Month: January 1970

What is life like in the ether? From the opening page it looks to be somewhat plain, but holds a promise of meeting a heroine. No pretty pictures to look at, but lots of words to read and find out what the site is all about. Or you could just read this review and get the skinny on it.

I was interested in most of what the author has to say. She has an up and down relationship with her mother which was brought up in the earlier postings, but seems to be settled down now that she moved from Kansas City to DC. The posts range from figuring out what she wants in life and talking about problems with her mother to trying to quit smoking and finally being able to make a decent pot of coffee. Sometimes there’s links with descriptions of what stuck out to her. It’s a good read, and not a whole lot of rants. However, sometimes the posts are about the average everyday that you can find anywhere.

As I said earlier, the page is kind of plain. It’s all black and white, with very little visual stimulation. The neatness of the site is great. Everything is very well organized.

The about page has lists and lists of things the author is interested in, favorite movies, books, music and general interests. It does say a lot about the author, but I wished there was more on what the author thought of herself or what she thinks is most important about her.

The posts on the site are good, and it’s updated often. The more meaningful posts are great when they come along. It turns out that life in the ether is much like life on earth.life in the ether

BIG WARNING: THIS IS AN ADULT BLOG. IF YOU ARE UNDER AGE, DO NOT VISIT THE SITE. IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY ADULT MATERIAL, DO NOT VISIT THE SITE. TWR DOES NOT AGREE OR DISAGREE WITH WHAT IS POSTED ON THE SITE.

Mandy’s Sex Life. Could this possibly be an adult oriented blog? I think it might be.

The design of the site is a boring template. Weird shades of green, a two column layout, yeah I think I have seen this one before. The page loads to a huge picture (drawn) of a female with some rather interesting things going on.

At the top of the page, there is the premise for the site stating that she started her own adult pay site and this blog was a companion so to speak. Maybe it is giving us an inside look at what is going on with running the adult site?

The blog itself is made up mostly of pictures. The blog is very green (just started in April), and doesn’t contain very many actual posts that require reading. The posts that do require reading are about how horny Mandy is, and what she is looking for in a partner.

The blog itself is just a big ad for her adult pay site. There are a ton of links back to the adult site, a lot of “special keywords” placed through the blog, and a lot of pictures.

Unfortunately this blog was rather boring to me since there was very little content. I was really hoping that it would have been different based on the title, or even more of a behind the scenes look at how to run an adult pay website. But instead, I got a big marketing campaign about why I should go to this adult pay site. This site is not worth visiting, and could be so much more.
Mandy’s Sex Life

Common Insight posseses a simple layout with an appealing close up of an eye with the Earth reflected in it. This is a very new site containing only 15 entries. The author states in the About section that he started writing because of his frustration with shallow bickering in political thought, and wanted to see a deeper discussion take place. He intends to state his opinions and defend them, but remains open to new ideas. Hmmm, an open mind! Sounds interesting. Let’s check it out.

I began to read the entries, starting at the beginning. Imagine my surprise when the title of his first essay turned out to be ‘Why the Gay Marriage Debate is Over’. This did not quite jibe with the stated purpose of his site. But let’s not be too hasty, what else is in here?

Each entry contains numerous links to his essays or pertinent information elsewhere on the net. He admits there might be too many links and I would agree with him there. Topics range from politics to Extinction Level Events, including tsunamis, or whatever else captured his attention that day. When I clicked on a link to read an essay and then used the ‘back’ button, I was taken to more essays. This made it necessary to go back to the opening page and scroll down to the entry I had been reading, making for some frustrating navigation.

Since there are not that many entries and this blog is so new, it is hard to tell how it might evolve over time. If his stated purpose is to engage in intellectual debate, it would seem imperative to include a comment function, so we might join in, and see what other readers are saying. The only thing I found was his email address, which is fine, but one of the points of open debate is that it be…. well, open.

This site is very much like other political blogs. Lots of linkage, convicted opinion and succinct commentary on current events. However I think it fails in it’s stated purpose, which is a give and take of ideas with readers.

