How to make a Feline Football Player!

1) Nothing to do
2) A sharp knife
3) A large lime
4) A patient cat
5) Too much tequila
6) And it's football season?

Funny!

Hello Mike, Hello Class,
Finally!!, I found a good solution to Mike's Don't Drink and Drive campaign. I will leave you with the photo ha ha

Process...
This is from Martha Stewart's magazine. It shows how to make a french pastry that I don't recall its name but it is very delicious. Generally, I am not interested in such magazines but I buy them just to look at the Design and Photo effects.

Hello Class,

Do you remember the signs that we perceived in Seeing and Writing book?
here are more...wondering which country is going to use them?

I'm very fond going online and exploring the net. As well as finding a lot junk, I found some amazing resources for almost everything. I'm posting a website link that has FREE stock photos.

http://www.sxc.hu/

http://www.freestockphotos.com/FreeGeneral.html

Also, as a source of inspiration for your graphic design projects go to http://www.commarts.com/ and review the online portfolios, they are wonderful.

Hello Class,

My sister told me about answers.com. It is a website that has answers to most of your questions. I think it is an excellent source of information. It is very similar to Wikipedia but broader.

http://www.answers.com/

Classification
Ethnic groups in Iraq are:
Arabs 75-80%, Kurds 15%-20%, Turkoman (Turkmen), Assyrian or other 3%-5%

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_people

Amazing Art...

An interesting blog

The blog is nominated to Samuel Johonson prestigious prize for contemporary non-fiction. her blog has been adapted into book form by UK-based publishers Marion Boyars and New York-based Feminist Press.In March 2005, the blog was adapted into a play by a New York-based theatre production company.The blog talks about the daily life of an ordinary Iraqi with amazing details. She offered an Iraqi woman's perspective on the US invasion and the first months after the fall of Baghdad.

www.riverbendblog.blogspot.com

This is a wonderful quote that suits Words and Images class

"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."

Samuel Beckett

Save your time and apply your make on your way to work!

DRAWING !!!!

Julian Beever is an English artist who's famous for his art on the pavement of England, France, Germany, USA, Australia and Belgium. It's particularity ? Beever gives to his drawing an anamorphose, his images are drawn completly deforms which give a 3D image when viewing at the right angle ... see for yourself it's amazing !!!

Cause and Effect

This is a campaign to encourage the young to get tested against HIV. I think the audience is the young gangsters! I'm not sure.

A joke from Iraq

A man was walking on the street and suddenly he saw the magic lamp. He rubbed the magic lamp and Genie appeared to him and asked him about his request. The man said:
I want you to build a bridge that links Baghdad to Montreal in Canada.
The Genie answered:
Well, sir, Can you request something more reasonable?
The man thought for a while and answered:
Ok, no problem, my request is that you make the situation in Iraq settle down.
Genie said:
Sir, do you want the bridge to be one way or two way?!!!

Interesting Website Design

I'm so interested in wevsite design and always try to look at some examples on the web. As Amy mentioned before, it is very useful to have some refrence or a resource for inspiration. So guys I am posting some weblinks about website design that I think they sophistactedly designed whethere in terms of graphics or information architecture.

www.webfirst.com

kusalayoga.com

www.cluttershrink.com

www.chuckchoi.com

www.wrightrelaxation.com

http://www.rebelsofgrace.com/

http://www.zzyyxx.com/

http://www.fuelaffect.com/

http://www.oceanresidences.com/ODG/execute/index

http://bahaitemple.org/high/index2.html

http://ironcladimages.com/print3.html

Enjoy!!
Oh and by the way, I love simplicity in design and my favourite quotation is "The less is more" that is why, guys. you see that picked only the simple designs.

Interview: Iraqi blogger Riverbend

When Iraqi blogger Riverbend, 26, checked her email account on March 28, she was surprised to find about 800 messages congratulating her for being nominated as a finalist for the Samuel Johnson Prize for contemporary non-fiction.

