iStructure? iRaspberry!

     After perusing the entire collection of 2007 blogs, I settled on my first impulsive choice, Julia Hamilton (aka Agent Xi) whose blog likely captured my attention for two reasons: the brilliant colour and her continual updates, including dozens and dozens of photographs. It is somewhat frustrating to note that most of these blogs have been sorely neglected, with posts ending in May or June; I think this is the most intriguing facet of Julia’s blog: her continuity and consistent activity. 

       Julia’s blog, one of the few to jump with colour, is a very feminine, witty and all together entertaining venue for reporting both her research and her experience in Amsterdam (and the surrounding area) at large. She makes this intimidatingly pre-formed and generic space her own; her ‘profile’ picture is colour-coordinated to her template, even her URL (iRaspberry.blogspot.com) indicates the tone of the blog. Like most of the Blogger-provided templates, designed by Doug Bowman and Co., there is little room for customization in terms of the actual page elements included in the template framework (without editing the CSS [cascading style sheets] which governs these objects). I am consistently annoyed by the archiving system provided, as it only allows for a chronological scroll-down of the blog posts, but does not allow for the selection of specific posts by date, subject or within the chronological flow of the blog as a whole. 

            Agent Xi uses her space as well as she is able; with classical text on the small-side, she effectively utilizes the space available to her (the centre ‘post’ column) while, despite the pink frou-frou-y template, maintaining a somewhat professional looking piece. She formats in dozens and dozens of photographs, creating a uniform pattern: introduction, short caption, photograph (lather, rinse, repeat) and concluding summary. She establishes this pattern early on and, seeing its effectiveness, or at least efficiency, sticks with it. 

       Within the framework of Lynch’s A Walk Around the Block featuring the collective adventure of 27 Bostonians (or pseudo-Bostonians as the case maybe) and their narrated walk around one square block in Boston, MA., Julia is certainly able to carve out her own space within this bland and generic canvas, and create a sense of structure and even rhythm, to which her writing conforms, flows and flourishes. In effect, she creates her own sub-template.