Cactus Lover‘s writer, Ribs, is, on the evidence of the photograph in the half-empty about section, an attractive young lady. I love it when bloggers include a photo of themselves on their site (partly addressing the voyeur need we all feel; surely a factor in the attraction of blogs, no?), so thank you Miss Ribs. Hopefully we’ll see more information, too, eventually.
The blog itself is neatly presented, with a few rough edges. Once you get going, the site is easy enough to navigate (although there is no obvious link to the home page, and the calendar-format archive isn’t as strong as available alternatives), and reads well despite the low contrast.
The strongest area of the blog currently is the one that addresses English language misuses, rather like Bill Bryson does in his early novel “Troublesome Words.” I’ve certainly heard enough empty instances of the word ‘quality’ to agree with Ribs that it needs a modifier at all times – good quality or poor quality but never simply quality, which means nothing. Good one Ribs – I hope 95% of British football commentators find that entry on your site.
Other posts are loosely grouped under various headings; the cactus of the week section is looking a little sparse, but other sections make up for the lack of content. The “Currently Reading” portion of the site contains only two entries – both reviews of Palahniuk novels (he of Fight Club notoriety).
Unfortunately, this is fairly representative of the site as a whole: there simply isn’t more than half an hour’s worth of content here, which is a shame. What there is shows signs of promise; by grouping blog entries into sections, it hastens the reader’s arrival at an interesting story, though with so little to read anyway it would make as much sense to browse through the site in its entirety. For now, that is.