Not just a deactivated Twitter, but I have a deactivated Facebook too!

I deactivated my Facebook account yesterday. I did it 1-2 days after deactivating my Twitter. You ask me what I have achieved so far? Gonna tell you:

My latest night-slumber has been the best I've had in the last 2-3 weeks. I am not kidding. Despite of waking up at least 3 times during the night, the best one I've had since two weeks ago. When I finally decided to get up late in the morning, I was thinking of Facebook and Twitter, and knowing I have deactivated them filled me with a sense of relief.  One less thing to worry. No stress in this head. It's not to say I am not missing Facebook and Twitter, especially twitter, but ,well, if these deactivations can restore calm and a sense of neutral normalcy in my life, so be it.

I have deactivated my twitter account temporarily.

It’s our party, we can do what we want to
It’s our house, we can love who we want to
It’s our song, we can sing if we want to
It’s my mouth, I can say what I want to
Yea, Yea, Yeah  --- Miley Cyrus, We Can't Stop (2013) 

Hi Everyone,

I deactivated my twitter account yesterday in an intoxicated fit of confusion and desperation. I am ok -- just need to get my head less cluttered. And, I am missing my Twitter already.

At any rate, according to twitter regulations, if my absence from twitter lasts more than 30 days, my account will be totally deleted on twitter. That is certainly something I can not handle or accept, so I will be back in less than 30 days. I can't miss all my contacts, friends, tweets forever. :-)

If u want to talk to me, leave a comment here, or email me: LGBTiran [at] Gmail.

Love,
@IranLGBT

A List of Twitter Users Who Tweet About #Iran and are Not Assholes [Part 2]

The first part of this list was published a week ago  here.

This list is biased. The names in this list belong to people who have proven they are not assholes when tweeting about Iran. If your name is not in this list, it is not necessarily because you are an asshole -- it could just be because I do not know you.  The order of names in this list does not mean anything. I try to add a brief description for each name in this list. The third part of this list will be published as soon as I compile a list of non-Asshole #Iran Tweeps. I plan to publish a list of Asshole #Iran Tweeps for the Next week, if you have any suggestion for that list, contact me. 

If you have any suggestion about this post, please tweet them at @IranLGBT or comment in here. 

@SaeedK:  Not many Iranian journalist can claim they've interviewed Paul Auster -- an American Author who is very famous in Iran unlike his home country, USA, as far as I can say.  A 23-year-old Saeed Kamali Dehghan interviewed Auster for the weekly magazine Shahrvand Emrooz  5 years ago.  Saeed is now a journalist at the Guardian covering news of Iran.  He sometimes writes for the Comment is Free section of the Guardian. In July, 2012, he wrote a comment piece, aptly, and justly titled: Sanctions on Iran punish its people, not its leaders, which voiced the many concerns, fears and angers of many Iranians who oppose Ayatollahs but are not willing to sign off on the massacre of millions of Iranian by Western sanctions.  His brilliance  is not all I like about him, he is also an openly gay man. Considering he is Iranian, and worked in Iran for years,  this is big deal -- very big deal. Not many openly gay Iranians are out there, let alone a prominent gay journalist.  I guess he left Iran permanently following the bloody days of June, 2009, when the rigged presidential election took place and many journalists got arrested. I am glad he is not in Evin Prison, but in London. He mostly tweets news of Iran.  

@CDA: "Collin Anderson, a 26-year-old liberation-technology researcher from North Dakota who specializes in Iran," that's what The New York Times wrote in 2011.  He tweets about Internet censorship in Iran, sanctions on Iran, ... .  Apparently he knows Farsi for he does tweet in Farsi too. A good source. 

@RezaAsadi: Reza Asadi is a producer for the BBC. I don't know him. His tweets are surely a good source for #Iran. Moreover, he did tweet a blog post of mine which documented the murderous musings of Blake Hounshell on Iran. Hounshell is managing editor at Foreign Policy magazine, and a gate-keeper of Foreign News/commentary in US Media, consequently, not many Iranian journalists tweeted or re-tweeted my blog post out of either sheer disinterest in Iran news or considerations for Mr.Hounshell's image, but Reza Asadi did. So, for that, I gotta tell you, he does seem like an independent minded journalist, and independent journalists are those I trust!
  
