Category: Information

“No one can say exactly what it looks like when a planet takes ill, but it probably looks a lot like Earth.” [Link]

Aramex have a new customer service manager because they want to fix all their problems. If you are having any problems or if you have any feedback or comments about their service then let them know about it so they can fix it. I know I had a lot so I sent them like 2 pages worth of problems with their solutions.

Send all your Shop & Ship feedback and comments directly to the customer service manager, her email is: [email protected]

Thanks

update: just replaced the hotmail email with her aramex email

I got a phone call yesterday from the owner of Choowy Goowy cookies, he wanted to reply to my post titled “Choowy Goowy Waiting List“. Basically it turns out the reason why I was told it would need two days for the cookies to get delivered was because the Choowy Goowy bakery was being renovated and they had stopped all orders for 1 week. The day I called asking for cookies they had just started delivery again and they had a long list of backorders they needed to complete. Part of the reason for the renovation is so they could accept customers who want to pick up the cookies themselves.

I then asked him about the fact that the person who I spoke to on the phone told me that I couldn’t order just 1 jar. He replied telling me that VIP customers could order 1 jar if they wanted to but new customers would have to order more. He told me they currently have only 1 delivery car and its difficult and time consuming to go deliver 1 jar in Fahaheel for example and another 1 jar in Kuwait City. He told me they are still a small bakery and they are growing slowly but steadily and they would get another car in the near future but for now they only have just one.

On another note I will soon be trying their Sorbet icecream, the owners of Choowy Goowy also have Boozah Boozah and they are working on some new receipes at the moment but once they are done they will send me a batch of their icecream to try out. Cookies in the winter, Icecream in the summer.. I can’t wait.

If you would like to place an order for cookies call 2626559

I was just reading Zaydoun’s post on how he has been blogging for three years and it really brought back some good memories. You see, before it was just Zaydoun’s “Kuwait Unplugged” blog and qHate which was made up of me, Rampurple and Nibaq. qHate originally was Nibaqs idea and it started off as a blog about life in Kuwait but when the US decided to invade Iraq, qHate quickly turned into a war blog. We were posting on things that were going on in Kuwait like the sirens, the panics and the gas masks we even got the chance to stalk meet Wolf Blitzer and John Vause. It was a lot of interesting little things that showed people how everyone in Kuwait was living during this uncertain time. Checking my first post (2-2-03) now though I realized it was actually related to the war.. so now I am wondering if war blogging was part of the original plan… It was cool how me, Rampurple and Nibaq used to blog together in one blog and now we all have our own separate blogs. I keep telling Nibaq we were like a rock band that split up and all the members went solo.

In the end the site ended after we hit our peak, the war was over, there was barely anything to post about and only Rampurple was left posting and she finally also said goodbye. Maybe one day we will all be back together again, like a reunion..

This is an interesting surprise. Yesterday I posted my views on the Toot the Arab blog network and what I saw as problems with the way things were laid out. Well I just checked the site now and it looks like most of the problems are getting fixed. The first change you will notice when you check Toot now is that instead of 9 blogs being highlighted on top, you now only get 3. The second change and probably the most important one is the tootstream. No longer is it just a long boring list of blog names and post titles, the list now contains a brief snippet of what the post is about. This makes things a lot more interesting and more usable, even the post titles are now larger and more clearer… check it out. [Link]

For the past couple of years I have been forced to use Extensis Suitcase to manage the fonts on my Mac. There was one serious competitor and Extensis ended up acquiring it. Awhile back I found out Linotype released a beta version of their own font manager software called FontExplorer X. I went ahead and tried it out and it was a bit buggy and had some features missing so I removed it and continued using Suitcase. A couple of days ago Linotype released the final version of their software so I downloaded it and ever since then I haven’t gone back to Suitcase.

FontExplorer is wayyy faster, has more features, and best of all its fucking free! Its FREE! Suitcase costs $100 and I see no reason why I should pay that much for a software that doesn’t perform better then the free FontExplorer. So what I am trying to say here is if you are a designer and frustrated with Suitcase, download FontExplorer, its lightyears ahead and so much more cooler.. [Link]

Last year I posted pictures of the abandoned Apple store in Kuwait City and they quickly spread all over the web. The coolest thing about this dirty old store were the old Apple posters, everyone wanted to get their hands on them since they are very rare and impossible to find. So I passed by the place today during lunch time and to my surprise the posters were all taken down and the store completely emptied and cleaned. I quickly got closer to see if I could find any trace of the posters and their they were folded on the floor of the display window. So I went upstairs to the Apple stores office and spoke to this Apple tech guy whom I met a couple of times before and he told me that they had just finished repainting the store and they would be opening it up in the next few days. I asked him what they were going to do with the posters since he knows how badly I wanted them, he told me that they were going to hang them up again. SUCKS! So now I am never going to get my hands on these Apple posters nor will I be able to get my hand on Lego guy!

Ever wondered how much influence Arabic words have in the English language? [Link]

So I was at Virgin earlier and the section in the back where Nissan used to be is now closed off and there is a Ferrari Formula 1 car on display there. If anyone is interested that is.

