The subtitle of this blog is “Infrequent Clamor” and I think it describes the blog very well overall. When I arrived at the site there were few other clues as to what I could expect. There is a very simple template with only a few links in the sidebar. It would seem that vanity is not something this author suffers from with regard to blogging. Don’t get me wrong- there is nothing wrong with the site- just not much I can say about how it looks. One of the sidebar links leads to a profile of the author, which explains that the reader should not really need a profile in order to appreciate the blog. Suitably rebuffed, I decided there was nothing more to do than get on with some reading.
As the title suggests, this blog is not updated that often (once a month on occasions), but the archives go back to July 2001 so there is plenty to read here. This is compounded by the fact that most of the entries are pretty long. With regard to the subject matter of the blog, I think this is going to be one which people either love or hate. The author is a Psychology student, you see and his postings tend to reflect this. The style of writing tends to be rather cerebral, rather existentialist and quite verbose. The author tends to go off at tangents somewhat too, which can occasionally be annoying, occasionally funny. Subject matter tends to hover around psychology, philosophy, science and grammar, though there are also book reviews, short stories and even a cartoon which the author writes himself and a few personal, day to day posts too.
Unfortunately I am not clever or intellectual enough to tell you whether some of the ideas and ruminations found here are themselves either clever or intellectual, or really just vague ramblings which are made to look that way. I strongly suspect the former though and the comments would seem to back up this assumption. One thing that can be said is that most of the posts are pretty deep and deal with the “big” questions in life. I found they tended to be somewhat over analytical too on occasion, especially when the author is writing about himself, though I guess that would be his psychology training coming out. I must admit, he does have a good sense of humour which definitely helps with this.
Incidentally, I really liked the icons that are shown when someone leaves a comment- presumably something built in to the “Livejournal” system. I also liked the fact that every entry showed what the author was listening to at the time and he has a VERY eclectic taste in music. There is (I think) another blog to be found under the “my friends” link, but I didn’t really understand the purpose of this and it seemed to consist mainly of news headlines from the BBC.
Overall then, if you are looking for a deep, intellectual blog which requires quite a bit of thought and willingness to take on new ideas then this is one for you- there is more than enough here to keep this kind of reader happy. On the other hand, for those looking for something a bit lighter and maybe more accessible, it might be best to try elsewhere. It is hard to give an overall score because it depends so much on the reader, though for what it’s worth, I found it all went over my head a bit.PJ’s Livejournal