“And this one time, at band camp…” Ah, high school. I usually find high school blogs difficult to read, if not incomprehensible — full of in-jokes, obscure acronyms, and for some reason, negative leading. But cucumbers and strife is an enjoyable read, although perhaps not one I’ll return to often.
Celeste is a freshman at LBJ High School in Austin, TX. She’s self-described as “Shy; Obsessive; Dreamer; Redhead; Oboe player; Hopeless romantic; Half-blind.” She updates her blog with an almost alarming frequency. She writes about struggling with her double reed (hey, I used to play the oboe [badly], and that’s one tough instrument), the triumphs of her marching band, her homework, her friends, her family and her cat, and the mysterious new holiday of Grodmas.
Celeste has a good writing style — she writes more clearly than some adults who blog. (Don’t they teach the subjunctive anymore? That should be “I wish I were Mr. Peabody. Whoever Mr. Peabody is. Sorry, pet grammar peeve of mine.) The blog is clearly meant as a personal journal, written for herself and her friends. As such, there may not be much there for the general reader. But sometimes, there are entertaining stories, or reflections on her own life, and these make the blog a cut above those of her peers.
The design is a standard template (one that seems to waste a lot of screen space on a color border, but that’s just my opinion.) Celeste has included a bunch of links, and has a comments system. The only thing I’d suggest on the design front is the addition of a “Home” link so you can find your way back to the front once you’re in the archives.
I think this blog will improve with age.cucumbers and strife