King of the Blogs

American Warmonger

Challenge:

I have limited time to judge this weekend, so I'll make these crucial rulings quick so they can meet the deadline, whenever that is. First, except for the little blurb about me, I thought this challenge post was quite clever, though it started off a little slow.. but once Jeremy got down to KOS SMASH! he had me rolling. Negatives for allowing that creative instinct to deaden on the vine by swiping my cute little Einstein graphic; balanced out, however, by a flattering photo of Keith Olberman.

4 points.

Site:

First thing, I just about jumped out of my socks at that sudden hit of music, not that it was bad or anything. Anyhow, once I peeled my fingers from between the keys of the keyboard, I found that Jeremy pays astute attention to detail; from the picture that was so carefully cropped so that we couldn't see what was atop his dark-haired pate, to the pseudo quote from Glenn Reynolds (how does that guy manage to say so much about so many people?), to the obsession with llamas, all of the optional goodies are there. But what of the necessities? He's got the blogrolls, the trackbacks (creative monikers in tow), the comments, the mandatory KOTB banner.. even a pretty cool color scheme that lends itself to readability without being too stark.

Additionally, I appreciate the multiple, like dozens or so, trackbacks I've been getting from this site. Not only that, but I've spotted my blog on Jeremy's blogroll.. he's obviously read up on the finer points of buttkissing.

On the negative side, there's not much to gripe about. I've been pretty picky about separations between posts; unfortunately there are none that I can see. Plus, I'd make the music optional instead of letting it rip as soon as someone accesses the site. Nice job.

4 points.

Post:

Wow. Gripping account of where Jeremy was on September 11.. he was in the military, as he describes being on a Navy ship working as a crypto. It kind of gives a good background behind his blog's title, and works in a lot of his principles and beliefs about war, national defense, and current affairs. Very good story, lots of self poured into it.

4.5 points.

Dr. Sanity

Challenge:

There's no need to fear, Underdog is here! I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm hungry for a Baby Ruth bar right about now. She shows she's definitely a Dr., nothing less, by mentioning the names of those I only recognize from the opening credits of Monty Python and the Holy Grail (you know... when the Norwegians take over).

3 points.

Site:

I hope nobody bugs me about the conflict of interest here, but Doc happens to be one of my fellow Watcher's Council members. An elite group, Dr. Sanity has come up with some fantastic posts and won quite a few times of late for the content of her blog. Nevertheless, she puts herself at my mercy this week. Muhahaha and all that.

We're talking plain blog*s--t template, nothing fancy here. Not a whole lot of post separation, and pretty much just the basics. Which is fine, since the posts more than make up for the site's simplicity. This is a very good blogger, folks, but the aesthetics need a bit of a makeover.

3.5 points.

Post:

Dr. Sanity contributed, as I was hoping, one of her very best posts, and a previous Watchers Council winner! Not a whole lot of people can lay claim to having been involved in space exploration, especially something as historic and tragic as the Challenger, but Pat has a pretty intriguing, riveting story to share... and it brings back a lot of vivid memories (I was just a high school student back then). Great article, an obvious fiver.

5 points.

Judgement Day for the King of the Blogs! With last week's winner, Radical Centrist, retaining his crown for three consecutive weeks, he is now officially retired. Therefore this week we have three brand new pretenders competing for the crown.

As usual, I will be judging the blogs in 3-1/2 categories: A challenge question, where each blog author responds to a question presented by the host; a submitted entry where each author provides a post; an overall blog rating where I evaluate each blog overall. The half-point is for extra bonus points.

The Judge

On to the judging ...

THE CHALLENGE QUESTION:

"Assemble a group of bloggers to be a Superhero team. Explain their powers, and who they will be fighting, and why."

American Warmonger GOOD POINTS: That's good. Very good. Excellent post. Great descriptions, photographs, details showing clear quality sucking-up knowledge of the judges. BAD POINTS: Rusty is the retired llama-steed. A little more research would have borne that out. SCORE: 5.00

Dr Sanity
GOOD POINTS: No humility in naming Dr Sanity as the first superhero. That's a good trait to have in a king (or Queen). Good attempts at buttering up the judge (that's me).
BAD POINTS: Explanation of the reason for the post semi-defeats the purpose of the post. Just answer the question and damn the people who don't get it!
SCORE: 4.11

Blue Glow Worm
GOOD POINTS: There are none.
BAD POINTS: No submission.
SCORE: 0

SUBMITTED ENTRIES:

Dr Sanity with Challenger: A Flight Surgeon Remembers
INITIAL REACTION: Wow. All I can say is, "Wow."
GOOD POINTS: Very personal and very interesting. I was in Florida at that time as well, standing outside in the parking lot of a strip mall, looking up to the sky, watching what was unfolding without completely comprehending. Well written.
BAD POINTS: A little to serious and heavy for a king. And too emotional. Heck, I've lost my buzz now.
SCORE: 3.97

American Warmonger with Reflections of my military past:
INITIAL REACTION: Another "Wow."
GOOD POINTS: Well-written, with just enough humor "or I would have come back rather crusty." Nicely done, if long, way to describe why a blog is named the way it is.
BAD POINTS: Forrestal is spelled wrong -- it's the USS Forrestal (CVA-5).
SCORE: 3.99

Blue Glow Worm
INITIAL REACTION: Apparently, Blue Glow Worm dropped out of the competition before the week was up. Obviously, it was not kingly material. However, I had already started the review process, so it shows up in the judging!
GOOD POINTS: Once again, none.
BAD POINTS: How many times do I have to tell you? There was no submission!
SCORE: -0.28

WHOLE BLOG REVIEW:

Here are some technical things I like to see on a blog:

King of the Blogs javascript thingy in the sidebar
Comments enabled
Permalinks working
E-mail contact info available
Blogger's name/pseudonym prominently displayed
Site search feature enabled
Link to an "About Me" post on the sidebar
Blogroll
Readable font style & size
Readable color scheme (I am a HCI computer design expert)
Divisions between posts clearly marked
Paragraphing in entries (NOT just writing one fat block of text)
LLamas
Overall good use of space vs. content vs. whitespace

American Warmonger
NOTES: Interesting. There is a post at the start of the blog that actually explains the blog and it's layout. I'm not sure how to interpret that. It's good that he explained things, but I'm not sure it's so good that things needed explaining...
GOOD POINTS: All suggested content exists. Unique blogroll with mouseovers to expand the blogrolls -- good use of limited space. Nice, prominent, pair of llamas.
BAD POINTS: Translations to how many languages? I always wondered if people reading blogs in Chinese could actually read the part that says, "Translate to Chinese."
SCORE: 4.88

