Month: September 2005

Weblogs with unique titles make me happy. I clicked on the link to the site and was very glad to see this site at least looked unique and original.

This layout strayed from the packaged template that Blogger has to offer, which is a rarity from the list of growing weblogs hosted by Blog*spot. It’s a clean and defined layout and is very easy to both read and navigate – all great trimmings on a weblog design.

The site has a ton of extras from top to bottom. It’s easy to subscribe to this weblog either through an RSS feeder or through email. There’s a huge section under the “navigation” header – the archives, information about the author, photos taken by the author, etc. The author lists some terrific charity websites for readers to explore. And, as with nearly any other site, there are the typical links to the archives, a blogroll, Amazon wish list and more.

For starters, readers can easily find a link that tells all about our author, Schmutzie. From standard auto-biographical information like birthday information and her marital status to a couple of 100 item lists, it’s refreshing to be able to learn so much about an author before going back to read the archives of this site. This much information doesn’t leave as many unanswered questions, and that’s a bonus in any weblog.

One of the first things I noticed that I liked about this weblog was how each post is numbered. This was the first weblog I’d ever seen it, and I almost immediately wanted to add the numbers to my posts, too. That doesn’t happen very often.

“Milkmoney…” is not a new weblog by any means. Having previously kept up a site on Diaryland.com, Schmutzie switched over to Blog*spot in August of 2003, and has been regularly updated ever since. Consistency is definitely one way to keep readers coming back for more.

Through the first few months of posts on this site, Schmutzie would give readers a few paragraphs to read and then, at the end of the post, throw in a few links to other websites that pertained to the topic she just covered. The board game Scrabble, tobacco, being a dominatrix – yep, you can just about find everything you can think of, and that’s just the first three months of posting!

Her posts, the ones that stick to one topic, are often like little stories. She brings really good humor into what could easily become daily mundane events. Her husband brings home a new scanner, so they scan a dirty sock. A dreaded trip to the dentist is turned into a funny anecdote that I’m sure many people relate to. These are just two fine examples that make this weblog worth reading. For those not wanting to read multi-paragraph posts, Schmutzie throws in an occasional list from time to time that’s just as interesting.

Currently, Schmutzie is plugging away writing a 50,000 word novel this November, along with her husband. After reading a massive amount of posts on this site, a novel seems like the next logical step in her writing process.
milkmoney or not, here I come

I read this weblog in no more than 20 minutes. There’s not much of what I would call content at all. Wendy, the author of this site, only uses it to update her progress in running her own “work from home” internet based business.

I’ve spent years on the internet, and finding a way to do absolutely nothing and make money is something I think about on a regular basis. Those guys from Google can do it, why can’t I? If you take what this weblog says, it’s possible. You just have to click on a link the author provides, provide this site with your personal information, take a virtual tour of said website, and once you whip out your credit card number, you’re all registered and ready to make the big bucks. Or so the site makes you think.

The author describes her site has this: “Starting a Home Based Internet Business with a step by step guide. Most successful Internet business in today’s market. Including Who, What, Why, Where and How instructions on my personal website.” None of the information mentioned in that description is available on this weblog.

The only information that’s provided here is, as I’ve said before, the link to the author’s “business” website. She also shares a few stories of how successful she’s become and how easy it’s been to sit at home and earn so much money. The author attempts to post copies of her “bonus checks” she’s received through this business, but in order to see these checks, you have to have a username and password to the site that the author keeps promoting throughout the weblog.

The layout used for this weblog is a Blogger template, which comes as no surprise considering the site is hosted by Blogspot. There’s nothing on the site that leads you to more information about the author. You can find the archives, and if you scroll down to the bottom of the layout, you’ll find various links to increase traffic to this site. In January 2005, the posts began on a regular basis, but as time as gone on, there are months were not even one post is made.

I’m skeptical about this type of weblog/web-based business and I know this. I’m sure my skepticism comes out strongly in this review. If the pyramid-type money-making plans are something you find yourself all gung-ho towards, then this is a site you should browse. If not, don’t waste your time.
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The first thing that struck me about this site was it’s beautiful and unique layout called “Crop Circles”. It was really refreshing to see a blog which has had a lot of effort put into it’s design. While I don’t think the blogger actually designed it themselves, I still appreciate the fact that they wanted to make their blog different!

