Category: Uncategorized

I had to have a few tries at reading this blog to review it. Why? Because it’s so information dense. News blogs like these usually take a few readings from me before I feel I can write about them.

Initial impressions? Bioethics in relations to the female. This got me thinking that it would be quite a resourceful blog for those that are interested in bioethics. Me on the other hand, had a bit of trouble reading through the various entries and links in regards to topics.

There are various entries to this blog that raise eyebrows; the one that really got my attention was the “answer to welfare is marriage” entry. Most of these things I had no idea about, mostly because I do find the reading of such issues hard going, and partly because I’m removed from it, living in Australia means that things like this do not affect me personally.

The posts on the blog do correspond to the links to various news blogs & magazines, like the American Bioethics Journal, New York Times, National Public Radio (NPR), New Yorker and even to the British Journal of Psychology.

I believe that there is only one author on this blog, but I’m not sure as there isn’t an about section for the blog or anything relating to who writes it. Although the author does seem to be able to find different things to write about so that most topics covered will appeal to different audiences.

The target of this blog I believe is to educate women on the ethical issues surrounding various aspects of our lives. I believe that the author is trying to appeal to a vast audience with the varying topics covered. The links & news items all are well thought out and written. The blog is hard reading at times, but I found some interesting and worthwhile things to read about, after I’d gotten through all the posts that I felt were hard reading. I would say that going to this blog for all bioethical women matters would be more beneficial than going to yahoo and doing a search as the author has carefully chosen the topics and I believe has kept it focused on the issues that are current and quite relevant with the links to various other news sites for further reading.NULL

When I first saw the title of this “blog”, I thought it would delve into webdesign secrets and offer tips on how to create a functioning website and spruce it up a bit. Unfortunately what I got was a lot different to that!

Looking through the site which looks to be of a primitive design (not a good thing, for a web design company) we learn that the site is maintained by a man called Darren who’s been running MediaMystique since 2001. The blog itself has some really neat features such as the ability to be able to download every post as an Adobe .pdf file which would be perfect if the site offered informative tutorials but unfortunately, the feature isn’t used to it’s full potential as the posts lack concrete information and help!

Everyone of the valid posts are all trying to entice you into seeking the expertise of the web design company that maintains the blog (MediaMystique). I say valid posts because I would not classify some posts which only state contact details and consultation prices to be part of a blog. The actual posts themselves do reveal some information which would help you and I was interested in some of the posts which were explaining the uses of a CMS. They all posed questions which would give you food for thought when creating a site. The blog is very young however and there aren’t that many posts. More worryingly, there hasn’t been a post since mid-November.

If the blog had more specific posts such covering a wide spectrum of categories such as CSS, PHP, HTML etc then the blog would no doubt be a success and would probably attract a lot more traffic to the site and therefore potentially more customers to the business. As it stands however, everything that is posted on this site could be found on other sites that would also got into much more detail! Although I doubt they have a “download as pdf” feature – something I still think is brilliant!
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Before I even started to read The Muttering Muse, I was already enamored by the site. It’s a layout recently created by the author. While it is the traditional two-column layout, it doesn’t match any of the over-replicated templates that are floating around the weblog world. The creativity the author shows in just her layout made me a happy camper. She also includes links to different portions of her site. This isn’t done nearly enough anymore, and it’s because everyone’s become so dependent on the generic templates that are available to them.

Who is The Muttering Muse? She goes by Kestrel, which is explained in the “About” section of her site. In the brief bio she includes on the main page of the site, readers can learn the basics about her. She’s a 25-year-old married grad student living in New England with her husband and dog.

The site’s pulled me in with its design and given me enough information about the author that I don’t feel like I have to dig for information about the person writing every day. Color me impressed.

The Muttering Muse has archives dated back to April 7th, 2004, but at the top of this entry, referring to the movie The Passion of the Christ, it was originally posted on the author’s old blog. I should have known from the get-go that this weblog didn’t exactly belong to someone who’d just picked up very recently. I just wish the additional archives were accessible somewhere for hooked readers like myself!

As aspect that turns a weblog from good to great, in my opinion, is how a writer/Blogger relates to potential readers. This author has no problem reaching out to a wide variety of people. She writes about her dog Oreo – being a new dog owner, I completely relate to the stories of the pooch, and I feel like many other pet people will do the same. The author is currently finishing graduate school and obviously mentions her trials and tribulations and she works towards her final thesis. These posts clearly reach out to other people going through the same thing. All of her posts that I read are like this. It’s refreshing to read a site with this much clarity, instead of one that random readers may be completely lost while reading. An average reader can jump right into the middle of The Muttering Muse’s archives and not be too terribly lost at all.

