Category: Uncategorized

One of the unbeatable pluses of the Bloggosphere is that it is replete with good writing. Locating a mature, lucid blog though is like searching the sea of fallen autumn leaves for that one tiny magic stick that’s lying out there, somewhere…. Not too much hope of discovery here. But, then, there’s always chance.

The Culpepper Log, run by Al Barger, is both a pleasant surprise and a solid personal views and analysis blog. Al compiles cracking good posts mainly focused on American politics. His views and political preferences are quite obvious from the word “go,” and I found this to be one of the strongest attributes of the Culpepper Log. Named after the Culpepper Minute Men Battalion of War of Independence fame, Al’s site makes its presence known in an unmistakable, assured, and articulate manner.

Al doesn’t mince words, but he writes with that rare combination of well-founded personal belief and a sense of humor that should make even those who disagree with him want to keep scrolling down his blog. After reading some of his most recent postings on the screen, I quickly printed all 21 pages of the Culpepper Log on display in the browser window — and went to my reading armchair with the print-out and a red pen.

I definitely enjoyed reading Al’s prose much, much more than the “serious analyses” that unfortunately form part of my daily professional occupation (ughhhhh…). Amazingly, his post on “Walt Disney and the memory hole” (11/20) touched upon questions I’ve thrown around in the past with some U.S. friends involved in the movie industry. The post provided pin-point commentary that answered the questions and directed me to another source on the Web for further info. Power of the Blogs!

His “Mixed feelings about democracy” (11/5) won’t sit well with many, even well-intentioned, readers, I think, but it is nevertheless a valid expression of personal conflict — especially since Al admits that, despite his harsh criticism of government and politics being “a contemptible criminal enterprise,” “I never feel so much a part of the community as when I’m politicking.”

Culpepper Log’s format is clear-cut. Al marks each post with a headline and posts his short essays in a properly formatted template. No HTML razzmatazz here, just good ol’ functionality from which many bloggers could learn. I especially liked the “Liberty or Death – Don’t Tread on Me” logo, a small political-ideological reminder perhaps, but a significant reminder nevertheless. Al provides a short list of links and also invites you to subscribe to the log’s Yahoo Groups e-mail list for “some goodies” that do not appear on his Web page. Al defines his page as “Notes on the current state of free thinking and free living,” and although he often refers to “mainstream news,” I would place the Culpepper Log in the Personal category.

Who should point his/her browser to the Culpepper Log? I’d recommend Al’s page to all Bloggosphere mariners without exception. Of course, some would fall in love with the Culpepper Log at first sight, and some would immediately hate it because of its political slant.

But, in between, I think that Al wouldn’t have a problem gaining many devoted readers because (a) speaks with a straight tongue (b) knows how to put together words (c) is not boring (d) touches upon major issues of wider concern in U.S. society and politics. And, most importantly, Al provides the kind of commentary that would make the “diversity,” “multiculturalism,” “Politically Correct” talking heads gasp, cringe, and choke on their vegetarian haute cuisine entree.

Hoist the battle standard and go pay a visit to the Culpepper Log! Culpepper Log

Barret Vogel is angry or frustrated or both. His DeadBirds blog has the appropriate colors to go with the general mood of the site: gray and black and grayish blue and darkish green (and some brighter colors in between)… No links, no extras. The “r” in “Birds” is a handgun.

Barret’s writing has a hard, abrasive edge. It’s often powerful, then suddenly drops off only to shoot up again in the next post. There’s often abusive language, but not anything extraordinarily beyond what many people use routinely. You may not agree with such language, but this is obviously part of Barret.

This blog is about his creator’s “precious memories,” we’re told at the very beginning, so “f…k you.” Nice opener. DeadBirds is a darn hard blog to swallow, but, once you’ve read a couple of posts, it can become almost addictive if you’re into tension and resentment that pours onto the (electronic) page straight out of the foundry…

Barret talks harshly about people and about what is happening in his life. Mom is away some place, but within reach; Dad has been living with this woman Barret hates “since I was seven years old;” the post about the woman is long and angry and disturbing; Barret gets good grades, but “Mom still won’t buy me shit…. Someone needs to explain to that bitch that an attitude of negativity without positive reinforcement is no way to encourage me.” Rides at the fair are “…easily the best drug I’ve tried next to acid.” He also gets drunk — often….

DeadBirds is a punch in the stomach, but also a reminder. I had once a student who sounded very much like Barret — and he also wrote outstanding tempestuous prose. I won’t tell you though what he did with his life.

Pay a visit to DeadBirds, if only for the writing. Maybe this blog is the beginning of a book; I can see several threads for short stories here. DeadBirds is no fun. You got to wrestle with it. But I recommend it — highly… and then of course you decide if you’ll go back… deadbirds.net

“Bow. James Bow.” is The Journal of James Bow and his Writing. James, according to his own “Who Am I?” box on the page (complete with his photo) is “a 30 year old aspiring writer and web designer living in Kitchener, Ontario”.

