Category: Uncategorized

One of the problems with political blogs is that the author’s bias frequently overshadows the actual issues being discussed. Normally, if you want to see a topic examined from all sides, you have to jump from conservative blogger to liberal blogger to libertarian blogger and back again. Begging To Differ solves that problem.

BDT is a collaborative blog with four authors: two conservatives (Steve and Greg) and two that lean a bit more to the left (Ramar and Mike). The “About” page reveals that the four met online in a Duke basketball forum. Eventually, their discussions turned towards politics and culture and the idea for a blog was born.

Although relatively new (the blog began in July of this year), Begging To Differ is already a substantial site. The authors are prolific and update frequently. Each displays a distinct voice and they are all passionate about their political beliefs. There’s something here for everyone, liberals and conservatives alike. The only requirement for enjoyment? Intelligence and knowledge of current events. BDT doesn’t pander to its readers or dumb down the discussion.

The design of the site is simple and pleasing. A three column layout in blue, grey, and white that looks good in the major browsers puts the focus where it ought to be: on the writing. It’s not the most original I’ve seen, but makes sense for a blog of this nature.

Some very pretty photographs appear here and there and lend a bit of flash to the blog. One of the newer features, the weekly BDT Sunday Comics, is a nice addition. It is a collection of samples from several online comics.

Overall, I found Begging To Differ a well-done political/news blog. The writing is witty and insightful (always a plus), and having such varying political views in one spot is refreshing. For the news from all sides, visit Begging To Differ. Begging To Differ

Although I have only given “Riri’s Brain Dump” a 3.5 out of 5, it is a nice enough weblog to visit and pleasant enough to read. The template is fairly standard with a few pictures added to brighten it up. The colour scheme is not bad either, being mostly green and pleasant on the eye. Although this is a Blogspot blog, the author has made the effort to get rid of the adverts at the top as well, which is helpful.

The first thing I went to on arrival at the site was the “100 things About Me” section, which was fairly informative. After getting a feel for the author and who she was, I started on the content itself and found a good personal weblog. The author is a mother, software developer and immigrant (currently living in Canada but born in Romania.) Incidentally, if your curiosity is not satiated by the “100 things”, I also discovered another “About Me” type thing back in the archives. These aspects of the author’s life certainly colour her postings and add an interesting dimension to what may otherwise be another run of the mill personal blog. For example, there is an informative post about her experiences with settling in to Canada, lots of stuff about bringing up kids and what they get up to and she also has some interesting opinions about female sexuality as well. The usual commenting system is in place and made use of by her regular readers.

The archives go back to February, 2003 though the author did take a break from blogging for a couple of months. There are a few little perks to the blog too- a little photo montage of the author and her family in the sidebar as well as a list of the music she is listening to/ books she is reading, though no reviews unfortunately.

There is plenty to read here though, despite the break in March and for anyone wanting an insight in to the ups and downs, thrills and spills of family life, this should prove to be a good read.Riri’s Brain Dump

As soon as I got to this site, I laughed. The bloggers own description? “Rants of a sweaty emotional Italian”. I have to admit I was amused. I assumed (and correctly I might add), that this would be a laugh.

The blog is hosted by Motime, which appears to be less template-y (Im making up words here), and free of the obnoxious Blogger Ads, but has a really annoying bar on the top. I knew ad free was too good to be true. The site is pretty sleek in design, with a simple yet artsy picture of the blogger, some perma links and quotes. The archives are easily accessible and all the links seem to work. Continuing with my curse, there is no About Me page which I miss dearly. There are however bios of friends (possibly roommates?) of the writer.

The blog is personal in nature, but nothing is so in depth that you would need to be inside the writers social circle to understand what is going on. The posts are light, not a lot of passion but still pretty entertaining. I have found a bias love for the site, as the writer is a Canadian student in Montreal. I find a Canadian outlook on life to be refreshing at the best of times, and a French Canadian one just adds that much more. I don’t see any specific audience in mind (although the writer thinks otherwise). People close to him in real life may find more humour in some things, but over all it is easy to get wrapped up in his writing.

