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Chum Bucket. Having been raised by an outdoorsman, I knew what a chum bucket was. In case you don’t here is Webster’s on it : 1. animal or vegetable matter (as chopped fish or corn) thrown overboard to attract fish.

Now you know.

The page is a three column layout, which is not my favorite. I feel all that stuff on both sides is a bit distracting to the main attraction, which should be the writing. But it is well organized and everything seemed to be in working order.

I was amused though by the goofy guy with bugs in his teeth at the top of the page, and was starting to look forward to some fun. My hopes were dashed pretty quickly however as I began to read the entries.

It took me a while, but I finally found an entry that explained a little about where our author was coming from. If I were you, I would read this entry first: Saturday 02.07.04 [12:15 am] .
Here he states his desire to become a stand up comedian. And it sounds like he has had some experience with it too. He also describes a little of his philosophy of comedy. After performing with a group of other people, it sounds like he had an epiphany. He describes it thusly: “It was the realization that most of the people on this planet aren’t aware of what surrounds them. I made it my lifetime goal to show you.”
He compares himself to several comedians, George Carlin among them.

Now, to the writing itself. While I give him credit for an active imagination, (he is very clever at making up names for imaginary diseases for one thing) I am afraid that he spoils his brilliance by being shockingly crude and insulting.

I am no student of humorists, but I can think of two who have been able to pull off this tightrope kind of humor. George Carlin is one, and Don Rickles the other. But you have to admit, that even they go too far sometimes. George is a New York curmudgeon on steroids. He’s grouchy. He’s cranky. He’s pessimistic. But he’s not MEAN.

Now I will admit that what is funny to one person is offensive to another and that we are talking about subjective stuff here. But the reason I am delving so deep into this, is that the author of this blog thinks that you have something to learn and he is here to teach you.

He says:”Nothing is sacred in comedy folks.” Which is a quote from a response to someone who commented on his blog. Well, I disagree. (and so did many of the people who commented.)

What is sacred, is the connection between you and your audience. It is a delicate balance that you enter into when you listen to or read comedy. I feel that our author has chosen a comedic path that, no matter how breathtakingly honest it may be, will probably not resonate with a wide audience. The insulting style, the crudity, and the just plain meanness of it, ceases to amuse pretty quickly. Contempt for your listeners, will never draw them into your circle. Without an audience, there is no comic.

It wouldn’t be honest of me to say that there is absolutely no humor to be found on this blog, because I DID laugh a few times. But overall, I ended up feeling abused by the content, and the delivery.

And there’s nothing funny about that.

ChumBucket

I must be mad. I’ve just a horrible experience reviewing a comedy site and here we go with another one. But hey, it couldn’t be as bad… surely. The self deprecating comments in the banner hint at something a little wittier.

I liked the look of the site. A simple design with a left side panel. A nice blue, my favourite colour and easy to read black on white text. The usual about me, why this site and other links sit in the panel along with a working calendar that ferries you to and from posts. My only gripe here is that the calendar returns to the latest month when you access a particular post. That aside the links work. There is also a comment board which is cool. The banner is a home page icon which is always useful.

There is the occasional use of pictures and links which all work. There is a comments facility and this sometimes generated some interesting and occasionally funny moments. These interactions were particularly good when other comedians offered advice and assistance to the young man.

The author has just made a decision to think about making a decision to pursue a career in comedy as a writer. He is too shy to perform. His web log is a mixture of his thoughts and feelings about making this decision, his disbelief at being able to write funny material – he is a comedy magnet for good ideas (his words!) and his material. Comedy is so subjective, but I was pretty much mildly amused throughout. His comedy is situational in the Seinfeld, “what’s the deal with…” mould.

Some of the material was a little underdeveloped and could do with working on, but there were some real high points. Boxing got me laughing out loud and the Victory Q is a great story well told.

The site has been up and running since January 2004 and although he isn’t a prodigious blogger he has posted regularly enough since. There is a wealth of material here should he finally take the plunge and get up in front of an audience.

I’ve enjoyed this second comedy experience. The web log is reasonably well designed and written. At times I laughed out loud and have enjoyed his journey towards the bottom rung of the show business ladder. A three out of five.
I think I want to be a comedian.

Ahh… Yetzirah. I entered the page with a feeling of anticipation (one of those hunches you cannot quite understand). The name of course, had to belong to a woman. My hunch was right as a flowered site wallpaper greets the visitor. However, I found no title on the blog upon first entering. The overall design of the site I found to be rather “homely”. Kind of reminds you of Grandma’s kitchen and my first impression was that I’d be reading about the baking troubles of a cute grandmother. I felt the anticipation receding a little… And I began to think whether it would be worth the read. The site was easy enough to navigate, with calendars for archives and an index page, newest entry and first entry, links to take you back to the welcome page, links for sites she enjoys (only two though). I have to point out that there were no links to other blogs on her site that I could find. And the “friends” link in the side menu was broken.

My feeling of anticipation came back as I began reading the brief “about” middle bar. It displays a picture of a wood, beckoning us into Yetzirah’s forest. A brief description tells us she is Jewish, born in the fifties, married and with an obsession for writing. She calls herself a writer (and immediately the stakes are up, for when one calls himself or herself a “writer”, we readers begin to expect nothing if not good writing). Yetzirah goes on to explain the meaning of her name (a Kabbalistic term for a spritual world) and gently tickles our curiosity by announcing “chilling” posts on Pre Menopausal Syndrome, a make believe world called Bogwillow, her therapist (which she wants us to meet) and the inherent promise of a good time. Underneath this description we find her post highlights and that’s where I began to read. With a non-stop smile on my face.

