Month: January 1970

I have Seoul. It reminds me of adventures and maybe pirates and those incredibly huge ships crossing the ocean while sailors pray so no horrific aquatic creature would emerge from the deep waters and swallow them alive, back in those days where Earth was so obviously flat, when people would kept journals neatly illustrated with ink sketches. So I expect to see just that. A thorough description of a country and pictures of interesting things the author, a Canadian 27-year-old guy currently teaching in Korea, has to offer.

His posts go back to February, 2005 when he was getting ready to go to Korea. He makes clear that his purpose is merely keeping friends and family posted on his life there, which struck me as a ‘don’t expect much’ warning. And maybe it was. I take interest on the subject — adapting to a new country and having all these notes about its culture. I also happen to be an English teacher (although taking my poor English you might think I’m telling a lie or you’d feel sorry for my students), which could make this blog one of my favorites. There is a fair amount of entries on how life really is there or how he interacts with locals. You can check some videos and lots of pictures, which makes the blog interesting after all. Also, I have this feeling that he tries to be humorous, but doesn’t quite succeed. At least the entries are not that funny, but it could be due to the cultural gap here (me being Brazilian), or perhaps I’m just not in a good mood. You know how we girls are always subject to these mood swings. I have to admit I smiled a few times though.

The design of the blog is really simple but that is not a negative point. I myself believe that content should matter much more than looks (and that goes for blogs, books and guys, ha!). You can also check his flickr photo albums. Everything works fine. Archives, comments, links. The only thing missing is a Shaun’s profile (and it’s hard to find his name there).

Overall, it is a good blog as in ‘I could check it monthly or at least every fortnight’. He writes okay, he’s somewhat funny and getting to share his experience in Seoul gives us this sense that we are, as readers, close to him. I’ll give it a 4.
I have Seoul

To be honest, I am not a fan of religious blogs at all. In fact, I am not a fan of religious people who go about preaching and thinking they are above me just because they do something different on Sunday. I really do not like it when people tell me things like “I know I am going to heaven so I don’t have to worry any more” and “My God is better than your God.” With that said, I figured this blog was going to be something along those lines, even with the title.

Thankfully I was wrong. This blog isn’t about someone preaching their ways to get you to convert, it is as the title says, A Christian who is gay and is confused. The most recent post at the time of this review (entitled Love the sinner, hate the sin) probably sums this blog up the best. The post goes on to explain how some Christians will “Love the sinner, but hate the sin”. It is ok for a Christian to forgive sins such as watching porn, swearing, and others, but if you are gay, that is unforgivable. And thus they came up with “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” The author makes an excellent point in this post when she says:
..so many Christians see being gay as sin… so when they say “I love you, I just hate the sin”, what they end up saying is “I love you; I just hate this massive part of your identity.”

The rest of the posts are of similar nature. They deal with her conflicts of being both a Christian and being gay. This makes for a very interesting look at Christianity. I actually enjoyed this look on it because it actually points out the loopholes with Christianity. Rather than trying to make us, the reader, into Christians, it is simply a place for her to sort through the issues that she is faced with.

The design of this site is a simple blogger template. While its not the greatest it does serve its purpose with this blog. I would like to see this blog expand its content as it is just a blog with nothing else. Sure it is hard to expand, but maybe something like a scripture a week with her take on it and how it affects her.

The site is a newer site with only 22 total posts ranging from August till September. There is room to grow, but then there is also room to get stale. There are no extras on this site as I mentioned and hope that she branches out a little bit. Even for such a young blog, I still was captivated by the content. I give it a 4.25 because it isn’t perfect, but it is definitely worth checking out.
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Anti Spam Software Blog is a great title. It told me exactly what it was I should be finding on this blog. I was a little hesitant though, as I thought maybe it was just a bunch of useless information. Thankfully I was wrong.

The design of the blog is a nice clean three column layout with the content in the center and other links on either side. The banner at the top is original and brings a professional touch to this blog. Almost as if this is a blog run by a company. (more on this later)

The information presented in the blog is very good. It details new things that have come up with regards to spam and still touches on old things. It brings news of what is going on to combat spam in the way that blogs bring information to the public. I was very pleased with the presentation and how organized and detailed it was. Then that thought of being run by a company struck me again.

I started looking around at the other stuff on the site. I had assumed that the “Free 30 day trial” for Securence was just an ad that someone had purchased, but then I realized the name was in the header and they had another ad on the other column. So I clicked on the non ad to find out more about Securence. Sure enough I was taken to the company’s main website.

To me, this was an amazing thing. Here a company was really getting the purpose of a business blog. They are giving out good information, presented in a great way, and at the same time not forcing their product down our throats. Sure the main purpose of the blog is probably to drive up sales, but it doesn’t feel that way at all.

Overall I this blog is done exceptionally well. I am giving it a 4.25 because I do not feel this is a perfect blog, and I don’t think its one that everyone will enjoy. But overall this blog is one of the best of its types. Even if you aren’t into reading up on technology, this blog is worth checking out.
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Becka’s House of Glue is a blog that reminds me of my own blog. Only with more photos and comments and a header with a– what is that on the header? It looks sort of like a horse made out of twine, but… hey, you can never be sure. The most recent post reports that Becka, the blogger, will now be taking a few weeks off for her vacation, and that she may or may not give up working on her blog when she comes back.

After reading through more of the blog, I must say this: she had BETTER continue blogging! From rants about state stupidity to wondering how “My tub is draining slow” turned into “Come shove a poke stick down my sink, you hot tub of lovin'” when the maintenance guy starts working on the wrong bathroom, House of Glue is full of laughs. It’s only four months old (started back in March of this year), but already has enough rants and ravings to keep one entertained for an afternoon at least.

Layout-wise, House of Glue is one among many… except for the twine horse, which I still do not get… It’s a very plain layout; dual-toned background, normal cursors… It’s something flat to build dynamic laughs upon!

Becka also clues us into the origins of her blog’s name. “House of Glue” originates from a forum discussion that she had once upon a time about sniffing glue, but I’ll let you find the link yourself… after all, it will encourage you to read around her blog. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed. Becka actually started blogging back in December of 2004. Her older blog is Broken Roads, which House of Glue links to. This is nice, because now there is more to read! Her bloggy reads are to the right, and all of the links are in working order.

All in all, Becka’s House of Glue is a very nice blog. Layout-wise, it could use a little more sparkle. But content-wise, it’s got me smiling. Go on, check it out. Read the rants and laugh along. You’ll like it, I promise.Becka’s House of Glue

When I read the blog’s name, I have to admit, I smiled. There’s just something about the word “unfurl” that gives me this warm feeling and splits my face into a grin. Anyway, the world is unfurling, or rather, it already unfurled. Thus, I need to catch up.

First impressions. Layout is wonderful. Due to slow internet connection, all I saw at first was the blue background and the hard-to-read black font on it. It made my gut clench. I find it very hard to enjoy reading blogs where the fonts are barely readable. Lucky for me, this one eventually loaded and the nice layout greeted me.


The entries themselves, I must say, were a bit mediocre to my taste. Not that it’s bad. No. It was just bland. Kudos though for the nice spelling and grammar. With all the blogs abounding in cyberspace, a lot of these are usually written in bad English. So, entries are not excessively funny but they do get straight to the point and are quite interesting.

As I said above, I find the layout wonderful. A picture or two can usually be found within each entry and pictures are good. These ones, anyway.

Overall, I suggest a visit from everyone. Who knows, you might find the entries captivating and end up being hooked yourselves.World Unfurled