Business Card Final

Ok, so the "Business Card Project" is dead and burried.

I'm glad to say that not only did I end up with an A(I'm a nerd), I also got the highest average. I decided to share because some of you were really nice and helped, and because I promised Sami to show him 2 weeks ago but forgot all about it.

The right colors are on the front, the back is actually the same color in real life but it looks different here cause I didn't use flash. Of course, it's also straight, it looks like this because again, I didn't balance my camera. Oh, well. You guys can deal.

Front of Business Card:




Back of Business Card:




Ok, and here's the concept and how I worked out everything if anyone is interested(or bored enough) in reading:

Identity Name and Slogan: The name, which is "Box", goes hand in hand with the slogan, "Think Outside".

Idea Concept:

"Think Outside the Box"


Thinking outside the box means thinking beyond the limitations of human consciousness and familiarity; to see past the standard. It's a phrase that signifies creativity and resourcefulness, which is why I coined my identity name from it.
A box is also a very important shape in the world of arts and design. Rooms are boxes, websites are boxes one way or another and the shape box is used in almost all fields of art and design.

Design Concept:
My concept when it comes to the idea lays in a comparison between ordinariness and uniqueness. The elements I used in the card are contrasting:

1) The logo, the square logo at the side of the card, represents rigidity. It also symbolizes the word box, and signifies the physical world. The circle at the other side represents a creative idea that is outside the box. It corresponds to unity, wholeness, and infinity. Thus, it is the driving force of the physical world (the box).
2) The logo is static. It doesn’t change and stays at the same place at all times. The circle and the repetitive "ThinkOutside" slogan are dynamic. They move around the card according to mood and feel.

Layout:

1) The logo not only reads box, but it also looks very boxy, so that it serves as a pictorial, symbolic, and typographic logo at the same time. In the second design, the hollowed out slogan allows you to literally see outside the box.
2) Recurring "Think Outside" bordering the logo, to emphasize importance of slogan.
3) The logo contains sharp lines in order to signify the sharpness and keen of mind.
4) Colors: I chose red because of the phrase "Red carpet treatment" (make someone feel special, treat them as if they are a celebrity). Red also suggests confidence and power, hence the red power tie for business people and the red carpet for celebrities and VIPs.
Furthermore, red grabs attention and makes people take action.
Pink was added to calm down the effects of red.
5) If an imaginary line was drawn down the center of the logo, it would run down the golden section.
6) In the second design, the logo would still read box if it was flipped.



I was trying to be deep :P

Infamous Monsters of Filmland

You decide: who is REALLY scary? Face it: the so-called "Famous Monsters of Filmland" may have scared us as children, but they were mostly misunderstood creatures who weren't malicious or intentionally monstrous. Now, however, we are forced to confront real-life monsters who will truly make it difficult to get to sleep.
Check out the amazing comparisions at http://korlapundit.blogspot.com/2004/10/infamous-monsters-of-filmland.html

Haloween Monsters

This is me, my three brothers, and friend on Haloween a long, long, long time ago. I cracked up when I saw it a few days ago and I had to share.
Darn, I can still see all the candy we gathered that day...

A Bibliophiles Bedroom

Building With Books began in 2004 in MIT, and is currently on display at the Boston Public Library in Defferrari Hall. I love it. It's such a cool idea, and the way they put things together is even cooler. My favorite is the bed.



Room Overview


Bed


Rocking Chair


Bedside Table


Lamp


Frame


Umbrella Stand

Check out the other cool stuff and bigger pictures here.

Fear, I'm crippled

It's all over the news, NASA picked May 2005 for launch date, the first launch since the Columbia tragedy two years ago.
Scary. I'm glad I'm not the boss at NASA. I wouldn't have even considered relaunching after a tragedy like Columbia for at least 10 years. I'm too cautious.
This makes me think of how fear and evolvement go hand in hand. If the NASA people don't relaunch, we won't evolve.
So does my fear cripple my life and evolvement? I think it does. I'm too much of a perfectionist, always afraid of screwing something in my perfectly planned out life. Everything in my life has to be perfect or I'll get depressed. I need to be literally pushed into taking a step sometimes, and that only happens after calculations, re-calculations and schemes drawn up in my mind. I'm really much too afraid of failure and rejection.
....
Once again, I'm glad I don't work for NASA.

The New Crowd

I thought this picture was pretty cool. Check out the rest of the pictures at bsimple.com.

Today's Garbage

"Not quite as hot as that original iMac someone tossed out, but it’s amazing what turns up on the sidewalk here in New York."

[Via Engadget]

The New Uses of The Internet

Haitham was telling me about this so I decided to research it and check it out:

"Internet users are doing far fewer searches for sex and pornography and more for e-commerce and business than they were seven years ago, University of Pittsburgh and Penn State researchers say in a new book. "Twenty percent of all searching was sex-related back in 1997; now it's about 5 percent," said Amanda Spink, the University of Pittsburgh professor who co-authored Web Search: Public Searching of the Web with Penn State professor Bernard J. Jansen. "It's a little bit more in Europe, 8 to 10 percent, but in comparison to everything else, it's a very small percent," Spink said. "People are using (the web) more as an everyday tool rather than as just an entertainment medium." What hasn't changed much in seven years is how hard people are willing to work at searching. The answer: not very. Spink and Jansen found that people averaged about two words per query and two queries per search session."

[Via Agenda Inc.]

Very good! I see that people are finally starting to see the useful side of things.

AraBlog ReBlogger

I'm very pleased that Haitham has decided to select me as the first guest reBlogger at AraBlog. Haitham, I really hope I'll be able to enrich AraBlog like you hope, and I'm sure I will enjoy it immensely!

Book Cover Design

Our first project for the year was done last week, I submitted the "Business Card Project" last Sunday. I think my business card turned out alright, but I would have done a better job if I had more time. I'll post pictures later.
Our next project is book cover design, which should be more interesting than business cards especially with my obsession with books. I had a really hard time choosing the book(I had too many ideas, including Ameen Malouf's Samarkand, and Anne Rice's Pandora. In the end, I settled for a very ugly design book by Judith Miller called Color.



The reason I chose it is because I'm amazed at the fact that a lady who is trying to teach people how to use colors in their designs uses such disgusting colors in her book cover. It's too bright for one thing and the main colors are more suitable for a childrens picture book. The photographs displayed also contrast in an extreme way with the background color and the typography. Unbelievable.
Hehe, damn it, she's trying to teach people how to use color!!!
There are a lot of amazing book covers around, and I've had several posts about that. One of my favorites is Memoirs of a Geisha's cover(also one of my favorite books, its a must-read).



Beautiful right? It's a work of art.
If anyone knows any amazing or horrifying book covers, please do share, because we're expected to do case studies and all.

Cellphones And They're Uses

Here is a survey portraying the top three functions used most frequently on a portable device.



[Source: Jupiter Research/Ipsos-Insight Consumer Survey]


Hm, I most definitely use text messaging the most, then voice, then games. I barely
ever use the camera feature, listen to music, or use the internet. How about you guys?

The Power of All of Us

eBay has started a new marketing campaign that's truly inspirational. The campaign is called "The Power Of All Of Us," and the commercial entitled "Belief" left me with a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. The commercial has scenes of human decency that would usually go unnoticed. A $10 bill left for a cup of coffee, a woman picking up trash on the street, people pushing a car stuck in snow, pictures of recycling bins full to the brim, the plastic penny plates you see at most convenience stores, and so on ...

You can watch the spot at www.thepowerofallofus.com

Let me know what you think.

[Via Ameen's Musings]

Take Ameen's word, it really is inspirational. My favorite part was with the adopted Asians family picture, and when the wind blew that business man's papers and people started helping. The "I hit your car" part cracked me up :)
Thanks for sharing, Ameen.

Rain

It's raining! First rain of the season :) It smells so good :)

Soap Cancellation Not Threat Related — Jordan TV

(JT) — Jordan TV denied claims yesterday that the cancellation of the drama series “The Road to Kabul” came after an Islamist threat, saying the decision was taken upon request from the producer. “After we had received eight episodes, the producer, Qatar TV, announced their reservations concerning broadcasting the series,” Abdul Halim Arabiyat, director of television, told The Jordan Times.
“The decision to air the series is the right of the producer and we have no choice but to abide by their decision,” he added.
Jordan TV was scheduled to begin showing the series at the start of Ramadan, but on Thursday — the day the threats were made — officials said the programme might be postponed due to “technical difficulties.”
Source: [The Jordan Times]

[Via Newswire]

I hate how ambiguous news is. I just never know who to believe.

Clickety Click

"The ClickSneaks were conceived in the most pedestrian manner. Walking down a cobblestone street, wearing a comfortable pair of sneakers next to a friend wearing a stunning pair of high heels. The sound of the heels echoed through the night, each step producing a rich aural environment; what if the comfortable sneakers could partake in this world of poignant allusions?

Part fantasy, part irony, the ClickSneaks subvert both the traditional attributes of a pair of shoes, and expose the multi-layered relationship we have with our clothes and accessories.

For the ClickSneaks the sound of the inspirational high heels has been recorded, only to be activated on each step the revamped sneakers take. Surface mount technology makes it possible to fit the necessary components in the sneakers: the original “click” sound is recorded on a voice chip, while a speaker, amplifier and a sensor acting as a “switch” on the sole of each foot, transform these seemingly normal sneakers into a flighty performance."

+Popgadget
+Studi 5050


LOL!!!

Portrait-Murals Made From Dominoes

Check out the other really cool designs at DominoArtWork.com

Cloud For Lights

"Somebody over at Mosleymeetswilcox has a way with arts and crafts. They put some polystyrene balls together with some PETG plastic (nope, no idea what that is) and made "a seductive, lightweight material" that they then turned into the Nimbus."

[Via Fun Furde]

F The President

Here's a high-quality vinyl sticker, spoof of "that ridiculous GW sticker/campaign that you've seen on most Lexus SUVs".



[Via AraBlog]

Table Street Art

And while we're still talking about designer products and Else Wares, here's another really funky item at Else Wares:


Product info: Serve up hors d'oeuvres in style with one of these trays made from a U.S. street sign. Carefully finished and sealed by hand. No two exactly alike.


Product Info: Guests go wild for these funky coasters made from salvaged American street signs.


Product Info: "This artful platter makes a great centerpiece or hangs nicely on the wall. Carefully finished and sealed by hand. No two exactly alike."