The blog, powered by Movable Type, is crisp and clean and filled with a whole load of links. Despite this dense live-pointer population though, the blog’s design is such as to not overwhelm the visitor. Everything is neatly ordered and categorized on the right-hand side of the page and you can proceed step-by-step and click to your heart’s delight.

The archival structure of “Bow. James Bow.” is one small gem. A list of “Recent Entries” allows you to jump directly to recent posts without clicking archive links and scrolling down “deep” pages. The “What Have I Posted?” section is in effect the total archive of the blog and allows you to go straight to groups of posts by month and subject. No clicking buttons and dates and reading here and there. You’re directed to what is available from the word “go”. All is well organized and flowing. Kudos to James for this simple but extremely effective idea that makes for effortless touring of the blog.

“Bow. James Bow.” is also a pleasure to read. James writes with the steady pace of someone who enjoys putting words together to produce pieces both “average” and “advanced” readers can enjoy.

This may sound a “natural” characteristic of anyone who devotes a good part of his/her time to writing (and, of course, has the talent to go with it), but, in real practice, it is rarely achieved without laborious effort (which is not always successful). It’s obvious though that James doesn’t profusely sweat over his keyboard; he’s what I call a “glider”, someone who points his mind this or that way and, presto, commits the sentences to paper… ummm TFT display (?) flat monitor (?) — or whatever.

Posts range over a variety of subjects. Scrolling down the “What I Have Posted?” list you encounter family life, politics, tech issues, and several others. I clicked and clicked and wherever I went there was always a piece that was interesting and enjoyable. And when James chooses a current issue (like the post of December 12th), he demonstrates he has done his homework. This is what I call “respect for the reader”. I found that James’s blog achieves something few bloggers truly arrive at: “Bow. James Bow.” is not boring.

If we were putting together samples on “How To” in blogging, I’d nominate “Bow. James Bow.” as a top contender. Technically, it is darn near five-star. Content is varied, interesting, and readable. And presentation is straightforward and reliable. Do I need to say more?Bow. James Bow

First things first here – with the title of “Simultaneous Talk & Puke”, I had no idea what to possibly expect. The site began to load, and I was oddly impressed by the graphic that’s used as the top banner. The banner welcomes readers to the site by giving us a bit of info about Joe. In his own words, “Joe is a loser who wants to write comics some day, and hopes that day is tomorrow”. Fun! Now we know about Joe.

The layout is really nice and simple. Joe uses a yellowish color that could almost be defined as the color of puke, depending on what was just eaten the night before. The banner image is the only thing on the site, other than text. And the only text you find on the site is just the weblog.



Joe is obviously a comic book fan. He desires of making that his career, as well as the numerous posts that cover comic information pretty much lay that out for the reader to see. We get updated from time to time on what’s going on in Joe’s personal life, but it’s never really anything that can make you feel connected or make you feel like you need to come back for more. It’s just a typical weblog.

Due to only a month’s worth of archives, the highest score Simultaneous Talk & Puke can achieve is a 2.0. And I couldn’t give a site anything more than a 2.0 when there’s a misspelled word in the title of it.

Simultaneous Talk & Puke

New Untitled Page really isn’t all that new. Well this version is somewhat new, but the site has been around off and on since the early part of 2001.

New Untitled Page, or NUP for short, is a group weblog that knows what it wants to do – entertain. The posts are typical daily events or thoughts whatever they feel like posting about. However, I hope that the stories are somewhat fabricated because some of them seem like something you would read in a good book or see in a movie.

The posts in general are very well written. As I said, they are based on events or thoughts through out the day. Some of the more recent posts include Ivan going through an interesting time with his girlfriend (who has another boyfriend) and his little dilemma of staying faithful. Other posts include topics such as Men using Body wash (quite funny and true), poetry and random entertainment news.

The design is very basic: 3 column layout using black, white, gray and red as the colors. As simplistic as the design is, there is a major content management system that is in place as the back end. There are many features of the CMS that they take advantage of.

The first of which is that you can create your own account. I know, what’s up with sites requiring you to have an account? Anyways, once you do create an account you can post comments and post to the forum which is open to all (pending you have an account, but you can read it without one).

The second of which is modifying how the page looks. You can pick between two skins, and then you can hide navigation columns and other parts. This is nice if you don’t want to look at all of your user info when you log in.

I only had a problem with a couple of things. First was the only navigation to older stories was atop the main column which meant reading the entire page’s worth, then scrolling back up to the top. Obviously this isn’t a major thing. The other being that when I created my account I was given a homepage. However when I tried to access it, there were a number of errors on the page which prevented the page from loading at all.

Overall NUP is a good site if you want to be entertained. The authors don’t try to hide anything, they just post it how it is and let the situation be funny. I recommend reading NUP as it is very well done.
* New Untitled Page *