Category: Uncategorized

To be honest, I am not a fan of religious blogs at all. In fact, I am not a fan of religious people who go about preaching and thinking they are above me just because they do something different on Sunday. I really do not like it when people tell me things like “I know I am going to heaven so I don’t have to worry any more” and “My God is better than your God.” With that said, I figured this blog was going to be something along those lines, even with the title.

Thankfully I was wrong. This blog isn’t about someone preaching their ways to get you to convert, it is as the title says, A Christian who is gay and is confused. The most recent post at the time of this review (entitled Love the sinner, hate the sin) probably sums this blog up the best. The post goes on to explain how some Christians will “Love the sinner, but hate the sin”. It is ok for a Christian to forgive sins such as watching porn, swearing, and others, but if you are gay, that is unforgivable. And thus they came up with “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” The author makes an excellent point in this post when she says:
..so many Christians see being gay as sin… so when they say “I love you, I just hate the sin”, what they end up saying is “I love you; I just hate this massive part of your identity.”

The rest of the posts are of similar nature. They deal with her conflicts of being both a Christian and being gay. This makes for a very interesting look at Christianity. I actually enjoyed this look on it because it actually points out the loopholes with Christianity. Rather than trying to make us, the reader, into Christians, it is simply a place for her to sort through the issues that she is faced with.

The design of this site is a simple blogger template. While its not the greatest it does serve its purpose with this blog. I would like to see this blog expand its content as it is just a blog with nothing else. Sure it is hard to expand, but maybe something like a scripture a week with her take on it and how it affects her.

The site is a newer site with only 22 total posts ranging from August till September. There is room to grow, but then there is also room to get stale. There are no extras on this site as I mentioned and hope that she branches out a little bit. Even for such a young blog, I still was captivated by the content. I give it a 4.25 because it isn’t perfect, but it is definitely worth checking out.
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I noticed that Mark was a writer from the beginning by simply checking out his about me area. Then it hit me… I am going to be writing a review for a writer… I immediately did not feel like I was qualified to do this. Being the computer geek that I am, my written ways are not always best. Please forgive me if I botch this, but keep in mind our differences.

The site was pleasing to the eye and was not your typical blogger site. It is a book. A non-traditional book, he calls it a blook. It is a tale of his past being recapped in today’s society. He has visited many of the places in recent years that he had many years ago and tells about the recap. All from the onsite of Bertha (Bertha is the bus that took them for their trip).

This weblog takes you through a period of his life in the ‘70s. him and his friends traveled for a destination. They might not have known exactly where they were going, or why they were going there, but it is the trip that made it worthwhile. He takes you through the exciting times and the ugly times… He also throws in a couple of technical updates, which update the reader on something he left out or forgot about.

The “Blook” is very intriguing and pulls you into to reading through the posts in chronological order as he has them laid out down the right hand side of the blog. You begin reading and it appears that you are reading about a flashback… Then you get a few more posts in and realize what you are reading.

The design is simple and elegant, and fits the tone of the blook.

I would conclude by simply stating that Mark is a writer and is very good at what he does. This blog is simply a narrative of his travels in his younger days recapped through older eyes. I enjoyed the site and feel that everyone should take a stroll over and read awhile. He has some very loyal readers who check back frequently to read the latest chapter of his blook. They leave their comments and beg for more. I rate this blog as a 4.25.
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“Part geek, part chic”, the caption says. Okay. It’s clearly a woman’s blog. I expected to find a lot of geek talk, but nah. There is just enough. As for the chic part, I don’t know.

As I read through, I have the impression that I have already read this blog. There’s something about the topics and the style. And yes!, I figured it out. This is Chandra –and you’ll find a very net profile of hers- and she used to post in another blog, Chandra’s Realm. Okay, it wasn’t that difficult to find that out, but I’m feeling like some kind of female Sherlock from the tropics (oh, yeah, so lame). It was good to see that I was familiar with the style. It would be a bad thing, I guess, if she had changed styles completely.

She writes about geek stuff, yes, but it’s not what is really important. She writes about… her life. The file of a married woman in her mid-twenties, who is really passionate about animals – especially cats. In her latest entries, you’ll find out about her yet to happen trip to New Orleans, where she will help rescuing pets that have been left behind. Oh, well, if that isn’t cool, I don’t know what is. She talks about politics, about being a vegan, about volunteer work. Posts are organized in categories. Finding an archive was impossible, but you can search inside her blog (if you know what you’re looking for, which would really help). I read all 4 pages available (her homepage is oddly presented that way) and couldn’t stop reading.