Yetzirah’s post are nothing short of one’s expectations. They are witty, funny and never boring. Her highlights do her writing justice. I especially loved this post, where she describes a therapy session in her tub with all her writing devices (as she calls them); all imaginary characters, present in the tub with her. One cannot help but laugh at these characters: her therapist, a rubber ducky, the quirky residents of Bogwillow: Tilly, Milly, Chloe, Thaddeus of the Pack Rat fur hats, the Bogwillow Journal editor and The Oracle of Pupik (a hilarious omnipresent character). The interesting part is that they, at one point or another, represent Yetzirah’s Super Ego, Ego and Alter Ego. Talk about witty and insightful! Other highlights which I found funny where her “Consult the Oracle post”, where the Oracle of Pupik answers reader’s questions; her adventures trying on makeup for her son’s wedding; her Dr. Rubber Duckie therapy sessions; her very insightful (and downright hilarious) critique called “Catcher in the Rye…Reloaded” and I’m not even mentioning her Menopause rants. Hey, what more can I add? All her highlight posts are worth reading.

Regarding her “normal” posts, they range from gardening (she has her beloved peach trees and her blackberries) to her opinions on saved e-mails that occupy space on your hard drive to her troubles with a washing machine. Whatever Yetzirah writes of, you can be sure it will be worth a read and a laugh. I found her writing to be brilliant (in all honesty). A cute grandma that bakes cookies all day, she most definitely isn’t (not that there’s anything wrong with this).

Yetzirah is a sensitive, very out-of-the-ordinary woman with an ability to arouse your interest on even the most trivial things. A true writer with a writer’s soul… She is going into my list of favorites right away.

I give Yetzirah a 4.5 only because of the template which I just couldn’t find visually appealing (the flowers, the kitchen thing). I honestly think it does not do her blog justice. Had it not been for that, she would have received a 5. Nevertheless, her 4.5 comes through with a round of applause. And now my hands are sore, but hey, it was worth it.

Yetzirah

What words come to mind when you taste a fortune cookie? Inoffensive? Mild? The fortune cookie has this quality about it that will keep it smack dab in the center of the public’s hierarchy of favorite foods. It’s fitting that this site is called Fortune Cookie because it’s your average, run-of-the-mill, cookie-cutter (no pun intended) blog.

Fortune Cookie is the daily diary of a young woman named Susan. To Susan’s and maybe 95% of the website owning population’s credit, she’s the same age as me and leads a more active and interesting life. Well, a life interesting enough to blog about anyway. As always with blogs like this, a look at a whole day’s worth of entries turns into an exercise in stream of consciousness. There are no boundaries to what Susan will write about and that does keep things interesting. The problem is that there’s not much written about anything. There are exceptions, but most entries remind me of Police Blotters: time, place, who, and what. Many entries are intended for Susan’s friends to read. Filling out the rest of the entries are photos.

The site isn’t hard to navigate. The main entries are in the center while the rest of the site’s content are on the right hand side of the page. Extra content like her likes/dislikes, movies/tv shows she’s seen, etc., provide a closer look into Susan’s personality.

Fortune Cookie is not a bad website at all. However, I think most people outside of Susan’s circle won’t enjoy the site without getting deeper involved in her previous entries. I give this site a 3.
Fortune Cookie

Upon entering Counting Sheep, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Blog descriptions are something I usually appreciate, as this blog had none, I was left to a silent reverie on what it might contain. The diary of an insomniac maybe?

In any case, a simple, easy-to-the eyes, blue-beige design greeted me. Nothing spectacular. But nothing to complain about either.

As I scrolled down I encountered some pleasant surprises.

The much appreciated “About” section I found to be very complete, you can tell the author feels comfortable revealing facts about herself: Jo is a 30 year old woman married to a “Brit” (her words). She lives in Massachusetts and works as an applications developer. She goes on to mention the characters that have a say in her blog (Cast of Characters) and she finally ends with a paragraph on her hobbies and interests. More information on Jo I found in the “Some things you might want to know” section. She lets you in on the fact that her husband is older and she probably will not have children plus some other things of interest. Immediately a type of intimacy is created between the reader and the author. The blog also features a gastronomy site with her recipes (she is a marvelous cook) and another site dealing with her gardening. This is the type of blog which could never be criticized for lacking information on the author. The rest of the sidebar includes links to other blogs (many of them), a photo album, what she’s listening to and reading, recent posts and recent comments.

Then it was time for the archives. I dived right into them (the oldest archive was February 2004). As I read Jo, I felt pretty much at ease. Her writing is precise, intelligent and flows naturally. She discusses issues that range from house decorating to amusing stories on her husband’s hard time with American idioms and expressions. She opens a door into her life and we learn of her plans to travel, her views on work, anecdotes of her marriage, her ancestors, and her opinions on music. Jo is a well-read woman who knows how to deliver. The lengths of her entries vary from very long ones to some that contain barely a few lines. In my opinion, she is usually at her best when she speaks of “husband” (as she so tenderly calls him), her home, family and work life and her thoughts on music. Some of her other posts on random issues such as news, the internet, etc. (which are difficult to describe as they deal with miscellaneous topics) I found to be rather uninteresting when compared to the highlights I mentioned above.

I finished reading her blog with this thought in mind: “What would it be like to be Jo for a day?” I seldom ask myself this question when reading blogs. But Jo has painted a very unique picture of a simple, peaceful life with husband, dog, music and cooking. I give Jo a 4.5. A good, out-of-the-ordinary, well-written blog. If it hadn’t been for the shorter posts, where I sometimes felt lost and/or disappointed, or the fact that I never really did understand the name of her blog, I’d have given her a 5. But 4.5 is really good anyway. If you like intelligent and tenderly amusing blogs, I suggest you give Counting Sheep a try.

Counting Sheep