Name: Katie
Site: Chocolate Before Pride
Review completed on: 11/10/07
Guest Reviewer: Vief
SPLASH PAGE
No splash.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Simple header, nice centered layout, readable font size, and nifty use of CSS which means I can visit your site in green, blue or orange. This is very much a web 2.0-ish layout judging by that glossy feel and the use of icons in the navigation. However, as web 2.0-ish layouts sometimes bother me [I don't really need everything to be icon-ed or glossy] this one isn't too over the top and I hope this means content is most important to you.
LAYOUT
As I said, the layout reminds me of web 2.0 , what with the shiny things and the simple organization [header, content, footer]. You don't even have a sidebar. [I think you had one and then got rid of it?] Not that that is a bad thing, but it leaves the page to be very.. empty and white. I like the grey though, and at least you know how to have decent, readable font. You also know how to use CSS, hurray! And I've been looking at your stylesheet, your design is released under GPL? That's awesome, woman!
The only problem I could see with the navigation being images is that people might not be able to figure them out. The good thing is, it works even if the images are turned off, so that's great :] And it looks in any browser I tried to access your site from, plus it loads super quickly, so props to you!
CONTENT
Your index page is the blog, and PSGR doesn't review blogs. Fair enough. But I have to admit that I really had a good time reading through your entries, especially the one about the iPod ["The Ever-Shrinking iPod"] with the mathematical and poetic approaches, it was hilarious!
I did what you suggested and went to Basics first. [note: the layout of this all changed while I was writing, and what was first Basics is now the index of the Me section. The content is the same however.] Basics is a page with two lists ["Short version", "Favorites In Brief"] and a longer piece on you, called "Long version". This page looks absolutely fine, it's always nice to get to know the personality behind the pixels.
Heh. This is rather cool. First, I looked at your age. I was like "whoa, this is an amaaazing site for someone that young" [yes, in my book 14 is young] and mainly so because when I was 14, I was on GeoCities. Major kudos to you on that front. Then, I saw that you were a Sagittarius [apparently, my eyes just pulled me that way]. My brain "Ooooooh Sagittarius. All the cool people are Sagittarius. You must be born in November. All the cool people are born in November. *eyes go up* Sure enough! HEY HEY HEY 29? Awesome!" Because obviously, only real cool people are born on the 29th of November. And that's you and me, baby. You just gained a million "cool points" in my book. So. From now on I will read things in order, I promise. It's funny how your "Favorites In Brief" list contains both your favourite and your least favourite things. Maybe you should title it "Likes and Dislikes" or something. It's really nice to read about what you like and what you then think as your least favourite, but then the title of the list doesn't do it justice. I really enjoyed reading the Long Version, which is like an autobiography but just about your general likes and opinions. It's nice to see that you put some time in writing this, elaborating what you mentioned in your lists. I also liked that you ended with keeping it short. A longer story is what an autobiography is for; basics are, after all, just basics.
"Same with the Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings/Chronicles of Narnia/any fantasy book series that became movies movies." Delete the last "movies" and you're fine.
Okay so you totally messed with the style of all your me pages since I last was here, and I must say I preferred the old way! Now I have to scroll down to find all your other interesting reads. Someone who just went to 'me' and then was like "Argh, long read" might never find out this way. Just a convenience. [So, if you want to keep it this way, which is fine since it results in less clicks and people like to have less clicks, put the links on top, people also like to keep scrolling to a minimum]
"You owe my family big for being able to watch sports and then call your friends about it." - this made me laugh, haha. The long version - I don't remember there being so many links on this one, with the literature and film list. It gets kind of annoying after a while. If someone really doesn't know what Brave New World is about, e.g., they can go to the respective Wikipedia page themselves, no? I would think it far more logical that if you are going to link them [which is not really necesary since you're just listing what you like here] that they would link to something you have written yourself. Now it's just Wikipedia link after Wikipedia link and it's disappointing and repetitive.
