Milton Glaser designed the iconic I Love NY logo at left.

Think you can do better?

New York State’s Division of Tourism, I Love New York, is asking Capital Region residents to come to Colonie Center Mall on Wednesday from noon to 6 p.m. to sketch what they love about the state’s 11 vacation regions, hundreds of attractions, destinations and experiences. People can sketch their favorite activities, sites, or adventures or have a professional illustrator draw it for you at the event at the mall.

Submissions will be displayed later in an online gallery at http://followyourheart.iloveny.com

If you can’t make it to Colonie Center, you can submit your drawings to submit@followyourheartny.com

If you start in Albany,  you’d end up really wet, far off the coast of Australia.

Check out http://www.antipodemap.com/ to see where you’d end up from other places in the world.

Here’s how the Antipodes Map website explains it:

In geography, the antipodes of any place on Earth is its antipodal point; that is, the region on the Earth’s surface which is diametrically opposite to it. Two points which are antipodal to one another are connected by a straight line through the centre of the Earth.

The Palestinian poet Ghassan Zaqtan is known for descriptive language and delicate narratives, dealing with history, exile and return.

Zaqtan, who is also a novelist, playwright and newspaper editor, is slated to discuss “Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me,” his first collection of poetry published in English. Zaqtan, however, hadn’t yet arrived in the U.S. by Thursday afternoon. The local appearance is part of a two-week tour, originally scheduled to begin Tuesday in California, that is co-sponsored by groups hosting his readings and underwritten by the Poetry Foundation.

The New York State Writers Institute announced on its Facebook page that the PEN American Center and the ACLU are pressing the State Department to grant the poet a visa. The organizations have suggested that the visa is being held up for political reasons.

Don Faulkner, director of the Writers Institute, says Zaqtan’s work has a political component, but he is generally considered uncontroversial and has been involved with numerous … conferences and seminars.

“What we’ve gleaned is by all estimations he’s very much seen as a a bridge-builder,” says Faulkner. “He’s regarded, at least in intellectual community in Israel, as a very positive force.” The Writers Institute has received no complaints about booking Zaqtan, Faulkner says.

If all goes as planned, Palestinian-American poet Fady Joudah, who translated “Straw Bird,” will appear with Zaqtan.

If Zaqtan can’t make it, Joudah, who recently won the Yale Younger Poets Prize for his own work, will still appear 4:15 p.m. seminar, 8 p.m. reading; Tuesday. Free. Standish Room, Science Library, UAlbany, 1400 Washington Ave., Albany. 442-5620; http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst

[nggallery id=4138]

Here’s a video primer of Season 1, with some teasers of Season 2 of the hit HBO series “Game of Thrones,” which returns to the cable channel on Sunday night.

I’ve had the chance to watch the first four episodes of the new season. If you saw the first season, then you’ll be happy to know that Season 2 is even better so far. If you’ve never seen the show, perhaps you’ll want to join in.

Sure, some people are turned off by the very notion of fantasy, even if it is an HBO-style Soprano-esque hard-hitting cut-throat adult kind of fantasy (with nudity and sex thrown in). But what makes the story work is not only the hard-hitting politics, but the great development of multiple characters, especially the clear-headed (and hedonistic) Tyrion Lannister, a role played by Peter Dinklage who won both an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his portrayal.