Media Morgue Critique encouraged

[Judge]

Hi all,

Please take a look at my site and be as critical as you possibly can. Be brutal. Tear my site apart. Make fun of my writing, critique my critiques! I want honest opinions on how the site could be better and I need your help to do that.

Thanks for the help. The link is in my signature.

Judge

[Judge]

Well I think its a fantastic site. I would love some ideas on how I can improve it.

[Katalina]

I am about to run out right now, but I will tell you what.
I already know I like your blog, because I visit it almost every day , but when I get back I'll give it a critical look and tell you everything I don't like about it!
What I think may not mean anything after all, I'm no designer, but I read lots of blogs!

Then if you like you could find my review post in this thread and you could review my site.

Thanks!

[Katalina]

I'm back!
I took a good look at your site this morning and I have to admit I had to get pretty nit picky to find anything to critique!
The page loads fast and the ads are not overpowering or incredibly annoying.
You have a dark theme, which is appropriate, but the reading panes are white. Thanks for that, my eyes are a little older than some so I really like black text on white background!
You write well. Your posts are engaging and easy to read. If you haven't already you should consider submitting some of them to BlogEngage.com.

Now to get nitpicky. You have Google ads between your posts. That is OK, as long as they stay text ads. Don't do any graphic ads there, they are too distracting. The ads would look better if you centered them. (I use <p align="center">AD CODE</p> I don't know if that meets the latest standards but it works for me.) Also, on your project wonderful ads, use an opaque background and change the text to a beige or white. (I can't stand that neon blue anywhere!)

Other than that great job!

[Judge]

Thanks very much for the suggestions. Both of those are things I knew I had to change, but am having difficulty figuring out how to do it.

I will dig through the code and see if I can't center the adsense ads. The fact that they are justified left annoys me no end.

As for the neon blue, you are right. Its hideous!


And thanks for the compliment on the writing. I really try to write more from the hip, than trying to drop keywords or anything into the paragraphs. It also gives me the opportunity to vent without having to think too much about it. Still, the writing process can be incredibly painful at times. Its nice to know someone is actually reading my stuff.

Thanks again for the observations!

[Katalina]

In project wonderful, on the page where you can edit your ads, in the lower right hand corner, is a section for Appearance. For background color, delete what is there and leave it blank. That will make the PW background opaque and it will blend with your site. Then next box says Foreground color, but that is the setting for the neon blue letters. I have changed mine to #FFFFCC, which is a nice cream color that works well with a dark background.

The good news is you don't have to reinstall the code. Once you save the settings at PW it will auto change on your blog.

Hope this helps!