Category: Uncategorized

I spent a good 5 minutes saying “Blagh” out loud so I’d understand the name of this blog. MJ is from Wisconsin—that clued me in pretty quickly. So as I read her blog (she spells it ‘blagh’ consistenly), I imagined her WisCAHNsin accent and that made the time spent at her blog even more enjoyable.

It’s a very pretty blue blog with some blinking, pulsating button thing at the top that I thought was cool. I also liked the way the color fades at the bottom. I question the need to have DAILY archives in the sidebar. It just makes the site look cluttered—and imagine what it will look like after she’s been doing it for longer than a few months. The sidebar notes that the blog is “Now with Tracy for twice the fun without the added calories.” This was funny to me, although I didn’t really know who Tracy was. I’m guessing Tracy is MJ’s friend as they both live in WisCAHNsin. Tracy’s posts are also enjoyable, although MJ tends to post the majority.

MJ talks about her husband and 2 children and their (mis)adventures, and she has a very readable style and tone to her posts. She posts things like “Dumbest Thing I Did This Week,” and trust me, she holds nothing back. She doesn’t use dirty words, in fact, she edits them out of other things she finds and wants to post. I think that is extremely noble for a mom of two. I am the leading potty mouth in my county, so I give props to MJ for her non-cussing blog and, presumably, life.

I especially liked the post Maintaining Privacy in a World Gone Awry because we’ve all had moments where our lives would not be the same if we didn’t win a stuffed cow at the State Fair. I really enjoyed getting a peek inside MJ’s life. I do hope she gets that Catwoman suit that she’s been wanting.
MJ’s Blagh, Blagh, Blagh

“Ducking for Apples” (A country girl in the city) Those were the headlines I saw when the page first loaded. When I first heard the main title, the first thing I thought of was Halloween. So I really wasn’t sure what kind of a blog I would be faced with.

The template was yet another one of those original, familiar Blogspot templates. The layout was very simple.

Ally (the author) is a self employed lady from the “United Kingdom”. She has only had the blog running since July of 2004. Ally’s entries consist of her job, her family ,friends and just everyday life. On a couple of those entries, she has written out phone conversations which she has had. One with a caller who apparently had a wrong number, and a conversation she has had with her mother via telephone. In their own way, I found those two entries fairly amusing, therefore showing Ally’s sense of humor. I am really not sure if they were meant to be amusing, but that’s the way I saw them.

As I stated earlier, the blog has only been around since July, so there really wasn’t that much content to go through. But however, I did enjoy what was there.

She has several links on the right hand side of her page. There is one particular link titled “the crew”. I clicked on that first and it was little pieces of info about each member of her family, her husband, friends etc. I found that one link especially to be quite interesting. It is not something you usually see on your everyday blog. However, I was somewhat disappointed to find that a few of her links were not in working order.

In my opinion, this is a blog worth checking out from time to time. Ally has a way of writing her entries that will keep you interested. As her blog progresses in time, I am sure she will fix up her links and maybe do some work on her design. Because of the non working links and because of the newness of the blog, I am giving it a score of 3. But in the future, if she would like to re submit it, I think it has the potential to get a score of a 5.
ducking for apples

This is Whitey, a questioning kind of guy. It’s also Bitey, his incredibly teeny wise-ass alter-ego, who pops in to attempt to shame, harry, pester or intice Whitey towards a more conventional form of writing. Thankfully, most of the time, Whitey ignores him and continues to give us a real stream-of-consciounceness free form look into his head and heart. They’re worth a good look.

Sordid Detail is just that: details of life, love, work, observations, hopes dreams and blogging. A non-complicated format, easily read, not a lot of external links or mishmash. A sharp spare wrapper for some tasty real contents, his words. I barely noticed formatting here, so busy reading what he has to say. (Did I mention no distractions from the writing?)

