The Weblog Review

Usually when I enter a weblog for the first time I dive straight into the “about” page. With The Book of Paige it was different- I actually stopped on the front page and got caught up in the writing before I felt the need to go elsewhere. Now that’s a sign of a good blog.

You can’t go more than three posts in this weblog without finding one that sucks you in. One of my favourite post was about M&Ms, of all things! Paige, the author, has a love of writing and books, and with her writing abilities and inspiration combined can make the most unexpected things very readable and amusing or thought provoking.

I’d say that Paige’s writing would appeal more to female readers, as she often writes about issues that would be of more relevance to them: A response to a 1955 Good House Keeping article, how to make a plastic bag bra [very useful for the unemployed- read “broke”- among us!], Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream. However, there is enough variety to make this an enjoyable visit for anyone.

As for the layout, I definitely prefer the current one as opposed to the one used in the archives. It is clean and easy to navigate and has good use of colour. The weblog has an ‘about’ page and links to the books and CDs that Paige is listening to. This is a nice idea but I’d have preferred them to take you to a another page in the site as opposed to the Amazon site. With Paige’s writing skills, I’m sure that a reading and listening page with her views on the books and CDs would be a worthwhile addition to the site.

Whilst The Book Of Paige uses a simplistic design and focuses mainly on the day to day life of its author, the quality of the writing is what really won me over. With the new layout highlighting the writing more than ever, if you haven’t visited this site before then I would definitely recommend you go there now.The Book of Paige

“I find these truths to be self-evident. But, then again, I could be wrong.” This saying is at the top of the site, and I noticed it right away. And right away, I really liked the way it sounded and even said it aloud a few time. This same quote is also the very first entry of this weblog. Fallible.com was off to a great start with me.

The second thing I noticed? The overall design of the site. I’m going to assume the design is an original one done by or for the author of this weblog, and it’s a very lovely one at that. The boldness dark red background is mollified by the patterned quilt-square looking border around the actual weblog content.

And then, I thought I’d actually read the weblog. The second post on the entire weblog shares the story of how Katy met her best friend over forty years ago. By reading it, you’d think it was something she watched happen just the other day. With the way Katy writes, the memories she chooses to share seem like they happened just yesterday or if it was happening right before her very eyes at that particular moment in time. The descriptions she gives and words she uses give you the exact picture you need to see just what she’s writing about.

It’s not all past memories, though. Katy’s got a sharp wit that makes you laugh out loud while reading some entries. Her son’s inaugural speech he’s pre-written, yet another reason why we should all thank Al Gore for inventing the Internet, and trying on a thong after losing so much weight were a few of my personal favorites. I have no doubt that anyone that stumbles upon this site will have the same luck in finding something that strikes their sense of humor.



You know what I like? If you’ve ever read any of my reviews, you know I like “About the Author” sections. No matter how boring or inglorious it might be, I never get tired of being able to get just a little bit of an idea about the person behind all of the journal entries I’m reading. While the weblog entries alone gave me more information about this author then nearly any “About the Author” section ever could, most readers won’t start from the beginning and find out as much as I was able to.

This is a real site. By real, I mean genuine and sincere. Tales of motherhood and friendship, bits of news and entertainment, or anything else Katy decides to post just seems to fit perfectly for the site, the site content, and everything else. I really think the majority of the weblog readers out there can find something, at least one thing, they can relate to with Fallible.com. I’d certainly recommend giving it a shot.

Fallible.com

A month later, Katy Raymond’s blog has certainly shown several improvements. Her site immediately caught my eye the first time I visited it, and this time is no different. Katy has maintained her simple, yet highly unique, design – a border of different shapes and symbols, much like a quilted blog. Taking a second look at her blog, I see once again that the border is very much like the author – complex and composed of many different interesting pieces.

Among the several improvements to Katy’s blog are links to additional essays written by her and an RSS feed, a useful feature for those who want to provide live content from her blog on their site. The previous errors that I found in the archives have also been fixed, although these were never a major distraction from the actual content of the site.

As always, I truly enjoyed reading Katy’s blog entries. Alternating between first-person and third-person is a dangerous technique if not handled carefully, but Katy manages to artfully portray her life in this manner. I noticed that her more recent posts have been slightly more detailed and descriptive, a characteristic I personally believe is essential to an interesting blog. What amazes me most, however, is Katy’s cohesiveness and her consistent blogging. Going back over two years, you see that her entries have remained vivid and absorbing. Katy’s blog is the kind that makes you want to keep on coming back to read about her life.