Autobiography - Holy woman! You do a LOT at your school! That's amazing though. If you like doing that, keep it up. It can come in real handy in later life, and I'm not saying that as an old grandma looking back on high school and knowing oh so much in life but more in the sense that YES, set up that Model UN thing. It's supposed to be a lot of fun and learning. I can sense that you're quite the person who likes to be in control and be very organized. Some good qualities, but more so if you're proud of yourself. Don't do it if it doesn't feel right, or because others tell you to. I'm glad that you found who you are and who you want to be [I certainly wasn't, or maybe at 14 I was and then it all collapsed at 16...] and I'd say keep on being who you are!
Overall, your biography is a great read. You've got the major points down [personality, school, achievements, family, love, blah] and thrown in some humor as well, that makes it less "formal". Anyway. If I can say one thing it's that your writing style is great, you are totally capable of writing a logical story with a beginning and an end, you use clear paragraphs. I absolutely enjoyed reading this.
Dream Guy - I haven't really ever read a page like this before. That's some real original content you have there. If you've visited my site [which I doubt, I don't think I have visitors from Hawaii] you know that my Dream Guy is someone close to my obsessions [which I wrote a page about, actually] and my obsessions are Davey Havok, Chris Dos and Travis Barker. What I did was just telling about them, and what I like about them so much. I don't really need a Dream Guy page because I am in a relationship -and I will never come close to any of my obsessions anyway, sadly -, but let's see what you are looking for in a guy! "Well, here's a piece I wrote on what I'm looking for in a dude." I would change that to "Here's a piece I wrote, on what I'm looking for in a dude" because now it reads as if this is an actual piece of paper that you wrote on. Hmm. I can't say anything about how tall that guy should be, or how tall you are. Why can't everybody just use centimeters? It'd make my life so much easier. Anyway. If you have a lot of European visitors you might consider putting the height in cm, in brackets, behind the heights you have written right now. I also wonder why you would want someone to be overweight? It doesn't really make sense in my head. Ah, minus some cool points because you don't want guys with piercings or tattoos. Just kidding! But seriously though. I know it's wrong, but I can't wait for the day that my Muffin finally has some ink in his skin. Just a personal preference, but my dream guy definitely has his tongue pierced [also a no in real life] and has his arms tattooed. And has a mohawk. Okay, so I said I wouldn't say anything about my Dream Guy - I'll shut up already. "This is harder to write then the other parts." Change "then" to "than".
Most of the points you mentioned in Personality are some very good ones, and very important in relationships too. I hope you're also a bit of a Dream Girl and possess these personality traits. As for Likes/Dislikes, you totally described my Muffin there. Even with the exception of Subway thing! We both don't eat much fast food and boycott all big chains like Mac and Burger King, but he loves Subway for some reason or other [and I don't like it!]. The last sentence was totally great. Normally, when somebody writes about their Dream Guy, they want so many things that are impossible to get. Now, I was a little worried that you might come and steal my guy away from me but now I'm safe. Although Muffin obviously has a piercing. [Even if it's not the one I want him to have ;)] Heh.
Likes/Dislikes - I was a bit scared that this would be similar to Basics and started to wonder why this existed in the first place. Fortunately it's not a boring list at all!
I especially loved how you can spell those words. I myself love to learn parts of plays [Shakespeare is a favourite], poems [I need to quote Plath once in a while] and novels. I also love to be able to spell words that the Dutch generally find hard to write, like rhododendron, sowieso and English words like definitely, so I guess I know where you're coming from. Your love of Starbucks though, I have to disagree with you there. I generally prefer tea [this may or may not have something to do with the fact that I don't drink caffeine because I'm straight edge] and even if you love coffee so much, why don't you try out a local coffee.. house? [I will not ever say coffeeshop in that sense. I'm Dutch. Coffeeshops are not places to get coffee. Duh.] It is so sad to see the locals being driven away by the big multinationals! But hey, that's my opinion. "I'm going to FLORIDA in Summer 2007! You cannot possibly know how excited this makes me." Ah. So here in Holland it's definitely not Summer anymore, and I'm curious as to how this trip was. If you have written about it, I suggest you put a link here, so I can read about it.
About the dislikes, "I think I'm one of the few people on the planet who dislikes Pepsi, Coco-Cola and such." Change Coco to Coca, and *raises hand* me too! Not only because I don't drink caffeine, also because Coca-Cola and Pepsi are quite tasteless. The same goes for Fanta and such. The only fizzy drink I like is Seven Up, and this drink we have here, called Fernandez. But even that is too sweet for me sometimes.
