Category: Uncategorized

Seeing so many blogs over the course of being a reviewer you see a lot of the same layout again and again. It’s always such a pleasant surprise to see something different, something new, something that hasn’t been overused. My first reaction to seeing this blog is almost the equivalent of deja vu, only a pleasant form of it. There’s a beautiful piece of art that the author is using in the title area along with the navigation. The green is a nice change of pace and I can’t wait to head to the archives to see what is brewin’ in the past entries.

The oldest of the entries explains that the author, nicknamed Riri, doesn’t speak (or write) perfect English. You learn that she moved from France to Canada and is making the adjustment while having kids, a husband, injuries and a life. The author writes with much feeling as you can tell from the entry about the many cats she’s had through her lifetime. Be forewarned, reader, that these are pretty heart wrenching stories and may bring a tear to your eye. You read about the movies her children are addicted to in this entry, and I have to say, her kids have some good taste in movies. In more recent entries Riri starts to add a word of the day, which is often fun (and I read them myself anyway). She starts to open up a little more letting us see a more political side to her. You, as a reader, get a chance to see her family, find out what she did with her day, and get a holiday greeting.



The design is pretty and functional. She’s a webmistress out in Canada and has worked on a couple of other projects you can find in her archives. The design is simple by means of graphics, but simplicity can be a good thing. Like I said before, the green can be a nice change from the gamut of colors that are often overused in the blogging world. There aren’t a lot of images to wait for download, which means the reader using dial-up can get straight to the content without having to wait forever for large images to load.



There are a lot of extra links in the sidebar. Webrings, a blogroll and weather pixie are quickly becoming a standard in blogs, so it’s only natural to see them on this blog. There are some new blogs that I haven’t seen as of yet in her blogroll which were kind of nice to peruse and see what interests the author. In the sidebar, as well, are a few snapshots of her and her family. Sometimes it’s nice to get an opportunity to see who you’re reading about. Riri also has a 100 Things in the navigation at the top where you can learn a little bit more about her.



Overall the blog fits into the category of “general” as she writes about so many different things. You’ll see how much she loves her kids and how she seems to enjoy planning for different events. She sometimes writes about the things going on here in the states and what we’ve done recently regarding the war, but she keeps the political references to a minimum (meaning you won’t be inundated with huge diatribes of her take on the whole war situation). Her blog is a relatively interesting read and worth a look.Riri’s Brain Dump

Weapons of Mass Distraction is certainly an original, intriguing title for a weblog. I naturally expected it to focus on current events, and was correct in this assumption. I initially found the layout creative and aesthetically pleasing, though I was naturally miffed to discover the site’s navigation was cut off on my screen.

We have here a Canadian news blog which discusses news pertinent to Canadians. As an American, many of the topics were, well, foreign to me. However, I did not find this the least bit alienating. In fact, I was all the more interested. WMD is a news blog, no doubt, though it is pleasantly interspersed with what one could call editorializing, and the author seems to enjoy taking an online quiz now and then.

In essence, we have a very accessable news blog that readers of non-news sites might use as a bridge to new material. We have here the pundit-ish links to news sites accompanied by the author’s thoughts, but we also have subtle strokes of the personal weblog, with pleasantly humanizing diversions from this format. Readers quickly come to trust the author, whom they can easily feel a connection to.

I was especially charmed by the author’s occasional feature, “Saskatchewan or Mars,” which challenges the reader to guess which locale the photo shows. Equally charming is his occasional digression from news into discussing the downfall of porn magazines and various bands. This blog isn’t very old, but the quality of it’s content makes it absolutely adorable. With another six months on it, it would indeed be a very high-quality read. To the author of this site, I say: Blog early, blog often.

The site loads quickly, and opens with a large sketch of the human head, showing the blood vessels and muscles in blue over a black background. The rest of the page eloquently continues this color scheme, with fairly legible white text. Unfortunately, though, the site appears optimized for large resolutions, and in order to view the navigation, I had to change mine. I could not help but think that, were I not reviewing this site, I would not have bothered with it. I recommend the author review his stylesheets and fix this error. I also recommend adding biographical information, which is almost always a plus with any blog.

I recommend that Danny of WMD keep writing in this digital topos koinos of his. While this isn’t a trove of news, it needn’t be. I suggest readers look at it as a bridge between the world of personal journals and the world of the pundits. All in all, Weapons of Mass Distraction succeeds fabulously at being one man’s outlook on an information-drenched world.
Weapons of Mass Distraction

Going into Natural Physique Development I was expecting to see a weblog about daily training and nutrition. Unfortunately that isn’t what I got when I arrived.