Once again, I recommend that you visit Fallible.com. However, I must also remind readers that her blog may not be to your liking – Katy is a very emotive writer. Having reviewed her blog again, I now realize that Fallible.com is a site that you either show complete indifference towards or absolutely love. I am inclined to predict that the majority of readers will fall into the latter category. Fallible.com

First impressions were good, the design of the site is simple, clean and well organized allowing easy navigation, content on the index page shows a good style of writing, yet I remained unsure whether I found the content appealing or not. Left hand navigation menu containing links to ‘about’ section which explains the intentions of the site as well a very brief (actually non existent) introduction to the author. Although each entry lacks the standard entry comments that come with most weblogs the owner seems to encourage interactivity from its readers in other ways – a forum and a clear contact link. Perusing the left hand menu also reveals some interesting diversions, three songs under audio and 2 films.

I approach most reviews in the same way, and so after reading the about section and quickly perusing the first page I headed straight to the archives in search of that crucial first entry, in this case I was to be disappointed, because the October 2002 brought up a error 404. Ideally that should be looked into and fixed. So, I headed to the next available month, November 2002 and was immediately presented by a whole host of short and concisely written entries supported by images. The author writes very well, he doesn’t mince with words and he comes to the point quickly. Quite often there is a very strong political statement in his entries; readers not agreeing with his every word must still admire the ability to put a point forward concisely.

A good design isn’t important when the content of a weblog is good, but it helps. This authors design is much like his writing; it is well organized, clean and suits its content. However, I would liked to have seen a navigation system which would have allowed movement from month to month in the archives, as opposed to having the reader return to the archive menu each time s/he wishes to move onto the next month.

The additional features complement the content of this site well, the additional audio and film material in the left hand column may not be to everyone’s taste but I found them rather interesting from a technical point of view. Absence of a comment system in the weblog itself is replaced by a forum, and while I personally like to have the ability to comment on a specific entry I can understand why someone would opt for this format. Other weblogs attempting to utilize forums have failed, often left unused by anyone except the author themselves, this is not the case with crushkill.com – an active community seems to have been established here, and it is definitely worthy of a look in.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I arrived at crushkill.com, much less whether I would enjoy reading it, but I discovered quickly that, while I may not agree with his stance on some issues I enjoyed the way in which he puts his point across. His style of writing is catchy, to the point and wastes no words. The design of the blog reflects similar principles; it is clear, well organized and attractive. I do believe closer attention to navigation between archives can only benefit its readability. I’m not sure whether the content will appeal to everybody, but it is worthy of a look in for those of you who enjoy strong opinions put forward eloquently and in few words!

Now the rating, I really was not sure where to place this site. His approach to blogging has a certain uniqueness, his entries are well written and concise, and he’s funny. It wasn’t flawless, improvements to navigation, ensuring there are no bad links could only improve the readers experience. While I admit that the author’s choice of a forum works for him and his current readership I personally like to be able to comment on specific postings. It is for this reason that I award a rating of 4.5crushkill : digital cynicism

I clicked on to a very black and white site. It was like looking at a nighttime vision of a blog! I noticed that it looked quite well laid out, navigation on the left, title and the main text section. The text was comic sans and quite large which made it easier to read. Quick to load, though somewhat startling on my eyes! Nice and easy navigation to follow, it looked very user friendly to use.

There was a lot to cover in this review as Matthew has 3 blogs. The bible blog has a reading for each day and Matthews thoughts on the reading. The tech blog covers everything that you can image to do with computers!! I have to be honest and tell you that a lot of it was over my head!

The blog that I read the most of was Matthews personal blog. There are a lot of reference in there to God and Matthew is in the middle of making a big life decision. It appears that Matthew is one of the world’s greatest optimists, and a lot of his entries have a moral within the posting. He is also a very open man, and I was touched when I read about his cat dying, which lead him to tell you of his inability to cope with death. Some of the posts are long, but they make an interesting read and really allow you to get to know Matthew. The posts are all very varied. He sometimes posts links, posts silly items and sometimes posts really deep thoughts. You can meet his rabbits, that are in magic training too! They do get more personal as the blog gathers age.

Matthew is also a magician and he makes references to this in his blog. He also has a section on his site relating to his magical side! If you go back to the May archives, you can see a photo of him with his magical face!

When you first enter the blog, you only get to see entries for a few days, so in order to see all the current months entries, you need to click on the current months archives.

I liked the fact that when you clicked onto any other pages, they all carried the exact same design. I liked that as you knew that you were still in Matthews World! Matthew has 3 blogs, a personal, a technical and a bible blog. All have the same template. All the links worked, and all the archives were there carrying the same template. It was a very organised and very easy to use site.

The continuation of the design was the biggest bonus for me. You knew that you were still in Matthews World. The archives were well organised and the site was clutter free. I liked the fact that you can read all about Matthew and read some very personal and inner thoughts. He also offers you various magic performances!

I really enjoyed reading this site. He is a magician, he studied the performing art of mime and is also studying a major in computer programming! This is all added to his love of music and love of X-box gaming! All of this comes through in his posts and makes an interesting blog! This blog does have a religious theme, and Matthew is an optimist, and a magician, so you can imagine just how interesting this blog is once you start reading. I think, that over time, Matthew will get a following of die hard readers.

Mystical Matthew’s Wacky Weblog