I’d love to thank everyone at Prodigi for the great support, especially my team on this project. Ronza for being a one-of-a-king project coordinator and Tarakiyee for being one inevitable developer. I also want to thank Sarah and Dima from Seagulls for the great follow-up, contact and efficiency, Rob Stevens & Farah Madadha for the great work, effort and support. You guys rock! This wouldn’t have been this great success without you.

Do I feel like blogging? maybe… and maybe not. There are many things I’m currently neglecting as I’m not only swamped with work. I am neglecting those things, yet I return to the same activities, such as reading, Facebook-ing and photography.

Facebook-ing is like mental junk food. I think I spend more than 8 hours on it on an average day. I think I need to eat less “junk food” and have more “oatmeal” one.

*sigh*

Instagram is a free photo-sharing app that allows users to take photos, apply filters and share them on the app itself or post it to their Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr or even Foursquare in simple steps. The application is compatible with any iPhone or iPad.

I loved the app and I think it is a great idea to have such apps, the filters are really professional and too real at some points. One of my friends actually created the local community page for this app on Facebook, click here to join.

Now, watching Arabic shows was great except that most of the Syrian drama series or dubbed cartoons were aired in a bad time for me, working from 9 am to 6 pm doesn’t let you enjoy, maybe because Arab TV stations are stupid enough to cater for housewives only, I’m not sure to be honest.

Finding videos the last few years wasn’t hard, the bad part was: The spam on the nickname of the rippers/channel owner’s name on the video on YouTube because Arab users steal and re-post, The low quality render of Audio, bad cutting and the splits, an episode of Bab Al-hara would be 5 parts because a user in only allowed to upload 10 min videos or has to be a producer or a TV station representative to have a longer length video service allowed.

3 months ago, I was introduced to Istikana and I can say… I am finally reliefed. Istikana is similar to Hulu and Vevo, a website that offers full length video content in Arabic that is one hundred percent legal, providing content that I grew up watching, like Al-Husun and many other dubbed cartoons with also on-demand videos in a variety of genres from Cartoons and Theatre, to Comedy and Religion, The content has primarily come from Jordan, but from Egypt, Kuwait, Syria, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia is on its way. With 3 to 4 new titles released on a weekly basis, you can constantly come back to Istikana and get your fix of Arabic videos. Istikana can also be accessed on the go from your iOS or Android devices.

I have hope now, and can’t wait for more projects to come-up this way, Please Rotana do not get in this! – Visit Istikana.

Last year’s list (erasing what I did, and keeping what I didn’t in bold)

• Make it safe to Goa, party and lick some frogs without getting disgusted or so.
• Learn more about design and master Arabic typography skills, Squared Kufi is the goal this year.
• Eat less, workout more (It worked for me last year too).
• Become stable, work on clarity and better work ethics.
• Learn from my freelance mistakes and have better clients.
• Having a 3rd tattoo with a meaning.
• Get rid of debts and start saving or getting an apartment loan while I can pay for it.
• Wear more formal/trendy outfits (apparently I look good in formal clothes and people it on me too).
• Find time for the gym, yes… time
• I will try to figure out why I carry 2 blackberry smartphones and an iPhone.
• Not give up on this list because I set my goals too high.
• Give more time to side projects, and personal goals. I promise you “me”.

After going through the list, I found out that what I really didn’t achieve wasn’t that important and can be achieved this year, so why not try again.

I don’t want to share my goals, well… at least I achieved some old ones.

Yes, it’s a Pitch Day.

It’s a mixture of stress, adrenaline and stomach butterflies. My role was a big part of the larger presentation, watching all our hard work come together in a flawless 35 minutes of powerpoint process was quite a sight.

We ended up not knowing if we won new business or not. It took us a lot of hard work to get a request for proposal let alone get in the room.

That on its own was a small success.

In my opinion, the secret to success is to show your potential clients that you not only have the muscle and the foresight to get the job done, even though you’re not a big advertising agency or a design firm but that you work well as a team and could potentially do great things together.

Advertising is all about chemistry between clients and agencies. If your client is not happy with the work your employees are creating, they’ll ask you to change it or hire a new creative team who can. But they won’t fire you.

Know more about the photo.

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30 Nights Vs. Granada Nights

30 Nights is located at the Days Inn Hotel expansion, overlooking the pool with lounges and comfortable seating, with 2 big screens, a stage and oriental music. Prices are affordable and the menu is on Facebook, with a busy schedule where daily events are taking places, such as bingo nights, karaoke, live performance by Hani Mitwasi, the FCB vs. RM football matches taking place during Ramadan and more.

Granada Nights is located at the Golden Tulip airport hotel, overlooking the pool with lounges and comfortable seating, with a big stage and great sound system with lounge/house music and live instruments, their schedule in Ramadan has live performances by local artists during Ramadan as well.

Comparison starts with:

Location: 30 Nights is right in the city, the Days Inn Hotel is located in Rabyeh; almost close to everything, While Granada Nights is a little far, it is located all the way next to the airport, driving to it from the 7th circle with the new temporary airport road takes around 40 minutes.
Winner is 30 Nights

Performances & Live acts: 30 Nights has Hani Mitwasi only in their schedule, while Granada Nights schedule is on fire with Majd Ayoub, Autostrad, Ziad Saleh and more.
Winner is Granada Nights

Service: Both places are actually decent, I’m excusing some of the delay because I went to both places on opening nights, and that can hectic for anyone. Waiters are probably confused, lost and not well-prepared.
No winner here

Opening: 30 Nights opening night was FREE of charge for everyone, food was served, juices, argeeleh and more while at Granada Nights we had to order, and it required invitations besides ending up paying for our orders.
Winner is 30 Nights

Price-wise: 30 Nights is lighter on the pocket, an Argeeleh costs around 5 JD while at Granada Nights it costs 7 JD.
Winner is 30 Nights

Atmosphere: 30 Nights is very normal compared to Granada Nights, lighting and setup was nicer at Granada, Sound System was great and the purple theme just gave it a Ramadani spirit.
Winner is Granada Nights

Internet: 30 Nights had 4 access points by Mada, pretty decent speed while Granada Nights had no access to any connection whatsoever.
Winner is 30 Nights

I’m being fair here, saying 30 Nights did better in what’s mentioned above and felt more comfortable ordering and staying there, and I hope they keep improving. However, I also loved Granada Nights lighting, stage and space and I think they can do better too.

I recommend you guys to visit both Lounges, as they are great! Visit their facebook pages and twitter accounts mentioned below.

30 Nights: Facebook | Twitter
Granada Nights: Facebook | Twitter