Category: Kuwait

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…

Yesterday I got my Nintendo DS which I had ordered from Amazon.com. I had ordered the bundle which included the Spiderman 2 game, Metroid Prime demo game and the Pro Gamers Kit. The Pro Gamers Kit is basically an Aluminum Case, Games Case, Earphones, Car adapter Screen Lenses and Neck Strap all in 1 package. The aluminum case looks like those bags in the movies where the drug dealers carry their cocaine in. First thing I did once I picked up my stuff was pass by Rihab Complex to exchange the Spiderman game for Super Mario. I hate Spiderman 2 but it came for free with the bundle and I figured I could exchange it for a game I would enjoy more. I found a store in Rihab that was willing to exchange spiderman for mario if I paid him KD3 which was a fair deal and I went ahead with the trade.

When I got home I took out the DS from the package and started playing with it. First thing I noticed was that its huge. Compared to my PSP the DS feels larger and heavier, Nat felt this the most since her hands are smaller then mine. I played Mario for a while and then played the mini games that came with the game and it wasn’t bad. I actually prefer the mario mini games to the actual game, they were more fun and faster. I really like the touch screen, I hate the stylus and thumb strap though, I prefer using my thumbs to click and rub the screen. I later played the Metroid Prime demo and that also made use of the touch screen, using my thumbs to click on screen buttons is very practical and easy. The reason I purchased the DS was so I could play the game Nintendogs which I ordered with the DS but which I still haven’t received so I am kinda disappointed about that.

The graphics of the DS compared to the PSP suck of course. This is why if I am going to buy games for the DS they won’t be realistic looking games. I would get 2D games or 3D games with a cartoony look, like Mario and Nintendogs. When it comes to realistically rendered games the PSP will always win. In October Castlevania is going to be released on the DS and it will be in 2D which is exactly the way I like it, so that will be the next game I will probably get. Nat is enjoying Mario a lot at the moment so I think she will be hogging the DS until I get Nintendogs at the end of this week.

So in conclusion, my first impressions of the DS is that its big, bulky, heavy and the graphics suck. BUT, it does have 2 things going for it, the touch screen and some cool games (like Nintendogs & Castlevania). I personally believe a system is worth purchasing if there is 1 great game you want on it, having 2 games I want is a bonus.

Click here to see the Nintnedo DS with the Pro Gamers Kit.

I went to Aramex yesterday to pick up my Nintendo DS and Apple Keyboard I had ordered from Amazon. When I saw the two packages I received I thought for sure there was a mistake. The boxes were absolutely huge! All I had ordered was a tiny Nintendo DS and a keyboard and they arrive in 2 over sized boxes. Good thing I was in the wrangler cuz they wouldn’t have fit in the Beemers trunk.

Is anybody elses Qualitynet connection acting up tonight or is it just me?

Update: Strange problem. My brother who lives next door and uses my network is the cause of the problem. He has a friend sleeping over who has a laptop with a wifi connection. My brother connects to the local network with ethernet using his laptop. He was trying to share the local network connection with his friend using wifi. Everytime my brother shares the connection off his Mac it brings down the whole network. Weird. I tried it the other day and it worked fine, connection comes into his mac via cable and he shares it out via wifi, don’t know what could be wrong.

Has anyone noticed these signs on the sea side? They are huge, bulky, ugly and unpractical. They are hard to read, its only in Arabic, and the most important information which is the logos of the restaurants are too tiny to be noticed. I am also sure its impossible to read the sign at night. Who is responsible for approving this crap? I am guessing its the same people who authorized the construction of a tall building to block the Scientific Center.

