Category: Uncategorized

Hurray, I thought when I finally saw this users profile – after two full minutes of waiting for a response from Modblog’s server.

I say ‘Hurray’, because it’s a fellow South African blog. It’s good to see blogging taking off around the world, and of course that’s why we’re here.

Now that I have established this bloggers nationality, now I have to try and figure out more about them. This in itself is quite a difficult task, as it’s incredibly complex to read, not visually, but grammatically. Lest I begin to sound like my matric English teacher, I move on.

Modblog does allow for some cool features, most of which this blogger is making use of – i.e. the photo gallery, the daily poll comment box, user profile etc. He has also moved away from the standard templates offered by Modblog, by tweaking the html to reflect personal colour choices, some great smoothing effects and many of his own ‘anime’ type images. Very nice.

This blogger is somewhat of an amateur cartoonist, and uses his blog to show some of his work, since I am by no means a cartoonist, I won’t begin to judge his work, other than to say that I don’t get the joke.

Modblog archives previous posts in a different style to most blogging services since they are not filed by date, but by category, and scanning through them – I realise that they make no sense at all, and having tried to click on these links with two different web browsers and having no success, I suggest that this blogger chat to his blog service about this.

I find very little of interest in this blog, but honestly feel were I a 17 yr old boy, part of this bloggers captive audience, and into Anime that I may have thought this blog great. Since there has been some effort on this bloggers part to ‘beautify’ his blog, I feel it deserves a rating of 2.5.Reviewed by a Retard.

The Disenfranchised Curmudgeon has a navy blue Blogspot template of the simplest style. Our author describes himself thusly:

“I am a Christian whose politics do not fit too well with…well, with nearly anyone. I am a Dad, a Computer Programmer, a Lawyer, and a dedicated homebrewer who was born a century too late, yet wouldn’t give up antibiotics in exchange for the wealth of Midas.”

His page has a minimalist approach, with very little in the side bar. Points from me for simplicity. Though I would suggest one thing. That he actually archive his archives. There is a spot for it. It’s empty. Right now, all the entries he has ever written are on one page. Makes for a long scroll. Too long.

He began his blog in December of 2003. He is not a frequent poster, but when he does write, his entries tend to length. And in more recent times, he has garnered a respectable number of commenters. A testimonial in itself. In the comments there are often quite long and detailed discussions between the author and his readers.

Now to the writing style. Our author tackles an impressive array of subjects, political and social. They are rarely light in nature. He describes himself as a disillusioned voter, conflicted, and well, a curmudgeon. The fact that he has decided to abstain from voting in effect sidelined his angst on many levels for me. It’s so easy to criticize when you are not in the game. The old argument that people can’t bring themselves to vote for the “lesser of two evils” grows thin. One runs the risk of getting stuck in the “whiner” category when you do not engage and commit.

I read extensively on this site, and found that he is cynical about American society, but it bothers him that he is cynical. This state of affairs produces overall a rather melancholy tone. While the writing is erudite, it also tends to be a bit convoluted, and occasionally, he forgets what his point was. I found myself at times working very hard to sum up what I had just read, and understand his point.

It is a true art to be able to focus one’s thoughts, and distill them into something laser-like and clear. But I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that he does take on some very weighty subject matter, and manages most of the time to avoid slogans and ranting.

I must indulge a comment on a pet peeve of mine. This author often refers to President Bush as “the shrub”. I find this kind of name calling infantile and distracting. It weakens one’s reasoned arguments to stoop to this kind of junior high mentality. I would be just as annoyed if I was reading Senator Kerry described as “horse face”. If you want to be taken seriously, dump the name calling.

This site would appeal to those who prefer complex arguments and detailed discussion. And I will say that the author is quite willing to engage his readers in said discussions, which are quite interesting to pursue. Curmudgeons aren’t ALL bad you know!

