Jim Howard’s ShowMe was a roller coaster of first impressions. I was intrigued by the title – Jim Howard’s Show Me what . Then I realized that the blog was at xanga.com, a slight disappointment as I knew I would be dealing with a lot of standard details. Even worse, the colors that Jim chose clash. Or maybe I just don’t like brown.
However, I do not take into account (well, not much) the design of a blog. Content is superior – I’d much rather read an interesting blog with green and purple borders than a mundane site that is beautifully designed. What struck me about Jim’s site was his thought flow, very matter-of-fact. I’m sorry to say that this did not appeal to me either. Jim’s ideas come at you like gunshots – BAM, BAM, BAM. I don’t feel a sense of streaming consciousness – a.k.a. sentence flow.
The majority of Jim’s entries are reactions to the world around him, specifically the news. Yes, there are entries that pertain to his personal life – quite a few actually. But the view I got of Jim as I read his blog is that of an intelligent man from Texas who bluntly states his opinions on current events.
One interesting aspect of Jim’s blog was that it linked to another site, called his notebook. The notebook is actually a webcam along with a message board. The webcam was interesting in that you could move around the picture instead of the stills you always see on other blogs.
Should you visit Jim’s Howard’s ShowMe? In my opinion, I don’t know exactly what Jim Howard is showing me. I rarely say “no, don’t ever visit this site” because people will have different reactions to the same blog. I say give it a try – perhaps it will appeal more towards you then it did on my visit.