Month: April 2003

Although the author of this blog has put his blog in the “Entertainment” category, I think that it falls more appropriately in to News/Links, as the majority of the content is linked to material that is not the author’s own.

The site is powered by Movable Type; though considering that there are so many templates available for this platform, I felt that the author could have put more work in to his. There is a very simple title bar which contains no graphics, a sidebar with a few links to archives and other sites and the opportunity to email the author. Sadly there is no “About Me” page to be found or any other information about the aim of the site.

Like I said, most of the entries contain links to other sites or content. Subject wise, the US plays a big part in the make up of the blog- US politics, US sport, US culture, etc. I am sure these entries are entertaining enough for those living in the US, but to us crazy foreign types, a little more explanation is needed as to their context and relevance to be fully appreciated. Some posts in fact don’t seem to have any explanation at all except the link itself and the difficulty with linking to Yahoo News seems to be that they don’t keep hold of their archives for very long, as I soon discovered. In fairness, there are also some pretty funny links and pictures here (though I have seen funnier) but these are really not sufficient to keep someone busy who does not live in a US-centric world. And before anyone emails me, US-centric is probably not a real word but I kinda like it anyway.

Occasionally, the author does include his own opinions on a subject, which does really open up the blog and is nice to see, but on other occasions he merely asks other people to comment on something, which strikes me as handing the content of your blog over to someone else and asking them to take responsibility for it.

There is very little wrong with this site in so far as all the links work, there are few spelling mistakes and there is consistently updated content, but the trouble is it does not go far enough. In an online world where the casual reader has a million blogs to choose from, simply being average is not enough to hold people’s attention. After all, there are so many blogs out there which do go the extra mile and do impress.

Although there is potential here for the author to achieve a higher score, for this to happen I would like to see much more embellishment of the links with his personal opinions, more effort made to vary the content a little, or if US politics is to be the “theme” of the site, don’t assume that all your readers will have even the faintest idea what is going on in that arena in any detail. The World Wide Web is, after all, world wide. And pretty templates always make for happy reviewers :o)In the mind of Laquidara

My first impression of this site were not entirely favourable, I was immediately struck by a design which wasn’t exactly kind on the eye, but is a fairly individual adaptation of a typical blogspot template. After I had recovered from the clashing colour scheme and busy background I had a quick look around the site, quickly discovering there was no personal info. I admit this isn’t necessarily a requirement for a good blog but I strongly believe from a readers perspective it is nice to have a little background info on the person behind the blog. This in mind I headed off to the first page of archives hoping there may be some introductory information there, I was to be disappointed but I hit on something which was to set a standard for what I was to find in the rest of the blog ‘Soon to come will be some crazy ass stories from some really wacky tobacco.’ Indeed.

Luker’s first post wasn’t big on the information beyond that, but it was quickly brought to my attention that half of these posts were probably written by someone high on ‘wacky tobacco’, at least some of his philosophies are indicative of this. He tries to be deep, he even tries to put forward some interesting thoughts, but they are often ill channelled and not really adequately thought through or explained. Perhaps if he left the ‘wacky tobacco’ alone while blogging he might actually have something really interesting to say for himself in a way which is easy to follow and understand. Even short postings can become rapidly annoying with too many ‘LMFAO’ and ‘OMG, OMG wow, wow, wow, holy shit, hahahahahahahahaha’, or maybe I am just in the wrong generation.

The design itself is as I said very bright, which I personally find a little distracting, but this is more a point of preference that any serious criticism. Its based on a standard blogspot template, with just enough alterations to make it more individual and I believe reflective of the person behind the blog – that is created by someone high. But its easy enough to navigate, the choice of weekly archives over monthly suiting the length of entries and posting consistency. There are some interesting links in the left hand menu, several of which were unfortunately found to be broken at the time of writing, either by code error or otherwise.

The style of writing, content and design leads me to believe that this is a site which will appeal to a very restricted audience. The author makes an attempt at deep entries, but his style of writing is such it leaves me more than a little disinterested in what he has to say, but then maybe I am just of the wrong generation. I can see this site appealing to teens, or those within his own social circle. It is for these reasons I award this site a 2.

Luker’s Landmine

In the mind of Laquidara has classified itself as an entertainment blog. Obviously with a name of In the mind, I figured this would be a daily thoughts sort of weblog with a twist. I was right… sort of. The twist part never became apparent, but the daily thoughts were definitely there.

The weblog itself is easy to read. Each month’s archives were filled with the right amount of entries to keep me entertained, and not bore me. The topics range from politics to jokes to anything the author thinks you will find interesting. He tends to write a post and link to something more for each post; be it a picture, a link to another site, or a movie.

