I came across an article that discusses blogging in the Arab world. It is conveniently titled ‘Blogging in the Arab World’ and yet it only discusses the Egyptian blogosphere as if it is the only active, significant, prominent blogging scene in the region. Hello? The Arab world is made up of 21 other countries.

This sort of fallacy seems to be pretty dominant in traditional media reporting on, and paying attention to, Arab blogs. I have noticed that it is almost exclusive to Iraqi, Egyptian, or Lebanese blogs. Understandably, these blogs hail from areas unique in their political situation, but shouldn’t media reporting on the much-baffling and troubled Arab region also recognize blogs from other countries, which after all, make up an integral and vibrant part of the Arab blogosphere?

I believe that by lending attention to blogs from the less ’stable’ areas in the Arab world, media, specifically European and American media, sculpt an idea of a continuously troubled, challenged, chaotic Arab world — very much like what the movies and other media portray. In turn, what this does is further perpetuate negative stereotypes of either Arabs or their lifestyle. There is seldom any portrayal of regular, non-violent, non-chaotic, non-religious life in Arabia.

I wrote about this before when I noted that it is only when there is significant trouble that Jordanian bloggers garner international media attention. I think that is truly sad, because in each and every country in the Arab region there are bloggers who make change with every post, bloggers who have distinct voices rarely heard in mainstream media, bloggers who humanize Arabs and who affect, even if slowly, public opinions in their countries. It is such a waste not to listen to what they say or to cram them all under the category of one country and yet ignorantly stamp that piece ‘Arab blogging.’ It is a shame.

I emailed Reset asking them to change the title of that piece to ‘Blogging in Egypt,’ and I will keep you posted if and when they reply. Never lose your voice.

I spy with my little eye…
…EVERYTHING you do online!

Do you use: Flickr? Facebook? MySpace? Amazon? Buzznet? imeem? iLike? Flixter? Picasa? Windows Live Spaces? Hi5? Pandora? Digg? PictureTrail? Multiply? Twitter? Stumbleupon? Friendster? etc.?

I have just discovered a way to basically spy on everyone you know online. How, O Wise & Paranoid Tololy, you ask me? Just join Spokeo and it will tell you exactly what everyone you know is doing online by tracking their activities across tens of social networking sites.

The site’s name is eerily similar to SPOOKY, and for good reason. I have just joined, because you know how I am like paranoid and so I am attracted to paranoia-related things, and Spokeo has made me ultra paranoid but also more careful. You’ll only find me on Flickr because I am anti-Facebook & Co. for security and privacy reasons, obviously.

Just remember, you are being watched and you don’t even know it. Chew on that when you socialize online and always be careful. Nobody likes to get punked.

I don’t know exactly why crap just keeps on happening to me in all its possible forms, but it does. I emit, attract, and absorb negative energy.

When I woke up this morning, I mistakenly selected a HUGE chunk of the sidebar design and it got deleted and I did not pay attention to it (because I had just opened my eyes), and then I clicked ‘Update’ and BAM! — that chunk was gone. You can’t undo after clicking on ‘Update.’

To fix the mess, I installed WordPress locally. Of course, I had done that on Windows but had no idea how to do it on Ubuntu. So I found this useful page Install Wordpress locally with NanoWeb Server – Ubuntu Gutsy 7.10, and it took me approximately two hours to figure out how exactly to change file permissions or edit files as root. The author basically assumed I knew how to implement commands as root and his layout of the commands was plenty confusing. This page helped me get over my illiteracy, especially the gksudo command at the bottom of it. That command enables you to open and modify files and folders which are exclusive to root while at the same time not jeopardizing your security. I am putting these resources here for the general good of mankind, no actually, I am gambling for some positive karma. Or something.

So, Tololy’s Box is back now. I am sure there are some minor glitches here and there but hopefully I can fix those too.

P.S: Did you notice the new TinyMCE comment editor? I killed that RTF editor which was ultra buggy. Now I have to go back to ALL the comments that have been posted since January and clip out any formatting commands used in them, because if I don’t do that, they will all look very very bad and nobody will want to read them anymore. How fun is that?

Update: How does everyone like the new editor? Is it less of a pain in the arse than the old one?

