Category: Uncategorized

Elisla’s Place is a pretty nice place to go visit really. Nothing really out of the ordinary but a positive place overall.

When I first entered the site, I noticed another Modblog (my second reviewed this week) and found it to be pretty similar to the first- photoblog, poll, chat console and rudimentary “About Me” page were all there. I know everyone has to start blogging somewhere and some people don’t want much hassle with it all, but I am always enthusiastic when people have explored the more creative aspects of how a blog can look. Ok, this isn’t exactly an offensive looking blog, and it has a nice titlebar, but it is not exactly cutting edge in terms of layout and I always think colours are good thing in a lot of ways. I personally don’t like this Modblog system at all really- it seems pretty clunky and there are better ones out there, but hey, I can’t take too many marks off for that.

I moved quickly on to the content and the blog has only been going a month or two so the archives didn’t take too long to get through and most of the entries are fairly short. There is a good mix of content though – some family (and other) photos, personal entries and discussions of wider issues. One thing which really shines in this blog is the fact that the personality of the author really comes across and all the entries are positive and fun to read. The author has clearly been through some bad times too, but she does not focus on these in the way some bloggers do (a point well made in this post here).

Not too much else to say about this blog really. As I said at the beginning, it’s ok. Nothing great, but it’s pleasant enough really and much like her husbands blog, little of any controversy to be found here. Elisla’s Place

Upon entering this blog, the first thing I saw at the very top of the page, was a row of baby photo’s,(including 2 of before the baby was born).

At that time, my first impression was that this blog may be of real interest, especially in a female perspective.

I looked in the top right hand corner and there was a brief description of what the blog was mainly about. It said:
… a blog about a journey through pregnancy, birth and life with a baby…

It’s always nice to see a description of some kind about the blogs contents. It gives readers a better perspective on things.

Erin (the author) is a 27 year old “stay at home wife and mother”, and also an ex writer for an advertising agency. At the moment she is loving every minute of staying at home caring for her baby. Her blog is devoted basically on her baby (Benjamin). She writes about his feeding periods, his sleeping habits etc. Being a mom myself, reading her entries brought a smile to my face . One of the reasons being that it brought back some fond memories of my own.

Erin started her blog in January 2003. Practically every post (except for maybe 1 or 2), is focused entirely on Benjamin. Erin has links as well posted on several of her entries which contain sites on parenting . Very helpful sites to new moms especially.

Erin has links on her entries as well, where you can actually hear Benjamin making baby sounds.

On the right hand side , Erin has several links arranging from Benjamin’s ultrasound photos, Erin’s pregnancy pics and even little home movies of Benjamin, (which were very cute indeed) There are also several adorable photos of Benjamin located throughout the blog.

Anyone can see that Benjamin is Erin’s pride and joy. Her entries are very well written and very easy to read. However, I wasn’t too fond of the colors on the page. But since the blog was about a baby, the colors suited it quite well. This would be a great site for an expectant mother to visit. It would give her a few insights on parenthood. No offense to the male population, but it would be good for them to visit as well. One of the reasons being that maybe they would get more of a perspective and insight on the female and childbirth.

There was a problem I had with the links on the right hand side. Every time I clicked on one, it wouldn’t let me go back to the previous page. It continued to knock me off of the blog completely.

In conclusion, I do recommend giving this blog a visit. It is quite interesting and informative. As I already stated, the links kept knocking me off the site. Well now that Erin knows about that problem, I am sure she will have it fixed in the near future.Tale of a Baby Human

Princess Joanna’s Kingdom opens to a pleasant blue and white page with nice readable fonts and a clean and not too cluttered sidebar. I did not find the about me page she said she was working on, and perhaps I did my review while she was updating it. In any case, it was not present.

Joanna has been here since March 2003. I read samples from each of the archived months and found entries talking about her job, what mood she was in, and what her plans were for the weekend. While the writing style is understandable and clear, the subject matter is rather mundane and not that interesting. Now I know that there are days in every writer’s life that we find ourselves at a loss for something meaningful to say. But at some point, at least in this blogger’s opinion, one has to show some deep emotion or reveal one’s passion for some aspect of life in order for the writing to be engaging.

