Month: January 1970

I have to say that first impressions of the site came not with the loading of the page, but with the title itself ‘The Mommy Blog’. I’m not a Mommy, and I honestly couldn’t see what there would be for me there if the whole thing was centred around being a ‘Mommy’. But I persisted. This is not the weblog of a typical stay-at-home Mommy, and this is reflected through the entire blog. In one form or another the weblog has been around since December 2002, and is well established with a personal theme, and a good set of visitors.

As I had expected the site mostly consists of personal entries – about her family, her job and random life events as and when they happen. The posts are largely well written and easy to follow – the author writes well, and this is a definite bonus for any blog regardless of the content. Her posts are however sporadic, varying both in terms of posting consistency and quality/appeal of content. Not every post held my rapt attention, but all in all it was an enjoyable and worthwhile read. I couldn’t help but feel that this weblog is going to be more popular amongst fellow working Mum’s, judging by content at least.

The design is beautifully done and is individual, really suiting the style of its owner. It’s a commonly utilised 3 column layout, content in the centre flanked on either side by various internal and external links. There were two main problems I picked up on however. The first being the method of skinning the site, which didn’t work the two occasions I visited this site – Bit of a disappointment, as I was curious about the alternatives to the main theme. The second is the section “I’m telling” which resides at the bottom of the right hand column – the method of showing recent referrals to the site was pushing the fixed column out. Admittedly not a huge problem, but it was a blotch on an otherwise pristine template.

I found the content well written I couldn’t with all honesty say that this was a blog I would visit on a regular basis. I do feel it has appeal, just to a restricted audience. It’s contribution to the weblog world however is an insight into the life of a working Mum, and this if expanded on a little more could really have potential. An interesting diversion, a potentially good 3.5The Mommy Blog

I hate being honest sometimes… but, well, here you go: My first impression on this one was plain and simple “Jesus, not one of *those* again!” – what I saw was a very basic blog using one of the most used (but still boring) standard templates, with a few links and a small archive that somehow told me “this is not gonna last long”. Another major thing that annoyed me is I couldn’t find an “About Me” page, so I had no idea who my host might be (besides what I guessed from the title and tagline).

Anyhow, you know what they say about books and their covers, don’t you? I do, and so I forced myself to actually read the entries by that “girl living on Cape Brenton”. As she states in her first post, there’s a lot of ranting, rambling and raving going on, spiced with a high density of typos.

A lot of the bitching is very personal, and although this is sugar for all slightly voyeuristic blog hoppers, it’s getting a bit old after a while since I often had no idea what she’s talking about (and, as I stated earlier, had know idea who/what) she actually is. It was funny and entertaining at times, but got old soon.

So let’s be done with this: I really think the author could turn this into an above-average, even quite good blog; she’s funny, and there’s things going on in her life that would surely make good stories. This transformation, however, is going to be hard work (especially considering the design issues), and I assume her “blogging-style” just needs to evolve.

Numerical, it’s just a 3 for me now, with the option to make that a 4 or even better when Jamie decides to stop underachieving.capergrl.blogspot.com

So, “The Road To Braj Is Strewn With Thorns”? Aha, uhm… if you say so. Thing is, I have no idea what or where Braj is, so my first impression of the blog was: confused.

Being confused, however, usually arouses my curiosity. I started my investigations of this blog with the usual visit to the “About Me”-page, which says the blog author is Satyavati devi dasi, a disciple of “His Holiness Indradyumna Swami”. Frankly, learning this didn’t do much to enlighten me, in fact, I was even more confused now.

Reading on, I learned the blog was initially just for “preaching purposes”, but has evolved into a mix of daily live reports, philosophical rants, recipes, and much more.

Now, I have to be honest here – I’m not having any problems with Krishna-people, but I also don’t know much about them, so it’s human I started reading the blog entries with some scepticism, maybe even prejudices.

Much to my surprise (and joy), I found several entries that kept me entertained, made me think, and, most important, gave me the chance to have a glimpse through the eyes of someone who lives a life totally different from mine – altough I frankly don’t understand all religion related posts, the author usually does a good job in explaining her world.

Concerning the design, and other superficial things: It’s a fairly simple, but easy to read layout; lot’s of posts are illustrated with pictures. The navigation is a fairly standard (established) bar on the right hand side, with the usual blog roll, archives and misc. links.

Summing it up, I’d say this site is surely worth a visit for open-minded people, and an interesting read even for agnostics or atheists like me.

It’s a bit hard for me to give a numerical rating because there’s so much content that’s too far away from my world, but considering the blog entertained me after the first confusion, I’d give it a four – it’s good, but it’s not gonna be a dialy must for me.

Oh, and I still don’t know who or what Braj is… 😉
The Road To Braj Is Strewn With Thorns

Nice Cookies. Interesting title. I can’t say that I really knew what to expect, but the unique name was definitely interesting. Unfortunately most of my interest with this blog ended with the name.

Nineteen year old Stacy, blogs mainly about her boyfriend, school and shopping. She really seems to enjoy shopping. Which is fine. But not something I would really find myself being interested in reading much about.

This blog is relatively well-written, and an enjoyable read, to a degree. I read back through many of the archives, and found that many posts are so similar, it’s a little monotonous. Very few posts had any content that was overly meaningful or thought-provoking. I have a feeling that Stacy’s friends probably enjoy this site quite a bit, but as for a stranger happening upon it, I doubt that the content would have them coming back.

The design of this blog is nice enough. Different shades of purple, with white font. The font is quite small, but legible enough. The layout is fairly simple and clean, though I found that the link to the archives was in an odd spot. (At the very bottom of the page) The archives were set up in a very odd format, in my opinion, and I found myself wishing it was done in a more streamlined way, but to each their own.

Overall, this was a nice, light, friendly blog. It just didn’t have enough content to make me want to read more than was necessary to write a review. I wanted to get to know Stacy as a person, inside, and not simply read about where and what she ate, or what she bought recently. It seems that there’s definite promise, but the current content just isn’t enough, at the moment.
Nice Cookies

Good Blimey! What a great phrase to title your site with. I have to admit I was half expecting a UK site (.co.uk) from this phrase, but Matt is not from the UK. He in fact lives in Florida.

Matt is a self-taught web designer. The blog is here to ” provide him a place to post his thoughts ranging from web design, technology, gaming, and personal insights. It also serves as a nexus to upload and share photos taken with a digital camera.” This was great for me as I shared an immediate connection with him. We both have similar interests and I knew that this would be an enjoyable read.

The weblog is about what he said it would be about; his everyday life, thoughts on stuff, and of course photos. I had a nice trip down memory lane with certain events happening while reading Matt’s blog. Everything from the kid who got suspended for doing a netsend of “hey” to the EU’s fine to Microsoft is posted. I especially enjoyed reading about his cooking and the recipies that he provided.

The design of the site is crisp and clean. My only complaint is that it looks too much like a “standards compliant” blog. All to often a programmer gets caught up in coding for standards, and the site looks like it. This can be resolved with a simple banner at the top instead of just the phrase Good Blimey! But other than that, I have no complaints about the design.

Overall I enjoyed my time at Good Blimey. I think that Matt has found what makes for a good weblog and is sticking to only posting the good stuff. I will continue to follow up with Good Blimey to see where it takes me. Good Blimey!