Month: January 1970

Huh. WageSlave is a pretty busy three column PHP-Nuke site full of the highs and lows of work. I’m sure everyone has a story or two. This is where some of them have ended up.

I sighed early when I tried to access ‘older articles’ on the site and instead was given an article ‘search’ feature. What if I don’t know the title and simply want to browse the older articles? I think that link was labeled wrong. I later found what I was looking for under the stories archive link instead. Phew.

The concept of wageslave.net is interesting. Anyone can contribute their stories of workplace joy and misery. The website has a few regular contributors and is seeking more writers. I enjoyed the stories. Human nature is a curious thing. I think the insider stories from ‘work’ clearly reveal many examples of this. Since you can post anonymously you get some real truth here, such as in the entry entitled ‘To my crap coworker’: ‘To my coworker who thinks it’s ok to talk about your dislike for (blacks, gays, pizza delivery people, etc.) at company functions, you need to get a life, stop drinking on the job and take a diversity class! ‘ Other site features include ‘Ask the Bitchy Assistant’ which only has a few entries but has great potential. The site while busy in appearance only has a few months worth of content. If this site starts getting a lot of traffic it could end up with a wonderful collection of stories.

A great idea for a site. Well worth a bookmark. Hopefully the word will get out about this site so it can develop a rich archive and a diverse collection of work related stories. I’m sure many people would be interested in reading them.
WageSlave

Scott Aaron Pepper is a Blogspot site with some pizzazz. A taupe background and rusty brown header blend nicely with the white entry fields. I like the color separation surrounding the two column scheme. It makes for a vista that is easy on the eyes.

The Google ads are a bit of a downer though.

I found virtually no information about our author. But this is not really a personal blog so I suppose it doesn’t matter that much. One is still curious about these things however. A well written about section can help make a connection to your readers.

What we do have here is a movie, TV, music and book review site.
And a very comprehensive one indeed. This blog has been around since January of 2004. In the sidebar I found neatly arranged categories of movie, music, dvd and book reviews complete with photos of same. Very appealing layout.

The entries themselves are clearly written and span an impressive array of current events in the entertainment world. Some are simple announcements of upcoming programs or movies and others are in depth reviews. Our author occasionally writes for Blogcritic also.

There is a special emphasis on American Idol. If you are a fan, this site will most likely appeal to you.

In one post he mentions a street artist that I want to pass on here.
This is worth a look, and I am happy to have been introduced to this artist. www.kurtwenner.com/

As for the writing style, I could not fault him on presentation or content, but I would be remiss if I did not mention, that many of the entries lacked …passion. They sometimes fell into the book report mode. I would have liked a more lively opinion from time to time.

But overall I was as impressed with this blog, in spite of my curmudgeonly attitudes towards entertainment in general and TV in particular. Check it out and see what you think.

scott aaron pepper

As a contributor to BlogCritics.org, Scott Pepper knows nearly exactly how and what to write when reviewing anything, whether it be a movie, television show, or whatever other type of pop culture he’s indulging in at any given time. Reviewing a weblog like this, a site that’s primarily filled with reviews, was obviously an intimidating quest.

Scott’s not kidding around when it comes to the quality in which he watches the movies or television shows that he reviews. In this post, which begins his first of many reviews of the high definition format, his Sony 32-inch Plasma TV and THX optimizer definitely make his television watching experiences enjoyable.

Getting to know Scott poses a bit of a challenge as there’s really nowhere to go to learn more about the author of all of these well-written reviews. As with most Blogger templates, I was hoping for at least a link to his Blogger profile, but even that was non-existent. With a site that deals with reviews, a personal note probably isn’t necessary to some. You gather that with his writing experience through Blog Critics, the way general writing style, and the fact that he’s sitting in front of a 32” plasma TV most nights, he’s not just some schmuck writing for no reason. Scott’s a thorough writer whose experience behind the keyboard or with a pen in hand of certainly paid nice dividends.

The layout, as previously mentioned, is one that comes standard with Blogger, but Scott has done some tweaking to it by placing images of the recent books, movies, and CDs he’s reviewed in the sidebar. This is a nice touch and comes off as user-friendly.

One of the best features of Scott’s site happens to be the variety of reviews that he does. There are episode-by-episode reviews of the past third season of Fox’s American Idol for those that have been sucked into this type of television programming, but there are also reviews of independent films that your Average Joe probably hasn’t heard of, like Scott’s review of the DVD, Nothing So Strange. With the DVDs that are reviewed, not only do you get a rating from the author about the movie, but also what he thought of the DVD and the extras attached.

