Month: December 2004

“fasteddiesbullet”

Upon entering this site, I was greeted with an outstanding and a very professional looking blog. The only problems I could really find with the blog was:

(1.) There was no “About Me” page which could tell me a bit more about the author.

(2.) His blogging space was too narrow for the posts.

I myself like the blogging space to have more than 2 or 3 lines. Other than that,
3 lines. Other than that, it is a really nice lay-out.

The background is a plain blue, he has a cartoon picture of Superman up in the left hand corner, which gave the page a nice touch. The author has several links on the right hand side, including the archives.

When I first heard the title “fasteddiesbullet”, I really
didn’t know what the posts would be like.
To me, it just sounded like something
from an old gangster movie. Just not my kind of read.

As I started reading, the entries were completly different than what I had expected. They were simply about a guy and his everyday life. The entries are very
well written. When he writes about his every day events,he even tends to write a lot of them in a way that has a touch of humour. There was even an entry in his archives, where he had people email him pictures of their ass, and he actually posted them on his blog. On some occassions, he would ask the readers to guess who’s ass it was. That was just an example of his humour.

A lot of his posts had me laughing. It’s just the way he would go about telling of
his events for the day.

All in all it is a very good blog. Very entertaining. I am still a little confused about the title though. But if you have a couple of hours to spare, you should really stop by “fasteddiesbullet”. You won’t be disappointed.

fasteddiesbullet….

I went to review this site, not exactly knowing what to expect. I smiled to myself as I noticed the possible reference to “Fast Dedi” Felson character played by Paul Newsman in The Hustler and The Color of Money but I was not sure how this would correlate to the subject of the site.

The subtitle however relates more closely to the actual bent of the posts: “Epoisses (Cheese) on the Web”. It is a collection of his thoughts regarding subjects as varied as the sad state of education to a contest where pictures are post of bloggers bums and you guess which ones belong to whom.

Once there I found that I liked the background color and found myself questioning his locale, since his banner included what appeared to be some sort of lighthouses. I looked for a few seconds and realized that he is located in Belgium, which makes this the first Belgium blogger I have run across.

There are also two authors a male (zeno) and a female (kimberlee) who seem to be friends. As you read through the posts you quickly discover this since one moment they are discussing men’s urinals and a little farther down is a thankful post about how blogging has gotten the author through being separated from her husband.

I noticed that each post seemed to have comments, which usually translates into traffic. The comments on his site appear to be from the same core group of folks which can be a good thing. It means that he is keeping their attention over time.

The posts are for the most part, lighthearted and funny and seem to revolve around a circle of Internet friends and fellow bloggers that they know. Not a lot in the way to politics or religion but it is a good, fun read. Think of it as the blogging equivalent of a sitcom.

They seem to have developed a few standards in there posting repertoire. There is a Tuesday ChoosDay where readers are asked a series of “would you rather this or that” questions. There is also the aforementioned Blogger’s Bottoms game.

The site is laid out in a three-column format using Movable Type, with two smaller columns to the right stuffed with information about the author, comments, and the obligatory list of links. They are using the fairly standard tools, such as the TTLB Ecosystem and SiteMeter. They also have the list pretty standard list of archives and such. The site has a list of books but does not use Amazon plug-ins or MediaList so they do not link to anything other than the book cover image which is a little sad since they appear to be interesting books and it might be nice to look them up and get a synopsis for them.

The text that it used through most of the site is a light color and works well with the background. The only thing that might cause some users a bit of grief is the very small font used for Permalinks, Comments, and Trackbacks, all of which are setup.

The only real thing I found wrong with the site was the layout. It does not look balanced when viewing and I would like to see more screen real estate committed to the actual posts. But this is more a personal preference and does not diminish the humor of the posts.

On the whole this site is a good, fun read. It is not political for the most part although there is the occasional post regarding Blair and Bush. For the most part it is the stories, poetry, and ranting of a couple of very good writers who have an interesting take on the world. It is a fun read and hopefully you will find yourself smiling slightly as you read, just as I did.
fasteddiesbullet….

Going by the title, I assumed that this blog would contain one news item everyday or something like that. Well.. first of all it is not updated everyday (not that it is a necessary criterion though) and secondly it is not exactly news that we are talking about here. Perhaps it means news in the author’s life or something.. let’s see…

No ‘About Me’ section, let’s check the archives. There is a dud entry in May 2003 explaining what is RSS. Nothing in June. When you see the July archives it starts to become clear why the blog is so named. There are links and links to news items from well known as well as never before heard sites, of course the links come with the opinion of the author. He has not mentioned as to upon what criteria does he decide which news items to keep. There does not seem to be any specific pattern except for the fact that more than half of the news are Australia-specific or have something to do with Australia. I am not surprised, the author hails from Australia and he is one of the beta-testers for Typepad.(so far that is the only information available about him)

It would be wrong to say the news items are boring or anything as it is a matter of personal taste, but some of them do come out and become something universally familiar. Like this sarcastic take on an African region Gadhafi and it’s mosquito/AIDS problem. Or this one on social responsibility in general, which seems to partly explain why he is running this blog.

