Author: admin

“Dating Misadventures of a 40 something man…” immediately sounded like it would be a fun site to read. Dating misadventures of anyone’s other than my own usually keep me fairly entertained – sad, but true. I was definitely looking forward to reading and reviewing this weblog.

This site is hosted by bloglines.com. Not only are they offering a very popular RSS reader, but they’re also providing a site where people can start a weblog. Everyone’s out to grab a piece of the blogging world, it seems. The design of the site is sorely lacking. There are no graphics, no extra links, no information about the site or the author other than what’s available in the eight entries that have been made. The date on the first entry is November 15th – this site is just a few weeks old.

In short, this site is written by a man in his late 40s, who has decided to publicize his dating progress via this weblog. He’s divorced and through the typical disaster of a relationship, and is now focusing his sights on, in his words, going “after the most unaccessible [sic] women”. This is what we get to read.

I was somewhat entertained by the entries, but the entertainment value I was hoping for didn’t even come close to meeting my expectations. There’s an introductory paragraph, which is greatly appreciated. The posts that follow touch on different aspects of dating – mainly in the online world of matchmaking. The author of the site reviews some of the online dating sites available, and recounts his experiences in speed dating and Russian mail order bride scams.

What the author writes here is real. Anyone in the dating scene can attest to this. Reading an older (than me) male’s point of view on the dating scene is certainly eye opening. While this weblog doesn’t have the “it” factor that makes it stand out from other weblogs that mention dating in the real and online world, it does have some potential.

What would I need for this site in order to give it a higher rating? My first and more important answer is definitely more entries. While it may not be in the author’s best interest or his hope for the future, as a reader, I can only hope his dead end dating continues so that this weblog can continue to grow and entertain readers. After a few months, I can see this site really becoming an entertaining read – one like I’d expected.
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What are/is Foma? They’re harmless untruths, according to this weblog. I looked it up in a dictionary, and since Merriam Webster didn’t list it, and Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access and Fuel-Oxidizer Management Assembly were the only definitions dictionary.com could provide, we’re going to have to go with this author’s definition. The first entry he’s made on this weblog, in April 2005, goes into a bit more explanation as to how he defines a Fomas. Although after reading the entire site, I’m still not sure where the Foma bit comes into play.

Design-wise, the site is a Blogger template that I’ve seen 2098 times before. The site’s hosted by Blog*Spot, so the only author profile I get is the one this blogging tool’s site provides – the author is married with a teenage son and lives near Baltimore, MD. Occasionally, the author will provide us with a bit more about himself through the actual weblog posts.

From April to July 2005, the posts are very sparse. Then, in August, he begins to update regularly. His son is back home from an emergency appendectomy, and the author’s life is startling to settle down a bit. His content-focused posts are good. They’re not posts that will appeal to everyone, but those who follow comics and the liking will very likely follow these posts with great provocation.

A post he makes in early August called “What Makes a Good Blog?” makes a very good point about blogging and what makes a site worthy of regular visitors. The author writes: If you can’t get your point across in three paragraphs, you have lost the random surfer. And if you don’t have something fresh to say, no one is going to bookmark you and come back. This author, whose name I never think I learned, does a good job of following his own rules here. While his content may not be interesting to every reader, he tends to keep general posts (about tracking his blog’s popularity or about the internet in general, for instance) to his previously mentioned three paragraphs… or at least short paragraphs that don’t require a lot of thought to process what’s been written.

There are other posts that stood out to me, too. A popular meme among many, many bloggers is the list of 100 things about the author. I’ve seen this a ton of times, and also participated myself a time or two. The author of this site, however, puts a different spin on it. He gives readers 100 things about this dog. As a new dog owner, I think I’m going to have to give that one a whirl sometime. And personally, I really loved his proposed candidates for the open Supreme Court seat after Harriet Miers had withdrawn her nomination. I’m a big fan of Judge Judy holding that position.

This site grows on you. If you start at the beginning of the site as I did, it takes a while before the site actually clicks with you and makes you want to read more. Once the author hits his rhythm, FOMA turns into quite a fun site. He still talks about his comic book interests and has quite a following about those posts. It’s also very obvious that he finds his comfort zone with blogging and begins to share more things with his readers – pictures, personal antecdotes, etc.

This is one of the few weblogs that I’ve found that may be more appealing from starting in the middle of the site. The author’s blogging shoes seem to perfectly fit now and from here on out, I think this site will definitely find a regular group of readers.
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This is going to sound awful, but I just don’t get this site. I’ve looked at it half a dozen times, and tried reading through it each time. There’s not much that keeps my attention and the only reason I keep coming back is because I just can’t give up on a site. Ever.

The layout of the site probably one reason I struggle with visiting it. I suppose by subscribing to the many, many RSS feeds this site has, I could avoid the abomination of a design that greets me as the URL loads. Everything is set on a white background, but there are so many tables and links and different text sizes and colors that the site design really distracts from the main purpose of the site. There are ads all over the site. Between the links Robin lists down the sidebar, I can’t tell which ones are ads and which ones are actually part of this site.