Dr Sanity:
NOTES: Gaaah! Nothing personal here, but when this page first loaded, there were things all over the place. I usually surf with a browser non-maximized on a 1280x1024 screen -- this gives me lots of real estate, just short of a maximized 800x600. The various sections on the left and the main section jumped back and forth -- one on the right with blanks on the left, then one on the left with blanks on the right. Needs some good fine-tuning with divs and boundary lines, quick!
GOOD POINTS: Content is king, and content is where the focus goes right away. There's nothing wrong with black text on a white background, and it quickly allows the reader to see the content, which is the whole reason for having a blog! Good writing with effective use of white space.
BAD POINTS: Missing most of the suggested items for a blog (listed above). Next time I want to go shopping, I'm headed here -- there's books, Dr. Sanity's book, a tip jar, and other things to buy...not what I'm looking for on a blog site. No llamas.
SCORE: 2.17

Blue Glow Worm
NOTES: Clean layout and quick to load. Text size is a little small small, but individuals can adjust that in their browser (if they know how).
GOOD POINTS: Nice, quick search feature box on the page. I like the mouseover menus at the top of the page. Nice setup of categorized blogrolls. Good contrast, easy to read content with effective blockquote sections.
BAD POINTS: No King of the Blogs thingy. Mouseover items on the top of the page good, but inconsistent. Why do two have drop-down and two do not? Are the other two broken, or do they actually have nothing to drop-down? I can't tell. Why is there a link to HOME on the home page? No "About Me" section that I could find. No llamas.
SCORE: 3.33

BONUS POINTS:

From unabashed bribing, linky-love, and obscure references that actually show the contestants know who the judges and other contestants are.

American Warmonger: +1 for serious suck-up links, including llams and the classic llama song, even if he doesn't have the llama song automatically load when visitng.
Blue Glow Worm: -0.5 for not one single King of Blogs link to me, the Judge. I was linked on the page, but it was through two other blogrolls...
Dr Sanity: +0.5 At least some attempt at the linky-love bribing and appropriate sucking up.

FINAL SCORES:

Well, the Radical Centrist retained his crown last week and has now been retired to the Hall of Kings, wherever that may be, never to be seen again. *ahem*

This week we have two pretenders vying to succeed him on the throne of Blogdom... so with no further delay, the Queen's rulings!

Overall Blog/Design

American Warmonger: Mr. Warmonger - I mean, Jeremy - gives us a very patriotic/military theme, which is not a bad thing. He's consistent with the desert fatigue colors and the red, white and blue throughout, with American flags in the background and a nicely done header graphic centered on the page. The color scheme is easy to read and doesn't annoy me in the least, which is more than I can say about many other blogs I've seen lately. Even my own previous design annoyed me after a while *wink*. Decent - if a little sparse - "about me" information is provided, and a photo. Haloscan comments and trackback - check. Blogger bar searchability, cool. Music playing automatically when the page is opened - boo, hiss!!! At least (unlike our friend The Engineer from last week) this one has a "stop" button. Still, automatically playing music is intrusive and annoying. That said, Jeremy's site has a lot of personality and good technical elements. I'll give it a 4, despite the music.

Dr. Sanity: This is one of the less attractive standard Blogger templates I run across on a regular basis. I know, Harvey's Beloved Wife uses it as well... and I'm hoping she gets some assistance in designing a new look as soon as possible *wink*. Similarly, Dr. Pat gives us some "about me" information, which is better than none, and a photo... Haloscan comments and trackback here as well... Blogger bar search... All in all, good on the technicals, but a bit short on the individual personality. I can't complain too horribly much about Blogger templates, but for a potential future Blogosphere ruler, I hope to see a bit more effort put into the aesthetics. There are blog design companies out there (Web Divas, Elegant Webscapes and Blog Moxie are ones I can think of off the top of my head) that have very reasonable rates to design Blogspot skins or templates - $45 to $55 is not a bad deal. That would be my suggestion for future wanna-be competitors, to provide a unique but polished look to a Blogspot blog. Dr. Sanity gets a 3.5.

Submitted Post

American Warmonger: Obligatory nitpickiness: Something about the phrase "each time it has met with good review" makes no sense - either "a good review" or "good reviews" would be better... "World Trade Center", "White House" and "Pentagon" should probably be capitalized... some typos or wrong word choices here and there, but mostly nothing that detracts from reading this gripping story about 9/11 and its aftermath from Jeremy's point of view. Jeremy wanders off topic for a bit in there, and realizes it - the bit about the President (Clinton I assume) disrespecting the office and causing international embarassment - but for the most part, this is a coherent essay and kept my interest. I'll give American Warmonger a 3.5 for this submitted entry.

Dr. Sanity: More obligatory nitpickiness: The fifth paragraph, there are so many parenthetical comments that one of the sentences ends up being a sentence fragment with a parenthetical comment that never closes... could have used a bit more proofreading there, as well as a few other spots with typos. I am frequently tempted by the parenthetical comment bug as well, and at times I need to force myself to re-read a paragraph and rewrite it to do away with some of the parentheses. It can be done! *wink* As for the post itself, wow. Another gripping story, this time of the Challenger disaster, through the eyes of the NASA flight surgeon who was responsible for the crew and their family. I was absolutely fascinated by Pat's account of that day, and chilled by her description of the internal culture of NASA and its near-refusal to learn from past disasters. A very effective piece, well-written and well-crafted. Dr. Sanity gets a 4.5.

Challenge Post

American Warmonger: Jeremy launches right into his challenge response without the dreaded "this is the question, this is my answer" intro - bravo! In fact, the intro he gave was so subtle that I almost didn't recognize it as being related to the challenge question. I think that's a good thing. A couple-few typos stand out, but like the submitted post, they mostly don't detract from the post itself. Jeremy has included images of his superhero bloggers and their nemeses (is that a word?), the MSM villains. He also starts out by properly sucking up to the judges. Nice job, there. On some individual superhero/villain descriptions it seemed he was losing focus and a bit short on creativity... and frankly, I'm not sure Rush Limbaugh belongs in the ranks of the MSM or the villains - he may be a bit of a blowhard and have a well-publicized drug problem, but talk radio isn't really considered mainstream media by most. Overall Jeremy seems to have come up with a pretty good answer - he covered all the elements of the question, and presented it pretty well. I know it's tough to be "blow-me-away" creative in the presentation in the short amount of time the pretenders have to answer the challenge question, but I'm still hoping for something more one of these days (see my comments on Dr. Sanity's challenge response as well). American Warmonger gets a 4.

Dr. Sanity: Ahh, the dreaded intro. I'm sorry, but I have to knock points off for lack of creativity in the intro here - I should just copy and paste my suggestions from every other time one of the pretenders has used it. "If your regular readers would be so freaked out by a post like this out of the blue, try posting an explanation right before posting the chalenge response indicating what you're up to..." Other than the distinctly non-creative intro, Pat earns points for sucking up to the judges *ding ding ding*... I felt the response was a little lacking, though... it would have been nice to have a villain or three to round out the cast. In fact, speaking of the "cast", wouldn't it have just been really cool and creative to write this challenge response as a script? Or a comic strip? *ahem*... Hey, this challenge question seems kind of familiar, now that I think about it. Pat obviously did a bit of reading the judges' blogs to come up with her response - that's always a plus. Nice "Atlas Shrugged" reference, too. But... I'm left feeling just a bit unsatisfied. Dr. Sanity's challenge response earns a 3.

