Category: Uncategorized

Politics in Alabama. This wasn’t exactly a title that jumped towards my interests, but then again, it’s probably not geared towards someone that’s not from Alabama.

As far as I could tell, “Politics in Alabama” has just started blogging on February 21nd of this year, or at least this is only as far as the archives go back.

This site is one that is ideal for someone interested in the political scene of Alabama. The author does a great job putting his thoughts down into words and giving readers enough information to make them feel somewhat knowledgeable. He also includes text from specific news article and almost always provides links to those articles for readers to explore.

I learned some things. For instance, who knew someone named Twinkle was the chairman of the Alabama Republican party?

The layout is a standard three column layout. As it goes with “Politics in Alabama”, the layout works fine for the site. The left side gives viewers a contact email address and also a few different Google ads to see. The right side is the list of typical blogger additions: archives, a blogroll, a site counter, etc. Nothing special at all about the design of the site, but with this blog, people certainly won’t be surfing in to check out the latest layout or design.

Obviously, this isn’t a site for everyone. Will I visit again? No. If I lived in Alabama, would I visit again? Absolutely. Aside from just Alabama folks being interested in what Jeff has to say, other huge politic junkies may find the actions of another state’s politics to be of some interest, too.

Politics In Alabama

I thought from the title of this blog that it might be a bit rude, but it’s actually quite the opposite. When the page loads up it’s main picture is a Rion Vernon drawing which I wish more bloggers would give credit to as his pictures are copyrighted. There isn’t much about the author in her abouts section, there’s a link to her old blogger, an email link and something called the b&l story which is basically how the name came into being.

I couldn’t find anything unique about this blog, it’s got the usual things in it, quizzes, rants and raves and other things that the author likes and enjoys. I do believe that this blog is geared for people that the author would know or has built a relationship with over the blogosphere because as a person who doesn’t know the author, I don’t really have any incentive to come back and visit.

I will admit that the layout is great, the links all work and there are no horrible bright and garish colours to scare one away. Being a relatively new blog, I think the author is still finding her feet and her blog may develop, or it may not.

I gave this blog a 3 because of the fact that it really is like many blogs out there. I didn’t find it amusing or interesting enough to throw up blinkers to the world and get engrossed, again, this might be due to the fact that the blog itself is only 3 months old or the fact that the blog author is writing for herself moreso than an audience. I’d like to see what the blog becomes in a year’s time.
http://boobsandlegs.net/

James is a 15 year old living in Melbourne, Australia; his blog is rather modestly titled imperfection. When you first access the site, you see a picture of the owner, which I can only describe as rather blah. On the sidebar, you see all the bells and whistles you expect from bloggers who adopt these little site tweaks in a relatively indiscriminate fashion. Bashing personal sites always makes me feel a little guilty, especially when they’re written by bloggers as young as James. Unfortunately, there’s very little about this site that compels me to recommend it.

James’ youth is made glaringly obvious in many of the entries; his sense of humour at times borders on the puerile. While it’s perfectly normal for a fifteen year old to find guys dancing to Lady Marmalade funny, I somehow couldn’t find it in me to laugh with him; not without a video of the event, anyway. James’ life and his thoughts on it also seem fairly predictable. His entries on his crushes, homework or social life really didn’t draw very much of a reaction from me – I just couldn’t find it in me to care. There’s just very little original content in this site, and very little to draw new readers in. On top of this, James has a whole category of his blog dedicated to quiz results; in my opinion, the frequency of online quizzes is often inversely proportional to the quality of the blog. After reading through the blog (and finding myself falling asleep), I feel my suspicion holds true.

I’ve never liked the modblog template; the archives are difficult to access, the three-column design makes the site feel a little too cluttered for my taste, and the fact that they are, apparently, not that customizable just makes them feel like they’re a tad too uniform. Imperfection is no exception to this rule. In fact, all the added features in his sidebars leave his blog feeling like a refugee camp for has-been online fads.

While I’m sure that James is a fine young man, his blog leaves a lot to be desired, especially if he’s hoping to catch the attention of an unforgiving internet audience. I’m sure that as James’ writing skills improve, his blog will improve as well. However, at the moment, I find his blog a little hard to read, and a lot harder to like.

All in all, therefore, to call this site imperfection is a bit of an understatement, given its many flaws. Given James’ youth, I hope his next foray into the blogging world fares a little better than this one.DWX – James’ Blog

I couldn’t tell what the blog was about at first…was there some meaning I was missing in the title? Is it due to the author’s plan to be a Medical Examiner? I think so. This is Hilary’s personal blog, with a rather different and more negative take on life than I’ve run into in the blogosphere. Not that most blogs are all sweetness and light, but this blogger revels in her negativity. If I could piece the “storyline” together a bit more easily, I would find it a lot more interesting.

The writing style is thick and breathless–the author never pauses. It’s hard to like her, but I don’t think she cares. Ironically, that makes her more likeable. I’m not sure what her purpose is in writing–venting? Polishing her writing skills? Therapeutic value? This puts the reader at a bit of a disadvantage–it’s hard to position yourself. Hilary expresses herself with humor and a lot of anger. She is brutally honest about motherhood. It is refreshing. Some of the posts are a bit overlong and unfocused and could use more editing, but the content is almost always excellent.

I couldn’t find it at first, but there is list of archives hiding on right sidebar. Each post is tagged, but I couldn’t find a list of topics, but maybe this is coming. Some of the sidebar headings are confusing, but amusing, such as using “Deceased” to head the list of most recent posts.

As I delved more into the blog, I found it to be rather poignant. The author is a “suicide survivor,” which means that people in her family committed suicide. In this case, it was the author’s younger brother in 2000 and her father earlier this year. I find this–heartbreaking. Yet, Hilary is a survivor. She is tough, knows what she wants and is not afraid to speak her mind. After reading just a handful of posts, I overcame my initial doubts and started to really like this blog.

Despite some navigation issues, the blog is worth your time. It is well designed with a spare aesthetic. The content is primary on this blog. Hilary is a unique character. Take some time and get to know her. She’ll surprise you. I give it a 4.5.Mortality Inc

Creative Process is an interesting name for a blog. It implies that the blog is not finished, and that it is an on going thing. This is good with a blog, but it had me thinking that there could be an end to this blog.

When Creative Process first loaded I was greeted with a standard blogger template. It amazes me how far the blogger templates have come, but unfortunately most are no longer fresh. This template has the brown patterned background with the creamish color main area. It fits well for this blog as it sets a tone of comfort and welcome.

Creative Process is about Elizabeth’s process of creating a painting. The idea is that after each day of work on the painting, take a picture and post the thoughts of what was done. This is a great concept for making sure that something you start gets finished as you have the pressure of the entire blogosphere wanting to see you finish.

Unfortunately the author states that this isn’t from the very beginning and that she started the painting 3 months prior to when she started the blog. However, even with picking up there, you are able to follow a great voyage.

The nice part about this blog is that once the painting is done, I am sure that she will start another and we get to see it start all over again. My only major complaint is that this blog is so new and has very few posts. I cannot give this site a better rating because it is so new. While it has a great concept, I just cannot bring myself to give it a higher score with out more content. I hope that when the author completes the painting, she asks for a re-review so we can follow up on her progress.
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