Category: Uncategorized

Constant Trek is the name of the site. Trek towards where? The stars? Towards finding the meaning of life? There’s not much time for doubts, though, as there’s an introduction explaining the basics of the site’s purpose. So forget about space, Enterprise and Spock, forget philosophy, think of two adventurers in their way from London to Morocco. 10,500 miles through 16 countries and all of that on foot. (*exclamation marks all over*) They aim at nothing less.

Design wise, the blog, as well as the whole site, does not deserve an award, but the least we can say it is user friendly. All links work perfectly. The colors chosen remind of sand, which is meaningful considering the ultimate destination of the author, Paula, and her husband Gary. I’m not a frames fan, but it can hardly be considered a flaw. The column where the posts are published is quite narrow which gives the impression that the text goes on forever and you’ll never get to the end of it, which can be tiring if you’re looking for quick reading.

As a child, I read a journal written by Hans Staden, a German soldier. In his diary, he tells about his trip to Brazil way back in the 1500’s. As you can imagine, his impressions on the people and the land were very detailed and illustrated with beautiful sketches. Paula, the author, succeeds in providing as many information she can about the places she passes by. No sketches, but lots of beautiful pictures throughout the text that can be enlarged. If you don’t have a broad band connection, my guess is it would take forever to load the pictures. I only missed Paula’s personal considerations about the people and the places. It was all very informative, but I’d like to know more about what she thought and felt in those places. Of course that can be a cultural thing, since I’m Brazilian and she’s Australian.

What impressed me the most as I entered the site was the number of sections it contains. You can find anything from recipes — although there aren’t so many — to a book marker. Seems a little random? It’s not, believe me. All content is well linked and makes perfect sense. Reading about the preparation for the journey, the contents of their bags (they only carry 2 changes of clothes!, wow!) sets the context you need to get even more involved while reading the weblog.

If you are up to an adventurer’s description of the world and you’d like to know what kind of things to expect while walking all the way down to Africa, this is your blog. It brought me back these memories of a child reading a sailor’s journal and it is sure a weblog I’ll keep visiting.
Constant Trek

This blog is written by Paul, who lists his occupation as, Keeping alive. He doesn’t write where exactly he is from, only that he is “From Within The Earth,” which is also the name of his blog.

His tagline cryptically reads: “I went underground. And now I found a link back to the world. From within my own Kingdom, hidden far below the earth, in cellars unseen, I hide. And wait.”



Paul’s posts are poetically written and sometimes are, in fact, short poems. In a recent post, Paul discusses the recent Terri Schiavo debate and offers his opinion on society as a result. His words have a free flowing quality to them, as if he writes what comes to his mind, before being over analyzed. It’s this purity that kept me reading more, that and its dark side. Indeed there is a dark side to his posts, one that reveals a bit of pain and anger. Paul posts quite frequently, almost daily, and usually offers his take on the world and his adventures finding a friends’ lost boy, which verges on obsession.

The design is a typical boring blogger template and the side column lacks any extra blog features like a clock or a weather forecast thing, but there is a web counter and a few links.

Overall, Paul’s vagueness is intriguing and could easily attract more readers to want to discover and read more.From Within The Earth

“Looking out the window…” is the personal blog of Ashley, a young woman from Canada (who I am estimating to be 20ish) who is also a 2nd year Honors Sociology student at a University. Ashley posts regularly on the blog regarding happenings in her life and what’s going on around her (hence the title).

My ititial thoughts on this blog were “Yucky”, because I use the Firefox browser. When I switched to Internet Explorer, the blog looked fine. When I began to look at her site through my own window, I got a good sense of her life and what was going on in it.

I like the fact that Ashley has a lot of pictures on her blog. A blog can be just all text, but it’s always good to add photos with your posts to give the reader an extra idea of what you’re writing about.

Aside from the non-Firefox friendly layout, I like the colors and graphics. I think the huge strawberry in the bottom right of the page is an added touch. The blog itself has a very simple design, which is not too flashy, but gets the point across. The only thing I would do is invest a litte time in making sure that the design is compatible with popular browsers. Someone who visits the site will be more likely to stay and read more of your posts if the blog is easy to read and aesthetically pleasing.

