Name: Renee
Site: Charismatic Insanity
Review completed on: 10/12/06
SPLASH PAGE
No splash
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
I've always been guilty of being a tad superficial but I must keep reminding myself...do not judge a book by its cover. This is proving quite difficult, as the appearance of your site looks very dull, too plain, and on the whole rather uninspiring. Of course, these things can be easily changed - no need to bring in Carol Smiley just yet!
LAYOUT
Okay, the main reason why I've said your layout looks dull is because of the colours you've chosen. Black, white, grey and tan? You're not an old lady! I also said that your layout is too plain - emphasis on too. Plain is fine, plain can work, with the right colours. In my view, a successful layout doesn't necessarily have to contain images, but it ought to look pleasing on the eyes and give an inviting impression. I'm not trying to come across as a bitch here but I'm not really trying to hold back on my words, because I know for a fact you're capable of pulling off something great. What about that other layout you had up a few weeks ago, the black and pink one with the angel wings? That was cool. If every single layout you had ever come up with hadn't been the greatest, I'd still have told you how I felt but I might not have been so, well, blunt I suppose. Next time you put up a new layout, just think more carefully about your colour choices - see if you can come up with a combination that appeals, instead of making us feel like going to sleep!
Now, I'm not the greatest at painting a picture with words so I'll just give you the picture and take it from there:
Is the C and the H in your site title supposed to be located there, or is it just how my browser (Safari) is displaying it? It looks quite strange the way it is.
CONTENT
Chamber
I was a little put off when I saw how you've displayed all your links - where'd the blue come from? How does this go with your layout colours? It doesn't. Also, you need to do something about your line height as well as your font size because all the links look crammed together and it's hard on the old eyes, you know what I'm saying?
A briefer version - you've successfully given readers a decent amount of information about yourself without droning on and on...well done. On the last line, change pyschology to psychology.
Dramatis personae - a list of people mentioned in your blog. Nothing to say here...a good point of reference I guess? Oh yeah - with the risk of being nitpicky, I'd make use of hypens or colons on this page, instead of having "Daniel My lovely partner/boyfriend you could have "Daniel - My lovely partner/boyfriend".
Adorations - this was original. What do you mean when you say "During my year at Centenary" under "Radio"? Was Centenary your high school? How are we supposed to know what this is? Explain, babe.
Album list - sweet taste in music. I'm not seeing any Limp Bizkit or Deftones in there though, although you've got every other band that's similar! Cool to see a John Lennon CD among these...you know, it was 26 years ago on the 8th of December that he was assassinated by that scummy piece of shit Mark Chapman. John Lennon was the shit, man. Anyway, how about spicing up this list a bit, chuck in some stars next to the albums and give us your ratings!
Concerts - although I've never heard of any of the bands you've got here, save KMFDM, I liked reading about what concerts you've been to. I've seen these type of pages before, although every time all it consists of are band names fired off one after the other. You've gone that extra mile by actually describing each concert experience. Nice work!
Personal quotebook - yes, that's exactly what it is, personal. While this may be of interest to your friends and acquaintances, it probably wouldn't be for regular visitors because a lot of these quotes are of the "you had to be there" variety. Do you get what I mean?
Animalistic - a page about your pets, past and present. I liked learning more about your pets, but it was sad reading about Sheba and, more particularly, Spot. Under the information about Sheba, change german shepherd to German Shepherd, because it's the name of a breed.
Randomosity - some random tidbits of information here. I see you collect mardi gras beads...I have a few, actually, although I've of course never been to Louisiana let alone the USA. I was sent them in 2001 by a penpal...what was her name...ah yes, Christine Geisler from Baton Rouge, LA. They're pretty cool!
