Category: Uncategorized

This was not my first stop at ‘Patriot Paradox’; I actually first saw the site a couple of months ago (around the time of the site’s last review), but haven’t visited since then. From the first look, it’s clear that this weblog will center around conservative American politics and values, from the American flag and quote in the header to the suggested reading list to the name of the site itself. This is a blog that immediately suggests it will contain views and opinions from a very specific and very strident viewpoint.

I dug into the ‘About’ page to learn more about the site’s author, Nick. The information is presented in an interview format, and definitely reinforced my first impressions — many of the answers deal with conservative politics, America, Christianity, and the author’s rather strong opinions on those and related topics. Browsing through the archives, I found mostly the same, with occasional posts used by Nick to introduce himself (in the very first entry), discuss his favorite comic characters, and advice regarding RSS technology, for example. But Christian conservative commentary is the order of the day at ‘Patriot Paradox’, and the vast majority of the recent entries deal in some way with American politics, religion, or patriotic themes. If that’s your bag, you’ll find much content of interest within this site.

In terms of design and features, ‘Patriot Paradox’ is fairly standard, with a three-column layout featuring a central region for text framed by areas dedicated to blogrolls, a poll, archive links, ads, and more. Comments, trackbacks, and search features are also enabled and easily accessible. Deserving special mention is an ‘extra’ called ‘King of the Blogs‘, which is a blog contest run separately by Nick, but linked in the sidebar.

To be honest, it’s difficult for me to review a site like ‘Patriot Paradox’. I have little personal interest in politics, find that I have few opinions in common with the author, and am a bit taken aback by the fervent partisanship evident in many of the posts. It’s simply difficult for me to relate to many of the entries personally.

That said, I feel that a good review should reflect how well the author accomplishes his or her mission. Nick certainly gets high marks for consistency and persistence in that regard — there are few surprises here, and my first impressions of the site were echoed throughout the posts I read. I do, however, feel that as a blogger concerned largely with politics, Nick could provide and encourage more discussion and debate over the topics he introduces. I found quite a few entries containing quoted news items and minimal or no personal commentary — I would prefer to see more discourse and individual perspective on the stories, rather than just a catchy title and perhaps a quick one-liner. Nick’s unique viewpoint and opinions show through in the longer, more analytical posts, but these are too few and far between for this type of site, in my opinion.

With Nick’s strong and passionate views, I would have expected a more involved readership (both for and against his point of view, most likely), but I don’t see strong evidence of this in the recent comments on posts concerning current events. I believe that a political, highly partisan weblog such as ‘Patriot Paradox’ would be enhanced by more in-depth and compelling analysis by the author, and a stronger sense of community throughout. Nick seems to be on his way there, but may have a bit further to go. I give ‘Patriot Paradox’ 3 out of 5.Patriot Paradox

A blue head floats rather creepily on the left side of the page as you enter StupidTom’s domain. But at least it’s a smiling head, so I gather the courage to venture further. On his “About Me” page the author has a picture of himself with a little boy on his shoulders. He then proceeds to tell us if you want to know more about him, read what he has written, and that he writes every day. And I see that he has been doing just that since August 2003.

The entries are generally short to moderate in length and have an edginess to them. “Wiseacre” would be a good one word description of our author, but a generally good-natured one, who writes clearly and to the point. Though said points are often profanity laden, they are lighthearted, in a sort of “all male, all the time” style that are not unpleasant to read. He writes about all manner of things going on around him. Work, family, his struggles with mold and technology providers, and his artistic efforts in lawnmowing, and plastic melting. And he does most of this with a generous dose of humor.

He seems to lead a hectic life at a hectic pace but this does not prevent him from occasionally making a profound insight or two. In one entry he was bemoaning how polite casual conversations are unsatisfying so much of the time, and concludes with the following:

“Nobody has time to give anything but the standard replies to the same old questions. That’s sad. So blog on and let me know some Real things about your lives. Everything that someone writes, no matter what it is, tell something about the author.”

I found that I could not have agreed more with this statement.

There are pictures on many of the recent posts that liven up the dialog, and I noticed in the list of blogs he reads daily, a link to Wil Wheaton’s site. I of course felt an instant affinity to Tom because I read Wil too.

All in all, I enjoyed my visit. I think this is a guy’s guy kind of blog and would appeal to a no nonsense male audience.

stupidtom.com

Counting Sheep. When I read the blog name I think of the Serta commercials with the angry sheep crank calling the Serta store…Upon arriving at Counting Sheep, the blog, with its soothing colour palette and pastel graphic I felt the blog was well named. Then I started to read…

It is great as a blog reviewer to arrive at a blog and find an about page. It instantly gives you a frame of reference, instead of poking around all over the site. The blog is written by Jo, with references to her ‘husband’ and their dog, known as ‘the pooper’.
Jo ‘is a fast learning, technically savvy, car loving, book loving, animal loving, blog writing, INFJ, gardener with excellent organizational skills and an innate talent for cooking’. Which after reading her blog seems pretty much bang on.

