Category: Uncategorized

Occam’s Razor – it’s a weblog “chronicling the strange life and weird observations of Mark D. Hammill, software engineer, civil servant and political pundit”. It makes my job as a reviewer easy when the author is so up front about the description of his or her weblog. It’s even better when it’s an accurate description, and Mark’s is right on the nose.

Quick learning lesson on Occam’s Razor – it’s a philosophical principle that dates years and years back. The principle states that one should not make more assumptions than the minimum needed. If you read through this entire weblog like I did, you’ll find that is nearly Mark’s exact life philosophy.

In Mark’s first post, he’s very straight forward about what readers can look for in this weblog: “the dictotomy of my observations compared to the way things really work gives me plenty of things to post here to the world. I doubt you will be bored.” And again, he’s hit it right on the nose. You’re not bored with this weblog at any point in time.

Occam’s Razor hit the ‘net in December 2002, so I would still consider this a fairly new weblog. With the types of entries that Mark throws out there, though, there’s sure to be a following of some sort in the building up stages. This isn’t a weblog for an audience consisting of high school kids writing about their Home Economics grade, but a weblog geared towards those who want to think about the things they read and can keep an open mind about opinions being shared.

The majority of the entries Mark makes are on the longer side. The words he uses, and the way he strings sentences together, though, make each entry read like a very short chapter in a series of a never-ending book. And in this case, that’s a very good thing.

The design of the site is very simple. I don’t love it, but I can’t hate it either. It’s impossible to hate, because Mark happens to use the font that I’m currently obsessed with – Georgia. That particular font makes everything look so nice and delicate, and so do the calm colors that are used for the layout. At the bottom of each entry, there’s a form giving the reader an option to email the entire post to anyone you want. I haven’t seen anything quite like this on a weblog before, and it’s definitely a nice addition!

If you visit this site, which I would recommend doing so, be prepared for the regular political jab at the Republican Party. And also be prepared for the occasional entertaining lesson in parenting teenage girl. Mark does a great way of relaying his stories, no matter what topic he’s addressing, to the world with this weblog and gives readers the want to continue coming back.

Occam’s Razor

I have to admit I was a little curious as to why this site was submitted to be re-reviewed again after it got a 5.0 on the last review. What would be so different that the site would require a re-review? With that thought in question I went on to Steve’s Thoughtful Spot.

The page loads and I am greeted with Jim Morrison and Winnie the Pooh. I am still not sure what the purpose is of both of them on the site, but oh well.

The design of the site is a black column and a green column with the blog being on the later. While there doesn’t seem to be much originality in the design, other than the logo, it works for the site.

The blog itself is well written. Posts are about his daily life: some are about nights with his friends, to work, to thoughts on the blog itself.

While the posts were written well, I had a hard time getting into the site. I think the blog itself follows your standard blog. Posts could be interchanged with a different blog and it wouldn’t seem like there was much difference.

One of the best parts of the site I thought was the about Steve section. He has devoted an entirely new blog to this section. You really get to know Steve in this section as he covers everything from being born to music interests to completely random facts about him.

Over all I think the site will be a good read for some people, but not all. If you enjoy a site about daily life and what have you, this is one for you.
Steve’s Thoughtful Spot

Right from the start ‘man.ik-di’pres.iv had a lot to live up to. Having manic depression in my family means I almost knew what to expect. This was familiar territory, perhaps too close to home, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to see it in a weblog. But the first post made me smile: a hi-fi war. You have no idea how many “hi-fi wars” I live with.

Of course reading about something familiar to me is always going to be of interest to me (and this man even shares my love of Home Alone and The Sound of Music), but ‘man.ik-di’pres.iv presents a quirky writing style that could suck anyone in. It was interesting to read a weblog by someone outside of the US , especially a post about the measures taken at the author’s work place, in response to the highly publicised SARS.

