Category: Uncategorized

This blog, from a guy named Adam, isn’t given any particular name. When you go to adamswansen.org, you’re met by a nice picture of sun beating down through clouds and the words “you don’t have to believe everything you think.” Interestingly, I find this statement to be oddly profound as I think it’s ultimately true in life; despite its simplicity. This statement, to me, touches on the fact that we’re all our own worst enemies — and how often times, it’s what we think that limits us and/or hurts us. Without a doubt, this statement was incredible at welcoming me to Adam’s blog.

Adam is the posterchild, or atleast could be, for The National Everyday Blogger’s Assosciation (NEBA) — if such an organization existed. He writes in an everyday fashion and pulls it off surprisingly well. Here’s a taste of his style for writing …

“February 06, 2003

Haircut

haircutting for me is a spiritual experience. I love to get my haircut there’s something about it that just feels really good. I got it cut today because it needed it badly. The guy did something that I have never had anyone do. He strapped this vibrating thingy(yes I see the joke) to the back of his hand and gave me the best head massage that I have ever gotten. Wow.

On a side note it’s still snowing here. It’s really white.” (adamswansen.org)

Now, I find this entry to be quite entertaining just because of the pure realism it offers. Adam’s real with his readers and I think that’s appealing — it certainly is to me.

I don’t like giving 5’s … in fact, I think I’ve become notorious for being harsh and overly critical … But this guy covers all of his bases, by being genuine. I like the design, I like the writing … it’s as simple as that. Well done Adam.Adam’s Mile high Blog

When I think of Japan, the last thing that comes to mind is the blues.



The Blues Blog is part of Tokyo-Blues.com, which is a site about the blues scene in Japan. While the main part of the site is full of loads of information ranging from interviews from BB King and Dr. John, to concert tours, the blog is updated regularly about any news related to blues.

Launched in January of 2003, The Blues Blog is still new to the blogging world. But from reading up to today’s post, it looks like it has a promising future. Les, who runs the site keeps his readers informed about upcoming gigs around the country of Japan, links to articles relevant to the blues music scene and new album releases by noteworthy artists.

Visually, the layout of the blog is a standard Blogger template. I think the structure of the posts could be improved a bit. They seemed a bit messy, but that could be easily fixed by doing a bit of organizing. Apart from that the writing is fairly easy to read and not too wordy at all, which is a plus.

What makes this blog stand out from the thousands of other blogs out there is it has a completely different topic and is informative for a subject many may not be aware of. I think this is good site and also a unique one, which is often hard to find. Once in a while you find them and it’s quite a refreshing read.
BluesBlog

Jim Howard’s ShowMe was a roller coaster of first impressions. I was intrigued by the title – Jim Howard’s Show Me what . Then I realized that the blog was at xanga.com, a slight disappointment as I knew I would be dealing with a lot of standard details. Even worse, the colors that Jim chose clash. Or maybe I just don’t like brown.

However, I do not take into account (well, not much) the design of a blog. Content is superior – I’d much rather read an interesting blog with green and purple borders than a mundane site that is beautifully designed. What struck me about Jim’s site was his thought flow, very matter-of-fact. I’m sorry to say that this did not appeal to me either. Jim’s ideas come at you like gunshots – BAM, BAM, BAM. I don’t feel a sense of streaming consciousness – a.k.a. sentence flow.

The majority of Jim’s entries are reactions to the world around him, specifically the news. Yes, there are entries that pertain to his personal life – quite a few actually. But the view I got of Jim as I read his blog is that of an intelligent man from Texas who bluntly states his opinions on current events.

One interesting aspect of Jim’s blog was that it linked to another site, called his notebook. The notebook is actually a webcam along with a message board. The webcam was interesting in that you could move around the picture instead of the stills you always see on other blogs.

Should you visit Jim’s Howard’s ShowMe? In my opinion, I don’t know exactly what Jim Howard is showing me. I rarely say “no, don’t ever visit this site” because people will have different reactions to the same blog. I say give it a try – perhaps it will appeal more towards you then it did on my visit.

Jim Howard’s ShowMe

Wow, Buddha. Based on initial appearances, I figured I would be reading about Western religion. “The Emerald Buddha” really stuck out to me, and I found myself wondering why it was there, and why it is relevant to the site.

When I could finally stop staring at the Buddha, I got into reading the site’s actual content. The author takes us on a day-to-day journey through his life along with his experiences with web-programming. The posts are easy to read and I was quite glad I didn’t have to dig out my dictionary. What’s different about this site than other personal day-to-day commentaries I have read is that I can actually relate to thebwit. It feels like I am sitting down with an old friend, and he’s telling me what went on day-to-day. I feel the author’s purpose is to let people inside his life.

The overall design of the site is lacking something. While the Buddha stands out to me at the top of the page, I feel that more could be done to make it look more attractive. Once I scrolled down, I was basically reading black text on a white background. While this is easy to read, it does make things a little repetitive. Most of the links on the site worked, but there was one site that wasn’t linked up that the author should know about, and that was the one marked “Wendy.”

If you are looking for more than a day-to-day commentary, I wouldn’t suggest this site. The site’s backbone ARE the actual posts themselves. Also included in the site is an exercise log, but it wouldn’t be something I would want to read on a daily basis. I checked out the sites thebwit links to, and many of them are worth reading. I enjoyed playing with the “My DVD List” box, but I was expecting the movies to actually link to something.

If peeking into other people’s lives is your fancy, I would suggest reading this site. It’s easy reading and would captivate audiences of the adult age. It is interesting, but I think it could get a little repetitive after awhile. I still find myself wondering why Buddha is there, and what purpose he serves…TheBwit

Now I don’t like to start on negatives, but on entering ReMo Stylz all I was faced with was dark font on a black background. Assuming a lighter background was loading, which would enable me to at least read the posts, I waited. But after a few minutes, several animated GIFs were twitching at me from the left hand column, the centre of the screen was a dark void and the posts to the right were still unreadable.

GIFs seem to be the main content of the site. There is very little else. The posts (which I could only read by dragging the cursor over them) only date back to April 11 and the last one was posted on April 23. I only counted six entries, four of which simply stated the progress of the site’s start-up.

The left hand column consists mostly of flashing links to pages about tv, movies, sports and music that the twin authors like. However these, as with the rest of the site, are unfinished and you’re faced with a lot of “coming soon” GIFs.

The enthusiasm that was obviously pumped into the site’s initial construction shows that ReMo Stylz could have gone somewhere. The site has a nice, family feel, being run by twins who say that they “sometimes think alike,” and with an opening post that wishes their cousin a happy birthday. Aside from that there really is nothing there yet to recommend the site. The flashing, twirling GIFS gave me a headache, and with so few posts it looks like this weblog’s been abandoned.ReMoStylz