Category: Uncategorized

I did not know what to expect to find at a blog, vaguely named “Marshall,” and because there is not an About Me section or even a simple blog chalk, it’s still hard to tell even upon visiting. Although a graphic contained on the left indicates that Marshall is a Blogging Brit and a post reveals that he is living in Manchester and plays football recreationally.



The blog’s tagline reads “Stuff, things and other bits and pieces,” which is what his blog seems to contain. His posts range from bizarre coincidences, social commentary to Marshall’s adventures at a Karaoke pub.



Do not expect daily descriptions of Marshall’s life since it seems that lately he only blogs new entries a couple of times a month. So far there are no new entries for the month of January, although in a late November post he cites a heavy workload and “blogger’s block” for his infrequent posting.



Marshall’s writing is very witty and refreshingly simple and honest. I found myself smirking at a few of his observations, conversations and exploits.



The left navigation area includes the standard blog requirements, a calendar, archive, XML feed, counter and links. The blog’s design in general is pretty minimal, the colors are black & white and there aren’t any graphics to liven things up either.



As of late it seems that Marshall needs to put a little more effort into his blog, writing more and maybe sprucing up the look a bit. But after doing this he could have a pretty popular blog that would surely delight readers.Marshall

I immediately noticed the author of this blog calls herself “The Mincemeat Vixen.” That kinda made me laugh. And some of her blog did, too.

It’s a standard blogger template, one that is very pink. She has a fairly large blogroll, but the blog is clean and simple. When the Mincemeat Vixen first started her blog (back in July 2004), she posted only a few times. Her first post is a ‘100 Things’ post, so you get to know that she’s 6 feet tall, a realtor, hates moths, and thinks Bono deserves something I’ve never heard of, although I’m sure it isn’t pleasant. (See #100 on her list).

Her second post in August 2004 made absolutely no sense whatsoever to me as it involves someone who loves bacon or some such nonsense. I was thinking to myself after reading it, “What the…?”

The blog did get better. Vixen lives with a man she calls The Chincilla and an obese cat who vomits a lot. She also lives in Canada and complains about the cold a bit too much for someone who is from Canada and should by now be well aware of the climate. At any rate, she does have some entertaining posts and stories, posts while drunk on occasion, and really likes to listen to music (the 80s seems to be her favorite genre).

I’d recommend a look at “Not Well Planned” for anyone interested in a frentic realtor’s life in Canada.not well planned

After reading the name of the blog, clicking the link and having the basic blogger template show up I had no idea what this blog was going to be about, once the page loaded and I saw the blurb “Tracking the trials and tribulations of yet another average chess fanatic trying to pull himself out of the ranks of patzer.” I have to admit, I did wince.

I’m not a chess person. In the least. So whatever the author is talking about in his new blog, the blog was only started on January 2005, I just didn’t understand or want to understand.

His initial reason for setting up the blog is basically so that he can track his own progress as he wants to get better at playing chess and move up in the local competition. His links in his blog work to other sites that he quotes or uses as reference, there isn’t much clutter, but then, as I said, it is a newish blog so I’m sure that it will develop.

But to give credit, the author does explain various tactical thoughts about chess, he has links to various other sites that are about chess and if you are into chess, then I believe you would get something out of this blog. Which is basically the reason why I gave it a .5, I believe that this blog is geared towards people who have chess as a hobby or are fanatical about it.

I, unfortunately, am not.

Rakshasas – King Patzer!

Cats. Photos of cats greet you upon your first visit to Chandra’s Realm. Then you have to hit “Enter” to actually get to the site itself. (Here I was, thinking that the really bad ‘Enter’ trend was over. I was wrong.)

After you ‘enter’ and you get to the first page of Chandra’s Realm, you quickly learn that it really isn’t a blog, not like blogs you are used to seeing. For example, there aren’t daily (or weekly) dated entries right up front, just a bunch of categories in the sidebar with very little cohesion to the site. Wait, hold on, I happened to spy a link in the sidebar to “Blog” where I did find some daily musings by Chandra a la blog, but it is so lost among the clutter of the main page one may never find it.

I honestly can’t nail down what the main site is other than a hodgepodge of links and cat photos. The posts on the first page under “What’s New” are several weeks old and include her “Cause of the Month.” I assume this to be a charity or other cause she feels strongly about–most of them relating to animals (nothing wrong with that).

Chandra has done this site for quite some time, and you can tell she spends lots of time working on it. Reading through the “Blog” link, you can get to know a bit more about Chandra herself, but I find the blog content to be so hidden from view that it’s almost impossible to figure out that it is there at all. Chandra’s Realm

This is my journey… is basically what you get, a personal blog about 23 year old female. She lives in Canada, just brought a new car and her archives go all the way back to September 2002, so there was quite a bit to read!

The blog itself loads up into a nice blue 3 columed blog, with the writing in the middle. The layout of the blog is well done, the links work, the about section gives you an insight into the author.

There were some entry’s that made me smile and other’s that I skimmed through as they just didn’t draw me in. The writing style of the author herself is about her outlooks and thoughts. Some are interesting, other’s just didn’t appeal.

As most personal blog’s I find it hard to keep myself interested as I don’t tend to find much that spikes my interest enough to draw me back. But it’s definately worth a peek-a-boo at if personal blog’s are your thing!this is my journey …