Family - I'm really sorry to read that the people who you live with and who you share bloodbonds with, are not who you consider family. It's sad to read about those things, even if I can relate to some of the things you say here. It is however very uplifting to read the last few bits, about the people who you do consider family. I'm glad that you still have people who are close to you. This is a real open and honest page you have here. I would suggest you look into bonding more with the people you live with so it's less hard on you, but that would mean I'm interfering with your personal business and I don't want to do that, so I'll leave it up to your own choices.
Music - It's nice to see that your Music page is more than just a list, and you had me smile when all the Jack's Mannequin songs were bolded. And Something Corporate of course. Gosh, they are amazing bands. I love singing along with them too much. [And then sometimes I take photos of it]
Your music page totally changed, or it was swiped from my memory. Either way. The time span in which I am writing this review has now been a whole, what, two weeks? So I'm glad, this is a very nice page with a personal yet informative touch. It's nice how you've done little reviews instead of just "I like" because you're never going to know how much people know about the bands you're talking about! Impressive. Also though, I'd like to see your parodies of Girlfriend! Where can I find it? If they're not online or you don't want to link them, just put it between brackets, I'm sure other people will be curious after you just stated that.
Random Facts - I'm all for random, so I enjoy reading this. However, déjá vu is French and needs the proper accents. And isn't e-mail spelt with a dash?
Heh. A lot of these things made me laugh. Definitely an original and interesting read. And Davey, yes, I too memorize lyrics to songs. I also randomly burst out singing during conversations. Songs get stuck in my head [sometimes very annoying, as I go to shops and the music played there will get stuck in my head, and I don't like hit songs much]. I don't know why people would be freaked out by this though!
ps. It's a shame you hate Tinkerbell. Haha. To each their own though, but I think she's awesome. I mean, she can fly and all that. And she shines. Who else ever shines? That's totally cool in my book. Oh and you hate pink. That's another tenthousand cool points because I hate pink too. What's up with that colour anyway? Whoever invented it should be shot. It's not in the colour spectrum that I know of, but it's still being used too much and when it's used with the other colours of the rainbow sometimes, I get so pissed! As a huge rainbow fan I get pissed easily if the colours are in the wrong order [I mean, deh, purple never comes before blue, wtj!] but if there's pink in there, my oh my, way to ruin a beatiful thing. Your laptop is called Philip? Cool! Mine's Nymphadora. Perhaps they could be friends? [Seriously though, naming things is the coolest thing to do. Ha ha.]
Personality - I also don't remember reading this the first time around. It's nice and detailed to get to know a bit more about you as a writer. I could already tell you have a talent for writing and you're a pretty opinionated person [as myself, which is good, because people with no opinion are just lame] and I'm still totally jealous of all your debating stuff. I don't have a talent for debating because I find it so hard to compromise, while in a debate that's mostly what you're trying to do: each having a point and then trying to find a solution. As a super opinionated person I find that hard. " I try to be reliable, though due to circumstances beyond my control I am not always able to." - isn't anybody? I mean, this can happen to everyone. I don't think it's a personality treat and you don't even have to mention this because it's a human thing to happen. Also, the being impatient with family members sounds so familiar. With me it's the people that are close to me, that get to endure my moodswings. That's also a natural thing to happen I guess. Not with everyone, but a lot of people tend to be more comfortable in certain behaviour with certain people.
About the writing/talking thing, I'm totally feeling you on this. When I talk it seems like nothing makes sense. When I write I can at least read it over and express myself so much better! You want to hear a funny story? When my ex-Muffin and I broke up, we first sat somewhere for thirty minutes without talking. Then he took out a paper and a pencil and gave it to me. I wrote a question [I don't even exactly remember what it was, but we hadn't really spoken for a week or so before this happened] and he replied, talking. It's kind of weird, but I really didn't know how to say anything, how to break that barrier with spoken word while I had no problem writing something down. In the end we talked and we broke up, and that was it. Still funny how he knew that I couldn't say anything and he gave me tools to write.
