Foolish Cross » blogging

Foolish Cross is on Tumblr

Adam Stahr — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:45:00 +0000

Problem: There are many small thoughts and ideas that come to my mind on a regular basis that I would love to share on this blog. For example, I run across at least one article, video, or blog post that I would like to share daily. I hesitate to create a new post on foolishcross for each individual thought, link, picture, or quote I desire to share, however. This would lead to a difficult-to-read and cluttered blog. Some might argue that this would be a very accurate representation of who I am. Nevertheless, I would like to keep things relatively clean and organized around here.

Solution: Tumblr. Tumblr is a lightweight micro-blogging platform that allows me to share text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos quickly and easily.

Problem solved.

Visit the foolishcross tumblelog at tumblr.foolishcross.com. Feel free to subscribe, comment, and interact.

Enjoy my clutter!

Blogs That Bear Fruit – Part 1

Adam Stahr — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:02:00 +0000

Which list of words best describes the Christian blogs you read? Which best describes this blog?

List 1

Enmity

Strife

Jealousy

Fits of anger

Rivalries

Dissensions

Divisions

Envy

List 2

Love

Joy

Peace

Patience

Kindness

Goodness

Faithfulness

Gentleness

Self-control

Resource: Top 60 Church Blogs

Adam Stahr — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:26:00 +0000

Kent Shaffer of Church Relevance has released a list of the world’s Top 60 Church Blogs. These blogs cover a number of topics from ministry to theology. At the top of the list you will find:

Check out the entire list here.

Wordle – Fun Tool for Word Frequency Visualization

Adam Stahr — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:00:00 +0000

Repetition and word frequency are important factors to take into consideration when engaging in Bible Study. For example, Paul’s frequent use of the words “joy” and “rejoice” in his letter to the Philippians should not be overlooked or dismissed by the reader. Something important is being communicated. Let me say again, one should pay close attention to repetition and word frequency when studying the Bible. When studying the Bible, let us all consider repetition and word frequency.

Okay, I’m sure you get my, cleverly-stated, point.

Back in the good ol’ days, Bible Thumpers were reduced to counting each word that occurred in a passage by hand. One “joy,” two “joys,” and so on. Of course, today we have handy computer programs and online tools to do the counting for us. One such tool is Wordle. Simply provide text and you are given a word cloud visualization of that text. The Wordle web site explains that it is “a toy for generating ‘word clouds’ from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.”

Of course, Wordle certainly isn’t useful for Bible study and teaching purposes only. In addition to being able to copy-and-paste in text, you may also provide the URL for any blog, feed or web page that has an Atom or RSS feed. This makes Wordle a useful tool for bloggers as well. Create a word cloud for your own blog or use Wordle to compare and contrast the words and themes that occur in multiple blogs or web sites.

Below are three Wordle word clouds I made for Genesis 1, 2, and 3 (click each for a larger image). You may have also noticed that the word cloud above was made for this blog post.

Genesis 1

Genesis 2

Genesis 3

Do you use Wordle? How else do you make use of this tool? Chime in and comment!

foolish links – Tips & Resources for Bloggers

Adam Stahr — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 23:52:00 +0000

ProBlogger: How to Improve Your Blog When You Don’t Have Computer Access

37Signals: Why the Drudge Report is one of the best designed sites on the web

Conversation Agent: Why Start a Blog and 25 Tips to Make it Work

Blogging Toolbox: 120+ Resources for Bloggers