Month: April 2005

Mark Gamon has a fascinating blog. It’s organized well, not too busy or cluttered, nice color scheme, and features beautiful digital photos (something new he’s just started including). If I had one complaint it would be that the dates of his posts are a bit hidden inside a dark bar/stripe that runs the width of the blog. It’s just a bit off-putting until you get used to it.

Wow. One complaint…can that be it? Yes, indeed. A lot of what Mark writes is very specific to his country, city and the like. Therefore I don’t really understand all of the local references, because I don’t live in the U.K. Honestly, it didn’t matter. He makes up for it with his thought-provoking essays on politics, music, corporations, and general current events in both England and the world.

He’s been writing on his blog since 2003, so there are is an extensive archive. He recently went to Haloscan comments, so all of his old comments seem to have gone away. Pity, because I’m sure there were some great ones. I would recommend this blog for all those in the U.K., whether you agree with his politics or not. It’s a good place to spend some time.markgamon.com

markgammon.com I found quite entertaining. It could be the British humour that reminds me of our home grown quips, or it could just be that some of his entry’s made my lips twitch.

The blog itself is a simple blogspot template, the colours are ones that compliment the blog yet give it a bit of splash. I will admit though, I didn’t go into this blog with a pre-conceived idea of what to expect, because from the name, you just can’t get an idea. What you do come across are pictures, of various things that look lovely as well as little story’s to give them a bit of personality. I like that.

Mark does write well, I’ll give him that much. He’s also very engaging with the reader, there doesn’t seem to be any written error’s, the links along the side of his blog work, the links on his website work as well.

I’d say that Mark’s site is well worth a peek-a-boo at, which is why I’ve given it a 4, it’s well written, it’s amusing & engaging and with lovely pictures to boot! So go check it out, if anything, you might end up with twitching lips like myself!
markgamon.com

I found it funny to find a site that is as busy as this one has a section on ‘web design’ with an article that reads: ‘Cut the clutter and increase the content.’ Yes, there is tons of content. But it is hard to follow, the font sizes jump all over and there are many included ‘off-site’ boxes, such as market watch, google stories etc. etc. These boxes almost never enhance a website’s appearance and the jumbling of fonts and font sizes just make sites look messy and recreational. That having been said… The idea of a family site is rather interesting.

The site is maintained by Carri and Chris Short and (should?) focus on the lives of the Short family. ‘Think of it as a journal designed to be a central location to communicate with others (as opposed to sending out dozens upon dozens of e-mails).’ Sounds like a great idea. I’m sure for the people directly involved this is a great communication tool. The blog contains what you may expect, family trips, photos at Sea World, pets (R.I.P. Sushi) and birthdays.

Unfortunately there is also a lot of content I wasn’t expecting. Most of the content seems news based and has nothing to do with the family at all. The entries are well written and interesting but I fail to see how they fit on the ‘family page’. Some of Chris’ entries are technology oriented. He has written some articles on google (yes there is a ‘family websites’ category on google), linux, as well as entries about Chris’ numerous speeding tickets (tsk, tsk tsk!), some Politics (maybe too much for a ‘family’ blog? Do beheading photos need to be in a ‘family’ blog? Maybe consider two separate blogs here?) and various news related articles. I found there to be more media articles that family articles in the blog, oddly ‘our life’ is mostly not about the family at all.

This site ended up not really being what I was expecting. I was expecting the Short family site to be about the Short family.

There are so many extraneous topics and articles it became difficult to find an entry actually about the family some months. Granted, there is a lot of useful content here such as the Bits & Bytes articles on technology/computers, yummy drink recipes, jokes and a section on the USAF. I was just expecting something different. I think the family section should be separated more distinctly from Chris’ personal entries and interests to make this blog more cohesive. Overall however, in spite of the strange amalgamation of topics, I enjoyed reading this site, I would have preferred it stay on course however. Short Family Web Site – Our Life

“Short Family Web Site – Our Life” is about as generic a name of a blog as you can get. The blog is (as described) about the Short family with Chris posting the majority of the content. It is a very unattractive (white background with blue links and type that is far too large), busy and cluttered (Google ads, some odd menu bar at the top of the page that looks like a pop up ad) template that caused momentary frustration when I first went to the site. How are you expected to find anything with all this stuff going on?

The first post I saw was “Our Life 2004 Year in Review” which was a mish-mash of links to posts written the previous year. Then I began to search the myriad of blue links to find archives or an ‘About Us’ section, which I eventually did find and read through. I think Carri and Chris are in the U.S. Air Force. There are also links to some other non-Short people who obviously have their own blogs and then post to the Short Family blog as well.

If I had one wish for the blogging world it is that blogs would have clear cut explanations as to what they are about and who is putting these opinions out there. This blog is listed as the Short Family blog, but others (not appearing to be Short family members) are posting. Why? Are they in-laws? It’s confusing to say the least.

I did enjoy reading some of Chris’ older posts and felt his pain as he relayed his car break-in(s) and shoulder problems and smiled at the things Santa brought to his kids. It was good to find some personal stuff admidst the sea of blue links and ads. Short Family Web Site – Our Life

Brain Bubbles is an almost daily web journal about a travel agent named Valkyrie, who goes by the nickname Van, and her life in Cape Town, South Africa.

I was immediately intrigued to see that this blog is from South Africa and because of its locale I expected it to be somewhat political, however, it isn’t.

Her posts are personal and like her blog’s title suggests, they are little “brain bubbles” about the things that are going on in her life and her observations.

Recent posts include a heart-wrenching paragraph about her kitty having cat aids and needing to be put to sleep. There are also photos of exotic spa resorts that she is dreaming about visiting one day.

A post from the week before, entitled “Joy and Rapture” reveals that Van just found out that she is 3 weeks pregnant, which should provide interesting fodder for future posts as she goes through the process of having a baby for the first time.

Having never been to South Africa myself, it would have been nice if her posts included some more information and anecdotes about Cape Town life.

Visually the blog is simple but still has some fun features in the left column, including a countdown to her birthday, a world map, weather stats and a Google search bar.

Overall Van’s Brain Bubbles are interesting, short and to the point. Her writing provides insight into her daily life with a unique voice that should entice visitors into reading more than just one post.Brain Bubbles