I enjoyed this reading this blog. You get a good feeling of her emotion as she writes. The entries are all over the map, whatever she comes across in her day could end up in her blog. Here are some things that did: Reflective about the value of prog rock, family, friends, the impending doom of losing her job in November and what she will do instead, the joy of broadband internet, linguistics, Bathroom Etiquette Rules (I love #7), married life with the ‘husband’, shoe farts, gardening, the moral dilemma of homelessness, the BBC, Sheep Radio reviews and she has reluctantly begun doing a few memes.

She cooks in the following styles, French, Italian, Indian, Belgian, English, Thai and is kind enough to share several recipes within her blog, such as
Johnnies (MEAT!) Balls. Yum! Many of her entries turn into cleverly crafted, witty little stories which she shares with a genuine honestly. In another entry it was her candor that won me over. I often found her amusing as well, such as in this jab at the elections: ‘I find listening to Bush and Kerry lying and blathering on the T.V. every night, at no expense to them offensive. Who do I call?’ She takes pleasure in simple things, such as being right. And who doesn’t? The website also has photos, a garden section entitled ‘my green space’ and links galore.

There is much more going on at counting sheep other than merely trying to fall asleep. It is a truthful look at life through the eyes of a witty, honest woman who doesn’t always have the answers and I found this made for engaging reading. This blog’s charm is in its honesty and the author’s sharp wit and occasional feisty spirit. Well worth a visit.
Counting Sheep

The name drew me to review this web log. Something exotic and whimsical. Maybe someone beautiful was behind this title? My first impressions on reaching the site were good. A great banner and a great Emo Philps quote. Unfortunately the two side panels obscure the elucidation on the title.

The design is straight forward, a nice colour scheme, red and cream and easy to read text. As mentioned there are two side panels containing the usual about me, archives, web rings, current lists, a calendar to jump from post to post by date, a category of posts list and assorted links. There were two features I hadn’t encountered before. Web log sponsorship, which I didn’t take up the offer of and a blog with me option which my cat, Mr Clarence did. I think I like that idea, but not enough to incorporate it into my blog.

She has been blogging since November 2000 although the archives here only go back to March 2001. There is a comment facility and she uses a splattering of links all of which are in working order.

Gypsy girl’s writing is full of emotion and she is direct and honest which is uplifting. I’m gonna use some of her own words here: “I’ve been told the only “good” writing comes out of death, desperation, and depression. I don’t entirely agree. I think the best writing comes out of true feelings, regardless of the emotion they spur from. Whether it’s death, happiness, hatred, or love, the expression of emotion through writing is a powerful medium.” There is a lot of that expression across her posts.

Her blog is a straight autobiographical account of her life with her husband and son and their family life together. She also weaves into her stories a couple of friends and an assortment of other sentient beings of varying form. I really enjoyed reading this one. The highlights for me were the romance after she met her hubby, March 2002 through to their wedding in October 2003, a fantastic self-pitying rant sometime in May this year and a fantastic letter to her son real early on. I love this stuff when its real.

They are currently trying for a child and their struggle is communicated in both a heartfelt and amusing tone. Good luck guys.

I was really charmed by Gypsy girl and her tales of burgeoning family life and there is a photo, and she is beautiful. I even agreed with her view on abortion which is something. A real feel good factor and a four out of five.Gypsy Girl

When I first saw the name American Blogger I thought this was going to be about a guy who would be blogging about the war in Iraq. But then I saw that the category he listed was movies instead of politics so I was revealed.

American Blogger is still a very young site being that it just started in April. Additionally the months are not filled with a lot of posts, or more specifically a lot of ranting and raving and general rambling that can be found in a lot of other blogs. Instead the author posts movie reviews, pictures of actresses, and sports information. I was very happy to see that the movie reviews were more than a quick blurb, but also they aren’t long and drawn out giving away every detail of the movie.

The design of the site is a very simple two-column layout like most blogs are now. The header image looks cut off for me on the main page, but works fine for all the archives. This could be some issue with css and the browser I am using (Safari). The other down side to the site is that there is sort of a splash page. It is more of a intro page with links to six different areas of the site, but I still consider it a splash page, and we all should know how I feel about those now (in case you don’t know how I feel, I do not like splash pages).

Back to the weblog itself: when the author does post pictures he is kind enough to send them through some filters and resizing in Photoshop, which is a nice touch. It made me feel like the author actually cared about the content of his site, rather than just throwing random pictures up of actress, sports figures, etc. The only downside I have to the blog is the lack of content. I understand that one cannot possibly see every single movie and write a review about it, but the fact that there are posts about actresses and sports should be able to get enough content for the author.

Overall I thought the concept of American Blogger was a good one and the execution is there too. I do however feel that the content really needs to be kicked up a notch to be really noteworthy. I enjoyed spending my time here and I hope that in time the site improves.American Blogger