The Weblog Review

Like I do with any site I review, I immediately found the “about” section of this site. The first two paragraphs in this part of the site indicate exactly the author’s intent of this site. “This site was intended as a portal into the toronto digital hardcore scene, an opportunity for people who share similar interests in electronic music & dHc to read regular pointless updates, promote events, and converse”, which is followed closely by a paragraph explaining that different ideas and inspirations for the site are constantly changing and keeping the author very busy.

The layout is a simple, standard one. A gray banner at the top, with a bit of original looking artwork, heads a two column layout, including different links on a right hand sidebar. The main menu, the CrushCam, Crushkill Radio, and Media are all different links to other areas around Crushkill.com. All the links found under the heading Toronto Digital Hardcore are external links the author has accurately found that relate to the content at Crushkill.

A particular feature I was fond of can be found in each entry. At the bottom of individual entry, the author has conveniently placed a link users can click on to email out the particular weblog entry.

Certain entries touch base with the international or political aspects alive in the media using extreme satire. And while reading through the rest of the archives, there are other entries which use extreme satire, and could possibly be found offensive to some people, such as an entry called god bless reality. While some, myself included, may grasp the type of humor that’s displayed in this site, I think the majority of the subject matters at hand aren’t topics that a large portion of people will find as things that can be made fun of or taken lightly enough to laugh at.

There’s both an audio and a video section available at Crushkill.com featuring some of the author’s original works.

Overall, I enjoyed the random photos that the author had posted on every single post. There were often times that I felt a bit lost when reading different entries, but those that know more details about the author may be able to follow those posts and better enjoy or understand them. I certainly wouldn’t count this weblog out of the sites that I read frequently; it’s just more of a site that needs to grow on a person.crushkill : digital cynicism

I like Flash. I always have. (ok.. I’ve developed in flash…:P) So when I come across a site that *tastefully* utilizes flash I’m naturally quite impressed. Jaymorgan.com is such a site. Using a simple flash banner at the top is neither combersome or distracting, but rather enhances the flow of a clean, well structured web page.

So I dove into the Archives… Oddly the archives pages are listed differently than the main blog. The archives are one long list for each month, which is a great overview. It took me a minute to figure out the archive navigation. To advance to the next entry you click on the ‘title’ of the next entry at the top of the page. I think this should somehow be made clearer. Such as Next Entry : Cable and Previous Entry : Birthday photos. Just a suggestion. It functioned fine. Just isn’t apparent since I didn’t write the blog. 🙂

Jay writes about things he does and enjoys. Like programming, the Internet, playing with flash :), his family, pets, vacations. His writing is clear and easy to understand, sometime a little techy as well.
Such as this on kimble.org:


‘His website was the first website to inspire me to start learning Macromedia Flash.’ Ironically I had the same experience. I still remember the crazy voice overs and, sports car animations from kimble.org. Hehe.

There are also some more personal reflection, such as this sentimental reflection about his vacation in Okinawa:

“What is it about Okinawa that I love so much?
Well, I can say its just about everything. I love the Atmosphere, I love the people, I love the roads, the buildings, the trees, the flowers, the warm weather, the language, the hospitality, the culture, the beach, the island, the stores, the nightlife…There is something about Okinawa that just gives me this warm, comfortable, happy, free feeling. I love Okinawa. When I am there I am happy and carefree. I can feel it in my heart….To experience Okinawa, hearing the sounds of Okinawa, the smell, the touch, to see it in front of you, you can feel it. It can’t compare to reading about it and seeing its pictures. The pictures represent a moment in time, that we try to capture and remember again when we view it, but to actually FEEL it and experience Okinawa, is incredible.

Until I live in Okinawa again, I will keep it in my heart and keep dreaming.”

The blog content is heavy with GREAT web developing links (heh, thanks man – not everyone shares their great finds 😉 ), images and web goodness. I think anyone in web development would benefit from pursuing Jay’s blog archive. There are also many parables, and some entries with some religious content. Not my cup of tea, but may appeal to other readers. From one entry:

“Religion has basically two strikes against it – it isn’t true and, instead of making people more tolerant, compassionate and humane, it
seems to have precisely the opposite effect.”

Dig and you will even find a recipe for Tempura (batter fried veggies). Mmmm. Tempura. I found it interesting to follow his documented court case with the massive toll fines. Gah! In spite of my obvious personal geeky bias -grin-… I think that most people would enjoy this blog, especially the tech savvy among us. An enjoyable, useful, colourful, engaging blog which I will definately be bookmarking. Great job Jay!The Blog of Travis Morgan

My initial reaction to the site is that of “simplicity.” Nothing jumped out and made a great impression on me, but the site had a very different feel to it which I couldn’t place an actual word on. Maybe it’s the colors, or the large contrast to the link colors. It might draw more readers if there was something a little more to grab someone’s attention.

