It's Three Weeks for Dreamwidth Time!
Apr. 26th, 2010 11:17 amI originally started this blog on LiveJournal, because I'm a long-time user; I used it, first, as a way to be publicly accountable for to-do lists in the early days of my dissertation, and had my friends there as a cheering section. When I decided to start writing public entries about Arab-American politics, I used the same username, but a change in my fieldwork structure and schedule threw me off my posting game, and I took a long hiatus.
When I came back, I had started seeing more and more of the problems with the way LiveJournal treated its userbase; in particular, I was frustrated that there would be advertising on my blog, which I didn't put there and didn't have the right to vet. I thought about buying an account, but, well, my family's finances are tight, and there are tons of free blogging platforms out there; might as well decamp for elsewhere.
I knew about DreamWidth because I'm a part of online media fandom, and I witnessed lots of folks I know starting to use DW instead of/in addition to LiveJournal. I really appreciated the values of the organization and the work they were doing to defend free speech and be open and aboveboard with members, and their commitment that the site would always be advertising-free.
In the end, it was easy: I used an invite code I'd gotten back during Open Beta for validating my OpenID, and used it to bring
ajnabieh over here. I continued crossposting to LiveJournal, for any of my friends who were still over there. But, realistically, they're not reading. And so, as of today,
ajnabieh is closing for business, and
ajnabieh is going to be my primary blog.
During Three Weeks for Dreamwidth, I'm going to try to post more often than usual, perhaps even every day, if the end of the semester doesn't exhaust me too much. I have a few ideas for posts, but I'd love to hear requests from the audience. Do you have questions about Middle Eastern or Arab-American politics that you'd like to see answered? Do you want me to rant about political theory, the politics of the academy, my vague acafannish leanings, or some other obscure topic? In the spirit of that meme going around, what do you want me to write? No promises, but I'm definitely up for a challenge.
And to round this up, two map-things, seen at
viklikesfic.

visited 10 states (4.44%)
Create your own visited map of The World
This one looks pretty bad, at least in part because the two Middle Eastern countries I've been to (Israel and Palestine) are teeny-tiny. Also, this makes my passport itchy.

visited 25 states (50%)
Create your own visited map of The United States
This includes places I have had airplane transfers, or driven through and stopped to see something, but not that I've gone through on a train; that would add in the Carolinas.
When I came back, I had started seeing more and more of the problems with the way LiveJournal treated its userbase; in particular, I was frustrated that there would be advertising on my blog, which I didn't put there and didn't have the right to vet. I thought about buying an account, but, well, my family's finances are tight, and there are tons of free blogging platforms out there; might as well decamp for elsewhere.
I knew about DreamWidth because I'm a part of online media fandom, and I witnessed lots of folks I know starting to use DW instead of/in addition to LiveJournal. I really appreciated the values of the organization and the work they were doing to defend free speech and be open and aboveboard with members, and their commitment that the site would always be advertising-free.
In the end, it was easy: I used an invite code I'd gotten back during Open Beta for validating my OpenID, and used it to bring
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
During Three Weeks for Dreamwidth, I'm going to try to post more often than usual, perhaps even every day, if the end of the semester doesn't exhaust me too much. I have a few ideas for posts, but I'd love to hear requests from the audience. Do you have questions about Middle Eastern or Arab-American politics that you'd like to see answered? Do you want me to rant about political theory, the politics of the academy, my vague acafannish leanings, or some other obscure topic? In the spirit of that meme going around, what do you want me to write? No promises, but I'm definitely up for a challenge.
And to round this up, two map-things, seen at
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
visited 10 states (4.44%)
Create your own visited map of The World
This one looks pretty bad, at least in part because the two Middle Eastern countries I've been to (Israel and Palestine) are teeny-tiny. Also, this makes my passport itchy.
visited 25 states (50%)
Create your own visited map of The United States
This includes places I have had airplane transfers, or driven through and stopped to see something, but not that I've gone through on a train; that would add in the Carolinas.