Category: Uncategorized

Finally a site that I can immediately identify with, stuffed with honesty from the first line I see;
“Welcome to my weblog. I whinge a lot but my heart is in the right place… “
This is one of the few websites that I feel doesn’t maintain a false pretense of blogger glory. The clean, but typical ‘blog’ layout is used wisely (unlike some horrors I’ve seen in the past, and for once, the sidebar isn’t longer than the actual blog. (However it would be suggestable to archive weekly or monthly rather than daily)

Reading on I was delighted to grasp a taste of Matthew’s daily life consisting of a mixture of current affairs, daily excursions and the trivialities of life, all nicely illustrated with relevant pictures. I particularly identified with the boredom entry.. and titillated by the picture to go with it! A paragraph of speculative nonsense always calms the soul.

Focusing on the story matrix, an interactive story generator, the idea is highly amusing however proven to be effective. I’d love to see more of this on the website.

Target audience would involve anyone with two eyes and a brain to process it! Wombleweb provides a taste of life in Wimbledon (without the false Womble pretenses of course..)wombleweb story matrix

The description given for Script Furnace is: “it’s about personal publishing. it’s about building community. it’s about collecting your personal spew and presenting it in a web accessible format that others can digest and comment upon… there are no expectations here. just write what you feel.”

I really liked the concept. I’d have liked it to be more international though. In the “what is scriptfurnace.com all about?” section, we are told “face it. community in america is bleeding, it’s an endangered species.” This weblog certainly is very American at the moment, what with the war, and I couldn’t get over the amount of times the word “patriotic” was used. If you’re non-American, “patriotic” gets boring.

Just as I felt everything was getting too “patriotic” I found posts and comments from authors with different opinions. This is the good thing about having a group weblog open to anyone. You get real variety and debate, rather than a one sided opinion and little chance to respond. Further down the archives, and away from war, the posts began to vary more as well. It is understandable that all recent posts are political, but it is nice to see ones about entertainment, sports, carrot vaginas and the personal lives of the contributors too.

The layout works well. Very simple and just right for the type of weblog this is. You have lots of choices too. You can access archives by month, week, day or category. This fits in with the concept of the site: to place the weblog into the public’s hands. The only complaint I have is that I work on a broken 12in screen [so a square 10in] and whilst most sites show up fine, this one required quite a bit of scrolling to the right.

Whilst I did find a few issues with the site, there were enough redeeming features that I’ve got to give it a 5. What really pushed it up there were the attempts made to make it accessible. You can post anonymously if you want [although I’m not sure if this is such a good option, but a brave one all the same], the “add a link to your site” button has a “show me how” link underneath, there is a “how do I post” section. This is how a community website should be. I’ll definitely be back.
script furnace

Firstly, let’s talk about the design. The layout isn’t too spectacular but it shifts the main focus to the content. It’s rather user-friendly and is laden with quotes and links. There was a little problem with the archives and I could not access the entries in March, but I figured out that it was a URL problem. Maybe the author can work on that?

This blog can be summarised by the few words stated by the author, Carl Heppenstall, at the side of the blog. They are, “Politics, Philosophy, Music, Racecars {#88!), Anti-Money Laundering, Fraud Prevention, A slight amount of monkey business, and Maybe A Little Poetry, Overall, Pro-U.S.” These words form the basis of the content in the blog.

Although this blog has been classified as ‘Personal’, I would prefer to label it as a ’News/Links’ blog. Truly personal posts on the author are sporadic and short. Most entries consist of quotations from articles, links and personal comments from the author, which tend to lean towards the political side of things. I have to admit that the author does know what he is talking about.

Be warned though. Politics is a very subjective topic and not every reader may agree with the author’s opinions. So it’s recommended that you read a few entries before totally jumping into the blog. If you like what the author is saying, then this would make a really good read especially since the author updates regularly with multiple posts and insightful links. However, if politics do not appeal to you, or if you do not like what is being posted, then stay clear.

Between The Coasts

I definitely consider myself a movie buff, and perhaps a little too obsessed with what goes on via the big screen and behind the scenes. Suffice to say, I was anxiously looking forward to reading “Milk Plus: A Discussion of Film”.

“Milk Plus” is a collaboration of several different folks that claim to be a “collective of writers who have come together because we are all opinionated, passionate lovers of film who wish to share with friends and strangers alike”. That self description hits the purpose and function of the weblog right on the nose.

