Category: Interesting

This has to be the coolest thing the local government has done so far. The First Ring Road has an actual website! For those of you who don’t visit the city much, construction is soon to start on the Sheraton round-about to help decrease the traffic. This First Ring Road website has information on this project including pictures of how the project will end up looking like AND pictures of the current progress. They are actually updating the site on a regular basis with pictures of the construction site.

Now the site design is ugly of course but thats to be expected. [Link]

I have posted about Campaign ME numerous times before since its my favorite regional advertising publication. Last week the Campaign ME advertising awards got canceled and no explanation was given which sucked since my agency was tipped as being “Creative Agency of the Year”. Rumors then started flying around that the publication was going to close down and it seems the rumors are true.

I just read an article on mediaME which shed more light into this story. It seems Haymarket, a UK based firm that holds the license for Campaign ME, has pulled the license from IITP the current publishing house of Campaign ME.

It really sucks that they did that. Campaign ME, you will be missed.

I found this movie trailer on K.thekuwaiti’s blog. Its a movie made in Kuwait and from the looks of the trailer it looks pretty cool. Although the plot is really cliche, “six kids have the adventure of their lifetime” the fact that its about six Kuwaiti kids in Kuwait makes it special.

There is another movie I heard that was good called “Shabab Cool”. I was told it was about street racing in Kuwait and that it got banned from the movies here.

By the way, the movie Sharq is directed by Erik Sandoval. The only Sandoval I know is Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star. I wonder if he is related to her?

I love the fact that so many classic movies are getting redone like Rocky, Indiana Jones, Rambo and now Die Hard. Check out the new Live Free or Die Hard trailer, from the looks of it this might be the coolest Die Hard yet. [Link]

I had heard of Second Life numerous times but for some reason I never bothered to try it. Then a few days ago a reader emailed me a link to Second Life and I decided what the heck let me try it.

Second Life is really freaky, its literally a second life. Its another world and its not a game its just a different parallel universe. You can make money, sell stuff, buy stuff or just party and have fun. Today for example I went to this club which had Tiesto playing then I visited an art gallery followed by a walk on the beach. Everything we have in real life is available in second life. Actually if you are living in Kuwait there is more stuff in Second Life like alcohol, casinos and strippers.

There are over 3 million other users in Second Life so there is a lot to do and tons of places to visit. The experience is free, you just download the software from the Second Life website and create a free account. It runs on Windows and Macs and the setup file is like 60MB only. If you haven’t tried it yet then you should. [Link]

A Jazeera Airways pilot left the following comment regarding my previous post on the Kuwait Airways crash landing:

Ok the replacement plane is one to fly passengers back its not a charity, you do have a return flight you have to make. They aren’t giving Kuwait a free plane. Secondly, that plane is repairable unless there is structural damage or the cost to repair is too high, and crash landings or gear being stuck is a common problem, has nothing to do with the age of the aircraft. There is a manual release on gear, this breaks open the gear doors locks and releases the hydraulic system which is why the gear doors are hanging down like that. Finally, the use of emergency slides is a crew discretion, in a situation like this they would probably fear hydraulic fluid catching on fire or any other substance around the plane, pilots can’t tell what is going on outside thus they want to clear the plane as quickly as possible, remember they can’t tell whats going on behind them. From my view, Good job on handling the situation.

And another point sure KU customer service is crap, but trust me the people in Dubai are an outstanding team, they try their best, I’ve personally seen them in action a few times. The hotel situation is not up to them, you can’t find 50 hotel rooms in a busy traveling season in seconds or hours, and also do you think Dubai has a lot of empty top notch hotels. Upper management is corrupt in KU not the people who are holding the fort in the stations abroad. And yes KU has lost its touches around 2001/2002. They now officially suck.

From Naharnet today:

Kuwait issued a decision Sunday banning men from working in shops selling “private” women’s garments like lingerie.

The decision, issued by the ministry of social affairs and labor, gave businesses until April 7 to implement the ban or face a fine of up to 700 dollars for each violating worker.

It said that special inspectors from the ministry would enforce the ban.

The ministry also ordered its labor departments to stop recruiting male migrant laborers for employment in women’s lingerie shops.

I didn’t know men WERE allowed to sell lingerie in the first place…

Thanks Shak

Anyone heard of or been to Burger Company? I first heard about it 10 days ago in the forum but today someone else mentioned it to me. Its supposed to be a 24 hour diner, the first in Kuwait. The place is located in Hawalli opposite “the college of business studies”.

Picture by vampire

I was just checking out Jerry Seinfeld on Wikipedia and it seems his mother is Syrian. I didn’t know that.

Seinfeld was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City to Jewish parents. His father, Kalman, was of Hungarian Jewish background and his mother, Betty, was of Syrian Jewish background.

[Link]

The Sony Ericsson dealer in Kuwait (Barrak) has a website online with all the Sony Ericsson models available and their prices. Its not a pretty website but it gets the job done. [Link]

I have gotten a lot of things to try out because of my blog but I don’t think I have ever gotten anything like this… water. I came in today morning to find a box of OGO Oxygen Water on my desk. At first I thought it was a new client of ours but then I found out that a company who imports OGO to Kuwait wanted me to try it out and get my feedback on it.

According to the label and website, OGO water contains up to 35 times more oxygen then regular bottled water. What I was more interested in was the actual bottle. It reminded me of the magic potions Asterix and Obelix used to carry around with them which is a cool thing.

Anyway, if anyone is interested you can place an order by phone. Minimum 5 boxes, each box holds twelve 330ml bottles and costs KD6. So thats 500fils per bottle. The number to call is 4341209 or 7242595.

www.OGOlife.com

Was just flipping through the Watan TV website and I found some interesting short video clips. The site is like a video blog, just a bunch of random clips related to Kuwait. [Link]

Wow, Billy Corgan has a Live Journal?! For those of you who don’t know who he is, he was the lead singer for Smashing Pumpkins. For those of you who don’t know who they are, too bad, you are missing out, they are one of my favorite bands ever. [Link]

A reader called Steven emailed me his review on the newly added United Airlines direct route, Kuwait to Washington DC. Its kinda long but it might be interesting for people who are considering this route (or airlines even). Here is his take on the flight:

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Hi Mark, I am a frequent traveler from Kuwait and have gold status in the frequent flyer programs of Kuwait Airways, Emirates and British Airways. I decided to try United Airlines new direct flight from Kuwait to Washington DC (14 hours) this weekend and I have to say that the flights there and back on United Airlines were some of the worst I have flown.

The flight UA981 on January 20th from Kuwait was one and a half hours late to fly because of computer problems on the aircraft. They did serve welcoming drinks – water. Once the aircraft flew, the inflight entertainment system was partly bad and the airmap which I like to use to track progress was not working. The business class seats have a very uncomfortable headrest in which the lower part presses onto your shoulders and forces you to sit in an uncomfortable position. The food aboard was very poor and service staff was not very attentive. To make matters worse, the lavatory drainage in business class backed up causing their sinks and floors to fill with foul smelling brown goo. I am sure there was some serious health hazards there.