I had not a clue after reading the title but was intrigued enough to want to find out. What were these Mushroom and Rooster characters and why the capital letters? Was the Pen referring to a writing implement?
The site looks great. A fantastic banner with said Mushroom and Rooster and as part of the banner, a home page icon, about section, archives, contact details and a photos section. A small gripe is that this is lost when you enter the archives and replaced with a less functional not as attractive banner. There is a left side panel which has colourful icons for the categories that are posted. There are also mood indicators, a comment board, links to other blogs and a list of referrers.
From the about me section I learned who, and yes they are people, the Mushroom and Rooster are. You are also introduced to Gilbert. Not a person, but a peace lily. The two are young university students. One male, one female. They appear to live together (as a couple???) in the Pen. So not a writing instrument. The plant, a gift from one to the other inhabits the female one’s bedroom. As you can guess the Rooster is the boy. They also share the web log, equally contributing to its existence.
When they post they like to tell you what they are listening to. So in keeping I’m listening to Helpless Dancer by the Who as I write this. They posts are varied, self deprecating, well written and on the whole interesting. They reached their 100th post on May 8 2004 and there are archives dating back to November 2003 and a links to an older site dating back to August 2003. They use a great deal of links and the site is packed with pictures and graphics. As I mentioned it looks great.
They are fans of these little quizzes and what do you like and not like. Until its demise in May they carried an ongoing Friday Five which were five questions to answer posted on another site. Trivia. They have just started a what’s in your glovebox project where we are invited to detail what we have in our glove box. An AC/DC CD and an A-Z myself.
They are based in Sydney, Australia and a lot of their posts detail life Australian style even down to sour grapes over England’s whipping of their team in the Rugby World Cup final. Tee, hee. Indeed the Rooster particularly is a big fan of sport. We also are regaled with tales of life as hard done by overworked students. Poor things.
I particularly liked the weekly inclusion of a Simpson’s cartoon and Rooster often made me laugh. However on the down side the site missed that certain something that would make me want to return. I struggled to continue after reading through a couple of months worth of posts – maybe one at a time would leave me with a more positive feeling.
Anyhow the site looks excellent, is well written and is on the whole worth checking out especially if you like those little quiz type things. It is probably worth a four, but as I don’t feel like returning only a three I’m afraid.The Pen