Author: admin

My first impression was, ‘interesting name.’ When I got to the blog, I
was presented with a nice unique layout. Scropio is all over this site, from the
name to the cute drawing on the design.

What I liked the most about the site was the poetry section. Loved the organisation, and the fact that you could see an exerpt of each poem. I also liked the section that tells you about scorpios. I would have liked to see more about the author in the about me section, especially about her personality and if she has some of those scorpio traits. Another interesting aspect of this blog is the “Free for all Fridays” or FFAF, where anyone can post entries on fridays by following a few simple steps. The visitors who posted really had some interesting things to say. This section is a hidden gem, because as it is now, you really wouldn’t know about this unless
you are looking through the archives. I would have loved to see a link in the
sidebar, so we could click and see entries from this category. What I believe could be improved upon is the posts in general. Apart from the Free for all Friday, the posts are very short without much details.

The design was unique and reflected the scorpio theme from the background to the graphic illustration of a young girl with a scorpio tail wrapped around her neck. The layout was the standard 2 column layout, with one column being her blog, and the other, sidebar, having the navigation, recent posts, comments, favorite links, blog roll … on and on it went, maybe too much information in one spot.

Overall, DizzyScorpio’s blog was good. The design was unique, the site is updated frequently and it has some interesting sections such as the poetry, about scorpios and FFAF. Making the posts longer and a bit more detailed will make it a great blog.dizzyscorpio

Sharon Brogan’s blog is entitled, “Watermark- A Poet’s Notebook.” When I first read the title I thought to myself, “Well, that’s just great. I think I’d rather be stabbed in the eye with a fork than read somebody else’s poetry.” I have had bad experiences with poetry in the past, and was not looking forward to reviewing this blog.

If you are like me, and have struggled with poetry in the past, then Watermark is the place for you. Sharon Brogan’s work redeems all of the tacky, cliché, and downright boring poetry that I have been exposed to. Her poetry is honest and refreshing; it takes us to a place where we have all been, but frequently forget about. But to understand the poetry of Sharon Brogan, it is important to know a bit about her life.

In Sharon’s “About Me” section, we learn that she has lived in mostly rural places. She is currently in Montana, and has lived in remote areas such as Alaska. She has spent much of her life as a “career-focused workaholic,” and Sharon’s blog appears to be a place where writing fulfills her in a way that her work could not. We also find that Sharon struggles with fibromyalgia, a condition characterized by chronic fatigue (to my understanding).

All of these aspects of her life can be seen as themes throughout her poetry; themes that are at the same time universal to everyone and personal to Sharon.

The heart of this blog is the poetry. All of Sharon’s poetry has been neatly organized into a section entitled “Oratory.” The poems are listed alphabetically; from Abigail, to Winter Solstice. The poetry is at the same time simple and complex, full of pining and contentment, searching for the past and living in the present. Sharon writes with a sensual style, that makes her images easy to see and feel. She often writes about a desire to return to the comforts of nature, a lover’s arms, and childhood. Her ability to write about these things in a way that we can all relate to, makes her poetry accessible to even the most novice of readers. In my humble opinion, Sharon’s poetry, along with her blog, is an attempt to capture that single moment in time that “arises, still clear and bright, white against a blue sky.” (Pelicans feeding in the Slate River…)

My favorite part of the blog was the few poems attached with audio posts. I am assuming that Sharon was the one reading the poems. What a great idea to read these poems aloud! Poetry is meant to be heard, not read; and my only complaint (or rather, request) would be that there aren’t enough audio posts.

The layout really is beautiful in its simplicity. Nothing shouts out at the reader, and the feel is calm and relaxing; which is conducive to reading poetry. In the sidebar, Sharon has links to just about every blog and website in existence. There are also plenty of posts about things that she finds interesting, with plenty of links. This means that even if you don’t like poetry, this blog has plenty to offer. Sharon does a nice job of including plenty of pictures to go along with her posts.

Watermark is a great blog for poetry lovers, and poetry haters alike. Sharon has created a wonderful place to come and reflect on the things that matter in life. Her writing and poetry take us all to a place we long to visit and return to.
Watermark

I like to judge what a blogs going to be about by the title. I know, it’s a bad case of “judging a book by its cover” but it’s just something I do. So the judgements I had for Greg And Deb On The Web were:

1. It was a family blog.
2. It would be filled with anecdotes not interesting to anyone except family and close friends.
3. It would contain posts by both Greg and Deb in a sort of tennis match manner, with one person posting one day and the other the next.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s not very often I do this, so treasure this moment. I was wrong. Except maybe for number 1. Yes, it is a “family” blog. But only in that Greg (who by the way, is the only one who posts on it, not Greg-and-Deb) does write about his family occasionally. Okay, he writes about his family a lot. But, nevertheless, it is interesting and funny enough, for an outsider like me, who doesn’t know them, to enjoy and appreciate.