The Queen's Rulings

American Warmonger: 11.5

Dr. Sanity: 11

American Warmonger: 39
Dr. Sanity: 33.5

American Warmonger 88
Dr Sanity 87

Dr. Sanity 7
American Wamonger 5

American Warmonger: 5
Dr. Sanity: 5

American Warmonger: 44
Dr. Sanity: 38.5

Radical Centrist 38.5
Engineers Log Book 29.5

Engineer's Log Book 15
Radical Centrist 2

None

The Radical Centrist 2
Engineer's Log Book 3

The Radical Centrist 40.5
Engineer's Log Book 32.5

With Harvey away, partying in Florida, I get to be the stand-in judge for the King of the Blogs. Not having any idea what I'm doing, I get to completely make it up as I go along. So I shall.

Well, Ok, I'll start out with the standard boilerplate forms for electing kings, but I'm not going to write only between the lines, and I refuse to print only in black ink! I AM the judge, so I answer to no one! Now I'm wondering how that works with kings...Let the judging commence!
Read more...

The Challenge Question:

"Explain the theory of blogativity."

The Hat-Laden Radical from The Radical Centrist: GOOD POINTS: Very detailed and scientific-sounding. Excellent, unquestionable, unchallengeable, and unprovable logic. Nice addition of "flavors" allowing for complete and total expansion of the theory in the future (sure to require government funding). BAD POINTS: So scientific-sounding that I actually fell asleep before completing the entire read. The fact that I had just finished a 6-pack of beer had nothing to do with that, either. Nothing about llamas anywhere. SCORE: 4.16

J.J. in Q from Unadulterated Arrogance aka Injinuity or something:
GOOD POINTS: Nicely arrogant for a king. Weak, but sufficient sucking up, including nice linky-love.
BAD POINTS: Uh...what? I like the my theories short and to-the-point, but I'm not seeing the point. The strange quote marks appear at the beginning and not the end. Was this intentional, or is the theory open-ended? Also zero mention of llamas.
SCORE: 3.47

Norrin "The Rooster" Radd from Silver Surfer 9090:
GOOD POINTS: Unusual sucking up, but obscure enough to count (extra points for good observation). Nice Chapman reference, I'm still waiting for him to show up and shut this entire silliness down!
BAD POINTS: Despire the various silliness wanderings, never really actually seems to answer the question, other than giving a simple definition. No llamas!
SCORE: 4.55

SUBMITTED ENTRIES:
Unadulterated Arrogance/Injinuity with Automatic Gears - frills but no thrills:
INITIAL REACTION: I have to say that I found this post and read it before I knew this was a submitted post. Good thing I didn't comment on it, or someone would be screaming for a recount. And no, it's not cheating, because I AM the judge. Also, J.J. needs to get some new friends if the ones that he has don't have fun when sleeping with a prostitute -- or at least tell them that they're doing it wrong.
GOOD POINTS: His opionions here are correct, no matter what his "friends" say. Excellent sarcasm applied with the various politically (in)correct statements. Very good uses of the English language.
BAD POINTS: It's just one long run-on paragraph. The writing is good, but there's got to be room to break ideas up into paragraphs to save the reader's eyes. Watch that punctuation -- questions need to end with question marks.
SCORE: 4.26

Silver Surfer (is that one word or two?) 9090 with Hero of the day:
INITIAL REACTION: Do people really still eat cheese sandwiches?
GOOD POINTS: Notes tht he carries around a pocket fisherman everywhere, even in dreams. He did not gut the baby after reeling it in.
BAD POINTS: Kind of wimpy for one who wants to be king. He could have at least been made king for saving some other king's prince-baby or something. Or at least had some gorgeous women congratulating him for being such a hero. It sounds like he wants to be a hero to the press, and I'm not sure that's a good thing.
SCORE: 3.57

The Radical Centrist with Fascinating to watch a "blogswarm" in progress.:
INITIAL REACTION: Hold on, I'm reading various articles that were linked to from the submitted article, and following those articles to articles that are linked to from those articles...
GOOD POINTS: Very interesting read. Also fun to read the details of something that just happened in the blogosphere right after it happened. Very appropriate topic...for a blog, eh?
BAD POINTS: Extremely serious. I mean, there's nothing wrong with a daily dose of reality, especially with such topics as idiots who want American Military troops dead, but there's got to be something a bit light-hearted that could be mentioned. Like llamas.
SCORE: 4.43

WHOLE BLOG REVIEW:
(Mostly stolen from Harvey's Review List)
Here are some technical things I like to see on a blog:

King of the Blogs javascript thingy in the sidebar Comments enabled Permalinks working E-mail contact info available Blogger's name/pseudonym prominently displayed Site search feature enabled Link to an "About Me" post on the sidebar Blogroll Readable font style & size Readable color scheme (I am a HCI computer design expert) Divisions between posts clearly marked Paragraphing in entries (NOT just writing one fat block of text) LLamas Overall good use of space vs. content vs. whitespace

Ingenious Adulterated Arrogance: NOTES: Overall a quick load, but then again, there's not a whole lot to load. Looks like a pretty much boilerplate standard layout, but then again, that sort of layout tends to work well. GOOD POINTS: Only one of the three contestants to actually have a link to me, one of the judges! Good design, no difficulty reading any parts or finding most everything needed to see what's going on. I'm not sure about the tiger picking it's nose with it's tongue as his individual picture, but hey, he's from Qatar. BAD POINTS: Email's there, but you have to dig a little. Strangely enough, there's a link to add HIM to YOUR blogroll, but there's no blogroll of his own. Jinu, here's a tip -- links are the currency of the blogosphere: be generous. I'm confused by the blog title of "Unadulterated Arrogance," but the address including Injinuity (in case you couldn't tell by now). No llamas. SCORE: 4.34

Silding Silverfish 9:
NOTES: Ahhhh! I'm blind! Warn a surfer before they get assaulted by hot, sweaty, naked men! I'll be sure and let Tammi and Machelle know he's there.
GOOD POINTS: Nice touchup to the Blogger setup, including the "Only Punks Visit, and don't leave commments" at the end of every post. Nice integration of pictures into the text, good intelligent writing with appropriate silliness.
BAD POINTS: The blue works well on the black background, but the grey text is a little too dark for me. Got to keep that contrast up -- lighter would be a little more readable. Nice to have archive links, but it's getting long -- perhaps shift to monthly archives now -- I know blogger can do that. Not one llama.
SCORE: 4.89

Grand Central Radio Station:
NOTES: Designed for content, as is the purpose of blogs. Clean, fast load, right to the content without cluttering advertising first.
GOOD POINTS: Good layout and design. Content is clearly king, as it should be. Excellent use of space, white space, and linkage. Nice subtle division between post and day dividing lines.
BAD POINTS: The blocks do not line up -- the post block (with white background) follows all the way to the bottom of the page, but the sidebar (with white background) stops, creating an uneven divider a little over halfway down the page.
SCORE: 4.88

BONUS POINTS:

> From unabashed bribing, linky-love, and obscure references that actually

show the contestants know who the judges and other contestants are.
Radical: -1 for not recognizing there was a substitute judge before posting bribes and links -- and not editing said linky-bribes. Ever.
Silver Surfer: +0.5 for notable observation in sucking up attempts.
Injinuity: +1 for linking to the judges and obscure attempts at arcane flattery integrated into a post.

