Issue 18

Welcome to issue 18!

Issue 18 is packed full of good stuff so go and get yourself a cup of coffee, put you feet up and take a leisurely stroll through this weeks TopBlogMag.

As you may have noticed our layout has changed just a little and we now have the feature post of the week as a permanent element at the top of the page (Thank you Megan from Velveteen Mind for pointing out that problem - if there is anyway in any of you think I can improve TopBlogMag please don't hesitate to contact me) so that it will now show up on each and every page just like all the other entries.

This weeks feature post is an interesting article about the pressure on the prison system in The State of Hawaii written by Evelyn from Homespun Honolulu, we also bring you 2 more great themed posts from Simply Nutmeg and Thinking About.

John from Altranga Mitjina is unexpectedly back with us after a tragic and difficult week and his group of choice this week is a very interesting one, which you can here by licking (or hear by clicking, which ever works for you!) the play button on the music player below.



Omega Mum from 3kids no job is our blog reviewer this week getting her Agnostic teeth into the Christian blog Real Life.

This weeks theme: Stupidity

What Does it Take?

Written by Evelyn at Homespun Honolulu

There’s no doubt that crime is a problem across the globe and it continues to increase as populations increase. What then will it take for people to see that a criminal justice system has to maintain a certain degree of reliability – has to provide a certain amount of security for its citizens? Instead of establishing anything like that, the State of Hawaii released what I would call a psychotic pervert hell bent on terrorizing young girls.

Convicted of the senseless and ruthless murder of a 17-year-old girl in 1979, Peter Bailey was sentenced to a minimum of 35 years in prison. Over time his sentence kept being shortened. He was released seven years too early and is now being held for the alleged rape of a juvenile. To top it all off, he is accused of raping her at an Assembly of God church. So, while he’s obviously hell bent on messing with our youngsters, he’s also hell bound!

Honolulu’s prosecuting attorney, Peter Carlisle, was quoted as saying, "We've got a system right now that is exerting pressure on everyone to release people,” said Carlisle during a press conference with reporters. “If you release the wrong people then somebody's going to get hurt and somebody has gotten hurt.” I have the highest respect for Mr. Carlisle but, while I agree with his statement, it still left me scratching my head.

Released because of pressure on the prison system? What?!? Is that because the prison system is overloaded? While I’m sure that it is, I wonder if that is the pressure that the prosecutor is talking about. If it is, I can understand it, but releasing a known felon back into the community is pretty risky business. It gets riskier when you release one that has been incarcerated for a senseless, violent act. Uh, I would say that Bailey was definitely one of “the wrong people!”

So, what does it take? A repeat offense enabled by releasing the wrong guy? I don’t know where the real stupidity crown goes. Is it with the offender who has gotten himself thrown back in jail, or is it with the judicial system of the State that let him loose? You can visit KHON2 News for the full story and some video coverage. Then you can tell me where the stupidity award goes!

Evelyn writes at Homespun Honolulu, trying to find the hidden charms of her city to share with readers who are tired of all the commercial hype.

Nutmeg's Four Principles of Stupidity

Written by Nutmeg from Simply Nutmeg

When I first saw that this week's theme was 'stupidity', I thought I was going to have to write a letter to the editor, because I had nothing. Dude, I'm just not that familiar with the subject! After some thought, I decided to turn it over to the experts, my four children. I don't mean that they're experts in stupid, I just mean that they have taught me everything I need to know in life. So I presented them each with one question: What comes to your mind when I say 'stupid'? It is in their answers that I found Nutmeg's Four Principles of Stupidity.

Rowan, age 4, answered my query with, "Standing on the potty chair." She was referring to a lesson she learned recently the hard way. She stood on the edge of a little wooden potty chair, flipped it over, and cracked her head on the sink. It really hurt. And there lies the First Principle of Stupidity -- most of us only recognize our stupidity in hindsight, like when we're icing the huge egg on our noggin.

