Author: admin

On arrival at creating space 101 now entitled ‘squeeze’ you are immediately presented with a fairly standard blogger template with but a few adaptations to colour, layout and with the edition of a rather large orange slice as a banner – the tagline reads ‘fresh, tangy ideas’. That sounded promising, and after reading the small about me section in the left hand menu I headed off in search of the archives.

Squeeze has been in existence since September 2003, and the vast majority of postings are of a personal nature. My initial readings were a little frustrating due to occasional character problems ‘today… it’s’ being just an example. I appreciate however this has more to do with the authors keyboard, and is not intentional, at least I hope not!. That aside, on the whole I found that the author’s style was simple and easy to follow, although not overly fond of the shift key it seems because capital letters are hardly ever utilised. As I said most of the entries are of a personal nature, generally describing life events as they happen interspersed with the odd meme. Now the vast majority of entries failed to grab me at all, but one or two did manage to stand out from the crowd – generally when the author really unleashed, let go of the shackles and got reflective. It wasn’t life changing stuff, but it was interesting in a learning about the individual kind of way.

The design is a simple adaptation of a generic blogger template, clearly the author of this blog likes orange – not only do we have a slice of orange as a central theme in the banner but all the graphic lines and fonts are orange too. There’s nothing seriously wrong with that if orange is your thing, the text was clear and easy to read after all. Some interesting links reside in the left hand column, some of which are worthy of further exploration.

On the whole Squeeze isn’t all that bad as blogspot sites go, it’s a fair enough contribution to this world we call blog – the design isn’t dazzling but has enough touches to make it truly individual, and the content although personal contains the occasional interesting post. It isn’t a blog I would frequent on a regular basis, but one maybe worthy of a look in every now and again. I do believe most entries are tailored towards people who reside in this authors social circle, as knowledge of the people who are mentioned here is essential to understanding half the posts. Not really spectacular but showing some potential for the future – 2.5creating a space 101

The look of the blog was very simple. It was clean cut with just a text box and a small amount of links on the side bar. There was no clutter, and there was nothing at all to take your eyes away, or distract from the main text blog. It was simple, clean and very easy on the eyes!

This weblog is an online problem page. The blog is based on the fact that people, all ages, write into “Bubby” who is a grandmother of 88. She then offers the readers various bits of advice and tries to guide them through any difficult times that they may be having. The problems that are answered range on every subject available, which includes friends that cannot dance, smelly workplaces, recipes for cookies, and failures of relationships.

When you look at this blog, you get from it what you want. You may take it seriously and get some good advice on life, or it may make you titter with some of the problems and answers, or you may just think it is all a wind up and that both Bubby and the readers are fictitious. Whatever, I bet that reading this will make you smile in some way.

The design is very simple and very clear. There is nothing at all on the weblog that distracts you, or tries to temp you away from itself. There are no long lists of links, no other sites to lead you astray. The site boasts a few nominations which adds to its credibility.

The main bonus is that it is such a refreshing site that is like no other that I have come across before!! I have never seen a problem page weblog, and whether you take it seriously, with a pinch of salt, or with your tongue firmly in your cheek, it is different! It makes, well I thought so, a refreshing change to the norm. If you are looking for it, there are some valuable pieces of life help on this site.

I liked this blog, and I think that I liked it because it was very different to anything that I have seen. It is a great idea to have a problem page online that is accessible to everyone. I liked it because it made me smile. I liked it because it was simple and because every entry was something different as you never know what question is going to be asked and answered nextso you never know what to expect next as you move onto the next entry. Help Me Bubby

When I originally reviewed Tikun Olam, there were a number of errors with regards to the url that caused a bit of a problem with actually getting to the site. Now that the url problems are fixed, I have decided to re-review the site and give it a new chance without that problem hurting me or the site.

Tikun Olam is entitled Make the World a Better Place. There are many ways that this could be achieved and thus there are many categories that this blog could fall under, but personal seems to be the best. Speaking of categories, the author has broken his site down by categories, fifteen to be exact.

While there are categories such as Gardening and Kids and Outdoors, the majority of the recent posts are about politics. Now I am not about to get into that left or right wing type thing, just know that he is posting a lot about the topic right now. This topic is by far his most used, but the break down of other categories is very nice. I especially liked reading the Food and Drink section as well as the Technology and Weblogs area. It was interesting to read someone else’s opinion on these topics.

The design itself is rather bland: green and yellow banner at the top and a two-column layout with the navigation on the right. The only plus for this is that he is using an original color scheme. But at the same time, the design does not hurt the site and really works with the weblog as it leaves a lot of room for the very lengthy posts.

Reading the archives is a bit different. While I understand the reason for separating them out by category, I am still wishing there was the option to read by date. The author’s intent is that people will come for certain topics, and not for the entire blog. My thought is that people come for the entire blog, and skip over certain topics. I may enjoy twelve out of his fifteen categories and not want to have to read twelve pages each time I visit the site just so I can catch up with it.

Overall we have a very well written site with a lot of information to offer. While I am not too keen on the break down of the archives, I can understand why he is doing it that way. If you have some time to sit down and actually read a weblog, then this is a good choice for you as there is plenty of stuff to read.
Tikun Olam: Make the World a Better Place

It’s not very often that a site I’m supposed to be reviewing turns out to be one I read through so quickly I’m disappointed there’s not more to read. When I found my way to “The S-Train Canvass” today, I was more than pleased to find myself breezing through the site not only enjoying what I was reading, but also actually taking something away from reading the author’s daily entries.

The entries that can be found here have subject matters all across the board – there’s a little bit of sports, bits about his African pride, the occasional political post, and, without sounding overly cliché, the list goes on and on. Each post is written with the terminology, sentence structure, and general understanding that nearly every person that stumbles upon this site will be able to understanding what they’re reading.

There are two different people that post to this site – “S-Train” and “Aysel”. For the most part of the posts on the site, you’ll find that S-Train is responsible for the updating. It’s only within the last couple of months that Aysel has joined the posting ranks for The S-Train Canvass.

The layout shows up in what seems to be the standard weblog layout as of late – a main column for the actual weblog content and a smaller column along the side containing anything from links to other weblogs to information about the people that are posting at the site. The original logo at the top of the site, designed by Aysel, is a great start to a layout. The rest of the layout looks a little “clumsy”, for lack of a better word – the black borders around the boxes are on the verge of becoming a bit too overwhelming. It doesn’t take away from the reading, though, which is the reason why people visit weblogs, isn’t it?

Honestly, there’s not one thing I could think of that could be added or changed to this site to make it a better weblog to read.

The S-Train Canvass

I’ve never quite seen a weblog like this one before. It has three entries. One in 2004, one in 2003, and the other one covering 2000 and 2001 – this is it for this weblog. And it’s all on one page.

The title in black text at the top: “Natural Physique Development: TRAINING JOURNAL” clearly explains right off the bat what type of a weblog viewers are stumbling into when finding this site. Followed by the title is a quote of some sort: “It’s not about where you are right now, it’s about the direction you’re moving in.” This is Gavin’s weblog of the direction he’s moving in the form of developing his physique.

There’s nothing to the layout. There’s one page with a gray background, and black text. Gavin’s posted a few pictures for people to see his progress. That’s it.

This weblog isn’t one I’d recommend. Personally, I came away with nothing from the site. If Gavin is trying to convey a diary of sorts about developing one’s natural physique, there definitely needs to be more information for people to resort back to during their attempt at bettering themselves. If it’s just a personal record of Gavin’s self improvement, then it’s not something that really fits into the weblog category.

Natural Physique Development