My Qualitynet DSL account expires next month and so I was just checking their website to see if they have any new offers because last year when I signed up they had a double your bandwidth offer. So I am checking to see how much 512KB will cost me this time around and to my surprise its KD100 cheaper. Last year if you signed up for 1 year of 256KB they would double the bandwidth to 512KB. I paid KD380 then. This time around I don’t see a double your bandwidth offer but a 512KB connection now costs KD280. The sad thing is 1MB is still KD560 a year which is double the price, maybe my sister who lives next door and steals uses my internet will pitch in for a 1MB (hint hint Rampurple). [Link]

I love the smell of burning garbage.. it reminds me of the old days in Lebanon. During the war people burned the garbage because there was no one to come and pick it up so now whenever I smell burning garbage I just remember Lebanon. I am currently sitting on the balcony with Geo and it seems there is a pile of garbage in my neighbourhood that is currently on fire, I can’t see the fire I can just see the smoke rising up behind one of the buildings and I can smell it really well. There is like a really huge pile of garbage near my building which I have been hoping would catch on fire but that hasn’t happened yet. If the baladia doesn’t want to take care of the trash then we should take things into our own hands. Too bad I am too chicken to start a fire myself.

I currently have a reseller account at Fasthosts where I pay around $90 a month to host as many sites as I want with them. That was a good deal 6 years ago when I first signed up but now its really expensive compared to whats available in the market. So I did a lot of research trying to find a replacement and I ended up finding one with a really deal, DreamHost.

For anyone here who is thinking about starting a blog or is looking for a webhost for their domains then you should consider DreamHost. They currently have a really good offer going on where for only $9.95 a month you get 20GB of webspace with 1TB of bandwidth every month and the ability to host an unlimited number of domains with them. Setting up WordPress (the software that runs this blog) is very easy with DreamHost, its just a click of a button, plus if you sign up with them now they give you a free domain name so you can have your blog up and running for only $9.95!.

I used a $50 discount coupon when I signed up but I found a $60 one. The coupon code is: 60DOLLARS. Use it when you sign up to get an instant $60 discount.

It’s really hard to find a better deal so check them out and don’t forget to use the coupon code to get your $60 discount. [Link]

I found some cool info in Kuwait Explorer I didn’t know about, here are some interesting stuff I found:

– Single round of golf at Ahmadi course is KD5, annual membership is KD175
– Horse riding lessons at equestrian club costs KD3 per half hour
– Kuwait Darts & Social Leage [Link]
– If I had time I would do some Kung Fu [Link]

So far I really am liking the book Kuwait Explorer.

Many of you might not know this but the Commercial Bank of Kuwait logo was designed by one of the best design agencies in the world, Pentagram back in 1979. Not only that but the designer who worked on the Commercial Bank identity, Alan Fletcher, is also among the most influential figures in British graphic design history. I decided to share with you what Alan Fletcher said about the Commerical Bank project back in the 1980’s and also the idea behind the logo itself.

The text below was written by Alan Fletcher

Designing in the Middle East requires certain cultural adjustments to one’s normal working pattern and lifestyle. The Gulf States are seven hours’ flying time from London with a time difference of three hours. Travel by Arabic airlines is like arriving in the Gulf before you’ve left. It’s a dry journey – no alcohol. At midday, Muslim passengers are likely to say prayers prostrated in the aisle; one wonders about the flight deck! Normal working hours are 8.00 am to 1.00 pm, and even then a government survey indicated that the oil-rich Kuwaiti only works an average of ten minutes each day. Friday is a holiday but they work Saturday instead. Appointments, are not necessarily appointments, and frequently involve hours (if not days) of waiting.

The Commercial Bank of Kuwait had catered only for institutions and businesses within the Gulf States until it decided to expand into international markets and enter retail banking. The new policy created the need for an appropriate visual identity. Since the bank had neither the experience nor resources, it appointed Tony Vines, via Ogilvy and Mather, New York, to set up a marketing department and create a new identity within eighteen months. Vines flew to London in 1979, interviewed various advertising agencies and designers, and on reaching a rapport with Pentagram commissioned us to work on the program. His fast response to locating a design resource set the pace for the hectic schedule that followed.

In architecture the term ‘fast tracking’ describes the method of designing whereby the architect keeps one jump ahead of the builder. In this case the severe deadlines and cultural differences made it more of a jump in the dark. The brief stipulated that the corporate identity and design style should be Arabic in flavor, but be understood internationally. The symbol, in particular, was required to mean something to both an Arab and a Westerner. Designing within these constraints reduced the normal available options. The two different scripts precluded using the alphabet to form a logotype such as Unisys, or initials such as IBM. An abstract mark would take too long to establish. A pictorial device might have encouraged the client to insist on a heraldic solution such as a scimitar crossed with palms. However the design of the symbol proved to be the least of the problems. Designing from right to left, in a script and language one didn’t understand, and within an unfamiliar culture, required keeping one’s head fast on its feet.

The new Commercial Bank symbol is an amalgamation of calligraphy and image. the words commercial and bank are rendered in kufic, a geometric script, to make a decorative star, recognizable by anyone as a distinctive pattern and, additionally, readable to an Arab. The dual language identity has English type in Paul Renner’s Futura with a compatible Arabic script especially drawn by Ahmed Mustafa.

When I was in Lebanon over Christmas someone who does some work for this famous sandwich place in Lebanon called Malak Al Taouk told me they were going to open up a branch in Kuwait soon. “Malak Al” means king of in Arabic while “Taouk” is a Lebanese word for marinated chicken cubes which are usually grilled on an oven or BBQ. The taouk sandwich at Malak Al Taouk (their specialty) is really really huge and very cheap costing around 650 fils. The ingredients of the sandwich are: lots of taouk, lots of French fries, lots of coleslaw and lots of ketchup. On my last trip to Lebanon I took some pictures of the sandwich to share with everyone and I totally forgot about them until yesterday. The sandwich I took pictures of though is their “super” taouk sandwich which comes with cheese and ham as extra. As you can see from the pictures the sandwich is wider then a 330ml can of Pepsi.

Picture next to Pepsi can
Close up shot of whats inside