Author: admin

My first impressions of the site were not good. What I now know to be a negative image of Tom’s visage stares back at you looking like something nasty from a B horror movie. I imagined reading the witterings of a sci fi geek or worse the ramblings of a violent thug.

I had been looking forward to reading through the web log after seeing the title, hoping for some wit and self deprecation. Fortunately the title gives a better indication than the picture.

The design is straightforward, simple and effective. The page has black text on white making it easy to read. It has a left side panel which contains the usual archives, about me including a disclaimer and lists of his stuff, most read web logs and an active most recently updated list of web logs. There are a host of adverts too and it was a little busy for my taste. The about me section was great however and an indication that the wit I was hoping for was present. There is some use of pictures and a gallery of pictures is referred to but has now been removed.

Tom’s site has archives back to August 2003 but I sense that this site has been going longer in one form or another. The first post certainly isn’t one of welcome or introduction and there are other hints to this throughout the posts.

The theme of the blog seems to centre on Tom’s life as a working family man trying with some success to bring up his brood. The posts generally report on the tribulations of living a busy life in a busy home. He regales us with stories of his wife, kids, pets, neighbours and his days at work. He is very self aware and honest and his almost 100% daily posting keeps us up to date with life in Illinois. He collects and discards enemies over time and his latest spat with a neighbour and his lawn mowing activities are highly amusing. His vernacular style works well and the posts are enjoyable and easy to read.

There was a letter from a “fan” decrying his occasional shift into self analysis and references to current issues or interesting asides. I liked this side of the blog and found his wit and style carried over from his reportage well.

The site makes occasional use of links but they open in the same page which is a hassle. They work and on the whole the site is easy to navigate around. There are some pictures and links which do not work further back in the archives however. A space issue perhaps?

There were occasional comments and a couple of regularish commentators. He occasionally asks for reader’s input and on the whole gets it.

On the whole I found this a great read and refreshing. Given more space in overloaded schedule I might become a regular reader.

As Tom suggests stupid is as stupid does. Give him a visit. I might keep coming back and I’d give it a well deserved 4 out of 5. It’s well above average.

stupidtom.com

When I think of a rudder, I think of the thing at the back of a boat to help steer the boat. So thus rudderless would imply no rudder, or no thing to help steer. This is a very good name for this blog as you will see.

When I first got to rudderless, I was impressed with the clean and crisp design. It looked like a lot of other sites, but still had its own flair. The standard two column layout and the entire thing is centered look is really taking off.

At first glance it seemed to me that there was an excessive amount of writing per post. The author was telling long stories with a lot of details. So I checked out the about page, and found out that there were actually two authors, and one sure enough was a copy editor.

Reading the posts was almost mundane. Yes there were differences between the posts based on topic and who the author was, but aside from big details mentioned in each post, it was almost hard to distinguish one author from the other. Most of the posts are about what is going in their life at that point in time. This can be anything from movies, to people they interact with, to music. Music is one thing that both authors have a serious passion for and it shows in their tastes.

The blog itself was never able to fully capture my attention. The long stories always seemed to have a depressed look on the situation, and the short posts are pretty standard. I don’t know of what the authors could do to have grabbed my attention better, I think it just wasn’t a good fit for me.

Overall this blog has its good points, and has its bad points. I was not able to connect with the authors for whatever reason, but I don’t expect to connect with every author. I would recommend checking this blog to see if you enjoy it. Don’t base your opinion on this blog without even giving it a chance. You might be surprised. rudderless.org

A blue head floats rather creepily on the left side of the page as you enter StupidTom’s domain. But at least it’s a smiling head, so I gather the courage to venture further. On his “About Me” page the author has a picture of himself with a little boy on his shoulders. He then proceeds to tell us if you want to know more about him, read what he has written, and that he writes every day. And I see that he has been doing just that since August 2003.

The entries are generally short to moderate in length and have an edginess to them. “Wiseacre” would be a good one word description of our author, but a generally good-natured one, who writes clearly and to the point. Though said points are often profanity laden, they are lighthearted, in a sort of “all male, all the time” style that are not unpleasant to read. He writes about all manner of things going on around him. Work, family, his struggles with mold and technology providers, and his artistic efforts in lawnmowing, and plastic melting. And he does most of this with a generous dose of humor.

He seems to lead a hectic life at a hectic pace but this does not prevent him from occasionally making a profound insight or two. In one entry he was bemoaning how polite casual conversations are unsatisfying so much of the time, and concludes with the following:

“Nobody has time to give anything but the standard replies to the same old questions. That’s sad. So blog on and let me know some Real things about your lives. Everything that someone writes, no matter what it is, tell something about the author.”