Wishlist type thing - I think just "Wishlist" would do as the title, or "Goals"? Cool that you want to come to New Zealand - I am a jedi knight on the dark side, and I will now provide you with some tips straight from a true kiwis mouth! Okay, avoid flying into Wellington at all costs. It's the worlds most dangerous airport, because the runway is too short and it's right next to the sea. Wellington is also known for its galeforce winds, so you can imagine that landing ain't pretty. I've only flown into Wellington once, because my town has an international airport. Anyway, as soon as we landed the pilot had to slam on the brakes immediately and we screeched to a halt. Terrible. Palmerston North, where I'm from, isn't the greatest, hmm...Hamilton is boring as fuck, New Plymouth is cool, Rotorua reeks of fart because of the sulphuric mud pools and geysers, and Auckland is pretty much where it's at. The Skytower is there, which is the tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere. I've been up there once, and it was quite freaky as the floor is glass. You've mentioned here that you like the Oz series by L. Frank Baum...have you seen the movie "Return to Oz" ? That movie gave me nightmares when I was a kid...I can't remember why exactly, but yeah. Wooo! Anyway, all in all you've got some really interesting goals listed here, good luck in fulfilling them all!
Phobias - cool, more stories. Wow, I can't believe all that shit happened to you when you donated blood. What an inexperienced loser nurse, to hit a nerve like that! I can't donate blood because you have to be over 55kg or something, but I remember walking through a local college and I saw all these hapless students lying down on stretchers looking fully comatose, who'd just given blood. I remember chuckling evilly and thinking they were losers...oh my god, did I really say that out loud!! I'll tell you something though, I had to have a blood test a few months ago and the ancient old lady nurse totally fucked up in a big way. I'm not squeamish about needles and it doesn't hurt, it never does, but this lady had me in tears. For starters she was trying to get the needle in on some kind of angle...wtf, you do it straight, not on an angle, and it hurt so bad! She couldn't understand why she couldn't get it in, while all the while I was sobbing in pain. I said something along the lines of "Ummmmm what are you doing" and she rushed off to get another nurse, and didn't even apologise to me. A nurse came in and did it pain free straight away, on a straight angle. I hope to God I never have to have a blood test again, because seriously, my arm fucking hurt. It was bruised, even. Fucking incompetent piece of shit nurse, can't make it as a doctor ay...loser....sorry, it's all coming back to me now. I see you are spheksophobic...afraid of wasps. Okay gyrl you really need to stop giving me ammunition because you're making me wanna ramble, and this is supposed to be a review y'all. I'm afraid of wasps too, as it happens. And bees! Whenever one comes near I'll scream or make some pitiful fearful whining noises. I guess my being a loser comes into that though.
Photology - I won't be reviewing this since it's an external link, but that's cool. Good on you for indicating this link is external! That seems to be my new pet peeve, seeing as I can't complain about centrally aligned layouts anymore.
Bibliophile - oh my god Renee, STOP IT!!!!!!! YOU are turning this review into an unprofessional piece of shit, because you keep on MAKING me talk about your shit!! Okay, so I'm contentedly surveying this page, and then at the end, I see the list of practically every Babysitters' Club book known to man. I hope you know what you've just started. I was crazy about BSC from age 6-13, my favourite babysitter was Claudia. I hated that silly afro girl Abby with a passion, plus she was butt ugly. Uglier than Kristy even, and that's saying something. My favourite normal BSC book is book #35, "Stacey and the mystery of Stoneybrook", and my favourite super special was "Babysitters at Shadow Lake". You haven't given your ratings for these books yet, probably because you've listed so many, but I'm looking forward to seeing them. Funny how you gave the Da Vinci Code 2 stars...I have to admit I liked the book, but the movie was SOOOOO GODDAMN BORING, and I'm not the only one who thinks so. Thank god I didn't pay to see it at the movies!
Fanlistings - nicely organised. I see your file name for this page is fangyrl.php...could you possibly get any cooler? Love it! I started using the word "gyrl" in 2002, and my fiance uses it too.
Library
Myers Briggs personality assessment - Damn, you were on a role there for a while too, but now I see a link containing two dreaded words - "Myers Briggs". Oh....grrree-aat...a Myers-Briggs Personality Assessment. Why? Surely this Myers Briggs content is available at the Myers Briggs site? Not to mention countless other personal websites.
