Category: Uncategorized

Monoblogue opens to a visually uninteresting background of very fine, closely spaced gray lines with tiny generic fonts. The first entry on the page that day was a small paragraph about an apple computer site, followed by a huge blank space that perhaps is supposed to contain an image, I’m not sure. I searched for some information about the author and found one paragraph:

the author lives in los ángeles and in good company . he was born in 1970 , started reading grown-up books altogether too early and stopped playing with legos a bit late . he is now just a tourist in two cultures •

Okay, that was informative. I began browsing through the most recent entries and encountered a disjointed mix of liberal politics and computer related subjects, along with the occasional, out of left field bit of trivia, such as the link to a site for “Psychiatry for Mishandled Toys”.

Political blogs are so pervasive that in order to stand out, one needs to really do some homework. And in my opinion, this blog does not stand out in any way. I don’t get a sense of the author’s thought processes, only a regurgitation of tired finger pointing slogans that are frankly a dime a thousand these days. If you want to persuade someone who might disagree with you, show me your gut feelings, write about how you have struggled to understand the world from your point of view. Try to convince me with sound reasoning. Don’t just post a link to MoveOn.org and another link to where I can contribute money.

Elsewhere on the page there are links to our author’s family tree which was fairly well done, and a travelogue section with some very nice pictures from Ecuador that is worth taking a look at, and some original line drawings and Photoshop digital art that might be of interest. As far as I can tell, all the entries are from August of this year. There were no older entries that I could find.

Overall, I found this blog rather uninspiring. The entries don’t seem to hang together with any real coherency. Perhaps if the author revealed more of himself in his posts, I could have connected with him. Since this seems to be a very new blog, it is possible our author is casting about trying on different things to see what fits. If he succeeds in finding his style, this blog has potential to improve.

mono[b]logue

What a cool first impression this site makes! I entered in the standard template which is sunny yellow with a hive pattern and a bee at the top, hence the Hunny Hive reference, I suppose. Then I noticed in the sidebar a number of other template choices and, by golly, I clicked on a few. It was one of the neatest things I’ve seen in a while.

It was difficult to find the archives, as she only used the calendar format for them. From all I can tell, her archives only start a month or so back. If you go to the first archived page (August 25, 2004), it seems there were other archives at some point, but she ‘cleaned house’ and now they are gone. Shame, because as it stands now, you know very little about her. She is SweetHunnyB from GA is about all I can muster. What’s with the honey references? Do you just like honey a lot?

And what in the devil is SSOHP? It took me almost 20 minutes to find out that it means “Secret Society of Happy People” and it was buried in a randomly titled post. Yeah, this site is a very happy one. Indeed.

Also in the sidebar, there are a bunch of links to ‘word of the day’ and ‘This Day in History,’ things like that, and she also lists her favorite comic strips (complete with links!). All those SSOH People out there are getting’ happier by the minute. Thank you for brightening their day.

I liked the look of the site, including all the alternate templates, very much. The content may have been a bit too happy for me. I’m no member of the SSOHP after all. For those of you who are, you can’t find a better place to celebrate.

Hunny Hive

When “Incurable Hippie’s Musings and Rants” into my Internet Explorer window, there was absolutely no question about the title of this weblog. The font for the title is massive in size and is by far the first thing that a reader sees. Right away, the author describes herself as a “mad, in debt, feminist, radical, angry, pacifist, warrior, flower-power chick”, though, so that struck a chord with me and almost instantaneously gave me the desire to read more.



The author’s musings and rants fill the six months of archives with enough information to get to know her quite well. Every once in a while, readers will find a post or two where the author has written about a day-trip with a friend to another city or a poem she’s written herself. The majority of the posts throughout the archives are mainly the author’s observations on the world and news around her, instead of things that are happening directly in her life. As with any weblog, readers will also find the obligatory, yet thankfully just occasional, posts containing the results of “What ________ are you?” quizzes.



The author not only can make her sea monkeys come alive, but apparently they live a long time and she considers them pets. On a personal note, this amazed me because my sea monkeys never grew and that’s disappointing, because I already had names for them. This weblog author also shares stories of her hamsters. Normally, pet stories become tiresome, but with hamsters, these aren’t quite the same run-of-the-mill “I Love My Cat” stories that bloggers often abuse.



Located in the United Kingdom, the author only occasionally touches on the political side of things, either in Europe or the events taking place in the United States. She touches on topics in more serious nature, too, like living with a mental disoder or eating and dieting habits, for example.



