Hello everyone,
I have moved my blog over to wordpress and will no longer post from blogger.
The new web address is:
http://sayidasiyasa.wordpress.com/
I picked wordpress because they have much better design formats. So, hopefully my blogger friends will be able to follow me over there. The new graphics are worth it ;-).
Enjoy.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Blog maintenance
Hi all,
Please excuse my boring layout tonight. I am trying to switch over to wordpress (they have much better options for blog design) and am working out the kinks there. I was also playing around with blogger (hence the uber boring design at the moment), so bear with me until I get my new blog revamped.
Thanks!
Nawal
Please excuse my boring layout tonight. I am trying to switch over to wordpress (they have much better options for blog design) and am working out the kinks there. I was also playing around with blogger (hence the uber boring design at the moment), so bear with me until I get my new blog revamped.
Thanks!
Nawal
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Sayida Siyasa of Arabia: Funny Name. Serious Blog.
Hear ye hear ye! I have a new blog!
That's right, to the skeptics who didn't believe in my capacity to create blogs, I have news for you: change has come to the blogopshere!
Ok, it's 10am on a friggin Sunday morning...I needed some type of cliche hook-in.
Ah, but for those wondering, why the crazy name Sayida Siyasa of Arabia?
Well, what blog is a blog without a fun origins-of-the-name story?
Here goes: twas a late Saturday night (more like 2am) and amidst my caffeine-powered brainstorming for my PhD programs personal statement, the following idea came to mind: why not set aside time for a weekly blog?
Excuses immediately came to mind: I have no time for it! It's a conformist thing to do! (and facebook isn't?). I'll get seriously distracted from my grad-school applications!
A few seconds later, being the spontaneous spirit that I am, I made every practical excuse to start one: I spend just as much time on facebook and could link the two.....hmmmmm........ok....I can have fun with GRE vocab prep and write blog posts about my academic readings if need be......hmmmmm......ok, and....and....I can post Arabic translation exercises of BBC news items--People will still look at my blog just because they think it's cool to see anything with Arabic writing on it even if it makes no damn sense.
This is sounding more appealing as the caffeine wears off and my head fills with crazy ambitious schemes....oh what the hell! I'm in!
As the wee hours of the morning began to set in and I ventured into a euphoric realm of caffeine deprivation, I decided it was high time to create a blog name. A short summary of the process occurred as follows:
2am: I initially thought: how about something snarky and witty?
I know! The Angry Arab!
.....oh wait, that one's taken. Damnit.
3am: With a cup of tea, I continued with my noble task. Ah, I've got it! How about taking some haphazard miscombobulation of English words, translate them into Arabic, and produce some outrageous title that sounds 10x cooler? Since people in the Middle East refer to people as either Umm (mother) or Abu (father) of something, let's try Bait Al-Afkar Umm Al Siyasa...or, roughly translated, Mother of Politics House of Ideas!
Wow, I just seriously mistranslated that and misused the idafa structure. Damnit squared!
4am: Ok ok, gettin serious here...let me think....once upon a time when I did a blog a few years back, I used the term LadyPolitik because I thought it was a clever feminist spin on the IR term realpolitik. In retrospect, it was horribly cheesy, but seemed to make a great AIM Id. So, how about I take that word, try to translate that into Arabic, make it sound 20x cooler, and then tell an absolute fabricated lie of a story in the morning to entertain my would-be readers?
Alright, I'll take it.
Voila! Sayida Siyasa of Arabia was born! Sayida means 'lady' and Siyasa of course means 'politics'. I don't believe the term 'politik' has an equivalent translation in Arabic, so I adopted the word closest to it.
Take that Lawrence of Arabia--here comes another East-meets-West force to reckon with! .....just not in the deserts of Wadi Rum, but instead in the blogosphere!
**Caveat disclaimer: To my geeky Arabic speaking friends, no I did not adhere to perfect formal Arabic grammar since Al-Siyasa is the proper word which means politics (yes, I dropped the definite article to make my blog name sound less awkward.) Secondly, sayida is used in colloquial, not formal Arabic, for both single and married women. The formal Arabic word 'anisa' (for Ms.) would have also sounded awkward. Just run with my crazy imaginative blog name will ya? :-)**
That's right, to the skeptics who didn't believe in my capacity to create blogs, I have news for you: change has come to the blogopshere!
Ok, it's 10am on a friggin Sunday morning...I needed some type of cliche hook-in.
Ah, but for those wondering, why the crazy name Sayida Siyasa of Arabia?
Well, what blog is a blog without a fun origins-of-the-name story?
Here goes: twas a late Saturday night (more like 2am) and amidst my caffeine-powered brainstorming for my PhD programs personal statement, the following idea came to mind: why not set aside time for a weekly blog?
Excuses immediately came to mind: I have no time for it! It's a conformist thing to do! (and facebook isn't?). I'll get seriously distracted from my grad-school applications!
A few seconds later, being the spontaneous spirit that I am, I made every practical excuse to start one: I spend just as much time on facebook and could link the two.....hmmmmm........ok....I can have fun with GRE vocab prep and write blog posts about my academic readings if need be......hmmmmm......ok, and....and....I can post Arabic translation exercises of BBC news items--People will still look at my blog just because they think it's cool to see anything with Arabic writing on it even if it makes no damn sense.
This is sounding more appealing as the caffeine wears off and my head fills with crazy ambitious schemes....oh what the hell! I'm in!
As the wee hours of the morning began to set in and I ventured into a euphoric realm of caffeine deprivation, I decided it was high time to create a blog name. A short summary of the process occurred as follows:
2am: I initially thought: how about something snarky and witty?
I know! The Angry Arab!
.....oh wait, that one's taken. Damnit.
3am: With a cup of tea, I continued with my noble task. Ah, I've got it! How about taking some haphazard miscombobulation of English words, translate them into Arabic, and produce some outrageous title that sounds 10x cooler? Since people in the Middle East refer to people as either Umm (mother) or Abu (father) of something, let's try Bait Al-Afkar Umm Al Siyasa...or, roughly translated, Mother of Politics House of Ideas!
Wow, I just seriously mistranslated that and misused the idafa structure. Damnit squared!
4am: Ok ok, gettin serious here...let me think....once upon a time when I did a blog a few years back, I used the term LadyPolitik because I thought it was a clever feminist spin on the IR term realpolitik. In retrospect, it was horribly cheesy, but seemed to make a great AIM Id. So, how about I take that word, try to translate that into Arabic, make it sound 20x cooler, and then tell an absolute fabricated lie of a story in the morning to entertain my would-be readers?
Alright, I'll take it.
Voila! Sayida Siyasa of Arabia was born! Sayida means 'lady' and Siyasa of course means 'politics'. I don't believe the term 'politik' has an equivalent translation in Arabic, so I adopted the word closest to it.
Take that Lawrence of Arabia--here comes another East-meets-West force to reckon with! .....just not in the deserts of Wadi Rum, but instead in the blogosphere!
**Caveat disclaimer: To my geeky Arabic speaking friends, no I did not adhere to perfect formal Arabic grammar since Al-Siyasa is the proper word which means politics (yes, I dropped the definite article to make my blog name sound less awkward.) Secondly, sayida is used in colloquial, not formal Arabic, for both single and married women. The formal Arabic word 'anisa' (for Ms.) would have also sounded awkward. Just run with my crazy imaginative blog name will ya? :-)**
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