Author: admin

“The Mermaid Tavern”. Upon entering this blog, I was greeted with a banner at the top of the page, with several little colorful mermaids going across it.

This was the only thing that caught my eye as far as the appearence of the page. The rest of the page was just one of those simple boring templates that for some unknown reason, seem to be so popular these days. However, to the right hand side, is a small section with some info on the author which I enjoyed reading. As the saying goes, “don’t judge a book by it’s cover”, is very true in this case.

The author of the blog is a grad student obviously with a great sense of humour. She has had her blog running for a little over a month now. I read her posts on her main page , then went into her archives. I will be totally honest, at first I found her entries a bit boring. But as I continued to read, the more I began to smile. The author would tell a joke or a funny story in each entry. I didn’t find all of them funny, but a good majority of them. One of my favorites was one she wrote about the “cookie monster”.

SHE WRITES…

An inside source tells me that Mr. Cookie Monster is especially partial to chocolate chip cookies, though he has been known to partake of the oatmeal raisin ones now and again. And the milk! We mustn’t forget that, like Santa Claus, the Cookie Monster likes milk with his cookies. Besides, why do you think internet websites are always asking if you’ll accept cookies? Think about it! The computer just wants you to be happy like the Cookie Monster. He knows what’s up.

That is just an example of what you will see on her page.

Some people may find it a good read and some may not. Everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion, and everyone has their own taste.

The writing is very clear and easy to read. It’s well spaced and not all crammed together. Maybe in the future, she will spruce up the look of the page a bit.

All in all , it is a good read and will make you smile/laugh. Sure to brighten up your day. On a final note, I think the author has the potential, to make her blog very outstanding in the future. I wish her all the best.The Mermaid Tavern

The Mermaid Tavern’s name is based on a quote by Keats, which she references in the subtitle to the blog page, which is always nice to see.

One of the first things that I also look for is information about the author, links, and icons that display what groups if any the site belongs to. She has a listing of the most recent posts, and an About Me section that includes such tidbits as her Favorite Carpet Color. There are also links to other sites and an archive listing which only dates back to February of 2004 so this would appear to be a recent addition to the blogosphere.

The posting seem pretty regular with a new entry every day or two. I began reading the posts, and they are a bit funny, though her sense of humor does take a period of adjustment. There are no hyper links to the sources of the headlines and jokes, just postings of them. At the end of one such post, which listed various strange headlines along with the authors one-liners inserted there was a reference to the site from which she evidently garnered the headlines, but again there was no hyper link.

She seems to revel in the fact that her sense of humor eludes some if not most of her readers, including herself.

The site is your typical blogspot, simple and clean and slow. When you initially load the site, don’t be surprised if the side panel takes a few moments to display, it did for me and I am on a high-speed connection at work.

There is not a lot of customization that can really be done with blogspot so there are not a lot of unique things on the site. The side panel has been done in center aligned text which to me looks a tad off. The headers for the sections on the side however are right-aligned which seems to add to the disjointed look. A tried and true method is to right-align the entire right column, thereby separating it from the posts and forcing things to line up cleanly no matter how the site is viewed.

The author should link to the sources she uses in her posts, since this is standard “good manners” in the blogosphere and will help net even more hits to her site once she shows up on someone’s referral listing.

I read through approximately a month of posts and while she is funny in her own way, the site is not meant to be read in a long sitting. The jokes and twists of words become a bit tiresome when reading it for long periods of time.

But the site is funny and represents something unique to the sites that I have seen in the past. She does not discuss anything serious on the site or at least does not handle serious issues seriously. The Mermaid Tavern is like a comic strip; it is fun to read once a day as you check out other things, but don’t try to read it like a book.

If you are looking for lighthearted comments on a huge variety of subjects, The Mermaid Tavern would be a nice stop.

I am giving the site 3.5 stars, the writing is good, but there are a few spelling mistakes that I noticed and the design needs to have some more work put into it. Update the design a little and spruce it up and you could easily have a 4.0 site. The Mermaid Tavern

They say honesty is the best policy, but sometimes I just dread being honest , but here goes.