Gavin has decided to post about his physique development dating all the way back to 2000. Unfortunately for us the reader, there are only two posts total: one for 2000 and 2001 and one for 2003. There is a promise of another update in March which will include more photographs of his development.

The design of the site is pretty lackluster. As I said, there are only a couple of posts so they are all on the front page. The small part that shines through on this site is the tips for training and eating. I was glad to see that he was including things for the daily reader to learn.

Now normally I would critique a site on what is there. This time, however, I have to critique on what isn’t there. I really wish that Gavin would update this weblog more often. Even a once a month update would be better. I would like to see work out routines and nutritional variances. I want to see all the things we know we should be doing listed.

Overall this weblog takes all of five minutes to read. While there isn’t anything that is a must read, you might want to check it out if you got some extra time. I am giving Natural Physique Development a 1 because the idea for the weblog is a good one, but the execution is just not there.
Natural Physique Development

‘Mine Blogging’, I did wonder what on earth that could possibly mean, and as I write this I am still in the dark – bit like the template of this blog, dark. That’s not to say that it is a bad design, far from it – the reader is initially greeted with a fairly standard three column layout with a black background, white text and blue links. I can see the text clearly enough but I did wonder about those poor souls who may not have perfect vision. After much searching I finally found a small about me section at the bottom of the left hand column

“As the only child I have been my own companion and I guess this blog is another way of me talking to myself.
I’ve been told that I am pretty good at photography but I will let you be the judge after reviewing my photo albums.”

This is a personal blog in every essence of the word – here you will find a few personal entries, a few brief reviews of the latest movies or TV series and the odd really beautiful photo. The entries are generally one paragraph long with no word over use, but this suit’s the authors style. There is nothing mind blowing or deeply thought provoking but it is a gentle introduction to the life of an individual. Done well life stories can be addictive, done badly and they feel the reader wondering what all the fuss was about. I’d say this blog lies somewhere neatly in-between – there’s some interesting entries, some really good photography (yes Alex really is a good photographer – there is some stunning photography residing in the photoblog) and some additional bonuses residing in the right hand column.

The design as I said earlier is dark, very dark. It’s a black background with white text and pale blue links. I’m not a great fan of dark backgrounds, but this is clear enough to read and isn’t particularly hard on the eyes. There’s nothing to offend here, all the links work and it is easy to navigate. I particularly like the banner, simple and very effective, fitting the existing design very well.

A few bonuses to this site reside in the right hand column – some recommended links, links to recent images posted on this photoblog, all in addition to the current read list.

Mine Blogging is a personal weblog in every essence of the word – the entries are mostly personal in nature, events as they occur and such. They are generally short and to the point with no excess words – certainly suited to the material covered and the writing style. There is nothing offensive here, it’s a pleasant read but not something perhaps I would be drawn to on a regular basis – perhaps a once in a while read to check up on. What does really make this photoblog stand out from the crowd is the photography, and I firmly believe that Alex should make a bigger feature of this aspect of his site – it’s definitely his strong point.Mine Blogging

Nice Cookies. Interesting title. I can’t say that I really knew what to expect, but the unique name was definitely interesting. Unfortunately most of my interest with this blog ended with the name.

Nineteen year old Stacy, blogs mainly about her boyfriend, school and shopping. She really seems to enjoy shopping. Which is fine. But not something I would really find myself being interested in reading much about.

This blog is relatively well-written, and an enjoyable read, to a degree. I read back through many of the archives, and found that many posts are so similar, it’s a little monotonous. Very few posts had any content that was overly meaningful or thought-provoking. I have a feeling that Stacy’s friends probably enjoy this site quite a bit, but as for a stranger happening upon it, I doubt that the content would have them coming back.

The design of this blog is nice enough. Different shades of purple, with white font. The font is quite small, but legible enough. The layout is fairly simple and clean, though I found that the link to the archives was in an odd spot. (At the very bottom of the page) The archives were set up in a very odd format, in my opinion, and I found myself wishing it was done in a more streamlined way, but to each their own.

Overall, this was a nice, light, friendly blog. It just didn’t have enough content to make me want to read more than was necessary to write a review. I wanted to get to know Stacy as a person, inside, and not simply read about where and what she ate, or what she bought recently. It seems that there’s definite promise, but the current content just isn’t enough, at the moment.
Nice Cookies