Smack My Booty sounded like an exciting, maybe even titillating title for a weblog so I was quite keen to head on in and review it. The site design I was first struck with was ok – at least it was individual, though I wasn’t too sure about the somewhat gaudy red and black colour scheme. Having scanned down the sidebar I found a skinning facility which enabled me to change the whole thing to a much more tasteful green affair which was far easier on the eyes. The only minor gripe is that some of the posts were too wide and this forced the sidebar down to the bottom of the screen (as on the front page), though as this is a problem I regularly have on my own blog with certain skins, I could only sympathise.
There isn’t much else of note to be found in the sidebar – links, archives, not much else. No sign of an “About Me” page (which I think would have helped a lot with this blog) or a photoblog. There are a few pictures to be found in amongst the entries but they are usually along the lines of ones nicked off the internet rather than photographs taken by the blogger.
The content itself is divided in to the usual categories and whilst there are quite a few to choose from in the title bar, they seemed to boil down to politics, gadgets, Lego and a few comic books as far as I could make out. Yes, that’s Lego as in the little plastic bricks that fit together to make stuff. The author has written a book which is linked to (in some of the earlier posts) about Lego trains and even went to a Lego convention in Europe which I thought was quite cool. The things people get up to with Lego is way beyond what I had imagined and I personally would have liked to read more about this subject. It is not one you find everyday on a blog and let’s face it, EVERYONE likes Lego.
The tech stuff seemed mostly computer related and the comic posts were too few and far between to really get the drift of what the author was in to. There were a few posts about personal stuff- family visiting, films watched and books read, but again, more and longer posts about these subjects would have given me a better idea of who the author was as a human being.
Ok, let’s talk about the politics then. I am not a big fan of politics and unfortunately this subject took up most of the blog. I positively dislike blogs about American politics because, apart from anything else, I don’t live there. In the author’s favour, the issues raised and arguments put forward are often more balanced and well argued than some blogs I have encountered. He tends to steer clear of extreme polemic most of the time and whilst you may not agree with what is being said, at least you can see where he is coming from and that there is room for debate. This doesn’t apply across the board, as there are also some sweeping generalisations and (I think) completely misinformed lines of arguments, but these are certainly not the norm and can be excused for the most part. The main problem with politics is that it all depends on what you want to believe. The other problem is that I don’t care.
So this is an entertaining enough blog which would appeal mostly to Americans I think. There is unfortunately nothing particularly outstanding about it at present, so come on Jake, let’s have more Lego!Smack My Booty