Author: admin

With a name like Random Acts of Reality, I wasn’t sure what I would find. Thankfully the author has made it perfectly clear that this is a site about life on an ambulance crew. The subtitle “Trying to kill as few people as possible” clued me in that this writer has a sense of humor as well. He didn’t let me down.

This is the blog of Tom Reynolds, a guy in his early 30s who works for the London Ambulance Service. Right up front Reynolds’ unique humor is revealed in his introductory blurb. He also offers a list of 81 things about him that allow the reader more insight into his personality.

Reynolds says his site used to be named “Why I Hate Humanity” but it is obvious that he really doesn’t. Most posts here are about the cases that he encounters during his job. The entries are short and to the point. This writer makes his observations pragmatically. After getting a haircut that he is not crazy about he observes, “The best I can say is that I’m not having to brush my hair out of my eyes with a pair of gloves covered in someone else’s vomit.” Now that’s one way to look at it! It may sound to the reader that most emergency calls in London involve passed out drunks and pregnant women instead of real emergencies, and these are certainly Reynold’s pet peeves. Many entries are devoted to these runs. Particularly entertaining for me was the writer’s lament addressed to alcoholics in August 2003 as well as his short list of when NOT to call an ambulance. This site is not all about the job, though. Reynolds also posts occasionally about current events and politics. However, his entries about life on the ambulance are what I enjoyed the most. I have to admit that my favorite thing he likes about his job is “driving on the wrong side of the road with blue lights and sirens going, it’s not the speed it’s the POWER.”

Random Acts is published with a standard template that is easy to read. The minimal design enhances the content and there are no annoying frills. The sidebar is filled to the brim though, with the standard long blog roll and links. Reynolds began his blog in July 2003 and the archives are extensive. The site is archived by month and also separately by year. My major complaint with the design is that the archive links can be a bit confusing as the monthly archive only shows 5 months at a time. The reader has to do a bit of digging, but it is well worth it.

Overall this is a well-written blog that deals with a rather unique subject. The author is strait forward and to the point. You just might end up spending a lot more time than you planned enjoying the exploits of Reynolds. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
Random Acts Of Reality

This is my first experience of a “weblawg” (a weblog about law, dummie) and I was quite looking forward to it. After a while, reviewing blogs about somebody’s dog dying last week gets a bit dull and new subject matter always cheers me up.

So I clicked on the link and found a well constructed blog running off Movable Type. It is well put together and has a nice tidy titlebar at the top (which it looks like they have designed themselves) and the usual two columns. Apart from the title bar (which contains a useful subtitle: “A “blawg” (legal blog) blogging intellectual property legal issues of interest: patent, copyright and trademark law!”), you can also find out more about the blog by reading the little explanation in the sidebar about the blog and the company behind it. This was the first idea I had that actually this blog might be accessible to me (i.e. a complete layman with regards to law, patents etc.) It’s pretty nice that they have bothered to make it accessible- usually specialist weblogs are just that- great for those in to the subject, but a waste of time to everyone else. Not so with this blog.

I admit it. I am in to leftfield, counter-culture, “arty” kind of things as a rule. Law is not my thing at all in the usual course of events. So I ploughed in to the content with some trepidation. However I was quite amazed that I found a lot of the articles pretty interesting and informative. Most were about subjects which I have some experience of (the world of intellectual property is basically about new stuff, whether it be computers, the web, music, or the slightly more complex world of er…single-wall-nanotubes, whatever they are). I read through the front page and only found one or two articles which didn’t engage me at all, so ventured forth in to the archives with some optimism.

There are a lot of archives – as the blog has multiple authors, there is quite a high density of posts going back to January 2004. Having different authors also ensures that there are a wide variety of posts right the way through though. Of those that really grabbed my attention, there was one about sampling in rap music, and another about a cool new technology which (kind of) makes things invisible. I think there is something for everyone here though, at least everyone who pays attention to the world around them- there is quite a lot about blogging for example.

