Friday, January 20, 2006
1/20/2006 10:59:00 AM

Review of the Review - Asian Blog Review of FH2o

posted by FH2o

My blog has just been reviewed by the Asian Blog Review or rather the Apprentice Blog Critic from the Asian Blog Review on the 19th January 2006. Thank you for folks for taking the trouble! Now I know.
Here’s my take on their review.

At first they thought I was a fanatical kayaker until they read in my profile that I was approaching the “ripe old age of 50”! I didn’t realize until now that only the young are fanatical and I must be silly to think that the term ‘ripe old age’ is reserved only for those in their eighties or nineties!
And kayaker is spelt ‘kayaker’ not ‘kayak-er’. Perhaps the apprentice would need to go on an expedition with this ‘kayak-er’ to appreciate that ‘fanatical kayaker’ may be an understatement! Game?

Anyway I always thought that I took pretty decent photos and except for design reports for work; writing is pretty new to me and it’s only until I started blogging had I been complimented on my writing. As a design-orientated architect I am actually more comfortable with drawings rather than text. And I always thought that one picture is worth a thousand words and a well taken photo perhaps a great deal more. In addition to the flattering “writes well and flawless English”, I would have thought that “shoots beautiful and perfectly composed photos” would also be in order! Until I start getting comments that my photos sucked, would I then post fewer of them. And graphically for visual interests and impact, I prefer them to be of various sizes. To be fair the apprentice said that my words and pictures has captivated him. Anyway this is the first post from me without any pictures! So here!

The apprentice puts a lot of emphasis on the layout which I must admit is not that well laid out especially on the right sidebar. I am not that happy with my page layout as well. But I thought it’s the contents that count not glitzy facades. If I am proficient in html or webpage design, I’ll probably not be using blogger’s user-friendly templates. I am frequently frustrated with the layout and wished I knew how to move and resize things around. So until I brush up on my html can anyone help, please?

So here’s the review, warts and all! And they gave me a 7 out of 10; not bad for the ‘almost famous unker’ approaching his ripe old age!

FH2O : Kuching Kayaking

Reviewed by the Apprentice Blog Critic

At first I thought that this blog is about some fanatical kayak-er in Kuching, but FH20 is a person young at heart and approaching the ripe old age of 50.

According to his profile, he graduated from UNSW, Sydney. He wanted to change the world but the world changed him instead.

Layout is the classic 2 column, simple and clean although there tends to be overuse of pictures here and there. But this blog has a problem when it is viewed with IE. That will be explained later.

FH20 writes well and his English is flawless. He uses a lot of pictures in his posts and I recommend reducing them and making them the same size so that it's easier to read the flow of words. Although some of the articles are long and loading is a little slow, FH20 has captivated me with his words and pictures.

On the top of the page is a ticker which overlaps on the sidebar. This is a big no-no in my book. I thought it was an IE fault until I realised the same thing occurs in Firefox.

Now, on to the problem I mentioned earlier. When I viewed this page with IE, I couldn't see some items on the sidebar like the chatbox and archives until I scrolled far down. I then viewed the blog using Firefox which showed the contents of the sidebar properly.

I feel that there should be a space between the Guestbook link and the Quote of the Day (and I also recommend that the font size for the latter be reduced). In fact, there needs to be better spacing between the items on the right column.

Overall rating: 7/10StumbleUpon Toolbar Stumble It!

26 Comments:

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  At Friday, 20 January, 2006 Blogger Happysurfer said:

Hey, FH2o, Congrats! You are more of a cele-brat-ty now as what Robin stated earlier. Keep it up!
Bravo! Bravo!

  At Friday, 20 January, 2006 Blogger Jellyfish said:

congrats unker fh2o.
can i become your god-son? :P

  At Friday, 20 January, 2006 Blogger Chen said:

unker send his blog for review as well?:D
congrats..

  At Friday, 20 January, 2006 Blogger Robin said:

haha.. no pics..

Hmm... no pics, not so interesting lah, imagine describing King prawns in words... how to get the flavour out of the Tom YUM Kung?

hmmm.. put back the pics and ignore those apprentice.

  At Friday, 20 January, 2006 Blogger bonnie said:

I love your pictures, think your writing & your photography balance each other beautifully. Apprentice should go someplace very cold & look at your pictures again!

  At Friday, 20 January, 2006 Blogger FH2O said:

Thanks folks for your support!

The pictures are staying as I absolutely LOVED taking and lookin at 'em later! They are as much for me as for sharing with others.
Will see if I can get some help with the sidebar. SOS! Any webpage whizz kid in Kuching? I'll take u kayaking and feed u bak kua! ;)

Anyone else game enough to submit their blog to be 'reviewed'? I think its good to know; or maybe not!!! Besides posting your comments here you can also go to their blog and post it there.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone!

