Month: January 1970

Upon arriving at Graham’s Page of Stuph (Stuff) I was greeted by an uncluttered, clean page with some wonderfully subtle graphic enhancements. The page was easy to read with its white, gray and blue color scheme and it was complimented with a functional two column layout.

So? What kind of stuph will you find here? Well, Graham is a ‘musician, dancer, bibliophile, perpetual student, and an employee of Blogger at Google, not necessarily in that order. He has been blogging since September of 2002 and his blog has well over 700 entries… so there is a lot of content here. (For a change..) His blog is about his day to day life. Work. Loss of work. Dance. Books. Music. Piano. Housemates. Cooking (well sort of). Computers. Movies. Family. Blogs. Blogging. Blog Design. Ana Ng (which I like too) Naturally as a musician there are many references to this aspect of his life. He plays the mandolin, piano (and always wants to play the piano more) and has been known to teach music as well. The author is a family oriented guy. There are many references to his family and friends, and he never seems to miss a happy birthday wish.

The writing is very matter of fact. I found my interest varying between the many entries. Some entries were very esoteric but others were exceptional. Especially the entries when Graham was reflective and introspective. Such as these:
eknath, life lessons. There are numerous interesting links (You can come across some really silly links when you spend all day looking at random people’s blogs.) which I enjoyed.

Simply put it, a nice blog about a nice guy.
Overall Graham’s Page of Stuph is a very solid blog. I enjoyed the little touches such as a rotating ‘about me’ pic and custom bullets (even if they are from some template?). Huzzah!
Graham’s Page of Stuph

“Life Discovered” seemed like a positive title for a blog and this sentiment is certainly reflected in the content to be found within. More about the technicalities in a bit, but I was happy to discover a Typepad blog when I clicked on the link as at least there is a good chance everything will work and will be in the right place with Typepad. The quote from Mark Twain in the top right corner about living life to the full also put me in a genial frame of mind to kick off the review with.

A little more about the technicalities is in order before I move on to the content. True to form, all that is needed can be easily found in this blog – an About Me page, photo album, usual links, archives, blog rings. They’re all there. The only downside to Typepad blogs is they tend to be somewhat uniform in nature – three columns, minimal colours in the background and a generally rather unimaginative template. However, the rather groovy title bar in this blog compensates for this somewhat. Along with the photo album, there are many photos to be found dotted about the posts too, so plenty to keep the visually- inclined reader amused whilst reading.

After having had a boo around, I soon dove in to the content and was immediately touched by a recent bereavement suffered by the author. I think anyone who has the bottle to write about something as harrowing and personal as the death of a family member in front of the world deserves a lot of credit. I am always never quite sure how to deal with situations like this as a reader (I am the same with divorces or whatever) other than to have the utmost respect.

Cruising through the rest of the blog I quickly picked up on the general theme – this is a personal blog, mainly about the day to day life of the author- a married professional lady living in the US and for the most part, getting on with her life as people do. As I was reading, I was trying to think about what made this blog stand out from the millions of other personal blogs out there- why should you bother reading this one instead of all the others?

Well I think the entries really shine whenever the author focuses on her rather individual situation of being an adopted Filipino. I have never really considered this kind of situation before but a few of the posts really made me think – here, here and here for example. These are all posts which deal with family issues, and are written in a very honest and sensitive way. The final link is a poem which raises the nature vs nurture debate which is obviously so pertinent where adoption is concerned. The other aspect of this blog which makes it stand out is the very positive outlook of the author – even the “negative” posts about illness or whatever tend to be tinged with a contagious cheeriness.

On the other hand, there are a lot of memes and posts about shopping which um… may appeal to female readers more than male. Ok, I am generalising here. Please don’t email me with a lecture about Post- feminist dogma; I am just trying to be helpful, ok? :o)

So overall, I wanted to score this highly because I liked the author, but could not go higher than a 3.5 because ultimately it is just another personal blog, albeit a happy one.Life Discovered

Light and Darkness, an apt title for this blog. I liked the font chosen for the header. Clean and crisp. The blue and white page is soothing. I scrolled down and found a plethora of links to archives, other blogs, and information on BiPolar disorder at the bottom of the list.

I spent some time going through the 100 Things she had provided. I have always found those lists a daunting project, but she manages to give you a kaleidoscope of information, both trivial and profound. Side by side. Which turns out to be the style of the whole blog.

I read all the recent entries and some more in the archives, and was drawn more and more into the realm of a person who struggles with life each and every day. Swaying from breathtaking honesty, to silliness. She emerges as a philosopher whose eye falls on so many subjects, it’s hard to keep up, but hold on I did. And began to admire her tenacity in the face of the difficulties she has faced and is facing now.

There is a section that sorts her entries into categories, and there I found scans of original drawings, poetry and short story type writings. She is a prolific writer and the entries hardly ever fail to capture one’s attention, one way or another.

