I didn’t know I arrived at the right site to review when I selected Strange and Beautiful. There isn’t a site banner and the URL is ‘lost-together.blogspot.com’, maybe the site should be named ‘lost-together’? The site functions well however in its cramped two column layout. The menus are all drop down menus so everything is easy to access.
Things became clear after reading the archive. The site is named after ‘Lost Together’ by Blue Rodeo, which starts ‘strange and beautiful are the stars tonight that dance around your head’. Great song! Then the author admits to a lack of web coding savvy… so the blandness of the site is understandable. I would still like to see a site banner and an about page. It is hard to enjoy a blog when you don’t know who is writing.
The namless author (entries are signed as Lost Together) works at a Call centre, in spite of an admitted fear of the telephone. She reflects in one entry how ironic that is. Indeed! At the start of the blog she was working the night shift and longed to get out during the day. You can learn a lot about this author from her blog, her interests, passions, things she likes, dislikes and what annoys her. The topics covered in entries are as diverse as I’ve seen. From wondering how women can pee standing up to reflections on a translation of Plato’s Republic. I couldn’t make that up if I tried.
She also talks about her job, to quote, ‘I hate my job. I hate my job. I hate my job!’ which gets upgraded to ‘I hate my fucking job’ a few months later. She later says, ‘ For a company who prides itself on providing great customer service you would think they would know a thing or two on how to treat people nicely, and with respect. If I had a dollar for every blog I read that mentioned how inept management was, and how poorly most companies treat their staff I would be rich. Clearly there is a lot of truth to it, which I have never understood. Let’s hire staff, train staff then treat them poorly so they will want to leave…I think the author is on to something. Family is also mentioned, ‘My whole life growing up I haven’t heard my father say anything overly positive about any of us kids’. Clearly sentiments reflected by many bloggers, sometimes family isn’t as supportive as it could or *should* be.
This blog was great to read. It made me feel like everything was ok with the world. That someone else has crappy days, hates their job and wonders about their relationship with various members of their family, their friends and their significant others. There is comfort in reading you aren’t alone in what you are feeling. Now the blog title ‘lost together’ makes a lot of sense. One of my favourite lines: ‘ I can train my dog how to rollover in an hour, but I can’t teach a human how to go to www.hotmail.com.’
Don’t let the uninspiring appearance of Strange and Beautiful deter you from checking it out. Reading it reminds you that in this big world, in some way we are all lost together.
Strange and Beautiful