The Weblog Review

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

Yawn, snooze, yadda yadda, goodnight!



So might go this weblog’s act if it was a stand-up comedian.



This is the Joe Average of bloggers, just an ordinary guy, gotta wife, a bit broke, drinks beer, likes the hotties, and has a low opinion of the evil that is “copyright”.



But in such an overcrowded market as weblogs, being merely average is inexcusable.



“this is pathetic i am so damn bored and have nothing to blog about anymore…not that any of my blogs are really worth reading” [sic etc.]



I find it difficult to get into a weblog when the person is constantly moaning that they’ve got nothing to write. You should be apologising for being uninspired, not whinging to me. I actually have to read this stuff.



Anyway the links are few, it’s mainly just stuff about his day, usually dull although I was amused by his depiction of vomiters as either “amateur” or “pro”. A few pics too that are OK.



Also, too many …’s. no use of capital letters. The design is competent but the colours are unattractive. The most pointless feature is the “screenshot” in the sidebar. (Why, why, why?)



Verdict: don’t bother.astroimage

Sweet Jesus, I haven’t read anything as entertaining or funny as i, asshole in a long, long time. I’ve said it before, but I mean it this time. This is exactly what a great weblog should be.



I’ve been digging through mounds of proverbial horseshit the past few months here at The Weblog Review, looking for that one golden nugget, that one shiny piece of metal, the only spark of hope in an otherwise stagnant world. Okay, maybe i’m pushing this a little far. But this is quality, webloggified.



The content is hilarious, achingly so. My attention was immediately caught with his first post about eating coins and security tags. I was hooked in with his story about spoiling his goody two shoes sister’s science project. The way he writes about his year old daughter is great. He states her ability to clean the floors with her “more-efficient-than-my-Oreck knees,” and then continues to tell about the betrayal he feels when delivering her to recieve the routine toddler shots in a later, more somber passage. He writes incredibly eloquently about any topic. More importantly, he brings up good points, and pokes fun at the ironically mundane and annoying facts of life.



The design is fairly basic, but not too boring or overdone. But it doesn’t really matter, because all you should be looking at is the content.



I’d highly recommend i, asshole. Seriously. These things don’t grace one’s presence often.I, Asshole

Thank God, someone finally did something ingenious with a weblog. Darryl8m is one of the better excuses for a weblog i’ve seen in a long while.



What’s different about Darryl8m is that it isn’t a traditional blog. It’s a log of conversations he has with friends, acquaintances, and the like. He also includes links to other sites that have to do with random words in sentences, the most intersting of which links the word “penis” to a site about being a drag king. Pictures about each topic are included above the posts. They aren’t necessarily funny posts, or even grammatically correct (since the bulk of it is from internet conversations), but they’re uncensored (i’m assuming) and interesting. Just another piece of evidence that gay men are, on the whole, more interesting than their straight counterparts.



The design is fairly drab, but not to a fault. It’s hard to go wrong with black on white, but it could use some, uh, pizazz. The way the posts are formatted is hard to read at times, and could definitley be improved upon. But overall, it looks good.



I’d seriously recommend that you check out Darryl8m, it’s a groovy little slice of the internet.darryl8m

As much as I try to think of something to say about metafocker, the only thing I can come up with is “mediocre”. Nothing about it is really that interesting. And it doesn’t even look that good.



The content is average. This guy talks at length about terrorism, but doesn’t seem to have an informed stance on it at all. Yeah, conceded, nearly everyone is talking about terrorism and Bin Laden and nukes and Anthrax, but this guy doesn’t even have a valid argument or point to establish. I was a tad bit irked by what he had to say about the people who oppose bombing Afghanistan, but I digress.



Anything else he has to say, about mediocre mainstream radio stations or sports groups or any other topic, is marginal as well. It isn’t poorly written, for lack of a better excuse, but it’s superficial. It isn’t thought-provoking. I honestly don’t see the point in most of what he says. Normally, I would believe that better writing skills could help this weblogger, but here I would suggest better thinking skills.



The design is average. The navigation is muddled; I couldn’t tell the site navigation from the links from the web rings. The font is Verdana. Unoriginal, basically.



Normally, I would list the merits of the blog here. But there really aren’t any. Props for the lack of toggle case, use of web-ebonics, and emoticons is about the only positive thing I can come up with. metafocker.com