Month: January 1970

“I’m an ordinary bloke, but I feel as if I’m living the life of another. For the past five years, I’ve lived almost every dream I’ve ever had. Several careers and a lack of direction all came together when I was 30 and I found a previously untapped ability to use my experience and make things happen. It doesn’t feel like work.

I’d pay to do my job. I am the accidental journalist and this is my story.”

What an introduction, eh? Rarely am I struck by a blog that offers such wisdom and intelligence as is shown in Someone Else’s Life. Blackrat (as he’s known on his blog) is a truly remarkable individual and I found myself absolutely riveted by his writing.

My first impression of the blog was a general “WTF?!” as I tried to maneuver my way about the various links, it all eventually fell into place for the most part as I stumbled through the archives to read. You do need a full resolution of 1024×768 though, as all the content and layout (and there’s lots of it) takes up the entire screen, however it’s very easy to read and the photos that are frequently posted aren’t so ridiculously big as to slow me down much (always appreciated by a surfer on a slow connection). It has several sections, though I mainly concentration on the “This Life” blog, easily traversable through the calendar.

Immediately upon my arrival at the blog, I read the introduction and then jumped into the “More about me” section where I found out how this man got to be a freelance journalist, one of the few professions I truly admire and straight away, his entry struck me…

“Freelancing is tough; it’s a competitive market and money is tight, but the rewards and perks are out of this world. Most Bloggers could do what I do. Writing is half the battle. Add in your unique and diverse experience allied to a thirst for knowledge and a love of English and you could argue that you were born to do it.”

Apply that to any of the millions of well educated bloggers out in the webisphere and you’d have millions of freelance journalists giving poor Blackrat a run for his money. Even I got a bit of a tingle when I thought about journalism as a possible profession for myself.

You can already tell that this entry set the tone for the rest of the blog (i.e., a very good one).

Blackrat is a great observer of people, life and everything that surrounds him and it’s demonstrated in his writing. Always optimistic, even when he say’s he’s not feeling 100%, I came away with the impression that this guy never gets so far down as to be depressed.

“Journalism has opened up all sorts of doors to me and I’d have been foolish not to indulge my love of aviation as a result of it. For me, there is nothing quite like that feeling as you punch through thick, impenetrable cloud into clear, endless blue sky dominated by the sun. It’s a thought that’s always with me in my lowest moods – however bad things are, above the clouds the sun shines always. It’s always summer at 30,000ft – and the views are fantastic.”

Obviously you’d be hard pressed to be pessimistic with thoughts like that bouncing about the inside of your skull.

Something that also struck me about this blog was the photos, they are terrific, and if you can’t get into the writing, then the photos are sure to impress, they’re unreal. This is definitely one for the favorites, no matter what your tastes!Someone Else’s Life

Arrival at a site is greeted with yet another version of the generic movabletype template, which is fine but not very eye catching. It looks OK, it doesn’t stand out and is little dull, but, it’s easy to read and isn’t hard on the eye. There is a small about me section part way down the left hand menu, containing a variety of links to a homepage (there’s a small biography off this link), and a few work and photo gallery links. Pretty standard stuff thus far, and so I head off to that first posting in the archives.

The first post confirms my initial suspicion, the author immediately detailing that the reason behind the blog is a mere jump onto the bandwagon. This is fair enough, its how a lot of people got into blogging, it’s also how we ended up with a lot of blogs with very little to say for themselves. That said I continued to read. Entries go back to June 2003, so I’m guessing that the scenery proved favorable to the author, check the first post and you’ll understand what I mean by that. Early on it struck me that this was going to be a very technical blog with just the odd personal entry thrown in for good measure, later I realise that this isn’t the blog of someone who has nothing to say themselves – there is in fact some interesting posts going on here, maybe not for everyone’s tastes but definitely people who share similar interests to the author. There is the odd example of some really great photography as well.

The posts are well written, they are easy to read and quite often (depending on the subject matter) I found them pretty informative and interesting. OK, they weren’t anything out of the ordinary, but I do think it has enough of a pull factor to bring me back every once in a while to see what he has to say for himself.

As I said the design is a generic movabletype template with very few alterations, however, it is easy to navigate and read, and it doesn’t draw anything away from the content. Some amendments to the design may well help it appear a little more individual, but so far there is nothing seriously going wrong here.

