veiled4allah

vox populi (yes, that's a bad pun)

Six Apart is introducting a new blogging service called Vox. It's a hosted service, so you don't have to have your own server space or to install anything. It's ad-supported, so you don't have to shell out any money. Right now, it's by invitation only, but you can sign up on the linked page to be considered for an invitation. I've been able to play around with Vox for a couple months now during earlier stages of its development process and only wish that I had more time for it. One of the best features is the ability to easy set a privacy level for your posts. You can designate a post as being visible to everybody, to just people you've designated as friends or as family, or even to just yourself. If you've ever wanted to set up a blog site for sharing information with your friends or family about what's going on in your life, but are hesistant to make it visible to everybody in the world, Vox is for you. Vox also has many other cool features, like easily inserting photos, audio, video, and Amazon items in your posts. The idea behind Vox is to make blogging so easy that even your mom can do it (hey, Mom, the invitation is in the mail ;) ) Take a look around and enjoy!

blog quake day

Via Procrastination, DesiPundit is organizing Blog Quake Day for October 26. As many as 79,000 have died in South Asia because of the earthquake earlier this month and 3 million are homeless. Winter is coming and many of the regions devastated by the quake are mountainous and difficult to reach even in the best of times. Please give what you can, and if you have a blog, consider taking part in Blog Quake Day to ask your readers to give as well. Some organizations accepting donations are: Islamic Relief CARE Oxfam UNICEF World Vision Humanity First Hidaya Foundation International Rescue Committee Pakistan President/s Relief Fund The Human Development Foundation The Association for the Development of Pakistan Earthquake Redevelopment Fund May Allah bless you for whatever you can do.

blogging Muslims

Sister Umm Yasmin at Dervish has up the first installment of State of the Ummah, the new Muslim blogging carnival. There are only six submissions this time, one from me and one from Umm Yasmin herself, but everything has to start somewhere! Check it out to see what some Muslims are blogging about, inshallah.

carnival!

Maryam is starting a "blog carnival" for Muslims bloggers called The State of the Ummah. Muslim bloggers choose the best of their posts from a recent period and submit them the Maryam will post up all the submissions. It sounds like fun! Unfortunately, I don't have many posts since the start of the month :p But I'll think of one to nominate!

Brass Crescent results

Well, I didn't win any of the awards, but I did get honorable mention in two categories: Best Blog and Best Commenter. The latter I think is funny because I don't do as much commenting on other blogs as I used to. Thanks to everybody who voted for me and be sure to check out the winners and honorable mentions for some great Muslim blogging.

Brass Crescent Awards

Voting is underway By the way, I'm a nominee for Best Blog, Best Female Blog, and Best Commenter, although I don't get around to commenting on (or even visiting) other blogs as much as I used to; too busy with work these days. All votes for me are welcome ;)

last day to submit Brass Crescent nominations

The Brass Crescent Awards

nominations thread

'I'd like to thank the Academy...'

Actually, its the voters in the Koufax Awards that I have to thank: I'm one of the nominees for Best Single Issue Blog, on the topic of Islam (what else? ;) ) Thank you very much to everybody who voted to nominate me in this category. I'm humbled to be included along with all the great blogs that were also nominated. And if you so desire, please vote for me in the second round of voting to determine the winner ;) Added: I had nominated myself in the Most Deserving of Wider Recognition category (somebody had to do it), so if you'd like, you can vote for me there too ;)

the Brass Crescent Awards

Inspired by the Koufax Awards for the best liberal blogs, Aziz Poonawalla and Shahed Amanullah have started the Brass Crescent Awards for the best of the Islamic blogosphere. Propose your nominations here. The bloggers you nominate don't need to be Muslims, but they should write about Islam and, as brother Shahed puts it, show "an affinity for parts of the diverse cultural fabric that Islam embraces and is embraced by worldwide". Nominations of veiled4allah are encouraged of course ;) ;) ;)

rewarding excellence in liberal blogging

Is it already that time of year again? The Koufax Awards, for the best of lefty blogging, are open for nominations. As usual, the only nomination I get is the one I submitted myself :p If you're looking for more left of center blogs to read, the nominations are a good resource.