Month: January 1970

My first impression of this weblog, was a good one. I was faced with a very clean, neat layout . There was really nothing outstanding about the page, but it just had a nice look to it. The first thing that caught my eye, was a little animated pic at the top left hand corner. It was of a cartoon character playing a musical instrument, giving the blog a nice touch. Once I started reading the entries of “Songrut”, I basically got what I expected. A blog about music.

The entries are written by a girl named Bev. After reading her main page, I went looking through her archives. I discovered that the weblog has only been around for a month and a half. It was created on March 18, 2004.

Apparently Bev has put a lot of time and thought into her entries. This is not just a blog about music in general. It is dedicated mostly to song writing. It’s obvious that Bev has a real love for music.
Each entry, is very interesting and informative , especially for anyone who takes a real interest in writing songs.

She gives tips and information on how to be a good song writer , things you should and shouldn’t do when trying to write a song, ect. Her readers even participate every now and then by sending in their own tips and tricks on writing songs. You will find things like that in every entry. A very interesting read by far.

The page itself was just an ordinary simple design. But it seem to work well with the title of the weblog.It had somewhat of a professional feeling to it. Nothing fancy , but the little animated cartoon playing the musical instrument, did give it a nice touch as i mentioned earlier. On the left side panel, there are several links which are music related, . There is an “about” page, but it is mainly about music .

Overall,the entries were well written, very well spaced and easy to read. It has been updated frequently. Basically, I enjoyed the weblog and could not find one fault with it. If you are a music lover, I would suggest you drop on by and vis Bev at “Songrut”. You won’t be disappointed.songrut

I can’t help but point out that seeing the word “song” and “rut” together got me thinking about things that have nothing to do with music or being in a slump. When I went ot the site I read “Songwriting tips for songwriters” and it all suddenly made much more sense! Oooohhh, SongRut. Now I get it.

The first thing I did was look around. There were dropdown boxes that looked as though something should’ve been written there, but nothing was there. Also dark words in the sidebar that I thought were links, are just text. Since I couldn’t figure out what was going on, I thought I’d tackle the archives. There aren’t many entries to begin with. Actually, for the entire month of March, there are only 2. One with a bunch of links all labeled “songwriting” but each taking you somewhere different. And the other with a few lines and some type filler, you know the kind, where you just hit the keyboard to create some temporary content. The April entries are filled with a lot of good advice for songwriters, and even writers in general. Things like a change of perspective, using metaphors, different different writing approaches. The content is worth a read and is actually entertaining enough to want to read through each and every entry.

The design is very simple with shades of greenish brown and grey’s. It’s not overly done, or under done, although I have no idea what the purpose of all the text and empty dropboxes are for. It functions, but you might be deterred by the ads, though thankfully, no pop-ups.

There are some links to cd’s that might be worth a look for some who aren’t so musically open. Anyone who links, Norah Jones and Billie Holiday with U2 and Led Zeppelin obviously has some great musical taste. Seriously.

As a result of reading through this blog, I’m extremely confused. There are parts of the blog that are worth taking very seriously, and other parts that probably shouldn’t.

gugga goo ba bribble fiz
duddle burra gorga brap
fiddle pipple diddle brine
baddle biggie grope ***

*** Of course, I had a huge hit in Lithuania with this song, so obviously your mileage may vary depending on your nationality

and

People just can’t stop writing to me saying how many hit records they’ve written since they read this stuff, so I wouldn’t be suprised. One guy actually won the lottery the day after he read this web page.
– from the about me page

These things along with other little choice pieces make me wonder if this blog isn’t more along the lines of a parody, or if this whole thing should be taken more seriously. It’s up to you, dear reader, to figure it out for yourself. I, however, have my own opinion.songrut

“Inside My Head”. Upon entering this weblog, my first impression was just o.k..
It was just one of those plain , boring “Blogspot”, templates which seem to be so popular now a days. The difference was, this template had some color to it, which made it look less drap (so to speak).

The entries are posted in the middle of the page, sectioned off very neatly. She has several links on the right hand side, some of a very interesting nature. There are several tidbits about the author posted there as well , in addition to “100 things”
link.

The title, “Inside My Head”, speaks for itself. It totally relates to the weblog. Jennifer(the author) is a wife and mother of 2. Almost each entry gives you an in depth look at the person behind the writing. Her posts do let you get inside her head.

Jennifer’s weblog was created around January, 2004. In her first couple of entries, she starts by introducing herself, and giving out a bit about herself. It ‘s like curling up with a good biography. The entries become more intriging as you keep reading , and you don’t want to put it down until it’s finished. Jennifer writes about her husband and when they first became married. She writes about having her children and as they grew older. She also writes about her father, her job, and her goals and dreams in life .

