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Libertarian Samizdata? The name is a clue that you are not entering a teen blog on Brittany Spears. No, this is a site about politics – actually if you read deep enough it is about the libertarian meta-context – but stick with me.


The subject matter is politics and culture from a libertarian perspective. The overall libertarian slant, however, does not stop the blog from being interesting. They cover subjects ranging from gun control, economic policy, and the theoretical underpinnings of various political groups to popular culture, sex and pornography, and the personal travails of the bloggers.


Speaking of the posters, they come from all over the world – the main group are in London but they have posters from Belfast, Croatia, and NJ to name a few. One particular poster Natalija Radic, a feisty Croatian, is particularly interesting as she posts evocative pictures of herself at various social functions. She certainly spices up the posts – her non-photo based posts are interesting as well; especially to those of us reading stateside as we get little news with a Croatian perspective. Overall, the writing is good and the subject is interesting and varied.


Although the site is basically a hybrid Blogspot template it is designed well and easy to read. There are links for each post and it is easy to identify when the posts were posted and by whom. They integrate graphics and pictures throughout to add visual interest. There are handy explanations on the left hand side and a host of good links to both other blogs and more libertarian sites.


If you are interested in international politics, foreign affairs, philosophy, and the adventures of an international cast of bloggers than Libertarian Samizdata is interesting and thought provoking. If you are a diehard libertarian – why aren’t you reading this already? If politics bore you it might not be the site for you. Overall, I think it is worth regular visits because even if you don’t agree with them they are almost always interesting.Libertarian Samizdata

When I chose to review this site and saw that it was a “Blogspot” site, I expected it to be about average — in all honesty, sort of like my own site. Yeah, I play around with design and I update pretty often, but I always figured the best Weblogs belonged to those who owned their own domain names. Wrong!



“life as it happens” stuck out right away because its design was clean, catchy, and it made you want to read further. Besides the title, the first text you see is a quote: “On the Web, everyone is famous to fifteen people,” attributed to Dave Weinberger. I liked that right away — and I knew then that I wasn’t reading a blog written by someone who hoped for everlasting Internet fame.



The content of “life as it happens” is good. It’s easy to follow, it’s not written to sound like someone trying to be “deep,” which is a personal pet peeve of mine, and it’s exactly what it proclaims to be — life, as it happens. The entries are spiced up with titles and small icons (I especially liked the entry titled “Caught in a trap,” with a tiny bleach bottle leading it off, that went on to talk about drain problems in the sink). The author, Rodney Breen, an “Irishman living in the UK” as he describes himself, is witty without trying too hard, and a really great piece of writing is his “Infrequently Asked Questions,” in which he involves himself in a somewhat trivial but no less informative discourse. Finally, according to Rod himself, the purpose of the journal is just to write, to entertain and to have fun — and I see every evidence that Mr. Breen has done just that.



Simply put, there are no problems at all with the design of “life as it happens” — at least not that I saw. Everything ties together well, the design helps the content without going too far and distracting from it, and all of the links not only work, but include some description beyond the title, so that you’re not floating in link never-never-land, which is a feature I certainly appreciate.



One great added feature appears under “Why write this?” in which the author answers the above question. He gives a list of tips for Bloggers, and he sums it up with what I consider the most important advice of all — have fun. There’s no sense blogging when your only purpose is to start a flame war, and Rod obviously realizes that. He wants to have fun, and he encourages others to do the same.



A second great feature is his journal, which is separate from his weblog and contains longer pieces he’s written. It’s great — the pieces are insightful and well-written, and breaking them out into a separate section not only gives them the recognition they deserve but allows his blog to flow as a series of short but still interesting posts that “go together” much better without the longer discourses woven in.



A final treat is the online novel, “Hurdy Gurdy,” which I wish he’d finish. It may not be the Great American Novel, but it’s honest and full of the same clear writing that marks “life as it happens.”



This site certainly is worth visiting; although there are no revolutionary or even particularly exciting events discussed, there is something to appeal to everyone over about 16. If nothing else, look to it as an idea of what a blog can be — simple, not too complicated, but all the better for it.life as it happens

WED-log is “a weblog of news and sites about married life, couples, spouses, relationships, weddings, divorce prevention, intimacy, communication, love and commitment.”



