Category: Uncategorized

Very Big Blog took awhile to load, but it was well worth it. The design is flawless, incorporating bright colors and stunning retro imagery, with a flash menu, to boot. The design was so lucid, so fluid and poetic, I found myself scrolling slowly up and down, watching the shadows on the text boxes and reveling in the orangeness. When I finally turned myself away from this to the actual content, I was equally charmed The counter prominently displayed on the site is creatively worded: “# People Are Actually Reading This Garbage.” A blogger willing to refer to her own site as garbage is always going to be all right by me.

Jen has been blogging for two years, and her blog accents her design business (and is named for it.)Her posts are short, numerous, and many follow the traditional blog format of links and comments. The links are fairly original, and usually go beyond the normal “links to news sites” and include lots of funny/entertaining game sites. Jen doesn’t discuss her personal life much, but what she does discuss is very entertaining.

By far the best way to explore the site is via the Categories menu on the main page. It will point you to the several reoccurring features of the Very Big Blog, such as Swanky (a periodic posting of mid-20th century tunes) and a selection of consumer-driven haikus that had me laughing out loud. All sorts of MP3s are offered up at the site, and for iPod fans, it must be a treasure trove. Jen is very pro-mac, and has a while category devoted to them, which is sure to attract Apple-friendly fans.

Despite first appearances, the site’s navigation does indeed leave some to be desired. The beautiful picture is pleasing, but takes awhile to load on every single page, and while this happens, the page is oddly off balanced. Furthermore, some sort of Movabletype error keeps me from moving from the monthly archive pages to the categories without going back to the main page. This gives the site a strange, disjointed feel. I still love the colors and overall look, though. If only that image could load faster.

I definitely recommend Jen keep writing. Her adherence to blogging’s original repertoire sees signs of being successful. While this site could use an occasional design tweaking, the overall look and feel of it is very energetic and positive, as is Jen’s writing itself. Fans of blogging’s roots, Macintosh, music, and simply cool stuff will enjoy having Very Big Blog as a resource for their forays into the web.verybigblog

I have to say that first impressions of the site came not with the loading of the page, but with the title itself ‘The Mommy Blog’. I’m not a Mommy, and I honestly couldn’t see what there would be for me there if the whole thing was centred around being a ‘Mommy’. But I persisted. This is not the weblog of a typical stay-at-home Mommy, and this is reflected through the entire blog. In one form or another the weblog has been around since December 2002, and is well established with a personal theme, and a good set of visitors.

As I had expected the site mostly consists of personal entries – about her family, her job and random life events as and when they happen. The posts are largely well written and easy to follow – the author writes well, and this is a definite bonus for any blog regardless of the content. Her posts are however sporadic, varying both in terms of posting consistency and quality/appeal of content. Not every post held my rapt attention, but all in all it was an enjoyable and worthwhile read. I couldn’t help but feel that this weblog is going to be more popular amongst fellow working Mum’s, judging by content at least.

The design is beautifully done and is individual, really suiting the style of its owner. It’s a commonly utilised 3 column layout, content in the centre flanked on either side by various internal and external links. There were two main problems I picked up on however. The first being the method of skinning the site, which didn’t work the two occasions I visited this site – Bit of a disappointment, as I was curious about the alternatives to the main theme. The second is the section “I’m telling” which resides at the bottom of the right hand column – the method of showing recent referrals to the site was pushing the fixed column out. Admittedly not a huge problem, but it was a blotch on an otherwise pristine template.

I found the content well written I couldn’t with all honesty say that this was a blog I would visit on a regular basis. I do feel it has appeal, just to a restricted audience. It’s contribution to the weblog world however is an insight into the life of a working Mum, and this if expanded on a little more could really have potential. An interesting diversion, a potentially good 3.5The Mommy Blog

Songrut is a very new blog on the web that I believe is off to a great start. There wasn’t a huge quantity of entries to read, as the blog was only started in March this year and the actual content didn’t actually start until April 16. The writer’s intention with this blog is to note down ideas for songs in order to help them self and anyone else who is of an inclination to write a song but has “song-writer’s block”.

