For Carl and I, today is our fifth anniversary. Five years together. That means I have actually been with him a quarter of my whole life.

People always ask us how we first met, or how we first started dating. I’m not going to write a long boring soppy post about how it all happened, but I will give you the basics. I met Carl at a youth group get-together, and we had to watch some boring movie so I sat at the back with a few other people who were bored. Carl had a mobile phone and me being the inquisitive girl asked to look at it. I went through all the menu’s, games and phonebook, before adding my number just as a joke. Weeks later I hadn’t seen Carl again, when one day out of the blue he called me. At first I had no idea who he was, I was thinking “who is this?”. After that first phone call we had so much to talk about, and so the every-night calls began. Just over a month later we eventually decided to meet up. We had already shared so much on the phone it felt right to be with him. We met up and since then we have been together.

On the left are the tulips I bought for him, because they are his favourite flower. The theme of this website is also tulips because of that reason.

Splash Page

None.

Layout

Appearance

I like the colours used in the layout and I like how the navigation splits the welcome message from the content/blog area. I do however think this layout is a little boring, probably because I am comparing it to the previous layout, on About A Boy, which I liked a lot. Contradictory to say, I really think this layout is unique so although it may be boring I quite like it. Everything looks neat and organised upon first view, and the headings are clearly distinguishable between content. I like how you have used a serif font (Georgia) for the headings, but a sans serif font (Arial) for the content, adding an element of decoration but keeping content easily readable. As I mentioned already, I do like this layout because of its simple organised look, and the colours go well together, however I do think a little more is needed so it doesn’t look so boring. That’s not to say that you should change it, it still looks great.

Loading time / Accessibility

I ran your site through a speed report website and also found that everything was under the minimum recommended size, thus making a fast loading time. On a dial up connection your website takes only 5 seconds to load which is very good. I also ran your website through a SEO browser, which shows what your site looks like without any CSS and images showing, and found that your site was still completely accessible with no problems whatsoever. I can tell you have spent a lot of time on your site making sure it works on a wide variety of browsers.

CSS and XHTML valid

I was not surprised to see that your site was in fact valid in both CSS and XHTML.

Content

Weblog

I have been visiting your website for the last few weeks and can say that I do enjoy reading your blogs. I can’t really review the blog itself so I will move onto the next section.

Matt

I find this to be a very basic but interesting to read and it doesn’t need anything else to be added. Just one mistake here. In the first sentence “infromation” should be “information”. The rest of your grammar and spelling is perfect.

Domain

The domain section is very good to read, it explains everything in detail from the plugins you use, to some information on the site itself. This section is very organised and needs no correcting. I like how you came up with the name Hobo Kitten, it is very unique. I feel like this is going to be a very short review as everything on your site is perfect so far.

Writings

I am not going to review every article and give my opinion on whether I agree or not, but I will just have a read of them, tell you what I like or don’t like, and fix any spelling mistakes (if any) that I may find.

Anonymous Feedback

This is a very good article and very true, it is also quite humorous. There are no spelling mistakes here, I can see that you are very thorough.

Copyright Violation

Again, another very informative article. The only mistake I have found is the words “at least” being joined, in both the second paragraph and the last paragraph.

Wordpress vs. Textpattern

I really like this article, it provides great information and almost makes me want to switch to Textpattern. All questions I had about Textpattern have been answered, but I do think that you are slightly biased in using it. There is nothing wrong with this, but I would also like to see if there are any other disadvantages of using Textpattern, and to see more argument on the side of Wordpress. Other than that, this article is fine.

General Website Advice

In the second paragraph you have worded “every time” as one word, in correct English, it is indeed two separate words. Also the sentence “It comes accross as immature” should be “It comes across as immature”. You have linked to some very useful articles, so thank you for that.

WPR sites: people who shouldn’t review

Unlike your other articles, I don’t really like or agree with this one, but I am not reviewing the article on whether I like it or not, so I will move along. There is nothing wrong with having an opinion so I applaud you for that even if one does not agree. No spelling mistakes here either.

Pornography

I was surprised to find a few spelling mistakes here, but you can be forgiven since the rest of your site is well written. In the last paragraph, “realtionship” should be “relationship” and “dicuss” should be “discuss”. You have also used the spelling “atleast” once again, I am not sure if this is maybe a global thing, but I am quite sure it should be as two words. Also you have spelt “tattoo” as “tatoo” which is wrong.

Reviews

I am not going to review your reviews as I don’t generally don’t see the point, but I will say that I like your reviewing style, in fact I wouldn’t mind you reviewing my site, if it wasn’t for the fact that I’d be afraid of you picking my coding to bits.

Creating a bottom bar

This is a excellent tutorial with a lot of information. It is also relatively easy to follow. Isn’t a bottom bar kind of the same as a footer though?

Dynamic Sidebars in Textpattern

This is a really good tutorial and very useful for users of Textpattern. I don’t think you can have dynamic sidebars in Wordpress unless the whole site is coded by hand (ie not using Wordpress for the pages) and only using Wordpress for the blog/main page. I really like the idea of a dynamic sidebar, as it will add organisation to a website. This has got me even more interested in making the switch to Textpattern.

Archives

The archives are neatly organised and well presented. I have now come to the end of this very easy review.

Conclusion

As you can tell already, I really like and admire your website. I think it has enough content to keep visitors entertained, and the articles certainly would make a visitor want to return. I don’t think you need to improve anything and as far as web standards go, your website is high up there. I know you have put a lot of time and hard work into your website, and it shows immensely. There is nothing further for me to say, except to congratulate you on maintaining such a great website. So well done, and I look forward to reading more articles from you.

Loved it! Just got back from watching a late night screening and absolutely loved it. If you’re a major Simpson’s fan, you will laugh yourself silly in this movie. I don’t want to give any spoilers away but I will just say it was worth every dollar spent, and is guaranteed for a lot of laughs.

The best part is that they didn’t have to conform to TV regulations, so things you wouldn’t expect to happen do, making it even more funny.

If you watch it stay for the credits too. Hilarious!