I kinda messed up the sidebar of my blog just now. I am working on fixing it, so in the meantime, please bear with me as I offend your eyes with WP default theme.

Moral of the story: Never, ever, touch your blog design files when you’re half asleep.

Thanks!

Thanks to Hani, I have now installed a plugin that will let you post comments without having to wait for me to approve them. All you have to do is answer an easy math problem before submitting your comments, et voila! — they will be published as simple as that. Take care not to swear though, because I will get you. Grrrr.

I am excited that I won’t have to delay approving comments anymore, and I think this will help whatever discussions we have going on. If you’re interested, the plugin is called Peter’s Math Anti-Spam for WordPress and you can download it by clicking here. It’s extra kewl because it can also TALK! Wohoo!

Exciting news from Discovery:

Blogging’s Good For Your Health

Blogging can help you feel less isolated, more connected to a community and more satisfied with your friendships, both online and face-to-face, new research has found.

…

“We found potential bloggers were less satisfied with their friendships and they felt less socially integrated, they didn’t feel as much part of a community as the people who weren’t interested in blogging … they were also more likely to use venting or expressing your emotions as a way of coping,” Moore said.

…

All respondents, whether or not they blogged, reported feeling less anxious, depressed and stressed after two months of online social networking.

“So going onto MySpace had lifted the mood of all participants in some way,” Moore says. “Maybe they’d just made more social connections.”

But we already knew that, didn’t we? I know that blogging has helped me express myself in ways that were not always feasible in face-to-face situations. I know that it has pushed me to transfer what’s on my mind into words and points of view that I can support in real-life. I know that it has shaped and reflected some aspects of my character. I also know that it has provided a channel of communication between me and like-minded people, as well as others, which would not have been possible otherwise.

Tololy’s Box is four years old, and there is no telling just when I will close shop. Bottom line: blog on!

I did this quiz in the past and my blog was worth 3,387$, and now:

I’m not impressed. After four years of hard work and spilling my brains out on this page, I made a meager 14,678$. Good thing I kept my day job. But on the bright side of things, my blog’s worth more than quadrupled in a little over two years. Not bad, businesswoman Tololy, just keep the job.

Lately, I have been having a presistent urge to change how I write and/or what I write about. I am a mercurial person; meaning I change a lot, in personality, style, and moods. That’s probably why I love costumes and roleplaying and chameleons.

So in this light, I want to see how far I can go and I want your opinion. I would appreciate it if you could answer these questions, maybe leave a comment on this post or drop me an email:

- What posts are your favorite in Tololy’s Box?
- What topics I write about that you enjoy the most?
- What topics I don’t write about that you would like me to write about?
- Any ideas, suggestions?

You can answer any of these questions or all of them, whatever you have the time and mood for. Thank you!

I am thrilled to unveil the new look of Tololy’s Box. It’s simple, usable, and very “me” right now. I chose a black and white theme and edited it heavily to finally achieve this style. I am very happy with the final outcome and SO very proud of myself for being able to pull this off on my own (although Sk8erboi helped me frequently when I got stuck for days trying to figure something out, thanks Sk8erboi).

This new look is a huge departure from the previous flamboyant RED design which I have outgrown. I did not design the previous look and this is particularly why I am very pleased with myself for launching this one. I spent days upon days editing styles and adding things and fixing errors and checking compatibility with different browsers and consulting WordPress support forums and mixing colors and photoshopping headers and installing WordPress locally and decoding the previously coded footer and whatnot. It was really exhausting for a Modern Languages student to play amateur web developer and do all that on her own.

Now I realize it will take you some time to get used to the new colors and the less-frilly sidebar, but to comfort you I have kept some design elements from the previous look. Things like the wording and some sidebar elements are still here so you don’t feel like complete strangers. Also, the Tololy’s Box “logo” is still here and some red is thrown in so you know you are in the right place. I still have some more tweaking to do but this is the new feel of The Box.

I was supposed to launch the new look on New Year’s Eve but I am too excited to hold back until then so, you have it now. I do hope you will like it after the initial shock, I hope you’ll enjoy the few new things I added and keep on reading Tololy’s Box. Let me know if you have any suggestions, comments, or errors you want to report. Thank you!