"You like me, you really like me"

Or... maybe not.

Two sets of "awards" are being given now among the Muslim blogosphere: the Brass Crescent Awards, by altMuslim and City of Brass, and Umm Zaid's "IslamiBlaghies." Of course I am up for neither. As I mentioned on Street Prophets the other day:

People read me but no one comments

That's the story of my life. I've made slow progress over the years in building up an audience (not too large and not many loyal), but what aggravates me most of all is that hardly anyone comments. (This is, in part, what I enjoy about writing diaries here and at Daily Kos, that I can write something and get a number of responses, far more than what I'd get on my blog.) This sort of reminds me of my time in Korea, trying to start conversations with my students. Student would ask, "Mr. JDsg, what do you think?" And at first, I'd be stupid enough to answer them: "Blah, blah, blah." And the answer would be so freakin' reasonable that they'd all shut up. Same thing happens with my blog. "Oh, whatever Mr. JDsg said, that's the bottom line; no need for me to comment anything further."

{sigh}

I realize that the odds are stacked against my not being noticed. One, I'm not able to post as much as I'd like due to work and family. No surprise there. I'm not unemployed, and I'm not a househusband. It's not like I can spend hours writing long tomes about... whatever. If you've read my blog over the months, you might have even noticed that I often write two or three posts over the weekends, when I have more time. Weekdays I'm lucky to get one written in a day.

Two, my main blog is more of a general content blog than being exclusively devoted to Islam. Maybe 25% of all my posts have been devoted solely to Islam and/or Muslims. Once again, no surprise there (if you know my personality). I find lots of topics interesting. I think my masthead is rather accurate, especially that last section: "Islam, videos, current events, business, science, and any other topic that amuses and abuses my mind."

Third, I don't often write completely original posts, and I think the two awards above focus on writers who do just that. I often write about events that have happened and my reaction to them. Writing a post that's completely original is time-consuming, which I don't have a lot of.

Another factor, I think, is that I live in an area that doesn't have a whole lot of dysfunctional Muslims. I read blogs like Umar's and Tariq's, and often think, "What the f*** is up with that?" Tariq's Nationalism? post being a great example. That's not to say S'pore doesn't have problems among the Muslim community, but our problems tend to be well known and discussed in a variety of media, including the MSM. Our issues are not just percolating at the blog level.

That all being said, here's a list of my favorite posts (of my own) from the past year, separated into three categories (Islam/Muslim-related, general content and photographs (my own)), in chronological order, from oldest to newest:

Islam/Muslim
Jihad
An Open Letter...
The Difference Between the Qur'an and Its Translations
Sequoias in Their Midst
What Can I Do For Him, Here, Now?

General Content
The Accounting of Love
Mister? Why Your Face So Red?
"Physician, Heal Thyself"
Funeral Masks
I Didn't Vote for Bush, Either

Photos
Self-Portrait: The Uncle in Niece's Eye
Moon Over Singapore
Movement and Energy
Singapore Scavenger Hunt