I found that I could not have agreed more with this statement.

There are pictures on many of the recent posts that liven up the dialog, and I noticed in the list of blogs he reads daily, a link to Wil Wheaton’s site. I of course felt an instant affinity to Tom because I read Wil too.

All in all, I enjoyed my visit. I think this is a guy’s guy kind of blog and would appeal to a no nonsense male audience.

stupidtom.com

I wasn’t sure what to make of the site when it appeared in front of me. I’m not the world’s greatest judge of colour co-ordination but the colour choices didn’t work for me. The name could have meant almost anything; so no clues as to where we were going. Unusually the post at the top of the page was the first. I learned from this that the web log is real new. Less than a month old.

A quick hop over to the about C-I link revealed the purpose of the site. An opinion’s site on the why’s and where fore’s of US politics. The parties are not spinning effectively enough for Mr Salyer and he wishes to set that straight and he has a right to his valid opinion.

At this point it kinda depends on the guy’s savvy as to whether this was gonna work for me. I’m a politics graduate and have done my time reading half baked politicalese. I wasn’t optimistic.

The design is straightforward. The text used is readable, blue on yellow. It has a left side panel which just didn’t fit in my browser (IE6). There are a bunch of links to blog related sites which seem cool. A links page to “insightful” stuff, the aforementioned about C-I page and an archives page which as yet does not contain any archived posts but a categorised list of Scott’s articles. Political, environmental and minutia. The majority of this works. A couple of links to Blogdump and Bloghop didn’t producing a file not found error.

Scott has posted fifteen times in his first month and kept to his political agenda for a couple of weeks before veering off into the world of “cool stuff on the web” and what he calls minutia. Trivia by a different name – and uninteresting trivia at that. The political and environmental posts tend to end prematurely and link to a fuller post on a separate page. I don’t get the reason for this. It makes reading a hassle. I don’t like that back button. He also links from the posts to his articles or small essays on the political and environmental issue du jour. Like I mentioned the guy’s political “savvy” was gonna make or break this for me and unfortunately it doesn’t work. His mission to make a better job of presentation proved impossible. His writing has a mixture of straight academia, vernacular, unsupported opinion and sarcasm. He appears to be politically naïve which is no bad thing, but the site doesn’t do what it says on the tin. It muddles the muddled.

The site makes a liberal use of links and they open in a new window which I like and all work. The down side was a porn pop up. I don’t need this kind of thing in my life thank you.

There is as yet no comment facility.

Eyesight to the blind it isn’t and still pecking it’s way out of the egg. Maybe Scott will go on to thrill and enlighten, but this reader will not be back to find out. I’d give it a 1 out of 5. Here’s hoping things improve.
Common-Insight

Common Insight posseses a simple layout with an appealing close up of an eye with the Earth reflected in it. This is a very new site containing only 15 entries. The author states in the About section that he started writing because of his frustration with shallow bickering in political thought, and wanted to see a deeper discussion take place. He intends to state his opinions and defend them, but remains open to new ideas. Hmmm, an open mind! Sounds interesting. Let’s check it out.

I began to read the entries, starting at the beginning. Imagine my surprise when the title of his first essay turned out to be ‘Why the Gay Marriage Debate is Over’. This did not quite jibe with the stated purpose of his site. But let’s not be too hasty, what else is in here?

Each entry contains numerous links to his essays or pertinent information elsewhere on the net. He admits there might be too many links and I would agree with him there. Topics range from politics to Extinction Level Events, including tsunamis, or whatever else captured his attention that day. When I clicked on a link to read an essay and then used the ‘back’ button, I was taken to more essays. This made it necessary to go back to the opening page and scroll down to the entry I had been reading, making for some frustrating navigation.

Since there are not that many entries and this blog is so new, it is hard to tell how it might evolve over time. If his stated purpose is to engage in intellectual debate, it would seem imperative to include a comment function, so we might join in, and see what other readers are saying. The only thing I found was his email address, which is fine, but one of the points of open debate is that it be…. well, open.

This site is very much like other political blogs. Lots of linkage, convicted opinion and succinct commentary on current events. However I think it fails in it’s stated purpose, which is a give and take of ideas with readers.

I would consider re-visiting this site in a few more months to see how it develops. In my opinion, it is a little too soon to tell. The potential is there, it just needs some tweaking.

Common-Insight