Category: Uncategorized

I’m not sure about the title of this blog… Guilty Secret seems to imply that something is being hidden from someone. Our author is incredibly forthright and open about her entire life here, and keeps little short of nothing secret from the reader. And my guess is, the blog itself is secret from her long-time boyfriend but the content within is material I’m sure she’s gone over with him a million, billion times.

The blog is a fairly young piece of writing, having started just this summer. The content is extensive, as our author writes without ceasing and has a lot to say. The look and feel of the blog is very clean, white background, black text, easy navigation. The only complain that I have is that there are no “jumps” to cut the incredibly long entries down and display a simple stub for the reader to click upon to visit the rest of the article. The entries are very long and detailed, and scrolling becomes the rule rather than the exception.

Our young author is based in England, maintains her first name anonymity throughout the blogspot-based blog. She refers to her boyfriend as “Baddie.” She is 23, he is 28. She is madly in love… he says he loves her, but… it seems that he likes things the way they are. She wants to be married, and wants him to commit to her, to their life, to their relationship. But he just doesn’t seem like he’s wanting the same things.

They’ve been together for about five years, and to me, it sounds like she wants him to crap or get off of the proverbial pot, if you know what I mean. Which brings them to couple’s counseling.

I found the blog compelling to a point, and then got to a place where I wanted to yell at her and at him. I am not sure our author is actually in love with her boyfriend. I think she’s in love with the IDEA of being in love, and the prospects of being in a long term committed relationship. And he is obviously in love with taking drugs and his own personal lifestyle…

She pours her heart and soul out, but I get the impression that she should take a really good look at her own age (23) and her own life, her dreams of working overseas (was going to Spain before University, didn’t go because of a job opportunity; might come to the USA to work for a while, he seems like he isn’t interested in HER life choices but wants to live where HE wants — LA or NYC, and isn’t too committed to the idea of … anything).

Our author is very adept at looking at other relationships and seeing the flaws in them, especially those of her siblings, which she refers to by number. In a recent entry she discusses a situation with her brother where he states his girlfriend wants him to choose her or choose the drugs, and he won’t drop the drugs… she’s very good at point out what other people should do, but really needs to DO something with her own life.

And when just about every entry has a “category” of “drug taking” it becomes obvious that there are serious problems in the lives of the people she’s surrounding herself with. She herself walks away when Baddie involves himself with “jubes” and other drugs… but nothing changes, and I get the feeling it just won’t.

She’s very young, very smart, and should really learn to love herself and live her life without stagnating in a relationship that is after five years obviously a co-dependent mess. I’m psychologist, but at 23 you shouldn’t have to be going to a therapist to try and fix your relationship. That’s for 43. 23 is for living. I hope she gets to do some before finding herself pregnant and miserable with two other children at 30. I don’t feel compelled to revisit this journal. The writing is decent, but after reading the entire thing, I’m hoping that changes take place in both of their lives. I wish her the best.NULL

I figured out that iT Right Say would be an IT blog right away. It just seemed like the perfect name for an IT type blog.

Unfortunately all I can gather from itrightsay is that there is no real purpose behind it. The posts are just the technical details of any item they can find. And as such I can only assume that the purpose of this blog is to generate income from all the google ads.

This is not worth reading or even looking at. Don’t waste your time.NULL

Thanks to my typical habit of going back to the very first entry of a site when I review it, I was able to immediately find out the purpose behind this blog. To quote one of the authors of this two-writer blog: “The purpose for this blog is to inform you the reader how we as Christians have allowed Satan to distort our understanding of these institutions and how we can seek God’s face to reclaim them as tools for building His kingdom.”

The Two Institutions Mike Hall (the author of the previous quote) mentions are Family and Church, and their the basis of this blog that’s been up and running since April of this year. The authors average about a dozen lengthy posts a month on this topic, which often feature links or quotes that back up the general idea of the a particular point. I kept getting tripped up by the “Read More” links at the bottom of each entry, because there was never anything additional to read when clicking on it in each entry.

