Which blogs do you subscribe to?

*yawn*

Have you ever done this at work? This was taken about 5 years ago at my desk job. Back then, they didn’t have interesting blogs. But now, there are blogs of all kinds! When you are sitting in front of your computer and it’s 2 pm (or right now) and the msg from your sweet and sour chicken is settling in, where do you go on the web for your midday break? From the meetings, the paper work and all the other excitement involved in an 8-5 job, who do you read for your reading pleasure?

Here is a list of all my favorite blogs. Tell me your favorites! I’d like to add them to my list!

Here are my favorites:

life blog (practical tips for efficient life)
http://lifehacker.com/ (probably my favorite blog in this category, but they post multiple times a day
http://lifehacker.com/tag/top/ (top posts of the week from lifehacker.)
http://www.makeuseof.com/ (tips for computer related things)
http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/ (practical tips for productivity. note: has a lot of unchristian advice like yoga, meditation, innerpeace… ignore all that stuff)

christian blogs
http://www.acts29network.org/acts-29-blog/ (church planting network of Mark Driscoll. insightful and blessing!)
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/AskPastorJohn/ (john piper’s audio blog: includes answers to common questions)
http://theresurgence.com/md_blog (mark driscoll’s blog. the coolest looking pastor i know)
http://bradley.chattablogs.com/ (anthony bradley’s blog. he’s a professor at Covenant Seminary and his posts are interesting)

pastoral blogs
http://theologica.blogspot.com/ (justin taylor’s blog. written some books with piper. helpful resources for)
http://insightforliving.typepad.com/insight_for_living_blog/ (Chuck Swindoll’s blog. lots of tips for pastors)
http://blog.pastors.com/ (rick warren’s blog. practical tips on balancing pastoral life. hasn’t updated in a LONG time)
http://theresurgence.com/ (overlaps acts 29 and mark driscoll. good resources for not only pastors, but Christians)
http://unashamedworkman.wordpress.com/ (don’t know who he is,but he has some good posts like how john macarthur sermon preps)

others:
http://wired.com/rss/gadgets/mac.xml (a mac blog)
http://www.nba.com/bulls/rss.xml (chicago bulls blog)

Here are Sharon’s favorites:

food blog
http://smittenkitchen.com/ (great pictures, great recipes, personal writers)

home decorating
http://www.designspongeonline.com/ (inspiring projects, great images)
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/chicago (good design, local expertise)

cute animals
http://cuteoverload.com (just lots of cute animals)
http://ittybittykittycommittee.blogspot.com/ (ADORABLE kittens, stories of a lady who fosters kitties)

green blogs
http://www.re-nest.com/ (great ideas for how to re-use resources for the home)
http://dannyseo.typepad.com/my_weblog/ (danny seo’s expert blog with creative ideas for going green)

mommy blogs
http://www.coolmompicks.com/ (great giveaways! i like their taste)
http://mom4life.typepad.com/mom_4_life/ (she’s christian & her online store is a huge success)

fashion/beauty
http://bellasugar.com/ (more great giveaways, fun make-up tips)
http://fabsugar.com/ (love her taste)
http://www.omiru.com/ (very practical style tips for both men & women)

Tell me about which blogs you read!!!

Lets revive the blog!

