Author: admin

Ibidem is Latin for “in the same place,” and usually shortened to “ibid.” in footnotes to say “go see that place I just referred to earlier”. Which is appropriate for this weblog, since it’s got links a-plenty. Jesus Gil is a U.S. expat journalist living in Madrid, Spain. His blog is links to news about global politics, culture, religion, the occasional meme, and of course soccer. (His blog’s URL is a tribute to Madrid’s soccer — er, football — team. I also take it that “Jesus Gil” is a pseudonym, and that he is not the same Jesus Gil who is the president of said team and who was recently jailed for forgery and embezzlement.)

Ibidem has a variety of news sources, with many (not surprisingly) from Europe, and so has links to articles that I wouldn’t ordinarily find. His coverage of the recent tanker spill off Spain was really good. As with most news blogs, I enjoy ibidem most when it’s got commentary on the news, as well as the links. He’s got interesting opinions and it would enrich the site if he shared them more often. Occasionally there will be a more personal essay, such as his advice on tipping in Spain or a conversation with his son about skeletons that gets him thinking about innocence and imagination.

The design is functional, but nothing special. It’s not going to win any awards. But it’s legible and appropriate for the site. Ibidem includes a lengthy list of general blogs and another of religious blogs, especially Catholic ones. He has comments, a search function (using Atomz, which I use too — it’s easy!), a Daypop search bar, and on online referral log (using this script — for an alternate one try yaywastaken). He also has the “links open new windows” checkbox from randomwalks which really should be standard on all blogs.

In all, I’d say Ibidem is worth checking out for its interesting perspective on the news. Plus, where else are you going to read about Madrid’s soccer team?Ibidem

Ibidem’s all about “same news, but different…” This is what “jesus gil,” ibidem’s apparent webmaster, announces in introducing his plain vanilla Blogspot weblog — and I was immediately off to discover how “different” this “same news” was…

Jesus gil casts his net wide. His blog is a succession of hyperlinks leading to big media stories on mostly everything: oil slicks, Harry Potter, surgical tags for sex offenders, Iranian women in the fight for democracy, FISA’s secret court, Marge Simpson’s breast job… You name it, jesus gil has it.

Ibidem’s plain presentation won’t tire your eyes, but I felt the page was just too bare-bones. A column of links to other blogs on the left-hand side includes a substantial component of Religious Blogs, but ibidem’s posted material did not indicate any special focus on religion (although the use of an alias like ‘jesus jil’ probably points in one particular direction).

Typically, jesus gil inserts a paragraph or two from the news story, leaving it up to the reader to follow the link and read the actual source. Sometimes, the post is just a bare link without even the sample paragraph(s). There’s little commentary or counterview. Links take you to mainly common mainstream media.

Straightforward links to news stories hardly produce “same news” that is “different.” I couldn’t find anything while reading ibidem to support jesus gil’s header claim.

“Different” could have been asserted perhaps if there were some form of specialist commentary; or maybe an innovative cross-reference job showing how a main, high-visibility news story originates in less than credible information or deliberate distortion of the facts.

With Bloggosphere swarming with News/Links blogs, any “blog master” with even the slightest claim to fame and originality is hard pressed to work out an interesting formula. Ibidem hasn’t got this formula yet. Posts come from all points of the compass — and are not integrated with any opinions or points of view of the blog master.

A mark of 3 is all that I give imbidem. I don’t see a target audience and I can think of better and faster ways of reading the news.Ibidem

I was pretty pleased to have Kimzie as the first camgirl site I’ve reviewed. Unlike a lot of the other cam sites out there, when first arriving at Kimzie, you aren’t greeted with ten billion pop up ads linking to other cam sites.

Kimzie’s blog is kind of sporadic as the entries go, most months there’s only a handfull, but the ones that are there are fairly entertaining. I did enjoy reading the whole blog. The author is also the owner of a site called Mood Smilies, which seems pretty useful for adding emotions into weblogs.

Of course Kimzie has cams, one of which wasn’t working. I’m not going to eat the author’s lunch for that though, web cams are notorious for going down without any good reason. I thought the site design was superb, easy to navigate and pleasing to the eye.

Kimzie has some pretty cool bonus features as well. There is a guest map, which is like a guestbook, but you make your entry on a certain place on a map of the globe denoting where you are from. There’s instant messaging built into the site. The Archives worked well. I loved the photo gallery of course, thats worth a trip to the site in itself.

I’m giving Kimzie a 3 because I enjoyed my time there, it was easy to navigate, and had everything you expect a camgirl site to have, and quite a bit more. You can tell the author knows her way around a computer. I think Kimzie would have done better if there were more substantive posts, or just more posts. An about section would have helped too. All in all though, not a bad site at all. I enjoyed my time there. Three stars, check it out. Kimzie

Here is a guy who is apparently comfortable in his own shoes and reasonably content with his life. That much is apparent from his blog. His writing, the tone, even the design of the page makes this apparent, which is quite enjoyable among all the other trite ‘i-have-a-bad-ass-attitude’ blogs.

Though there are a few grammar and spelling errors around, basically Wigg writes coherently and light-heartedly. You feel a little smile forming when you read about his life, even when he is complaining about a bad day. Everything is straightforward and clear here, from the blog itself to his ‘about me’ and pictures section. No flowery prose, no complicated designs. Just a friendly guy writing about his life with a few corny (but pleasing) jokes added.

I personally found the color combination on Wigg.net quite eye-pleasing. The two cartoon characters (presumably Wigg and fiancee) are a cute touch. The archive links may confuse newcomers at first, as there are too many similarly named links – “archives”,
“old.wigg.net”, “old.666”, “old writing” and so on.

Overall, the whole site says ‘nice’. If you are tired of blogs that are used as personal punching bags, visit Wigg.net for a refreshing change. Things are pleasant and light here.

Wigg.net

The title of this site does not reflect on the writing abilities of Mike, who is a fourteen year-old blogger who has a way with writing frank and simple entries. No he is not neurotic, at least he certainly does not give one this impression. Maybe it is we the reading public who is all suffering some nasty neurosis, and it is Mike’s goal to write about the sometimes wild and crazy world in which we live.

Basically this blog is written to tell the reader about a typical life of a teenager who hates school but loves music. Nothing more and nothing less. If one believes the long list of aesthetics on the sidebar, then one would quickly conclude that he is infatuated with all
kinds of music. But it is strange that if this were so then music rarely appears in any of his entries. Except some blurbs about a marching band, so we can guess that he probably plays a musical instrument. But this is only guessing. In fact, reading between the lines in this blog is often guess work. Good and challenging guesswork that is.

As far as the style and colors, nice and simple but nothing exceptional. There seems to be some problem with the archive file colors, as they are nearly impossible to read. Maybe you need to look into this Mike?

It is always nice to see that the youth today likes to express itself through the writing of blogs. These works are often down to earth and straight forward, just like the blog called Neurosis. This is an okay site, so come and visit, especially if you are a teenager looking for others with similar high-school experiences to share. Or just another adult like myself passing by. Mike, you are not neurotic. Keep on writing anyway.Reservations