Blog Reviews by Bloggeries » Spirituality

Jesus Encounter – Blog Review

chrissie — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:41:05 +0000

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

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Punctum Saliens – Blog Review

chrissie — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:26:00 +0000

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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World Horror Stories – Blog Review

chrissie — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 14:22:35 +0000

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

Too BIG and the world famous Ba-Donka

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Laws of the Universe Blog – Review

chrissie — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 17:42:08 +0000

We all need to find out zen moments sometime, don’t we? If you think you do, take a minute to check out the Laws of the Universe Blog. Here you will find a blog that the author wishes to use to convey his knowledge gained thus far about the way this universe functions according to certain laws and how we can architect our own destiny by practicing these laws. The author is Malathy Badri, a Math teacher in India who blogs for both fun and money. His life slogan is to pass it on; share, and we at Bloggeries are doing just that by telling you about his blog. You can get a feel for his Laws of the Universe concepts by reading his recent posts You roam the world, we follow; Death penalty to whom?, Make a jambalaya, Perfect Wedding Anniversary Gift, Patrick Bernard’s Spiritual Path, An Indian Dating Website, New Products from Multivend, and Love Letters from God. While not all of these posts are zen related or even contain spiritual musings, they are all a very interesting read.

Navigation on this site is fairly straightforward. I do recommend you view this in Mozilla Firefox as you can, or you may think there are formatting issues with the right navigation bar. There aren’t the site is just better viewed there. I do run across this from time to time and it is no reflection of the blogger. Posts are centered with both a left and right navigation system. The posts are bright blue text on a calming azure type background and links are highlighted in red. AdSense is incorporated throughout the blog with the same color theme so it blends in very well. In the left navigation bar you will find the about me section, archives, blogs that link here, and some advertising. In the right you will see some AdSense, tools for spiritual development links, book recommendations, and a photo visitor log. I do see categories labeled on each post, but I do not see a categories menu on the blog. I also would not mind seeing some pictures added to the blog, from what I can see there is only one on the main page. I would suggest adding some pictures to make the blog a little more fun to read.

I am going with a 3.3/5 for this one. I like that the blog has recent and frequent posting, and for someone writing from India the English is very good. The content is well written, though sparse for the actual topic of the blog niche. I would suggest some more posting on the spirituality component of the blog. I would also suggest some AdSense changes. Currently there is AdSense at the top of the page as soon as you open up the blog, and I think this is a little distracting from the blog content. As mentioned I would also add a categories menu. The blog just needs some tweaking then in Appearance and Navigation categories, but otherwise the blog is doing well on other accounts. For those that have an interest in Zen living and Spirituality, I would recommend having a look at this one to get a unique perspective on the Laws of the Universe.

-Chrissie

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Unraveling the Spiritual Mystique – Blog Review

chrissie — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:48:04 +0000

If you are looking for an all-around feel good blog, take a minute to check out the blog with the intention of Unraveling the Spiritual Mystique. The author here, Alexys Fairfield, is someone who has achieved higher consciousness by being present in the moment, never taking life for granted, and sharing what they have found along the way. Alexys says in her About Me that life is an odyssey, a collection of uniquely derived moments designed to lead you to your real moments of truth. “Life give you wings, all you have to do is fly”. The blog is very spritually based and you can see this for yourself in any of the following Bloggeries: Curtain Call; Celebrate; Group Hug; Amazing Humans; Persistent Resistance; Shaken, Not Deterred; and Are you a Troublemaker?

Navigation here is very straightforward. Posts are left marginalized and there is a right navigation bar. The blog opens up with a beautiful picture of a sunset in the forest and literally wakes you up when you log in. The background follows the colors of this sunset theme with a rusty colored background and dark text surrounded by a black border. Each post contains relevant pictures, and some of them quite pretty I might add. But all are appropriate and add the relevant mood to the posting. In the right navigation bar you will find the About Me page, Recent Comments Menu, and various subscription links as well as Blog Widgets. You will also find the blogroll and a pull-down archive menu known as “Memorable Posts” that organizes the blog nicely. You will also find here a really neat widget for Recent Posts that has a scroll-down menu with pictures and postings attached. I have not seen this on a blog yet and I really liked it. If you like the widget, you can also get it from this blog.

I am giving this blog a 4. I really like how the blog is personalized, even standard blog elements such as recent posts and archives are renamed to match the niche of the blog. I find the writing to be very well done and relevant to the overall theme of the blog. Reading each post really does give you a true sense of the spiritual nature of the blog. There was a spelling mistake in one post that was a word repeated in the post title (though it was spelled correctly there) so I do recommend the blogger keep an eye on that. I also recommend a little more frequent posting, it looks like about 10-15 Bloggeries a month at this point. This blog has a nice following judging by the recent posts menu so I think the blog would benefit from more posting. Otherwise, on all other counts the blog scores very well. This is definitely a unique blog with a unique perspective. If you need a zen moment, grab a cup of joe and sneak away for a few quiet moments with a read from this blog.