I wish I could say I was better than the preschooler who tipped over the potty, but I usually only recognize my own stupidity after-the-fact. To illustrate, take my first car, a Volkswagen Beatle. Only a few weeks after I bought it, the windshield wipers died. I came up with the brilliant plan of tying shoe strings to the wipers, running the strings through the side windows, tying them together, and manually moving the wipers by yanking the strings from left to right in a horizontal direction. Let's just say that I learned the hindsight principle the hard way and that there are implications to real life if you can't pat your head and rub your tummy at the same time.

Maddie, age 7, answered my question about stupidity with, "Smoking, because you can get sick with a disease." At first glance that might sound like a platitude, but she has actually illuminated the Second Principle of Stupidity: Stupidity usually involves the mouth and the disease she's referring to is Bullshititis. Forrest Gump said, "Stupid is as stupid does." I beg to differ; the truth is, stupid is as stupid says.

I used to try to impress people by always knowing something about whatever the conversation was about. Even if I knew nothing. I'm sure, in hindsight, I made myself look stupid on numerous occasions, but this one stands out in my memory: Many years ago I got into a conversation with some older and wiser college students about music. I had not met The Music Professor yet, so my knowledge was limited to knowing for sure that Bruce Springsteen was cool. The conversation turned to jazz -- danger, Will Robinson -- and somebody asked me what I thought of Billy Holiday. Yes, I answered that he was my all-time favorite. Everybody looked at me like I had just coughed up a looger on their shoe, which, in fact, I had. Man, that lesson hurt, but it has helped me in the years since to shut the hell up when I find myself completely out of my league. Usually. Sometimes. Well, starting today... Abraham Lincoln said it almost as well as Maddie: "Tis better to be silent and thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt."

Keira, my oldest and wisest at age nine, responded to the question with, "Stupid is one of those words that's a comparison, like short." And there you have the Third Principle of Stupidity: Stupidity is relative, and one can always find someone more stupid than oneself. I recently read about an example of stupidity that made me nearly wet myself laughing. To test the security of a small, New York airport, government officials attempted to go through security with backpacks full of bomb equipment. The guards missed every single piece of equipment, but they did make the travelers turn over their water bottles!

Why do I enjoy this story so much? Aside from my love of irony, I enjoy it because I like to think those guards are so much more stupid than me! I may not know who Billy Holiday is, but I sure as hell can recognize a bomb when I see one!

And finally, I asked ten-month-old Finn what he thought of when I said the word 'stupid', and he answered, "Mamamamama." The Fourth Principle of Stupidity? Whatever stupid-ass thing somebody does, they'll always find a way to blame it on their mother!

A writer, educator, editor, and mom to four little menches, Nutmeg takes life with a grain of salt and a little vodka. You can read her stupid little blog at http://www.simplynutmeg.com.

Fun at Mr. Steak

Written by J from Thinking About

Back in 1984, I worked as a waitress at a Mr. Steak restaurant in Stockton, California. To say that the workplace was different then than it is now would be an understatement...or perhaps it was working at a restaurant with a bunch of late teen/early 20s people. It was a den of non-p.c. behavior, where no topic was off limits. People asked each other all of the time about their sex lives, and wanted a lot of detail. The manager of the place, Robert, stayed above the talk, and was a fairly professional guy, and for some reason was not well liked by the corporate suits at the regional office. I have no idea why.

There was an assistant manager there, Ken, who liked to joke with all of us in a fairly earthy manner. Not so much asking us about our sex lives or anything like that, but he liked to call us all names, like Bitch or whatever. We swore back at him, told him to F**K off, and it was all laughed at, all good fun. Good fun until I learned a lesson about leaving behind a paper trail. Didn't I grow up in the time of Watergate? Shouldn't I have known not to leave anything behind that might incriminate myself in any way? Perhaps, but I didn't.

In order to show what a friendly place Mr. Steak was, we were supposed to write "Thank-You" on the back of our ticket. Maybe go out of the way and put a little smiley face and our name.

Employees could order food off of the menu at a substantial discount, but a ticket had to be written up for them just the same, for inventory purposes. One day, Ken ordered dinner, and I was his waitress, and on a lark, on the back of his ticket, I wrote, "Fuck-You, J" with a little smiley face next to it. I handed it to him, he had a good laugh when he noticed, and that was that. Or so we thought.