FINAL SCORES:

The Radical Centrist

Post:

Mr. Centrist's choice for select post in this competition is an accomplished combination of navelgazing, punditry, and frequent updates. I enjoy the instances when bloggers describe a blogging phenomenon and promptly begin to demonstrate that imitation is both the sincerest form of flattery and the most obvious form of exposition. I haven't followed the Eason Jordan affair too terribly closely, but he gives a good overview and analysis of the whole deal.

4 points.

Site:

The only problem I had last time was with the extended entries, which have remained the same. He's vastly increased his biographical information, and blamed the judges for forcing him to include this seemingly
trivial detail (can't blame me, I purposely ignored it). I've got no complaints. Holds steady at...

4 points.

Challenge:

CHOICE QUOTE:

The varying nature of Blogs is thought to be determined by the mix of their constituent particles, dubbed "Quirks". They come in seven "flavors", Left, Right, Upward Gazing, Grounded, Military, Mindless and the most common form, Naval Contemplative. We realize that seven flavors are a lot less than Baskin Robbins but Blogativity is a young theory. Be patient!

Well done! Score another one for the Centrist... a good mix of links, inside jokes, and a little bit of internet history and physics, and you've got one heck of an entertaining post. Now, I don't mean to be selfish, but I sense an absence of the usual suckups and obligatory links. I guess that means he thinks he can win without brownnosing those of us who have his fate in our hands (makes a good game of hot-potato, if
I may add). You know what? He may be right. I did, however, detect a logical flaw. His disdain for the alternative theory of blogativity underestimates the power and speed of the Perl programmer. Shame on him.

5 points.

SilverSurfer9090

Post:

Hmmm... original, I must say. But very creative and unique. Excuse the brevity, I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the image of a baby being pulled up by the pacifier. I admit, this is unlike anything I've read in a blog before.

3.5 points.

Site:

I guess I'll start with the bad news. Why are all the image links broken? I guess I decided to drop by at a bad time, because those blogger images are completely, 100 percent, not there. I knew Blogger had some
nasty tricks hidden up its sleeve, but it's enough to be a distraction.

There's not a whole lot of pizzazz here, just a basic 2-column template with white-on-black. He's got the comments and trackbacks, but where are the archives? Did blogger destroy those, too? The most captivating piece of this blog was the endless cycle of pictures on the Blogfaces ad. There are a number of improvements that seriously need to be made for this blog to be King-worthy, I'm sorry to say. Norrin's got the style and writing talent to make it work, but he's got to find his stylistic niche.

2 points.

Challenge:

CHOICE QUOTE:

In essence, the Theory of Blogativity states "if one blogger knows it, all bloggers will know it, if the information has legs of it's own". Like when I slipped in the shower, breaking my leg. The paramedics were called and later I had to explain why I was in the shower in my mother's dress(It was for Halloween, I swear). It was a difficult time for me, but the rumors about the hamsters were just uncalled for But, through the Theory of Blogativity, and my no-good cousin, the news spread like a wildfire.

I like to think of this challenge answer as the return of Short Attention Span Theatre. Norrin goes from one wildly eccentric topic to another within the context of a single sentence, using some pretty effective (and somewhat disturbing) self-effacing humor in the process. In the span of 6 paragraphs, we learn that Norrin dresses in women's clothing, reads about cats, sports mild retardation, and likes handymen and guys in green uniforms. And how does this relate to the Theory of Blogativity - are we to spread this salacious gossip elsewhere? Anyhow, when the Eagles finally win a Super Bowl, Norrin, maybe there's hope for peace
in the Middle East. Oh yeah.. your post! Loved the oddball nature, humor, and the personal references.

4.5 points.

Unadulterated Arrogance

Post:

What happened? Peering in-between the runon sentences, I see an attempted analysis of automatic vs. manual transmission. I really didn't get into the post, though one small portion struck my attention - "I
digress, but I hate killing animals, killing two legged homos err homo sapiens would be more to my taste." And this means? He'd rather be an equal opportunity murderer? I realize that this is just an analogy, but it's a very disturbing one at that. Also, I note that Jinu mentioned in the same paragraph 'I digress' even though he was on point, and after the apology of sorts, he actually does digress, if for just a brief moment. Reading this post was like traversing a deep, dark jungle with a machete and your trusty chimp Cheetah. It was hard to get through, especially with that monkey on my back (i.e., I drive an automatic and tolerate it).

2.5 points.

Site:

I suppose I should just start calling this competition 'King of the Blogger', since everyone seems now to be a) using it; and b) even worse, sticking to its default templates. Learn some CSS, people! Anyhow, it seems that the broken links to pictures problem is confined to most all blogger users, as Unadulterated Arrogance is having the same problem as Mr. Surfer did with images. This guy Jinu's not afraid to live up to his blog's namessake... he oozes self-confidence and egotism. Jinu doesn't tell us whether he's a native of Qatar or serving in the military from HQ Centcom, but that's irrelevant to his blogworthiness.

It's too bad the opportunity to provide his entries with trackbacks is missing from his posts, though comments are activated and permalinks appear to be in place and working. Though he prominently displays the KOTB banner, he has no blogroll to speak of (I'm assuming, of course, that he thinks in his arrogance that everyone links to him but not vice versa). Archives are intact, there's the handy search feature, and I'm ever appreciative of the recent posts shortcut. Bonus points for cruelly sarcastic disclaimers as well - here's a man who if he ever lived up to his expectations would be a King of the Blogs Dynasty.

4 points.

Challenge:

CHOICE QUOTE:

So when one blogs at the speed of light, you see before you think. As your thought is based on the little voices in your head and since light is faster that sound, you will see before your hear. Hence the mathematical probability of you seeing wrong is 99.63%; for your cognition process would be initiated before the little voices in your head have time to form the right image that you ought to see which results in irrelevance i.e. R=0; in other words relevance becomes zero. Thus the hypothesis is tested successfully and the professor's theory is proven accurately.

