Inquire Within is a personal blog by Derek Johnson who I am gathering, from fragments within the site, is some kind of lawyer. Maybe he is just some kind of legal fetishist, but I’ll take a wager he is an American lawyer living in London, enjoying its cosmopolitan lifestyle and blogging for the folks back home, only Derek writes well and his readership probably extends further than the family and friends missing their free-legal-advice buddy.
The site is real tidy, kind of what I would expect a lawyers house to look like, clean, swish, very high brow. The column structure is laid out nicely with various links one comes to expect, other blogs, favorite posts, a profile etc. The muted color scheme also works nicely and is really visually pleasing. The top header however, which is a nicely composed photo of a two people walking down a long avenue, is fairly low res which gives some pixel artifacts and blurriness which lets the rest of the design down.
Derek is a regular guy, although he comes across as very educated, well read and written every now and then his posts come back to the simple day to day observations typical of personal blogging, which is welcome relief between the heavier law posts and creates and interesting dichotomy. They are all written well and even the legal speak is dumbed down enough for a left wing cyber hippy like me to read and understand.
Inquire Within is a nicely penned, and easy to look at personal blog that is moderately superior to the internet’s propensity for worthless navel gazing and Derek’s openly legal discussions are relevant and topical. Being familiar with law, you wont see any out and out defamation or read any intimately voyeuristic posts about the author, but you will be sure to read a blog of rare quality. Kudos for using his real name too, this is the sign of a truly earnest blogger. If legal jargon gets you all hot and sweaty under the collar, prepare to bookmark. NULL