Love the idea!

Mutant Vase

This aluminum vase from Else Wares is encased within a galvanized steel coil, so the outside can be reshaped to your heart's content. What I love most about it though is that it reminds me of slinkies, which I used to love as a child.
Hm, how come I don't see slinkies around any more?
Children these days suck.

Coolness

Mosley Meets Wilcox is one of the most creative design shops I've ever seen. Here are some of my favorite designs:

War Bowl Series



Honesty Stamp






Ghost Table


Check out the rest of their very cool designs at www.mosleymeetswilcox.com .

Jordanian/Palestinian Culture Item

I was walking around the other day when I came upon this. Gorgeous right? I'm completely obsessed with our cultures embroidery, called "tat-reez", although I have no idea how to do it. It's just so meticulously done and the colors are so amazing that I get transfixed by the absolute simplicity that creates such a work of art.
Tat-reez dresses are the most beautiful.
This is a leather notebook, and only for 3 JDs(a bit more than 4 dollars.) Bargain!

Why Should Ears Have All The Fun?

This is the hottest news today as yet:

" A delight for the ears. A feast for the eyes. Though it’s no bigger than a pack of playing cards and weighs in at just over 6 ounces, iPod Photo delivers a one-two sensory punch. Letting you carry an entire library of your favorite music — up to 15,000 songs — or enough photos — as many as 25,000 — to fill nearly 200 slide trays or cover nearly 5,000 square feet of wall space. Got a really big den?"

We love you Apple.

Fortune Clothing

"All of Twice Shy's T-shirts have a random fortune sewn into the sleeve and many of the designs have subtle political messages (or not so subtle). The biggest statement they make, however, is with the fabric they've chosen to use...." (Read the rest of the article here)

[Via Cool Hunting]

Cool idea. I really love the whole fortune cookie aspect when it's used in something other than a fortune cookie. It makes every single item unique in its own way. I just realized last week that Kit-Kat bars have random fortunes on them as well. My brother claims that it's been like that for a long long time, but I'm not sure I buy that.

Packaging

Check out the American Package Museum, a cool photographic website that has some really old packaging. I am So glad they invented graphic design! The worst part about the site is that they don't have dates.
My favorite package is Canada Dry Wink. Pretty nice for something so old.

U.S. of Internationalia Elections

Here's a portion of a very interesting post on Haitham's blog(read the rest here):

"An interesting website, BetaVote tabulates straw votes for Bush and Kerry from around the world. Though unscientific, and distorted in its U.S. section by Bush unlovers, it provides a good sample of world thinking about the election...
...Among 240 countries and 419,128 global respondents, Kerry leads Bush by 88% to 11%. Here is a snap shot of the results in some of the Arab countries:

Morocco John Kerry leads by 87%
Syrian Arab Republic John Kerry leads by 79%
Egypt John Kerry leads by 77%
Sudan John Kerry leads by 75%
Oman John Kerry leads by 65%
Somalia John Kerry leads by 65%
United Arab Emirates John Kerry leads by 55%
Qatar John Kerry leads by 53%
Tunisia John Kerry leads by 53%
Jordan John Kerry leads by 51%
Saudi Arabia John Kerry leads by 49%
Bahrain John Kerry leads by 45%
Algeria John Kerry leads by 41%
Yemen John Kerry leads by 31%
Lebanon John Kerry leads by 27%
Palestinian John Kerry leads by 23%
Kuwait John Kerry leads by 17%

Oddly, Bush and Kerry are tied, in Libya, Iraq and Mauritania. They are tied also in other countries like, North Korea, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Barbados, Cocos (keeling) Islands, Comoros, Congo, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Montserrat, Myanmar, Turkmenistan, and Niue, wherever that is...."

[Via Sabbah's Blog]
Read the rest of the article here.

Everyone must read the rest of the article because it's really very interesting. Haitham, like usual, I love your insights.

Starbucks Blog

Look at what Natasha found:

"For all the Starbucks lovers out there (Roba, can you hear me?), I found a really cool blog by the name of Starbucks Gossip. The site keeps the reader updated with Starbucks latest news and is open for comments and discussion.
Take a look. It is quite amusing. "

Thanks for sharing Natasha :)

The Best Product Designs Of The Year 2004

I'm a bit late for this, but here are some of my favorite IDEA Award winners anyway(check out the rest here):

CHEVROLET SUPER SPORT ROADSTER


iPOD MINI


NOKIA 7600


SAMSUNGS CIRCULAR PRINTER


HEIMSPIEL

More Cool Book Cover Designs

"Theft" stealing "Identity"'s shadow. I love their concept! This cover portrays identity theft so perfectly.

iDebate

[Via MacMinute]

Mobile's Camera Sees Through Clothing

A new mobile phone gadget has raised fears it will be a perverts' dream. The £100 add-on will turn camera phones into X-ray specs which can see through clothes, according to Scotland's Daily Record. The same article also says that although it was originally designed for taking pictures at night, it has quickly been exploited by voyeurs.
Every woman's nightmare.

Road To Kabul

Hm, I just read that MBC has stopped airing "The Road To Kabul". I guess that means that Orbit is the only one left airing. Weird.

Msa7arati

Hehe, my dear friend Ole was nice enough to share this picture.
Check out the whole picture here. Now, as Ole says, the mystery remains... Why is the lady's lower body blurred?

Finally, if you read Arabic,read this article, and tell me if its worth reading :P I'm not in the mood to read Arabic :)

Becky

Check this belt out!
It makes me want to drink it...
Look at the rest of the cool products atBeckycity, or a cool selection of them at TreeHugger.

The Msa7arati

Every night during Jordan's Ramadan at around 2:30 AM, I wake up feeling like a giant is about to step on me, thanks to the "Boom! Boom! Boom!" of the msa7arati's set of drums. It's irritating of course, for several reasons. I wake up panicked for one thing, and it takes me a while to figure out that I am not about to be squished. It also takes me a couple of hours to be able to go back to sleep, and I still have to wake up at 7 every day.
Yet, my irritation does not equal my fascination with the mystifying "msa7arati". Every night after his booming wakes me up, I scuttle out of bed, scramble for my glasses, and dash to the window, only to find that booming has already drifted away, taking the "msa7arati" with it. I run to another window, but his booming is also trailing off. It's almost as if he moves around in a paranormal device that is much too fast for sleepy feet.
And so, this hide-and-seek game between me and the "msa7arati" has been going on since last years Ramadan.
Until last night. Last night, I scuttled out of bed fast enough, scrambled for my glasses swiftly, and dashed to the window in a flash.
I finally got a glimpse of the "msa7arati".
Unfortunately, he looks nothing like what I imagined him to look. Here's a quick sketch of what my over-active Disney-run imagination thought he would look like (never mind my drawing, I want to go nap to make up the lost sleep):



In reality, the "msa7arati" looks exactly the opposite :) He's very tiny; it's almost as if his set of drums is carrying him. He also wasn’t wearing a fez, and he was wearing khakis and a shirt.
Well… at least I got the drums part right :)
For those of you who grew up in Jordan, my fascination with the "msa7arati" will seem silly. To me though, this is a part of a culture I didn’t grow up in, but that I was told about by my parents and cousins.

I love our culture.

2005 Protein Calendar

"It's actually not too soon to be thinking about your 2005 calendar. Protein, the collective responsible for super creative media distribution, has released 500 wall calendars based on Lunar Chromo. What's that? It has something to do with how color tells your body what time it is. In this case, the colors correspond to phases of the moon. Regardless of whether that does anything for you, it sure is beautiful to look at."

[Via Cool Hunting]

Arabs For Israel?

I just found a site called "Arabs For Israel".
Sickening. I do not and will not believe that it written and maintained by Arabs though, because hopefully, no Arab will have the lack of dignity to do such a thing.
God.

Free World!

[Via Blog]

Don't ask what's up with politics these past few days, but I couldn't help posting these. I'm not into caricatures, but these are so expressive.

Blood and Gold

I'm a complete sucker for reading, I literally read any book that comes to hand. So I can't believe I still haven't mentioned books!



I just finished re-reading(for the 10ths time) Anne Rice's "Blood and Gold". Excellent book. It's so rich in history, culture, and of course, beautiful writing. Did anyone ever try reading an Anne Rice?
Her insights are very interesting as well. She's a very religious Catholic, and she tends to attack and dismantle her own beliefs in her books. She does extremely interesting(indirect) comparative studies of religions since the pagan times like Gods of the Grove, Isis, and all the Roman and Greek deities.
She uses vampires to explore the centuries, and her research is always so thorough its almost freaky(she has 2 Palestinian characters who's names are actually derived from 2 ancient Palestinian families that are deeply related.)
"Blood and Gold" is almost my favorite book(can't decide between it and "The Vampire Armand"), mostly because it's from the point of view of my favorite vampire, the wise 2,000-year-old Roman-born Marius (I'm also always attracted to smart people).
So if you don't mind some blood, do read this book. Trust me, her books have nothing to do with her movies.

Here's the back flap:

"Once a proud Senator in Imperial Rome, Marius is kidnapped and forced into that dark realm of blood, where he is made a protector of the Queen and King of the vampires–in whom the core of the supernatural race resides. Through his eyes we see the fall of pagan Rome to the Emperor Constantine, the horrific sack of the Eternal City at the hands of the Visigoths, and the vile aftermath of the Black Death. Ultimately restored by the beauty of the Renaissance, Marius becomes a painter, living dangerously yet happily among mortals, and giving his heart to the great master Botticelli, to the bewitching courtesan Bianca, and to the mysterious young apprentice Armand. But it is in the present day, deep in the jungle, when Marius will meet his fate seeking justice from the oldest vampires in the world. . . . "

Ahhh :) You should see why I love it! So rich! Now, I want to read it again.

EU Bans "Air" Technology

"We thought there might be something fishy about Nike’s PR-driven environmental stance. Though the company is making an effort to recycle shoes and use organic cotton, it appears some of its design aspects remain less than desirable. The European Union is currently making an effort to ban all shoes made with “air” technology (not just Nike’s, to be fair). Apparently, the air used to fill them, called F-gases, are a big-time contributor to the potential of global warming, in some cases, more than 24,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide."

