Month: January 1970

Going into Natural Physique Development I was expecting to see a weblog about daily training and nutrition. Unfortunately that isn’t what I got when I arrived.

Gavin has decided to post about his physique development dating all the way back to 2000. Unfortunately for us the reader, there are only two posts total: one for 2000 and 2001 and one for 2003. There is a promise of another update in March which will include more photographs of his development.

The design of the site is pretty lackluster. As I said, there are only a couple of posts so they are all on the front page. The small part that shines through on this site is the tips for training and eating. I was glad to see that he was including things for the daily reader to learn.

Now normally I would critique a site on what is there. This time, however, I have to critique on what isn’t there. I really wish that Gavin would update this weblog more often. Even a once a month update would be better. I would like to see work out routines and nutritional variances. I want to see all the things we know we should be doing listed.

Overall this weblog takes all of five minutes to read. While there isn’t anything that is a must read, you might want to check it out if you got some extra time. I am giving Natural Physique Development a 1 because the idea for the weblog is a good one, but the execution is just not there.
Natural Physique Development

Gavin’s weblog, “Natural Physique Development” has a tagline which states that ‘It’s not about where you are right now, it’s about the direction you’re moving in.’ This is a good job really, because where his site is right now is somewhat limited in its scope and we can only hope that the direction he is moving in will improve on things somehow.

First impressions of the site are, well, that it isn’t actually a weblog at all. This is only a half- truth though because it DOES contain written content which is organised in date order, archives going back to the year 2000, some photos to enhance the entries a bit and links at the bottom to other relevant sites. So yeah, technically it’s a weblog.

However, this is the first weblog I have come across which contains only one weblog entry per year. In fact not even that really, because the first entry actually covers 2000 and 2001 (according to the entry title) and actually has 2002 bolted on the end as well. So, with the short entry for 2004, there are a grand total of three entries for the whole weblog. The archives aren’t linked to at all because, er… they all fit on to the main page anyway. In fact, bearing in mind the lack of a template and the fact that all the entries are written in the past tense I would suggest that the author must have put the whole site together during a spare afternoon, content and all.

Ok, so what is actually in the content then? Well it basically offers weight training advice. Throughout the twenty minutes it took me to read the site, I was always looking for the “catch” – what it is the site’s selling, what is its purpose, but I must admit the content does seem fairly genuine. There a few endorsements of other products though, and people are becoming more and more devious in their attempts to sell things to unsuspecting people, so don’t hold me to this. I have some knowledge of weight training issues and the advice given on this site doesn’t seem unreasonable, though it is often very unclear exactly what the specific exercises are which he is doing and the directions occasionally seem contradictory. In my experience, joining a gym and consulting a professional is by far the best way to learn- after all you can’t go wrong with professionals whereas you probably can with some guy’s rather dubious weblog.

In conclusion, this is a rather poor attempt at a weblog and all I can suggest is that, if the author is genuine, try looking at some of the high scoring weblogs to get some inspiration as to why yours only scored a 0.5. To be fair, I realise that weight training is not a short term project and there are some improvements to the site promised for March. All I can hope is that his skills as a weblogger improve during that time along with his physique.Natural Physique Development

I’ve never quite seen a weblog like this one before. It has three entries. One in 2004, one in 2003, and the other one covering 2000 and 2001 – this is it for this weblog. And it’s all on one page.

The title in black text at the top: “Natural Physique Development: TRAINING JOURNAL” clearly explains right off the bat what type of a weblog viewers are stumbling into when finding this site. Followed by the title is a quote of some sort: “It’s not about where you are right now, it’s about the direction you’re moving in.” This is Gavin’s weblog of the direction he’s moving in the form of developing his physique.

There’s nothing to the layout. There’s one page with a gray background, and black text. Gavin’s posted a few pictures for people to see his progress. That’s it.

This weblog isn’t one I’d recommend. Personally, I came away with nothing from the site. If Gavin is trying to convey a diary of sorts about developing one’s natural physique, there definitely needs to be more information for people to resort back to during their attempt at bettering themselves. If it’s just a personal record of Gavin’s self improvement, then it’s not something that really fits into the weblog category.

Natural Physique Development

It’s not very often that a site I’m supposed to be reviewing turns out to be one I read through so quickly I’m disappointed there’s not more to read. When I found my way to “The S-Train Canvass” today, I was more than pleased to find myself breezing through the site not only enjoying what I was reading, but also actually taking something away from reading the author’s daily entries.

The entries that can be found here have subject matters all across the board – there’s a little bit of sports, bits about his African pride, the occasional political post, and, without sounding overly cliché, the list goes on and on. Each post is written with the terminology, sentence structure, and general understanding that nearly every person that stumbles upon this site will be able to understanding what they’re reading.

There are two different people that post to this site – “S-Train” and “Aysel”. For the most part of the posts on the site, you’ll find that S-Train is responsible for the updating. It’s only within the last couple of months that Aysel has joined the posting ranks for The S-Train Canvass.

The layout shows up in what seems to be the standard weblog layout as of late – a main column for the actual weblog content and a smaller column along the side containing anything from links to other weblogs to information about the people that are posting at the site. The original logo at the top of the site, designed by Aysel, is a great start to a layout. The rest of the layout looks a little “clumsy”, for lack of a better word – the black borders around the boxes are on the verge of becoming a bit too overwhelming. It doesn’t take away from the reading, though, which is the reason why people visit weblogs, isn’t it?

Honestly, there’s not one thing I could think of that could be added or changed to this site to make it a better weblog to read.

The S-Train Canvass

When I originally reviewed Tikun Olam, there were a number of errors with regards to the url that caused a bit of a problem with actually getting to the site. Now that the url problems are fixed, I have decided to re-review the site and give it a new chance without that problem hurting me or the site.

Tikun Olam is entitled Make the World a Better Place. There are many ways that this could be achieved and thus there are many categories that this blog could fall under, but personal seems to be the best. Speaking of categories, the author has broken his site down by categories, fifteen to be exact.

While there are categories such as Gardening and Kids and Outdoors, the majority of the recent posts are about politics. Now I am not about to get into that left or right wing type thing, just know that he is posting a lot about the topic right now. This topic is by far his most used, but the break down of other categories is very nice. I especially liked reading the Food and Drink section as well as the Technology and Weblogs area. It was interesting to read someone else’s opinion on these topics.

The design itself is rather bland: green and yellow banner at the top and a two-column layout with the navigation on the right. The only plus for this is that he is using an original color scheme. But at the same time, the design does not hurt the site and really works with the weblog as it leaves a lot of room for the very lengthy posts.

Reading the archives is a bit different. While I understand the reason for separating them out by category, I am still wishing there was the option to read by date. The author’s intent is that people will come for certain topics, and not for the entire blog. My thought is that people come for the entire blog, and skip over certain topics. I may enjoy twelve out of his fifteen categories and not want to have to read twelve pages each time I visit the site just so I can catch up with it.

Overall we have a very well written site with a lot of information to offer. While I am not too keen on the break down of the archives, I can understand why he is doing it that way. If you have some time to sit down and actually read a weblog, then this is a good choice for you as there is plenty of stuff to read.
Tikun Olam: Make the World a Better Place