her writing style is expansive and interesting. The posts are well written and on the whole very descriptive of Ms Phelps world. The main focus of her writing is her love of books and literature and her parrot. The paper covers of the title refer to her career in publishing. I particularly liked her take on the passing of Ronald Reagan. I particularly didn’t like her work Nazism and her sense of disappointment for the kids who didn’t have summer jobs. Why do folk put such an emphasis on work? Let kids be kids and play.

That aside the web log has made an interesting beginning, has a pleasing simple design and is very well written. A three out of five.

Paper Covers

Mute Point opens to a clean, clutter free, pleasing aspect. I like the two column layout. Easy to navigate and easy to read.

In the About section I learn that our author was born in Switzerland, and has lived in Tokyo, New York, and Sao Paulo. And is 17 years old. He is currently living and going to school in Paris. This sounds very exotic to this American who has never been out of her own country except a few brief forays into Canada from time to time. So I was intrigued.

I decided to check out the archives and begin at the beginning. It turns out that though he has been writing since May 2003, there are usually only a few entries for in each month, so I ended up reading virtually all the posts. He writes about school which is natural. There are references to music, movies and all such things as teenagers are interested in. Unfortunately he tends to us a lot of abbreviations that I guess are used in chat rooms,( U r really funny ppl out there…) I don’t care for this kind of thing myself. And it is distracting to read.

I imagine to his readers, most of what he writes is in context, but quite often he uses abbreviations for things and I had no idea what he was referring to. But this too is natural. You write to your readers, and if your readers are in the know, then there is no use being redundant. Which brings up an interesting point about weblogs in general. To whom are we writing? Ourselves? A specific group of people or friends? Or the world at large?

In any case, the author does a fair job of communicating clearly. And for someone of his years is writing an above average blog I would say. But as someone who does not have the privilege of traveling here and there in the wide world, I would be interested to hear more about how people live in all these diverse places. I wanted to read more stories like the one he told about dog poop on the streets of Paris… (Feb. 29 2004). It’s little stuff like this that is fun to read, for the person who has never been to Paris, and very likely never will go there.

This blog has only a few links to other things, which is fine by me. And in his entries, he keeps the linkage to a minimum. The archives are easily accessed and all of them work.

I think this blog is pretty good work for someone of his age, and would be interesting to a teenage audience. But if the author wants to expand his readership, some interesting commentary on life in the country that he lives in, or has lived in, would be a welcome addition.

The Mute Point