Author: Mark

A Bahraini blogger called Aysha was surprised to find out that not only did Al-Qabas newspaper steal one of her pictures and publish it in the newspaper but that the picture they stole was a picture of herself. She was completely shocked and surprised to find her picture plastered in Al-Qabas and now wonders if there is anything she can do. She has a full write up on her blog which you can check by clicking this [Link]

Sadly I doubt there is anything she can do about this and we all know this isn’t the first time that Al-Qabas uses pictures without permission.

What’s probably stranger than these cards is the fact that people still send Ecards… [Link]

via BoingBoing

I always forget how terrible the Internet is in Lebanon until I get here and then I either want to throw my laptop out the window or save myself from this misery and jump out myself. I can’t live like this!

Update: Ran a SpeedTest and ended up with the results above

I’m going to be in Beirut for the next 10 days enjoying the sun. As usual I’ll still be posting from there. I’m taking my GF1 with me so expect a lot of pictures.

Fried cheese melt, made with four fried mozzarella sticks and melted American cheese grilled between two slices of sourdough bread. It is served with French fries and a side of marinara sauce. [Link]

Wow… [Link]

A reader sent me the picture above of the iPad with the WedgePad. I hadn’t heard of the WedgePad before but I think I am going to get one now since it makes the iPad cozier to use. At $27 with free shipping it’s also a pretty good deal. [Link]

Thanks FYI

Last month I posted about the indoor RC track that just recently got set up by the Kuwait Science Club and today I finally got to pass by and check it out. When I got there I met up with Nawaf from the Science Club who was setting up his car. He took me through the whole set up process step by step explaining how everything works. These tiny radio controlled cars work pretty much like our large cars with similar features. They even have tires with different softness and hardness like proper race cars.

Once we were done setting up the car he let me take it around the track. Some of the drivers there were averaging around 10 seconds a lap and I think I managed to break their record for the slowest lap ever. Once I get back from my vacation next week I’ll be taking my own car to the track at least once or twice a week since it’s like the perfect summer activity due to the fact the indoor track is air conditioned.

Now the exciting part is that this year I will be participating in their outdoor buggy practices and races which are held from October to March at their super large outdoor track next to 360 Mall. They will be teaching me everything there is to know from building a car to setting it up to racing it. I will be driving the Xray 808 which is the car I had my eye on last year (pictured above) so it should turn out to be a lot of fun.

For information on the Radio Control Car Club of Kuwait click [Here]

Update: If you’re interested in getting into this hobby you can call or SMS Nawaf on 99625805

I was in Phase II of the Avenues when I heard what sounded like a movie being played loudly in the middle of the mall. I followed the sound all the way up to the second floor near where Kenneth Cole is and found something called the XD Theater. Turns out for KD3 you can watch a short 3D movie that’s around 5 minutes long. It’s kinda like a small movie theater in the middle of the mall.

So today I wore my Shake Shack t-shirt to the gym and on my way I took a picture and posted it on my twitter. To my surprise, one of my followers on twitter replied back telling me that Shake Shack will be opening in place of Le Pain Quotidien at Avenues. I quickly SMS’d my Alshaya insider to confirm and it turned out to be true.

Of course I was upset since I’ve been promoting Shake Shack ever since I first found out they were opening in Kuwait and instead of getting the information first from my insider, I ended up getting it from a twitter follower. My insider did tell me though that they were planning to have the branch open by end of the year and that I would get more information regarding that next week.

I also found out two more things, one is that they’re planning to open a second branch of P.F. Chang’s next to Al Corniche Club. My guess is they will probably open up where I Love Souk used to be located. Finally, I also found out that Pinkberry will be opening their Marina Mall branch before Eid next month. That’s everything I got for now.

A couple of weeks back one of the power plugs at home melted and started smoking. Luckily Nat was in the house at the time and smelled something burning and managed to turn off the plug before anything serious happened. A few days after that there was the fire incident that happened in my office building. Because of these two events I decided I should be “fire ready”.

I have a small fire cabinet in my apartment. I didn’t put it there, it came with the flat and it had 3 empty fire extinguishers inside which I never replaced or even threw out (they looked nice in the cabinet). I decided it was time I got them filled so I took the 3 empty canisters and headed to Rihab Complex in Hawalli. I had seen some fire supply stores on the first floor behind the video game stores and figured they would refill my canisters. Well, turns out although they do refill empty fire extinguisher bottles they wouldn’t refill mine since they were around 25 years old and so weren’t compatible with their machines.

So, I decided to get some new bottles. I figured they were going to cost me an arm and a leg but was completely surprised by how cheap the fire extinguishers turned out to be. There are two main types of extinguishers I found, powder and CO2 based ones. Both put out the same kind of fires but according to the salesman the powder one is cheaper but messier while the CO2 extinguishers cost more but don’t leave a mess. I ended up picking up two small 1KG powder fire extinguishers and one larger 2KG CO2 extinguisher from the shop pictured above. There are around 6 to 8 fire supply shops next to each other which means you can haggle on the price. The 1KG powder extinguishers cost KD2.5 each while the 2KG CO2 extinguisher costs KD8 (4KG powder costs KD8 as well), I picked three of them up for KD11.

So now you know where you can pick up fire extinguishers from and how much they cost so there really isn’t an excuse why you shouldn’t also be fire ready. I put one of the small extinguishers in Nat’s car since she didn’t have one (my car came with one) and I am now going to pick up a few more extinguishers this weekend for my parents home. Its better to be safe than sorry.

Found the following message on a one Dinar note I was carrying.

Dear Ahmad, if u receive this message while u’re single, call me. I’m sorry – Rasha

I wonder if Ahmad ever ended up reading it…

A friend of mine is selling his Lotus and NegativEffect put this video together for him. I love the sound the car makes… [YouTube]

Note: My birthday is coming up if anyone is interested hint hint

Looks like In-N-Out opened up in Lebanon before Kuwait.

Road Runner is coming back an with an updated new look. Too soon to tell if it’s a look that will grow on me but judging by the short preview clip it might. [Link]