Category: Uncategorized

VJ’s little blog is an interesting read. The design of the site is very easy on the eyes, with the main body of the blog straight down the middle and everything else straight down either side. Not a lot of whizz-bang wonder in the design but it works and it’s non-offensive. There’s a couple of kitty pictures which have done the rounds through email forwarding around the world on display in the bordering columns – but who can resist cute kittens with ridiculous expressions? Obviously not VJ. I don’t find fault with that. VJ is also relatively new to the blogging scene though her addiction to it shows. Regular updates abound which is always a good sign. I’m glad she’s having such good fun with it.



The first thing I looked for with this blog was the “About Me” information, I wanted to know who I was reading about and whose life I was delving into. I was a bit disappointed with the “About Me” link – basically she’s copied and pasted information from the latest Bloginality meme that’s doing the rounds (found at http://bloginality.love-productions.com/ for those interested). I want to know about VJ, not what some multiple-choice survey says she is. Other than that, she’s got a wee smidgeon of information about who she is – or at least what her star signs are. To find out about her, you really do need to read much of her blog and from that we find out that she’s a young woman studying marketing in Bangalore, India.



The content of the blog is pretty simple. Tidbits here and there of her thoughts and what she’s done and what she finds interesting. The blog is littered with little comedic gems such as this one about different sorts of marketing which make you giggle and you end up smiling as you read the details of this girl’s life with her studies (when she writes more indepth entries about herself). She comes across as someone who utterly enjoys her life and all of it’s little adventures, and who could complain about that?



The more I read, the more I enjoyed it. Readers can rest assured that it is a very personal blog, so don’t expect huge rantings on world events or politics or anything along that vein. I’m giving the site a 3.5, but it ranges somewhere between the 3.5 to 4 point range really. Well done VJ, it was lovely getting to know you.Melange- Cofused Wisdom

As a reviewer, I haven’t yet mastered the art of the News/Links review. I

figured now would be as good a time as any to start getting better at writing

these kinds of reviews. The first thing I noticed was the lack of images.

This is quite depressing, as when you read Bill’s bio and find he seems like

an interesting person. I’ll admit, I have no idea what “Peoria” or “Pundit”

is. I had to look them up in a dictionary. For those of you who don’t know

either so I’ll give it to you here, just as help.

Peoria:

n.pl.
1. A Native American people forming part of the Illinois

confederacy
2. A member of this people.

Pundit: n.
1. A Brahman

scholar or learned man.
2. A source of opinion; a critic: a political

pundit.
3. A learned person.

Having gotten that done and over

with, onto the review.



First of all… go all the way back. Go back to the very beginning of this

blog. When you hit the oldest month, scroll all the way down to the oldest

entry. Now read the whole thing. It’s okay, I’ll wait for you. Just read.



Good. Now that you’re back we’ll get more into the review. Bill’s eldest

entries are scarce. There isn’t a lot of content in the 2002 archives, but

there are, in place of quantity, some quality reviews of sites, and books. The archived entries seem more along the lines of a personal blog. The entries are well written, as I’m sure they would be considering Bill is a Freelance writer and Newspaper Columnist. Bill’s entries are thought provoking and original. He isn’t saying the same things over and over again. I’m at a loss, simply because I’m not quite sure if I should write this review based on the massive amount of external links or the amazingly written content. He signed up as a “News/Link” site, but I’m finding this much more interesting than any news site I’ve run across.

Again, I say, I’m not sure how to review this site considering the large amount of personal entries throughout. There’s a bit of it that falls into the political. While another part of the site falls into personal interest. The author writes a good commentary for the entries leading to links, and makes the reader (at least this reader) want to click to find out the more.

Bill’s entries are interesting in the idea that he almost goes above and beyond what other bloggers seem to do. Most of the month of May is google searches on his name. He’s found some rather interesting articles in his search. The author’s thoughts have a tendency to swing one way, politically speaking, but they’re not extreme.



He’s a wonderful writer and there are many things worth a read in this blog. I don’t generally enjoy blogs like this, but the older entries did a good job in changing my mind. THe newer entries seem to follow suit in how most blogs of this type are. They’re short, sometimes sweet, and “go read it yourself” attitude is a little stand-offish. I’d much rather come back for a read if the entries were as personal as the earlier posts. One of the better parts of this blog?? It’s all interesting news, and not the information you get inundated with daily.Peoria Pundit

Xenon, huh? Could be anything. It’s number 54 in the periodic table of the elements, symbol Xe. It is a noble gas. Maybe we’ve some deep-geek scientist here unlocking the secrets of the universe…

Two column template, purple and white. Purple’s my favorite color, so I’m inclined to like this blog anyway. No distractions, a few tiny graphics, looks like navigation’s going to be easy. All the links are neatly lined up on the right hand side. He’s got links grouped by astrological sign, which is a clever touch. But wait — where’s the “about” section? I scroll down to the bottom and find there are 753 entires, 498 comments, and 47 members. Members? Is this a group blog? How can that be — it’s copyrighted by a single individual. Huh…

So far, there’s no indication the author’s a scientist, or at least maybe not. There’s a graphic for a web writer’s conference in Austin next month. There are also links to the Pepys project, Austin Bloggers, and Austin Stories, so even though he could be a scientist or anything else in his day job, he’s certainly interested in writing online. There’s also a terms of service page, (lengthy, tiny print) and a link to an astrology site.

