laura.fo

I've added a page of free online resources for learning German as a Foreign Language. I was moved to do so after being impressed with the quality of some of these sites. All languages should be so lucky.

http://laura.fo/german-language-resources/

Ok, I'm live. Welcome to my new blog, same as the old blog!

Although… not really. This blog is google-enabled and entirely public, with a new name and a new address. By combining Wordpress with a web site and my own domain I've been able to include much more static information, including that Sidebar of Doom on the left side there, and more static pages under the "About" section (currently minimal, but under construction — among other things, I want to add an "Islam 101″ section, and a just ridiculously large reading list on gender and the Middle East).

Most importantly — to me, anyway — this switch represents some changes I've been going through in my Real Life^TM. I recently started graduate school again, have begun studying Arabic again, and have just returned from a summer in Cairo after more than ten years away. I feel like I'm finally in the position to give issues related to Islam and the Middle East the attention I've wanted to give them, but couldn't, because they were always a distraction from whatever I was "supposed" to be doing.

I've imported about a quarter of my old posts, although of course the comments didn't transfer over, which is unfortunate because the discussion section was usually the most interesting aspect of any post I made. On top of that, it now looks like I've been writing into a void for seven years, which makes me feel a bit silly. I've imported them anyway, however, because I like having the posts archived somewhere public, I like that I was FINALLY able to categorize them properly (my old blog didn't have that functionality), and because I think they provide some context for this 2.0 version of me.

So. Welcome.