Category: Uncategorized

At first glance, Benboy Studios gave no real hint as to the identity of the author or the content of the site. There was a rather mysterious appeal as I clicked on my chosen destination.



I began my journey by reading about Benboy himself. He’s a regular 20-something guy from the Philippines who designs web sites for a living. He has a fantastic sense of humor, (I chuckled multiple times) likes sports, (especially snowboarding) and works hard. I found his blog entries entertaining and well written. There is a lot of mention about his career life, but even that is capable of holding reader’s attention do to Ben’s writing style. He genuinely cares about the people he writes about in his blog and includes pictures of some of them for an added touch.



The design of Benboy Studios is fantastic. The lines are clean and the colors are easy on the eyes, if a bit dark. The simple images that have been sprinkled about the pages, including pictures of Ben, give the site a very professional look. (Go figure.) Ben doesn’t like it very much, but artists are always their own worst critics.



In addition to a well written blog, Ben has provided an extensive ‘About’ page and links to various other sites. You can also find his professional portfolio, wallpaper, and quite a bit more.



Benboy Studios is a blog for just about everyone. Web Designers and Sports Enthusiasts, especially, would have a great time browsing through Ben’s archives and exploring his site. This is certainly a blog worth reading and I look forward to future additions.



Lee

benboy studios

The first thing thing I saw when visiting this site was a picture of a hippo. The picture of the hippo coupled with the layout of the site immediately made this site a place I wanted to stay for a while. And I did.



Pazazygeek has a very soft color to it. While normally a light greenish-blue and pink wouldn’t mesh very well together, Elena has put together a very nice color combo for the layout.



There’s not much about the personal life of Elena, who is a self-proclaimed wanna-be rockstar. I was intrigued enough to go exploring throughout the site and was happy with my findings: a bit more about the author, and even some MP3s of Elena’s music to download.



The conspicuous consumption of links I gathered from visiting this site was definitely worth the trip.



“Conspicuous Consumption” is “a very hungry blog indeed”. And if you’re looking to fill a hunger of informative links, with witty and well-stated opinions, then this is your site to visit.Pazazygeek: Conspicuous Consumption

To be honest, the only thought I had about IntellectualMusician before I visited the site was that of John Cusack’s character Rob Gordon in High Fidelity. I really thought this was going to be a blog form of the “I know more about music than you do” attitude that was displayed in the movie.

The layout of the blog was intriguing to me. It didn’t really feel like a blog’s layout, more of just a general article site layout. The site’s design is a spin off of 2 or 3 column layout with the main content being on the left and navigation (or ads/navigation) on the right. The main content area is a two column tabled type layout with each article taking up the exact same space as the next. Of course this is just a ruse as it is just a snippet of the article and you must click on the “continued” link to read more.

Which brings me to another grievance I have with the design/layout/functionality of the site. When you click continued, you are taken to the “more” section of the blog post. Considering most people I forget instantly what they I just read when the screen changes, I had to scroll up to re-read the intro. Especially in cases where it broke in mid sentence.

Enough with the layout/functionality already. I know you are all wondering about the content. Well lets start with the first post which states the primary purpose of the site:

“IntellectualMusician.com is a website built and maintained by musicians, for musicians. The basic idea is simple, gather a superior group of extremely talented and well educated musicians and give them an outlet to share their knowledge.”

So with that said, I am expecting well basically what I originally thought before visiting the site. Now I am not one to practice music, but I do know a fair share so this should be fun. But wait, the posts are about how to play music, and practice and well how to make the instruments sound the way they do. The posts to me seem like they are just re-written out of a book and that this blog is more of a “music class” than a “group of musicians sharing their knowledge”.

Since I couldn’t find what I thought I was going to find here, I decided to look around at the other parts of the site. The owner took the time to make some Web 2.0 type graphics for the “Home” and “Forum” links. The forums are very green and really need more people. However what is there, with the lack of users is good. Again, it is more talk about the playing and learning of music. So that kind of bummed me out.

Since I am not a musician and don’t have any interest in learning to become one, I thought I would ask a buddy of mine to take a quick glance at the site since he teaches drums at the local high school. His quick impressions was that the layout needed work, but the articles were actually good for him. So there you have it, if you are a music person, you will probably enjoy this site. If you are just a listener, you probably won’t. The design needs some serious improvement, especially in the archives to make the site more accessible. Overall I give the site a 3.25 due to the layout issues and that the site is geared towards a specific niche of people. That niche will more than likely enjoy this site.
NULL

2012: Science News is a blog containing news and links related to “Space, Evolution, Archaeology & Cataclysms.” Created and maintained by Robert Blast, 2012: Science News offers snippets of news and journal articles about astronomical, anthropological, geological, and political issues that address the theme of cataclysmic change, particularly that which has been predicated by the Mayans for 2012.

The majority of entries consist of links to online content from various science and media outlets. Occasionally, there are photos or illustrations. Nearly every entry includes commentary so the user has a frame of reference related to the blog’s theme, although there’s no real sense of the maintainer’s position or personality. Given the content of the blog itself and the lack of personal detail, it’s obvious that 2012: Science News is meant to be a digest of links, not a personal blog, and as such, the tone and intent toward the reading audience changes.

A subsidiary domain that focuses on open-source development of a blogging maintenance tool called antville, 2012: Science News offers a design that is simple and straightforward, emphasizing a lower-resolution layout and utilizing a grayscale color scheme with a splash of color here and there to emphasize links or entry titles. Users can comment on blog entries, although they must first register with 2012: Science News.2012

Entering the site of eightface was pretty interesting. The design of the site was nice and clean, which made me more interested in what was going on with it.

Unfortunately the weblog itself isn’t near as good as the design is. Most of the posts are short little posts about what happened that day, be it school, or work. He has seen lots of movies, which he always lets us know in a post when he has seen one. Most recent posts are about his job at a golf course, and are not all that interesting.

The quality of writing was there though. You could tell that there was more to the author than what he was posting about. Almost like he was either holding back in his posts, or he was being held back. Some of the posts read just like they were posted for postings sake, which isn’t all that great.

But then I found the gem of the site, and that is his written section. He writes for one of his school’s publications, and has a lot of ability. The things he writes here are short little stories that are supposed to be funny. Most of them are, and I was laughing quite a bit. His ability to write is clearly shown in this section of his site.

Over all, the blog is nothing to take home to mom. Just your typical “I did this” or “I did that” type posts, which are fairly repetitive. The writing section is worth visiting this site for, and I hope the author continues to write those short stories even though school is out.
eightface