Month: August 2004

Paper Covers opens to a black background with a cream and green color scheme. Boy Blogspot needs to give these people more choices! I found from reading the rather cursory ‘About’ page that our author is a Book Designer /Editor /Publisher living near Columbus, Ohio. This piqued my interest right away, being a writer myself. I was curious to hear about this mysterious world that all writers want to break in to.

I noticed that this was a fairly new blog, so I decided to start with the first post and work my way up to the present. Well, that turned into quite a project because Janice is a bit on the long winded side, with many of the entries extending to almost magazine article length. But I forgave her pretty quickly as I began to enjoy her writing style. There are a few almost lyrical posts inspired by everyday events in her life, along with some insightful information about the realities of publishing a book (June 16), that sent chills down my writer’s spine. There is a touching tribute to The Reagan’s long time relationship, (June 11, 2004) and a mildly humorous entry about trying to keep up with technobabble, (June 14). These are just 3 examples of the many subjects that she touches on throughout her blog.

All her writing is clear, readable and enjoyable. The multi-faceted nature of the entries kept this reader interested. She occasionally includes a photo in her posts, and with the exception of one or two entries does not overload her writing with links.

Speaking of links, she includes her favorite sites on publishing and parrots. All were in working order when I checked them.

This was a pleasant blog to visit, and I might be checking back from time to time to see what has captured her imagination that day.

Paper Covers

Paper covers – the title didn’t indicate anything to me. On reaching the site I was greeted by a straight forward easy looking layout. A blue, green and cream colour scheme with easy to read text. The design included a right hand panel with an about me section, previous posts and archives. There was a manageable links section to a variety of publishing, pet and blog related pages. The design is unfussy and uncluttered. I like that.

The simple design allows for easy getting around the site. However there isn’t a home page icon which is a drawback and you lose the archives when you enter a post through the previous post menu. However when in the archives there is a return to current posts links which is useful.

There is a comments facility which is used on and off and links and pictures throughout the posts which are in working order. All links open in the same window which is not a preference of mine.

The web log has posts dating back only six weeks or so, but the author, a self styled single middle aged woman with dogs, is a prolific blogger and has posted a lot in that time. Her banner suggests commentary on books, pets, culture, art, life, and death and so far she has come up with those goods.

Her writing style is expansive and interesting. The posts are well written and on the whole very descriptive of Ms Phelps world. The main focus of her writing is her love of books and literature and her parrot. The paper covers of the title refer to her career in publishing. I particularly liked her take on the passing of Ronald Reagan. I particularly didn’t like her work Nazism and her sense of disappointment for the kids who didn’t have summer jobs. Why do folk put such an emphasis on work? Let kids be kids and play.

That aside the web log has made an interesting beginning, has a pleasing simple design and is very well written. A three out of five.

Paper Covers

Mute Point opens to a clean, clutter free, pleasing aspect. I like the two column layout. Easy to navigate and easy to read.

In the About section I learn that our author was born in Switzerland, and has lived in Tokyo, New York, and Sao Paulo. And is 17 years old. He is currently living and going to school in Paris. This sounds very exotic to this American who has never been out of her own country except a few brief forays into Canada from time to time. So I was intrigued.

I decided to check out the archives and begin at the beginning. It turns out that though he has been writing since May 2003, there are usually only a few entries for in each month, so I ended up reading virtually all the posts. He writes about school which is natural. There are references to music, movies and all such things as teenagers are interested in. Unfortunately he tends to us a lot of abbreviations that I guess are used in chat rooms,( U r really funny ppl out there…) I don’t care for this kind of thing myself. And it is distracting to read.

I imagine to his readers, most of what he writes is in context, but quite often he uses abbreviations for things and I had no idea what he was referring to. But this too is natural. You write to your readers, and if your readers are in the know, then there is no use being redundant. Which brings up an interesting point about weblogs in general. To whom are we writing? Ourselves? A specific group of people or friends? Or the world at large?

In any case, the author does a fair job of communicating clearly. And for someone of his years is writing an above average blog I would say. But as someone who does not have the privilege of traveling here and there in the wide world, I would be interested to hear more about how people live in all these diverse places. I wanted to read more stories like the one he told about dog poop on the streets of Paris… (Feb. 29 2004). It’s little stuff like this that is fun to read, for the person who has never been to Paris, and very likely never will go there.

This blog has only a few links to other things, which is fine by me. And in his entries, he keeps the linkage to a minimum. The archives are easily accessed and all of them work.

I think this blog is pretty good work for someone of his age, and would be interesting to a teenage audience. But if the author wants to expand his readership, some interesting commentary on life in the country that he lives in, or has lived in, would be a welcome addition.

The Mute Point

Upon arriving at ArklahomBoy I was greeted with an average looking blue & white blog based on a blogger template. It appeared to be well used with many links (including The Weblog Review) and images on the sidebar and within the blog content itself. Then I read the blog’s sub-caption ‘..like a well-bred coon dog’ and I had a flashback to my forgettable trip to the ‘ol saawouth.

The author is a 20-something Iraqi Freedom Veteran who enjoys drinking Led Zeppelin and Lynyrd Skynyrd. His name, ArklahomBoy is based on another name for the Fort Smith region in which he lives. I was expecting the writings to be laced with vinegar, and they were.

ArklahomBoy talks about his patriotism, the war in Iraqi and he shares various life experiences such as meeting the band Lynyrd Skynyrd and of course, his love for France. (grin) The author diligently monitors his ranking at truthlaidbear.com, sorry AB, still a Marauding Marsupial. I like reading blogs that have links everywhere you can follow, in case you don’t know what the author is talking about. If you want to read more you can… Arky does this very well, and always represents. Once you get around the southern rhetoric you find an honest, sincere and interesting read.

If you’re interested in enjoying a large slice of southern hospitality with no Bravo Sierra, just the goods clean and true, then this would be a great place to feast. Hopefully, ArklahomBoy won’t lose his internet connection anytime soon.
ArklahomBoy

My first impression of “Red Ted Keeps a Diary” was that it was well thought out and easy to manage. I wasn’t too happy to see how small the scroll bar was, indicating that site wasn’t split into smaller divisions and more into large chunks, which can be hard to read. The colors were basic, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I was impressed to find that, even though it was a blogspot, it didn’t have your general template. He obviously worked on it to make it better, which earns him brownie points.

Eeek! After reading six days of posts I was pooped. Although Edward has some very interesting things to say, I found that nearly all his thoughts were written in an essay form! I pushed my way through these six days and found that I knew the author’s point of view quite well. He writes what he thinks, regardless of what people might think of him after he hits the “Post” button. He obviously puts a lot of thought into what he is writing and directs his attention at a very mature group of scholars. This is expected, though, because he is a history professor after all.

His presentation is a simple red, black, and white layout with links scattered down the sides. There is nothing particularly impressive about his template other than the fact that it isn’t a usual blogspot template. That’s about it. I think I would suggest adding some color, just to liven it up a little bit.

His links on the right side of his blog are rather impressive. He has a long list of different books and even the week’s coffee! I think that this adds to the experience because even if you aren’t interested in his blogs, you can definitely check out the sites he’s linked in his blog.

Overall, I think it’s safe to say that anyone under the age of 30 wouldn’t appreciate this blog as much as an older, more mature audience would. Be prepared to be reading a lot if you visit this site, however, but all the information there is self-produced and very thoughtful. The template is common, though the thought isn’t.
Red Ted Keeps a Diary