Month: January 1970

With a name like Earthly Passions, I didn’t know what to expect. I thought long and hard about this, and the only thing I could think of was that the author was going to talk about his life and what he loves. Wow. I was almost dead on. He even says this in his “Why Earthly Passions?” post.

So I get to the site and I notice right away there is an about page. Of course I went to this to find out more about Mark to see what I could connect with him on. Mark is married, has 4 children, is a Christian, works for a radio station, is a financial planner, and is involved with his church. This is probably one of the most detailed about pages I have ever read, less those 100 things about me pages.

So now we know he is going to talk about his life, and we know all about Mark, so guess what the posts are about? You’re right! About his church, his radio show, his family, etc… So what separates this average topic from everyone else? The quality of the posts is one aspect. Mark writes very well and with great attention to detail. Posts have the ability to make you laugh, cry, and think – which is something I always look for in a blog. While some topics get repeated (updates to what is going on), this doesn’t deter you from the weblog like others have done in the past.

The design of the site is your standard 3 column layout. Thankfully he used a color scheme that fits the title and the weblog. Its a calm yellow and olive greenish color scheme that fits in with the fall season, though I don’t know if that was his inspiration or not. The archives are accessible by a calendar or by week. I am glad he decided to add both ways of accessing the archives, since just using a calendar is a major pain. He has done a good job of separating the content that should be in each column which lately is rare.

As far as extras are concerned outside of the about page, we have a photo album. This is built into the typepad service that Mark is using and he is using it very well. I am glad to see him using it the way he does. In addition to the photo album is a list of books he is reading, all with links to Amazon (again a typepad feature). Unfortunately the books do not get a mention in the weblog itself which would be nice.

I have to say that I enjoyed my time at Earthly Passions. Mark did not force feed his Christianity beliefs upon me, but he did not hide them either. This is good because he is able to bring in people to his weblog with different beliefs and thoughts and not turn them away. The posts about his family are probably my favorite, as they are told with such great detail. I recommend checking out Earthly Passions even if it is just to check out what Mark has to offer. Enjoy your time there, because I know I did.
Earthly Passions

When I picked this site for review, I didn’t ponder much on the title as “Butterfly Dani” did not give much away, so I soldiered on and clicked on the link to the site itself.

As soon as I entered the site however, I knew I had struck gold. The template is simple and effective yet (presumably) unique and includes a very pretty picture of a butterfly. The content is also aesthetically easy to read with not a single duff link to be found. In the sidebar there are links to photos which the author has taken, including a photo biography, contact details and a link to an archive posting containing a hundred things about her- which it is easy to skim through and also proves informative.

Now this is certainly a personal weblog – there are few links to other sites to be found (with the exception of one or two music links) and all the content relates to the author, her life and her experiences. However, this is personal blogging at its best. The archives go back to March 2003 and I simply started at the front page and worked my way back, engrossed by every single entry. The writing style is easy to read, extremely unpretentious and VERY honest. The author has strong views on certain things which she is not afraid to express in some posts, sometimes getting quite angry, but can also show amazing vulnerability and sensibility in the next. The author is not afraid to cover the big topics either- politics, religion and death are all tackled as well as the more mundane tasks of work, education, boyfriends and cats. Comments are also provided and used by her regular readers, which often enhance the posts.

In summary, I can only say that if you are interested in experiencing the very humanness and expressivity which blogging can provide, all wrapped up in a nice looking site, then this is one for you.butterfly dani

The Gerbilarium had been placed in the “Humor” category by its author and, gerbils being animals which generally have comedic potential, I looked forward to what I might find.

Now although the weblog is humorous in places, I think really it is more of a personal weblog with humorous aspects to it. Don’t get me wrong, I found some of it funny (particularly the 22nd September entry about a drunken (almost) fight the author had), and this may seem like splitting hairs a bit, but I just felt that humor did not seem to be the main aim of the site.

Anyway, a little of the technicalities first. The design is ok. To be honest, the fact that it is more than a standard template deserves some praise- each post starts off with a black and white drawing of a gerbil, a side bar, and at the top a little intro thingy.