[Via Tree Hugger]

Damn Links; Damn U.S. Administration

And here's another view (Haitham's):

[As posted on Sabbah's Blog by Haitham at 10:11 pm]

"I couldn’t digest how you simplified the issue, and why you should feel ashamed! I really feel sorry when Arab (of all backgrounds and religions) fall under the bogus claims of U.S. “Terror Links".

Let us follow the links!

It would be so much more convenient for the Bush Administration if all of the post-war woes of Iraq could be blamed on outside agitators. But the facts are that Iraqis continue to be “disappeared” and to die at the hands of trigger happy American occupiers, that infrastructure and institutions have not been restored, that unemployment and squalor are prevalent, and that tensions are rising among the indigenous Sunni, Shia, Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen.

This is where the game of links start!

“Link” is among the vaguest and most dangerously useful of words. The War on Terror deploys it constantly. The first group, other than al-Qaeda and the Taliban, targeted by U.S. military forces after 9-11 was the “al-Qaeda-linked” Abu Sayyaf bandit group in the Philippines. Never mind that the Philippines president herself declared that there had been no ties between al-Qaeda and Abu Sayyaf in five or six years. The linkage however facilitated the U.S. military’s reentrance into the Philippines, so positing some link, which needn’t be close or substantial or even explained at all, served a policy goal.

Syria has been linked to al-Qaeda; so has Iran, and of course, Iraq under Saddam. This can mean simply that an al-Qaeda operative has visited one of these countries, or that there have been low-level, inconclusive contacts between security officials and al-Qaeda. The neocons have excelled in linking 9-11 to a broad array of projects; the establishment of these links is for them a kind of Straussian game in which the Noble Lie is argued through the most creatively effective stringing of links. (Assignment to Defense Department staff: how can we use 9-11 to win popular support for our plans to topple Assad? Palestinian in whole (not Hamas only)? Jordanian national security and economical development? The Iranian mullahs? Castro? Kim Jong-il? Let us link, link, link, lie nobly and conquer.)

If Iraq becomes increasingly unstable, it will be more and more necessary (and useful) to link its instability to some of these other targets. Opposition to occupation, potentially a setback for the ambitious neocon world-transforming plan, can be placed in the latter’s service if it can, for example, be linked to Syrian “interference” and complicity in the passage of foreign jihadis into Iraq, and provide some justification for regime change in Damascus (an obsessive neocon goal).

Having said all that, a fact remains that the weakest part of the whole U.S. presentation, and the most important, was the claims trying to link Iraq with al-Qaeda operations. In the past, the link depended on the claims about one man, Mohammed Atta, meeting with Iraqi intelligence in Prague (we’ve since found out that he was almost certainly in the United States at the time of the alleged meeting); now it depends on one man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

So, who is Al-Zarqawi?

Recall that in his address to the United Nations in February 2003, Colin Powell, having detailed evidence for Iraq’s huge arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, proceeded to argue for an attack on Iraq using the additional allegation of long-standing ties between Baghdad and al-Qaeda. The cornerstone of his case was that “Iraq today harbors a deadly terrorist network headed by Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi an associate and collaborator of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda lieutenants.”

“Zarqawi,” Powell continued, a “Palestinian born in Jordan, fought in the Afghan war more than a decade ago.” (Note 1: Powell had just accused Saddam of supporting what so called “Palestinian terrorism” and raised a flag on Jordan national security. Some sources, including Jane’s Intelligence Digest and the Christian Science Monitor, call Zarqawi a Jordanian Bedouin. The discrepancy in identification/linkage may be important. Note 2: Powell might have expanded the sentence: “fought in the Afghan war more than a decade ago, a war against a Soviet-backed regime, in which he was fighting on the same side as the U.S., along with thousands of other foreign jihadis recruited by the CIA and Pakistan’s ISI.") Powell continued: “Returning to Afghanistan in 2000, he oversaw a terrorist training camp. One of his specialties, and one of the specialties of this camp, is poisons. When our coalition ousted the Taliban, the Zarqawi network helped establish another poison and explosive training center camp, and this camp is located in northeastern Iraq.” (Note 3: currently an autonomous region with a provisional Kurdish government that is aligned with the United States.)

Powell went on to describe a camp producing ricin and other poisons, operated by the “radical organization Ansar al-Islam that controls this corner of Iraq.” He was apparently relying on the New Yorker journalism of Jeffrey Goldberg. The nature of the “camp” (obliterated in the opening stage of the war, leaving no evidence of anything) and of the Ansar organization itself remain unclear. Ansar has been variously described as a Kurdish organization, and as a group of mostly Arab al-Qaeda exiles living among Kurds. Goldberg alleged that Saddam’s regime and al-Qaeda jointly sponsored the group, a charge heatedly denied by Baghdad (and not specifically echoed in Powell’s speech). (Note 4: There is no attempt to link Ansar itself to the 9/11 attacks. In fact, while apparently the mere presence of al-Zarqawi, a subordinate in Ansar, in Iraq is sufficient reason for war, the head of Ansar, known as Mullah Krekar, is living unmolested in Norway, and the United States has not even made an extradition request. Krekar denies any connection of Ansar with al-Qaeda.)

Zarqawi, Powell continued, “traveled to Baghdad in May of 2002 for medical treatment, staying in the capital of Iraq for two months while he recuperated to fight another day.” (Note 5: The story widely circulated is that he had his leg amputated, but Newsweek currently reports, “The stark fact is that we don’t even know for sure how many legs Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi has") “During his stay, nearly two dozen extremists converged on Baghdad and established a base of operations there. These al-Qaida affiliates based in Baghdad now coordinate the movement of people, money and supplies into and throughout Iraq for his network, and they have now been operating freely in the capital for more than eight months. Iraqi officials deny accusations of ties with al-Qaida. These denials are simply not credible. We know these affiliates are connected to Zarqawi because they remain, even today, in regular contact with his direct subordinates, include the poison cell plotters. And they are involved in moving more than money and materiel.”

There seems to be much unclarity about this Zarqawi fellow. Is he a close al-Qaeda associate? German intelligence suggests that he is rather a rival of bin Laden, with ideological differences. His organization, al-Tawhid, is separate from al-Qaeda. Asia Times reported March 2 that “according to official US sources, Zarqawi’s relationship to bin Laden is ‘uncertain,’ and a recent report by the intelligence branch of the US Department of State stressed that al-Qaeda and Ansar appear quite unrelated and independent of each other".

According to some reports, Zarqawi is presently under arrest in Iran; Jordan has requested his extradition to face trial but the Iranians say he carries a Syrian passport. An AP report states that a leaflet circulated in Iraq by a coalition of resistance groups says he was killed by an American bombing attack in the Sulaimaniya Mountains in Iraq. Since the real story’s so unclear, those accustomed to making things up can do so unrestrained by a lot of cumbersome facts.

Anyway, having linked Zarqawi to al-Qaeda and to Iraq (specifically, to “his terrorist network in Iraq” responsible for the killing of Agency for International Development operative Laurence Foley in Amman in 2002, a network plotting “terrorist actions against countries including France, Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany and Russia,” and linked to terror in Georgia and Chechnya), Powell sought to persuade the world and his fellow Americans that Iraq was part of the general Evil requiring aggressive U.S. attention in the post-9-11 world.

Lets just observe facts here. If things go very badly for the U.S. in Iraq (as I think they will), and if civil war erupts (as I think it may), then whatever administration’s in power will need to say: “This mess isn’t our responsibility, not our fault. It’s Zarqawi, linked to al-Qaeda, linked to Ansar al-Islam, linked to Iran, linked to Syria, and linked to Saddam. All those evil people who started this by attacking us on 9-11. All those now trying to thwart our efforts to achieve main reason now justifying our war: to bestow democracy and our universally applicable values on Iraq.”

Democracy in this case means, of course, democracy in any shape and form chosen by the sovereign Iraqi people—just so long as it allows U.S. control over the flow of Iraqi oil, guarantees massive profits to U.S. corporations receiving contracts for reconstruction, permits the establishment of permanent U.S. military bases, abets Israeli security, and rules out any prospect of a Sharia-based legal system that might enhance the strength of anti-American religious fundamentalism (a phenomenon actually encouraged daily by U.S. policies towards Muslim peoples). The 60% of Iraqis who are Shiites must make a choice. Doesn’t the Zarqawi “letter” make it clear? Stand with the Americans against terror, or by resisting U.S. forces make common cause with a man who wrote to bin Laden describing Shiites as “vermin.” We’re good, they’re bad. You’re for us or against us. And if you’re against us, you’re with Zarqawi. Make sense?

Real links? I’d suggest the following. Capital accumulates and concentrates and assumes the form of empire, requiring for its maintenance and expansion “full spectrum dominance,” control of energy supply, establishment of military bases everywhere, alliances with brutal tyrants, and endlessly proliferating officially-generated falsehoods. All these can be causally linked to rage, to terror, and to death. Those understanding these links, can, if they link up effectively, “pluck the imaginary flowers from the chain without fantasy,” demanding and creating conditions that reject all the lies."

Wow.

The Cult of Mac

Wow. Talk about good book-cover design. Very creative.

4.1 Million Domestic Robots in 2007?

The 2004 World Robotics Survey, conducted by the United Nations, predicts that by the end of the year 2007, there will be 4.1 million domestic robots in use doing household chores and providing entertainment. Right now the number is 607,000. I love how thoughtful this little boy looks, like he's not at all sure he wants Irobi (that's really its name) the "Family Robot" to become his companion. The Irobi, just announced by Korean Yujin Robotics, can act as a security guard, read stories, and deliver messages.

[Via Popgadget]

Why does this article remind me of all the robots-gone-bad movies I've watched over the years?

Nables With the Dinosaurs

Al-Ghad thinks that the desserts of Nables are running the danger of being extinct.
I think Al-Ghad are weird to post such an article AND give it half a hole page. Extinct who... The ques at stores that sell knafeh reach the street during Ramadan.

Now I feel like having knafeh.

Cyberspace Ate My Posts

Hm...Where did the posts I posted today disappear?

Zarqawi, damn you!

I can't resist posting Natasha's latest post because I've been thinking about this for a while and I'm not as good as Natasha with words:

"Due to the nature of my job as a news person, I remain almost unaffected by the regional political mayhem, but there is one current affair that infuriates me to no end. It is the fact that the notorious Abu Mussab al- Zarqawi is actually Jordanian.
I still can’t fathom how this pedophile thug who runs around beheading people comes from the same country where I was born and spent some of the happiest days in my life.