The layout looks like a typical Blogger-style design, even though it’s hosted on its own domain. It’s a two-column layout, with the bigger of the two columns containing the blog entries. The sidebar, like nearly every other blog in the world, is full of archive links, other blogs, bible study tools, and other various external websites the authors wanted to share.

Blogs like Two Institutions are tricky to review. Not everyone will agree with what’s being written and some will have very adverse opinions about each topic. Both of those phrases describe my feelings towards this blog. Posts with subjects like “Bad Girls Come From Bad Dad’s” (punctuation not altered from text on blog) did nothing but infuriate me and assure me that the Constitution lists “freedom of religion” for a reason.

The 3.5 rating isn’t because I disagreed with the content of the site, but because the site is just better than average. It doesn’t engage readers, but informs them. This blog has the potential to involve random readers that might come across it on accident, but the entries, in my opinion, take on too much of a lecturing tone to encourage any feedback.NULL

Ian is from Malta, and is a skilled graphics and web designer. In addition, he is a superb photographer and world traveler. The aptly titled “Ian’s Travels” is a photojournal/blog outlining his recent trips to places like Sicily, Cambodia, Tanzania and Morocco.

The site is slick and verygood looking. The navigation in the top bar and side bar is flash driven, and the slideshows are Flickr-based (I presume from the pink and blue dancing circles on the loading photo screen).

The site is refreshing to behold after looking at countless blogs built with blogging tools instead of sites built the old-fashioned, hand-designed way of yore. Ian has a great eye for layout and user interface and this comes from the vocational information outlined on his About me page..

The bulk of the site is photography-driven, and his photography is quite stellar. I spent an hour just walking through his overviews, Sicily, the stunt photography… everything. But here is my criticism: With photoblogs, there is something lacking. Supporting narrative or simple captioning so we know what we’re looking at or what Ian was experiencing during his trips.

I know a picture can say a thousand words, but a few more words flowing from the hand of the artist himself would augment the site in wonderful ways. I think for example of a recently weblog reviewed photo blog by Massachusetts based photographer Tom Sheehan (see http://www.theweblogreview.com/review/3374/ for the review and link to his site) who photographs locations mostly within his own neighborhood, but explains why he framed a particular picture the way he did, or what drew him to the spot to photograph.

In Ian’s News section, there are a handful of short articles, including a nice “to do” list that really gives an idea of where he wants to head in life. The About me page is very informative but talks more about his vocational life than his passion for travel and photography.

I enjoyed my visit here, but left feeling like I didn’t get the “full picture,” to throw out a bad pun. I would love to hear more from Ian… in addition to seeing where his eyes fall across the vast landscapes of this world.

I am giving the site a 2.75 rating for right now, because it is a very young blog, and I think Ian shows a lot of promise. Perhaps a re-review in a year, with some more content and some more narrative will boost that rating.

NULL

I’ve never been an avid reader of Consumer Reports; I figure if I buy something and it ends up being a piece of junk, that’s my loss. But when it comes to buy toys, supplies, or even food for my dog, I do as much research as I can, because he can’t really tell me what he thinks about it. As foolish as it might sound to non-pet owners, I think anyone that finds themselves as attached to their pet as I am will find the Petsumer Report Blog a valuable tool.

The site is still relatively new, having less than half a dozen posts so far. As long as the author, who seems very devoted to the issue she’s blogging about, keeps things rolling with this site, it definitely has the potential not only become more popular, but help pet owners everywhere make better decisions on what to buy or feed their pets.

Susan, the author of the site, has worked in the pet industry for over 20 years, according to the brief about section on the site. She’s an accomplished dog trainer and author, giving her the perfect background and wonderful credibility to publish a site like this.

The layout is one of the standard Typepad layouts, which makes since considering that’s where it’s hosted. There aren’t many added bells and whistles to the site, and while the minimalistic look is good at times, I think a site like this could benefit from other links, product recommendations, or something along those lines to enhance the different information in each post.

Petsumer Report is clearly a very helpful site. The author mentions having sent out a press release and already being contacted by PBS. In order for the site to be a big hit in the blog world, though, it’s going to need to stick around a bit more. As long as the staying power is strong for the site, Petsumer Report will easily become a well-respected place of information for pet-owners everywhere.
NULL