Author: Mark

I have heard a lot about In-N-Out Burger from my friends, everyone who’s tried it tells me that they have the best burgers in the world. I just found this article on Laughing Squid which talks about why it has such a cult following. There is even a picture of their 100 patty, 19,490 calorie burger. We really need more burger places in Kuwait, Wendy’s and A&W should seriously reopen. [Link]

A nice list when planning your vacation:

1. Moscow
2. London
3. Seoul
4. Tokyo
5. Hong Kong
6. Copenhagen
7. Geneva
8. Osaka
9. Zurich
10. Oslo
11. Milan
12. St Petersburg
13. Paris
14. Singapore
15. New York

Kuwait isn’t in the top 50. Actually the only country from the Gulf which is on the list is UAE and it takes two spots, 34 for Dubai and 45 for Abu Dhabi. Here is the top 50 list. [Link]

Michael Moore’s new movie, Sicko is on Google Video. Its the complete movie, over 2 hours long. Sicko is a comedy about 45 million people with no health care in the richest country on earth. [Link]

update: It seems Google took down the video since the link is now dead.

Today morning I found out from Confashions that Villa Moda was having a one day 50% sale at their Fanar and Mubarikiya branches. So during lunch I went with some friends to the Mubarikiya branch which is extremely close to my office. It was my first time there and was pretty impressed at the size of the branch but kinda shocked at the location since its in a pretty old and beat up neighborhood.

The choice of clothing in the mens section was pretty poor. The stuff on display I would never wear and I can’t imagine anyone else wearing. Now take what I say with a grain of salt since I wouldn’t call myself stylish being that all I wear throughout the summer are Zoo York and Hurley t-shirts with Hurley jeans on the bottom. I did find a pair of Prada sneakers though that were pretty OK but after discount they were KD60 which I would rather put on a pair of Camper’s.

The womens section had a lot more items but the cool stuff (like Juicy Couture) were not on sale and their collection of accessories was pretty weak. Anyway if you have nothing else better to do it might be worth the trip to check it out. The Mubarikiya branch is larger then the Fanar one plus the interior is a lot more interesting.

update: I caved in and got the shoes after work.

Just a reminder, today is the last day to sign up for the Red Bull Flugtag that is going to be held at Marina Waves on November 2nd. I am teaming up with Nibaq and Marzouq on this and our plane will be built using a tried, tested and successful design, the Nintendo DS. Our plane will be a giant Nintendo DS that uses its folding design to flap us towards the winning line.

Check out the Red Bull site for more details. [Link]

update: K.theKuwaiti is now part of the team.

Blades of Glory
There wasn’t anything else better to watch at the movies so I watched this. It turned out to be cool and funny. Great cast, Will Arnett was the movie.

Ghost Rider
Sucked big time. I couldn’t even finish the movie because it was so bad. Big budget but B-rated acting and story. Nicolas Cage should have retired after Face/Off.

Wild Hogs
Its a cheesy family/children movie. I personally watched this movie because it starred William H. Macy but sadly he wasn’t at his best here. Some funny moments here and there but overall just cheesy humor.

Vacancy
The movie stars Luke Wilson who is incredibly funny, his last movie I watched, Idiocracy was hilarious so watching him being serious in this thriller was weird. The movie was fairly decent, its your everyday cliché slasher put together nicely.

Mr. Bean’s Holiday
I am a huge Mr. Bean fan but this movie was trash. It got so boring that I actually started forwarding the movie until I got to the good parts which was mostly near the end. The movie starts nicely and ends nicely but everything in the middle was just dull. It should have been a short sketch instead of a full length movie.

Perfect Stranger
I never paid attention to Halle Berry’s acting before, but after this movie I realized its not any good. She needs to act topless, thats the only way you won’t notice her acting. Bruce Willis was cool in the movie, he’s always been cool in his movies except in Hudson Hawk. Giovanni Ribisi wasn’t as annoying as he usually is. Sadly since the main star of the movie is Halle Berry, her acting skills killed it.

One of my favorite shows has ended and although the last episode wasn’t as dramatic as the Six Feet Under finale, it was still great. The last episode had a lot of memorable songs including the final one at the diner which I can’t seem to get out of my head. For a full list of songs that played during the last episode check out this post on Stereogum. [Link]

note: please don’t leave any spoilers in the comments below.

This was an actual commercial that was released!

[YouTube]

Today was the third and final day of the three day shoot. When I woke up in the morning I was worried that the shoot was going to get postponed till tomorrow since today was declared a national mourning day after the assassination of the politician yesterday. Luckily it wasn’t canceled and we went ahead with the shoot.

We started shooting late at around 10AM today because it took a lot longer to setup the market then expected. Once everything was setup it just looked really great and full of colors and colorful characters. I took a ton of pictures which you can check by clicking the link below.

Tomorrow morning I have to attend the color grading of the film in the morning and that should take a few hours. Once I am done I have to quickly rush to my hotel, pick up my luggage and head off to the airport to come back to Kuwait. I can’t wait to get back.

For those of you who signed up to the forum in the past few days please be patient for me to approve you. I have 41 new accounts I need to approve manually and the connection here is extremely slow.

Today was the second day of the three day shoot. I was on set at 6:30AM and we were done awhile ago around 8PM. It wasn’t as exhausting as the first shoot but since I’ve only had a total of eight hours of sleep in the past two days I was extremely tired. I was still better off then some of the guys in the production team who had slept only two hours in two days.

While in the middle of the shoot we got word that there was an explosion a few kilometers away. We later found out a politician was assassinated. Another explosion, another day. Things are just a total mess over here.

To check out more pictures from todays shoot click on the link below.

I just found this site while browsing and since I am going to be in Dublin for a few days in August for the NIN concert this site is going to be really useful. Everything looks delicious. [Link]

So even presidents have car problems.

[YouTube]

via

I just got back to the hotel room, its 6:30 in the morning. We were out shooting since 2 in the afternoon and it lasted all through the night up until the break of dawn. I am extremely exhausted but I wanted to upload a few pictures of the shoot before I went to sleep. There were over 100 people on the set today so it was really packed. This was the first day of a three day shoot. Check out the pictures by clicking the link below.

I am in Lebanon shooting a TV commercial for MTC-Vodafone and today is going to be the first day of a three day shoot. I am going to get permission from MTC to allow me to post pictures I shoot on the set at the end of every day. We are shooting two locations today, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. The evening shoot will start once the sun goes down and end before the sun comes back up. Its going to be a really long day but hopefully once I get back to the hotel I will post some pictures.

The reason I am not posting much is because the hotel DOUBLED their Internet rate. Its $5 per hour now which sucks. As you can expect I sent them an email complaining but of course since this is Lebanon, no one cares what the customer thinks.