Dan Schmidt, Across the Airwaves

So Across the Airwaves is a blog about recent/not recent tv shows that have made an impact on... something. That something may be a group of writers, a group of creators, a group of crazy teentastic vampire fans, etc. I really like his blog for one because of the flow.

There is definite structure; you have the intro of the show, a little background, and the integration of the effects of the show on the outside. I find his content interesting because it seems like he points out these little plot things or character things that make these big effects that I would really never realize until someone pointed it out.

But anyway, the color scheme. I like the layout he chose. I'm a big fan of circles and the pre-designed layout has a good color scheme. I feel like the colors definitely go along with his content because there is always a level of mystery/surprise/drama in tv shows and I get that feeling from it. My only issue with the color scheme is that sometimes when I read online, I highlight the lines of text to make it easier to read and I could not do that with his blog because the background of the highlight is a light color but the original white words don't change to a dark color so it makes it impossible to read. But all and all, good color scheme, relevant vibe, I dig it.

Lots of pictures. Dan uses lots of pictures. I love it. He has pictures that have to do with what he's talking about and he has pictures that share a quality with what he's talking about. It makes his posts visually diverse. Not only that, but the different visual ideas expands the brain when your reading it. When reading a blog I feel like people just take what they get and by including these semi-off-exact-topic pictures it will lead the brain into a new direction while still keep them hooked on what your saying and therefore making the post more fun to read.


Lack of emphasis. I didn't really see any use of italics. I'm not sure Dan needs them in his blog because he doesn't really get worked up about stuff. He does bold things in some places which I think is probably enough. I feel like all he needs is to differentiate between the regular text and the word he wants to point out and the bolding it does that. On the other hand, I would like to see something that works him up, where he needs italics. There may be a few instances when he talks about how this or that tv show effects writing or when he talked about time slots in his first post and how he doesn't know if he can get a job in tv. I think that's something that needs emphasis.


Da Font. So, as I've said before, I think most blogs need a san serif modern font. In Dan's case I think the san serif works extremely well with his subject matter. There was one instance where he used a serif font and it looked completely clunky and didn't have the readability his other posts had. I felt like it was a big difference.

 

Are you witty enough? As I was reading through Dan's blog I felt that this shows the difference between my blog and his and how that relates to Trevor's. As I was saying in my previous post, I feel like Trevor needs a little umph, something more. My blog, I feel that it is natural and relevant to give a lot of umph. In Dan's blog, I don't feel that a lot of umph is necessary, I actually think he has a very good balanced between the two. There is sometimes an underlying sarcastic tone or even an underlying tone of excitement that makes reading his blog more enjoyable. You can really get the feel of his tone throughout each post even though it's minimal. That small tone that fluctuates throughout his blog makes his blog interesting despite what the content is. It's like a buffet table, I get a little bit here, a lot a bit there, and it's delicious.

I think that ending comment said enough. Out of five, I give Dan a 4.5, more out of personal opinion than complete objectivity. It's maybe not my flavor of tea meaning I like tea so yeah I'll take a cup, but some variation to the subject matter, maybe the amount of underlying tone, something that would probably make me want to read this on a regular basis. Right now I think I could look at it every once in a while and scan the titles for a show that I'm interested in. But as a blog I find it very nice. It's got a nice flow of information, it's got great and interesting pictures, it works well for what he's going for. I like it.