Wait — there’s a link to a profile! Maybe there’s something there. Nope, sorry, it wants me to log in. The Members link also wants me to log in. There’s nothing up front here that says what happens when you log in, or why you’d want to, so I pass.

I read through some of the entries (no, not all 753, this guy’s already made me work too hard) and find some nicely-written daily ramblings, some references to astrology, and a daily record of a trip to England, apparently going on now.

See, the thing is, when I look at a blog, I’m there for the first time without knowing anything about the author, his or her intentions in doing this, or if the author has been doing this for two months or two decades. It’s good to know as much of the 5 Ws (who, what, when, where,why ) as possible going in to something like this. Sometimes, though, the author gets caught up in other details and forgets the casual visitor. It’s always possible for bloggers not to really want people reading the blog, or sometimes a blog’s there for a definite purpose that’s so important to the author you feel badly if you miss it. If the blogger doesn’t let you in on the secret, the reviewer or casual visitor may entirely miss the intended message.

I’ll probably look in from time to time, because I’d like to hear more details of the trip. Otherwise, I most likely wouldn’t. I’m a big fan of clarity and ease in writing, and when the structure around it fails, it can’t help but detract from the main event.

xenon

Now, normally to start a review off I’d write about my initial instincts about a site. This time I’m going to go back, before I’ve even seen the site. When I saw the title, “Lifes Rich Pageant” my first instinct was to think of Denise Richards and Kirsten Dunst. Thus causing me to think that this blog was going to be a female blog. Until, of course, I went to the site and saw that it belongs to a male blogger. Ah, the perfect example of “don’t judge a book by it’s cover.”



This blog is what I consider a “junior” blog. Not because it’s written by a teenager, but because it’s so new. The first entry I read happened to be about painted porta-potties. Something completely different and curiously interesting at the same time. What’s more interesting is to read the entry in which he’s gone in search of these potties. The blog itself reads really well. The topics range greatly from different events that the author is participating in or went to see. I doubt I’ve read a more interesting rundown of the summer as this author’s. You’ll laugh, stare at the screen with a “huh?” expression, and still read because it’s worth it.



The design is light font with darker colors. The Arial is a little hard to read, only because it’s such a skinny font, but otherwise the design works well. It’s functional, readable which makes the blog that much more enjoyable.

The author of this blog offers all kinds of fun things to do, even outside of his own blog. There’s a photo gallery that I will admit, I spent a bit of time browsing through. There are cool links to other New York things, which some might find interesting. The archives are completely functional. There’s a small “About Me.” I wish there were a few more tidbits of information available, but you learn a lot about the author through the entries of the blog.

This blog is a personal blog, without a doubt. You’ll find bits and pieces of this author’s life throughout this blog. You don’t have to actually know him to find it worth reading, but you might not be interesting in the same activities. He’s a good writer, but I suppose that someone who is aspiring to be a writer would have to practice each chance he has. I’d recommend this blog as an occasional reader. If you don’t enjoy this blog, you’re bound to find something else through this site that is enjoyable as well.Lifes Rich Pageant

Tony, who posts under the pseudonym TriPolarProduce, appears to be making his first entrance, new as of July 2003 on this site, into the blogging ring found all of the World Wide Web. Hosted by 20six.co.uk, which is apparently yet another publishing “platform for all those looking to publish hassle-free on the internet with a Weblog”, the layout of the site isn’t one that’s been worn into the ground by other blogging tools. The gray, green, yellow, and red colors that were chosen compliment each other, making for an aesthetically pleasant appearance.

A “more about me” section is available by following a link from the main page of the site, and here, readers can learn a great deal more about Tony. The “about page” has a section where authors list their interests and hobbies, which in turn allow one to discover more weblogs with authors that have those same interests and hobbies. While this feature is used readily with other various journal sites, the information provided by Tony does allow readers to get a valid idea of what they will soon be reading.

The archival method chosen for “Where Life Meets Life” is daily, and navigating through the months and days of the journal is done easily by the calendar on the top right hand side of weblog. Starting from the beginning, which for this site was July 29, 2003, Tony jumps right in with a story of what just happened to him a couple of days prior. This particular story, discussing an experience at an Open Mike night, sets the precedence for a good portion of this weblog.

As his “about” page indicates, Tony hosts open mike nights from time to time, and seems to always have experiences he deems worth of sharing with readers. In these writings, readers certainly find clearly written paragraphs describing the details that seem to pull the scene at hand perfectly enough to grasp the concepts or ideas that Tony conveys.

The topics Tony writes about aren’t topics that necessarily fall as common knowledge to most people. He talks a lot about his escapades as an open mike host or an MC, and talks a lot about his plans for his future in the creative/entertainment industry. Reading about the way his ideas unfold, however, is definitely both interesting and somewhat inspiring to any type of reader.

Like with the majority of weblogs, readers will find things they can connect with when reading “When Life Meets Life”, but others will find they have nothing remotely in common with Tony. This is definitely a weblog worth looking into, and at least checking back in with from time to time to see how his success is coming along.

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