Read My Lips - the blog

The New Weblog Showcase Review III

Well after spending almost every free moment over the last couple of days reading every entry in this week's New Weblog Showcase, I have finally completed the reviews. I found a surprising number of the posts drew very high marks this week. I am unsure if it is because some of them were getting a second chance and had learned what it is that impresses me or that I am getting to be a kinder gentler reviewer. What I do know is that what I believe is a developing carpal tunnel syndrome did not assist me all that much in this endeavor, so those of you who actually appreciate the effort I put into this, trying to insure that each and every one of you got at least one vote, feel free to link to this post, to my blog or to add me to your blogroll.

STOP! GO NO FURTHER! READ! Anyone who is offended by my review of their entry, remember I am merely stating my opinions and they may not necessarily be the opinions of any other single person [on this planet, unless they are from Estonia. Additionally, I have been contacted and told that my opinions were officially adopted by an entire alien sub-culture in the Ming Sector and 90% of the species in the Gamma quadrant.]

5.0=exceptional 4.5=excellent; 4.0=great; 3.5=very good; 3.0=good; 2.5=par; 2.0=sub par; 1.5=fair; 1.0=poor; 0.5=tried. ALL RATING IS SUBJECTIVE; Listings within tied ratings are arranged from my most favorite to my least favorite based upon my personal preferences.

5.0~An Unsealed Room: Cherry-Picking in the Golan Heights ~BEST OF SHOW! I was all set to not like this post. From the title I could tell it had something to do with Israel, and almost every time I see a post where anything about Israel is involved, it is from a zealot on one side or the other smashing the other side. Not this time! For the first time in my reviewing all the posts submitted to the New Weblog Showcase, I find that current top vote getter in the contest is also one that I think is among the very best posts in the week's contest. This was a most delightful look at Israel and living in Israel.

5.0~archy: Why do they support this man? ~John makes quite a few claims with regard to the damage the current administration is doing to its own power base. Though not much substantiation was shown for the assertions made, most of the assertions are widely believed by many. I particularly have seen far more evidence than I need to see to substantiate the claims made about the actions of Ashcroft. The writing was superb and the arguments sound. Good showcase of talents and where he stands on the political compass.

5.0~Where We're Bound: Scale of Democracy ~Danny Denny muses about the loss of democracy and whether our current form of government is actually designed to represent the people. He asks some important questions and says maybe we need a major social shift. Although he described his blog as

A lefty geek talks politics, macintosh, and community media

the lefty must be talking about which hand he uses to throw a baseball, because Danny Denny is Libertarian, whether he knows it or not. Well written and thought provoking. [UPDATE: In the comments, Denny denies being Libertarian and claims he is closer to an anarchist or what murray bookchin calls a communalist. as i get older i find that i tend to avoid labeling myself at all.]

5.0~A Blog of His Own: The French Method ~I remembered the title to the blog and recalled it had not drawn very high marks in my review of its last submission to the contest. Upon reviewing my remarks, I saw I had said this:

This guy needs to get his feet wet. I think he has some great potential at becoming a pretty good blogger, but he seems a bit too new at the game to me.

I am unsure if my words in that review were of any concern when Aaron decided to make this post his entry into this week's contest, but it was a great post. It reminded me of this set of audiotapes I got from Walmart with a lot of old radio episodes of "The Shadow," which included the original advertisements. One of the sponsors on several of the episodes was a salt company that gave away $100 watches for the best ideas submitted suggesting ways to use their salt. It surprised me how many of the ideas had to do with using the salt poured into kerosene to clean stuff. Aaron's delightful post was another example of what changes have occurred over the years.

5.0~suburban blight: Rock and Roll ~Kelley is a great story teller and takes us back all the way back to 1989 [when I was already a lawyer, Kelley] when she was young and in a rock and roll band. I noticed DaGoddess had posted the sole comment when I viewed this post. A great story teller in her own right, this recognition should be doubly appreciated by Kelley. Thanks for making me really feel old!

5.0~geographica: Time for a new map of China ~Very well written post about something that will definitely be changing the face of the world. I was not aware of this situation, and thought Mapchic did a good job of delivering the information. Seeing this post made we want to see what else was offered on the blog. This was definitely the best post from those I saw, and it is pretty fair to say that Mapchic is still finding her niche in the Blogosphere. She shows great promise.

5.0~Hi. I'm Black!: Bret Boone on Steroids? ~Glenn presents an interesting viewpoint on steroid use in professional baseball using Brett Boone's last year's statistics to use as evidence to prove his claim that Brett Boone was using steroids to enhance his physical abilities. The argument was solid, but in my opinion, the evidence was not enough to prove his claim. Still, Glenn has great writing skill and is very logical. I was glad he had another chance to enter the contest since, in his first try, he entered too late to garner many votes.

