When I saw the title of The Jesse Factor, it made me think of some sort of fictitious TV show hosted by former Governor Jesse “The Body” Ventura. Thankfully, The Jesse Factor was quite a bit more appealing then Ventura’s short-termed show.
For starters, Jesse is 14. 14. Honestly, I was expecting the writing of a normal 14-year-old and I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it. Who wants to read about the drama of a 14-year-old? Well, other 14-year-olds, of course, and that doesn’t quite apply to me or the majority of the blogging world.
From The Jesse Factor FAQ,
readers are able to learn about Jesse. This link is certainly a must-read for first-time readers. Once I’d read that, I felt like I was ready to dive head first into The Jesse Factor.
When the blog began in March 2004, the content was somewhat limited. Jesse opened up his Inbox for readers to send questions in to “Ask Jesse”, giving him ample opportunity to not only poke fun at some of the ridiculous emails he received, but also give readers on the stance he takes on many current events and worldwide issues. Should a reader start from the beginning as I did, they’ll instantly be hit with the bold and quite often crude nature of Jesse’s posts. If nothing else, every single post I read dripped with brutal honesty.
Jesse does deal with the group of typical antagonists that a middle school aged person would deal with – his mother, his brother, and his irritating classmates. And while I’m sure this is going to really cause his head to grow, if his age wasn’t plastered all over his site, there’s no way a reader could guess that. Jesse is very intelligent, and his writing shows this. Despite the occasional spelling error, which he often finds as grounds to berate other writers, Jesse’s actual writing style is that of a seasoned writer – someone that puts great thought into what he’s putting down on paper/on the screen.
I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a post or two that did fall back to the writing style of a typical 14-year-old, but those were few and far enough between that they didn’t take away from the heavily opinionated posts that deal with topics like censorship and why the Olympics should be boycotted.
The layout is a little less than appealing to the eye. Jesse’s got banners all over the place. There’s his somewhat animated main banner that’s placed at the top of the site, right below a banner linking to The Jesse Factor Forums. Along the sidebar, readers can run through a series of smaller banners or links that appears to be that of different affiliates that will help bring in some extra cash to keep The Jesse Factor up and running in all of its dogmatic glory.
The light colored text on a black background isn’t always the best combination to go with, but for some reason, I don’t think the particular design of the site weighs too heavily on Jesse’s mind. Not when there’s political parties to bash and Affirmative Action to belittle.
Other information along the sidebar indicate there are five additional contributors to The Jesse Factor, but Jesse is by far the most outspoken and prevalent one of the group. The typical blog fodder can be found also: the archives, frequently read blogs and other visited sites, and links to referring sites. Unique to this site are quotes from other people about The Jesse Factor and list of the events or items that Jesse’s currently boycotting.
To sum up my overall thoughts on The Jesse Factor, I’ll use a direct quote from Jesse’s Legal Disclaimer: “If you are easily offended and you don’t like smart assed 14 year old boys, avoid reading my material.” Otherwise, The Jesse Factor is worth exploring.