Most of you can find me here, if you are a friend (even virtual) you can find me in various other places on Teh Interwebs.  I’m not very good at responding to emails, the best bet is to @ me on Twitter.  I have a full-time job in IT completely unrelated to my online activities. I then (sometimes, see below) have freelance translating/copywriting work and then group blogging commitments. Please be patient with me if the original content of this site is not updated as frequently as those of full-time bloggers or people with other “online” jobs.

I was raised outside of New Orleans, and I have a BA from the Croft Institute at the University of Mississippi where my thesis topic was an examination of France’s Loi Stasi within its political and legislative framework (which, loosely translated, means I’m not interested in how wrong you think I am about laïcité). I moved to Switzerland immediately after graduation where I have been for the past seven years, first in Zurich, then seven years in Lausanne. I now live in the canton of Zurich. I converted to Islam in 2000 and consider myself your typical American convert despite living most of my time as a Muslim in Europe. I believe that there is no such thing as “online” versus “IRL” and that in the 21st century and with the advent of social media, these lines have blurred. Some people are uncomfortable with my openness online, but I can assure you I still have secrets.

I am a frequent contributor and commenter  in French and in English to guest/group blogs, notably for most of 2009 at the Lausanne Bondy Blog, and now at Muslimah Media Watch. In 2013 I will be the webmistress of MMW and thus be blogging there less. I am an active member of the small Swiss tech/social media community, and I frequently attend related local (you can usually find me at Blog°bar, #TwBSO in Solothurn, and Bloggy Fridays) and European events, including a stint as an official blogger at LeWeb 09. I attended LeWeb 10 as part of several mandates for Swiss-based and international groups and was at Lift 11. I’m currently on a conference break as I am concentrating on my day job, but will be attending at least one day of Lift14 as a “private citizen.”

I do occasionally freelance as a ghostwriter, copywriter and translator (French into English), but due to my current professional commitments, I am only doing very short work for friends and friends of friends. If you have something that you think would only take three hours on a Sunday or that a normal person would do for free (I don’t have the time to do anything long enough to be worth billing), I am willing to look at it depending on my schedule. I run all jobs by my employer.

Articles I write for other blogs are cross-posted here, after a delay of exclusivity of at least a month unless contractually stipulated otherwise. For the avoidance of doubt, the intellectual property relating to posts I have written for other blogs remains the IP of the blogs for purposes of crossposting. My right as an author to reproduce my articles on this site from the Lausanne Bondy Blog (including cross posts at LeWeb and the Hebdo) and Muslimah Media Watch (including cross posts at Alt Muslimah and Muslim Voices) is protected under the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. For re- or cross- posts of articles from LBB or MMW you are kindly asked to also seek permission from the editors of LBB and MMW and credit their sites, not this site. In the case of linking or trackbacks, please link the original posts at LBB and MMW and not links from my site or other cross-posts.