Imablog was an interesting venture, nothing out of the ordinary but a worthwhile contribution to this phenomenon we call blog as any other. I might be tempted to pay it a visit every once in a while, but it wouldn’t draw me back on a regular basis. Personally I think the content is likely to appeal to those who share interests with the blogs author rather than the blogging community at large, but then no blog appeals to everyone. A worthwhile contribution, showing some real promise, a well deserved 3.5
Imablog

My first impressions of Ms. Frizzle were the usual ones I have when I first encounter a Blogspot blog. I won’t bore you with the details as I am sure everyone is only too aware by now of the limitations of this system. Suffice to say that this is a standard Blogspot blog and template, with all that that infers. To her credit though, the author does (half convincingly) blog about this very subject, and claims she doesn’t have time to improve how her site looks and content is all that matters anyhow. Well, maybe, but the score for this review would have been higher with a better site design, nevertheless.

So on to this all important content then. Well I have to agree that the content is what makes this site worth visiting (and it IS worth checking out). The author is, as the title suggests, a science teacher in the Bronx. Most of her postings relate directly to her job, although occasionally she does drift off in to her private life a bit more. However, what comes across most of all is the sheer enthusiasm she has for her job- she always seems to be making her lessons more interesting, finding new and innovative ways to motivate her students and also posts up some of the amusing things her students say sometimes.

This blog would be particularly appealing to other teachers and there already seem to be quite a network of them linked to and commenting on it. However, I think the casual reader could get absorbed in to the content too- I know I did. I don’t remember much about my science classes at school, but Ms Frizzle seems to make them a lot of fun and brings across the subject matter in a very down to earth, practical way. She is teaching subjects to her pupils, some of which went over my head, which she seems able to convey to them quite easily. There are plenty of archives to get through too, with regular updates.

Overall then this is an interesting and informative blog, particularly for other teachers, but also for anyone wanting to get an idea of what a teacher’s life is like. The site could do with a makeover (and that “About Me” page which was mentioned in the archives) but in the mean time, there is still plenty of witty, well written and accessible content here to give this blog a bright future.
ms. frizzle

When I first saw the title of this site “You know how you do”, I was instantly reminded of that movie, That Thing You Do (you know the Tom Hanks one). Just like the movie, the title gives absolutely no clue as to what the site is about. No worries, I thought to myself, a challenge.

The site itself is a standard Blogger template, with basically no alteration. I know it’s simple and all, but I really think a Blogger template with a little TLC looks about a million times better. The site is neat and tidy and easy to read, one of the bonuses to using Blogger, but lacks character. There was also no “About Me” section, or anything of the sort. So when you start reading, you kind of jump in having no idea what the writer is about or where she is coming from.

The blog is personal in nature, leaving anyone outside of the group of people discussed lost and basically having no idea who is who or what is going on. The writer is obviously very passionate about her topics, however, when you don’t know the people you are reading about, and don’t know them any better by the time you’re done reading, it’s hard for you to care as much. That being said, it is quite apparent the writer has an audience in mind – those close to her in her personal life. This was proven by the word for word posting of emails and phone conversations.

The links in the site all work, although there are very few of them besides the archives, so other then the blog there isn’t much else to check out. The only issue I had was some of the older posts have some issues with punctuation – common when posting from Word into Blogger, which makes it a bit hard to read. The newer posts however are fine.

The site itself was well written, and overall well done, it was just hard to get into which I think is standard of any blog that deals mainly with a personal life. I think with perhaps an addition such as an About Me page to let people get to know the characters in the story, or at least the writer a bit better this blog would be something every reader could get into.
You know how you do

My initial thoughts on visiting Cube Reflections for the first time were totally different to my thoughts on leaving. I know people say that first impressions count, but sometimes when you hang around for a little longer you find things that are better than those first impressions. This is definitely a blog where the reader should linger before coming to any conclusions.

The second part of the name describes the weblog better than the first in my opinion. The witty well-written posts that have been added to this site since January 2003 mostly fall into a category that we could call ‘reflections on life’ and are in no way restricted to thoughts on the anonymous author’s work life. Although a personal blog, don’t be fooled into thinking that it will only be interesting to read if you think you know the writer or have a similar job to him, as this site will have a far broader appeal.

Although this is a blogspot hosted site, the design is different from the usual template-based selections of many. Don’t be fooled by the choice of heading font and picture though as this appears to be selected because of personal taste rather than because they compliment the blog style. Unfortunately, the layout doesn’t work quite so well in Mozilla Firebird as it might in other browsers, but the posts were still readable so I wasn’t too bothered.

Other than the blog and a smattering of links to other sites that the author is keen on, there isn’t much else here. Not that there needs to be though, as this site isn’t about photos and the writer could hardly maintain his anonymity with another page all about him, so it helps to focus the reader on the main page and the archives.

Cube Reflections is an entertaining read which I’d have no problem recommending. Pop along now and dip into the December posts to get yourself aquainted. Definitely worth a second look.Cube Reflections