Month: March 2005

I just loved the title of this blog. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but the name definitely hooked me. The first entry I read made my mouth water. Things were looking up.

The blog is about the daily life of a “Brit in Malaysia”. His entries are self-proclaimed “inane ramblings” that I’m sure everyone will find interesting. The author, ShaolinTiger, is a 20-something geek living in Malaysia working in Computer Security. He says that he is a “professional penetrator. His entries are very entertaining, witty and smart. He talks not only about the controversies involving his current home but also about the random light-hearted topics we all enjoy. He sprinkles a lot of pictures here and there which makes his website quite an eye-candy, in my opinion, anyway.

The layout is the generic one. Colors here and there, links on the side, archives underneath… the usual. However, this site does have a kick-ass banner. It’s red and white and really cool.

Overall, I suggest to everyone to give it a visit. The entries are very interesting and, I have to say, quite gripping. Learn about the most recent news concerning our author’s world and his takes on them. It’s really not a wasted visit.NULL

At first glance this site’s structure is simple, simple headings, simple layout, simple design. I expected to find posts about the trials and tribulations of being a father, and that’s exactly what I did find.

The posts on this blog are pretty straight forward, nothing too deep, just basic information about the every day life of a father. I did find some of the posts entertaining but most of them resembled each other so the uniqueness was a bit lacking. I did like that he seems to post a lot of pictures of his kids and the events he’s describing, it allows you to become more familiar with the author.

I liked the design of the blog. It’s a simple frame web page with the links across the top so it makes it easy to find archives, links, and extras. The basic design supports the content of the blog, simple design, simple posts.

One of the extra features I did like was a provided link for some extra blog tools. The author provides some really great ideas to fellow bloggers and easy access to obtain them.

Although this blog didn’t explode off the page with creativity or thought-provoking content, I did like reading the posts. I’d recommend this site to other parents especially fathers who can relate.NULL

Inconsistency – that’s the first word I have that describes the weblog simply titled “poetry…” The sites is updated very sporadically. The archives list includes only seven months of archives that begin in December 2002 and end in July 2005. Each month, there’s never more than just a few poems that have been posted. All together, there are 15 posts. It’s definitely not enough to keep readers coming back unless they know the author on a personal level.

According to the Blogger profile linked on this site, the author is Abhinav Shankar, a 22-year-old research analyst from India. He lists a few interests, but other than that, this is all we learn about the person behind this poetry.

My main reason for not scoring this weblog any higher is simple. I wasn’t sure if the poems were written by Abhinav or if they were just poems he likes. Some entries are listed with the author of the poem, and others are not. Maybe it’s safe to assume that the unaccredited poems are written by the author of this weblog, but everyone knows what happens when you assume.

The poetry itself, as infrequent as it is, flows very nicely. The author uses a good amount of personal emotion, which allows readers to somewhat see into the author’s life. He tries different formats of poetry, which also lets readers know that, as a poet, Abhinav is certainly open to new things and not afraid to try something different than what he’s used to doing.

The layout is a Blogger template. Not a surprise since the site is hosted at Blogspot.com. It doesn’t take away from the site, nor does it add anything special to it.

I felt like this site lacked a little bit of everything. There’s no consistency in posting, there’s no way for a reader to feel a personal connection with the author. If the author’s goal is to keep people coming back on a regular basis, one of those two things needs to start happening. If the author’s intension it just to have a place to post his poetry, so he can go back and read it from time to time, then I suppose he has accomplished that goal.
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When I stared my own weblog in 1999, I didn’t know of any people other than complete computer nerds that would actually be in to that type of thing. Now, six years later, everyone has hopped on the blogging train – even businesses. I guess it should have come to no surprise that a weblog like the Commercial Real Estate Loans Blog would have been submitted for review.

For starters, I should preface the rest of this review by saying I have no experience and barely any knowledge when dealing with commercial real estate loans. That being said, I think the majority of folks that might randomly stumble upon this weblog will have the same type of background on the subject matter as I do.

Aesthetically, the site looks just fine. It’s hosted by TypePad, using a generic template that’s available for anyone using this same blogging tool. It was slightly customized using a stock image of a Mark Wahlberg-looking type fella, who I’m sure is related to the Commercial Real Estate Loan business to some degree…

The site has a huge number of convenient add-ons for readers. Plenty of RSS feeds, categorized archives, and other commercial loan publications and resources. There’s a small “About” section, which just gives a brief biographical paragraph about Pacific Security Capital, the parent company behind this weblog.

The different posts are hard to follow for neophytes in the commercial loan business, like me. However, they’re very well written and I’m sure strike a solid chord with those following this line of business. A lot of the posts give information on different panels or presentations that are sponsored by Pacific Security Capital. It doesn’t seem as much like an advertisement for this company, but more like a place to notify those interested in these informative events.

Will I visit this weblog again? It’s very doubtful. Would I visit this weblog again if I was following the commercial loan business and happened to be looking for a loan company with “expertise in real estate capital markets”? Absolutely. This is a weblog that will fit only into one niche, but it does a fine job of doing that.
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When I first thought on the name of Barbed Wire Love I wasn’t quiet sure what to expect. Part of me thought it might be a blog about a person growing up, but that didn’t seem right. I played with the idea that Barbed Wire could just be replacing the word tough, but that didn’t seem right either. So without a clue as to what was going to be read I went in.

The first thing I noticed was the design of the blog. A nice simple graphic on the left of a person falling with wings. The graphic also housed some links at the bottom and then the text was to the right of this. I was thinking this layout was very clean when I noticed that my mouse had been changed to crosshairs. I am not sure why this is done, but it doesn’t add anything and just makes it harder for me to find my mouse when I need it. Clicking on the links reveals that each section is hidden and is using javascript to hide/show the content. This is a bad use of this script. There is no reason to force it all onto one page load, especially when the blog itself gets longer. Additionally where the text is longer than image, we get scroll bars in a div tag and I have to use my mouse and click on the down arrow as all the other methods of scrolling are disabled with this. I hate it when the author takes navigation away from me.

The blog itself is not quiet a blog. The site is designed to help the author actually finish his book. He is posting one chapter at a time to focus on just that chapter and will use the comments left to make improvements. Not a bad idea, except he doesn’t say if he changes things or not. Additionally I expect the author to at least respond to comments left, but nope we don’t get that. As of writing this review there is only one chapter and the preblog (nice pun on words there). The story itself is engaging, but is not quiet a blog.

Overall I think the author is not reaching his full potential with this idea he has. The design hinders my ability to actually read the story, which is not good from a design point of view. Imagine if a publisher was given the print out of the book and it was printed on 2inch by 3 inch paper for the entire thing? I think with a little bit of design tweaking and acknowledging the readers input (which is something the author wants) the goals of the site will be met. If the author decides to only listen to one thing I have said, I hope he fixes the design so that readers can just sit back and relax while reading the story.barbedwirelove