My Identity

I'm an Liberal Arab Nationalist, a Progressive Muslim who supports Secularism in the seek for the good of the countries.

And please don't preach to me about the 'evils' that lie under the self identification as "nationalist" - it shouldn't in no sense mean that it embraces the fabricated concepts of I'm-better-than-you racist undertones,

+ If we can't unite politically, and we care so much about borders and land, then I'm sure we can unite culturally and in different forms of expression (i.e. art).

What is your identity?

FontStruct: Everybody's a Typographer?

I was a tad excited to see that there's an online software/interactive system that allows you to develop types without downloading some Trial version of a huge software onto your system. I personally don't know much about Typography, I admire it, and I think if I delve into it I'll be hugely interested yet I still didn't get to this point - still an illustration sucker.

The website FontShop, one of the leading Fonts/Typography networks out there created FontStruct - a website that allows you to build, share and download fonts created using "FontStructor"; Developed by Rob Meek.

So I went ahead, signed up to the site and started fiddling around until to my surprise I see that they support a number of different languages/letter sets. And ta-da! There lies "Arabic". I clicked on it and started looking at the set of letters they had, though it included characters which would never be used in Arabic scripts but still, I quite liked it! Though some characters didn't show up to me.

Here's my trial, but then to find out I've added a hamza to a hamza-less Alef! Forgiveness, I'm erasing the hamza!

(click to enlarge)

I think it's quite revolutionary to be honest, I'm clueless if such projects been created before (and if so, please inform me) but I really like the whole feel to FontStruct and I believe it's a good

platform for budding Typographers - and even those who just have general interest - to develop and get good exposure.

Go ahead, fiddle with it, and make it your daily meal of font creation :)

what i've been doing

well, in little words; spending most of my time in the library "trying" to study
exams will be done on the 15th, dissertation results on the 16th.

wa7ad w 3eshreen

i'm 21 today *burp*

will post later about the partay ;D

after 3 years...

of education in the UK, the Arab in me still in full galore when it comes to tybos (typos) on Word.

I'm hours away from submitting my dissertation, wish me luck!

rephrase

When you're asked to reference an article, study, journal or book you're usually required to rephrase. Yet I didn't come to the point where my grammar knowledge is failing me (I blame my school, we were barely taught any grammar, grr). Which one of the following is correct?

• There are a number of different types of design methodologies
• There is a number of different types of design methodologies

Does the 'are' belong to the "methodologies" or does the 'is' relate to "a number"? Can you Englishsters help me out please?

Kids don't fornicate! The label "fuck" is related to my university, I'm still working on my damn dissertation and I'm still not done (deadline: Monday the 7th).

rest in peace

Mr. Haitham Shawash, father of fellow blogger Moey has passed away earlier yesterday (1st of April).

Allah yer7amo :(
انا لله و انا اليه راجعون

The People of Gaza

It's quite hard to find any material, whether documentations or any other form that is concerned to reflect on the people of Gaza rather on the social everyday situations they live in. But here comes a ray of light. Zouheir Alnajjar is a 29-year-old Palestinian Flim-making Journalist that produced short documentaries concerning Gaza and more importantly the people of Gaza.

With extremely interesting approaches, a surprisingly high level of professionalism and a local reporter which means he has a deeper understanding to his own people, come the videos of Zouheir Alnajjar or as he's called journalist_pal on Current TV's profile of his.

I would like to share what I thought were two very interesting short documentaries of his, but you can easily access all his other work through current tv.

I am personally very proud of Zouheir and the amount of effort he's putting into wrapping up these videos. It's very refreshing to see that the he's a Palestinian and he's trying to get the message through in the most sincere way possible. Gelnar Mousa and Najwa Qasem might be of the best Arab journalists out there, but it's also time for ones that need to communicate to the ones across the borders.

i'm not ok

Funny how us Arabs are programmed to answer "El 7amdulillah", "Tamam", "Kwayyes", "Mnee7" when asked how we are doing. I'm not ok, I'm actually very sad.

As I write this, my hard disk is being regenerated. It failed me a couple of days ago, which led to my laptop not functioning.

I'm all over the place, I don't know if I sound by any way coherent. Anyway, yeah, Hard Disk failure which led to me losing all my artworks, files and photos that carry SO many memories.
Got an art school to apply to it and no portfolio, a dissertation in 10 days and no work spirit at all. Please don't suggest how could it get any worse, because I already done all the scenarios in my head.

hm, sad

everything of the day: 2

Remember the first time I did "everything of the day", well this is the 2nd version because I think it's fun to build up. And oh, to all the readers who are missing my lists I'm afraid the internet is amazingly boring at the moment and I'll wait until it gets a bit interesting.

Word of the day:

Pagal is Urdu/Hindi for the word "Mad" or "Crazy". I love the sound of it, because you say like like "Puh-Gall". Don't Americanise it and do it "Pay-gal". Ain't nobody paying for the gal! ;D
So yeah, and you can use it in a sentence like "Tum bahaut pagal ho" which means "You're very crazy". lol

Video of the day:

Hat-tip to Fatimah Saleh. The ad is amazing, I just love how cool and geeky the kids are :D I wish to say cute, but I think they're beyond that! haha. I love how the other kid butts in and does weird hand under armpit with crazy facial expressions. Possibly best ad in years! WE WANT THE FUNK, WE WANT THE FUNK! OWWW!

Song of the day:

Robyn - With Every Heartbeat (Voodoo And Serano Remix)

Robyn's an artist from Sweden and possibly most of you know her. This song got my attention after the heavy rotation of the music video of Be Mine! (which I think is a brilliant music video, Max Vitali is my new favourite!). I listened to With Everyheart Beat the original and I liked it, but this remix is excellent and I believe it's a solid club remix.

Photo of the day:

There was a tie whether I want to put this one or this one. Both belong to Kosheen, as they've been used with the album Resist (cover photo above). Anyway, I think the photograph is absolutely beautiful. Taken by Patrice Hanicotte and it beautifully matches the mood of the album, and seriously convey aspects that we don't witness in Animals yet it seems we can seriously relate to them emotionally. Hugely inspirational!


Link of the day:

Crazy collection of Zombified Hollywood celebrities, quite fun!

Blog of the day:

Simply, supplies you with the best inspirations ever! Creative art & design features on daily basis.


Logo of the day:

The Arabised Logo of Nestle by Rasha Rahal is just pure brilliant.