Fine Art of Blogging

Those who are interested in Theology Degrees and graduate certificates must have a look at the Iliff School of Theology - a leading theological school related to the United Methodist Church. Core mission of the Colorado Seminary is the education for effective ministry in Christian churches and other religious communities, for academic leadership, and for the cultivation of justice and peace in local and global contexts.

The Iliff School of Theology offers four masters degrees and a joint doctoral degree program with the University of Denver. Traditional classroom and online opportunities provide flexibility for students in accessing the Iliff experience. You can choose traditional classroom or online format that suits you more. Iliff also offers Graduate Certificates in five areas to persons admitted either as degree candidates or special (non-degree) students. Graduate Certificates allow the pursuit of graduate theological study without commitment to a full degree program. Each certificate requires satisfactory completion of four courses (12-16 quarter credits) as outlined in the curriculum for that particular program. Since the certificate is not a degree, the credits may be applied to one of Iliff’s degree programs, if the student is accepted into the degree program. Graduate Certificates also provide degree students an opportunity to study in areas outside of their concentration or to demonstrate advanced competency. Students may also complete a Graduate Certificate through our online learning program.

Iliff affirms its United Methodist identity and its liberal Christian heritage, grounded in scriptures and traditions, critical thinking, and openness to emerging truths, including those derived from science, experience, and other faith traditions. In a world fragmented by religious and ideological conflicts, Iliff promotes theological scholarship and dialogue to foster transformative possibilities for humanity and nature.

Visit Iliff.edu and learn about what they are offering and how. Better still ask for more information if you need to.

Bill C

between two and four billion people visit every day

In the beginning Jam created the website and the blog. And the blog was formless and void, and geekness was over the source code of the template; and the thoughts of Jam were moving over the surface of the keyboard.

A hundred thousand people have paraphrased Mr. Descartes and said, “I blog therefore I am.” Thousands more have written “In the beginning was the blog,” borrowing from the gospel of John. My opening sentence is passably original, and nearly unique: I found only one English-language blog post using “the blog was formless and void.”

Sometimes that’s how I blog; keep your brain handy, you’re probably going to need it. My posts include frequent attempts at humor, strange bits from the world’s seemingly endless supply of weirdness, fun with toy monkeys, creepy clowns, and inanimate objects, reader participation contests, spammer mocking, odes to other bloggers and occasional family vignettes.

My blog might seem hard to categorize, yet every day I read a dozen others at once completely different and “just like mine.” Other blogs – more to the point, other bloggers – are one of the main reasons why I blog. When I started writing and publishing blog posts a couple years ago, I knew there were millions of people calling themselves bloggers, but I really had no idea what that meant. Now I do: bloggers are people, and for me that’s what blogging is about: people. Relationships! Communication! Interaction on a global scale! But mostly I see blogging as an ongoing series of conversations and virtual visits with an amazing and diverse group of unmet friends.

Sometimes the conversations are light and fun, like small talk; other times they’re serious, significant. And sometimes… the “virtual” aspect gives way to real-life interaction. I’ll share a couple examples from my experience.

First – significant conversations. Not long after I started blogging, I wrote a “current events” type post about certain tensions in the Middle East. A reader’s comment made me realize the post contained what I later called “an unintended stridency, unfounded opinion and a fairly strong bias.” I pulled it back, changed some things and published what I thought was a better post (I still think so).

That post didn’t take the world of blogging by storm; to be honest I don’t expect anything I write will ever be read by more than a few dozen people, and that’s fine by me. While the post didn’t change the world, it did serve as a starting point for a friendship between the reluctantly defensive commenter and me. If I hadn’t blogged that ill-conceived post, or if my friend hadn’t stepped outside her usual commenting comfort zone, we’d still be two strangers spinning in completely separate, non-intersecting circles.

