When I evaluate a blog I look at what it has taught me, and what ideas of mine it has challenged. The creators Blunt Red Pencil twice liken their contribution to journalism as a revolution. I love revolutions. Change keeps me alive. So I wait to be impressed, but this revolution does not have me taking out my picket sign. A lot of the writing is indeed compelling and clear, for example the entries about paying attention to detail, how we experience time, Eskom and the identity crisis. It is palatable, easy to swallow. The majority of the content is, however, sadly banal. One of the entries about a blog that the writer found original and exemplary is written as a string of clichés. “Breath of fresh air” and “pulling the wool away from your eyes” tempts me to follow the inviting red cross at the top of the page and conveniently throw this blog back into the world wide web. Though the entry does not lack humour: “atheistically pleasing” is a novel concept. I’m sure the secularists would be pleased with this charming confusion between aesthetics and atheism. Apart from grammar mistakes, which I find difficult to forgive, the blog can be praised for the evident good intentions and sincere effort of the writers. However, I am neither provoked nor stirred. Reader, this is not a race through undiscovered terrain. Seat belts are not required.
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