Month: January 1970

Yet another chick blog. Yet another well-designed table layout. Yet another bout of somewhat senseless rambling posted to the Internet for mass consumption. Yet another nice layout. The layout was mentioned already, wasn’t it?



Charming Delusions’ layout, a crisp use of tables which views equally well in MSIE 5.5 and NS 6.1, is certainly the best aspect of the site. This is not to say that all of the author’s entries are without merit. To be certain, many of the author’s entries are quite entertaining if one does not mind the style of writing, which is reminiscent of a teen’s diary but not nearly at titillating. The 21 year old author mainly discusses events in her personal and academic life, but often makes references to people who are unknown and poorly defined for the reader. A bit more background, within each entry, of the people and events being discussed would prove helpful to the average reader and would make the entries a bit less confusing.



The author’s composition is fair, but the lack of capitalization and the occasional use of double periods at the end of sentences are wearisome and detract from the content within the entries. This unusual writing style, combined with the author’s tendency to ramble and/or jump abruptly from one topic to the next, will remind reader’s of a teen blog. A “cleanup” of the author’s writing style could only enhance the quality of her entries and, as result, improve the overall appeal of the entire weblog.



Charming Delusions features links to various other weblogs as well as links to the site’s past layouts. The archive links work and there are music, photos, and biography sections within the site. The site is truly well-designed and is easily navigable.



Charming Delusions will appeal mainly to female readers, 16 – 24, as well as college students. Charming Delusions is not the most content abundant nor witty weblog to be found, but it is worth a look.





charming delusions

When you first visit this site, you’re presented with one of those “page has moved” messages. I generally don’t like these, and this is certainly no exception. This aside, when you first visit the weblog, you’re presented with a basic layout: weblog in center, links and other stuff on right, title at the top.



This aside, I began reading. It immediately struck me as to how funny it was. It kept me reading down and down the page. It seemed the further down the page I got, the more I lost interest in the weblog. The most recent entries are really amusing, but get duller as you read more into the site. Even though it was written fairly well, there was nothing to really grab my attention.



The design, as stated before, is nothing special. I think it works for the site though. Each page within the site follows the same design, except the title at the top changes. The title in each page was replaced with something funny about that particular section. For example, the about page says “so ya wanna know all about me, huh? well here’s some interesting & completely useless info on yours truly, the netdork – ”



There’s a few other section in the site, like ones about his tattoos, an “about page” and a few others. They’re really nothing special, but they’re not bad either.



This weblog is just another average weblog, and, depending on your preference, something you may or may not want to visit. I just wish he would replace the “page has moved” page with something that automatically redirects to the new address.

The NetDork’s Weblog

This weblog is, very simply, a fun place to hang out. The author’s writing style is easy to read and brings out a lot of his personality, especially his sense of humor. His observations on life on and off the ‘net are interesting and had me both laughing (a lot! For example — “latest sign that the apocalypse is approaching – tim mcgraw performing with *nsync.”) and saying “hmmm?”



But there’s much more to this site than just his blog. I like the way his “about me” page is set up and that fact that it actually tells the reader something about him. He also has a page dedicated to his awesome collection of DVDs.



The site is easy to navigate and the layout is simple, but engaging. (How can you not like a site with a lava lamp on it?)



If you want to read a weblog written by someone with something to say who knows how to say it, this is the place to be.

The NetDork’s Weblog

The graphics to the left caught my eye. Interesting; the drawing of the man with his brain represented and being “jacked into” electronically was just right. Below it, another drawing, designed in the way of a sign. Again, interesting. Standard blog design, group in nature. So far, so good.



I took a look at the bios page, and immediately found that this was a group blog for certain. There were more people here listed than in my department at work; quite a large and diverse group. I read through the bios, some of them more serious than others, and set about reading the blog itself.



The first entry was by a person who calls himself “The Big Bamboo,” with a picture accompanying his posts that looks suspiciously like an actor from the 70’s. Alan Arkin? Adam Arkin? Who know/who cares. What I did care about was the writing, and I was laughing out loud. The entry was filled with humorous anecdotes, lively writing, and dry humor. The bit about the lawn statues had tears in my eyes! A lawn George Michael… Mother Mary with the band shell behind her… very funny stuff!



I continued to read through the rest of the entries by the other contributors and was very impressed. They didn’t refer to inside jokes, but engaged the readers in a complimentary fashion. One of the entries even went into the background a bit about the staff, talking about their hijinx in high school. This gave the site some added dimension, a more personal touch.



Topics ranged from stealing silverware to break dancing to knocking out soccer coaches (yet another story that had me yelping out loud, laughing until my sides ached). Nothing is sacred here, yet it’s not wholly irreverent. The Big Bamboo seems to post the most, and his entries are not to be missed!



The only downsides I found were some spelling errors and an archives link that was inoperative at the time of my visit. I would have liked to have seen more of this bunch’s jacked thoughts!



If you want to have a really good time laughing your way through the observations of this hilarious bunch, go NOW to Jacked Thoughts! You’ll be glad you did!

jacked THoughts

This Girl’s Blog, as it is called, it the most awesome blog I have reviewed so far! I look at design, content and blogging quality when I review, and this has many more plusses than minuses.



The first thing I noticed when I visited the site was the layout. It is simple and complicated at the same time, which makes it quite interesting. The HTML may be somewhat simple, but she makes the graphics, and they are superb! Then I read the posts on the front page. This girl is totally unique. The title or topic of each post is a song she is currently addicted to. I find it cool because I can open up Aimster and see what she likes. After reading her great and funny posts on the index page, I checked for an archive. This is the first site that I reviewed that had an archive! As I suspected, all the posts were of fantastic quality. This girl is a great writer. As I scanned the site for content, I was surprised to find lots of it, along with a cam! She is also a great poet, which one can tell from the Poetry section. She knows her options in the Beliefs section, and opened my eyes to topics I never gave much thought to. The last section I checked out was the Random section, where I saw that she is a very comical person. She tells of her ups and downs in life in a humorous way. All these things wrap together in the greatest package I’ve seen so far.



I am a hard person to please, it is true. This site would have received the 5.0 rating if the Music and Current links were not broken. I do not blame the blog creator, though, because I have done the same often. If you have a spare minute, or hour, I say this is the site that you should visit. I know it’s one of my dailies from now on!

This Girl’s Blog