UPDATE ‘08: So apparently somewhere along the line the comments database for this site became corrupted. All comments have been lost. Odd, considering I was not updating the site. I suspect the problem is be related to the constant bombardment of spam comments and the thousands of comments I had ‘awaiting moderation’. Well, looks like the detained comments grew impatient and broke free and the moderating job has been done for me! It pays to back up kids.

—————-

Last weekend saw the TOD’s first birthday and, celebrations aside, I figured this was a good time to reflect on the future of this project, ie. whether I will continue working on it and if so in what format.

The basic problem I am facing is that I just don’t have the time to put as much effort into this site that I’d like to. I spend a good 20 hours a week doing research/reading/etc, and it would take at least as long to post everything I’d like to post. That pretty much adds up to a full time job and unfortunately I already have one of those. Currently I only end up posting perhaps a quarter of what I attempt to line up for posting in one form or another, which is an endless source of frustration. We’re also entering a particularly busy time at work. Something’s got to give.

So, I am going to put this project, at least in its current form, on the back burner for now. What I would like to continue doing is post occasional longer essays/posts, without trying to keep up my regular posting schedule (which is currently about 10 posts over 4 days a week, if you’re curious). Then perhaps when things clear up (or more likely when I get sucked into a shit fight I just can’t stay out of) I’ll be back.

This hasn’t been an easy decision because I have really enjoyed blogging and things have been steadily picking up around here. But its getting to a point where other areas of my life are suffering… which is kind of lame really. This blogging business is addictive!

So goodbye for now, but not really. I’ll now have more time to drop by other people’s blogs and rant and fisk and jibe on in the comments and perhaps even write some occasional longer posts of quality, rather than churn out surf-by quotathons and dive into self-indulgent fiski-cuffs.

Today is the last day of voting in the Blogpower Awards, folks, so get in there and get voting. Links directly to the 20 categories below.

Voting will end on Wednesday, June 13th, at 19:00, London time.

1 Best Britblog or Column

2 Best North American Blog or Column

3 Best Blog or Column outside North America and the U.K.

4 Best Fisker

5 Best Ranter

6 Best Political Blog or Column

7 Best Blogpower Blog or Column

8 Best Layout and Style

9 Best Blog Name

10 Best Little Blogger [i.e. under 100 uniques a day]

11 Most Articulate Wordsmith

12 Most Under-rated Blog or Column

13 Most Over-rated Blog or Column

14 Most Politically Incorrect Blog or Column

15 Most Sadly Missed Blog or Column

16 Most Consistently Entertaining Blog or Column

17 Prettiest or Tastiest Blog or Column [refers to food or domestic bloggers]

18 Award for Services to Blogging

19 Best Post of All Time

20 Most Unintentionally Humorous post

I have submitted my post, “Female Genital Mutilation: An Islamic Practice” to the Watcher’s Council. Unfortunately I quite possibly missed this week’s deadline.

As you may or may not already be aware, members of the Watcher’s Council hold a vote every week on what they consider to be the most link-worthy pieces of writing around… per the Watcher’s instructions, I am submitting one of my own posts for consideration in the upcoming nominations process.
Here is the most recent winning council post, here is the most recent winning non-council post, here is the list of results for the latest vote, and here is the initial posting of all the nominees that were voted on.

The Blogpower team, of which I recently became a member, is running the first ever Blogpower Awards and nominations are closing soon (very soon – Tuesday 5th of June 21:00, London time… yes, I should have posted about this earlier).

Things are getting a little complicated, but you can read all about how the nominations work here. Basically in the various categories the blogs that get more than the required number of nominations will go through to the voting phase. So multiple nominations is what we’re looking for!

Below is the list of categories, of which there are 20. To nominate anyone (or even yourself), email the name of the category as it appears below, and include the name of the blog you’d like to nominate and its URL, to jameshigham-AT-mail.com (don’t forget that URL now!).

You can nominate as many blogs as you like in as many or few categories as you like. Here are the categories:

Nominations close Tuesday evening, June 5th, at 21:00

Please copy and paste category from here, then include name of blog as you’d like to see it appear [short] plus url [not in brackets].

1 Best Britblog or Column

2 Best North American Blog or Column

3 Best Blog or Column outside North America and the U.K.

4 Best Fisker

5 Best Ranter

6 Best Political Blog or Column

7 Best Blogpower Blog or Column

8 Best Layout and Style

9 Best Blog Name

10 Best Little Blogger [i.e. under 100 uniques a day]

11 Most Articulate Wordsmith

12 Most Under-rated Blog or Column

13 Most Over-rated Blog or Column

14 Most Politically Incorrect Blog or Column

15 Most Sadly Missed Blog or Column

16 Most Consistently Entertaining Blog or Column

17 Prettiest or Tastiest Blog or Column [refers to food or domestic bloggers]

18 Award for Services to Blogging

19 Best Post of All Time

20 Most Unintentionally Humorous post

I have submitted my post, “Professional revertard Yvonne Ridley misquotes, misrepresents self” to the Watcher’s Council.

