Month: March 2002

Dale B. Wood. Anglican, writer and teacher. This is his weblog.



First of all, the site design. The blog itself is composed of the most basic of basic blogger templates. The navigation is almost non-existent, so for a while I thought that there wasn’t even an About section. But there is.



Mr Wood’s blog is very important to him, that much is immediately evident by the occasionally humourous blog inspired bumper stickers scattered around the site.



I am a firm believer in chasing dreams, but at the same time I am a realist. On the one hand, I want to wish Mr Wood every success in his quest to become a writer. But on the other hand, I doubt he has much chance of success. The publishing world is well known to be visicious, and only the talented or commercially astute succeed.



From reading this blog, I wouldn’t want to read any of the writer’s work, and since none of it is presented online, I can only form an opinion from the small amount of content available.



They say that a good writer knows what to leave out. They also say that a good writer leaves it up to the reader to make their own conclusions, and for that reason only, and no other, should you visit this site.Rants and Epiphanies

The first thing to mention is possibly the most important: this site is certainly not aimed at ages 13 and under. In fact, quite the opposite. This site contains occasional bad language.



On the good side, the author has wisely chosen a system of introductory blogs that I would like to see on more sites: basically, it is a lead in to the blog, where the first couple of paragraphs are presented before a link is offered to take the reader to the rest of the post. The system works well because it gives the reader the choice of reading more on the topic, or continuing to browse.



The attitude of the posts was not one that I found entirely palatable. The writer is too often on the defensive, especially about weblogging, which is a shame. If the posts had a little more structure and didn’t necessitate a knowledge of all things past, the blog would be a much better prospect.



The vitriol is understandable, however; the author has evidently had a harder life than most, especially recently. If some of the attitude was replaced with composure and reflection, then this could improve greatly as a blog.



There are issues with the design – the aesthetic is inconsistent, and the choice of colours clearly reflects the nature of the site: black and yellow are nature’s warning signs after all.



As it is, with what can only really be described as an unfriendly design, the site scores a full point less than it is capable of.Enemy of the State

Xasperate was an overall “xcellent” site.



The topics of the weblogs ranged from technical/computer information and news to updates on little man Zac’s latest antics as he nears the terrible two phase. So, yes, there’s something for everyone.



With 12 different skins to choose from for the site, it certainly is the “skinnable blog”, as the title says. And, you’re positively sure to find a color/skin that you can deal with while reading through the weblog entries.



I really liked this site, and while there have been a few posts mentioning the demise of the site, I surely hope it sticks around for a while to come. There are too many good things about it to retire the site!xasperate

I’d seen the BlogSnob ads around on various sites, but had never visited the main site that hosts the idea – TimepassTown. I’m very sorry I hadn’t gotten around to doing that yet.



TimepassTown is a wonderfully designed website in all aspects. It’s very nice to look at it, and the actual programming side of it is very intricate, yet useful.



The entries are set off from one another in a “thought bubble”, which is a concept that thoroughly impressed me. And throughout each weblog entry, you see different bits of clipart that break up the normal monotony of a plain text post.



There are extra internal links to look at that are just as entertaining as the weblog itself.



The 4.5 rating is only due to the lack of archives. Otherwise, it would clearly be a 5.0 rating. With weblog entries such as these, I want to read more, and when I couldn’t find an archive link anywhere (maybe I just missed it?), I was certainly disappointed. I can’t help wanting more entries to read, and you won’t either.TimepassTown

Well, I didn’t hate this site at all. But, I didn’t really love it either.



“…and in other news…” is thrown into a generic Blogger template, and I really felt like the overall site appearance was rather drab and boring.



There were various entries throughout the few months of archives that were just entire emails that had been cut and pasted as the entry for that particular day, and sometimes just little sidenotes that were perhaps directed just towards the author or those who know him.



The content was worth reading the majority of the time, though. Dean is a writer that explains his thoughts in a nie manner and verbalizes his ideas in an easy to read fashion.



I can’t help but think this weblog could easily be a 5.0 with a little bit of originality on Dean’s part in the design aspect. The blandness really took away from the weblog entries.…and in other news…