5.0~Across, Beyond, Through: The Prodigal Father ~Revsparker proves once again with this entry that he is a very thought provoking writer. I feel that this post will not draw many links, as it is again filled with a lot of personal insight, but the prose is very well written. As I have previously reviewed an entry from this blogger, I can forecast some consistency in what to expect.

5.0~Obnoxious Fumes : More on Moore ~I thought this was a great post. It references where the blogger got his idea, made his point with passion and that is it. From looking at the masthead on the blog, this is the type of post I would have expected to see. I was unsure who Moore was until the end where if found the reference I needed. As such, I was left with no unanswered questions.

5.0~truck808: rex sits idle ~Much like the blog dealing with dreams from last week, this blog will either interest you or it won't. Robert, or maybe it is robert, has the same dislike for using the CAP key as e.e. cummings of poetry fame, but the writing was great on this post. Will rex every move? One is left wondering. According to the blog description:

robert posts a photo of a truck every day at 8:08pm and shares a story inspired by that truck

I believe he will. I suspect there are a lot of trucks, so robert has a lot of stories left to tell.

5.0~Grammar.police: Lone Star Wars ~A post written about the war between the Republicans and the Democrats in Texas, regarding congressional redistricting, written as if it was a lead-in to another Star Wars movie. Very novel. Great post. According to Kriston, the Republicans are the evil villains, in case you wanted to know.

5.0~Backcountry Conservative: Orrin Hatch: "I write the songs" ~Jeff begins by saying:

The one angle I haven't seen mentioned about the Orrin Hatch story regarding file-sharing is that Hatch would tend to do whatever the recording industry wanted him to do because of his personal ties to the music industry.

I agree that I had not seen anyone suggest or argue that angle before. Interesting post, well written.

4.5~Political News and Analysis: Patriotism Toward Gov't Opposed by Founding Fathers [contest link/broken]~Oh, but for having provided the correct link to the post in the entry form and having used blockquoting to set off those quotes, I would have lovingly given this post BEST OF SHOW honors. Again, a fantastic posting gets demoted on technical merit. It happens. This guy talks like a Libertarian, or at least the selected quotes do.

4.5~Happy Furry Puppy Story Time: Austin Smoking Ban: Consistency is the Green Goblin of Something or Other ~Norbizness has again shown his unique writing style and sense of humor. He added some words that are not actually in the title on the blog into the titling for the contest, but the link works. I wanted to give this posting top marks, but I got thrown with this:

One of my college friends, an ardent objectivist (but also nature boy) at the time, had to reconcile his feelings concerned [ed. Did you mean "concerning"?] the sell-off of Yosemite to Disney with his deep affection for "Atlas Shrugged".

Is this for real? Where is the link? I have not heard that the US was peddling our National Parks? Good stuff here. Regular reading is suggested.

4.5~Collinization: Find Joy In My Suffering! ~OK, I thought this was deserving of the top score, except the first installment was what John had submitted the first time he entered the contest. As such, I felt it only fair to the other entrants to drop him a peg for having done so. However, he added plenty of additional information so that I am able to conclude he has not cheated by doing so. The previously submitted part is actually a necessary explanation to the cause for his horrible ordeal. Also, John is on blog*spot and is not using individual archiving so you have to scroll to get to this post from the link in the entry submission. If John can only continue to get hurt and describe to us the ordeals he goes through in receiving his injuries and then being treated for such, I think we will be coming back to his blog regularly. He shows a very great sense of humor, is very descriptive, and I find his writing to be delightful reading. I suspect that John has the potential to be a best selling author.

4.5~A Frolic of My Own: A day in Washington ~Not the title, but the link works. A day in Washington seemed like an appropriate title, however, as this was basically just a journal entry about what happens in the blogger's life. I checked out the rest of the blog, and that is pretty much what the blog is about, just blurbs about what is happening in the blogger's life. Good writing, although I did leave with some unanswered questions, such as what in the heck is SAIS? But as a showcase of what the blogger has to offer, this was a good post to enter.

4.5~Prometheus 6: Racism or Why They Don't Understand Us ~I actually had a hard time trying to peg where this one fit on the rating scale. I loved the test, I loved what the author had to say, but it really did not have as much to do with racism or why we do not understand them or they understand us, depending on which side of the fence you stand on, as it did about what I am always saying: "Truth is relevant to perception." People see and hear what they want to see and hear, and all of us are very often programmed to see and hear things a certain way by how we grew up. I think this author agrees, and attempts to convince people not to do so. I am just not sure it is possible. I finally decided it was not among the very best posts in this week's contest, but was really close. I checked out several of the other posts on the blog, and the writing is consistently good.

