Category: Uncategorized

I’ve never quite seen a weblog like this one before. It has three entries. One in 2004, one in 2003, and the other one covering 2000 and 2001 – this is it for this weblog. And it’s all on one page.

The title in black text at the top: “Natural Physique Development: TRAINING JOURNAL” clearly explains right off the bat what type of a weblog viewers are stumbling into when finding this site. Followed by the title is a quote of some sort: “It’s not about where you are right now, it’s about the direction you’re moving in.” This is Gavin’s weblog of the direction he’s moving in the form of developing his physique.

There’s nothing to the layout. There’s one page with a gray background, and black text. Gavin’s posted a few pictures for people to see his progress. That’s it.

This weblog isn’t one I’d recommend. Personally, I came away with nothing from the site. If Gavin is trying to convey a diary of sorts about developing one’s natural physique, there definitely needs to be more information for people to resort back to during their attempt at bettering themselves. If it’s just a personal record of Gavin’s self improvement, then it’s not something that really fits into the weblog category.

Natural Physique Development

The first page of Maft.co.uk isn’t the weblog, however, I was charmed by it. Neon-green on black with little stick-figure icons. This may very well be a case of “it’s so crappy, it’s awesome.” MaFT acknowledges this wondrous crappiness. One click, and I’m at the blog, which, rather than displaying the most recent entries, displays a linked list of all entries, in order, with small summaries. Definitely unconventional, but I can deal.

Unfortunately, updates to this weblog are highly sporadic. The most recent entry begins with “ooh, two updates in one month.” The entries are short, rambling, with a lot of train references and people-watching entries. The people-watching entries are great, especially when MaFT revels in the image of two polite individuals smacking into eachother due to their politeness.

The train entries are just confusing. MaFT apparently takes a train to work, and seems to have a fond affection for the locomotives. However, many of the entries (and not just the train ones, either) seem to take “stream of conciousness” to unhealthy extremes. Few make much sense, unless the reader is an acquaintance of the author, I assume. Many mention places, bands, and phenomena that leave the average reader clueless. Reading, I learn that the author is twenty-three, and has just recently discovered the blogging community. The knowledge that he has been writing in a void at least someone explains the chaos of the entries. In an early entry, he says “basically, this bit of the site will be me babbling on about things that happen in the world.” Unfortunately, the entries never transcend this babbling style.

The design is unique, enjoyably kitsch, and easily navigated. The deviation from the traditional blog format may alienate some readers, however. The theme of the site appears to be HTML itself, and the mock-tags surrounding each post are an interesting approach. However, the refreshing design adds little to this already chaotic and barely readable blog.

MaFt’s blog is only part of his site, which includes the requisite current books and music list, a table of all the concerts he has attended (with a few reviews), and a selection of family and concert photographs. In fact, the photos are the only part of the site I would recommend to anyone, aside from MaFt’s friends or anyone else who might know what he’s talking about.

Despite the author’s adeptness with HTML, I can’t help but feel this site is nothing more than the common vanity page, and, while it may interest people who know the author personally, it isn’t the place for the average blog reader to spend their time.a new thing

The focus of ‘Chew’s Place’ is clearly on the words of its author, Chewie. The design is simple, with little to distract the reader’s attention from the most recent entries. At the same time, many of the usual weblog features are here, too — links, archives, credits, an ‘About Me’ page, and more, hidden by default but expandable with a click on the appropriate link. It’s a simple, clean look, and it worked for me; the posts are ‘front and center’, but the extras are easily accessible, too. Very nice.

I first took a look at Chewie’s About Me page for some insight about the author, and found that she is — among other things — an avid reader, a chemical engineer/biochemist, and an aspiring teacher. I dug into the archives, wondering how and whether those topics would come through in her writing. I didn’t have the opportunity to read the very first posts; only the past six months of archives are available, and it’s clear that Chewie was already in a ‘groove’ in September of last year. It would have been interesting to see how her posts and writing evolved during the earlier stages, but that’s a minor quibble.

The good news is that the archives are filled to the brim with content; Chewie posts daily on a variety of subjects, ranging from commentary on recent news stories to personal anecdotes to book reviews to (more recently) a ‘Photo of the Day’ feature. Most posts are substantial, covering several topics; the monthly archives are huge, with stories and links and opinions to satisfy the most avid readers.