The look of the blog is fairly standard and I believe it would benefit from a makeover to suit the theme of the blog. A big problem with it at the moment is that the link drop-downs aren’t working – Bev may or may not be aware of this and whilst it doesn’t affect the reading of the blog, it is annoying for anyone who finds particular interest in such things and would like to check those links out.

Now, the actual content of each of the entries is fairly good. These are very personal ramblings of a musician and their thoughts on the song writing processes. It’s actually quite interesting to see how Bev puts a song together. If Bev continues along the same strain and if I was a musician myself, I would most likely find this site quite helpful. Bev puts forward tips, from watching a film and writing a song for it to surfing the web for inspiration. There’s even a reader’s tip which, if that theme carries on, could increase the readers enjoyment of the blog as it would seem more interactive.

All the entries are well written though, probably because I am not a musician or song-writer or have any musical talent at all, I had a little trouble with some of the terminology used (hook lines? Aren’t they for fishing?). Perhaps a glossary of terms would be useful in such circumstances and for people like myself.

As I said, this blog is off to a great start and I do hope Bev continues with it as it could quite conceivably be one of the better “song writer” resources on the web. No pressure or anything.
songrut

I liked how bright this site was when I first saw it. It’s a spot on the web for the author, Jay, to share his creative writing with the world, so I thought the black letters on the white background to be fitting.

The stories themselves are well written, and interesting. The author’s style comes out in each of them. Some are shorter, some are longer, so there’s one for every attention span. I read through the author’s favorites (listed on the about the author page) and they were great. It’s hard to tell what is true and what is made up, but a good read nonetheless.

The black writing on a white background gives the feel of a typewriter, like an old fashioned writer, very suiting to the theme of the site. The graphics, although few, are clean and make a point. I like how the author personalizes each entry with his signature.

While the stories are great, there’s not a lot of info about the man behind the words. There is an “About the Author” link, with a few stats and a lot of writing about writing.

I’ll definitely be coming back to this site, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the stories. There’s little spelling or grammatical errors, so it’s an easy read. The layout is great and easy to navigate. I wish I knew more about the author and what he’s about.Autograph

The name confused me. It still does a little. hath i a soul, wonder’d hath i
then saw, ihath. This is a poem sent to the author which explains the title – more of that later.

My first impressions on entering the site were of a sober looking web log. It’s very tidy. The design is uncluttered. A right hand side panel with previous posts, contacts and archives. A couple of ads at the bottom and some site statistics links. She includes adverts for her favourite books and CDs. One of the links in the contacts section didn’t work. The colour scheme is pleasant but in colours I can’t really identify through colour blindness. Oranges and browns I think. The text is readable.

Journeying around the site is straight forward enough although there isn’t a home page icon which is unhelpful. The banner contains a hint of Arabian Nights and Shehrazad’s need to tell one more story each night in order to stay alive. This is confirmed by one of the posts. There is a recently added comments section and a sparse use of links and pictures which work and are relevant to her writing.

The author of the site, Elen, is a thirty something computer programmer and resident of Vancouver, Canada. She is Iraqi and has lived in Kuwait, Israel and Scotland. She is married to a Palestinian and of Czech descent. This heritage and experience informs and drives the content of her posts.

Elen is self aware and her posts detail her experiences as an Iraqi woman in the various cultures she has lived in. The spectre of Saddam haunts her. This cultural melting pot could be an anthropologists dream.

Her web log has been in existence since last Halloween and she has posted thirty six times since. Her posts are generally long, well thought out and reasonably well written. They are often anecdotal or in a reportage style. However she has become a little more opinionated of late especially concerning the abuse of Iraqi prisoners. Her recently added comment facility has seen a backlash to some of her more anti American viewpoints.

Some of Elen’s writing has been published and is noted as such, but I would not put this in the Creative Writing category. It is very much a personal journey. Now back to that title. Ihath is the voyage of uncovering, discovering and discarding. Losing yourself to find the real you and live.

I enjoyed reading all of the posts here and would recommend the blog to all open minded folk – it is probably a no go area for any lurking xenophobes. I feel it is worth a four out of five.
ihath-losing myself