The side bar was pleasingly free of tack- a simple list of links to other areas of the weblog and different websites. The other areas included some short stories, some opinions on different subjects (pop music and the Oscars were the two I read), a couple of reviews of mostly hip-hop related stuff and some spoof news stories which seemed pretty well written. Nice to see an “About Me” page too (the gerbils thing comes from keeping them as pets by the way).

The content overall is pretty well written come to think of it- the author certainly is literate and can express himself clearly. Like I said, all of the content is written in a fairly witty style and mainly relates to personal things or ideas which he has going on at the time. The entries are quite long too and, although the archives only go back as far as the end of June 2003, there is plenty here to keep most people entertained for a while. I felt the subject matter could be improved a little though- in his “About Me” bit, the author is worried about weblogs being too self indulgent and I suspect that, ironically this is one of his downfalls. It seems that occasionally he is trying a bit too hard to be funny and cutting through all the clever bits, very little is actually said.

Overall I have given this weblog 3.5 because it is good as far as it goes and better than many weblogs, but it could go further, both in terms of improved design and maybe some less flippant content to give it more balance.The Gerbilarium

With a name like Doomsday America, I was expecting a blog that started roughly around the events of September 11th and being a very political based blog. Oh how I was wrong. What we have is an attempt to publish a book on the web that did not get published yet. The purpose of the website is “It is the intent of this web site to provide a method of making the contents of this book available to all who would heed its warnings.”

So the page loads and of course we have a picture of a New York skyline. What a surprise there. The entire site has a black background with blue and red text. The font size has been increased due to the fact that blue text on black background is hard to read. The links look like they are pre-made from a template as they are not even the same font as that of the main text. And finally as far as the design goes, the entire site is in frames. Any of you who saw me on TechTV’s Call For Help will know that I told Leo (the host of the show) that it was 2003 and he didn’t need frames any more.

Moving onto the content itself; Yes it is informative. Yes it is opinion based. Yes there is very little content. The website is posting one chapter at a time on the web. This is done obviously to draw in more people, but I think this is actually turning people away. There is no note saying how frequent the chapters are going to be, just that more will be coming. The table of contents says there are 21 chapters, but only the first chapter has been posted! And to make matters worse, the opinions stated do not have any facts to back them up.

One of the things the site is doing correctly is they encourage feedback and reader participation. Of course, this can only work if the message boards are up and running. But they aren’t. So another aspect this site has to draw in readers is not doing its job.

I am not sure why this site was submitted to us to review. It is only considered a weblog by the loosest of standards. This is more of a publication that will just sit there. I am curious as to why this book was written in early 2001 (before September 11) and is just now being put on the web. Why the two years? This site has a lot of work before it will garner readers. I do NOT recommend visiting this site, as it does not have enough content for you to read past 10 minutes, the message boards are not up and functional, and to be honest, it just isn’t all that interesting to read.
Doomsday America

Well, we know it isn’t a blog, per se. There’s not much here, but I’ll comment on the site as-is.

First, it does look dated. The black background with brightly-colored type was often used for emphasis years ago, but today I think it detracts from the validity of the message. If the author wants his work taken seriously, I suggest he consider changing that. A visible hit counter is also a last-century website detail.

Links should be easy to read and active. Most people aren’t going to bother copying and pasting, and in this case, the dark type makes them easy to ignore.

I wonder about the reasoning behind the posting of a chapter at a time on an occasional basis. I can understand why one would want to serialize a book, because it’s a good way to develop a following, but in this case, a regular schedule would probably be better. I once considered serializing a book of mine. I polled my newsletter subscribers, and they felt that they’d enjoy a serialization, as long as it was on a regular schedule they could count on. It didn’t matter to them whether it was weekly or bi-weekly, but any interval longer than that would be too long for them. They felt they’d forget to visit the site, even with e-mailed updates.

As to the content; it’s hard to make an informed judgement with so little to read. I will say that the existing content would benefit from a good editing, since there are many mistakes of punctuation, spelling and grammar. There may be some good ideas brewing; there may be a simple rehash of oft-repeated ideas. Only time can answer that, and after I’ve read the full book I’ll know better.

I hope the site owner has found my suggestions helpful. There are possibilities here. If presented in the right way, this site could develop a following with some active discussion, once the message board is active.

Doomsday America