Blog Reviews by Bloggeries

Bloggeries is going to look at a personal blog today, and that blog is known as Jesus Encounter. The blogger is Jeremy Newton, a 19 year old Christian and student leader in his church. He is very active in his faith and his church, and is using the blog as a place for other Christians to congregate and learn about God, as well as to help others grow in their Christian walk. He wants the blog to be a discipleship if people want it, or to be a place for prayer if people need it.  Most of all, he wants his blog to offer a sense of community, so others don’t have to feel they are alone for Christ.  You can see Jeremy’s vision and faith through his most recent bloggeries: Your Desires, Dream On, Weekend Updates to Jesus Encounter, You Still Poop in Your Pants, and Heart Support.

The blog offers a clean and organized template with a very serene feel to it, and this makes navigation very easy.  Bloggeries are left marginalized and there is a double right sided navigation system.  Bloggeries are in black text on white background with black border and menu headers in a quiet blue tone.  In the left navigation bar you will find links to Jeremy’s social homes; Recent Posts Menu; and a Categories Menu containing links to categories such as Anger, Challenges, Healing, Leadership, and Love.  In the right sided navigation system you will find subscription buttons, Entrecard, All Posts (archive menu), Christian blogs menu, and Links Menu.

I give this bog a 3.4/5 overall for its review.  The blog is a well-organized blog for a personal blog, but it seems a little quiet to me.  Appearance wise the blog looks very appealing with its quiet tone to it, which is the strength behind the blog’s meaning.  I think however a few more posts could use some relevant pictures to it to add to the inspiration and motivation that each post offers.  I also see a lot of white space in the navigation system, and the appearance could be improved if perhaps some content was placed in these navigation bars, or if perhaps the navigation bars were merged together to make one navigation bar, thus eliminating the white space.  Otherwise, navigation on this blog is very good with all essential blog meat easily navigated to.  The content on the blog is well written with a strong personal voice.  It is clear this blogger has conviction in his blog’s intent, and conveys this beautifully to his readers.  Activity scores could use some help with posts coming in several days apart.  The blogger will connect more with his faithful readers, and attract more as well, with daily bloggeries. Even if the blogger is low on ideas, this blog could make use of a daily inspiration, Bible verse, or a quote just to ensure something gets posted daily.  Overall however, this was a beautifully written blog to read and review, and should the blogger continue on this journey, he is sure to see much success.

-Chrissie

If you are up for a little intellectual reading, you may want to check out a personal / spiritual blog called Punctum Saliens. The owner of the blog is a computer programmer, though you would never guess after spending some time in the blog content. He urges you to ‘take a flying leap and see where you land’. The blogger writes from the philosophy of ‘If you’re gonna do that, you gotta…..’ which means his blog is focused on inconsistencies in the world in the way people think. He tries to point out where we make arbitrary lapses in logic, where one way of thinking or one rule implies another, but we don’t go that far. Being brought up in a fundamentalist Christian home, he notes this may affect his writing as he admits he has some observations on that as well. Largely however, he is trying to do something artistic and far reaching with his blog, and hopes his readers constructively comment on his thought processes as he does not believe he will learn very much from his own writing and wishes to see alternatives. Confused yet? Good! Because it is the blog content that really speaks to the nature of the writer and to understand this, you need to check out his recent bloggeries: Man’s task is….;Ah, to be a pre-tribulationalist/pre-millenialist; Anais Nin and Carl Jung; Syndrome….causes [some[to….[see] the Messiah; The Psychic Mediator; Seeing God through Polarized Sunglasses; Jesus is back, and this time he’s funny; and The Creation of Consciousness.

The blogger is clearly dedicated to the writing portion of the blog and thus there is little blog meat to distract the reader. This makes the blog very easy to navigate. Bloggeries are left marginalized with standard black text on white background and there is both a top and a right navigation bar. In the top navigation bar you will find links to Blog (ie. Home), About, Quotes, Creed, Books, Archives, and subscription links. In the right navigation bar you will find a Latest Posts Menu and a Blogs I Visit menu. The only navigational aspect I found difficult was that the Categories Menu was listed on the Archives page. I would recommend moving that to the home page, as the categories menu is extensive and if someone wanted to read on a specific topic, say, C.G. Jung, the blog would be much more easy to navigate. Currently there are no pictures with any of the bloggeries, though if you find yourself immersed in the blog, you will find yourself immersed in the blog. Truly the content is king with this blog and the read is a very intellectually stimulating one. There is no need for pictures with these bloggeries as in fact, they would more than likely distract from the content that is so rich.

I am going with a 4.5 for this blog, it did well on all accounts for scoring criteria. The first suggestion I have for this blogger is to move the Categories menu to the main page as not many readers will check out the Archives section. A few points were lost for activity as well as bloggeries are coming in not on a steady basis, and activity ranges from every few days to a week or more in between bloggeries. Content however is outstanding, and this blogger’s graduate level work is definitely noticeable. The blogger states in his about page that if eloquence is something one is born with, he has some worries as he hopes that it is more a talent he hopes to nurture. Clearly this is not something the blogger needs to worry about as his eloquence is the most noticeable thing about the blog. Appearance and uniqueness scores are excellent as well. The blog is both aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate. Couple those with the excellent content, and it does very well for review.

-Chrissie

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If you are the type that likes a spooky story or wants your hair to stand on end, you may want to have a look at World Horror Stories. The author here asks when you log in if you are ready for the scariest stories, photos, and videos ever, and if you want to continue through the blog, prepare yourself. This blog is a collection of ghost stories, and gruesome things happening in the world, and is definitely not for the young OR the faint of heart. If you want to see what I am talking about, check out some of the most recent Bloggeries: Mermaid II, Flying Creature, Karaoke Room, Unknown Figure Behind a Girl, White Ghost Figure in the House, Parking Lot, Tour Turns to Horror, Beach, and Audition. Each Bloggerie is a recollection of a story or an event that will make your hair stand on end. Each post is accompanied by either a relevant picture or a video, and while I was in the middle of a review, one of the spooky ghost videos actually shut my computer down. So, I don’t know if someone was mad at me, or if my machine is just cranky today, however….

Navigation on this site is a little busy, but if you enjoy the content you will barely notice the navigation. Posts are centralized with both a left and right navigation system. The posts are centered on a burgundy background with yellow text and the navigation bars are in spooky black. The left navigation bar contains a PayPal button, ads, a ghostly poll, and results from recent blog polls. Each post contains relevant pictures and videos as well as a dig bookmark along with a reader voting system for each post. I like how this is done as it really shows the readers and the author as well, who is liking what. In the right navigation bar you can submit your own ghost story, read any of the Most Popular Posts, or visit any of the Categories. Categories include Announcements, Asian, Type of Spirit, Unexplained, and Western. You will also find a slew of blog links and widgets for the blog.

I am giving this one a 3/5 for a few reasons. The blog scores well on content and uniqueness, but lacks some things in other categories. The appearance mark would be improved if some AdSense was removed or at least tamed. The blog is very busy with advertising and it really distracts from the content. I liked how the AdSense was formatted to blend with the blog, but there is just too much advertising. For navigation, if some advertising was removed there would be room for an archive menu as well as a recent posts menu, both of which are lacking from the blog and really help readers with navigation. Activity score was also a little bit low, with posts coming in about once a week. Again, this blog is a very unique concept and it would do well with some appearance changes and more frequent bloggeries. The blog also clearly has a good following, which again could be even better with some of these changes. I enjoyed reading this topic and viewing the videos, and could definitely be persuaded to return with just a few tweaks here and there. I think like-minded others who enjoy a good ghost story would agree.
-Chrissie