The Weblog Review

I liked “Mirdin The Online Diary Of A Strange Me” the first second I got there. The layout is nice and pleasing to the eye, easy to read, and the main page photo (outside of the cars going the wrong way) looks just like the Northern town I grew up in.

This is Johnathan Ismael’s weblog. Resident of the United Kingdom, student, and probably the most “descriptive” blogger I’ve yet read. When the author is describing the day he does it with such clarity that you almost feel like you are there i.e. “The sky, crystal clear hazy like snow, yet the sun perished it with it warming rays.” Darn, I wish I could write like that. I thought the author hit the nail on the head with his August 27th entry that categorizes the different difficulites there are in getting out of bed.

The site design is superb, you can tell the author knows a thing or two about website design. If you go to his Curriculum Vitae you can see why. Along with having a couple years experience with Java, HTML, and a month of Microsoft Embedded Visual Tools (whatever that is) the author also lists circus skills (including unicycling and stilt walking) as his interests. There is also a link to his father’s laundry mat. Which I have to say, is the cleanest laundry mat I’ve ever seen. Its also one of the most hilarious additions to a weblog I’ve ever seen. Where else can you see the rearview of a Spencer Sprint Dry washing machine?

The author also seems to be a pretty good photographer. Most of the pictures posted in the “Picture Things” section are of the UK in winter. Just looking at them gives you a chill. I liked the “Talk To Me” section. There you can just put in your name and email and message and hit send. Thats always a nice consideration in a website.

I do have to take points away though. This weblog only covers the last two months. I did notice that the author probably did have a much larger website but he is in the process of “starting over”.

I’m giving this site a “3” because I enjoyed my time there, and I enjoyed the writing. This weblog would have done much better had there been more to read. Hopefully in the future the author will open up his archives, judging by what I’ve read, I would certainly like to read them. Three stars, check it out.

mirdin the online diary of a strange me

When I first arrived at Smothering Chaos I kind of liked the simple green layout and the white lettering. I would come to find out that is about all I would like about Smothering Chaos.

The blog hasn’t been updated since the middle of July. Before that the author seems to be on a once a month posting schedule. Most of the posts are about random thoughts and reactions to current events. I was able to find the author’s main page using the “scroll the mouse pointer all over the page looking for a link” method. When I got to the main page I used the same search method and was able to find out the authors name and where he is from. I found some pictures too. But that took forever to find.

There is a guestbook, but thats the only easy thing there is to find. This is easily one of the most confusing designs I’ve ever seen.

All in all, my time spent at Smothering Chaos was nothing short of frustrating. The posts are few and far between, the whole site is confusing, just not a user friend site at all. Smothering Chaos is best viewed in Internet Explorer. I advice you not view at all. Half a star, check it out if you are bored. Smothering Chaos

I love reviewing weblogs, I really do. Its mainly because of sites like this. Most of the sites I’ve reviewed have really good layouts, and when you see that you expect to find a really good blog. Nine times out of ten though the blog stinks and you can tell the author spent most of their time on design or other bells and whistles. Kind of like a Potamkin’s village. Look beyond the shiny paint and and clean streets and there’s nothing at all. Not so here. This is the blog we all wanted to have when we started blogging.

This is Shannon Campbell’s weblog. Folk singer, North Carolina native, recent Pennsylvanian, aspiring rock star. Shannon’s been “aspiring” for quite awhile now. That stinks for her of course, but its great for us readers. We get a first hand account of what it is like to actually try to make it into the music business. Its definatly much harder than I thought. Seems darn near impossible. The author just doens’t talk about trying to become a rock star though. I’m putting this blog in the music category although it could just as easily fit into the personal category. The author writes candidly about growing up in North Carolina, about leaving home when she was fifteen, about the squalid living conditions for the better part of a year or two afterwords, about a brother in jail, about being darn near destitute. The great thing about the authors writing is, while you are reading, you almost feel like you are there. You almost feel like its years ago and you are living in a cramped trailer with a bunch of pseudo strangers. If your like me, it makes you appreciate the fact that you never had those difficulties.

Okay, all that aside, here’s what makes this blog really good. Click on songs.mp3 in the navigation bar on the top of the blog. Once you get there download “Dreaming Of Violets”. Thats just good music. If you do one thing at Pet Rock Star listen to that song.

The site design is superb. There’s a guestbook, a picture section (we all love a picture section), a chat page (although I admit thats one feature I did not try, I’m just not a chat person). My favorite feature is how the blog is categorized. You can read all of the authors posts about her family, about her music, about just about anything just by clicking on the appropriate category.

I even tried one interesting thing the author wrote about. I have four cats that I love more than anything else. And putting scotch tape on the bottom of their paws is gosh darn the funniest thing you’ll ever see. I also agree with the author’s March 25th entry about road trip rules. That post ought to be made into a law.

There are a few broken links. I don’t blame the author for that though. Their mostly to articles written about her music in North Carolina. The author probably doesn’t know that the Fayetteville Observer changed their url.

This weblog is a five, you can’t argue with that. If you read it from day one til the most recent entry like I did, I dare say you would disagree. Five Stars, check it out.

Pet Rock Star

The most surprising thing to me about InkBlog is that fact that it is so chockful of great posts, and yet no one bothers to comment and give feedback to this wonderful writer. I’m elated that she kept on going though – keeping up with this blog for almost two full years so far.

The design of the site is simple and clean – a basic BloggerPro template, including courier fonts (which at first bothered me but once I got used to it I kind of liked). Color scheme was also simple – which helped me stay involved with the excellent writing at the site. Add in a healthy mix of links and this is a well-designed site that offers no frills but lots of good content.

Too often I see blogs that just don’t have a lot of content even though they’ve been around a while. This one raises the bar – the author has a wide variety of interests, whether she’s telling personal stories or providing commentary on world events. Reading through her archives was a complete pleasure and enabled me to get to know the author despite no real “about me” information.

I’ll probably become a regular reader at this blog and will also feel free to comment and let her know she’s appreciated. You should do the same!InkBlog

“Halfway Between” is an appropriate title for this blog. It’s halfway between a good blog and a great blog. Upon arriving at the site I found a Greymatter blog with a few links, a lengthy archive of posts, and some mildly interesting content.

Most of Brett’s posts are short and sweet, and his style seems to imply that he feels his readers are his friends, which I liked. Unfortunately, “short and sweet” doesn’t necessarily make for “captivating” most of the time. I noticed a LOT of one or two sentence entries, which can be annoying when you are looking for real meaty content.

Aside from that, I think that if you know Brett and have been reading his blog from the beginning (he’s had the current version since March 2001) that you’d probably be a daily visitor. But if you are just coming to it now, like me, you’d hope for a little more content to keep you coming back.

The design of the site is basic enough and can’t be faulted – two columns, one with links, the other with the blog. The color scheme is easy on the eye as well. With a bit more tweaking, this site can leave behind the realm of “Halfway Between” and become the great blog it’s meant to be. Halfway Between If & When