Author: Maya Zankoul

  • The Twibbon

    How to use the Twibbon: So, for the newbies, twibbons became the mutant of ribbons when people became avatars and words became tweets.

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    Before: Ribbon - After: Twibbon

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    The twibbon grew to become an independent customizable organism.

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    This led to common use and abuse of the service, which calls for the below clarifications and rules.

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    Please, one twibbon at a time

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    Please, select a real cause.

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    But please, make sure they're timely.

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    Finally, remember that it will resize your avatar.

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    Thank you!

    If you like Twibbon, you can go ‘”start something” on their website, as their slogan says. Ok i just had to let out what bothers me about twibbons. Today’s song is Jackson Browne’s Running on Empty, I adore the lyrics. Enjoy! ๐Ÿ™‚


  • Special gathering

    it's that time of the year again.

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    The annual socio-religio-politico-fashiono-masquerade gaterhing of all 5 family generations

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    Palm Sunday - Les Rameaux -  Sha3nineh

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    But I nag not, for the true victims of this are the children (this year I did not wear heels)

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    Yalla mami wlek smile pour la photo!

    In comparison to last year, it was a much easier experience & I spent the occasion observing others – something I very much enjoy doing [in case you haven’t noticed yet] ๐Ÿ˜‰

    It’s Monday, and I have a beautiful tune for you. This is another Joe Hisaishi, from the soundtrack of Howl’s Moving Castle. Enjoy and have an amazing week! ๐Ÿ™‚

    Ending_ The Promise Of The World_ The Merry-Go-Round Of Life-cut

  • Illustration for self-expression

    I was very happy to give a workshop at Nasawiya about using illustration to deal with your frustrations. I had a great time, met lovely people, and we all drew and chatted about illustration. Add to that cake and juice, how better can it get? ๐Ÿ™‚

    I’d like to thank Nadine Moawad and Joelle Hatem for helping me to organize it, Jessica Dheere from SMEX for the projector, and everyone who attended for their participation and making this fun!

    Here’s the outcome of the workshop, for more photos, check out the Facebook photos.

    My illustration of the event:

    Maya Zankoul workshop at Nasawiya

    Nadine‘s funny -true story- comic: [click to enlarge]

    Joelle‘s existential cartoon ๐Ÿ˜€ [click to enlarge]

    A 12-year old girl, Alice El Asmar, surprised us all with her AMAZING TALENT, she’s a real pro [wacom and blog and all!]

    Jessica‘s cartoon who looks just like her!

    Nadim’s also kind of existential cartoon

    Abeer‘s drawing against photography restrictions in Leb – She’s right!

    Ali’s Gemmayze demonstration:

    If your drawings aren’t here, please send them to me at maya.zankoul [at] gmail [dot] com!

    Have a lovely weekend all ๐Ÿ™‚ I’m off to play some piano…

  • Live from ArabNet – Day 2

    All I can say is that ArabNetME conference KICKED A**! Congrats again to all who participated to making this event as successful as it was. I am proud of you all for organizing such a successful event to encourage the web in the Middle East and allow the “big” people and the “new” people to mingle. You have exceeded my expectations by far! ๐Ÿ™‚

    Presenting the Arabic Web Font during the ideathon – Photo credits UxSoup

    Presenting the Arabic Web Font during the ideathon – Photo credits Ayman Itani

  • Live from ArabNet – Day 1

    Today, I’m live-illustrating from ArabNet.ME conference [which is turning out AMAZING!] and I pitched my arabic web font idea at the ideathon and getting a lot of + feedback. Here are some of the illustrations I did, and you can follow them live here and here.

  • Heads up for tomorrow!

    The clock is ticking!! Tick tock tick tock

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    2 big events are coming up tomorrow!

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    live.arabnet.me

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    Twestival Amman Beirut. Tweeting can't get any better! At twestical, we'll be tweeting for a cause, education!

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    tweet. meet. give. now what exactly will i be giving, you ask?

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    3 books

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    10 posters

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    how to use a poster

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    I am completely excited about all this, and extremely late as usual, so I’ll leave you to your beautiful days and go back to panicking about TOMORROW!!!!!!!! SEE YOU ALL THERE ๐Ÿ˜€

  • History repeats itself

    True Story: They FINALLY removed the "iso and elissar" poster from dbayeh highway! Joy! Happiness!

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    I'm sure they will replace it with a cultural event!

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    Or environmental! Or educational! Or even artistic!

