Month: December 2002

Cogito Ergo Sum is a no frills weblog that at first glance appears clean and appealing to the eyes. The site is fully dedicated to the blog and its existence though I have to confess the clouds background gave me a feeling that an old installation of Windows 95 had resurfaced and was trying to battle against my NT operating system! Good-sized fonts made it easy to read for my radiation scorched eyes and a nice set out made it a inviting to read.



The blog itself is nothing different that you wouldn’t find on pretty much any other blog, basically the day-to-day livings of Jenneferre, the owner of the blog. Its intelligently written, which came as a bit of a surprise after reading through several less then spectacular blogs from other sites, and yes, I did find the material somewhat interesting. The thing that I really liked about the site was that it didn’t center around whining, raving or ranting but purely the events of the day and sometimes a bit of reflections to place everything in perspective.



The template of the weblog is good enough, its neat and tidy, and certainly not distracting. I’m not too sure exactly what the point of the [+] sign was next to the author and the date, I clicked it and nothing happened, and clicked some other ones and sometimes all it did was center the current post. Hardly a feature needed. There was no room to add some comments to each post, something that I’m sure Jenneferre may consider adding at some point down the track.



There’s a few other links to friends site, though I found it annoying that it didn’t open a new window when I clicked on them so I had to use my Shift key to ensure Cogito Ergo Sum didn’t get lost behind another site. Again, when writing a blog there HAS to be a small ‘About Me’ section somewhere, if only to say how old and where you’re from. I had to scan through several entries to find out how old she exactly was, which of course makes a different interpretation to the blog. Not having this information at hand was terribly annoying, so again, another thing she may want to keep in mind.



All up I’d say Cogito Ergo Sum gets the thumbs up from me and anyone else in their teenage years or early 20’s. With a few other areas added as I mentioned above to support the weblog I’m sure it would be even more enjoyable to read. I give the site a 3 out of 5. Cogito Ergo Sum

Her name is Melissa Simpson and “random.rationale” is the name of her game. At an age of twenty-two years old, she is attending the University of Idaho and nearing the graduation date pretty darn quickly. Melissa is looking to receive a degree in graphic design. She likes skiing, baking homemade bread and taking bubble baths (interesting combination). Most importantly she is also into Space Ghost. This is definitely a really good start.



Her weblog looks sharp and effective, pleasing mix of colors, splitting the white canvas of the page in two with all elements shifted to the left, interesting and clear with a harmonic use of colors. There is even a small picture of her at the top of each page, making the weblog just that much more personal. This is not one of those flashy weblogs that seem to be infecting the Internet lately. It is sweet and simple, and it works.



Melissa has not been writing for that long (she started in January of this year), so there isn’t that much she has been able to collect yet. You might say that most of her material can easily be covered in one sitting. The weblog is almost entirely personal stuff centered on herself, most of the entries in one way or other dealing with the upcoming stuff leading up to her graduation. Her entries are pretty good, but nothing exceptional. Not extensive, but okay for what she obviously intended the weblog to be for herself which is just to collect her own thoughts for herself. A typical entry goes like this: “i woke up saturday morning after decidedly having a crappy evening before… but i didn’t care anymore. that’s the nice thing about a fresh start to a new day. your perspective looks different in the morning, and your worries (sometimes) appear much smaller than they had before. this was one of those occasions.”



While she has experience in graphic design for multimedia and more traditional themes, this talent is not reflected very well in her weblog. This is a shame as her portfolio of earlier web designs is pretty good. As a busy student, I can understand her main concern is covering the content of the entries, which is good enough. All energy into that fancy graphical stuff is more than likely being used up in busy classes and exams.



This is all right, but do not expect more. It is not philosophy, nor does it provide deep analysis of recent events. Except for her big toe, that is. In the “toe saga continues” we are shown a close-up picture of big toe after stubbing it on an iron lying on the floor. Okay, it is purple and obviously throbbing from the pain. Is this personal or what?



There are alot of other links leading outside of her weblog, and one is tempted to look around the rest of her homepage. Indeed, there is lots of other interesting stuff on her site. But since it is beyond the scope of this review that by definition must be limited to the weblog, I will only mention them here, that they accent her weblog well.



So in the words of Space Ghost, “Greetings all you weblog citizens, Zorak and I invite all you out from coast to coast to check this place out.”random.rationale

When first visiting ‘Play’ you are greeted with a basic layout, hosted by blogspot, with most of the content going down the center of the blog with a few links to the right. Nothing flashy, which is good, and it definatly serves this site well.



I would call ‘Play’ a link blog, and one of the more interesting ones I’ve seen. It promises the wierdest news and coolest links, and does not fall short of meeting that promise. The authors post links to different stories and sites they found with some hilarious commentary about them. Until I visited this site I never saw a house cat as large as watermelon (worth a visit in itself), or would have concieved that there was a website out there dedicated to writing poetry about Leo Dicaprio.



The authors ‘gel’ well together, I actually didn’t notice that it was more than one author until I was halfway through the archives. Their writing is funny and descriptive of each link you are going to be visiting.



All in all, it is a very entertaining, very funny site, definatly worth a visit. I would recommend the I.E. browser, many of the links you will visit will not work without it, and I would not visit this site if you are at work or near young children, some of the links lead you to adult content (a few with audio that begins when the page is loaded).



Play

Smart and fashionable. That’s the dictionary definition of “posh”, which I learned from this site. And smart and fashionable are actually two words that describe Lynda’s weblog.



First, the visual aspect of the site. The background that Lynda uses is very colorful and busy, but by the very good use of tables, the general look of the site is very soft and welcoming. Each day presents a different main color of the site, which is very nie for variety’s sake.



One of the best aspects of the look of the site are the pictures that change from time to time along the left hand side of the weblog. The pictures are fun, and add a nice touch to the look of the site.



The content is great. Lynda updates several times a day, and while the entries aren’t always the longest things to read in the world, they don’t need to be. The author gets to the point of her post very quickly, and they’re very entertaining and enjoyable to read.



And, if the weblog entries aren’t enough, Lynda also has another journal that has longer (perhaps more meaningful to the author?) entries available.



This is a really nice site, with great design and great writing. Lynda does a very nice job with it.So Very Posh

I automatically liked this site when it loaded up. The site is 2 toned with gray on the left and blue on the right and the very familiar shot of MTV’s studios at Time Square in the upper left hand corner to add some other colors. It was also simple and easy to navigate through.



Jason, a New Jersey native has a definite passion for photography. The photos he posts gives the feeling as though you’re hanging out with him as he takes pictures of things that catch his eye which range from photos of people sitting at a local cafe to self-portrait shots in stores.



In addition to posting his personal photos, he also blogs giving not only a journalistic feel, but also letting his readers visually see and read about his life the way he sees it. He posts his daily whereabouts, mingling with other fellow bloggers living in the New York area and even the occasional Friday Five questions that have caught on in the weblog community.



The site also contains a links page to other weblogs and photo related links. He’s also has a section in the works which will contain more photos for viewing.



If you’re into photos and also enjoy reading the occasional blog, this is a site you definitely might want to check out.DIGITALNAP