Month: January 1970

The splash page for eternal autumn shows some promise. It’s very nicely done without overpowering the eyes or the mind with too much “net” stuff. It’s not too hard to find the navigation to the site, and that, my friends, makes a splash page successful. Once you get to the blog, it’s very cute; the only word that comes to mind with its cute bouncing cat emoticon.

The early months are rather slow for this blog author, but that doesn’t mean to say that some of the entries aren’t worth reading. Some of the entries are filled with lots of emotion, while others are the run-of-the-mill “this is how my day went” kind of entry. The archives are kind of funny. Sometimes the font is big enough to read in Times New Roman; sometimes it’s tiny in Times New Roman. Other times it’s in Verdana (which is very easy to read, even if it’s small). As the months progress however, the author writes more and more about the going-on’s of her family and life. Some of the most memorable are quite easily March 2, 2003 and July 4, 2003; each of them bringing different emotions to the table. The longer entries, the ones that get very much into detail and the thoughts behind the entry, are well worth reading. They tell more than the story, they tell the author’s version of the story. And that’s what we read blogs for right? The personalized feeling of experiences we all could have had or share. There’s the occasional random post of chat conversations that will make you stare at your monitor with a quizzical look or laugh hysterically wishing you could’ve been a part.



The design works. For something done in frames, it works really well. One of the most interesting things I’ve seen thus far is that when you hover over her navigational links the letters actually flip upside down. For some this doesn’t seem like such a big feat, but for the avid designer/coder you’ll find this quite fascinating, especially knowing it’s not done with images. The text for the title is a little difficult to read, but everything else works well together. The range of color in the leaves makes it very pleasing.



The site offers a few fun features. As I mentioned before, there’s the random splattering of cute kitty emoticons that you can’t help but look at now and again just to see the little facial expressions. She shares with you the “song of the moment” which is always nice to read now and again. It’s hard to find anything about the author, but when you get further into the LiveJournal aspect of the site until you’ll find a profile for the author. She tells you all about what she uses for the site design and from a designer’s standpoint it’s nice to read. There’s a guestbook and comments, for the usual reader interaction.



For the most part this is your typical blog about what life is like in the working world. The more you read the more you understand and feel for this author. Some of the entries are gold, and others are passable. It’s when the author writes what she feels and believes, that’s when the reader may find themselves hooked.eternal autumn

There’s something about the cute-ness in the design of blogs like this that somehow makes me kind of go mushy. It’s not that I expect less or more from it, there’s just something about the design of the blog that kind of makes me smile. Initially you see some bright colors and good artistic work. Then I read the Shel Silverstein poem, and it took me back to childhood. I’ll admit, going into this review, I’m hoping for good things.

I’ve tried to make it a habit to start of with some of the early entries before I dive into the meatier part of a blog. However, the early entries only elude to the fact that Lauren once had a LiveJournal and has moved to her own domain. Knowing this doesn’t actually help in understanding a few of her earliest entries where she talks about bettas (fish, by the way), and Elvis. It doesn’t take a super sleuth to find the information about Elvis, her horse, and not the other guy.

There are a few design flaws, but they’re not major. First of all, some of the “about me” stuff offers a back button to go back to the menu, while others done. Some of the archives got the evil “Not Found” error, while others worked wonderfully. There are frames, so sometimes scrolling can make you a little batty when the entries actually run longer than the “web page” length. On the other hand, the design is very pleasing on the eyes, and easy to read. The colors work well for Lauren’s personality.

There are lots of added bonuses to this site. She has photo galleries, writing galleries, and general “about me” information. There are plenty of pictures to get a feel for the different moods of the author, and lost of interesting outgoing links. There’s a tagboard and comments, and contact information if you’d like to write directly to her. She adds lots of pictures to her entries, which give you a little bit more into the entry itself. She shares her artwork too, which is definitely worth a look.

Like most blogger’s, Lauren loves to write. It’s probably the most common reason why people started blogging in the first place, and I am no exception to the rule. She writes about her day to day trials, but sometimes you get a glimpse into the person beyond the surface words. This blog is worth a read if you enjoy things of the arts or anything to do with horses. Art seems to be a huge part of this author’s life and deservedly so. This blog is good. Though you might have a bit of time finding the diamond in the rough, it’s worth the searching if you do find it. Uptonia

What first attracted me to James’ website is the .co.uk ending. It isn’t often that I come across a new, Brit-centric personal blog, and as I’m always looking for new sites to read (and I prefer reading about something I share in common, whatever that may be), I immediately booked the site out for review.

The first thing I noticed was the ultra-clean, smooth, no-fuss design. The site is headed with a goldfish photo that fits seamlessly under the logo and navigation. It works well, drawing the eye down to the content, which is nicely spaced and very easy to read. The choice of black text on blue background might not be to everyone’s taste but it is surprising effective. White links jump neatly out of the page but don’t disturb the reader’s attention.

The blog is a personal one, with no particular focus other than the writer and his immediate world. The pacing is relaxed, the style of writing perfectly judged to help the reader along. Even the ee cummings no-capitals grammatical method works well and unobtrusively. Each story is relatively self-contained and interesting; amusing anecdotes and events are relayed well and with a minimum of pretension.

