Month: January 1970

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

When I read the title “Jim Abroad” I knew exactly what this blog was going to be. It was going to be about Jim and his travels outside of the US. Why he was traveling, and where he was traveling to, I had no clue, but I knew this was one of those blogs about his traveling.

When I got to the page, I knew I was right in my assumption of what the blog was going to be about. The design of the site has a “poloroid” picture of a building in Spain and the logo Jim Abroad has a plane in it. Outside of the header the site is using a two column layout with the left column being used for navigation. I was pleasently surprised that he has kept his side bar to a minimum to allow his posts to shine.

The posts are lengthy recaps of what/where he is. Jim is traveling all over most of Europe though he is staying mostly in Spain. Some stories will make you laugh, others will leave you wanting more and some I could have done with out. As I was reading the blog I was wanting to know why he was traveling. There was a bit on the navigation about his first trip ever, but nothing about why he was traveling. Then I found the about Jim and all was made well.

This blog took a little bit to get into, but once I did I couldn’t stop reading it. To clarify I have been to this blog about 5 times in the past week and it wasn’t until about the 3rd time that the site really clicked with me. I suggest randomly reading the posts as it doesn’t really matter which order you catch up on them in. This is a good travel site and I look forward to see where Jim goes next.
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When I heard the name Inquire Within I wasn’t sure what I would
expect. This could be any number of things for a blog from job
searches to random thoughts to well just about anything. The title of
the blog is so non-descriptive that I was forced to go to the site
just to figure out what the name of the site meant.

Once I hit the site I still had no clue why the author chose to name
the blog inquire within. There is a little blurb that says “Like
Bob’s discount furniture but without the discount. Or the furniture.
Or Bob.” This was funny, but still doesn’t help in the matter of
figuring out what is with the name.

The design of the blog is a 3 column layout with a nice banner. The
banner is of a walkway or road lined with trees on either side and is
in black and white. Again, it doesn’t give me any idea as to the name
of the blog. The left column has links to all things external (with
the exception of the archives) and the right column has links to
things internal, books, and well more external things.

The blog itself is your standard blog. Near daily updates about what
is going on in the author’s life. The author is a law student who
studied in Boston and is currently in a 4 month program in London. I
can assume that he will probably become a good lawyer since his
attention to detail in his posts is pretty precise and I think that
would transfer over.

My only downside with this blog is the earlier posts are more
enjoyable than the later posts. I found myself bored with the more
recent posts. Not to say they aren’t good, but something is missing
and I don’t know what it is. The earlier posts gave me the light and
energy that someone new to blogging brings and with time they have
dimmed a bit.

I would go read this blog if I were you. And by read, I mean read.
Its not a “skim and know” type blog. It is a read and know type. I
found this site very enjoyable and I think most people will too.NULL

At first glance of Lawa’s blog, I immediately noticed the photo doesn’t load, and there’s not much organization to her page. To me it seemed very disorganized. There’s also hardly any color either and everything seems to run together. It’s so much easier to read a blog when it is organized, but then again this is the blog of a sixteen year old and how many of us were organized and easy to read at this age?

When I first read Lawa’s blog, I thought I couldn’t get through it because it is just too unorganized for me, and she’s got those annoying personality quizzes and polls on her page. But I gave it as shot and read several posts and the farther I went back (she’s been blogging almost a year), the more I really felt for her situation. She’s at that age where she is dealing with an immense amount of pressure from her peers and from her parents. In a nutshell, she’s confused and nobody understands her. Now remember, that is NOT a bad thing, it’s just a fact of life at that age. Some of Lawa’s posts are dark and I worried for her state of mind but I was reassured when they were eventually followed by humorous posts. It took me awhile to remember that some 20 years ago I felt like that too. And once I kept that in mind, I could then relate to her feelings about parents, friendship, boys, love, life, etc. I don’t care where you are from or your background, life is hard at Lawa’s age.

There’s no design or structure to Lawa’s blog but my guess is that she doesn’t care. And that’s ok, I like the way Lawa just states what’s on her mind and from day to day her mood is so different. I think that for other teenage girls, this is a good blog, full of the feelings and emotions that each young girl goes through at that age. I think it’s important for teens to know they’re not alone. Adults can write all the teen self help books they want, but there’s nothing like hearing about life straight from the teen experiencing it. I think that Lawa’s blog transcends borders here in that a sixteen year old in Topeka, Kansas could probably relate to the feelings Lawa’s experiencing.

I’d say despite it’s not-so-pretty look, the content of the blog is good and I think other teenage girls will relate to it. And at sixteen it’s so important to just know you’re not going through it alone.NULL

TravBuddy is a “one-stop” where an individual can share travel photos, reviews, and experiences with others. The colors are nice too, rather cheerful and do not detract from the site itself, the layout is quite simple.

The site is the brainchild of two brothers just out of college, who wanted young people to have a place to go for quality firsthand travel experiences. While perusing the site, I found a user who has visited fourteen countries and journaled the entire trip, including mapping it out using google maps. TravBuddy’s registered users come from all over the world.

In order to post photos, reviews of your travel, or any other info an individual has to be registered and so far the site owners boast at least 1000 members and is increasing almost daily.

At first glance, an individual who is not familiar with the site will wonder its purpose, as it really isn’t clear until reading the “about” section at the bottom of the web page. Once I understood the purpose of the site, I thought it was pretty unique. I’ve never seen one like it before but considering there are already 1000 members I’d say there must obviously be a need for it. “If you build it they will come” and they certainly came to TravBuddy in droves. It’ll take a little while to navigate and get used to it but it’s relatively simple and if you want to get some real firsthand information about traveling to a particular destination this is certainly the place to go.

Just remember that like everyone’s tastes tend to be different and while it’s a great idea to take into consideration the feedback on TravBuddy it shouldn’t be the sole resource in making any travel decisions. Overall I’d say this is a unique site and has a lot of potential so long as its members give quality feedback.NULL