What makes the situation even worse is that as I’m working in a newsroom, I’m cursed to be always subjected to the most recent updates of Zarqawi’s ill doings. The minute I hear his latest news, I get this irresistible urge to hide, to run away from this scandalous piece of information related to my fellow countryman.

I’m not sure if I am being ridiculously obsessed with Zarqawi’s nationality, but I notice that for some reason the news outlets that cover his wrongdoings tend to highlight his country of origin. In almost every news item I see, Zarqawi is always referred to as a “Jordanian-born militant” or a “Jordanian fugitive”, or even a “Jordanian al-Qaeda ally”.

It is always a “Jordanian” this or a “Jordanian” that. No one fails to mention his birth place! Ah, the shame!

I remember back in the old days, Jordan was not a country that everybody immediately recognized when I was asked about my place of origin. Many thought it was a city in the state of Georgia, others joked about it being a country named after Michael Jordan. It was still a fairly unknown small Middle Eastern country. Things are not the same anymore, for due to the satanic deeds of Zaraqwi and his followers my nation has now been stained for ever.

To Zarqawi and his cronies, I say damn you! I will dance the dance of joy, and sing the song of bliss the minute you are brought to justice for your hideous crimes. Shame on you from tarnishing the reputation of my country and shame on you even more for acting in the name of God. "

[Via Mental Mayhem]

Well said Natasha.

The Nap-Cap

Damn. This must be the stupidest most pointless invention I have ever seen. Hell, it's even sillier than the "Poopie Shorts".
It supposedly stops people from drooling on the shoulder of a sleeping seatmate on planes.
Ahuh.

Heart on Fire

What can $150,000 buy you?
A million happy people, according to musician Sarah McLachlan who donated the budget for her new music video to charities around the world. Then she put together a very touching video about the difference her music video budget money could make in third-world countries for only $15.
Check out the video at worldonfire.ca. It's worth looking at. Also check out the list of charities and sum of money donated to each here.
Amazing- music with a heart. I'm really impressed. Way to go Sarah!

It’s A Rocky “Road To Kabul”

I'm not a TV person so I never watch TV, but here's an interesting insight on one of the shows showing during Ramadan:

"It’s A Rocky “Road To Kabul”



The TV soap opera, that is. “The Road To Kabul” is a joint Qatari-Jordanian serial about an Afghan girl who falls in love with a Palestinian boy while studying in the UK, only to return home to the indignities and misogynist oppression of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Apparently, the producers, directors, writers, and actors must be doing something right because they warranted death threats from the latest addition to the wacko-squad: the Mujahedin Brigades of Iraq and Syria.

“We swear to the great God that if we see in the series anything other than the honourable reality of the Taliban … we will assault all those who participated in this sullied malice.

“We will strike, God willing, the centres of satellite stations, their correspondents … and we swear that nobody will slip from our hands - if not today, then tomorrow, and if not tomorrow, then in a month, or a year.”

QTV, the co-producer of the series, has decided not to broadcast it bacause “its quality and standard could not be verified” according to a station spokesman. Ironically, the Saudis love it, as it is available via satellite on MBC and ART. But in typical fashion – ie., clueless of the Western mentality and clinging to conspiracy theories –some Saudis think that the serial isn’t being broadcast because of American pressure on QTV. What they don’t get is that this is EXACTLY the image of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan that the US wants everyone to see, as it becomes one reason for justifying the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. In fact, when you see all the images and stories coming out of Afghanistan now, it makes any human wonder how the world could have all closed its eyes for so long to the massive human tragedy caused by the Taliban. It’s about time we open our eyes.

Check these out: The Peninsula, Independent, Al Bawaba, Arab News.

[Via Sabbah's Blog, PM]

Microsoft Lies

Ok, just out of sheer wonder, did Microsoft upgrade any of your Hotmail accounts to the promised 250 MB of free storage?

"The upgrade will increase Hotmail's free e-mail storage limits from 2 megabytes to 250MB and its paid e-mail service, which costs $19.95 a year, from 10MB to 2 gigabytes. The changes will begin in early July."

Commodify Your Dissent

"In a bid to go beyond just traditional cultural jamming, Adbuster has launched a Blackspot project, where they’ll market a sneaker as part of an experiment to see if they could grab even a percentage of market away from Nike. While they’ve been planning this for quite a while now, It wasn’t until now that I noticed that they give you a share of the company for every shoe you purchase and you get to use your shareholder number to login and vote on major corporate decisions."

[Via Sensory Impact]

Cool shoes!

Desolate Photography

I'm really a freak for history and sighseeing, but I hate the desolate, empty feeling in abandoned and old houses and establishments. Especially ones that look like they were the splendor of their day. How was it like when this lonely place was bustling with life and energy?
It just makes me wonder what will happen to our contemporary treasures a 100 years from now.
Mustard Gas Party certainly has me unnerved.
It's photographs, mostly B&W, capture the mood of abandonment and isolation in a very fascinating way. I know I got carried away with posting too many pictures, but I they're all so amazingly horrific that I'm having a hard time not posting more. The last one actually made me shiver! Check out the rest of the photographs at the website.

Friends

Haitham's Bahrain Blogger Meet-Up had me remember my experiences with meeting "online" friends. Actually, they were only two experiences.

Six to seven years ago, I got deeply drawn into mIRC for a few months. I talked to a lot of people, but most of them weren't even worth a nickel (shall I say negleh?:) )
My first experience(which was about 6 years ago) was terrible. I really do believe that you can easily read a person from the way he or she dresses, and the guy literally showed up in what looked like PJ's to me. Scratch out- I'm not into people who don't know how to dress (call me shallow if you will, but dressing is a form of art.) There were also several other scratch-out factors of course, like his inability to talk and the whole "sweetie" thing (The "sweetie" thing SERIOUSLY gets on my nerves. I never understood when it became okay for a guy to call a girl he barely knows "sweetie". Find yourself a girlfriend!)
The experience resulted in the uninstallation of mIRC and lost contact with practically everyone.

Then came MSN Messenger, which was reserved for real-life friends. Only one mIRC buddy managed to find his way onto my contact list, and he lived in the States so I didn't consider it a problem. I also was at a stage where I was so involved with SAT's, fundraisers, and worrying about colleges to actually spend time online.
My calculations didn’t work out though(BTW, I suck at math), and as the years passed, I found myself spending at least 3 hours every day just talking to him, and attraction developed.
So when he came to Jordan, I of course had to meet him. It was scary. When you know someone for years through his writings and words, you create the person of your dreams around those writings. I was really afraid that my expectations were set too high. Luckily, they weren't, and the experience was magical. It also made us closer, and we met several times after that. It's been a long time since he last came to Jordan though and I really can't wait till he comes again.
So there you go, my two experiences. One bad, one good. And I'm not a freak :P I'm sure a lot of people have had such an experience, did any of you?

Art and Smoking

I thought the Artbox project was really cool until I saw the cigarette the girl in the pop-art is holding. Seriously, why would they do that?
Art should be a means of improvement and communication, and it should not advertise smoking. Disgusting.

Art Center: Bush's Moldy Policies

"At the "GardenLAb Expiriment", an exhibit that was held recently at Los Angeles's Art Center College of Design, numerous artists commented on the relationship of the city's urban citizens and environment to it's natural forces and elements. There were eco-shelters, urban homesteads, and even a classroom for corn, but far and away our favorite piece was a portrait of George W. made up of "pixels" of bread, each loaf representing a different one of his environmental policies. As the bread becomes moldly, each loaf fights to take over the portrait. How appropriate."

[Via Treehugger]

Interesting.

October 17 Demonstration in DC

Passport to Nowhere

"So, it seems Microsoft's Passport is going down big time.

The whole idea didn't really catch on from the beginning and only Microsoft-owned sites and a handful of close partners jumped on board. And after a bunch of high profile technical glitches and huge privacy concerns it just went sour.

I just read on Anil Dash's blog that Monster.com sent out an email last week saying that they were discontinuing the option to sign in using Passport.
And it seems that eBay has taken the same step too.

Microsoft itself hasn't been talking about Passport anymore, and their directory of sites using passport is gone. It's like they know it's a lost cause now.

Oh well, I'm sure Passport will still be around for things like msn messenger and other basic stuff, but gone are the days when it was hailed as the big web authentication service, our passport online."

[Via Subzero Blue]

Who Said Having a Beard Made You a Terrorist?!

"haha, this is really cool. This is a participant at the annual World Beard and Moustache Championships. You dont have to be in saudi to have a long beard! LOL i should send this to my teachers at manarat, they will probably win half of the prizes...haha. Click here for more information."

[Via Zizzles Crib]

Damn! How freaky is that! I just don't understand facial hair! Anyway, check out the rest of the very freaky pictures at worldbeardchamionships.com.
And Sami, the folks at Manarat Al-Riyadh would surely love to join!

Faculty of Arts and Design's First Facullty Show

"Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah inaugurated the First Faculty Show of the College of Arts and Design held on Wednesday October 13, 2004 at the Activities Hall of the Deanship of Students Affairs.

The exhibition, in which ten faculty members, including the Faculty of Arts and Design's Dean, Princess Wijdan, participated, is a rendition of 29 of the Faculty of Arts and Design faculty's artistic creations in the fields of painting, design, sculpture, ceramics and graphic art.

Attending the ceremony were Government Spokesperson, Asma Khader, UJ President Professor Abdullah Al-Musa, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Design Princess Wijdan, art educators, painters, sculptors, ceramics as well as a number of UJ deans and faculty."

[Source: Jordan University]

Floating Touch Screen

Chad Dyner designed "Heliodisplay", which displays images in thin air, and without the need for a projection screen or anything. How cool is that :) To make things even cooler, it's interactive! You can actually navigate and select with your hand and finger, thus a "floating touch screen".
Amazing, but it has a pretty hefty price tag at $18,600.

Ftoor in Ramadan

It's a family habit to go have Ftoor at Inter-Continental Hotel during the first week of every Ramadan, and this year was no exception. It is though, the first time we go to Inter-Continental Amman, we always go to the one in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The restaurant looked like a scene from Arabian Nights. There wasn't a tent, but the ceiling sort of had a built in tent, and they had silk drapes draped around doorways and windows. The chairs also looked really cute wearing golden and blue-silver beaded hoodies. The waiters seemed like they have morphed out of Aladdin :)
The best part though was the fact that there was a man playing the Qanun, one of my favorite instruments.

