The Weblog Review

Phil Gardner has quite the blog (and site). You can see how much time he’s invested in building such a site and how important it is to him (as Phil suffers from depression). In his “depression” page, he states that Dave (depression) made a mess of his life for about nine years and he’s only recently “gone” (with some ups and downs though). The fact that Phil can be so open about his illness is touching and makes you appreciate the site even more. But don’t let these feelings that may sound very much like “pity” keep you from admiring his wit and his good writing abilities.

Phil is a writer. He has experience in the field as you may see on his home page which boasts links to all he’s written. Plays, short stories, articles, etc. He’s even won a couple of contests.

More of his links include a rather detailed bio page. Though from a bio page one expects details. A little too much for my taste, as he mentions all the schools he’s attended, all the places he’s worked and all his skills. It gets somewhat tiring to read. The rest of the bio page is funny as it depicts some strange tests he took such as the “pickability” and “gayness” test. But that’s not all, he also has links to his Shotley page (where he lives), links to pages with his reviews on music and films and so many other links that you may get a little tired of browsing. But his links are not boring, they’re just numerous.

After a good long minutes browsing through the links I had a very good knowledge of Phil. This can inspire some readers, but I personally feel, one should keep the mystery going a little. You can have a couple of links that are about you and this is highly appreciated as it creates a bond between the author and the reader, too many links about you may lead people to believe you are a meme.

The design of his site is organized, though, you won’t get lost in spite of all the links. The home page I found to be visually appealing (gray and a beige-like yellow, easy to the eyes). I really enjoyed the home page. The way in which he presents his links is humorous: Moosic, Philms, etc. Nice word games.

Concerning his blog, it’s the least visually appealing page on his website. The template is a little dull, and the links on his blog don’t entice the reader as they go under the title “websites which mention me”, this makes the reader think Phil may be a little too much into himself yet I posed this question:

If you had been battling a serious depression that almost cost you your life and successfully got over it (96% for instance) wouldn’t you be into yourself, rediscovering yourself, writing about yourself?

Phil’s life is scarred by depression, it’s a part of who he was and luckily it doesn’t define who he is today. Yet it’s there: on his bio page and as a separate link. That’s why I enjoyed his site and didn’t think him to be too into himself. The depression factor makes you comprehend Phil is not a meme. The site is just his way to battle depression through the use of his talent. For talented he is.

Regarding his entries, many of them make you laugh. He talks about various random topics that occur in his day to day existence, spicing them up with a touch of that British humor, which I for one, especially like. However, has a tendency to confuse the reader as some entries will be lengthy while others have only a couple of lines.

Phil has been blogging since 2003 and from what I saw in the archives, his posts since January of 2004 have gotten more interesting. More humorous and less confusing length-wise. A two line post doesn’t usually interest the average blog reader, where as regular posting of longer entries makes for better reading.

To sum up, I enjoyed Phil’s site. It was an interesting read. Visit Phil, he’s worth your trip.
Mulled Whines

This is truly a site that is easy on the eyes. Clean, logical lay out, and colors that compliment and provide easy reading. The only thing I would count against this author is the little emoticons in the middle of the text; I found that to be the only distracting mien of the overall appearance. Taking into consideration the young age of the writer though, the presence of these is not surprising. What I found particularly appealing about the look of this blog was that the reader has the option to change it. The “Skin this site” tab will tell you all about it should you meander that way before, during or after reading the entries.

Spotting the profile link on the left side, I headed that way hoping to find out more about this author, and where he is coming from. I was disappointed there, in that there were only links to other sites, no bio at all. While this helps to see the things the author likes, it gives no insight to the author. At the bottom of the blog itself, there are archives which go back to April of 2003. Now comes the however. As a parent, I would not want my own children putting information I would look for in the bio of an online author, so while remarking on it, I’m not counting it as a strike.

This blogger is a young and apparently avid computer user, and from reading past entries has a grasp on hardware and software realms that the average user of his age does not have. Many of the entries are oriented to the world of computers, and most other entries are related to his school and scouting. I was disappointed though, that during a trip to Spain and India last year there was so little about the locations he visited posted. The exception would be his July 29, 2003 entry in which he colorfully paints a picture of the sights and smells he encounters. When readers head over to his photo section, they will find pictures that will give a more complete telling of his travels.

After reading this boys blog, and I’ve commented the same to him, he seems to be the kind of person I would hope that my own boys would have as a friend. As a mom, I’m recommending this blog for my own kids to read. This would come under the personal category of blogs, and while I find it interesting from my point of view as a parent with children the same age of this boy, I’m not sure that everyone would find it as interesting. I’m taking into consideration the age of the author, and the talent and maturity he shows for that age in giving this a rating of 3.0.

Chinwags from Abu Dhabi

For The H*ll Of It. Why did I review this site? For the hell of it. Why should you read this site? For the hell of it. This was the idea I had going into this weblog.

I was presented with a nice 3 column layout that looked very clean. I was immediately impressed with the good use of colors and the fact that it looked good on my browser of choice, Safari. Glancing longer at the site I realized it was a mac.com url and it should look good in Safari. Then I read that the site doesn’t look good in IE, which is a bad thing since most readers use IE.

Onto the content. I was impressed with the diversity of the posts. Talking about software and personal stuff, and doing a good job with keeping me entertained for the first page. Yes I said first page.

The archives were not clearly labeled at all. There is a calendar which we all know I hate to use, then there is a standard browse by date, and finally a browse by category. Not bad having all of those options, it just is too bad that they were not all together.

