Taken using a 4th gen iPod Touch… with a little tweaking in iPhoto. It's annoying how Apple has allowed the iPod to shoot HD video but the photos aren't up to scratch in terms of quality, as you can easily tell when you view the pic at full size.

Click to enlarge

Later, I scanned in the piece I brought home (top), and eventually fiddled with it in Adobe Illustrator, printing it out on canvas as a wedding present for the same friend (bottom).

I think this is proof as to why I should stick with digital art in future!

For my best friend, SimSim.

Drawn using a Wacom Bamboo Pen in Adobe Illustrator CS5.

Btw, I've realized just how lazy I've become wrt my camera. When I bought my first digicam way back in 2002 (a Minolta summit or other), I was so excited by my shiny new purchase, I insisted on fiddling with every manual setting available. These days, I normally shoot on auto-mode. It works out okay in well-lit environments, but the picture quality becomes extremely naff (I mean, more so than I'd expect) in anything less than daylight. I keep reminding myself that I need to figure out the best settings for indoors – especially as I hate using the flash – but bah… laziness.

Then, the other day, I lent my Canon to another sister from the ISoc, and within a few minutes she'd taught me five new things about the camera, like how to control the flash intensity (I had no idea I could do that), and change the aspect ratio to widescreen (though I'll probably stick to doing that during post-processing). This is one of the few times in my life that I've been outgeeked by a fellow Muslimah! I am totally going to leech off of her knowledge, inshā’Allāh. In a good way.

In other news, the first meeting of the Sisters Film Club went well, māshā’Allāh, in spite of clashes with the Muslim Medics AGM, and general exam stress all round. We have our sights on the first project, which should be ready for June, inshā’Allāh. More details as they become declassified for public release.

12:45 PM Apr 10th: I'm attending the Islam in Italy event this afternoon for one reason only… HALAL ITALIAN FOOOOD!! May it be as tasty as I imagine, āmīn!

Unfortunately, I forgot to take pics of said tasty Italian lunch… ahem.

2:03 PM Apr 16th: Honey & marg on toast: one of life's simple pleasures.

10:37 PM Apr 20th: I had dinner @ Satay House. Ordered banana fritters as recommended by @Teakster, but the seabass was out of my budget. :) Pics up 2moro iA.

10:12 AM Apr 21st: I'm having an egg sarny & tea for breakfast. Couldn't be bothered with the flimsy pastry route!

Umm… I had eaten my 'egg sarny' by the time I had the idea to take a pic of it. I only shot the spoon to kill time whilst waiting for my meeting. I did have a photo of my tea, but it doesn't seem to be on my pen drive anymore (I'm uploading these pics at uni, whilst MacBook is in for repair).

So, err… yes. Spoon!

I snapped this while changing the tapes on my HV20 camcorder. I thought it was a good message.

Anyhoo, I have been discussing the possibility of setting up a film club within my ISoc. I am tempted towards making it a sisters-only gig – mainly cuz I've been wanting to recruit a talented woman to help me edit all the footage I have sat on my external hard drive for a while now. Inshā’Allāh, a fruitful legacy will be born out of my selfish needs.

The good news is that everyone I have spoken to thus far seems keen. The challenges include: a lack of equipment (I seem to be the only one with a camera, and decent editing software), and most of the people with the necessary skills and experience have a Y-chromosome.

The answers to both problems shouldn't be too difficult to solve, inshā’Allāh. I think the university TV station is still going; we may be able to tap their resources. And we can always hold training sessions for sisters to pick up basic film-making skills. You mainly learn through doing, anyway; the only formal training I've had thus far is a crash course on Final Cut at the Apple Store.

The women-only suggestion is more about pragmatism than anything else. I want it to be a safe-space to learn, and channel creative energy; like a women-only book club, or an art class. I do not believe that men are the 'enemy' (though I admit to going through phases in that regard).

I won't be restricting membership to Imperial students; it's just easier to establish this kind of thing within the framework of an existing community, such as an ISoc. So if you're based in London, and are interested in joining in, then stay tuned to this blog. I'll let you guys know if/when we have our first meeting, inshā’Allāh.

Your suggestions are welcome.

Extreme close-up of instructions on how to compute confidence intervals when estimating parameters of a normal distribution. Zzzzz…