@Jrezaian: Jason Rezaian is the Tehran correspondent for the Washington Post. He is apparently from Northern California. My impression is he is from an Iranian father and an American Mother. [Correct me anyone who knows better,please, if I am wrong.] His father had a Persian Rug store in California, so he proudly calls himself son of a Rug man. He is funny. His tweets from Iran and about Iran are always interesting. He is a good source indeed. More significantly foolish #Iran tweeps call him an Agent for the Islamic Regime in Iran, which could be funny if these people were not serious!  

@Nima: Nima Akbapour is "Presenter and Producer" for BBC Persian. He belongs to the first name twitter handler royal club, as if that was not enough, he has about 15,000 followers mostly Iranians. He tweets mostly in Farsi sometimes in English too, usually cool stuff. He is an excellent source for those interested in knowing what's going on in the Iranian blog-sphere. 

@yjtorbati: Yeganeh June Torbati has a long name, but thankfully it is not her twitter handler! She is a reporter for Reuters, based in Dubai covering news of Iran -- for a fuck-up Reuters did in Iran re: Iranian Ninjas, Reuters has been banned from working in Iran unfortunately. She is 2nd generation Iranian born in Oklahoma, USA as far as I know. She used to follow me till I made the mistake of talking to her about Arab Kings in the Persian Gulf, and she did not like my language and unfollowed me. All in all, she is a good source for reliable news about Iran. Tidbit: I once told her names of all the children of Boz Boz Ghandi: Shangool, Manbgool and Hab'be Angoor, which she thanked me afterwards. 

@SeyyedReza: His name is Alex Shams, a co-editor of the excellent @AjamMC blog, but because his twitter account is private now, I am not going to say anything about him. 

@parissasaranj: Parisa Saranj is a columnist for Aslan Media. She tweets pics of Isfahan, her hometown and a beautiful major city of Iran. When she is not tweeting pics of Isfahan, she tweets news and funny stuff about Iran. She used to tweet more till a few months ago. Hopefully she'll get back to tweeting more soon! 

@Lrozen: Laura Rozen is a reporter currently at @AlMonitor. She has a scary twitter profile pic, but seems like a nice person! Her tweets about Iran are mostly news, opinion about the nuclear negotiations, and politics of the Ahmadinejad government. A good source. 

@OurmaninIran: Our man in Iran is Western, probably British  journalist in Iran. I don't know him. He tweets good links about Iran. He does know the domestic politics of Iran as evident by his tweets speculating about the next presidential election in Iran. A good source! 

@SanazRaji: Sanaz Raji is a scholar at "University of Leeds exploring gender, sexuality, and satire in relation to social media in the Iranian diaspora." She does not tweet much, but when she does it is usually something interesting about Iran. 

@pedestrian:  Her name on twitter is Sidewalk Lyrics, she is obviously an anonymous tweep. I got to know about her from a piece that was published on Tehran Bureau from her blog. I can't find that piece now, but you should check her blog for some good stuff to read. Unfortunately, her activity on twitter and blog abruptly stopped on 30, November, 2012. I know she is Iranian, living or Studying in US, but for some family problem -- seemed she lost a dear relative in Tehran-- she went back to Iran a few months ago. She used to tweet from Iran, but then it all stopped late November. I hope she be all right wherever she is, and gets back to Tweeting or blogging, for she is excellent. 

A List of Twitter Users Who Tweet About #Iran and are Not Assholes [Part I]

Intro:

This list is biased. The names in this list belong to people who have proven they are not assholes when tweeting about Iran. If your name is not in this list, it is not necessarily because you are an asshole -- it could just be because I do not know you.  The order of names in this list does not mean anything. I try to add a very brief description for each name in this list. The second part of this list will be published next Friday in time for a proper Follow Friday (#FF).

If you have any suggestion, please tweet them at @IranLGBT or comment in here. 

@TehranBureau: Tehran Bureau is love. It used to be hosted on PBS -- it recently moved to The Guardian. It's the most reliable source of News and, more significantly, Commentary & in-depth Analysis for anything Iran. I got to know it in Summer of 2009 during the bloody days of post-Election protests in Iran.

@eborujerdi: Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi is editor of Iran Pulse of Al-Monitor news site, more importantly, he tweets Iran news and various interesting, cool stuff about culture, modern history, and society of Iran.Not Boring. Fun Person. I suggest avoiding debating things with him on Twitter. Chitchat is fine. 

@AjamMC: Ajam Media Collective is amazing. I don't like the name Ajam, but I can ignore it, because their work quality is high. Amazing Stuff. "Ajam Media Collective is a blog focused on high and low culture in Iran, Central Asia, & the Diaspora." 