I see Jinu has every intention of living up to his blog title, already assuming that he will be crowned before the fact. I like that in a king, though I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the idea that the king knows more than I do, since I'm the one who's standing between him and the throne. His gracious (though blatantly unintended) proppage in the first paragraph shows everyone who the puppetmasters are, however. Is there a related corollary for comment posting?

4 points.

Our first order of business... All Hail the King: Bird, of The Radical Centrist!  (King Bird sounds kinda funny, I get a mental image of Big Bird wearing a paper crown like Burger King used to give out.)

The crowned one was apparently rather surprised
at winning the tournament last week, so we shall see if the shock wore
off in time for him to defend his crown against this week's
pretenders.  On with the judging!

Overall Blog/Design

The Radical Centrist: 
In response to last week's comments, our friend R.C. has added an
"About Me" post, in which we discover that yes, he is male, and he does
go by "Bird" so we can call him that... and a good many other tidbits
that give us a good feel for Bird's perspective and a context for his
writings.  See how easy it is to make me happy?  My other
comment, regarding the banner graphic, I'm not sure if it's possible to
fix - it looks great in Firefox, but the graphic starts to repeat in
IE6.  Since Firefox is my main browser, I'll deal with it. 
Improved from last week's rating - I'll give it a 4.

Unadulterated Arrogance:  Hmmm... methinks I've seen this blogger template before in this competition.  As I said before, to David,

While more interesting than a lot of Blogger templates I've run across
(the little squares are kind of cool), I've got to admit that I'm more
drawn to sites with more personality and punch in their color scheme
and graphics.  This is pleasant in a rather neutral way, and I've seen
worse.  I'm also very fond of the way the quoted text displays - that
gives more interest to the scheme he's chosen.

Unlike
David, Jinu is still using Blogger's comments feature, and does not
have trackback.  A hint we judges like to give all Blogspotters
who haven't discovered it before - try Haloscan for trackback and
comments.  Blogger's comments feature bites.  I absolutely detest the fact that I had to sign up for a Blogger account and start a weblog there in order to comment at some of the blogs I read.  Also unlike David, Jinu does

have a Google search box on his site.  Jinu also has a good "about
me" profile, stated with plenty of attitude as suited for a potential
future monarch.   Unadulterated Arrogance earns a 3.5.

Silver Surfer 9090: 
A nice, simple black background/white text with a splash of color... I
personally am fond of that color scheme, but I do know many folks
(including some of my regular readers) who have issues with white on
black.  Banner graphic gives personality... "About me" information
is good... Comments and trackback from Haloscan, plus Blogger's "e-mail
post" feature.  I do like that option.  No sidebar archive
search, but on a whim I tried the search in the Blogger bar at the top
to discover that it does search the site, so all is well there.  A
couple of picky notes - the sidebar gets a little busy down toward the
bottom (but then, so does my left sidebar, so I can't complain too much
about that)... some of those graphics are just out of proportion, or
distracting.  You do so well with the block of graphics under the
"Links" section, only to annoy me with the huge scrolling
"Blogfaces".  And the "Only Punks Visit, And Don't Leave
Comments!" thing - well... it's very repetitive, coming at the end of
every post... and it's really far too large for the text size on the
rest of the page.  It does stand out, which I
suppose was the point, but it's a mite tacky.  One hint - I'd put
the "e-mail us" links up by the contributors "about me" info, it's a
more logical order.  Otherwise, not too shabby - Silver Surfer
9090 gets a 3.5.

Submitted Post

The Radical Centrist: 
Another well-written effort from Bird this week... This selection from
his menu isn't as meaty and chewy as the last week's political
entry.  It's more of a smooth, creamy, easy-to-read observation
sundae with a cherry on top: a pat on the back for the blogosphere,
about to force another major story into the limelight after having been
ignored by the mainstream media.  In fact, Hubby informed me
tonight that Eason Jordan has resigned from CNN over the brouhaha.  Fabulous job, Bird - I don't see any reason not to rate this a 5.

Unadulterated Arrogance: 
I'm working on the assumption that English is not Jinu's first
language, and I'll be a touch lenient in his case.  However, this
post makes the English Teacher in me stand up and reach for her red pen
to start marking up this essay.  Punctuation and grammar issues
tend to detract from the message a writer is trying to convey, and this
post has a liberal sprinkling of them.  It could be worse. 
I've seen much worse, actually, but I don't want to
think about it right now because I've just finished a nice cup of
frozen yogurt and would rather not make myself nauseous.  One
small writing nitpick: Use of "lol" outside of a chat or IM program
annoys the heck out of me - especially when run into the sentence
without any sort of punctuation.  As for the content, ehh, I just
can't get excited about it (however much I agree with the
premise).  It's not really funny, it's not really all that
engaging.  Taking the language issue into account, I'm giving this
post a 2.5.

Silver Surfer 9090:
Ahh, Norrin.  *shakes head*  Such an opportunist.  I was
amused by the scenario he's cooked up for us here - rescuing a baby
from a well with the least possible effort in order to become a hero
and receive recognition and accolades.   Since I'm being
nitpicky today, I should mention that you really can't "hear a cry in
the distant" since "distant" is an adjective.  It would be like
"hearing a cry in the adjacent".  The distant what? 

</English Teacher>  Otherwise, well-written and imaginative,
humorous, and a great mental image.  Norrin earns a 3.5.

Challenge Post

The Radical Centrist:
<standard gripe>We still have the "Hey, the King of the Blogs
challenge question is this, and here's my answer" intro.  Putting
it in italics doesn't really help.  Really, if your regular
readers are going to be that thrown off by a sudden bit of nonsense,
try putting the explanation in a separate post and linking something in
your response back to it.  If they don't get it, they can follow
the link... or they can just scratch their heads and figure you've lost
your ever-loving mind.</standard gripe>  Without that intro
(ahem), this would be just about perfect.  Bird has presented a
scholarly paper, complete with jabs at The Puppy Blender and Hugh Hewitt, catbloggers,  the Democratic Underground,
and Creationists.  Bird has obviously thought this one through
pretty thoroughly, and it is entertaining as well as very
well-crafted.  I could get into some nitpickiness with spacing,
punctuation and word choice (its vs. it's, rationale vs. rational,
etc.) but overall they are rare and do not detract from the flow of
this challenge response.  If I had to venture a guess, I'd say
Bird has successfully defended his crown.  The Radical Centrist
earns a 5.

Unadulterated Arrogance: 
Jinu's intro is slightly more imaginative (i.e., imagining that he is
already the rightful King of the Blogs), but still earns the standard
gripe.  See above.  According to Jinu, the Theory of
Blogativity is pretty basic - it boils down to "the faster you blog,
the less relevant it is."  I can see that... however, the
presentation didn't wow me (I like creativity in both concept and
packaging), so this challenge response gets a 3.