And of course, they served Vimto, the Ramadan drink :) We're sort of used to having Saudi Champagne(nonalcoholic drink made of freshly cut apples, fizzy water, and fizzy apple juice), but Vimto is a good second.

Overall, it was nice, and I'd recommend a ftoor at the Inter-Con because of the Ramadan feel, although the food wasn't amazing. I bet the cook was Ghazzawi, because everything was WAY too spicy!

Retro Reebok

"Wow! I was surfin the net and i came across this work of art! behold, the reebok pumps! This is going wayyyyyyyyyy back, I remember I had a pair of these when i was 6 years old, they were the greatest back then, pumped my shoes up and all! I cant wait till they are out on the market. If i have the money, probably like 100+, im buying them for sure =)"

[Via Zizzles Krib

Lol, I am SO glad the 80's are over!

Apple Storefront

"Just two days after announcing the "Mini" store concept, Apple opens the first 6 locations today. Preliminary reports indicate these stores will not only feature cutting edge design, but also forward thinking technology. Because 80% of customers pay with credit cards there will be self service check out stations. To facilitate communication within the store and back to "HQ," all employees will wear a Trekkie like communicator that operates using voice commands."

[Via Cool Hunting]

I can't believe how beautiful the store front looks. It's so simple, yet it looks so gorgeous. Mac are amazing.

Mind Reading

Ok here's a little something my brother found in a magazine:
It's silly, but funny.

1. Pick a number from 2 to 9.

2.Multiply your number by 9.

3.Take your two digit answer and add the digits together.

4.Take the resulting number and subtract 5 from it.

5. Take the number and correspond it to the alphabet, numbering the letters, ex. A=1, B=2, C=3, and so on.

6. Take your letter, and think of a country that begins with that letter(excluding Arab counties)

7. Take the last letter in the name of that country and think of an animal.

8. Now, take the last letter in the name of that animal, and think of a color.

There are no orange kangaroos in Denmark :P

HElp!

Ok, I need some help.
The "Business Card Project" isn't really going too well, because I barely have time, and because my creative muse is acting sleepy.
Anyway though, I finally have the logo names narrowed down to two, and I can't choose between them.
If you owned a design company, and I was applying, so I gave you my business card, which logo would attract your attention?

1) Den Interiors(as in living room for those who are confused)
2) Box: Think Outside

If you think they both suck and have a better idea, please do share!
Help would really be appreciated :)

Salvadore Dali and Disney

"A narrow waisted, emerald-eyed brunette flits through a desert full of melting clocks and wacky perspectives, looking for her lover. Giant telephones levitate. Bicyclists with bread loaf helmets pedal by.
No, it's not a delusion — it's "Destino," a film by Salvador Dali and Walt Disney. Only six-minutes long, the fantastical jewel packs enough symbols to keep art historians and psychologists busy for years.
Begun in 1946 but shelved because of financial difficulties, the film was finally completed in 2003 by Roy E. Disney, Disney's nephew and son of Walt Disney Co.'s co-founder. It is showing for the first time in New York City as the centerpiece of a new exhibit at Animazing Gallery.
The honor surely would have delighted the exhibitionist Dali, who is getting another dose of fame during the Year of Dali 2004, an array of exhibits and events celebrating the 100th anniversary of the surrealist artist's birth on May 11, 1904.
His collaboration with Walt Disney puzzles some, but the two had great respect for each other, with Dali describing Disney as one of the three great American surrealists; Disney's imaginative freedom of animation mirrors Dali's artistic vision.
"Destino" garnered a 2003 Academy Award nomination for best short film. Rendered with 21st-century technology, the result may be better than any film its creators could have made. A documentary DVD about "Destino" is planned.
The exhibit at Animazing Gallery runs through Nov. 14 and will not travel."

[Souce: Yahoo! News]

Too bad it's not travelling. Salvadore Dali is an amazing artist. I love his view of the world. I also love Disney, the magic I grew up with. I really hope I'll get to see this movie some how.

Grapple- Apple That Tastes Like Grapes

I'm a very visual person, especially when it comes to food. I eat things because they look "pretty" usually, and not because they taste good.
When it comes to grapes, I barely eat them because they're scratched most of the time and I hate the slimey feeling of them in my mouth.
C&O Nursery has created a solution. Grapple, sold by Get Fit Foods and created by C&O Nursery are Fuji apples infused with Concord grape flavor through a patented process.
Ok, maybe it's not the best solution, and I doubt I'll like it, but still, it's a cool idea.

Ramadan

Ramadan is tomorrow, and like any person raised in Saudi Arabia, I love Ramadan.
In Saudi Arabia, Ramadan is a break from the year. We grew up in a compound, which is a group of villas surrounded by a wall and that share a recreation area including pools, tennis courts, gyms, etc. In our compound(tiny, only made of 12 villas), they always placed a hugeee tent outside by the pool during Ramadan. All the neighbors would do a pot-luck sort of thing and we'd all have "ftoor"(breaking of the fast) together, regardless of religion and nationality. Then everyone from age 2 to 70 would spend the whole night until dawn(literally) in the tent, bbq-ing marshmallows, watching movies, smoking "arageel"(hubbly-bubbly), and just talking. Even people from outside the compound would stay till 3 AM or something(remember, Sami?). During the day, schools and jobs would start at 11:00 AM instead of 7:00, and at schools, no one used to teach anything cause the teachers would be too tired. It was honestly amazing...
Below is a tiny portion of the tent, and that door leads into the swimming pool :) LOL, my friend accidentally fell in once...The kids laying on the floor are watching TV. We did have couches of course, but the kids used to love sleeping in the tent so we had blankets and mats there so they used to watch TV while laying down.




I guess the only time I miss Riyadh is during religious celebrations. In Jordan, Ramadan isn't as sweet. It's just a regular month like the rest of the year, the only difference is that we don't go to Seveen Cafeteria or to the milk-bar when we're at school. The thing I like about Ramadan here is that everyone puts up Ramadan decorations(illegal in Saudi, don't ask), and Amman starts looking so pretty with star and crescent lights hanging from the windows.




In short, happy Ramadan to everyone who celebrates Ramadan, inshalla yen3ad 3aleikom.

Lost Little Roba

Terrible morning!
I only have one class on Thursdays at 11, so I go to school a bit early and I go and sit in class. I find it a bit odd that I don't recognize many faces, and that my friend who's usually there early didn't show up. Then, a professor I didn't recognize comes in so I finally ask the girl behind me if this is Computer Skills. Turns out the class was Sociology, and it wasn't 11 o'clock, it was 12.
God... How utterly lost of me!
What makes things worse is that I didn't find a good parking spot so I had to park on the 7th floor(roof actually) of the parking lot, which means that I climbed 7 flights of stairs for absolutly no reason.
Ahhhhhh!
Bad morning. Actually, bad week! The other day I was at my surface design class and I was going to sit when I heard this ripping noise... Turns out it was the back of my pants, and they ripped at the most unfortunate place, and the rip was huge... It was also 8, and all my classes were after each other so I had no time to go home and change, and my classes finish at 4 that day. Unbelievable! Thank God it was cold and I had a jacket with me to tie around my waist.
Blah, at least this week is over.

Twisted Comic Book Art Book Van Gogh(lack of ear) Roba Weird Professor Too Much Glaze Flash Bad Paint Job UNTITLED

Last term, we had a sculpting and ceramics class at school. Our final project was sculpting a head, and I managed to get my project back(LOL, the stupid university guards thinking that our sculptures are stolen artifacts from the university's museum is actually an issue!) sometime last week.
I hate the paint job, I didn't paint it myself because we ran out of time, so it looks too gorey which I would have never done. It's also too shiny because of the cameras flash. So enjoy my work of art while ignoring the goreyness and the shininess :P
The professor who teaches this class is actually pretty talented, so I have no idea why he painted our sculptures that way. Check his work out at alzubi.com.

Loss

I Hate losing! Qatar just lost the FIFA qualifying gave against Iran. I'm so upset... There's nothing worse than a lost soccer match. Well, at least Jordan won today, but they need 7 goals in one game to make it into the next level. Annoying.

Future of Time

To celebrate its 150th Anniversary and demonstrate an ongoing commitment to design and innovation, Timex teamed up with Core77 to conduct a global design competition: Timex2154: THE FUTURE OF TIME.

Here are my favorite designs,though they might not be the winners:




Alexey Koptev
Russia
32
Enthusiast




Little Ben Watch
Matthew Hebert
United States
28
Professional




Epidigital Patch
Jonah Becker
United States
32
Professional

Gwen Stefani

I just heard Gwen Stefani's new single, What You Waiting For, and I'm really upset. No Doubt has always been one of my favorite bands, and I spent all my teenage years listening to Gwen Stefani's strong feminine voice booming from my stereo.
I'm really disappointed in "What You Waiting For" because of the tasteless imitation of the vulgar currently popular music. It's also erotic and completely meaningless. The only meaningful phrase in the whole song was taken from an old song of No Doubt, being "Born to blossom, bloom to perish."
I do respect her trying to get the younger tasteless generation to like her, but that doesn’t require her to absolutely rid her music of everything that was so beautiful and so unique in No Doubts previous albums(not counting Rock Steady which was the beginning of the decline).
Really, I hope the rest of the songs on the album are not as crap.

Spider Woman

[Souce:Xinhaunet]

This stunning spider was spotted recently by a surprised Beijing resident who saw this tiny spider outside her door.
The interesting thing about this spider is the set of strange markings, and a white back that appears to look like a woman's face! Look at how the markings appear to look like eyes, nose, and lips. Nature is remarkable.

Jackson Seeks Ban on Eminem's New Video

Michael Jackson is reportedly angered by the way he is portrayed in rapper Eminem's recently released video "Just Lose It." The pop singer is said to be so upset that he has asked networks to remove the video from their rotations.
"Michael Jackson is very angry. He feels that Eminem has crossed the line," Jackson representative Ramone Bain told the Daily News in Tuesday editions. "Michael is calling on all networks to pull the video."
In the video, Eminem appears dressed mockingly as Jackson with a group of boys in the background, jumping. Then he sings the lyric in reference to Jackson's child molestation allegations: "Come here little kiddie, on my lap. Guess who's back with a brand new rap..."
Later in the video Eminem also ridicules plastic surgery done on Jackson's nose, and an accident in which Jackson's hair caught on fire while filming a Pepsi commercial in 1984.
So far, Black Entertainment Television has agreed to pull the video, and was expected on Tuesday to announce that it is removing the video.
"Michael feels the video is disrespectful and offensive...it's one thing to spoof someone, it's another to be completely insensitive and disrespectful," said Bain.

