Month: November 2002

Derek writes about nearly everything imaginable. Political ramblings that are often quite opinionated (which is a good thing), happenings in his personal life, the occassional technical/geeky tidbit of information, and many, many other topics are the subject matter at hand throughout the weblog. The way Derek writes is quite thought provoking, and typically will make you think about what you’ve just read, rather than just skimming over it and going to the next weblog.




I like going back to read an author’s very first available entry. Usually it gives an insight as to why they might have started blogging, and it seems as if Derek’s start to weblogging can be somewhat credited to his accidental discovery of Wil Wheaton’s weblog.




The design is based on a three column layout, and overall, has a very nice, clean appearance. I love the picture he uses at the top of the site. Navigating the site is easy, as well as finding lots of information Derek was filled the left and right columns with.




The site contains several different areas, all named after specific rooms of a house. “The Study” is the home of some of Derek’s original poetry. “My Back Yard” is a wonderful collection of some very nice photography that’s laid out in a very appealing format. “The Window”, of course, is his weblog. And appropriately enough, “The Guest Room” and “The Neighbors” house the guestbook and external links, respectively.




There’s an “about the author” section and a section about the site. This is a very complete, well designed and well organized site.The Window

A journey. By reading this weblog, I felt as if I’d been in the backseat of this journey that the author’s life has taken over the course of the last 10 months. Keeping this in mind, Tricia has very appropriately named her website “A Spiritual Journey”.

Focused mainly on her personal life and the events that invoke her daily feelings, Tricia spends a lot of time spilling her thoughts out onto this weblog. She’s a single mom with two young boys (which are both extremely handsome!), and shares the pains and the joys that make her life what it is to her.

Currently, Tricia’s going through an analyzation of each of the 7 Deadly Sins and how they play out in her daily life. It’s no easy task, but undoubtedly a self-fulfilling one. My favorite post out of the entire weblog was this one – a resume of her heart, complete with professional experience, accomplishments, and even an objective.

At first, I thought the dark green background with light yellow text would be a hindrance to read, but soon grew attached to it. I even flipped through the other skins of the site, which all worked well with the site as a whole, but kept coming back to the default one.

The site is very extensive, which is a good thing. There’s a complete “about the author” section, some wonderful thoughts on motherhood, and you can learn quite a bit about Wicca and paganism.

This is a good site to come back to if you’re looking to add a site to your list of daily reads, and definitely worth at least one look to see if it’s “your type”.A Spiritual Journey || Magickal Musings

The author is on a “Search for Love in Manhattan” of which he describes a gay odyssey of neurosis. Said odyssey is entertaining, and very identifiable to those looking for Mr. or Mrs. Right.

I wanted to read SO much more from this author. I’m not kidding. Maybe it’s because I identified so well with his search for someone that uses punctuation correctly, pronounces all those fancy-schmancy words correctly like “cache” like they were meant to be said, and identifying the shape and proper name of a dessert, but I think it’s mainly because the guy behind the words at “Search for Love in Manhattan” is a personable writer – a VERY personable writer.

There aren’t very many entries to read through, and I was sorely disappointed. Of course, I don’t expect the author to put a slow down on his quest for love just to entertain the internet-viewing audience. The overused cliché that fits best here, though, is definitely quality rather than quantity, and I’d much rather have it that way. This month’s accounts do look promising, though, as there are already four entries and it’s only June 10.

The design doesn’t at all distract from the weblog itself, as it’s a standard Blogger template. Could it have had a better design? Sure, it could. But what site couldn’t use a better design?

The only thing that I would have liked to see on this site that I didn’t come across was an “about the author” section. Maybe the author’s intention is for readers to wonder about all the specifics that could be conjured up in one’s head just by reading about someone’s life. If that was the goal, then it was certainly achieved. I’d still like to know more, though.