There were a few links down the sidebar under the heading of “About this Site”, but none of them worked. The link where I could find out about the author was available, so I gladly gave it a quick read through. Robin Good sounds like an impressive person. His credentials are noteworthy, and his experience runs the gamut with anything from radio broadcasting to computer graphics. Obviously, Robin has a lot of knowledge in several different arenas due to his experience, giving him the credibility to write about quite a bit of information.

The archives are listed by the subject of each post or by category. While on a regular weblog that would sound extremely cumbersome and annoying to have to scroll through, it’s not as bad as it could be on this site. The posts do begin in March 2000, but thankfully, for readers trying to look through this entire list, sometimes the author of this site goes sometimes up to a month without posting. He does make up for the infrequency in posts by sometimes posting up to six or seven times on one day.

All of this rambling about the site and I still haven’t began to touch the actual content of the weblog. I think that’d because it’s hard to find.

If you click on an individual archive link, you’re taken to the page that features the article. This article is sandwiched in between two sets of Google ads, with links below it selling books from Amazon.com. It made finding the beginning and end of each individual post a bit tedious and more time consuming than it should have been to just read one or two paragraphs.

I did not read every post. With five years of archives, I think I’m entitled to skip a few. In 2000, when the weblog first rolls out, the author doesn’t seem to be dropping much effort into the posts. Generally, it’s a link to an internet-related site – perhaps a search engine of sorts or a site the gives guidelines of some type – followed by a small paragraph that describes what you’ll be reading. Not too much creativity and not a whole lot of effort, in my opinion.

Then, in 2001, there were multiple paragraphs. It seemed as if the author realized what he was starting was potentially a big thing and began to develop things a bit more. He ranks instant messaging programs or dives into the secret world that is Google. Back in 2001, Google was nowhere near the powerhouse it is today, so it was a fun read to go back and read about the perks Google had four years ago.

Basically, this is a site that links to other sites on the web. The author sometimes graces us with very informative paragraphs about the particular products, services, or news articles he’s linking to. Other times, we only get one or two sentences, which are followed up by a link explaining even more at another URL.

The people that will find this site interesting will be the people that like the changes in technology, reading the new findings, or discovering the next cool thing that becomes available online. It’s hard to give this site a high ranking due to it’s awkwardness. It is a very focused weblog and should fall into the “geek” niche very nicely. It just doesn’t jump out, grab me, and make me want to come back over and over again.NULL

“Where’s this dude from?” is the question that pops into my mind when I see the name of this weblog. And my question quickly finds an answer in the About me section of the website. He’s a 23 year old guy from the U.S. currently living in Pakistan, where he attends Medical School.

Great! This is just up my alley. I’m really interested in eastern countries and this seems to be a very good opportunity to learn more about Pakistan from the point of view of someone who lives there. And the weblog does not disappoint me at all. He’s really articulate, writes very well and has a good sense of humor – not ha-ha humor, but I’m sure you’ll get it. I’ve spent half an hour reading through 2 or 3 months of posts and I’m ready to continue reading. Bring it on! Okay, I know November 2005 has only 4 posts, but still… Maybe this review will encourage him to write more – as soon as he’s done with exams, that is.

What made me think this journal might be interesting was the content on life in Pakistan and about Islam, more personal entries or stuff about his life in Medical School were far from uninteresting. As a bonus, there are pictures neatly organized, which only added to the site. Design-wise, I can’t say I’m very pleased; there’s something about the colors that don’t please my eyes. But that’s just a matter of taste. I can see that everything works fine there – archives, links to past posts, I mean it, everything, I couldn’t find one single broken link. The only thing that could be improved is the categories-thing. I know the blog has a few categories but you can only find them browsing through the entries. A menu of some sort in the column on the right would be of some help.

I would say I can easily become addicted to this journal as Rehan’s Journal was certainly a nice surprise.
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I traveled over to the Climate Change Action to see exactly what they had to say about Global Warming and who the author was blaming for the change in weather. That is what I was expecting, but when I arrived I found a site that was devoted to the change in climate with scientific data and research to back the finds.

This site is not a site to blame any specific group of the changing climate. It just says that climate is changing and here are some ideas why. The blog began in July 2005 and has had many posts. Some things to expect when reading the blog are charts, graphs, and photos from casualties of the weather. I feel that if you need a good place for climate research here would be a good place to go. The information appears to be legit with many credible resources backing the information being presented. The author also presents information where he is applying for one of six positions at the Ben and Jerrys Climate College. He also provides personal feelings on some topics he feels are very important dealing with the weather.

The design of the site is a typical blogspot template. A two column blog with the main information located in the left column, while the right column is loaded with links dealing with the climate, past articles, comments, and archives. It has a “catchy” banner, which is made of simply text and color. I thought it was an interesting way to present a menu for the site. The menu provides the following choices: climate change action, climate change news, and climate change resources.

I felt the site was interesting to read through, even though the weather is not a specialty of mine. I enjoy keeping track of what is going on currently with the weather but its past and future is not really much of a concern of mine. If you are a weather fanatic then this blog might interest you. Due to the amount of information presented in this blog and the professional means by which it is presented I rate this blog as a 4.
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