Month: September 2005

When I first read the title of ingrown brain stem I thought this had to be a joke. And sure enough this site is listed in the Humor category. I knew this site was going to be funny, or at least try to be, but what would be the subject of this comedy. We shall find out.

I was really happy to find a site that had a nice clean design. This looks like a template, but then again, what doesn’t these days. The site has a black and white motif going, with the occasional red and it reminded me of a website that won an award for being all black and white back in 1999. One thing I didn’t pick up on right away, but adds even more is the subtle bio-hazard sign behind the blog entries.

The posts are very well written and enjoyable. The author does have a good sense of humor and injects it into his writings. Topics range from a variety of topics which are mainly current events. This lead to it being harder to enjoy all of the archives because for some reason I am not fond on old current events. However, this does mean that I will get a good laugh when I visit it from now on.

My biggest complaint is the archives. CopyGodd (the author) has separated them by category and by date which is a good thing, but they are all presented in a drop down box. Personally I am not a fan of the drop down box as it means more work for me. I prefer the archives to just be a list of links. The drop down box does save space, but this could easily be resolved with a simple javascript hide/show script.

I found this site to be a refreshing site and enjoyed it. I will be back on a semi-regular basis for a little pick me up and I think that is what this site can do best for people. CopyGodd has a good site and hopefully this review will help lead him in his battle with his other site in gaining more visitors.ingrown brain stem

I loved the design of the site. It’s easy to navigate, it’s simple yet catching. Ah yes, and it’s neat too.

I like neat, it means I can find things easily. Like the links to the author’s profile page, his 100 things page, and along the right side of the blog is the sidebar with a bigger portion taken up by a chat box and little links to various webrings underneath.

The initial impressions were more of a mixed feeling for me, I wasn’t quite sure what exactly to expect from this blog as the title “Footsteps in the Mirror” didn’t really give much away, apart from maybe the blog itself being more of a self examination blog than a political, news or group blog.

After reading through a few entry’s I started to like the way Kamigoroshi wrote his entry’s. They were engaging and a bit humorous, yet very revealing in so much as the author cares about what he writes because he is writing about himself.

The entry’s I believe are well thought out, they follow through and do have points to them. Some are a bit obscure, other’s are not, but that might just be my perception. I believe that the purpose of this particular blog is to be the author’s thought catcher, be blogs about personal things more often than not, yet personal isn’t boring for this particular blog. It’s intriguing.

Overall “Footsteps in the Mirror” is a blog that should be checked out, even if it’s just for the template, which I thought was very different and easy to use. The writing style is easy to read and comprehend, the author reflects well and writes well about the various issues, or concepts that he might have.

Definately worth a nose around.
Footsteps in the Mirror

Footsteps in the Mirror. Not quiet sure what to make of this title. Obviously something about self reflection, but what I am not sure. The name didn’t really strike me as something fantastic, though it is original for blogs. Lets see what awaits inside.

The page loads to an impressive design. A nice rounded corners rectangle thing with the main content inside along with a second column of other goodies. The logo at the top says “The Recorded Reflections of a Redefined Reality” so my assumption about self reflection is probably right. The design struck me as something cool and different at first, but that slowly faded away as I read. The problem is the main content is in a div with scroll bars in the center of this great design. And this does not perform as it should in my browser of choice – Safari. I like to be able to hit the spacebar, the page down button, or the down arrow to scroll. None of these options worked which meant I had to click on the scroll bar to get it to scroll. This just became annoying since I had to take time to think about my mouse position and the scrolling rather than being able to read the blog. Think of it as you are reading an article in a magazine, and at the bottom of the page it says continued on page 43. Now that isn’t so bad, but imagine, if on page 43 it said article is on page 23 and on page 23 it says the article is on page 31. You get the idea. It complicated things.

Now the blog itself is lengthy. This is one of the few blogs in recent history that actually has archives dating back to 2003. Not to mention that this author loves to write. Each post is a long and lengthy post. He typically posts about his daily life, what he is feeling, problems, good times, the standard stuff. It is clearly there for him to look back and and reflect upon. It reads like this instead of something for the readers. I didn’t get that feeling of “I am taking a peek at his life”, instead I got the feeling of “I am trespassing while taking a peek at his life”. This was hard to get around, but I managed.

I managed because the author loves to write. And while I would say that more posts have this feeling, some do not. It is these posts that I enjoyed reading. The posts where I felt like I was invited to the party. My favorite post out of all his posts was A Word To All Bloggers. He really captures what I believe is both true and wrong with blogging. Even if you ignore his site, I recommend this post as a read.

Overall I had a hard time getting into this site. As I said, I felt like I wasn’t invited and that just made it boring to me. When I found those posts that seemed open I enjoyed it. The author clearly can write and loves to do it. He is well read and it shows. I am curious if I would have had a more enjoyable time had the design not gotten in the way of me wanting to just read the blog. This site would score higher by me if the design was more free flowing and if the author focused on the posts which are the most open.Footsteps in the Mirror

This particular weblog is the creation of “local NPR commentator on WFPL, published poet, and writer,” Paul McDonald. And while the layout was relatively mundane (one of those Blogger pre-made templates), I was looking forward to reading this weblog. It had all the ingredients to be really interesting.

Unfortunately, I left the weblog with mixed feelings. Although Paul McDonald’s writing experience shows, and his words flow, I found this weblog very difficult to read. First off, many of the entries were in poetry form. While this is certainly an original way to approach writing a weblog entry, I found it tedious. My view is that poetry is poetry, and anecdotes are anecdotes; the latter is better in prose form, and the latter is what makes up a weblog. Secondly, the entries that weren’t in poetry form tended to be a little wordy at times and I sometimes found my attention wandering.

Which is a shame, because it isn’t like “Alleged Gravitas” doesn’t have anything to offer. The subjects of the entries are interesting; usually dealing with current affairs. Maybe “Alleged Gravitas” is aimed toward a certain target audience, but I wasn’t sure if it was aimed for me.Alleged Gravitas

A site submitted as a ‘creative writing’ blog? A first for me. The subtitle of “Alleged Gravitas” is ‘Poems, Essays and General Drivel’ which comes no where near summing up the site. The site grabs you all at once and implores that you read on and read more. The standard blogger template (with black background and white type) is perfect for this blog of understated words and stories that hook you like some sort of fly fishing lure.

Paul McDonald of Louisville, Kentucky writes this blog, but only for a short time it seems. He does have his own web site, but blogging is new for him. He is a local commentator on NPR, and his first post appears to be from mid-December 2004. It is entitled The Revolution will not be televised and is a poem that he obviously felt compelled to post on a blog. My dislike of poetry is infamous among friends, but I so enjoyed reading this pop-culture filled poem–probably the first poem I’ve read all the way through in years.

I would give this blog a perfect score of 5 had it been a bit older and given me more to rave about. As it stands now, this young blog is very high up in my list of great blogs.Alleged Gravitas