Author: admin

There’s not much to the weblog portion of this website. From the end of September, there are only about a dozen entries. None of these entries are extremely in depth, with the longest and most heartfelt one being a brief review of the movie Jackass.

Aside from the brief weblog, there’s also a very well put together photo gallery, a separate portion for rants and raves, and a section called “Cult of Mac”. The ranting and raving portion of the site is by far the most opinionated part of the site, and it’s really the only place where you can really read how Sean feels about certain topics. From the available rants and raves, Sean covers everything from girlfriends to the saga in the Middle East to anything and everything technology-related.

Overall, the writing is just okay. There were too many grammatical and spelling errors for me to say it was anything better than that. This is another place where the lack of entries hurt any type of rating I could have give Sean.



The updates don’t come as often as they probably should to keep a steady stream of visitors coming back to the site.

The layout of the site is nice. The navigation menu on the upper left hand side of the site is very slick. The sidebar of links is also a nice touch and lets readers see what Sean is currently reading and listening to. The design is very clean.



This isn’t a terrible site. In order for it to be a great site, however, I needed to see more quality AND more quantity. Once that happens, this could definitely be a site worth visiting.
Shaghaghi.net

When I find myself saying “Holy crap, me too!” in the three paragraphs of the first entry I read on a weblog, I know it’s gotta be a good one.

Instantly, I liked the design of the site. It’s somewhat simple, yet it’s effective and works well with the site. The blue that’s used for the background give the site a bold, yet not overly bright look, and the goldfish image that’s used is perfect for the site. A great navigation system thrown into the mix makes the overall appearance of this site one I’m definitely impressed with.

The first entry of the site wasn’t the only one I felt connected with. The way Nicole writes combined with the general type of person she seems to be through reading about her daily life makes me feel some type of a connect with this writer. And I don’t think I’m the only one that this applies to.

I like the “cast” section of the weblog. One thing about beginning to read a brand new weblog is having no idea who the heck the writer is talking about. Sure, the author knows exactly who it is and perhaps those that have been regularly following the weblog also have an idea. For those of us just discovering Go Fish, the brief explanations of each “cast member” help us grasp a better understanding of who Nicole refers to.

The archives of this site goes all the way back to April 2002, and Nicole does a very consistent job of posting entries regularly enough to make people come back on a daily, if not more frequent, basis.

After thorough consideration, I couldn’t find a reason not to give Go Fish a 5.0 rating. Keeping that in mind, I’d certainly recommend anyone stopping by this site and reading what Nicole’s up to for the day. I bet you find yourself as entertained and nearly addicted as I did.

Go Fish

My initial impression was a long, low — Whoa!! followed by an appreciative
pause. Some really good design and layout on this site.

Since this blog is new the navigation is yet fairly simple. There are links
to a bio, a links page, a guestbook, etc. on the left, but the blog entries are
all right on the main ‘news’ page.

This is a personal blog, with entries typical of that genre. It has the less
wordy flow of your average ‘guy’ blog (girls tend to say much more about
themselves) but does get into the author’s hobbies (college, gaming, hip-hop,
etc.)

What makes a personal blog good (well, in my opinion, anyway) is how well the
author allows the reader into their mind and life. This blog has a good
beginning, but the author needs to improve his writing style so that we’re not
having to run after him so much (as in trying to figure out what he’s saying) as
well as tell us more about what’s going on. What was the argument with the
friend about? Was this a guy friend or a girl friend? Believe it or not, your
average reader wants to know these things, why else would we be there. Some
people might call in voyeurism, I prefer to think of it as the natural desire we
all have to bond with others, to get to know people and like them. I got to know
Sean (the author of this bog) a little bit, and liked what little I saw. A blog
is an amazing tool for letting all those unnamed, faceless potential friends get
to know you better.

For now it’s a little shallow on the personal bit, but since it’s a new blog
that could very well change. The potential is certainly there.

OFFbEaT – Mixture Online

On opening this site, it looks Celtic/Goth, with black, gray, and purple colors throughout. But when you click the Who Am I link, a startlingly cute fuzzy animal appears. This must be Trishymouse. I have to say this was about the last thing I was expecting to see, and I started to warm up to the mysterious author.

The author is an systems administrator and a writer. The purpose of her weblog seems to be to capture news and other quotations (with links) that point out the sinister aspects of the US government. In her Who Am I section, she describes her own life to an interesting degree of detail. She seems to be in early middle age, and this fits with her communication style. Her target audience would be other adults, especially those with a left-leaning and spiritual side.

The writing is thoughtful, careful, and expressive, adequate for readers who can relate to the author’s views and approach to life. She does not reach out to draw in readers who are neutral or uninterested to start with. If the author would like to draw in more readers, I’d suggest adding some chatty commentary text to each post. Personally, I like to feel that I’ve gotten to know the blogger a little bit, or I lose interest.

The design and the content are a little incongruous. The design looks severe and a little depressing, but the author shows an optimistic and tenacious attitude about life (if not about the Bush administration). In navigating the site, you have to rely on the back button quite a bit. More sophisticated linking would be helpful. This is a minor complaint.

If you visit the site, do read the Who Am I? pages. They provide interesting background about the author and her family. You can also read her poetry and see her photography.

This site is not so unique or interesting that I would recommend you visit it pronto. But it’s worth a look if you have something in common with the author, or are looking for a well-written personal weblog to add to your bookmarks. I rate it a 3.5.The Journey

Instantly, I loved the domain name for this site –hereinreality.com. The potential the domain name alone has is limitless.

When you are “Here in Reality”, you’re in one huge site. The general idea of this site is a new/links site that guides readers to the daily news, sports, deaths, or other bizarre happenings that the author of the site had deemed important enough to share at Here in Reality.

The Webmaster’s Blog, which is featured on the main page of the site, is the only portion of the weblog where the author exhibits some type of personal interjection to the links that Leigh Ann shares with readers. She really does a nice job of covering just about every aspect of current events, which is sometimes not an easy task.

A really neat addition to this site is the “Keyword Headline Feeds” where you can search a giant news database for any current news involving whatever keyword you should choose. Quite a neat little tool!

I really can’t get over how extensive this site is. It’s HUGE. While still visiting “Here in Reality”, I played a game of checkers (and won!), tried to see a Freddie Prinze Jr. striptease (no such luck, though), saw that even Yasmine Bleeth looks like crap in her driver’s license picture, and experienced my first (and probably last) javascript religious experience. I kept going throughout the site and found a little tribute to the “Dude, you’re gettin’ a Dell” kid, and some helpful survival links for just about every kind of threat of a natural disaster.

The design of the site is very simple, but with a site that focuses solely on current events, news, etc., there’s really no need for anything flashy or special. The current layout is a really good choice for the site.

You can really spend tons of time at this site, and while there’s plenty of news for you to catch up on, there are also some fun things to take in while you’re visiting “Here in Reality”.

Most of the entries throughout the site consist of just the link to the actual news article, and an excerpt from that specific link. While it does intrigue one to click to read the full article, I personally would have liked to read some personal thoughts or feelings by the author. Of course, that perhaps is not the purpose of this site, so I didn’t let that affect my overall rating of “Here in Reality”.Here In Reality