Posting on this blog was light in the past few days because things were hectic around here. The Asian Cup, the wedding, and other stuff. I’m leaving later today to Riyadh, and should be back tomorrow to attend another wedding and a birthday party after that. Regular posting should continue shortly. Meanwhile, here is some pictures that I have taken in the past week. Enjoy.
For a very long time, many friends and fellow bloggers have been asking me to move to WordPress and leave Blogger behind. I finally did. Truth be told, I wasn’t planning to move. I was comfortable with Blogger that I even moved my blog from their blog*spot domain to my own. What I hated about Blogger is the weak support. If you have a problem with your blog there was no way in hell you could contact anyone working on the tool that introduced blogging to the masses. But other than that, I liked the service.
Early in June, while I was getting ready for final exams, I was going through one the very well-known symptoms of finalitis: you get creative in stuff that have nothing to do with your studies. For some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to try Google Apps in order to get a customized email address (as in xxx @ saudijeans.org). I mean: why not? It’s free, it seems easy-to-use, and it’s Google . It was only a matter of a few minutes and viola! my new email address was working. I go to check on my blog, but I can’t find it. All I had was a custom 404 Error page. I panicked. I calmed down. I tried to fix it, but couldn’t. I contacted the Google guys but received no answer. I decided to move my blog. If they don’t care enough to fix something that they messed up, then maybe I’m better off without them (blogging-wise, of course, because I almost like every other Google service).
I moved the blog from Blogger to WordPress. However, I’m not using WP.org that many people are using. I’m using a paid version of WP.com. I pay $25 per year to use domain mapping and edit CSS. I know I would have more control over the blog if I used WP.org, but I really didn’t want to bother with hosting and all that stuff, and with that price tag it seemed like a very good deal to me. Moreover, WP.com is optimized to work seamlessly with Google Apps, so I get to have best of both worlds.
Oh and yeah, I’m back!
I know, I know: I’m not supposed to get back now, but today is my birthday and I wanted to share it here with you. The picture below was taken by my friend Mahmood at the wedding of Haifaa al-Mansour in Dhahran last week. It was a great wedding party, btw, and I’d like to congratulate my friends Haifaa and Brad and wish them a lifetime of never-ending joy and happiness.
As for my birthday, there will be no party: Just me and my beer coke, working on some unfinished projects and getting ready for the tough finals. I won’t lie to you: I have actually written a few posts during the past two weeks, but they are pending and will be published later in June. Till then, have fun and wish me luck :-)
Today marks the third anniversary of Saudi Jeans. Three years is probably not such a very long time of blogging. Dave Winer has been doing it for the past 10 years; Jason Kottke for 9. But for someone who has started blogging as a “fun experiment” I honestly did not expect myself to keep on doing that for this long. Surprisingly, I still enjoy writing on this blog and I truly believe this is the main reason why I keep on maintaining it. Of course, it is not always fun and games in Saudi blogland, and the blogosphere can be a tough, horrible place sometimes, but overall I can say that I’m somewhat satisfied with the experience so far.
Similar to last year, as my finals approach, I will be taking a break from the blog to focus more on my studies. I should be back in 3-4 weeks. I believe some more bloggers might also take similar breaks, though unannounced, so you can expect the local blogosphere to be queit for a while. Until then, you can dig in the archives at the end of this page to follow the evolution of Saudi Jeans over the years. I want to thank you all my dear readers, and I want also to thank anyone who helped me with my endeavors on the web.
If everything goes as planned, I should be on TV tonight sometime around 9:30 (6:30 PM GMT). Naif Abu-Saida has invited me to talk about blogging in the IT segment of the daily magazine show Min Al-Riyadh (From Riyadh) on Al-Yaum channel, a part of Orbit network. Since many people, myself included, don’t have a subscription to Orbit in their houses, it would be nice if someone (wink wink!) who has could recored the interview and upload it to YouTube.
I’m definitely not the first blogger to appear on the show: Herbaz and Milyani have done it before, and Naif himself is a fellow blogger, though his blog is strictly poetic. I’m nervous about this, but I guess it is understandable that live TV can be intimidating. Wish me luck.
UPDATE: Just left Orbit studios. I don’t know about the interview, I think I have had a hard time trying to put my ideas in sequence, but hey, it’s my first time. If you have watched it, please let me know what you think.
The local blogosphere is abuzz with the news of blocking Mohammed Milyani‘s blog by the much dreaded ISU. Herbaz says this looks like a mistake so maybe we should wait a little bit while this thing unfolds. Don’t worry Mohammed. We are with you, and we will work it out.
Mrs. Lobat Asadi who teaches English at Al-Yamamah College in Riyadh has sent me a link to her project website that is used as a part of the course she is giving there. I know this practice might be common elsewhere, but I think this is interesting because I’ve never come across anything like this happening here in Saudi Arabia. Mrs. Asadi also provides links (check out the left sidebar) to blogs by her students. She thinks many people will enjoy reading the thoughts of these young Saudi women, and that “they are much more intelligent than people give them credit for.” I agree with her that many people underestimate the capabilities of our women, and I’m glad that blogs are offering opportunities to change the conventional thoughts.
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