Author: admin

Dave, a seventeen year old from the UK, started this blog almost a year ago. He says in his first post, “It will be kinda nice to write some of my thoughts onto a page, even if they don’t make any sense, and I end up just babbling on about Michael Jackson.”

Dave is an enormous fan of Michael Jackson. In fact, his blog’s title bar contains a photo of Michael Jackson. The blog is also a really pretty purple color and has a clean look about it. In March of 2004 he comes clean as to why he is a Michael Jackson fan and it’s a good read. With all the bizarro events surrounding Mr. Jackson for so long, it is nice to get to know people who still consider themselves his fans.

But Dave doesn’t only talk about Michael Jackson. There are more things on his mind than just MJ’s legal battles and the Neverland Ranch. He posts about the war in Iraq, drinking too much at football games, and loads about life at his school.

I’m such a push-over for reading anyone’s blog who is English because I’m one of those Americans who openly wishes I said “chips” for fries or “shedewel” for schedule, so Dave’s blog does not disappoint. I mean, reading a June 2004 entry that starts off with “Today I went to Leicester University, to have a good nose about, checking out what it had to offer” well, who doesn’t love to read ‘have a good nose about’? Priceless.

I thought One Man’s Soul was a fabulous looking blog as well as a fascinating look inside a 17-year-old head.One Man’s Soul – www.dave.squizzle.org

Very small text was my first impression when I opened DelightzNET. I have 20/20 vision and I found myself squinting on a few occasions. Also every time I attempted to click on a link in the blog’s menu the whole thing moved on me. I’m not sure if it’s a glitch in the layout or if it serves a purpose I am unaware of, but I felt like a cat trying to swat at an unreachable piece of string. Other than that the layout is clean, basic and done in WordPress. It freaked me out a bit to see a young person holding up a Bush/Cheney sticker in the author’s pic, but to each their own.

The blog chronicles the life of a college senior attending Mason University in Virginia. Since this reviewer never attended college, I take note that it is always interesting to live vicariously though others. Learning about the stress of managing real life, midterms, and a job is always worthwhile. It seems that Stephanie, the author, has just recently decided to breathe new life into her domain and is not at all a stranger to blogging. She has only been posting again regularly for the past two months, but does a great job in her initial post of getting her readers caught up on her life.

The posts are in diary form, with a few reviews and rants mingled in here and there. Like so many young Americans, Stephanie seems to be on the path of attempting to find herself. In one of her posts she says, Is it possible that I’m realizing where I always thought I needed to be – is no where near where I really to be? , this seems to sum up her current state of mind.

The design of this blog is fitting for the type of entries it contains. The entries are written well and allow you to get to know the author on the surface. It is one of those blogs where you feel like you are ease dropping on someone’s life with one eye closed. I personally think that diary type blogs should contain a bit more depth to them. It seems like there is so much more that Stephanie could be telling us. Readers yearn for those things that lie beneath the surface. Speaking of surfaces, there are no extras involved with ths blog. It is categorized by topic which is always nice, but nothing out of the ordinary or different from all the other basic blogs out there.

The author categorized this blog as “Teen.” I would think that in would fit better in the “Personal” Category. This blog is about one person and their struggles, their loves, and the decisions that face them. The great things about blogs is that we are allowed to peek into people’s lives. We get to see how different we all are and how similar we can all be. It’s not a blog that I would revisit, but it seems to be a needed outlet for its author. It serves it’s purpose for her and her life. When we get down to basics, isn’t that what blogging is all about?

delightzNET

Komikero Comics Journal are the everyday musings of 36 year-old Jerry Alanguilan, a Filipino Comic Writer and Artist. Jerry has been blogging since 1999! Which would officially make him a grandfather of Cyberspace.

Digging into the archives, I found his posts to be varied in topics, but mostly relating to the daily grind. As of recent though, his journal has become more focused on the Art of Comics and related musings. Nevertheless, this is interesting as well, as even the layman should be caught up in the world of Comic books and delighted by some of the comics/drawings he posts and explains.

His writing flows easily and I’m sure those that personally know him must get a kick out of reading him. The average blog reader, if interested in a Comic Artist/Writer’s life and expression outlet, might take a while to get acquainted with Komikero, but once this is done, it should be great fun.

The layout consists of a clean white template with a right hand sidebar. Very appealing. The entries are written over a notebook sheet design, which looks well and matches the feeling of the blog.

His sidebar includes an about page (always helpful), links to a photoblog, another blog of a more personal nature, a message board where a lot of discussions on comics are going on (I think those interested in comics will find this appealing).

In short, Komikero is one of those well-thought out and well-crafted blogs which is always a pleasure to browse. As an Artistic Site it is of a very high quality. And due to his solid permanence on the net and reader following (and also because Jerry himself, is a very nice guy), I’d say this is a place worth going to if only to browse through something new. And for those in the Comic Book Realm, then I would recommend this site as a must.Komikero Comics Journal

On first view, Monadology is somewhat difficult to navigate – the main body of the blog is set into far too small a space, and the menus which pop-up are extremely fiddly, not to mention pretty unreadable without bumping up my browser’s font setting. It made me a little frustrated, which isn’t ideal as a first impression.

I didn’t make it through all 90 points of “What is a monad” either, I’m afraid, but managed to make out (I think) that Monadology.net where the blog is hosted is a collective of people who went to college together? The posts vary from personal memories to CSS positioning, and a lot of cultural references inbetween. I’ve termed it personal for that reason, as you could be reading a review of a film one moment, then the next have a description of some of the author’s childhood memories.

The Movable Type template used on this blog really doesn’t suit the purpose – I’d love to see it laid out a little more fucnctionally, as there are some interesting links to other sites and photo galleries that just get lost in the translation.

Overall, I found the design issues to be the main problem, and it really hindered my experience. There are lots of archives, and no doubt there are many gems, but having to spend several minutes finding them was too trying.

Monadology

A nice clean looking blog, white background, small picture located at the top of a gun and some other indescribable objects. The overall look of the blog is pretty plain, but then I’ve never been one for much clutter so I liked it. Just looking at the blog before reading it gives the reader the impression that this might be a gun toting man who likes cars, but upon reading his profile, you find that he is totally the opposite!

After reading his profile, you find that Jesse is a 27 year old gamer, which basically means that he likes playing PC games. Again, this blog seems to be relatively new, there are only 81 entry’s so not much content. The content that is there is somewhat entertaining. There are a few links that did make me laugh out. I’m not quite sure of the purpose behind Jesse’s blogging, apart from his writing about things that catch his attention, from Ashlee Simpson to the Red Sox and even his thoughts on mobile versus land-line phones.

The entry’s are well written and easy to read. The links work and overall there aren’t too many links cluttering the blog’s “look”.

There isn’t much in the blog itself to draw people into reading it daily or more, but I think that’s something that will develop as the blog grows over time.Grand Theft Blogger