Greg obviously has a sense of humour. Not forced, like a lot of other weblogs which “try” to be funny, but a genuine amused, slightly cynical way of looking at the world around him. He posts a lot about his daughters–Allie who is four and the baby Julia. Allie is an endless fund of humour, with her little bon mots.

Usually, when reviewing a weblog, I skim through the archives, dipping in occasionally to figure out more about the writer and where they are coming from. In this case, I sat and read through the entire archives (starting in July 2003) and before I knew it, I was hooked.

The layout is just that–a layout, in simple colours, uncluttered with a few links. It doesn’t detract at all from the writing, nor does it add anything to it.

Personally, now, not as a reviewer, but as someone who loves to discover fresh writing, this blog will be one I will be checking again and again. You should too.Greg & Deb on the Web

Please don’t take offense, Greg & Deb, but the name of your blog sounded like a site for swingers when I first read it. (You never can tell what impression someone else will have of something, can you?) At any rate, imagine my surprise when the blog turned out to be just a wonderful tale of a family with a hilarious photo of two children (I assume they are Greg & Deb’s) sitting in a basket watching laundry go ’round. A brilliant first impression.

And it doesn’t disappoint from there. Greg and Deb have been blogging for a loooong time (since 2003, making their blog archaic, since blogging seems so ‘new’ to the thousands who discovered it in 2004.) While Deb is included in the title, Greg is the one who posts, but he speaks of his wife and family so much they may as well be blogging with him. The early posts tell of the birth of their second child and contain revealing posts about marriage and children–all of it compelling and tinged with humor. There are no titles to the posts, they are all simply dated, so it is hard to tell you what I enjoyed (especially since I enjoyed nearly every post I have read thus far).

There is not a link to “About Us” or even “About Me,” rather a ‘Goo b Gone’ link in the sidebar. I’m going to guess that this pertains to Greg’s attempts at becoming more fit–even though it doesn’t appear to have been updated since 2003. So, I question the need to keep the ‘Goo b Gone’ link, and I encourage an “About Us” link.

The May 7, 2004 post about testosterone being a blessing and a curse is just one of the many that made me laugh out loud. I hope you take a trip over to this blog and spend some enjoyable time there. I plan on reading as many of the archives as I can (sorry I couldn’t read them all before having to turn in this review. I am sure they are worth every second.)

Greg & Deb on the Web

Considering my entire gambling career consists of blowing $25 on slots in Atlantic City, I was pretty excited to review this blog. I’m scared of “real” casino games because I don’t know how to play them. Billed as “your ultimate guide to gambling,” I figured this site was my ticket to riches. I grabbed a pen to take notes and dug in.

Jo runs this blog and according to the “About the Author” section, she knows the business. Jo has been working in the online gambling industry for over 5 years and currently works for “an independent casino games design company that develops products for the land-based and online casino industry.” I particularly appreciate that there is also an “about the company link” (Creative Weblogging, Ltd.).

This is a new blog that was launched at the end of November, so there are presently only about 31 entries. At first I was very impressed with the apparent research that goes into each post. Every entry contains a list of “Related Entries” and “Related Research Reports.” It wasn’t until I read several entries that I noticed that the three research reports for every post are exactly the same. They include a MarketResearch.com report on Proctor & Gamble, a company called Gambling Services and a third report from MarketResearch on Proctor & Gamble in the OTC healthcare market. Color me confused. What does this have to do with gambling? Probably something, but nowhere does Jo give an analysis of these reports nor does she tell the reader why they’re important. The “Related Entries” links pertain a bit more to the actual post, but not always. The majority of these links are to articles on other Creative Weblogging owned websites. For instance, in an article about the launch of a gambling hedge fund (please Jo, enlighten the uninitiated masses. What is a gambling hedge fund?), one of the related links is to a story entitled “Presidential Candidates Lay Out Lifelong Learning Plans.”

For a site calling itself the ultimate guide to gambling, I had a hard time finding any actual guidance. Most of the posts are news articles containing lots of links, in addition to those mentioned above. Trump Casino’s recent bankruptcy filing gets a mention, as does the 2004 award winners from Gambling Online magazine. I enjoyed the post “Botnets, Zombies and Botherds – How DDOS Attacks Work” because of the author’s helpful commentary. I’ll probably try to squeeze the word “botherd” into conversation at holiday parties this season just for fun. I’m still trying to figure out where the post reporting reviews of the movie “Ocean’s Twelve” fits in.

The site design is minimal, which is a plus for this type of blog. Most interesting on the sidebar is an ad for “News Spotters.” The company offers to pay US$5 for each breaking news story you send in that they publish.

Overall this is an interesting site if you are really into gambling and want to keep current on the gambling world. I think calling this site “Your Ultimate Guide to Gambling” is a bit misleading. This is strictly a site for gambling news. For the general population more explanatory commentary from Jo is required. There is really no need for links to the research reports on every post and quite frankly related entries links should actually BE related to the post. Perhaps with more posts under its belt “The Gambling Weblog” will find its stride. There is definite potential here.
Gambling Weblog