Jennifer’s weblog is worth paying a visit to. However, she does admit (in her own words), her page looks like a big mint. The color is basically a mint green. Well maybe Jennifer will work on the template in time.
But her entries make up for the lack of the template appearence. Jennifer’s weblog is one I know I will be book marking.Inside My Head

My first impressions of Pistalwhipped.net were very good. It has a really clean site design with a nice cartoon logo at the top. It is a simple design too and I like simple- no long blog lists or other unnecessary gubbins usually found in blogs. There was a menu at the top which led me to a rather superficial FAQ (an “About me” page basically) and some other potentially great features too. There is a Tutorials page, although there is only one at the moment about some simple Javascript, which seems well written. There is also a forum (forums for blogs are hardly ever used in my experience and this one is no exception), a large DVD list and some downloads.

One of the advantages of this site is that the owner hosts it himself with his own server. This means that he has posted up a lot of pictures, video clips and even an MP3 which can be downloaded. Some of these can be found in the download section, some can be found in the individual posts. I was also pleased to discover in the FAQ section that the site had been running for a couple of years now, so I expected a fair bit of content.

Having perused the site generally, I was pretty impressed- if the content could match the site design and extras, I figured we could be looking at a 5 site here. Unfortunately the score was slowly whittled away by a number of disappointments encountered once I started reading. The first few posts were entertaining enough I suppose, though there wasn’t much actual content to be found other than a few superficial observations about his insomnia or some movies he had seen. I have used the word superficial twice now and it sadly sums up all of the content really.

Before I go further, a word about the archives. There is no link to the archives on the main page (or any other page for that matter.) To access the archives, you must click on either “[link]” or “[comment]” and then click the “archive” link which then appears at the top. Either that or go straight to http://www.pistalwhipped.net/archives/. A glaring oversight and an inconvenience, especially from someone who seems to have put so much work in to the site’s appearance. So what is in these elusive archives then? Well again, more links for stuff to be downloaded (usually relating to celebrity scandals, US politics and occasionally technology) and um… not much else. I read through all the archives and learnt very little about the author. Except that he watches American Football, drinks beer and has learnt how to swear quite a bit. Bearing in mind the site has (supposedly) been running since 2001, I was also disappointed to find the archives only go back to January of this year. I guess the previous archives got lost somewhere along the line.

Now I would like to think that I am not a prude and I understand there is a need for quality sites which expose celebrity gaffes (albeit gaffes which involve them taking their clothes off) or satirise US politicians. Unfortunately though, this isn’t one of those sites. I feel there needs to be more analyses or observation about whatever is posted up here – I don’t think the quality of the pictures/ video clips are high enough for them to hold their own without something being added. The occasional personal posts also need to be either scrapped altogether or embellished significantly. The general lack of direction is frustrating and it suggests a certain apathy. Putting up “controversial” videos to download may improve the hits rating significantly, but to improve the blogging quality, more effort is needed, particularly in the written content. Pistalwhipped

My first impression when I first seen this blog was not a very good one.It looked like so many other pages I have seen as of late, very ordinary..
But as the saying goes, “You can’t judge a book by it’s cover”. In the case of “Irrevelent Press”, the above phrase rings very true.

At the top of the page in the right hand corner, is a photo of a teddy bear which apparently is supposed to be the author . The author’s name is Roo…(aka. Roo Bear”) The first thing I looked for was an “about” page which I realized at that time that there wasn’t any. But then again, I really didn’t expect to find one because the author is posing as a 7 eyed teddy bear.

The writing was very easy to read, and the page itself was very neatly laid out. The only problem I had, was the template looked like so many of the other templates you see , plain and boring.

On to the entries. Roo started his blog on February 11, 2004. Once I started reading, I basically had to pull myself away from the blog in order to do my review. It was obvious that Roo’s entries were thought out before he started writing them. Roo talks about several topics that are very stimulating to the mind and will really make you think. Take for instance this particular entry.. Roo wrote….

So last night I had this not-so-amazing thought about the amount of buttons in our lives. I actually considered waking up this morning and counting how many buttons I push throughout the day for the sake of blogdom. Remotes, cars, computers, phones, the list goes on and on. It seems we have a fascination with pushing stuff. I think it all comes from the earliest moments of being a child when you get all these toys with things you can push, or toggle, or pull. I am reminded when I first got my car and my little 2-year old buddy sat on his mother’s lap in the drivers seat to check it out, and the first thing he did was start pushing every button his little fingers could reach. Is there just something satisfyingly tactile about depressing a piece of plastic and making something “happen?” Truth be, you can NOT go through your day without pressing some kind of button. Try it! You wouldn’t be making any phone calls, typing any emails, making any fruit smoothes – nothing. How devoid would your life be without using buttons?

Now this is something I have never thought of. But it gives us something to think about. I found each and every post very interesting and entertaining. On some of the entries, Roo adds a bit of humour. Roo’s posts are very well written . What is interesting to some, may not be interesting to others. But I for one, truly enjoyed reading Roo’s entries. I will also be book marking his site,.

To conclude my review, as I have stated, Roo’s blog is a very interesting and entertaining read. Maybe he could just work on the template a little bit. Add some more design to it. He has several photo’s added to his posts which give it a very nice touch. Work on the template a bit more, I am sure it would have the potential to get a rating of 5. Irrelevant Press