Month: January 1970

Initially, I found the site refreshingly simple. Not too many graphics or bells and whistles and no unnecessary features. I figured I would find a blog by someone who was knowledgable in the sport of soccer and someone who tends to keep up with the games and present the highlights as observed by them, and I did indeed find what I expected.

The blog is interesting and was easy to understand. It appears to be well written by someone who thoroughly enjoys the sport. Maybe I’m not that observant but, I still can’t find the name of the author, even in the “About The Author” section. I think the author does have a love for soccer and it shows through his posts.

I think the author is attempting to inform readers about current evens in soccer and present an opinionated view of the sport based on his experience. I do feel however, that there is much to be desired in the area of maintaining the blog. I observed several photos missing while surfing the blog and a desperate need for a graphic logo at the top of the blog. I think the design works for the topic but, it could be “spruced up” a bit to intrigue the reader to continue reading.

Overall, I think this blog is a good read and has plenty of potential for gaining many new readers with a little touch-up to the layout and making sure the photos are working properly.

Soccer Weblog

It is vary rare that I will give a rating of a 5 any more. I really like to reserve that score for the sites that truely deserve it. Enthralling Boredom deserves this score.

The site loads and it is a standard blogger template, which I was going to take points off for, but then realized while reading that this is just “part of Sean’s plan”. So aside from the design, no other flaws. The page has a big headline that says “Read My Articles, Become A Better Lover, Lower Your Rates, And Add 1-3 Inches To Your…” which just sets the tone of the site.

The posts range greatly in topic, but all are part of what is going on in Sean’s life. My favorite topic is about squirrels. The squirrel posts reminded me when I was in college as I experienced the same thing. No topic is left safe for Sean to not make fun of. These include PETA, Halloween, sharing music and so on.

Its really hard for me to write a review on this site without quoting post after post and since I am up to 15 posts I would want to quote, I will just end this review by saying “Go read this site and it will make your day.”Enthralling Boredom

When a weblog is submitted, the author chooses a category their blog falls under. The author here chose Creative Writing and with the name of Watermark, I found that to be a good name. Think of the watermark on a dollar bill, or a digital watermark on an image, etc… Good concept I thought.

When I first got to Watermark I noticed the caption which read “A poet’s notebook” and look around. This one looked better from the get-go versus the last poetry site I read, so I was happy. Diving into the site, I realized that this was not a site just about poetry. In fact, I don’t think it would be possible to put it in a specific category (as a whole) since there is so much to the site.

Lets break down the site into a couple of categories and talk about them individually. First up is the poetry which is probably supposed to be the main focus. I am not a poetry critic. I do not know what makes a poem good, or what makes one bad. I do know if I enjoyed reading what is written, and in this case I do.

The next part that is obvious with the site is the general types of posts one would find on a weblog. And while there isn’t anything in particular that sets this one apart from the rest in this category, at least the posts are very well writen and enjoyable to read.

Finally there is the animal section, which has a high population of cat posts. These range from random images of animals to actual posts about them. I would almost say to move this area to another blog, but it completes the picture that the author is trying to get us to grasp. Besides, from my understanding she posts at a bunch of other sites too and it would be all the more complicated. My favorite by far was the bully penguin.

My only gripe with this site is the design. While it is a lightly modified template, the author is using frames for whatever reason to keep the url the same on all the pages (both internal and external). This was annoying when I was visiting sites as they either opened in a new window, or if they were a site the author posts on, it opened in the same frame. I am not a fan of this, as it takes away the control that I have over the site.

Overall I thought Watermark was a good site. There is definately something there that sets this apart from the rest of the sites out there and I suggest you go look and see if its your cup of tea. Even if you aren’t a fan of peotry, the rest of the site will be worth your time.Watermark

Not being a fan of the sport of Soccer, I went into this site with an open mind. I expected the site to be about the world of soccer, what is going on in each of the leagues, and that sort of thing.

The first thing I noticed about the site was the design was broken in my browser. I am using Safari on the Mac and the posts were all below the double column on the right. At first I thought it was a blank page, until I scrolled down. This isn’t a good start, but still I kept on.

Now since I do not know much about soccer I am a little baffled by the info that is posted here. Being a football (US) fan, I know that the teams all play on Sunday or Monday (for the most part). I was expecting updates on the author’s favorite team. Things like team standings, player ranks, goals scored, awesome shots, etc… Instead I found a non regularly update blog about random topics within the world of soccer. Just to give you a clue as to what I mean by this, there are 23 posts total. 1 about NCAA soccer, 3 about FIFA, 4 about Major League Soccer, 8 about English premier league, and then some random topics.

Probably the most annoying thing about this site was from the time I got there, I felt like it was just a scam to earn money. Maybe it was the ad asking you to advertise, or maybe it was the big skyscraper ad, or maybe it was that after each post was a “related items on Amazon” ad. That got annoying quick.

Overall the site has news about soccer. While it could not be a daily read to update yourself what is going on, it might be a good weekly stop. By fixing the design problems, and making it more soccer oriented, than I want to earn money oriented, I think this weblog could really take off and do well. Till then, I give it the weak score that I did.Soccer Weblog

The blog called Enthralling Boredom starts with this sub-head, “Read My Articles, Become A Better Lover, Lower Your Rates, And Add 1-3 Inches To Your… ” Right away you know the person writing this blog has a sense of humor (and receives spam). The author is an 18-year-old Yale freshman named Sean. Sean lived in Cleveland until starting college in the Fall of 2004. His blog has been active since June.

I enjoyed reading Sean’s posts, especially Academy Award Snubs, Squirrels Gone Wild and Rah-Rah for Ramen. My favorite headline is “If You Use an Artificial Christmas Tree, the Terrorists have Already Won.” And I admit, I love any 18-year-old who is as maddened by bad grammar and misspelled words as I am.

I spent a great deal of time at Sean’s blog, primarily because it was a good read and made me chuckle on occasion. I think his writing is above-par and hope that he gets more readers as he goes through college. While Sean submitted his sight as “Humor,” it truly belongs in the Personal category. Even as humorous as his posts are–on everything from PETA to people use annoying Internet abbreviations–the posts are still in the personal blog vein. Enthralling Boredom