Review 2282

I wouldn’t associate the word ‘Drakulita’ with the Rainbow Brite girl, however the author has decided to use her as the main site image imposed on a kitchen tablecloth-like background. My first impressions on the layout are good; colourful, structured, organised, easy to navigate, however I have an unnerving feeling that it may be one of those ‘candy pop-teen sites’ that dominate the web these days. I read through the first page; its not that bad, but its not that good either..

The first post I read states that she’s away for a week or so, and following that, a few non-substantial brief posts including links to quizzes, threads and also a page of ‘100 things about Drakulita’. A great vehicle to discover more about her. I skim read a few & they illustrated the life of a normal teenager; aspirations, music and quotes.. from artists; namely Alisha’s Attic and Norah Jones. There are also quite a few baby pictures of her which are also sweet, but I can’t say that there was anything there which particularly drew me.

The blog is laced with a few animated emoticons which makes a difference and goes well with the theme, however they can be slightly annoying after a while. In attempt to view the March archive (the other archive pages seem fine), I got a bunch of gobbledy gook before the actual entries, which implies that something has seriously gone wrong with the template or publishing program. This put me off reading the entries themselves as the format was destroyed but as I continued I realised that much of the content was the same. Obviously its all focused around the author and her friends however a visitor may find it difficult initially to settle in with the content as she mentions several different people with little indication of who they are at times.

I finally take a look at the ‘about’ page, and learn she’s an 18 year old girl called ‘Raquel’ or ‘Quel’ and where the peculiar name ‘Drakulita’ came from. (Some of this info is on the main page anyway, however this is in more detail). The page also contains a variety of group pictures & baby pictures and proves rather interesting. Also appreciate the basis of her layout ’18 and counting’, which I’d advise reading. I guess its easier to relate to her finally ‘becoming’ of age and expressing that on the layout by illustrating it with old and new pictures of herself and her friends.

General impression I have of this site is that although she’s come of age, she’s holding onto her childhood memorabilia, which is brilliant. In the future I’d like to return to the site and see some evidence of maturation in both her writing and layout. The blog proves great communication to those who know her (on and offline), but for any external visitor it’s not necessarily an incentive to return or even get involved in. Unfortunately some of the subjects I’ve read, I may have related to about 5 years ago, but now it is of little interest.drakulita: eighteen and counting.