Astroimage is striking from the very start, as the name of the blog implies something stellar and the author’s flash animation splash page revs up the reader for something technologically hip and spectacular. Unfortunately, the weblog itself may not quite live up to the reader’s initial expectations.
The author, a twenty-something male, offers up his daily life as content; and the content does make for interesting reading, thus earning astroimage a few points. The topics of discussion will appeal mainly to a male audience, and the addition of “Eye Candy” will certainly be welcomed by male readers. The stream of consciousness style of writing, complete with the requisite run-on sentences and the overuse of ellipses, is a novelty which may wear thin after reading several of the author’s posts. The same can be said of the author’s lack of capitalization. While these are style elements, of both the writing and the layout, they can make for a wearisome read dependent upon the audience.
The interior layout of astroimage is tabled and highly functional, though several key features such as the author’s About page take quite a bit of time to load. The color scheme is, perhaps, the most chilling aspect of the layout, as it is inherently ugly. Black, brown, blue and gold are certainly unique choices, but not highly palatable ones. To the author’s credit, he has carefully laid out the color scheme and, while it is not attractive, there is an overall flow to the design.
Astroimage views best in MSIE 5.5 and is readable, though not designed for, NS 6.1. When viewing, the reader’s browser window should be expanded to maximum size. The author kindly warns the reader of NS incompatibility and browser settings on the splash page.
Astroimage is not among the creme de la creme of personal weblogs, but it does offer some very good content which adult readers will come to enjoy once moving past the weblog’s design scheme. This may very well prove to be a weblog to watch.astroimage