The paragraph about wit made me think of Elizabeth Bennet, you know, the character in Pride and Prejudice. Are you anything like her? I think she's an amazing character. "within an hour's time" - this sounds weird to me. Someone help me on this. Isn't "within an hour" so much more logical to say? But hey, I find it hard to believe that you have moments that there is nothing to do! You sound so damn creative! I never have nothing to do, that does get kind of exhausting but I have always, anywhere and anytime, something to do. Maybe you could start a journal and take it everywhere with you. Just write down what you think, or what your plans are, or a wishlist, or a list of things to do! It might help. In the case that there's nothing to do you can draw or write or find that list with things to do and never be bored again!
"intervene - or if it's pissed me off that much, join in" - The comma in his sentence should be a dash, like you used before. Or the dash should be a comma. You choose, baby.
Oh, and no worries! This was an amazing read and I think you cornered everything very well. Even if you're a walking contradiction. Though I get what you mean, it depends on the situation for you to know how you'll react and behave. I can be very patient when I'm taking photographs, e.g., and very impatient when I'm getting the photographs developed. Whatever you describe yourself as, there will always be an exception somehow. I think this page is definitely a keeper, a great read and a must-have for every personal site. You did it very well and I'm sure your visitors will enjoy it. It's also something to keep for yourself, for the future :]
Stuff I Want To Do - or Jeremy. How awesome! You named your to do list! I name a lot of things, though I never really had big to do lists so I never thought of naming mine. That's such a cool name too. Ahhh, I'm already excited!
Travel Europe, oh yes, definitely do this! Europe is great, but skip Amsterdam. Haha. I'm so not a fan. "So, Katie plus guitar equals undescribable coolness." Haha, oh man, you had me in a twist there. Well, if I hadn't been sitting in a train that is. Hilarious! But hey, it's one of my dreams too, to be able to play guitar along with my favourite rock bands. About the piano, have you heard Straylight Run? They also have amazing piano parts. And hey, piano is easier to get the hang of than guitar [at least, for me] so you should definitely try that out!
"with my music blared" shouldn't this be "blaring"? Sitting on a rooftop is a lot of fun, I can tell you. Though it sounds like a very Mest-y thing to do ;] Sitting on the rooftops, listening to punk rock.Ah well. Definitely a nice experience. Also a good one to do with friends!
Lol, the riding a bus one made me laugh. Maybe because I've been on busses since I was a wee little Vief. But hey, you did it! What did you think about it? Ah man, you've never been to a concert? I can't imagine what my life would be like without concerts. I think I'd die. :[ But I'm sure the time will come for you. You're young, I don't know many people who went to a lot of concerts when they were before the age of 16 or so. [Okay, I know a few and I'm jealous of them. Grrr.] Wait, ho, whaaat, Disneyland does so have rollercoasters! And it's so much more fun than Six Flags because they are themed ones too and not lame boring out in the open roller coasters! But I must agree, roller coasters are such a thrill.. defnitely a good one on your list.
The stranger-life-story one reminds me of something. One day I was walking downtown and this woman came up to me. She was like "okay, I have no one to tell this to but I have to share it with someone. I am pregnant!" And she was so happy, so glad she could share this news. It was amazing. Definitely something I would do in a situation like that! Going to NYC is also on my to do list, even if it doesn't have a high priority because I still don't know what to think about the city and I'm just rooting for Paris. But, can't say anything until you've done it, right? And the movie, I'm totally on that too. I'm actually going to try and make a stop-motion film. When yours is done I'd definitely want to see it, it'll be good :]
Writing - I know Rhiannon doesn't normally go into depth on pieces people write, but I couldn't help it. I also think it's kind of a good making-up-thing-to-do since this review already has taken me a few weeks. And maybe the whole "I'm reviewing what you're writing" is the reason it took me so long. Uh.. Vicious cycle much? Anyway, I only did it for the Insights writings, so no worries. It's cool thought that you have so much content, definitely an example for other site owners!
Insights - Your intellectual side, hmm? You could also state that people can leave comments [because they can] and you could state that you're open to discussion, as I've seen you are. It's a great means to get your visitors to interact!
