When I started blogging back in 2003 I really didn’t want to do it. My friend proposed the idea and I told him I thought blogging was stupid but I’d try it just for fun. Now, a decade later I’ve left my full time job at an ad agency to blog for a living instead.

Some people saw this coming, others are a bit surprised and many don’t really understand how blogging can be a job. Honestly even I’m having difficulties grasping that concept even though it’s a really simple idea.

I used to work from 9 in the morning till 7 in the evening and three times a week I had gym from 8 to 9 so I never had time for anything else. I never had time to go meet with people, pass by art exhibitions or even see my friends. Now that blogging will be my full time job I should have a lot more time to do all the things I wanted to but never had time for.

Things aren’t that simple since without a “real” job I can’t get my residency renewed and banks also don’t seem to like me unless I have a salary coming in every month. But I’m working on it.

Other than that issue I’m looking forward to this since I’ll have so much more free time on my hands to do whatever I want. I might help Nat out with her work, I’m thinking of maybe doing my Masters, taking one hour Muay Thai sessions at Core, signing up again at Sidekick for some Jujitsu and maybe even take Scuba diving lessons or some other activity I previously never had time for. One thing I’ve always wanted to do is ditch work and drive to Entertainment City instead. I can’t ditch work anymore since I no longer have a job but maybe I can wake up in the morning and pretend I’m going to work and then go to Entertainment City? I don’t know I’ll have to see how I can get that idea working right.

But, more importantly, I will now have a lot more time to focus on this blog, I have a couple of projects that have been pending for ages which I want to get a move on, I also have the Kuwait Blogs app I need to fix because right now it keeps crashing and even my 248AM iPhone app needs an update as well. I’ve even handed over my blog’s media to a media company called Dot Backspace so they could take care of the blog’s advertising while I focus all my attention on the content.

I’m excited (and a bit worried) about blogging fulltime but I’m also looking forward to it. I’m currently in Lebanon for the next 10 days on my summer break so I won’t really notice anything different until I get back to Kuwait and realize I don’t have to wake up at 7:30 the next day to go to work. We’ll see how things will pan out.

If you have a Kindle you can now subscribe to 248AM and read it on the go. Any new posts will be downloaded and updated on your Kindle automatically and of course you can then read the blog without having to be connected to the internet. I check out the majority of the blogs on my Mac or iPad but I have a few I prefer to read on the Kindle so I figured I’d make this option available to whoever wants it. Since most of my posts don’t have any videos you really won’t be missing out on anything. This option sadly isn’t free since Amazon has set the subscription price to 99cents a month and I don’t have any say in that.

To subscribe to the blog on your kindle you can either visit the Kindle Store from your Kindle and search for 248AM or you can subscribe from your browser by following this [Link]

I finally got around to fixing and updating the Kuwait Blogs app and it’s available to download right now in the store. Other than the fix to the thumbnails not loading I’ve also updated the blog list and now includes the following blogs:

2:48AM
2:48PM
360 Dewan
Aboflan
Ansam
Buz Fairy
Confashions
Danderma
Dusty Co.
Frankom
Grapevine
His & Hers
iLSul6ana
Ladies Who Do Lunch in Kuwait
Khaleejesque
Kuwait Music
Pink Girl Q8
Tidbit Du Jour
Trying to be Fahad
zDistrict

But all is not well. When I updated the app on my phone awhile ago it was freezing on launch. It was working perfectly fine when I tested before uploading to the store. It seems it’s working on some phones perfectly fine while others are facing issues similar to mine. Bare with me I’m not an expert in this. For now you can download it the way it is until I see if I can find a fix for it over the weekend. [US App Store Link]

If you could you please tell me in the comments if the app is working or not working with you that would be great. If you can include which iPhone you have and what version it is that would be even better. Maybe I could narrow the problem down that way.

Note: The included blogs might not all be the most popular but they are blogs I think are interesting and I’ve also tried to include a bit of variety in style and content.

If you’re interested, I’m tweeting most of my activities while I’m in New York and you could follow my tweets [Here]

Here are some of my favorite posts on 2:48PM from last week:

- Face Subsitution
- The McGurk Effect
- ‘The Office’ Skit from the Emmys
- Chinese Bike Couriers
- Bakery that sells gruesome human body parts

Just a minor note. I’ve gone ahead and separated the events section so that it can function by itself. What this will allow me to do is post more events in that section without over running the main blog with random event posts. I will continue to post events on the main page here but only ones that I think should be highlighted. You can access the events section by clicking on the events tab in the navigation strip on top.

I recently updated and rearranged the categories on top. I used to have the link to 248PM (PM not AM) all the way on the right but I thought it was more appropriate to have it next to the main 248AM link on the left. It makes more sense since 248PM is similar to 248AM except instead of the posts being related to Kuwait they’re more generic. So if you come here and don’t find any updates, you might find something there instead. [248PM]

The 248AM Forum now works with the mobile application Tapatalk. The application allows you to browse and participate in the forum using your phone but it makes it really easy since it uses the Tapatalk interface. What’s also cool about Tapatalk is the fact you can add all your favorite forums to it which makes things very convenient. The application is currently available for the iPhone, Android devices and BlackBerry and you can find out more information [Here]

I’m really not a good writer neither am I great in speeches which is what I believe this verdict deserves. I was extremely nervous today waiting to find out the outcome as you can imagine and it was such an incredible relief to find out I won.

I’m really not sure what to say other than the fact this ruling goes to show how much freedom of speech is highly respected in Kuwait. I love living here and I love having the right to state my personal opinion on this blog. I really want to thank EVERYONE for all the support that you gave me. Seriously what you guys did was just incredible and really gave me the courage to fight this out till the end. I also want to thank my lawyer Khaled Al Shamali from The Group Law Firm for taking this case and doing an amazing job. And most importantly I want to thank the judge and the court for their ruling.

I hope no other blogger will have to go through what I did and I hope the result of this case will serve as an example that you can’t stop people from stating their personal opinions.

Thanks again everyone!

PS: If you have no idea what lawsuit I am talking about click [Here]

I’ve been meaning to update the Kuwait Blogs app for awhile now but due to the fact I do all the work on my iMac I haven’t been able to do so. My iMac had a problem with the screen and I sent it in to get repaired under warranty which took around a month to get done. I just finally picked up my iMac today so will most probably be working on an update for the app this weekend.

I’m aware that the current build of the app is unstable with iOS4.3 and it’s my priority fix. I already know whats wrong I just need to work on it. What I also want to do if I have time is update the blogs in the app. I can’t add any more apps since I’ve hit the limit, but I can swap out blogs that aren’t active anymore or aren’t as active as they used to be. So if you have any recommendation on what blog I should add to the app leave it as a comment below.

If you want to download the current app here is the [Link]