Month: January 1970

“Looking out the window…” is the personal blog of Ashley, a young woman from Canada (who I am estimating to be 20ish) who is also a 2nd year Honors Sociology student at a University. Ashley posts regularly on the blog regarding happenings in her life and what’s going on around her (hence the title).

My ititial thoughts on this blog were “Yucky”, because I use the Firefox browser. When I switched to Internet Explorer, the blog looked fine. When I began to look at her site through my own window, I got a good sense of her life and what was going on in it.

I like the fact that Ashley has a lot of pictures on her blog. A blog can be just all text, but it’s always good to add photos with your posts to give the reader an extra idea of what you’re writing about.

Aside from the non-Firefox friendly layout, I like the colors and graphics. I think the huge strawberry in the bottom right of the page is an added touch. The blog itself has a very simple design, which is not too flashy, but gets the point across. The only thing I would do is invest a litte time in making sure that the design is compatible with popular browsers. Someone who visits the site will be more likely to stay and read more of your posts if the blog is easy to read and aesthetically pleasing.

I give you a “B” for effort. Definately an interesting read.Looking out the window…

When first reviewing background noise, I was daunted by the fact that the blog’s archives went back for over two years. In hindsight, blogspot’s system of archiving posts on a monthly basis, coupled with the author’s knack for keeping his entries short, meant that reading two and a half years of Richard’s random musings was surprisingly effortless.

Background Noise is definitely one of the more eclectic personal weblogs out there – the brevity of most entries probably exacerbates this a little; one entry details Richard’s aversion for razors, while the next details his difficulties learning mandarin. Some days, even the entries seem fairly haphazardly put together, as seen in this entry about Dolly the Sheep and how people should pronounce the word ‘issues’. Nonetheless, the entries are consistently concise and well-written, however, which is always a plus. I particularly liked his entry on pandas.

While the site layout is by no means breath-taking, it doesn’t offend any aesthetic sensibilities either. Here again, we see the benefit of short entries – the front page to this blog seems a lot less cluttered than other blogs, if only because of the fact that it simply holds less content. I must emphasize, however, that this is by no means a bad thing, since brevity is really an undervalued commodity in blogging. Richard’s extensive archives also provide for a depth of additional reading material.

All in all, while this site is eclectic in its content, it’s also consistent in its output – Richard is a fairly frequent blogger, and he seems to churn out his entries at a fairly constant rate. The links featured on this site are similarly eclectic, but most manage to be reasonably entertaining. Thus, all in all, background noise is probably worth a visit. Or maybe even two.
Background Noise

MC Rebbe is apparently ‘an award winning stand-up comedian, rapper, musician, DJ, VJ, journalist, television presenter, producer and remixer’. When I first started reading his blog, I was unaware of any of this. Somehow, though, while reading this blog, you get the feeling that he’s something of a celebrity – the confident, tongue-in-cheek writing style, the snazzy blue and white header, as well as, I suppose, the constant references to his life in show business give this away.

Once you read his blog, though, MC Rebbe’s witty, occasionally acerbic writing style really shines through. From his farcical terms of use for his website, you can tell that this blogger does not take himself seriously, or demand that you take him seriously, either. In my opinion, this can only be a good thing. What’s most impressive is that MC Rebbe can wisecrack his way through subject matter that is, at times, very Jewish and, at other times, incredibly British, and make someone like me, someone who is neither a Jew or from the United Kingdom, actually care enough to read what the rapping rabbi has to say.

Key to this, I suppose, is the fact that MC Rebbe doesn’t waste his words. Entries are kept fairly short, and filed neatly into categories using the wordpress publishing platform. All in all, therefore, the site is an easy (and fairly enjoyable) read.

Given his apparent celebrity status in Britain, MC Rebbe’s blog will probably hold an added appeal for people familiar with his body of work. Strangely, though, this is not reflected in his comments section, making me wonder if his blog is suffering from a lack of under publicity. Perhaps he’s just not that big of a star.

However, none of this should stop you from stopping by the home of the web of the rapping rabbi. I definitely enjoyed my visit, and might just stop by again, in the future.MC Rebbe The Rapping Rabbi

Looking at the title of this particular weblog didn’t give me any idea what to expect. But seeing that it was listed under a personal blog, kinda did.

The blog itself loaded up into a basic template, blue background and links on either side of the main entries in the middle of the page.

Ashley, the author is 20, has a little boy and there are quite a few pictures of him throughout the blog as well as pictures of other things like when it snowed, pictures of herself and her partner and pictures from home. Her other entry’s detail private or at least personal happenings within her life, her pregnancy and work.

The author writes well, her paragraphs flow, the only issue I have is the fact that as I’ve stated before, personal blogs just don’t seem to have anything that engages me enough to want me to blogroll or even come back and visit at a later date to see what might have happened since my review.

There was no real “about” page for the author herself, at first glance I couldn’t find the archives. I then figured out that the links going all the way down the page on the right side of the blog were actually the archives listed as the entry titles. The only way I found how to go back within the entry’s is that there was a back 9 link above the main entry’s in the middle of the page. I just think that the layout of the blog could be a bit more user friendly. There is a link to her webpage that shows photos of her trips to Europe.

Maybe it’s just me, but I think the blog could do with a face-lift, a bit more of thought going into the layout so that it is easier to navigate. Apart from that, as a personal blog, it’s just like many other personal blogs out there. I didn’t find any entry that made me laugh, or piked my interest. But then, the author could be writing this for herself and not her audience. Which would explain the highly personal entries and not many other links.

The reason I gave this blog a 1.75 is because of the lack of navigation help, as well as the fact that the way her archives are set out wasn’t very helpful, nor were there any links or about me pages that helped to tell you a quick run down of the author. Plus the fact that I didn’t find the content of the blog to be anything apart from personal replays of days and events that happened to the blogger.

You can always check it out and prove me wrong!
sitdiary The Shadowlands

Heather 24/7 doesn’t exactly break a whole lot of ground in the blogging world. Her template (Dots Dark) is one of the tried and trusted pre-fabricated layouts provided by blogger. Her sidebar is covered with pictures of her friends (since simple text links were obviously not enough), as well as a catalogue of her quizilla quiz results. Nonetheless, the blog of this freshman at Baylor college manages to keep its readers interested enough to keep clicking, if only for the bizarre voyeuristic pleasure of it all.

Heather McLeod demonstrates the wonders of keeping journal entries short, and serving up a generous helping of pictures. With the rapidly increasing number of blogs on the internet, keeping entries concise is key to maintaining the attention of one’s readers. Thus, while Heather might not exactly be one of the best writers to grace the planet, her editorial discretion is commendable. Furthermore, while she might not be stunningly attractive, Heather is, at least, not camera shy. The judicious use of a picture or two every entry or so helps the readers get a feel for who they’re reading about, giving them a reason to keep reading.

While Heather doesn’t really offer very much original material to the blogging world, her tales of sorority life, her pictures of her friends, and her meditations on how she resembles (or doesn’t resemble) certain characters on the OC are, at the very least, bearable. Occasionally, some of her raves even seem amusing. Given the number of sorority girl blogs on the internet, Heather 24/7 isn’t exactly outstanding. But then again, it isn’t exactly horrible, either.heather 24/7