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    BUT NO.

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    Presenting... Elianor & Elissar!

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    NOOOOOOO!!

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    I'm left with drinking it away.

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    Believe it or not, this story is 100% true! [Well, except the drinking part, it’s not true just yet.] I wish you all a lovely Monday, with today’s song ‘Wild Horses’ & I’m not exactly sure who sings it… Enjoy! ๐Ÿ™‚

    Wild Horses


  • A miracle at Lebanese banks

    Breaking news! Lebanese banks & postal services implement numbering system to avoid waiting in line and to save time!

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    BEFORE: we had to wait in line.

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    THEN, THE MIRACLE: Numbering system

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    2- Get informed of "THE MIRACLE".

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    3- Nag about it and try to negotiate a faster deal. "But my transaction is fast!"

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    4- Resignedly go to miracle and not know how to use it. "Hmm. This looks like toilet paper!"

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    5- Have someone explain the "right" way to use it. "you only get one ticket!"

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    6- go back to waiting in line

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    7- When your turn finally comes 40 minutes later...

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    When your turn comes, lady interrupts

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    "Madame get a number, please!" "But my transaction is fast!"

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    Take the lady to step 4 and repeat to fade

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    If you’ve been at a bank [that I won’t name] or at Liban Post lately, then you have surely noticed the new “numbering” system. I had to wait about 40 minutes for my turn to come, so I thought that I might as well observe and analyze the different interactions happening there! ๐Ÿ™‚ I wonder how long it will take for the new system to be understood by people coming for transactions!

    I’ll now leave you with this beautiful song, covered by Eva Cassidy “Song Bird”. Have a beautiful day! ๐Ÿ™‚

    Songbird 2

    That this post is being added live at LAU social class!

  • Visiting Zahle #2

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    I know one or two who will recognized themselves in the comics ๐Ÿ˜‰ I have very beautiful memories from those 2 days spent in Zahle, thanks again to all of you who showed up at the exhibition, and who gave me feedback, I really enjoyed it! To those who missed it, here are the photos of the event, tag yourselves and your friends. Tomorrow, I will be giving a presentation in Ayman Itani‘s class at LAU, and will be posting live from there! ๐Ÿ˜‰ See you then!

  • Visiting Zahle #1

    Last week, March 8 [International womenโ€™s day], was the opening of โ€˜Amalgameโ€™ exhibition at the French Culture Center [CCF] of Zahle. It was a chance to  discover a beautiful town far from Beirutโ€™s chaos...

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    Zahle is a gorgeous town that was nicknamed "bride of the bekaa" by poet said akl

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    It's located right behind the mountains, in the Bekaa valley.

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    The area is full of blossoming almond trees

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    … That was the “touristic” aspect of the Zahle visit! Isn’t Lebanon just beautiful? You can see some photos of the visit on the Facebook page. Tomorrow, I will tell you about the “serious aspect” i.e. exhibition, book-signing and encounters with lovely local schools & university students.

    And before I leave you to your busy days, here are 2 Lebanese songs that I love [for a change!] byย Fairouz: Al Bint Al Chalabiya & Shayef El Bahr Shou Kbir. Enjoy & have a beautiful day ๐Ÿ™‚

    AL BINT EL CHALABIYA

    09 Shayef el Bahr shou Kbir

  • Carlos Slim visits Lebanon…

    Everytime I get an email from Qifa Nabki with his latest idea for a collab, I get very excited about illustrating it! Here’s our latest! [Click on the image to view the full post]

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    CONTINUE READING…

  • Exotica… The Comeback! Moukarzel… The Fall Down!

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    And if I might ad, the execution of the C&F ad is terrible, as it is clearly a cushion inserted into the woman’s clothes, and not a baby.

    Again, I’d like to thank Exotica and their creative team for responding positively to the criticism of their campaign [I knew from trusted sources that the reason they updated the campaign is because of the reaction they saw through social media]. If that’s the case, then they are pioneers ๐Ÿ™‚ What do you guys think about the other campaigns I just shared?

    Exotica is now all over the Lebanese blogosphere: Raafat Hamze analyzes the campaign change here, and there isย Plus961‘s, Liliane‘s & Joe‘s take on this.

    On another note, I got back from Zahleh [as you might have noticed :P] and will update you tomorrow! Have a beautiful day with this smooth song from Spirited Away soundtrack by Joe Hisaishi!

    21 Always With Me