So onto the archives I go, and I see that the site has posts dating back to 1998! This is insane. Of course there is a big time jump from that year to the next: the next set is 2001. Why not, lets see what was going on back in 1998. A click of the link and a messed up page. I thought maybe it was just for that year (since it was rather odd) so I tried 2001. Nope same problem. And the problem persisted through out all the archives by date links.

That leaves me with one choice: browse by category. Now some people find this option a nice touch. They can find specific posts quickly. Others, like me, do not like this because we cannot see any growth and that sort of thing overall. But I tried to go through all the posts by category and it just wasn’t the same. No sense of time, no sense of the past, just posts.

So just for the hell of it (pun intended), I decided to try and look at the page in IE and guess what, the site doesn’t load properly. No wonder so many reviewers complained about not being able to read the site.

Overall this site could have scored a much better score. But the archive problems, and the fact that the site doesn’t load for IE bring it down. Even though there are a fair number of posts with just code, I would think that the average person could enjoy this site. I hope the author decides to fix his layout so that he stops alienating readers just because he is on a mac. I am too, but I welcome any and all readers. For The H*ll Of It

I was drawn by the title. No idea what it meant but it got my attention. I’m a succour for honest pure things and peace and jellybeans both fit the bill.

My first impressions on reaching the site were good. The design is effective and eye catching. Water droplets on a leaf and a lot of green – nice stuff. The black text on yellow makes for easy reading. The design incorporates links to the main site areas, blog, about, writing and photos into the banner. This is cool and allows you to navigate around the site from wherever you are on it.

There is a simple photograph of Laura, the blogger, and a short about me section, which is extended elsewhere, in the left side panel. Further down the panel are several lists. Current stuff Laura is reading, watching, listening to and eating. A to do list for the summer holidays and links to other blogs and cool stuff plus the perfunctory archives and a link to archives from a previous incarnation of the site.

Aside from the extended about me section there are two other sections aside form the main blog. Some photos of Laura and her family and a writing section with one of her poems and some useful writing links. Laura wants to be a published writer and will use this space to show her published works. I was gonna use ‘if’ but she seems to be a pretty determined young woman.

In her own words from the previous incarnation ‘This is NOT a free sample!’…”in this web log, I will document my course as a struggling writer and impoverished student. I will speak my mind about life, God, music, literature, movies, government, current events, whatever… and I hope that some will speak back. I like opinions, I like discussion. I hate to hear my own echo in a quiet room.” I like that last sentence very much.

Her posts are pretty personal and cover her life with hubby, Jim, and their struggle in Toledo, Ohio. She is reasonably open and honest about their life together and also throws in some interesting trivia and thoughts on life outside their marriage. We also get to hear her struggle through school and her literary aspirations. Her writing style is straightforward and easy and pleasant to read. She researches a lot and provides useful links, which work!

There is a comments facility and this is extensively used by angie who I guess is a friend and provides Laura with daily affirmation and support. There is a good feel to this on-line “relationship”.

In its current form the site has been running since January 2004. Laura posts every other day or so and her posts are varied and interesting. The previous incarnation had a life from August to December 2003 so I guess she is coming up to a year as a blogger.

There is a feel good factor to Laura’s web log which raises it above how I’d feel on the content alone and the design is excellent – we find out Laura’s hubby is a web designer! Therefore I’d give this a 3.5 out of 5.
Peace and Jellybeans

Finding the Joy is a lovely blog. The whole concept of the blog is lovely. Lovely, lovely, lovely. Beautiful too. Very beautiful. It’s one of those blogs where you know you cannot possibly find anything offensive and in truth, you don’t. I dare anyone to look at this blog and not feel anything but peace and fuzzy warmness.

Just in case you can’t already tell, I loved Finding the Joy.

Elizabeth Joy (she’s worked her name into the title of the blog, I love that!) comes across as a very down-to-earth, sensible and very humane human being. Upon reading her personal ‘about me‘ information, I discovered that she started off as many blogger and journallers do the world over – a ranter. Apparently it was horrible, but I am so glad she changed her outlook because the results of her efforts are stunning. If she was planning on a rebellion against the cynicism of the world’s bloggers, then she has succeeded ten times over.

The look of the blog is what captured my attention the most. It’s so pretty. The colours are all pastel, not “girly” but definitely feminine and it really adds to the sense of comfort that one gets (or at least I get) while reading. Pink is supposed to be a calming colour so the psychologists and other head doctors say, so I suppose I can attest to the fact that it works.

The layout of the blog is pretty standard, but I cannot complain too much as Elizabeth has embelished it with an individual and pretty flair with good coding and colour choices for her menus. It all works very well together. Elizabeth is also one of those crazy cat people so the blog does have a few pictures of her pets littered around the place.

Every post I read was charming, with a thoughtful quote to begin with, and a gorgeous (or funny, in the case of this entry) picture to end with in the more recent entries. Every post is of a personal nature (naturally, because it’s a personal blog) and I felt especially fortunate to find this entry which is, as she describes within the post itself, a “Nail. Hit. Head” moment. Blogs are very angsty these days, which is why reading Finding the Joy really is such a joy. It was nice to read the entries which detailed the initial change in direction the blog had taken after Elizabeth went through some tough times.

And finally even with the death of her father last year, Elizabeth still manages to find something positive in every small thing, whether happy, sad or indifferent. I honestly think there should be more blogs out there with this outlook on life – that life is what you make of it and to enjoy it. Finding the Joy gave me hope.Finding The Joy