Author: admin

I’ve never read a weblog anything like this one. The entire thing is purely fiction.

The author has made it easier for us to read the weblog through like an actual story by using this link. I’d definitely recommend that if you’re thinking about giving this site a look. It makes much more sense reading it in that order as opposed to a backward chronological order.

The writing style of the entire site gets better over time. January 9, 2002’s entry was the first one I read, and right away, I knew I wanted to read how this weblog got to this point.



The layout of the site isn’t anything spectacular. The background looks as if it’s one of standard stationary templates that comes with Outlook Express, but the vine down the side actually goes along quite well with the whole idea of the site.



The only thing missing from this site that would have helped out in functionality is an archives section. There is an option to read from the very beginning, but if I happened to be a long time reader and just hadn’t gotten a chance to read it for a few days, it’s very tough to find out where you stopped.



If you’re a first time reader, start from the beginning. It starts off at just a novel concept, in my opinion, but as time goes on and the characters become more developed and the things that happen become more detailed, I found myself becoming more and more enthralled with Jamie each day.

Ravenstone

You can imagine the thoughts that were circling through my overactive imagination when I saw the title for this weblog. I was more than excited to click on any link that said Leather Condom. And I’d already prepared myself for it being strictly a shock-value title, but I liked that. It worked. It got me in the door – but could the writing make me want to stay?

This site did have condoms and it did have leather, but not quite what you would expect. The leather portion of the title was covered by a graphic used at the top of each page of a leather seat. I’m sure it has a fancy name, but I can’t think of it right now. And were there ever condoms! I was quite impressed with the Condom Trivia along the left hand side bar. I’ve never learned such information about this lovely form of contraceptive as I had by reading this information. Towards the end, I was half expecting a guide on how to wear one. Another nice touch to this site.

Through my entire visit of Leather Condom, I found many things that were very entertaining on a wide array of subject matter. I was glad to see that I wasn’t the only one that found Lord of the Rings to be boring – Emma experienced those same feelings when the Leather Condom first opened up shop in Dec 2001. I was also amused by Emma’s tales of bra shopping, her take on the slang that Americans use, and my personal favorite, an entry called “Was Jesus the result of heavy petting?”.



To touch base on the layout of the site, I would have to say it certainly worked for this site. No, there weren’t pictures of condoms slapped all over the site, but the black and white made things very clean to read. You’ve got an “about” section that’s quite thorough, other links that are definitely worth visiting, over a year’s worth of archives, and also some links to different posts that contain reviews on movies, music, etc.

Entertaining writing, great personality, and a dry sense of humor are some of the things that make this weblog one I’m adding to my bookmark list. Emma makes you laugh, makes you think, and might just have you coming back day after day to check things out. I’d give it a shot, and you might just find a new “favorite read”.

Leather Condom

This was the first travel-type weblog I’ve ever seen, let alone reviewed.

Our author takes us through his many journeys over the past years, traveling from all over Asia, South America, and Australia starting back in February of 2002.

The first entry started out on the flight to Delhi. Rhymer gives us information about the passengers he meets on the plane and those he encounters in the airport. I’ve always felt like airports and any group of people traveling are just thousands of stories waiting to be written, and Rhymer certainly takes advantage of these opportunities.



The menu of different travel entries you can choose from have a “P” in front of the entries, indicating there are supposed to be pictures in these entries. Finding the photos wasn’t as easy as it sounded, or maybe I just wasn’t thinking. It was until I started randomly clicking on things that I found the yellow arrow next to the word photos was actually a link to the photo section of each entry. And come to find out all of the little yellow triangles are different ways to navigate around the site.

After figuring everything out, I found Rhymer.net to be full of all kinds of information. You learn about not only the cultures and geography of foreign places you may never get to visit yourself, but you also get the chance to read about a traveler’s experiences, both good and bad, that give you an overall view of what it’s like to be in a different country. I, for one, don’t have any plans in the near future to do this kind of extensive traveling, so personally, this site was an educational experience of the utmost.

Rhymer’s writing, while very informative, is also very casual. Instead of reading like a tour guide pamphlet, Rhymer.net does read like an actual journal, making it an interesting to check back in on as Rhymer continues his travels around the world.

rhymer.net

Bust out the corn dogs and the forties and lets have ourselves a Big Picnic. (Blatantly stolen and modified from their site) But seriously, take the time out of the day to visit Big Picnic. Why you ask? For a number of reasons.

First we have the stories that are posted. They range in content categories from News to A & E to Tech to Comics and more. Each post is either backed by a fare amount of knowledge or the main poster (JNelsonW) is very good at feeding us BS. My guess is the former of the two.

The site is powered by Post Nuke which is an open source CMS. JNelsonW takes full advantage of all the features of the CMS including having notes about the posts, extended entries, free registration for the site, allowing others to comment on the site and submit their own news. Most people do not use the Nuke software to the fullest, but like the posts that are written – the knowledge is shown.

The design of the site is rather interesting to say the least. Of course when I think of Big Picnic I think of grass. So what better than to have a picture of blades of grass with the words Big Picnic across them as the logo? But then the site goes into a slate color with white text which doesn’t seem to flow with the “picnic” idea. However, given that a logo has very little to do with the sites ability to perform, it is nothing to worry about. Over all the design works for the site.

Big Picnic really is just that, a Big Picnic. Fun times can be had while reading this site, and you can even partake in it yourself by registering for an account. Make sure you check out the Big Picnic for an enjoyable day.
Big Picnic

I like a well-organized, well-designed blog. Big Picnic was immediately attractive to me for this reason. It has a simple yet interesting feel. It has a professional look to it, which clued me in that there would be some good writing.

Big Picnic is only a few months old [or, at least only has a few months worth of entries]. It offers commentary on current events, links, and various reviews. The commentary is involved and interesting. An interesting piece is the writer’s contemplation of sumo wrestling. A good percentage of the entries are well written and thought provoking.

Extras include a section of links, ability to post news bits, member listing [those that have accounts], good search capability, a store with Big Picnic merchandise, and categorical archives. There is an About link, but it doesn’t really link to anything that could be construed as informational. One could consider the ability to create an account at Big Picnic an extra, but I found no good reason to create an account. If you want to leave a comment that includes your name, you have to create an account and log in. I’m an instant gratification type of girl, and needing an account to properly comment interferes with that.

I really do like the look of this blog. It’s a clean and professional look, and site navigation is obvious. I do recommend making a change to the archival setup. You have to scroll through six pages before getting to the first post, and I’m not sure that all entries even came up through the archives list. I think I would prefer just a list of titles with the dates. One other thing I would recommend is putting up Next and Previous links with each entry to make navigation just a little friendlier.

I might visit Big Picnic again in the future. The thing that’s stopping me from really being enthusiastic about the blog is my confusion over navigating the archives. Overall, Big Picnic is a good blog and worth a read.

Big Picnic