And I’d like to apologize in advance to the author if any glaring grammatical or punctuation errors exist in my review!The Search for Love in Manhattan

The random number ‘168’ for the title of a weblog: clever, mysterious and technical at the same time. The author of this extensive site is Yazid. He is a fourteen year old who was born and raised in Brunei. This country is in Southeastern Asia, bordering the South China Sea and Malaysia. Yazid started blogging last year October when his current site was born. As he writes in his very first entry, “..And here, thy one.sixty.eight thoughts was born, to reek havoc through-out the cyber world…” This site looks good and is a pleasure to read, providing a refreshing break from all the usual blah-blah weblogs, via the thoughts and actions of Yazid himself.



In no time at all he has collected quite a number of detailed entries covering just about every aspect of his life. Yazid’s favorite thing to do in the weekend is what he calls “slack” around. If you are wondering what this means exactly, I quote from an entry titled: Just another episode in the mall. “Boredom kicked in and everyone thought it would be a good idea to go to the arcade. so played a few rounds. got out, and out of nothing-to-do-ness, we all went back to play a few rounds of pool again. we all agreed whoever lost the game would pay for the table.” This is not a typical entry, but to be honest there is no typical entry to be found as each one comes and goes in its own unique way.



What does a fourteen year old write about? Well this weblog provides pretty much a complete answer to that question. You might say that his many words and sentences span the complete spectrum of emotions form extreme boredom, to being head-over-heals in love, to producing social comments about this or that. An advertisement for Wendy’s, a book he saw, why he thinks that James Bond is the coolest guy out there, getting pissed off on a flight, those sort of things. Sometimes Yazid can come across as a bit too much fixated on the opposite sex, but what do you expect from a young healthy male at that age?



The value of ‘168’ is after all not that random, I would say. This very readable weblog proves this fact. If you do not understand what this means, then I recommend highly just having a look here to see if you can discover why ‘168’ is not any other kind of number. Hey Yazid, keep up the good work.WtF

My first thought on visiting The Blissfully Bitter Blog was “Well, this should be easy, its a blogger template site, there are no archives, pretty simple, okay layout, easy review.”. Well, what is that saying? ‘Still waters run deep’? On cursory examination of this site there is not a whole lot to it. Until you start reading, and read I did, and read, and read, and read, and I loved every minute of it.



This weblog doesn’t have archives (as yet as the author notes) and even though I strongly believe that archives are one of the most important aspects of a weblog, I have to say, that this site doesn’t need them. The author, in her own words, doesn’t use her blog as a diary, she only uses it for ‘stupid quizzes’ and venting. How can such a weblog recieve a 4.5 from me? Well if you look (just a little bit) past the blogger template, you find the authors main site. I don’t have enough room in this review to even come close to writing about how much content this site has. The author is a web designer, and a writer. A REAL writer. Anyone who would disagree with me I challenge them to read the articles entitled ‘White Trash Honeymoon’, ‘Everything Is Coming Up Roses’ and ‘Just Say No To Love’. My favorite line of her writing (from ‘Roses’); “A bunch of flowers ripped from their roots and wrapped in plastic delivered to me to rot in my fridge for two weeks. How nice. This says, “Our love, like these roses, is expensive and will eventually rot and die.” When you follow the link to the main site (listed under ‘OttoIgnatius’ on the left side menu) you come to find a treasure of information about the author which includes all of her writing, pictures, and a hilarious and extensive biography. Trust me, you will know this author.



When you go to this weblog, please follow thie ‘Ottoignatious’ link on the left hand side, and click on the ‘Written Word’ typewriter photo to the right. Thats where the real gems are. Ten minutes after I did my printer was making copies of two articles that the author wrote (I read twenty two of them, I even forwarded one story to my mom). These articles make you appreciate the internet, without its free flowing exchange of ideas and writing, I would never have read what I did today.



In summation, I read a blog that did not have archives, used a blogger template, had broken links (‘resume’ was one but if you are not looking to hire someone who cares) and yet I still spent the early afternoon and most of my evening reading. Oh yea, did I mention that the author is a web designer and the site I reviewed said to ‘come back later, this site is in the middle of a huge update. please bookmark and come back later.’ I’m glad I didn’t. Had I not had to dig for all the content I found I would have given this site a ‘5’, but I guess thats what happens when a writer starts a weblog, they think about what is in between the cover and back page and concentrate on what is in between.

Blissfully Bitter Blog