Due to persistent power outages and failing phone lines, she was unaware that two days earlier she and 18 others had been listed as candidates for the £30,000 award.
"I was walking on air," she told Al Jazeera.net when it finally sank in.
Riverbend, who describes herself as a 26-year-old computer specialist, insists on remaining anonymous.
Riverbend's blog Baghdad Burning began to make waves in late 2003 and quickly became one of the most read Iraqi blogs. She offered an Iraqi woman's perspective on the US invasion and the first months after the fall of Baghdad.
Since then, her blog has been adapted into book form by UK-based publishers Marion Boyars and New York-based Feminist Press.
In March 2005, the blog was adapted into a play by a New York-based theatre production company.
Commenting on daily political and sectarian strife and "life under occupation", the blog has also won third place in the 2005 Lettre Ulysses Prize for Reportage and a 2006 Bloggie award.
The winner of the Samuel Johnson prize will be announced on June 14 in London.
Al Jazeera.net: How did you react when you heard of the nomination?
I was surprised. I actually thought the BBC online article "Iraqi blogger nominated for prize" was referring to someone else. Then I checked my emails and found my British publisher confirming it. I was ecstatic.
The nomination is for the book based on your blog. What inspired the blog? Was it your intention to adapt it into a book?
Many reports do not touch on the realities in Iraq, Riverbend saysAnother Iraqi blogger, Salam Pax, whom many consider the father of Iraqi blogs, inspired me. I guest blogged a couple of times on his forum and he encouraged me to begin one of my own.
I never thought it would be turned into a book even though I got several offers within a few months of blogging. I didn't like the idea of turning the blog into a book at first because all the publishers wanted me to discontinue blogging. Feminist Press is the first publisher that didn't want me to stop blogging.
Iraq inspires me to blog. While I began blogging as a way to vent frustrations and fears about the instability and insecurity, I continue because I feel the media covers the situation in my country in a very general way.
Many articles don't even begin to touch the daily reality Iraqis face.
What are the realities that you feel are not reported?
Real Iraqis, the people currently suffering under a lack of security and a shortage of the most basic necessities like electricity and water, seem to have faded to the background while the media is busy with the failed attempts of the current government to organise themselves.
I'm also frustrated with the way the media oversimplifies certain situations - like the sectarian violence being promoted by the occupation forces and the current government.
Some have suggested that your blog is an important part of documenting history in the making. How do you react to that? Was that your intention when you started it?
I'm very flattered, and somewhat awed, with that description. I began it tentatively, not even sure anyone would actually read it. To say that it is "an important part of documenting history" is beyond any description I ever imagined when I first began.
"I don't wish for the 'days of Saddam'," Riverbend says (file)I believe all blogs document history - just different chapters in history.
But some of your detractors online have said you are unabashedly biased and anti-American and that you lament the ousting of the previous government. Is that true?
Unabashedly biased towards what? Iraq? One thing that bothers me is that many people equate being anti-occupation with anti-American.
I am not anti-American - I know many wonderful Americans and correspond and communicate with them regularly. I am, however, anti-occupation.
I don't wish for the "days of Saddam", if that's what you're asking. I am, however, completely against the presence of foreign troops in Iraq.
Why do you refer to the current Iraqi government as puppets?
Because almost all of them are allied with one foreign government or intelligence agency or another. None of them seems to have Iraq's best interests at heart. They are all too busy lining their pockets in preparation for their comfortable retirement from the Green Zone to outside of the country.
Where did you learn to speak and write in English?
I was raised abroad as a child and was fortunate enough to have parents who encouraged me to read continuously in English after we returned.
What types of books did you read?
I read any book in English I could get my hands on. I read the classics - books by Dickens, Jane Austen, William Thackery, George Orwell and others. I also read books by American authors like Faulkner. I read books translated to English from other languages - Russian and French literature. Anything I could find in English, I would read.
"The sounds of shooting and explosions usually begin at dawn, at least that's when I first sense them, and they don’t really subside until well into the night"Baghdad Burning, February 27The Bronte sisters specifically changed my life – they opened me up to writing.
So you always wanted to be a writer?
No - I didn't even know I could write until I began blogging.
Are foreign language books easy to find in Baghdad?
The classics are fairly easy to find if you know where to go... Newer books were very difficult to get, especially during the embargo. Sometimes we would ask people coming from abroad to just bring books - any books - because there never seemed to be enough.
Why do you maintain anonymity?
Because it keeps me secure. In the beginning, I decided to be anonymous because it gave me the freedom to discuss whatever and whomever I wanted without fear of retribution - this includes political parties, religious figures, common thugs masquerading as political and religious figures, etc.
"After nearly three years of a failing occupation, I personally believe that many Iraqis voted for religious groups because it was counted as a vote against America and the occupation itself. No matter what American policy makers say to their own public ... most Iraqis do not trust Americans"Baghdad Burning, February 2I couldn't do this with the use of my name because I would be worried about detention or worse. People have been a lot less critical than I've been on my blog and they've gotten into a lot of trouble.
You have kept your blog alive for nearly three years. Do you ever envision it ending?
When Baghdad Burning was one of only six or seven Iraqi blogs, I would tell myself that the blog would remain alive as long as there was something to blog about.
Now, there are dozens of Iraqi blogs from inside and outside of the country and where one blog ends, others will continue.
Blogging and journalism seem to be merging around the world. Are bloggers the new journalists?
Bloggers are not exactly journalists, which is a mistake many people make. They expect us to be dispassionate and unemotional about topics such as occupation and war, etc. That objective lack of emotion is impossible because a blog in itself stems from passion - the need to sit for hours at one's computer, slouched over the keyboard, trying to communicate ideas, thoughts, fears and frustrations to the world.
What future do you see for Iraq?
Possibly several more years of chaos. As long as there are foreign troops in the country, there's going to be violence and bloodshed. I do believe Iraq will rise once more - because Iraqis have a history of greatness.


