Category: Uncategorized

I tend to be leery anytime I see a site at Xanga. They structure content so rigidly that it’s hard for me to focus on the entries themselves. I was even more startled when I looked at Jim’s website (linked to from his Xanga profile) and found an apparently live webcam image of Jim with no clothes on. I’m no prude, but it was a bit more than I was expecting – his Xanga page shows him wearing a shirt, after all. Once I recovered from my initial surprise, I realized it’s just another part of Jim’s personality.

I was immediately pleased to see that Jim differentiates between a journal and a weblog – he keeps a LiveJournal site for his diary, and his Xanga site is strictly a blog. But if a blog is supposed to be links to sites, Jim’s got it wrong. He seems to be mixing up his Xanga blog with his MT-powered opinion site, The Naked Leftist Liberal. For that matter, a number of the Xanga posts are about his own sites, as well as his past experiences. It also seemed kind of incongruous to see Jim’s claims that he has one of the oldest sites online – since 1982 – when he admits that he’s still learning HTML and site design. I also found it odd and a bit out-of-timeline, given that the very early web precursor ENQUIRE was first tested in 1980, and CERN’s first hypertext-related proposal was published in 1989. All this kind of made me a bit suspicious of Jim, but he also admits that what he started in 1982 was a BBS (“one of the first BBSs in the world”).

I’m not trying to undermine Jim’s credibility here, but it does feel kind of strange to see a blog that’s mostly about the author’s various experiences with webcams and e-mail viruses. If that were the blog’s purported content, that would be one thing…but then occasionally there are posts about Bush, the war, etc. I read back through a few months of Jim’s entries, and I couldn’t tell how far back I had gone – all of it felt the same. I guess the colors are pretty enough – kind of remind me of my local Redskins, though Jim doesn’t seem to say how he chose them. I do like his opening quote, too, which explains both the nickname for Missouri and the name he’s chosen for his webcams.Jim Howard’s ShowMe

www.thebwit.com is a dedicated site by a dedicated person. Its layout is frequently redesigned, and the webmaster self-checks for originality and, well, dedication. Plus the latest layout features an entire sidebar dedicated to TheBwit’s dedicated exercise routines which is part of his dedicated plan to slim down and tone up. Whew. Now that’s dedication for you.

First, lets get all the bad points out of the way. While this frequent re-vamping of the site’s appearance is good and heightens reader interest, it is a nuisance when you click on the archive links to find out that you can’t read some parts of it because another layout was used when those archived posts were blogged. For example, the current design has a divider between the exercise blog and the main blog, which means the main blog is somewhere in the middle. For older posts, there was no exercise blog and thus the blog was aligned to the left. So now we have a black line running through the text and a huge emerald buddha (current design) obscuring words and being eyesores when we read archived posts in the current layout. Also, there are quite a few sprinklings of misspelled and misused words on TheBwit, which sometimes hinder readability.

Now, on to the good parts. This site features quite a lot of discussions about the blogging world, with comments back and forth by readers and friends of TheBwit. The discussions are usually insightful and illuminating, though sometimes the talk gets a bit too ‘insider-y’ and the casual reader gets lost. Another good point is that TheBwit maintains a nice mix of posts about his personal life and posts about his opinions and views about the world (both real and virtual, with more emphasis on virtual). This way, the reader does not overdose quite that easily. Also, there is a very long list of all the DVDs TheBwit owns on the site. I’m not sure what it’s there for, but it does look mighty impressive sitting there. Perhaps if TheBwit started reviewing movies it would be there to lend some credibility.

In summary, other than the inconvenience caused by template changes, there is nothing wrong with www.thebwit.com. Content-wise, although engaging and informative on a whole, it would appeal more to blogging and programming enthusiasts. For those who want to know what it takes to be a dedicated webmaster (TheBwit runs several sites, including I Own These), head over right now.

TheBwit

An introspective, intelligent, witty and honest read. The author’s personal reflections and observations about what he experiences and what he shares is very intriguing and thought provoking. The Kiwi author seems very down-to-earth and approachable, and so is his writing. “But wait. There’s more!…” His partner in crime, Natalia also contributes to the blog, and is also a stylistic, articulate and enjoyable writer. Wow. My Luck! Another great blog. 🙂

A few excerpts to illustrate:

She writes about some furniture they bought: “As the weasel (who is lying on the rug in front of the TV right now) said yesterday, we finally ordered ourselves a black leather couch/loveseat set, and a very groovy glass coffee table. That was precluded by furniture-store-hopping, and, of course, price-gazing and subsequent jaw-dropping. ” Heh. Been there done that. Isn’t writing at its best when the read can relate by how something has been described? I think so.

Just thought this was funny:

“That’s right, there were absolutely ZERO posts for the month of August 2002. Move along people, nothing to see here”

The “weasel” writes about his former work environment:

“I’d love to be given an opportunity to make major changes within the communications division where I have been working, but it’s a paramilitary organization and everyone is just required to follow orders without question. Fine if you’re a robot or you just want to go to work, meet the requirements, and get your basic salary without any sort of incentive to perform and be recognised for it, but no good if you actually like to use your brains and advance as a result, know what I mean? This is no reflection on the people that work there at all by the way; they aren’t the ones making up the rules.”

The blog focuses on reflections of the days events like most do. ‘Demon’ talks a lot about jobs and the experience of moving to, and the experience of, being in New York, New York and his crime fighting exploits and how cold NY is.

