Let's be honest here. There wasn't much I'm hoping to or wanting to achieve in the subjects my last post. There's a stuffy black and white blog that is so dense I might as well be in my 400-level polisci class. There's the film blog mostly authored by a guy with years of professional film art experience. And there's BugGirl. There's a voice in my head wondering if Delia thinks I'm going to emulate one of these bloggers. I hope not. I'm not that keen on LOLBeetles, to be honest. But the blogosphere is vast and its blogs come in many types. So fear not, Taylor, we have more blogs to review! And fancy categories this time around, too.

In the tech category, there's Wired Magazine's Geekdad.
The most interesting part of Geekdad is its intended readership. Its readers are, guess who, geeky dads, which I imagine is a rather small niche of blog readers. I originally thought this was just a gimmick, but when I realized that one of the posts' titles is "10 Science Fiction Films I Cannot Wait to Share With My Kids," I lost my doubt. Star Wars, legos, and...fathering advice? I bit, and dug deeper into the blog.

For the sake of full disclosure and mutual understanding, understand that I am not a geekdad. Tech news does interest me from time to time, but geekyness and fathering are not subjects I ever tend to think about together. Nor do I have a geek dad (cue memories of the hours spent helping my dad set up an email account in the recent past). But I can imagine a geekdad, and I think he'd like this blog a lot. Posts are what you'd think they'd be. Some are about tech news, some about parenting, and some cover both. Posts tend to be on the shorter side; a few paragraphs usually suffice. The comment area sticks out as a high point for this blog as well. Most comments seem well thought out and come from other geekdads sharing their experiences (example). So while I may not feel the need to peruse GeekDad anytime soon, I imagine its niche audience to be a steady group who continue to come back for more.

In the news and politics category, let's take a look at Hot Air. Its found writes that Hot Air is "the world’s first full-service conservative Internet broadcast network." So this might not be a typical blog. The focus tends to be on video, and it actually has a single section devoted to blogging, though by itself the section is nothing special. The links at the right side of the page are quite thorough, as well. As far as conventions , I'm not totally sure here. Visually, I like Hot Air. It is a bit busy, but someone seeking this kind of "news" would find what they need here. In an attempt to not go to ideological here, I'll keep the next thought short: some stories are posted just to fire people up. The comments don't typically add much to the conversation and some (as with the previous link) story's comments actually find the readers asking why the story was even posted. If this were the type of news I like to read I might consider following it, or at least checking in from time to time.

Upon loading PerezHilton.com, visitors are greeted to one of many Perez Hilton caricatures. This welcome banner is then followed by an add for Perez's book. A bit lower, next to a few pictures of celebrities that have been written on (a la Microsoft Paint-style) there's an advertisement for Total Club Hits 2, followed by a clothing ad. Across the page (jumping over more pictures), more Perez ads, his personal store this time, and a shoe add. Alright. I skipped the middle column of Perez's site, but as I opened this blog for the first time and scrolled down it I noticed the "content" seemed to be mostly short paragraphs and pictures. I'm a guy, and a guy who doesn't really care too much about what Michelle Obama is wearing on a particular day. But some of these posts, whether I like them or not, seem...out of place. Chuck E. Cheese? A random woman giving birth to octuplets? I'm confused. The comments are at times littered with vulgarities and if they're not, you're sure to find quite a few in all caps. I'm really not sure how this is such a popular blog. There's a lot of posts within a day...perhaps it's more a quantity over quality issue? Or perhaps blog readers really enjoy Perez's pictures. I just don't have the time for eight posts in a day, so I'll mull over the first option to increase my readership.

After Perez I'll jump at the opportunity to write about a blog that I like. As an amateur photographer, I have lots of practically new equipment and lots of questions. It's hard to find a blog that answers the questions I have well and interests me in topics I previously didn't know existed. And that's why I love PhotoCritic. The layout is extremely simple--two columns only. Content is superb. From buying advice to how to photograph specific types of scenes to DIY equipment, photocritic has it all, and it's all easy to access via a drop down menu in the right column partway down the page. Thus the focus is less on when something was posted and more on what was posted. The comments are usually thanks or further information on the subject posted by readers. In all, it's a very informative site offering the information I need. I guess that's what makes a good blog for me, first and foremost.

I don't need fathering advice, conservatively-biased news, or...Perez Hilton's pop culture "analysis," nor am I particularly interested in any of that. These may be sorts of prototypes for their subject, and they all do communicate the information in a way we have come to expect for each subject. The geekdads of the world will describe new tech summarily, the right-leaning editors will publish stories that border on propaganda, and the Perez Hiltons of the world will post pictures of celebrities whose lives I'd rather not know about. But they all do, for the most part, have one thing on our blogs: brevity. They know in the age of point-and-click media, people want their news in small, bite-sized pieces, and they deliver.



You win this time, Perez