I have scored this blog highly, partly because it is visually sound and well constructed. But a far greater achievement, I think, is to turn a subject as (potentially) terminably dull as Intellectual Property, and making it engaging, accessible and informative to someone like me who had no prior knowledge or interest. Obviously anyone in the field will find the outstanding research and points raised incredibly helpful, but casual browsers and Google searchers will also find a lot of interest here too.
PHOSITA: an intellectual property weblawg

The blog called Enthralling Boredom starts with this sub-head, “Read My Articles, Become A Better Lover, Lower Your Rates, And Add 1-3 Inches To Your… ” Right away you know the person writing this blog has a sense of humor (and receives spam). The author is an 18-year-old Yale freshman named Sean. Sean lived in Cleveland until starting college in the Fall of 2004. His blog has been active since June.

I enjoyed reading Sean’s posts, especially Academy Award Snubs, Squirrels Gone Wild and Rah-Rah for Ramen. My favorite headline is “If You Use an Artificial Christmas Tree, the Terrorists have Already Won.” And I admit, I love any 18-year-old who is as maddened by bad grammar and misspelled words as I am.

I spent a great deal of time at Sean’s blog, primarily because it was a good read and made me chuckle on occasion. I think his writing is above-par and hope that he gets more readers as he goes through college. While Sean submitted his sight as “Humor,” it truly belongs in the Personal category. Even as humorous as his posts are–on everything from PETA to people use annoying Internet abbreviations–the posts are still in the personal blog vein. Enthralling Boredom

Not being a fan of the sport of Soccer, I went into this site with an open mind. I expected the site to be about the world of soccer, what is going on in each of the leagues, and that sort of thing.

The first thing I noticed about the site was the design was broken in my browser. I am using Safari on the Mac and the posts were all below the double column on the right. At first I thought it was a blank page, until I scrolled down. This isn’t a good start, but still I kept on.

Now since I do not know much about soccer I am a little baffled by the info that is posted here. Being a football (US) fan, I know that the teams all play on Sunday or Monday (for the most part). I was expecting updates on the author’s favorite team. Things like team standings, player ranks, goals scored, awesome shots, etc… Instead I found a non regularly update blog about random topics within the world of soccer. Just to give you a clue as to what I mean by this, there are 23 posts total. 1 about NCAA soccer, 3 about FIFA, 4 about Major League Soccer, 8 about English premier league, and then some random topics.

Probably the most annoying thing about this site was from the time I got there, I felt like it was just a scam to earn money. Maybe it was the ad asking you to advertise, or maybe it was the big skyscraper ad, or maybe it was that after each post was a “related items on Amazon” ad. That got annoying quick.

Overall the site has news about soccer. While it could not be a daily read to update yourself what is going on, it might be a good weekly stop. By fixing the design problems, and making it more soccer oriented, than I want to earn money oriented, I think this weblog could really take off and do well. Till then, I give it the weak score that I did.Soccer Weblog

When a weblog is submitted, the author chooses a category their blog falls under. The author here chose Creative Writing and with the name of Watermark, I found that to be a good name. Think of the watermark on a dollar bill, or a digital watermark on an image, etc… Good concept I thought.

When I first got to Watermark I noticed the caption which read “A poet’s notebook” and look around. This one looked better from the get-go versus the last poetry site I read, so I was happy. Diving into the site, I realized that this was not a site just about poetry. In fact, I don’t think it would be possible to put it in a specific category (as a whole) since there is so much to the site.

Lets break down the site into a couple of categories and talk about them individually. First up is the poetry which is probably supposed to be the main focus. I am not a poetry critic. I do not know what makes a poem good, or what makes one bad. I do know if I enjoyed reading what is written, and in this case I do.

The next part that is obvious with the site is the general types of posts one would find on a weblog. And while there isn’t anything in particular that sets this one apart from the rest in this category, at least the posts are very well writen and enjoyable to read.

Finally there is the animal section, which has a high population of cat posts. These range from random images of animals to actual posts about them. I would almost say to move this area to another blog, but it completes the picture that the author is trying to get us to grasp. Besides, from my understanding she posts at a bunch of other sites too and it would be all the more complicated. My favorite by far was the bully penguin.

My only gripe with this site is the design. While it is a lightly modified template, the author is using frames for whatever reason to keep the url the same on all the pages (both internal and external). This was annoying when I was visiting sites as they either opened in a new window, or if they were a site the author posts on, it opened in the same frame. I am not a fan of this, as it takes away the control that I have over the site.

Overall I thought Watermark was a good site. There is definately something there that sets this apart from the rest of the sites out there and I suggest you go look and see if its your cup of tea. Even if you aren’t a fan of peotry, the rest of the site will be worth your time.Watermark