A few days later, the boss, Robert, called me into the office at the end of my shift. He had been watching me all evening, and I foolishly thought he was impressed by what a hard worker I was. He had come into the restaurant when it was a franchise being taken over by corporate, and he had given us all pretty decent training on giving good customer service, etc. We had gone from the type of restaurant with wine in a box, to the type of restaurant where we opened wine bottles tableside. Anyway, I thought he was impressed with how well I had learned the lessons about waitressing, so I wasn't worried when called to the office. Then he pulled out the check. The one that said , "Fuck You, J :) " on it. Nice. He asked me about it, and I told him the story. He said that was unfortunate, because the regional manager had stopped by, and on one of those unhappy coincidences, happened to spy my ticket. There was nothing else on the ticket to indicate that it had not gone to a customer. Robert was not in strong standing with this guy, and did not feel safe standing up for me himself. So I was fired. That very day, I went from feeling like I was doing my job very well, making decent tips and representing Mr. Steak well, to out on my ear.

What did I learn from my stupidity? You never know who might be listening, watching, paying attention to what you say or do at work. Don't say or do anything that you don't want your boss, or his boss, or even HIS boss, to find out about. It was a painful lesson to learn, but perhaps good timing, because that branch of Mr. Steak closed down completely a few months later. I felt like I had the last laugh after all. :)

Blog Review: Real life

The Blog: Real Life

The Reviewer: Omega Mom from 3kidsnojob.

First impressions: 'Real Life' burst on to the screen with its intriguing title and lovely flower picture. As a mother of three children, real life is something I seem to experience a lot of, sometimes to excess. I'm also a music teacher, so I was also drawn by the author's nicely written personal profile which describes her as a voice and piano teacher.

Then I came across the first of many references to Jesus. As a committed agnostic, religious blogs aren't something I'm naturally drawn too. To cut it for me, and for any casual reader who doesn't share the beliefs of 'Real Life's' author, this blog was going to have to work extra hard. When I'm reading, I want entertainment, not a sermon, however well-intentioned. So I was a little apprehensive, wondering which of the two I was going to get.

Design: I liked this very much. A lot of thought had gone into delivering a blog that was easy on the eye and, crucially, easy for the new reader to follow. Pictures were plentiful and well laid-out, links were quick and well organised, the sidebar was nicely arranged and the posts easy to find. There was also plenty to do - music to listen to and a competition to enter. Again, it was struck a good balance: energetic without being over-crowded. I had just one thought: new readers like me need easy access to the back story, so having a few more posts on screen without pressing the 'older posts' button might help.

Content: It's a nicely written blog with a straightforward, unpretentious style that's easy to read. Sentences are short, points clearly made and the author is obviously blessed with a good sense of humour when it comes to recounting the lighter side of family life. There's a nice post – How to get great customer service that anybody with young children can relate to, about how using your offspring tactically can guarantee you good customer serivce.

I also enjoyed 'Playing with Fire' a laugh out loud account of man's desire to set a match to anything remotely flammable 'that's just sitting there waiting asking to be burned'.

These general, family-life posts were few and far between, though, and no wonder. The author notes that, 'I always want my readers to see Jesus first,' and it's therefore unsurprising that the bible features a lot, whether through direct quotes or commentaries on different passages used to offer a perspective on everyday life. You either like it, or you don't and with lots of awards from and links to like-minded groups and individuals, it's clear that Real Life is a popular and well-regarded read with a predominantly Christian audience.

Best and Worst: The design was excellent. The content, for me, could have done with more of the funny family anecdotes and less of the direct religion but, given the author's strong Christian faith, that's unlikely to happen, in which case I suspect that she'll mainly be preaching to the converted.

Blogroll worthy: For me, no, solely because of the religious content. For any Christian out there keen to leven a hard-core religious message with humour, I suspect it's a must-read.

Score: Because of the above, I found it a hard blog to rate. I'm going for a six, though, because the design and the nice writing style which kept me going long after I'd normally have given up.

Do you want your blog to be given a no-hold barred, honest review? Sign up here.

Blog Review Sign Up

Do you think your blog is up for a no-holds barred, completely honest review? Would you like to learn how to improve your blog to give your readers a better viewing experience?

