All hail King George of GM's Corner, last week's victor in a competitive tournament round between three worthy blogs. But as usual, the King cannot rest on his laurels and enjoy his reign for long without two more pretenders to the throne cropping up to give challenge. And now, we commence with the rulings, because I say so.
Overall Blog/Design
GM's Corner: George has, as all good competitors do, taken the judges' comments into account and made a few adjustments to his site appearance... Specifically, my two nitpicky notes from last week (the misspelling of "integrity" in the header and the variance between the font sizes and types in the sidebar) have been addressed, and That makes me a happy camper. I have no complaints... all the good stuff is still there, so this week George's rating improves to a 4.5. Good stuff here.
New Trommetter Times: Wow, a nice new look for Jason here... I dig the header graphic - my one suggestion would be to add a drop shadow behind the lettering to help set it off better from the background (the tag line is a bit tough to read against the lighter colored areas of the photo). It would be super-easy to do in Photoshop (duplicate the layer with the text, change the color to black, and nudge it down and to the right a bit) - but if you didn't use Photoshop to create the graphic it might be a tad more difficult. Searchable archives, check... comments, check... trackback is a bit difficult to locate, but I did manage to find out how to get the trackback URL, so I can't complain too much. I'm giving New Trommetter Times a 4.5.
World of Tish: Lovely! Another well-designed site here.... beautiful graphics, good "about me" info, Haloscan comments and trackback, Blogger bar search... The color scheme is simple and easy to read, black and pale gray, with splashes of red and yellow. Digging it. Good graphics get me every time - and the rest of the technicals are there as far as I'm concerned... Tish gets a 5.
Submitted Post
GM's Corner: For his submitted post this week, George presents us with a treatise on secularism and how the media and the AcLU, among others, appear to be making war on Christianity within our society. A very thoughtful, and for the most part very well-written piece... one little nitpicky note that jumped out at me:
"Afterwards, she said that she'd read to Nichols from "The Purpose-Driven Life," a bestselling book that eschews the self-help ethos so prevalent in pop literature to say that salvation can only be found in God." Pop Literature? OMG again, sharing your faith, what you believe to be true is only a "self-help ethos?"I think you may be mistaking the definition of "eschews" here, what the author means to say by that sentence is to describe PDL as a best-seller that avoids the self-help spirit that is so popular in other current literature today, not that the message of PDL is a self-help message or that it is merely "pop literature". Although I know many Christians who believe it is, primarily because so many have made a huge "movement" out of the book. Anywho, that said, I don't disagree with the point that George is making here... and aside from that little nagging item, this post flowed very well. I'm giving it a 4.
New Trommetter Times: Jason presents us with a Libertarian rant about the Schiavo case... Since comments are closed on this post, I'm going to indulge in a small response - not even close to the full rant that threatens to come bursting out here...
Terri’s parents don’t have a right to intervene in this case. When he gave his daughter away at her wedding, he ceased to have a say in her medical care. That became Michael’s right then. When a couple gets married they are to "leave" and "cleave." Terri left her parents household and created a new household with her husband Michael.And when Michael started shacking up with his "fiancee" and having children with her, in my opinion and in many others', he should have ceased to have a say in Terri's medical care. He has created a new household with Jodi Centonze and should not have the right to decide whether or not Terri should die. [/mini-rant] As much as I disagree with Jason's conclusion here, the post is short, to the point, and well-expressed. Nothing here causes the English Teacher to sit up and take notice, and therefore, Jason's submitted post earns a 4.
World of Tish: For her submitted post, Tish selects a quirky cautionary tale about having a kleptomaniac great-grandmother. Some people have very interesting lives - or at least, they can describe past events in such a way to make them interesting, and Tish is one of these people. After reading this post, all I can say is "Wow." That is one mean old lady. Tish did a great job getting her point across, and the story itself was entertaining. I'm giving her a 4 also.
Challenge Post
This week's challenge question was...
"Once you are made king you will be free to rule with an iron fist. What will be the first 3 laws issued by you to begin your reign?"
GM's Corner: I may be the only one of the judges who is amused and highly entertained by George's schizoid parenthetical arguments with a mysterious "editor" voice... Perhaps it's because I often have internal arguments that sound much like his. That makes me crazy too, I suppose. Ah well, it's more fun when there are more than one of us here. Good points include the lack of the Intro-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named (*cheer!*), and the requisite sucking up to the judges. Future contestants, be aware - sucking up to the judges is highly recommended. Although George's first law is actually a combination of four laws (ahem), the humor is very much appreciated. Three cheers for King George - his challenge response earns a 5.
New Trommetter Times: Ummm... dude... you're trying to be King of the Blogs, not King of the United States. While the concept of Jason's first three Libertarian pronouncements in his hypothetical reign is interesting (and these are not necessarily bad ideas... well, except for the one where you rename the United States of America to the United States of Trommetter), and there is some well-placed humor involved, I'm going on the assumption that the actual intent of the question was not met. New Trommetter Times gets a 3.
WOrld of Tish: Tish also manages to avoid the dreaded Intro-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named. The judges breathe a heavy sigh of relief as we realize that, this round, nobody actually felt the need to introduce a challenge response with "This is the question I had to answer for the King of the Blogs challenge post, and here is my response!" Tish's response also displays a well-developed sense of humor, as well as the sort of imperial ego that comes in very handy for a ruler of the blogosphere. Tish's proposed laws (especially #1 and #2) are extremely well-advised, in my humble opinion. Her conclusion paragraph also contains a rather tantalizing suggestion as to how the esteemed judges are to be treated. I think she gets a 5 just for that part.
The Queen's Rulings
GM's Corner: 13.5
New Trommetter Times: 11.5
WOrld of Tish: 14
It's a close one... keep an eye on this site to see how the other judges ruled!
Thanks for the high marks. You have a great blog, too. And the great grandmother was completely real - how's that for a family reunion topic?
Posted by: Tish | March 30, 2005 at 05:37 AM