I give you a “B” for effort. Definately an interesting read.Looking out the window…

The at-a-glance description of “The Girl Behind” would be clean, somewhat plain, with an early-morning breeziness. The second thing that hits a split-second after the initial color-scheme take-in is, of course: “SQUIRREL!!!” As of current, the newest post contains a photo of a plush squirrel toy in natural surroundings. This, of course, is a surefire way to get my attention. Is it just me, or do squirrel-lovers generally have cute and interesting blogs?

So, personal preferences aside, I move on to the rest of the blog. A quick glance at the subtitle tells me that the author is a “33 year-old English girl.” Hmm. Sounds interesting! Scrolling down to take in a bit of the content-to-link-to-photo ratio, it turns out that our English author (she chooses to remain anonymous, and simply calls herself ‘The Girl Behind’) has a nice combination of all three. There are a few posts with just one photo and a caption, as well as a proper scattering of links where appropriate. The rest of it is pure text. Girl Behind ranges from reviewing theatrical productions and other blogs, to reminiscing on earlier years, to current happenings in her personal life. What is written is spontaneous and does not follow a specific “chronology”. In fact, my favorite post so far is “Five tips for a woman…” It’s short, funny, and has absolutely nothing to do with anything posted before or after it.

As I mentioned earlier, there isn’t much to the design and layout of the site. It’s a premade template (I worship premades too, so no qualms there), and a very simple one at that. Like I said before, the site possesses a breakfast-in-bed sort of zing to it. Maybe tea-time in Great Britain? The colors are nice, practical, and easy on the eyes. Not much else to the design. Personally, I would have liked to see a layout centered around that stuffed squirrel! It would have definitely added to the at-a-glance appeal, but even without, the blog is just fine.

Checking out Girl Behind’s profile, I can see that she has four separate blogs. However, ‘The Girl Behind’ is the only one with actual content. The other three have a single post: “x”. This is endlessly confusing to me. Perhaps she decided to integrate all three of her older blogs to create ‘The Girl Behind’? Back to the main blog, Girl Behind links to some of her favorite blogs, a webpage full of squirrel photos (squirrel lovers must-see), blog-ranking sites (TWR included), and her current leisure reading.

Overall, I can say that ‘The Girl Behind’ is a nice blog. Decent, clean, and well-written. There is something appealing about the way it jumps from one topic to another from post to post. However, it comes off as perhaps a little too light-hearted. Or maybe simply not “earthy” enough? I keep mentally comparing ‘The Girl Behind’ to a scone. Is it a blog? Yes. Is there anything horribly wrong with it? Of course not! But I can’t help but think that a little pat of butter or jam would do it a world of good. I give it three out of five stars. Good effort, nice for dreamy reading, but nothing overly extravagant or “new”.The Girl Behind

I Have Seoul. With this type of a title I am expecting to see a regular site about someone’s life. I am also expecting to receive a reason on why they feel they have soul. This site is hosted on blogspot.com so it has the typical header. After I opened up the URL I come to find out this is a Canadian teacher in Seoul, South Korea teaching English. The site is easy on the eyes and appears to have a lot of content considering it has only been around since February of 2005. It contains pictures as well as stories to go along with them.

The weblog is about a teacher who is located in Seoul, South Korea. She is teaching English there. The site walks you through her life as it happens. She posts frequently and tells you just enough information to get her point across without boring you. She provides a lot of useful links and also links to her friends. The English/spelling on the site needs some work.

The design is a typical blogspot layout. It is easy on the eyes and contains both pictures and stories. It is purple and tan in color and the stories stretch on forever (distance down the page). The site contains links, archives, random pictures, and an about section.

This is a personal site that would be more appealing to friends and family of the author. I do not feel I would visit again. I feel that if you are interested in learning about Seoul, South Korea, you may find this site helpful. She takes pictures of where she goes and tells you about them from her point of view. This site is not what I was expecting by the title. I feel the content and completeness of the author is fantastic, even though it does not appeal to me.

I have Seoul