Category: Uncategorized

I immediately loved the overall impression the colors gave to the site. Medium dark grey is the perfect backdrop for a photography gallery.

This site is pretty much a pure photolog. There is next to no text content, other than a brief description of the photograph galleries and their contents. The photos themselves are very nice. The author of the site shoots a wide variety of subject matter: flowers, statues, buildings, people, etc. Most of them are very well balanced visually and are pretty crisp images. From the looks of it, though, PHP is used to create the thumbnail images. While easy on the author (no need for multiple sizes of the same image), the thumbnails themselves look very poor. A few of the close up images (such as flowers) appeared to be a bit out of focus (maybe this is intended?). Fortunately, the slight bluriness doesn’t plague many of the photos.

While I loved the colors, I had a hard time dealing with the patchwork nature of the layout. The front page uses three different styles of formatting for each of the galleries. I was very irritated by being forced to take a cookie from this site. I realize that there is a “my favorites” type feature, but I shouldn’t be offered a cookie until I try and add images to the favorites. Many of the site features were broken for anyone not using Internet Explorer. The bar across the top of the full size images (that offered “add to favorites” and “series index”) was squished all to the left in Netscape 6 and Opera 6.02. Even then, only the series index link worked in those browsers, and add to favorites was not visible so I couldn’t tell if that worked or not.

In addition to photographs, the author offers Flash creations for your amusement. I was not amused. I use the Flash 6 player, since earlier versions have a security vulnerablity. The Flash toys were created in Flash 5 and were not compatible with my player (I blame this mostly on Macromedia, this is twice now where new players have problems playing older SWFs). The Flash widgets were much more fun and interesting once I tried them with the Flash 5 player.

Overall, it is a very attractive site. The photographs were very attractive and varied enough to suit almost anyone. If you don’t mind missing some of the features the author offers, it is still accessible in almost any newer browser.stuntLab

Most blogs you read on the internet are not done by published writers, but just your average person who wants to express themselves. However, this site strays away from your “average” blog.

Aldo Alvarez is the executive editor and publisher of Blithe House Quarterly and has also written the book “Interesting Monsters” which was published in 2001. His site gives off a different feel than other sites; it gives you a glimpse of the life of a writer.


His blog contains stuff about what’s going on in his life at the moment, to emails and letters he receives from people who have read his book, to experiences about being gay to whatever else might be on his mind. I found his blog pretty entertaining and a nice change from other personal weblogs you find on the internet.

Other things you’ll find on the site are mostly centered and related to his book. The layout’s okay, though I got a little confused with the navigation.

What I liked most about this site is Aldo seemed quite social and open to questions and comments he receives from his readers. His writing comes off engaging, especially when he tells stories and things he’s experienced.

Overall, it’s a pretty good site.
Aa’s Blog : Aldo Alvarez

I have to admit the only reason I decided to review this site was because I found the title of the blog rather amusing, Stick Figure Peepshow, however the site does have more to offer then just an interesting title. The blog centers on our author, Andrew, a twenty-something year-old bouncing his way through life giving the readers a good understanding of it.

The blog is a mixture of writings, from rave and rants to self-written poetry as well as a bunch of links. Its has all you could possibly want from a weblog, and overall I found most of the posts rather fascinating to read, it just doesn’t become stale which isn’t easy to do. The length of the posts also very, from short links and comments to large detailed pieces on a particular subject or event, but its all seems relevant for whatever the author is talking about. Its fairly obvious from reading early on that Andrew takes his weblog fairly seriously, you only need to look at the entry on the 19/6 to see how passionate he is about his work, and passionate writing also means good reading.

I can’t find anything bad to say about the design, it does the weblog justice and at no point goes over the top. There are some nice little features on the site that really add to the pleasure of reading it such as; displaying a certain amount of posts on one page, comments and an easy to access archive section. The links are a little hard to pick up on, being gray on a dark background isn’t great for a lot of people, but still very readable. The site is also a tad cluttered, there are literally links all over the place, most to other documentation by the author, but there well grouped and most people shouldn’t have problems with it.

As far as extras go I don’t know where to start, there are simply that many things you can click on. Items such as a web cam, pictures, mp3’s, writings, links to other sites, movies, music etc, etc… Its an endless list that I’m sure most people would take a fair while to get through so there’s very little chance you’ll get bored here.

Overall I thought Stick Figure Peepshow was a well-put together weblog offering a lot to its dedicated readers and people wanting to follow something a little different. Even for those wanting to start their own weblog SFP is a great spot to see how a well designed and written weblog should be. I give SFP two thumbs up and a 4 out of 5.
Stick Figure Peepshow

Wow, does Epicycle know his computers! This website is a refuge for anyone who knows each wire in his CPU. The design and layout of the site is easy to navigate in a simple no-frills way. Much like the computers Epicycle loves, everything has it’s place on his website. Part blog, part ode to all things computer, this techie has a lot of good information on his website for other techies.



I personally know next to nothing about the innards of my computer, but despite this I had fun clicking through Epicycle’s website because he offers other things as well – pictures of space models and some digital art, to name a couple.



There is very little personal information at Epicycle, but that’s not the intent of the site – it’s not a personal blog. It’s a computer blog, and so in that regard it’s near perfect because each and every entry goes into detail about something computer-oriented.



I would have given it a 5 but for a couple links that brought up empty pages under construction. If it had been a completed site, it would have been the perfect computer site.Epicycle

I liked the simple, tranquil design with soft gray colors right away. A row of soothing photos along the top added color. I was immediately curious about Bhikku. Is this the author’s name? The blog had been updated on July 17 with a series of what I think are electron-microscopy photos of pollen grains. Each is unique and beautiful.

I can’t find an about page, so Bhikku remains a mystery. The archive page shows an image of a modern painting. A clue about Bhikku: he or she is an art lover. Bhikku posts images of art or photography regularly. I think art lovers would like this site. Buddhists also, and those interested in Buddhism; the site contains virtual prayer wheels for your computer desktop that are worth exploring.

Bhikku.net is full of thoughtful, impressionistic writing and quotations that are quite beautiful. Recent posts include descriptions of a trip to New York City from the UK, literary quotations, and lots of art images accompanied by poetic but mysterious text. This site is a labor of love, and the author is a talented writer with a penetrating eye for beauty. The design is consistently simple and lovely, and all the links work.

I found this site impressive and felt not-quite-qualified to judge its contents in depth. I need to spend more time with it and maybe then I can slowly get to know Bhikku. Without being able to say a lot about the site, I’ll just say visit it if this description intrigues you, and you won’t be sorry. For uniqueness, beauty, and quality, I rate the site a 5.

bhikku