It’s clear that the author puts a lot of time and effort into ‘Chew’s Place’. Those looking for a new weblog to try out should be very happy with this site — with a wide variety of topics and links, there’s a bit of something for everyone here. And if Chewie has missed a day’s posting in the recent past, I didn’t catch it. It’s that commitment to delivering the goods that sets ‘Chew’s Place’ apart. I give this site 4.5 out of 5.Chew’s Place

My first impression when I first seen this blog was not a very good one.It looked like so many other pages I have seen as of late, very ordinary..
But as the saying goes, “You can’t judge a book by it’s cover”. In the case of “Irrevelent Press”, the above phrase rings very true.

At the top of the page in the right hand corner, is a photo of a teddy bear which apparently is supposed to be the author . The author’s name is Roo…(aka. Roo Bear”) The first thing I looked for was an “about” page which I realized at that time that there wasn’t any. But then again, I really didn’t expect to find one because the author is posing as a 7 eyed teddy bear.

The writing was very easy to read, and the page itself was very neatly laid out. The only problem I had, was the template looked like so many of the other templates you see , plain and boring.

On to the entries. Roo started his blog on February 11, 2004. Once I started reading, I basically had to pull myself away from the blog in order to do my review. It was obvious that Roo’s entries were thought out before he started writing them. Roo talks about several topics that are very stimulating to the mind and will really make you think. Take for instance this particular entry.. Roo wrote….

So last night I had this not-so-amazing thought about the amount of buttons in our lives. I actually considered waking up this morning and counting how many buttons I push throughout the day for the sake of blogdom. Remotes, cars, computers, phones, the list goes on and on. It seems we have a fascination with pushing stuff. I think it all comes from the earliest moments of being a child when you get all these toys with things you can push, or toggle, or pull. I am reminded when I first got my car and my little 2-year old buddy sat on his mother’s lap in the drivers seat to check it out, and the first thing he did was start pushing every button his little fingers could reach. Is there just something satisfyingly tactile about depressing a piece of plastic and making something “happen?” Truth be, you can NOT go through your day without pressing some kind of button. Try it! You wouldn’t be making any phone calls, typing any emails, making any fruit smoothes – nothing. How devoid would your life be without using buttons?

Now this is something I have never thought of. But it gives us something to think about. I found each and every post very interesting and entertaining. On some of the entries, Roo adds a bit of humour. Roo’s posts are very well written . What is interesting to some, may not be interesting to others. But I for one, truly enjoyed reading Roo’s entries. I will also be book marking his site,.

To conclude my review, as I have stated, Roo’s blog is a very interesting and entertaining read. Maybe he could just work on the template a little bit. Add some more design to it. He has several photo’s added to his posts which give it a very nice touch. Work on the template a bit more, I am sure it would have the potential to get a rating of 5. Irrelevant Press

A fairytale castle at night with a rising full moon greeted me upon entering Genuineblog’s realm. I noticed at once the links to the first three chapters of a romance novel. I also saw a small reference to Mrs. G. and made the leap that this was a blog written by a woman. It took me a while reading and poking around on the site to realize my mistake. This is a man’s blog. There IS an ‘About’ link, but it was not working at the time of my review. That would have been VERY helpful to get oriented.

I began to read the entries. It took me a while to get my ‘genuine’ legs as the first ones I read were cryptic references to other entries and some very short entries that didn’t reveal much, but as I read on I found a delightful sense of humor emerging.

He writes quite a bit about being a Dad to his two children and the one on the way. His description of a game he plays with his children called ‘monster chase’ was hilarious. He has several entries with links to pictures or other people’s blogs that are fun. My personal favorite was a link to his idea of the perfect job, a ‘deck holder downer’. Check it out March 26, 2004. There are entries on a variety of subjects, some touching, some are raunchy and very, well. . .’guy’. But most are quite humorous. Especially the recurring reference to him trying to stay off his wife’s LIST.

I read the first chapter of his romance novel and very soon was reminded of Tom Seleck in that movie…. what was it?, oh yes, ‘Her Alibi’. The writing styles seem similar to me. (Loved that movie by the way). In any case by this time, I was thoroughly enjoying my visit.

He is involved in something called ‘blogrolling’ which someone is going to have to catch me up on. I’m not sure what it’s all about, but it seems to be time consuming and he was making jokes about it. He DOES have an impressive number of commenting readers.

All in all I would give this blog a 4. The only reason I am not giving it a 5 is the fact that the About Me link was not working and that this blog was not very user friendly for navigating and getting your bearings. As the authors of this kind of material, we should remember that probably every day someone visits your blog ‘cold’ and it is a good idea to let them know something about you right off the bat. So we can settle in and enjoy what you might have to offer. We don’t need to write a book or anything, sometimes just one cogent phrase can do the trick. But I must say, that I will most likely be checking back in to see how the ‘Monster Chases’ are going at the Genuineblog household.

www.genuineblog.com