4.5~RyCam.net: Flag Day ~But for the fact that I wanted to take my red pencil out and mark up all the grammatical and spelling mistakes I found, I would have likely made this one BEST OF SHOW! On the titled day, Ryan used the occasion to talk about the flag and how, in his opinion, what it actually stood for was being taken away. Most apropos posting about Flag Day of any I saw on such day in the Blogosphere. Nicely designed blog, though it did take me some time to locate the link to the current page. I suspect this will be a good blog to read on a regular basis, but if I have not said this before, this is the written word, so edit people!

4.5~Metajournalism: Prison Privatization ~This seems like a great blog to read on a regular basis. The post, in itself, was not all that bad, and using a 4 year old story as your reference is not even that bad, but if you are going to dredge up something that is not on the front page of newspapers right now, put more passion into posting about it. I found the story to be a little dry, as if someone was reporting old news and not as if someone was very indignant about the matter. [I did bookmark the last link, however, as I, personally, am interested in reading more about those statistics]

4.0~Musings From The Imperial Senate: Corporate Welfare ~Again, another blogger who needs to edit for grammatical mistakes and typos. Although I was able to discern the general gist of DarthVOB's opinion, it was a bit circular and oblique. Translating great thoughts into written form takes effort and editing. Sometimes hitting the post key is not the last step. Reading what you posted to make sure it makes sense is also part of the game, or at least I believe so.

4.0~Dog of Flanders: You may have read this before: A guide to the successful showcase entry ~Actually, I thought the pointers were quite good. Although this might be a post that will garner a lot of votes, I do not think this kind of post would compel people to see what else they might find on the blog. [Just as these reviews seem to draw people to this blog, but seldom does anyone read much more than the review.] In my opinion, the contest is really more about building readership than collecting links. The dog lost another notch for tiling a large graphic on the background. Such is very distractive. There are several very nice graphics displayed on the right column. A solid background would assist the reader and make the other graphics show up better.

4.0~Cyber :: Ecology: Nasa to spark war with Mars ~or not actually titled as such, but the title used is close enough to assist you in finding it. The link actually works, or did when I went to the site. Serona used some unique humor to draw attention to this post, but actually might have been chastised by one of the heroes of this post, Sandy Moondust, who is described as one who enjoys "correcting grammar." To tell you the truth, I do not mind colloquial spelling, and am not all that sure how to spell "come on" in the colloquial manner. Try as I might, I cannot seem to say it where is would come out as "common." The topic is cute and the post was humorous. However, as I am always pickin' nits, I think this one is a couple of nits from being among the top.

4.0~Not Geniuses: White Wine or Kool-Aid, Mr. Sanger? ~Sorry, but found nothing outstanding to set this post apart from the type of items I routinely find reading blogs. A gentle dissing of a reporter who gently dissed the President. yada, yada. However, I did like the blog design. From what I saw from the postings on the current page, I think this blog would be a good regular read . As I have previously stated, the contest is a SHOWCASE. I expect the best among current postings to be submitted.

4.0~Little Miss Attila: The Mob Squad [entry link - blog home] ~Entry link is to the blog, mine is to the post. When I saw this entry, the first thing I thought of was I wonder if someone calls her "Hunny." OK, sorry about that, I know it was quite punny, and probably not all that funny. I just am not too enthused when the link does not take me to the post and I have to look for it. However, I thought the post was very humorous and fairly well written.

4.0~Brian Flemming's Weblog: Bill Gates to die in New York: Thoughts on the DV revolution ~My first thoughts about this post is what does DV stand for? I suspect it is Digital Video, but it was never made apparent from the reading of this one post. Secondly, I wondered if the point being made could have possibly been said in much fewer words than were used. Thirdly, I wondered if the scenario discussed by Brian was the only alternative, because about halfway through this post I envisioned a cable network completely dedicated to independent, low budget films. What could provide a better showcase to a wide audience than a cable network? His idea was a throwback to the beginnings of the motion picture industry or devising a scheme similar to play productions. As someone who written, directed, starred, edited, and produced my own 20 minute personal pity party movie in a completely self executable Flash player, I have also wondered how to get an audience for my production. Fewer words Brian! You almost lost me about half the way through, seriously!

3.5~The Blog Herald: Blog Herald attacks France again! ~Oh but I could have scored this posting higher. The composition and formatting of this post made it hard to read. Again, an example of a blogger who thinks once the post key is pressed there is no need to worry about what you posted. So many typos and poorly constructed sentences. The topic, had it been better presented, was very interesting.

