Category: Uncategorized

Will’s Delirium is the on-line journal (thoughts, rants and other posts of good, accurate writing) of someone named Will. We cannot really know anything other than this because there is no information on the author. I could find no “about” links on his site and only by reading the archives (which date back to 2001), did I manage to find out that Will may be a teenager or a man in his early twenties. Whatever the case, he studies (as he usually refers to “homework” in his posts), other than this, I simply cannot say.

The template is black with a table in the middle; you can scroll to the posts that show up on his main page. To the left of the table, there’s a photo of Will (maybe retouched with one of Adobe Photoshop’s filters). If you scroll down to the end of the post section, you’ll find the sole link on Will’s page is to his archives. The template could use a little more work, it’s too middle-oriented.

Will’s writing is in-depth. He constantly asks questions about himself and you get the feeling he’s still trying to discover who he is or can be. The posts are honest and many of them deal with what goes on inside his head. They make for good reading if you enjoy discovering a person’s soul, if you enjoy “lighter” blogs or blogs of a more amusing nature, then this is one blog you wouldn’t want to visit.

Personally, I enjoy this type of writing. I like reading blogs where people pose questions and try to find answers. It makes the reader feel like he or she is part of the author’s growth process.

I give this blog a 3.5 because of the lack of information on the author and the lack of links. I think it detracts from the blog, making it look stale. Most blog readers are a curious bunch, and most crave extra information. Even if you wish to remain anonymous, there are ways to make your blog more appealing. Were it not for this, I would have rated it higher.
Will’s Delirium

Upon entering this weblog, I was greeted with one of the most outstanding pages I have ever come across. By outstanding, I mean it wasn’t your ordinary design. You could plainly see that there was a lot of time and effort put into it.

Jacob (the author), started the blog in December of 2000. He writes about everything from Television, music, food, etc. You name it and it’s there. When you click on the index link, you will see what I mean. Most of his entries are very informative as well. Jacob has so many topics listed in his index, that it makes it kind of difficult where to start first. It would take quite some time to read his entire blog. When you click on his navigation link he also has desktop wallpaper which are his own original material. Jacob states in his “about me” section, that he could also be called a designer. That would explain the design of his page being so unique.

Jacob is apparently a very talented individual. His entries are extremely well written. They are really not just your ordinary entries. When he writes about a particular topic, he will give you a detailed description of how something works.

I was playing around with the blog for a bit, and I did notice that most times when you enter his pages, the background changes in certain aspects. This really gives the blog a sort of uniqueness as well.

In conclusion, Jacob could take this blog a long way. I couldn’t find one fault with it. My only regret is that I couldn’t go through the entire blog at the time. I’m sure Jacob’s blog will be around for quite some time. It is one that I highly recommend you bookmark. VerseGuru

Mondo Irlando is a collection of Film, Music and other ‘stuff’ reviews by Aaron, also known as ‘The Duke’. Graphically the site is rather primitive. The graphics look like they were done in Windows Paint. Creepy. Even creepier is Aaron constantly refering to himself in the third person as the Duke. Cringe. Wasn’t there a beer commercial that says no one can be nicknamed The Duke because ‘everyone’ would want to be called the Duke? Anyway, must focus.

I started clicking around and became a little frustrated. I hit a dead link which took me to a Yahoo page then encountered really slow load times on the content from mondoirlando.com. The website could certainly use some love.

But onwards I went; surely ‘The Duke’ must have something important to say. The content here is easily accessed via the review archive page. A lot of content is linked to his reviews at ‘blogcritics.org’ (which loads fine). The content consists of current movie reviews, cds reviews and a series of editorials in the stuff section. I’ll focus on the reviews. (Although the editorials, such as ‘The 13 Best Horrors of all-ever’ and ‘The motherfucking Cinema of Woody Allen’ are good reads.)

