Review 2299

“Everything but what’s on my mind” is the weblog of Sharon, who describes herself as “new and improved at 18 years old, but still tragicomically inept”. When I was 18, I didn’t even know what tragicomically meant, and to be honest, I had to look it up even now. Apparently, tragicomically is an extension of the word tragicomedy, which is defined by Merriam-Webster as “a drama or a situation blending tragic and comic elements”. Good to know, I thought to myself.

Nearing almost a year in existence, “Everything but what’s on my mind” doesn’t give off the essence that it’s from a teen-aged writer. Not at all. While the entertaining antics are typically those enjoyed by people that fall into the same age group as the author, the writing is far better. The word choice, sentence structure, and just overall writing style of each entry seems to be that of a well-seasoned author, not that of someone who’s just beginning their search for the right college.

The design of the site it one of the generic template Blogger offers its users, and the site is hosted via BlogSpot. While not a terrible design by any means, I personally felt like the writing alone deserved something a little more. The main point of the site, however, IS the writing and that’s certainly what draws you in the most. Bordering on the right of the semi-daily entries, you find two brief sentences about the author, links to the monthly archives, and the standard of links to other weblogs.

Most readers that fall into the age group this weblog is written for and by might not find the interest or want to take the time to read the detailed entries Sharon jots down. Actually spending time easily forming the mental picture that the author leads us to see is definitely one of the finer points of this weblog. While you may not get exact details of what a certain person looks like or the complete play-by-play of the evening, the author provides readers with enough information that creating the situation and/or people involved in your mind is easy to do.

From experiences in the past, I tend to lump any weblog written by someone barely old enough to vote into a group of undereducated, attention-hungry kids who really only need to share their weblog with their friends. “Everything but what’s on my mind” is very far from that. While it still has a few bits and pieces that are probably only understood by those near and dear to the author’s personal life, I felt like she was really writing for absolutely anyone that stumbled upon the site and that’s the kind of thing that brings readers back. Everything but what’s on my mind