Category: Uncategorized

My original review of Bingobowden was fatally flawed, it turns out, by a browser glitch which essentially killed part of the blog’s template and “lost” me the archive (Blogspot isn’t very kind when you deploy developer’s built browsers, and especially Mozilla).

Based on what appeared on my screen then, Bingobowden was rather thin and not very promising — but this was not the true blog. I should have suspected what had happened (because there are always telltale signs), but I didn’t.

Naturally, Stuart, Bingobowden’s owner, realizing that his blog had been massacred, was justifiably mad a hell (and said so on his blog on December 9th), and came back for a re-review. Gary responded with a job that, I think, covers all bases completely.

I read gary’s re-review and re-visited Stuart’s handiwork, after being alerted by Brent. I second gary’s 4.5 stars rating. Stuart is on the ball and doing well. And, of course, apologies are in order for the original shotgun blast. Bingobowden

Well, a-loooo-ha! Pessimistic Satisfaction certainly has an upbeat and floral design going on. From the name of the blog I thought I’d be greeted by something dark and gloomy. There’s something vaguely jarring about the color scheme that put me off, and I thought I was in for some boring reading.

Melinda, the writer, is a 17 year old from Australia. It appears that this blog is not even a whole month old, so there really weren’t very many entries to read. Melinda has a nice flow to her writing, and makes even the minutiae of her life seem interesting. I caught a few spelling and grammar mistakes, but nothing major. I do wish Melinda would flesh out some her thoughts – occasionally she hits on something interesting but doesn’t really say much about it.

There is an exhaustive biography section – anything you ever wanted to know about Melinda can be found here. In Pessimistic Satisfaction’s section called “Bits and Pieces,” Melinda links to surveys, her own movie and book reviews, and miscellaneous other things. The blog also has the typical things: guestbook, tagboard, guestmap, and calendar.

I’m not crazy about the design. The background color and the graphics don’t really match very well, and it was bugging out my eyes. Each element separately is fine, but together it’s not good at all. It is unnecessary to have scroll bars all over the place, and really breaks up the screen in an unflattering way. Navigation is a bit confusing – the reader must work to find his/her way around the site. I was unable to locate a link back to the blog section from other sections in the blog, and the link to the archives is hard to find. I recommend making navigation more self-apparent and streamlined. I also recommend coordinating your entire site to match the main page.

I might stop back in a few months to give Pessimistic Satisfaction another read when there are more entries to read. I like Melinda’s writing style, and I think if she finds a design that is more easily navigable her blog could be really wonderful.
Pessimistic Satisfaction

The Big Picnic graphic that’s used at the top of the site was perfect for the title. Blades of grass with nice clean cut text saying “Big Picnic” stretched out across it – had it not been 4 degrees Fahrenheit where I live, I would have ran right out for my own big picnic. Instead, I jumped right into this weblog.

Before diving into the articles at Big Picnic, I first signed up for an account. It took hardly any time at all and once I had my confirmed password, I could post comments, switch themes of Big Picnic, and even change my preferences of viewing the site any way I wanted. You can think of it has a very advanced bulletin board with very valuable content.

And the content – what content! News, Arts & Entertainment, Science & Tech, Web Miscellanea, Comics, Etcetera – you’re going to find something you’re interested in. Naturally, my curiosity led my directly to the “Arts & Entertainment” section. I was welcomed with movie reviews, art, sports, music, and anything else that could possibly fit into the Arts & Entertainment spectrum. Every base was covered and they were covered well.

I thought perhaps that Arts & Entertainment could have just been JNelsonW’s area of specialization, but I was wrong. Each of the other categories had just as many knowledgeable entries and opinionated articles as the next.

My favorite part of the entire design was the banner. My monitor uses a 1028×768 screen resolution, and still I had to scroll from left to right in order to see the entire site of Big Picnic. I’m normally not a huge fan at all of white text, but it looks sharp on this slate blue background. It’s easy to read and strays from the norm – a great combination.

This site is powered heavily by JNelsonW’s articles. There’s the ability to submit your own news articles, but from the looks of it, there haven’t been many people taking advantage of the freedom to do just that.

I like this site just the way it is. Could it be better with more users submitting their articles? It’s likely, but I’d be leery of adding someone else’s writing style to that which is already published and established at Big Picnic.

Big Picnic

“Sven’s Empire Confidential” is fairly new to the blogging world, though after reading it, I can see it becoming a great blog in the near future.

The site is written by Sven who after I read through the whole site that was available to me, am still unsure who exactly who he is, but that’s fine.

His posts range from tidbits about music to politics, to “rants out loud” as he says. He has categorized his posts on the side bar, which is convenient if there are certain things, which you are specifically interested in. Some posts I found specifically interesting to read, such as one entitled “Interesting Perspective” where he addresses his feelings regarding the blogging community. I also enjoyed the though-provoking quotes he sometimes posts.

One thing I particularly liked about his posts is that he incorporates writing from other sites he reads. Not only does it help to promote other blogs that may go unnoticed, but he also elaborates further from the excerpts to express his own views about the subject at hand.

The layout’s pretty simple. The only graphic is an image in the upper left-hand corner of a waterfall set against a plain, black background. The sidebar contains links to recent posts, other blogs and recent comments posted on his site.

In summary, I enjoyed reading this site and I give it a rating of 3.
Sven’s Empire Confidential

First impressions of this site? The design is crisp, clean, and well-done. Even better, it is easy to navigate and I found myself immediately wanting to dive into the actual content of the site.

One of the first things I noticed when I started reading the weblog is that the author never capitalizes his sentences. With most weblogs, I would view this as detrimental to the overall content, but here it worked. This textual style goes along with the overall tone of the weblog – carefree, unburdened, and pretty much liberated of excess junk. Who needs to capitalize? I say this without the slightest hint of sarcasm – the author truly writes his impressions of what is happening around him. He blends funny, insightful, and interesting ideas into all of his posts. I was searching for an ‘about’ page when I came across his first post, where he says “i’d have lots of pages detailing myself and my life, but i don’t want that.” In my opinion, he doesn’t even need an ‘about’ page – as you become more enveloped in his posts, you learn a great deal about this 18 year old man from the UK.

In terms of design, the site complements the content perfectly. Orange and gray are the primary colors, and they blend well together to create a layout that is easy on the eyes. The navigation bar has the typical links – contact information, sites the author likes, and the archives. The ‘rate me’ link was unusual – it gives the reader a chance to input their opinions on the author’s site. The only thing, albeit a minor thing, is that the links on the nav bar load up in the same window – I would recommend having them open in a new one so that attention isn’t drawn away from the site.

Should you visit this site? I can definitely give you a big YES. You will probably find yourself as I did after reading several posts on someonecalledjames – laughing your head off and curious to find out more about the author’s insights and opinions on life. someonecalledjames