I simply liked this site. It is visually appealing (clean graphics and I love the hieroglyphic tiled background – right click Save Background As…wink), everything worked, the writing (by both authors) was well written and entertaining. The author also cares about Urban Scrawl, the word “re-design” was mentioned no less than 32,347 times. I will be visited US again ‘fer sure. Thanks for sharing.
Urban Scrawl

Ah…another blogspot blog. I wasn’t expecting much when the page started to load. After it finished loading, I looked at the ‘Pete’ in ‘The World According to Pete’, then at the pink background decorated with cute little paw prints and at the peachy, girlish layout with not one but two adorable smiling cats, and expected much much less.

Then I started to read.

Then I wondered: what the hell is such a witty and sarcastic male writer doing with a thirteen-year-old tween site design? A witty and sarcastic AND heterosexual male writer, no less (no offense to certain parties). I suggest an immediate revamping of the site in case the frilly, innocent layout misleads impressionable little girls and boys into reading the blog content and thus suffer from serious mental problems after coming across Pete’s ‘sex life’ and his wacky opinions on the war. Damaging stuff. So that’s 0.5 points off for incongruousness and lack of concern for the wellbeing of minors.

Seriously, now, Pete is a funny guy. The blog was originally submitted under ‘Humor’, but I unilaterally (keyword alert! keyword alert!) changed it to ‘Personal’ because I feel that The World According to Pete is really all about Pete. Heck, the title says it all. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing to write about your personal life, views and opinions and have readers laugh at it, but it sure is good for us readers. When Pete writes, he writes. Long, satisfying entries throughout the blog, with correctly spelled words (there are some misspelled words done on purpose a la ‘Flowers for Algernon’ though), grammatically perfect sentences and neatly separated paragraphs. All that just to make you laugh.

With the main attraction of the blog being his personality, it really is a let down that there is no personal information on Pete. Many bloggers scoff at the idea of doing a Hi-my-name-is-Pete-I-am-29-years-old, but in reality it is helpful for readers not acquianted with the writer. It lets readers know where a writer is coming from when he or she makes a point; whether there are any prejudices or not and so on. A white middle-class American male saying “Bush is an idiot!” is not the same as a young Indonesian saying it. A blog without basic personal information gives the idea that it is meant for friends and relatives only. Readers feel left out and have difficulty understanding posts if there are references to earlier events. On The World According to Pete, the only thing that might give some remote idea about who Pete is is a link titled ‘Pete’s Mug Shot’ – which links you to a JPG file that doesn’t show. Another 0.5 points off for that.

All in all, if you ignore the pink kitties and concentrate on the words, you will derive great pleasure from this blog. More than anything, it is enjoyable to read about Pete’s antics and outlook on life, smoking ‘problems’ and all. For someone who has had a near-death experience and seen God, he’s a reckless, fun fool. The verdict: The World According to Pete is a rollicking, wicked good read. Chances are you will develop a crush on Pete after reading through. Highly recommended.

Semi-related stuff: In the interest of writing an honest review, I have attempted to see what will happen if readers answer Pete’s call of sending him pictures of themselves. So far there has been no reply, and unfortunately (either for him or for readers of TWR) I have to submit this review before dinnertime and thus cannot inform potential readers on the outcome. Do head over and check the site out anyway.The World According to Pete

The great thing about Nessa’s blog is that when you first go there you’re not bombarded with a slew of things that might not be necessary. The blog itself is a good read. It’s always interesting to be able to catch a glimpse of the 100 things that so many people in the blogging world have taken part of. The contents of this blog are actually quite interesting. Even in short snippets you get just enough to pique your curiosity and you’ll find yourself wandering through clicking links that say “idiot son of an a**hole.” Through Nessa’s links you’ll find a lot of other really interesting things, besides the fact that she recently got accepted into graduate school, are planning a wedding and had a degree in zoology.

The blog itself was very interesting. The entries that are meant to be funny are. The entries that are supposed to convey the fact that the author is irritated, do just that, but not in the harsh ways that some blogs go. She’s not all profanities. Actually, for the casual reader you might have a better time understanding if you have a dictionary on hand, because this girl’s edumacation shows through fully… trust me, it’s a huge breath of fresh air. But she doesn’t use her higher education to throw the reader off; it’s used to almost emphasize her point. Other times you get a peek into what’s going on in her real life, troubles with roommates back almost a year ago. As you read about the joys of having found the love of her life, you feel almost as though you’re watching a movie through words.

The design of the blog works. It’s not overly extravagant with heavy graphics (there aren’t any at all) so the load time is pretty quick. The colors work well together, but it’s very simple. The text is unchangeable, you can’t make the font bigger or smaller for personal preferences, but that’s just small potatoes. The design could probably use some sprucing up, but then again, its simplicity gives the blog a different feel.

There are a lot of good links from this blog, though a lot of the older links in the archives either don’t exist or are no longer there. But maybe it’s my own fault for trying to go back that far and actually finding I wanted to read those articles. She allows the reader to write to her via email (brave soul that she is), and her blog offers ways of commenting. Some of the links to things like pictures, or other things housed on her school account no longer exist, so it’s sad not to be able to look at pictures and other information she’s come up with.

Overall the blog is your average blog. There’s nothing overly exciting, but nothing overly boring either. It was interesting to spend a bit of time in getting to know the reader and I’m sure that there are plenty of people out there who find planning a wedding interesting. I, however, don’t know what that part of life I like, so I found myself seeking out other entries that weren’t wedding related. The blog itself is very well written and an entertaining read. unapologetics