Silver Surfer 9090:
*The judge's bench erupts in cheers as Norrin launches right into his
response without the standard lame intro*  Oooh, and a
picture.  I like pictures.  And sucking up to the judges - I
like that too.  It'd be even better with links to the judges and
the others that are being addressed - Sherman, for instance, or the one
with the cats.  I don't like having to get the English Teacher back out to gripe about word choice issues (more of the its vs. it's, here vs. hear, when vs. win, etc.) or spacing problems(especially relating to parentheses).  Norrin has taken Nick's

advice (Remember, it's meant to be absurd and off the wall. Think
creatively.) to heart and crafted a very amusing response.  The
mental pictures here are both absurd and off the wall, and
priceless.  A duck!  Ha!  However, as a cohesive
response, it was a bit meandering.  We don't have one definition
of the Theory of Blogativity, but two (Norrin's, and other bloggers'),
and then the statement that there really isn't just one
definition.  I'd have preferred it - as a response to the question
asked - if he'd stuck with one definition... but overall I do like how
it turned out.  Since it made me laugh, I give it a 4.

The Queen's Rulings

The Radical Centrist: 14

Unadulterated Arrogance: 9

Silver Surfer 9090: 11

The Radical Centrist: 39
SilverSurfer9090: 35
Unadulterated Arrogance: 32.5

Unadulterated Arrogance 41
Silver Surfer 9090 13
Radical Centrist 5

Unadulterated Arrogance: 3
Silver Surfer 9090: 2
Radical Centrist: 1

The Radical Centrist: 40
SilverSurfer9090: 37
Unadulterated Arrogance: 35.5

King of the Blogs Tournament: Week 6 Judging

For the last time, all hail King Jon of Personal Trainer - the first of the KotB contestants to retain his crown for three weeks and be retired to the Hall of Kings. Or Elba, or wherever Nick's sticking him.

This week we have three brand new contenders vying for the throne. For some reason, I feel like I'm Carolyn on The Apprentice getting ready for a boardroom smackdown. Wouldn't that be fun? Hmm...

But now, on to the rulings.

Overall Blog/Design

In the Outer: Hmm... Blogger template. My main complaint with standard Blogger templates (as well as standard Typepad ones, among others) is that it lacks the kind of distinctiveness and personality that I like to see for a contender to rule the blogosphere. If The Bloke here wants to make his voice heard, perhaps a little work to distinguish his look from all the others would be a good move. However, as Blogger sites goes, this template is simple, uncluttered and pleasant. The colors are pleasant - I go for blues, greens and purples any day. The sidebar text is a good size with the exception of most of the blogroll/aggregator lists, they're a tad on the eyestrain size, but since the lists themselves are so long, it's not as unbalanced as it could look. Speaking of looking unbalanced, I find myself listing to the right a bit while viewing the page. I'm pretty sure that was intentional - the graphics in the right column are wider than anything in the left column, but I'm not sure how well it works for me. Other than the design stuff, I see we have Haloscan comments and trackback (a plus), searchable archives (another plus), good profile and "50 things about me" info to make us feel like we know a bit about The Bloke. Except his name. But that's OK, I'm semi-anonymous here myself. I can dig that. Overall, In the Outer gets a 4 - I like what I see here.

Radical Centrist: First off, using my mother-in-law's computer and Internet Explorer, the header graphic appears to want to repeat itself just as the main content column begins - looks like a glitch of some sort. Not a huge deal, just a little bit less slick and professional looking than the Radical Centrist here intends. The layout itself is streamlined and easy on the eyes, neutral colors with the only real punch coming from the word "Radical". Comments and trackback enabled, check. No search feature, and no indication of whether this Radical Centrist person is male or female. Except that we know that the Radical Centrist is also Bird from Bird's Eye View, and there's a sketch in the sidebar on that site that leads me to believe that Bird is male. Other than that, we know nothing about R.C. here, and that gives me no context as a reader for his writing. I like to know something about the person I'm reading - age, gender, country of origin, religion, profession, interests, something - so I can understand where the opinions I'm reading are coming from. Never underestimate the importance of an "about me" link. Radical Centrist gets a 3.

Dawn Xiana Moon: I'm intrigued by this - Dawn has set up a blog here that integrates well with her overall website. Everywhere I look here, Dawn's personality and interests shine through. To really be part of the "community" of the blogosphere, I'd make some suggestions - add a blogroll (there are a few blogs included on the "links" page, amidst other sites, but it's not really prominent)... and add trackback capability. As one who reads other blogs and references things I read on them, I like trackback because I can let the other blogger and his/her readers know that I've written something nice about the post elsewhere, or expounded on the idea, or just continued the "conversation" at my place. Not everyone uses it, but it's a good option to give other bloggers. The comments feature amused me - it appears to have been a French-language plug-in aimed at musicians with websites to allow folks to submit comments on a song. Nice adaptation. I'd like to see a search feature for the archives - Google has a piece of code you can snag for free from their website, if need be. Despite the little nagging things that I don't see, what I do see is plenty about Dawn, who she is and what she thinks... and I like it. Randomness gets a 4.

Submitted Post

In the Outer: An excellent essay about Westerners' feelings of cultural superiority and the Biblical concept of showing mercy to the poor. I was impressed with The Bloke's writing - except for one sentence that appears to have missed the grammar proofreading (and kind of surprised me, right in the middle of such a well-written piece) - emphasis is mine:

Perhaps, all these busy activity and speech only serve to camouflage our true state: we are of all cultures, the most unfree and poverty-strickened.

Hmm... Is "strickened" a word? (I don't know about "unfree" either... but I get what you mean.) Otherwise, a fine piece of writing, and thought-provoking to boot. The Bloke's submitted post gets a 4.

Radical Centrist: Beautiful job. This political post is superbly crafted - it lays out the scenario, makes its points well, and stays true to its voice and purpose throughout. R.C. gives us some meat to chew on, prepared by a good chef with a flair for proper seasoning. This submission earns a 5 - aside from a typo or two (I believe Mr. Rivera spells his first name G-E-raldo) I don't see how it could have been done any better.

Dawn Xiana Moon: Deeply personal and moving - I could totally identify with where Dawn was coming from in this post. She expresses herself very well - the writing is fluid and effortless to read. You just can't compare this post with the other two deep and thoughtful entries, because it's meant to touch a different part of the reader. Dawn lets us in to her heart and spirit instead of her mind, and I'm giving it a 5 because it was done so well.