This is a site that is intended for married people who are interested in strengthening their relationship. There’s a wealth of information to be found on this site. Links on many marriage-related topics are referenced in each entry.



The site navigation is built to the left and right of the main content section. There’s nothing at all fancy about this site, and it doesn’t appear that there’s much formatting at all.



This is your basic, straight-forward informative site, based loosely around the weblog format. If you’re looking for Christian-based marriage information, you might find something of interest.WED-log: Strengthening marriage / avoiding divorce

Monkey Farts was part of leafbud.net at one time. As I enter the Monkey Farts blog, I am told this. Cool. Thanks for telling me. A fact confirmed when I find the ‘skindex’ of templates to choose from, one of which is resembles the leafbud site. This one, however, has different photos on it. One of the photos is supposed to be of the author’s pet fish, but on first glance looks like a purple elephant whose got a santa hat on its trunk. The other templates are more nifty, if templates are your thing, and I guess if template-picking were my thing, I’d pick the western one as the best.

Anyhoo, my immediate guess about the author is that she’s one of those people to whom ‘blog is her life and life is her blog’. This is apparent because she actually invests money into blog itself. As for me, content is of utmost importance since I am a thrifty blogger–I once paid to get rid of a banner ad–that’s it. I also immediately got the impression that this person is not an American, has perhaps a computer-related job of some sort, and seems very in-tune with herself, but semi-self conscious, all at once.

A little more looking around led me to find the author’s ‘about’ page, which proved me correct. It states that the author is a 22 year-old Australian web designer, and exclaimes “What more do you want from me?????” Well, then. I suppose peoples’ ‘about’ pages can only be what they WANT to tell us. However, in the case of Monkey (she LIKES to be called that), let me say that if your ‘about’ page is a collection of online quiz results, a fact which I find both amusing and detestable, I have no choice but to refuse any less. I must demand more.

*sigh*

Moving on through the archives, I see links indicating that the blog started under a year ago, and so I start following some of them. I am pleased to find entries that are frocked with sarcasm and wit, which impresses and sometimes intimidates me, although I’m sure it’s not her intention. In fact, I actually enjoyed the archives. Unfortunately, she does not carry enough of this brevity and lovely thought-provoking text into her more current entries. They retain her usual cutesy-ness, but seem mostly trite and silly: “Soon I shall have a hit counter that doesn’t count my hits and STILL has managed to reach 5000!(w00t)…Soon I will think of something interesting to blog about.” I find bloggers who express concern outloud on such things like their hit count seem semi-narcissistic in nature, and having ‘something interesting to blog about’, is sort of a hackneyed premise for an entry. Also, could someone clue me in to just exactly ‘w00t’ is? Call me dumb, I’m truly, really unsure of this. The guestbook seems to be more of a message board for people who know the author, and its older pages are all broken links.

All in all, the blog seems important to at least the author and her gaggle of followers/friends/chums/what-have-you. So that’s got to count for something, right? Sure!

I really, really, really strained hard to give Monkey Farts a 3.5, only because I miss her old entries’ style. Bring that back, Ms. Monkey, and you have won my heart.Retarded Monkey – Monkey Farts

“Peace of Imperfection” is the description of this site. I was immediately drawn into by the most recent entry which was a detailed description of the writer’s encounter with 3 small girls, all sisters who were craving his attention. The entry read very much like a journal, or a story taken out of someone’s life which is how most of this site read like.

Jeff, the writer created this site back in November of last year. I read through most of what was on the main page and some of the posts were very detailed about whatever moment he was recalling. I liked his writing a lot because it felt like I could understand and see where he was coming from emotionally and not just what was on the surface of him. He ponders a lot, but does have posts in between about things he’s seen or read online, to your daily thoughts about things you need to do or what funny thing happened on the way to the store.

As far as the layout goes, it’s a Blogger template but one of the better ones. There a links to his “daily reads” and links to some photography and poetry of his.

I really enjoyed reading this site mostly because there’s a nice balance of writing offered here. I wasn’t bored at all and really liked his writing style. This is a must visit.KaneBlues