I submitted my diary a while back for review, and today it was finally reviewed. I have to say, I got quite a chuckle from the review that was done on my diary. Based on what the reviewer wrote, I suspect either I’m completely misrepresenting some aspects of my life, or he only read a few of the entries before drawing conclusions and writing the review. I submit, for your reading pleasure, the review that was written:
The title didn’t have me brimming with enthusiasm for this review. Predictable. I then got to the site and it was pink. Oh dear. The welcome statement didn’t indicate that my first impressions were at all wrong. “For those looking for something deep and meaningful, you may want to look elsewhere.” Help.
But hold on you highbrow snob, be objective here.
As well as being pink the design just really doesn’t do it for me. The blog is in the www.deardiary.net format. The first one I have come across and I hope the last. I didn’t get on with it at all well. It just doesn’t look right - whatever right may or may not be, this ain’t it.
The first entry was December 2001 but the archives (index) only allow you to get to August 2003. There is an extended upper panel which allows you to move around the site. I found this journeying difficult and cumbersome. There was also a left side panel with some links to a dictionary, a translator and some drums corps bits and pieces. There are links to her brother’s and sister in law’s sites which are also using this deardiary thing. Allimom and I come from very different mystical spheres…
There are links and a comments facility which you can “show” or “hide”. This is used often and folk appear to be engaged in allimom’s world.
So to the posts. Was I gonna be surprised? Unfortunately no. Allimom writes about her world as a wife and mother. Domesticity and errand running. The trials and tribulations of bringing up three kids with ADHD. Attention deficit disorder in which hyperactivity is present. Blimey… I have an opinion here which I’m gonna skip right over. Hubby was and is (?) a soldier and well behaved (in a moral sense) drunk. He is also a genius…
"Son, what happened last night?"
"Well Dad, you came home after 3 A.M., drunk and delirious. You broke some furniture, puked in the hallway, and gave yourself a black eye when you stumbled into the door."
Confused, Joe asks, "So, why is everything in order and so clean, and breakfast is on the table waiting for me?"
"Oh, that", his son replies. "Mom dragged you to the bedroom, and when she tried to take your pants off, you said, "Lady, leave me alone, I'm married."
The posts really do nothing more than catalogue life in the nuclear family and how that might make a girl feel. Mostly it causes her to threaten to reach for duct tape to stifle her children further than the medication she gives them does. Her brother, father and chocolate also come in the picture from time to time. Brother is a gun lover. Sheeks ;(
The final indignity for me is the constant haunting presence of Mr Wolverine Van Helsing smiling above a row of well built fireman and a couple of Dalmatians. Every page??? Why??? I know certain women have this thing for a “famous hunk.” What does this fantasy do for their mental health?
I am gonna give the site one and a half out of five because she does write well and it does seem to hold some interest for fellow travellers of the “being a mum and having a family” thing. Warning: if you’re not one for hanging over the back fence detailing the minutia of your life steer clear - my pink half of the drainpipe separates me from you…
This site was reviewed on 2004-07-14 by Duween.
They felt this site belonged in the Personal category.
Duween felt that A Day In The Life deserved a rating of 1.5.
I don’t care about the rating given my diary, it is after all, a Diary. Bits and pieces of my day to day life as seen and related by me. There is no earth shattering material here, and overall my life is boring so the telling of it is apt to reflect that. But,I feel the need to respond to this, as I am just amazed by some of the conclusions drawn by the reviewer.
Taking a gander at my diary I can see he is correct, it is pink. Imagine the gall of me having a pink diary! Oh wait, it’s my diary and therefore a reflection (in part) of me or at least the mood I was in the day I put together this setup. But, this being the only time this reviewer has been by, he has not seen the different personalities my diary has had. The people who have read me for any period of time can attest to the fact that they never really know what they may see when coming into my pages. I tend to change the look of my diary like some people change socks, having it evolve to represent the different aspects of my personality. (Thinking along that line, I don’t think I’ve ever done a white theme for the diary. How about white text on a white background, does that work for anyone out there?) As for the looking for something deep and meaningful quip, yep, it’s right there on my welcome page as written by me. It’s my DIARY, not a forum for me to wax philisophical or poetic on a daily basis. He is correct in the statement that he and I come from very different mystical spheres.
Now comes the part of the review which had me laughing fit to bust a gut. Blimey… I have an opinion here which I’m gonna skip right over. Hubby was and is (?) a soldier and well behaved (in a moral sense) drunk. He is also a genius… Here he goes to quote the entry from yesterday about men getting it right sometimes. If I understand what he is saying in the review, he thinks this actually happened. He thinks that “Joe” is my husband, and a well behaved drunk. I don’t know whether this gentleman just doesn’t understand American humor, has no sense of humor, or just didn’t read enough entries to get a better feel for the things I write. Whatever the case, I need to leave him a comment thanking him for the good laugh this morning. It’s always nice to start your day with laughter such that you squirt milk out your nose!
Oh, and as for the quip about “famous hunks” and what it does for my mental fantasies, sorry dude but the only man to be featured in my fantasies is Hunkka-Hunkka Hubby.