Author: admin

One Stop Thought Shop – that sounds promising….

The opening paragraph displayed on the palest blue header reads:

“the web log of Brian Hayes, a personal blog about ideas or biographical views sometimes written in the first person by a hardworking fellow who is big on love, tolerance, freedom and the human potential. • My interests shift from tech and science and politics to craftsmanship and building. Here are a few interesting tools, techniques and ideas.”

That would be an understatement. The most current entry of September 23rd is front and center on the page, and declares proudly: “Mark Twain For President 2004”.

So we know we are in the theoretical realm right off the bat.
In my admittedly rather short Weblog Review career, I have yet to run across a blog that discusses such a variety of subjects. Our author not only writes about Mark Twain for President, but gadgets of all kinds, soil testing experiments, discussions on the meaning of Nirvana, pet food label rules, Noam Chomsky, plus a consistent smattering of political topics.

Added to this dizzying array of interests, he also maintains two other blogs. One he calls “Construction” and the other is a computer/technology blog. They are crammed with even more amazingly diverse things. Both are worth a look.

I wanted to browse the archives which go back to September of 2003, but not one of the links were functional on the day of my visit. Even though they were not working, I noticed that they are listed by full date, thus making for a rather long list. A month my month archive link would be less cumbersome in my opinion. Also the sidebar had been relegated to the bottom of the page, making for awkward navigation. I’m sure a small adjustment would take care of it. There is no comment function, which I thought was curious.

My overall impression was that the author is a quite intelligent and complex person with his fingers in many pies. But that very quality, plus a rather oblique writing style made for a kind of muddled picture. Now, I will admit that taken one day at a time, this blog might be a lot more user friendly. But read all at once, it was a bit overwhelming.

This blog would appeal to the technophile and those with wide ranging realms of curiosity. To me this site and its companion blogs are the epitome of the word “eclectic”.

http://brianhayes.com

Incredible! A picture of The Incredibles! Pixar! Ah, such a brilliant team of artists there. Certainly they influenced Ms. MJ to design such a clean site (this isn’t your run-of-the-mill Blogger template, even if it is not her own design). Cool tones of sky blue and grey, along with a pulsing silver circle at the top of the page, made for a pleasant introduction to MJ’s Blagh, Blagh, Blagh. Admittedly, I actually turned up the speakers thinking I might be missing some audible accompaniment, but that was not case: the sound waves are purely for looks. There’s the usual sidebar table with a Blogger profile for both MJ & her pal Tracy (LOVED the little comment up above the “Contributors” heading—do read it for yourself!), archives, “Blagh” Roll, and the like. The archive list is quite long though, because it is done daily. As the blog ages, I would highly recommend switching to weekly or monthly archiving, if only to cut down on the clutter, which is very subtle, since the links are a pale blue against the already blue background.

Pulling up the standardized Blogger profiles on MJ & Tracy allowed me to enjoy a snapshot of their recent posts as well as acquaint myself with who these women are. Both hail from Wisconsin, but put away those misgivings you may have about the Midwest (my parents grew up in Green Bay): these gals are witty, personable, and an absolute hoot! MJ advises us that her Blagh is older than it appears because of some unfortunate misadventures in the land of blogging. Tracy, in turn, comments on the various maladies of cereal. Both are aware of the audience, offering comic relief and interesting highlights of their daily lives. Their interaction with each other through various posts further demonstrates what can only be a heartfelt, easygoing friendship by two very pleasant people.

Finally, visitors won’t want to miss “100 Things About MJ That You Were Afraid To Ask”, which camps out beneath the most recent posts. Hopefully Tracy is already working on her own list; after all, MJ & Tracy are the dynamic blogging duo. MJ’s Blagh Blagh Blagh is definitely a great site to visit if you’re looking for clean, light-hearted, rollicking fun. Go Packers!
MJ’s Blagh, Blagh, Blagh

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

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

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