Category: Uncategorized

Lionel Set Loose is a three table Blogspot template site. It’s white with black type. Sure it’s easy to read because there’s no color, but it’s boring. And when I arrive at a site that looks boring, I’m not particularly excited to read it. I did find an explanation on one of the side bars about this – apparently it’s some sort of bug, but it’s fixable if you click the link to skin the site. Unfortunately, in trying to skin the site I encountered an annoying plethora of pop up ads and it’s not immediately obvious that I skinned the site at all. Instead it looks like I was thrown into an older version of the blog at a different location. Finally I figured it out and went back to the original URL. Reading a blog should not be this much work.

Lionel, an engineering student in Kuala Lumpur, is the writer of Lionel Set Loose. Lionel writes about his day-to-day in a really engaging way. I was on the floor laughing about Lionel going on a raid of the just emptied dorms for leftover booty, and Lionel’s entry about going to the dentist had me squirming. And can I just say how hilarious his entry about the American tourists was? What I’m trying to say is that I like Lionel’s writing. It’s interesting, has good flow, and his grammar and spelling are generally pretty good.

I’ll be honest: I like the purple colors of the design in the skinned site. But I hate the red used to outline the boxes and for the headlines, and the dark purple used for the text can get a little hard to read after a while. The thing with the site skins needs to be fixed – halfway through my blog reading the skin reset itself back to white and black and I had to go through the hassle of re-skinning the site. The only other thing I noticed is that archives only go back to September, but October through the present are all on his current blog index.

Lionel keeps a log of the changes made to his site, and also has an About Me page, a little Idiot’s Guide to Lionel Set Loose type of page, links page, and a guestbook. It might be a nice idea to install commenting for each entry, as some of the entries could generate a lot of discussion.

Skinning errors aside, Lionel Set Loose is an interesting blog. I would definitely go back for another read.

lionel set loose

I’m always a little disappointed when I arrive at a blog to be greeted by a template I’ve seen on dozens of sites. Thoughts Gone Astray has one of two or three standard Blogspot templates that I see constantly. I never expect much on a common template site, because I suspect that if the blogger can’t be bothered to find a new template from one of the hundreds of blog template sites out there, the blog content won’t be that interesting.

Jesse isn’t a bad writer. He’s thoughtful and makes a real effort to flesh out most of his entries. Some entries start with a quotation, which I really like. It’s different from most of what I see in blogs, and I wish he’d begin every entry that way. Most of Jesse’s entries read like a personal and private journal instead of a blog meant for public consumption. He’s really tied into religion, so if you share that interest Thoughts Gone Astray might be a blog of interest.

I’ve already complained about the template, so I won’t say anything more about it. Navigation is kind of clunky – it’s not streamlined, and entries are archived by week only until September. Entries from November to the present are all on the main blog page. There’s no About Me type of page, or commenting capability or a guestbook. There is a link to email Jesse. Older entries reflect a different colored version of the same template. I recommend making the entire blog one template.

I doubt I would become a regular reader of Thoughts Gone Astray. It’s isn’t that it’s a bad blog – I just don’t know Jesse and reading about his day to day wouldn’t keep me interested.
Thoughts Gone Astray

I’ve never read a weblog anything like this one. The entire thing is purely fiction.

The author has made it easier for us to read the weblog through like an actual story by using this link. I’d definitely recommend that if you’re thinking about giving this site a look. It makes much more sense reading it in that order as opposed to a backward chronological order.

The writing style of the entire site gets better over time. January 9, 2002’s entry was the first one I read, and right away, I knew I wanted to read how this weblog got to this point.



The layout of the site isn’t anything spectacular. The background looks as if it’s one of standard stationary templates that comes with Outlook Express, but the vine down the side actually goes along quite well with the whole idea of the site.



The only thing missing from this site that would have helped out in functionality is an archives section. There is an option to read from the very beginning, but if I happened to be a long time reader and just hadn’t gotten a chance to read it for a few days, it’s very tough to find out where you stopped.



