Anyway thanks to Jens a blog reader I now have in my possession an excellent condition Ericsson 388 with a perfectly working battery and home charger. Its gorgeous. Back when I had it the phone looked really tiny since its main competitor back then was the bulky Nokia 2110. Now the phone looks big compared to current phones. I still love the way the phone looks like and I love the green back light and the blinking green light on top of the phone telling me I have signal. Its all very retro.
The phone does lack some things. It doesn’t have a camera, no bluetooth, no infrared, no mp3 ringtones, no colored screen and no 3G. But I can make and receive phone calls and I can also send and receive SMS.
The Ericsson 388 is replacing my Motorola V3x which I have been hating more and more every day. Now I need to go and enter all my phone numbers manually into my phone. Its going to be a long night.
Note: To access the 388 service menu press right then * then left left * and left * one more time.
Anyone remember this Japanese TV show that they used to play every Friday morning on KTV1? It used to be called Al-7esn and the Arabic voice over was done by a guy called Ryadh Shararah. Here is a site with more pictures, info on all the characters and details of all the games. [Link]
Here is some interesting information regarding the Kuwait national squad. It was written by ilbaasha and edited by me.
Why is the Kuwait national team called Al-Azraq?
Al-Azraq refers to the period of time at the start of February when it becomes extremely cold after few days of warmth and people start to wear winter clothes again. This is the last chance of getting rain in Kuwait and it indicates the start of the end for the winter season.
The national team mascot is Haydoo the camel; the word is used as a “sit down” order to camels according to the Kuwaiti accent dictionary.
Why and how was Haydoo used as the mascot?
Back in October 1981 Kuwait was playing a world cup qualifying match in Oakland, New Zealand where the Kiwi fans had signs reading “Go Back to your Camels!” which they were waving as the Kuwaiti team came onto the field. Kuwait won that match 2 goals to 1.
When it was the home game later that year, 100 camels were brought on the pitch before the match to show that Kuwait was proud of its past.
Kuwait ended up qualifying to the 1982 world Cup in Spain and was the first Arab country from Asia to ever qualify. A Spanish newspaper later claimed that the Kuwait national team will be late to the World Cup because they would be “traveling on the backs of their camels!”. So, the Kuwaiti Football Association decided to use a camel (named Haydoo) as their mascot.
Unlike the newspaper had predicted, the Kuwaiti team ended up arriving early. Too early actually and no one, not the journalists or the locals knew that the Kuwaiti team was even in Spain! To attract attention, the head of the Kuwaiti Football Association told a French journalist who there to cover the arrival of the French team that “The Kuwaiti team would withdraw from the competition unless they were allowed to bring their mascot.” Within hours the hotel was packed with journalists wanting to find out more about the mascot
The Spanish authorities and the hotel manager finally allowed the Kuwaiti team to bring their camel as long as it was left in the backyard of the hotel. The head of the Kuwaiti Football Association then called the minister of sport in Morroco to send a camel as soon as possible to Spain. He also ordered a T-shirt to be made for the camel. This hype and the Camel mascot helped make Kuwait’s presence extremely felt by the locals and journalists.
Haydoo, has been the mascot for the Kuwaiti national team ever since.
You can listen to the Haydoo song (its Arabic with some English). The file is in Real Audio format. [ Download Song]
I just found a video on YouTube to probably one of the coolest moments in the World Cup ever. Back in 1982 when Kuwait was at the World Cup a very controversial incident took place. Kuwait was losing 3 goals to 1 when the French team scored the 4th goal. The Kuwaiti players thought they had heard the Russian referee blow the whistle before the goal so they stopped playing. After the goal was scored Sheikh Fahid Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah who was president of the Kuwait Football Association came down to the field and demanded the referee cancel the goal. He was furious and was yelling at his players to get off the pitch and go home when finally the referee gave in and canceled the goal. That was the only time in the World Cup history where someone other than the referee made the decision to cancel a goal. The referee later had his international refereeing credentials taken from him.
Anyone got ANY pictures of the old Kids R Us in Kuwait? Tried google and I couldn’t even find the old yellow koala logo yet alone pictures of the actual place.
The Simpsons began as a series of animated shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show between 1987 and 1989. I just watched one of those original episodes and its really weird, it feels very wrong but then again even season 1 of the Simpsons feels wrong. Anyway you can download the original 48 episodes after the jump. [Link] #
Found this via Hilaliya, some teacher who was living in Kuwait in the 80s scanned some old pictures he had taken here and uploaded them to his flicker account. Some cool stuff, Kuwait really hasn’t changed much. [Pictures]
Heat Vision and Jack is probably the coolest TV show which involved a motorbike. The TV show stars Jack Black as a super intelligent renegade astronaut and his talking motorcycle played by Owen Wilson. The show is also directed by Ben Stiller so you can imagine its ridiculously funny. Sadly it never made it past the pilot stage but the good thing is you can find the first pilot episode on YouTube. If you are not going to watch the whole episode atleast watch the opening of the show. [Video]
When I first started chatting on IRC (like back in late 95) my nickname was RAVErrr. Nibaq’s nickname was XBS and I still remember the first time he helped me get on IRC, I think I was using the software WS_IRC.
So what was your nickname?
New York: Teen rockers New Kids on the Block joined the ranks of such immortals as Barbie, GI Joe and Pee Wee Herman with the introduction of their own line of dolls. Fashioned after each group member, New Kids on the Block dolls are to be available in July and retail for $12.99 to $15.99. Shown (L-R), holding their own dolls, are: Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg, Jordan Knight, Danny Wood, and Jonathan Knight.
I haven’t been watching Showtime for ages so I just turned it on now and was checking my Tivo guide and to my surprise I found two new cool shows. Not new as in they are recent but new as in new additions to showtime. The two shows are Moonlighting and Out of this World. Can’t believe they are playing these two shows.. I love them!
This site is amazing! It has videos and audios of our favorite cartoons from when we were kids including shows like Efta7 Ya Simsim, Alshanakel, Zaina wa Na7oul, Bashar, Flona and Heidi. Listening to them makes me wish I was a kid again on a Friday morning. [Link]
