The Weblog Review

Tahnee writes so well. Whether it’s about her alarm clock not going off at the time it was supposed to, being the victim of a friend’s mom’s matchmaking skills, or even reading about the time she was nine years old and nearly drowned in a water park – the way Tahnee writes had me picturing myself being right there, closing my eyes after reading her entries and being able to clearly visualize everything that she’d written about. That makes for a great weblog to read.

Unfortunately for the time being, posts aren’t being made as often, but that’s because Tahnee has recently moved and her access to the internet is limited. I’m sure her readers and loyal visitors will be happy when her posts can come as often again.



I loved the opening image of this website. And I also liked the fair warning of the site looking “trashy” in anything but a 1028×768 screen resolution. And her warning is true – the site looks fabulous on that particular screen resolution, but anything else may not find the site with such an appealing appearance.

I can’t think of a word to describe the design of the site. It’s a lot of white, which normally doesn’t sit well with me. Tahnee’s design, however, takes the white, mixes it with some blues and grays, and it just looks overall very clean and clear.

The only thing I didn’t like about the design of this site was the scrollbar on the left hand side. I couldn’t ever see how far down the page I was, which made it a little frustrating when trying to read through the archived entries.

Overall, this is another great site to add to your bookmark list. Tahnee’s writing alone will persuade you of that.

faceted.org

After no response from the author regarding the archives missing from this site, I decided to go ahead and review it.



I type this URL into my address field, and all that loads on the page is some text at the top of my screen saying “for god’s sake give it a rest”. And that’s exactly how I felt for the next minute while acknowledging probably 20 javascript error messages.

The time it took me to read all the weblog entries I could find was nearly equivalent to the time I spent fighting my way through the javascript errors. There was nothing remarkable to read. Of course, more often than not, each individual post wasn’t even 10 words long.

I won’t be back, and don’t see any reason why I should send anyone else in this direction.

whiper.com

Simplicity is often so much better than space crammed full of unnecessary junk, no matter how graphically talented one might be. Dana does an incredible job of proving this theory with the design of Muddlepie. Plus, with a fun name like “muddlepie”, you don’t need all that other junk.

The very crisp layout makes this site easy to navigate, and easy to look at. Dana has all the links she visits on a regular basis listed down the left-hand side, and information about herself, the people she writes about, and other miscellaneous information down the right-hand side.

None of the posts that I read at Muddlepie were overly long. Reading through this weblog is like reading up on a friend of yours that you don’t keep in contact with as often as you’d like. Not only does Dana participate in all the standard weblog-memes (i.e. the Friday Five or different which _____ are you quizzes), but you can also count on reading about what’s going on in Dana’s life.

An added bonus to this weblog would have to be the random pictures that Dana’s posted under “Life Images”. The pictures are just ones that the author has taken and decided to share with readers. Personally, I always think photos are a great touch to any weblog because it shares that much more of the author’s life and it gives readers the chance to feel as if they know more about whoever’s weblog they’re reading. I felt just that way after browsing through some of the various photos placed throughout Muddlepie.

If you’re looking for another weblog to add to your list of daily reads, or just feel like getting to know a complete stranger from the world wide web a little bit better, than I’d definitely recommend visiting Muddlepie. You’ll find a very casual weblog that’s easy to read, and chances are you’ll find yourself wanting to know more and more about Dana and all that’s behind Muddlepie.

muddlepie.net

The first thing I see on visiting whisper.com is an IE script error. And another. And another. Infact I had to click through 18 errors in total to even begin reading the site. Not a good start.

If whisper.com has archives, I couldn’t find them. This gives me very few entries to review, since Wednesday 23rd October, 2002. There are a few links, a couple of pictures, and some jokes. The only information about the blogger, nwp, is that they signed up with British Gas…

The design is nothing amazing, and it is hard to distinguish between individual entries, as there are no titles, and the ‘posted by’ information is the same colour as the main text. There doesn’t seem to be any other pages of the site – only external links to well known memes.

In conclusion, this blog might be an interesting read, but without archives, you are left with the impression that it is rather boring, linking to well known sites and not much else. whiper.com

Please note: the URL for Serial Deviant has changed to http://www.serialdeviant.org/

Serial Deviant is a clean place. It’s mostly white, but not so white that you can smell the hospital disinfectant. The rotating photographic banner gives a clue that the writer has a funny view on life. The white layout and the clean design point toward crisp writing. And first impressions are often correct – I was right on both accounts.

Serial Deviant is about the author’s life and opinions. There are many links to new stories or quirkies, and the author does so in an interesting way. The writing is good – it flows well, uses good grammar, spelling and punctuation, and keeps the readers attention. I think the thing that comes through in Serial Deviant is the author’s honesty. She’s either a very good liar or she just comes off as someone who doesn’t screen her feelings.

The design is simple and clean. I have nothing else to say except that the minimalist design fits the writing style incredibly well. It’s the highest compliment to say that I can’t imagine this journal with a different design. The only thing I could possibly complain about is that an entire month of entries post to one page. That could be problematic for some people. And entries post newest at the top of the page, so it makes reading the entries in order somewhat difficult.

Serial Deviant has a good About page, as well as 100 Things – I felt like I got to know the author a little bit better, which made reading her journal even better. The journal has some interesting site projects – the author has kept entries relating to quitting smoking in a special section and her wonderful essays are collected, as well. She also has a photo section and a mini-blog about her reading list.

I heartily recommend Serial Deviant to anyone who likes reading journals for the sake of seeing things from another person’s perspective. Sure, you’ll find some news and fun links, but the strength of Serial Deviant is in the author’s viewpoint.
serialdeviant.org(y)