Category: Uncategorized

When first reviewing background noise, I was daunted by the fact that the blog’s archives went back for over two years. In hindsight, blogspot’s system of archiving posts on a monthly basis, coupled with the author’s knack for keeping his entries short, meant that reading two and a half years of Richard’s random musings was surprisingly effortless.

Background Noise is definitely one of the more eclectic personal weblogs out there – the brevity of most entries probably exacerbates this a little; one entry details Richard’s aversion for razors, while the next details his difficulties learning mandarin. Some days, even the entries seem fairly haphazardly put together, as seen in this entry about Dolly the Sheep and how people should pronounce the word ‘issues’. Nonetheless, the entries are consistently concise and well-written, however, which is always a plus. I particularly liked his entry on pandas.

While the site layout is by no means breath-taking, it doesn’t offend any aesthetic sensibilities either. Here again, we see the benefit of short entries – the front page to this blog seems a lot less cluttered than other blogs, if only because of the fact that it simply holds less content. I must emphasize, however, that this is by no means a bad thing, since brevity is really an undervalued commodity in blogging. Richard’s extensive archives also provide for a depth of additional reading material.

All in all, while this site is eclectic in its content, it’s also consistent in its output – Richard is a fairly frequent blogger, and he seems to churn out his entries at a fairly constant rate. The links featured on this site are similarly eclectic, but most manage to be reasonably entertaining. Thus, all in all, background noise is probably worth a visit. Or maybe even two.
Background Noise

I was immediately impressed with Busy Moms. Not only is the design spare and professional, the content is useful too. Ideas for Father’s Day gifts, recipes, and other advice on everything from soup to nuts.

The site describes itself accurately:

Busy Moms Online came about from my desire to help other moms who are as stressed as I find myself all the time. Many times we could use some information right now, but it’s so hard to find what we are looking for. Here you will find information on just about anything a mom could need: from parenting tips, to beauty tricks, to money matters, and more.

It does look like this site was designed to promote the book The Single Mom’s Survival Guide, but the ebook is reasonably priced and looks worthwhile. If you’re a mom, this site is definitely worth a look.Busy Moms Online

The title “Becka’s House of Glue” definitely piqued my interest. I think that’s what each blog should work on first: an interesting title. I mean, that’s the first thing a person sees when he goes there, right? That is, when he clicks on a link or whatnot.



Anyway, I have to say that I was hooked with the first word. Becka’s entries are certainly interesting. It’s mostly a rant blog with tons of opinions thrown at the side. Oh and it’s personal. But she write in such a witty way that even when I didn’t agree with what she said, I still enjoyed the time reading.

The layout is a bit bland but hey, no one’s perfect, right? And I think the posts stand by itself that the design doesn’t really matter too much. She also has pictures with some of the post. I think they add character to the blog itself.

Overall, I recommend everyone to go for a visit. Who knows, you just might get to be as hooked as I am.
Becka’s House of Glue

So, yeah, I guess the title says it all. Not that Adam actually rants about anything, but it’s a blog filled with personal posts (even though it’s under the entertainment category in the weblogreview thing) and it’s written – now, guess! – by some Adam guy.

And I say “some Adam guy” not as a way to diminish him, but because you cannot easily find any information about him. There’s no profile to be read. I know he’s Irish, I know he studies something and I know he’s been in love with Jennie. That he fancies jokes – blonde jokes and the kind, which you can read in separate pages he keeps – and babes. And those are the things I could pick up by reading his first entries and the last ones.

The layout is quite simple but very nice. All links work okay. There are some categories he came up with, but they are rather irrelevant in my opinion (well, they may be useful if you want to skip posts on babes). There’s an RSS feeder thing, which is cool. Uncool: “read more” link. You’re reading the post, you want to read more and suddenly you realize you have to click there to continue with the reading. And that takes you to another page, where there’s only one post and if you want to come back to the main page, click here again, mate. So… tiring. Or I’m just being picky.

I know I might made Adam sound sound like an uninteresting person –or at least made his blog sound like an uninteresting blog- , but he’s not. I wouldn’t say I’d read his blog often, but that’s only because personal blogs are that way. You either fall for the person at first sight or not. It doesn’t mean it’s a bad blog, although I can assure it’s not a wonderful blog either.
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I was delighted to see “The Ex-Girlfriend Project” up for review because it is a blog I started reading a few weeks ago. It is relatively young but it is one of the densest most content-filled blogs I’ve ever read. It reads like a novel or a very circumspect diary. Unfortunately, the blog-format is not the best venue for the content. This story begs to be told in forward, not reverse, chronology.

The blog is the writer’s attempt to understand his relationship problems by telling the stories of all of his important past relationships. He lays out the purpose of the blog in excellent “about” and “about me” pages. Read them first and you know what the blog is about and who (more or less) is doing the writing. You are never at sea.

He begins at the beginning, in high school, and chronicles his entire history for us in amazing detail. While he tries to stick to talking about his ex-girlfriends, the stories about his group of friends and their lost, searching drug-filled lives are compelling. When you read this blog you enter another world, another time, and you are completely there, though it can be a bit exhausting. If you miss a few posts you find yourself hours in the hole. The author works “as a freelancer on the fringes of the film business,” which apparently affords him plenty of time for blogging.

In terms of design, I have some quibbles. I don’t care for color type on a black background. I find it harder to read than any other template style. The author uses a different color type for each of his ex-girlfriends. It’s a good idea, but in practice, I don’t like how it looks. I don’t think the gimmick is necessary to keep the women distinct. Reading the story is sufficient.

If you like long-form, narrative blogging, you should read “The Ex-Girlfriend Project.” It’s a good read, good writing and I highly recommend it.NULL