One of my favorite things I do when reviewing any weblog is to jump right into the archives, starting at the very beginning. Usually this gives me a good idea why someone has joined the ranks of the blogging public, and it helps explain things that might be mentioned later on in the site. Right away, I knew where this author was coming from when he mentioned how much he looked up to his cousins when he was a kid because they were “coolâ€. I still look up to my “cool†cousin and admire her in just the ways Steve, the author of American Drifter, described in this September 2004 post.
In a July 2005 post, Steve is posting about a review he received about his site. In his overview of this review, he mentions this: “I do not write this blog for other people – I write it for myself. It has become more of a journal that I want to reflect back on years from now – to remember a point in time when I was transforming myself from one person, into another.†This is one of the best answers to blogging I’ve ever read. It not only describes why Steve blogs, but also what he hopes to come of logging into Blogger on a regular basis and giving us all material to read.
The rest of the posts here are in a different type of format. Instead of posting something as soon as it pops into his head, it appears as if he stores up all of these varied topics and then when he finally gets a chance to sit down and write, he throws them all into one entry. Sometimes they include pictures from the internet, rants about his daily life, or just an update on what is on his agenda for the next few days. There are other posts that are written like a short story – albeit a very short story – with his use of narrative and detailed descriptions.
The archives are spotty. The first post is dated July 2004, but then the writing takes a small hiatus until September. The blog is again put on hold until March 2005, which is where the somewhat regular posts begin.
My only disappointment of the site was the layout. It’s a standard Blogger template, and standard is the last thing I would expect after reading Steve’s posts. He has taken the time to customize it again with an animated GIF at the top – yes, I said animated. It’s a small one, so it thankfully doesn’t distract from the site like the animated GIFs of years ago. The typical links to the archives and other favorite websites are scattered down the right-hand column, which runs along side the main portion of the weblog. The design does not distract from the content, but I would still love to see something as inimitable as Steve’s writing somehow incorporated into the design.
This is a hard weblog to give a ranking. With his years of writing experience, obviously the site is very competently written. Since there’s such a wide range of age groups and interest levels in the blog-reading world, it’s unfortunate that the writing will probably go ignored by web-surfers looking for a quick weblog to read from time to time. These entries are ones that don’t read quickly. The majority are ones that are long, detailed oriented, and descriptively written.
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