Month: January 1970

Popism was listed on The Guardian’s Weblog Special this past summer. In case you didn’t know, the Guardian, according to its website, is a newspaper in the UK. The folks there listed Popism as a “British weblog on pop culture”.

The writing is very well done. It’s very straightforward without any fluff or filler at all. The author gives the readers a link, and a few words explaining what position towards the issue Popism is taking. Previous knowledge of what goes on in the British pop culture world is very helpful. I, of course, didn’t have that knowledge, so I spent quite a bit of time doing some research on the certain issues at hand.

Technically speaking, Popism is actually over a year old, entering the world of weblogging in January 2002. But I’ve seen weblogs that have more posts in a week then this site has had for the past year. Every entry ever made, at least the ones that I could find, were all available to view on one page – the main page.

The layout of the site is very simple. The black text on a light blue background used for the weblog portion of the site is very easy to read, as is the light yellow table that the author has listed other various links in.

Naturally, I would have liked to see more to this site. I know sometimes quality is better than quantity, which is relevant in this case, but more posts would more than likely draw readers back on a more regular basis, opposed to only a few posts a month for people to wade through.

If you’re in to British pop culture, this site is will certainly appeal to you. Otherwise, like me, you’ll be doing a little research on the site to fully understand some of the entries here. Don’t plan on regular posts, but it’s a good one to add to your list of sites that you just come back to check on every once in a while.

Popism

When I first loaded up fallible.com, I immediately knew I was going to like this site. The design is unique – an interesting border of shapes around the actual content – and Katy has few distractions. There are some links to her writing and the archives. Nothing to draw you away from the actual blog.

Even if there was something to draw you away from this site, I don’t think it would do its job very well. Katy’s writing is incredibly detailed and insightful – you won’t want to leave. Many of her posts revolve around her family, and the detail in which she describes them is almost breathtakingly realistic. Katy manages to take utterly simple events – take for example, her husband putting the curtain the wrong way such that it spills water onto the floor – and turns them into amazingly funny, shocking, and deeply touching incidents. One of the unique things about this blog is that the author alternates between third-person and first- person. When she writes in third-person, the stories she tells are interesting enough to make you very glad that her blog goes back 3 years and has plenty of content to read.

The design of fallible.com goes along well with the content. The different shapes that make up the border of the blog are very much like the author’s writing – composed of various ideas and happenings. Some of the archives did give me installation errors at the top of the page, but the contents of that month still loaded successfully. There wasn’t much beyond the blog itself, but as stated before, you don’t really need anything else. The writing is fresh, captivating, and unique.

I highly recommend you visit fallible.com. Even if you aren’t into this type of blog – very emotionally charged – you will still enjoy reading Katy’s perceptive and engrossing posts. Fallible.com

First impressions of this site? The design is crisp, clean, and well-done. Even better, it is easy to navigate and I found myself immediately wanting to dive into the actual content of the site.

One of the first things I noticed when I started reading the weblog is that the author never capitalizes his sentences. With most weblogs, I would view this as detrimental to the overall content, but here it worked. This textual style goes along with the overall tone of the weblog – carefree, unburdened, and pretty much liberated of excess junk. Who needs to capitalize? I say this without the slightest hint of sarcasm – the author truly writes his impressions of what is happening around him. He blends funny, insightful, and interesting ideas into all of his posts. I was searching for an ‘about’ page when I came across his first post, where he says “i’d have lots of pages detailing myself and my life, but i don’t want that.” In my opinion, he doesn’t even need an ‘about’ page – as you become more enveloped in his posts, you learn a great deal about this 18 year old man from the UK.

In terms of design, the site complements the content perfectly. Orange and gray are the primary colors, and they blend well together to create a layout that is easy on the eyes. The navigation bar has the typical links – contact information, sites the author likes, and the archives. The ‘rate me’ link was unusual – it gives the reader a chance to input their opinions on the author’s site. The only thing, albeit a minor thing, is that the links on the nav bar load up in the same window – I would recommend having them open in a new one so that attention isn’t drawn away from the site.

Should you visit this site? I can definitely give you a big YES. You will probably find yourself as I did after reading several posts on someonecalledjames – laughing your head off and curious to find out more about the author’s insights and opinions on life. someonecalledjames

This is a normal weblog of a 19 year old normal girl named Brenda living in Alberta having a reasonably normal life. No huge drama, no big long stories of how so-and-so told so-and-so this or that, and nothing that makes you roll your eyes in disgust as you try to figure out why this person is sharing everything with the public. The content of the weblog, however, is anything but normal.

I was able to read through Moot Point very easily. Brenda’s posts are short and to the point, but still manage to add in a big of personality with each subject matter. There are days when you can find several posts, and there are times when the author goes a few days at a time without posting. This just goes to show that Brenda doesn’t just throw words up on a screen for the sake of posting, but just posts when it’s something that will either entertain or inform the people that are always stopping by her site.

There’s no way I would have guessed the author of this weblog was 19. It’s so well written. I know there are 19 year olds out there that write well, and Brenda is, by far, one of those prime examples. She knows this, of course, and while her dream of being a literary standout by the age of 20 is only a few months away, I personally feel like there’s tons of talent with Brenda’s writing. If readers enjoy her posts as much as I did, then there’s certainly potential for much greater things.

I found a post about grey that was kind of interesting, when looking at the layout of the site. Maybe this is when the current layout rolled out? The quote was “Dull grey day. Dull grey pants. Dull grey job.” And the only thing that was missing was a mention of the dull grey background use for the site. While the color of it may be dull, it’s actually a very sleek looking layout. The white text reads well on the background. Brenda went for a complete simplistic look with this design, and achieved that very well.

This is a site I can easily see readers becoming a fan of. Brenda keeps Moot Point entertaining, whether it’s by posting specific song lyrics that relate to the kind of day or situation she’s dealing with, or just by sending us to a link she’s found on the web somewhere that’s interesting enough to share. Check this one out. After all, “everything else is just a Moot Point”.

moot point

American Sentimentalist is a blog dedicated to what the writer calls a “belief about the still-possible redeeming qualities of what used to be called America.” Mark, the writer, is a freelance writer, and the fact that he gets paid to write is evident in his blog entries. It is rare to have the opportunity to review a blog that uses language, rational thought, and punctuation so beautifully.

The blog is really about current events, mostly about the foibles of the current U.S. administration. Mark has a very good grasp on the situation and writes excellent, thoughtful articles and, like any good journalist, links to the sources of his information. I can’t find a single thing to complain about except to say that I wish I’d written most of his entries.

Unfortunately, American Sentimentalist does have some design flaws. While I wouldn’t expect Mark to test to make sure his blog looks good in every imaginable browser, it would be a good idea to make sure it looks good in the main two – Netscape and MSIE. It looks fine in Netscape, but is the design is seriously skewed in MSIE*. The sidebar is shown underneath all the entries and it doesn’t look good. Other than that, the design of the blog is very spartan.

A nice feature at American Sentimentalist is the ability to sign up for a weekly update. Mark also keeps a list of news sources and blogs he reads. There’s a good About Me type of page.

I will definitely visit American Sentimentalist again. The writing is excellent and Mark provides some beautifully written political commentary.

* Editors Note: The page loads fine in IE if your screen resolution is set to 1024×768 or higher.The American Sentimentalist