Visually, the site layout looks to be that of a Blogger template, just slightly altered to the creator’s liking. The title is in a very large font, as previously mentioned. The sidebar on the site is full of typically blogging-type things: the monthly archives, a few of the latest entries, the author’s favorite links, various webrings, etc. Very basic colors of black, white, light gray, and blue are chosen for the site, and these colors are all aesthetically pleasing.



Six months isn’t very long in the wide world of weblogging, but this author has very early on made her weblog appears as one that can be counted on for a variety of topics to be discussed. Since we all know variety is the spice of life, this Incurable Hippie’s Musings and Rants are ones that can enjoyably be read by nearly any random reader.


Incurable Hippie’s Musings and Rants

I took a look at Carlos’ website and blog today, and my first impressions were good. He’s an artist (always a plus in my book) and quite a good one as well. Other than his blog, Carlos features examples of his work, projects he’s finished, and contact information. The website in general has a good design, which is good considering he’s an artist; but I did notice some faults in the design when it was viewed through different browsers. An easy fix, if he chooses to.

Now, on to the blog itself. It’s powered by blogger, and that fact is pretty obvious. But it looks better than a normal blogger template because the design is original. He talks about three subjects in particular: His Faith, Illustrations, and Reuben (his dog).

There are a lot of pictures of Reuben, and the thing that Carlos does with his posts concerning his dog is quite interesting. He transposes thoughts and reflections through his dog Reuben, using him as a catalyst to open up his posts to a more universal context. In plain english: He derives his personal breakthroughs through his dog. It is sort of cute, and since I’ve seen this done personally among my friends who are pet owners, I understood what he was doing and thought it was funny as opposed to weird.

Carlos talks mostly about his faith, and Christianity in general. I think he’s also a seminary student, but I’m not quite sure. As an illustrative artist, he’s quite impressive. And if I didn’t have a brother who was a constant source of artwork, I would probably ask Carlos how much he charges for a portrait.

Wrapping this up, Carlos posts quite a few pictures, which is nice. The content of his posts however, are centered around God for the most part. Readers of his blog probably don’t get the diverse content that has become expected of a blog. But what he does write about, he writes very well and I commend him for it.

In conclusion, I gave Carlos a 3.5 as a score for my review; due to the lack of diverse content and design flaw. But don’t let that be a discouragement. His illustrative art is amazing, and I think his site deserves a good look-see. Good job.Art blog by Carlos Aleman

Am I a lucky reviewer or what? Corgan Dane ROCKS! I’d advise that you get his autograph, now, so we don’t make him late for his date with destiny. This young man is going places! He’s not just toe-dabbling in the prose pond, he’s making a big cannonball leap, and I predict he’ll make a helluva splash.

This is his personal blog: it includes links to 2 previous self-designed websites that are well worth visiting. Watching him evolve as a writer, cartoonist, and designer feels a lot like seeing a behind-the-scenes documentary called Birth of an Author. At the age of 24 he’s already showing a great deal of wit and wisdom, and seems to have something interesting to say about a variety of topics. Even the more mundane semi-rants about school, traffic, and cyberspace seem fresh and entertaining through Corgan’s eyes and words. There is a powerful will to write expressed in everything he does, and he shows a real grasp on the nuances of the English language. He has a knack for side-stepping the pitfalls so many of us bloggers are prone to, such as the serializing of dull events, the aimless aggrandizing and self-conscience soul searches we do to fill up pages. He shows a refreshingly uncynical ability to poke fun at himself and others without whining, or smirking.

His design is a fairly simple blogspot template: easy to read, logical, and grammatically correct. His more experimental efforts are seen on his previous pages, which are easily linked along with other things that amuse or entertain him. He’s also a cartoonist and poet, with examples of all his work very accessible from this blog. He’s kept the main page quite free of anything that might distract from his focus, his writing. There is enough personal information everywhere to get the impression that he’s a pretty cool guy with a very busy life and a real passion for writing.

A few of the standouts in my memory are his recent entries titled American Dream, Winter Species, Internet Crack, and I Just Like Stuff. Each of those writings demonstrate a different facet of his style from introspective to humorous, and very few of his entries bogged down the reader at all. I found myself totally absorbed in his pages, following every single link and even reading all the poetry he’s written for a college class. He plans to write his second novel in November during the National Novel Writers Month and I plan to read it as he blogs it… this is a guy with ambition!

I believe that with just a bit more seasoning we’ll be seeing Corgan Dane on the New York Times Bestsellers list and I’m looking forward to reading and hearing a lot more from him. “Bob-On” Mr. Dane, may I have your autograph on this napkin please?The Annoyances, Grievances, and Misc. Happiness of Corgan Dane