Category: Uncategorized

“Halfway Between” is an appropriate title for this blog. It’s halfway between a good blog and a great blog. Upon arriving at the site I found a Greymatter blog with a few links, a lengthy archive of posts, and some mildly interesting content.

Most of Brett’s posts are short and sweet, and his style seems to imply that he feels his readers are his friends, which I liked. Unfortunately, “short and sweet” doesn’t necessarily make for “captivating” most of the time. I noticed a LOT of one or two sentence entries, which can be annoying when you are looking for real meaty content.

Aside from that, I think that if you know Brett and have been reading his blog from the beginning (he’s had the current version since March 2001) that you’d probably be a daily visitor. But if you are just coming to it now, like me, you’d hope for a little more content to keep you coming back.

The design of the site is basic enough and can’t be faulted – two columns, one with links, the other with the blog. The color scheme is easy on the eye as well. With a bit more tweaking, this site can leave behind the realm of “Halfway Between” and become the great blog it’s meant to be. Halfway Between If & When

I was so excited to do a review of Homicidal GummiBear – what a great name! It’s rife with possibilities for a funny site design, and the writing is sure to be hilarious. Right? Right? Unfortunately, the design is quite boring and didn’t lead me to great expectations.

I couldn’t find any concrete information on Jessy, but I strongly suspect she’s between the ages of 13 and 15. There’s your standard teen angst type of thing going on here – will they like me if I am my own person?, spreading rumors about her classmates’ sexuality, drug dabbling claims, etc. Also included are lots of little quizzes and paste ups of her instant messager conversations. This seems like a very personal journal written for the benefit of Jessy and her friends only. It’s written in such a way that I can’t imagine anyone else having the willpower to read through all the entries if you don’t already know Jessy personally.

Homicidal GummiBear is not an attractive site. Considering who I think Jessy might be and the fact that she has chosen DeadJournal to host her blog, perhaps that is the point. Regardless, there are some serious problems. I can overlook the lack of capitalization if the writing is good. However, that is not the case here at all. Atrocious grammar and glaring spelling errors make for a confusing read, not to mention the overuse of ‘net speak/’net spelling. The purple text on black background makes the eyes go buggy after a while.

There are no extras at Homicidal GummiBear. Period. The DeadJournal userinfo page provided absolutely no information at all. There is no guestbook, no commenting capability, nothing.

I can’t think of a reason to visit this site unless you are a big fan of teen angst, or if you are a friend of Jessy’s.
Jesus Was a Pussy

With such an eye-catcher of a caption like “This is what Orgasms Look Like” and what appears to be a three-character rendition of the subject matter, cute really cute, one wonders what would inspire a person to scar an otherwise half-decent blog with such a nasty title. Kworb’s average, boring blog? I don’t think so.

You see, I like many people who like to discover new and interesting blogs on the Internet are sometimes offended or just plainly irked by these actions. Maybe boring, but my guess is
that most first-time visitors have a look at this statement and just leave. Well, since I am
a reviewer it is my job to hang around and have a look. Too bad all the others have already left, because they will miss some interesting stuff.

Like the poetry, the short stories, and all the pictures. Tons and tons of stuff. Artistic stuff. Personally I am a poetry lover, yet unlike the usual personal drab one finds elsewhere, these pieces are especially refreshing and quite original. My favorites are “Black and white,” “Rainwatcher” and “Antarctica.” Not bad for a seventeen year-old male planning on studying Econometrics in The Netherlands. I recommend checking these pieces out if nothing else.

So what’s the final verdict? Change the title, please. Something with the word “Kworb” in it. Something more decent. And get rid of the three-character symbols of the you-know-what. That way you will certainly attract more worthy blog reviewers (like myself). This blog is an okay visit, better yet if you are into half-decent poetry. But in the end, it is nothing out of the ordinary.This Is What Orgasms Look Like

Comparing getting together with her vagrant-like father to the reasoning of the death penalty and the explanation of the contents of her wallet – these entries are two examples of the seriousness of some posts compared to the humor that can be found in everyday random things that Siera writes about. You can also read about dorm life, an American going to school in Canada (that’d be our author here), and other humorous tidbits about every day life. It’s what I would call a casual blog with the perfect amount of humor and originality thrown into the writing.

There’s not much to read here, simply because the archives aren’t available. You’ll only see a couple of weeks worth of entries, but Siera is making a conscience effort with this weblog to post as frequently as possible and it makes the site worth coming back to see if there’s been something new posted.

The layout, I believe, is another one of those standard, often overused Blogger templates. This one is easy to navigate and the colors throughout the site complement each other. Of course, an original template would have went much better with the original content here, but time is probably a big factor in getting that done for a full time college student such as Siera.

This is a good weblog. The site is only a weblog, but through the reading you get a chance to experience what kind of life the author lives and even experience some of the things she does or some of the people she comes into contact with simply through the details she provides in her writing. It’s worth a visit!

Blonde etc.

My original review of Bingobowden was fatally flawed, it turns out, by a browser glitch which essentially killed part of the blog’s template and “lost” me the archive (Blogspot isn’t very kind when you deploy developer’s built browsers, and especially Mozilla).

Based on what appeared on my screen then, Bingobowden was rather thin and not very promising — but this was not the true blog. I should have suspected what had happened (because there are always telltale signs), but I didn’t.

Naturally, Stuart, Bingobowden’s owner, realizing that his blog had been massacred, was justifiably mad a hell (and said so on his blog on December 9th), and came back for a re-review. Gary responded with a job that, I think, covers all bases completely.

I read gary’s re-review and re-visited Stuart’s handiwork, after being alerted by Brent. I second gary’s 4.5 stars rating. Stuart is on the ball and doing well. And, of course, apologies are in order for the original shotgun blast. Bingobowden