Category: Blog Info

You can follow @twofortyeightam if you’d like to know whenever a new post is up. The account is strictly connected to the blog while @mark248am is my personal twitter account.

So I’ve been working on a new theme for the blog which I’m going to launch in the next coming months but just a few months ago I was like you know what? I could probably introduce some of the new changes to the current theme and it will take me less than an hour of work. So I did just that.

The slightly modified changes are:

– a light grey backdrop with a soft shadow behind the white page to give it a raised feel
– a wider space for my posts which means I can now have larger pictures and videos
– new sharing icons at the bottom of the post for facebook, twitter and google
– clearer section tabs under the main header

I had a problem with my email last week and now have around 4,000 emails currently in queue on the server waiting to get delivered to me. If you sent me an email and didn’t get a response back yet I’ll try to get back to you as soon as I can.

I just upgraded my iPhone to iOS7 and realized both my 248AM and Kuwait Blogs app now no longer work. I need to update them so will be doing so this weekend. Once the update is available I’ll let you know.

I haven’t posted anything all day today because I was honestly contemplating on what to do about the comments. Recently they’ve started getting really nasty and I even had to delete my post on the dog shooting videos because I got threatened by a reader in one of the comments.

Freedom of speech does not include threats or random accusations.

My commentators can basically be divided into 3 groups:
1- Normal expats and Kuwaitis
2- Expats who really hate Kuwait
3- Kuwaitis who really hate expats

The last two groups are the issue and I think I’m going to start moderating the comments even more so than I currently am unless the two groups can learn to respect each other in every discussion. It’s frustrating and upsetting how ugly things can get.

I’m not going to change anything for now, but if this continues to happen I’m going to start deleting a lot more comments which I don’t want to do.

So please, lets make this work.
Thank you.

So yeah, what was supposed to be a routine upgrade scheduled for 3AM turned out to be a disaster with the site being offline most of the day. Things are back to normal now finally.

I’m holding an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session right now up till 11AM. You can ask me anything you want in the comments below and I’ll try my best to reply to you right on the spot. If you’ve ever been curious about anything or just want to know more about me then this is your chance to get your answers. I will be answering all your questions truthfully and if there is one I won’t answer I will say so.

Update: I am extending this session past 11AM since there are too many questions and I am still trying to go through them all.

Update2: I’m closing this at 11:30AM

Update3: And I’m done! That was exhausting. All questions have been answered and no questions were deleted or ignored. Hope that was informative for everyone. Might hold another session in the evening one day (no date set) for those of you who couldn’t take part in this morning session because of work or other issues.

I’m going to hold an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session tomorrow morning similar to the ones that take place on Reddit. You’ll basically be able to ask me anything you want in the comments and I’ll try my best to reply to you right on the spot. I was originally thinking of holding two sessions, one in the morning and one in the evening but I figured we’ll see how the morning one goes first before setting up a second session.

If you’ve ever been curious about anything or just want to know more about me then this is your chance to get your answers. Just check this blog tomorrow at 10AM and I’ll have the “Live” Ask Me Anything post up for you to ask me questions under. The AMA session will take place from 10AM to 11AM tomorrow July 8th. I don’t think I will set any rules or have any subjects that are out of bounds, we’ll just have to see how it goes.

Just a quick note. If you ever come in here and don’t find a new post but still want something interesting to read or check out then visit 248PM. It’s just a random place where me and my brother just post interesting videos or anything else we deem interesting that’s not related to Kuwait.

You can visit that blog by hitting the link on the top navigation strip or just by clicking [Here]

Last week a user in the forum posted asking for legal advice. His brother was accused of shoplifting and needed some legal advice. I asked my lawyer friend to look at his question and then it gave me an idea, how about Kuwait law related posts on this blog? Starting from today my friend Fajer is going to be posting every now and then on this blog answering law related questions, she’s already started with the post below on shoplifting. If you have any law related questions you could contact her on [email protected] and we’ll be choosing the most interesting ones to answer on the blog. This should be interesting.

I get a lot of strange emails all the time and so a few months ago I decided I would start posting them up on my secret tumblr account. Today I decided I’m going to share my tumblr with everyone. Check it out [Here]

The Forum’s For Sale section always has interesting items for sale and usually for very good deals. Right now someone is selling the limited Kuwait edition Panerai with the Al Hamra engraving on the back for what could be a good price. If you’re interested you can check it out [Here]

Me and a friend went through all the questions submitted in the giveaway held a couple of days ago on the blog and managed to choose 4 really good questions which we will be asking Kim this week when we interview her. I will be contacting the winners soon but this means there is still 1 more ticket I need giveaway.

So, if you want to meet Kim Kardashian and get photos taken with her at the Millions of Milkshakes grand opening this coming Thursday, all you need to do is leave a comment below with your favorite milkshake flavor and using random.org I will randomly choose a winner.

Rules: Only one entry per person and please make sure you use a working email since the winner will be contacted by email. If winner doesn’t respond within 24 hours another winner will be randomly chosen.

Update: I’ve closed commenting

Update2: The number that won is comment #204 which is Dima DaveyWalker. Someone will contact you soon.

Update3: A reader made me realize I made a mistake with the counting. I was counting from inside wordpress which turns out displays the comments from new to old while on the blog its old to new. So the actual winner is DaveyWalker.

As I mentioned a couple of days back I have 5 “Meet & Greet” tickets to giveaway. These tickets will allow you to meet Kim Kardashian at Millions of Milkshakes during the opening as well as take pictures with her. Since I will be interviewing Kim Kardashian for this blog I’ve decided the competition will be as follows:

What would you ask Kim Kardashian if you could ask her just one question? Leave your question in the comments below. The five people with the best questions will each win a ticket. I will decide which questions are the best.

Make sure you use your correct email address because I will be emailing the winners.

Update: Here’s a video of Kim talking about her upcoming visit


[YouTube]

Update: I’ve closed the post for comments so I can go through the questions. I was so not expecting to get 400+ comments I have no idea how I am going to go through them all…

Update2: And the four winners are…
Roy
Rehab
Q8 Teacher
~LE~

Every now and then I invite different people to write on the blog and last week I asked John Peaveler if he’d be interested to share stories regarding animals and wildlife in Kuwait. John is the managing director of Kuwait Society for the Protection of Animals and Their Habitat (K’S PATH) whom I’ve posted about a number of times before and a groups work I highly support. He’s already got his first post up which you can check below.