[Source: Yahoo! News]

I'm not a fan of Jackson at all, but I utterly and completely despise Eminem and his rudeness. What an idiot.

Test Tube Couture

"Wired magazine has an article about how scientists are growing clothing out of skin. For real this time. This ain't that creepy synthetic stuff we were talking about before. This is, in fact, what looks like a (not-so-stylish) turtle neck skin sweater:

I wonder what the care instructions are for a garment like this. "Feed thrice daily. Dry clean only." I'm sure there's a joke in there somewhere about botox instead of ironing, but botox jokes are so Jay Leno."

[via Planet Dan]

What can I say! EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

The First Annual Faculty Show

Under the patronage of HRH Queen Rania Al-Abdallah, the College of Arts and Design will hold the first annual faculty show on the 13th of October, 2004. The exhibition will take place at Jordan University.
I love the invitation cards so I thought I'd share:








As for the faculty paintings displayed, here are some of my personal favorites:


Lynn Allen


Aziz Ammoura


Muhanna Il Dura


Check out the rest of the faculty members paintings and find out more about the exhibition here.

Winter Coming

Today was the first gloomy day of the year :\ That basically means that winter is coming soon and I'm very much the sunshine person so I absolutly despise winter and its drab, rainy gloominess. I also hate being cold.
Below is Amman when its beautifully blue.

Spidey Kryptonite

[Via SensoryImpact]

Beautifully simple, and straight to the point.

Women Taking Ove Tthe Gadget Market

Roland Mouret designed changeable skins for laptops

Women's spending power is growing faster than men's, and gadget makers are
proposing products to win back our market.The fact that we feel design is
important does not mean we are just interested in pretty, shiny objects.Besides,
the language that explains and sells technology has to be rethought. As women's
glossies hardly ever run gadget reviews, some have turned to weblogs, edited by
women, for a more straightforward look at the latest shiny things.And that's
when it gets interesting!Mia Kim, editor of Popgadget, welcomes the recognition
that technology companies are giving to women, but is unhappy about what they
think women want."Their solution is to do things like add mirrors to cell
phones, make things pink, instead of really dealing with the issue of not
marketing to women and not having media or retail outlets that are women
friendly."Ultimately, women are probably the harder sell, she thinks. They want
to know how something works before they buy it."It is not enough to just say
it's the fastest, it's the biggest. I think women want more substance than that.
They're thinking, 'okay, it's fast, I get it, but what does it actually
do?'."Get the details in BBC news (no picture of Mia unfortunately)Thanks for the tip, Emily!"

[via http://www.popgadget.net/]

Actor Christopher Reeves Dies

"Superman" actor Christopher Reeve, who turned personal tragedy into a public crusade and from his wheelchair became the nation's most recognizable spokesman for spinal cord research, has died. He was 52.
Reeve died Sunday of complications from an infection caused by a bedsore. He went into cardiac arrest Saturday, while at his Pound Ridge home, then fell into a coma and died Sunday at a hospital surrounded by his family, his publicist said."

[Source: Yahoo! News]

The Octodog

How do you make "specially selected meat trimmings" encased in cellulose wrappers even more delish? By pressing them into Octodogs with the Frankfurter Converter.

[Voa Popgadgets]

How adorable :) Which reminds me, I'm craving corndogs...

The Gmail Drive

"Bjarke Viksoe is the mind behind Gmail Drive. Gmail Drive allows you to mount an extra drive under Windows and link it to your Gmail account. This way you will be able to store files in your Gmail account and retrieve them directly from inside Windows Explorer.
When you create a new file using GMail Drive, it generates an e-mail and posts it to your account. The e-mail appears in your normal Inbox folder, and the file is attached as an e-mail attachment. GMail Drive periodically checks your mail account (using the GMail search function) to see if new files have arrived and to rebuild the directory structures. But basically GMail Drive acts as any other hard-drive installed on your computer.
Ever wanted to shoot yourself because you forgot your USB drive at an important client meeting? Well, apparently those days are over … well sort of ;-). Unfortunately it won’t support file over 10 Megs, but I still think it’s kind of neat. Now the question is, will Google ban this?"

[Via PopGadget]

Current Electoral Vote Predictor 2004

According to Electoral Vote Predictor , Kerry is leading.
Thanks Walkwood.

Business Cards Project

We did a little more work on the business card project today, and we looked at different business cards in Jordan. We actually looked at a few quite nice ones that really impressed me. It's too bad I didn't have my camera with me.
My favorite two were for design companies called Mint and Syntax. Mint's was very artistic, and they used psychology to make the logo stick in your mind(you would expect the word "Mint" to be green, but it's fuschia.) I thought it was really cool. Syntax's was also nice; I loved the logo, and the color scheme was very different.
We also looked at the business cards of several other design firms, but none of the cards were good enough to stick in my mind.

The Bus Stops Here

"Fiori, a Portland based design, strategy, and research firm, recently received a gold award in the IDSA Northwest Design Invitational for their conceptual project "The Bus Stops Here." Each bus shelter concept is a focused look at a specific issue.


Bloom: Weather changes. Shelters should too. Bloom smartly uses electro-active polymer technology to adapt it’s canopy to current rainfall and also displays annual precipitation levels in it’s transparent stalk.


Bend: Awkward conversations at the bus stop are over. Patrons smile as their combined weight acts to close the shelter overhead.


Mod: Creating a modular system that can be updated according to use patterns is essential in a money starved public budget. Mod even provides distinct sections for types of individuals: the loner, the socialite, and the info-geek all get their space.


Time Square: The most obvious issue with mass transit is schedule and timing. How do you know if your bus is late or if you just missed it? Time Square uses kinetic color technology to communicate the proximity of the next bus.

More info: www.fioriinc.com

[Via Core77]


Wow. My favorite kind of design in concept design. I just feel like it has more purpose than design only for practical and aesthetic purposes. These designs are really original, I like "Bend" the best. It might not be the most practical, but it sure is an interesting conversation piece.

Cool Photographs

I actually got these photographs as an email forward a few months back, but I didn't do anything about it because I'm anti-forward. I found it today saved someone on the computer though, and I decided that its cool enough to post. My favorite one is the egg.

JU's Fine Arts and Design Department 2005

I love pictures :)
This picture was taken on Tuesday at Jordan University, and this is The Fine Arts and Design Faculty students.
Yeah, we're not much :) but I love it :)
The pictures quality is very low because it's a picture of a picture. I hate scanning, it's too tedious and time consuming.

Distortion

[Picture via Cool Hunting]

I'm really upset that the latest presidential tracking poll shows President George W. Bush with 50% of the vote and Senator John Kerry with 46%[Source: Rasmussen Reports Presidential Tracking Poll ]

Interesting things happened in the second Presidential Debate in St. Louis Oct. 8th, and my favorite is the following, as quoted from FactCheck.org "Said Bush, "I own a timber company? That's news to me." In fact, according to his 2003 financial disclosure form, Bush does own "LSTF, LLC", a limited-liability company organized."
Enough said. Why is he leading in the polls?

Think Pink

Every October, pink ribbons pop up everywhere: pinned to shirts, coats, and on a myriad of products, all with the goal of raising money to fight breast cancer. In Saudi Arabia, stores would organize pink-ribbon campaigns(surprise, surprise). Debenhams, for example, had sales-ladies going around pinning pink ribbons to their female customers Abayas (Lol, my Abaya became a collage of causes with the pink ribbon next to my "Support Boycott" pin, and "Intifada" pin.)
On the international scene this year, home appliance maker Kitchen Aid is selling limited edition pink mixers and blenders under the slogan "Cook for the Cure,"
the 3M corporation hung up the largest pink ribbon in the world in Times Square in New York City -- made up of 75,000 Post-it stickers (look at picture below)-- and the Mars company is selling special packages of pink and white M and M chocolates.





Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among women. After lung cancer, it is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among women. It's really too bad I didn't see anything about the Breat Cancer Awareness Month in Jordan.

Streol

This is Streol, by Danish artist Anette Herman. I think it looks like a rubber stretcher, but it's actually a chair. Beautiful. It's funky, doesn't take up any space, and out-of-this world creative.
Check out the designers website at Plana.nu. It has some really interesting designs, and a rather interesting feature called "My Shoes". The interesting thing is that they actually all seem to be used...
The designer also has the shoes below, which EVERY
female in the world seems to have.I can't believe how popular they are!.

Useful Pointlessness

History of Useless Inventions
Filed under: (Mis) Use of Technology— Haitham @ 11:24 pm

FINGERTIP TOOTHBRUSH, US patent 5,875,513 / issued 1999

[via Sabbah's Blog]


The above article obviously cracked me up when I saw it, because it had the weirdest, most pointless inventions that were nonetheless practical(look at whole article here)
Today, when I was surfing around the net out of boredom, I came upon this:



Lol, one of the "Pointless inventions" is being marketed as an Oral-B. Interesting :) I remember watching a commercial for this a few months back, but I didn't really think much of it then. Check out the rather funny "Brush-ups in Action" demo here.
I guess this is a good invention for people who hate gum, like I do.

The Music World is Against Bush

I was just reading an article on The Onion titled "Irrelevant Pop Stars Unite Against Bush"(I didn't post it because I was offended that they referred to Pearl Jam and REM as irrelevant), when I came upon a music website called Must Vote.
They say what their website is about a lot better than I can, "Mustvote is a voter registration campaign hell-bent on changing the direction our country is taking. We are offering a song from your favorite artists for every person you successfully register to vote. Best of all, you don't even have to be 18 years old to get these great tracks. All you have to do is register someone who is not yet registered. It could be your older brother, your mom, even your neighbor - anyone that is not registered will help you score some good tunes."

Nobel Peace Prize Goes Green

Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, reported Reuters. She was honored for helping aid democracy and save Africa's forests through her Green Belt Movement, comprised mainly of women, which has planted some 30 million trees across Africa to combat encroaching deforestation.

