Author: admin

So, Mr Harpoon was sounding good. He used to be a baby model, everyone thinks he’s a “nice guy”, he writes, can put both his legs behind his head and has great personal hygiene. But then he began to show a disturbing obsession with Liverpool FC and admitted that he thought Paul McCartney gave off “mystique.” Why is it that just when a man is beginning to sound interesting he brings up the two most boring subjects in the world: football and Paul McCartney?

Luckily theharpoon.net provides a separate page on football, so if it’s not your thing you can avoid that page and stick with the main weblog. This is quite media related and a typical day’s post will discuss MP3s or films/movies. There is a large variety as the author seems to have quite eclectic tastes so you never really go a page without seeing a comment about a film you’ve seen or an album you enjoy. The personal aspect of the site is delivered mostly through quizzes and surveys, such as the Friday Five. Coming back to the football though, you never quite escape it. Somehow it creeps into every page.

The site’s layout is simple with a red and grey colour scheme. I’m guessing it’s another Liverpool thing. The layout worked okay, if a little dull, but I found the writing hard to read against the dark grey background. It was also frustrating to be greeted with a ‘password needed’ message when I clicked on the pics link. I’d like to think that there are illicit photos in there of the author himself, but seeing as you can email him for a password I imagine it’s just a personal thing.

I get the impression that for other die-hard Liverpool supporters this site would be a dream come true. For the rest of us there’s something to be found in the more personal and entertainment related posts. The only advice I’d give the author is in regard to the layout and football: a lighter background and some therapy are needed.
theharpoon.net

When you have a topical blog such as technology or war or even movies it can sometimes be difficult to stay on topic. But Mike is able to constantly talk about his Honda Pan, and has been doing so for quite some time.

The blog itself is very well written. Topics range from different trips, to work on the bike, to other motorists and their problems with driving.

At first I have to admit I wasn’t into this blog at all. I was thinking, how could this guy really blog about his Honda Pan so much? But then I decided to read the blog backwards (from the first post to the most recent post) and really got into it. I got to read about the journey from start to present which was amazing. All of the trials and tribulations, and it was told with a great amount of detail. Don’t let the archive link fool you though; he did take some time off from the beginning of the blog until more recently (5 months).

The design of the site is simple and yet functional. The blog is in the main column, with the links to stuff in the right column. The archives are in a javascript powered drop down menu which I did not like. While I see the functionality of it, it should have at least been powered by a submit button and not when an option is selected. The other part of the design that got me was the “posted by Mike…” line was just below the header and not the actual post. This caused some confusion through out the reading of the blog.

Over all this is a very well done blog. If you are interested in Honda Pans or just motorcycles in general you will probably enjoy this. The blog is not very long to read from start to finish and is a good one to read. I am glad I read the journey so far, and look forward to reading more about it.
Living with a Honda Pan European

I’d glanced at this site several times before it was submitted to The Weblog Review, often finding it linked off of someone else’s site. The content is hard to jump right into and grasp. Some background of where Ruzz is coming from and what he’s about is helpful, and I was able to latch on to that through reading the archives of the site.

In the very first month of journal archives, I knew Ruzz would be covering a huge variety of topics when he quotes Bette Midler and not more than five minutes later remarks about Nine Inch Nails. That is variety at its finest.

The design fits this site quite well. Never does Ruzz proclaim to be cheery or bright, and the dark layout he uses certainly doesn’t portray that. It’s a pretty simple layout and it’s easy to navigate. The colors that were chosen work great together. The daily photos that run down the left side of the weblog are a clever addition and present some nice photography work, as well! Another feature that popped out as one of my favorites is the “inputing” section of the site, where Ruzz gives us brief reviews on the books he’s reading. I’d normally point out the spelling error in “inputing”, but thought it might be intentional, sort of like a combination of the words input and computing… A couple of the older archives are a different format then the rest of the site.

Ruzz has been adding bits and pieces to this weblog for almost three solid years. And by solid, I mean multiple posts every day, rarely having a day go by without some words of wisdom to share with his following. From reading the comments and posts, it seems that those that have been following Ruzz and all he blogs about are people that have been reading up on him for quite sometime.