@southsouth: Her full name is Maryam Monalisa Gharavi. A source of pride for me is she started following me, then I started to follow her back on twitter. It took me a while to like her. Some of her tweets are rare gems. We have forged a friendship over our mutual disdain for the phony liberal author: Nick Kristof of NYTimes. Her tweets are usually poetic,witty,and/or depressed. A tweet from her is always read in my shop. She is a grad student at Harvard, and so an elitist. Her twitter page background is always something interesting. 

@Roshanakt:  Roshanak Taghavi is a journalist. I have seen her works in The Christian Science Monitor newspaper and Huffington Post.  She tweets various news of Iran --  a good source. She is nice. Her twitter profile picture reminds me of a cousin I have in Tehran.

@BahmanKalbasi: He is from Isfahan, Iran. He is a reporter for BBC Persian in New York. He hates it when I say "Farsi" Language on Twitter, he has tried to correct me into saying "Persian" Language to no avail. He is cool.

@ThomasErdbrink: Thomas Erdbrink is the Chief of Tehran Bureau of The New York Times newspaper. He used to report for Washington Post from Iran before joining NYTimes. His reports/tweets from Tehran are invaluable and insightful -- a great source.

@Gkhosh: Gelare Khoshgozaran is an Iranian artist, more importantly she is a Lesbian. I like her tweets. She is fun, cool and somewhat gloomy. Her tweets are usually good stuff. I wish she tweets more. 

@__Ghazal__: Ghazal is an Iranian Lesbian living in Tehran. I do not know much about her -- I know,but I won't divulge it in here or anywhere. She is a fun and friendly tweep. Her tweets are somewhat depressing, but try being a lesbian living in Tehran under Western Sanction and then try to be jolly. She rightly has tweeted several times: Fuck you, world! I totally agree with her. 

@thekarami: Arash Karami is a journalist and producer for VOA Persian. He used to work for the popular Parazit show prior to working for Ofogh on VOA. His tweets are a good source. He is fun. His tweets are not boring.

@GEsfandiari:  Golnaz Esfandiari is a journalist. She is the editor of Persian Letters blog on Radio Free Europe. Her work is very high quality. She does amazing job of translating/compiling/reporting News of Iran. Her tweets are usually news meaning serious, solid tweets.  She follows few people considering number of people following her, but she's done a good job of replying to my tweets. 

@JasminRamsey:  Jasmin Ramsey is one of those people who has her full name as her twitter handler, like Bahamn Kalbasi or Thomas Erdbrink. She is a journalist. Editor of Lobe Blog. She is an excellent tweep to follow on news of Iran and developments in the US, Europe regarding Iran. She will retweet any tweets that links to Lobe Bog articles. Solid/Serious Tweets. She likes Lana Del Rey. 

@fahimn: Another Journalist. I don't know much about this tweep. But, been following him for a while now. He does an excellent job of tweeting Iran news in both Farsi and English. 

@dudi_cohen: Dudi Cohen is an Israeli journalist who knows Farsi -- apparently he learnt it recently. A couple of times, he asked me Farsi language questions! I like his choice of music. He doesn't tweet much. He likes to visit Iran. He once told me on twitter: "You happy, I happy."

@aminsabeti: Amin Sabeti is a freelance researcher of Persian Media, mostly blogs, and internet censorship in Iran. He tweets in Farsi and English. Mostly Iran news and usually tech news. He does a good job of Re-tweeting interesting Farsi tweets. 

@tparsi: Trita Parsi is head of NIAC: An Iranian-American lobby in Washington D.C. I like his views about sanctions on Iran and how to improve relations with Iran. I do not like his beard. He tweets news mostly. He is knowledgeable and well-respected in the Foreign Relations community as far as I can say. I want to know why his first name is Trita. 

@femiran: Leila Mouri is an Iranian Women's rights activist. She is good. 

@MishaZand: Misha Zand is a fun-loving Iranian girl living in Denmark. She is witty, funny, and critical of things. I remember she had it on her bio that she is some grad student in Iran Studies or Cinema. whichever is fine by me. I expect her to favorite the tweet which I will tweet later linking to this article. She likes kinky tweets. 

@Brenton_Clark84: Brenton Clark is an Australian PhD student interested in Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan.  Tweeting good stuff. He usually tweets interesting stuff/articles about Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan that very few people care to tweet. 






To be continued.