Just another dent in the damage…

This is my round-up of interesting posts about the Iranian President’s visit to the US and some of the responses to his absurd comments that there are ‘no homosexuals in Iran’.

• View from Iran – Why are the questions for President Ahmandinejad so simplistic?
• Rotton Gods – Ahmadinejad on the Holocaust and Ahmadinejad in Columbia University.
• Mr Behi - Ahmadinejad in NY.
• The Spirit of Man – Ridiculous and No Freedom in USA.
• Mideast Youth – Iranian Gays, There are no Homosexuals in Iran, Evolution of Iran-America Relations and Ahmadinejad at Columbia: The wisdom of dishonouring one’s enemy.

After my daily perusal of Craftzine the other day I decided it was time to stop avoiding the knitting needles just because my latest project seems to be so bloody hard. This week I’ve been working on a Henry Rollins doll (courtesy of Stitch & Bitch Nation) for a friend of mine (shhhhhh, it’s a surprise). I can’t wait to get the results up here but for now I thought I’d post up a few links to some brilliant patterns I’ve come across lately.

First off is the Hallowig which I found via the Blue Blog. How adorable are those pictures!! I managed to hobble on down to Atkinsons with gammy leg sans crutch and bandages this afternoon to purchase some incredible pink and orange yarn for this little project (acrylic of course). Again – pictures to come.

Also if you’re in need of a new phone cover check these beauties out! Genius, I hear you say! I’m not so great with double-pointed needles yet so I’m saving this one for a day I feel adventurous. Then there’s this pattern from Jezzeblog for some cute little dolls that look like those guys off that car advert – you know the one, COME ON. And if you’re feeling all fruity why not make yourself a pear, an apple/sour apple, a lemon or lime, a banana or a peach. I’m gonna you should too!

Well it’s about time I came across a nice story such as this (hat tip: Drink-soaked Trots). In response to the bullying of a Central Kings Rural High School student for wearing a pink shirt on his first day of school David Shepherd and Travis Price (both pictured) brought 75 pink tank tops and encouraged their fellow students to wear pink in solidarity to counter ridiculous threats targeted at the unnamed student.

As grade 12 students both Shepherd and Price complained that they had stood by for far too long and decided it was time for them to react against widespread bullying at Central Kings Rural High School. As if kids don’t have enough to worry about ey. Over half of the student body got involved awashed in pink leaving the angry bullies with nothing better to do than throw a few chairs about in the cafeteria. Well done lads!

Read more here…

Rage to Live require your attendance at the following event…

I’ll be there hobbling around somewhere safe…

So it seems Google is ‘officially’ blocked in Iran. Sadly it means that not only will fellow Gmailers have trouble accessing their email accounts but also that Google Reader, which numerous Iranians rely upon to get round government restrictions on Persian weblogs, is also now a no go zone. I have no doubt that the authorities are assuming this to be a more successful strategy of Internet censorship than those previously used with regards to Google searches such as filtering search terms and key words but surely they’re going to realise that this is just taking it too far??

UPDATE – Wait, it seems they have acknowledged their mistake (hat tip: Boing Boing). Apparently the whole episode was made in ‘error’.

I’m taking a break from job application writing in favour of a fun up-date! :)

First of all there’s these guys -

My cat Bella is way too boring to do anything as funny as all those videos on Youtube of cats doing funny stuff but one day, one day I’ll get her. Yesterday she did chase her tail which to me was very amusing!! Oh and the other day I watched her try and catch the squirrels that hang out on my car park, she missed about a billion times and turned her attention to licking her bum instead. She seems to do that A LOT.

Anyway other cool stuffz I’m into lately -

Love Handles hand-bags! Based in Toronto Alyssa hand-makes these bags from recycled, organic or in the case of this awesome Cursed bag, screen-printed heavy canvas materials. They are so cool! My favourite is the Modern Life is War bag created from an old t-shirt. Like Alyssa I think I’d have probably kept that one myself too. She is planning more though, just waiting for the band to get back to her with some jpegs so she can get material off to the screen printers. I can’t wait to get one! I think all of the bags she makes are reversible and she’s into custom made bags too so if you have a preference check out her textiles and handles sections and mix ‘n’ match.

Made with Love by Hannah is another cool site I found the other day from a link via the Craftzine blog. The skirts Hannah makes are actually incredible so I reckon I’ll be treating myself to this beauty at some point in the near future. After the amount of job apps I’ve been sorting through I reckon I’ll deserve it right?? I like it that Hannah does the screen-printing herself and how she’s roped her gran in to help.

And finally, congratulations to Threadless for opening their first store in Chicago. Hopefully Threadless retail will spread to Sheffield – It’d save me a packet on shipping!!

For any previous visitors to this site I guess you’re wondering where my dissertation info has gone, right?? Well I handed my work in last week and so have decided to make use of this space to blog more generally – about me and everything that I feel needs something said about it. On the right I’ve linked to my old wiki and blogspot blog so don’t worry all is not lost. Once I get around to it I’ll get the bibliography on my wiki properly updated and may even write up my findings on there but for the time being it’s all getting marked and so until I know I did OK I’m keeping them all a secret.

For anyone thats never been here before – WHY NOT!?! Do I really have to introduce myself all over again? Well, my name is Lex Rigby and I am was studying for an MA in Librarianship at the University of Sheffield. Soon I will be Miss Alexis Rigby BA (hons) MA. Pretty cool uh. Anyway during the summer I have been writing my theses on the Iranian blogosphere and used this website to host information about my research. It included links to my dissertation wiki, blog and online survey in an attempt to generate interest in my work and get people talking about it within the Iranian blogosphere. I’m not sure how successful I was in doing this but I did get regular visitors to my pages and a much greater response rate to my survey than I anticipatated so thats got to count for something!

As for my research, it was an investigation into how and why Iranians use weblogs to overcome restrictions on free expression. I selected a sample of weblogs from both inside Iran and the Iranian diaspora to consider how their experiences of blogging differ. All very interesting stuff ey. Its main aim was to explore the notion of self-censorship to consider how active Internet filtering has impacted blog discourse and the influence that blogging has on the distribution of news in Iran. I’m pleased with how it all turned out so if you’re interesting in asking me anything further feel free, I honestly think I could talk about Iran and Iranian blogs for ever and ever and ever.

So, I hope that’s enough of an explanation for you! Let the blogging commence!

…again!

I have a new blog, go see.

http://www.lexrigby.com – That’s here.

The previous posts have been imported from my old Blogger weblog.