When the weblog first started taking its shape in the latter months of 2000, Ruzz was a wordy guy. Posts were paragraphs and paragraphs long, but they meant something. They were deep and they had you thinking.

This guy, who always seems to be in the middle of some type of website coding, takes time out to really let readers get involved into what’s going on in his head. It could be something as widely discussed as the latest in world events, a new personal goal for himself, or even how he’s battling with his own emotions and self trials. You find it all and you can’t help but really get into it all either.

Not all of the posts are as deep and philosophical as others, but they don’t need to be. As I said earlier, variety is certainly a key element with this site. Snippets from chat transcripts fill some posts, and usually these are the posts that have you chuckling to yourself or just shaking your head because it’s such a contrast from the multi-paragraph post to entries before discussing Thoreau.

It’s hard to discover that which is Ruzz from just reading a couple of posts here and there. It wasn’t until I’d gone through month after month of entries that I felt like I might be “getting” the guy. The only thing I can think of that would aid in getting brand spanking new readers to “get” this site would be an about section. Having said that, I don’t really think that the purpose of Ruzz’s site is to draw as many new visitors as he possibly can.

It’s definitely a site worth checking out. But if you were to check this site out, I would definitely recommend going back in time through the archives to find out a little bit more about creator behind this weblog.

ruzz.ca

Blanksblog right away gave me the impression of being the home of a new blogger, and it is, but that doesn’t imply anything bad at all.

Being a relatively new weblog, the first post written in february, it can be difficult to realize where Blanksblog is aiming. But it is clear that the writer has already learned an important lesson. Some of the first posts are just too long even if they are still good, but the newer ones really show an improvement in lenght and quality.

The design is a standard template from blogger.com, but it’s still one of the best standard templates to use while starting a blog. It allows easy and clear reading while providing a nice and ordered space for links and extras.

Music is important to the author and it should probably play a bigger part in this blog. The purpose of the site is sometimes lost amidst random postings that are many times smart and entertaining, but there never seems to be a sense of unity in the blog.

This is a blog that still needs work, but it’s clearly getting better and learning from it’s mistakes. It’s still and average site, but the writer has the potential to turn this into a really interesting place in the future.blanksblog

After having read this blog on and off over the last few days and having no clue as to where the title’s name derives from, I finally discovered that the name, Azarok is the name of the character A. J. (the writer) created to play the game EverQuest. Hm … sometimes you just need to probe a bit more in a site to find out what you need.

Now that the mystery of the title has been solved, who is this A.J? A.J. who is also known as “Teefies,” “Big Sexy the Giant Killer,” and “Little Dancin’ Buddah,” resides in the city of Dallas, Texas. He’s currently living with his fiancée, Michelle and their five “gatos” as he refers to them and enjoys hanging out with his fiancée and his friends.

On to the blog we go!

A.J. in the last month or so has been keeping his readers notified of website’s updates since he’s been changing his layout. I found his blog so-so overall. He mostly writes about his weekends, little events he’s going to such as birthdays and comedy nights, etc. I liked though that sometimes he posts pictures with his entries because it gives more of a visual sense of his life. I particularly liked some of his more lengthy posts, such as one in January where he discussed gays in the mainstream and another post in December entitled, “Time to stir things up a bit” which I’ll let you go read for yourself. His site read okay, but some of his posts could go through a little editing so the words flow a bit easier.

Other areas of the site are links to other blogs, a bio with info and pictures of friends, a bunch of photo albums, jokes and reviews of comedians and a media section containing games, music and little movies. I found though there was a bit too much “extra” stuff on this site.

The layout’s pretty simple. I like the blue title graphic and how the image on the left hand side changes. The pictures give you a sneak peak at A.J’s life and also what to expect if you check out the photo album.

I didn’t find anything that really set this blog apart from the many I’ve read. If anything, this site gives the reader insight into A.J’s life and what he enjoys doing apart from his time spent online.

I give it a rating of 3.
Azarok.com