Scott’s weblog, which is only titled “scott aaron pepper”, is one that’s a sure hit with anyone following the pop culture scene. It’s well-written, fun to catch up on, and above all, very informative.

scott aaron pepper

Go to this site, and BANG! Movie reviews. Television reviews. Occasionally music and book reviews. Other than the blog’s title (which is Scott Aaron Pepper), you learn very little about Scott Aaron Pepper. For example, why is he reviewing movies, television, music and books? Is he a high-school student doing this for credit? Is he a professional critic, posting his stuff to a personal blog? What city (or country) does he live in?

I guess what I’m saying is, I like to easily find information about the person whose blog I’m delving into. I understand that some people don’t want to do an entire Blogger profile on themselves, but a few words would suffice for those of us visiting the blog for the first time. It helps us, Scott. We want to know.

Upon further delving, it seems Scott does post these same reviews to blogcritics.org. From one of his sidebar links I discover that he’s a “Boston blogger,” thus I surmise he must be from Boston. He also has links to photos from the Democratic National Convention (held in Boston) in his sidebar, along with publicity film posters and book jackets linked to recent reviews of movies, books, and so on. It may be a standard blogger template, but it’s done very well.

I genuinely enjoyed reading Scott’s reviews. They are smart, well-researched, objective, and informative. On some days he will post “So-and-So television Show to Premiere Tonight” and include articles and previews from So-and-So show. Then later in the day, he will post his review. Since you see the most recent post first in a Blogger format, this is a tad redundant. Being that readers presumably aren’t checking his site every 2-3 hours, they will certainly read the review first and then scroll down and lo, and behold, there is the “Don’t Miss the Premiere of…” post. Perhaps he could wait until the next day to post the review to avoid this deja vu all over again.

The only time you get a hint of what Scott likes personally is reading his earliest archived posts and his American Idol recaps. His more recent posts are all strictly reviews (or previews). I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Scott has an affinity for Jennifer Garner, due to the sheer number of posts regarding anything she’s ever had anything to do with. He remains objective, however, admitting that Daredevil was a really crappy movie.

I would give this site a higher rating if it just told me more about Scott Aaron Pepper.
scott aaron pepper

There’s something to be said about a site that just give off a very clean appearance. Orange Haired Boy does just that. It loads in Internet Explorer quickly and flawlessly, greeting readers with black text on a white background. Apropos, the color chosen for the many links throughout the site is orange. The site design, while it is the standard three column layout, was the first thing I noticed, and the first of many things at this site that I enjoyed.

There are the typical sidebar links – a brief about section with a link to even more details about the Orange Haired Boy named Lewis, a webcam, archives, and all those good bits of blog tidbits. For the extremely curious about this blogger’s habits, there’s even sections where you can keep tabs on how many keystrokes Lewis has taken at his computer. Dare I say Lewis might just be teetering on that line of technology-obsessed? From reading his entries, I don’t think he’d mind.

Lewis started blogging at orangehairedboy.com in June 2003, according to his very first post. From there, I just kept reading and reading. It wasn’t difficult to find myself clicking through different links in Lewis’s posts. Most of the posts are very light-hearted, and are often only a short paragraph or two of text. This made Orange Haired Boy a very quick blog to completely and enjoyably navigate through.

Spelling and grammar are strong points of this weblog, which is another aspect that probably makes it so easy to read. When he does make a small spelling mistake, his friends and readers of this blog are sure to point it out, and Lewis certainly takes it in stride.

Right now, living in Florida, Lewis is dealing with the results of the recent string of hurricanes and tropical storms that have battered the state he lives in, as well as training for a brand new job he was very excited about landing. Good luck with both of those new items, Lewis!

While the weblog portion of the site is definitely the main attraction, if you will, I would be remiss to not make mention of the rest of the site. Webloggers will definitely find the scripts portion of the site as a great addition, which include password protecting particular entries and a way to keep track of entry popularity. Lewis writes these scripts himself. I know I’m planning implementing a few of them on my own weblog.

Pop culture, technology/blog goodies, current events – there’s honestly a little something for everyone to read throughout the year and a half of archives. While this Orange Haired Boy doesn’t necessarily get too detailed about many of the things happening in his life, it is easy for readers to not only breeze through his posts, but to also feel a common connection with Lewis just as a regular type of guy.

orange haired boy