Yesterday night I passed by The Kuwait Bookshop in Muthana Complex. What I like about the Kuwait Bookshop is the amount of old books they have. Since its the largest bookshop in Kuwait and has been open since before the Gulf War they have a lot of books that have been in the shop since it first opened. For example I found a 1985 edition of the Guinness Book of Records on one of the shelves. I even ended up buying a book from 1985 myself. Ozy was with us at the bookshop and he found a book called “The New Observer’s Book of Automobiles”. The funny thing is the car on the cover was a 1985 BMW M635CSi… very new! Its actually a pretty cool book for anyone who is interested in information on the cars from the 80’s like the Lancia Delta HF Turbo or the VW Golf MKII. I also picked up a copy of Niccolo Machiavelli – The Prince and Aesop’s Fables. I already read The Prince in university but I feel like reading it again and I have also read Aesop’s Fables but the version I got seemed to contain more stories then the version I read so gonna reread this again.

I usually don’t have time to read books but recently I have been reading all my magazines in the beginning of the month and then I spend the rest of the month just flipping through them trying to find articles I haven’t read. Now I will try to read books instead when I am done with the magazines. I also prefer short stories since my memory is terrible for novels but I don’t mind thin books like The Prince. One of my favorite books of the moment is Supercade which Nibaq got for my birthday. It contains a lot of pictures and magazine style of writing. Basically every game or every video game console thats mentioned is treated like an article by itself. I don’t have to read the whole book from the beginning I can just flip through and read what I want when I want. Nibaq also got me another book called “The Ultimate History of Videogames” but that book is literally like a history book. I am going to try reading different bits of it randomly but I think I have to actually read this one from the beginning till the end.

Anyway here is a larger picture of yesterdays books.

Was just talking with Nibaq now and he pointed me to an article on NY Times about how Google is the new Microsoft. Well its true, Google IS the new Microsoft and we all hate Microsoft. So, Nibaq came up with the idea of using Yahoo! instead of Google. Sounds simple but when you have been using Google daily for like forever its not easy to swap to Yahoo! overnight. So we decided to have a “Try Yahoo! Week”. Starting Saturday the 27th all the way to Friday the 2nd we will only use Yahoo! for our searches. I already added the Yahoo! engine to FireFox and will start practicing this weekend. Everyone is free to join this activity.

A nice video of a white car spinning its wheels on a public road in Kuwait. Notice how the driver doesn’t care about the oncoming cars. [Video 4.8MB]

Here is a link to coupon you can print which would get you 20% off at Hard Rock Cafe although personally if this coupon gave me 100% off I wouldn’t go there. Definetly the worst Hard Rock Cafe in the world. [Link]

Offer Valid from Tuesday the 23rd of August till September 30th, 2005

Just another Aramex related post. I just got an email from Aramex telling me that mail arrived to my US mailbox. I guess this is also a new service since it never did that before. This is the email I received:

Dear Mark,

We thought you would like to know that there has been a new update regarding a shipment in your mailbox. Please click on the below link to access your account.

https://www.aramex.com/shopandship

BusyNow brought this to my attention, it seems Aramex Shop and Ship are now shipping packages straight to Kuwait from New York. Check this, no UAE:

Location Date Comments
KUWAIT 8/23/2005 Shipment held for consignee pickup
KUWAIT 8/23/2005 Shipment received at operations facility
UNITED STATES 8/20/2005 Shipment manifested for forwarding
UNITED STATES 8/20/2005 Full airwaybill entry
UNITED STATES 8/19/2005 Shipment record created

I was talking with a friend of mine and somehow we got into a conversation about Kuwaiti accomplishments. He was surpised by some of the stuff I mentioned and I figured I would list them here and maybe some of you guys can add to this list and that way we can have a nice list of Kuwaiti accomplishments and add them to Kuwiki.

Zed Al-Refai – First Kuwaiti and Arab to climb Mt. Everest
Mesaed Alhammad – Built a working spacesuit
Danah Al-Nasrallah – First Kuwaiti female to participate in Olympics, she was 16!
Munirah Buruki – First Kuwaiti female pilot, only 19
Fahid al Dihani – Bronze Medal in Sydney 2000 Olympics
Amani Al-Haji – Female Kuwaiti Opera Singer
Khalid Sauod AlZaid – World Taekwondo Champion, only 12 years old
Abdulrahman Al-Farsi – Owner of the worlds largest Kite (does this count?)

Do you know any more?