The Disenfranchised Curmudgeon

I read the latest posts of You and Me and Wainbow and noticed, “Hmmm… there’s no punctuation!” (Well, in some places there is and some places there isn’t and the sentences don’t begin with capital letters either) While that is fun to read with oh, let’s say, James Joyce, it’s not so much fun with a blog. Still, I delved deeper, went back into the archives to see whether this was a one-off thing. Nope. Except for the August archives, it pretty much seemed to be the same thing. Which is a shame, because the writing—once you get used to the fact that it’s all one long sentence—is really good: sharp, arcebic and witty. Basically, everything I look for in a well-written blog.

I absolutely loved the picture of a cat streching on the title banner. It sort of made it feel more homely, like, for instance, you were opening someone’s big blue journal, with messy writing and doodles up and down the margins. The “bio” section is a bit intimidating, a picture of a girl’s feet saying,”You don’t deserve to know a thing about me.” Rather menacing, eh? And then she’s got the usual books and music list. I like the movable type design, except, Wainbow, please, get rid of the weather girl box you have becaus eit clashes so much with the rest of the blog.

The writing, as I said before, is very good, and for that, this blog deserves a really high rating. Take this post for instance:

“i like making new friends especially when they are pretty and you have a lot in common and then you start talking and all of a sudden two hours have gone by. i have a new friend who invited me out for brunch it all of a sudden felt so gutsy and like i had just been asked out on a date kind of, people don’t so much ask you out of the blue to do things with them and so it was nice and surprising and then it turned out to also be easy and comfortable too.

also i got a coat with elk antlers on it and it is brown with red stitching and i’m happy with that too”

So often people go overboard in their descriptions so I liked that she kept it to a bare minimum. I could go on copying passages out of her blog to put here, but I really think you should visit it yourself.

You and Me and Wainbows

Initially, I found the site refreshingly simple. Not too many graphics or bells and whistles and no unnecessary features. I figured I would find a blog by someone who was knowledgable in the sport of soccer and someone who tends to keep up with the games and present the highlights as observed by them, and I did indeed find what I expected.

The blog is interesting and was easy to understand. It appears to be well written by someone who thoroughly enjoys the sport. Maybe I’m not that observant but, I still can’t find the name of the author, even in the “About The Author” section. I think the author does have a love for soccer and it shows through his posts.

I think the author is attempting to inform readers about current evens in soccer and present an opinionated view of the sport based on his experience. I do feel however, that there is much to be desired in the area of maintaining the blog. I observed several photos missing while surfing the blog and a desperate need for a graphic logo at the top of the blog. I think the design works for the topic but, it could be “spruced up” a bit to intrigue the reader to continue reading.

Overall, I think this blog is a good read and has plenty of potential for gaining many new readers with a little touch-up to the layout and making sure the photos are working properly.

Soccer Weblog

My initial reaction when the weblog finally loaded was, “Oooh, nice design.” I suppose my joys of finding weblogs that take the time to personalize their little havens on the web will never cease. Yes, the design was a little plain: just black and white, but it was stylishly done. So, with a warm glow in my belly, I began to read.

“Tread softly, lest ye drown in the depths of my insanity” is a personal weblog. It is the writings and thoughts of its author, and it would seem there are a lot of thoughts to catalogue. On the front page is one entry, to read more, you must click on the “recent entries” area, or the “footprints in the sand.” So, I read a few entries and I began to see a similar trend in the author’s writing style: he wrote like he was talking to a specific party of people and I was not privy to that party.

The first entry I read began as an anecdote about some sort of scandal, and provided little or no background information and no links or references to earlier entries. Throughout the whole thing, I was asking myself questions like: What scandal? What website did he get this from? What’s going on?

While this was the worst example, when I read other entries, I got the distinct feeling there was some joke and I was missing it.

All-in-all, the author’s writing isn’t engaging, so it was a difficult read for me. That doesn’t mean he didn’t have good things to say; in fact, some of them were witty and amusing, like pointing out cultural differences between the East Indian culture and the Western culture. However, it’s hard to pick out these little gems hidden amongst the author’s otherwise brisk writing style.Tread softly, lest ye drown in the depths of my insanity