As you may or may not already be aware, members of the Watcher’s Council hold a vote every week on what they consider to be the most link-worthy pieces of writing around… per the Watcher’s instructions, I am submitting one of my own posts for consideration in the upcoming nominations process.
Here is the most recent winning council post, here is the most recent winning non-council post, here is the list of results for the latest vote, and here is the initial posting of all the nominees that were voted on.

Sincere thanks to Velvet Hammer for listing Tao of Defiance as one of the 5 nominations for her contributing node to the “Thinking Blogger Award” meme (well, beme, actually).

Here are the rules for those who want to come join the party:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,

3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote. (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn’t fit your blog).

I am going to make an all Aussie list. Here are 5 Blogs That Make Me Think:

1. Saint’s Dogfight in Bankstown. Possibly the most under-rated blog in Australia.
2. Sheik Yer’mami’s Winds of Jihad. Single-handedly holding the fort in Cairns, the Sheik is renowned for thought-provoking hits such as “Harry the Taliban” and “Muslim Woman”. The Sheik makes me think particularly hard about protecting my online anonimity.
3. Pommygranate. Because he is so well integrated.
4. A Western Heart makes me think terribly un-PC things. John Ray also makes me think that too many blogs is never enough -an even dozen and counting! How does he do it?!
5. My last nominee has already gained global infamy as the premier exponent of the Evil Minimalist (Min-evilist) school of blogging. Title, quote, linepunch! Like a hammer hits a cantaloupe. Repeat until the demons of stupid are out. Lefthandalist suckers beware, its the “Evil” Tim Blair!

Don’t forget to check out Velvet Hammer’s great blog, Ironic Surrealism, too.

Or not.

(h/t Ryan Northcott)

In non-Hajj-related news, I am going on vacation mid next week for a couple of weeks, and will not be near a computer for most of that time. I won’t have time for much posting in the next week either, so its looking like this blog won’t be back in full force for another three weeks or so.

Anyone looking for something to read, I’ve recently been enjoying Michael Totten’s posts on the developing situation in Lebanon, where he visitted in December. Bill Roggio’s recent coverage of the war in Somalia as well as other global Jihad hotspots has been great also.

For a list of some fantastic blogs you should be reading, have a read of this interview, where Hugh Hewitt hammers to pieces Joseph Rago for his article in the Opinion Journal, in which Rago lamely attempted to write off the whole blogosphere as somehow irrelevant. In the interview, which is quite entertaining in itself, Hugh presents a lists of worthy blogs to set the stage for their discussion. Take a look, you’re bound to come across a couple of new gems.

And check out the new 910 Group movement, of which this blog is now a part. Blogs to read, forum to chat in, projects to be a part of it. Get into it.

My post “The Caucasian Tinderbox” was voted equal third place (out of 14 entries) in the non-council section of the weekly Watcher’s Council “most link-worthy pieces of writing around” round up.

See the vote tally and all the entries here.

I totally missed this when it mattered, but the world’s first female space tourist, Anousheh Ansari, was keeping a blog while in space, even posting videos of her experience, which apparently consisted of “flying around hitting walls and dislodging things” and staring out of windows a lot.

She landed this morning in Kazakhstan. (But this is not the Kazakhstan post I was talking about)

Anyway, check out her blog and find out what space smells like. Thank God for velcro, indeed.

Technorati Tags: Anousheh Ansari, space tourist

Mark Day romanticises in the The Australian:

THE British magazine The Economist killed off newspapers this week in a report Mark Twain might have described as greatly exaggerated. Perhaps a more relevant question today is: Are we killing journalism?

Across the world, the future of newspapers is being studied and debated. Type the words “death of newspapers” into the Google search engine and you’ll get 52.7 million references.

[..]

A very unbalanced report, methinks, considering the words “life of newspapers” return 148 million references. Actually the words “death of newspapers” today bring up 54.7 million references, which suggests a hell of a lot Pulpus Newspapersaurus carking for a single weekend.

The phrase “death of newspapers”, on the other hand, brings up a mere 28,800 results. Which suggests a mere flesh wound, one would suspect.

I also got about 3 million results for the word “irrelevance” and 46.4 million for “computer literacy”.

Most disturbingly the words “Is Mark Day killing journalism?” returned 6.61 million references.