Greece tends to produce these exuberant and extrovert characters, in love with life – think Zorba the Greek – and Miller (no shrinking violet himself) enjoys their company. It seems to drive his writing to new heights. He responds to the passions of the Greeks, and to the Greek landscape, and describes both with accuracy and skill. He refers to 'a fang-like row of houses' along a Greek waterfront, bringing to life the square, white buildings of different heights so typical of a little Greek port.

he describes it perfectly, captures greece perfectly, he puts my thoughts that i find it hard to find the words for into words which in turn is helping me learn to be more descriptive and detailed in stories and my thoughts...learning new ways of communicating..

The soul of Greece circa 1939. Miller captures the spirit and warmth of the resilient Greek people in this tale of a wartime journey from Athens to Crete, Corfu and Delphi with his friend Lawrence Durrell. Miller at his most inspired.

iphone and verizon

Apple is finally making an iphone version for Verizon Wireless that will be sold early in the new year. Their deal with AT&T is finally coming to an end which in turn is intensifying the competition with Google Inc based phones.

Apple is estimated to sell 40 million iPhones in the world this year. However there is competition pressure in the U.S. from other Verizon phones promoted by verizon running Android software.

Apple plans to begin mass producing the new iPhone by the end of the year and the phone would resemble the iPhone 4 currently sold by AT&T, but would be based on an alternative wireless technology used by Verizon, these people said.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703735804575536191649347572.html

Tiger Tweets

I decided to blog out Tiger Woods' twitter page as I wanted to do a little research in how he is posting tweets and communicating with his fans and the general public. When such a scandal is released with in the Media and Sports marketing world it is necessary for Tiger Woods to apologize to fans, admit the wrong doing, communicate well and follow up. The tweets shown on his twitter is Tiger Woods' way of following up with his fans to try to regain some of his credibility as an athlete and a person.

http://twitter.com/tigerwoods

Glimmer

What first attracted me to this book was the design and color on the front. The use of rainbow streaking color across the words is very effective. "How design can transform your life, and maybe even the world"...These are the words on the front cover which are very captivating and pulls the audience in making them want to read more.

www.core77.com

Take Breaks!

Graphic Designers make sure to take your breaks while working! sitting at your desk ignoring the tingling and numbing feeling in your arm, hand or shoulder should not be ignored! Carpal Tunnel syndrome occurs when the median nerve running from your forearm into the hand is stressed and needs to be relaxed. Carpal tunnel syndome is caused by the compression of the key nerve in the wrist.

It is important to take breaks every hour or so that you are sitting at a desk and staring at the computer. I feel that I need to take breaks when my wrist starts to hurt and wanted to do research on carpal tunnel syndrome.

For more information on prevention look at this website:

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/carpal_tunnel/detail_carpal_tunnel.htm

Richard Prince

Richard Prince is an american painter and photographer that uses the style of appropriated images to create his art. Prince's most famous and recognizable work was the image above of the marlboro man riding into the horizon. This is one of my favorite images as it represents America and the ideal of freedom. The rephotographed image of the cowboy above was sold for over 1 million dollars at Sothebys auction house. Prince created a whole series called the cowboy series that represents American masculinity.

Other series of collages and photographs that he has done includes gangs, biker chicks and cars. Although his work is very controversial I believe that he has a true talent and am a huge fan of his work

PIMP MY LIFE - Anna Akbari

Anna Akbari is a sociologist, entrepreneur, consultant, thinker, connector and writer. She is an extremely talented and motivated individual and was an inspiration to me and the rest of the class. Throughout the speech Akbari discussed the two main themes of identity construction and image management. One of Akbari's projects was 'The Hair Chronicles'. This was a test as a way of transforming identity with hair. The project brings up the question of authenticity and is authenticity necessary with design.

Akbari sees human identity in many different lights. She believes that we all wear masks and that all of the masks that we wear are real. We have a collection of masks, not just one authentic self, that is not real. Akbari jokes about having multiple personality disorder (MPD). She loves to dress up and do experiments in dressing up as different kinds of people. One example of a person who displays different identity images is Ralph Lichnich, otherwise known as Ralph Lauren. Ralph is a jewish man from the bronx, he was a son of immigrants and has a very different identity to which he has built his empire on, his story is a true success story.

Another topic of discussion was facebook and how it allows people to view and observe other peoples behavior. We truely do live in the public eye, where our individual lives are displayed for all to see on the internet, allowing the option of judgement. Today there are alot of privacy issues with social networking sites including facebook.

Other social networking sites such as twitter and blogging websites allow people to have a voice and be heard. These websites also allow us to be in multiple places at once.

second life - look up - avatars - you create your identity - virtual world

Akbari is an exceptional writer. She is also interested in ethnographic exploration which is a way of testing audience believability. Anna tried on different identities and dressed up as a homeless person, preppy school girl, and tourist in NYC.

The class was also guided on our future plans with jobs and internship opportunities. She explained that our intellectual paths may be windy, however that is ok. Akbari herself went to alot of liberal arts schools and began by studying Sociology. Akbari's education of her liberal arts studies taught her how to think, how to learn and be a well-rounded person.

Three important strategic self presentation tactics are Think, Write, Speak. Design Embodied means you can design who you are and gives you the power to fashion yourself to fit in and design yourself, designing your physical identity. People are viewing your appearance and identity even if you don't care. Three main things to aim to be are confidence, positivity and professionalism; all three of these are very important in interviews and as a way to be in life and at your job. One thing that Akbari stresses is how she likes people who are curtious. Another tip we learned is the importance of your quality of writing. If you know how to write you are valuable in any context.

annaakbari@gmail.com