Design-wise, the blog is very simple but yet pretty. There are way too many banners on the side columns, though. She is into so many things, it’s hard to find your way around. All links work fine. And you can communicate with her by posting comments.

All things considered, I liked this blog. It’s not about anything in particular, it’s just about Chandra’s life, an ordinary person who writes in a very simple, personal and catchy way. I’ll give it a 4.
Chandra’s Realm

The first thing I noticed when I clicked on the URL for this site was that there’s a Google search button covering part of the title of the most recent entry. It’s also a Blogger blog with one of the default templates… There are so many of these it seems. At least it isn’t Xanga or LiveJournal. (No offense if you have a Xanga or a LiveJournal, but please do us all a favor and get something else.)

The next thing I notice is the fact that the author is very opinionated. As far as blogs go, this is a good thing… there’s nothing more boring than reading a bunch of indifferent blogs that all seem to just post links rather than any sort of substance. I’ve got to give credit, even though I don’t agree with many of the opinions. There’s a lot of cussing which may get some people a little uptight but overall the entries are worth reading (so long as you aren’t easily offended by foul language).

Let’s move onto the template. I have several times stated my dislike of Blogger templates, but this one actually took me a second to realize it was a standard. This is good… I don’t like it when I dislike the blog solely based on the template. However, a standard template it still is, with lots of links to check out. The links are good, it shows that the blogger at least changed that part of the template (because it’s also annoying to see the Edit-Me links in the sidebar… that’s a dead giveaway that the person hasn’t taken any time with their template!).

There are actually extras on this blog… not too many, but some. There’s Google ads, which I suppose they’re trying to make money with, but they aren’t exactly well taken. There are also ads for Amazon.com… two instances of ads on the same page? From different companies? That doesn’t really win any points. Other plugins include “___ of the Day” type things, some of which appear below the blog entries, off to the side, which struck me as a little odd. However, the animal of the day is very cute.

This really isn’t a bad blog, in fact if you get past the cussing and the ads it’s pretty good. There are a few too many plugins for my taste and the language is a little harsh for me, but other than that I wouldn’t mind recommending this site to some people I know. Some people won’t like it, but I think even more people would agree with me that it deserves a 4 out of 5.NULL

If by now you don’t know, the first thing I do when I go to review a site is think of how the blog will be based on the name. A name of American Drifter to me says that there is someone (male or female, though probably male) who is off traveling the world for whatever reason and now we get the chance to see what its like. I was kind of right, but mostly wrong.

I am a creature of habit and I always take a quick glance at an entire page before reading anything just to get a feel for what is there. This site is a two column layout with all the important non-blog-post stuff on the right. As I went down the column I found out more about the author, his links, and of course his archives which were interesting. Then I noticed something I rarely see on a blog a lot of advertisements other than Google. There are thirteen of them to be exact if you just count the spots and not the ads (Google and eBay have multiple listings). This threw me for a loop.

So with this quandary, I decided to start reading. The author immediately tells us that he isn’t a really a drifter, but he travels around the world for his job. In this year alone he has been in two different states and two different countries; all because of his job. We then quickly learn that his job is at a construction and engineering firm who helps pharmaceutical companies bring new drugs to the market. Of course this isn’t in his blog, this is all in his sidebar.

The blog itself has posts about different aspects of his life. Some are related to his job (about coming home) or the friendships he makes at each location. Other posts are more about him. An interesting post in July of 05 really came out to me. His site was reviewed and they said his site was “Dribble”. This site is hardly anything close to dribble.

It was in this post that I learned the true meaning of all the advertising. He makes a boat load of money off of it. He apparently has good rankings with certain keywords in Google for stuff that you can only find on eBay. And thus he found that eBay has an affiliate program and bam, affiliate programs galore on his site. Since they don’t really take away from the blog itself, and that he is making good money off of them, who am I to say they shouldn’t be there?

One thing that really disappointed me was the infrequency of posting. His archives go July 04, Sept 04, March 05 and then to the present (each month has posts from then on). The author writes well, and writes long posts. This isn’t a “I need something to read in the next minute while I finish my break” type of site. It is in fact a “I need something to read during my entire break” type of site. This site is good and has some gems to it. Take the time and sit down with this blog because I am sure you will find it worth your time.
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