  At Friday, 20 January, 2006 Blogger 9lives said:

Well, unker, at least you know that there are some room for improvements and as for the pics, I think the ones you took are absolutely nice.

Have a good trip this saturday coz I got class 10am - 3pm :( want to go recee too..:(

  At Friday, 20 January, 2006 Blogger Robin said:

I know how to do it... but how to help u?


But I cannot do anything to the silly top navigation bar of the Blogspot.

Ya, if out whiz kid around.. can u help unker fH2o and me?

  At Friday, 20 January, 2006 Blogger FH2O said:

9lives can tolong or not? or blur blur like Robin n me? ;)

  At Friday, 20 January, 2006 Blogger 9lives said:

I also lagi blur than you and robin la unker..haha..not savvy in that area la :p

  At Friday, 20 January, 2006 Blogger FH2O said:

9lives - thanks anyway. dont worry about it.

only can go for a short while on sat, so u're not missin much. have to help out in d house for CNY!

funny the reviewer made no mention about kayaking and about d wonderful trips n rivers i had been on. did they really read my blog or not??? ;)

  At Friday, 20 January, 2006 Blogger Chen said:

fh2o,
might be the reviewer doesn't like kayaking? ;)

  At Friday, 20 January, 2006 Anonymous mangrooveDan said:

fh2o, my 2 cents...

wat i look for in any blog is the contents and then probably the template. for contents you'd get a 9/10 in my books and template wise, probably a 8/10. so, overall it's an 8.5!!! :)

regards.

  At Saturday, 21 January, 2006 Blogger SilveRaveN said:

yo! young at heart eh? THAT i've to agree. :) *note to self: must try kayak-ing in the near future*

congrats on getting such a great review. i still don't dare get mine done. :P

  At Saturday, 21 January, 2006 Anonymous NC said:

Planning to Kayak during Chinese New Year ?
Those prawns and durians look really good.
Kong Hee Fatt Choy !!!

  At Saturday, 21 January, 2006 Blogger FH2O said:

silveraven - juz holler' if u wanna paddle! yeah, great review ... from mangrooveDan!

mangrooveDan - thks bro! u r a generous soul! trust an engineer for carefully calculated assessment!

chen - if the reviewer is Bonnie or FullMoon, I'll get at least a 9.5!! kekeke :p

  At Saturday, 21 January, 2006 Blogger Alicia said:

grats unker :) ... i agree with u.. a picture is worth a thousand words.. that's y most of the time i prefer to include a pic in my post cuz of my crappy writing..

  At Saturday, 21 January, 2006 Blogger FH2O said:

alicia - your writing is not crappy lah!
and stop callin me unker! ;p

  At Saturday, 21 January, 2006 Blogger Chen said:

fh2o,
CNY is just around the corner.. must start practising to call unker from now..
so that will get used to it when the day comes :)
hahahah...

Yeah, A picture indeeds worth a thousand word..
just like one cannot describe how beautiful is the scenery without attaching a pict :)

  At Saturday, 21 January, 2006 Blogger batukawa said:

fh2o, I have just stumbled upon your Blog a few days ago. I am most impressed with your Kayak adventures. Love your writings and photos.

I was originally from Kuching and you have shown me a side of Kuching I have never seen before. Kayaking in Kuching must be a well kept secret!

By the way, I wouldn't worry about the "Apprentice Blog Critic". Well done and keep up the good work.

  At Saturday, 21 January, 2006 Blogger Pandabonium said:

Congrats, FH2O. As one is past 50 I am insulted by that young punk's impudent reference to 'grand old age'.

Anyway, we all love your blog. Perfect layout would mean nothing without your eye for pics and writing style.

  At Saturday, 21 January, 2006 Blogger Alicia said:

haha dun call unker.. dono wad else to call liao :D.. like chen said ma.. must practise to get angpow..

  At Monday, 23 January, 2006 Blogger Peggy said:

I can just imagine what that reviewer would do with my blog and photo sizes... Not to mention the template.

A kayaking blog post without pictures? Put 'em back!

It's fine the way it is!

Peggy

  At Monday, 23 January, 2006 Blogger FH2O said:

Wow! I'm overwhelmed by such nice and supportive comments!!! Why, thank you all so much for being so KIND. It's so gratifying to know that you all enjoy my photos and writing. I'll continue to share my experiences and I trust that the words AND pics would make it worth your while to continue to drop by here!

So to ALL you Folks out there - a VERY VERY BIG HEARTFELT THANKS! I wish I could hug you all!!! :)

  At Monday, 23 January, 2006 Blogger Pink Cotton said:

wahoo!! congrats on hitting the 7 out of 10 mark!

i think you r really cool!..i din realise you are abt the same age as my dad..lol! no offence meant??
haahah

  At Monday, 23 January, 2006 Blogger FH2O said:

pink cotton - i'm sure ur dad's pretty cool 2! now don't offend him or no more allowances or handphone credits! ;o)


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