The design of the site looks like a modified template, but I am not sure where he got it from. We have a standard two column layout and an interesting choice of colors (dark red, orange, white, and a dark grey). While this doesn’t do anything for the weblog, it doesn’t hurt it either.

The original posts of the weblog were very political mainly focusing on the war in Iraq. As time went on however, he started to change gears to more entertaining topics. There are still political posts but they are more spread out. While I am glad the weblog has started to take a new direction, it sort of makes it hard to define. Personally I enjoyed every post except the political ones. I don’t see a need to mix and match topics that are not related. I really think the author should focus on one thing, and go with that.

Overall I thought In the mind of Laquidara was a good read. Nothing really grabbed me as a must read, but I am still glad I did read it. As I said previously, a little bit more of a focus and this weblog can really go places. I enjoyed my time reading this weblog, and I think you will too.
In the mind of Laquidara

This blog immediately caught my eye as something rather interesting. The title itself, “How to Become a Hero” sparked my curiousity. I read on to find entries titled “Spirituality at the Supermarket Checkstand” and “I’m a Buddha; You’re a Buddha”. This looked to be quite an interesting blog.

According to her about page, C.J. Hayden is the best-selling author of three business related books. She is a professional speaker and business trainer. I guess you could say that she is the female equivalent of Tony Robbins. Her weblog keeps her readers updated on conferences and other appearances she is making. It also has plenty of informative and insightful entries as well as links to others with like-minded ideas. Having started in June of this year, the blog is relatively new. One of the things that impressed me right away about C.J. was her humility as a blogger. In her entry titled “New Weblog Showcase,” she talks about how her blog is entered in a best new blog contest. She then discusses the blogs she would vote for, and doesn’t include herself. I was very impressed with this because most blogs I’ve been to (mine included) are always begging readers to vote for them in some sort of poll or contest.

As far as her informative entries go, C.J. talks about a lot of different issues, but she likes to talk about spirituality a lot. She talks about many different faiths and philosophies and provides many informative links. She also talks about her own personal writings, such as her “Steps to Become a Hero.” Overall, I found the weblog to be a great read. I would have liked to see some more discussion on the site, but I am sure she will have more people commenting as her audience grows.

The design of the site is a simple two column layout with a header on top. It works very well for the blog. The entries are very easy to read and the colors go very well together. The site is easy to navigate and everything appears to be working properly.

In addition to her blog, C.J. has two other pages. There is an “About” page where you can out more about C.J. and the work she’s done. There is also a “Resources” page where you can find articles she has written and links to purchase her books. I think a feature that might prove useful for this blog would be a forum to discuss topics brought up on the blog.

Overall, this is quite an interesting blog. C.J. has lots of interesting ideas. I would probably visit this blog once a week or so. The design is nice, the entries are well written, and the content is captivating. How to Become a Hero

I didn’t really know what to expect when coming into this site. The notion of just an average weblog was the one I primarily entertained in my mind, and I’m glad that was the feeling I decided to take when beginning my venture into the “weblog from a Dane abroad”.

The layout of “weblog from a Dane abroad” isn’t anything out of the ordinary. There’s a big column down the center portion of the site, with a menu bar of links the left. Something a little on the unique side from this site that stuck out for me was the moving rankings on the right side of the weblog. Jacob ranks movies on a five star system. So far, there are only eight movies ranked, but I’m assuming this is a relatively new feature and will grow with time.

The site’s more than just a weblog. You’ll find an extensive “about me” section that gives you some background information as to where the name of the weblog was generated. Also available for viewer perusal is a quick overview of what’s used to create the site, the aforementioned movie rankings, other links, contact information, and the obligatory archived entries. There’s also a section devoted just to a photo gallery, which does contain some very nice photos of different events.

October 31, 2002 was the first time the archives were in English, so that’s where I started to read. The earlier archives that I was actually able to read were very straight forward and to the point. They would list what the author did for the day, and that, for the most part, was it. As times goes on, Jacob finally starts sharing more personal thoughts or gears his writing to be a bit more descriptive of what’s going on around him. This, of course, lets readers feel more like they’re experiencing the same thing as he is and it makes for more personable reading.

With time, this weblog seems to have improved. Jacob writes more in each post and is able to give readers a better view of what he’s talking about and what he’s experiencing. If you’re just looking for a weblog that features its creator and his daily life, the “weblog from a Dane abroad” would fall very nicely into that category. If you’re looking for something a little bit more, revisiting this site in a few more months might be a good idea.

weblog from a Dane abroad