Category: Uncategorized

“MaFt” originally started “a new thing” in July ’04 to, as he wrote, document what new thing he learns every day, an idea that he borrowed from his brother who never followed through with the plan. A weblog that’s actually written for the purpose of learning something was honestly not a concept I’d ever seen or enjoyed.

With my American grammar upbringing, I found it sometimes difficult to adapt to the word “learnt“, but that is one of the great joys of reading weblog from all over the world. Each time MaFt posts, it’s about something that he’d learnt that day, whether it be something like the exact definition of the word learn, as he did in one of his earlier posts, or something more enhanced and deep like … well, there aren’t any of what I would call deep or prophetic tidbits of information that’ve been posted to date.

It only took a mere two weeks before MaFt was worried he might not learn anything new that day, but, lo and behold, he learnt the price for a pint of beer at a new bar. The things that are learnt on a regular basis are rarely things that can be discovered out of a textbook or through some type of studying. Finding out that someone has an infection in their leg, discovering that a pack of ketchup was made in Holland, and learning the words and music to a song are a few of the many different examples of things the author learns and posts about daily.

The layout of the site is quite drab. It’s done in a black font on a gray background, with the only hint of real color being a bright green in the logo that’s shoved in the top left corner of the site. Running along the sidebar are the obligatory links to other sites, the archives that are listed by the week, and a tagboard for random visitors to leave messages.

As a reviewer, I always feel it’s important to find one thing about a site that would make readers want to come back. With “a new thing”, I was unable to do that. The posts are written in a very choppy manner, where it’s often hard to fully understand what the author is talking about or exactly what he means. The things he does learn aren’t really things most readers will find educational or even enjoyable, because these things pertain solely to the author’s personal life or experiences.

Some weblogs aren’t meant for the general public, simply because they don’t draw readers in and make them want to return. Weblogs like “a new thing” are better suited for people that know the author on a personal basis and know the background information on so many of the topics he does discuss.

a new thing

Tookiewana has a harsh look to it. The black and gold harlequin background, coupled with the gray and white foreground, makes for a rather gloomy feel. The header is so narrow as to look like something was left out and we have perhaps arrived at the second page, not the opening one.

This site has been around since July of 2003. I did like the bar at the top of the page with the drop down menus for Archives, Personal, Links, Friends, etc. This is a much cleaner way to handle all the things that people like to put on their blogs. So points for efficiency.

The entries themselves are rather sporadic and often consist of one liners with a link to a cartoon, or odd bit of internet trivia. He posts the usual circulating internet jokes and lists of obscure information. Sometimes mildly interesting, sometimes not.

Though the writing is clear and straightforward, there is not that much that is original to the author. He does have a comprehensive About Me page that includes photos, but the blog itself is not very self-revelatory. I’m not even sure how to categorize this site. Though some of the jokes he passes on are funny, overall I did not find it a very engaging blog. I would like to read more about what our author THINKS about the articles he links to, and see less of the one liners.

tookiewana

Dave, a seventeen year old from the UK, started this blog almost a year ago. He says in his first post, “It will be kinda nice to write some of my thoughts onto a page, even if they don’t make any sense, and I end up just babbling on about Michael Jackson.”

Dave is an enormous fan of Michael Jackson. In fact, his blog’s title bar contains a photo of Michael Jackson. The blog is also a really pretty purple color and has a clean look about it. In March of 2004 he comes clean as to why he is a Michael Jackson fan and it’s a good read. With all the bizarro events surrounding Mr. Jackson for so long, it is nice to get to know people who still consider themselves his fans.

But Dave doesn’t only talk about Michael Jackson. There are more things on his mind than just MJ’s legal battles and the Neverland Ranch. He posts about the war in Iraq, drinking too much at football games, and loads about life at his school.

I’m such a push-over for reading anyone’s blog who is English because I’m one of those Americans who openly wishes I said “chips” for fries or “shedewel” for schedule, so Dave’s blog does not disappoint. I mean, reading a June 2004 entry that starts off with “Today I went to Leicester University, to have a good nose about, checking out what it had to offer” well, who doesn’t love to read ‘have a good nose about’? Priceless.

I thought One Man’s Soul was a fabulous looking blog as well as a fascinating look inside a 17-year-old head.One Man’s Soul – www.dave.squizzle.org

RIGHT WING BLOG ALERT! RIGHT WING BLOG ALERT!

Sorry. Just wanted to get that out my system. Submitting a pro- Bush blog for review at this particular moment in history is perhaps a brave move. With most liberals and the rest of the world still reeling from his re-election, a blog celebrating right wing politics is perhaps not something a whole lot of people want to read right now.

Let’s say a bit about the design first though, before I start slagging off his politics, er… I mean discussing the content. Well, not a whole lot to mention really- it is a blogspot blog, two columns, fairly innocuous colour scheme and no fancy title bar. The sidebar seemed to do funny things when I first entered the site (like disappear for a while) but it settled down after a minute or two and revealed the usual sidebar content- links, buttons, very long blogroll and Google ads. So for appearance, I can’t really take any points off as, in all honesty the blog looks absolutely fine overall, but I certainly can’t add any points either for graphical extravagance or extras added because, well, there aren’t any.

Ok. Let’s lay my cards on the table and say that I don’t live in America and if I did I would be a Democrat. I don’t feel I need to defend my stance but it may colour my review. It has to be said though, that of the right wing blogs I have read, this is one of the better ones in terms of content. Whilst I don’t agree with his point of view, I have to admit that most of the postings are fair minded, reasonably balanced and steer away from many of the emotive, polemic issues which can rear their ugly heads in blogs like this (racism or homophobia, for example). He supports his troops but hey, no one ever got hurt from troop supporting. He does get a lot of stick for his points of view in the comments, which he replies to with good grace and a calm head. He seems to be fairly well read in terms of news content and he posts up articles in the blog itself, rather than expecting people to click. He is also not afraid to take on liberal journalists either which at least provides some balance. In fact most of his articles are sober, well reasoned and have had a lot of thought put in to them. A few of the points made seem to be biased, over simplified or economical with the truth, but hey, isn’t that what political debate is all about?

I think that most republicans will probably like this blog regardless. Liberals could do worse than read this blog, if for no other reason than to understand a bit better the mindset of the kind of person who voted in a President they didn’t want. Like I say, I don’t agree with his politics, but what came across is that the author is probably quite a nice guy, who I felt able to engage with despite our differences.
Leaning Right

Jenny doesn’t like Bombs Mr. President and I don’t like Jenny. I thought this site was going to be an anti-Bush site and man was I very wrong. Enough of my pre-thoughts as they were all political based, and this blog is not that.

Ok the page loads and it is all dark grays, black, and oh wait light gray. Nice. The design seemed like a template, but I am not sure if it is or not. It reminded me of a design I did back in early 2000 back when this was all the rage.

The blog itself is just as boring as the design. The posts are all a headline and 1 line of text. I was going to post some bits from the site to give you an example, but then I remembered the April 20th post which reads:
Your blog sucks dude. Its filled with inane posts. That’s the point.
So the author is going for the sucky posts route? Well in that case I should score this site a 5.0 because it accomplishes what it is trying to do. But no, I provide a service for people to find good blogs.

I may sound a little harsh, even for me, but this site did not do anything for me. Something is wrong when I spend more time thinking and writing my review than it did to read the entire site. The site is so random and chaotic, I don’t know where to begin, so I will just end this review. Jenny Doesn’t Like Bombs Mr. President