Category: Uncategorized

The title of this site is in white projected on a cherry red background at the top of the page. I had to resize my browser window to view this site. The header just below describes the author in terms that, while intriguing, are relatively vague (anarchist mystic?) This had my attention, and, as I read on, key words like fascism clued me into this site being relatively political in nature. Reading on, I found this assumption to be mostly correct.

There are as many blogs as there are political slants, and, by definition, most blogs have a political slant. The liberal anti-Bush blog has almost become cliche. However, a few entries into this blog, and the author was already quite dear to me. Often online one finds people who, while very vocal, have no idea what they’re professing. Here is an obviously very educated and knowledgeable guy writing about the issues he cares about. While this is far from being a traditional links-to-news blog, he often responds to articles or posts by other people with intelligence and politeness. The main subject of this blog seems to be the Bush administration’s policies

The blog has apparently only existed for two weeks, but in those two weeks we have a huge volume of posts. If the author can keep up this level of involvement into the future, this blog is sure to be a success. In addition to the blog, the site features a catalogue of the author’s adventures- trips to semi-exotic locations with lots of great pictures, some of glittering stars hanging from the sky. Visit this section for the view. The author is also an anger-management counselor, and his blog links to his professional site.

As mentioned earlier, however, the site design is less than perfect. A defect in IE forced me to resize my browser to view the page properly. The author acknowledges this on the page, stating “IE is busted.” While he may be correct about IE’s flaw, not accommodating for users surfing with it is alienating to potential readers. I recommend he try for inclusive approach to browser differences in order to reach a wider audience. Also, on the larger pages, the right navigational column is shoved to the bottom of the page.

Without a doubt, however, Elderbear has here a more than sturdy politically-charged blog that has dexterously avoided many of the pitfalls of it’s genre. A worthwhile read for inquisitive surfers willing to tolerate a few design errors.Elderbear’s Den

My initial reaction to this site is the pink. Very rarely do you see a pink on a blog when it’s not some godawful bright pink. I see the pink ribbon and it immediately brings to mind breast cancer support. Good thing I paid attention to that little detail too, because it seems this blog is one woman’s struggle from finding out that she has a lump to getting treatment.

The blog itself if very touching and emotional. I, personally, have been fortunate enough to not have had a family member get breast cancer, so this is an entirely new experience. The entries aren’t filled with grief and woe-is-me’s, it’s actually filled with real emotion about the anticipation of the results of the various tests. I can’t help but feel compelled to read every entry from start to finish to read and understand the struggle that it must be for the author. Even the short entries leave you wondering how you’d handle a similar situation.



I’ve read themed blogs before, y’know the kind, where people write about a certain subject or experience. I have to say that this is one of the better of the themed blogs. The author writes from her heart and it’s evident as you see her struggle with how to tell her mom and sister. Her worries about what may or may not happen. The strength she gains from the few readers who leave her kind notes, and the support she gets from family and friends.



The design of the blog is done well. My only complaint is that the links are a very light pink and hard to see, even under the best of lighting. Otherwise the blog flows well.



This blog is compelling, to say the least. I couldn’t help but read through each entry, and felt the pangs of sadness while she was in the hospital awaiting her surgery. The author kept up the writing, even while being admitted into the hospital by means of handwriting her feelings, which were later added to the blog by her daughter. It’s well worth a read for anyone who has had a family member diagnosed with breast cancer or otherwise. It’s an intimate blog about someone’s journey through cancer. What more can be said? I wish the author much luck.Beyond Contestation

The Mermaid Tavern’s name is based on a quote by Keats, which she references in the subtitle to the blog page, which is always nice to see.

One of the first things that I also look for is information about the author, links, and icons that display what groups if any the site belongs to. She has a listing of the most recent posts, and an About Me section that includes such tidbits as her Favorite Carpet Color. There are also links to other sites and an archive listing which only dates back to February of 2004 so this would appear to be a recent addition to the blogosphere.

The posting seem pretty regular with a new entry every day or two. I began reading the posts, and they are a bit funny, though her sense of humor does take a period of adjustment. There are no hyper links to the sources of the headlines and jokes, just postings of them. At the end of one such post, which listed various strange headlines along with the authors one-liners inserted there was a reference to the site from which she evidently garnered the headlines, but again there was no hyper link.

She seems to revel in the fact that her sense of humor eludes some if not most of her readers, including herself.

The site is your typical blogspot, simple and clean and slow. When you initially load the site, don’t be surprised if the side panel takes a few moments to display, it did for me and I am on a high-speed connection at work.

There is not a lot of customization that can really be done with blogspot so there are not a lot of unique things on the site. The side panel has been done in center aligned text which to me looks a tad off. The headers for the sections on the side however are right-aligned which seems to add to the disjointed look. A tried and true method is to right-align the entire right column, thereby separating it from the posts and forcing things to line up cleanly no matter how the site is viewed.

The author should link to the sources she uses in her posts, since this is standard “good manners” in the blogosphere and will help net even more hits to her site once she shows up on someone’s referral listing.

