The Upside of Censorship…

… is that I have a spanking new, super cool blog!

If you’re here reading this, then you are probably aware that my old blog was recently the victim of censorship here in Turkey.  The court banned all Blogger and .blogspot domains. I was unable to reach my blog without the help of a filter site (three cheers for vtunnel) and even with the filter, I couldn’t post.

I was devastated.  As my friend Liz rightly noted, my blog helps me deal with the isolation of expat motherhood.  It gives me a sense of accomplishment each time I post.  It lets me keep my friends and family connected to our daily lives.  I am part of a community when I blog.  I love it.  I’m not always very good at it.  My writing can be pretty crap sometimes, especially of late with my chronic sleep deprivation.  But still, I love it.

Liz was one of the first people to find out about my situation.  Her response was immediate.  She was horrified and very upset for me.  (The only other person who immediately understood how distraught I would be was EcoDad who said, “Maybe we should just leave this country.)  She also offered to help.

This new, incredible blog is the manifestation of Liz’s help.  She did everything.  She found a host, did payment transactions, gave me a selection of templates, customized the one I chose… and all this while nursing a nasty allergic reaction and chasing her two kiddos (each close in age to my own.)  Every time I’ve thought about all she’s done for me, I am overwhelmed with gratitude.  There’s no way I could have done this on my own.  She totally saved me.  Totally.

And so, here we are.  I am really excited about this new blog.  It’s so much more versatile that my previous one.  I can customize it to a huge extent.  I can just do so much more with it.  And learning code again is quite a thrill.

There is still some work to be done.  I need to retroactively categorize my posts (Liz imported them all.)  I need to tweak some design elements.  And there’s a bit of a learning curve.

I hope you like it.  I’d really love to hear your thoughts, so please comment!

I’d like to inform you of a few important changes between this blog and my last.

First, as you will have noticed, the main page showcases a Feature Post.  I will always put my most recent post in the Feature space.  You need to follow the “read more” link to get the full text, as only the first bit of it appears.

Secondly, I’m changing how I refer to my family members.  I don’t feel comfortable using our real names, but our existing pseudonyms have proven problematic in a few instances.  Henceforth, I’ll be referring to D as EcoDad, to the Kidlet as EcoKid, and Little Fart as EcoBabe.  I’m EcoMum.

Please bear with me through this period of transition.  I’m sure you’ll notice lots of changes in the next few weeks as I attempt to get everything just as I want it.  Please poke around the blog yourself, and have a look at what I’ve been doing.

At the time I am writing this post, the Turkish court has lifted the ban on Blogger/.blogspot.  They need to review ‘missing evidence.’  However, the law allowing bans stands.  And the likelihood that Blogger and .blogspot will banned again is great.

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