Initially thought this was more of the “personal” type of blog, but as I started reading through the recent entries I realized there was a chance this blog might be considered “news” instead. That being said, I started to think I might find more about the author through the archives. Starting with the oldest month I realized that there is a definite change in the feel of the blog from the older entries to the current ones. The older entries are littered with the controversial and newsworthy. All great things, but I was hoping for a bit more insight into the author. He litters the weblog with many links to many different kinds of things, ranging from politics and religion, to things that could easily take up a lot of “fun” time. The weblog itself is extremely well written in clear English. His rants are worthy rants and his news is often very interesting.

There’s nothing breathtaking about the design of the site. The “all white” background can be a bit of a strain on the eyes, but more so the link colors on his sidebar are difficult to read because the contrast just isn’t quite right. It’s simple, but everything seems to work correctly.

Some of the better features of the blog are that you get a feel for the author based on the out-going links and the other random content on the net that he posts about. I easily found myself visiting a lot of the external links to see what he was talking about and what made them so note-worthy in the first place. It’s easy to find that the author has a very eclectic sense of humor based on these links.

The overall feel of the blog is almost lost. There’s not real point to it, be it that it’s meant to share news, or have a more personal atmosphere. There’s a scattering of everything there. My honest opinion is that this blog isn’t meant for the younger reader. Some of the entry subjects probably can be placed in the “adult content” category. It doesn’t feel as though the blog is the kind that I’d visit on a regular basis, but it would be the kind I’d stop in and read once in awhile.this is the samaBlog

Let’s get something cleared up right away. This blog is personal, very personal. If you read it as if it were your own, you will be on an emotional roller coaster. If you read it as a guest with an open heart, you will be on an open roller coaster. And if you try to read it for entertainment, you will be very disappointed. Oh yeah, you need to start at the first post, and work your way to current otherwise you will miss the entire point of this blog.

With that said, we have the weblog of a 19 year old girl who is recovering from an eating disorder. The weblog is full of pain and suffering, but then there are times when you see that moment of happiness that really brightens up the weblog. Posts consist of poetry, daily life, and mixtures of the two. The daily life posts are written and formatted sometimes like a poem, with only a couple of words per line.

As I stated above, you have to read the archives first with this weblog. I started to read current to old, and I just didn’t understand what was going on. I read her little about section and still didn’t get it. I finally decided to read it from the very first post and it all made sense.

The design of the site is beautiful, but not functional. On the current months we have a picture of a chandelier and the archives have a picture of Sarah Michelle Gellar in front of a cemetery. Both designs feature an iframe for the blog which is a pain in the butt to use. My scroll wheel only works about 50% of the time inside the iframe, and if switch windows I must click inside the box again for my arrow keys to work the scrolling of the window. Also some of the archived months do not load properly from the archives, but will load properly from the current month.

This is one of those blogs where you can see the growth of the author through out. Unfortunately that was about the only thing I enjoyed with the blog. The blog was clearly started for the author’s benefit, and I am not sure if the public should be able to read it and judge it. The posts are filled with emotion, mainly pain, and this was a very hard blog to read, let alone review. It just wasn’t my cup of tea. So if you are looking for a blog that has a lot of growth and a lot of potential, here you go.
sleepless

I had no idea what I was going to be reading when I clicked on the title “Marley’s Ghost” – maybe it’d be a shrine to Bob Marley, or maybe it’d be some type of a ghost story posting place. As it turns out, “Marley’s Ghost” is a weblog that I’m glad I didn’t miss out on. It’s definitely one I’ve already bookmarked and plan on visiting regularly.



The layout of “Marley’s Ghost” certainly defines simplicity at its finest. Links to other various portions of the site (about the author, outside links, a disclaimer, etc.) shoot down the left side, and all of the daily updates run right down the middle. The color choice of black, gray, and white continue to exemplify Marley’s attempt at keeping everything simple as can be. Or from what he says, he just uses these colors because he likes them. Either way works for the site, and works for making the site easy on the eyes.

Taking a line from Marley’s “about” section: “… it’s more about content than presentation …”, and the content isn’t anything to blow off in this weblog. There’s no consistency in what topic is going to be touched on from day to day, but that makes this site fun to visit and more importantly, fun to read. He’s entertaining and he writes in a manner that’s easy to follow. The thing that makes this weblog truly personal is the way you can tell Marley’s not writing for anyone else; he’s just writing to write.

One of favorite posts was Marley’s comparison of starting his blogging ritual at the age of 26 to a scene from a Keanu Reeves movie. And I found an amazing new pick-up line in yet another one of Marley’s earliest posts: “”Say, is that a keg in your pants? Because I sure would like to tap that ass!” From reality TV shows to current events, and from religion to whatever topics he can touch on to make the day go by faster while at work, Marley’s an entertaining writer.

You don’t find your typical “this-is-what-I-did-today” posts here as often as you do on other weblogs, but you don’t find the author harping on the same worn out news topic day in and day out either. Marley mixes his entries like a bartender mixing drinks. Most of them are just right. Every so often you’ll find an entry that makes you laugh a little more and feel a little bit better, just like a screwdriver with Tang instead of orange juice. Variety is good, and it guarantees that readers won’t get tired of coming back to a site like this.Marley’s Ghost.