If you’re a first time reader, start from the beginning. It starts off at just a novel concept, in my opinion, but as time goes on and the characters become more developed and the things that happen become more detailed, I found myself becoming more and more enthralled with Jamie each day.

Ravenstone

Over and over is a journal written by a twenty-something women by the name of Susie. It would have been nice if there was an About page… I had to do a lot of reading just to get some basic info about the author. In spite of this… the more I read of her journal the more I enjoyed it, so I found it disappointing that it is such a young blog…

I prefer sites where the owner has a bit of style, or have done their own design. I’m not a big fan of the cookie cutter sites (mmm cookies…) So I liked that this was a great looking, well designed site.

I found the blog entries to be amusing, well written and I loved Susie’s sarcastic wit. Susie writes about : smoking, weight-loss, life’s desires, weight-loss, her boyfriend, work, importance of family and weight-loss. Did I mention weight-loss? She is very good at reflecting on a day’s events. All of her entries have a unique flair and each entry clearly captures Susie’s feelings. I liked her narrative voice and I often found her entertaining.

I did find it odd that she says she uses a spell checker (like I wish EVERYONE would – i do cuz i spel so goood 😛 ) and yet there are still a few spelling mistakes. I know, picky picky. Any ways…Some of her words.

“My bro cooked me tea tonight, delicious chicken, peppers, onion, chopped tomato and chilli tortillas with boiled rice. Was lovely. Going to go and spend some quality time with my Dad and brother now and try not to laugh as they argue and take the piss out of each other. Ahhh, aren’t families (even dis-jointed, slightly bizarre ones) lovely?”

“I cannot fathom why someone who has not got the shapeliest of legs thinks that tightly encasing them in lycra is a good plan. They aren’t a style statement on the most”

“I was a grown up today. Went to a meeting and looked very serious whilst people rowed about who should send an email. Honestly. A discussion lasted about 30 minutes over whether the credit deptartment or the admin deptartment should send a particular monthly email. It took 10 people half an hour to reach an answer. To be honest I’m just pleased it all got sorted because, hey, I wouldn’t have been sleeping tonight.

He he. Ahh, yes. Corporate reality sucks, but this blog doesn’t. Good job Susie. I hope you succeed in all your ‘resolutions…’.
overandover.org

Dreaming in Denmark’s author has been blogging for well over a year…The archive dates back to May of 2001 with entries nearly every day. Phew. Needless to say, she has developed a very engaging writing style and has a unique way of observing the world.

I enjoyed reading dreaming in Denmark. After reading several months worth of entries I began to appreciate the author’s sense of humour and her take on life. I really liked that the entries were often very short, making it a good daily read. (maybe due to my 21st century short attention span).

Her blog has many short humorous observations:

“walking in to work this morning, i glanced down and saw a battered summer squash on the ground just under the bumper of a rusty blue van. all i could think was ‘truck turds’. see? i’m telling you, i’m not safe before coffee.”

And blogging about blogging:

“my life, in captions

i’ve noticed recently that my writing habits are spilling over into day to day life, away from the pen and keyboard. all my entries, here and in the journal, are titled one way or another. and i find myself sitting on the T, talking to friends, running errands, and inventing captions for whatever is happening.

and often more serious reflections on relationships:

“feeling a bit Fuck You.

help me understand this. no, really. i’m willing to learn. what part, exactly, of ‘don’t call me again’ isn’t clear? because if there’s a way to clarify that i don’t want you in my life, i’m happy to do it. honestly – i’m not really sure which part of that could be misunderstood. but i apparently needed to be more precise, because there were a slew of messages waiting for me when i got home. or was it just that you had to get in that last parting shot, making sure once again that things are done on your terms?”

A great blog. A clean, well organized site. What I think blogging is all about. An honest journal expressing life’s ups and downs. I think there is something in her writing for nearly everyone.

I hope she maintains her caffeine intake. 🙂
dreaming in denmark