Category: Uncategorized

Upon initial scroll-through, The Nomad Tavern struck me as a clean-looking site with a lot of links to trawl through. The name reminded me of all the deeply serious medieval-named chat rooms my Fantasy genre-reading friend Shelby used to frequent, and I hoped the site wouldn’t be an RPG nightmare.

I was glad it wasn’t, as I really didn’t feel like getting pelted with 12-sided dice today. In the most recent entry, “btm” (ben, tom, and mike, I presume?) make fun of “Tell Your Mentor,” a program that seems to serve, basically, as yes-man, toady-filled chat room, and blog all at once. As the “inspirational quote” at the top of The Nomad Tavern seems to promise “words as hard as cannon balls,” I was a little disappointed that the Nomads didn’t take full advantage of the ready cannon-fodder Tell Your Mentor could have been. Personal blogs have a habit of making apologies for themselves, a habit the modern world, so afraid of stepping on toes, has sadly encouraged, and the Nomads fall into this trap, chiding themselves for “being a little judgemental and perhaps harsh,” when there’s probably NO chance the creators of Tell Your Mentor will ever see their critique.

Props for even trying to decipher moral relativism, (“Raskolnikov, Napoleon, and Paul”) even though – and Tom must know this – it’s difficult to hold a surfer’s interest long enough to tell them the latest celebrity “news,” let alone breach their brainpan with words like “casuistry,” and “portray.”

The archived posts (from May 13 onward) are still mostly relevant, and it is geniuinely nice to read interesting analyses written by smart people, as most bloggers are duller than wood and as intelligent as a knothole. There are plenty of good links to explore, and a nice balance of personal and topical. The Nomad Tavern, though clean and easy to navigate, seems to be mostly geared towards the Nomads themselves and their circle of friends. But if you’re interested in current events, Japan, moral relativism, and Libertarianism (and too few are, really), there’s plenty to read. Special props go to this hugely entertaining entry, in which Tom ponders whether Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski (Jeff Bridges in “The Big Lebowski”) actually does “abide.” The Nomad Tavern

The first thing you notice about Less Than Daily is the big monkey in background (the blog is named Less Than Daily, but the domain name is monkeysandpirates.com, hmm) which I found pretty funny. The faded background on the text boxes is also a nice touch.

The blog is written by mcphee (or just phee) a self proclaimed geek, roleplayer, ninja (no really, he is has a 7th Kyu ninjitsu grading – or better) who recently decided he needed a blog, the title he says: ‘ideally I’d update this daily, but that’s not going to happen, hence the title of the blog.’
Most of his entries involve his mates : Pixie, Mojo, Mark A and/or his girlfriend Claire. If you read enough entries you get a feel for the different personalities in his life. The content has an interesting assortment of material, such as: playing on Ebay, the Eminem gig, football (go Liverpool!), Ninjas fighting Tigers (or at least Monks fighting Leopards), his ever expanding DVD collection, incredibly shrinking chocolate pudding, Everquest, time travel, web browsers. Lots of geeky goodness. Occasionally you’ll see some funny comic strip monkeys (entitled ‘Monkeys Like Us’) with dialogue from his life. I thought they were pretty funny.

The author does put some time into this blog, the Monkeys Like Us strip has made it to V2.0 and the author mentioned several blog upgrades in functionality or design. The writing is good, the author has a good sense of humour and shares his many stories quite well. I enjoyed reading Less Than Daily, it wasn’t rocket science but I found it light and enjoyable.

Monkeys, ninja, ninjuries and good reads, need I say more? Check it out.
Less Than Daily

Komikero Comics Journal are the everyday musings of 36 year-old Jerry Alanguilan, a Filipino Comic Writer and Artist. Jerry has been blogging since 1999! Which would officially make him a grandfather of Cyberspace.

Digging into the archives, I found his posts to be varied in topics, but mostly relating to the daily grind. As of recent though, his journal has become more focused on the Art of Comics and related musings. Nevertheless, this is interesting as well, as even the layman should be caught up in the world of Comic books and delighted by some of the comics/drawings he posts and explains.

His writing flows easily and I’m sure those that personally know him must get a kick out of reading him. The average blog reader, if interested in a Comic Artist/Writer’s life and expression outlet, might take a while to get acquainted with Komikero, but once this is done, it should be great fun.

The layout consists of a clean white template with a right hand sidebar. Very appealing. The entries are written over a notebook sheet design, which looks well and matches the feeling of the blog.

His sidebar includes an about page (always helpful), links to a photoblog, another blog of a more personal nature, a message board where a lot of discussions on comics are going on (I think those interested in comics will find this appealing).

In short, Komikero is one of those well-thought out and well-crafted blogs which is always a pleasure to browse. As an Artistic Site it is of a very high quality. And due to his solid permanence on the net and reader following (and also because Jerry himself, is a very nice guy), I’d say this is a place worth going to if only to browse through something new. And for those in the Comic Book Realm, then I would recommend this site as a must.Komikero Comics Journal

“A special place for special people”.

A refreshingly different perspective on life is gained through Lisy Babe’s Blog. In spite of her phobias, quirks and ills, Lisy’s personality shines through all life’s challenges.

Her honest call-it-like-it-is posts are refreshingly candid and insightful from the viewpoint of a “crip”. Her brash language does grab the reader’s attention. This is, according to Lisy, a “regular part of my vocabulary.” She finds humor in everyday life, just waiting to pop out and laugh AT or FOR you. The reader gains a deeper awareness of environment that is unique in Lisy’s blog.

The weblog is straight forward with no bells or whistles and doesn’t detract from the visualizations that Lizy weaves in her words. You will find colourful musings and straight-forward posts of Lisy’s daily experiences in her apartment, neighborhood, locale and nightlife.

The site doesn’t feature much more about the author – which you must piece together from the archive of posts. Otherwise the weblog is visually and informationally bare but that doesn’t detract from the story that Lisy is narrating.

If you are looking for a personal blog with an exhilaratingly different viewpoint then you’ve come to the right place.

Lisy Babe’s Blog

This site is written by a woman. I have no idea how old she is or where she lives. The template of “Wainbows” is pretty basic, navy blue and white. A photo of what I assume are her feet is the only hint of her in the sidebar. Under “Bio” it says “You don’t deserve to know a thing about me.” (Seems a bit odd for someone who has put her blog up for the world to see. Not to mention for review by The Weblog Review)

Let’s not forget, however, that although she doesn’t want you to know about her, she does have cats and photos of them on her blog. I sometimes wonder if cat owners start blogs just so they can talk about and show photos of their cats.

Her entries all seem to be caffeine induced. They are all a mash of free-flowing thoughts, one not really connected to the next. If she’s like this in ‘real life,’ she may very well be one of those people who never ever stops talking. I’m guessing that in real life she’s a bit shy and/or quiet. Blogs sometimes let the inner non-stop talker come out in full force.

Take for example this post. If you can get past the non-stop, nonsensical chattering and finish the post, you won’t be any more satisfied that you know anything more about this person than before you read the post. Most of the posts are like this. However, some are very insightful and amusing. The insightful and amusing posts get lost among the posts on speed.

She never uses capitalization. This bothers me. A lot. I won’t let it affect my overall review rating of Wainbows, but come on, your readers deserve the rules of grammar to be followed. It’s a sign of respect. And it would make your caffeine-induced posts much easier to follow.

You and Me and Wainbows