3.5~The Tears of Things: If I Had Curated The Arizona Biennial '03 ~It is very rare that I do not read all the way through any posts entered in the contest, but I lost interest pretty fast on this one. Regrettably, it is very hard to critique art effectively for readers without showing it, unless you are talking to people who are very familiar with that to which you are referring. I had no idea what or who most of the people discussed were. I am pretty sure that no one outside the Phoenix area cared anything about what was shown in the Arizona Biennial '03. I thought the blogger had great writing skill and definitely showed great intelligence, but from the blog description and this post, I cannot imagine it developing a large readership.

3.5~Tainted Law: Rational Basis ~This post was very close to getting the minimum score, as the first time I hit the link on the contest page, I got a 403 saying I did not have permission to access the post. Then I tried to find it on the blog, running several different phrases from the excerpt on the contest page and was coming up empty. I could find no link to archives on the page. However, as I was checking out another archive link to see if maybe there was something wrong with the URL, the link to the post finally went to the post. Cool! I am almost sure the blogger had a very valid point to make with regard to the way the U. S. Supreme Court reviews cases involving state laws. However, I had a hard time trying to understand exactly what the blogger was trying to say. Was this post over my head? I very well doubt it. As a practicing attorney for more than 15 years, I have read my share of legal opinions, some better written and more understandable than others. Mental concepts are sometimes hard to put into written form, but a good attorney has to know how to do so. If this had been a brief submitted to me and I was on the bench, I would probably have been asking the attorney a lot of questions so as to get some idea what his argument was about. Maybe I was just missing the headnotes.

3.5~Screaming Bean: Tuesday, May 20, 2003 ~Let me see, soon to be a 2L in law school, married and aged 28. I think I was about 33 when I was married and had just finished my first year of Law School, but that was a few years back. I hope Beanie's future fares better than mine did over his next 15 years. Two good things I would like to say about Beanie: He correctly titled his entry and is on blogger and blog*spot with his own design. I actually love spontaneous road trips and thought I was going to hear about a delightful trip. The post did not relate much of interest about the trip except for his buying a Yale Law School T-shirt to wear while attending Cornell Law School. I was not very impressed with this post, and my attempt to find anything of general interest on the blog failed. This is probably a nice blog for friends and family, but I suspect not of much interest to the rest of the Blogosphere at this time.

3.0~MercuryX23's Fantabulous Blog: WMS [contest link - broken] ~Other than not knowing how to put the proper URL into the box where you submit your entry, Mercury has a voice. He/she speaks, and runs sentences on and on and on. Of course, what he/she is actually saying other than proving to be another of the zealots on the left who see nothing good about the other side of the political spectrum, I saw little of merit to this posting. The writing was atrocious and the arguments were without substantiation. This post was just inane castration of the current administration. Zealots bore me, especially ones that cannot support their stances with logic.

2.5~Properwinston: Properwinston [contest link -broken] ~The entry link is dead, so this entry will likely get no votes, except maybe mine. My link will get you close, but you still need to scroll down to Friday, June 13, 2003. I like the bloggers style, especially the letter style endings. However, I found the prose to be confusing in places. I liked the topic and the viewpoint expressed and believe such shows Grant has a keen sense of logic. I think Grant has the makings of a good blogger, but needs to edit his postings a bit more closely.

2.0~Diversions: Treasure of Nimrud ~Renee is a truly new blogger, having only made a few posts so far. Regrettably, Renee needs to develop her blogging skills. Most of this post appeared to have been cut and pasted from the linked stories, without any embellishment, commentary or the use of blockquoting. The topic was intriguing, and I for one do not want Renee to give up on blogging. I see she has found her niche, and there are probably not many bloggers who want to keep us informed about antiquities and such. A blog is your forum and voice. You need to put some of your personality and writing into it. The archiving seems to be set on monthly, so you have to scroll down the page to find this post. Renee, if you read this, do not be offended by my comments. Blogging does not come with instructions. Most of us have little idea what we are doing when we start, and by knowing what it is that you want to share with the world, you are a step ahead of some of us that have been doing it for a much longer period of time. My suggestion: read other blogs, see what other people write and how they present topics. There is a lot of variety. If I wanted to see only what National Geographic had written on a topic, I have National Geographic bookmarked already. If I come to your blog, I want to see what you have to say on the topic. That is not to say you cannot or should not quote portions of stories from other sources, but add something, some comment about what that story means to you, and establish some indications about what part of your posts are yours and what parts come from somewhere else.

0.5~Entre Nous / Musings of a former Belgian: Widespread "involuntary euthanasia" in Belgium ~Where is it? The link provided does not take you to the entered post. I tried on two different occasions to find this post. I could not locate it. Of course, the blog is on blog*spot, so maybe it disappeared. With nothing to review, there is nothing I can say about it. I thought about commenting on one of the other posts, but the one excerpted was the one entered. I even tried a search using several of the phrases from the excerpt through three weeks of archives in an attempt to locate the post.