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- Chrissie

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Laws of the Universe Blog – Review

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The Religious Study Spirituality Blog – Review

Bloggeries — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 12:06:25 +0000

If you are feeling a little metaphysical or spiritual, you may want to open up the Religious Study Blog. to see if anything there can pique your awareness. Here you are going to find a one-stop center for all religious articles, insights, and views. This site proposes to contain a vast comprehensive collection of articles, and they encourage you to read, understand, and appreciate the various religions in the world. They are not one that seeks to create animosity or debates on difference of opinions but they do want to create a greater understanding of the various religions and consequently promote harmony in the communities people live in. What I liked about this blog as far as content was concerned was that it was not strictly about religion, but about spirituality and metaphysical concepts as well which anyone can relate to regardless of denomination. You can see this in their recent posts that include Types of Psychic Groups; Moving on, Moving Forward, The Q & A to Happiness and Freedom – Who are you?; The Spirit of Hinduism; Overcoming Unhappiness, and Touch Not My Anointed.

The site is easy to navigate with posts left marginalized and a right navigation system split into two bars. The posts are black text on white background with a sun, moon and stars theme in the header. The right navigation bar contains a recent comments menu, categories menu, links menus, and advertising. The categories are very comprehensive and sorted by the different religions in the world in addition to a general category, testimonials, and spirituality category. I did notice there were two general categories listed, so the authors may want to tweak that a little bit. There are currently no pictures on the website, which may be an advantageous feature to add. Reading blogs that are strictly text can get mundane regardless of how well the content is written, so pictures is something they may want to consider. Though there was a recent comments menu, I did not see a recent posts menu or an archive menu so these are also features I would recommend to make the navigation system easier to work with.

It is very difficult to determine the age of the blog or even the relevance of content as date stamps are missing from the posts and there is no archive menu. There are dates listed on the recent comments menu which are as recent in May but it is very difficult to guess how recent the posts following these comments are. I would definitely recommend adding date stamps to this blog. I also find the content to be beautifully written, though the posts can be broken down into pieces. They are currently a little lengthy, and Internet readers do not always take the time to go through long pieces. I think they could be broken up into series and spread over a few days to keep readership interest, and break down content a little bit. I really did need to dig to find older posts so the site definitely needs to work on its navigation issues. On the topic of navigation I think it would benefit the blog and its readers if the author added more posts to the front page. Overall this will get a 3 from me and with a few of these formatting changes the mark would definitely go up. I think this is an excellent blog with good content, but it needs some work logistically in the meantime.

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- Chrissie

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The Masonic Traveler – Blog Review

chrissie — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 14:05:41 +0000

If you ever wondered what went on behind closed doors of a secret society, then you may want to have a look at the “Masonic Traveler’s Blog“. While you may not be given privilege to the secrets of this society, at least you will be given the opportunity to learn more about it. The blogger wishes to bring to you a pursuit of an understanding of “the divine in context of the relativism of man over his nihilistic individuality. We are in this together.” As I don’t quite understand that quote, I am going to guess it has something to do with the Masonry, as the secret societies and Greek organizations are highly ordered and speak very divinely. That being said, not understanding that will not mean you won’t enjoy the blog. If nothing else, you will get an education from reading this blog. You will learn that “free masonry is an order that is fraternal (men only) and is founded on the universal belief in the Divine, illustrated by a certain landmark of tenants and virtues, that teach symbolically a progressive system of discovery that leads ultimately to a personal degree of self-improvement and an inclination towards the betterment of society.”

The journey of the blog is the journey of one man’s Freemasonry experiences, and he stresses that it is not a vehicle of any specific lodge or Grand Lodge. He is interested in the exotic aspects of the work, and hopes to bring his enlightenings to you. You can get a feel for any of these enlightenings through the recent posts What is Freemasonry? That Shrine Guy, Chicken Little, Free Mason Underground of Philadelphia, Impact, Good St. John the Baptist Day, The Role of Grand Lodges, Grail Call, Whole Lot of Meme’ing Going Around, and a Saintly Throngs.

Navigation on the site is fairly straightforward though there are some formatting issues with the right navigation bar which seem to be exclusive to Internet Explorer viewers. Posts are centered and there is both a left and right navigation bar. The left bar contains the “who is” information and information on free masonry. You will also find here the fraternity store, free masonry in the news, and advertising. In the right navigation bar, you won’t find much here, and you have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to get to it. This seems to be an IE issue, and not a format issue with the blog per se. In the right nav bar you will find the about me information, other Masonic blog links, blog widgets, advertising, and a menu with a listing of headlines current in masonry news. I like the headlines menus, there are updates from as little as 2 hours ago. I also like how the AdSense is incorporated into the blog design, it is barely noticeable. I am generally not fond of the white text on black background look, but it seems to suit the mood of this blog so I won’t think twice about it. I did have problems with empty space in the right nav bar however that simply said “text text text” or “more to come”. These spots are better left empty than with text essentially advertising there is no content to put there. I also did not see either a categories menu or a recent posts menu which to me are two critical blog features. These make usability of the blog so much more appealing for readers and I do recommend them to the blogger.

I will go with a 3 for this one, and I think my main suggestions have already been indicated. I think the blog is well written, so content wise it will not lose points here. There are appropriate pictures as well that are relevant to each post, and the theme of the blog is very interesting. The blog is also not losing points on activity, there was an updated post during my review, so that is always good to see active blogging. With just a few format changes, this blog could be a tremendous success. Best of luck!

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