When i first entered the blog “Deletetheweb”, my first impression was “Yet another dull one”. The posts were in the center and the links on the left hand side with very little design to the page.

Along with the links on the left hand side was a link to “100 things about me”. This is where I learned that the author was a 30 year old male from London. I learned a lot about him from reading that section.

I then proceeded to read his entries. Starting with his main page , then into his archives. He wrote about a surgery he has had, he wrote about his blog, his work and just other everyday happenings in his life. After I got halfway through his main page, I started to feel depressed. His entries were actually depressing me.

I thought maybe they would get better if I kept reading. It just didn’t happen. This guy doesn’t even seem to have any confidence in himself. Apparently he doesn’t even seem to think that very many people are reading his blog. Here is an example of a couple of lines he wrote.

I attacked Blog with the digital equivalent of a feather duster today, mercilessly clearing away several months worth of accumulated cobwebs. In an attempt to be friendlier to new readers (not that I have any, but a blog can dream, can’t it?),

I just couldn’t get deep into the posts. To be honest, I enjoyed reading the secton of “100 things about me “, more than I did the entries. There is even one entry where he is talking to his blog. Maybe it was supposed to be funny/amusing, but it just didn’t make me laugh.

In conclusion, the writing is good. Very neat and very easy to read. Maybe if the author could brighten up the design a bit, and spruce up the posts a little so they won’t be so depressing, his blog could have the potential to recieve a rating of 5.iMark

My initial impression of this blog was good. Very good. The crisp, clean layout was a very welcome beginning to my time spent here. The second thing I noticed was the incredibly proper grammar. Yet again I’m reminded of how we here, in North America, have butchered the English language. It was obvious from the start that this blog was not written by a North American.

The content of this blog isn’t anything overly new, different or out of the ordinary. However, it managed to keep me completely interested, to the point that I had to force myself to stop reading in order to write my review. iMark, the blog’s author, is witty, funny, observant and descriptive. The combination of these results in a wonderfully friendly reading experience that makes you laugh, smile and think, which is always a welcome side-effect of a blog, in my opinion.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading through the ‘100 things’ page, as well as the ‘interview with an iMark’ page. I laughed out loud on several occasions while reading that one. The option to skin the site was a nice addition, which, admittedly, I played around with quite a bit.

All in all, I found this site to be flawless. No design, spelling or grammatical errors to detract from the content. iMark obviously takes great pride in his blog. A pride refelcted in every little detail. I absolutely loved reviewing this blog, and I will most certainly be returning.

iMark

Imark manages to make a good first impression. It is a beautifully put together simple and tastefully designed template which adapts well to the even the smallest screen resolution. There are several pages useful in establishing a profile of this author, in particular I would recommend the Interview with imark and the 100 things list. An added bonus for any reader is the fact that this site is actually ‘skinnable’ – a whole range of stunning templates is located under Variations on a theme, and of course in the pull down menu on the index page. All of which show the same simple elegance of the default template.

The author of imark writes very well, his posts are interesting and show more than a modicum of wit. If there wasn’t an about me page here you could learn a lot about this author purely from the content of his blog. The archives go back to September 2003, the largest percentage of which are personal postings. There are plenty of stories from his day-to-day life but they are delivered in such a way as to never fall into the trap that grabs so many who begin posting every dull detail of their lives. There are also plenty of musings on wider subjects, and again they are written in such a manner as to be both thought provoking and engaging.

As previously stated the template is the first striking part of this weblog, it’s a classy design, and it’s immediately apparent to any viewer that this was designed by someone with a real attention to detail. My favourite template out of his range however had to be the default, although the others were equally well put together. The site was very easy to navigate with a good hierarchy of links, and no over-abundance (all too frequently found on weblogs).

There is in fact very little to find fault with at imark. It manages to bridge the grap of displaying both a good design and appealing content. He writes very well, frequently thought provoking, engaging and with real evidence of wit. In fact he makes even the most tedious subject sound fascinating. For me, this is a 5/5 site, easy
navigation, flawless design and good writing. It may be one of many personal blogs out there, but Imark stands out from the crowd for me.
iMark