Category: Uncategorized

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

One thing you’ll notice when you initially visit this blog is that it appears to be a nice little family oriented blog, maybe something geared toward updating family members on current events and such. After diving into some of the posts, it becomes obvious that this is far more than that, it’s very interesting, funny and well written.

I would venture to say that this blog is down-right hilarious at times but, that may be because I’m a parent myself and can totally relate to the things Greg and Deb post about. I see this weblog as being a tool to help them share some of their more interesting times in life with the world, or whomever wants to take a gander.

The design of this blog is soothing to the eyes and easily read. Spelling and grammar is top-notch and I think this blog is going into my favorites list. I would recommend this blog to anyone looking for a hearty laugh, especially people with young children…trust me, you’ll be able to relate to these folks!

Greg & Deb on the Web

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