The Weblog Review

The first thing that caught my eye on this weblog was the quote at the top of the site: “I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me.” Now, being originally from Missouri myself, it struck a chord with me. I was looking forward to what Jim might have to Show Me with his site.

There’s a link to Jim’s main website: http://www.hnb1982.com, which features a webcam and a tagboard for visitors to comment on. I visited this portion of the site twice. The first time, the webcam appeared to be honed in on Jim’s computer desk, and the second time, I found a message saying I needed a secret code to view the webcam. So, if you find yourself heavily indulged in this site, it might be to your benefit to request a password from Jim to view this portion of the site.

Off of the above mentioned site, I found three different links to three different weblogs – one hosted on LiveJournal, one powered by Moveable Type on his domain, and the Xanga weblog that was submitted to be reviewed. There were a few separate posts that could be found on each of the journals.

The Xanga weblog only goes back to December 2002. The site is updated somewhat regularly, about two to three times a week. Typically, you’ll read the latest in Jim’s personal life or his take on the world events that are currently in the news. The tidbits of his personal life that he shares are very personal and detailed, and the outside reader may be a little confused trying to figure out who is who. However, Jim also keeps us abreast with his take on current events and does so with an opinion and reasons backing up his opinion – a very important thing if you want people to take what you think seriously.

Design-wise, there wasn’t a lot to this site. Red, orange, brown, and black were the colors Jim chose for the backgrounds and different tables on the site. Yellow, white, and black were the text colors. I didn’t really feel like the colors jived together with the site very well. To Jim’s credit, he admits that he’s “learning a lot about web pages and HTML”. So with time, I would expect the appearance of this site will drastically improve.

After reading all of the archives at “Jim Howard’s Show Me”, I still felt like I missed out on a lot. Maybe it’s because I didn’t make a complete connection with Jim, or maybe it’s just because there wasn’t a lot to connect with.

It’s not a weblog I plan on returning to, but it’s not one I would ever have someone intentionally avoid. Stop by and maybe it’s something you’ll find that certain connection on.



Jim Howard’s ShowMe

“I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me.” This quote, allegedly said in the 1890’s by States Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver, sets the tone for Jim Howard’s ShowMe. Jim Howard, ladies and gentlemen, is going to show you.

Jim Howard describes himself as an “old man”. His blog is a mixture of political views and memories from his past. ShowMe is all written as if Jim is thinking aloud, merely typing whatever thought pops into his head. This can make the posts somewhat difficult to read, as they often repeat themselves or are not grammatically correct. However, if you put in a little effort, you can read about some interesting things.

In the past couple of months, the blog has become more political than anything else, with Jim Howard constantly commenting on the war, CNN, airport security, ect. However, digging back in the archives, ShowMe used to be a very personal blog and with this. In Jim’s more personal postings, he lets his dry sense of humor shine through–

“Hilary and Jimmy are home from the trip to the casino. Hilary lost $150.00 and Jimmy lost $450.00.That is the most Jimmy has lost in a long time..That is a lot of money for him. It maybe good however..He said the other day that he had a dream and that God told him to go each week and he would win $300.00 a week. If Jimmy had won $300.00 it might have been very bad. Maybe he will come down to earth now.”

In addition to the blog, Jim also runs a webcam that can be an interesting journey into voyeurism. It’s worth a look.

ShowMe has an odd design. In fact, there doesn’t seem to be much of a design going on–only some randomly colored tables with yellow-on-black text. There is no table for the archives, so you must rely on reading Jim Howard’s posts in groups of fives in descending order. Navigating the site can be tricky.

Overall, I think perhaps the writing style and design of Jim Howard’s ShowMe could use some tweaking. However, in it’s current state, it can be a good read for those interested in politics, for those interested in the good ‘ole days, or for those who are just interested in Jim. Let him show you.Jim Howard’s ShowMe

The description given for Script Furnace is: “it’s about personal publishing. it’s about building community. it’s about collecting your personal spew and presenting it in a web accessible format that others can digest and comment upon… there are no expectations here. just write what you feel.”

I really liked the concept. I’d have liked it to be more international though. In the “what is scriptfurnace.com all about?” section, we are told “face it. community in america is bleeding, it’s an endangered species.” This weblog certainly is very American at the moment, what with the war, and I couldn’t get over the amount of times the word “patriotic” was used. If you’re non-American, “patriotic” gets boring.

Just as I felt everything was getting too “patriotic” I found posts and comments from authors with different opinions. This is the good thing about having a group weblog open to anyone. You get real variety and debate, rather than a one sided opinion and little chance to respond. Further down the archives, and away from war, the posts began to vary more as well. It is understandable that all recent posts are political, but it is nice to see ones about entertainment, sports, carrot vaginas and the personal lives of the contributors too.