While this blog would be an inspiration to others suffering from BiPolar disorder, it is in no way limited to that audience. There is so much variety here, I think there might be something for everybody.

Light and Darkness

Counting Sheep. When I read the blog name I think of the Serta commercials with the angry sheep crank calling the Serta store…Upon arriving at Counting Sheep, the blog, with its soothing colour palette and pastel graphic I felt the blog was well named. Then I started to read…

It is great as a blog reviewer to arrive at a blog and find an about page. It instantly gives you a frame of reference, instead of poking around all over the site. The blog is written by Jo, with references to her ‘husband’ and their dog, known as ‘the pooper’.
Jo ‘is a fast learning, technically savvy, car loving, book loving, animal loving, blog writing, INFJ, gardener with excellent organizational skills and an innate talent for cooking’. Which after reading her blog seems pretty much bang on.

I enjoyed this reading this blog. You get a good feeling of her emotion as she writes. The entries are all over the map, whatever she comes across in her day could end up in her blog. Here are some things that did: Reflective about the value of prog rock, family, friends, the impending doom of losing her job in November and what she will do instead, the joy of broadband internet, linguistics, Bathroom Etiquette Rules (I love #7), married life with the ‘husband’, shoe farts, gardening, the moral dilemma of homelessness, the BBC, Sheep Radio reviews and she has reluctantly begun doing a few memes.

She cooks in the following styles, French, Italian, Indian, Belgian, English, Thai and is kind enough to share several recipes within her blog, such as
Johnnies (MEAT!) Balls. Yum! Many of her entries turn into cleverly crafted, witty little stories which she shares with a genuine honestly. In another entry it was her candor that won me over. I often found her amusing as well, such as in this jab at the elections: ‘I find listening to Bush and Kerry lying and blathering on the T.V. every night, at no expense to them offensive. Who do I call?’ She takes pleasure in simple things, such as being right. And who doesn’t? The website also has photos, a garden section entitled ‘my green space’ and links galore.

There is much more going on at counting sheep other than merely trying to fall asleep. It is a truthful look at life through the eyes of a witty, honest woman who doesn’t always have the answers and I found this made for engaging reading. This blog’s charm is in its honesty and the author’s sharp wit and occasional feisty spirit. Well worth a visit.
Counting Sheep

When I first heard the “title” of this blog, well to me, it was self explanatory as to what the blog would be about.

When I first entered into the blog, I was greeted with a very crisp and clean looking layout. The first thing that caught my eye was a small introduction up in the right hand corner as to what the blog was all about. It went like this..

I come from a family that has been traumatized by suicides. I am the only one in 3 generations to not attempt it. This is my life, my struggles, my pains, my ramblings and my triumphs.

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Just below the introduction was a photo of a little girl who I am assuming is the author at a younger age.

Another thing I really liked was the fact that the author had her entries placed into categories. For example, the red posts are stories concerning her family, black posts are news articles on suicide/depression, and violet posts are just on different topics.

After going through the basics, I began my journey into the blog itself. The blog is basically based on topics of suicide. (which you can figure out from the title). I couldn’t seem to find an “About Me”, page at first. I later discovered it in her archives as one of her entries.

Carrie (the author) is a 32 year old lady who has gone through some very traumatic experiences in her life. She has come from a broken home, not to mention that several members of her family have either committed suicide or attempted it. In her entries, she talks a lot about her dad and her brother Corey (who she was very close to). She talks about her friends who have also committed/attempted suicide.

I went through more than half of her archives. I will admit that the entries were depressing and mind baffling at the same time. Reading the articles/entries, gave me a very uneasy and eerie feeling. But at the same time, I was touched by a majority of them.

Carrie has a very unique way of telling a story. You can sense the emotion and the sadness she is going through as you read the entries concerning her family. You may ask yourself why someone would devote their entire blog to writing articles on suicide. Well Carrie has been through so much trauma, maybe it’s her way of dealing with the pain. Maybe it helps her to write down her feelings. Maybe she also wants to show others just how wrong it is to take your own life and what their loved ones go through. There could be several reasons why someone would write that kind of blog. However, I do know that Carrie’s entries, will make you stop and think.

I also like the design of Carrie’s blog. As I stated it has a very crisp and clean lay-out. Besides her introduction on the right hand side, she has several links which all seem to be in working order. She has a link to rate her on bloghop as well. As you scroll down she has a quote from “Benjamin Franklin”, and she has a guest book as well.

I couldn’t find one fault with Carrie’s blog. Of course it would be depressing. It’s about suicide. It’s basically supposed to be depressing. I know this blog won’t fit everyone’s taste, but it may give some people a better outlook on life. I know I will be bookmarking Carrie’s site.The Suicidiaries