A couple of constructive suggestions for improvement would be to step outside the immediate things in your life, and write a bit more about the wider world. And tell us what you are passionate about, the positive or the negative. Don’t let your writing be ordinary. Just writing down the facts of the day, with a side of whine does not make for interesting reading in the long run.

At this point, the target audience for this blog would be people personally aquatinted with the author. If you want to reach a larger audience, tell us what makes you tick. Or let us see your unique view of the world. That would make me want to come back and visit again sometime.

Princess Joanna’s Kingdom

Go to this site, and BANG! Movie reviews. Television reviews. Occasionally music and book reviews. Other than the blog’s title (which is Scott Aaron Pepper), you learn very little about Scott Aaron Pepper. For example, why is he reviewing movies, television, music and books? Is he a high-school student doing this for credit? Is he a professional critic, posting his stuff to a personal blog? What city (or country) does he live in?

I guess what I’m saying is, I like to easily find information about the person whose blog I’m delving into. I understand that some people don’t want to do an entire Blogger profile on themselves, but a few words would suffice for those of us visiting the blog for the first time. It helps us, Scott. We want to know.

Upon further delving, it seems Scott does post these same reviews to blogcritics.org. From one of his sidebar links I discover that he’s a “Boston blogger,” thus I surmise he must be from Boston. He also has links to photos from the Democratic National Convention (held in Boston) in his sidebar, along with publicity film posters and book jackets linked to recent reviews of movies, books, and so on. It may be a standard blogger template, but it’s done very well.

I genuinely enjoyed reading Scott’s reviews. They are smart, well-researched, objective, and informative. On some days he will post “So-and-So television Show to Premiere Tonight” and include articles and previews from So-and-So show. Then later in the day, he will post his review. Since you see the most recent post first in a Blogger format, this is a tad redundant. Being that readers presumably aren’t checking his site every 2-3 hours, they will certainly read the review first and then scroll down and lo, and behold, there is the “Don’t Miss the Premiere of…” post. Perhaps he could wait until the next day to post the review to avoid this deja vu all over again.

The only time you get a hint of what Scott likes personally is reading his earliest archived posts and his American Idol recaps. His more recent posts are all strictly reviews (or previews). I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Scott has an affinity for Jennifer Garner, due to the sheer number of posts regarding anything she’s ever had anything to do with. He remains objective, however, admitting that Daredevil was a really crappy movie.

I would give this site a higher rating if it just told me more about Scott Aaron Pepper.
scott aaron pepper

This blog is very plain. Which is okay by me. I don’t mind plain. It leaves room for the focal point to be on the words. And believe me, on this blog we are going to need all the room we can get, for I will venture to say that this blogger writes the longest entries I have thus far encountered in the blogosphere.

There is a cursory About page, with little real information about the author. But you might make a note of the fact that on the list of her favorite books, Ulysses is at the top.

The archives go back to May of 2004 and I dove in to get a feel for what is going on with our author. The entries are generally stream of consciousness impressions, and shift from the present to the past with a seamlessness that many times left me scratching my head. There is a liberal smattering of letters or diary entries from as far back as 1997. Most of the writing is rambling, which from time to time borders on the incoherent. Though the images invoked are vivid and beautifully crafted, they often seem disjointed and aloof. The only time I really connected with our author was in an entry from September 18th entitled “Grime”. If you are going to read one sample from this blog, do try that one.

The overall tone of this blog left me feeling bleak. Not that there is anything wrong with that. But I would not call this a personal blog. I think it should be under the creative writing category, which would prepare the reader for what is to come.

If you enjoy atmospheric stream of consciousness writing, this is the blog for you. And I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the brilliant mind that obviously resides in these pages. But for the same reason I did not enjoy Ulysses, I did not enjoy this blog. Though I admit that I prefer my journeys to have a beginning and an end, for I like the satisfaction of completion. A pedantic’s view perhaps. But you may feel differently when you visit, and will curse me as an insufferable hack with no imagination. My advice is to go there yourself and make up your own mind.

Redemption Blues