Category: Kuwait

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.

Ipod mini Lanyard prices:

Amazon.com’s Price: KD5.250 ($17.98)
Solize Store in Muthana Price: KD4.500
Mac & More in Galleria 2000 Price: KD12.750

Aramex are having problems with shipping out stuff in New York, below is an email from Aramex:

We have received a message from JFK that we are facing some problems with Customs Department as they are currently refusing to let HIGH VALUE shipments out due to some reasons which we are trying to work on with them, therefore we are keeping all shipments of high value In transit until the problem with customs is already solved and then we will update shipments on the system. I apologize for the delay although it’s not from our side but I will keep you posted with the progress of the case. Thank you again for your patience and best regards

So yesterday I finally decided I was gonna get a Mohawk. I went to my Pakistani barber and shared with him my idea expecting him to crack up and call in his buddies to share the laughter with. That didn’t happen, I guess my barber is a real pro because he had no reaction, to him a haircut is a haircut I guess no matter how extreme. So before he started cutting my hair I double checked to make sure he knew what a Mohawk was, I used a lot of hand gestures and a lot of pointing to my hair so there wouldn’t be any miscommunication.

My barber started trimming my hair but he started from the sides and then the back. I was thinking in my head wouldn’t it be better if he started from the front. Five minutes later my Mohawk was done, what a catastrophe. I was right he should have started trimming from the front because now my Mohawk started in the center in the back but by the time it reached the front of my head it had shifted off to the right. My Mohawk was not centered!!

Anyway I looked at it carefully, I knew that my Mohawk was fucked but I wanted to see if it was working or not. Sadly even if he had centered my Mohawk correctly I don’t think it would have worked out since my hair was to short. I think I need my hair to be at least 4cm in length for my Mohawk to work. So now I am thinking of growing my hair till December and when I travel to New York or Montreal I will get my Mohawk done there. At least I had the balls to try it.

Update: Incase it wasn’t clear, I told the barber to remove the mohawk since he had messed it up…

Since I started working 4 years ago I noticed something that was common wherever I went. When an employee leaves a company, whatever was left behind by that employee suddenly becomes up for grabs. I have witnessed many people leave and I have become an expert at grabbing stuff thats left behind. For example, an employee left our agency for good 30 minutes ago and the first thing I did was takeover his Mac speakers. The speakers are Logitech and are pretty cool, it has a remote control, 2 satellite speakers and 1 sub woofer. I feel guilty for taking them but if I didn’t someone else would. Once you takeover the big stuff you then have other little stuff like staplers, paper clips, highlight pens, keyboard and mice, notebooks, markers, magazines and tons more stuff now all available freely to be taken by anyone in the office. Its heartless and brutal but its fun. Employees become locusts taking everything leaving nothing behind. Now even while I am writing this someone is swapping his chair with the one of the ex employee and people are searching through the drawers…