The Weblog Review

How does one go about reviewing a site they have read for almost two years? Its like trying to review a movie that you acted in, or a book that you wrote. It just doesn’t seem to flow no matter how hard you try.

I have seen Wendy go through countless designs, some more imaginative than others. I have seen her struggle with issues at work and in her life. I have seen her go from living in one state to living in another. To say I have seen it all would really not be true, but I have seen a lot.

So rather than do a standard review and go through specific things about her site, I will go through why after all of these years I have continued to read her site. What is it that she has, that has been able to keep my attention?

For starters, Wendy is original. She has her own style and her own presence. Now I have never met her, but I know that her web persona must carry over into the outside world. Or is it that her persona from the outside world carries over to the web? Either way, it is all good.

So how is she original? Yes she faces similar problems that most people face in their everyday life. Things like attending work, dealing with co workers, dealing with crushes, and those sorts of things. But rather than go into boring details about it, she puts spins on the stories. She gives people nicknames to fit who they are. These include The Gambler, The Crush, and Mr. Moneybags.

Wendy is also able to convey a story very well. She writes with the idea of wanting to picture the moment. What? Huh? Ever read a good book, that didn’t have every single detail, but had just enough of the facts to get the picture across? That is how Wendy writes.

One of the best things Wendy has to offer is her other projects, be it a full project or a mini one. Her main mini project is photography as she is obsessed with her digital camera. While the pictures won’t win an award, they are a good addition to the blog.

Her other main project is Hottie of the Month. She got bored of people talking about hot people, so she created her own version. Anyone and everyone can be a hottie, just ask.

Over all Wendy’s site has been one I have stuck to because she is so easy going. The site is enjoyable to read and has plenty of reasons to keep coming back. If you don’t believe me, look at her participation last year in the blogathon when she posted 48 different toilet pictures.
twodolla.org

I don’t know who the guy casually lying on the chair is, but I find him very attractive! My first view of twodolla.org! The domain name itself sounded familiar, but I realised that my expectations were quashed when I started to read (which is a good thing!) Although the text was fairly small, it was an easy read.. something that I personally tend to look for in a blog. Its easy to comprehend the simplistic nature of this young woman from Minneapolis from reading the first few lines.

It had only been two minutes, and I’d already gathered a lot about her including work, music tastes & that glue sticks are better than conversation hearts. I don’t even know what the former is! Subsequently entertained by the list of unusual referrers which I can easily identify with.. (believe me, Wendy!)The rest of the main page was fairly consistent in writing style and contained a varying amount of daily life topics most of which are kept concise & in small paragraphs. Highly appreciated!

The layout of twodolla.org is common to most weblogs. A large space on the left for the blog material and a sidebar containing links within and external to the site. Easy to navigate so effective in that sense, however I like a bit of originality.. something that will prevent me from having to scroll down and up for (what it seems) miles in order to breeze through the sidebar. Luckily I can’t really complain with Wendy’s site as the main links were at the top, few as they are, they proved a bit of nice reading.

I became slightly confused as to why she has a password protected section & giving out the password to those who email her or who know the name of her pet cat? Its likely that those who would be interested in that section will be closest to her & perhaps even be implicated in her blog (hence the retributions??), otherwise I don’t think your average reader would bother too much. I identify with her need for privacy however seems that releasing the password so freely (as it seems) isn’t really the way.

Having read some of the ‘100 things’ and a few Deuce Bigalow quotes, I found it difficult to get back to the index page without using the back button on my browser. Perhaps a homing link somewhere would help, unless I’d missed it? I also read some archives which were equally entertaining.

Her entry subjects are derivative of the events surrounding her existence, and example being her grandmother’s fight against Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma & questions a variety of theories about God & whether actual prayer will be listened to and dealt with. Her love affair with Best Buy (workplace amongst other things) is obvious, & spreads throughout the entries; but its work & we all identify when things just don’t go our way. In contrast, a few posted conversations make a change from direct paragraphs.. almost like reading a play! Namely the brief meeting with the attractive cop, (second one she’d been pulled over by that same day). That particular entry concluded with some tasty sarcasm. Thats what I like in a girl! One of the funniest entries I stumbled across was a series of responses to a spamming representative owned by a web hosting company. Its unusual for one to reply to spam, thus any further response deems hilarious, as indicated in the entry.

Wendy is also the brainchild of Hottie of the Month, a website dedicated to nominated non-celebs as well as keeping to her eventful journal. She could exploit her creation a lil bit more by putting a link on the sidebar.
In all, twodolla.org is worth more than it implies, but I sense I need for some more interactive material & more of an incentive to return. However for a passer-by, it’d keep you hooked for a bit.twodolla.org

Woodencracker is easy to navigate and nice to look at. There are probably more pictures than words. And this, in the middle of lots of overlong and needlessly complicated blogs, turns out to be refreshing. But in this point also lies the downside of this type of site: lack of content.

