The Reconstructed Man

by John Brien

I will start out by saying that more than any blog I've read so far this semester, John's is the most personal, and by default, most heartfelt of them all. Over the course of four months he tells the tale of a man down on his luck, but always looking up. Ok, maybe not always, but even in his misgivings, one can find an enjoyable sense of irony or sarcasm. John talks about shattering his ankle, getting laid off, surviving a recession....and, oh yeah, his cat. (He loves his cat. He even wrote a poem about him) In between all of this, he talks about everything from juice and beef, to geese, to his favorite comic book and rock 'n roll heroes.

John seemed to start out slow, but as the course progressed, so did his work. Like most of us, he went from posting only text and links, to pictures, video's and everything else that makes a blog more presentable. Having established that, I will now use "my criteria for a good blog" to review "The Reconstructed Man."

Content

The content is mostly, but not always relevant to the heading. But any time he tends to stray could be considered a good thing. He was clever to leave the title, "Reflections of a John Doe..." vague enough to fit just about anything under the umbrella. The flexibility allows for some great variety of topics and some very interesting reads. He has an excellent narrative voice and virtually flawless writing skills (excuse my singing hosannas).

The journey wasn't all clear blue skies, though. There were some posts where he lost my interest almost entirely. Mostly due to the subject matter, but also because I rarely felt like he was speaking to me. I assume that John writes for himself, with no intent on attracting a lot attention. However, this is not a valid reason to complain because, well...that's what makes his blog worth reading.

4/5

Design

I feel that the header and plain white background are very suitable for the type of blog John is writing. Unfortunately, the good news ends there. Some of the posts are untouchable, but others are begging for criticism. The text is painfully small and the paragraphs are scattered helter skelter among the column. The worst part though is probably the placement of the pictures. They are usually if not always too small to get a good look at, and they aren't placed well among the text.

2/5

*It's a shame I was chosen to review his blog because I just so happen to be a designophile. Please consider this grade with a grain of salt, as it is merely an aggregate of my criteria, and hardly an accurate account of my feelings towards the blog as a whole.

The Reconstructed Man: 6/10