The name also struck me as being interesting. Edgewater. What could that mean? Maybe it’s some obscure town near the sea or maybe it’s about the life of a person who’s depressed and is near the edge. I was praying it wasn’t the latter! Then I noticed the blogs slogan “I’m just skimming the surface”. This immediately made the name an awful lot less cryptic then I initially thought and now I know the blog is about the life of the blogger, but supposedly not an in-depth blog about it!

Now you may have noticed that so far in this review I have simply referred to the author as the “blogger” which gives little insight to the actual person! From what I could find, the “blogger” is a teenage girl that likes photography, attends school and likes people to use proper grammar (don’t we all?). She seems to be nearly addicted to blogging as she blogs multiple times everyday! In her spare time she likes to review other blogs for this very site which makes me relatively nervous knowing that a fellow reviewer will be analysing this review!

About the actual content though, I must say I found it very hard to get into the posts and relate to them! Not just because I’m a member of the opposite sex, but because she constantly refers to her friends who she tells us precious little about which immediately narrows down the potential audience. The blog only caters for her personal friends and it’s incredibly difficult for an outsider to read the blog and fully understand and appreciate whats going on!

If there was more time spent on describing who these people were then this blog would be a lot more user-friendly and I wouldn’t have left this site with more questions then I had upon visiting it! To sum it all up, this blog is a personal blog, whose personality isn’t shining as brightly as I think it could.

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What can I say about first impressions at the sound of muzik? Well, it has to be the first post I read there entitled “Look At Me! I’m A Hack…er” which had me gaping at the screen open mouthed from the first sentence. Could hacking a site really be this easy thanks to google? If you want to know more I suggest you pay this site a visit and read this post. Second impression, the disclaimer notice, laugh? I nearly cried.

It was a little difficult working out when the weblog started from archives; there were some entries made in January 2004, yet the typical first post was in November 2004. Since he seems to have been posting most consistently since November, I shall assume for the record this was when the blog was born. To be honest, from first look at the design I was expecting your typical blogger content, if that first entry on hacking through google had not caught my eye I might easily have walked away had I been your random visitor. If there is a weblog worth a second look, it is this one. Muzik writes very well, with wit and panache, and he makes me laugh. He can write about the dullest subject in such fashion he makes it entertaining. .

The design is a standard two column blog template with a banner. Its clean, its easy to read, and doesn’t distract from the content. Its not the best I’ve seen, but its not the worst either. All the links worked, and it was relatively easy to navigate. The only real problem I experienced was the tagboard which was “experiencing technical difficulties”. When do they ever experience anything else? If there was anything I would suggest removing, it would be the tagboard, which are OK when they are working but a pain when they aren’t.

For some time I sat gripped by the content of this weblog. Its well written, its witty and humorous. The design lets it down a little, but this can be easily overlooked. When it came at last to rating this weblog I had a difficult time on my hands, normally a 5 rating is only attributed to websites that combine exceptional reading with a good design that works well with the site. Exceptional reading it has, and although the design isn’t mind blowing it is easy to navigate and read. A 5 it is..

The Sound Of Muzik

Luckily, my visit to “The Sound of Muzik” did not
yield the results that I was dreading; that it would be dedicated to a horde of smartly dressed children who have heartfelt, yet somehow nerve-wracking songs about coming of age and a love-struck nanny to
whom they can sing them.
Thankfully it also was not about that
unbearable Muzak that is so popularly heard in dental offices while undergoing procedures that are almost as excruciating as the melodies.

What I did find, was a rather amusing collection of rants and anecdotes that are well written and presented in a simple layout that allows the reader no distractions while browsing the blog. The author has a talent for drawing the reader into his stories and for generating a laugh with most of his posts.

In addition to the lively posts, “The Sound of Muzik” also plays host to several comical links ranging from bathroom etiquette to “Save Toby”, a site dedicated to taking donations to save the life of a bunny facing a future on a dinner table. I was a little disappointed to see that there was not much information about the author himself, however. When I checked the “100 things” link to see what I could discover there, it did not work which was slightly frustrating to me.

Despite the fact that there really wasn’t anything unique about this blog’s design, I felt that the content of “The Sound of Muzik” was interesting as well as funny and holds a lot of future potential pending some minor ‘sprucing up’.The Sound Of Muzik