Sharing is bad - well, insightful for the naive. I can't believe someone would be so stupid as to re-use a condom!
Following this page you have a few website reviews up - ones from Yoursite.nu, Review Club, and reviews via your own site. I won't read these, because two out of three are in my own queue.
Overused content edition - this has (WIP) next to the link, and I don't know about anyone else but I didn't automatically click that it was an acronym for "work in progress". Maybe you could put up a key here, like you've done in the review section. Haha, this page was cool, and oh so very true. Good to see the old Reflex Tester named here, god, I've seen that dumb game so many times it's not funny.
Ah! Here's your Super cool single page, as featured at the PSGR W2C competition! Good times man, good times. This page was a real hoot, let us hope that no one takes it seriously! The fact that you've stated as much probably won't have any effect on Piczo users, since they seem to lack comprehension skills :P Oh my, I'm extra bitchy tonight aren't I?
Roasted Italian Chicken - wow, sounds scrumptious. Easy to follow recipe, too. On the list of ingredients, you have "Italian Dressing" twice though.
Ballroom
This is your Visitor / Goodies section in other words, complete with a plugboard, opinion pages, and some graphics. Hmm, not too keen on the advent children and dragoon quizzes from Quizzilla, although you created them yourself, so I guess I can't complain too much about it.
Next up you have two pages that can be used by hosts and hostees alike - people wanting to find a home on the web, or take someone in. These pages were only added three days ago so they're not active as yet, but I'm sure this will take off for you. Good idea! Is Pick-Me.Net still down?
And now for your opinion pages. Is there really any need for an About page here, especially as it only contains a few lines? You could easily include this information above the opinion links. Hey, you've got some really good topics here, you should definitely add more.
100 x 100 Icons - one of the WWE icons didn't load. Haha, your pluto graphic made me laugh - I agree!! It's still a planet to me TOO, dammit!!
80 x 80 Icons - only one icon here! Substance, my friend...add more for your homegyrl?
Checkerboard backgrounds - not bad, although it'd be nice to see some more colours added here, including the classic black and white.
Palace
Current incarnation and info - just a little information about your domain as well as your current layout. How fantastic it is for me to read that you are going to be working on the colour scheme!
Past layouts - only two screenshots here, yet there are about five layouts that have been mentioned. Under your "About" text for V1 and V2 you have the text in a normal style, which is right, but for the rest of the layouts you have it in bold. Change this to plain text so that it looks better and is consistant with the two layout explanations at the top.
Previous incarnations - previous websites you've had. This was cool. I wish I could put up some of the shockers I used to have!
Although I've looked at each, I'm not going to comment on the remaining pages in this section because they're pretty typical of a site section (Awards, credits, rotations blah blah) and there's nothing really to say. Onward...
Rooms
This section is to do with your hostees, and how to become a hostee. Not really interesting for little old me, but as always I've gone through every page anyway. On the Current Hostees page, the button for Reina's site (that has now closed) does not load, so you might want to get rid of it, especially as the site is now closed.
SUMMARY
First off, let me say that this review has taken hours to do! You have an absolute truckload of content, most of which was an absolute pleasure to go through. Apart from the Myers Briggs hiccup, your content was totally original and unique. Quality content in a large quantity = heaven for visitors. You know how to cater to your audience in terms of good content, so now it's about time you catered for them visually as well! It is such a shame your layout is so dull and drab, because the content inside is anything but! Even so, the appearance of your site doesn't make a good first impression, and to be honest with you when I first started this review I thought it'd be a total drag. It's sad but true - appearances do matter. You've gotta aim for the complete package here - great content and a visually pleasing layout. No need to go overboard though - as I mentioned earlier even a change of colour scheme would make a vast difference! I'd recommend this site to anyone who's willing to sit back and relax for a while and enjoy content that is rich in originality. Just try not to let the layout put you off too much!
