Lifestyle Tips for the Dead

"Welcome! Good fortune has led you through the stinking portals of commerce, depravity and foolishness to the bijou homepage of Nicholas E. Grinder, English gentleman, online diarist, and purveyor of refined HTML-stylings to the cybernetic gentry since 1994."

Talk about a mouthful. Try reading the above five times fast. This site, written by Nigel E. Richardson, is one of the first sites ever visited by Oncommon. However, it's been a long time in coming before it was ever posted. Nigel resides in Leeds, and has many online stylings that predate his journal efforts. About his journal, however. Well, Nigel is a fan of Lizzie, Kymm, and Gus. Nigel's own site is stupendous. Oncommon prefers the 'big head version.' When at LTD, be sure to select the big head version from the menu of options.

The archives stretch back to Dec. 1997, so there is a lot to read here, if you are a journal junkie.

Life is Hell and Humorous in Hawaii

"Too bad you can't buy a voodoo globe so that you could make the earth spin real fast and freak everybody out."

If you are looking for stand up comedy that sits well with online journalism, go here. You can read about "Germans Date Anne Heche on the Old Navy Commercials" and "Charlton Heston on Viagra Hitting on Chelsea Clinton." If you are weak hearted, or weak at the knees, do not go here. This site is about ribald humor, and is not always the most tasteful. However, if you have a modicum of humor, and are apt to laugh at yourself, and others, this is a site you can sink your teeth into. You can read about Eric's Orthodontist Appointment (an Oncommon favourite) or about "I get a hang over from Trombone Oil."

There is also a standard formula here, which works well. Each entry starts with some stand-up comedy quotes, and then Eric goes into a journal entry which has something to do with the stand-up topic. You'll also get quotes from "Eric's Mialbag" where people usually mail him their opinion of his website. If you are offended, you can mail him. Most of Eric's mailbag consists of people who are railing him, but he posts them anyway. Good.

Mr. Smith Goes to Hell

Columbia U. is a Catholic university. Contrary to public opinion, there are no Jesuits running around pamphletting people. Now that that's said, let's get on to Matt Steven's "Mr. Smith Goes to Hell."

[Author's Note: Actually, we would love to get on with this review, but upon closer inspection, we have discovered that this site is not really an online journal.]

If you are subscribed to Newhoo's mailing list, specifically the online journaling one, you would have been privy to the discussion last week. It centered on determining which URL's to add to "Online Journaling." As engineers of such a website, as collocaters of online journalers, someone needs to set a criteria, or at least, guidelines. Matt Steven's site is fine, but it is a collection of papers that he has written, and some info about 'pulp' publications that abounded earlier in the century.

It's a nice sight that borders on Online Journaling, but doesn't quite cut it. We don't think so, anyway. What do you think? Look at the site, and e-mail Matt.

Why whould we ask you to do that? Simple. Matt Stevens site can be found in the Diary Registry.

Alternately, if you are interested in reading about someone's life, though not in our narrow definition of what an 'online journal' is, check out "Mr. Smith Goes to Hell."

Next...

"Chasing Amy." Yes, we are chasing Amy. So far, we have two. However, most webrings on online journalers are not set up so that you can easily browse by the author's name. (Know what we mean?) If you can find an Amy, send their URL via the submit button above. The site that you find, if reported on, will contain a credit towards your kindhearted search on our behalf.