There are lots and lots of nice photographs that fill the blog in the middle of posts and in monthly archives. The photographs are of great quality and many are really interesting.

The navigation is clearly something the author cares about, and it’s greatly appreciated by a reader. Things are easy to find and work smoothly, except for the webcam, at least during the time I visited.

The design feels just right. Very clean and intelligently chosen. It fits the blog nicely. The look of the site is important to the author, and it shows hard work, and probably lots of natural talent.

The posts themselves fall obviously into the journal category. Brian writes down daily activities and situations and the photographs play an important role in this weblog. But sometimes I just felt lost in the middle of 20 pictures and almost no words.
The posts are well written, and don’t intend to be very deep or insightful. They are clear and simple.

To sum up, Woodencracker won’t change your life or the way you think. It won’t even try to. But if you want to read a nicely designed, smartly written and carefully constructed journal with some beautiful pictures, this is one of the good places to begin.WoodenCracker

Whatever I Say is an oddly attracting site. Perhaps it’s title, a seemingly sarcastic spin on the “whatever you say” mantra. Perhaps it’s the subtly funny yet informative commentary on pop culture. Or maybe it’s the bright orange banner luring you in from the get-go.

Whatever I Say is a personal blog, a classification that invites moans from many. You immediatly think of the typical teenage girl blog, rambling on about he-said she-said at a pace that’s dizzying. Whatever I Say, however, has done a fine job at being a blog that’s interesting for everyone to read. The posts stem from the author’s personal life, but expand to a more general scale. Topics include the author’s battle to quit smoking, the web, dating, and music.

The author herself does not openly illicit attention to herself on the blog; one must dig a little deeper to find out information. This just makes it all the more worth it when we find out her name is Katie and that she loves the smell of fresh paper. She’s humble, and so is Whatever I Say. It’s all rather refreshing in this time of “me-me-me” blogs.

The layout is composed of a simple orange banner at the top with a vintage-y feel, proudly providing quick words of observation with every visit. (“When you ride the bus every day, you start to get to know people, whether you like it or not. I haven’t seen the crying man on the bus in a few months, though. I wonder what happened to him.”). The blog itself is easy to read, with the classic black on white combo with orange links thrown in just for kicks.

Whatever I Say is an enjoyable ride through Katie’s brain, and is much deserving of repeat visits. Whatever I Say

“This is your ordinary weblog,” says Agnes, 14, Canadian. In classical three-column layout, snugly crammed into scarcely enough space between two empty borders, we are taken into her life and swamped with visual and textual information.

Unless Agnes had a different journal before this one, congratulations are in order, I guess. Plunk will turn one year old on March 18th, making it (as scary as this is) one of the older weblogs on the block. That’d also make Agnes 13, when she started writing, and quite frankly, it shows. Not that Agnes’ writing is bad, on the contrary, her topics however are those of a young girl. Which isn’t bad, either. Just different.

Speaking about her scribe – whow. Guys and gals, there’s many an adult out there who could use one or two slices of her style and elegance. I find myself often annoyed by the careless approach some of the webloggers I read, take. It’s “you”, not “U”, and it’s “there” and “they’re” respectively – thanks, Agnes, you somewhat restored my faith in weblogging humanity.

Content? We got yer content right here, bub. It’s almost all original (yes, I read most of her one-year-long postings, and found myself dragged into her life more than once), and pretty entertaining at that. Did you know that Chinese sounds like nasal speaking cats eating lemons? No? You should read Plunk, then…

After one year of Agnes, I’m having a hard time criticizing her. After all, I’ve been an invisible, yet close, companion to her in temporal retrospect. But what must be done, must be done, and one of the things I really have to pass judgment on, is her choice of screen estate, Agnes, Agnes, the best part about your blog are the entries – don’t diss ’em by giving only roughly a quarter of the page vertically to them. It’s better than those darned ‘iframe’ or ‘frame in frame’ blogs I so wholeheartedly detest, but not completely perfect, yet.

Agnes, too, seems to be a very talented designer and artist; I just loved her smilie artwork and some of the other things she made. Unfortunately artistry seems to have gotten the better out of her when designing the actual weblog, though – light blue on white makes for very unreadable text, especially when the chosen typeset is as tiny as hers.

What’s the verdict, Mr. Reviewer? I loved the content and style of her postings. The pictures she posts on the rightmost column might interest those “in the know”, personally I viewed them more as something taking away screen estate – they make for a nice layout, though. Her design is artsy, yet not very practical. It’s all in the eye of the beholder here, I guess.

Will I come back? Definitely. Daily? Most likely not, but I’ll keep this weblog in the back of my head, just in case I need some quality reading time.Plunk