The layout works well. Very simple and just right for the type of weblog this is. You have lots of choices too. You can access archives by month, week, day or category. This fits in with the concept of the site: to place the weblog into the public’s hands. The only complaint I have is that I work on a broken 12in screen [so a square 10in] and whilst most sites show up fine, this one required quite a bit of scrolling to the right.

Whilst I did find a few issues with the site, there were enough redeeming features that I’ve got to give it a 5. What really pushed it up there were the attempts made to make it accessible. You can post anonymously if you want [although I’m not sure if this is such a good option, but a brave one all the same], the “add a link to your site” button has a “show me how” link underneath, there is a “how do I post” section. This is how a community website should be. I’ll definitely be back.
script furnace

I tend to be leery anytime I see a site at Xanga. They structure content so rigidly that it’s hard for me to focus on the entries themselves. I was even more startled when I looked at Jim’s website (linked to from his Xanga profile) and found an apparently live webcam image of Jim with no clothes on. I’m no prude, but it was a bit more than I was expecting – his Xanga page shows him wearing a shirt, after all. Once I recovered from my initial surprise, I realized it’s just another part of Jim’s personality.

I was immediately pleased to see that Jim differentiates between a journal and a weblog – he keeps a LiveJournal site for his diary, and his Xanga site is strictly a blog. But if a blog is supposed to be links to sites, Jim’s got it wrong. He seems to be mixing up his Xanga blog with his MT-powered opinion site, The Naked Leftist Liberal. For that matter, a number of the Xanga posts are about his own sites, as well as his past experiences. It also seemed kind of incongruous to see Jim’s claims that he has one of the oldest sites online – since 1982 – when he admits that he’s still learning HTML and site design. I also found it odd and a bit out-of-timeline, given that the very early web precursor ENQUIRE was first tested in 1980, and CERN’s first hypertext-related proposal was published in 1989. All this kind of made me a bit suspicious of Jim, but he also admits that what he started in 1982 was a BBS (“one of the first BBSs in the world”).

I’m not trying to undermine Jim’s credibility here, but it does feel kind of strange to see a blog that’s mostly about the author’s various experiences with webcams and e-mail viruses. If that were the blog’s purported content, that would be one thing…but then occasionally there are posts about Bush, the war, etc. I read back through a few months of Jim’s entries, and I couldn’t tell how far back I had gone – all of it felt the same. I guess the colors are pretty enough – kind of remind me of my local Redskins, though Jim doesn’t seem to say how he chose them. I do like his opening quote, too, which explains both the nickname for Missouri and the name he’s chosen for his webcams.Jim Howard’s ShowMe

Originally listed as a movie site, Salocin is actually your-run-of-the-mill personal site, which does include a fair number of movie reviews. Salocin himself describes it as “a journal of a sort, completely public, and an open invitation for commentary from anyone with an intelligent point of view. Since it’s my website, I got to be the judge of what was “intelligent” and what was not.”

Content-wise, the site’s a bit scattered. Normally that’s the case in most blogs, but in most blogs with wide interests, the postings are fast and furious. However, Salocin’s posts are infrequent and short. You get the weather one day, a movie review the next and an update on his MBA program the day after that. This is one of those rare instances where it would be more interesting if he posted more often. Such few posts on so disparate of topics results in an unfocused blog.

The site’s design is, in the words of one of his readers, a bit bland. I think the site could use some sprucing up, but site design takes a backseat to the content, which could easily be improved, I think, by more personal postings. Given that Salocin characterized his blog as a movie site, however, he should then focus more on the movies generally – use more graphics, write more reviews, include more postings about his going to the movies, etc. Unusual for a blogger to show such a reluctance to delve into the quotidian minutiae that most wallow in. The movies he’s reviewing are reviewed in any major paper, but he’s writing them as though they were in a major paper. Bluntly, few people, if anyone, will read a review unless they trust the reviewer – or get something else out of it. I want to get a good laugh, or a clever line – whether it’s about the movie itself or the trip there, or the Date from Hell who ate all the JuJuBees, etc. And Salocin’s got the perfect medium in which to do just that. Blogging’s designed for just that sort of detail. He just needs to go for it. (Alternatively, he might consider posting his reviews on BlogCritic.)

Salocin designed the site himself, which is laudable. However, given that most bloggers use MovableType, Blogger, or any other load-and-leave blogging tools, no one wants to hear about the nuts-and-bolts of site design, unless it’s a blog devoted to site design. I’d suggest that if Salocin wants to discuss his design skills that he should devote another sidebar to site design and tips, along with the one on movies. Otherwise, without having an established link to discussion of design, his repeated references throughout the site to what he’s done, not done, etc., feel out of place. Additionally, some parts of the site feel overdesigned -like the log-in windows. I’m not certain what the purpose of logging in to the site is, other than being able to post a comment with your name or posting an ad, with the latter being a bit ambitious for a personal (noncommunity) blog.

I think this site deserves a 2.5, and can quickly become a 4 or higher with a modicum of effort.

Salocin