Death Penalty - Oh Davey, you're not serious. And you were so awesome in my opinion. You have to know, there are a few [may it be cliché] topics on which I have an opinion that will not change and for which I will dislike people thoroughly if they have the exact same opinion. Not that I will kill them, but whenever I hear them say their opinion, I'm raging inside and totally frustrated.
"Scenario time: If somebody murdered a relative of yours, would you feel more comfortable A: knowing that the murderer is still alive, with a chance - however slight - to get out of jail and murder more, or B: knowing that this murderer is dead, and will never again hurt a soul? " You can't be serious. So what? Shit, that person killed a person, let's kill it, so the killer can be killed, who then has to be killed by someone, who has to be killed by another, who has to be killed by again another, who has to be killed by you. Killing someone is terrible, I agree, and so it has to be punished. Not re-enacted! And redone and redone and redone. How are you going to explain this to the poor simple minds that is the human race? It's going to be like House Of The Spirits but many times worse! "I have to rape you, because my father raped your mother" will become "I have to kill you because my father killed your father who killed someone's daughter." Are you making sense of this? Probably not. Killing just because someone killed doesn't make any sense!
I would much rather have the simple mind that is a murdering human being [because ho snap, Davey forbid that some people are convicted wrongly, especially in the U.S.!] is spending his lifetime overthinking what he has done. That someone, on the verge of killing, knows what will be ahead of him: a lifetime torture and not just being killed and that's it. Do you think it's cheap to kill people? Do you think it's cheap to keep them on death row? And what, as I said before, if you're wrong? You can't bring people back from the dead! Innocent people have died because of the death penalty before and it's going to keep happening. Obviously nobody is going to like that.
Scenario: If somebody murdered a relative of yours, would you rather that they caught the right guy and locked him up, or kill an innocent person and have the murderer still walk around? Nobody will like to investigate a case once somebody is blamed and killed. It isn't going to happen. What about old people? Mentally ill people? Are you going to kill them, just because it is so expensive to keep them in houses and care for them and there's overpopulation already? Sure, in my perfect world, there would be only a little amount of children born every year to stop overpopulation and I would love to see old people die instead of just live and live. Life isn't fun when you're old, for the majority of people. But I'm not going to KILL them. The simple being that is the homo sapiens has been programmed to care, to be social. So let's just do the rational thing and take care of people.
Oh and PS. I'd rather have my tax being spent on something good than knowing I helped murder someone, who might as well be innocent [and luckily for me it's not going to happen through death penalty cause we don't have it here].
[The whole idea of jail, by the way, is to have people punished and rethink their actions and there might as well be a chance that a lot of people who go to jail never murder again. I have to look that up.]
Emo - Oh, this was actually short and not what I thought it would be. I thought it would be a Wiki-ish page on the history and definition on emo included and then you having an opinion like you have in all your articles. But here you're just tossing the word emo around stating that it means emotional, but it actually has a long musical and cultural background. Just like "indie" doesn't always necessarily mean "independent", "emo" isn't always "emotional" because then ALL we do would be emo. Which it isn't. Only certain types of things, in art, in music, are considered emo. When you're talking about punk, e.g., most of it is very angry and anger is an emotion and yet punk is punk and not emo. But that's the theoretical part of this. I do completely agree with you on the misuse and overuse of emo. Though it has always happened and will continue to happen [doesn't mean you can't write about it!] as it has been happening to punk and goth and alternative before.
Green Day - This was a good piece of personal yet convincing writing. You have made your point really clear. Annoying though, isn't it, elitism among fans? Yet I thought you were going to say something on the fans, but you didn't. I'm curious to what your actual point about that was, because you still try to prove that you're a real fan, that you've been around, that you know the band.
Homosexuality and Bisexuality - A nice piece to read, very opinionated, which is good for a personal site. I had something to comment on your "If God doesn't want homosexuals then why did he create them?" but then I thought about it and I was like "Yep. Tell me why?" and I don't believe in God so I don't think there's an answer and I don't think any religious people can give an answer, either .