Whitey’s a complex guy who doesn’t seem overly interested in censoring his language or topics, which I found quite refreshing. There’s very little of the agony of self-editing apparent, although I’m left with the sneaky suspicion that he is astutely aware of exactly how he’s presenting himself. He writes with a nearly painful candor about topics ranging from music to mini-golf, barflies and bimbos, Moms and Moose(s) (Meece?). He’s got quite a varied history behind him, and I’m guessing a fascinating future in front of him. At 29, he shows a huge amount of insight into the human condition, and is obviously a thoughtful and articulate observer (and participant) of Life, It’s Ownself. He’s only been blogging for a few months, and I’m hoping that he continues indefinately…. since all of this self-challenging search for the meanings of things makes for an exellent read. A most intelligent and interesting writer with the ability to hold my interest despite a lack of foo-foo add on stuff.

Check out his August stories called True Stories Part 2, (this is the best moose story ever!) Using and Losing Digits, (Ode to a Handy-Mom) and the September stories titled Anatomy of a Fistfight, and Pills For Breakfast. These are just a few examples of a ‘Naked Gunner’ of a writer, less concerned with what you think of him than he is with getting his tales told. He’s articulate. He’s hip. He knows big words, and can spell. He’s someone I’d have a beer with.

I can’t quite give him an overall 5 score without somebody screaming at me “he’s not ‘fancy’ enough”… but as a reviewer who’s much more impressed by words then deeds, I think this is a totally absorbing read. I’d like to hear his music, and I hope he continues to write, for I’ve bookmarked and linked him already. Now for the disclaimer: He does use (correctly and appropriately) some ‘objectional’ language, and occasionally his topics may go beyond a PG rating. That said, he’s a savvy and sardonic writer, and I gave him a 4.25 only for the lack of flash and dazzle. His writings earned a solid 5 from this reviewer.The Sordid Details

The Captain’s Log is a nice little title. With the not so subtle hint that this might be a reference to Star Trek, I knew that it was not so. I knew that the name of the site is Captain Spanky, and this was just, well his log.

When going to the site, I noticed that the url was index2.asp. I wondered what would happen if I just went to the base url and I found a mock magazine cover with an attractive woman and what to expect in this months entries. I am glad the author has read up on how I hate splash pages, and was very happy that the url went straight to the log and not this page (more on this in a bit).

The design of the site is something that needs some serious work. Black overall background, blue to black gradient background for the blog area, white to black gradients for the right column, and white text for the blog. Does that cover it all? Oh no, forgot to mention the attractive schoolteacher image at the top. This image seems out of place if you were to 1. Not look at the title (Captain Spanky) and 2. Not look at the splash page I mentioned earlier. Personally I think the design needs a face-lift to better capture the goal of “Captain Spanky”.

The blog itself is all about The Captain. What is going on with him this weekend, his pool tournament, his girl, his friends, the bars he visits, ect. Most recently his thoughts were on the election here in the states which to me is rather dull as everyone has been talking about it for the last 4 months or so. One thing I liked was the inline comments on each post. While this took a little getting used to as the text for the comments is a goldish color and a smaller font, I enjoyed being able to see such communication.

Overall I thought the blog was well written and has a large number of people willing to share their comments as well. The design needs to be updated. This is not a blog for me as I have too much to worry about in my own life, but if you are interested in someone else’s daily life, then this is the blog for you.The Captain’s Log

How’m I Doing? is a generic Blogger template. Simple and uncluttered. What an unusual name for a blog, I thought when I first entered. Then I read the subtitle:

“People routinely greet one another with, “How are you doing?” But when you have cancer, they really want to know how you are doing. This blog will contain posts that try to answer that question on as regular a basis as I can.”

Turns out the name is quite apropos after all.

This is the blog of Tim Cooper of Alabama, who is going through treatment for lung cancer. He mentions in one of the entries about Writing as Therapy. Something that one of our own reviewers mentioned once. Tim’s hard copy journal spilled over into this blog.

He writes in a clear and poignant way about his illness. He also manages some genteel humor along the way. The posts began in September of this year, and are infrequent, but very well written. One is almost immediately drawn in to our author’s life as he describes his treatments and shares his faith.

The latest entry is from November 14. I will be checking back to see how things are progressing for our hero. For surely anyone who faces this kind of test with such wit and grace is certainly a hero.

I cannot rate this blog in the normal way. It doesn’t seem proper. I’m giving it a 5 for breathtaking honesty.

And here’s a prayer that the author makes a full and speedy recovery.

How’m I doing?