Month: January 1970

I’m always looking for a new weblog to add to my list of daily must-reads/distractions. When I read the about section of catsandbeer.com, I had a good feeling I might be visiting it again and again: “Catsandbeer.com began as a pet project of Superbad co-creators Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and evolved into a humor website that has nothing to do with either of them.”. If you’ve seen Superbad (or watched any of Da Ali G Show), then this tells you exactly the sense of humor relayed through this site. If you haven’t seen Superbad, well, you’re dead to me.

Just last week, a friend of mine sent me the link to a recent entry called “The Top 10 Rap Songs White People Love”. I’m only black when I’m singing Kanye West in my car, and the rest of the time, the ten songs that were listed turned me into the best cliché rapper in all the land. One hundred and fifty one comments on that entry alone give readers a view into the type of crowd following along at catsandbeer.com – raucous, opinionated, and, according to the commenters, better qualified to choose that list of rap songs.

Some people Live Blog things like the MTV Video Music Awards, but not catsandbeer.com – they live blog a caterpillar that’s found its way to one of the authors’ front porch. Instead of deleting spam, the same author analyzes line-by-line the bulk email sent to him from the Penis Enlargement Patch factory’s marketing department. While it may not be humor to all, it’s damn funny to me.

Aside from the fact that this weblog matches my sense of humor, there’s more to see. There’s an occasional poll that seems to be most popular when it’s either picking between killing Frenchie Stewart and Chris Kattan, or deciding which notorious rap song was erroneously left off the aforementioned Top 10 list.

The layout’s a simple three-column layout, and the authors have filled the sidebars with a poll, and various ways first-time visitors can navigate around the site – the most popular articles, most recent comments, and various ways of archiving the entries. It’s a clean design and works well with the site as a whole.

I loved catsandbeer.com, but I don’t think everyone will. I wish everyone would, because it’d clearly make the world a much happier place.
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Pala and Al are the hosts and authors of the “Ask About Love And Sex Blog.” According to them, they have had a web presence for their business, publishing and advice forays since 1996, and are considered to be some of the web’s earliest adapters to conducting business on the web.

Their business is offering advice, through publications and textual instructions, on how to, shall we say “do it.” Only, not to “do it” like a couple of fumbly teenagers in the back of dad’s Beemer. But to do it respectfully, lovingly, and with a tantric twist.

The content of the site is revealing, to say the least, and often Not Safe For Work (NSFW). But one would expect that with the category at hand. There are a lot of added on widgets that kind of pull it into a web 2.0 format, lots of links like AdBrite, Blog Rush and MyBlogLog community boxes.

Content wise, the bulk of the material is text from their books and workshops. Each entry is footed with a giant assortment of “spread the word” style links, so readers can “digg” or or “del.icio.us” the content around the web.

The one real fault I find with the blog is that the title is “Ask About Love And Sex” but I never saw a Questions from our Readers kind of forum where questions were answered. It seems that the content is all about the answers to questions not voiced through the blog, and perhaps the title should be changed to Answers About Love And Sex. But I get the feeling that the goal is to make money through the website by propagating content, monetizing the site, and stuff like that.

Like I’ve said in dozens of reviews before, everyone wants to make money through blogging and I fault no one with that. I bet Al and Pala are tremendously friendly and helpful, loving people. And I can tell they have a sense of humor because the categories section has a “sexy jokes and quotes” topic. I give the site a 3 rating and wish Al and Pala the best in their ongoing efforts to help the world “do it…” better.

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I’ve been blogging for years. I think it’s safe to say I’ve been posting my personal life online since 1998. Anytime I can find a site that will offer me tips towards blogging, I become leery. Nine times out of ten, that site is going to be full of tips on how to get-rich-quick while blogging, and I’m not a big fan of that. I was very relieved when I read the “about” section of the blog and found out that Sharon, the author, was focusing on “bloggers who just want to express themselves, connect with others, and have fun”.

The best thing to do with this site is to dive right in. The archives are listed on the right sidebar and date back to May 2004. I had to do some creative navigating in order to find the beginning, because when I picked the May 2004 option from the drop down menu, I got a pesky 404 message. Other than that, the site is very easy to navigate. The sidebars provide readers with several options of reading through the archives, as well as other site-related links where readers can discover even more information Sharon has included. The layout she’s chosen for the site is simple and aesthetically clean which is always a welcome site to any website.