Let me explain something here. I’m married, have been for decades. My wife and I are best friends, first and foremost. People I interact with online – these aren’t “secret” friends. There’s nothing in any email, comment or post I’ve written or received that I can’t show my wife, can’t share with her. Although I’m sure she’d agree most of it would bore her into a coma. Just saying, that’s all.

I’m no Superman husband, but I keep myself aware of how easily any patch of seemingly firm footing can turn into a slippery slope. With this in mind, good and safe online friendships are not only possible but likely to prosper. And so things have unfolded with my once defensive friend; we’ve shared good news and frustrations, travel pictures and big ideas, and a few nerdy blog template tips (those came from me of course). We even talked on the phone, once. Wonders never cease, eh? One day soon we might even meet face to face; we hope so, anyway.

Did I mention I live in the southeast US, and my friend hails from Pakistan? Yeah. It’s like we’re making the world a smaller place, one post at a time.

Warning! Blogging can be habit-forming, and can cause unexpected real-life side effects. Aside: that’s my version of a smooth segue into my second example. In case you were, you know. Wondering. But I digress. I live a fairly simple life in a small US town; we have a modest number of friends, some of which we call close. Aside from blogging there’s pretty much no way I’d get to know people living in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. I might be an extrovert compared to other software-writing nerds, but I’m not outgoing by anyone’s measure. Yet something happens to me in blog space: I seem to open up. I have no trouble leaving comments on my first and later visits to weblogs, and receiving comments on my own posts… well. It still amazes and humbles me when people spend the most valuable commodity in human existence – their time – reading and responding to something I’ve written.

Speaking of writing… earlier this year I mailed a blank journal to a blog friend, who wrote some stuff down on a couple pages and mailed it to another blog friend, who filled a couple more pages and mailed it to someone else. Over forty people are taking part in this ongoing “traveling journal” project. What’s our connection? Just those weblogs we write, and visit, and enjoy. The journal will visit a dozen or so states in the US, several Canadian provinces, the UK, Malaysia and Australia. When the last page is filled and the journal is scanned, digitized and uploaded, I’ll randomly pick a participant’s name; that person will get to keep the one-of-a-kind, world traveling journal.

That’s how blogging meets real life, in my experience. And even though I’m still reluctant to call myself a “blogger,” I guess that’s what I am. The plural form – bloggers – applies to the various people I’ve met online over the last couple years; thing is, I don’t often think of these people as bloggers.

They’re just my unmet friends. You’d like them, I am sure.

I am big Pashmina fan. Even the name (that comes from pashm in Persian) sound musical to me and I love that gauzy weave. Just touching soft and warm Pashmina tells you what it is! Pashmina products are all time trendy and stylish. People of class from all over the world use these products - shawl, scarf and many more.


Given my interest, one of the best places I have found to shop for Pashmina is Spencer's Pashmina. Neatly laid out and user’s friendly site has a great collection of Pashmina products. Explore and find what they are offering and how. They have something for everyone. Imagery of the products is good and it gives a feeler of how one will look wrapped in one of those shawls.

What is more, their custom dye option makes them stand out from the rest. Ask for color you want and Spencer's Pashmina will deliver exactly the same.

Some of their shawls are already on my wish list.

Claire Carroll is The Domestic Minx

A good cook is the peculiar gift of the gods. She must be a perfect creature from the brain to the palate, from the palate to the finger's end." Walter Savage Landor

Step into my parlour, dear reader, and allow me to offer you something tasty and delectable, something I have prepared for you myself. Oh, I do hope you find it delicious, for I cook from the heart, my menu instinctive, intuitive, filled with secret ingredients and my own special sauce. There is no set recipe here, for it is the very essence of me that I prepare for your pleasure. And, like all seasoned cooks, I do so like to make it up as I go along, my sifting and splashing, stirring and melding all a delicious alchemy, a wonderful misch masch of creative cuisine. Yes, writing is my primal pleasure and as necessary to me as food to a hungry man.

