eowyn86
December 29, 2004
Content (18/20)
Your diary portrays a young woman very sweet and sincere with a
heaping dose of integrity. With a very slight bite of sarcasm every
now and then, and a gentle, frank openness which I find quite
refreshing, you guide us through the daily events of your life and
often stray into political/social commentary with a warm, conservative
passion which brings a sweet smile to this reviewer's face, whether
she agrees with the opinions expressed or not. I really don't think I
could ask you to write any better than you do. I smiled as I pored
through the past couple months, and the tender maturing your writing
has eased through since December of last year. I think your writing
evolves very gracefully and I would not dare interfere with it. I can
only say that you should always continue establishing the style or
writing you have alit upon. Indeed, please, do not be anything
other than you.
Layout (25/40)
A self design, excellent, and the picture is yours, even better. I am
quite enamored of the picture, the messiness of the text on it leaves
much to be desired, but I'm guessing you have limited resources so I
won't dock points off for that. The picture has lovely form and
composition. I give you many kudos for your photography. This is not a
perfect self design though. I suppose I won't complain that it is in
tables and is crappy and unreadable in Firefox, but there are at least
a few things easily done to hugely improve upon this template.
I do not like your link colors. At all. They simply do not match. The
black and blue is not pleasing. So here is my suggestion: Change the
background behind your links color to "D3D3D3", like your entry box.
Switch the links to "696969", then for hover, make them "D3D3D3" and
add "background-color: 696969". I promise, it looks worlds better that
way and your links are easier to read. Maybe remove the mouse hover
effect on links too? It's distracting. I don't like it. If you want to
keep it, I won't complain heartily, but your diary would look better
without it.
I don't like your link boxes either. They are too big and ill fitted
to the template. It doesn't flow very well. I would suggest condensing
all of your extras except for "co-stars" onto another extras links
page. Then, arrange your links across the bottom of the picture
thus:"Navigate: Current-Older-Profile-Co-stars-Extras Contact:
Notes-Email-Guestbook" Move the diaryland link to your copyright on
the bottom. Say something like "Thanks diaryland layout designed by
me" etc etc.
If you don't want to put your extras onto a separate extras page, then
rearrange the boxes. Put BOTH under the picture. Move Co-stars and
Myself links to the Navigate category, and remove the imood. Move it
somewhere into your entry it you really must have it. And move the
diaryland link to the bottom. This way, your link boxes fit neatly
under the picture and everything moves smoothly.
These quick, minor improvements would do a world of good for your
template. It's an excellent idea, just not so well executed. I really
like the theme you have going with Beautiful Letdown. It fits
your personality quite well.
Oh, by the way, what's up with the guestbook? I know what a pain
keeping the guestbook design up with the diary design can be, but
really, I'd recommend that you fix this.
Navigation(13/15)
Points off for how ill fitted the main navigation is. But we spoke of
all that in the layout section. Otherwise, everything's good and easy
to find. I love the way you have the older page set up. It's very
convenient. I haven't seen it done that way before.
Link(5/5)
Thank you for continuing to link us. It's nuzzled cozily in among the
neat, alphabetical list of pending reviews.
Extras(10/10)
I got lost in your extras for a while. But that is not to
say you have too many. Rather, you have a nice variation. And more
listings and rings than I dare count.
Contact(6/10)
Notes, email, guestbook.
Favorite
This entry is my
favorite of what I read. Hands down. I think I like that entry so
much, because it is how I feel very much lately. You have capture it
excellently.
I must also mention a favorite quote, from this entry:
"Well, there's this one oft-repeated line in the song that goes, 'DO
NOT, tell me what I can & cannot do when I rock.' After hearing that
over & over again, it actually started sounding like, 'DO NOT, tell me
what I can & cannot do in Iraq.'" I think anyone who knows the song
can appreciate the humour behind that, despite political affiliations.
That certainly seems to be Mr. Bush's policy for Iraq. Tehe.
As a final note, I really like the way you pull back and look at the
bigger picture sometimes. Like when you stood
back to examine the beauty of the frost in the act of scraping it off
your car. That was my favorite part of the qualities of your
writing as a whole, that you take the time to pull back and smell the
roses, and then tell us.
Total: 77/100 Your template is really what's weighing you down...
Reviewer: Megan R.