Month: January 1970

The first thing you notice about Less Than Daily is the big monkey in background (the blog is named Less Than Daily, but the domain name is monkeysandpirates.com, hmm) which I found pretty funny. The faded background on the text boxes is also a nice touch.

The blog is written by mcphee (or just phee) a self proclaimed geek, roleplayer, ninja (no really, he is has a 7th Kyu ninjitsu grading – or better) who recently decided he needed a blog, the title he says: ‘ideally I’d update this daily, but that’s not going to happen, hence the title of the blog.’
Most of his entries involve his mates : Pixie, Mojo, Mark A and/or his girlfriend Claire. If you read enough entries you get a feel for the different personalities in his life. The content has an interesting assortment of material, such as: playing on Ebay, the Eminem gig, football (go Liverpool!), Ninjas fighting Tigers (or at least Monks fighting Leopards), his ever expanding DVD collection, incredibly shrinking chocolate pudding, Everquest, time travel, web browsers. Lots of geeky goodness. Occasionally you’ll see some funny comic strip monkeys (entitled ‘Monkeys Like Us’) with dialogue from his life. I thought they were pretty funny.

The author does put some time into this blog, the Monkeys Like Us strip has made it to V2.0 and the author mentioned several blog upgrades in functionality or design. The writing is good, the author has a good sense of humour and shares his many stories quite well. I enjoyed reading Less Than Daily, it wasn’t rocket science but I found it light and enjoyable.

Monkeys, ninja, ninjuries and good reads, need I say more? Check it out.
Less Than Daily

I needed a Flash plugin, so the first thing I saw on this page was a fullpage popup. Closing that, I get on with Schmutzie. The layout is big and red and beautiful, and apparently Schmutzie designed it herself. It’s one of the best layouts I’ve seen – mostly text, clean, and eye-catching.

The blog is called “Milkmoney or not, here I come,” but the page itself says “Sticking One Toe In At A Time.” Both are sort of the average, cutesy titles you could expect from almost any site, which tell you nothing about the author or the content of the site. Personal weblogs, however, even though mostly solipsistic, cover such a range of topics that in most cases it’s good to be ambiguous to a degree.

It turned out to be a fluke, but I thought it was a bad sign that the first entry was one of those lists of 200 things where you have to bold the ones you have done. Schmutzie, a married Canadian woman, has never touched an
iceberg. But she’s milked a cow. Her sitemeter tells me she’s only had 7,400 readers since August, but it seems often that far-inferior weblogs with better networking skills get ten times the hits with 1/10th of the content.

Her entries are essay-long, and always contain plenty of information about the lobes of the brain, freed lab rabbits, and the French word for dandelion (³pissenlit²).

Some gems:
“Brown twine is comforting and right.”
“When I found myself absentmindedly etching a caricature of myself into the side of the tub
during a bath, I knew that I had let that one go too far. I mean, I was actually naked and soaking in hot water inside a container I would not have fed a dog out of.”

I’ve found this blog fascinating, and I can’t usually swallow personal weblogs. Most make you feel like a child that’s wandered into the middle of a movie theater. The author is intelligent, and her writing makes her seem approachable and friendly. The mistake most personal weblog authors make with friendliness is that every entry reads as a
continuation of a story, without exposition or reference. I could read Schmutzie backwards, entry by entry, if I wanted (and I just might) and still get it.milkmoney or not, here I come

Tookiewana has a harsh look to it. The black and gold harlequin background, coupled with the gray and white foreground, makes for a rather gloomy feel. The header is so narrow as to look like something was left out and we have perhaps arrived at the second page, not the opening one.

This site has been around since July of 2003. I did like the bar at the top of the page with the drop down menus for Archives, Personal, Links, Friends, etc. This is a much cleaner way to handle all the things that people like to put on their blogs. So points for efficiency.

The entries themselves are rather sporadic and often consist of one liners with a link to a cartoon, or odd bit of internet trivia. He posts the usual circulating internet jokes and lists of obscure information. Sometimes mildly interesting, sometimes not.

Though the writing is clear and straightforward, there is not that much that is original to the author. He does have a comprehensive About Me page that includes photos, but the blog itself is not very self-revelatory. I’m not even sure how to categorize this site. Though some of the jokes he passes on are funny, overall I did not find it a very engaging blog. I would like to read more about what our author THINKS about the articles he links to, and see less of the one liners.

tookiewana

I took a look at Carlos’ website and blog today, and my first impressions were good. He’s an artist (always a plus in my book) and quite a good one as well. Other than his blog, Carlos features examples of his work, projects he’s finished, and contact information. The website in general has a good design, which is good considering he’s an artist; but I did notice some faults in the design when it was viewed through different browsers. An easy fix, if he chooses to.

Now, on to the blog itself. It’s powered by blogger, and that fact is pretty obvious. But it looks better than a normal blogger template because the design is original. He talks about three subjects in particular: His Faith, Illustrations, and Reuben (his dog).

There are a lot of pictures of Reuben, and the thing that Carlos does with his posts concerning his dog is quite interesting. He transposes thoughts and reflections through his dog Reuben, using him as a catalyst to open up his posts to a more universal context. In plain english: He derives his personal breakthroughs through his dog. It is sort of cute, and since I’ve seen this done personally among my friends who are pet owners, I understood what he was doing and thought it was funny as opposed to weird.

Carlos talks mostly about his faith, and Christianity in general. I think he’s also a seminary student, but I’m not quite sure. As an illustrative artist, he’s quite impressive. And if I didn’t have a brother who was a constant source of artwork, I would probably ask Carlos how much he charges for a portrait.

Wrapping this up, Carlos posts quite a few pictures, which is nice. The content of his posts however, are centered around God for the most part. Readers of his blog probably don’t get the diverse content that has become expected of a blog. But what he does write about, he writes very well and I commend him for it.

In conclusion, I gave Carlos a 3.5 as a score for my review; due to the lack of diverse content and design flaw. But don’t let that be a discouragement. His illustrative art is amazing, and I think his site deserves a good look-see. Good job.Art blog by Carlos Aleman

This blog tells you something about the blogger as soon as you page loads. I like that. Immediately you get a feel for this thirty-something English Woman who is living in Paris. Even the French Title of ‘Petite Anglaise’ which translated means ‘little english person’. Right away you want to know more…Why is she there?

The first entry that I delved into, informed her readers that it was time to unveil her new site, and she lists the url where her ‘new and improved’ blog resides.This was accompanied by a picture of labelled boxes indicating her move – a really nice touch! However since most of her archives remain with the old site, I decided to review both.

Her natural humour and observations of French Culture are whimsical, bordering hilarious. Her antics in getting herself to a place where she can see and overhear her colleagues are described in detail and provide enjoyment to the reader and a desire to read more.

Frequent comparisons are made between life in the UK, and that of life in France, and it is therein that the comedy emerges. Describing how to beat someone unconscious with a stale baguette (French Loaf), is only one of the tongue in cheek tales which we the readers can enjoy.

Moving to the new site, little has changed and the same merry writing continues. Although now, the site is hosted where it has it’s own domain name (www.petiteanglaise.com), and the site has become more personalised and less generic.
Some of the same graphics have been carried over, so one feels like it really is a new and improved version of the original, the subtle new colour is also a welcome addition.

The new site also includes other elements like a calendar, but other than that the basic layout is even the same and no doubt this blogger will continue to enthrall her avid followers of which there are several.

This blog would appeal to many, especially those who are living out of their home country and can share the interesting experiences of being a ‘fish-out-of-water’.petite anglaise