Month: July 2004

A plain design is sometimes fitting for a blog and of course free is always a good thing. Tim Eaton, the author of 47 uses Blooger and his template of choice or indecision is Minima. Very plain, very free. With a title like “47” I had no idea what to expect. This blog’s layout is basic and very clean. Clean to the point of overly plain. The only add-on I could find was a site tracker. The rest was pretty much what you see is what you get.

Tim says he, “is a wanderer and would-be writer, living for the moment in Seattle, WA. Making coffee and looking for a place to live.” After reading his fairly new, yet not his first, blog I think he should have put at least a mention of drugs in his about section. Over half his entries involve talking about the drugs he’s on, the ones he’s done, or which one’s make him write differently. In one post he proclaims that “Drugheads are people too.” I can’t help but think that that phrase would have been a more appropriate title for this blog.

Tim is a talented writer. It seems that he can share his thoughts clearly even while on speed or heroine which is a respectable feat. The posts have a smooth and insightful flow to them. Tim seems to be very bohemian individual at heart. I came to this conclusion as he talked about buying Ramen Noodles with his last dollar and discussed his views on random women he sees throughout his day. The only problem is that you can never tell if it’s the real thing or not. Had he not activated his comments after saying that he didn’t care what people thought in his first post I would have been more prone to trust him. Proving once again that people do want to know what others think of their words. No matter how beyond that recognition they may think they are.

This blog is perfect for drug addicted twenty-somethings that still manage to function in society all the while never wanting to truly be a part of it. Each post is interesting and telling about the person that the author is at heart. More than anything it seems that Tim wants us all to know that people who do drugs are people too. The template isn’t really a catchy one, but the posts kept me reading. The more he writes about his world and the details within it the better this blog would get.

Forty-Seven

Believably Blog has a kind of 60’s style Blogger template that was not unpleasant to encounter. The green and white with orange accent looked rather harmonious. As you scroll down you are left with two shades of green, which has always been a soothing look in my book.

I began at the beginning, as I am wont to do. I found that the archives start in July of 2003. The entries are sparse for many months. Sometimes one, two, or three entries for an entire month. They focused on work and relationship issues and were frankly rather uninteresting. But as we move closer to the present, our author seems to be finding his blogging legs, so to speak. Rather than complain about some petty aspect of his life, he decides to “come clean” and tell us what is really going on.

This is when I began to connect with the author. And this blog is actually a textbook example of the evolution that can come about by keeping a diary. For a while it’s just bull s _ _ _. And that might go on for quite some time, but at some point you realize, Who am I fooling? I’m going for the truth. Even if it’s ugly, or painful.
Not everyone reaches this fork in the road. But our author seems to have come upon it and struck out into new territory.

It was interesting to see this pattern of growth. And it just confirms to me that blogging can be a valuable tool for self-discovery. It takes time, and commitment to write.

Just one little annoyance in the design department, the sidebar does not seem to have enough room on the page and appears below the last entry. I’m sure all that is required is a small adjustment to set this right.

There are other portions on Believably Blog.com that I will not comment on except to say that there is more than just this blog. There are links to a number of other pages, Links, Stuff, Silly Stuff, Britany watch, Report, etc. that contain other areas of interest for our author.

I hope that the trend of openness continues here. Not only will this be useful for the author, but it will make for much more interesting reading for the rest of us.

Believably Blog

Whew! I’ve been to the Wilson’s, and I’m ready for a nap!

It’s a Wilson Thing has a pleasant color scheme of teal and lilac that appealed to me. Very soothing and calm colors. How very deceptive though! This place is FULL of action. The three column format of course is not my favorite, and unfortunately there are a huge number of links on either side which just distract from what turns out to be one heck of a family circus.

Our author is an American in England, living with her military husband and their 5 girls. Evidently such large families are rare in jolly old England because she seems to take a fair amount of flack over it, poor thing. They seem to be handling their situation just fine, with joy and humor thank you very much.

The entries are loaded with photos, mostly of the children in all sorts of humorous and adorable situations. With the exception of the rather graphic photos of the ravages of the chicken pox that frankly was a bit more information than I needed on the subject. But the writing is full of good humor and homespun philosophy that is a rollicking good time. This is a Mommy Blog on steroids. I had a ball reading descriptions of a typical morning getting 5 girls washed and dressed and fed breakfast, the aftermath of one of the little ones “helping” with soap in the dishwasher, and a cute exchange between the author and her husband in an intimate moment. (May 9, 2004)

As an American myself, I especially enjoyed the photos of the English countryside and towns, and I am VERY jealous because I want to go to the Lavender Tea Room on Market day with the author and her friends!

The blog also has a recipe page and separate pages of photo albums that were fun. My only disappointment was the excess linkage. It was just a bother and seemed to clutter up an otherwise perfectly delightful family web page. Let your writing take center stage!

It’s a Wilson thing

Upon arriving at ‘Misc Karen – Taking the Dumb out of Random‘ I was greeted with a fresh spring coloured blog templated journal. The author, Karen, describes the site as ‘ offering my rambling musings in the hopes that I will get a bit more disciplined about writing and journaling.’

That certainly makes sense. Karen is an English Literature grad from Notre Dame (Go Irish!). This raised my expectations…which weren’t groundless. Misc Karen is a well written, engrossing topical blog with entries that occasionally have an inspiring motivational essence to them. At the start of the blog she had recently moved to California and was looking for work which would surely be enough to keep anyone awake at night. Karen was no exception. She used some of this financial worry induced insomnia to write some very honest down to earth entries about where she wants her future to go and the reality of her current situation.

The content varies… sometimes daily reflections, politics (there was a great ‘Open letter to John Kerry), an amusing celebrity one night stand list and how to react when you receive a preachy e-mail from mom with a subject entitled ‘agree or delete’. Phew…. I felt comfortable reading Misc Karen… there were no hidden agendas or pedantic rants but some clever reflections on the world around her. Karen seem eager to get a readership and I certainly believe she deserves it.

She is the ‘Mean old lady’ that became ‘a Pretty Lady’. (Read to find out what that is about, -smirk-) Misc Karen is the enjoyable and accessible read of an evolving writer who has a bright future ahead of her. The dumb is clearly right out of this random.Misc Karen – Taking the Dumb out of Random

Well I wasn’t sure what to expect from this site. At first I didn’t understand what “ArklahomBoy” meant, but I figured I’d find out and wasn’t disappointed. There are several links to other blogs or blog rings, so I was expecting something interesting to read.

The posts are sometimes about a movie, or the blog rings the author belongs to, but mostly is a political blog. It started out in a more personal way, talking about an evening with Skynard and another experience when his car broke down, but turns into posts about the military (which he is a part of) and politics. If you don’t read the links in the posts, you’ll be totally lost, as there is not even a brief description of what the link was all about. In one post there was 5 links within 4 sentences.

There’s only one author of this blog, and as previously stated, he’s a part of the military. He’s also got a proud sense of home, which lends to the name ArklahomBoy. This affects a lot of the posts, and makes for some strong points of view.

If you’re looking for the views of a military boy, I suppose this will do. If you’re looking for news or anything worthwhile, I’m not sure you’ll find it here. I didn’t really find anything that interested me.ArklahomBoy