I would consider re-visiting this site in a few more months to see how it develops. In my opinion, it is a little too soon to tell. The potential is there, it just needs some tweaking.

Common-Insight

I wasn’t sure what to make of the site when it appeared in front of me. I’m not the world’s greatest judge of colour co-ordination but the colour choices didn’t work for me. The name could have meant almost anything; so no clues as to where we were going. Unusually the post at the top of the page was the first. I learned from this that the web log is real new. Less than a month old.

A quick hop over to the about C-I link revealed the purpose of the site. An opinion’s site on the why’s and where fore’s of US politics. The parties are not spinning effectively enough for Mr Salyer and he wishes to set that straight and he has a right to his valid opinion.

At this point it kinda depends on the guy’s savvy as to whether this was gonna work for me. I’m a politics graduate and have done my time reading half baked politicalese. I wasn’t optimistic.

The design is straightforward. The text used is readable, blue on yellow. It has a left side panel which just didn’t fit in my browser (IE6). There are a bunch of links to blog related sites which seem cool. A links page to “insightful” stuff, the aforementioned about C-I page and an archives page which as yet does not contain any archived posts but a categorised list of Scott’s articles. Political, environmental and minutia. The majority of this works. A couple of links to Blogdump and Bloghop didn’t producing a file not found error.

Scott has posted fifteen times in his first month and kept to his political agenda for a couple of weeks before veering off into the world of “cool stuff on the web” and what he calls minutia. Trivia by a different name – and uninteresting trivia at that. The political and environmental posts tend to end prematurely and link to a fuller post on a separate page. I don’t get the reason for this. It makes reading a hassle. I don’t like that back button. He also links from the posts to his articles or small essays on the political and environmental issue du jour. Like I mentioned the guy’s political “savvy” was gonna make or break this for me and unfortunately it doesn’t work. His mission to make a better job of presentation proved impossible. His writing has a mixture of straight academia, vernacular, unsupported opinion and sarcasm. He appears to be politically naïve which is no bad thing, but the site doesn’t do what it says on the tin. It muddles the muddled.

The site makes a liberal use of links and they open in a new window which I like and all work. The down side was a porn pop up. I don’t need this kind of thing in my life thank you.

There is as yet no comment facility.

Eyesight to the blind it isn’t and still pecking it’s way out of the egg. Maybe Scott will go on to thrill and enlighten, but this reader will not be back to find out. I’d give it a 1 out of 5. Here’s hoping things improve.
Common-Insight

A blue head floats rather creepily on the left side of the page as you enter StupidTom’s domain. But at least it’s a smiling head, so I gather the courage to venture further. On his “About Me” page the author has a picture of himself with a little boy on his shoulders. He then proceeds to tell us if you want to know more about him, read what he has written, and that he writes every day. And I see that he has been doing just that since August 2003.

The entries are generally short to moderate in length and have an edginess to them. “Wiseacre” would be a good one word description of our author, but a generally good-natured one, who writes clearly and to the point. Though said points are often profanity laden, they are lighthearted, in a sort of “all male, all the time” style that are not unpleasant to read. He writes about all manner of things going on around him. Work, family, his struggles with mold and technology providers, and his artistic efforts in lawnmowing, and plastic melting. And he does most of this with a generous dose of humor.

He seems to lead a hectic life at a hectic pace but this does not prevent him from occasionally making a profound insight or two. In one entry he was bemoaning how polite casual conversations are unsatisfying so much of the time, and concludes with the following:

“Nobody has time to give anything but the standard replies to the same old questions. That’s sad. So blog on and let me know some Real things about your lives. Everything that someone writes, no matter what it is, tell something about the author.”

I found that I could not have agreed more with this statement.

There are pictures on many of the recent posts that liven up the dialog, and I noticed in the list of blogs he reads daily, a link to Wil Wheaton’s site. I of course felt an instant affinity to Tom because I read Wil too.

All in all, I enjoyed my visit. I think this is a guy’s guy kind of blog and would appeal to a no nonsense male audience.

stupidtom.com