Challenge Post

In the Outer: OK. Another new group of contestants, another reminder: Please, oh please, for the sake of the judges who get realllllly tired of it, try to find a more creative way to introduce your post than "here's the question, here's the response". You can even do a separate post right before the challenge response warning your regular readers that the nonsense that follows is in response to the King of the Blogs tournament challenge question. Or link to the KotB tournament round post that includes the question somewhere early in your response. Or just confuse random passers-by with the response out of nowhere. To the entry... The Bloke presents us with a written draft of his first speech to the masses, complete with strikeouts and rewritten bits. A catchy little approach, and one that amuses me. Gratuitous sucking up to the judges, hosts and commissioner - another plus. Self-linkage to appease Harvey, who likes to see that sort of ego in a pretender to the throne. The one thing that nagged me throughout reading this speech, however - The Bloke seems to think that this is a democratic monarchy - like the voting we allow the masses to participate in is more important than the judges. Now see, support of the masses can put you over the top if the judges have no clear favorite in this tournament - if it's close, it can make the difference - but you must always be careful to appease the judges first and foremost, because of your possible 51 points, 45 of them will be coming from myself, Harv and Pietro. A decent first speech... The Bloke gets a 3.

Radical Centrist: An improvement on the "here's the question, here's the response" intro - and creativity in format to boot. R.C. gives us a script, complete with asides and crowd reactions. Too many high points to highlight here - I love the blog-centric "inside jokes" tossed about here and there... my only complaint is his disdain for cat-bloggers. Heh. R.C.'s challenge response earns a 5.

Dawn Xiana Moon: Despite the lack of creativity in the intro, and even the format of the speech itself, Dawn has given us a taste of her reign of terror as Queen and I like what I see. Her attitude is properly imperial (or is that imperious)... Her crusade to rid the blogosphere of grammatical errors makes the Grammar Cop and the English Teacher lurking within me stand up and cheer... and the thought of beheading webmasters who continue to use multiple animated GIFs and horrific color combinations and poor layout and... *ahem* anyway, I like what this Queen has to offer. Normally I'd take points off for a non-creative format, but the content of this speech is the deciding factor. I'm giving it a 5, because I'm a judge and I get to make my own exceptions to my own rules, so there.

The Queen's Rulings

In the Outer: 11

Radical Centrist: 13

Dawn Xiana Moon: 14

KING OF THE BLOGS: JUDGMENT DAY 6

Three new slabs of meat, ready for the grinder.

Burgers, anyone?

THE CHALLENGE QUESTION:

You have just been chosen as the King of the Blogs. Write a speech beginning you reign of terror.

The Bloke of In The Outer:
GOOD POINTS: Arrogant, sucks up a lot.
BAD POINTS: Kind of standard, boiler-plate tyrant bloviation. Could've been more imaginative, like by making me Minister of Public Decency or something. Also, I'm not a big fan of the crossed-out-text approach to humor. You're the dictator. You can use the first draft if you want. Who's going to challenge you?
SCORE: 3

TRC of The Radical Centrist:
GOOD POINTS: I was concerned by some of the early, thoughtful pandering, but in the end, absolute power's absolute corruption came shining through. This line describing policital moderates just slayed me, as did the leftist reaction:

"Beware of the stealth enemy. They look like liberals, but shop at WalMart! Beware!"
The bongo drums on the left rise to a frenzy

BAD POINTS: Didn't call for the immediate wholesale slaughter of catbloggers.
SCORE: 5

Dawn of Randomness:
GOOD POINTS: Threatens to purge the blogosphere based on aesthetics instead of politics. Also manages to sidestep Murphy's Law by NOT having a grammar error in a post criticizing grammar errors. This girl is hardcore, and if I'm ever whacked by a disgruntled KOTB contestant, Dawn would make a good replacement judge.
BAD POINTS: The opening & closing need work. I was a little put off by the 2 cheap misdirection lines at the beginning, but the rest of the piece was good after it warmed up, so I shrugged it off. The Star Wars quote at the end, however, just feels tacked on by someone desperately searching for a way to finish. Helpful hint (which Dawn used to good effect in her submitted post) - make a reference to your opening. Simply signing off with another Princess Bride quote would've been better. For example:

[flips page]

"Man and wife".

SCORE: 4

SUBMITTED ENTRY:

In The Outer: Showing Mercy to the Poor
GOOD POINTS: Gives a novel interpretation of the word "poor" as used in a Biblical context:

"those who are so impoverished and incapacitated because they do not have the means either materially, emotionally, or even morally(!), such that they are rendered incapable, or perhaps even unwilling to, give back to you."

I'd never thought of it that way before, and I enjoyed this example of thinking outside the box.
BAD POINTS: Asserts that Western civilization may qualify as "poor" without discussing the specifics of why, giving only vague references to other posts. More detail would've been helpful to make this essay self-contained. Perhaps the information is available in the earlier-linked posts, but then maybe The Bloke should've submitted one of those, instead. A GOOD submitted post has all the information the reader needs. Supportive linkage should be gravy, not necessity.
SCORE: 3

The Radical Centrist: The News Becomes Surreal...
GOOD POINTS: Excellent form on this one - TRC introduces the general topic, gives an interesting quote, then gives his point of view, followed by a conclusion.
BAD POINTS: Did this THREE TIMES in one post. There was a nice segue between the part on the loony Democrats and the part on the silent Democrats, so I'll give that one a pass. However, when the topic moved to Sistani, then the discussion ceases to be about domestic politics, and - with the essay getting rather longish at this point - it would've been better to save that part for a separate post.
SCORE: 4

Randomness: Treading Water
GOOD POINTS: Powerful, gripping, emotional essay on Dawn's slow loss of control over her life and the joy of regaining it. Beautifully done. LOVED the way the ending recalled the beginning and provided perfect closure.
BAD POINTS: No supportive linkage on the Song of Songs quote. Not a big enough deal to ding for, considering how good the rest of the piece was.
SCORE: 5

WHOLE BLOG REVIEW - TECHNICAL MERIT AND PERSONALITY:

Here are some technical things I like to see on a blog:

King of the Blogs javascript thingy in the sidebar
Comments enabled
Permalinks working
E-mail contact info available
Blogger's name/pseudonym prominently displayed
Site search feature enabled
Link to an "About Me" post on the sidebar
Blogger's gender is easily discernable
Blogroll
Readable font style & size
Readable color scheme (for example, NOT bright red type on bright green
background)
Divisions between posts clearly marked
Paragraphing in entries (NOT just writing one fat block of text)

Aside from the tech stuff, I also like to see a blogger's personality shining through, to remind us of the person behind the words.

With that in mind...