Aljazeera

Cute Pictures

Interesting Typography

Definition of Heaven and Hell

Heaven when you have:
A German car
American salary
Chinese food
British home
and Latin lover...

Hell when you have:
An American car
Chinese home
British lover
German food
and Latin salary...

Naseer Shaamma is an Iraqi Musician and Composer. He is very talented in playing on Lute instrument, is a middle-eastern instrument with an imortant role in arabic music.
Here's his website with sample of his music, it is divine.

http://www.naseershamma.com/

One of the most beautiful pictures in the world

Barbie Gets a Divorce

Ralph was driving home one evening when he suddenly realizes that it's his daughter's birthday and he hasn't bought her a present. He drives to the mall, runs to the toy store and says to the shop assistant, "How much is that Barbie in the window?"
In a condescending manner, she says "Which Barbie?" She continues, "We have Barbie Goes to the Gym for $19.95, Barbie Goes to the Ball for $19.95, Barbie Goes Shopping for $19.95, Barbie Goes to the Beach for $19.95, Barbie Goes Nightclubbing for $19.95, and Barbie Gets a Divorce for $265.00".
Ralph asks, "Why is the Barbie Gets a Divorce $265.00 when all the others are only $19.95?"
"That's obvious." The sales lady says. "Barbie Gets a Divorce comes with Ken's house, Ken's car, Ken's boat, and Ken's furniture."

It is good to have friends!