One of the best things about this particular type of weblog is the choice of movies the writers choose to review. They don’t stick with the big screen blockbusters, but also dive right into the independent film pool. These writers are die hard movie fans, and they very much know exactly what they do and do not like about a movie. While it may be viewed by some as too biased, their reviews are anything but that.

With each review, you get comments about the plot, the script, the camera shots, and the acting crew to name a few of the things the writers touch on. Something I became particularly fond of was the comparison between other movies, whether it be something the particular actor had starred in or just another movie that happened to be somewhat similar. As a reader, this gave me the opportunity to, in a way, judge whether or not I would have any interest in the particular movie after knowing what these fine reviewers would compare it to.

With over a year of archived reviews, the troop of reviewers at Milk Plus are definitely consistent. The reviews of movies that I had actually seen were fun to read because I could compare my thoughts on the movies, and the reviews of movies I haven’t yet seen had me mentally adding movies to watch to my list.

The layout goes well with the title. As I found out from the FAQ section of the site, “Milk Plus takes its name from … a name chosen in homage to Stanley Kubrick and his film A Clockwork Orange“. The banner at the top of the page is a “spoof” of the Kubrick film’s logo, which is very tastefully done. I would have liked to see the tables that are used lined up a bit better with the top banner, but once you start thumbing through the reviews, the design is the farthest thing from your mind.

I was very impressed with this weblog. Truthfully, I headed straight over to my Netflix account and started adding some of the movies these folks had reviewed – especially A Clockwork Orange.

Milk Plus: A Discussion of Film

It’s funny how we often overlook potentially good blogs simply based on where they are hosted. Like so many other reviewers I have a tendency to do just the same with someone who’s using one of the pay services. A blogspot blog. Can you see the grimace on my face? However it was a pleasant surprise to not got to his blog and see that ugly multi-colored layout with the big black borders? I know you all know which one I’m talking about. Instead you’re graced with the cool colors of blue. This, dear reader, is a nice change.

The author, Ruchita, is a young one. Still in her high school years, it’s amazing sometimes to see the difference in the writing style of the youth today as opposed to just a few years ago. I doubt I could’ve written anything worthy of posting when I was still in high school. Though she shares with us her anticipation of graduation, we can sympathize, because goodness knows there’s not a person alive who doesn’t remember anticipating graduation high school. Ruchita reminds me very much, in her style of writing, of some of the young adult books that I’ve read. Don’t get me wrong, I love and adore those young adult books and have turned many an adult onto these books. This blog reads much like those (referring to classmates and dorkus’). It gives the blog a very light-hearted, humorous feel to it. Young people can relate, and older people can remember. A nice balance between all worlds.

As you read you feel her pain as she studies for exams, and juggles between leisure and work, and also the occasional rambling about theater or concerts. This lets the reader wonder whether she’s a theater freak, or just the regular over-zealous teenager trying to make it into a decent college. This also caused me, the reader, to want that much more about Ruchita, which left me searching for an about me page. Maybe it’s just me, but I like to know a little more about the reader, sometimes even just silly details. However, on the plus side, you do learn more about Ruchita if you actually get to reading more of her entries. She’s obviously a social butterfly (which is definitely not a bad thing) with scheduling a movie night at her house and inviting everyone she knows (and making sure that everyone “spreads the word.”)

She writes in a style that almost mimicks letters to her friends, as a whole. Her readers are referred to as “you” and it makes the blog have a very personal feel to it… almost like she’s your friend also. I’m guessing that’s the point. And trust me… it definitely makes you feel more at home.

The only issue I was noticing with regard to the entire blog is that it is hosted on blogspot. It’s not that it’s a bad host, it’s just that there are a few server problems now and again. I didn’t take this away from her score, simply because it’s not wholly her fault. She cannot control the server gods and make them do anything right. The problem lies in when you try to view any of her archives. Some archives show up with the “page not found” error. Other’s come up with just the code of the page. Other times you’ll load the layout, no text. And when you refresh (sometimes it’s the 4th or 5th time) you finally get the text to show, sometimes with a few errors.

Overall, this blog is a simple glimpse into the life of a teen somewhere out there. It’s fun, entertaining and highly amusing. It reads like a book, very smoothly, and I recommend stopping by and giving it a read. You might be surprised to find that you’re enjoying it as well.Virtual Insanity