In addition to very well-written summaries of her days in general, the author also does a bang up job of breaking up the monotony of stereotypical “this is what I did today” posts. On a regular basis, you can find recipes, complete with pictures of the finished product. The author also consistently creates her own memes, giving her readers a chance to not only learn more about her, but also participate in the comments part of the site.

As I mentioned earlier, the design of the site is a uniquely done layout, designed by the author. She uses a few shades of brown in the two-column layout. The site is very easy to read with the colors chosen, and it is also easy to navigate. She lists autobiographical information, links that she reads on a regular basis,

I didn’t read through all 245 entries that the site stats listed in the sidebar have counted before writing this review. However, now that this review has been submitted, I may go back and read all of the archives on my own time. The Muttering Muse is definitely a site worth exploring.
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Being an extreme amateur in the world of photography, I always appreciate someone that is dedicated and talented enough to regularly update and maintain a photography weblog. The author of “Deography” categorized his site as one of these rare photography weblogs, so I really could not wait to jump into the site.

The first thing I noticed as the site loaded was a link-filled menu right below the title of the site. I immediately began exploring these links. The FAQ is what it says it is, and the photoblogging link provides readers with a great amount of comprehensive information on the how-to behind creating their own photoblog. Also at the top of the site are quite a few different ways to go through past pictures – by the entire gallery which is sorted by category, by the last week or last month’s worth of pictures, by species, and, of course, by what the author feels like are his top ten pictures.

The complete design of the site is unique – it only has one column. While this might not make a lot of sense for a site that focuses mainly on text to use this kind of layout, it’s perfect for a site that primarily spotlights photography. The only grievance – and I use that word lightly – I can find is that the light gray text on the dark gray background may pose a readability problem for some people.

As I moved along from one picture to another, I incessantly appreciated Dylan’s talent. Instead of just highlighting his talent, he is also gone one step further. With each photograph, he includes the camera and file settings for the particular picture. Readers can see in a quick glance whether or not he used a flash for a particular photograph, and if they are somewhat advanced in their skills, they’ll be impressed to find what type of metering mode or exposure bias a particular picture contained.

As he says in his “photoblogging” area of the site, a picture is worth 1000 words, so he keeps his writing to a limit. He explains the picture – where it was taken, who is in the shot, etc. Then, it’s up to the viewer to make up the rest of the story.

With the different subjects he captures, it appears that Dylan takes his camera almost everywhere. Whether it be an amazing shot of a water droplet rolling down a leaf, the ocean water against the sandy beach, or someone he knows playing at an open mic night in a dimly lit room, Dylan uses his camera to capture things the average person would just skip right on by.

Deography breaks up the monotony of the regular, everyday text-based weblog. It’s a great addition to anyone’s list of daily reads, especially if you are in search of something that’s not like everything else you read.

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When I started to think of all the possibilities of what Chasing Vincenzo meant, I started to get dizzy. Was it children, was it a book, was it just some random word that the author threw together? Then the other question of why is he chasing Vincenzo? What did Vincenzo do to him? Does Vincenzo owe him money? Is like the modern day mob only on the internet?

The first thing I noticed when I got to the site was that there was a link that asked the question “Who is Vincenzo and why are we chasing him?” Finally I get an answer to all of my questions. Vincenzo as it turns out is a chef in a restaurant in Chicago. Er, actually he was. Currently the author is looking for Vincenzo again as he is now on his 4th restaurant in 3 years. Of course Vincenzo makes the best Italian food the author has ever had, and well he wants to always know where the chef is.

Unfortunately the chef keeps switching restaurants and for some reason no on at the old restaurants knows where he moves on to. This is a great premise for a blog, a book, or even a movie. I think this could fall under the comedy section for either a book or a movie. The posts are about different restaurants and different things going on in the author’s life though most are about food. This blog is new and he has not found Vincenzo yet, but hopefully he will.

The blog is well written. The author has taken quiet a bit of time researching all his different possibilities when it comes to presenting a blog. He has flags from all around the world posted at the top of each blog which will translate the page for you into that language. He also has seven different ad banners in the navigation column which I found distracting. I understand that people want to make an extra buck or two while blogging, but this is starting to get out of control. It took me two glances to find the archives since it has only been open for 2 months. Between all the other stuff in the navigation column it sort of got lost.

I really liked this site and I think it has a great premise to it. My biggest complaint however, is that the author uses the “more inside” type thing with his posts. I personally HATE having to click to read every single post. These posts are not like 10 pages long and deserve to have a little “catch paragraph” then the rest inside. Like a fine wine, let the posts breath. I am also a little curious as to what the author will be posting about in let say a year from now regardless of if he finds Vincenzo or not. I hope he does not distract too much from the idea he has because that will ruin this blogs quality.

There is fate, but it only takes you so far, because once you’re there its up to you to make it happen. That is why I really like this site because he is making sure that he is doing everything possible to find Vincenzo.
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