The writing is at times insightful and creative, at others, offensive and unnecessarily derogatory. I sea-sawed a lot with my opinion on Aaron’s writing. Many reviews were full of f-this f-thats which, IMHO is the quickest route for a reviewer to lose credibility. Not to mention that the effectiveness of the word is lost when it is used so habitually. It is obvious that Aaron has vast media knowledge and great creative potential. His reviews are often very long and deeply insightful. At times perhaps too insightful. To fully appreciate Aaron’s reviews you often require a strong understanding of pop music and pop culture as he makes a lot of rather obscure references. The references are great *if* you get them, if you don’t however, you may miss the point he was trying to make which limits the usefulness of a review.

The MP3 digest is a good idea. Aaron provides a short review of a song and a link to an MP3 of the song. (Legal?) The store has a series of Aaron’s favourite films and CDs which he claims might make you say ‘Man, The Duke is one smart individual when it comes to choosing quality listening material.’ *Cough*

I can’t recommend this collection of reviews for everyone. I think the best audience would be 20 something film or music students, the rest of us could take or leave Mondo Irlando depending on the particular review. Aaron easily has the potential to become a great and influential reviewer *if* he can focus more on who he is writing for than on himself.

Mondo Irlando

Deadly Cupcake was submitted to TWR as a ‘humor’ site, so I took this to mean this site would be funny. But this site isn’t a ‘humor’ site. It is a 16-year-old young man’s site. I managed to find an archive of video clips that Phil (the owner of Deadly Cupcake) thinks are funny. The videos are SNL clips, things that have been circulating the Internet for years and years, and yes, some of these are indeed funny. From time to time, he also posts one of those stories about stupid criminals or other Einstein Award related tales. Humorous, yes. Humor site, no.

Phil has been reincarnating the Deadly Cupcake site since he was in the 6th grade. It is now in its third re-design, and Phil has reached high school. The site itself isn’t unappealing in its design. It has a black background, white type and a nice masthead with links for archives, the video clips and the like. Phil puts his name and the date he posted above the post itself as in “Posted by Phil Sat Sept 18.” I would hazard to guess that roughly 98 percent of blog readers are also accustomed to seeing the ‘Posted by” line come after the post. This makes his posts somewhat confusing.

Phil loves Lacey Chabert, the actress. He also talks about movies he’s seen or movies that will be released soon. He gives his opinion of music. He talks about the Teen Choice Awards. He joined the chess club recently. It’s as if you can peek inside a 16-year-old’s brain and see all the wheels turning.

While not what I’d call a must-read for anyone over, let’s say 20, it is impressive. If you’re a teen, give Deadly Cupcake a look.
Deadly Cupcake III

This blog tells you something about the blogger as soon as you page loads. I like that. Immediately you get a feel for this thirty-something English Woman who is living in Paris. Even the French Title of ‘Petite Anglaise’ which translated means ‘little english person’. Right away you want to know more…Why is she there?

The first entry that I delved into, informed her readers that it was time to unveil her new site, and she lists the url where her ‘new and improved’ blog resides.This was accompanied by a picture of labelled boxes indicating her move – a really nice touch! However since most of her archives remain with the old site, I decided to review both.

Her natural humour and observations of French Culture are whimsical, bordering hilarious. Her antics in getting herself to a place where she can see and overhear her colleagues are described in detail and provide enjoyment to the reader and a desire to read more.

Frequent comparisons are made between life in the UK, and that of life in France, and it is therein that the comedy emerges. Describing how to beat someone unconscious with a stale baguette (French Loaf), is only one of the tongue in cheek tales which we the readers can enjoy.

Moving to the new site, little has changed and the same merry writing continues. Although now, the site is hosted where it has it’s own domain name (www.petiteanglaise.com), and the site has become more personalised and less generic.
Some of the same graphics have been carried over, so one feels like it really is a new and improved version of the original, the subtle new colour is also a welcome addition.

The new site also includes other elements like a calendar, but other than that the basic layout is even the same and no doubt this blogger will continue to enthrall her avid followers of which there are several.

This blog would appeal to many, especially those who are living out of their home country and can share the interesting experiences of being a ‘fish-out-of-water’.petite anglaise