One of the cool things I found about this site, was the links to the other bios. It seemed to give a bit of insight into the other players in the stories, as they don’t have the chance to explain their side.

I really did enjoy this site, and found it to be a pleasure to read. The only suggestion I would have is to add an About Me Page, as it makes it a bit easier for any new reader to get into your writing.
I NEED A GRIP!

It’s not very often that a site I’m supposed to be reviewing turns out to be one I read through so quickly I’m disappointed there’s not more to read. When I found my way to “The S-Train Canvass” today, I was more than pleased to find myself breezing through the site not only enjoying what I was reading, but also actually taking something away from reading the author’s daily entries.

The entries that can be found here have subject matters all across the board – there’s a little bit of sports, bits about his African pride, the occasional political post, and, without sounding overly cliché, the list goes on and on. Each post is written with the terminology, sentence structure, and general understanding that nearly every person that stumbles upon this site will be able to understanding what they’re reading.

There are two different people that post to this site – “S-Train” and “Aysel”. For the most part of the posts on the site, you’ll find that S-Train is responsible for the updating. It’s only within the last couple of months that Aysel has joined the posting ranks for The S-Train Canvass.

The layout shows up in what seems to be the standard weblog layout as of late – a main column for the actual weblog content and a smaller column along the side containing anything from links to other weblogs to information about the people that are posting at the site. The original logo at the top of the site, designed by Aysel, is a great start to a layout. The rest of the layout looks a little “clumsy”, for lack of a better word – the black borders around the boxes are on the verge of becoming a bit too overwhelming. It doesn’t take away from the reading, though, which is the reason why people visit weblogs, isn’t it?

Honestly, there’s not one thing I could think of that could be added or changed to this site to make it a better weblog to read.

The S-Train Canvass

Infiniti… Is it a purposely misspelled version of the word infinity? Infinity: something that goes on and on and has no end? Is this what I am to expect when I get to this blog? Something without an end? I guess that is actually what is ideal with a weblog; to always be updating it. We shall see.

The first thing I noticed was the very unique layout of the site. There is a wonderful animie logo at the top. The site uses a vast assortment of the color pink which was surprising. Then I noticed some things. My mouse pointer had changed. It was now an arrow with a question mark, and when I mouse over links it changed to a double sided arrow instead of the hand I am use to. I really hate when people mess with the mouse. It doesn’t add to the experience of the weblog, and it is distracting. I also noticed that the layout wasn’t lining up properly, or at least where I expected it to line up so I fired up IE just to check, and it still was not lining up correctly.

The weblog is written by Jei and she is, wait, let me quote this directly: “i’m a vampire girl who lives in the philippines with the ethnicity of 1/4 japanese, 1/4 chinese and 1/2 filipino.” Interesting. With this said her English is very good, but if I remember correctly English is one of the main languages in the Philippines, so I wasn’t too surprised. I was however very intrigued by the vampire girl aspect and how that would play into effect with her weblog.

While I was reading each post I noticed I was actually getting further away from the author the more I read. There was something that was just pushing me away from this weblog, and I couldn’t figure out what it was. Something about the way the weblog is written, it seems oddly familiar, but what was it that was pushing me away? Was it the vampire girl aspect or just where she was blogging from? After some research I found out that Jei is only 16 years old. There is that link I was missing.

The posts read a lot like other teen blogs. What is going on in the person’s life: most notably school, friends, music, online quizzes, generic blog type posts, etc… I decided to see if it really was like a standard teen blog and re-read the posts completely out of order and it still read the same. This is a disappointment to me, because hidden underneath all this general stuff I bet are some amazing things. Some posts start to hint at this, but don’t completely shine.

I would love to rate this blog higher because I can see some great potential with in the blog. But unfortunately I have to base it on what is actually there, and not what could be there. I really want Jei to let go and really take a chance at standing out from the crowd of webloggers. If she did this I can see this weblog going places
Infiniti