Mute Point opens to a clean, clutter free, pleasing aspect. I like the two column layout. Easy to navigate and easy to read.
In the About section I learn that our author was born in Switzerland, and has lived in Tokyo, New York, and Sao Paulo. And is 17 years old. He is currently living and going to school in Paris. This sounds very exotic to this American who has never been out of her own country except a few brief forays into Canada from time to time. So I was intrigued.
I decided to check out the archives and begin at the beginning. It turns out that though he has been writing since May 2003, there are usually only a few entries for in each month, so I ended up reading virtually all the posts. He writes about school which is natural. There are references to music, movies and all such things as teenagers are interested in. Unfortunately he tends to us a lot of abbreviations that I guess are used in chat rooms,( U r really funny ppl out there…) I don’t care for this kind of thing myself. And it is distracting to read.
I imagine to his readers, most of what he writes is in context, but quite often he uses abbreviations for things and I had no idea what he was referring to. But this too is natural. You write to your readers, and if your readers are in the know, then there is no use being redundant. Which brings up an interesting point about weblogs in general. To whom are we writing? Ourselves? A specific group of people or friends? Or the world at large?
In any case, the author does a fair job of communicating clearly. And for someone of his years is writing an above average blog I would say. But as someone who does not have the privilege of traveling here and there in the wide world, I would be interested to hear more about how people live in all these diverse places. I wanted to read more stories like the one he told about dog poop on the streets of Paris… (Feb. 29 2004). It’s little stuff like this that is fun to read, for the person who has never been to Paris, and very likely never will go there.
This blog has only a few links to other things, which is fine by me. And in his entries, he keeps the linkage to a minimum. The archives are easily accessed and all of them work.
I think this blog is pretty good work for someone of his age, and would be interesting to a teenage audience. But if the author wants to expand his readership, some interesting commentary on life in the country that he lives in, or has lived in, would be a welcome addition.