Category: Uncategorized

Who needs Therapy? All therapists do is sit there and say “Uh huh.” and “Go on” and “So how did that make you feel?”. For many, their web log is form of therapy where they can vent their frustrations and shake their fist at the world, or simply write knowing that someone, somewhere is reading and this is comforting indeed.

Sicker Than Others reads this way, and with sections such as Baby A, Teenagers, Day to Day, Depression, Work, Coping and Ailments our author navigates us through the trials an tribulations of motherhood. The introductory “Birth Story” tells us the painful and harrowing experience of birthing complications and is beautifully punctuated with honesty and profanity throughout.

Green pillars frame the edges of the blog and a bright red header giving it a very christmas-like feel which I’m not sure is intentional as primary colors such as these don’t sit well side-by-side but then maybe thats just me. Next to the sparkly title “Some are Sicker Than Others” is a raccoon with a photoshopped tongue which immediately looks like some kind of dodgy internet site maybe I shouldn’t be looking at, before I begin to read and realize this is an innocent motif. Although the boxy template doesn’t appeal to my basic sense of design, it is easy to navigate and our author has setup the right hand menu system nicely.

It would be easy to dismiss this blog as a rant-driven site except for the fact that a lot of its content is very relevant and probably helpful and comforting for others in her situation. These people may find solace in the words therein, as the author does by writing them.

The language is simple, although often verbose, and doesn’t hold back. It shows a no-nonsence, straight to the point account of motherhood and although is necessarily cynical, shines with sarcasm and wit also. An easy read. NULL

This site is written by an American musician (A harmonica player) and the tag line “Thoughts floating around in my head” immediately tells me what kind of blog this is going to be. Before I could say “here we go again..” I was pleasantly surprised to find that Harmonic Man can write.

As a fellow musician I felt an immediate rapport with this guy and his stories of band life. However it was his recent foray into snowboarding peppered with curses that had me laughing out loud in the post “Im Too Old for This.” Its funny how the lives of strangers, however distant or diverse can be engaging when written well.

The blogger template is slightly customized and the white background is easy to read over, but of course the layout still seems overly familiar. I also downloaded a recent MP3 posted and while I found Harmonica Man to be technically proficient, realized his musical tastes were somewhat different to my own. Still, it was nice to actually hear a sample of the band he writes about and his band is pretty good.

View from a Cloud has regular updates which is refreshing and is worth a visit. The posts are lengthy but not overly wordy and easy to read and the guy is likable, which is certainly a good thing for a personal blog where personality is really the biggest thing a blog has going for it. View from a Cloud looks good from the ground. NULL

This observational blog is actually fairly amusing, so I was disappointed to see that it hadn’t been updated for over a month. Ok sure, maybe the author has a life that is far more exciting than mine and he is out *observing* stuff, rather than sitting at his keyboard, but in the blogosphere familiarity does not breed contempt. There are so many blogs out there that there will always be a little redundancy, but everyone writes differently and has their own take on things.

I enjoy the post dissecting the photo of a “fat man” and his links to other, funny websites such as the “church sign generator”. The posts go serious for a moment with a band shout-out before it gets back (a month later) to some Robbie Williams frivolity.

The template is an oh-so-familiar blogger CSS and the overall presentation is somewhat bland with a bright yellow title that fades away into the bright white background. “The Bench Press” needs a better brand. The content itself if fine, even perhaps good but 4 months worth of posts I think could have been better coming over one week which would certainly made the site a worthwhile bookmark.

I like David’s sense of humor and while the site appears to have no central theme or basis, an observational blog is as a good as reason as any to run a blog if presented and maintained correctly. With a bit of work on the template, and more posts more often, perhaps The Bench Press could be a pretty decent site.

*Note, the title is a play on words based on the authors name and has nothing whatsoever to do with gym equipment. NULL

The first thought I had as the page loaded was “interesting” because of the great header graphic which stood out nicely against the black background. First impressions with blogs are very important.

As I sifted through posts, I was enamored with the writers ability to randomly throw out thoughts of an at least semi-jocular nature which I have been hard pressed to find amongst many other blogs. I’d say she has a decent talent for writing which will only get better with time and experience. Although I could have done without the almost random curse words, I still managed to enjoy reading her posts.

The overall design leaves a little to be desired. Though you can do many things with a black layout, solid borders rather than beveled borders would do this blog a little more justice. Maybe a little cell padding to top it all off.

I would recommend this blog as a semi-regular read when you need a good chuckle. (I mean that in a good way)NULL

Home Fires is a blog maintained by a woman going by the name of Lois Lane, an American residing in Illinois. According to her first post way back in December 2004, she was roped into the blogging world by an evil princess, a bulldog and a few family members. I must take this opportunity to thank all those involved in persuading Lois to blog because this site is home to one of the most talented bloggers I have ever come across on the internet!

Thankfully I learned as a child not to judge a book by it’s cover because the template did absolutely nothing for me! It’s based on one of the preinstalled blogger templates with a strange combination of green, cream and black which doesn’t really work well. The navigation bar images are also ugly however the names of them are well thought out and go well with the title of the blog.

All my reservations about the design are forgotten though once I start reading the posts! When I started reading this blog, I forgot about everything and I was engrossed with it! I had never before been this emotionally attached to a blog. Her posts are rich with emotion and her own dash of humour and like a good book, once you start reading it, you find it hard to stop until your finished!

In her most recent post, she relives the experience of giving birth to “Lane 2”. She describes the post as being an emotional roller-coaster ans that’s exactly what it was! At time’s I nearly cried, other times I laughed but at all times I was hooked to it! After a while I found myself reading down through pages and pages of posts and being shocked and entertained from start to finish!

If you do happen to get bored of this blog there are plenty of links to other quality blogs. Some may argue that there are too many links but I don’t mind a lot of links especially when they lead to other good sites and blogs.

To bring things to a close, this really is a must visit site. Whether you want to have a good laugh or a good cry there is something here to suit your tastes!NULL