Let’s revive the blog! I want to see the blog revived and I know you do too. Other people have been trying to revive the blog on Xanga, but I think it’s a lost cause. The blog has been dying. 10 years ago, back in the days of telnet, it was .plan. We would give shout outs to friends and they would feel special. Hi Sharon. Some would give other friends secret messages. I’m excited for our baby! Also in those days, it was the webpage. http://www.students.uiuc.com/~joelyoon. That one was mine. Remember look alikes? John Chung and the pencil. That was classic. But the the blog came back with Xanga. Some people still use it, but I’ve pretty much given up on it. When Sharon and I announced to the world that we are expecting a baby, I only received 5 comments! 5 measly comments! Since the development of Facebook, no one blogs! I have no idea what people are up to. One of the greatest things about Xanga was that you knew what was going on in other people’s lives… kinda. They wrote about things they cared about. Now all we know about each other is how many acquaintances we have… facebook calls them friends, but we know they are not. If that was the case, I’m friends with Mark Driscoll. I tried to be friends with Michael Phelps, but he had too many friends. It would be good to read about what’s going on in people’s lives. Blogs by people like Dan Chung, Eric Sohn, and Jin Bae, were so enjoyable to read. There are others, but I don’t remember them because…. NO ONE writes! But if there was one person who should revive his blog again, it would have to be Jong Ho. (Jong Ho, I don’t know if you’ll ever get this message, but you should start writing again.) He just knew how to write in a way where even though the entry was 15 paragraphs long, you would still read it to find out what happened at the end. His MIT stories were good. All this to say, the blog has died

So this is an appeal to revive the blog! Let’s revive the blog! 2 reasons why I believe we can revive the blog.

1. General Blogs are at an all time high. Though personal blogs are at an all time low, general blogs are bigger than ever! And I believe, with the development of blog readers such as google reader, reading blogs are also easier than ever
2. I believe people are craving to get back to a more personal internet. I think people miss those personal stories. People want to know what is going on in your life. I think people are tired of looking at pictures on Facebook all day or reading status changes all day. But the relationship status change is interesting… but they often end up being a joke.

So, if you’re interested in reading blogs through Google reader, continue reading….

Why is blogging easier than ever?

For those of you who don’t know, google reader is something google has offered so that you can go to one website and read all your blogs. This isn’t only limited to personal blogs, but there are blogs concerning news, sports, technology, fashion no no’s, life tips, ministry insights and the list goes on. I have 1000+ waiting to be read in mine! (Been a little busy.) If you don’t know about it, you have to check it out. But on top of all this, you can subscribe to friend’s webpages, xangas, wordpresses, eblogs, etc. It’s very simple. Here is how to do it.

How do you use a blog reader?

If you are using firefox:

1. Go to http://www.google.com/reader. If you have a google account, sign in. If you do not, create one.
2. Go to a blog site such as https://joelyoon.wordpress.com. You can go to any other blog you’d like. When you get to the blog, on top, in the URL window or somewhere on the page, there should be an icon with a dot and three curved lines. If you click on this, it should ask you whether you want to have this blog show up in your google reader or your google homepage. I would recommend the google reader because this will be the webpage you go to for your blogging leisure. If this icon is not on the page, that means it may not a blog. You can also manually add the blog web address from google.com/reader.
3. In your google reader, the left side will be all your subscribed blog sites and on the right will be all the your unread blog subscriptions.
4. You’re done! You have officially subscribed to a blog! You’re now ready for blogging fun!

If you are not using firefox, it will be more difficult to use google reader. If you use Safari, it has it’s own built blog reader aka rss feed reader. I choose not to use this because I can access my subscribed blogs on my google reader from any computer. Also, I’m a big google fan.

I have never tried this on windows explorer. If you do have questions, let me know! Let’s revive the blog! Who is with me?

Later on this week, I’ll write about the blogs I subscribe to. I’ll ask Sharon for her blog subscriptions too. Sharon has fun ones for the girls.

Why wordpress?

Sharon recently brought up the idea that I should create a wordpress blog. What were we talking about or how did she end up bringing this up? Umm… yea… I have no idea. Sharon, if you’re reading this, maybe you can fill in the blanks. Most of the things written on here will be concerning my experiences as a seminary student, youth pastor, husband and a father-to-be (can’t wait), and whatever ramblings I feel are worthy of this blog. Feel free to read the ones that interest you.

Right now, I write this entry in the midst of a post class discussion concerning gender roles in church and marriage. What was Paul really saying in 1 Cor 11 & 14? Can a woman prophesy? Can a woman preach? What did Paul mean when he said prophesy? Interesting, right? Well, it is to me! Just to warn you, this is the sort of thing that may come up. I won’t talk about this issue per se, but if I feel it is something you would be interested in, I will try to post it. See you around!