The Weblog Review

The best thing that Xombie had

going for it was the satirical

overtones with which it was made.

The graphics were intentionally

childlike, looking as if they had been

scribbled in Windows Paint. It

seemed as if the author recognized

the fact that he sucked at making

graphics, and took it to the extreme

by making extra-sucky graphics. But

it worked, and it was original at the

very least.



The weblog was not as interesting

as one might have hoped, though

there were some humorous remarks

here and there. “Inspiration hit me in

the form of some loose drywall…”

sticks out in my memory.



I had to scroll way to the bottom of

the main page to find the navigation

links for the rest of the site. I don’t

know if it was me or geocities, but I

had to try several times to load the

other pages. The best offering I

could find was a short story under

the “Art” section, which was a

heartfelt tale about making dinner for

a girl.



I wasn’t very interested in the author’s

favorite band list or seeing more than

two of his pictures, and I was

confused by the “Extra” page, which

contained a myriad of subjects that

might be best broken up into

separate pages.Xombie

Most blogs are one line comments, usually following a recent conversation, or simply exist to point the reader in the direction of another, similarly styled site. These are the “dip-in, dip-out” blogs, often more eye candy than true content, and after a while browsing these sites can leave you underwhelmed and craving something more substantial.



If that’s the case, then come to Burke and Wells. Instead of traditional blog posts, this site is made up of essays, the majority of which are entertaining, informative, and carry across a sense of character and style that is lacking from others in the genre.



Fortunately the site is structured so as to avoid information overload. A lot of sites have a section called “essays” with a long list of titles, but choosing which one will be interesting is a difficult task. Instead, Burke and Wells employ a “read more” approach to their work; the opening paragraph is listed as the blog, which serves to really draw in the reader.



The site lacks one or two design considerations; the overall impression of the essays is a little cluttered, owing in part to the amount of screen width devoted to the essays (an optimal width is about 60%, anything greater tires the eyes).



Also, it would have been nice to see an “about” section rather than simply email links to the writers, but otherwise the layout and navigation are sound.



This still appears to be a young site. It only goes back as far as July 2001, but considering the number of posts since, this is a site worthy of your attention. I only hope that the quality is maintained as the quantity slowly increases.Burke & Wells

The Camguy was pleasantly

suprising. What would be

considered boring and dull by

anyone else was amusing and funny

by The Camguy. I think it was his

naive innocence that was what made

me like the site.



Reading through the weblog posts

gave me a glimpse into the mind of

this 15 year old kid, whose

comments about girls, life in Iowa,

and his sister’s boyfriend were quite

amusing from the perspective of this

28 year-old reviewer.



The site was highly technical, as far

as details about the author’s

computers, cameras, and setups go.

This is one sharp kid who put this

together. Building computers,

administering servers, and

designing websites were among his

favorite things.



I was disappointed to see so many

non-working pages, and would liked

to have seen some more recent

webcam photos. Still, the site is

worth a look for it’s accurate portrayal

of a teenager’s mindset.TheCamguy

As soon as I saw that this site was hosted at Tripod, I knew I was in for annoying pop-up banner ads. That was strike one.

The page loaded fully on Explorer 5.0 for Mac, yet all I could see was a banner ad for Fantasy Football and some links to what seemed to be the pages of the site. Clicking these links only loaded a new banner ad. That made strike two.

Moving over to my PC, I was able to see the page at last. Funny how I met and exceeded the listed “requirements” for viewing the page on my Mac, but was unable to see anything…

Anyway, I read through the blog entries, which had little to offer in the way of entertainment or appeal. The author admitted his own slackness in one post, stating that he often wonders why he bothers keeping up with this site, noting it’s broken links and it’s dire need of help. Perhaps he should have waited to submit it for review until his girlfriend did go off to school and he did have the time to rework it, as he questioned in the post. Strike three.

The best things I found about the site were the cyber manifesto that scrolled across the status bar at the bottom of my browser, and the quote at the bottom of the page about being a dislexic schizophrenic, both of which gave me a chuckle.

I can tell that the author has the potential to make this a good site, but just has not applied himself. Perhaps the makeover after his girlfriend leaves will turn his strikeout into a homer.theglorious1.tripod.com

First thing I noticed when the page loaded was a kick ass picture of an atom from circa-day-parents time. Well to be honest, around the 50’s I think. I like it when people can have an original logo with their title.



So the rest of the page takes a long time to load. Why? Because every single post is on the main page. I definitely recommend investing in some archives. Good part though is it makes it real easy to read every post.



The author lets us in a little into her life. Loves James Dean and that time period. But for someone so into retro, the cam pictures don’t reflect it. Oh well. Yes I said cam pictures. She is contemplating whether or not to make the cam a live image. It would be the first weblog that I have seen do it, so I say go for it if you are comfortable enough to do so.



Design wise, the site needs some help. If you are going to have a page be 10 print pages long, do something with it. Adding archives, shortening up the length, lots can be done when it is more set. Plus, unless you read every post, you aren’t going to see the bottom of the page (unless you scroll) and see her disclaimer.



This site has a lot of potential and a lot of good things. I hope that soon, the author takes out the bad and replaces it with more good. The site would be killer then.

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