I love to write, to create, to express in the way that I might create a dish delicious. While this nourishes and satisfies my soul, it is my deepest desire to have my offerings tasted and enjoyed, nurturing others in the most delectable way. There is nothing more delightful than evoking the licking of lips, the closing of eyes, the murmured blessings of brava brava, bellissima from a satisfied customer.

Of this I am certain. For this deep dark pleasure is the reason I write. My bon appetit. My joie de vivre. My raison d'etre.

I want to be tasted and I want to be enjoyed. I want to elicit delight on the deep and primal level that a bowl of mousse au chocolat might. It is my pleasure to fill each plate with rapture, surprise, sugar, spice, warmth and wonder. And most of all, I want the plate licked clean. With cries for "More!"

I think this is why keeping my blog is such a delicious pastime. Not only can my creations be so much more bounteous, there is the promise of delightful immediacy, interaction and involvement with those that wish to taste my offerings. I can be le plat du jour!

And I do so love it when there are compliments to the chef!!

For my heart and soul are in each dish, dear reader, each ingredient drawn from my imagination, my experience, my dreams and desires. Oh and there is plenty on the menu for those that are hungry. There is a veritable smorgasbord.

I only hope, in it's ripe and saucy richness, that it does not leave you with indigestion!

Bon Appetit!!

How is simple - taking time to sit and write. Blogging is a little bit like painting and drawing to me. Its a creative outlet. Time must be carved out. And we all have 24 hours and I break mine down in chunks - but have never blogged about it. Pretty boring stuff explaining how hours are spent :) Writing a post is comparable to sitting in a studio and staring at a blank canvas. Or watching a baseball game, grass grow or paint dry. Its an investment. There are days when I seemingly think of things to blog about during most waking moments. Unfortunately - or maybe fortunately - many of the ideas I imagine drift away sooner than I can put them into concrete terms.

Gayla McCord

The difference I hope to make through blogging is by branding my name as one that can be trusted -- one that is known as a friendly, honest and most of all approachable name for anyone who would like to explore earning potential online.

Living in Indiana where the auto industry was hit hard with layoffs, I felt it was my calling to help people in my general area find alternatives to uprooting their families and moving out of state. I think blogging is a great way to communicate and to create friendships. It’s providing a means for people to get news and opinions that aren’t just coming from mass media anymore.

I blog from the heart and I blog on what I feel people are searching for. I’ve always felt that if I can’t educate my readers I should at least be able to entertain them. I began working online several years ago and my online presence has just sort of naturally progressed to where it is today.

A blog can be many things – from a resource for family and friends to stay close, to a type of therapeutic effort to means to make a living. It all depends on what the persons goal is when writing. I’d say I let my topics pick me. I have a few websites and news resources that I check out, but most times I develop content from questions I see going unanswered on the web. I think blog templates should be clean and uncluttered. Too much noise makes it difficult to focus on the real message. I don’t use any other means of promotion outside of comments and social networking options like StumbleUpon.

Blogging matters because now everyone can have a voice and it’s not only the college educated or the big name publishers who say whose opinions and stories are important.

Before MomGadget, my primary focus was on patient advocacy. My personal story was published in Marie Claire and Fitness Magazine as well as my name, answers and opinions are featured in the new book by Dr. Ruth Westheimer.

Most recently, my online efforts have provided enough financial security that I was able to tell my husband it’s time he start pursuing his own dream. He was able to quit his job and start doing what he wants to do for a change.

Over the last several months I’ve averaged $3,000; however, last month I broke a personal goal of $5,000. I’ve recently set a new goal and plan to be making $10,000 per month by September.

Auntie Hattie

Zenni is my favorite high fashion eyeglasses where I can buy good quality and fashionable eyeglasses for a reasonable price starting as low as low as $8 Prescription Zenni Glasses. Explore the site and see what they are offering and how. Also see their new arrivals and have a look at Holiday Fun Eyeglasses. They are the best for any taste.