Review 3427

I never know what to expect when the title of a weblog is the author’s name. I had a lot of time to think about what I would be reading while I waited for the site to load. I couldn’t figure out what was taking so long until I realized that the author has included every single post (since July 2007) on the main page of this BlogSpot-hosted blog. Ouch. Then, to add to my frustration, I tried to right-click a few links to open them in other Firefox tabs, except right-clicking is disabled on this site. What?

Once I was thoroughly frustrated with the functionality and navigation system of the blog, I figured it was as good of a time as any to start reading, hoping the posts would make me forget using a few of my favorite curse words in the process of just trying to dig around the site. It’s design is a standard Blogger template, without much in the addition of anything personalized.

First, I read about Freddy Macha, the author and namesake of the weblog. He’s posted a brief bio in the header of the site: “I am a musician and writer born on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, north Tanzania. I have lived and travelled widely in East Africa, Europe, Latin America, Canada and USA; subsequently, I am multi-lingual. I love life, art, people, food, health and fitness.” This autobiographical information at least gave me a little bit on what to expect from the entries at hand – basically, a little bit of everything.

The blog is only a few months old and only contains a total of 28 posts. Most of the posts are dotted with photos of what Freddy Macha experiences on a daily basis. He writes about his personal experiences in his role as an entertainer and shares many tales involving soccer teams and matches. He also touches a lot on different African history in each of his posts that pertain to current day event. The blog is written with a personal flair, giving Freddy the chance to write in a conversational manner.

I found myself getting lost in a few of the posts, sometimes needing to go back and reread sentences here and there to get the actual gist of what was written. I don’t know if that’s because the translation between Freddy’s multiple languages doesn’t come across clearly or if it’s because I just never really found a personal attachment or reason to continue reading this blog.NULL