It is from October 2003 that the blog starts getting personal shades and the frequency goes down drastically. In the year 2004 there is almost no mention of news, the blog gets even more personal. Not that anything is wrong with that, but it is more like a picture of Glenn’s (that’s his name) life from very very far.

The blog has started to transcend from being a news blog to a personal one but the transition is anything but complete.

As far as design is concerned, the template and colours went well with the news items but it gives too much of an unattached feeling for a personal blog.

Like I said, the blog might turn out to be an interesting one when Glenn is completely into personal mode.. or goes back to news.

News of the Day

The thing that struck me when I was reading Colleen’s words in Dreamin & Talkin was the revelation that, geez, she sounds like my mother – and I don’t mean that in a bad way at all. She just seems to write how my mother thinks and it was a bit of a revelation to me. I think I am way too philosophical to be a reviewer, but reviewing is fun.

Back to the review!

I was worried with the baby poo browny-yellow background splashed across my screen and was braced for some horrid, blinding design that would instantly send me screaming from the room and begging my own fiance (who is not a member of the review staff, I must add) to do the review for me. Fortunately this was not the case when the blog finally loaded. I say finally because there’s a lot going on in the site all at once – lots of little animated and link graphics, lots of links to outsourced scripts (such as a tag board which are becomming an ever popular replacement to the usual guestbook set-up) and a real-time CBC.ca newslink column as well. All well and good for people on cable/broadband but not so good for us plebs on the dial-up.

I mustn’t forget to mention that there is blog content as well, I’m getting to that shortly.

The layout is pretty much your standard three-column deal (who as any regular TWR reader knows, I put up with but don’t particularly admire) and is very functional and well planned. It’s a mature layout. She’s a mature lady. I think it suits her quite well, and it’s a rare opportunity that I get to say that. Colleen’s also got all the usual links to other favourite reads and the “all about me” personal stuff which is very cool and where we find out all about the writer…

Which brings me to the content of the blog itself. Like I said, she reminds me of my mother, and I get on with my mother most of the time as we share the same opinions – and I found myself nodding along and quietly saying “Yep, I think so too” whilst I read Dreamin & Talkin. It’s a personal blog so she writes personal things, but I found her entries drew me in anyway. There’s not a lot of “I did this, then I did that” sort of writing, which is very cool (a relief, actually) and there’s a lot of reflection – especially in her recent entries as she deals with the sudden death of a colleague. I personally think she gives a great introduction for her blog in her very first entry which really sets the tone for the rest of the blog. Naturally, all the entries are very well written with lots of thought and precision (and good attention to grammar and spelling which always counts, I say!). I highly recommend going through her 100 Things list and the geneology page she has links too.

There is lots to chew through in Dreamin & Talkin (it’s been going since October 2002), far more than a person could do in one sitting, but I did read through some of the archives and all of the entries displayed on the main page. I was very impressed with the blog in its entirety and I’m quite happy to say it well deserves a 4 out of 5. Thanks Colleen, it was lovely getting to know you!Dreamin & Talkin

Oh, now here’s a blog I saw in the listing and was hoping to get. I love blogs about kids – even though I have no desire to be a mother, I love reading about other peoples’ kids. Musings of Critter’s Mom is one of those blogs that just appeals to me.

Upon first getting into the blog, I did the obligatory visit to the “about me” page and found all about Critter’s mom, also known as Alexia. There’s a long list of stuff on that page (she’s done the 100 Things meme) which has just about everything you wanted to know about a person listed, but I’ll leave that up to you to go and read. Needless to say, it gave me enough insight into who is Critter’s mom to continue reading the blog.

The blog itself is well laid out and functional. The layout is fairly typical of a blog with the normal two column deal; content down one side and interesting linky stuff down the other. It’s very easy on the eyes (and you can’t get easier than a light shade of blue on white). Having said that, it’s kind of plain, but I see Critter’s mom as a no mess, no fuss kind of person, so it does reflect the author in a positive way.

Onto the content. If you’re not a parent and/or you hate kids, then this is probably not the blog for you to read. Critter is a cute kid most of the time going by what I read, and he’s got his mom wrapped around his little finger. Mom writes happily about Critter’s adventures but fortunately for us, the readers, we don’t have to sit through entry upon entry upon entry of Critter bits. She does punctuate the blog with interesting links and tidbits that make for good reading. The entries I found most interesting were those with links (she does an Aortal Site of the Week thing) that lead to another site Critter’s mom had found, and her entries on “word of the day” – even though there’s only two of those. I’d love to see more! And, of course you have to love the entries about cute little Critter himself.

All in all, I’d recommend Critter’s Mom to anyone who wants a bit of light, thoughtful reading based around family life. It’s a pleasure to read.Musings of Critter’s Mom