Looking at your comments there is one religious girl who tries to answer but it just doesn't cut it, because the argument doesn't make any sense whatsoever. But I'll leave that discussion for your site. About the mental disorder however, it is so funny [or actually, very sad] how it took so long and only happened in the seventies that "homophilia" was declared not to be an illness and the term was changed to "homosexuality". And now all of a sudden people [about 70% of the youths in my country! I am devastated!] go around saying homosexuality is an illness again. HELLOOO? We have just concluded that it is NOT an illness. Argh.
One Nation Under God? - "worshiped" - worshipped. Personally I think that whole Pledge of Alliance is uhm.. overrated and kind of brainwashing, but to each his own. You're right however with the Under God thing. And hey, I think I'm an agnostic too. [I don't really know at this point, I verge between atheist and agnost] This made me think of Bad Religion and instantly made my whole morning better. So yeah. If only people would just live up to their pledge, or just don't say it at all. [I mean, wtf is a flag going to do for you? And then when it doesn't do anything what are you going to say? "Shit flag, I pledged alliance every morning for half of my life and you're just letting me down here! Grrr!" or what? - but that's my opinion]
Paris Hilton Goes To Jail - Ah, yes. Maybe you could write a little follow-up with "Paris Hilton was in jail" and all the terribly lame things that happened before, during and after this nonsense? That would actually make this a complete piece, because now it seems like you wrote it before she went, and then never looked at it again.
Why some teachers suck - "Some of them don't seem to far from the truth either!" change to to too. Actually, this is pretty funny. Why don't you throw in some examples of your own teacher, with the behaviour and then the reasons why? Now it was a short read and I'm curious as to what, for example, made you think your teacher was on crack. That would make it more personal and also so much more interesting. Or, if you're just going to keep this as a list with reasons, include some more. This is somewhat a break away from generic content but it's too short and not in-depth. Yeah, I sound like a teacher. EEP!
Poems - I'm not going to review your poems, I know Rhiannon doesn't review poetry or art or whatever and it would take me even longer than it has done already to finish this review if I DID review your poetry, so I'm not going to. Holy mother of Davey, that was a long sentence. On a serious note though, I really liked your poems! I really liked that you gave explanations too. By The Ocean - change "then" to "than" in the explanation. Indecisive - "symoblization" should be symbolization Terminal - "Why is is so cold?" I'm assuming you wanted to say "is it" Weak - in "Only thing that's missing is the reville horn" change "reville" to "reveille"
Song Lyrics - Another part I'm not going to review thoroughly, but I must say I was happy I found the Avril parodies, they were really funny! One question though: did you ever turn the lyrics into real songs? As in, do they have melodies too? If they do I'm very curious about it all [can you tell?] and would love to hear the whole song instead of just reading the lyrics.
Play Scripts - Haha, this was hilarious! It was really well written, nice flow, good plot and just plain hilarious. I loved it and can't find anything negative to say about it! Yay!
Tales of Horror - Okay, maybe there's one thing I can say, either add more scripts and plays, or change the titles to Script and Tale, as there is only one of each! On the note of the triangles though, that must be really freaky! Maybe you can show a picture of what they look like? Or are you afraid they will start haunting your site too?
Art - Ah nice, art :] I'm a big fan of art! I'm not going to critisize everything in here because it would take ages, like the writings.
Blends - I'm not a big fan of blends and I can't really find anything to say about them. I don't really view them as art, I guess.
Other - This was actually really funny! At the end of the page it would perhaps be nice if you put up a comparison picture, the before and after, with and without moustache!
Photos - Finally it's time for something I am particularly interested in :] it's a shame however that there is no way to go back, except my own browser's back button. You could make an index page and have seperate albums in SimpleViewer, making some sort of lists of links and then you could put up a warning that these are pages with a different layout, so people should use their own back buttons.
I'll be really honest with you, your photography didn't particularly stand out to me. The only really interesting thing that you did was the titles. I never really give my photographs titles unless I really really think about them and really really like them [which I should do more, actually] but most of the time I just number them. The titles did fit the photos so that's good, I guess. What I don't really get is why you would have one photo and then the same photo again, but "Photoshopped". Why would you want to show the unphotoshopped version? There is no further explanation whatsoever.