Child Bride

Her story begins in the village of Mullah Allam Akhound, near Kandahar.
"When I was three years old my father died, and after a year my mother married again, but her second husband didn't want me," says Gulsoma. "So my mother gave me away in a promise of marriage to our neighbor's oldest son, who was thirty."
"They had a ceremony in which I was placed on a horse [which is traditional in Afghanistan] and given to the man."
Because she was still a child, the marriage was not expected to be sexually consummated. But within a year, Gulsoma learned that so much else would be required of her that she would become a virtual slave in the household.
At the age of five, she was forced to take care of not only her "husband" but also his parents and all 12 of their other children as well. Though nearly the entire family participated in the abuse, her father-in-law, she says, was the cruelest.
"My father-in-law asked me to do everything — laundry, the household chores — and the only time I was able to sleep in the house was when they had guests over," she says. "Other than that I would have to sleep outside on a piece of carpet without even any blankets. In the summer it was okay. But in the winter a neighbor would come over and give me a blanket, and sometimes some food."
When she couldn't keep up with the workload, Gulsoma says, she was beaten constantly.
Gulsoma's scars
"They beat me with electric wires," she says, "mostly on the legs. My father-in-law told his other children to do it that way so the injuries would be hidden. He said to them, 'break her bones, but don't hit her on the face.'"
There were even times when the family's abuse of Gulsoma transcended the bounds of the most wanton, sadistic cruelty, as on the occasions when they used her as a human tabletop, forcing her to lie on her stomach then cutting their food on her bare back.
Gulsoma says the family had one boy her age, named Atiqullah, who refused to take part in her torture.
"He would sneak me food sometimes and when my mother-in-law told him to find a stick to beat me, he would come back say he couldn't find one," she says. "He would try to stop the others sometimes. He would say 'she is my sister, and this is sinful.' Sometimes I think about him and wish he could be here and I wish I could have him as my brother."
One evening, Gulsoma says, when her father-in-law saw the neighbor giving her food and a blanket, he took them away and beat her mercilessly. Then, she says, he locked her in a shed for two months.
"I would be kept there all day," she says, "then at night they would let me go the bathroom and I would be fed one time each day. Most of the time it was only bread and sometimes some beans."
She says every day she was locked in the shed, she wished and prayed that her parents would come and take her away. Then she would remember that her father was dead and her mother was gone.
But Gulsoma had an inner strength even her father-in-law couldn't comprehend.
"When he came to the shed he kept asking me, 'Why don't you die? I imprisoned you, I give you less food, but still you don't die.'"
But it wasn't for lack of trying. Gulsoma said when her father-in-law finally let her out of the shed, he bound her hands behind her back and beat her unconscious. She says he revived her by pouring a tea thermos filling with scalding water over her head and her back.
"It was so painful," she says, dabbing her eyes with her scarf and sniffling for a moment. "I was crying and screaming the entire time."
Five days later, she says, her father in law gave her a vicious beating when his daughter's wristwatch went missing.
"He thought I stole it," she says, "and he beat me all over my body with his stick. He broke my arm and my foot. He said if I didn't find it by the next day, he would kill me."
* * *
Gulsoma found hope after escaping
She crawled away that night and hid under a rickshaw. When the rickshaw driver found Gulsoma, broken and bleeding, he listened to her story and took her to the police. She was hospitalized immediately.
"The doctor at the hospital who treated me said, 'I wish I could take you to the village square and show all the people what happened to you, so no one would ever do something like this again,'" Gulsoma says.
It took her a full month to recover from her last beating. But the fear and psychological trauma may never go away.
"I was happy to have a bed and food at the hospital," she says. "But I was thinking that when I get better they will give me back to the family."
However, Gulsoma says when the police questioned the family, the father-in-law lied and tried to tell them she had epilepsy and had fallen down and hurt herself. But the neighbor who had helped Gulsoma confirmed the story of her beatings and torture.
The police arrested her father-in-law and "husband." They told her, she says, they would keep them in jail unless she asked for their release.
"Everyone was crying when they heard my story," Gulsoma says. Gulsoma says she stayed at an orphanage in Kandahar, but was the only girl in the facility. Eventually, her story was brought to the attention of the Ministry of Women's Affairs.
The toll of torture
Gulsoma was then brought to a Kabul orphanage, where she lives today. She takes off her baseball cap and shows us a bald spot, almost like a medieval monk's tonsure, on the crown of her head where she was scalded.
She then turns her back and raises her shirt to reveal a sad map of scar tissue and keloids from cuts, bruises and the boiling water.
Haroon and I look at each other with disbelief. Her life's tragic story is etched upon her back.
Yet she continues to smile. She doesn't ask for pity. She seems more concerned about us as she reads the shock on our faces.
"I feel better now," she says. "I have friends at the orphanage. But every night I'm still afraid the family will come here and pick me up."
Gulsoma also says that when the sun goes down, she sometimes begins to shiver involuntarily — a reaction to the seven years of sleeping outdoors, sometimes in the bitter cold of the desert night.
She says she believes there are other girls like her in Kandahar, maybe elsewhere in Afghanistan, and that she wants to study human rights and one day go back to help them.
As we walk outside to take some pictures, I ask her if, after all she's been through, she thinks it will be harder to trust, to believe that there are actually good people in the world.
"No," she says, quickly.
"I didn't expect anyone would help me but God. I was really surprised that there were also nice people: the neighbor, the rickshaw driver, the police," she says. "I pray for those who helped release me."
Looking directly into the camera, she smiles as if nothing bad had ever happened to her in her entire life.
"I think that all people are good people," she says, "except for those that hurt me."