Archives stretch back as far as December 2002, and are available from a drop-down list at the top of the page, or alternatively from a collection of links at the bottom, where you will also find the external sites the writer is fond of. The photo gallery, though relatively small, contains some treasures, such as the shots of Iceland, and is very easy to navigate.

The reader is given the option of having links open in a new window via a checkbox at the top of the site; this is a helpful feature but I would have preferred it to only refer to external links; furthermore, the setting doesn’t carry through from page to page. Otherwise the design is practically faultless; if you don’t like it, there is also an alternative available on the “Skins” page.

If you want a window into another’s life, but don’t want to feel like an uninvited peeper, then this is most certainly worth your attention. For me, it is definitely a site I will be returning to, if only to track down more entries and opinions on Iceland.

someonecalledjames

The Unnamed Blog. Great name for a blog. It leaves so much room for you to go with the direction of the blog. It could be about anything or nothing at all. I had some high hopes for this site just based on the name.

The weblog however wasn’t as cool as the name of it. The author submitted the blog as a news/links type site, but it is more of a personal site. Yes a lot of the posts deal with what is going on in the world (blogging and real), but they are more along the lines of here is my opinion, rather than here is a news link. Some of the posts were very funny, and others did very little for me.

One thing I noticed when I got done reading the entire blog from current to very first post was that it was actually a group blog. I very rarely pay attention to the by lines in blogs, but the very first post said it was going to be a joint effort. So I was curious and did some searching through out the blog to find multiple authors. While there are multiple authors, there is one main author with a supporting cast so to speak. Dirvish posts the majority of the time, and the other authors post every now and then.

The design of the site is simple, and I think might be a template for the blogging software, but I could be wrong. If it is a template, it has been tweaked to fit the site. The blog is not about flashy designs, or images, and thus the design reflects that. The only problem I had with the design of the site was the archives, which again I think has to do with the tool. I enjoy reading an entire month’s worth of archives at once, and not day to day archives. I think the clicking of the mouse should be for the links in the blogs, and not archives.

Overall I had a pretty good time at The Unnamed Blog. It is not one that I will add to my daily list of reads, but it is one that I will keep tabs on every now and then. The posts can be entertaining, and it isn’t hard to catch up on pasts posts even if it is your first time visiting.
The Unnamed Blog

The first thought that popped into my head upon viewing Spivak’s Razor was “middle school computer lab”. The green courier text on a black background threw me at first. It seemed unsophisticated and old fashioned, but as I delved into the site and learned more about the author, the design began to make sense. (More on that later.)

Spivak’s Razor has been around for quite a while. The archives go back as far as September of 1999. I looked around for an “About Me” page of some sort on the author, hoping to get some background information before digging in, but none was found. Through reading the older entries, I discovered the author was a New Jersey man in his late twenties. The name “Spivak” was the name of a character he used on LambdaMOO. LambdaMOO, along with other online role-playing games, figures prominently in his journal. Indeed, some entries are clearly meant to be understood only by other gamers, but these entries are few and far between. Spivak is a prolific journaler. His entries are long, detailed, and for the most part intensely personal. He doesn’t mince words or censor himself. His brutal honesty is admirable, although there were passages that were a bit uncomfortable to read (entries detailing various bodily functions, for example). There was also a subtle bit of racism apparent in some passages that bothered me, although Spivak owns up this and offers explanations.

Some of the author’s entries are detailed and wordy to the point of becoming tedious, and it’s tough to get through them all at once. As a reader, I could do with a little more quality instead of so much quantity. There is some genuinely lovely writing to be found here and there, however. His descriptions of being outdoors on a cold winter’s night, his love for animals, and his struggle to overcome depression and self-hatred are particularly evocative. He also has an impressive imagination, and can be quite funny.

As I wrote earlier, the design of Spivak’s Razor is reminiscent of the old days of computing when text was all you had. There are pictures scattered here and there throughout the entries, some quite funny and interesting, but the site itself is text-heavy. Upon reading the journal, and discovering how into computers and gaming Spivak is, it became clear that the simple design fits his personality. He’s more concerned with the writing itself than he is with flashy graphics. His entries are color-coded according to a key found on the front page. Dreams are in purple, posts about gaming are in yellow, holiday posts are in red, etc. It’s a clever concept, a twist on the traditional category system, although some pages resembled a rainbow and were a little hard on the eyes. There were some broken links on the older archive pages.

Spivak has recorded three hundred of his dreams and nightmares and includes them in his journal, along with handy index on the front page allowing you to jump directly to the dream entries, if you’re so inclined. He also includes links to the gaming diaries he has kept over the years. These are hard to follow if you’ve never been a gamer, but I imagine they would make a fun read for someone into such things.

Overall, I found Spivak’s Razor a typical online journal. It’s a true view into the author’s life and thoughts. It was hard for me to maintain interest throughout the entire journal although there were bright spots here and there that caught my interest. A lot of the author’s writing seems to be aimed at friends and online acquaintances, and I would imagine that this is his intended audience. It succeeds as a personal diary and is certainly entertaining in many spots, but lacks the consistent quality necessary to become a daily read. I wouldn’t add Spivak’s Razor to my “must-read” file, but would check in from time to time to see how he’s doing. spivak’s razor