I would suggest, if you keep up photography, to make subfolders and include a bit of information on what the series is about. About the list I was talking about, it could look something like this:
- My Garden
- My holiday
[And then before you start the list, like you've done on all the other index pages, you could state that they open in SimpleViewer, etc. The great thing about having an index page would also be that people could leave comments!]
Also, I could give you tons of advice on what to do and how to make photos interesting [even though my teachers don't really want to help me with that, weird photography teachers] but I won't do it in this review. However, I can tell you that right now it's just a bunch of "registration" types of photos, which are really not saying anything to me, especially if you're not giving more details. It's perfectly fine to have snapshots and registration-y types of photos on your personal site, but for the visitor right now it's kind of boring.
Site - Your little introduction was funny, even though it's not really necessary as you stated yourself you don't know what to put there. Though this provides amusement, so you might as well just leave it as it is :]
About CBP - A nice read on the history of the site, the story behind the name and a description of the sections. That last bit is particularly nice, but if you would just name your links properly of just saying Here Here Here Here.. mmyeah. As a visitor, the Site part is one of the last bits I'm going to look. I have already had almost all of the sections you described, that's a big bummer. It would be nice if this part would be at the start of this whole journey. Hmmm. Returning visitors don't really need to read that everytime they visit because they will know. And first time visitors can just click on the funky icons and find out for themselves. So, come to consider, this bit was superfluous and you can leave it out! Tada, problem solved.
About the Layouts - Every decent personal site has this section, and apart from it being fun for the site owner to look back at past layouts and laugh, it's also interesting for the visitors, to get to know a bit more about the motive behind the layouts. After all, a layout makes your site, it's on every page!
"This layout is Version 5.0 - Sleek. It is designed the "Web 2.0″ way - with gradients and simplicity in mind. I had been wanting to try out making a Web 2.0 layout for a while, and this is the product of my attempt."
Aha, so I was right! Apart from everything being in present tense, which I would change to past tense for "past" since all the layouts are in the past anyway, there is nothing wrong with this page. Oh, yeah I would make sure the fonts are on DaFont [not "I think" - why can't you check?] and I don't think it's that hard to find out if something is Arial or Century Gothic, no?
Ask Stalin - This is probably the most hilarious bit of your entire site! It's so damn funny, the questions and the answers! Way to go with original content! Hahahaha. A nice break from all the generic "ask me" pages ^_^
Contact - Very nice that you put all your other site accounts there too. They are indeed a means of contact, so why not, right? There is no contact form, but since you left your e-mail address I don't really think you need one, and contact forms result in spam most of the times. And if people want to be lazy then can as well leave a comment. Good job!
Reviews of CBP - This is very nice. You put the actual review there, along with your own answers. It's very good to see you take advice into consideration. I kind of feel bad about my own review now since it's almost ten pages long and I did go into detail about uhm.. everything? At least you can be sure I looked at every single millimeter of your site and didn't just skim it. Don't you feel proud?
Also, haha, if you decide to do answers to this review, it will take so long for people to scroll, Oh My Davey! Ooops.
Links - Finally, the last page left to do. This is a neat page, the only thing I would change is the favourites/being reviewed at and make them two seperate lists. The link to me is great, you have banners in several sizes [unlike me, so props to you!] though I would suggest some sort of code for people to link you, or maybe just the url? Not everyone will be as talented to know how to take codes and then make them link to a site [even though it's a fairly simple thing to do.]
Oh my Davey finally! I'm so sorry it took so long! I took you from the high priority list because you had been waiting so long and Rhiannon felt kind of bad about it. And now here I am, feeling bad that I made you wait even longer! I hope you enjoyed the review though..
Your site is a supercalifrigi.. I give up.. example for other personal sites. There is not one bit of generic content on your site! Everything is original, funny, and even if it's on a more serious note, you have thought through everything you have put up.
I particularly liked all your writings. I also enjoyed your blog and I will most surely come back once in a while to read and comment! Your site is definitely great as it is, and apart from some minor spelling mistakes and content organizing, I think you should keep going as you're doing now!
Photos of my garden, taken on October 10th 2007
My holiday snapshots of Summer 2007
SUMMARY