[Via TreeHugger]

Swatch Everafter

I am amazed by the concept of new ideas and innovation. I believe that any firm that manages to always be innovative and different deserves to win a creativity award of some sort.

One of the most creative firms around is Swatch; Swatch, the time-keeper, the internet-time provider, the company behind the most unique watch designs.

Consider this post as my tribute to this amazing company.

A part of Swatch's special collection, here are some of my favorites:



Each watch design is unique, mixing between beautiful jewelery, fashion, and practical watches. Their Bijox Jewelery Collection is different from anything you can find at any other jewelery place. Their Loomi Watch Collection has a faceplate that changes completely when you touch it. They also have special edition watches for special occassions, like the Olympics Collection. And Let's not forget the TinTin Tribute Collection and the cyber age tribute, .Beat Collection.

Their website also has some unbelievably cute features, my favorite being the Search By Game. This game allows you to play "Swatch-Pong" while searching for a particular swatch.

Swatch also has several concept stores. My favorite concept store is Via Della Spiga, located in Milan. Their concept is "Swatch brings sur mesure, individualism, versatility and Italian flair to the haute couture set." This store has really creative designs, like a watch made of tubes that you can personalize by filling the tubes with different-color beads.

Wonderfully done job don't you think?

The Web's Next Incarnation

I just read a very interesting article on Yahoo! News about the WWW's next incarnation.
Internet luminaries, big thinkers and developers gathered for three days in San Francisco to discuss what the next generation of the Web will look like. The Web 2.0 conference was organized by John Battelle, co-founding editor of Wired magazine, and Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly Media. It included Jerry Yang of Yahoo, Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos, Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen and Mark Cuban of HDNet.
To read the whole article go here. Here are the highlights of what they discussed:

1)No Google browser: Google board member John Doerr dismissed speculation a Web browser was being developed to compete with Microsoft's Internet Explorer. He did offer though note that as a board member, he doesn't see everything going on inside the company.

2)Worry that Internet companies are locking users into long-term relationships by not allowing them to move their profiles and other information from one company to another. EBay, Yahoo and other companies have user profiles that are not portable, and other Internet companies have recently unveiled services intended to entice people to store bookmarks, search histories and other vital pieces of information on their servers.

3)Christopher Alden unveiled a free news aggregator called
Rojo . It allows people to aggregate RSS news feeds generated by Web sites into one place, similar to services such as MyYahoo and Bloglines.

4)Google talked about clustering technology inside its labs. The technology looks similar to what Clusty (formerly Vivisimo) and some other search engines have been doing for a few years.

Google Used to Identify 1993 Victim

Google, the Internet search engine, has done something that law enforcement officials and their computer tools could not: Identify a man who died in an apparent hit-and-run accident 11 years ago in this small town outside Yakima.
Detective Pat Ditter of the Washington State Patrol searched with Google for about a week before identifying the victim as David Glen Lewis, 39, who died 1,606 miles from his home in Amarillo, Texas.

[Via Yahoo! News]

Now that's a useful search engine!

Jordan, Iraq Mull Over World Cup Bid

Soccer's World Cup in Iraq?
Sounds improbable, but Prince Faisal of Jordan thinks it could happen one day. Jordan and Iraq are mulling a possible joint bid to stage soccer's biggest showcase after 2014, the prince said Wednesday in The Times and Guardian newspapers.
When the World Cup went to Asia in 2002, it was co-hosted by Japan and South Korea.
Because FIFA is rotating the World Cup around the world, the next opportunity for the Middle East, which comes under the Asian confederation, would be 2018.

[Via TSN.ca]


Lol.

Embodying Talent

(Heatwave radiator)

Joris Laarman started his education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Arnhem. He graduated in 2003. His graduation piece, the "Heatwave" concrete radiator, is now part of the Droog collection and exhibited wold wide.


Joris runs his design studio from his home in Utrecht, The Netherlands. His dream is to share a studio with friends who design and make it, in his words, a "Dexters Lab" for creativity.


Ivy climbing wall

After his graduation he had no trouble with promotion. His graduation piece brought him a lot of media attention. The design basically sells itself.



Check out his website at jorislaarman.com.

Deer's 25-mile Bumper Road Trip

A deer survived a 25-mile ride in the bumper of a car after it was hit by a motorist travelling to work. The muntjac deer remained unnoticed by the driver who thought he had hit a stone and continued on his way.
Only when he reached Sainsbury's distribution centre in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, did his colleagues point out the animal was stuck in his Rover.
Vets examined the deer but found no injuries apart from cuts and bruises and released it back into the wild.

[via BBC News]

Fastlink's Advertisements

My friends and I were sitting at Vinigrette, and we found these unbelievably cute Fastlink advertisements laying on the tables.
I love the whole idea of the game advertisement, and the notebook idea is cool. Way to go Fastlink.

Calligraphy Screen

"Josh Nimoy's fascination with type and type systems provided the focus for a project that combines interactive physical computing with an investigation of kinetic structure. He designed this robotic typeface to explore the potential of dynamic text in public spaces without resorting to pixels, which he feels are overused. When you press a letter on a keyboard, six "brushstrokes"—wooden calipers attached to hobby servomotors spinning to the angle specified by a PIC chip—rotate to form the character."

[via IDOnline]

Nomad Mobile Workstation

by Ivy Tseng

The Nomad Mobile Workstation is a practical work surface as well as a protective storage case for a laptop computer. The hard briefcase opens on a rotary hinge and locks at 180 degrees to form a 14x24-inch surface. It is large enough to accommodate the use of a mouse—as well as a drink or a pencil. The bag's interior is padded and molded to fit the contours of the user's lap. Additionally, the padding isolates the computer's heat from the user.

[via IDOnline]

My dad would love this :)

Bending and Binding and Anchoring

Design by Jeffrey Erath, Lucas Herringshaw, Aaron Baczkowski

"The assignment—to rethink the typical construction barrier for renovations on the Tulane University campus—stipulated the use of PVC tubing and electrical conduit, and a budget of only $300 to produce 30 feet of fence. Jeffrey Erath and his team came up with Bending and Binding and Anchoring: A "kit of parts" includes four main components that can be arranged to create 27 combinations within each 7-foot section of fence. The multifunctional system incorporates areas for bike parking, seating, sign posting, entrances, visual protection, bus stops, and access to vending machines. Rice applauded both the fence's function—"the ability of the structure to respond to programmatic needs"—and its aesthetic—"the PVC contours are not just posts and a line, but seem to represent a vertical landscape."

[via IDOnline]

Design Finds

by Chris Slutter.
I love the one piece agility of this "rocking horse".


by Patrick Norguet


by Tyco, United States 1988

Business Card Help

So our first design project this year is designing business cards. Boring, I know, and we're supposed to have inspirations from existing business cards. I haven't managed to find anything even slightly inspirational though, so if anyone knows, or has :), an interesting business card, please do share!
Here are some of the inefficient, yet most common, designs I found:










Seriously, people should think about hiring a professional designer before handing out business cards. Alia's is decent I guess, especially since this design must be at least 10 years old.

Digisette

"Not new, but still cool, the Digisette DUO eCassette is an elegant solution to a diminishing problem. For those who still keep a second residence in the analog world, this digital storage device plays when you insert it in any cassette deck. You can use flash memory cards to add to the built in 96MB of storage and it works as a stand alone digital music player, as well."

[via Cool Hunting]

Perfect for Jordan when even 2005 cars don't have CD players!

Voxia Oto Chair

[Via TreeHugger]

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!
Just look at those unbelievable curves and smooth flowing lines. Brings life back to chairs.

Nike Recycling?

Nike has recieved a lot of bad media attention in the past years. The sweatshop incident, cheap child labour, etcetra. Here's their chance to patch up their reputation:



"...their Reuse-A-Shoe program has us wanting to give them a 2nd chance. It takes used/defective footwear, grinds it all up and makes sporting/playground surfaces out of it. (Find out where you can turn in old kicks, here.) They've also been incorporating decent amounts of organic cotton into their products, are beginning to reduce GHG, and swear they're aiming for zero waste and 100% recoverability. Is any step a step in the right direction, or is Nike just hopping on the green, PC bandwagon in order to ensure the business of Gen Y and the Echo Boomers for years to come?"

[via TreeHugger]

Today's Buildings, Ruinized

" "Today's Buildings, Ruinized"This is a nice crisp start to a week likely to be dominated by anxious news about an erupting American volcano.

These guys sure pick on the Golden Gate Bridge a lot. Also Big Ben. Where's that at? You can't "ruin" clocks and suspension bridges!
They're amazingly delicate, they would vanish like spiderwebs."

[via AraBlog]

I'm always amazed at the thought of civilizations and their monuments. How was it like to live in Petra at its grandest? How did they build architectural wonders like Mayan ruins? I don't know if future generations will think the same way about our monuments, as technology has basically meant that everything we do is carefully documented. One thing for sure though, our architectural ruins in the future won't look as grand as those of past centuries. Thank you metal for rusting.

Things to Explain to Your Kids

"My son knows a boy who was once kidnapped by guerillas in Colombia, except that he thought guerillas were gorillas. I tried to explain the difference but he didn't quite get it. So he asked me to draw him a picture:



I'm never really prepared for these moments."

[via AraBlog]

Sofa One

Name: Sofa One
Designer: Karim Rashid
“It can be right facing or left facing. It has a finished wood portal for magazines and stashables, and the cushion slice can be up for chaise lounging or down for more formal sitting. The cushion is attached for proper hinging.”

[via SensoryImpact]

Perfect for the TV!

Sculptural Notepads

Gorgeous, useful, and extremely artistic, these notepads are a perfect desk top accessory.

[Via Sensory Impact]

The Rasterbator

Ever wanted to make a statement but thought that the typical picture just isn't enough? Ever wanted to decorate your walls with a lifesize poster of your favorite actor or something? The Rasterbator will show you how.

"The Rasterbator is a web service which creates huge rasterized pictures out of relatively small image files. The pictures can be assembled into extremely cool looking posters up to 20 meters in size!"

The Voting Booth as Political Statement

The Parsons School of Design in New Yorkhas invited 47 artists and architects --ranging from Christo to David Byrne, Maya Lin, Frank Gehry, Diane Von Furstenberg and Ed Schlossberg-- to update 50 actual Florida voting booths from the 2000 Presidential election, commenting on design, democracy, and related themes.