If you answer is yes put your name on our list for a TopBlog Review. Simply leave us a comment with your blog URL but be warned, they are not going to be blowing rainbows and puppy dogs up anyone's ass. Unless of course you have the perfect blog...

Our reviewers are:

Omega mum from 3 kids no job
Nutmeg from Simply Nutmeg
Sarah from In the Trenches of Mommyhood
Liz from Three Bright Stars

and no, they can not be bribed. Although I don't think they would mind you trying ;)

Blogs will be given a rank out of 10 based on:

First impressions: self explanatory really, what feelings, thoughts, likes, dislikes the reviewers get in the first 5 seconds of opening your blog.
Design: Is it a good looking blog or does the design make them want to leave without stopping to read? Does the colour scheme work? Are the sidebars full of clutter and distracting flashing things? How easy is it to navigate around?
Content: Is it well written and interesting or boring and full of typos? Is it full of original, interesting writing or is every second post a meme, youtube video or sponsored post? How frequently is it updated?
Best and Worst: What does the reviewer like the most about this blog? What do they dislike the most (with constructive advice of how to change this)
Blogroll worthy? Is it somewhere our reviewers would want to come back to?

So do you think your blog is up to the test? Do you want a free blog review and link from the main page of TopBlogMag? Are you looking for ways to improve your blog but don't know what needs doing? Then leave us a comment with your blog url and your wish shall be our command, we will even give you a spiffy little brag button to put in your sidebar.

NB. As we are only completing one review per week at the moment, it will take a few weeks to get round you all but we shan't take any more requests until the ones left in this comment section are completed.

The Blind Boys of Alabama

Written by john from altjiranga mitjina



I’m not much of a church-going man, but strangely I find the music of the church has a soothing effect. The call and response of the Spiritual infuses me with an almost religious feeling of joy and happiness. There is so much emotion in the musical shouting of these songs. This week’s voice to hear is a veteran gospel group of over sixty years. Also along with a voice this week we’re also going to talk about a specific song.

The group is the Blind Boys of Alabama. The group was formed in 1939 at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind. Two founding members, Clarence Fountain and Jimmy Carter are still performing with the band. They’ve added a few newer members in the years following their debut. The Blind Boys of Alabama worked the traditional gospel circuit for over 40 years, releasing albums that primarily found an audience with the Christian following.

In 1982 they made something of a cross over between the religious audience and the secular one with their appearance at the World’s Fair in Knoxville. The next year they appeared in a smash musical drama off-Broadway The Gospel at Colonus. During the nineties they released a couple of albums that had some cross over potential, but never quite made the reach across between the pop audience and the religious one.

All the changed in 2001 when they released Spirit of the Century. Their booking agent and producer decided to self finance the album that he knew the group could make. This album brought them to the attention of the music world outside the gospel one. It was the start of a string of Grammy Awards for them. The music on this album mixed traditional gospel songs with contemporary songs by such writers as Tom Waits, Ben Harper, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Their version of “Amazing Grace” was sung over the tune of the traditional blues “House of the Rising Son.”

“Amazing Grace” has become one of those songs that has become more than just a standard. Everyone from gospel singers to jazz to rock to punk rockers have covered this song. This song is so ingrained into the fabric of our musical heritage, but what do we know of it?

The song was written by a former slave trader, John Newton, who reformed and became a Christian minister. Newton was captured and held prisoner on Plantain Island off the African coast for close to a year. After being rescued he converted to Christianity on the trip home. Years later he wrote the hymn after he became a minister.

They hymn crossed the Atlantic in the early 1800s and was put to the now familiar music by a singing instructor from South Carolina. The song spread throughout the South with the growing revival tents that moved from one Southern town to another.

Today the song is heard performed by everyone from Elvis Presley to KC and the Sunshine Band to Tori Amos to Ani Difranco to Dropkick Murphys to…well the list is just about endless.



“Amazing Grace” wasn’t sung at his Dad’s funeral, but the songs that were did provide a certain amount of comfort. This past week has been one of the hardest he‘s ever had to live through, but there is a relief that his Dad is no longer in such pain. John from altjiranga mitjina continues to speak as if he's not the one writing this.