A narration with a happy end!

Kids Displaced by Hurricanes Reunited

NEW ORLEANS - When 4-year-old Cortez Stewart was reunited with her mother and five siblings in Texas last month, it closed a happy chapter in the sad story of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Cortez represented the last of 5,192 Gulf Coast children listed as missing or displaced after the storms struck more than six months ago. The effort to reunite those youngsters became the largest child-recovery effort in U.S. history.

Woman's Day in Iraq

(A picture worths thousand Words)

A picture worths 1000 words!!!!!!!

Indian Movie!

Did anyone watched an Indian movie? if you did, you will understand this cartoon. If not I will explain that to you abbreviately. Indian movies are well known for too much exaggeration in their stories. And that is all that matter. Backhome, if we felt that someone is lying are telling a story that is supposed to be real but it is fictitious, then we say this is an Indian Movie.
(Please click on the picture to see it in a clearer way)

My Favourite Words

• Crack down
• Get along
• Mix up
• Compromise
• Hail
• Compete
• Peace
• Compassion
• Beauty
• Evergreen
• Dream
• Progress
• Hopefully
• Frantically
• Madly
• Beauteous
• Smart
• Furious
• Harsh
• Strict
• Persistent
• Eternal
• Upside-down
• Powerful
• Cunning

Britney vs Britney

Amazing Pictures!

My adventure in the mall!

I went to the gallery mall today to take pictures for our second assignment. Since I am writing and contrasting between malls in U.S and shopping areas back in Baghdad so I went ahead to take some picture at the gallery mall in the inner harbour. I was so deeply involved in snapping some shots here and there before I saw the security gurad came to me asking me whether I work to the mall or what! I told him no I am not and he replied that I am questionably taking a lot pictures to the mall! Well guys, so far I thought the only place where they have strict restriction on taking photos is Iraq! well may be I have to write an article to compare the prohibtion of taking pictures between the Inner Harbour and the Green Zone in Baghdad!

Interesting Article on BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4762436.stm

Beijing clamps down on spitting!

With the Beijing Olympics now only two years away, the authorities have launched a campaign against one of the city's least pleasant habits: spitting.

The local government says it is part of a campaign to raise the ethical and cultural standards of the city ahead of the 2008 Games.

Foreign visitors to Beijing are often astonished by its citizens' capacity for expelling mucus.

Spitting is not just confined to the open air.

The floors of shops and restaurants are often peppered with phlegm.

But Beijingers are now being told they must abandon this cherished tradition.

The Beijing Capital Ethics Development Office has declared spitting the city's number one bad habit.

Special bags

Police have been ordered out on to the streets to track down offenders. Closed circuit television cameras will be used to catch them in the act.

"This year we will intensify our law enforcement efforts in this field," Zhang Huiguang, director of Beijing's Capital Ethics Development Office, told a news conference.

"We will require law enforcement officials to step up the frequency of fines."

For those who simply cannot kick the habit, there is an alternative. Hundreds of uniformed "mucus monitors" will patrol the streets handing out free spitting bags.

"You have to spit into a tissue or a bag, then place it in a dustbin to complete the process," Ms Zhang said.

She said that there would also be a renewed crackdown against the city's second biggest headache - littering.

Comapre and Contrast
Comarison between MICA's campus and UB's
In terms of fancy building, old building, and semi-modern building!

I liked this design because the description is kind of related to the image. The image is of a woman who withdrew all the difficult tasks behind her and trying to enjoy her life. The design is aimed to be on a special company who would take care of your financial plan upon retirement.

Hello Class,

I like website design and especially the one that is created using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
Here is a link with a great resource for designing using CSS.

http://www.csszengarden.com/