[via WeMakeMoneyNotArt.com]

Adding taste and creativity to an otherwise boring job! I love the second design; very retro, way cool.

Miss Lazy

MISS LAZY has been designed for people who place a pillow under a tray, while having an informal meal in front of the TV. The pillow has two concavities, one for the plate, the other for your glass.

[Via AraBlog]

Do You Believe Now?

The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, The Village.
What do they all have in common? They're blockbusters, they have amazing fantasy plot-lines, and they're all written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan.
A relatively young man, born 1970, I find what he has achieved amazing. He is so talented; writing, directing, sometimes producing, and even acting in his movies! His trademark, of course, is having some sort of unexpected twist in the end, and most of his films involve ordinary individuals with extraordinary abilities or extraordinary events happening to them.
Unbreakable and The 6th Sense are definitely in my top 10 all time favorites list, and Signs and The Village are beautiful movies that made me think for countless days.
Really, his is a name that should be honored.

Edge

[via MoCoLoco]

This is an amazing example of a lighting fixture that doubles as a piece of art. It's really gorgeous, and completey unique.
Edge is "a light cube that emerges surprisingly from the wall". The light source is located in the truncated corner of the cube. The cube is available in white and a tri-colored version (red, orange, purple).

New Semester at Jordan University

Today was the first day of the first semester.

I hate "first days" of things. People are always over-excited, you have to kiss everyone you meet, and you have to dig up flattery to say to those you haven't seen in ages("Oh, you lost weight!" I did? Ahuh, yeah, sure, whatever).

I doubt this semester will be a nice one. My classes suck, I'm used to taking a lot of studio classes and only one theoretical class each semester. I'm doing the opposite this time, taking five theoretical classes and one studio. How annoying! My classes also sound extremely boring; Art History 2, Western Aesthetics, Computer Skills 2, and Islamic Education. The only interesting class will be Surface Design, which had to be in the I.T. department, thus ruining my plans to have all my classes within a 10 minute walk to each other.

I miss last semester already. I had the most interesting classes, they were all so much fun and actually taught me something that I could use in my life. I think my favorite class was Drawing 2, which was basically figures and portraits. I used to literally wait for it to come, and then lose myself in it. We would have people sit, stand, and lay on tables, chairs, or the floor, and sketch them in 5 minutes on an A3 paper. We did self-portraits, and drew a lot of human anatomy(using sculptures). We then drew Jupiter, David, Aphrodite, and Venus. The drawing below is for that class, I took the picture during the annual exhibition.



I had a sculpting class, which was also fun. It showed me how to feel things with my hands in a way I never thought possible. The final project was to sculpt the human head and face. Although my "head" turned out nicely, I got annoyed at the fact that it looked like everyone else's, basically a depiction of Greek perfection. So I decided to be creative. I changed the expression to that of pain (think chin looking up towards the sky and an open mouth), and I covered one part of the face with strips so that it looked like the skin was peeling off. I was quite happy with the results, my "head" looked like he should be in a comic book, but I guess the professor didn't like it because he gave me a C.

My design class was also nice. It was probably the hardest, too many technical bits requiring my none-existant math skills. Yet, I had a lot of fun doing the projects. Our final project was to design a structure or an object that would increase or decrease a certain phobia in someone. I decided to increase hydrophobia(fear of water), and my project turned out great. It was also really interesting to see the phobias everyone else chose, and how they built their systems.



My three other classes were English Oral Skills, Color Theory, and Art History. I took the oral skills class for a laugh. I guess my blabbering is worth an A :P

Overall, it was a really nice semester. Lets hope that this one won't be as bad as I think, but really, how is it not going to be when I compare it to my past semesters?

Arts in the I.T.? Ha

I found out today that they moved the design classes to the I.T. Faculty building. Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm really, really annoyed. The people in the I.T. Faculty are so bleh and they dress so funny...I don't even know where the I.T. building is, but I'm guessing its far and with no parking space.
I also love my faculty!
I'm starting to wish that I chose Painting rather than Design, which a lot of my good friends are doing.

The I.T. department won't be half as cute as this!

Checkshadow Illusion

Believe this or not, but the squares marked A and B are the same shade of gray.


Proof: By joining the squares marked A and B with two vertical stripes of the same shade of gray, it becomes apparent that both squares are the same.



[via AraBlog]

Talk about the power of shade and shadow! Amazing. I actually had to do a little experiment of my own on Paint to believe it.

Aww!

The other day we put up a photo of Darius' security cameras from the back alleys of Shoreditch in London. Here's a photo of another recent Darius and Downey project - two lampposts (one real the other one not) who seem to have found their true loves. Sadly this piece only lasted on the streets for less then an hour.
[via AraBlog]

The perfect love story... Adorable :)

HIV in the Arab World

Here is an estimate of the percentage of adults (aged 15-49) living with HIV/AIDS. (Note: the adult prevalence rate is calculated by dividing the estimated number of adults living with HIV/AIDS at yearend by the total adult population at yearend.)

1. Sudan 2.6% (2001 est.)
2. Bahrain 0.3% (2001 est.)
3. Libya 0.2% (2001 est.)
4. United Arab Emirates 0.18% (2001 est.)
5. Kuwait 0.12% (2001 est.)
6. Oman 0.1% (2001 est.)
7. Yemen 0.1% (2001 est.)
8. Algeria 0.1%
9. Morocco 0.1% (2001 est.)
10. Qatar 0.09% (2001 est.)
11. Lebanon 0.09% (2001 est.)
12. Saudi Arabia 0.01% (2001 est.)
13. Syria 0.01% (2001 est.)
14. Iraq less than 0.1% (2001 est.)
15. Jordan less than 0.1% (2001 est.)
16. Egypt less than 0.1% (2001 est.)
17. Tunisia 0.04% (2001 est.)


Compare to Botswana 38.8%, which appears to have the highest percentage.

I'm surprised by these statistics, especially at the rankings of the Gulf states. I also thought Egypt would have had a higher percentage.


Statistics from CIA World Factbook via one of my favorite websites, NationMaster.com

Back to Routine, and to JU

University starts tomorrow, and I am not looking forward to it. Basically, it's because I have no idea how I'm going to make my body morph back to routine mode. I'm very much the night person, but usually I am able to sleep by 1 AM or so. Yet when I have no reason to wake up, my day turns to night and my night turns to day. This has been the case for several months now, and I have to wake up at 7 AM tomorrow, which is basically bed time for my body. I foresee a week of Java cramming.
On a positive note, I miss my social life. I got so busy during the summer with workshops, catching up with my friends who came from the Gulf, and travelling, so I didn't see my JU friends as often as I would have liked.
Our Fine Arts and Design Faculty is also rather fun, so every new semester they throw a "Welcome Party" for the new freshmen, or sanafer shall I say. I'm looking forward to that, because they always throw in a music concert by the Music Department. Last year, they played and sang a few Fayrouz songs, which was really nice. The picture is of the faculty's 2004 Annual Exhibition poster.

BodyMouse

[via AraBlog ]


Ok, I think this is the nastiest thing I've seen in ages. Yet, it's extremely creative.
There's no way you'd find that on my desk though!

Blogmapper

Generate a map and map entries on your blog with blogmapper created by Jason Harlan. "Blogmapper lets you associate blog entries with hot spots on a map. When you click on the spots, the entries appear".

[via AraBlog.net]

On Love, Marriage, and Relationships

I was reading an article written by an Indian author on this topic when I realized that the idea of arranged marriages completely freaks me out. I mean, seriously, marriage is such an intimate deal; we're talking about a life-time commitment here. We're talking about sharing a life, having children together, and the huge possibility of growing old together. How can someone make such an important decision without knowing the person they're getting married to?

Yeah, sure, one would say that her parents know her well enough to make an adequate choice on her behalf. Yet, the parents will always base the choice on economic stability and family reputation, and neither of these two factors is enough to present the level of compatibility.

In Jordan, we base most of our marriages on "love-at-first-sight", which if you ask me, is even worse than an arranged marriage. Typical scenario: a man notices a woman at a wedding, he likes the way she looks and acts, asks around to find out who she is(bent meen or whatever), and then proposes to her family. The woman's family then asks around to find out more about this man, and the decision is based on what they find out from other people. If the family accepted, what follows is a long engagement period, which usually allows the couple to find out whether they're compatible or not. A wedding occurs if neither of them decides to terminate the engagement. Other scenarios include "The Sister of the Best Friend", "Daughter of a Dear Family Friend", or "My Relative's Relative".

My mother, if she read this, would probably argue that this way works the best. She met my father at her best friend's wedding, and they hit off immediately, although they come from very different backgrounds. She would also point out that the rates of divorce in the Arab world are very small compared to the rates of divorce occurring in the West, where marriage is based on love. She's right of course, but I think that has more to do with the way Arab's are bred. Among lower social classes, in small towns, and in very conservative families, children are raised to accept gender roles (which I condemn), thus averting many arguments.

Yet, my cynical view towards arranged marriages and the typical Jordanian marriage doesn’t mean that I commend the relatively new "Boyfriend/Girlfriend" trend that you see in the Arab world these days. I am actually horrified to see kids in their early teens claiming that they are in "love" with the boy they met once at the mall and who they now talk to on the phone quite often. To me, such an episode is offensive to love and most importantly, offensive to our Arab culture. My views might be a little uptight for a lot of people, but I really believe that the "Boyfriend/Girlfriend" trend results in less respect towards the other gender and less appreciation towards love. It also usually results in pain, and takes neither person anywhere.

I personally feel that a romantic relationship should only be commended if the prospect of marriage is in mind, if the relationship is not kept private, and if the two people are actually old enough to be in a mature relationship.
There goes my two cents. I usually never feel like rambling, but I've been thinking about this for a while, and decided to share. Never mind my deficient and incoherent writing style :) I haven’t really tried to write something other than emails since high school.

And I'm Craving....

Caramel Frappuccino

It's boiling hot this October, and nothing would quench the thirst more than an ice-cold yummy Starbucks Frappuccino.

MINI Says...

My friend and I were looking at Mini Coopers, and we lost track of time as we talked and browsed the website, so this pop-up popped up.
In case it's too small to read, it says, "Sorry to interrupt, but haven't you been in front of this computer long enough? We here at MINI are worried you're not getting enough exposure to the sun and the stars. Don't worry, we'll be here all week. So, get going, save your retinas for the road."
How cute are they?