Simon says you can watch him on video

''Simon Richardson" is 23 years old and, rejecting the advice of his parents, left home and found a place to live on his own in Watertown. He has been documenting his early postcollegiate years on a blog and a video called ''hello simon."

So far, it's been pretty depressing. In the episodes, his parakeet dies, he loses his job, he fights with his parents, and he misses the bus after his car dies.

''This isn't college anymore," the narrator says. ''There are bills to pay, Simon. The day lacks a serious amount of play and your car is now a large lawn ornament."

Like the best blogs, though, it provides the voyeuristic thrill of a peek into someone else's life. And it has the added attraction of video.

So 15 episodes, each about 3 minutes long, have been released on a weekly basis.

The episodes depict him drinking beer on the couch, walking around Watertown streets, and laying on his bed having terse conversations with his parents. He has problems getting over a former girlfriend, who remains in his life because she wants back her paperback copy of ''Animal Farm."

''Simon" is really based on the life of Vatche Arabian (who plays Simon's best friend, Harry, in the episodes). Arabian, who grew up in Watertown and recently moved back after graduating from Fitchburg State College, said in an interview that most of the scenes are based on actual events, though he has taken some poetic license.

He said part of the thrill is making a film that makes it difficult for the viewer to determine what actually happened and what did not -- a technique used best in the movie, ''The Blair Witch Project". After an episode in which Simon loses his job, a woman in Framingham contacted Arabian to see if she could help. He had to tell her that he actually has a job in marketing.

The ''hello simon" clips can be viewed at www.hellosimon.com. Arabian also has made other films, some based in Watertown, that can be found at www.arabianproductions.com.

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Sharon Machlis Gartenberg thinks Framingham's form of government is getting unwieldy. The nation's largest town should develop more of a city form of government, she says.

''With a dozen reps per precinct, almost no recorded Town Meeting votes, and the vast majority of precincts having no contested races on election day, the current government structure provides little accountability to the voters," she writes on her Planning Livable Communities blog, at www.pedestrianfriendly.com.

''Framingham is a large, complex community facing issues that need full-time attention. I don't think a part-time legislative body comprised of hundreds of individuals is the best answer. Government structure isn't the only reason why so many nearby communities are ahead of Framingham in terms of downtown revitalization, but I do think it's a factor."

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Kristine Munroe had a Thanksgiving moment recently.

''While driving on Washington Street in Newton, I saw two large, wild turkeys crossing the street," she writes on her West Newton-based Krissy in Boston blog, at www.krissyinboston.com. ''It was definitely in the top 5 strangest things I've ever seen in my life. Washington Street is a major road, and nowhere near any areas where I would imagine wild turkeys naturally roam.

''How did they get there? What were they doing? Where did they come from? Where were they going?

''People had to slow down to let them cross and a man pulled over and jumped out of his car with a camera."

. . .

''Working out at the gym, I noticed a young woman working behind the check-in counter," writes the author of the Wellesley-based Diana Chronicles blog, at dianachronicles.blogspot.com. ''She was wearing a bright orange blouse and had puffy blond hair. I smiled to myself at the thought of this wild girl in an upscale town that has so many of the women under 60 working hard to keep their size 6 figures so they can wear those [Lilly] Pulitzer frocks that show off their expensive hairdos. She reminded me of some of my fellow students at UMass/Amherst in the early '70s. Funky. Unconventional."

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Lisa Williams, at the H2otown blog at www. h2otown.info, is tired of all the talk that Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly living in Watertown makes him appeal to the everyday voter in the governor's race.

''Has anyone ever seen Reilly anywhere in Watertown?" she writes, noting that he owns a house on the Cape. ''H2otown will vote for Reilly if nominated, but not because he's a hometown candidate: It's not clear that Watertown is more than a storage shed and a bed to the guy."

A biweekly look at who's saying what among bloggers based in the western suburbs. Have you noticed a blog with a local slant? E-mail Matt Viser at mviser@globe.com.