As I read through the archives and followed a link or two, it seemed like this blog was initially created as a learning tool as the author familiarized herself with how to change things on her personal blog. A learning project that turns into something helpful for everyone on the internet? What an awesome concept!

Through the first year or two of the blog, Sharon does her best to post intermittently, but the Blogging Blog seemed to take a backseat to other blogging projects. Once the site was turned into a group-blog, the posts became more varied, slightly more consistent, and really helped this weblog gain some value.

My biggest, and possibly only, complaint about Blogging Blog is its inconsistency. Each post is full of information on the topic at hand, but the posts come too infrequently, in my opinion. I’ve added this to my RSS Reader of choice, and when I see it’s been updated, it’ll be a nice surprise. I hope it slowly becomes a more frequently updated blog, instead of just a handful of times per month.

This blog is a great idea. People new to the blogging world start their own weblog on a daily basis, and a site where they can find “tips, tools, ant toys for the personal blogger”. Those people will luck out when they find this site.
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The Blogging Blog is a collection of tips and tricks to make your weblog look… well, more schnazzy.

The header graphic states that this is blog is “blogging for the fun of it,” and they sure do have a host of fun items to liven up the average blog. Our authors have done a tremendous job over the past two years combing the web for interesting gizmos, gadgets, and doo dads to help you make your blog more interesting, and less Web 1.0.

The founder of the blog, Sharon, writes on the “About” page, “The web is thick with meta-pro-blogs: blogs to help you make money online, or optimize your search engine rankings, or get your readers to click those ads — but there is relatively little for those bloggers who just want to express themselves, connect with others, and have fun. This blog is for you.”

Looking at the front page, the color scheme is really nice with gold, brown and yellow, with complimentary text colors. The main body of the blog is white with black text, so my eyes were drawn right to the core content. The colors reach out and grab the viewer, but don’t beat him or her up. The header graphic is whimsical, and the three column layout is organized and easy to use. The categories section was most helpful, because if one is looking for specific widgets, or blogging tools, results are just a click away.

Not only does the Blogging Blog provide content on widgets and gizmos, but it also points to event blogs and causes online that bring bloggers together. On the front page of the site, there are two specific date-based blogging event days. October 15th is Blog Action Day, and I never would have known it if I didn’t visit here (and yes, I’ll participate! sounds interesting…)
http://quiz.blogactionday.org/

I have two very minor complaints about the look and feel. First, the Feed Graphic at the top of the page is humongous. Way too big. Takes up way too much real estate. Should really be reduced to about 1/3 the size. The second concerns the archive by month drop down menu. It is a bit too small compared to the categories content above it, and gets a little lost. It would possibly would do better to be placed up above the categories box. Also, the 2004 links in the drop down menu did not work, (May, June, July) so those may want to either be fixed or removed.

Since this is a team blog, contributed to by four bloggers, I visited each of their pages to see whether or not they were using the widgets they were writing about. For the most part they are, some more than others, which speaks volumes. It is one thing to write about tools in theory and another to use them in practice.

It is fun to go back through a couple of years worth of entries on web gizmos to see what was “new” in 2006 or 2005! I found this past year’s content a lot more relevant, obviously. With the way the web changes, it is nice to know Sharon and the team at Blogging Blog will keep an eye out for you on the changes, and report back the interesting things to make your bloglife more fun. I give the site a 4, and will certainly be returning to see what is new.NULL

The Simplify Your Thoughts/New Age Spirituality blog has relatively few actual entries with written content. The look and feel of the site is simple. It is a wordpress driven blog with two columns, one for content and one for navigation. The About Us page is still filled with the default wordpress content. There are two months (July and August) where content was posted to this blog, and most of that is video or graphics with inspirational sentiments.

The entry on ‘What is Spirituality’ is the most interesting on the site, and everything pretty much that follows is what our Dean of Chapel in college would have referred to as “Pink Fluffies” — nice thoughts and good feelings but do they really get you anywhere in life? Not really.

I found the site to be dull and not very inspirational. I didn’t sit and watch each of the videos. I feel it is hardly fair to place a grade on this blog seeing as there isn’t much content. Perhaps if the blog owner builds some content over the course of a year, content similar to the philosophical discussion in the first entry, this would be a more interesting and uplifting blog to read.

I’m going to give it a 2.25 rating. I don’t hate the blog, just wish there was something more substantial here to read and learn and enjoy. But right now… not so much.NULL