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reacharound
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The beginning of all blogs was the personal journal on the Web. With the tremendous expansion of the Blogosphere we have certainly diversified, but the personal journal remains very much alive and a primary element behind bloging.
I personally never subscribed to the on-line journal idea. On my priority blog ranking scale, any personal log recording what Calumet had for breakfast, how he dealt with a broken garbage disposal unit, or how traumatic it was to see Babsie, the hound dog, barf after tasting the latest dry food recommended by the vet, still remains close to the bottom (unless the author suddenly displays signs of unusual literary enlightenment that makes his/her personal anxieties a subject of broader interest).
Reacharound, coming to us from sunny San Diego's vicinity (Ocean Beach, to be exact) courtesy of Al, is such a "mainstream" personal diary/journal. Al, who's one of the countless victims of the tanking U.S. economy, but with apparently good computer skills, has put together a cheerful, colorful site. Reacharound is powered by Greymatter and quite functional. There are photos of Al & Friends, the night sky, and one of those magnificent southern California sunsets, all bright and clear.
Al talks about his daily life... parties, meeting interesting women, buying a casserol dish that was super cheap... and intertwines this with globs on al-Qaida, Muslim perception of the Western world, interconnectedness (whatever that means), and the future of sensor networks.
Al's prose is attractive and displays a certain "rhythm." If you're going to interest any reader about what is going on in your anonymous daily life, you better master such prose. Reacharound does a relatively good job in keeping the visitor scrolling down the page.
If you're into personal blogs, Reacharound should be included in your future targets. And, heck, I may even return to find out what's happening with Susanna, who "aside from being absolutely beautiful and successful... [she] finds something irresistable [sic]" about Al!
This site was reviewed on 2002-11-24 by Nik Karanikos.
They felt this site belonged in the Personal category.
Nik Karanikos felt that reacharound deserved a rating of 3.5.
From the moment I started reading this weblog, I knew I liked Al right away. He has problems just like everyone else, and has the positive attitude to take everything in stride and lets his sense of humor help prevent him from getting down too much. At least that’s the way he presents himself in his writing.
Scrolling through the archives of the site and reading Al’s entries provided quite the source of entertainment as well as tons of information about the author. From July 2000’s initial post covering the reason he started a weblog and the meaning of the title behind it to April 2001’s obscure song lyrics Al can’t get out of his head so he shares with his readers there’s an enormous variety of different topics Al touches on in his writing, and each are just as entertaining as the next.
Colors? Nice. I love blue. So, personally, I liked the dark blue background with light blue text. It may not be ideal of everyone, but it is different than your typical light background with dark text. The little flash banner that loads at the top of the site is a clever addition to the site. I also loved the title - "your most important website for the next 30 seconds".
Other than the weblog, you’ll find even more things to explore. The about section has a nice little autobiography, complete with tons of pictures of the author all the way from his early childhood days until now. He’s also got several different photo galleries linked in the navigation bar to the left hand side of the site
I couldn’t find anything on the site that could justify anything less than a 5.0 rating. I didn’t find myself just skimming over entries to get on to the next one, but really finding myself involved in what I was reading wondering how particular events or troubles had worked out for Al. This is what makes an extraordinary weblog.
This site was reviewed on 2002-11-23 by Wendy.
They felt this site belonged in the Personal category.
Wendy felt that reacharound deserved a rating of 5.
2 reviewers gave reacharound an average rating of 4.2500
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