In The Outer
GOOD POINTS: All the technicals in place. Upgraded to Haloscan comments while leaving old Blogger comments in place for posterity. I would LOVE for Bloke to write a detailed post on this process and send me a link so that I can show all my Blogspotted friends that this CAN be done.
BAD POINTS: Blue is my favorite color, so I like this color scheme, yet... could there be such a thing as "too much" blue? Maybe another color for some of the sidebar stuff? A background pattern to break up the monotony? I don't know. It's functional, yet... a little bland, somehow.
SCORE: 4

The Radical Centrist
GOOD POINTS: Something about using thin colored lines to break a blog into sections just makes me happy. Nice, subtle use of color without going overboard. Content-wise - lots of well-written entries.
BAD POINTS: No search, no "About Me", no author's name, no gender identification... TRC is an excellent writer, but not a good BLOGGER. After folks read all this great stuff, they want to know more about the author. Indulge them, please. At the VERY least, give them a name by which to refer to you. Meanwhile, the code for enabling a Google search on your site can be found here.
SCORE: 3

Randomness:
GOOD POINTS: Well, at least there's no gender confusion. On a personal note, Dawn has the prettiest lips in the world to which I am not married.
BAD POINTS: Wait... this is a blog?... it looks more like just a website with comments enabled. Although it's warm, welcoming & friendly, it's a navigational nightmare. There's a complete lack of sidebars, which is like having a room with no pictures on the walls. Very antiseptic. Very much isolated from the blogging community. Yes, I know there's a "links" page, but it's really not the same thing. I'm sorry, this is really just TOO unbloglike. And, again, here's the Google search code.
SCORE: 2

FINAL TALLY:

In The Outer: 10

The Radical Centrist: 12

Randomness: 11

Excuse my brevity, folks, in this week's ruling. I've been a bit short of time lately; don't confuse it with my traditional ignorant ramble.

The Radical Centrist

Post:
Wow. I'm impressed at the depth and focus of this post. While this topic has been one that's been covered, overcovered, and doubly refried, Bird takes a refreshing look at what many would call a victory for freedom, but what the Democrats took as a disappointment. I'm impressed by the scope of reading and the abundance of links to relevant material from both sides. But what really wrapped things up really well with this essay was the credit Bird gave, and justly thus, to the Iraqi people for securing their own freedom. Well-written... long, but an enjoyable read.

5 points.

Site:

First impression - clean, simple two-column blog with nice logo. I know out other judges may want more information in the About Me column, but if I did, I'd have to live up to my own standard, so I won't. The KOTB banner is right where it's supposed to be. There's nothing fancy, nothing garish about this blog... it just focuses the reader on what's important - the most excellent and well-written posts. I enjoyed this read, and lights and pretty colors don't matter when the writing is top-notch. Only one drawback - for many people, extended entries are a pain to read. The least you can do is allow the reader to not have to switch to a permalink to read them (see WizbangTech for examples on how to do this). 4 points.

Challenge:

CHOICE QUOTE:

A small disturbance is heard from the back of the crowd.

The New King: "Fool, what is that commotion?"

King of Fools:" It's the Booze-Bloggers, sire, they're drink-blogging the speech. Everytime you say "blogosphere" they down another drink"

The New King: "Is that so? Well, this will quiet them!"

(to the crowd) "Blogosphere! and Blogosphere, blogosphereblogosphereblogosphereblogosphere!"

Excellent post, though is implying by your Frenchness and nuance that he's a ruler in the mold of John Kerry? Lots of jabs at cat and knitting blogs, a bonus in my book. Kudos for additional mentions of Dan Rather, shellfish, and toilet - er, toiling.

5 points.

Dawn xiana Moon

Post:

I'm going to give thumbs up to Dawn for a truly original, heartfelt, personal post. I understand that not everyone wants to read blogs that are written like journals, and detail the mundane, every day life of ordinary people; but in sharing with us her experience of having just gone through a broken relationship, only to find a much more solid, complete, loving relationship with God and finding direction, she adds a bit of a subtle challenge to find direction in our own lives. She adeptly uses her talent for writing to convey the same type of emotion that her music is meant to evoke.

4.5 points.

Site:

First off, if you want to locate where Dawn's actual blog is, beware... it's cryptic! (Hint: Click on Randomness to see her blog) She seems to be a rather talented young lady, and this is a blog of another color. I like the uniqueness, simplicity and structure of her site.. but to tell you the truth, it's got more of the feel of a commercial site than a blog. If you want to peruse the archives, you have to click a link. If you want to see the blogroll, you're going to have to click another link. There are comments, but no trackbacks.

I have no complaints about her writing. It reflects her ability as an artist and musician. Her picture certainly adds to the attractiveness of the site as well. But this feels and reads more of a biography, like I said, on a commercial site, than the traditional blog format.

3.5 points.

Challenge:

CHOICE QUOTE:

As king, my first, most important, priority shall be to rid the internet of native English speakers who, for some reason unbeknownst to their former teachers, never mastered the fundamentals of the English language, as evidenced by their atrocious writing. Nobility and peasantry alike, this cannot be tolerated. When one cannot tell the difference between “whether” and “weather,” “waist” and “waste,” “herd and heard,” the complete and utter downfall of the kingdom is at hand. Typos are understandable, if not entirely excusable, but the inability to use correct syntax is despicable. All such bloggers shall be beheaded. The mainstream press is also to be executed when committing such violent injustice to the English language (yes, I did read an article by Fox News confusing “precedent” with “president"). Off with their heads!

She's no king, she's a Queen! Of hearts! One wonders where she gets her predilection for lopping off heads, but I wouldn't dare question her.

4 points.

In the Outer

Post:

Good post, a bit difficult for the layman. The bloke refers to previous posts when discussing the topic of culture superiority thinking; the post could have been made much easier to read by including a snippet or two of the text of one or both of those linked posts. Indeed, the topic of Christian love and moral superiority is an interesting one, and the author put his heart and mind into the post, but it came off as wordy and detached.

3 points.

Site:

So who's 'The Bloke'? That's the first question that popped into my mind when I got my first glance of his blog. Here we're looking at a densely organized three-column blog with a moody dark blue hue. I greatly appreciate the post titles being a nice shade of orange; it's nice to be able to pick out individual posts... if only the text of the posts were a bit
easier to read with the low color contrast. I noticed that he had a problem with the KOTB banner javascript; that's ok, I had problems like these as well. I also noticed as I scrolled down that Bloke has a bit too much sidebar, which sort of limits his room for the actual posts. In fact, it's some of the most content in a sidebar I've ever seen. Bloke's pretty
much taken every meme known to the blogosphere and ran with it. I liked reading his posts, but I didn't much like having to scroll more to read less. Overall, a blog with great promise and some good Christian insight, but not ready to be king.

3 points.

Challenge:

CHOICE QUOTE:

Every kingdom desires to make an impact and leave a legacy, and so as Ruler of Blogosphere, I would work with you to make this a better world, starting with a massive campaign to build Parents' Rest Rooms in Every Mall in the Free World.

Yes! Right on!

4 points.

In the Outer 10

Dawn xiana Moon 12

The Radical Centrist 14

In the Outer 31
Dawn xiana Moon 37
The Radical Centrist 39

In the Outer 22
Randomness 18
Radical Centrist 4

In the Outer: 1

In the Outer 6
Dawn xiana Moon 2
The Radical Centrist 1

In the Outer 37
Dawn xiana Moon 39
The Radical Centrist 40