Although I never found anything in the weblog that explicitly stated the author is a manic-depressive, I’m assuming he is due to the title. The writing certainly seems manic. One minute we are told, “life is divided into the horrible and the miserable,” and the next, “each moment of life is precious.” All the posts are short enough to hold your attention and a post that brings you down will usually be followed by one that has you laughing.

The layout of the site is very dark: white type on a black background with a few black and white pictures. This works well for a site called ‘man.ik-di’pres.iv where moods fluctuate from bright to gloomy. The site is on Geocities, which I know would put some people off, but the layout works as well as any standard Blogger template. Some of the non-blog pages, such as the front page, seem a little chaotic and unordered, but as it’s the weblog I’m focusing on here I can say that the diary page looks fine.

‘Man.ik-di’pres.iv has been going for three months now and I happily read through almost every post. The subject matter is a fascinating one and Alex obviously has a skill for writing for an audience. The entry page has a paragraph that says, “welcome to a peek into my mind. I hope it doesn’t leave a bad taste in your mouth.” It didn’t. I’ll be stopping by ‘Man.ik-di’pres.iv in the future, and I advise paying a visit.‘man.ik-di’pres.iv

Okay, I love this blog. It’s filled with some of the funniest and (excuse my language) bitchiest posts I have ever read. There are actually 3 blogs on the page. One could be found under “Journal”, the other under “Rants”, and the last under “Raves” (the titles are sort of self-explanatory).

Written by a 24-year-old New Yorker, Chris, who goes by the alias of Spriteboy, Spriteboy World is a highly absorbing read. Most of the blog entries are mainly about his daily life, but the author’s sarcastically witty narrations make his supposedly sad life sound really exciting and glamourous (e.g. his encounters with celebrities and wannabes at his front desk operator job with uber chic New York hotel, Hudson).

The writing is vigorous and highly engaging, and is the type of blog that I wish I were writing. The layout of the entire site is pretty amateurish but it doesn’t really matter because the blog is just so good. There are the standard links to his bio, the guestbook; and some other goodies like “music” and “All Up In My Business”, where Chris answers some questions posed to him by his readers. Only thing that kinda bugged me was the archive. Most blogs have monthly or weekly archives, while his was a post-by-post type. Meaning, there’s an archive page with individual links to all his posts. It is not too bad, only that every time I am done reading one post, I have to click back to the main archive page because Chris didn’t link up the posts. It wouldn’t be that big of a problem if he didn’t have quite so many entries, but he did, so maybe some improvements could be made in that area.

Seriously, if you are looking for a personal ‘rant’ blog that is entertaining and doesn’t drone on and on about one’s life, you should go for this one. The writing is so lively, it almost sparkles. The blogs are updated regularly, so it makes a good choice if you want something you can check on weekly. This one is definitely joining my list of favourites.
Spriteboy World

My very first impression of this weblog was that of feeling welcome there. Something about the colors and subtle background images and even the Ralph Waldo Emerson quote about children make visiting this a site a comfortable experience.

The layout for this weblog is fantastic. There is a calendar up top where you can click on 5 days’ worth of recent entries, and three different nice-looking background images surrounding the actual weblog writings. There are three other ways to get to archived entries, all of which are rather helpful. You can click on archives by month, recent entries, or by category. There is a nice list of links to other weblogs, the obligatory Amazon wish list, and a site search tool and section about what she is reading.

A good deal of the entries include something about motherhood. The author has a (lovely, from the photos posted) two-year-old son. Since I am a mom, I particularly like reading about someone else going through the ups and downs that accompany being a parent. Entry topics range from the author’s frustrations over trying to find time for proper exercise to public transport etiquette. She’s down-to-earth in her musings, and writes well. The author mentioned wanting to create an `About’ page, which I think would be a nice addition to an otherwise excellent site.

Whether the author is writing about being a stay-at-home mother, spirituality, or Golden Rice Crispie Cakes, she manages to make daily life interesting for her readers. Pewari’s Prattle