Blog Reviews by Bloggeries

If you are looking for a personal blog that offers a little tongue in cheek on a whole lot of everything, you may find the Pressing the Flesh Blog a breath of fresh air. This blog offers a running commentary on politics, punditry, pop culture, and propaganada – all sprinkled with a touch of Flesh, which apparently, is suitable for pressing. Not sure exactly what this means, but you will find this blog is definitely of the personal variety, with a very rich personal voice. The blogger, or flesh presser, is a 251 ‘year’ old Pisces male working in the theater industry. You can get a flavor of his most recently pressed flesh through the following bloggeries: Wise words from Molly Ivins, A list of movies I’ll be watching for free, Now I’ll NEVER leave my computer, Hillary can’t win, Obama’s response, Heir to the Hair, Are you experienced? PTF Hearts Russ Feingold, Back from my Retreat, and a Christian Embarrassment. If you can not guess yet, the blog is a political blog with a fresh opinion, and offers the definition of “pressing the flesh” as the shaking of hands and mingling with many people, especially when campaigning for political office, a place for progressives, politics, punditry, propaganda, pop culture, and a palace for those with appoint of view. The author offers a place here where even in the most unsatisfactory exchange, something is exchanged. Now do you get it? You really have to see it for yourself to get the full feel.

Navigation on this blog is fairly straightforward though not the easiest on the eyes. BLoggeries are white text on black background which offers a nice backdrop for the many relevant pictures and videos to stand out. Bloggeries are left marginalized with a right navigation system. In the right navigation bar you will find the About page; ads; Recent Posts menu noted as “Previously Pressed”; and assorted menus for fellow bloggers, ‘ptfners’, muckrakers, and etc. You will also find here the archives menu noted as “Remember When”, search menu for the blog, video clips menu, sponsors menu, and amazons ads. Almost every post contains a relevant picture or video that adds spice to the blog as well. I am not seeing any categories menu at this point, which may help organize the blog a little bit more given its eclectic nature.

I am going to offer this a 2.3/5 for now, as the blog is currently losing marks for all criteria. The appearance really needs some work, I would suggest changing the black background. This makes the pictures stand out and almost take over the blog. With the pictures standing out, the ads are screaming as well.For some blogs I have seen this work, but for this particular one I find it very distracting from the actual content of the blog which is very well written. Because the content is well done, I would suggest more frequent posting as to date, the bloggeries are ranging from every few days to a couple of weeks in between. This is an interesting and fun blog and I think the readers AND the author would benefit from seeing the results of more frequent posting. Navigation marks are straightforward but again I would suggest changing the colors just to make the ads blend in more and navigation within the menus a little easier. Otherwise overall I think this could be a very fun and popular blog if the author spent a little more time with it and made some appearance changes.

-Chrissie

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As the United States works its election year fervor, a political blog for the right wings may catch your attention. The blog is called Danger Management and is known as The Conservative Revolution blog. The blog does not take any subtleties on its right winged approach, and it does so very well. Yu can see this through any of its recent bloggeries: Support the Troops, Is This in our Future (More Democrap), Beginning of Ramadan in Gaza Strip, War of Gog and Magog, Russia’s Super Bomb, John Cornyn Condemns MoveOn.org’s Unpatriotic Statements, John Cornyn US Senator From Texas, Hypocrite!!, Caucus of Corruption, and Jim Ogonowski for US Congress 2007 Special Election. The blog though it comes with an obvious angle, also plays a very diplomatic role in approaching what could be considered sensitive subjects. You can see an example of this in the bloggerie “Support the Troops” where the author says “We recognize that the U.S. involvement in Iraq has divided Americans and that our leaders have made mistakes.”

Danger Management has a very simple navigation system. Bloggeries are black text on white background, and the blog is themed patriotically. The header and right sided navigation bar contains titles and headings in red, and the border for the blog is in blue. Bloggeries are thus left marginalized with a right navigation system. In this navigation system you will see archives going back to November 2006, Recent Posts Menu, a menu called “Resistance Links” which is the most extensive menu in the blog and carries almost all the way down the page, many subscription methods, and advertising information. The blog also has a good amount of relevant pictures that add to the appeal of the bloggeries. What I do not see on the blog that would be very helpful in navigation would be a categories or labels menu despite the fact that each post contained a label. I think a menu like this would make the blog a little easier to navigate. I also think that with a blog as politically charged as this one, an About Page would be extremely useful for the readership to identify with the thought processes that are being offered.

Overall I will go with a 3.5/5 for this one. The blog scores well for navigation, appearance, and athe uniqueness of the content. The content also receives good marks as the writing is very well written and easy to follow even if the reader is not politically motivated. The activity is picking up, though it has been considerably sparse at times. The thing that struck me about this blog was that it has an obvious personal voice, but there was a disconnect between that voice and the reader. An About page would really make a difference as I enjoyed reading the style of the writing and the thoughts offered, but found that disconnect to be a little disheartening. There are also currently no places to offer comments on the blog, and I think that would be a benefit in establishing a connection between the author and the reader. With a blog such as this, opinions are bound to be rampant and the author may benefit from seeing how the readers are acknowledging the writing. Overall however, it is a fairly neat and tidy blog that is well written, and if it maintains its current activity level, it should do very well.

-Chrissie