I read through approximately a month of posts and while she is funny in her own way, the site is not meant to be read in a long sitting. The jokes and twists of words become a bit tiresome when reading it for long periods of time.

But the site is funny and represents something unique to the sites that I have seen in the past. She does not discuss anything serious on the site or at least does not handle serious issues seriously. The Mermaid Tavern is like a comic strip; it is fun to read once a day as you check out other things, but don’t try to read it like a book.

If you are looking for lighthearted comments on a huge variety of subjects, The Mermaid Tavern would be a nice stop.

I am giving the site 3.5 stars, the writing is good, but there are a few spelling mistakes that I noticed and the design needs to have some more work put into it. Update the design a little and spruce it up and you could easily have a 4.0 site. The Mermaid Tavern

Patriot Paradox. First and foremost I will say that I did not like this blog, not one iota. Political blogs, especially political blogs written by the Christian/Republican contingent of American society are something that I normally avoid at all costs. Having said that though, for the purpose of this review, I do believe it achieves it’s aim as an informative, patriotic/political blog. I mean, Nick is so patriotic he got married on July 4th! In all seriousness, if you’re into politics of all sorts or if you’re one of the people who are actually paying attention to the American Election these days, then this blog is definitely one for you.

In the hopes of finding out more information about Nick Queen, I hopped on over to his about me page to garner some more personal information. It’s just the basic stuff to be found there, when and where he married, his beliefs, his political stance, the first thing he’ll say to God when he checks in with Saint Peter – stuff like that.

So with my background knowledge in hand, I started reading.

Man, this guy loves his politics. It’s extremely well put-together, I certainly cannot complain about the way Nick argues his topics (apart from the fact that I don’t agree with him on many, many issues). He’s a very intelligent individual who knows how to debate and write a convincing argument for his own beliefs. It’s actually refreshing to read such a site that isn’t all “This is what I think and if you don’t think the same thing as me then you all suck!”. In that, I give Nick props for the way he comes across – which is mostly unobtrusive.

The design of the blog is a well-structured, basic layout with the usual red-white-blue colours that tie in well with the theme. There’s several links to like-themed blogs, sites and causes and on the whole, it’s very easy to read. It makes good use of the “extended entry” codes that flip the rest of the entry out onto the same URL rather than having to go through to the individual page for the entry. It’s very convenient and makes the blog look very neat and tidy.

Just in case you haven’t already caught on, if you’re not politically inclined, you will not enjoy this blog. However, those of you who may be interested to read what a very American man has to say about his country (or rather, the people who run it), then you will probably be in your element – whether or not you agree with Patriot Paradox.Patriot Paradox

I wasn’t sure what to make of the site when it appeared in front of me. I’m not the world’s greatest judge of colour co-ordination but the colour choices didn’t work for me. The name could have meant almost anything; so no clues as to where we were going. Unusually the post at the top of the page was the first. I learned from this that the web log is real new. Less than a month old.

A quick hop over to the about C-I link revealed the purpose of the site. An opinion’s site on the why’s and where fore’s of US politics. The parties are not spinning effectively enough for Mr Salyer and he wishes to set that straight and he has a right to his valid opinion.

At this point it kinda depends on the guy’s savvy as to whether this was gonna work for me. I’m a politics graduate and have done my time reading half baked politicalese. I wasn’t optimistic.

The design is straightforward. The text used is readable, blue on yellow. It has a left side panel which just didn’t fit in my browser (IE6). There are a bunch of links to blog related sites which seem cool. A links page to “insightful” stuff, the aforementioned about C-I page and an archives page which as yet does not contain any archived posts but a categorised list of Scott’s articles. Political, environmental and minutia. The majority of this works. A couple of links to Blogdump and Bloghop didn’t producing a file not found error.

Scott has posted fifteen times in his first month and kept to his political agenda for a couple of weeks before veering off into the world of “cool stuff on the web” and what he calls minutia. Trivia by a different name – and uninteresting trivia at that. The political and environmental posts tend to end prematurely and link to a fuller post on a separate page. I don’t get the reason for this. It makes reading a hassle. I don’t like that back button. He also links from the posts to his articles or small essays on the political and environmental issue du jour. Like I mentioned the guy’s political “savvy” was gonna make or break this for me and unfortunately it doesn’t work. His mission to make a better job of presentation proved impossible. His writing has a mixture of straight academia, vernacular, unsupported opinion and sarcasm. He appears to be politically naïve which is no bad thing, but the site doesn’t do what it says on the tin. It muddles the muddled.

The site makes a liberal use of links and they open in a new window which I like and all work. The down side was a porn pop up. I don’t need this kind of thing in my life thank you.

There is as yet no comment facility.

Eyesight to the blind it isn’t and still pecking it’s way out of the egg. Maybe Scott will go on to thrill and enlighten, but this reader will not be back to find out. I’d give it a 1 out of 5. Here’s hoping things improve.
Common-Insight