Category: Kuwait

Two days ago I posted about my PowerMac finally being upgraded, well I have run into a minor problem that requires more upgrading. Basically you can currently bake a cake inside my Mac because of the heat. I had one hard drive reporting a tempreture of 65 degrees celcius which is around 20 degrees hotter then usual. I don’t even know how hot my CPU is running but I am also guessing pretty fucking hot since you would burn your finger if you touched the CPU’s heatsink.

I am now trying to find ways to cool the interior of my case. Since its a Mac its not easy since the interior of the case isn’t standard by any means. I have found PCI slot fans but I can’t find one that will blow air in, most blow air out of the case which at the moment is not a priority. It is always better to over pressure the interior of the case then to underpressure. I also need to find a way to cool the hard drives, a way that doesn’t require screws since there is no place to screw anything in. Until this heat issue is solved my Mac won’t be on 24 hours a day, I will have to turn it on when I need to use it and off when I am done.

Support the victims of hurricane Katrina. Make your payments to the Red Crescent society online via NBK.com. [Link]

I went to the dentist last night and although I used to really hate dentists before, yesterday I started to like them a lot better. I was always worried that if the dentist was going to do something major to my teeth that I would be in a lot of pain during the procedure and then after while recovering. Yesterday I realized that this wasn’t true. After the dentist injected me with anestesia, he performed a minor wedge surgery which I didn’t feel at all. Last time I took anestesia for a dental procedure I was young and had to have some teeth pulled so I could get braces. It wasn’t a nice incident and I believe thats why I dislike dentists so much. Yesterday though the dentist operated on me and I wasn’t the least bit comfortable. It was incredible, and even after the procedure was done and I went home, the pain I was expecting to appear never did, not even today morning long after the anestesia has worn off. Now I have a second oppointment with the dentist tomorrow and I am not nervous about it at all.

One word of advise, if you have a problem with your teeth, don’t wait a long time to have it fixed, it won’t heal by itself and it will just get worse.

Wow this site is amazing, it has amatuer pictures of Kuwait from the early 70’s to the early 80’s. I love stuff like this!! [Link]

Tonight I did the last upgrade for my Mac, I added the DVD writer and the 250GB hard drive which arrive today from Aramex. The only thing I didn’t upgrade was the VGA card but that is on hold until a suitable option becomes available for me. Here are the before and after specs of my mac:

Before
Apple PowerMac G4 733mhz
896MB SDRAM
280GB Hard Drive
Sony 8X CD Writer (Doesn’t read DVDs)

After
Apple PowerMac G4 Dual 1.6Ghz
1.25GB SDRAM
530GB Hard Drive
Pioneer 40X CD Writer / 16X DVD Writer

I just installed Tiger fresh on the new hard drive and everything is running super fast.

Was at Souk Sharq for lunch and I passed by the Sony store. They just released the Sony E507 MP3 player here and I played with it a bit and it looks pretty cool. Its 1GB and is selling for KD79.

Had lunch at Subway Salmiya yesterday. It was very disappointing. I ordered the Subway Melt and the Italian BMT and both of them the ingredients they used looked a lot different then the usual. The two sandwiches also didn’t taste like usual. Hopefully this isn’t the begining of the end for Subway in Kuwait. I have seen this happen before in Lebanon, everything was going perfect then suddenly the owner in Lebanon decided to use local ingredients, suddenly everything started to taste drastically different and then later he was shutdown by Subway International.

On the bright side they are accepting Sub Club cards once again, this time they are using different colored and sized stickers.

Found this picture I took back in 91 of the old Marriott hotel which was burnt by the Iraqis. I have more pictures of other buildings that were destroyed but I cant seem to find them anywhere. Anyway click here if you want to view the above picture in hi-res.

A few months ago I was able to gather a whole bunch of pictures from after the invasion which I found online and uploaded to a flickr account. If you want to see those click here.

I just called Solize to ask if they sell any Lacie monitors, wow what a conversation. The guy on the other end was Egyptian and I honestly couldn’t understand anything he was telling me. I asked him if he had Lacie he said no so I asked what was the best screens he had and he told me Anvil. Hadn’t heard of the brand before so I asked if he had 21″ model, he told me no only 20, 23 and 30. Then it hit me, he didn’t say Anvil he said Apple! I told him I didn’t want to pay KD300+ for a LCD monitor since I would rather get an exceptional CRT for half that. He then told me I could get an Anbon something something LCD something something for only KD160. I realized the conversation was going no where since nothing he said made sense so I said thank you and I shut the phone.

I am very busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy.

Sultan got a new shipment of A&W Root Beer. I Was at Sultan Center Souk Sharq today and I noticed they had a lot of A&W Root Beer (not diet) cases and I just got a phonecall now from Sultan Centers “Just Ask” department asking me how many cases I wanted and that they would be put aside for me since I requested the product from them. Pretty cool.

Just checked out this months issue of Wallpaper* magazine and turns out Kuwait is in it. Here is the summary of Septembers issue featuring Kuwait:

Navigating six of the world’s most exciting cities, moving and sheikh-ing in hip Kuwait, snooping around Rupert Murdoch’s Mayfair pad, living like royalty in a Bavarian castle, gazing at Tel Aviv’s latest design stars, dressing up Dubai-style, cutting a dash in sharp tailoring, admiring the new talent from the ICFF and much more

The magazine features Sheikh Majed Al-Sabah (Villa Moda), Sheikha Hussah Al-Sabah (Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah), Emad al-Samhan (Grass Exhibition), Rola Dashti (Women’s rights movement) and Maha al-Ghunaim (Global Investment House). I like how Wallpaper called Kuwait “hip”, puts things in a different perspective.

Oh No… [Link]

Today I got an email from Sony, I was accepted to be a beta tester for SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo for the PSP. According to Sony:

Congratulations on being selected to participate in this exclusive public beta test. As a beta tester, you should receive the following item(s) via UPS in approximately 29 days:

– UMD Beta Disc
– Beta Manual

This is going to kick ass, SOCOM is going to be the first PSP game that can be played online and I will get to beta test it!

Saw the N90 today, its A LOT bigger then I imagined and extremely over priced. The shop I was in was selling it for KD350. I played with it for like 2 minutes and I personally think it looks cool when closed but cheap when opened. The keypads design is the biggest culprit, I think thats what hurts its looks the most.